Udad Methi or Rosu

This was one of my very first posts. I had posted just the recipe then and not a picture of the dish. Since its a coconut based dish, and I hadn't made it in a long time, I thought of making it today and re-posting it for Suganya's 'AFAM- Coconut' event.

The dish is called Udad Methi/Rosu, and the recipe goes like this..

Ingredients

Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
Udad dal - 1/2 tsp
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Red Byadagi chillies - 6
Jaggery - 1 tsp
Coconut grated - 1/2 cup

Turmeric powder - a pinch
Bitter gourd ( kaarate ) - 1/2 , cut into small pieces (optional)
Okra ( Bhende ) - 4, cut into big pieces (optional)
Bamboo shoots ( Keerlu ) - abt 10 small pieces ( optional )
Capsicum - 1 Small, cut into small pieces ( optional)
Curry leaves - 4
Salt - to taste
Tamarind - 1 small marble sized ball OR Hog Plums ( Goad Aambaade) - 2, each cut into 4 pieces lengthwise OR Raw Green mango - big chunks of 3/4 a mango.

Method.

- Take little oil in a pan and roast the coriander seeds, Half the quantities of methi seeds, udad dal and hing. Add red chillies to it and roast that also. Grind this mixture with the grated coconut & turmeric by adding little water.The ground masala should be a little coarse in texture.
- Take little oil in pan, add curry leaves, mustard seeds, udad dal, methi seeds and season.
- Then add the cut vegetables, and little water, cover and let them cook.
- Then add the ground masala, jaggery and add salt and adjust water for consistency and boil.
- Udad methi is ready to serve with hot rice.

Note :

- You could use few of these vegetables together or use them all. I have used Okra, Bamboo Shoots and Hog Plums today.

- As mentioned above, since I used Hog Plums/Goad Aambaade, I did not use the tamarind.

- I have not used curry leaves, but highly recommended.

- The ground masala should be slightly coarse in texture and not very fine.

- The final consistency of the dish should be slightly thick, so do not add too much water.

Another entry for you Suganya :)....

Soi PoLe/Dosas with rice and coconut..

Another post today rushing in to Suganya for her 'AFAM-Coconut' event. Being a Konkani, there is hardly any dish for which we don't use coconut. So it was all the more difficult to think and decide what to make for this event. Well, since most of the time is gone in thinking and today is the last day, I went ahead and made these dosas with coconut, which we call Soi PoLe ( Soi meaning grated coconut and PoLe meaning dosas).

These are one the easiest dosas to prepare and very very tasty ones.

Ingredients

Rice - 1 cup

Fresh grated Coconut - 1/2 cup

Salt - to taste

Oil - to fry

Method

- Wash the rice and soak it in water overnight.

- In the morning, grind the rice, coconut and salt with water to a smooth batter.

- Add water to the batter to make it very thin consistency. It should be almost like watery consistency.

- Heat a non-stick tawa, when very hot, pour the batter over it. Since this batter is very thin, it will just flow and take its own shape. As much as possible, try to pour it such a manner that it takes a round shape.

- Drizzle oil over and on the sides and take it off the tawa when cooked on one side. This dosa should not be flipped and cooked on the other side.

- Serve with chutney or liquid jaggery.

Note :

- The more coconut you add to this dosa, the softer it becomes. So its good if you can add upto 3/4 cup of it.

- My mom usually serves this with the liquid jaggery which we get back home. At times when she runs out of it, she just melts the regular jaggery with a few drops of water and adds some elaichi powder to it and serves these dosas with it. So, this is what I have done too. Another way we have it in our home is with Loshni Chutney ( a coconut- garlic chutney).

So, off these go to Suganya. Thank-you Suganya for choosing this wonderful fruit.

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Saagwaala Murgh/Chicken with greens..

I want to rush in this entry to Vandana's 'Chicken-My favorite' event.

