Godhi Kajjaya/Wheat Kajjaya/Athirasa- Quick and easy recipe

Deepavali  just passed. And this time I tried making a special dish on the day i.e, Kajjaya. They call it Kajjaya in Bangalore. It is also named as Athirasa in few parts of Karnataka. This is a household delight here in Bangalore on the occasion of Deepavali.

It is made using rice. Recipes are easily available. One has to make the dough the previous day and let it rest for a day before deep frying them. A simple procedure, but if one doesn't get the technique right everything is gone for a toss. I hear many failures during deepavali when people try to make it. Well I have seen it happening in my very own home. But there are many ways to trouble shoot and make the dough usable. You can write to me for the troubleshooting guide. There are many Kajjaya making experts among my family and friends who can help in this regard.

Moving on to the recipe of Godhi Kajjaya!! Yes!! You heard it right!! I used wheat flour instead of rice grain to make this. It takes about an hour to two including the preparation and cooking time. It is simple, easy, and chances of failure- very minimal or nil. 

These days I am obsessed with simple, quick and easy recipes considering the fast paced lifestyle we all have. Whatever it maybe, I love home cooked food and love to try traditional, challenging recipes.

MATERIALS REQUIRED

Wheat flour- 1 cup

Jaggery/ Cane Sugar- 1 cup

Water- 1 cup

Cardamom powder- 1/2 tea spoon

White sesame seeds- 2 table spoons

Poppy seeds- 2 table spoons

Ghee/clarified butter- 1 table spoon

TIME TAKEN

Preparation time- 10 minutes

Cooking time- 1 hour at least. Can vary with individuals

PROTOCOL

• Take a saucepan and heat the water. Then add in jaggery and let it dissolve. Once dissolved strain it and take it in another heavy bottomed pan or a bandli/kadai

• Heat the strained cane sugar solution. When you see small bubbles appear, time to stir in wheat flour little at a time. Keep stirring the mixture ensuring no lumps. Cut the heat immediately. 

• The dough consistency should be little softer than a chapati dough. (Refer picture above)

• It may take few table spoons more wheat flour in some cases to reach this consistency. Feel free to add extra if only required. 1 cup was perfect in my case. Make sure dough is soft, else Kajjayas will be hard.

Remember you need no thick consistency in syrup. It is just a heated jaggery water. If it thickens the Kajjayas will be brittle

• Add the cardamom powder, white sesame seeds, poppy seeds. Mix the dough thoroughly ensuring even distribution of these elements which add texture to the dough. Let it cool and once cooled add a table spoon of ghee and knead it softly using your hands.

• Make lemon sized balls and flatten them on kitchen surface/butter paper into circles of about 10cm diameter or into circles of desired sizes.

• Smear ghee onto your hands if necessary. You can have them thick if you like a crispy outside and fluffy inside but thin if you want crispy kajjayas. I prefer medium thickness.

• Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Simmer the flame to its minimal and carefully add in the shaped kajjayas to it. Make sure you deep fry it in sim or the inside of kajjayas may remain raw. Remember, one needs patience here. So fry them on a simmer flame ensuring even cooking inside out. 

• Remove them from the hot oil, once they turn deep brown, I repeat deep brown is the color. And one needs to strain the oil out of these using two spatulas, squeezing out excess oil. They absorb lot of oil, so once strained keep them in vertical/semi vertical position to rain out the oil. One can also use Kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.

And the Godhi/Kajjaya is ready to relish. 

Store them in an air tight container. They will be soft when consumed within 2 days. After that they become hard, since it is made from wheat. The opposite holds good for normal Kajjayas made from rice.

Meanwhile I also made my own Diyas for Deepavali using the same dough and lit them using ghee/clarified butter using cotton wicks (also self made). Refer picture for the Diyas. You can eat them once it is fully lit and burnt. Trust me they are so tasty. They would have slowly cooked in the hot ghee during the burning process.

Whole wheat, fried, sweet breads as I call them are ready to serve your taste buds. Hope you all had a safe and sound Deepavali. Now try this recipe and have a tasty post-Deepavali celebration.

Tasted almost similar to normal rice Kajjayas sans the extra hard work and nervousness. The texture of rice gives Kajjaya its authentic flavor, which is not cent percent met by Wheat flour. But yet one cant easily find out the difference.