Instant Handwo Recipe on StoveTop

Handwo, a delicious savory cake made from rice, lentils and vegetables like  Corn, Carrot, Onions,  Peas, Shelled Edamame, Zucchini, Spinach is a traditional Indian Gujarati snack enjoyed with Cilantro Chutney or chili sauce. Having well fermented batter is critical for preparing Handwo and it can be prepared by using either ready made Handwo Flour or from scratch using raw rice and mixed lentils (dals). Batter is prepared by grinding soaked rice and lentils with yogurt and then prepared mixture is left to rise for 6-7 hours.

Mixed vegetables are then added to the fermented batter and round shaped thick savory cake is cooked from the batter by cooking it with one of three different methods using a pan on the stove or in an oven.  My dear friend Nita always told me that she makes it with her instant recipe that does not require much planning, to tell you the truth, I always shied away from make in to to elaborate planning. So I took her advise and decided to make it with the ingredients that I had in my fridge an pantry. She gave me her recipe over the phone.

You can use any veggies that you like, but since this was a last min decision, I had some green and purple cabbage, green onion and carrot salad mix and had some left over batter with Gram flour (chick peas) with cilantro.  I did not have ready made Handwa flour mix in my panty so I used Instant Dhokla mix and Sooji (Cream of wheat). My friend had  mentioned that you can add Oats too, but I opted not to do that this time.
I am listing the ingredients separately for batter and for Tempering (Tadka, next to the pics)

Here are the ingredients I used for batter:

• 1 packet of Instant Dhokla mix (which basically consists of coarse rice flour and dal) 
• 2 cups of cream of wheat
• 2 cups of Gram flour
• 1 cup of plain yogurt (little on sour side, you can leave it out at room temp)
• 1 cup of water
• 2 cups of chopped veggies of your choice
• 1 cup of kernel of yellow or white corn
• 1/4 cup of oil 

• 1 bunch of Cilantro finely chopped
• 3-4 spring onions chopped
• 2 Roma tomatoes chopped 
• 1 chopped Jalapeno pepper 
• 1 red or yellow onion chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1" peeled ginger finely chopped 
• Juice from one large fresh lime
• Salt to taste
• 1 table spoon of Eno fruit salt  (you can use baking soda if you are not familiar with Eno)

• 2 teaspoon of Turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder
• 1 teaspoon of roasted cumin powder
• 1 tablespoon  of coriander powder

 

Method to prepare the batter:

• Mix all the flours, add yogurt.
• Mix the gram flour in a separate bowl with water and cilantro,  mix well to make sure there are no lumps.
• Add this to the flour and yogurt mix.
• Add all the spices and salt.
• Add all the chopped veggies, onions,  tomatoes and chopped Jalapenos and garlic/ginger.
• Add lime juice and mix well.

• Add Oil.
• Consistency of batter should be thick and not runny (just like that of brownie batter) you can add more water or yogurt accordingly if needed.
• Set aside for 15 min.
• We will add the baking soda of Eno fruit salt just before putting in on the stove to cook.

Ingredients for Tempering (Tadka)

• 1/3 cup of oil
• 2-3 sprigs of Curry leaves
• 1 Jalapeno chopped 
• 1 table spoon of Cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
• 2 tables spoons of sesame seeds
• 4 dried red chili pods
• 1/3 teaspoon of asfoetida

Method to do tempering and baking the final product:

• After batter is sitting for 15 min mix the batter well.
• In a small sauce pan heat oil on stove.
• Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds.
• When these crackle, add chili pods, asefoetida and sesame seeds. 
• Add curry leaves and chopped jalapenos.
• Turn the stove off.

I had bought these copper-chef square cooking pans, that I thought these would be perfect to make this in, usually they make it in round pans.

• Divide the tempered oil mix in to half.(where the cumin/mustard seeds, sesame seeds, chili pods, curry leaves and jalapeños are equally divided)

• Heat up the pan on medium heat.
• Add half of the tempered oil mix to the heated pan. 
• Make sure you move the oil mix around in the pan so all the sides are well coated with tempered oil mix
• Now at the last minute add baking soda or the Eno salt to the batter and mix well until it is bubbly.

• Add the batter to the pan on the stove, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan.
• Set the timer of 30 min. 
• Depending on the thickness of the batter it can take anytime between 10-30 min on each side. 
• I made this about 1and 1/2" thick but if you use a small pan and less batter about 1/2 " it may only take 10 min to cook on each side. 

• After 30 min check the cake when the side are brown.
• Add rest of the tempered oil mix on top and cover for 2 -3 min.
• I have two of these pans so I just sprayed the 2nd pan with cooking spray and flipped the cake over with brown side up. 
• Cover it and let it cook for another 20 min or until the bottom is brown

• When the other side is brown you can turn the stove off and cool slightly and cut in small serving size square.
• Serve hot with your favorite sauce.

Enjoy !!

Recipe Courtesy of my dear friend Nita :) of course with some adaptation and modification and Photographs by Surekha.

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