Corn Handvo

This post on Corn Handvo is my nod to snacking season. With the monsoon rains pouring down, a cup of chai and snacks are a must-do activity with family and friends. 

A lighter handvo

Handvo, as we know is a baked, savoury cake made from a fermented batter of rice and a couple of varieties of lentils, a vegetable (like the bottle gourd or lauki) and yoghurt. Corn Handvo, as the name indicates, is made from a batter of fresh (or frozen), sweetcorn. Since it is corn season, I prefer to use the tender, juicy and sweet kernels of fresh corn. The batter is a simple and straightforward one. It’s mainly corn, some rice flour and gram flour (besan), green chilli paste, grated fresh ginger, turmeric, and chilli powder and a little yoghurt to help with the fermentation. The batter is fermented for 5-6 hours. This helps break down some of the starch and sugar and give the mixture a pleasant, sourness. You could add a little sugar to counter this tang, but I quite like it so I skip the sugar.

You can also choose to add a vegetable like grated carrots, peas or blanched and chopped spinach. Just ensure that you do not add too much, which will make the batter extra wet and result in an undercooked handvo. I always add a small amount of soda bicarb to the batter before baking. The yoghurt activates it and makes the handvo airy and fluffy.

The right pan for baking handvo

A cast iron pan is perfect for baking this Corn Handvo. The even distribution  and retention of heat in a cast iron pan, gives the handvo a nicely browned, crunchy crust. You can refer to my recipe for traditional lentil handvo to see how it turns out. I baked my Corn Handvo in a pie tin because I made a smaller handvo and my cast iron pans were too large for this quantity. But 

If you want to serve more people, you can go ahead and double this recipe without hesitation. And use cast iron (if you have one) to bake it. It can be baked just as successfully in a cake pan, metal, not glass. An important step, that I recommend, is heating the pan with a little oil before you pour in the batter. Doing this will give you a crunchy crust at the bottom.

Some people pour the mustard seed, sesame and curry leaf tempering on the uncooked batter before baking. I don’t because the tempering can get burnt and impart an unpleasant bitterness and colour to the dish. Once baked, remove the handvo from the oven, unmould onto a serving plate and then pour on the tempering. Corn Handvo can be eaten warm or at room temperature with a chutney of your choice.

Other corn recipes you may be interested in