Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Gajjar/Carrot Ubbati (Puran Poli/Holige).


"Gajjar/Carrot Ubbati (Puran Poli/Holige/Obbattu/Sweet Bread)" ... holi brings in making of ubbati and today being Sankashti Chaturthi, felt it was fair enough to prepare these for Naivedyam as dear Gampapa too needs a change from regular Appos ... turned out really soft and yumz ... May Lord Ganesha be pleased and shower his blessings on all of us ... Stay Blessed and Spread Happiness .... 

** Ubbati as known in Konkani is puran poli in Marathi, Holige in Kannada is a roti with sweet lentil stuffing within. By and large the puran ie the stuffing within is prepared out of cooked and mashed chana dal to which jaggery is added and cooked till a rolling mass. It is then stuffed withinn the roti dough prepared from Maida/APF or Atta/Wheat flour and rolled and fried dry on tava, which remain good for a few days. Ubbati/Puran Poli is a must during Holi and Diwali time so is it prepared during Gowri Poojan. In my parents home it was a must during Krishna Janmashtami as down south Holi is not a much celebrated festival but Janmashtami is. But in the northern parts of India Holi is celebrated in great pomp and style and played with colored water. This festival is associated with Lord Krishna who wanted to color Radha to bring her to match his own dark skin color as she was fair in complexion. I have already written a small article on the same and you can go through the same under the article section if interested in reading, it is an interesting article if you like small stories. 

** Lord Ganesha is worshiped and adored by millions of believers and I am one of them. I try my best to make different types of sweets as Naivedyam/Prasadam offering to Lord which gives me immense satisfaction. I have a large Idol of Lord Ganesha in my home which I brought home on the auspicious day of “Samsar Padvo/Gudi Padva” about 6 years back. A few days back during holi festive time I had prepared Kaayi Holige ie Ubbati prepared with coconut gratings with inclusion of cus cus which I have blogged here and you can check out the same too. Within a few days it was Sankashti Chaturthi and when I was cleaning my God’s mantap/temple, I felt I should offer my Gampapa (Lord Ganesha) too Ubbati Naivedyam for a change from the regular sweet appos, which I always prepare, after all I am sure he too would love a change in taste and like to taste different types of sweets. Preparing gajjar/carrot stuffing as puran for holige was in my mind for some time now, so for todays festive day of Sankashti, I prepared "Gajjar/Carrot Ubbati (Puran Poli/ Holige/ Obbattu/ Sweet Bread)" as Naivedyam to Lord Ganesha. 

** Sharing my own method of Delicious and tasty Gajjar Stuffed Puran Poli recipe below, do try out the same and enjoy with your family and friends, children are definitely going to love these gajjar flavored ones as they love "Gajjar /Carrot Halwa" very much and this is a similar stuffing. I have used gajjar (carrots), coconut and tuvar dal for the puran / stuffing within and the outer covering is prepared with Maida/APF, the same method which I have used for most of the ubbati till now. The outer covering method  remains unchanged, I learned to make it from my mother and I have never bothered to change it as it works out fine for me. But yes, there is a word of caution going round the world against usage of excess Maida / APF as it is starch and is considered a taboo for health. So many have switched over to wheat flour which is slightly better than Maida. I too intend to try out different outer coverings for the Ubbati soon for a change and just to check out how well it works out with other types of flours. So do keep a keen watch on my blog for new methods and ways of ubbati/holige/pruan poli, it will indeed be interesting to try out new method of puran poli with millet flours. 

