Kansar

Coarse wheat flour and tepid water, with no milk and no fruit, and the sugar goes on at the table.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee).

Ingredients

• 250 g coarse whole wheat flour, bhakri lot
• 4 tablespoons ghee, for the dough
• 150 ml tepid water
• 120 g ghee, to serve
• 150 g powdered sugar, to serve

Method

1. COARSE WHEAT FLOUR AND TEPID WATER, WITH NO MILK AND NO FRUIT, AND THE SUGAR GOES ON AT THE TABLE. Its article gives a short ingredient list and then a separate FOR SERVING heading, which is the whole structure of the dish: one cup of coarse whole wheat flour -- it names the flour as bhakri lot or LAPSI LOT -- two tablespoons of oil or ghee, and HALF A CUP OF TEPID WATER. That is all that is cooked. The sugar powder and the clarified butter its article names as the main ingredients arrive afterwards, poured and spooned on. So it is a plain cooked grain dressed at the table rather than a sweet cooked sweet.
2. ITS ARTICLE CALLS IT LAPSI AND IT IS NOT THE LAPSI ON THESE PAGES. It opens "Kansar (Also known as Lapsi)", and the flour it names is lapsi lot. But Laapsi, as on its own page, is cooked in milk with nuts, raisins and dried fruit. This one has water and nothing else. The shared name is about the grain, not the dish.
3. THE WATER IS TEPID, WHICH ITS ARTICLE SPECIFIES. Not boiling and not cold. Warm water hydrates coarse wheat without gelatinising the starch on contact.
4. THE FLOUR IS COARSE AND THAT IS NAMED TOO. Bhakri flour, which is much coarser than chapati flour. Fine flour gives a paste.
5. IT IS RUBBED WITH THE GHEE BEFORE THE WATER GOES IN. Two tablespoons worked through the dry flour with the fingertips until it looks like damp sand.
6. IT IS COOKED LOW AND DRY UNTIL IT SMELLS TOASTED. Twenty minutes, stirred, over a low heat. It should stay loose and grainy rather than coming together in a mass.
7. IT IS SERVED IN A MOUND WITH A WELL IN THE TOP. The melted ghee goes in the well and the powdered sugar over everything.
8. THE GHEE IS POURED MELTED AND THERE IS A LOT OF IT. A hundred and twenty grams between six. Its article names clarified butter as a main ingredient and this is where almost all of it goes.
9. IT IS A DISH WITH A JOB, AND ITS ARTICLE EXPLAINS IT. Serving kansar to guests is taken as a sign of respect and of commitment, and it has a part in Gujarati wedding ceremonies.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes