Hayagreeva - A Bengal Gram dessert

It was the Tamil New Year a couple of days back and we'd almost forgotten. Last year, being our first New Year together, we made Vadai and Payasam and celebrated it by going to the temple. Being good kids, basically. This year around, we were way too lazy. And I didn't want to make payasam. Or Vadai. I was venting my problems to my friend and she spoke of Hayagreeva. Initially, I didn't remember it. Then, it came back to me. I'd eaten this ages ago in Bangalore when I'd been to Rayara Matha with my grandmother. I loved the idea and A loves Karnataka food and we are always game for something new. So, the sweet was Hayagreeva and then I decided to make Cham's Kuzhi Paniyaram as the savory component of the Naivedyam. I couldn't take pics of the Paniyaram because we were way too hungry and we ate it as soon as we were done! I took the Hayagreeva pics the next day to post it. The pics aren't great, because I'd lost interest by then, but the dish surely lived upto its name. I followed her recipe to make Hayagreeva. I didn't use as much ghee as her and reduced the recipe by half. Also, I ran out of jaggery, so I used some brown sugar too along with the small amount of jaggery I had. It came out wonderfully, much to my surprise and I loved the consistency too! Here it is.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Chana Dal
1/3 cup brown sugar/jaggery
1-2 cloves
1 tbsp cinnamon/nutmeg
1 tbsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp Khus Khus/Poppy seeds
4 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
1/8 cup coconut/coconut milk
1 tsp cashewnuts
1 tsp raisins

1. Fry the Chana Dal in 1-2 tbsp of ghee and once its brown and the aroma wafts through your kitchen, pressure cook it.

2. Melt jaggery/brown sugar with some water to make a syrup.

3. Add the spices - cardamom, cloves, cinnamon or nutmeg to the jaggery/brown sugar syrup.

4. Meanwhile, dry roast the coconut and poppy seeds or, alternately you may fry them in ghee. I preferred to dry roast it. Once its done, add this mixture to the syrup.

5. Let cook for a minute or two and then add Chana Dal. Mash it a little before adding it. It should not be totally mushy, but at the same time, it should not be whole Chana Dal.

6. Let this mixture simmer for a good 15-20 minutes, until the consistency is such that it becomes gooey, and the Dal has 'almost' absorbed all the liquid. The mixture will also turn a dark brown.

7. On the side, fry some cashewnuts and raisins in 1 tbsp of ghee and add this to the Hayagreeva just before taking it off the gas.

8. Just before taking the Hayagreeva off the gas, add the rest of the ghee - around 1 tbsp is remaining and mix well. Serve hot.

The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of ghee. I reduced this and it still tasted pretty good. This is a fairly simple dish to make. Temples in Karnataka serve this gooey and almost liquidy and with a lot more ghee than even the original recipe asks for!


I'm sending Hayagreeva to MLLA-10, a brainchild of Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook, and hosted this time around by Courtney of Coco Cooks. This also goes out to Srivalli's Mithai Mela. Congrats on the remarkable achievement, Srivalli! :) You have every right to binge on every Mithai that comes your way!