This is a recipe I found on the net. I had made it a few days back and wanted to post it, but never hapened till now. I have modified and made variations to the original one.

So this is how I made this Chicken with greens.

Ingredients

Spinach - 1 1/2 cup
Collard greens, with hard stem removed - 1 1/2 cup
Green chillies - 4 -6
Bay leaves - 2
Green cardamoms/elaichi - 2
Cinnamon stick - 1 inch piece
Cloves - 3
Onions, chopped - 1 big
Tomatoes, finely chopped - 1 big
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Yogurt - 1/4 cup
Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp ( optional)
Chicken pieces, medium sized - 8-10
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - to fry

Method

- In a pan with very little water, cook the spinach, collard greens, green chillies with little salt just till they wilt. Now, drain and put them in cold water. Puree without any water in a mixie.
- Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and add the bay leaves, elaichi, cinnamon, cloves and fry till the aroma comes out. Add the onions and fry till they turn light brown.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for another 2 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and fry till they turn pulpy and the oil starts leaving the sides of the pan.
- Add the chicken and sprinkle salt to taste. Mix well. Cover and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes.
- Now, add in the greens puree. Cook on low heat for about 8 minutes or till the chicken is tender.
- Stir in the yogurt, garam masala powder and the crushed kasuri methi. Simmer till one boil.
- Serve hot with plain rice, peas pulav or rotis.

Note :

- Collard greens is my addition to this and was not mentioned in the original recipe. I think its a good way to include other greens like methi and mustard in this too. Am not sure if this is the way its supposed to be cooked, its just the way I followed.

- Be sure to discard any hard stems from the greens you are using.

- Whisking the yogurt with a spoon before adding to pan, ensures that it blends in uniformly without breaking.
- Kasuri methi addition is also my addition, I find it gives a nice flavour to any dish, but you can omit it if you want to.

So, off this goes to Vandana.....

Mango-Ricotta Burfi/ Aambya burfi..

Mango season in India is one which am sure most of us would have many pleasant memories of, since this was the vacation time from schools and we would be visiting our natives. Talking of native, at my Mom's place, they had plenty of mango trees and many varieties. I still don't know many of the varieties. There was a tree in the Aangan/frontyard also and we kids used to have competitions sometimes as to who would run and get hold of the mango everytime one fell down. And there is no count for the number of raw mangoes we used to eat with a pinch of salt. Ah, the little things we had pleasures in.

One of the regular during this season was a Aambya Khadi ( a burfi like sweet but which is harder) that my mom used to make. I made a variation to this when I made it and made a softer variety of it and added Ricotta cheese also. We liked the way it came out.

Ingredients

Ripe Mangoes - 3 (Please see note below)

Ricotta cheese - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 1/4 cup

Elaichi/Cardamom powder - 1/3 tsp

Ghee - about 1 tbsp.

Method

- Peel the skin off the mangoes. Cut the fruit off the seed, chop roughly, and pulse for about 3-4 times in mixie till semi-fine paste is formed. Don't make smooth puree, there should be a few very tiny pieces of mango left in the mixture.

- In a non-stick heavy pan, combine the mango mixture and the sugar and cook the mixture with regular stirring. After a few minutes, the mixture will start spluttering, so reduce heat to low and now you to continuously keep stirring the mixture.

- Once you feel the mixture starts becoming thick, add the ricotta cheese and the ghee and keep stirring again.

- With continuous stirring, the mixture will start leaving the sides of the pan and form one uniform ball.

- Now, take out this mass and put on a greased plate.

- With a greased flat spatula, pat the mixture and try to spread uniformly on the plate to make of the burfi consistency that you desire.

- Once cooled, cut into square or diagonal shapes and enjoy :)..

Note :

1. Its best to use mangoes which have no stringy texture for this. More the pulp and lesser the strings, the better.

2. The measure of sugar is to be taken equal to the amount of the mango after getting the pulp out of it. I have used slightly less sugar, and we found that fine for our liking. For the 3 mangoes that I used, the pulp amounted to about 1 1/2 cups , so I have used 1 1/4 cups of sugar.

I'd like to send this to Meeta's Monthly Mingle-Mango Mania. Thank-you for hosting Meeta.

Your Recipe Rocks(YRR)-Palak Alu Paratha from Suma's..

I always make the Palak rotis by mixing the ground spinach in the roti dough and also make parathas using different veggies. It never occured to me combine the two until I saw it in Suma's blog. Yes, the moment I saw her Palak-Alu Parathas, I knew I had to try them.

Suma's recipe is here.

I followed her recipe almost except for the stuffing, I fried onions in little oil, added ajwain/carom seeds, haldi, garam masala powder, red chilli powder and cilantro and added the boiled potatoes to it and made a mashed uniform mixture.

Do try these parathas. They sure are filling and good to taste. Thanx Suma for sharing with us such a great idea and recipe :)..

I'd like to send this to 'Your recipe rocks-No rice dish' event hosted by Madhuram. Thank you for hosting Madhuram.

Malvani Kombdi/Malvani Chicken curry..

Some events going on are right for me to try dishes from other blogs. Today I tried this Malvani dish from Meera's blog. Making it was sure easy, why ?? The lovely Meera sent me her awesome masalas a few days back. To be precise, I now have the Goda Masala, Kolhapuri Masala and the Malvani Masala. The Malvani chicken that I tried yesterday came out so good, that I made it again today when my friends came over and they loved it too. Thank you dear Meera for your friendship and for being there :)..

I will just link to the recipe since I just followed it step by step. The only variation I did was that I cooked it in pan and not pressure cooker, following the steps that Meera had mentioned. As I said above that I made this curry twice, I made a very thick consistency of the gravy the first time( as the pics seen here ) and a normal slightly thinner consistency of the gravy the other time. Both times the curry was lipsmacking good :). See the recipe for Malvani chicken here. Two thumbs up for your recipe Meera :)..

I am sending this recipe to 'Chicken-My favourite' hosted by Vandana.
Thankyou for hosting Vandana.

A simple Gherkin/Tendli Fry..

There are times when I just don't feel like entering the kitchen or budging from my seat. And those are times when my husband does the needful. He never follows any recipe in particular, so if something comes out good, most of the times, I write down how he does that :D..
This is one dish he made once and I truly just love it. So, he made this again a couple of days back and this time I made sure I took pictures. Yaay, isn't it so simple, when someone does the cooking for you and all you do is take pictures ?? I like it once in a while. Back home, we make something called Talasani , which is made differently, but we have stick to this recipe since its so easy and yet tastes great.

So here is the recipe..

Ingredients

Tendli/Tondli/Tondekayi/Gherkins - 1/2 lb.
Methi/Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp
Haldi/Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala powder - 1/4 tsp
Lemon Juice - 6-10 drops
Salt - to taste
Oil.

Method

- Cut off both the ends (near the stem and the opposite end) of the Tendli. Crush them slightly with a pestle so that they are slightly open but still as one whole piece.
- Heat oil in the pan, add mustard, let it splutter, and then add methi seeds.
- Add the crushed tendli to the pan, saute it well in the oil till it turns light brown in color and you see it slightly wrinkling from the frying.
- Add the haldi, chili powder, salt, jeera powder and garam masala powder and mix well.
- Now, cover the pan, turn the heat to low and let it cook for a few more mins.
- Keep checking for doneness.
- Finally add the lemon juice and switch off the heat.
- Serve hot as a side with rice and some curry.

Note :

- If you feel its a lot to keep sauteing the tendli in oil completely, you can saute initially with very little oil, and then sprinkle a few drops of water and cover and cook the tendli in its steam and follow the rest of the steps.


A few days back, Meera of Enjoy Indian Food & Uma of Essence of Andhra passed on the Inspiration Award and Blogging with a Purpose Award respectively. Thank you, both you dear friends, for thinking of me and passing these awards onto me. It really makes me happy and I humbly accept the same :)...

