Karkala,a small town in Udupi district of Karnataka is very famous for its temple and its festivities and not to forget the feast (samradhana) . Sharing one such famous recipe today which is named as Karkala cake though it is in the form of halwa. I do not have any idea why this sweet dish is named so ,but I have been tasting this since my childhood .This is a special delicacy and prepared for function like engagement ,wedding ,thread ceremony or even small get togethers . We as kids used to get very excited thinking it to be the bakery one but would be disappointed on seeing it in form of halwa, but the moment we would taste, we would forget everything .Nostalgic memories indeed!!
My mother in law makes it perfectly just like the cooks prepare it ,but I had never dared trying it seeing the amount of ghee which goes into the dish. Recently one of my food group friend posted it in the group and I was so tempted that I decided to try. I followed her recipe as it was with exact measurements. The recipe is very simple but needs a bit of patience.
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| Karkala Cake |
Ingredients:-
- 1/2 cup wheat flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup ghee
- 1 1/2 cup of hot water
Method:-
- Heat ghee in a pan , add the wheat flour and roast on low flame till a nice aroma comes and the colour changes slightly . This may take 10-12 minutes.
- Meanwhile keep some hot water ready.
- Add the hot water gradually to avoid lumps and keep stirring.
- Once the water has evaporated and the flour is cooked , add sugar and keep stirring till the sugar melts.
- After the sugar has melted ,you can see the mixture becomes like a liquid mass…keep stirring till it all comes together and the ghee separates. This will take about 25 -30 minutes .You can notice the colour too gets a nice golden brown hue.
- Once the ghee separates ,switch off the gas.
- Garnish with raisins and cashew nuts fried in ghee.
The pictorial form of the various stages is shown below
Notes:-
- I have used half cup of wheat flour and the measurements are according to the flour. If using more flour increase the other ingredients too. For 1 cup of wheat flour water should be 3 cups.
- Cardamom is not added in this sweet dish.
- Stirring is the main part in this recipe and also roasting the flour at the beginning, I felt I could have roasted a bit more as the colour of the dish at the functions would be dark brown .
- Also sometimes depending upon the quality of wheat flour sugar, water and ghee may be needed more or less…so please be careful while adding the same.
- In my case I felt I could have added a bit less ghee .
Konkani Khann Anik Jevan 
Eager to try it. Though i have made kada parshad made at Sikh gurudwaras. Will try this out too.
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