Meetay Ghoday – ICC

This month Mireille suggested a Hydrabadi dish from Mona’s blog for the Indian Cooking Challenge. The recipe sounded easy and delicious but somehow as always slipped my mind.Only after seeing Srivalli post the thread, I remembered the challenge. Without further ado, I set about making the dish.

The real difficulty was shaping the dough into flowers. Lil Angel promised to help me after I showed her the other bloggers post on Meetay Ghoday. And when it came to helping me, she made one after I taught her and then went on to create a mushroom, spoon and other fancy stuffs to play with!!

I let her play and went about making the Flowers. Once the flowers are done, they are let to dry and then deep fried. These deep fried crunchies are cooked in sweetened milk and served garnished with fried raisins and nut!

So after the dough flowers were made [Mine did not look like flowers, but let’s just call them flower :)], I went on to proceed with the dish. When the fried dough flowers were getting cooked in the milk, the aroma was seemed very familiar. Amidst the other works that I was doing in the kitchen, I did not stop to ponder.

But when I took a taste test, I clearly found out why I found the aroma to be familiar.It is the same as the Happala Karadha Paayasa that mom prepares!!! Both have the same base – Wheat / maida and milk. The only difference in the Karnataka style –Happala Karadha Paayasa   is that the wheat / maida discs are fried, crushed and cooked in milk and in this Hyderabadi special, the wheat / maida discs are cut into squares and shaped into flowers before they are cooked in milk!!

It is indeed so fascinating to see the same dish prepared in slightly different way by the neighbouring states….

I used
Recipe Source : Zaiqa

Wheat flour – 1 cup
Salt to taste

Milk -2 cups
Water- 1/2 cup
Sugar -3/4 cup
Oil to deep fry

Fried raisins and cashews to garnish , around 3 tablespoons

1. In a bowl, take the wheat flour and salt. Mix well and knead to a smooth dough adding water little by little. Keep aside for 30 minutes and knead again.
2. Divide the dough into 3 portions. Roll out each portion into thin discs but use less flour for dusting. Using a knife / pizza cutter, mark the dough into squares.
3. Shape each square into flowers like this…

4.Arrange the dough flowers on a tray and let it sit for 6-8 hours or over night.
5.Deep fry the dough flowers till golden brown.Drain and keep aside.
6.Heat milk and half cup water in a pan.Add sugar and mix.
7.Simmer till it reduces to 3/4th the original volume.
8.Add the fried dough flowers and cook till soft ,around 6- 10 minutes.
9.Remove from heat and serve at room temperature / chilled garnished with roasted raisins and nuts.

Bon Appetit…