Video: Chanedali Panchkadayi, Kadlebele Panchakajjaya | Naivedya Recipes | Ganesha Chaturthi Special

Panchakajjaya is a five ingredient sweet dish offered to god. 'Chanedali Panchkadayi' is popularly made during Krishna Janmashtami and Ganesha Chaturthi. It is very simple to make and turns out very tasty. My mother has been making this for many decades. I hope you give this recipe a try for upcoming festivals. Please leave me a comment if you have any questions.

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Ingredients:

Chanadal (Bengal gram) - 1/3 cup Grated coconut - 1 cup Jaggery - 3/4 cup Black Sesame seeds - 2 tsp Cardamom pods - 4 Water - 2 Tbsp

Written recipe - http://www.lakshmicanteen.com/2013/08/chanedali-panchkadaayi-kadlebele.html

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Baalehannu Seekarane (Banana Sweet Dish)

Balehannu Seekarane is a very simple dish. I got the recipe from my MIL. She made this for me during my recent visit to India. As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I don't enjoy eating bananas. So she made this and I liked it instantly. It also reminded me of the 'Prasad' I had as a kid, of Ganesh temple in Bangalore. 

This can also be served as a  'after school snack' for kids. 

Ingredients:

• Ripe Banana, big sized - 2
• Sugar- To taste
• Ghee (clarified butter)- 1/2 tsp
• Honey- To taste
• Grated Coconut (fresh/frozen) - 2 Tbsp

Procedure:

Peel the banana and chop it into bite size pieces. Then put it in a bowl and add rest of the ingredients.

Mix it gently. Balehannu Seekarane is ready!!

Serve it immediately. Above measurement serves 1-2 people.

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Kare Undo ( Sev- Popped Rice Ladoo)

Kare Undo is a jaggery based ladoo. I made slight variations to my Layee pitta undo and made this ladoo. I also referred the cook book written by Jaya V Shenoy. Kare Undo is commonly made for Ganesh Chaturthi.  My mother never made this laddo . So I always wanted to give it a try. Making this ladoo is really time consuming but I knew that the end result would taste awesome. I was really happy with the results and it brought back so many memories :-)

Ingredients:

• Cashew nut- 1/3 cup
• Laaye Pitto/Popped rice (Coarse powder variety) - 1 1/2 cups
• Dark Jaggery/Antu Bella - 1 cup
• Black Sesame seeds- 1 Tbsp
• Cardamom Powder- 1/2 tsp
• Ghee - 1 tsp+ extra for greasing 

For Sev (Karo):

• Besan (Chickpea Flour)- 3/4 cup
• Melted butter- 1 tsp
• Ghee*- For frying

*I used a mixture of oil and ghee to cut down the fat.

Procedure:

The coarse powder of Popped rice looks like this.

First step is to prepare the Sev: Sieve chickpea flour in a bowl. All melted butter to it.

Now slowly add water little at a time to get a dough. Now the next step would be to grease the mould in which we are going to make the sev. I used this-

At the bottom of the mould we need to add the plate, which has many tiny holes throughout (use the plate with slight bigger holes).
Now put the dough into the greased mould and then start rotating it in clockwise direction in the hot Ghee (or oil-ghee mixture) directly, until there is enough room for the noodles to get fried evenly. To stop the noodles from coming, rotate in opposite direction.

Fry the noodles on a medium flame on either sides, until the sev turns crispy and slight brown. Take out the sev from the oil and drain the excess oil on a paper towel. 

Karo is ready!! Once it cools down, crush it into small pieces and set in aside.

Now take a big pan and dry roast the sesame seeds until it starts to splutter. Then transfer it to a plate.

In the same pan add little ghee and start roasting the cashew nut pieces until they turn golden brown. Then transfer it to a plate.

In the same pan, start heating the jaggery on a medium flame along with 1/2 cup of water. 

The jaggery I used looked like this (This jaggery is very soft and is specially used to make ladoos, burfi, chikkis. This jaggery gives good binding and has a distinct taste).

The jaggery begins to melt and starts to boil.

Continue heating till the end point. To know the end point, add 1-2 drops of melted jaggery in a small bowl containing water. The jaggery should form a firm drop and it should turn little hard.

Once this consistency is reached, add the roasted cashew nut, Karo (sev), sesame seeds, cardamom powder, ghee and mix quickly. Then add the coarse powder of popped rice and give a good mix until everything comes together. 

