Moog Gaathi (Green lentils side-dish)

Finally my most favorite dish during mostly made for any festival or occasion like Ganesh Chaturthi. This is usually served as a side-dish and is pure-veg i.e. without garlic or onion.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup moog/green lentils
1 tea spn jaggery
few pieces of cashew nuts (optional)
salt to taste

For masala:
1/3 cup fresh/frozen grated coconut ( do not use dessicated coconut)
2 red chillies
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
small piece of tamarind

For Tempering:
1 tea spn of mustard seeds
2 sprigs of curry leaves
pinch of hing
2 tbl spn of oil

Method:
Soak moog for around 4 hours in the evening and keep them covered in a wet cloth for making moog sprouts overnite.

Grind the masala ingredient to a fine paste with water. Be careful with the chillies. Do not make the paste very watery. Keep aside.
Tip: use tepid water for grinding during winter season or when using frozen coconut. Helps grinding the coconut faster.

Wash the sprouts properly removing the green cover as much as possible. Cook the moog sprouts for 1 whistle in a pressure cooker.

Heat oil in a pan on high flame, add the mustard seeds and hing, cover with a lid until the seeds splutter. reduce to low flame and add the curry leaves.
Then add in the masala, heat for a 2 mins and keep stirring. Then add the cooked moog along with water used to cook it. Keep water to 1 cup max. Add in salt to taste and jaggery. Mix well and cook for 8-10 mins on medium heat. Stir in between and add the cashew nuts if using.

Serve with dal-rice, roti or chapati or even goan paav. Optionally garnish with chopped green coriander leaves.

Masala Cola

Have you been to ‘Barbeque Nation’ @ Domlur Bangalore ? Well it used to be our treat pad in Bangalore for quite some time. Easily accessible and good starters and good desserts I happened to try their ‘Masala Cola’ once and was hooked on to it. It was OMG a masaledar break from the normal coke.

Here’s my attempt to make it at home and it was pretty good

Ingredients:
1 can coke/diet coke/cola
1/2 tea spn chaat masala
a pinch of salt (optional)
few leaves of mint (optional)

Method:
Put the chaat masala in a tall glass. Add the coke to it slowly. Let the foam settle . Add the salt.
Gently crush the mint leaves and add it to the coke. Lightly stir once with a spoon.

There you are.. masala coke is ready !

Serve with chips or samosas or just as is

Updated Posts: Veggie Pizza

Guest Post – Mango Lassi

Been lazy with the Winter coming down here.. and a short 3 week hectic trip to india.. Should be back with more posts soon

Here’s a long pending guest post from my friend Asmita…
There is no season for a mango.. delicacy all year round.. Yummy
Having had a mango lassi on my last visit to an Indian restaurant in southall I coudn’t resist posting it here.

Ingredients:
Thick Yogurt
Mango Pulp
Sugar (to taste )

Method:
Blend mango pulp, yogurt and sugar.
Adjust pulp and sugar to taste.

Serve:
Add ice cubes / refrigerate.
Serve in a dainty glass with an umbrella topper/mint leaf/slice of mango … let your imagination flow

Enjoy Madi!!

You can get Mango pulp in any indian grocery store.

Alami-chane Tonaak (Mushroom-peas Gravy)

During monsoon, Goan markets are flooded with local mushrooms called as ‘Alami‘. This is a seasonal speciality and makes the fav dish of goans The Alamis have a different taste then the generally available button or other mushrooms. The taste is absolutely divine!

Hence, moment this Alamis start appearing, it’s quickly bought ( at a quite high price ofcourse!). The most commonly made as crispy rava fries and the alami tonnak.

This is also my favorite recipe of all !

I prepared this using the normal button mushrooms available here. For a twist I added some green peas as well. And the result ? Finger licking good!

Here’s my recipe:
Ingredients:
10-12 button mushrooms (medium)
3/4 vaati green peas
1 large onion
1 tomato
4 tbl spn grated coconut
2-3 tea spn Oil

For the masala:
3 tbl spn Coriander seeds
2 red chillies
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
2 cloves
5-6 pepper corns
2 cloves of garlic (small)
1/2 – 1 star anise
1 piece of cinnamon (medium)
1 tea spn of fennel seeds (Badishep)

Method:
Chop onions and tomatoes length wise.
Chop mushrooms into 5-6 pieces each.
Thaw the peas if using frozen ones. I generally get frozen green peas and keep them in hot water to make them thaw fast.

For the ground masala:
Heat a tea spn of oil in a pan and add in the masala ingredients. Fry for 3-4 mins on medium heat. A nice aroma will come. Stir in between. Remove on a plate. I add badishep as my mom adds it whenever onion is added in the masala. Adding star anise gives the dish a nice aroma.

Add little more oil and fry tomato and 1/4th of the onion. Fry till the onion is cooked. Remove on the masala plate.

Now put in the coconut and fry for a minute till it gets a light brown tinge. Frying coconut also gives a nice aroma. Make sure none of the ingredients are burnt.

Put the masala ingredients, onion-tomato and coconut in a blender. Add a little water and grind till a fine consistency is reached.