** Here is my method of preparing "Gajjar/Carrot Ubbati (Puran Poli/Holige/Obbattu/ Sweet Bread)" … My Style … 

** Ingredients : 
** For the outer cover / dough : 
Maida / APF : One heaped cup. 
Haldi / Turmeric Powder : 1 tsp 
Sugar Powder : 1 tsp 
Fine Rava / Chiroti Rava : 1 tsp 
Mustard Seeds / Rai / Sasam: 1 tsp. 
Oil : About ½ cup 

** For the Puran / Stuffing : 
Freshly grated gajjar/carrots : 2 cups 
Freshly grated coconut / Nariyal / Soyi : 1 cup white part only. 
Tuvar Dal / Tori Daali : 1 cup (cooked-mashed paste) 
Sugar/Shakar/Sakkar : 1.5 to 2 cups 
Cardamom / Ellaichi / Yellu Powder : 1 tsp 
Ghee / Toop : 1 tblsp. 


** For preparing the outer cover / dough : Grind the haldi, rava, mustard seeds and sugar powder with a little bit of water to a smooth paste. Add half cup of water and mix well. Keep this aside for about 30 minutes and then strain this through a fine sieve. Collect the water and keep aside. 

** In a wide bowl add in the Maida and 1-2 tblsp of oil out of the ½ cup of oil. Keep the rest aside. Mix the maida and oil into a crumble mixture. Now add in the haldi water and mix well with the maida APF and knead into soft dough. Do not add in all the haldi water at once. Keep adding only that much that is necessary for binding a soft dough. 

** Now add in the remaining oil kept aside over the soft dough and keep kneading it so that the oil gets absorbed into the dough and makes it elastic. The dough should be kneaded very well until there is no trace of oil left in the bowl. The dough should stretch like and elastic and be very smooth in texture. Keep the dough covered aside for some about an hour or so. Do check in the pictures through the link shared at the bottom of this recipe for puran poli elsewhere. 

** For preparing the Puran / Stuffing / Inner Filling : 
** You can either grate or grind the carrot and coconut in a mixer grinder. We need 2 cups of grated or ground carrot, 1 cup of coconut in all ready. 

** Similarly, pressure cook the tuvar dal, drain off excess water and grind to a smooth paste with a pastel or stone or you can use the mixer grinder too, but do not add in water while grinding. Keep this ready too. 

** Note : Check the consistency of the ground gajjar, coconut and tuvar dal in the picture collage attached for proper knowledge of the texture. 

** In a thick bottomed pan add in the ghee, gajjar, coconut both ground and fry on medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Now add in the ground tuvar dal and mix well and bring it all to one consistency. 

** Now add in the sugar depending upon how sweet you want the inner filling to be and mix well. Keep stirring, the sugar melts and the mixture thins out, but starts to thicken and dry as you keep stirring and cooking and starts leaving the sides. 

** When you see no trace of liquid leaving the puran mixture and it comes to a mass ball consistency remove from fire. You can check if done by just dipping your finger in water and then just touching the puran surface slightly, if it sticks to your fingers, it is yet to be done, stir it for a minute or two more. 

** Once done add in the cardamom powder and mix well, remove from fire and keep it aside to completely cool to room temperature. If you want to prepare the puran poli/ubbati at a later time, put it in a air tight box and keep it in fridge, it remains good for 3-4 days. Bring to room temperature before preparing the ubbati. 

** For making of the Ubbati/Puran Poli : 
** Now that both the puran and outer cover are ready it’s time to go further on preparation of ubbati / puran poli. Now prepare balls with both puran and the outer cover in equal parts and keep them ready. The gajjar-coconut-dal puran/stuffing balls should be slightly bigger than the outer cover balls. See to it that you divide them equally. 

** Now comes the major rolling part of the dough along with the stuffed puran. Dust / Roll the dough ball in some maida / APF and roll it with the help of rolling pin to a round shaped poori say about 3 inches in diameter. Do not dust too much, if possible roll with oil, the ubbati stays softer if rolled with help of oil. 

** Now keep the puran / coconut stuffing prepared ball in the center and fold over the dough from all sides to cover the puran / stuffing ball evenly from all sides. Now roll on the stuffed prepared balls on your palms to make it into a full covering to the puran ball. Flatten a little bit and dust it / roll it in Maida. 