Thank you Meera and Uma once again...

Kotambari Paalya Gojju ( Cilantro & Jaggery Chutney)

This is an old post but am re-posting it, as I want to send this to “JFI – Jihva For Tamarind” event being hosted by Sig of Live to eat. JFI(Jihva For Ingredients) is the brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi.
Initially, I had this post without pictures, so since I made it today, I have some pictures too.

This Gojju is a Konkani item eaten as a side with the usual lunch items and is more often made with festival menus.
I like this gojju so much, that I go would go on licking it till Aayi would give me a warning, since its got so much spice in it :). We make it very spicy, but the spice level can be adjusted according to your taste. Its a perfect combination of sweet, spicy and sourness.

Gojju Ingredients

Ingredients

Coriander leaves/ Cilantro - 1 cup packed
Jaggery grated - 1/2 cup
Byadagi dry red chillies - 7 or more, depending on your taste level.

Tamarind - lemon sized ball
Salt - to taste

Method

- Dry roast the red chillies .
- Grind the red chillies with all other ingredients ( except salt ), with very little water. Add salt.
- Serve as a side with rice and dal. Can also be had with dosas and idlis.

Note :

- You can add the tender stems of cilantro also in this. Need not add just the leaves.

- Also, the sweetness can be compensated by combining Dates along with jaggery. Just cut the dates into pieces,soak in water for about 5 minutes and grind it as above with other ingredients. Dates are not used in the Konkani version, but I have tried it using dates and it tastes great too.

- The gojju that my mom makes gets a reddish brown color, but mine somehow didn't turn out to be that colour.

Today, we had this gojju with the delicious Ghavane that I made looking at Meera's blog.

Please check the recipe here. As Meera had said that they also make it with all coconut milk also, I added 1/2 cup of coconut milk with 1 1/2 cup water for 1 cup of rice.

Such an easy recipe for these delicious lacey dosas, can't get any better. Also, these are the quickest dosas I've made so far. Thank-you Meera for sharing this wonderful recipe from Malwan :).

2 Chutneys with RidgeGourd..

I am not too fond of ridge-gourd, but chutneys made out it, I can die for :). We make a chutney out of the ridges ( skin on the ridges), and its truly amazing. Another chutney made out of whole ridgegourd pieces is what I'd learnt from my friend. I think its a very common chutney in Andhra region. So today, I'd like to blog about both the chutneys here.

So here are both the chutneys..


Ridge Gourd peels chutney/Ghosaale Sheerya Chutney


Ingredients

Ridge Gourd Peels - 3/4 cup
Black pepper corns - 5
Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Green chillies - 2
Fresh/frozen coconut - 1/4 cup
Tamarind - one small piece
Salt - to taste
Oil

Method

- Heat little oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds, pepper corns and green chillies. Once they sizzle a little, add the peels to the pan, fry this for sometime.
- Then add the coconut also to the pan, and fry for about a minute. Switch off the gas and let the mixture cool.
- Once cool, take the mixture in a mixie, add the tamarind and salt and grind to get chutney consistency. You can add water if needed while grinding.
- Eat hot or cold as a side with rice or with chapatis.

Ridge gourd pieces Chutney

This chutney is made with the whole ridge gourd pieces, but excluding the ridges. So cut off the ridges and use the rest of the ridge gourd.


Ingredients

Ridge gourd, diced - 1 whole, about 1 1/2 cups.
Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Udad dal - 1 tsp
Garlic cloves, roughly chopped - 4
Green Chillies - 3-4
Tamarind - a small marble sized ball
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt - to taste
Oil

This is the mixture before grinding

Method

- Heat little oil in a pan. Add the udad dal and cumin seeds. Once the dal turns brown, add the green chillies, ridge gourd pieces and turmeric and saute well and let it cook till its slightly tender.
- Then, add the garlic pieces and tamarind and cover the pan and reduce flame to low.
- Switch off the flame.
- Once the mixture cools down, grind it in the mixie WITHOUT WATER to a fine paste.
- Add salt and its ready to serve.

