Sunita's Easy Cooking: Kadubu Recipe

Before starting I would like to wish everyone a very "Happy Ugadi". Ugadi/Gudi Padwa is considered to be a start of new year in Hindu culture. So to start a fresh year early in the morning the first thing that we have is "Bevu Bella" which is a mixture of Neem leaves and Jaggery, which signifies that our life is both the combination of joy and sorrow and we should accept it happily.

At our place my mom usually makes "Puran Poli" on this day which I have already shared the recipe. But since I yet to buy the 'Puran machine' and that requires lots of experience I tried the other version of sweet with same ingredients i.e "Kadubu" which looks like karanjikai / Ghujjia and is deeply fired but with puran as stuffing inside.

Puran:

Split Bengal gram	2 cups
Jaggery	1 ½ cup
Sugar	½ cup
Cardamom powder	½ tea spoon
Nutmeg powder	Pinch of
Water	For boiling dal
Salt	Pinch of
Oil	For deep frying

Dough:

Wheat flour	2 cups
Salt	Pinch of
Oil	2-3 tea spoons
Water	As required

Procedure:
1. Add a pinch of salt and oil into wheat flour mix with your fingers, add little water at a time and knead this to dough. The dough should not be too smooth the stuffing might come out while frying.
2. Wash the Bengal gram and boil it in pressure cooker for around 5-6 vissels. When the pressure is released check the dal should be smooth as in below cook. If not cooked well you can again keep it for boiling.

3. Drain all the water from dal and keep that water it can be used for preparing a dal called “Katachi Amti”.

4. In the same cooker add the cooked dal, jaggery, sugar, nutmeg powder, cardamom powder, pinch of salt and cook this for around 15-20 mins. Keep stirring in between so that dal does not get burnt at the bottom. Cook this until all the water from dal gets evaporated as shown in below pic. This sweetened dal is called “Puran” in Marathi.

5. Meanwhile keep oil in a frying pan over medium flame.
6. Make mutka using puran - Make small balls/ or take lemon sized puran and press it in the fist, the shape that is formed is called as 'mutka' in Marathi, make these around 10-12.

7. Take a lemon sized dough and spread it in elliptical shape, place puran mutka at the center and cover the puran with dough and seal the edges with the help of fork as in below pic.
8. Check if the oil is heated by immersing a piece of dough in oil if it emerges immediately then we can say that oil is ready for frying. Fry the stuffed puran kadubus one by one until golden brown.