This festive season, try these traditional sweets

With festivals already upon us, learn to make two popular and delicious sweets of Karnataka from celebrity chefs Sihi Kahi Chandru and Sujatha as part of Deccan Herald and Prajavani’s Cuisines of Karnataka series, presented in association with Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil.

Kobbari Sakkare Holige

In Karnataka, celebrations are incomplete without holige or obbattu. According to food historian K T Acharya, the recipe of this sweet is mentioned in Manasollasa, a 12th-century Sanskrit text compiled by Someshvara III, a Western Chalukya king who ruled from present-day Karnataka. While it comes in two main varieties - bele holige and kobbari holige - here is the recipe of the delicious kobbari sakkare holige.

Ingredients

One cup desiccated coconut powder

One cup sugar

One cup maida

One cup chiroti rava

Cardamom powder

Nutmeg powder

Rice flour

Ghee

Milk

Salt (as per taste)

Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil.

Recipe

In a bowl, take one cup of maida and one cup of chiroti rava. Add a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of ghee and mix well for around two minutes.

Add warm water little at a time and knead it well to get a soft dough. Let the dough rest for half an hour (keep it covered).

In the meantime, prepare the filling. First powder the sugar in a mixer grinder and take it in a bowl.

Add an equal quantity of desiccated coconut powder, to which you can add half a teaspoon of cardamom powder and quarter teaspoon of nutmeg powder (added for its flavour).

Dry roast two teaspoons of maida for a minute or so and add it to the coconut mixture and mix well.

After half an hour, knead the dough once again by sprinkling some water and let it rest again for 15 minutes (keep it covered).

Heat two tablespoons of ghee in a pan and then add it to the coconut mixture. Add a few teaspoons of milk and mix well. Form small balls out of this filling mixture.

Take the dough, add a little bit of water and one tablespoon of oil and knead it again. Keep it covered for two more minutes.

Take a plate and coat it with oil. Make small balls out of the dough. Dust the balls with some maida and flatten it on your palm. Place the filling at the centre and cover it with the dough by pulling the edges over the filling.

Take some oil in a bowl, and dip these balls in it.

Place butter paper on a rolling board, grease it with some oil.

Keep an oil-soaked ball on it, flatten it a little and place a greased plastic sheet over the ball. Then from the centre, flatten the dough by pressing it with your fingers in circular movement.

Heat a pan, and put the holige on the pan and cook them on both sides.

Enjoy your kobbari sakkare holige.

(Recipe by Sihi Kahi Chandru)

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Yereyappa

Yereyappa

Traditionally, this delicacy is offered to Goddess Saraswati as part of Saraswati pooja during the Navratri festival in the regions of Malnad, Karavali and Bengaluru.

Ingredients

Jaggery (crushed)

One cup flattened rice/avalakki soaked for half an hour

Half kg rice (soaked for four hours)

Cardamom powder

One ripe banana

One cup grated coconut

Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil

Recipe

Into a mixer grinder add soaked rice, soaked flattened rice, grated coconut, cardamom powder, ripe banana cut into pieces and jaggery.

Grind them to obtain a thick, coarse paste. If required, you may add two tablespoons of water to obtain a smoother consistency (consistency should be similar to that of idli batter). In a pan heat some oil. Pour some batter into the oil, little by little. Fry it on medium flame. Avoid stirring it until the yereyappas puff up and rise to the top. Then flip it to the other side. Fry it till it turns golden brown on both the sides.

Enjoy your yereyappas with a generous amount of ghee.

(Recipe by Sujatha)