Haandvoh-Mom's recipe

Haandavoh is a popular Gujarati dish. Here the recipe of how my mom makes it.

Traditionally it is cooked from the same flour we use for Dhokla and allowed to ferment the same way. How ever the further steps are different for ingredients and cooking process which makes both of them too different in their final taste . Definitely both of them makes a very healthy dish

Ingredients :
Haandva flour – 2 cups
1.5 cup of sour buttermilk. Normally I make it one day earlier and keep it out of fridge for a day that will make it more sour specially in summer days.
2 cups fresh shredded bottle gourd
3 tsp chili garlic paste
1 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2-3 tsp Shredded jaggery (optional)
Salt to taste
2 tsp oil
1 tsp soda bi carb/ Eno fruit salt
Coriander leaves and sesame seeds to garnish

Process:

Soak haandvoh flour using sour buttermilk . Do not make the mixture too thick or thin , add buttermilk slowly to make thick idli batter like consistency . keep it overnight and let it ferment. You can choose to put it in sunlight if soaking it in the morning and cooking it in the evening. My mom in India do so , which gives the best result in its fermentation.

while cooking haandavoh add fresh peeled and shredded bottle gourd , chili garlic paste , red chili powder , turmeric powder, jaggery(optional) , salt and eno to that. If you don’t have eno fruit salt at home use edible soda(sodium bi carbonate) instead, however eno gives better result with this recipe.

Mix all the ingredients well and Grease a round baking plate with little oil and pour the mixture slowly in it. mean while preheat oven to 350-375 F . Garnish the mixture with generous amount of Sesame seeds and coriander leaves.

Bake this for 10-15 minutes at tempt 350 F . When the upper layer of this turns little solid , take it out and brush little oil over it. This will help the surface of it to cook well without breaking . cook at he same temperature for another 15 minutes and remove from oven . check if it is cooked well from inside inserting a knife in middle of it. if the surface of knife comes out clean consider it cooked. Else bake it for another 10 minutes or so.

Let it cool a little and cut it into pieces to serve.

Traditionally my Mom makes a chutney using homemade curd to serve this with this.

To make yogurt(dahi) chutney –

Take half cup yogurt, add little water to it. Along with that add a tsp of cumin-coriander seeds powder , 1 tsp red chili powder and salt and sugar(optional) to it. Whisk it to smooth and serve chilled .

For me this yogurt chutney is so attached with memories of haandavoh that I just cant eat it without this chutney .

Although It goes well with coriander chutney , tomato sauce or idli podi too . We add little oil with idli podi to serve this with.

This makes a perfect brunch or a very healthy meal any day.

I intentionally keep little bit of this batter saved to cherish myself wit ha hot fulfilling breakfast on the next day. Just spread it in little circles and putting little oil on side cook till brown. makes a wonderful savory pancakes :D.

Tips–

Adding a generous amount of shredded bottle gourd makes it not only healthy but it helps to make haandvoh spongy too. You can add shredded carrot too .

Use round baking tray instead of square if you have one, that helps it to cook it faster and evenly.

In case you don't get good fermentation for it even after soaking for more than 8 hours then also don't worry :D , follow the procedure as mentioned here ,you can still cook it well :~ . The only difference is that it will be little less sour in the final taste.

Adjust the time of cooking according to the oven you have, keep monitoring to bake a perfect one, and don’t forget to brush little oil on top once it is half cooked.

Haandvoh flour is available almost in all big Indian stores , If you don’t have haandvoh flour ready made available use this process –

Take rice ( use any variety) and bengal gram(chana dal) in the portions of 3:1 . And Grind them together to make coarse powder like form. Remember it should not be too smooth like the flour we use for chapatis.

I have changed the process of making it traditionally, a little to make it suitable to bake in oven. Traditionally haandvoh is cooked on gas stove using the method Kajal has shown on her post a little ago. (oh… Kajal is back on her blog with new post :) )

This goes as my entry to VoW- Bottle gourd this month. Other dishes are yet to come with bottle gourd stay tuned and keep sending your entries now just 6 days are left to send your entries. For details check here or click on the logo in the right sidebar.