"Kaayi-Cus Cus Holige/Ubbati/Obbattu/Sweet Coconut Bread" ... A delicious roti/poli/leveled bread with sweet coconut churan / puran filling famous in southern parts of India ... This one has been a favorite of mine from childhood which we relished hot when done topped with some melted ghee ... Yumz ....
** Holige is the Kannada word for Ubbati in Konkani and Puran Poli in Marathi. It is a sweet flat roti / leveled bread which has a sweet filling / stuffing within which all of you are well aware of. There are numerous variations in making of ubbati in India from North to South and East to West and I have posted a few variations already. But by and large the most popular ubbati is the one prepared with chana dal/lentil sweetened with jaggery filling within.The popularity of this sweet flat bread remains unchanged not only across the country but also around the world at large. A traditional sweet dish that is prepared during “Holi ~ The festival of Colours” and “Diwali ~ The festival of Lights”. A very popular sweet dish savored by young and old alike. This Holi for the first time I tried this out with addition of cus cus to the jaggery-coconut filling along with some putani powder and I am so thrilled it came out fine, need more practice for sure, but tastes awesome topped with hot melted ghee ... Now a few days bf. is going to be that much more yummier.
** Traditionally we from Konkani Saraswat Community / GSB's do not follow Holi on this particular day ie during the month of phalgun poornami, as we celebrate similar function called Okkula the next day after Ratha Saptami ie Car Festival in the premises of our Temple. The festival is celebrated in similar pattern by playing with colored water. But having migrated all round the world religion has become one now and we believe in unity and togetherness, so all of us enjoy Holi following some of the traditions that are followed by our friends elsewhere and preparing of Puran Poli, Gujjias, Maitri and Thandai are just some of them. As I mentioned, there are many ways of preparing ubbati with varieties of inner fillings and today I have prepared it with coconut churan to which I have added on cus cus too. I am sharing the link to the chana dal filled traditional one at the bottom of this recipe. There are step by step pictures included there which will help you grasp the procedure better. Do check through the link
** Have a safe and beautiful "Holi Festival" ... Play safe and insists that your friends do too. Stay Blessed, Spread Happiness ... Always ... Remember we definitely need to leave behind traditions and friendly environment for the Coming Generations.
** Here is my method of preparing "Kaayi-Cus Cus Holige/Ubbati/Obbattu/Sweet Coconut 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 coconut / Nariyal / Soyi : 2 full cups white part only.
Jaggery / Gud / Goda : 1 cup grated.
Cus Cus : 3-4 tblsp
Putani / Roasted Gram : ½ cup
Cardamom / Ellaichi / Yellu Powder : ½ 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 :
** Roast the putani / roasted gram for a minute on a dry tava if they have softened. You can microwave for a minute or two too. Now put it in a mixer grinder and make a fine powder and keep it aside.
** Add in the grated coconut into the mixer grinder and grind to a coarse paste without water, mixing in often as much as possible. If you find it too difficult, you may add in a little bit of water for convenience sake only. Keep this also ready aside.
** Pick and clean the cus cus, roast it on a dry tava or microwave it for a few minutes and keep it ready aside separately too.
** Grate or cut the jaggery into small pieces and have it also ready. It is necessary to always follow this step while preparing dishes wherein you need to melt the jaggery as by doing so the jaggery gets melted faster and evenly without getting hardened in some places.
** Making the Puran / Stuffing :
** In a thick bottomed kadai add the grated jaggery and about 2 tblsp of water and let it melt on medium heat. At this stage if you find that, there are pebbles like or grainy texture or dirt in the melted jaggery immediately sieve it through a fine sieve and put it back into the kadai. In Mumbai we get good chikki-gud / jaggery that does not need to be sieved, so I do not, this step depends entirely upon the jaggery available at your place. However, see to it that you melt it fast stirring often and sieve it immediately; as once it caramelizes it becomes difficult to do so and is not advisable.
** Bring the jaggery to a boiling point on medium heat and cook to about just one thread consistency. It hardly takes much time. Now add in the coarsely ground coconut and mix well stirring well on minimum heat until it thickens. Now add in the cus cus and keep stirring until it almost leaves the side. At that time add in the putani powder and mix well and further cook until the it comes to a mass consistency. Once done add in the cardamom powder, ghee and mix well, remove from fire and keep it aside to cool. The puran should get completely cooled down to prepare the ubbati.
** 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 coconut 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.
** 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.
** "Kaayi-Cus Cus Holige/Ubbati/Obbattu/Sweet Coconut 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 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 ...
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