Kadgi ani chane ghashi / kadgi ani thori ghashi

One of the easiest and most often cooked curry in the Konkani household
is this. Ghashi is what we call for the curry made with the basic ground coconut masala, one vegetable, one pulse followed by mustard seasoning. A simple, quick and a delicious one at that.

Most common combination is Black chana and  tender jackfruit or  sprouted green gram (moong) and tender bamboo shoot which is equally delicious. I believe that the combination is dependent upon the availability as fresh bamboo and the tender jack fruit are both seasonal and for this dish we cannot make do with the brine vegetable (In India, that is).


I have used kabuli chana as it is the one of the staple in my pantry and I make do with the canned kind when I'm pressed for time. Below is a picture of dried tuvar and jack fruit ghashi.


Iingredient's:
1 cup grated coconut,
1 tsp tamarind pulp
8 roasted red chillies
1 can jack fruit
1/4 tsp Methi seeds
1/2 cup Thori aka whole tuvar Daal or
1/2 cup Kabuli chana or Kala chana

For seasoning
2 tbsp oil
¼ tsp mustard seeds
2 sprigs curry leaves
2 red chillies

Soak thori/ chana in warm water for 6 hrs. Drain water and rinse a couple of times. Cook with enough water in the pressure cooker for 5 whistles till almost cooked (not completely soft as it has to further cook with the masala). Do not drain the water the pulse is cooked in.

Drain the canned jack fruit and chop the jack fruit pieces in two. Add it to the cooked chana and cook till soft. About 10 minutes.

Dry roast the red chillies and methi seeds. Grind it along with coconut, tamarind pulp and salt into a smooth paste.Add ground masala  to the kadgi and chana and bring the curry to a boil and simmer for 5 Min's. Take off of heat and season.

Temper by heating 2tbsp oil and when heated to a smoking point add mustard seeds, 2 red chillies and 2 sprig of curry leaves. Add it to the curry and cover. Serve with rice as a side.

 The picture of kadgi ani thori ghashi.


.
Substitute and make your own combo's

Pick one pulse and one vegetable
Thori --for--- black chana , whole vaal, Avro (Navy beans)
Kadgi --for--- Suran (Yam), green plantains, potato

I especially add extra Kadgi since we prefer more of them than pulses. so instead of 1 can, I usually end up with 2 cans.

Kolmbo

Kolmbo, a konkan variation of Madras sambar with freshly roasted and ground masala with many other vegetables than the regular tomatoes and onions like that of idli sambar. This kind is mainly used as a lunch/dinner side and has marked as one of the main dish for a konkani lunch. The vegetables that goes in this dish are drumsticks/mashinga sang (a must), tindora/gherkins, brinjal/vaingaNa  along with the usual potatoes, tomatoes and onions and are not limited to the mentioned few. In my moms kitchen, carrots, beans and cauliflower are a staple in kolmbo but V thinks that English vegetable were not an addition in the authentic kolmbo. My childhood memories of kolmbo were all the vegetables I hated; stem of cauliflower & knolkol too. The ground fragrant masala is what matters here. All else is secondary, I say!

Kolmbo (this one has only batato ani mashinga sang), surai sheeth, miriye pappod, mirsange happol, batate happol

Ingredients:
Roast:
Oil 1 tbsp
red chillies- 8-10
chana dal- 2 tbsp
urad dal-2 tbsp
coriander seeds- 2 tbsp
jeera- 1 tsp
methi seeds- about 15
turmeric- 1/2 tsp
hing- 1/2 tsp

Grind the roasted ingredients with the following
1/2 cup coconut
1 sprig curry leaves
tamarind paste- 1tsp
salt to taste


Vegetables:
Drumsticks- rough skin peeled lightly
potato- 1 small, cubed
brinjal-4, quatered
pearl onions- about 15
tomato-2, finely chopped
cauliflower florets-about 2 cups
Tindora - about 10, quaterd
carrot -1 cubed

Seasoning: oil, mustard seeds,2 sprigs of curry leaves, 1/4 tsp hing.
cilantro for garnish

Pressure cook 1 cup of tuvar dal.
In a big stock pot, cook all the vegetables till half done, add the ground masala, tamarind paste and salt. Bring it to rolling boil. Simmer & cook till all the vegetables are cooked through. Add the seasoning and garnish with cilantro.
Serve with rice.

