Bele Obattu

Bele obattu or holige is a popular sweet dish in Karnataka and is made on all important festivals and functions.Making this needs a lot of patience but its all worth the effort!!!

Holige preparation involves two parts: one part is preparing the dough/kanaka and the other part is preparing the filling/hoorna.

Ingredients for the dough/kanaka:
1. chiroti rava-2cups(1paavu)
2.turmeric powder-1/4tsp
3.oil

Ingredients for the filling/hoorna:
1.toor dal-2cups(1paavu)
2.fresh coconut pieces/scraped-1cup(one half of small whole coconut)
3.jaggery powdered-2cups
4.cardamom/elaichi-10

Method of preparation:

1.Mix chiroti rava with turmeric powder and water to form a thick dough.Flatten the dough a little and immerse it in oil.Leave it for at least 3hours.

2.Shown below are the ingredients to prepare the hoorna/filling.Pressure cook the toor dal(for 4-`5 whistles) so that it becomes soft.Grind the coconut without any water to form a smoooth paste.Peel and powder the cardamom.

3.In a wok/kadai, add the cooked dal first and then ground coconut.Mix well and keep stirring in medium flame until the hoorna starts leaving the sides of the wok.Just when it is almost done, add the elaichi/cardamom powder,mix well and keep it aside for cooling.

4.Now,knead the dough soaked in oil ,for about 10 minutes.In case the dough has absorbed all the oil,add little more oil to knead.This forms the kanaka and the consistency should be loose.

5.Make balls of hoorna and the dough.The size of the hoorna should be double the size of the dough.Place the filling on the dough and seal from all sides, just like we do the parathas.

6.Take butter paper/banana leaf and spread oil on it.Preferably, place the butter paper on a rolling stone(used to make chapatis).Gently press and flatten the filled ball of dough on the butter paper.You can either spread with your fingers or use a rolling pin to gently roll on the flattened dough.Roll into medium sized obattu/holige(sprinkle some maida or wheat flour while rolling if required).Reverse the butter paper on a pre-heated tawa and carefully separate the holige from it.

7.Keep the flame medium or low and fry the holige on both the sides only till little brown spots appear.Fold the holige into half and take it out of the tawa. Do not over fry as it will make the holige brittle.

8.Repeat the process for the rest of the filled balls of dough.Yummy bele obattu is now ready to be served.

Serving Tip:1.Serve hot with ghee.
                     2.Serve with little ghee and warm milk.(Mix the holige with milk and eat).

General tips on bele obattu/holige:
1.These can be preserved for upto 2days without refrigeration.
2.Consistency of the dough/kanaka should be same as that of the hoorna/filling to get really soft holige.(If the filling gets dry,we can add little milk to soften it).