Handwa - Baked Version

I wanted to make a snack but was not interested in oily stuff ....recently made poha dhokla using the pressure cooker but I wanted try the same using the conventional oven. I love doing stuff with the oven...since it involves less work...be it cookies, cake or doing pasta...oven is easier. Hence tried handwa (handvo) last Sunday. It tastes like our "thavala adai" but this one uses just rice and toor dhal. This makes me think..I should try our thavala adai also in the oven (the thavala adai also uses lot of oil too..so will try a baked version of thavala adai too very soon). For handwa - bottle gourd is traditionally added but I substituted it with zucchini. If you google the recipe for handwa I am sure you will get lot of hits for the recipe. Even though there are lot of recipes for this I am still posting it. For me "my blog is the recipe book" I keep referring to when I need to try it again. It is a wholesome snack since it is made with rice and dhal(s). Its very yummy if you eat it soon after its done..when its still warm and since I bake it for little bit more time - the crust comes out brown, crispy and yummy.

Recipe..........

Ingredients:

1 Cup Rice
1/2 Cup of  each dhal  - Moong dhal, Toor dhal (add this little bit more than other pulses listed here), Urad Dhal and Channa dhal
Chilly Powder
1 Tsp Mustard
1 Tsp Jeera
1 Tsp Grated Ginger
1 Carrot Grated
1 Zucchini Grated
2 Cups Buttermilk
1/2 Tsp Turmerice powder
1 Tsp Baking powder (you may use baking soda too - I did not have it)
Juice from 1 medium size lemon
Salt
Oil

Method -

1. Grind the rice and dhals coarsely. But grind them separately and mix well.
2. Take 1 1/2 cups from the rice dhal mixture
3. I made this as an evening snack so I mixed the rice dhal in buttermilk in the morning and allowed it to ferment for 8 hrs. Also add the baking powder.
4. Before baking it, take oil in a pan. Add the mustard, jeera and curry leaves. Allow the mustard and jeera to crackle.
(I did not add green chillies since I wanted my son to try it. You may add it if you want it spicy. But saute the green chillies, turmeric powder and ginger separately and add it to the batter)
5. Pre-heat the oven to 375 deg F
6. Mix the batter well. Add salt.
7. Add ginger, turmeric, red chilly powder.
8. Add lime juice, grated veggies, cilantro to the batter and mix it well.
9. Pour it into the greased dish (oven safe dish). I used 2.5 qt oval oven safe corningware dish for this.
10. Sprinkle the mustard, jeera, curry leaves on the top.
11. Put in the oven. It takes about 40 minutes and you can see it turning brown.
12. Wait for it to cool down a bit (warm) and then cut it to the desired shape.
Serve it with mint coriander chutney....but in our house we are "ketch up" lovers!