Naivedya Series: Kadabu

On the occasion of Dasara, I am continuing with the Naivedya series with yet another Chana Dal (Split chickpea) based sweet dish called Kadabu in kannada. Lookswise Kadabu is similar to the famous Karanji but made with whole wheat flour as opposed to Maida (Plain flour) and the filling is also different.

In kannada, specifically in the North Karnataka region, Kadabu is also used as a slang for a beating! A story associated with this comes to mind.

A man once gets to taste Kadabu for the first time at a friends place and likes it very much. He comes back home & tells his wife about it but forgets the name of the dish.

After a few days, he feels like eating them and asks his wife if she can prepare them, but since he hasn't told her the name of the dish, she is not able to understand what to make. he then tries to describe it to her saying that its fried, has a sweet filling and so on. She still doesn't understand anything and keeps asking him about it. They have a huge fight over this and in anger the husband slaps her hard.

Just as all this is happening the lady's father comes home & gets worried on seeing his daughter crying. He goes to her & asks her what the matter is & why her cheeks are puffed up like a Kadabu? The husband jumps at this & finally remembers the name!

We used to laugh at this story every time it was told, which means practically every time we made kadabu at our place :)

These Kadabus are on their way to Srivalli's Cooking for all seasons, who is the host for this month's JFI - Festival Treats.

Also sending this to Sweet Series hosted by Mythreyee of Paajaka Recipes.

Kadabu

Makes about 8-10 Kadabus

Ingredients

• 1 cup Chana Dal (Split Chick Pea)
• 3/4 cup grated Jaggery
• 1/4 cup chopped small pieces of Dry coconut
• 1/2 tsp Cardamom Powder
• Dry fruits such as Cashew, Almonds, Walnut, raisins etc (Optional)
• 2 cups Wheat flour
• Oil for frying

Method:

Pressure cook the Chana Dal and drain the water. Mash the Dal properly and put to heat in a pan . Add the grated jaggery and mix properly.

Add the grated coconut and Cardamom powder and conitnue to cook till all the water dries out and you get a homogenous mixture. This is called the Puran, the filling. Add the dry fruits if using and mix well.

Prepare a stiff dough with the wheat flour using some water. Make small lemon sized balls and roll out small slightly oblong pooris. Avoid using any flour while rolling out the dough as much as possible. I generally use a drop of oil in place of the flour. This prevents the oil from getting contaminated with burnt flour, while frying.

Place some of the filling in the middle along the length and close the poori to cover it. Seal the edges by pressing them together very tightly. This has to be done properly since we don't want the filling coming out while frying the Kadabu.

Heat oil in a deep kadai and fry the Kadabu over medium slow flame, turning them from time to time, until brown & crisp.

 

The classic way of serving them is to make a small hole in the middle and fill it up with Ghee/Toop/Tuppa (Clarified Butter), the more the better :) festivals are after all for indulging!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Dasara!