Handvo- Savory Rice Lentil Cake

I tasted handvo (made by my mother in law) for the first time, after my marriage to my Gujarati husband. Coming from a South Indian household I just knew about dhokla and thepla as gujarati dishes. But now after tasting dishes like handvo, muthia, undhiyu I have fallen in love with them.

I like the fact that handvo is flavorful and a healthy snack. In fact you can have it as a light lunch or breakfast item too due to its goodness of grains, lentil and veggies. I like handvo more than dhoklas because of its spiciness and it's crisp outer crust. Traditionally it is made in deep vessel, hence the name handvo. However I like to bake it in oven.

I followed Tarla Dalal's recipe but tweaked it a bit. Here goes my recipe for handvo-

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rice
• 1 cup urad dal
• 1 cup toor dal
• 1/2 cup sour curd
• 1-1/2 cups shredded doodhi/ pumpkin/squash
• 4 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1-1/2 tbsp sugar
• salt to taste

For tempering:

• mustard seeds
• sesame seeds
• asafoetida
• 4 tbsp oil

Directions:

• Wash and soak rice and lentil with enough water for around 4-5 hours.
• Drain the water and grind into fine paste. Just ensure that you add very little water while grinding and do not add water directly from tap if you are in US. It has been my experience, due to the high chlorine content in tap water fermentation is affected. Use filtered water.
• Add sour curd and allow the mixture to ferment overnight. It won't rise too much like idli batter but you can get the sour smell and see the bubbles.
• Add shredded vegetable, oil, lemon juice, baking soda, chili powder, turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste, sugar and salt. Mix well. Be generous with the masalas and you can tweak proportions as per taste, depending upon your taste buds.
• Pour the mix into a greased cake pan of any shape or size. But see to it that you pour a thin layer of batter not more than 1-1/2 inch into the pan.
• Then take oil in a small vessel, add asafoetida, mustard seeds and sesame seeds. Temper them and pour over the batter in the pan.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degree F for 30 to 35 minutes.
• Sometimes instead of tempering I just add  sesame seeds on the top of the batter and just spray the top with cooking oil after 20 minutes. Then just bake for another 10-15 minutes.
• When done, enjoy your soft on the inside and crisp and brown on the outside handvo.

Note: Alternately you can also make handvo in a nonstick pan on stove top. Just grease pan with oil and pour batter in it. Top it with the tempering and cover and let it cook on medium flame. When you feel the bottom is done just flip it in the pan to let the other side get done. You will see a nice golden brown to black colored crust. I like it black because that means crispier edged handvo.