Mysore masal dosa

 A peek at what was for breakfast this morning! Yum!

 A mental image of a  hearty breakfast  to be put out to relish (and savour) drives me out of bed on this special day. I'm just about ready for the brunch I'm hosting this weekend with a new zest as the arrival of a close friend brings out enthusiasam in my otherwise lazy holiday morning. This meal is also a favourite when done right. So pressure's on!

It's about time to get started with the prep to have it ready for the hungry bunch (who are so lucky to get hours to lounge on bed) so I'll be done  before they get to the kitchen. It would be wonderful to have a few things prepped but I'm not a a fan of cooking half  the food previous eve & the rest of it early in the morning to save time later...seriously, there's restaurants for that. Good things come to those who wait( especially this case)! This dry garlic chutney  also called losuni puddi (dry)chutney though is an exception.  

The regular masala dosa  is getting a zing today, transforming  from the usual to the infamous Mysore masala dosa with the chutney.  

 Recipe remains the same to make masala dosa, potato bhaji & the corriander chutney. The dry garlic chutney ( warmed in a microwave for a minute to moisten & releast oil from the coconut)smeared on the dosa ( while still on tava) as it is getting crisper by the minute is the only addition . All these sides takes  atleast a couple hours of prep into making them from the kitchen to table.  All well worth! 

 .

bhajji Upkari/ Amaranth

Ingredients:

A bunch of amaranth leaves, finely chopped

1 tsp mustard seeds

3 dry red chillies,  broken

2 tsp oil

1sprig curry leaves

salt to taste

Heat oil in a skillet, temper with mustard seeds, curry leaves, red chilli pieces and wait till seasonings begins to splutter. Add in greens & salt. Stir, cover & cook on reduced heat for about 10 minutes. The very little bit of water in the chopped leaves are just enough moisture to cook this. Take off heat.
Optional; garnish with grated coconut. (Omitted here)

Alle piyavu ghashi

Ghashi inspired by my favourite Prabhu family, Roopa's signature dish. It tastes heavenly coming out of her kitchen than mine.  I love the simplicity of this dish, mildly spiced, eye pleasing ( I promise a better pic than the one below) & super-easy to make.
 Here' was my attempt to get as close to the original dish as possible. Turn-out was pretty good considering my poor cooking skills when  it comes to fish. It was way better a day after except that, I knew that I could never reheat it right without breaking the fillets apart. Pretty darn tasty, though.

Ingredients:
8 fish pieces (best with cod, tilapia, pomfret)

1 cup grated coconut

1 onion finely chopped

1" piece ginger, julienned

7-8 long red chillies

Tamarind extract

3-4 green chillies, slit

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tablespoon oil
Salt

                                                                              ( I promise 'someday' I will load up a better picture of my alle piyave ghashi to do justice to this delicioius curry)

Method:

Grind grated coconut, red chillies and tamarind extract into a smooth paste.
In a pan heat oil and add chopped onion, green chillies and  ginger , saute for a minute. Add  turmeric, ground coconut masala, 1/2 cup of water, salt and bring it to boil. Place the fish and simmer the heat to the lowest heat setting of your cooking range and cook it for 8-10 minutes covered. Serve the curry with boiled rice for the authentic jalke randey taste.

Kidiyo/ kul kul

The  most mischievious kid on the block is wishing the hardest for a ben-10 omnitrix.

Christmas is almost here, all my baking for the season is almost done. The wish list for Santa is getting erased and re-written several times this month. The cookies are being a staple in our diet these days too. 

How festive is that!