Surnoli/ Watermelon Sweet Dosa/ Goad PoLe.

This sweet dosas are a common dish in most Konkani homes. We make these during the watermelon season mostly, but Cucumber or Magge/Dosekai can also be used instead. The pinkish white part of the watermelon near to the skin is used for this dosa.

Ingredients

Watermelon - 1 cup

Rice - 1 cup

Poha/Beaten rice - a fistful

Grated fresh/frozen coconut - 1/4 cup

Jaggery - 1/2 cup. You can add upto 3/4 cup to vary according to your taste.

Haldi/Turmeric powder - a pinch

Cashewnut pieces - a handful ( optional )

Salt - to taste

Method

- Wash the rice and soak it in water for 2 hours.

- Soak the poha in water for about 10 minutes. Squeeze the water out from the poha.

- In a mixie, grind the rice, poha, watermelon pieces, jaggery, coconut and salt together. You don't need to add water as the watermelon will leave out water.

- Let the batter ferment overnight.

- In the morning, add the haldi powder and mix well.

- On a hot tawa, put a ladlefull of batter. Do not spread the batter in circle. It should be a thick dosa, let the batter flow on its own.

- Drop a few cashewnut pieces on top of the dosa, drizzle oil on all sides and on top.

- Let it cook on medium flame on only one side.

- Serve hot with a chutney by the side.

Note :

- This dosa has to be fried on only one side, so there is no need to flip it over.

- Once you pour the batter on hot tawa, do not use ladle to spread the batter, it should be thick like a set dosa.

- As it gets cooked, it will form a porous texture, then it will be very soft.

- These dosas should be very small, like set dosas.

- Adding cashewnuts is optional. My MIL always adds them, so I thought of sharing it with you all as it lends a nice flavour.

- The watermelon pieces that we add in this are the pinkish white parts near the skin after cutting up all the fruit, but take care not to take too much of the white part.

Karaatya Kosumbari/ Karela kosumbari..

Karela Kosumbari is a dish very often made by my Mom. Simple and tasty, its a must try for karela/bittergourd lovers.


Ingredients

Karela/Bittergourd, chopped fine - 2
Red Onion, chopped fine - 1 small
Fresh/Frozen grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Green chillies, chopped fine - 2, or as per your taste
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Oil


Method


- Sprinkle salt over the chopped karela pieces, mix well and set it aside for about 30 minutes.
- Now, squeeze out the extra water from the karela pieces.
- Heat a tawa/griddle, add about a tbsp of oil and spread the karela pieces evenly so that most of them are lying on the hot surface. On a very low flame, let them fry till they turn brown in color and slightly crisp. Keep tossing so that they are evenly browned on all sides.
- In a bowl, take the grated coconut, chopped onions, green chillies, and salt ( remember karela pieces already have the salt, so add accordingly)and mix nicely using your fingers.
- To this, add the fried karela mixture, add lemon juice, mix well and serve immediately as a side with rice and some curry.

Note :

- Eat this kosumbari fresh. Leftovers of it will get soggy.

- Crispier the fried karela, tastier is the kosumbari here. My picture here shows the Karela not too much fried, I realised after mixing everything.

Sabbakki DoSe/ Sabudana Dosa..

This is a recipe that my Mom had given me sometime back. I tried this a few days back and it tastes really good. So do give it a try.

Ingredients

Sabudana - 1 cup

Rava/Semolina - 1/2 cup

Grated fresh/frozen coconut - 2 tbsp

Onions, finely chopped - 1

Green chillies, chopped - 4

Tomato, finely chopped - 1 medium

Cilantro, finely chopped - abt 2 tbsp

Curry leaves, finely chopped - 3-4

Salt - to taste

Oil

Method

- Soak the Sabudana overnight.

