When
my daughter’s school decided to hold a food festival last weekend it set me
thinking “What should I make?”…
So
I decided to make Manni or rice halwa as it is called, another Manglorean sweet
dish. The traditional recipe includes soaking of rice and then grinding it into
a fine paste, then mixing with coconut milk and jaggery and then cooking it till
it forms a lump…
But then I decided to make the shortcut
version which was taught to me by my Aayi…
So
here are the ingredients and recipe for Rice
and Moongdal Halwa or sweet kichidi as it is called…
Ingredients
1 cup rice (uncooked)
1 cup yellow Moongdal
1 grated coconut (only white part)
1 ½ cup gul / jaggery
Pinch of salt
Elachi and nutmeg (jaiphal) powder
Ghee
5 cups water
1. Wash and soak rice
and dal for ½ hour.
2. Drain the water, add
5 cups water and pressure cook till 3 whistles.
3. In a thick bottom
kadai, first melt the gul.
4. Then add the coconut
gratings, along with pinch of salt.
5. Mix well.
6. Then add cooked rice
and dal mixture, once the gul has melted fully.
7. Add elachi and nutmeg
powder, 1 tablespoon ghee.
8. Some add saffron for
additional flavour and aroma.
9. Keep stirring so as
the mixture doesn’t stick to the bottom.
10. Keep stirring till it
forms a lump.
11. Pour the mixture in
to a greased plated.
12. Flatten it by tapping
it with a greased end of inverted glass or cup.
13. Allow it to cool.
14. Then cut it into diamond
or any required shapes and decorate it with fried cashew or kismis or serve as
it is.
Enjoy it hot or cold. Both taste best.
Note :
1. You can make variations in this by using either only rice or a mix of rice and channa dal or rice or whole green moong.
2. If you find it hard
to keep stirring to form a lump, when the rice and gul is mixed properly, close
the gas and you can serve it as you serve semolina halwa in a plate.
3. Another variation is,
instead of rice use ragi or nachani flour and mix it with coconut milk and
jaggery.
4. If you are using
whole moong or channa dal soak it for upto 1 hour and take upto 4-5 whistles.