 Past few weeks I've had more of sheet pans, dough hooks, beaters & mixing bowls to clean than the actual dishes that gets involved in the desi kitchen.   I'm not complaining, at least till January, that is. Sweet smelling kitchen day in & day out. What's not to like?
 Letting myself ready for a  surprise venture, I head enthusiastically to make a Xmas delicacy: Kidiyo.


Kidyo, kul-kul was one kuswar( Christmas platter) goody that I always wanted more of as it was always over-excitedly welcome to our house which showed up only during Christmas.
Kuswar included rich plum cake, chakkuli, shev's, kulkul/kidiyo (litterally meaning worm shaped), guliyo ( a very hard ball of dough resembling marbles, rose cookies (a very delicate lacy flower made of fried batter) & nevreos (empanada shaped sweet filled fried goody).  As much as I loved all of those, I was biased to the infamous glazed kulkul/ Kidyo which were the first one to be relished by me. This was only eaten once a year, so you see the desperation?! I needed the recipe bad!
A few phone calls to my homeland, a few request to fellow foodie friends & few of my old friends who 'might' have made this in the past later & I was in no luck. I decided to go with the sweet thukudi recipe & gave it a shot with the hope that I just might replicate the delicacy that I once had more than a decade ago. Although there is no authenticity to this recipe it sure tasted pretty close. A close friend who made these recently had all the ingredients that I used but with more or less proportion. I was close to the actual recipe, after all.  I'm not  such a bad cook, I say!

Ingredients:
1 cup All purpose flour
1 cup Rawa
2 tbs Butter, chilled
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Method:
Pulse dry in a food processor, add coconut milk a couple tablespoon at a time till the dough forms together into a soft ball. Keep covered for half an hour.

Heat oil for frying. In the meantime, make gnocchi shaped rolls by taking a marble sized ball of dough, flatten it on the backside of fork, pressing it from the bottom of fork tines to the tip. Roll it from one side (preferably bottom to top) as you are making ridges along the way till you get to the end into a tight curl (or they unfurl while frying). The kulkul should curl into a roll with ridges on their backs captured by the impression of the tines as tiny ridges will catch glaze later making these irresistible.

Cook the kul kul in batches by dropping them into the medium hot oil & frying it to a golden brown. They will let you know when they are cooked because they will float up to the top & stop sizzling. Fish them out of the oil with a slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels. Set aside to glaze..

For the glaze:
1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water. Mix & boil the syrup for about 5 mins. This reduces the liq and leaves a one string consistency syrup. Dip a few kul kuls at a time, remove & let drain on a cooling rack. Make sure to separate any kul kuls that are stuck together(while they are still warm & fresh out of syrup). Cool, share & enjoy.

Concluding, the Christmas baking with kul-kul was a sweet ending & a successful at that.

Making kuswars were a breeze, making dinners were W-A-Y easier because I'd make a quick healthy 'make-do dinners', picture my table with pasta, garlic bread, pizza's, roasted vegetables, macaroni& cheese in a mix and match combo...what's hard about that! My carb-lover family loved the house always filled with smell of fresh breads
(sourdough, Italian & focaccia's), fried doughs (tukudi, kidiyo & mulikh) & cookies made everyday. It was good while it lasted. I now have to get back my cooking rhythm.

Dream bars

The desire to make this was very strong earlier today... one of the reasons maybe the favourite ingredient that goes into making these...pure white daintily piled up mound of sweetened snowflake coconut sitting pretty on my kitchen counter as a part of my gingerbread house snow scape OR that I badly want to make another use of my tart pan to justify myself for wanting a second pan that I'm eyeing at the William Sonoma.



Who except me cares what my reasons are to bake these, as long as these taste 'yum'. With the Christmas season here & many goodies to make & share, this comes im handy as well as adds to the beauty of my platters.

