6 October, 2021

Dhaniya Panjeeri | Coriander seeds Panjeeri |

ಧನಿಯಾ ಪಂಜೀರಿ | ಕೊತ್ತಂಬರಿ ಬೀಜದ ಪಂಜೀರಿ |

The Hindi word ‘dhaniya’ translates to ‘coriander seeds’ and ‘Panjiri’ can be called as ‘huri hittu/hurittu’

Now coming to the point, dhaniya Panjiri is one of the kind of offer made to the Lord Sri Krishna necessarily on Sri Krishna Janmashtami or Gokulashtami here in north India.

We, the people of south India also make a dish called Pancha Kajjaya, which will be in the form of coarse powder and the more prominent one is being Pancha Kajjaya prepared using bhattada aralu or Puffed Paddy offered to the lord on Sri Krishna Janmashtami day

And we also make a special kind of sweet powder using wheat flour, ragi flour, rice flour etc, in which we roast the flour by adding certain amount of ghee and then add some healthy stuffs like raw coconut, almonds, raisins, cashews etc along with jaggery powder and we call it as huri hittu or hurittu and I feel like, the Panjiri also is more or less the same dish with some slight differences in the usage of ingredients.

Similarly, in north India in all the Krishna temples, including Mathura, they prepare this Panjiri without fail to offer to the Lord, fondly called as Krishn Kanhaiya particularly on this day.

By the way you can also check the recipes like Ragi Panjiri and Wheat flour gulpavate/Panjiri (south Indian version) here on this blog and soon I’m going to make wheat flour Panjiri in north Indian style and shall post it here as well.

So …during this recent Janmashtami I prepared the dhaniya Panjiri , which was long due in my to do list. I have learnt this recipe by tasting it in temples and also at my neighbor’s house. But still I have made this according to our taste and likings by using minimum possible amount of ghee, unlike they put here in north India. Hope you all will also like my method of making this.

Ingredients : measuring cup used – 200 ml

Coriander seeds – 1/2 cup
Ghee – 1&1/2 tbsp
Makhana/Lotus seeds – 1/2 cup
Dry coconut – 1/2 cup
Jaggery Powder – 1/3 cup (heaped)
Cashew nuts – 10
Almond – 10
Raisins – 3 tbsp
Melon seeds – 1 tbsp
Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp

PROCEDURE :

Heat 3/4 tbsp of ghee in a pan/kadai, put coriander seeds, cashews, almonds, dry coconut and makhana and roast them all well until all the moisture is removed and nice aroma being released

Remove to a separate plate and let it cool. once cooled, take the roasted mixture in a mixie jar and grind into a coarse powder
Heat the remaining ghee in the same pan/kadai, roast the raisins until swollen, turn the heat to low and add the ground mixture, jaggery powder and cardamom powder and give everything a good mix, turn off the heat