10 to 13 years back we had this group called Makkala Balaga, small group of my close friends – 5 to 6 moms and our kids. The purpose of this group was to teach our kids to read and write Kannada and teach them Shlokas. We were all committed to this Friday evening meeting, kids used to eagerly wait for Friday meeting since they got to play together after the class. After the meeting, we used to sit around and drink a nice, hot cup of coffee together. Occasionally there used to be a snack to go with it. We used to chat, laugh… unforgettable days! Thanks to these meetings, my son speak, read, and write Kannada.
We used to celebrate festivals together too, preparing the food according the festival we were celebrating :) mmm.. I’m getting hungry just thinking about the yummy foods. Everyone was a great cook. I remember for one of the DeepavaLi get-together, Bharati prepared this one dish, I don’t know the name of it, but in our home kids call this Indian Pumpkin Pie. We loved it so much on that Deepavali day, it has become a regular “Pie” in our home.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup rice wash and soak in water
- 1 1/4 cup grated sweet pumpkin
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 to 1 cup water
- For topping:
- 1/2 cup grated fresh coconut if using frozen bring it room temperature
- 1/4 cup Jaggery powder or brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder 5 to 6 cardamoms crushed to powder
- 2 to 3 tsp ghee Vegan Option - coconut oil
Instructions
- Wash and peel the skin of pumpkin and grate it.
- Grind the soaked rice to a rave/coarse consistency by adding little water.
- Pour it to a thick bottom pan,, rinse the mixer jar and add that water too.(use around 3/4 cup of water)
- To this add grated pumpkin,a teaspoon of ghee and salt. Mix it and keep it on the stove on medium heat.
Keep mixing to avoid the burning at the bottom.
- Once everything comes together and by this time both rice and pumpkin must have cooked, turn off the heat and let it cool for some time. Once it is cooled just enough to handle, just wet the hand and touch the mix. It should not stick to your hand. If it is sticking keep the mix back on stove and cook it more.
- Meanwhile mix grated coconut, cardamom powder and jaggery in a bowl. Keep it ready .
- Grease the flat container with a generous amount of ghee.
- Put the cooked mix and spread.
- Now sprinkle coconut - jaggery mix all over the base a shown.
- Like this.
- Steam cook this for 8 to 10 minutes on medium heat. ( if you are using pressure cooker don't put the wait)
- Turn off the heat, let it cool for few minutes.
- Open the lid and keep it for few more minutes.
- Using a knife cut this pie into desired shape and size.
- Enjoy hot Pie/kadubu with ghee or my favorite Maple Syrup.
Notes
Variation- you can add little cinnamon powder and ginger powder to the coconut jaggery mix.