Dhudhi Halwa

Pappa had brought Dhudi in Marathi /Hal kumbalkai in Kannada / Lauki in Hindi/ Konkan dhudhi in Konkani/bottle gourd in English. The maid had peeled and grated it, yesterday, hence so very simple to cook in the morning it was about ¾ kg grated.

Since I did not have khawa /mava /phedas in my store all, better known as the fridge, I boiled ½ litre of milk in a khadhi till it was reduce to half.

Besides this I used

2 cups sugar

1 tblspn of ghee

A handful of cashew nuts

Elichi powder

First squeeze out the excess liquid out of the grated gourd put in a kadhi in which you have heated ghee.

Fry the dhudhi till it is slightly cooked then add to this the reduced milk, sugar, cashew nuts and cook until the milk has evaporated and the mixture is a homogeneous mixture . the whole thing should take 20-30 minutes.but keep stirring else it might burn a bit.

(At this point I became quite bored of stirring the mixture so I put it in the microwave for 10 minutes it was quite dry so I suppose 6-7 minutes is okay).

Add elichi powder and mix well.

Serve chilled.

P.S. Next time I will not add the cashew nuts and try making parathas out of them.

Chatni Pudi

In Karnataka we eat a lot of “chatni pudi” which is a dry powder of dal etc. it is used to enhance the flavour of any dish be it “masuru avalaki”i.e curds and beatten rice, plain dosa or with ghee on a slice of bread, upma....

As an accompaniment it can be served mixed in curd or even oil.

Ingredients:

1 cup chana dal (heaped)

1 cup urid dal (levelled)

¼ cup ground nuts

1 dry coconut/khobra

1 tblspn til

10-15 Dry chillies (Badgi) or 1/8 cup chilli powder (as per taste)

2 tsp asafoetida

8-10 springs of curry leaves

Tamarind a small ball

Jaggery(optional)

Salt

Method:

1. 1. Dry roast chana dal on low flame till reddish in colour. Cool and grind coarsely.
2. 2. Dry roast urid dal on low flame till reddish in colour. Cool and grind coarsely.
3. 3. Dry roast ground nuts. Add til, they will splutter. Add curry leaves, then add dry coconut, if you are using dry chillies now is the time to add them. Fry on low flame till the coconut is reddish and you get a nice aroma. Add the tamarind. Add the red chilli powder after you switch off the flame and keep stirring till all the ingredients are well coated.
4. 4. Grind the above mixture with jaggery and salt after it cools a bit.

Mix with the dry powders.

This mixture can be stored outside for about a month. Only use dry spoons to remove them from the jar.