Karida Kadubu | Fried Modak | Kari Kudumulu

As I promised in my earlier post I am here with the Karida Kadubu recipe which I prepared for Varalakshmi festival last friday.Varalakshmi Vratam is an important festival for South Indians and is celebrated on the second friday of Sravan maasa(month).Married women performs this vratam(pooja) for the well being of all the family members,especially husband.

I always look forward to the festival,especially for the spread we get to eat on that day.We prepare a lot of sweet and savory varieties for this festival.You can check out the various recipes for the festivals specials here in my blog.In general,we make Bele Holige for this festival,but I wanted to try this karida kadubu which I love very much.Though I never attempted making it in my own I had helped mom many times before.This is not a difficult recipe to attempt even if you have never attempted it.Check out the notes and I hope those step by step images and recipe would make it simple.

'Karida Kadubu' means 'Deep Fried Sweet Dumpling'; while the outer layer is crispy made up of all purpose flour or chiroti rava and the inner filling is sweet and soft toor dal stuffing(or chana dal).This recipe is very similar to the Karjikai(Karanji) sweet but the filling is different.In Karjikai the filling is made up of a mixture of fried gram,dry coconut,sugar and dry fruits,in Karida Kadubu the filling is made up of toor dal or chana dal or coconut sweetened with either jaggery or sugar.Today I am posting our family version of Hoornada Kadubu,Kadubu with toor dal stuffing.It is very tasty and I just can't stop myself from eating more than one.
Check out other important recipes for Vinayaka Chavithi:

• Steamed Kudumulu - with 3 fillings
• Karida Bele Kadubu | Fried Modak
• Bellam Kudumulu | Vella Ammini Kozhukattai
• Paal Kozhukattai | Undralla Payasam
• Puran Poli
• Dry fruit Modak | Kharjur Modak
• Pappulo Undrallu
• Palathalikalu
• Undraalu with Biyyam rava - Andhra recipe
• Avarekaalu Kadubu/Spiced Steamed Rice flour Dumplings
• Chintapandu pulihora - Andhra style

For a complete list of various options for Ganesh Chaturthi menu, check out here.

Karida Kadubu | Hoornada Kadubu | Fried Modak | Kari Kudumulu Recipe:
(makes 12-14)

Ingredients:
for outer layer:
1 cup Maida/All purpose flour
1/2 cup Chiroti Rava(fine rava)
a pinch of Salt
1 tbsp hot Oil

for stuffing:
1 cup Toor dal
1 cup grated Jaggery
1/2 cup grated fresh Coconut
2-3 Cardamoms
1 tsp Ghee

Oil,for deep frying
Method:
for covering:

• Mix maida,rava,salt and oil and add enough water to form a stiff dough.It should be stiffer than the regular chapati/poori dough.
• Keep aside for 1/2 an hour and cover it with wet cloth.
• Knead the dough well until it becomes soft and pliable.

for poornam(filling):

• Soak toor dal for 10 mins
• Bring 5-6 cups of water to a boil in a deep vessel and add ghee and soaked toor dal and let it cook until you feel it is almost cooked.Dal should hold its shape and should be firm,it should not become mushy.Press a grain of dal with your fingers to get to know whether the dal is cooked properly or not.
• Strain this cooked dal over a strainer and let it drain the water and cool completely.Reserve this water to use it in making delicious holige saaru.
• Heat 2 tbsp of water in a kadai and add grated jaggery to it and let it melt over low flame.
• Now add strained toor dal,grated fresh coconut and let it cook along with jaggery until you get a uniform mixture.Now add elaichi powder and mix well and switch off the flame.Let the mixture cool completely.
• Grind to a smooth paste( do not add water) in a mixer.
• Make oval sized balls of 1 1/ inch length with the ground mixture and slightly flatten them and keep them covered until its usage.

for Kari kudumulu:

• Clean and wipe the kadubu moulds nicely.This picture gives a better idea to show you how these moulds look.If you don't have them you can still follow another process which I mentioned below.

• Make small balls from the maida dough and roll it out to very thin chapatis of 4-5" diameter.
• Meanwhile heat oil in a thick kadai over medium flame.
• Put the rolled chapati on top of greased karjikaya mould.press it on the edges making sure it will sit on the mould properly.

• Keep the oval flattened hoorna(filling) mixture in it and wet the edges slightly with water.

• Close the mould to seal the kudumulu/modak and remove the extra dough pressed out of the edges.

• Remove the kudumu/modak from the mould and keep them aside.

• If you do not have karjikayi mould you can even take a sharp edged 3" steel lid and cut the chapati using it and then keep the filling inside and close it to the other side forming a half moon and take a fork and make the impressions around the corners or pinch the edges with your fingers or you can even pinch the edges and roll them inwards to form a beautiful pattern.See the image below for better understanding about how to shape them.

• Drop 2-3 at one time slowly in to the oil and fry them on reduced flame(low-medium) till crisp and golden in color.Try to pour the hot oil from the sides using the slotted spoon on top of the kadubu which helps in puffing up nicely.

• Drain them on a paper napkin.

Serve them hot/cold or at room temperature.They would be crispy if you serve them immediately.If they loose their crispness after sometime you can warm them in oven for 4-5 mins,they come out very crispy.
Notes:

1. The dough for the outer layer should be mixed stiff which gives crisp kadubu.
2. We generally made the outer layer dough with only chiroti rava(fine variety).You can even make it with all purpose flour or a mix of wheat flour and all purpose flour.
3. While cooking toor dal,take care not to over cook it.Cooked toor dal should be firm to touch and should be cooked inside properly.
4. The consistency of the filling should be little tight(not very soft) otherwise there is possibility that the filling might splutter while frying them.If your filling is slightly soft then try to refrigerate it for few hours or place them on kitchen towel to remove extra moisture or you can even microwave the mixture for a minute and leave it aside.This will help in hardening the mixture a bit.
5. For a Vegan version avoid ghee in the filling recipe.

Variations:

1. You can replace toor dal with chana dal and follow the same recipe.It is equally tastier as the toor dal version.
2. You can even replace jaggery with sugar and follow the same recipe.
3. The outer layer can also be prepared with wheat flour,replace wheat flour with maida in the recipe.
4. You can use stuffings like coconut-jaggery stuffing,sesame or groundnut filling instead of toor dal stuffing.
5. For a Vegan version avoid ghee in the stuffing

Check out the soft and sweet toor dal filling inside.Want a bite??Make them by yourselves and pamper your taste buds with those delicious fried kadubu.

If you want to make the steamed version of Modak/Kudumulu for Ganesh chaturthi,please check out this recipe.