Wednesday, July 9, 2008

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.



37 comments:

Trupti said...

Wow Pooja, Haandavoh looks delicious very delicious and healthy. Love the new additions of the blog

FH said...

YUMMY! Pooja, I love the way it looks, guess who is trying it in few weeks!!;D
Hugs to you, will miss you. See you in September!:))

Pooja said...

Tripti ,
I was just on your blog , left there and saw your comment here :) . I am glad that you liked new looks of blog :) .

Asha ,
it would be honor to see you trying my recipe dear :) . September is a too far still .But i won't spare you , will be in touch by emails then :D.

@the_whisk_affair said...

wow, the haandovah looks delicious. this is a new recipe for me, but the pictures are really tempting!

Cham said...

Just like a cake piece Pooja, very tempting one :)

Pragyan said...

That looks delectable. I will make it soon. Will brown sugar be a good substitute for jaggery? Thanks for sharing!

Sonia said...

Hi Pooja,
Again our Gujju dish. yeah...Handavo is alltime fav. tara jeva ochha loko che k j Gujarati culture ane gujju dish regular display kare che...??!!! barabar ne...?
I m glad to see ur Handavoh post.
Thank you Pooja,
Sonu:)

Pooja said...

JZ,
try it yourself. that is realy easy and yummy dish, lok for handvo flour in local Indian stores.

Cham,
thank you dear cham :) .

Pragyan,
Yeah, you can use brown sugar in stead of jaggery. that wont make much difference in final taste.

Vani said...

Love the picture of the handvoh wedges, Pooj! Looks super delicious! The couple of times I've tried to make handvoh using the readymade mix were disasters. Will try your mom's way soon!
Hope you guys had a fab long weekend. How was Montauk?

Unknown said...

Looks pretty n yummy Pooja..

Lakshmi said...

Haandvoh looks yumm..btw what is haandvoh flour?

Jaya M said...

Lovely dish pooja, and the write up is full of info on making Haandovah ...Great
hugs and smiles
jaya

Swati said...

Hey Pooja
It was really nice to you see you after such a long time..
The haandvoh looks awesome..And I have a similar dish as you've used here :))

Ciao
See ya soon and do keep in touch this time..

amna said...

never heard of this before but definitely looks great! mom's recipes are the best!!

notyet100 said...

looks yummy,,,new for me,..nice post with detailed recipe and pics,.

SMN said...

Hey Pooja what is Hanndva? never came across this and guess wat i will eating Gujarathi thali next week just waiting and that will be for teh first time i like gujarathi food coz they are sweet and i hv sweet tooth.:)

Sindhirasoi said...

Wow this yummy Gujrati speciality is a treat to my eyes ,and ofcourse it taste so heavely.
My bhabhi(cousin's sis)is a gujju,and she had made this for us,when we visited them,but it was not at all sweet(i guess she had skipped jaggery)
But i never knew it had bottle gourd in that...very surprising
All said and done....it looks out of the world....just prompting me to try it ASAP

Laavanya said...

Handvoh looks great and I love the idea of baking it.. has a nice golden crust and also adding lauki. Awesome.

Pooja said...

Sonu,
Glad that you liked it . thanks for your appreciations. I too fins blogging a good way to share and preserve out traditional food recipes.

Vani,
Try it once again girl, and do let me know. try keeping layer as thin as possible . and if it wont ferment much overnight then also don't worry , adding eno at the time of baking will do well still.
Abt Montak- check your emails :)

Divya V,
thank you buddy :).

LG
it is the flour we use to make handavoh. check out the tips section for more ,you will get clear idea.

Jaya,
yeah i tried to explain every detail to cook/bake haandavoh. hope this will helpful to some , specially to those who never baked it earlier.
It is always nice to see your encouraging words here dear Jaya. hugs to you too :) .

Swati,
good to see you too dear buddy .

Nags,
I agree with you totally. We are novice cook compared to our Moms :)

Notey100,
thank you .

SMN,
this a Gujarati dish. made from the flour same as for dhokla. though different in taste and cooking too .
try baking it for yourself if you get flour for it. its not that hard to make it.

