10 April, 2013

Churma, a Goan Delicacy

Churma from cornflakes

For the Blogging Marathon Meet #25 there was a BM Chef Contest! Each of us participants were to carry a pre-cooked dish.

Now I was wondering what to carry? Since I was to fly 1 day in advance I needed the dish to stay fresh, should be able to stand the rigours of travel, taste good, be different and the most important criteria for me was it should not need a lot of arranging or fussing around!!

I had decided on a making a Goan dish so I went to my friend Sheetal. Our first choice was Amado che Karam but both realised getting hold of the main ingredient ammado in month of February was impossible. So we choose Churma.

Never heard of Churma have you?

Churma at the BM contest

Churma is a traditional Goan delicacy traditional used to be made for Ganesh a big festival here and Diwali.  Now Churma is available all throughout the year. It’s a sweet and pungent dish mildly flavoured with ginger juice and hing/asafoetida!  Do try it out its delicious did I mention it got me a prize at the BM Meet #25 jointly with Nandini!

I must thank Deepa Sardesai for showing me how this is made and Digmabar Maienkar who makes Churma and regularly markets delicious Churma (so if you need Churma get in touch with him) for sharing the tips to make it better. This is what he markets.

Churma

So come make Churma with me!

This is my Blogging Marathon entry for the month long Marathon under the theme” Traditional”!

To  make Churma your ingredients are

• 2 cups maida
• ½ cup chikki jaggary cut in fine pieces
• ¼ cup ground nuts
• ¼ cup cashew nuts
• 2 tsp sesame seeds/ til, toasted
• 2-3 tsp ginger juice (adjust as per taste)
• ¼ tsp+ 2 pinches chilli powder(adjust as per taste)
• A pinch of turmeric
• ¼ tsp hing/asafoetida
• Oil for frying

Method:

• Mix maida with salt, 2 pinches of chilli powder use little water to make stiff dough. Smear a little oil to the dough and rest covered for 3-4 hours.
• Keep the oil for heating the oil in a kadhai/wok. Make 3 pedas out of the dough and roll them out to make thin sheets. Use minimum flour of rolling use oil if needed.
• Using a sharp knife, pizza cutter cut the chappati in fine bits. Do not worry about the shapes as the fried pieces need to be crushed anyway.
•  Drop the pieces in the hot oil carefully. Since I made I rolled out on the kitchen platform I used the metal spatula to dislodge the pieces from the platform.  Fry till you get a nice golden brown colour. Drain and set aside on an absorbent paper.  My family love these and call these shankarpali.
• In thick bottomed kadhai/wok add the ginger juice and jaggary. Set aside.
• Reserve some groundnuts and cashew nuts, 1 tsp of sesame seeds for garnishing.
• In a big bowl collect the ground nuts, cashew nuts, chilli powder, sesame seeds, turmeric and the hing/asafoetida. Add some salt and mix well. Set aside.
• Take the fried maida pieces/shankarpali and crush them coarsely.
• Now put the jaggery and the ginger juice on low flame and melt the jaggery. Once the jaggery melts and bubbles at the edges transfer the jaggery in the bowl.
•  Now work quickly and mix as much of the crushed shankarpali in the mixture of nuts, and melted jaggary till all the shankarpali are well coated but the mixtures comes together.
•  Garnish with the reserved nuts and sesame seeds.
•  Store in an air tight container. Stays good for 1-2 weeks.

Notes:

• In place of maida you can use cornflakes or poha that are used for frying.
• In place of chikki jaggary if use regular jaggary the mixture does not come together but the taste is not compromised. I liked this more than the use of chikki jaggary I used here. I could serve it with a spoon.
• Adjust the chilli powder and ginger juice to suit your tastes.

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