Recipe courtesy: Chef's select coconut

1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups coconut

Mix together flour,1/2 cup brown sugar & butter until particles are fine. Press into bottom of ungreased 13x9" pan.bake at 350F for 15 mins.

beat 1 1/2 cups brown sugar with eggs until just blended. Mix in remaining ingredients. Spread over partially bakes crust. bake 20 to 25 mims or until golden brown.

Cool.Cut with sharp knife.
Makes 24 bars

kele koddel

This koddel/ curry can also be made with a legume/pulse and raw plantains. Pulses can be Avro, alsande or any dried peas.







Ingredients
Raw plantains- 1 no
Coconut 1/2 cup

red chillies 6-8

tamarind paste 1/2 tsp

salt

for the seasoning
oil 2 tbsp
garlic about 4 cloves, crushed
red chillies, 2 broken in bits.

Peel the plantains, quarter them and cut it in cubes.

Cook it with just enough water to immerse the plantains. Cook till almost done.

Roast red chillies in a little oil and grind it along with coconut, tamarind and salt to a smooth paste. Add this paste to cooked plantains and boil.

Season with garlic and crushed red chillies. The garlic is usually fried till it is crispy and dark brown in color. Yum!

Gosale ghire chutney

Ingredients:
peel of 2 ridge gourd ( gosale)
1 cup coconut
4-6 green chillies
1/2 tsp jeera
2 tsp ghee
salt

In a skillet, heat ghee and roast the gourd peel with jeera and green chillies till the peels brown on the edges and wilts. Grind the roasted ingredients with coconut, tamarind, salt and very little water to a coarse paste. This is one of the chutney usually an accompaniment to rice as opposed to breakfast eats.

Dudholi

Among countless number of delicacies pigged out on, DUDHOLI & its taste still lingered. I found another dudholi fan (no bakras [scapegoats] in my home) and so, I got a push to make this( in my defense, I'm only making this to share). I am satisfied of the outcome, hope the other person will be too after tasting this. The verdict will follow in a couple days.
Ingredients:
1 cup Ragi
1 cup coconut
3/4 cup jaggery
cardamom powder
4 tbsp ghee

Grind ragi and coconut together and extract the milk and strain i n a fine sieve to remove the ragi skin & coconut residue( usually done 3 times at least)
Heat ghee in a thick bottom kadai, add jaggery heat till the jaggery melts.
Add 3 cups of water and ragi coconut milk mixture to the jaggery. Keep stirring the mixture on medium heat till it cooks, becomes thick and leaves the sides of the pan.When done, set aside.

Grease a rimmed plate with ghee, pour the hot mixture into the plate,smear it with the spatula and cool,chill in the refrigerator for a couple hours. Cut, serve chilled.

Madgane

Ingredients
1 cup bengal gram /chana dal
15 cashews
1 cup grated jaggery
1 cup coconut
2 tbsp rice, soaked in water
1/2 tsp cardamom powder

Pressure cook dal and cashew nut, just cooked till soft.
Grind coconut with rice to a smooth paste and use a sieve to strain and get milk.
In a heavy bottomed pot, add cooked dal, jaggery, cardamom powder and coconut milk. Bring to a boil over moderate heat. Serve hot.

Happla kismuri

Ingredients:
Red Chillies Pappad/ Happol - 5
Onions,finely chopped - 1
Green Chillies - 3 finely chopped
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Coconut oil - 2 tsp
Cilantro, few stems, chopped
Salt

Method:
Roast the Pappad on high flame, apply oil. Crush green chillies in grated coconut add this to chopped onions, cilantro and salt. Hand crush the pappad and mix it with coconut onion mixture. Serve immediately.

Vaingana/gulla sagle

Ingredients:
Gulla/thai green eggplants 12-15
Coconut -1 cup
Red chillies 6-8
Tamarind paste 1/2 tsp
methi seeds 1/2 tsp
Coriander seeds 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

prep:
Slit egglpants into 4 from the bottom keeping the stem intact.

Grind together the coconut, red chillies,methi seeds, coriander seeds, salt and tamarind to a coarse paste. Spoon this paste in the cut slits of eggplants. Set aside.

