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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Raw Green Mango and Indian Goose berry Pickle (Amia and Amla Pickle) in USA

If you recall the last recipe I posted was of Raw mango pickle, which I made out of frozen raw green Mango here. Well,  I ran out of it within two weeks.  When I went to look for another pack of frozen raw green Mango, I could not find it but they had fresh green raw mango, then I saw frozen Amla (Indian Goose berry) slices in freezer. I used to love Amla achar that my mom used to make it in India.  However it is a long process due to typle biter and sour taste of Amla you have to treat it before making the pickles. So when I saw the frozen Amla, I thought to myself let me try the same recipe with Amla and raw fresh Mango

Amla, better known as Indian Gooseberry, is widely used in the Ayurvedic medicine system of India.  Amla is extremely rich in vitamin C, having thirty percent more than oranges. It’s packed with many vitamins, minerals, tannin and other helpful nutrients. This herb is a very powerful antioxidant, preventing damage from free radicals that cause cell oxidation. Antioxidants are important for anti-aging and preventing diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.   Amla also works well for inflammation. It is a good anti-inflammatory for joints especially. This potent herb is also used to reduce fevers, strengthen the heart, control blood sugar, treat urinary tract infections and improve eyesight.

Here a picture of Fresh  Indian goosberrry.
The tree is small to medium in size, reaching 1–8 m (3 ft 3 in–26 ft 3 in) in height. The branchlets are not glabrous or finely pubescent, 10–20 cm (3.9–7.9 in) long, usually deciduous; the leaves are simple, subsessile and closely set along branchlets, light green, resembling pinnate leaves. The flowers are greenish-yellow. The fruit is nearly spherical, light greenish-yellow, quite smooth and hard on appearance, with six vertical stripes or furrows.
Ripening in autumn, the berries are harvested by hand after climbing to upper branches bearing the fruits. The taste of Indian emblic is sour, bitter and astringent, and it is quite fibrous. In India, it is common to eat emblic steeped in salt water and red chilli powder to make the sour fruits palatable.

There are many ways to make Amla pickle but I used to same recipe that I used to make the achar from frozen green Mango

Ingredients

• 10 oz of frozen Amla slices
• 1 fresh green raw mango
• 2 tablespoon of spice mix for aachar which is basically mix of salt,  ground red  chili pepper , and crushed mustard seeds  and some crushed fenugreek seeds
• 2 table spoon of  Medium hot ground chili pepper powder
• 2 teaspoon of salt

• Lime juice from 3 limes (depending on how tart you want your pickle as raw mango here in USA is not as tart as in India, however the frozen pack of raw mango was from India so the tartness is good in the frozen pack)
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (best to use mustard oil but it is not for everyone's palate, it takes a while to get accustomed to its taste)

Method:

•  Wash and cut the raw mango in to small cube
• Take 10 oz of frozen amla slices from freezer and place  them in a glass bowl mix with mango cube and  microwave them  for 6  min on high power (uncovered).
• Take it out of microwave and stir and place it back in microwave to cook for additional 2-4 min to desired softness.
  

• Take  it out of microwave, let it cool.
• Add all the spices, salt and lime juice.
• Toss with a spoon so everything is well incorporated. 
• Heat the oil in small sauce pan and pour hot oil over the spiced mangoes.
• Let it cool completely and then put it in a jar.

Hint: 
You can have it out at room temperature for one to two weeks easily but if not consumed quickly you can store it in fridge.

Information on Amla source : http://www.herbslist.net/amla.html and Picture and more info on Amla as whole fruit courtsey of : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllanthus_emblicahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License


Rest of the Photos and Recipe by Surekha

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Quick Raw Green Mango Pickle in USA

I love Indian Pickles, which is known to all of us as Achar in Hindi.  Basically South Asian pickles (or achar) are pickled foods, native to the Indian subcontinent, made from a variety of vegetables and fruits, preserved in brine, vinegar,  or edible oils  along with various Indian spices. Although the origin of the word achar is ambiguous, there are two views of the etymology of the word. One is believed to be Hindi  while the other Persian.

According to Mohsen Saeidi Madani, Indian-style pickle is called achaar in Hindi. While, other sources claim the word achār to be of  Persian origin. Āchār in Persian is defined as ‘powdered or salted meats, pickles, or fruits, preserved in salt, vinegar, honey, or syrup. Although varies by regions within the Indian subcontinent, some of the notable ingredient uses are limes, lemons, mangoes, ginger, eggplants, carrots, cauliflower and even bitter melan and other ingredients are used, but the decisive ingredient is the Chili pepper. 
In India, there are two main types of achaar, one is made with mustard oil, mostly used in North India, while in Gujrat they use peanut oil and in south India sesame oil.  While the other is without oil. Lime pickle is made by putting the achaar in the salt 
Homemade pickles are prepared in the summer and are matured by exposing to sunlight for up to two weeks.The pickle is kept covered with muslin while it is maturing.

Despite using the same main ingredients, the differences in preparation techniques and spices can lead to a wide variation in Indian pickles. A Mango  pickle from South India may taste very different from one made in North India—the southern states prefer Sesame oil and tend to produce spicier pickles, while the northern states prefer Mustard oil. 

As we all know the raw mango or green variety that we get here in USA is not as sour as what we get in India.  This time I found frozen cubes of green Mango at our local Indian grocer.  It was about 12 oz pack, half of which I used for something else.  The other half I put it back in the freezer. Today when I was looking for something I found this and thought let me make a quick aachar that can be consumed in few day.  As I said I love acchar and sometime I  have my chapati just with acahar, it brings back nostalgic feeling of my childhood...

In India they make pickle in bulk, but here I just like to make it in small quantity that can be consumed fresh without having to wait for it to be maturing.  (I had posted Red Chili pepper a while ago)
My dearest mom always used to send me a home made spice mix of salt, red chili pepper powder,   crushed mustard and fenugreek seeds. Which I always keep handy, but you can buy this mix at Indian grocers.

Ingredients

• 6 oz of frozen green mango cubes
• 1 tablespoon of spice mix for achar which is basically mix of salt,  ground red  chili pepper , and crushed mustard seeds  and some crushed Fenugreek seeds
• 1 table spoon of  Medium hot ground chili pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt (if achar mix does not have salt you can add 1 tablespoon of salt)
  

• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of asfoetida
• 1 table spoon of coarsely ground Sauf (Fennel seeds)
  
• Lime juice from 1/2 or 1 lime (depending on how tart you want your pickle)
• 1/4 cup of oil (I used Mustard oil and vegetable oil mix)
  

Method:

• Take six oz of frozen green mango cubes from freezer and place  them in a glass bowl and  microwave for 4 min on high power (uncovered).
• Take  it out of microwave stir and then microwave for additional 2 min to desired softness makes and  sure they don't dry out.
  
• Add all the spices, salt and lime juice.
• Toss with a spoon so everything is well incorporated. 
• Heat the oil in small sauce pan and pour hot oil over the spiced mangoes.
• Let it cool completely and then put it in a jar.
• You can mix it several times, and can put it in sunlight covered with  muslin cloth, but this step is optional.

Hint: 
You can have it out at room temp for one week easily but if not consumed quickly you can store it in fridge.
Another version I make is Hing Keri (recipe on this blog) which also very delicious, but you have to like the pungent smell and taste of Hing (asfoetida) In that I would just put salt red chili pepper powder, and hing without oil and without achar spice mix.

Aachar information source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_pickles
https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-Sh
areAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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