Vaalichi Bhaji

I had Vaal in my fridge and made this Goan veggie dish for dinner today. Here’s an authentic Goan dish prepared in the microwave for

Srivalli’s Microwave Easy Cooking Event – Side Dish

Ingredients:

1 bunch of vaal/long beans (approx 12-15 )
2 green chillies
1 medium onion (optional)
1 tbl spn freshly grated coconut
1/2 tea spn mustard
1 tea spn oil
a pinch of hing
salt to taste

Method:

Use a microwave safe glass bowl for this recipe as we will use oil. I made this sabji on 100% power. (default mode in my LG microwave)

Chop the vaal and onions. Slit the chillies.

Looks like Goa doesn’t it ?

Dry the bowl ( heat in microwave for 1-2 mins on high) and add the oil in it. Heat at 100% power for 1-2 mins. Now add the mustard and hing. Cover half with a lid, heat for 3 mins or till the mustard splutters.

Now add the onions and microwave for 2 mins. Stir in between.
Now add the green chillies, vaal and salt to taste. Add around 3/4-1 cup water, stir well and microwave for 5 mins. Stir once or twice in-between.

Mix the grated coconut, cover and cook for another 5 mins. Add more water and cook if required as the beans may require more cooking.

Serve as a side dish with rice-dal or with chapati/roti/bread.

Experimenting with the centered layout for this post

Fodni Fov (Kande Pohe)

Fodni Fov is a traditional breakfast dish in Goa. This is also known as Kande Pohe in Maharashtra. Usually made for breakfast or as an accompaniment to tea in the evening.
Fodni means Tadka, hence the name – Fodni (tadka) Fov (Poha).

The important part is cleaning the poha. Use very less water and dont’ soak the poha in it. It will break and turn soggy. The cleaning has to happen in a few seconds. I’ve explained the way we do it below.

We had this for a late breakfast today. I learnt this from my hubby, he makes it amazingly tasty! Here’s his recipe.

Ingredients:
2 or 3 cups of Thick Poha (beaten rice)
2 small onions (optional)
2 green chillies or 1/2-1 tea spn chilli powder
1/2 tea spn mustard
1/4 tea spn garam masala (optional)
1 strand of curry leaves (approx 10)
4 tbl spn freshly grated coconut (optional)
pinch of turmeric powder
pinch of hing
2-3 tbl spn oil
salt to taste

Method:
Add water to the poha till they are completely immersed. With a light hand, clean the poha.
Cover with a lid and drain the water (leave little water in the poha). Leave for 15 mins.

Chop the onions into thin slices or chop them finely. Wash and chop green chillies.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and add mustard and hing. Wait for the mustard to splutter. (This is the fodni)
Add the curry leaves and fry for some time. Now add the onions. Fry for 2-3 mins. Add the green chillies.
Fry till the onions turn pinkish.

Now add the turmeric, chilli powder (if not using green chillies), and salt. Fry till the onions are cooked.

Keep on low heat and add the poha. Add the grated coconut ( if using). Mix well. Cover and cook for 5-6 mins.

Serve on a plate and garnish with fresh coriander, grated coconut (if not added already) and lemon wedges. You can add sev to give a crispy taste.

I didnt’ add coconut while preparing, hence added it while serving. This is how it’s done in Maharashtra. While in Goa, we add the coconut while preparing the pohe.
Also, Saraswats dont’ add onions and add a little sugar to the preparation.

Enjoy this tasty breakfast

Tip: Add a tomato (chopped), after frying the onions for a different version.

Batatyache Kalvan (Maharashtrian)

First an update. I had promised chicken and some authentic Goan dishes when mom would be here. But my brother had got jaundice, hence we were on a light diet. Will put up the recipes after getting them from mom and trying them out myself.

Now back to the recipe….

I learnt this from my Mom-in-law. This is a tasty gravy dish which goes with rice or roti and is real easy to make.
While the Goan version would generally use coconut as a standard ingredient, this one uses peanuts which is a standard ingredient in rural maharashtrian food.

