Kai Obbattu

  What amused me is almost everybody exercising!! Well, I am talking this about India! Recently I was in India and observed almost everybody, whether young, or old people, there is a sudden awareness about exercising.  You must be wondering that what's wrong in that awareness or what is so funny about people exercising and it's actually good that people are concentrating on getting better and staying healthy!

  Of course if it was only that I would not have started why I felt funny about it.  There was a time when people neither had time nor money to even think about these things. They were always busy, worried and trying to find ways to meet ends.

  But now people have both time and money, so can think of many things.  Now there are lot of parks where you can kids playing as well, adults, either parents, grand parents, busy jogging or exercising.  Once I saw a bunch of elder people laughing loud in a park!  I could not make out anything else, since I was in a auto and I just passed by a park.

  I asked my sister-in law(my brother's wife) what was that! She explained to me that it's a form of exercise where it's believed that you look or stay young and can expect long life expectancy!

  One morning I went out to get the news paper and saw many people jogging wearing sneakers(called as canvas shoes in India)!

  And there are air conditioned gyms, with wooden floors and instructors teaching aerobics, cardiac exercises and teaching how to burn calories and diet programs and you also get a manual on diet programs!

  Those gyms have programs for 2 months,3 month which claims that you will loose up to 10 pounds else money back guarantee! And I have seen people who hit the gym and work hard for one hour every day and all the seven days!

  Well now comes the fun part! They work so hard and come back home, eat a heavy breakfast, idlis, dosas, which are so high and rich in carbohydrates and fat! Well, then what's the point in exercising?  You work hard at the gym to burn extra calories but when you workout you feel more hungry and when you feel hungry you eat more and put on more weight and when you put on weight, you once again work out hard!!

  That's a loop! And personally that's the reason I don't agree with exercising and reducing weight.  There should be balance between eating and exercising.  And important is what form of exercising is really helping you in reducing weight.  Just because you have time and money, and it's becoming more of a status show off thing, that you exercise in expensive gym, that makes people to think as WOW!

  Well, I am not  against exercising, but do we need an expensive gym or some funny methods of exercise like laughing loud.......!  We have Yoga, which now Americans are practicing and finding it helpful.

  Now a days I constantly feel hungry, even after having lunch or dinner.  I am so dependent on Internet that even for small things I do google search just to clarify my doubts and I can say that I have got solutions or answers to my fears or my questions! I had read in one of my searches that, feeling hungry is a sign of diabetes! And so I have been living with this fear that I might have diabetes from past 5-6 months but I have not made any effort to go to the doctor for a routine check up!

  A little or half  knowledge is dangerous!  Last week I read on Internet when I was searching for something that even hormonal changes can make you feel all the time hungry. Either you have to ignore it or eat 5-6 small portions in a whole day so that you don't feel hungry!

 Oh! that's a good news, may be I am not diabetic!  Well, I have started to ignore my "hunger cries"! There two "Me's" in me!!!! One me is, I have made sure that there is no snack in the house, like chips, chocolates,cookies,cake,ice cream, dessert!  The other me is, sometimes I do feel like showing consideration for my "hunger cries" and just leave whatever I am doing and take a relaxed long walk to the kitchen!

  I take time to browse through every cabinets,counter,cookie jars..........and I find cabinets filled with rice,lentils,spice powders.......,empty counter, empty cookie jars! I open the refrigerator to find vegetables, yogurt,milk,very little left overs,that too some rice or some dhal or curry, kids smoothies or juice. I opened the freezer, to find only frozen peas and some frozen spice powders, which I got from India!

  OK, I went back to whatever I was doing ignoring my hunger cries! Now a days I have one more "cry", that is I crave for a dessert all the time! Even husband ask me if there is any dessert after dinner or lunch! There was a time when I used to eat dessert 3-4 times in a week without worrying about weight or worrying about health!

  But now I hardly eat any dessert!  And now talking about desserts, today I want to share the yummiest dessert, which is little complicated and time consuming, yet worth, doing it, since it's one of the most delicious dessert on this earth!  That is "Obbattu"!  When I went to India this time, I celebrated Ugadi festival, which is new year festival for South Indians, in my mother's place.

  My brother had made obbattu, for the festival, and I took some pictures and I love to share the recipe with you today!  Obbattuobbattu!

  My brother made 2 kinds of obbattu,Bele obbattu and kai obbattu, but today I am going to share the "kai obbattu", recipe with you, which was out of the world! Hope you enjoy as much as I did, without worrying or thinking about exercising or dieting, at least on festival days or occasionally!

Ingredients for Dough:

1 Cup Chiroti rava
1/2 cup All purpose flour(Maida)
2 Tbs Rice
1/2 cup ghee
Pinch of salt

Ingredients for Hoorna:
1 Cup fresh grated coconut
1 or 1 1/2 cup of jaggery
3-4 Cardamom

  

Ghee/Oil to make the obbattu

3 Tbsp of Poppy seeds(Optional)

Method:

  Add chiroti rava and all purpose flour(Maida) into a big bowl, and add a pinch of salt and mix well.  Add ghee and mix well and then add water little by little and start mixing and make a soft dough.  Knead well for about 15-20 mins and put 1-2 tbsps of oil and cover and keep it aside for 2 hours.  

 The more you knead and if you have time, you can mix the dough and keep it for more than two hours.  Kneading is the key and important for obbattu which makes a whole lot of difference.

  Grind together, the soaked rice, coconut and cardamom to a very smooth paste, by adding very little water.  In a deep pan, add jaggery and very little water and bring it to boil.  Once the jaggery is dissolved add the ground paste of coconut and mix together.  On a low flame keep mixing it, until it's dry, and all the water has been evaporated.  Making your fingers wet with the water, take a spoon full of the hoorna and try to make it to small balls, if you are able to make it, then immediately take off from the heat and transfer it into another bowl and keep aside.

  After two hours, knead the dough again for another 15-20 mins.  And make small balls out of the dough, as you make for Chapathis. Roll it evenly into a round shape, this you can do it with your fingers or how you do chapathi with the rollers.  You can directly do it on the kitchen counter or do it on a "butter paper", which you get it in India, which would be easy to transfer, later, to the tawa.

  Now take a spoon full of hoorna and keep it in the middle and fold it gently from all the sides,bringing the edges together, making sure the hoorna is not coming out.

  And now again roll the balls filled with hoorna, with the roller or you can just use your fingers, to roll it evenly.  While doing this, dip your fingers in oil so that it comes evenly.

  Heat the tawa and on a medium flame transfer gently and add ghee or oil and cook on both sides.  You can sprinkle the poppy seeds, on each side and take off from the tava.  The obbattu is ready to eat.  Serve hot obbattu with a spoon of ghee and enjoy!  I really enjoyed the obbattu, which my brother made and it was out of the world!