Alka,
yeah, it is almost impossible to find the dudhi part from it once it is cooked. though some of the aunts I know cook it without adding dudhi in it, that makes it less soft.
I am waiting to see the pics of haandvoh on your post then :D .

Laavanya,
glad that you liked it :) . it is great in tastes too and easy to bake with very less preparations. perfect for busy evenings :D.

Beyond Curries said...

I have never cooked or baked this recipe earlier Pooja. It looks so good and yummy. Is handvoh flour available in Indian stores?

Pooja said...

yes Madhuram , it is available in all big stores like Patel's .
Glad you liked it :D. stay tuned buddy.

Sonia said...

hey Pooja, tane maro mail malyo...? taru gmail acct check karje.
Take care.
Sonu:D

delhibelle said...

So tempting.I HAVE to hunt down Haandvoh flour in Singapore now:)

BTW, I also blogged about your Sev Tameta, although my pic of it is pretty bad! Thanks again for all the lovely recipes:)

Pooja said...

Delhibelle,
in case you dont get it , you can make it at home too. grind them dry to coarse powder form. the measures are in post.
Glad that you tried my recipe of "Sev tameta nu shaak" for Nupur's MBP :)
Stay tuned....

Pooja said...

the following is from Prathibha of Pedatha.com , she had some trouble posting here .

Hi Pooja, Just made this dish two days ago. I follow Tarla Dalal's recipe exactly and it turns out great. Quite a family favourite. Enjoy it with pickled buttermilk. Her recipe gives instructions for making the batter too...right from the start, though recently, all my friends have started buying the handvo flour. I must try that as well.
-Pratibha ( http://pedatha.com ,http:// pritya.com )

bee said...

dear pooja,
i would like to try this. what is handvoh flour made of? can is use cornmeal for this?

Pooja said...

Dear Bee, substituting it with cornmeal is not a good idea I think . It will change the whole taste of it. take rice + chana dal in 3:1 proportion and dry grind it to coarse powder - flour for haandvoh/dhokla is ready :) . I have mentioned it in post too check it out . Hope this will help.

Kalai said...

I love dhokla and this looks equally delicious, Pooja! Adding bottle gourd is a really good idea as well! :)

Pooja said...

Kalai,
adding bottle gourd is in fact a traditional way to make Haandavo, what else you add thats all on your taste. adding methi leaves is a nice idea I find. I never add anything else though.
Thank you for your appreciation dear :) .

KALVA said...

Wow.. my gujrathi auny just gave me this yday... Looks the same and does the same way.. awesoem

Shreya said...

This is a totally new dish for me. Never heard of it, and it looks really yummy. Thanks, and keep up the great work on your blog:-)

Anisheetu said...

Yum yum yum what else to say... just cannot wait to try this out.... can we make this without oven.. plz send me a tip on my blog... thanks in advance... :)

Sia said...

that looks so good pooja and the pictures have tempted me to try it ASAP. i don't think i get handivah flour here so gonna follow ur instructions and make my own flour. thank you posting this recipe girl and i seriously cant wait to try it out soon. by the way i have sent u my entry for VOW-bottle gourd. hope u got my mail...

Pooja said...

kalva ,
Now you too can make it for your Gujarati aunty , right ?

Shreya,
glad you liked it :).

Anisheetu,
If you don't have oven - take a large flat bottom pan , and first spread a thin layer of oil and then the material , and garnishing same as described here. cover pan with lid and cook it on medium heat. check after sometime if cooked by inserting a clean knife, it it comes out clean haandvoh is cooked.
Hope this will help .

Pooja said...

Sia ,
try some big indian store, i was not able to get handvo flour in Pune but here it is available readymade ha ha ha....
the proportion i have shown here is the exact from my mom's recipe so will do the best . Homemade is always better than store bought :) .
Yupe I got your entry , just checked it.
Do let me know when you try it.

Myvegfare said...

hai,
that looks really very delicious want to try some time

Veggie Hut said...

hi..just came across your blog..its amazing.. I am still exporing.. am new to this blogosphere..

good work!

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