First of all let me wish you all a very Happy Diwali. During any festival in India, different types of sweet and savory dishes are cooked in almost every home. We not only make these in our homes, but we also share them with our neighbours and relatives. In Goa, we make nevri or sweet pastries during festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali. Nevri is also known as Karanji in Maharashtra and Gujiya in North India.
In Goa, during Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali, sweets like “nevri, chakri, shankarpale, ladoos of different types, shev, chido, churmo”, etc along with coconuts, jaggery, pulses, new clothes and jewelry are sent to a married girls home by the girls parents. This is known as “waje” locally. In olden days, just a week before the festival, all the ladies from the house used to sit together and make different types of sweets to consume, distribute it among relatives and to send to married daughters of the house.
In Goa we make these with a filling of grated coconut or gram flour. Both sweet and spicy flavored can be made too. Both taste delicious. In today’s recipe, a filling of made grated coconut is used. It is important not to add even a drop of water to the filling. Add water only to make the dough. If water gets added to the filling, then the “nevryos” won’t last for too long. These nevris last for upto 2 to 3 weeks if stored in air-tight containers. Try the top 5 recipes for Ganesh Chaturthi.
Sharing with you all my mother-in-laws recipe of making these yummy nevris. Do try and let me know.
- <b>For the filling:</b>
- 4 cups grated coconut
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 10 cardamom, peeled and crushed
- 1 cup khas khas/poppy seeds
- 1 cup til/sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoon rice flour
- 2 cups oil for deep frying
- <b>For the dough:</b>
- 3 cups all purpose flour/maida
- 1 cup water or as needed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon oil
- Let us first make the dough for Nevri or kanranji:
- Mix the all purpose flour, oil, salt and water and make a soft pliable dough, cover with a muslin cloth and keep aside for 1 hour.
- Now let us prepare the filling:
- Dry roast the grated coconut till the coconut looks dry and till coconut aroma gets emitted from it.
- Let it cool down completely. (Step 1 in image below)
- After completely drying, add powdered sugar, khas khas,crushed cardamom and til.
- Now let us start making the nevryos:
- Make small balls(small marble sized) from the dough.
- Sprinkle some rice flour on the rolling surface. Place the dough balls on the rolling surface and flatten them into round shape.
- Take 2 tablespoon of the coconut mixture and place it on half side of the flattened dough. (Step 2 in image below)
- Leave 1 cm of space on all sides.
- Carefully cover the other side over the filing and seal it by pressing it with few drops of water. (Step 3 in image below)
- Shape the nevri in semi-circle by using the nevri/karanji cutter. (Step 4 in image below)
- Similarly keep the other nevris ready.
- Heat a kadai/wok and add 2 cups oil.
- Let the oil get heated.
- Keep the gas on low flame.
- Now release the nevri/karanji/gujia into the hot oil carefully. (Step 5 in image below)
- Deep fry it on both sides.
- Drain it on kitchen paper.
- Continue it for the other nevris/karanjis.
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