Here’s her recipe:
Ingredients:
2 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
1/2 cup peanuts
1 tea spn chilli powder
1/4 tea spn turmeric powder
5-6 strands of green coriander
3-4 pods garlic
1 tea spn oil
salt to taste

Method:
Dry roast the peanuts on a tava. When they are roasted they will crackle and turn blackish. Remove from tava and cool. Remove the outer cover and keep aside.

Chop potatoes into small rectangular pieces. (not tiny, just good enough for cooking directly)
Chop the onion finely.

Coarse grind peanuts, coriander and garlic in a dry grinder without using water. (dont’ make this fine)

Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. When the onions turn slight pinkish, add the potatoes and fry for a few mins.
Keep on low heat and add the ground peanut mix and fry for a few seconds.

Add in the chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Mix well. Adjust the spicy taste by using more chilli powder if required.

Now add around 1 & 1/2 cup of water, keep on medium heat, cover and keep for 10 mins. ( I usually adjust the water depending on the potatoes used, hence add more water if required.) Check if the potatoes are cooked, add more water if required.

This is a gravy dish, hence adjust the water to need. Dont’ over cook the potatoes.
The peanut-coriander-garlic gives it a nice taste

Serve hot with Chapati/roti or hot steamed rice!

Enjoy Madi !

This is my entry for “Suganya’s Vegan Ventures“

Tikhat Nevryo (Spicy Karanji)

I forgot to mention the interesting things which happened on my recent trip to Goa.
First, during the security check of my flight to Goa, I saw Rahul Dravid!!!!! Only that it was during the security check and I could not meet him But I saw him
My journey from Goa Airport to home was in our new Silver Swift ( a real devil!). And on my return flight, I saw Roshni Chopra ( Pia from Kasam Se!).
Well my trip was star filled

Now to my favorite nevri! A spicy twist to the common sweet nevri
This was prepared by mom with me just helping in between. The hands in action are of my mom

Adapted from Ishtann
(Makes around 30-40 nevryos! hence vary as per requirement!)

Ingredients:
6 cups grated coconut (dried)/ 1 Packet of dessicated coconut (approx 400gm)
2 cups fine rava
2 cups groundnut powder
6 cups sugar
3 cups wheat flour
2 tbl spn chilli powder
1 tea spn turmeric powder
1/2 cup sesame seeds (til)
a pich of hing (powder)
2 cups maida
1-2 tea spn ghee
oil for deep frying
salt to taste

Method:
Dry the grated coconut in the sun. It will get cripsy. Crush with you hand till fine. Clean using a seive (if it doesn’t appear clean!)
For groundnuts, take approximately 2-2 1/2 cups of groundnut and dry roast on a tava. Remove the skin and grind to a coarse powder in a mixer.
Roast the sesame seeds till they crackle.

Roast the rava using a little ghee till it turns reddish and keep aside.
Roast the dried coconut in ghee till it turns reddish and keep aside.

Add the groundnuts to the rava. Now add the roasted coconut and sugar. Mix well.
Add the roasted sesame seeds. Add chilli powder, turmeric powder and hing. Add salt and mix well.
Adjust the salt and chilli powder to taste.

To 2 cups of maida, add 3 cups of wheat flour and mix with a laddle full of oil/ghee.
Add salt to taste and knead with little water to form a chapati like dough. Set aside for 1/2 hour and knead once again.

Form into small balls. Roll using the poll-paat like a thin puri.

Place a little filling of the coconut on one side of the circle or in the center. Using a little water dampen the circumference of the puri. Fold into a semicircle.

Press the edges to seal and cut semi-circle using a chinnkatne.

Repeat till you have 8-10 nevryos.

Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry the nevryos till golden brown.
Remove on tissue paper.

Cool the nevryo and preserve in a airtight container.

Serves as a anytime spicy snack

Omelette anyone ?

Have you travelled in a train overnite any time ? Then you’d know how the hawkers move through the train in the morning selling breakfast shouting “idli-vade”, “idli-vade”…. “amlette paav”, “amlette paav”… “chai” (said as chaa-ye), “chai”…. “kafeeeye” (coffee)..

Well today morning this was ringing in my head and I didn’t want to cook much and had got eggs left in the fridge. Made up a quick omelette which turned out pretty good (first time!)

