Haalbai (Manni)

Haalbai is a dessert that is made of rice, jaggery and coconut. This is usually made on the Nagara Panchami festival in the Udupi region. The Bunt and the poojary community call it Manni may be because it is so soft and easy for people without teeth to eat.

You will need:
Raw Rice - 2 Cups
Coconut - 1 Cup (grated)
Jaggery - 3/4 Cup
Cardamom -2 tsp (peeled and powdered)
Salt - 2 pinches
ghee - 2 tbsp


Soak Rice overnight and grind it along with the rest of the ingredients into a fine paste.
Heat a pan. Add 1 tsp of ghee.
Add the ground paste and Add about 4 glasses of water.
Keep stirring on a very low heat. Break the lumps that are formed using the stirring spoon.
Continue stirring till the water dries. 
Continue stirring till the whole paste gets stuck to the stirring spoon. Stir for another 15 mins. Stop when the color starts to change. 
Pour this on a greased tray and spread it to the entire plate using a flat spoon (dose spoon).
Add the remaining ghee on top of halbai on the plate.
Allow it to cool and cut into square pieces, using a knife.

The recipe sounds easy. The knack is to know when the haalbai is already done. That is not easy. The trick is to not let it stick to the upper panel of your mouth. Take a small piece of the paste and taste it. If the paste sticks to the upper panel of the mouth then you need to stir more. My mom's an expert there. She knows when it is done without even tasting it. I have tried this more than a couple of times but haven't mastered the skill yet.

Keep stirring until the paste no longer sticks to the upper panel of your mouth.That's my mantra.

Makes about 25 pieces

Will post pictures soon..... Also will try getting a video (that may help).