Sapaath is the traditional prasad(offering for god) prepared for Satyanarayan pooja. Sooji is cooked in ghee and milk, then bananas are added to make this very aromatic, tasty sweetdish. While growing up, this was one of the reasons we kids attended the pooja.
We moved into our new house last year. I wanted to have Satyanaran pooja at home but I wanted to have family here for the pooja. I was trying to convince my parents to visit, but things were not working out. Finally this August they agreed to come and I immediately thought about pooja. So we had the pooja last week. I invited all my friends home. Aayi made a HUGE batch of Sapaath. All the friends loved it, most of them had never tasted it before.
I wanted to keep the lunch simple that day but still wanted everyone to have something to eat. We had lemon rice , idli-sambar-chutney , chane usli , airaawat , curd rice , lemon pickle . Everyone enjoyed the food and I loved all the company too.
Pictorial: Fry sooji in ghee. Cook it in milk. Add sugar, banana and cook.
Banana-Sooji Sidedish (Kele Sheera/Sapaath)
Ingredients
- 1 cup ghee
- 1 cup sooji/rava
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup banana pieces
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Heat ghee and add sooji.
- Fry till a nice aroma comes out and sooji turns slightly brownish.
- Add milk and cook till all the milk is absorbed.
- Add sugar and bananas.
- Cook for few minutes till the mixture turns slightly dry.
Banana-Sooji Sidedish (Kele Sheera/Sapaath)
Ingredients
- 1 cup ghee
- 1 cup sooji/rava
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup banana pieces
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Heat ghee and add sooji.
- Fry till a nice aroma comes out and sooji turns slightly brownish.
- Add milk and cook till all the milk is absorbed.
- Add sugar and bananas.
- Cook for few minutes till the mixture turns slightly dry.
‘Bharile’ in Konkani means stuffed. Okra is called Bhende. Stuffed okra or bharil bhende is one of my favorites from childhood. The okra available at our native is parrot-green in color and longer than the okra available here in US. Aayi uses the tender okras for this. She cuts the okra into 2-3 pieces (each piece is of the size of okra available here). She stuffs them and then ties them with a thread so that the stuffed doesn’t come out. These taste amazingly delicious. Only tender okra should be used for this dish. The dish requires a bit of patience to stuff and then fry them on a very low flame.
Updated on 12/4/2016: Making this dish after a long time. So I decided to update the post with new pictures. Aayi prepared some stuffing for me and saved it. Making the stuffed bhindi was quite easy then.
Pictorial: Stuff the bhindi and keep them on a hot tava with oil and fry on a low flame.
Stuffed okra (Bharil bhende)
Ingredients
- 10 Okra Bhindi
- 3/4 cup Dry coconut Khobra or kopra
- 1 tea spn Coriander powder
- 1/2 tea spn Cumin Jeera powder
- 3/4 tea spn Sugar
- 1 tea spn Chili powder
- 1 tea spn Besan chick pea flour
- Oil
- Salt
Instructions
- Dry roast the coconut.
- Powder it(powder should not be too smooth).
- Mix all the remaining ingredients (except okra).
- Remove the head (I didn’t get a proper word here, so mentioned as ‘head’) of okra.
- Put some slits keeping the other side intact.
- Stuff them with the powder.
- Heat oil in a nonstick or cast iron tava.
- Keep the bhindis on it and fry on a very low flame.