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 medium onion
2-3 tbl spn milk
1/2 tea spn chilli powder
1/4 tea spn turmeric powder
1/4 tea spn garam masala
salt to taste
Cooking butter

Method:
Chop the onions finely.
Break the eggs in a bowl. Add onions, chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala, and salt to taste. Mix well till turmeric dissolves properly and no lumps are formed.
Add the milk and beat well.

I used cholestrol free Nutralite cooking butter and it gave a nice taste to the omelette. Heat a tava and put little cooking butter. Using a ladle spread the butter across the tava.

Once the butter melts, put half of the egg mix on the tava. Beat the egg mix just before putting on the tava for a fluffy omelette.
Cook on low heat, turn the omelette on the other side and cook well.

Serve with tomato sauce and wheat bread

We had the omelette with garam garam chai and enjoyed! So when are you having a good tasty omelette for breakfast ?

 Updated just for you Asha

BhauBij, 2 gifts and a cake

Bhaubij (known as Bhai duj in North India) is a celebration of the Brother-Sister relation and is celebrated 2 days after Diwali.

BhauBij this year was on Sunday and luckily my brother was with me after many many years!

We usually do a ovalni (a special puja) in the evening on that day. The thali used for ovalni usually consists of a diva, gandh (kumkum with little water) for tika, 2 rounds of wheat dough, any gold item, nane (currency coin). Ovalni means to do puja of the person with the thali just setup, after which the brother gives the sister a gift.

I got 2 gifts from my bro after the ovalni – a futura cooking pan and a borosil baking bowl with lid

Without wasting more time, I prepared the Healthy, Eggless and Microwave Cake I had set my eyes on!

All Credit goes to Mansi for this wonderful recipe

My only changes were :
1. I skipped adding milk powder, cookies and chocolate as I didn’t have them
2. I used 3-4 teaspns of Drinking chocolate powder instead of cocoa.
3. I added more milk, so that the cake batter forms ribbon when dropped using a spoon.
4. Instead of adding powdered sugar, I added normal sugar.
5. Kept the batter for around 15-20mins after mixing all ingredients so that the lumps are easily removed and the sugar mixes properly.

Even after so many changes, the cake turned out Awesome My brother just loved it!

I complete 50 posts on this blog with this one and what a coincidence to describe about Bhaubij

Shankarpalyo

Shankarpalyo is a sweet usually prepared during Diwali in Goa. It forms one of the long list of sweet & spicy food that are on the menu those days.
Shankarpalyo is one of my favs.

Here’s how my mom prepares it…

Ingredients:
4 cups wheat flour/maida
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup home made ghee
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Method:
Melt the ghee and add to milk. Add sugar to the milk and keep on low flame till the sugar melts.
Take the flour in a big thali and add the salt. Mix well. Knead using the warm milk-sugar-ghee mix to a soft round (like chapati batter). Adjust the maida and milk as needed to form this batter. It should not be sticky. Set aside this round for an hour.

Take a large ball and roll like a thick chapati on the polpaat. Using a chinnkatne (used for nevryo also) cut into diamonds.
( We didn’t find the chinnkatne and used a pizza cutter instead ) Chinnkatne is a spoon with a pizza cutter like edge.

Heat oil in a kadai. Test by adding a small bit of the dough. If it rises to the top as soon as you drop it, the oil is ready.
Fry the diamonds in the oil till light brown. Remove on tissue paper.

Cool and store in an airtight container.

Bet, you can’t eat just one

Amadyachi Karam

Amade is a sweet-sour fruit available in Goa. It’s used for dishes like sweet-sour pickle, udid methi …and last but not the least Karam

I suppose it’s called amado, coz it’s ambat(sour). Based on this fruit, fried round snacks are also called amade like biscuit amade.

Close up of a amado

On my recent trip to Goa, I got the book ‘Ishtann‘ by Padma Mahale. It has got a good collection of all Goan Saraswat Recipes, but didn’t have the recipe for the Karam!

Here it is

Ingredients:
8-10 Amade
1 and 1/2 cup freshly grated coconut
3/4 tea spn mustard seeds
1/2 cup jaggery or sugar
1 tea spn chilli powder
salt to taste

Method:
Skin the amade on the sharp edge of a aadoli or using a knife. Remove few pieces of the amado’s outer cover to expose the fibrous inside. Repeat for other amade.