To make the tonaak:
Heat 2 tea spn oil in the pan, add the remaining onion and fry for a few mins. Now add in the peas and mushroom pieces. Fry for 2-3 mins. Add in the masala paste and 1 vaati water. (Do not add too much water, as it will make the dish watery.) Cover and cookl for 10 mins on medium flame.

Alami Tonaak

Serve with white rice or chapatis or just bread

Generally in Goa, tonaak is eaten with Goan Paav

Alami tonaak with rice and fish fry!

Tip: I added some coriander stems while grinding the masala. Usually these stems are wasted as only the green leaves are used. Reduce the amount of coriander seeds used, if using coriander stems.

Links: Goan Fish Rava Fry

Palak Bhajji ( Crispy Spinach Fries)

There are times when you hate certain vegetables.. and when they lie in the fridge staring back at you.. you just don’t know what to do with them.. ( at that moment you just stare back and close the fridge

Spinach is one such veggie.. I would hate to eat..

But then this version made me love it!!! It’s very simple crispy bhajji which my husband had made few months back.. and I had a pack of spinach leaves lying in my fridge.. so on today’s rainy day in UK I decided to try it out.. motive ? finish the spinach

But I was wrong.. finally i’ve started to like it

Here’s the recipe :
Ingredients:
30 medium spinach leaves
1 cup of Besan ( Gram Flour)
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
2 tea spn chilli powder
1/2 tea spn coriander powder
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Wash and clean the palak leaves. Spread on paper for drying.

Take the besan in a bowl, add masala powders and salt. Mix well. Add a little water and mix using spoon. Keep adding little water till the batter becomes a little watery. Don’t add too much water, the batter has to have enough consistency to stick to the leaves. Adjust the spices to taste.

Keep aside for 10 mins so that the lumps can be easily dissolved. Mix well to remove any lumps remaining. For testing the batter, dip a spoon and check the coat on the back of the spoon. The spoon should have a light coat of the batter.

Heat oil in a kadai/pan. Once the oil heats up, dip a single palak leaf in the batter. Coat the leaf lightly on both sides. Lightly put this leaf in the oil. Repeat with 2-3 more leaves. Fry till the bhajjis turn light brown on both sides. The spinach leaves remain greenish. Remove on tissue paper/kitchen roll. Taste this first set and adjust spices in the besan mix as per taste. Now fry the remaining leaves.
Do not fry till dark brown.

Serve with tomato sauce. This is a crispy – crunchy snack and a good tea accompaniment

Enjoy!

No pics as the bhajji’s disappeared as soon as the batches came out! But will post as soon as I make this the next time

Back Again

Back to blogging after a long long time!

We have shifted to UK. Shall soon be posting more recipes.

Here’s an easy to make Mackerel fish curry – I came up with this when I reached UK. Stuck without a mixer/blender and a craving for Goan food made me come up with this one! It was an instant hit with a friend who had come down to meet us

Easy Fish Curry
Ingredients:
Fresh Mackerel pieces – 5-6
1/2 can of Coconut Milk (approx 150-200 ml)
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
1/2 inch piece ginger
3-4 green chillies
1/2 – 1 tea spn chilli powder
1/2 tea spn of coriander powder or use 1 tea spn of fresh green coriander
3-4 pieces of kokum
5-6 pieces of tephal (optional)
1 small onion
1 tea spn oil

Method:
Wash and clean the mackerel pieces. Apply salt and keep aside.

Crush the ginger using a mortar-pestle and make a coarse paste.
Chop onion finely. Slit the green chillies.

Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Fry for a few minutes till the onions turn slightly pinkish.
Add in ginger, chilli powder and turmeric powder. Mix well.
Now add in the coconut milk and little water. (Water to dilute the coconut milk if it’s thick.) I use Amoy Coconut Milk.

Adjust spices to taste. Mackerel curry requires more turmeric powder, as mackerel stink more than other fish.

Let it come to a boil. Mackerel cooks very fast, hence add it only after the onion is cooked. Then add the mackerel pieces. Now put in salt, green chillies, kokum, and tephal. Adding tephal gives it a nice aroma. Simmer for around 7-8 mins. Approx time required to cook the mackerel pieces.

Turn off stove. Now add in the coriander powder or chopped green coriander.
Serve with hot steamed rice and crispy Fish Rava fry.

The one I made was a mildly spiced curry.

Enjoy madi

Bharille Bangde (Stuffed Mackerel)

I will be without net connection for a few weeks now. I apologize for being lazy in posting on this blog! I am shifting out of bangalore hence the gap. Will be back after a while.. till then enjoy my fav dish

My Fav fav fav dish. Yummy and very filling. Generally it’s one whole mackerel per person

when I made it, my hands were full with fish and other pastes used. hence i could not take snaps. After i finished, all were so hungry that the mackerels were finished. Well after all it was served with steaming rice and prawn curry :p

Ingredients:
1/2 to 3/4th vaati freshly grated coconut
1 medium onion chopped/sliced
1 and 1/2 tbl spn coriander seeds
1 tea spn cumin seeds
2 green chillies
small piece of ginger
3-4 flakes garlic
a small round of tamarind
1/2 vaati rava
4 mackerels (cleaned)
salt to taste

For frying:
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
1 tea spn chilli powder
piece of thread (sutt)
oil for shallow frying

Method:

Clean the mackerels, keeping the tail. (Remove the head and fins. )

Slit the mackerels in the middle keeping one side closed, the bone (skeleton) should be visible.
apply salt and keep aside.

