Hayagriva maddi

This is a traditional sweet from the temple town of Udupi and is served in most functions of the "Madhwa" community in Karnataka. I first tasted this in my cousin's son's first birthday function. She is married to a Madhwa and so this sweet dish was served along with another traditional sweet Chandrahaara. But this sweet has a very lovely story behind why it is served in the traditional Mutt of Sri Krishna temple at Udupi.

According to the legend, nothing grew on the land of a small village called matti some many years ago. The villagers lamented this to the wandering Saint Vadiraja theerhta. He gave them a bundle of seeds to grow and the people in turn showed their gratitude by offering channa daal and Jaggery. These, it is believed were eaten by lord Krishna who took the form of hayagreeva or horse. From then on hayagreeva maddis is the preffered prasadam in the Udupi temple. The seeds that vadiraja theertha gifted is the famous gulla brinjals, a pale green variety unique to this region which is produced even today and is available in other towns and cities of Karnataka in Mangalore stores .

Now after the story, over to the recipe of  Hayagreeva maddi.

Ingredients-

• Channa dal --- 1 cup
•  Jaggery    ----- 3/4 cup ( i used powdered palm jaggery) 
• Dry coconut---- 2 table spoons
•  Roasted poppy seeds ( gasgase) - 1 table spoon
• dash of cardamom powder to flavour
•  Dry grapes and Cashew for garnishing
• Ghee

Method -

Cook the channa dal in  a cooker to 3 whistles or till it boils to a mushy consistency.

On the other side ....make a jaggery syrup  by adding little water to the jaggery. Filter the jaggery mixture to remove impurities.

Now, take the filtered jaggery mixture and heat it in a kadai, to this add the mushy paste of Channa dal and cook till it blends.

Simmer the  stove  for a minute and mix in the , elaichi powder and dry copra and mix well with 3 table spoons of ghee .

Switch off the stove and sprinkle roasted poppy seeds all over. 

Grease a bowl and scoop the maddi to a bowl and  garnish with roasted cashews,  and fried raisins . 

You can add more ghee to make it taste better.