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.

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

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.

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

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“

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.

Chidki-Midki chi Bhaji

Interesting name aint’ it As a kid, i’d eat the sabji just coz the name was cute! Chidki-Midki! (pronounced as : chee-d-ki mee-d-ki)
Cluster Beans are called as Chidki-Midki in Goa.

Since the beans are slightly bitter (as per me!), jaggery is added to this dish.
Was remembering home and this was the sabji in my fridge! Also, the name was interesting… (my motivation!)

Ingredients:
250 gms Chidki Midki Bhaji/Cluster beans
2 tbl spn freshly grated coconut
1 tbl spn jaggery
1/2 tea spn chilli powder/ green chillies
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
a pinch of hing
a pinch of turmeric powder
1 tea spn oil
salt to taste

Method:
Wash and clean the Cluster beans properly. Remove the edges and divide into small parts. For instructions on cleaning refer to how Madhuli does it!( Could not describe it better myself!)

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and hing. After the seeds splutter, add the cleaned beans. Fry for some time. Add coconut, chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Mix well.
Saute for a few mins. Add 1/2 cup water and let the beans cook. (Optional way is to cook the beans in a microwave and then add to this preparation).
Add more water if required and cook the beans.

After the beans are cooked, add the jaggery. Mix well and simmer for 2 mins.

Enjoy Chidki-Midki chi Bhaji with Chapati/roti or dal-rice

Goan Fish Fry

Today we had bought – Pomfret and Sear fish and prepared a nice fish fry after many days.

Here’s how it’s done:
Ingredients: (For 4 fish slices)
7-8 tbl spn fine Rava/Rice flour
1 heaped tea spn chilli powder
1 and 1/2 heaped tea spn turmeric powder
2 tbl spn lemon juice or tamarind pulp (optional)
Salt to marinate
oil for frying

Method:

Wash and clean fish. Drain the water. Marinate with 1/2 of the turmeric powder and the chilli powder. Add salt and lemon juice, apply well over the fish. ( Add more turmeric if required as this removes the stink of the fish)

Marinating Fish

Marinate for 30 mins minimum.

Take rava in a plate. Add remaining turmeric powder and chilli powder. Mix well. Add more of the powders if required. The rava mix should appear slightly golden in color (due to turmeric).

Heat a tava and add oil on it. Keep on low heat. Take a fish slice and roll in the rava mix, so that all the sides are covered well with the rava.

Place the fish slice on the tava. Follow the above steps for remaining pieces till there is place on the tava. There should be place to turn the slices while frying.

Serve with lemon slices, Salad, Goan Fish Curry and Rice.

This was our today’s lunch menu

More Updates:

Made some Tilapia and Prawn (with tails on!) fries

Chanyachi Usal

Chanyachi Usal (Dry green peas usal) is prepared in a slightly different way.

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked peas
3 tbl spn freshly grated coconut
2-3 green chillies (slitted)/1 tea spn chilli powder
4-5 pepper corns
2 tbl spn jaggery
1/2 tea spn mustard
oil
salt to taste

Method:
Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. Add the cooked peas in this. Add a little water if it’s too dry. Crush the pepper corns coarsely. Now add Coconut, crushed pepper, jaggery and salt to the peas. Cook for 5-10 mins in low heat.

Serve with Chapati/roti or as a side dish with Dal-rice.
Enjoy

Chanyache Tonnak ( Goan Peas Curry)

The masala used in this curry is call as ‘samaar‘ in konkani. It’s the garam masala which is used for this curry called as ‘tonaak‘

Samaaracho Pitho (‘Pitho’ means powder)
Ingredients: [ Measurement-English name/Konkani name ]
2 tea spn coriander seeds/kothmirichyo biyo
1 tea spn fennel seeds/badishep ( added only when using onions for tonaak)
2-3 cloves/lavnga
4-5 pepper corns/miryaa
1″ piece of cinnamon/tikhi
3-4 dried red chillies/sukhillyo mirsango

Method:
Dry roast all these ingredients on a tava, till a nice smell comes from the coriander. Take off stove when the coriander turns slightly brown. Cool and grind to a fine powder.

Tonaak:
Ingredients: [ Measurement-English name/Konkani name ]
1 cup green peas/vataane
1 medium potato/batat
3/4 cup grated or dessicated coconut/katillo nall or khobre
1 medium onion/kaano (optional)
Samaar Masala/Samaar Pitho
a pinch of turmeric/halad
a small round of tamarind/amtaan
little piece of jaggery/godd
1 tea spn oil/tel
salt to taste/meeth

Method:

If using dry green peas, soak them in water overnight and pressure cook for 2-3 whistles.
If using green peas from safal, then just thaw in water for 1/2 hr and use.

Chop onions finely. Peel and dice potatoes.

Add oil in a pan and fry the 1/2 of the onions. Add coconut and fry for some more time. Put the coconut-onion with samaar masala, turmeric and tamarind in a grinder with little water. Grind to a semi-coarse paste.

Fry the remaining onions in the oil and add the potatoes to it. Add 1/2 cup water and let it boil till potatoes are almost cooked. (To avoid this step you can cook the potatoes seperately and add.)
Now add the peas.
Then add the ground paste. Add water if it becomes too thick.
Boil for around 10 mins.

Adjust spices to taste.
Then add salt and jaggery and mix well.
Let it simmer on heat for a few mins.

Serve with Daal-Rice or with chapati/roti!

Prepare Misal Paav with this dish -
Fill a small dish/bowl with the tonaak, sprinkle some finely chopped onion followed by sev . Serve with paav/slice bread and a small piece of lemon!