Shirvale is a traditional recipe made in the Kokan villages (Maharastra, India) with Rice / Ragi or  Nachni(finger millet) flour and served with sweetened coconut milk. It is one tedious recipe. Mainly made for special occasions.

During my childhood whenever we visited my hometown during vacations making Shirvale was an occasion in itself. We kids would go bring the shirvale maker which was a wooden device about a foot tall from whoever had it in the village. While the men would get freshly ground flour and women would sit to grate the coconut and then knead the freshly ground dough. Thus the making of Shirvale would begin with everyone in the kitchen.

I don’t know who said, workouts can’t happen in the kitchen but I do know they surely haven’t tried making some of our traditional Indian recipes. One thing I can say, Your entire bicep triceps shoulder workouts can happen while you prepare this dish 😉

Ingredients-

• Nachni/Ragi/finger millet flour
• Coconut milk
• Jaggery
• Salt
• Elaichi/cardamom powder

Procedure-

• Take nachni atta, add a little salt and add in water. Knead it into a soft dough. Make small balls.
• Boil water in a large utensil. Add in the small dough balls. Let it cook for 10-12 mins.*When the dough balls come to the surface remove them out.
• Place the cooked balls in a sec maker or manual noodle maker and make the noodles.
• To make the sweetened coconut milk take coconut milk, and add the jaggery and cardamom powder. Chill it.
• Serve the Shirvale/ steamed noodles with sweetened coconut milk.

Nutritionally speaking, it’s best when made with nachni (finger millet). Though in terms of taste, rice is a better option.

Do give it a try and let me know how you find it.