Holigalu

Holigalu

I learnt this from my friends mom. She is from produturu. Last weekend we celebrated my friend Radha's daughter birthday. They cooked 16 items all made by her mom and we helped her making Holigalu. Well I never made them before. So me, Radha, Radha's mom and Lavanya's mom, we all prepared about 100 of them. She showed us how to wrap the puran ball with the dough and roll them on this amazing mixture and cook it directly on tawa. Isn't that interesting? I thought we need to keep the oil on the side and flatten them. To my amazement she used only water and she was keeping them in a plate of water. Then she rolls in this mixture and flatten them on tawa. She hails from Produturu (lavanya's mom) and Radha's mom is from (cuddapah). I have taken pictures and thank both auntys for making me learn this dish. I thank especially

Lavanya's mom who taught us how to do. Thanks Aunty.

The procedure is from her and the recipe is mine!!! Hope you will enjoy it as much as I do! It is an Rayalaseema specialty.

Chana Dal - 2 Cups (level)
Jaggery - 1 & 1/2 Cups or bit more
Wheat Flour - 1 cup (heaped)
Oil - 1/4th cup
Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4th tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4th tsp
Melted Ghee as needed.

For roll on mixture:

Desiccated Coconut - 2 handful,
Cashews - 1 handful (unsalted and broken in to pieces, It's not roasted cashews)
White Poppy Seeds - 1 and 1/2 tbsp

Mix these in a plate and keep aside.


Procedure:

1) Cook dal till very soft, drain(read tips).

2) Simmer dal with jaggery in a thick bottomed pan over low heat till the syrup is absorbed.
But dal should be moist and add cardamom powder. Allow to cool. Place as much dal mixture into mixie jar to cover the blades or 2cm above the blade. Grind at speed one for a minute and speed two for 2mins. Stop blender, mix in ground dal that sticks to the sides of the jar. Grind again for 2more minutes till dal is ground fine. Remove from jar, grind the rest. The puran is ready.

3) Make a very soft dough with wheat flour, salt and turmeric by using warm water. Place dough in a small container, pour oil on it. Let it stand for about 2hours before use. Mix the dough well until all the oil is absorbed and form in to a ball.

4) Prepare lime sized balls with the puran. Keep them aside.


5) Take a large flat tray or pallem add water just to cover the bottom slightly. Keep this near you and a bowl with water.

6) Prepare the dough balls - Wet your hands with water. Take a portion of dough, approximately half as much as the puran. Place it on your left palm, wet your hands again press it to form thin circle (wet your hand always while spreading). Place the puran ball in the centre, wet your fingers again, bring all the edges of the dough together to meet on top (no need to worry if it tears on the side, wet your fingers again spread the dough all around). Wet your hand and roll the ball in your palm and keep this on flat tray until needed. Do this until you finished doing all of them. If the tray is full proceed doing point7.


7) Heat a flat tawa keep this on medium low. Meanwhile wet your hands take one prepared dough balls roll it on the coconut mixture covering on all sides. Do for 2 more balls, same way.
Take one rolled ball and place it on tawa and press it with your fingers to flatten thickly and evenly on top, do for the other 2balls, increase the heat to medium high, smear 1tbsp of ghee on each one, cook for few mins. Turn carefully with flat spatula and smear ghee on the other side. Turn it over and cook until golden brown on both sides, spread these on a news paper or on top of each. Do the rest the same way.


Tip:

1) When cooking Chana dal add plenty of water.

2) Do not throw away the water, you can make Bhakshala Rasam. (check out Mahanandi's blog, it tasted awesome. Thanks Indira)

3) Wet your hand always.

4) We need lots of patience for this, I recommend u ask your friend help or do it when you got plenty of time and relaxed.

© 2007 by Rajani Rayudu