Allow the mixture to cool (until you can handle the heat). Remember that the mixture hardens as it cools. So it has to be formed into ladoos as soon as possible.

Once it is ready to handle, take desired amount of the ladoo mixture in your greased hands and make a ladoo. Repeat the same for the rest of the mixture. I made a total of 17 ladoos.
Kare Undo is ready!!

Store them in an air tight container. It stays good for more than a week.

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Chanedali Panchkadaayi (Kadlebele Panchakajjaya)

Chanedali Panchkadaayi is a very popular jaggery based 'Naivedya' in our community. Naivedya means something that is offered to god. Every year, my mother makes it for Krishna Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi. 
This recipe requires only five ingredients. Hence it is called Panchakajjaya. 

Ingredients:

• Chanadal /Split chickpeas - 1/3 cup 
• Jaggery- 3/4- 1 cup
• Grated Coconut, fresh/frozen - 1 cup
• Black sesame seeds- 2 tsp (optional)
• Cardamom pods- 4

Notes: I have used little more than 1 cup of jaggery. Resulting Panchakajjaya was little more on the 'too much sweeter' side. Hence if you like it moderately sweet then add little less than 1 cup of it. We like it more sweeter.
Some people also add a small amount of popped rice powder (laaye pitto).
The measurement to make a large batch of Panchakajjaya is - 250g of Chanadal, 250g of jaggery and one medium sized coconut.

Procedure:

Dry roast the sesame seeds until it starts to splutter. Then transfer it to a small bowl. 
In the same pan, dry roast the chanadal until, a nice aroma is got.

Now take the roasted chanadal and cardamom in a blender and powder it (not too coarse or not too fine).

Now take a pan and add jaggery and 1/4 cup (or little less) of water. Start heating it on a medium flame until all the jaggery dissolves.

Then add the grated coconut and mix well. 

Let the mixture cook for 2-3 minutes. Then switch off the flame. Cool the mixture completely. Finally add the prepared chanadal powder and toasted sesame seeds.

Mix well. 

Chanedali Panchkadaayi is ready!!

Serve it as an offering to god.

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Godu Appo ( Sweet Paniyaram) ~ Using Broken Wheat

Godu Appo is a very popular sweet dish. It is commonly offered as an offering to lord Ganesha. There are many ways to make them. I have already shared a recipe using wheat flour, long time back. You can check it here. Appo can also be made using rice, semolina. I will be sharing the recipes of those soon. 

Few months back I found this recipe on a FB group (posted by Priya). I found it very interesting as I didn't know that appo can be made using broken wheat. Hence tried making this and absolutely loved them. These are healthy as broken wheat is used. The jaggery makes it even more special. If the appos are served with a good drizzle of ghee then it tastes heavenly. Do give this a try and I am sure everyone will love including lord Ganesha :-)

Ingredients:

• Broken Wheat (Dalia)- 1 cup
• Grated Coconut, fresh/frozen- 1/2 cup
• Grated or crushed jaggery- 1/2 to 2/3 cup
• Cardamom pods- 4
• Ghee (clarified butter)- As required

Procedure:

Wash broken wheat 2-3 times and then soak it in water for three hours (I used warm water. Hence soaked for two hours).

Now take grated coconut, jaggery and cardamom in a mixer jar.

Grind it without adding water until everything comes together.

Now add the completely drained soaked broken wheat to the ground mixture.

Grind it again until everything comes together (Don't make a fine paste).

Transfer it into a bowl and let it rest for an hour. The final consistency of the batter should be thick but of dropping consistency.

Now heat the special pan (I got it from India), used for making Appo. You can as well use this pan.

Add few drops of ghee in each small moulds. Then pour the batter in each of them.

Let it cook on a medium heat, covered/uncovered until it turns golden brown on bottom part. Then carefully turn them using a fork/spoon.

Fry the other side until you get a uniform color throughout. Remove them and serve. Godu Appo is ready!!

Serve it hot with generous drizzle of ghee on it. Above measurement makes 17 appos.

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Banana Sheera ( Banana- Semolina Pudding)

Banana Sheera is a very popular sweet dish in South India. It is commonly offered to the god during Satyanarayana Pooja. We call it as Sapath. I got this recipe from my mother.

