Narali Bhaat

If you notice coconut is used extensively in Maharashtrian cooking, especially in the costal  cooking. Same three ingredients, fresh coconut, Jaggery and rice are used to create a variety of desserts.

Modak

You take the rice flour, fresh coconut and jaggery, with a little bit of steam you turn it into this delicious dumpling, Modak. Modak are made specially for Ganesh festival as those are Bappa’s favorite.

Patole

You take the rice flour, make pancake with it. Stuff it with a earthy mixture of fresh Coconut, jaggery and some aromatic spices like cardamom and poppy seeds, That turns into patole. The same are also found in Kerala

Sandane

Soak the rice, grind it coarsely, makes some jaggery and coconut, steamed the whole make sure to make something like a pudding which can be enjoyed with sweetened coconut milk, it’s called Sandane. Sometime you can also add jackfruit pulp, I love that variation a lot

Ghavan Ghatale

A pancake is made with rice flour and eaten with coconut milk sweetened with jaggery

As you can see that traditional recipes use ingredients that are local, which is why I love cooking these recipes and sharing with everyone.

Today’s recipe is no different, it uses these very simple basic ingredients and turns into this comforting delicious dessert.

Rakshabandhan/ Narali Poornima

The fisherman community does not fish during the monsoon months. They treat the sea as their God and let it rest for those four months. Its on this day that they restart the fishing. They sing songs, dress up and offer coconut as an offering to the sea.

On this full moon the fisherman community celebrates with praying to the ocean God and offer him a special treat of this rice. Since the rice is heavily flavored with coconut, it’s called Narali bhat and the full moon is called Narali(naral=coconut) Poornima( poornima=full moon 🌝)

Narali Purnima

This is also the day when most of the Indians celebrate ‘Rakhi Poornima’. The word is based on the word, ‘ Raksha’, which means protection. It is believed that the sister ties this colorful thread, Rakhi on her brothers wrist as a thank you for protecting her. The brother makes a promise to take care of her.

Now a days it’s a celebration of sibling’s love and I absolutely adore that. We are three sisters and the youngest brother, and on this day we remind each other of the love we share and promise to be there for each other.

This year we could not be together for celebrating this festival but I at least tried to celebrate with this special bhaat and shared it virtually with them.

Here is the recipe!

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Narali Bhaat

A sweet rice dish with coconut and jaggery, flavored with saffron.
Course Dessert, Main Course
Cuisine Indian, Maharashtrian
Keyword easy to make, gluten-free, vegetarian
Author Anagha

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Basmati Rice
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 4 Cloves
  • 4 Green Cardamom
  • 4 tbsp Clarified Butter/ Ghee
  • 8-10 Cashew split in halves
  • 1 Tbsp Saffron dissolved in 1 tbsp milk
  • 1 cup Freshly grated coconut
  • 3/4- 1 cup Jaggery

Instructions

  1. Soak the rice for 15-20 mins in cold water. Drain and set aside

  2. Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a heavy bottom pan

  3. Fry the cashews and set aside

  4. Add cloves and cardamom and saute for a min

  5. Add drained rice and saute for another min

  6. Add the boiling water to the rice and stir

  7. Add a pinch of salt, bring it to a boil and cover

  8. Let the rice cook till all the water is absorbed.

  9. Once the rice is cooked, spread it on a plate to cool

  10. Mix coconut and jaggery and cook till the jaggery melts and the mixture comes together

  11. Add the cooked rice and mix with very gently

  12. Cover and let it steam for 5-7 mins

  13. Add the remaining ghee and saffron milk and mix well

  14. Add the fried cashews and serve