** Now roll the puran stuffed dough evenly and gently into a round disc of say about 8 inch in diameter. The rolling of the ubbati / pruan poli should be done with a light and even pressure. This is the main necessity in rolling of stuffed items. If you apply too much pressure the puran ie. the stuffing will come out through the outer cover dough. 

** For Frying the Puran Poli/Ubbati : Heat a non stick tava / iron tava, till smoking point. Now lower the heat to medium and wait for 2 minutes, before you place the rolled ubbati / puran poli. Once you place the ubbati / puran poli in the center of the tava let it cook until you see bubble appearing on the top side of the ubbati on tava. 

** Now after a few seconds with the help of a flat spatula flip over the ubbati / puran poli to let cook the other side that is the upper side too. You should see brown specks on the cooked side of the ubbati / puran poli. This will take about 2-3 minutes in all. Once cooked on both sides remove and keep it on a wired gauge to cool a bit before you keep it on a plate. 

** Repeat the procedure with the remaining puran and dough balls in the same procedure. Do not keep flipping the ubbati / puran poli while cooking on tava often, as the ubbati is soft and may tend to break and also flipping them too many times makes the ubbati / puran poli a little bit stiffer. 

** For the ubbati to turn soft and fluffy, you should cook one side fully and only then flip it over to cook the other side. Then once again just flip it over for just few seconds, remove and place it on the wire gauge/sheet of paper to cool off. Also remember to cook on medium heat, do not raise the heat or lower it too. 

** The ubbati that are evenly and well rolled often blow up like a balloon while cooking on tava. This indicates that the rolling has been done evenly and well. This also ensures that the ubbati will remain soft for a few days. If the ubbati does not rise do not worry. Just cook on medium heat and prepare the same. 

** You will slowly learn the technique of rolling evenly as you keep preparing them. Remember Rome was not built in a day. Cooking is an art that gets perfection by patience and practice. Allow the ubbati / Puran poli to be completely cooled before putting them away in an airtight box. Remain good for 5-6 days. 


** "Gajjar/Carrot Ubbati (Puran Poli/Holige/Obbattu/ Sweet Bread)" is done and ready to be served. Ubbati/Puran Poli is usually served fresh topped with a large tablespoon of melted homemade ghee. It tastes simply delicious and yummy. Some people even fry ubbati / puran poli with ghee/oil. Well, we Konkani Saraswats do not follow that procedure, as there is absolutely no need to unnecessarily add on calories by frying the same with ghee. You can always apply it while serving. Enjoy them hot with your family and friends, children are sure to love them. 

** Do prepare and enjoy this Gajjar flavored Ubbati / Puran Poli / Obbattu / Holige with family and friends. You can prepare them during any festive season or just like that when you desire to have them. Children will love them and you can serve them when they come back from school hungry. My Mom always used to prepare these during noon time and keep them ready when we come back from school hungry. The aroma of fresh ubbati would make us forget all tiredness and gives us immense satisfaction in enjoying the same after which we would run out to play with neighbor all energized. 

** Here is the link to step by step procedure of preparing Ubbati/Puran Poli/Obbattu/ Holige ... 

** An Earnest Request : There are many more recipes of different types in the blog. For all my Recipes, use the search option or the label section in the Blog. If you are still not able to find it or have a query, please leave a message in comment section or mail me the same. I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible. Do try out various types of dishes included in the Blog and Enjoy them with your family and friends and do give me a feedback if possible.

** I am happy to inform you that I have also started a food group for by the name "KONKANI DELICACIES" which is over and year old, with about 19K strong members. It is a pleasure to inform that you will find in the group many more recipes posted by our expert members and you too can share some of your own. The link to the group is posted on the left side of the blog page. Do join us in our culinary journey. I strongly believe in Sharing and always endorse that "Sharing Is Caring" … Thank You …. 

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