Recipe for Handwo – A Gujarat Spicy Lentil Cake
Handwo is a Gujarati steamed delicacy. The batter is made from soaked rice and a mixture of lentils, fermented, mixed with vegetables and steamed / microwaved. A delicious tadka of sesame seeds, mustard seeds is poured on the top, the cake cut into wedges and served with a tangy green chutney.
You can do several things with this batter and each one is as tasty as the other!
- Cook it in a deep non stick pan on the stove top
- Steam in pressure cooker.
- Cook in microwave.
- Make thick ‘adais’ or thin dosais on a skillet.
The Recipe for Handwo can be found in one of my earlier blogs.
The two changes in this recipe are that I’ve used red unpolished rice instead of white rice and masoor dal instead of moong dal (see soaked grains picture above).
Here, I have slightly browned the microwaved wedges on a lightly oiled skillet till a little crispy on the outside. You can easily omit this step if you are short on time.
Don’t have a microwave at home? No problem! Pour ladle full of batter into an oiled non stick skillet, do not spread and let it cook on sim, till golden brown on both sides. Serve with chutney or milagai podi.
This is my entry for WBB 21 – Microwave breakfasts at 100% Microwave Cooking
This savoury cake is also my entry to Srivalli’s MEC – Cakes event.
this looks lovely… I will try it out soon. I stick to steamed food in summer 🙂 no toiling over the stove :-))
Those look beautiful!…and yes it can be a savory one too…actually the thought never crossed my mind!…but when I think about it, why not..we have so many savory cakes too!…so do send your lovely dish across!
you take the loveliest pics, Nandita!! They make me drool all the time 🙂
This looks really good! Guess I had the wrong impression that handvo tasted like idli – read the recipe in some book ages ago!
lovely photo! wouldn’t mind some handwo now!
This looks really good. I’d love to try it.Paz
Raaga – Microwave is a life saver in the summer :)Srivalli – Mine must be the first savoury cake in your event :)Rhea – Thanks dear, still working on the photography skills, starting with a steady hand :)Sra- It’s got nice taste and the texture comes from the bits of vegetables you can add to the batter! Same family as it is a rice lentil combination, but still different!Arundathi- You welcome to pick a slice :)Paz – Seeing you after so long, haven’t been to your blog in ages…hope you doing great!
ur handwa looks d-lish, N! the stove top method creates such a nice crust 🙂
Looks lovely cake, never heard b4
The first pic is beautiful.
Totally new dish to me, and the pictures look great! Checked out the recipe from 2006, isn’t it fun to compare the old pics to the new ones?
Yeah Baby – Go CSK, huh?? Did you see that match?!
Indira,Great Work, have tried ur daal-palak, mutter panner, justed luved it. Must appreciate u, being a Medical doctor, u find time for blogging. Just grt8.Have a query here, this looks like our adai maavu, how much water is to be added ( this looks like rather katti ya arraikanam 🙂 and is fermentation not enough that we need both baking powder and soda , Does it taste well both with microwave and steamer ?Thanks Priya
Though I have seen the recipe at my LG MW handbook, never bothered to try it out. But your pics are tempting me. BTW, you have a surprise waiting for at my blog.
Looks delicious….this is something I’ve always wanted to try but somehow I thought it was too tough to make at home…..BTW, thx for leaving your comments on my blog…and definitely do mail the next time you come to chennai….
Nandita my sweet! this looks really interesting and pretty darned good. you’ll have to make this when we meet!
hey sweetie, i can’t wait to get back to my kitchen and try this – this is a wonderful recipe you have shared!
Wow, this handwa looks fabulous! My bf like that, I was going to make him a special packed lunch for his birthday as he’s got to do a stock take at work and these would be perfect! thank you for shearing your post.
sharing not shearinglikes that not like thatLearn proper English you gujju or talk in gujarati.