Sannas

I had heard about Sannas and knew them to be a part of the amazing Mangalorean cuisine when I got all interested in learning about food from all over India - but, I had never had the opportunity to taste these yummy steamed rice cakes. On our recent trip to India, my mother-in-law served us these with her famous chicken curry. The soft fluffy and pillowy sannas took me straight to heaven and I think I earned some brownie points with my MIL too as she did not expect me to know about sannas and I surprised her with my knowledge.

Sannas with Mangalorean Chicken Curry

Sannas are very much a part of the Manglorean or Goan Catholic cuisnie. I am married to a Mangalorean Catholic and hence I got to see them and savor them at my in-laws home. Sannas are not like idlis and they are perfect to saok up gravies. Sannas are soft even with they are at room temperature.  Ofcorse, we had to make it at our home and needless to say - we have become great fans of these fluffy cakes.

Ingredients

3 cups idli rice/boiled rice
1 cup raw rice (sona masoor/kolam)
1/2 cup urad dal/split black gram
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup water

Method

Wash and soak the two types of rice and the urad dal for atleast 6 hours.
Grind them together with little water (just to aid the grinding) to  fine paste.
The batter should be thick like idli batter. Transfer it to a big bowl. Add salt and mix well.
Prepare the yeast solution by mixing the yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup of lukewarm water. After about 5 to 10 minutes the yeast solution will become frothy - just goes to show that the yeast is active.
Mix the yeast solution into the sanna batter and mix well untill everything is incorporated well. Cover the bowl and place it in a nice and warm place for further fermentation - about 2 to 3 hours. The batter is generally a consistency in between a idli batter and dosa batter. The batter would have doubled by then. Do not mix the batter once its risen (if you want fluffy sannas).

This is how the fermented batter looks and you need to scoop them into the bowls just like this

Scoop the fermented batter with a very light hand on the ladle and pour it into small bowls (katoris) which have been greased with coconut oil and steam them in an idli steamer/tondor for about 20 minutes. I used silicon cupcake moulds to get cupcake shaped sannas too.
Once they are steamed - remove the bowls and invert them onto a clean kitchen towel - and remove the sannas once it has cooled down with the help of a butter knife.
Fluffy sannas are ready to be savored with Mangalorean Chicken Curry or Black chickpeas curry made in the Mangalorean Coconut based gravy.