Konkan tradition: how to make coconut jaggery shirvale for Ganeshotsav

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As households prepare to welcome Ganpati Bappa, Konkan families make a range of traditional dishes for the offering. Among the quick options is shirvale, a traditional sweet made with rice flour and coconut milk.

The dish is popular with both children and adults, and combines rice flour with fresh coconut milk for a rich flavour. It is also easy to digest, which means it can be eaten at breakfast as well.

The ingredients required are coconut milk, jaggery, cardamom powder, nutmeg powder, saffron, cumin, turmeric, rice flour, hot water and ghee.

To make it, heat a glass of water in a pan. Once it boils, add a spoon of ghee, followed by salt to taste, then stir in the rice flour and mix well with a spoon. Cover the pan, let it steam briefly, and turn off the flame.

Once the rice flour mixture has cooled, knead it into a dough using wet hands, then coat it with ghee and cover it. To make the coconut extract, grind fresh grated coconut with cumin in a mixer, then add water and strain to extract the coconut milk.

Take the extracted coconut milk and mix in turmeric, jaggery to taste, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder. Press the prepared rice flour dough through a shirvale mould onto a banana leaf to form noodle-like strands, then steam them in an idli steamer.

After steaming for fifteen minutes, turn off the flame and take out the strands. Serve them with the prepared coconut milk. This is how the traditional Konkan-style rus shirvale is made, a dish loved by everyone at home.

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