Ragi mudde must be one of the most popular items of Karnataka cuisine. I have heard about it from the time I was a kid, but never got a chance to taste this. It was on my to-do list for a long time now, finally I prepared it. In my opinion, it takes some time for any one to get adjusted to the taste of these ragi balls.
When I started blogging, I read about ragi mudde over and over again in many places. It was in the back of my mind and I even bought ragi flour , but some how the color and taste of it always put me off. Then I got a treasure in the recipe collection. Have a look at – Madhu’s ragi mudde , Shynee’s ragi mudde , Latha’s ragi mudde with avrekalu saru , Ramya’s ragi mudde . There are many more, but I read these before going ahead.
The following information is from a cut out of Tharanga magazine-2003. In one of the editions, the magazine asked “ mudde prashne “( mudde question) to readers. According to the magazine, they got flood of answers from readers. They chose few of them and printed. Its a treasure for any mudde lovers. It had all the information from A to Z about ragi mudde plus lots and lots of side dishes that go well with these. Well, I am not going to translate the whole article here, but I will post about some things I learned about mudde in this post.
I am thankful to K.M.Navaratna Kumari, who actually collected all the information from different user responses and came up with this amazing article for the magazine.
Ingredients: 1 cup ragi (finger millet) flour 2 cups water Salt
Method: In old days, these were made in mud pots. Then aluminum vessels replaced them. Now people use steel. Traditionally a thick stick known as “mudde kolu” of 2″ wide, 1/2″ thick and 18″ tall is used to mix the contents of the mudde. Most popular ragi muddes are made bland without salt.
Heat water with salt in a vessel with wide opening. When water starts to boil, add about 2 tea spns of flour and mix. Soon the mixture starts to thicken.
At this stage the mixture is called “ KoTare”.
When it starts to boil, add remaining flour. DO NOT mix with the spoon and DO NOT close the lid. Now the koTare starts rising abound the dry flour. Leave it as it is for about 5mins.
Now push the dry flour down with the spoon so that it is covered with liquid (do not mix it, just push it down). On a low flame, let it cook for 10mins.
At this stage a very nice aroma comes out of the mixture.
Take off the heat and with the help of mudde kolu or a normal wooden spoon mix it very well, taking care to remove all the lumps.
Traditionally the vessel is held tight with the feet and the contents are mixed with the mudde kolu. This step is called “goTayisuvudu”. According to the article, knowing when the mixture is cooked and how much to mix is a art in itself. It comes only with lots and lots of practice.
When the mixture is still warm, apply some water to hands and shape it into balls (roughly of tennis ball size). Cover with a damp towel till they are served to avoid drying up.
These are usually served with some kind of thin gravies like bassaru or massaru . Some people also serve green chilies and raw onion with them. These are usually eaten with hands and not spoon. Take out a small piece of mudde , dip in gravy and gulp it. To get the ultimate feel of these, do not chew them.
PS: First timers, please be very careful while eating them. Needs enough care while gulping them, but once you get used to it, they taste delicious ;).
I have mentioned many times that my brother is a very good cook. He is a perfectionist. Whenever he cooks, he follows the elaborate method and comes up with absolutely yummy dishes. He almost never takes shortcuts. When I started cooking, I used to concentrate more on fast cooking because I am a very impatient cook. I understood the meaning of proper cooking only after moving to US. I had a lot of free time, so I would cook slowly. Now that I have got a hang of it, I can comfortably do same thing very fast. But my brother still has my old picture in his mind. Why am I saying all this? Read on….
He has been preparing this gravy for almost 5 years now. No matter how many times he prepares, it comes out great with the same taste. This is not my aayi’s recipe, so none of us know from where he learnt it. He didn’t tell any of us about the origin of the recipe. When we asked for the recipe, he would always laugh and keep quiet. Aayi told me recently that he had cooked this for them and she loved it. So I sent him a mail asking for this. I get some special concession and I get to know secret ingredients because of this blog. I had little hopes of getting this recipe but within few days, he had sent it to me. Yayyy :)… As usual, it was a hit.
Along with the recipe, I got a piece of advice – “Preferably do not take any shortcuts in this recipe as lazy people can never be good cooks”. See those bold letters?. Elder brothers can get too bossy sometimes. But I got some concession there too, he said “You can rephrase and write this in your own words”. This surely is a winner recipe.
Ingredients: 2 cups chopped spinach( palak ) 1/2 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup potato chopped into big cubes 1/4 tea spn ginger paste 1/4 tea spn garlic paste 1/4 cup tomato pieces A pinch turmeric 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut 4 green chilies 1/2 cup toor dal 1″ tamarind or 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract Oil 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds Salt
Method: Cook dal and spinach with a pinch of turmeric and a drop of oil in pressure cooker. Ensure that spinach is not completely soaked in water. Water should be only for dal and not spinach. Also make sure dal is at the bottom and spinach is above that in the vessel. (I prefer to use two separate vessels – one for dal with turmeric, oil and second for spinach. Vessel with dal is kept at the bottom in the cooker and spinach one at the top). Heat a little oil and fry ginger, garlic and onions. Use fresh ginger-garlic, they give better taste than the ready made ginger-garlic paste. Add potatoes. Close the lid and let them cook, stir occasionally. When the onions turn slightly brownish, add tomatoes. Heat a little oil in a separate vessel and fry coriander seeds. Grind them with green chilies, tamarind and coconut. Add the ground paste and cooked dal -spinach to onion mixture along with required amount of water and cook till done. Add salt to taste. Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 20-30mins