Heat oil in a flat heavy bottomed pan and season with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the stuffed eggplants and let it sizzle in the seasoning, turning the eggplants as it roasts on medium heat. After roasting for a few minutes, add the rest of the ground masala, if any and cover and cook for about 10 minutes to cook completely on low heat. Do not stir the dish too much which may break the eggplants. Serve hot as a side dish along with rice.

Karbev chutney pitto

Curry leaves about 1 cup
dried coconut/ copra- 1/2 cup
Red chilies – 10-15
Coriander seeds – 1/4 cup
jeera – 1/2 cup
Garlic - 3 cloves
Tamarind paste–1/4 tsp
Salt

Dry roast coconut,coriander seeds, jeera, and red chillies and set aside.
Roast crushed garlic and curry leaves seperately and grind dry along with the other roasted ingredients except tamarind.
In a dry pan add the ground chutney powder and tamarind paste and roast to rome moisture from the tam paste. Cool and store upto a month

Keerla neeliche sukke

Keerla neeli is the heart of tender bambo shoots. For those of you who are still confused and are familiar with artichokes, the same rule applies where the outer skin is discarded and the center of the vegetable is typically relished in any delicacy.This dish is prepared along with crushed bikkand ( jackfruit seeds).

Ingredients
tender Bamboo shoots/ keerlu - 2 cups, chopped fine
bikkand /jack fruit seeds - 10 seeds

Coconut - 1 cup
Tamarind - 1 tsp
Jaggery 1-3 tbsp
Urad dal - 1 tbsp
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
Red Chilli's - 6-8
Salt

For the seasoning
Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves 2 sprigs
Oil


Method:
With a little oil, fry urad dal, coriander seeds and red chillies. Grind roasted ingredients with tamarind and salt to a fine paste.

In a kadai, heat Oil and season with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add bamboo shoots and bikkand till they are almost cooked. Add ground masala and jaggrey and cook completely.
Serve as a side dish with rice.

Surna koot

Ingredients
Yam about 3 cups, cut in small cubes
8 red chillies
1/2 cup coconut
1 tsps mustard seeds
1/4 tsp hing
1/2 tsp methi seeds
tamarind
1 tsp oil
salt

Method
Heat oil in a kadai and add hing, red chillies, mustard seeds, methi seeds and roast till the mustard seeds splutter.Grind all the roasted ingredients with coconut, tamarind and salt to a fine paste.
Mix fried yam and oil in the ground masala,just before serving.

Karathe Kismuri

 There are two kinds to this kismuri. One being the basic mix of  grated coconut, onions, chillies, cilantro to the fried surn( yam), happol, karathe & sukkal sungat (dried shrimp) followed as kismuri 1 .

Masala kismuri

Second  kind being the ground masala  made with coconut & coriander seeds and red chillies; dry ground with tamarind. All  other ingredients & method remains the same.
The picture here shows ground masala kismuri.

Ingredients
1 bitter gourd ,finely sliced
oil to fry
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1/2 cup coconut
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
2 tsp finely chopped coriander leaves
salt
Method
Add a tablespoon of salt to the bitter gourd peices and keep aside for 30 mins.
 After 30 mins, squeeze out as much liquid as you can and deep fry till dark brown and crisp. Keep aside.
 Mix together *coconut, *onions, *chopped green chillies, *coriander leaves and salt.
Just before serving add the fried bitter gourd and mix well.

The ingredients and method of preparation ( marked as *)remains the same for happola kismuri, vaingan gojju and batate gojju.

Ghar dudhi sali chutney

Ingredients:
Lauki peel - from 1 lauki/bottle gourd
Green chillies - 6 to 8
Tamarind - 1/4 tsp
Chana dal 1tbs
Urad dal 1tbs
Jeera - 1 tsp
Roast all ingredients in a little oil.

Grind with the ingredients below.
coconut 1/2 cup
cilantro 15 stems
salt.


