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Ruchik Randhap

Food & Memories of Mangalore

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Mani (Rice Halwa/Pudding)

Another one of Mangalore’s most loved and almost extinct sweet preparations is the Mani (pronounced as ‘maani’ in Konkani and also called as Manni in Kannada) which invokes some nice memories and makes my mouth water. Maani is a kind of rice pudding which requires a lot of patience and time. It is probably the preparation time and method that discourages today’s generation from even giving it a try (I almost gave up towards the end if it wasn’t for my Mum-in-law who kept reassuring me that it would be done soon).
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If you ask someone about how Maani is made, most people will throw their hands in the air, shudder, roll their eyes and say “thaka mosthu saalunk asa – ek ghanto!” (it takes a lot of stirring – takes ages!) – well, that’s not really the case, when I tried it, it took me about 20 minutes to cook the mixture on a slow flame and then ofcourse another 20 minutes to cool off, but the stirring business doesn’t take as long as people exclaim. The only catch here is that while you set the pan on slow fire you must make sure you give this precious Maani your undivided attention. Forget taking calls or answering the doorbell – cuz then you will have burnt Maani. If you must attend to other things while on the Maani business, simply turn off the flame & attend to it again ASAP! (although it’s not the recommended procedure)
The stirring is also a great exercise for your biceps 🙂 As the mixture thickens to a transparent gooey consistency, it gets harder to stir, so having an extra hand to relieve you of this hard work can be really welcoming 🙂 Shae! Did I scare you off? Nah, try it – it’s worth the effort as the taste is so delicate & yummy – Maani will just melt in your mouth!
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Maani
(Printable Recipe)
Recipe Source: My mum-in-law

Yield: Enough mixture for a 12 inch steel plate

You Need:

  • 150gms raw rice (Surai as it’s called in Konkani, I use small grained Kolam rice in Mumbai)
  • 150gms (or 1 packed cup or 1 vole) grated coconut (to extract coconut milk/roce) – yields about 1 1/2- 2cups of thick milk
  • 3 pods if cardamom (remove the seeds & powder them)
  • 150gms jaggery (pound it a little to remove lumps if any)
  • 1 tsp indhache peet (optional) – see note below
  • 1-2 tsp raisins – washed & dried
  • 1/2 cup of cashewnuts (halved) – washed & dried – If you can get tender cashewnuts (pokan), its even better
  • Ghee for greasing the pan & plate

Method:
1. Soak the rice for an hour
2. Grind the grated coconut with a little warm water (about 2tbsp) to a coarse paste and then put this mixture into a muslin cloth (or bairas cloth) and squeeze to extract the thick milk. Keep it aside. Add some more water into the cloth & extract another cup of thin milk. (You will require approximately 6 cups of liquid in total)
3. Grind the rice to a fine paste with a cup of thick milk. Mix this paste along with the remaining liquid, cardamom powder, Indache Peet (optional) & jaggery to make a thin batter.
4. Grease a thick bottomed deep pan with ghee and pour the batter into it. Toss in the cashewnuts (if they are regular ones & not pokan). Set the pan on medium flame and keep stirring continuously until the batter thickens (and looks a little transparent) and leaves the sides of the pan – this takes about 20-25minutes. When the thickening of the batter takes place it may become tough & tiring for you to stir, so it’s a good idea to get someone reliable to help you switch places as you should not stop the task of stirring even for a minute.
5. Pour the mixture into well buttered plates (steel plates with tall edges – Boshi or Peer as they are called in Konkani) and using a little ghee to your fingers quickly spread the mixture to the entire plate flattening the surface to make it smooth. If you cannot handle the heat, you can smear some ghee to the back of a large spoon/ladle to do the same.
6. Allow the mixture to cool & set in the plates. Decorate with raisins, cut into diamond shapes,and serve

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Note on Indhache Peet: Well readers, i’m not sure what the exact name of Indache Peet is in English, but its very similar to arrowroot powder but is a little dull (offwhite) in colour compared to arrowroot powder. Commonly used in Mangalorean households to treat stomach upsets. The flour is obtained from the root of the tree (Indhaso rook) and is quite expensive and a rare commodity today)

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Comments

  2. Shireen says

    Thanks Priya, yes im sure you have heard of it if I can manage to find the English name for it..but it's very similar to the arrowroot, but more expensive – the flour is made of the root of the tree

    Reply

  4. Shireen says

    Arent mom's just the best? 🙂 By the way, any idea what Indache Peet is called in English? I've been trying to google it, but no luck, not sure if we can substitute it with arrowroot…

    Reply

    • Ronald Dsa says

      FOR YOUR INFO..

      Caryota urens is a species of flowering plant in the palm family from the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia where they grow in fields and rainforest clearings. The epithet urens is Latin for “stinging” alluding to the chemicals in the fruit. They are commonly called solitary fishtail palm, toddy palm, wine palm, jaggery palm. කිතුල් – Kithul in Sinhala, கூந்தற்பனை – Koonthal Panai in Tamil, ಬೈನೆ ಮರ in Kannada, ചൂണ്ടപ്പന – Choondappana in Malayalam চাউর in Bengali,. Its leaf is used as fishing rod after trimming the branches of the leaf and drying. According to Monier-Williams, it is called moha-karin (“delusion maker”) in Sanskrit. It is one of the sugar palms.
      This species is called kithul (කිතුල්) in Sri Lanka. It is the source of kithul treacle, a liquid jaggery.[1] Toddy is extracted from the inflorescence, and is considered some what powerful compared to toddy extracted from few other palm trees. Pulp of the fully grown up plant is cut, sun dried, powdered and is edible. It is sweet in taste.[2][3] This powder is considered cool and nutritious in Coastal districts of Karnataka. In Sri Lanka, the powder is mixed with coconut milk and cooked to make Kithul Thalapa (කිතුල් තලප).

      Elephants are fed both the leaf and the pulp of this plant.

      Reply

      • Shireen Sequeira says

        Thanks a lot. Yes, I later came across the name of the indache peet as mentioned in my indachapeetachi mani post 🙂 I will update this post too with details.

        Reply

  6. Shireen says

    Thank you Aruna! Glad you liked my space. You have a beautiful blog and since I am a big fan of vegetarian food I am going to keep visiting your blog more often from now on!

    Reply

  11. Anonymous says

    Wow the recipe looks simple enough. It brings back memories of growing up in India and my aunt who would make it for me. I haven't eaten it in 25 years since she passed away. I am going to try it out. Thank you. Nice blog. …June

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  12. Simona says

    Thank you for sharing this recipe. It brings back fond memories of Mum making heaps of this for us with so much love. Thank you. I am trying this out today and will share pictures if it comes out well. By the way, I have tried a lot of your traditional recipes including kubein mutlin. Gorgeous !!

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  16. Joanita Pinto says

    Thanks Shireen for all the wonderful recipes, mummy used to make this when we were growing up, sometimes, she used to switch the rice to rava, ofcourse not the same taste. Yes indache peet drink is also so good, I used to love it as a child, brought back memories.

    Reply