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I have always associated bele holige with Mahashivratri.Many madhva households do this delectable dish on this holy day.And this festval is special to me as it was on shivratri of 2009 that I attempted to do holige for the first time and by lord Shiva's grace, they turned out to be extremely good, edible so to say. Well, count on lord's grace for miracles to happen in your life :-)
I was very nervous the first time I attempted to do holige, was bombarded with visions of me unable to roll the dough after stuffing hoorana, that it could all crumble on griddle, the jaggery in hoorna would separate and some out etc......but fortunately nothing went wrong....it was definately an uplifting experience.
Ingrediants :
For hoorana or stuffing
- Kadle bele / chana dal : 1 cup (Toor dal can also be used instead of chana dal or toor dal and chana dal in equal measures can be used)
- Jaggery : a little more than 1/2 cup or as per taste
- nutmeg powder : 1 tsp
- cardamom powder : 1 tsp
- badam powder : 1/4 cup (optional)
For kanaka or dough
- Maida : 1 cup
- Chirote rava : 3 tsp
- Turmeric : a pinch
Method :
- Mix maida, chirote rava, a pinch of salt and turmeric with water to make a soft dough.Smear oil (or pour oil covering half or entire dough.Doing this is optional) and keep it aside till hoorana is prepared.The dough should be softer than the normal chapati dough.
- Presurre cook chana dal to 10 whistles, so that dal is mushy.Drain water completely and crush dal with your hand to make a fine paste.If you still see the lumps, grind it.
- Mix dal well with jaggery.the mixture becomes watery due to jaggery.Heat the mixture to make it dry, constantly stirring to avoid mixture burning out at bottom of the pan. Add cardamom powder and badam powder. When the water starts to evaporate, the mixture forms a lump.Circle the lump with a spatula few times and if you are able to make a dough like thing out of the mixture, then the hoorana or the stuffing is ready.
- Take it from the stove and cool it, covering the vessel with lid.Once cooled, if you feel it is too dry, add a spoon of ghee and knead it to moisten it, so that it spreads nicely when you start rolling the holige.Take some hoorana and make small balls.
- Dust the surface where you will roll with maida.Take some dough, size of a small lemon, roll it to a size of the puri.Stuff hoorana in the middle, close the edges tightly such that hoorana does not come out, pat it to flatten it and roll it gingerly.(The size of dough should be half the size of stuffing / hoorana.As maida is elastic, it stretches to hold more stuffing.And when holige is done, you will find stuffing at rim of holige too, else it would be concentrated at center) Start rolling from middle and go upto the edges.Heat it on the griddle like a regular chapati.
- Holige or obattu is ready to make any festival special and memorable.
- Savour it hot as-is or mix it with lukewarm milk and ghee and mash it.......it is heavenly any way you eat it :-).. hats off to who ever has come up with this dish.
As a child, I had wondered why elders prepared this dish only during major festivals like dasara or shivratri or on magala gowri pooja or sri varamahalakshmi pooja or on birthdays.I never asked anyone the reason, telling myself that as it is a holiday during festivals and that there is plenty of time, so holiges are prepared.
But now after listening to few bhajans and pravachanas, I think I know the reason......holige is an auspicious dish as many haridasas have compared holige to lord's name in their hymns.As per my knowledge, I can only quote these two instance :
1) Sri Jagannatha dasaru, in Sri Harikathamrutasara(in Bhojana rasa vibhaga sandhi, 10th verse) , has said Lord Vishnu, in form of Sankarushana, is patron deity of holige.
2) Sri Prasanna Venkata dasaru, in one of his bhajans, has sung, "....ninna nama holige..." which translated means your name is holige, meaning lords name is as sweet as holige.
I have seen many families prepare holiges whenever their daughter visits them along with her husband....that is indeed a festive occasion which commands preparation of holiges / puran polis / obbattus.
