I wish a very happy mother’s day to all of you. I was thinking of today’s post from many days. I thought of baking a beautiful cake for my Aayi, or cook something that Aayi loves or some of Aayi’s dishes, but then realized she is not a cake fan, I didn’t know what she likes and I have already posted all of her easy dishes and I could not cook something difficult. Then I remembered these pictures which my brother(he took them when aayi was making these at native) had sent me sometime ago and I had kept them for some special occasion. What can be better than this occasion?. These are one of her all time favorite munchies and she gets extremely happy when I post her dishes(the ones she has cooked). So I thought of posting this for my sweet and cute aayi :).
Ode or Vode are rice flour munchies usually made for dev karya (a religious function). On these days, these munchies are dipped in a special kind of paays (sweet dish) made of chana daal , rice rava, jaggery and coconut. People soak these in sweet dish and eat. So they are made little soft, soggy and little bigger in size. During these functions, many ladies get together and make these in big quantities, because many people are invited for this. These are offered to god during pooja and then served to all the attendees.
But when these are prepared on normal days, they are made small and very crunchy. They can be saved for many days(sometimes for around a month) in airtight containers. They taste simply awesome.
Ingredients: 1 tea spn urad daal 1/4 tea spn methi seeds 3 cups rice flour A pinch sugar 1/2 tea spn butter ( loni ) Coconut water or normal water Oil Salt
When these are made during functions, urad daal and methi seeds are not used.
Method: Dry roast urad daal and methi seeds. Make a powder and add the powder to rice flour. Mix butter, salt, sugar and coconut water and mix into a hard dough. (Usually tender coconut water is added for extra taste. If it cannot be found, use normal water). Knead very well by rubbing on rolling board. Make a rope of the dough. Cut into small pieces with hand and make balls.
Apply some oil to a plastic sheet or banana leaf, and keep the ball on it. Press with the palm to spread it.
Heat oil in a wok and deep fry these. If the odes don’t puff up, the dough might have become not enough hard or the kneading might not be enough. When they are cooled to room temperature, store them in airtight container.
Ghee (Hindi), tuppa (Kannada), tup (Konkani)-clarified butter must be one of the most important ingredients in any Indian sweets. It gives a unique flavor and aroma to any sweet dish and takes the dish to a new level. When in India, my supply of ghee always came from my Aayi. I never liked the store bought ghee . I started making it in Bangalore when I used to buy Nandini whole cream milk . This milk gets a thick cream when heated. So I used to save it and make ghee out of it. When I came to US, I was totally lost since the milk we get here does not get the cream when heated. The ghee that we get in Indian stores is very expensive. So I started using shortening as a replacement as told by one of our friend. Shortening does give a better result than ghee for nankatayi , chiroti and many other dishes, but some of my readers said that it is not very good for health. So finally I decided to make ghee at home using unsalted butter.
I usually buy the 4 pack combo of unsalted butter in Costco and make ghee of 2 or 3 packs at a time and store. I somehow feel it is better than the store bought ghee and works out much cheaper. So this is what I have been doing for last many months. I was thinking of this post for a long time now, because of the increasing number of cooking newbies who read Aayi’s Recipes. I took as many pictures as possible, I am happy that my camera still is working after all these pictures. There was a thick vapor that sat on the camera lens when I tried to take picture from too close :(.
Apart from using in many sweet dishes, ghee is usually added to lamps (oil lamps) during festivals. It is supposed to be very auspicious. I still remember aayi giving ghee mixed in sugar after it was offered to god during one of the festivals.
– Heat 7-8 sticks of butter in a clean heavy bottomed pan. When all the butter is melted, keep the heat on low. Let it boil.
– Just blow lightly some air, if the liquid has become transparent and you can see the bottom of the pan clearly, the ghee is done. Switch off the heat. (Do not keep the heat on at this stage, otherwise the ghee gets burnt). Some people like to add a little fenugreek( methi )
– Now add 1/8 th tea spn of salt. It helps the floating particles to settle at the bottom.
– When the ghee has cooled a bit, pour in glass jars taking care not to pour any of the solid particles.
– If everything has gone well, it solidifies when completely cooled.
– There is a considerable amount of ghee which remains in the vessel after you pour it in jars. With a spoon, remove all the solid particles. Now use the vessel to make daali thoy or any other daal and the final daal comes out very tasty and fragrant.
At my native some people add a small turmeric leaf to the milk which is used for making ghee . Personally I don’t like any extra flavor to it, so I don’t like to add anything.
