Ubattu or Poran Poli is a special dish made on Sankranti in many parts of our country.
Ubattu is Karnataka’s version of the stuffed channa dal and jaggery poli which has a sprinkling of grated coconut added to the filling.
So, we at Kitchen Divas decided that we must do a Sankranti Special for this Saturday. I knew that usually all across South India, Pongal is made and in Karnataka Sankranti Ellu (made of jaggery, chana dal, sesame and more) is very popular, but somehow I wanted to make something else. So, I got chatting with my househelp on what is that they make during Sankranti. The first thing she said was “Ubattu”. Ubattu is Karnataka’s version of the Poran Poli of Maharashtra and I decided this is what I am going make.
Poran Poli is known by many different names in different parts of the country. Ubattu in Karnataka, Vedmi in Gujarat, Bobatlu in Andra Pradesh, Boli in Tamil Nadu….To be honest, all of them are not the same. The fillings differ in each state and yet there is a common thread among all of them. For example Vedmi of Gujarat uses tuvar dal in its filling while Poran Poli in Maharashtra uses channa dal. The jaggery is a common thread across all the types of Ubattus in the country.
Poran Polis or Ubattu are usually served with ghee on the top since it is said that the combination of jaggery and dal is supposed to be very hot for the body, and the ghee provides a cooling effect to the overall dish. To be honest, I love a dollop of ghee over anything and this just is an awesome excuse to add some ghee to the already yummy dish!
Other Sankranti/Pongal/Lohri recipes on the blog
Ubattu (Poran Poli) : Sankranti Special
Ingredients
for the outer cover
- 1 cup rawa chiroti
- 1/4 cup maida
- a pinch salt of
- a few strands kesar milk of mixed with 1 tbsp of
- Water to knead
- ghee for frying
for the filling
- 1 cup channa dal
- 1 cup jaggery , grated
- 1/4 cup coconut grated fresh
- a pinch salt of
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 1/3 tsp elaichi powder
Instructions
- Mix chiroti rawa and maida with a pinch of salt to it, add the kesar soaked in water (this was my addition, my househelp said they add a pinch of turmeric) and water to it and knead to form a smooth dough. The consistency of the dough has to be soft, much softer than the regular roti dough, tighter than the pancake dough but much more liquid than the chapathi dough. My househelp tells me that a tighter dough will lead to tough obattu. Continue kneading the dough, you will need to knead the dough for another 5-6 minutes.
- Leave the dough to rest (my househelp insists in fridge) covered in the 1/4 oil, make sure the top is completely covered and let it rest for about 1-2 hours.
- In the meanwhile, boil the dal in just enough water till it is soft and mushy. When it is cool, mash it together with the rest of the filling ingredients. Keep aside.
- After 2 hours, take out the dough and distribute in 10 equal sized balls. Roll each ball and add about 2 tsp of filling and roll again like a parantha. As the dough is very soft, it can be tough to roll, I use the ziplock bag technique that mom taught me. Cut a ziplock bag and roll the parantha in the center of the ziplock bag.
- Now using ghee fry both sides. Enjoy warm with a cup of tea.
Notes
Looks so good Monika. Literally drooling off my screen right now
Thanks Anita 🙂