Instant Kanchipuram Idlis

Instant Kanchipuram Idlis

I remember my best friend's gradmother Patti. Some of the people though they are no more in this world, they will always remain in my heart forever, she is one of them. As a teenager I use to visit my friend's house everyday, infact it was my second home. Patti use to make many Tamilian dishes and I picked up few of them from her, though few of the dishes are forgotten and few I remember. One of the dish was Kanchipuram Idlis. She used black lentils with skin and rice, soaked it over night and she use to ground it on a stone grinder. Then the batter was left to ferment overnight and it was seasoned with salt, some curry leaves, mustard seeds, chana dal, few peppercorn, few broken cashwenuts and 2 pinch of asafoetida. Then the rest of the process remained the same for making the idlis. She served it with coconut chutney and milagai podi which was again homemade. 

      Here I followed the recipe but since it is an instant idli, it was not kept for fermentation. I used Eno, but soda bicarbonate can also be added if there is no Eno. It helps in instant fermentation and incoperates air in the batter. I added desiccated coconut in the batter as I love it. Also I replaced rice with idli rawa and oats...

For the Seasoning 

Ingredients 

1/4 tsp Bengal Grams / Chana Dal

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

1/2 tsp Pepper Corn crushed 

Few broken pieces of Cashwenuts 

1 tsp minced Green Chillies 

Few Curry leaves

2 Pinch of Asafoetida 

1 tbsp Ghee 

Method 

Take a pan and add ghee in it. Let it. Heat add the chana dal, stir it for a minute. Add the mustard seeds, let it crackle. Add peppercorn and few Cashwenuts, stir it for a minute. Add the green chillies and curry leaves. Stir for another minute. Add asafoetida and stir it for few seconds. Remove it from the flame. 

For the Batter 

Ingredients 

1 cup Oats

2 cups Idli Rawa

1/2 cup Split Black Lentils with skin soaked for an hour

2 tbsp Desiccated Coconut

Salt to taste 

1 tsp Eno / Soda bicarbonate 

1/2 cup Curd

Water as required 

Seasoning 

1 tbsp Seasam oil

Method

Grind the soaked lentils in a grinder. Remove it in a mixing bowl, add oats, ldli rawa, coconut, salt, curd, seasoning and water as per required to make a batter. It should be dropping consistency. Add eno. Mix it and let it stand for 10 minutes. Take idli moulds and apply seasam oil on it. Add the batter and steam it till done. Serve it with chutney and sambhar.

Gohona / Nakshi Bori

They are dried dumplings / wadi made in the design formed with Urid dal / split black gram  batter. Gohona or  Goyna means jewellery in Bengali. 

Purba Medinipur in West Bengal is very famous for making these bori. In 1930 one of the student from Shantiniketan presented the gohona bori to Rabindranath Tagore, he was so impressed by the art that he wrote a letter seeking permission to preserve the photographs of Gohona Bori at the Art Building of Shantiniketan. 

Source - Google 

This boris are made and send as a part of a trousseau during wedding, but now these boris are dying art and are available during handicraft exhibitions / fair or in govt. emporium.

  The state is trying its best to keep this art alive by training ladies from the villages. 

These are made during winter.  The urid dal is crushed and broken down, thereafter soaked and washed well with water. The skin is removed and then the dal is made into paste on a sil - bata and beaten / whisked very well with hand. Now a days the ready split  dal is soaked and grinder is used to make a paste and with the help of a beater, the batter is whisked. 

The batter is then added into a piece of cloth with nozzle, now piping bags are used. Various designs are created on a bed of poppy seeds. It’s dried under the sun. It’s fried and eaten with dal and rice or enjoy it by itself.

Ingredients
1 cup Urid dal soaked
Salt to taste
Poppy seeds to sprinkle on the plate

Method

Wash and soak the dal for 6 hours. Drain all water from the dal. Blend all the ingredients except poppy seeds in a mixie without any water. Make a very  fine paste. Take this paste in a big bowl. Start beating the batter vigorously. It should become very fluffy and when a drop of batter  placed on water it should float. Now to make designs pour the batter in a piping bag with writing nozzle. The designs should not be very thin as the sun will make them thinner and brittle. Take a steel plate. Sprinkle poppyseeds to cover the surface completely. Now comes the fun part, play with your creativity. Use toothpick to stop the batter coming out from the piping bag.
Once done dry them in sun for 3-4 hours and let them sit on the plate overnight. Next day if still moist again dry for 1-2 hours. Once dried keep them stored in airtight container. Fry them and serve it with dal and rice or have it just like

Rosh Bora

Rosh Bora
The festival of Makar Shankranti is also known as Pithey Parbon in Bengal. There are many types of Pithey made in Bengal. Another type of sweet made during Shankranti is Rosh Bora.
Ingredients
2 cups of whole white urad dal
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated ginger
Oil for frying
Notun gur or date jaggery according to the sweetness of the syrup wanted

Method
Soak the dal for an hour. Drain the water and grind into a fine paste. Mix in fennel seeds, salt and grated ginger with the paste. The consistency of the mixture should be thick. Whisk the batter in one direction till light and fluffy. Heat oil in a wok and when oil gets heated up then drop a tablespoon of the batter and fry till golden brown in color. Fry in batches. Once the boras are ready. Keep them on a absorbing paper to drain off the excess oil. While frying the boras, get the Gur syrup ready. Heat 2 cups water with 2 cups grated Notun gur. When the gur completely dissolves and forms 1 string consistency then switch of the flame. Soak the boras in the syrup for an hour. Boras will turn super moist after absorbing the syrup.