Snack Time: Handvo

Nearly everyday in the evening (precisely between 4 and 5 pm) everyone feels a a bit peckish and our hand reaches out to those convenient bag of chips or biscuits. Here's something healthy to try instead- bottle gourd and mixed dal handvo. It is a Gujarati speciality often served as a side dish, but often as a meal itself. Try it.

Ingredients:

• 2 large tbsp of wheat flour
• 5 tbsp of rice flour
• 4 tbsp of split bengal gram flour (chane ka atta)
• 4 tbsp of  white urad dal flour (white gram flour)
• A small piece of bottle gourd or lauki grated
• 1/2 cup sour curd
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 inch piece ginger
• 3 green chilies
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1/2 tsp carom seedsSalt to taste
• juice of one lime

Method:

• Coarse grind mustard seeds, carom seed, ginger, sesame seeds, chilies with the lemon juice.
• In a large bowl mix all the flours, grated lauki curd, water the ground spices and mix well.
• Let the mixture stay out for 2-3 hours. Add salt to the mixture before you steam it because salt may cause lauki to leave water and make the mixture watery.
• Pour the mixture into a shallow dish as shown in the picture, place it in an idli cooker and steam for 30 minutes on low heat.
• Cut it into pieces when it is cooled and serve with mint and coriander chutney.

Are there any variations to the handvo you make? Leave a comment and let me know.