For seasoning
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Oil - 1 teaspoon
curry leaves

Season the chutney .

Shevai

My 100th recipe had to be another amchi fav, breakfast eats...SHEVAI.
A big thanks to a dear friend who let me borrow the dhanthe for the authentic ' shevai pilche' experience. Thank's R, anytime u want to eat shevai (come along with the dhanthe), let me know.

Grease the cup of the shevai dhante.
Have the pressure cooker ready with boiling water.

Grease steel (drinking) glasses.


Fill the gllasses with the batter and steam for 15 mins.
Unmold the cooked batter.
Press the dough and make shevai similar to the pic below.

If you are an Amchi, you already know what I'm talking about....rest of you, make a konkani friend to eat this delicacy.

Ingredients:
Rice – 3 cups
ukudo thandul/boiled rice /kuthari/matta– 1 cup
coconut – 1 1/2 cups
Salt to taste

Method:
Soak the white rice for 4 hours.
For the ukudo thandul, I washed, dried and then powdered it coarsely in the coffee grinder.Soak the ukudo thandul powder, seperately for 4 hrs.
Now grind the regular rice with the coconut to a smooth paste. Mix it with the soaked boiled rice, salt and grind to get an even smooth batter mix.

In a konkani house, this is cooked in a special way : In a heavy bottomed pan, cook the batter on medium heat to evaporate excess moisture and bring the batter to upma consistency. While the cooked batter is still warm, not hot...form cylindrical shape ( typically the hands are dipped in cold water in the process, to prevent burning hands).
OR
like I did, apply oil to steel drinking glasses, pour batter into the glasses and steam like idlis in a pressure cooker for about 15 mins. Steaming this way was perfect size for my shevai press and I like the part where I don't have to handle my food too much.

Now grease the shevai dhanthe cup and press the warm idli molds to make shevai. If the batter gets cold, it becomes very hard to press.

This shevai is usually eaten with godda rossu which is sweet (freshly squeezed and strained) coconut juice mixed with jaggrey and ealichi powder.


The pic below is from my visit to India, Aug 07....Vikek was trying his hand at squeezing out the shevai for our breakfast and Miheer is curiously waiting for his breakfast. Gaurav, the boy looking the other way, didn't think SHEVAI for breakfast was that big a deal! It was very special to me and I am thankful to Mom and Vanni for a breakfast made just for me.

Sweet Kichidi +Theel godd

Happy Sankranthi!!!

The first festival of the year!
Technicaly, accoording to Hindu calender, it isnt new year until April, but now that I have all the time on my hands , I just need a reason for a celebration.
Theel Godd, also known as 'yellu bella' in kannada is shared among the family, neighbours and any visitor coming home today which means spreading sweetness around you. Apart fron the ingredients listed below, back home, it is a tradition to give molded jaggery and cut up sugarcane pieces. Sweet kichidi and pan polo is traditionally cooked today in Konkani homes.
If u look closely, all festivals celebrated serves the same purpose... making food and sharing. In the end, it's all about food!



Sweet kichidi
rice 1 cup
split moong dal 1 cup
coconut 1cup
coconut milk 1 cup
jaggrey
ghee 3 tbsp
cahewnuts and raisins
Elaichi 1 tsp

Dry roast moong dal. Heat ghee in a pressure cooker, roastcahewnuts and raisins. Add rice, roasted dal, jaggrey, elaichi and coconut + coconut milk and 3 cups of water. Cook till done. While serving,(for unknown reasons)it is is garnished with chopped kadali bananas.Yumm!


This the the dry uncooked Theelgodd that are mixed together and served as a prasad.
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup jaggrey, Chopped into Pieces
1/2 Cup copra,chopped into small pieces
1/2 Cup Groundnuts
1/2 Cup roasted chanadal, putani
1/2 Cup white til

Method:
dry roast Groundnuts, til and putani
Mix all the ingredients together and share the sweetness.