This traditional dish is almost forgotten. I have not seen anybody preparing it these days. When I was a kid, aayi prepared them occasionally. It requires a lot of patience and time to prepare this dish. If you master it once, this might become easier. But the taste is so unique and tempting that you would feel like making again and again. Back home, we enjoy it the most when eaten with a hot cup of tea on a rainy day in July.
This is a special variety of “Chattambade”. Few days back, I had posted about the " Chattambade" that is made of chana dal. But the difference is, the chana dal chattambade, need to be eaten immediately, and they are a bit soft. Gharyo are very crispy and can be stored for around 15 days (like any other munchies). It was an absolute favorite of my Dad and when my parents saw the Diwali spread here , he started asking my Aayi to prepare it :D.
PS: While grinding the daal for this dish, water SHOULD NOT be added. Though I knew this, I added little bit of water because my blender was not grinding it properly. But then, when I tried making these, they just got broken and I had to make them again. So be careful, NO water while grinding.
Ingredients: Urad dal with skin 2 cups Coconut 1 tbl spn Ginger 2" piece Green chilies 4-5 Curry leaves 6-7 Oil Salt
Method: Soak the urad dal(with skin) in water for around 1-2 hours. Grind it coarsely without adding water. Add coconut, chopped ginger, chopped chilies, curry leaves pieces and salt. Apply some oil to a plastic sheet(I used aluminum foil). Take a small ball of the mixture, and spread with hand (spread as thin as possible, take care they should be able to lift easily).
Heat oil. Lift the vadas and deep fry on a very low flame. (If flame is kept on high or the vadas become thick, they remain soft from inside). Take out on a kitchen towel. Cool them to room temperature and store in air tight container.
Preparation time : 1 hr
Updated on 25th Oct 2006: Following is an easy method of making these. Pelicano said, “I used a small “cookie scoop”(the kind which has a release hoop that ejects the mixture)to scoop up the ground urad daal and place mounds of it on the board. Then, as the oil was heating(i used 350-360 F),I took a steel “wok spatula”(the Asian groceries have these)and dipped it into the oil to coat it. This spatula has a curved edge and needs to be kept oiled like cast iron…don’t know if you’ve seen these, but they hold a film of oil on itself very well…I used the underside to press the raw vada as flat as possible…and it did so very neatly…then when, the oil was hot, i used this same spatula to lift it and turn into the hot oil….it became an easy system,just had to dip the spatula into the oil each time i made a new group to fry”.
Pictorial:
This is a specialty from my native Kumta. I have not seen anyone making them at home. These are readily available in the shops. The best “Ganti” are available in a restaurant-shop “Alka”. Since my non-Konkani friends/relatives didn’t get the name “Ganti”, they called it “Chalk piece sweet” because the original “Ganti” is white in color and looks like a chalk piece.
I tried mastering this sweet many times. But the thing I failed was to get the white color to the sugar coating. The coating always became transparent. I asked many people if they knew about this dish, but no one seems to know how to make these. Aayi gave me this recipe, but she also had tried it long ago, and then just stopped making them at home. I can guarantee they taste as great as the original ones even though they “look” defferent due to the transparent coating.
If any one of you has more knowledge about the sugar syrups, please clarify my doubt – “till which stage the sugar syrup needs to be cooked so that, it gets its white color back after cooling?”.
Ingredients: All purpose flour(Maida) 1 cup Vanaspati ghee 1/6 cup Sugar 1 cup Vanaspati ghee (or oil) for deep frying Salt
Method: Mix Maida, vanaspati ghee, salt, water to make a soft dough. Knead well and make into a thin rope. Cut then into little-finger sized pieces.
Deep fry in ghee/oil on a very low flame. Take out in a large bowl.
Add 1 tbl spn of water to 1 cup of sugar and heat it till the sugar melts. Pour on top of the fried pieces and mix well so that all the pieces get a uniform sugar coating. Take out the pieces one by one and keep on a clean plate. When it is cooled, the sugar syrup coating will get its white color back (in ideal situations :D).
Preparation time : 30mins