Grind together – coconut, onion, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, little turmeric powder, tamarind, green chilies, ginger, garlic and salt to a coarse paste with little water. The paste should remain thick hence don’t add too much water. keep the paste aside. (Adjust spices to taste)

Divide the thread into 4 parts – each part should be long enough to be tied around the stuffed mackerel.
Mix rava, turmeric and chilli powder together.

Heat oil on a tava.

Divide the stuffing paste into 4 parts/rounds. Take a mackerel and stuff it with the paste.
It will look something like this.

Tie the thread around the mackerel to avoid the paste from coming out during frying. Roll this stuffed mackerel in the rava.

Serve along with fish curry – rice and lemon wedges.

Instructions: You can remove the thread just before serving or instruct to be careful about the thread when eating.

* All photos and links are from Google Search. Please let me know in case of any issues with the same.

Tikhte

This is a chutney type dish. It’s basically a replacement for dals/veg curries served with rice.
Easy to make and yummy to taste

This is a spicy dish hence the word ‘tikh‘ in the name. ‘tikh‘ means spicy in konkani. You can easily guess that based on the chillies added.

It’s the tephal that gives this dish a real nice aroma and of course a different taste!

Ingredients:
1 vaati freshly grated coconut
1/2-3/4 tea spn chilli powder or around 2-3 red chillies
pinch of turmeric powder
small round of tamarind
4-5 fresh tephal (Sichuan pepper)
salt to taste

Method:
Grind coconut, chillies, turmeric and tamarind to a thick fine paste. Adjust chillies as per taste.

Remove in a vessel. Add little water and cook for 2-3 mins.
Add salt to taste and tephal. Cook for 3-4 mins.

Serve with hot steamed rice and vegetable dish.

Tastes yummy especially if you like chutney’s like I do!

Solkadi ( Coconut Milk – Kokum Curry)

Finally, my fav post is here Sadly, I dont’ have a picture of the dish! But ‘googling’ for solkadi will get you the pic

Kokum forms the main part of this kadhi. You can find it in any konkani store.

Here is how I make Solkadi:
Ingredients:
2 cups (vaati) freshly grated coconut
2-3 green chillies
around 2 cups drinking water
4-5 pieces of kokum
salt to taste

Method:
In a bowl, add little water, kokum and some salt.

In a mixie jar, add freshly grated coconut and green chillies. Add 1/2 vaati water and grind for around 30 secs. Take a rounds of the ground mix and using a stainer, stain the juice into the bowl.
Repeat till the juice is extracted, and the mix is dried out. Grind again with another 3/4 – 1 vaati of water for around 30-45 secs. The ground mix will become thin. Strain using the procedure described above.

Solkadi is ready
Add salt to taste to the kadi – taste and then add, as adding more salt will spoil the dish!

Garnish with finely chopped coriander.
Optionally add 2-3 flakes of garlic, finely chopped or pounded – this tastes real yum!

Adjust green chillies as per taste.

Shorcut Solkadi : Use 1 vaati ready made coconut milk diluted with little water. Add in slitted green chillies, kokum and salt to taste

Here’s a post on Solkadi on Nupur’s One Hot Stove.

Kanyachi Bhakri (Onion Bhakri)

Well I am back to blogging, slowly though.

Started my day today with a kanyachi bhakri, which is one of my favorite sunday breakfast/brunch dish.
Kaano means onion in konkani. Bhakri is a kind of roti prepared wholly with hand. It’s not rolled like a chapati, but is placed and layered on the tawa with hand.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion (kaano)
1 vaati besan (indian measurement cup )
1/2 vaati rawa
2 green chillies or 1 tea spn chilli powder
few sprigs of coriander leaves or 1/2 tea spn coriander powder
1/4 tea spn turmeric powder
4 table spn freshly grated coconut (optional)
oil for shallow frying
salt to taste

Method:
Chop onions, coriander and green chillies finely.
Mix together in a bowl. Add the besan, rawa, spice powders and salt to taste. Mix well WITHOUT adding water. Adjust spices to taste.
I didn’t add coconut to this, but my mom does and it taste absolutely awesome

Now add approx 1/2 cup of water to this and form a coarse & sticky batter. Do not make this mixture very watery as we need to place this batter on the tawa by hand.

Take a non-stick tawa and put a tea spoon of oil on it. Keep on low flame. Take a big round of the batter, place it at the center of the tawa.
Dip your fingers in water and lightly pat the batter spreading it on the tawa like a chapati. Keep patting lightly, till the batter spreads on the tawa.

Now place a tawa cover or plate on it, so that the bhakri cooks on the steam for a few mins. Turn around once and cook well till you see brown spots on both side of the bhakri.

Serve with tomato sauce and garam garam chai

Enjoy at breakfast, brunch or evening snack