Festive delicacies with a twist

Navane Holige

Ingredients: For kanaka (outer covering), a cup of wheat flour; 2 tbsps of maida; 2 tbsps of oil; a pinch or two of turmeric powder and water. For the hurana (filling), a cup of navane (foxtail millet); 2 tbsps of chana dal; a cup of jaggery powder; a pinch or two of cardamom powder, a pinch of nutmeg powder and 2 tbsps of milk.

Method: To make the outer covering, mix all the ingredients for the kanaka to form a soft dough. Keep this aside for 30 minutes. In a pan, dry roast navane and channa dal. Cool them and powder in a mixer. Mix the roasted powder with jaggery, cardamom, nutmeg and blend again with milk. At this stage, it should look like a peda mixture. Now divide the kanaka dough into small balls. Roll these out in a small poori-like shape and place a small lemon-size filling in the middle and fold this to form a ball. Roll these out like chapatis. Heat the tawa and shallow fry these in oil or ghee.

Navane Chitranna

Ingredients: One and ½ cups of navane (soaked for an hour); a cup of cooked rice; ½ cup of raw grated mango; 4 green chillies (chopped); an inch of ginger (chopped); 2 onions (chopped); a sprig of curry leaves; ½ tsp of mustard seeds; chana dal; urad dal; turmeric powder; ½ cup of grated coconut; 1 red chilli and some coriander leaves.

Method: Heat oil in a pan along with 3 tbsps of ghee. Add all the seasoning ingredients and fry well. Add salt, grated mango and turmeric powder and saute. Add this to the rice and navane, and mix well. Lastly, add coconut and fresh coriander.

Jowar Ambode

Ingredients: A cup of jowar (sorghum); ¼ cup of gram flour; 2 cloves; 1 cinnamon; an inch of ginger (chopped); 1 tsp of ajwain; 2 finely chopped onions; a handful of coriander (chopped); oil for deep frying and salt.

Method: Half cook the jowar, cool and blend in a mixer coarsely. Add the rest of the ingredients to the ground jowar and mix well. Shape the vadas and deep fry them in oil.

 Haraka Payasam

Ingredients: A cup of haraka (kodo millet); a cup of jaggery powder; ½ litre of milk; a pinch or two of cardamom powder; 50 gm of cashew and raisins and a tbsp of ghee.

Method: Pressure cook the haraka with milk for 3 whistles and cool. Add the jaggery, cardamom powder and cook. Add more milk to adjust the consistency. Lastly, add cashew and raisins fried in ghee to the payasam.