Chickpea Flour Panchakajjaya (Chanedali pitti panchakajjaya)

No pooja is complete without an offering to God according to the Hindu rituals. And panchakajjayas are synonymous with poojas or prayers. Panchakajjayas are essentially a simple and delicious mixture of 5 ingredients served as naivedyam (as an offering) to the Lord while we worship them, whether it is at home or in temples. These panchakajjayas are then served as prasad to people.

Pancha means 5 in Sanskrit, hence panchakajjayas have to be a mixture of 5 (or more) ingredients. 

A variety of pachakajjayas are prepared. Here’s a chickpea flour panchakajjaya prepared during a number of occasions. It’s called as chanedali pitta panchakkajaya in Konkani, kadale hittina panchakajjaya in Kannada.

We prepare this during Ganesh chaturthi, Krishna Janamastami and during a number of occasions as an offering to God. This panchakajjaya is also served in temples as panchakajjaya/prasad after naivedyam.

Here’s how this chickpea flour panchakajjaya is prepared traditionally. You’ll find other easy variations at the bottom of the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup split chickpeas
• 1/2 cup grated dried coconut
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons of cardamom powder
• 2 tablespoons of black sesame seeds 

Preparation Time: 35 minutes

Preparation Method:

1. Dry roast split chickpeas in a wok until they start to brown and you get a nice smell of fried chickpeas. Saute them continuously so that they all fry up uniformly. 
2. Let them cool completely.
3. Meanwhile powder sugar in a blender. Make a fine powder of sugar and keep it aside.
4. Once the fried chickpeas cool down, grind them into a fine powder in a blender. If you can find chickpea flour in your near by store then that’ll save you time and effort.
5. In a bowl mix well powdered sugar, grated dried coconut and keep it aside for 5-10 minutes. The dried coconut mix well with the powdered sugar and gives out  a little moisture content needed to bind all the ingredients together. 
6. Add cardamom powder to it and mix well.
7. Add the ground chickpea flour and mix well.
8. Dry roast sesame seeds for a few minutes until they start to splutter. Saute them for uniform roasting. Add them to the panchakajjaya and mix well.

Easy variations:

If you can’t find dried coconut (sun dried for few days) then use grated fresh coconut. But this panchakajjaya can’t be stored for more than a day. They tend to get spoilt very fast (due to the fresh coconut) unlike the panchakajjaya prepared using dried coconut that can be stored for a week.

If you use grated fresh coconut then you can use sugar without powdering (again another option to save your time and effort) it, as fresh coconut binds well with whole sugar to give out enough moisture content to bind together all the ingredients.

Tags: Panchakajjaya, chanedali pitti panchakajjaya, chickpeas, naivedyam, festivals, Ganesh festival, chaturthi, GSB Konkani recipe, vegan, recipe, South Canara Konkani recipe, Konkani cooking, GSB Konkani cuisine, prasad.