Coconut Rice Narali Bhat

Coconut Rice in marathi

Time: Approx 45 to 50 minutes
Serves: 2 to 3 persons

Ingredients:
3/4 cup Rice
1 and 1/2 cup Water
2 + 1 tbsp Ghee
2-3 cloves
1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder
1 cup Jaggery, grated (Tip 2)
1 cup fresh coconut, scraped
8-10 cashew nuts
8-10 Raisins

Method:
1) Wash the rice and drain all the water. Keep aside for 30 to 45 minutes
2) Heat 2 tbsp ghee into a deep pan. Add cloves, saute for few seconds. Add washed rice, and saute for couple of minutes over medium heat.
3) While sauteing rice, boil 1 and 1/2 cup water on another stove-top.
4) Add hot water to the rice. Cover and cook the rice. Once rice is cooked nicely, put it into a big plate and spread evenly to cool down.
5) Gently, mix the coconut and grated jaggery in a bowl. Once rice becomes warm, add coconut-jaggery mixture to it.Fluff the rice with the fork and mix with coconut-jaggery mixture. Mix very gently. Otherwise, rice grains may get crushed and rice will become soggy.
6) Heat a deep heavy bottom pan. Add 1 tbsp ghee to it. Fry cashew nuts and raisins. Remove with a slotted spoon. Turn the heat to low. Now add rice-coconut-jaggery mixture. Also add cardamom powder. Cover with a tight lid. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Cook for atleast 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Once rice becomes dry, add fried cashew nuts and raisins. Add little ghee while serving.

Tips:
1) While cooking the jaggery-coconut-rice mixture, you will notice rice has become little watery. It's due to melted jaggery. However, as you steam for few more minutes, it will start thickening. Also, cook the rice uncovered during last few minutes.
2) If you don't want coconut rice too sweet, add 3/4 cup jaggery instead of 1 cup.
3) If you taste the rice immediately after jaggery is melted, it will taste very sweet. However, the sweetness will reduce after some time as the rice absorbs the melted jaggery.
4) Rice should be cooked 100 %. Under-cooked rice grains may become hard after coming into contact with jaggery. Over-cooked rice will become mushy and unappetising.
5) While cooking the rice, you may add few strings of saffron for flavor and color.

Coconut Roti

Coconut Roti in Marathi

Yield: 5 to 6 medium Rotis
Time: 30 Minutes (After stuffing is ready)

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup fresh coconut, shredded
3/4 cup Jaggery, grated
1/2 tsp Cardamom powder
1/4 cup Wheat flour
1/4 cup All purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp Oil

Method:
1) Mix coconut and jaggery, cook over medium heat until thickens (for 10 to 15 minutes), stir occasionally. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, then transfer it to a container with lid and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. (Tip 1)
2) Mix Maida and Wheat flour in a mixing bowl. Heat 2 tsp oil. Make it very hot and pour it over flour mixture. Add pinch of salt and mix. Add water and make a firm dough. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.
3) After 2 to 3 hours, divide the coconut stuffing into equal portions (1.5 inch approx) and make a ball. That will be 5 to 6 portions. If you get 6 portions of coconut stuffing, divide the maida dough into 6 equal size portions.
4) Roll the dough ball into thin puri. Put the coconut mixture ball in the center. Gather the dough edges and cover the coconut mixture. Sprinkle little maida and roll it to thin Roti.
5) Heat a tawa and roast this roti by adding little ghee. Cook all rotis over medium heat.

Note:
1) Due to refrigeration, coconut stuffing becomes thick, it will make the rolling easy.
2) If you have Stuffing of Modak remained in the fridge, start with step number 2.

Fried Modak

Fried Modak in Marathi

Time: 40 Mins
Yield: 11 small modak

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Khirapat
1/2 cup All purpose flour (Maida)
1/2 cup fine Rava (Sooji)
2 tbsp oil
pinch of salt
Oil for deep frying
1 tsp Milk
You can substitube Khirapat with Karanji Stuffing

Method:
1) Mix Maida and rava into a glass bowl. Make 2 tbsp oil hot enough, that when we pour it over flour, the flour should become fizzy. Add it to flour, mix with spoon. Add little water and knead to firm dough. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.
2) After 30 minutes, knead the dough again. Divide and make 1 inch balls. Roll a dough ball to thin round disk. Pinch the edges, keep 1 cm distance in each pinch (Mukharya in Marathi). You will see tiny bowl has been created. Put 1 tsp Khirapat inside. Gather all the pinches, join them with very little milk. Make all the modak. Heat the oil. Don't let the modak become dry. Cover with damp cloth. Deep fry over medium low heat.

Note:
1) As the dough is little dry, All the joined pinches may get open after putting in the hot oil and modaks become oily. Therefore use little milk to join the pinches.
2) Deep fry them over medium-low heat. Do not fry them over high heat as modaks remain uncooked from inside.

Coconut chutney recipe

Coconut Chutney in Marathi

Yield: approx 3/4 to 1 cup
Time: 5 mins

Ingredients:
1/2 coconut, scraped
2 Green chilies
1/2 cup Cilantro, chopped
1/4 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp sugar

Method:
1) Roast cumin for a minute over medium heat. Roasted cumin gives nice flavor to chutney.
2) Grind scraped coconut, green chilies, cilantro, cumin, lemon juice, salt and sugar together. If you want thin consistency, add little water and grind again.

Addition of 2 tbsp yogurt makes the chutney smooth and tasty. In this case, add 2 more chilies and while grinding the chutney.

Serve the chutney with Idli, Appe, Medu Vada and other savory south indian dishes.