ManDe or Chowde or ManDige

During Konkani weddings, we make a set of sweet dishes. The most famous among them is ‘ManDe/chowde‘(Konkani) or ManDige(Kannada). Usually the previous day of wedding (or same day as wedding, but before actual wedding), we do a pooja called as ‘Sreemanth pooja‘. (Some day in future, I will elaborate on all these functions). During this, 5 types of sweets are prepared. Mother-in-laws feed a bite of these sweets to their would-be Son-in-law or daughter-in-law. Usually for this occasion the sweets are made in huge size (a huge laddu, huge manDe, huge chiroti etc which look beautiful but cannot be finished by one person). There are other significances of manDe at weddings.

The other place where this dish has a lot of importance is ‘Ganesh Chaturthi’. This dish is prepared as an offering to god.

These days this dish is readily available in markets. So people prefer to buy it instead of making this dish at home.

When my mom gave me this recipe last week, I immediately knew I had to send it to Santhi’s JFI for flour event. I prepared this here and absolutely loved the taste. I had tasted this after ages (I don’t know how I missed this during my wedding and my brother’s wedding). This is a crispy, sweet dish.

Ingredients:
1 cup maida or all purpose flour
2 tea spn ghee
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tbl spn sesame seeds (white til)
½ tea spn cardamom powder
Oil for deep frying
Salt a pinch

Method:
Make hard dough with floor, ghee, salt and water.
Take small balls of dough and roll it into medium sized chapathis (roll them into as thin as possible).
Wash sesame in water and drain. Roast them on a tava (when roasted, sesame pops up). Do not burn them. Mix sugar and cardamom with sesame. Keep it aside.

Heat oil and deep fry the discs one by one. They should still remain white colored when fried. So don’t fry for long time. Just leave them in hot oil and immediately remove. Small bubbles appear on the surface indicating they are cooked. If kept for a longer time, they become stiff and cannot be folded.
Spread the sugar mixture. It should be done when the fried discs are still hot, otherwise the sugar will not stick to them. Fold it into a triangle as shown below spreading the sugar mixture on all the folds.

Store them in airtight container. They remain good for at least 15 days, if stored properly.

Makes around 10
Preparation time: 40mins

I usually use the smallest possible vessel for deep frying, so that only little oil can be used for frying. This reduces the wasting of oil. I rolled them into a puri size, since I had used the small vessel.

37 thoughts on “ManDe or Chowde or ManDige”

  1. I’ve never heard of this before, I should try it soon.
    Please clarify:
    – When do you use the sesame seeds? Should it be mixed with the sugar and cardamom?
    – If the chappati has to be flexible enough to fold without breaking, is it really cooked in the hot oil?

  2. Vidya, Sesame seeds(til) needs to be mixed with sugar and cardamom.
    Some of the chapathis will break when you make it for the first time. The chapathis should be rolled out real thin so that when u dip in hot oil they cook immediately (some small bubbles appear on the surface). (I have updated the post, please have a look)

  3. Wow Shilpa…Looks Delicious. Feel like eating it right away. My grandmom made the best sweets. We used to hire cooks for days in native place and make sweets and other fried items during functions. Nowadays you hardly find good cooks. Also since it is easily avble in most of the stores or hotels, it is picked from there. I have never tried it though it looks easy, the reason is you need to fold it immediately after spinking suger when hot. So more the qty the greater are the chances of burning hands. Must try it during this weekend. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

  4. what an amazing dish for JFI Shilpa..
    I am so glad u chose something so very special.
    And no U r not the last one to send.
    I am yet to post my own entry :):)

  5. Shilpa, I have eaten Mande at a wedding in Belgaum . They are very popular there too and taste simply divine. I think we were given kesar flavoured milk to dip them in.

  6. We have also the same tradition before the marriage day. Silk sarees, bangles, jewelery, and sweets are given to the bride by MIL. So nice to read about it in detail at your blog, Shilpa.

    Classic recipe and great entry to JFI. My mother also prepares them and we call it “Tiyya Appalu” (Sweet pooris). Great for snacking.

  7. Shilpa,this may be out of turn, but would you know what huli(tamarind) avlakki is? Any chance you have a recipe you can share???

    It’s similar to puliogre and my absolute favourite. I’d give an arm and leg to have a recipe that lets me enjoy it often. Please do let me know if you need any information about the dish.

  8. this is great…i cant believe you have a recipe up for Mande,you are a great cook!!..Mande is very famous in belgaum…

  9. I’ve said this earlier and I don’t think I will tire of saying it. Regional recipes rock. They involve our families our upbringing and evoke such a feeling of comfort and nostalgia.
    thanks for posting this. Will be trying it definitely.

  10. Thanks a lot for all the comments :D. All your support encourages me to post more of such dishes :).
    Preeti, I have found one recipe for huli avalakki(when u had asked about it last time, I had extensively searched for it). I haven’t tried it yet, so I will try soon and post it.

  11. Ummmm, Mandagi!! I luv these! We used to get a special order of these on weddings from Belgaum. and wot a coincidence, my hubby was talking about these just last evening and (almost sighing) that all these delicacies are not available in CA…. and so I was determined to hunt out a recipe… thanx a lot!!! I normally like to have these with kesar milk (ever so slightly swetened).

  12. My mother, who is aamchigele makes Mande with “Kheel” instead of til (she roasts it lightly, then grinds it in the blender till quite fine). She then mixes the sugar and cardamom and the rest is as you describe. We must try it with til as well. Mande are my favourite sweet and every north Indian who eats it is completely bowled over!!

  13. Hi Shilpa,
    I’m from Dharwad and the mandige we get there is a little different than this ,they have a lot of layers and we eat it with milk and ghee.Thanks for the recipe though, looks gr8 will surely try it this weekend.

  14. Hi,
    The mandige that I eat in Belgaum is different. It has a lot of ghee and layers. Just melts in your mouth.

    My mom makes this same recipe as yours , but we call it sakre (sugar) puri.

  15. In Northern Karnataka the “Mandige” is prepared without deep frying….The bigger size of Mandige is baked on the big vessel called “Hande” which is heated by fire..the fire being forced thru the hollow face opening of the Hande and this Hande is inverted and the Mandige is spread on its bottom portion….i.e. the Hande opening is in the bottom side facing the fire flame and the bottom of the Hande is on the top side (Inverted). This arramgement makes it possible to bake big size Mandige evenly. Better way of preparing Mandige compared to deep frying method !!!

  16. Hi Shilpa, I’m totally in love with this sweet. In belgaum its called mande and yes even in my cousins weeding we had a feast of these sweets..I just devour it with simple milk..and always wondered how they r made coz they r so delicate. Here in mumbai i dont have idea if we get these. But now i’ll try this receipe at home.

  17. Perrrrfect! Last year had made holige, so wanted to do something different this time along with the usual modakas and panchakajjaya. Trusting you completely tried it for the first time today morning for the naivedya and it came perrrrrfect 🙂 Thanks again!

  18. Hi Shilpa, I had heard about ‘undo and mando’ from my mom and grandmother but never got a chance to taste it. Thanks for the recipe. I’m gonna try it soon!

  19. Can i know if technology available on this making mandige …it will be helpful if you have any contacts of machine manufactures.

    Regards,
    Iranna
    9686956691

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