Friday, November 23, 2012

Katta Mandige - A Premium Jain Sweet

Katta in local Tulu dialect means rice soup and Mandige means folds rolls or layers in North Karnataka Kannada as far as I am given to understand. Mandige is a sweet popular in Hyderabad Karnataka and the Jains settled in undivided South Kanara District mastered and popularised this centuries ago.
I was living in a Jain neighborhood in Ballalbagh Mangalore for 16 years since 1958 and I had a taste of this sweet then made in rural places around Karkala. The Bunt Jains are experts in making these tissue thin crepes with powdered sugar and pure ghee within the layers.

Traditionally, a special metallic thick stone is heated on wood fire and a thin layer of rice soup is spread. It gets dry and before it gets roasted, they remove that wafer thin sheet, place it on a flat surface and sprinkle powdered sugar and drizzle it with melted pure ghee. Another sheet is laid over this and the process is repeated till many layers are formed.Then they fold the mattress of these sheets and cut them into small strips or chunks and serve them at special occasions. Feast at most of the Jain weddings is incomplete without this sweet dish.

Padival's Restaurant in Moodabidri still sells Katta Mandige commercially but is mostly made with hydrogenated vegetable oil with a hint of ghee, for the cost of production is too high.

Here's Katta Mandige from Padival's Restaurant for those whom this delicacy is lesser known or unseen or even heard of before, the rare and premium Jain sweet.


7 comments:

venu said...

i have had it...may be last in 1993

Sundari Kamath Padiyar said...

Never had it, Thank you for the detailed post.Quite interesting. Got to try it next time:)

ಅಮಿತಾ ರವಿಕಿರಣ್ said...

This is my first visit to your blog ..you welcomed with a awesome sweet ,and it's tooooooo goooooooood

Rajanikanth Shenoy, Kudpi said...

Thank you Venu, Sundari and Amita

Gayatri said...

Have eaten it and it is delicious.. Anyway that we can order it from Bangalore??

Rajanikanth Shenoy, Kudpi said...

Gayatri you can try finding 'Pootherekulu' in Bengaluru with any sweet shop or bakery selling Andhra specialties. Pootherekulu and Katta Mandige are the same. Ask for the sweet 'Mandige'.

I don't know if Padival's in Moodabidri send parcel of this sweet to outside places. You may also check out in google for their contact phone number and ask personally.

Gayatri said...

Thank u so much. Will chk :)

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