Usher in Ugadi with a sweet treat

Several communities will be celebrating their new year this month. However, my favourite is Ugadi. Ugadi is the New Year’s Day for the people of the Telugu and Kannada communities. The holiday, that falls on March 29 this year, is mostly prevalent in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. Gudi Padwa, which is the Marathi New Year, is also celebrated on the same day. The name Yugadi or Ugadi is derived from the Sanskrit words yuga (age) and di (beginning) ‘the beginning of a new age’. 

Preparations for the festival begin a week ahead. Houses are given a thorough wash. Shopping for new clothes and buying other items that go with the requirements of the festival are done with a lot of excitement. The celebration of Ugadi is marked by religious zeal and social merriment. 

Food plays an important role in these celebrations. Special dishes are prepared for the occasion. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, eatables such as pulihora, bob batlu (Bhakshalu/ polelu/ oligalu), New Year burelu and pachadi, and preparations made with raw mango, go well with the occasion. In Karnataka too, similar preparations are made but called puliogure and holige, my favourite. It is also called puran poli or sweet rotis. 

Today, I share with you the recipe of this delectable dish that will leave you asking for more. 

Preparation Time - 1 hour, cooking time - 1/2 hour, serves - 4-5, calories - 220 (each Poli)

Maida (all purpose flour) — 1 cup 

Cardamom powder — ¼ tbsp  

Water to mix the dough 

Salt — ½ tbsp  

Full fat milk — 1 tbsp  

A pinch of turmeric  

Maida — 1 cup 

Jaggery — 1 cup 

Coconut grated — 2 tbsp 

Cardamom (elaichi) — 2-3 nos 

Extra maida for dusting 

Ghee — ¼ cup 

Butter unsalted — ¼ cup 

A small thread of saffron

In a wide mixing bowl, take maida, salt and turmeric. 

Add water and a little oil. Then add saffron and salt. Make a soft sticky dough, which stretches a bit. Later knead the dough nicely for a few minutes adding oil/butter and milk occasionally so that the dough becomes non sticky and soft. Pour the leftover oil onto the final dough and let it soak in the oil. This will help in getting a very good and soft texture.  

Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it sit for at least four hours. The longer it soaks in the oil, the smoother and softer the holige will be. Now, knead the dough again two to three times and cover it back with a damp cloth. Make sure it is kept in a dry cool place. 

The dough is ready for use after four hours. 

Wash chana dal, add about three cups of water and pressure cook for about two whistles. Dal should be cooked but should hold its shape. Turn off the heat. Do not add any extra water or overcook — this is important.   

Once the cooker cools, strain cooked dal and separate dal from water completely. Reserve this water to make holige saaru. This is delicious and as tantalising as the holige. 

After the cooked dal has cooled, transfer dal, jaggery, coconut and cardamom to a mixer jar. Grind to a fine paste.  

Transfer the chana jaggery paste to a thick bottom pan or kadai and cook on medium-low heat. Stir continuously to prevent burning and formation of lumps. Sauté till the mixture becomes one whole non sticky dough, without any moisture content.  

Stuffing/ bele hoorna is ready. Let it cool.

There are three ways in which you can spread holige.  

You can make it like a normal chapathi. Roll the stuffed dough into balls. Lightly coat them with dry flour and flatten them using rolling pin. Later transfer gently with hand on to the tawa.  

You could also place the ball on a greased sheet/ banana leaf. Pat it with your hand to make a circular unit. Place the sheet inverted on the hot tawa. Drop holige and remove the sheet.  

Place the stuffed ball between two greased sheets. Roll it like parathas without using dry flour. The oil in the outer cover will help here. Place the sheet with holige — inverted on the hot tawa. Drop holige and remove the sheet.  

You could also try the following method.  

Once the filling has cooled down completely, make lemon sized balls.   

Now take dough, knead once and, make balls such that they are half the size of the stuffing (i.e the plain dough balls should be smaller than stuffing ball).  

Take one dough ball and using your hand spread it to a disc size or poori size. Place the stuffing ball in centre of it and cover it with dough. Squeeze out any extra dough. Make sure when you roll out, the stuffing is evenly spread inside. 

Dust the balls with maida and roll this like a roti/chapathi, as thin as possible. Dust some more flour if required in between rolling.   

Heat a tawa (preferably non-stick). Once it’s warm, gently transfer rolled holige to the tawa. Drizzle few drops of  ghee/spread a little butter otherwise. Once you see it has lost the raw look, flip it to the other side. Gently brush butter/ ghee. Cook on both the sides on medium flame till golden brown spots appear.   

Puran poli/ obattu/ holige is ready to serve. Enjoy it with ghee/ butter. 

Prepare a decoction by soaking mint and basil leaves in water. Drink this two times a day to keep the body cool during summer. It also helps build immunity and promotes the fat burning process.