Gojjavalakki

Whenever mom made this in my college days, she would pack me 3 boxes for lunch instead of one. One for me, one for a friend and another large one for the remaining friends and almost for everyone in the class! People would fight to get their share of this delicious spicy food. I still love it when mom makes it, though I too make it fairly good. Here’s the recipe...

Gojjavalakki

Preparation time : 20 min Cooking time : 15 min Serves : 5-6 Ingredients: Avalakki/Poha/Beaten rice - 4 cups (Use thick variety) Tamarind - 1-2 lemon sized ball, soaked in ½ cup water Rasam powder - 2 tsp, vary as per your taste Jaggery - 1 small lemon sized ball Salt - 1 tsp, vary as per taste Desiccated coconut, grated - ½ cup For powdering: Fenugreek / methi seeds - ½ tsp Cumin seeds - 2 tsp Sesame seeds - 2 tsp For tempering: Cooking oil - 1 tbsp Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Groundnut seeds - 1 tbsp Chana dal - 1 tsp Urad dal - 1 tsp White Sesame seeds - 2 tsp Curry leaves - 2-3 sprigs Red chilies - 1 Turmeric - 1 pinch Method: • Dry roast all the ingredients under ‘For Powdering’ and when slightly cool, grind to powder and keep aside • Take the avalakki in a mixie jar and pulse it a couple of times, just enough to break it into very coarse powder. Do not over do this • In a wide bowl, mix tamarind pulp, jaggery, salt and rasam powder and add a little water, enough to dissolve the ingredients • Now wash the broken avalakki, by pouring water into it in a big vessel and immediately drain off the water, ensuring that it is not soaked • Add this drained avalakki into the tamarind water prepared above and leave it undisturbed for 2 minutes till the avalakki absorbs the liquid. • Mix it a couple of times to ensure uniform soaking and absorbing of the taste • If the avalakki seems too hard even after soaking, sprinkle a little more water and let it absorb • Once done, in a big skillet, heat oil and make the tempering: o Add mustard seeds and allow to splutter o Turn the heat low, add groundnut seeds, and stir o After the groundnuts are half-done, channa dal and urad dal o Add curry leaves and red chili pieces and stir for half a minute till all the ingredients are properly roasted. o At the end add sesame seeds and turmeric powder • Now mix in the soaked avalakki into the tempering, add the spice powder prepared above, grated coconut and stir well to combine • Check and adjust the taste if necessary • Heat it while stirring just till it is hot and mixed well • Serve warm or cold Tips n Tricks: • Do not over powder the avalakki. • Each type of avalakki needs a different amount of water, so use a little initially and increase later if necessary Variations: • You need not heat it after adding tempering. That gives a slightly different taste. I like it if heated.