Monday, April 2, 2018

"Chilled Muskmelon (Chibbada) ~ Apple Harshala.


"Chilled Muskmelon (Chibbada) ~ Apple Harshala (Jaggery ~Coconut Milk) served with Poha (Povu / Pova / Beaten Rice)" ... Come summer and it's the time of fruit dishes that can be served chilled in homes to relish and beat the rising heat ... Enjoy this as it is or you can add on some povu, mix and relish it too ... Yummilicious ..... 

** Muskmelon also known as Chibbada in konkani is a kind of sweet melon fruit available in different shapes and sizes in different parts of the country. It is also known as karbooj in Hindi and Cantaloupe in English. You get both ripe and semi ripe fruit both in round and oblong shapes. When I got married and settled in Thane, a city just in the outskirts of Mumbai we used to get loads of oval shaped chibbada which initially I mistook for magge / south Indian cucumber, coz. it looked just like that. Somehow over years, I have no idea where they disappeared and I never find them much in my vicinity now. Some 15 years back round shaped ones started flooding the market and now we still get them that way. 

** Anyways sometimes though the name differs a little bit for us amchies it’s simply chibbada that’s it, which we extensively enjoy in preparing the same in harshala. This sweet fruit is just cut and added to cardamom flavored coconut milk and jaggery mixture and served chilled with some poha / beaten rice as accompaniment and it tastes yummy. It is called Harshala among Konkani Saraswat’s and extensively used during upawas / fasting etc. Harshala can also be prepared as Naivedyam / Prasadam and offered to God before serving it to family. I have already posted Harshala before with addition of muskmelon/ chibbada. Here I have added along apple with muskmelon to the same while rest of the method remains same. 


** Here is to the preparation of the Harshala … A yummy dessert … 

** Slice off the skin part of the chibbada / muskmelon as thinly as possible. Remove the inner seeds and keep them aside and chop the flesh portion into small pieces. Put this in a vessel and keep it ready aside. I used about 500 gms weight of muskmelon. 

** Note : You can keep the seeds aside and put them in the fridge for later use and prepare the same by grinding and sieving and adding to panak another famous Konkani Saraswats favorite drink. If not you can dispose of the same. 

** Slice off the skin part of 2 large sized apples as thinly as possible. Remove the inner center core part and discard it. Chop the flesh portion into small pieces similar in size to that of the muskmelon. Add the cut pieces to the muskmelon pieces in the vessel. 

** Grate about 200 gms of gud / jaggery or melt in 3 cups of water and keep aside. You can cut into small pieces and grind them in a mixer grinder and sieve to remove impurities if any. Add this to the vessel into which the cut muskmelon pieces are kept. 

** Now add in 200 ml of coconut milk (I used readily available coconut milk) to the chibbad and jaggery mixture along with ¼ tsp of cardamom powder a pinch of saffron soaked in warm milk (Optional, I have not added it this time) and mix well. Add water if necessary. Keep this in the fridge to get chilled. 

** Note : Be careful with addition of water, as you can add it later on too. Muskmelon does have a tendency of leaving water in time and we do not want the harshal / prepared mixture to become too thin in texture. 


"Chilled Muskmelon (Chibbada) ~ Apple Harshala (Jaggery ~Coconut Milk) is done and ready to be served. If you have prepared this for Naivedyam / Prasadam do offer the same to God and then serve you family and friends in bowl topped with some Poha / Povu / Beaten Rice. Again poha is optional, but we Konkani Saraswat’s relish this dish with some poha and it tastes awesome. 

** For preparing fresh coconut milk: In case you do not want to use readily available coconut milk you can also prepare the same fresh. Years back when such facilities were not available I used to prepare it by removing the fresh coconut milk from freshly grated coconut itself. Take about 2-3 cups of fresh grated coconut and soak in warm a cup of warm water for 15-20 minutes. Now put it into a mixer grinder and grind to a fine paste. Strain the mixture through a thin muslin cloth. This is the first thick coconut milk. Now grind the strained coconut residue again with about 1 cup of water and then strain it again. This is the second thin coconut milk. Both can be added to the above Harshala together. 

** You can check up on the Harshala with just muskmelon at the link given below …. 

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