Festival Feast - Steamed Rice cakes (Undrallu) with Ginger and Cilantro Chutney, Coconut Jaggery Sweet dish

Today's post is special..these are dishes that I usually make once a year .Today's celebration is Vinayaka Chavithi, the birthday of Lord Ganesha and the steamed rice balls and the sweet dish are considered the favourite food of Lord Ganesha. And the Ginger chutney is so yummy, I make it pretty often to eat with White or Brown rice. The pairing of ginger chutney with the Undrallu or the steamed rice balls is really good because the Undrallu by themselves are kind of bland, but when paired with the chutney, you can easily lose track of how many you eat!

Recipe 1: Undrallu (Steamed Rice balls)

Prep time: About 30 minutes

Serves: 4-6 people

Ingredients: 1.5 cups of white rice (basmati, long grain or sona masoori), 3 tbsp Chana dhal (Split pea Lentils), Cumin seeds (3 tsp), Salt to taste, Ghee (Clarified butter - 2 tsp)

Cook away...

> Wash the rice and let it dry completely and grind to a coarse powder

> Wash and drain the Chana dhal

> Heat a thick-bottomed pan on medium high, add the ghee and add cumin seeds

> Once they splutter, add about 4 cups of water and the Chana dhal and salt and bring to boil

> Now reduce the heat to medium and add the coarsely ground rice powder while stirring continuously

> Stir for about 5 minutes on medium heat until the rice powder is completely cooked and it becomes a lump-free paste

> Let it cool for a few minutes and make the paste into balls (I would say the size of a really small lime, maybe smaller)

> Steam cook these balls for about 10 minutes (I usually do this in a pressure cooker)

> Transfer to a serving bowl and serve with Ginger chutney (recipe follows)

Recipe 2: Ginger and Cilantro Chutney

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4-6 people

Ingredients: Ginger ( 2 inch piece), Cilantro(1/2 cup), serrano pepper(1/4), canola oil (3 tsp), mustard seeds (2 tsp), coriander seeds(1 Tbsp + 1 tsp), black gram dhal (2 tsp), chana dhal (2 tsp), dried red chilli (2), jaggery (2 tsp, finely chopped), Tamarind juice (1/4 cup), salt to taste

Ingredients for tempering: Canola oil (1 tsp), mustard seeds (2 tsp), black gram dhal (2 tsp), curry leaves (3 to 4)

Fry spices to make Chutney

Spices, Tamarind, Ginger and Cilantro

Finished Product!

Cook away...

> Chop the ginger into small pieces, wash and drain cilantro

> Soak couple of tablespoons of tamarind pulp in about 1/4 cup of water and set aside

> Heat a pan on medium high and add oil, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, black gram dhal, chana dhal and dried red chilli and heat until mustard seeds splutter and turn off the heat

> Let this cool a little and add this to the blender and grind to a fine powder

> To the blender add chopped ginger, serrano pepper, cilantro, jaggery, salt, tamarind extract and blend everything to a fine paste. Transfer to serving bowl

> Take the same pan and add all the ingredients for tempering (except curry leaf) and once mustard seeds, splutter, add the curry leaf and turn off the heat

> Add the tempering to the Chutney and mix with chutney before serving

> Serve with Undrallu (or even white rice or chapathis)

Recipe 3: Sweet dish with Coconut and Jaggery

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients: Fresh shredded coconut (1 cup), Jaggery ( 1 cup, shredded/finely chopped), Milk(1/4 cup), cardamom powder (1/2 tsp), Ghee(2 Tbsp)

Cook Away..
> Heat a thick-bottomed saucepan on medium heat
> Add the coconut and jaggery and stir contiuously until jaggery and coconut combine well (around 15 minutes)
> Add the cardamom powder and ghee and stir some more until the mixture starts to harden a little bit and turn off the heat
> Allow the mixture to cool down
> You can serve the sweet dish at this time (by making round balls from the mixture) or you could take the rice powder paste from the Recipe 1 above (before steaming it) and stuff with the coconut and jaggery mixture and then steam it
> I prefer the latter because the salty/savoury flavor of the rice balls nicely balance the sweetness of the coconut and jaggery mixture

Coming up soon...Tamarind rice..yum! Enjoy your weekend..