Take a plastic cover, keep a amado on it and using a pestle, crush the amado so that the juice comes out. Dont’ crush very much. Just flatten it slightly. This will bring in the gravy’s taste to the amado.

Roast the mustard seeds on a tava for a few mins. Do not add oil.
Cut the jaggery into small ribbon like pieces, if hard just use a mortar-pestle and make small pieces.

In a mixie jar put the coconut, mustard seeds, chilli powder and the outer pieces of the amado. Grind to a coarse paste with little water. Adding the amade outer pieces adds taste to the gravy

Heat little water in a pan and add the amade. After the amade turn yellowish ( they are initially green in color), add the ground paste to it. Add very less water.
Mix well. Now add the jaggery and salt. Cook for a 10-15 mins on a low heat.

Karam is ready!

Enjoy the Sweet-sour dish Serve with hot rice and daal or as is!

Tip: If the amade are very sour, the dish can turn very sour. Add more jaggery if required.

Note: You can use pineapple or Torr (Raw Mango, called as Kairi in Marathi) to prepare this dish. I had once prepared this with a pineapple which lacked taste and the ingredients made it wonderful.

Diwali – I

Diwali the festival of lights is celebrated by having color around you through food or through any decoration. Some snaps from our Diwali Celebration!
(Recipes coming soon… been busy at home and office!)

Panti at the entrance

Pantyo on the side wall

Our Kandil

Diwali in Forum Mall

Food:
Tikhat Nevryo (spicy nevryo)

Dudhatle Fov (Dudh Pohe)

Chanyachi Usal

Amadyachi Karam

Rossatle Fov ( Pohe in coconut milk)

Kelyacho Halvo ( Banana Halwa)

Pithyache Ladoo

Shankarpalyo

Post updated with links of published recipes.

Diwali Special – Pithyache Ladoo

Pithyache means ‘made of flour’. Basically wheat flour is referred to as ‘Pith’ (pronounced as : pe-ee-th)

This is my fav ladoo.. only the ones which my mom or my grandma would make. All other variety does not entice me!

These ladoos come with a note “Handle with Care”

Ingredients:
4 cups Wheat flour
2 cups Sugar
2 cups homemade pure ghee/ Gharave Tup
1 tbl spn elaichi powder

Method:
Grind the sugar into a fine powder. Grind the elaichi also into a fine powder. Make sure no lumps are present.

If using home made wheat flour, sieve the flour and use only the fine wheat flour. Use only homemade Pure Ghee as this will bring in a nice aroma.

Heat a pan and add the ghee into it. Keep on low heat all through.Wait till the ghee melts. Now add the wheat flour and fry in the ghee. Keep moving a wooden ladle through this mix, till the wheat flour turns slightly brownish and will have a nice aroma.

Remove from heat and move into a large plate. Now add the Sugar and mix well using the ladle. Add the elaichi and mix well.

The mix has to be warm for making the ladoos. hence mixing of sugar and elaichi has to be fast.

Take a small amount of the mix in your palm and press using the other hand. Keep rotating the mix and pressing, to form a round ball. This round ladoo will be made of powder and will break easily, hence exercise caution.
Carefully keep the ladoo in another plate. Repeat procedure to form more ladoos.

Serving Instruction : The best part is the way the ladoo is served.
I will try to take snaps today of this if my mom hasn’t finished with the wrapping!

Buy coloured paper (thin), atleast 3-4 varieties. (The one we would use for making Kandils’, this is called as Foli in Goa.)

Cut into squares such that you can cover the ladoo in it properly. The below description will help.

Place a ladoo in the center of the paper, and fold the paper around it and join the paper at the top. This will look like a modak cover. Now twist the paper at the top, so that the ladoo is secured inside!

Now repeat the wrapping of other ladoos using remaining colors!

Imagine the colors on your plate when you serve! ( Till i have a snap )

The paper is wrapped as the ladoo are very fragile and break when you try to eat them.

This is my entry for Jihva Special Edition for Diwali hosted by Vee.

Wishing you a Very Happy Deepavali!