I love this sheera very much. The good thing about it is- its very simple and can be made within 15-20 minutes. Its really very hard to go wrong. Do try making this whenever you are in search of a recipe to finish off the ripe banana :-)

Ingredients:

• Semolina/Sooji/ Rava- 1/2 cup
• Milk - 1 cup
• Sugar- 1/4 cup
• Ripe Banana, big sized - 1
• Cardamom pods- 4
• Ghee* (clarified butter)- 1/4 to 1/2 cup

*More the ghee, better it tastes. Adjust according to how rich you want it.

Procedure:

Heat the milk on a medium heat.

While the milk is getting heated, peel and chop the banana into bite size pieces.

Now prepare the semolina mixture. Heat ghee in a pan and add the semolina. Fry until you get a nice aroma (don't turn it brown).

Once you get the aroma, pour the hot milk little at a time and mix vigorously (Care should be taken while pouring the milk. Otherwise you will get lot of lumps).

Then add the banana pieces.

Mix well and allow the semolina- banana mixture to cook in the milk. Once the milk evaporates completely, add the sugar.

Mix well and continue heating the mixture until all the sugar is absorbed. Then turn off the heat. Finally add the cardamom powder and mix well. Banana Sheera is ready!

Serve it hot/warm. Above measurement serves 2-3 people.

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Nevri (Karjikayi)

Nevri or Karjikayi is a very popular sweet. This sweet is commonly made on Ganesh Chaturthi. Nevri is semi- circle shaped. It has a crispy outer cover with a sweet filling inside.

I had very little idea about this sweet as my mother never made it. I heard from my MIL about this , as she used to make this as naivedya for the god. Hence I decided to try it on my own. I went through several recipes and finally came up with my own filling. This time I tried the dry coconut- sugar filling. Next time I am thinking of the coconut- jaggery filling (the shelf life of the sweet mainly depends on the filling but I don't think about that, as I know it will not remain for more than three days when I am around:-)). For the outer covering, I used the recipe of the Biscuit Rotti.
This sweet demands more energy and time but trust me its worth all the effort.

Ingredients:

For the outer cover:

• All Purpose Flour/ Maida- 1 cup plus extra for dusting
• Semolina/Sooji- 2 Tbsp
• Salt- To taste
• Hot oil- 3 tsp
• Water- As required

Procedure for making the outer cover:-

Take a mixing bowl and add all purpose flour, sooji, salt and hot oil. Mix it with the help of a spoon. Now add water in small quantities and make a dough which is not too hard or not too soft. Keep the dough covered for half an hour.

For the filling:

• Grated Dry Coconut*- 1 cup
• Powdered Sugar- 1 cup
• Cardamom Powder- 1/2 tsp
• Chopped Dry Fruits- As required (I didn't add)
• Badam Milk Powder**- 2 Tbsp (optional)

*I used the coconut powder. It works well but the grated dry coconut gives a nice texture to the filling.

**I had home made badam milk powder. Hence added it to the filling. This is totally optional. The chopped dry fruits works well too.

Procedure for making the filling:-

Before mixing all the ingredients mentioned for filling, just dry roast the shredded dry coconut for couple of minutes, until you get a nice aroma (no need to fry it until it changes color). I just did it in a microwave for one and half minutes ( giving a stir in between for every 20- 25 seconds). Allow it to cool.

Once the dry coconut is nice and cold, then add in the rest of the ingredients mentioned under the filling and mix well. Filling is ready.

Now Assembling Part:

Keep a small bowl of water or milk to seal the nevris.

First divide the dough into 21 equal parts (or you can reduce the number and make big sized nevris). Keep the dough closed with a paper towel or a cloth.

Now start rolling one of the dough ball and make a circle of diameter 5-6 inches ( use all purpose flour for dusting, if required).

Now place the filling (2 tsp or little more) at the center.

Them smear little water or milk along the border. Then slowly lift one end of the rolled dough on the opposite side, to get a semi circle, as shown below.

Now slowly press the border of the semi circle so that it is well sealed. Then take a fork and make pattern by pressing it along the border of the semi circle.

Repeat the same procedure with the rest of the dough. 
Then deep fry them in a pre heated oil until it turns crispy and a light brown color is got on both sides (the heat should be medium while frying). 
Once done transfer it on a paper towel, to drain excess oil. Nevri is ready!!

Offer the Nevri to Lord Ganesha or you can as well enjoy it as a snack. Store it in an air tight container. This sweet remains good for 2-3 weeks. Above measurement makes 21 small sized Nevris.

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