Poornalu/Bobattu

For Varalakshmi vratam I wanted to try out my favorite poornam. After many attempts of tasting the poornam my craving for it wasnt satisfied and none made the mark which I had tasted back home. So I made an attempt to make my own and Whola!!!!! great success. So here goes the recipe

For the filling:

• Chana Dal: 1 Cup
• Bellam (Jaggery) 2 to 2 1/2 cups grated. I think I tasted a little and added more as needed. You might want to do that too :)
• Elaichi Powder: 2 tbsp (a lot of flavor comes fron here)
  

Soak the Chana Dal for atleast 2 hours and then cook it in a pressure cooker with 2 cups of water (double the amount of chana dal). Wait for 2 whistles and leave it until the pressure totally goes off.

Mix in the grated Jaggery and the elaichi powder. Turn on the stove to low and keep mixing frequently to avoid burning. Oh! forgot to mention I think I added little butter too during the mixing so that it wouldnt stick to the bottom of the pressure cooker. You have to cook for a really long time until the filling thickens. To test it take a small amount, let it cool and try and make a ball. It shouldnt be really sticky. After this point you are done doing the filling.

For the outer batter I used my Dosa batter measurements and it turned out perfect

• Rice: 2 cups
• Urad Dal: 1 cup
  

Soak the Rice, Urad Dal overnight.
Blend to a smooth paste as you would do for dosa. What I did is I did not let it ferment as we would usually do for dosa after making the batter. I think the outer coat would give you a sour taste. Well some people like it and my preferance was to try without it. And I added a little sugar (1 tbsp) and salt (small pinch) which I was going to use. Mind you, don't add this to the entire batter because you could use the rest for making dosa.

Well the batter and filling are done. All you need to do now is make medium size balls with the filling and then dip the ball into the dosa batter. Here is a trick so the filling does not ooze out of the batter and spoil your oil. Use only two fingers when dipping and dropping the ball into the batter and oil. Also, the batter consistency should be correct. Too thick your outer layer is going to be thick, too thin you are going to expose the filling to the oil. And enjoy the delicious Poornams.

Oh! I still have some filling left over but did not have the patience to do the poornam and of course finished the dosa batter making dosas. So I decided to make bobattu or poli. Well got the outer recipe from a friend (Suman) but havent tried it out yet.

Here is what it is

1 cup wheat flour

1/4 cup maida/all purpose flour

Will update with my results later...