Halu Holige | Haal Obbattu | Paal Poli | Paala Puri

I have successfully finished my Navratri recipes posting marathon by posting every day for the past nine days and here I am posting the finale recipe for Navratri - 'Halu Holige' or 'Paal Poli' or 'Paala Obbattu'  or 'Paal Poori' as is called in various names.Halu in Kannada means milk and holige is  the sweet  which is liked sweetened bread(roti) and is prepared on special occasions.I can say that Halu Holige is my most favorite holige among all the other holige varieties.

 I have posted a few varieties of holige in my blog earlier like Bele Holige, Garugu Holige. We also do many other holige varieties with various fillings which I will try to post sometime in my blog. Coming to today's recipe,Halu Holige is prepared in several different ways.Some prepare it as soft and fluffy like regular poori, while we prepare it like a wafer thin crisp papad and is dipped in a thick,rich and creamy coconut-poppy seed payasam.This image gives a better idea how thin and crispy is the puri which I am talking about.

 

I am posting this recipe today so that you can try this one tomorrow for Vijayadasami.Try it this way and let me know how it tastes.
I wish all my readers and friends 'Happy Vijayadasami' in advance, enjoy your day with all the festive food.Check out the various Festival recipes in my blog to plan your menu and also you can have a look at my Navratri Recipes which I have posted here.

 

Halu Holige | Halu Obattu | Paal Poli ( Milk Poli) Recipe:

(makes around 12 holiges)

Ingredients: 
for poli/happala/puri:

1 cup Chiroti Rawa*(very fine semolina)

1 tbsp Ghee

a pinch of Salt

Water,to mix 

Rice flour,to roll

for Kayi Halu/Coconut-Poppy seed payasam:

1 cup grated fresh Coconut

2 tbsp Poppy seeds

6-8 Cashew nuts

1 1/2 cup Milk

1/2 cup Water

1 1/4 cup grated Jaggery

1/4 tsp Cardamom powder

Method:

for Happala/Puri:

• Take chiroti rawa in a wide bowl and add ghee and salt to it and mix it with finger tips.Add enough water and knead it into a stiff dough which should be similar to poori dough.
• Smear ghee on top of it and cover it with a lid and leave it aside for half an hour.

• Take a very small gooseberry sized ball and roll it into a very thin roti of 8" diameter,almost as thin as a papad. Sprinkle rice flour while rolling which makes it quite easy to roll.This is very important step,roll it as thin as possible.  
  
  
• Fold the roti into half and press on the four points as shown in the figure below using a fore finger.This will make sure that it does not open up while frying.

• Roll all the happalas(puris) and spread them separately on a plate or paper.They do not take much time to fry and that is why you need to roll everything before you actually start frying.
• Heat oil in a kadai(big enough) to fry the happalas, add one happala(puri) at a time and deep fry on low-medium flame until they are crisp on both sides.drain them into a colander.

• Once they are cool store them carefully in a air-tight container.They stay good and crispy for 10-15 days.

for Kayi Haalu/ Coconut-Poppy Seed payasam:

• Grind cashew nuts,poppy seeds,grated coconut and cardamom into a fine paste.
• Mean while add grated jaggery to 1/2 cup of water and boil until jaggery melts and strain this mixture.
• Boil the jaggery mixture again and add the ground coconut-poppy seed mixture.Cook it on low flame until it comes to a boil.
• Add milk and cook for another 2 mins and remove it from the stove.Do not boil for more time as it might curdle.

to serve Halu Holige:

• When you are ready to serve, heat the kayi halu mixture and dip each happala in it carefully and place it in the serving plate.Pour some more kayi halu on top of it.It is ideal to dip the happalas in the payasam just before serving,this way it tastes nice and slightly crisp.If you dip it for longer they will become very soft and slightly soggy,so it is your wish how you want them - soft or slight crispy.I always prefer a slight crispy version of Halu holige and hence I dip them just five mins before serving.

* Chiroti rava is a very finer variety of rava(sooji) which is usually used in making Holiges.The Happalas which are made up of chiroti rava are more crispier and tastier.If you do not get access to chiroti rawa you can replace with maida,but they would not be as crispier and tastier as the ones made with chiroti rava.One can even make the happalas with 1:1 proportion of chiroti rava and maida to make happalas.

Notes:

1. As I mentioned above if you do not get access to chiroti rava,you can replace it with maida.But they would not taste the same as the chiroti rava ones.
2. If you have leftover happalas you can use them in chaats like bhel puri,sev puri,masala puri instead of regular pani puris(small sized puris).
3. You can replace Jaggery with sugar in the Kayi halu/Payasam recipe.