- In the morning, grind it in a mixie with enough water.

- To the ground mixture, add the Rava, coconut, chillies, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, curry leaves and salt. Mix well.

- Heat a tawa, and pour ladle full of batter and spread the dosa. Drizzle few drops of oil on all sides and on top.

- When done on one side, flip the dosa and cook on the other side till crispy and done.

- Serve hot with chutney of your choice or it tastes great just by itself also.

Please Note:

-This dosa takes slightly longer to cook than a regular dosa. It will be crispy on the outside and still have a little chewyness of the sabudana inside. See that it cooks on medium flame so that the inside is also fully cooked, else the sabudana texture remains slimy inside.

- Serve this dosa hot immediately, else it gets soggy if left for later.

Kadhi-Pakoda and Yellow for Bri..

Just by the title itself, you might have known that this post is for Bri and the Click event this month hosted by Bee & Jai of Jugalbandi is Click Yellow for Bri. All of us are doing whatever we can best, but its still an appeal to each one of you, to try and reach out and contribute whatever you can and help Bri with her fight with the dreadful disease cancer she is so bravely fighting with. Wishing you all the very best Bri and hope for the best.


Check out all the details of the event and how you can contribute here.


I had decided to make Kadhi-Pakoda for this event, but it took me quite long than expected to actually cook it up and then even longer to post it. I had tasted this dish only a couple of times at a friends place, so upon searching for recipes, came across a lot of variations. I decided to go ahead and tweak it with what I though we would like best and here it is.

I made 2 different varieties of pakodas, one onion-methi and the other just onion. The kadhi tasted just great with both of them and was a success.

You will find the recipe for Onion-Methi Pakoda here.

For the Kadhi

Ingredients

Buttermilk - 1 cup + 1 cup water. ( I used the Schepps Cultured Buttermilk, which is very thick. So diluted it with equal amount of water ).
Besan - 2 tbsps
Methi/Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Ginger paste - 1/4 tsp
Green chillies, finely sliced - 1
Salt - to taste
Cilantro, roughly chopped - a handful

Method

- Mix the besan in the buttermilk and water so that there are no lumps and the mixture is uniform. Keep aside.
-In a pan, heat little oil, add mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add the cumin seeds, methi seeds, hing, green chillies and ginger paste.
- Add the besan-buttermilk mix to the pan, add turmeric powder and salt and bring the mixture to a boil, while sitrring in between. Add water if needed to adjust the consistency.
- Once the mixture is boiled and the raw smell from the besan goes, add the fried pakodas and simmer for about 2 minutes.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice.


Also, check out Meera's yummy Mahararashtrian Yellow Kadhi here.

I'm sending the first photograph as my entry to this month's Click- for Bri. All our best wishes are with you Bri. And thank- you Jai & Bee for hosting such a wonderful event for a great cause.

Onion- Methi Pakoda

I can't think of a person who does not like pakodas. The varieties and variations that can be done to a pakoda are just too many and they all taste just great.

The pakoda here today is Onion-Methi. So here it is. If you haven't tried it before, do give it a try. The fresh methi leaves impart a very nice taste alongwith the onions.

Ingredients

Onion,finely sliced lengthwise - 1
Fresh/frozen Methi leaves, finely chopped - 1/4 cup
Green Chillies, finely chopped - 1
Cilantro, finely - a handful
Ginger, finely grated - 1 tsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Red Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - a pinch ( optional)
Besan/Gramflour - approx. 1/4 cup
Rice flour - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - to deep fry

Method

- Transfer the cut onions to a bowl. Sprinkle salt on it, and leave aside for about 10 mins.
- Then, add to it the methi leaves, cumin seeds, ginger, cilantro, red chilli powder, green chillies, and mix well.
- To this add the besan and the rice flour and combine such that the mixture binds well. The consistency should be not too thick and not too runny.
- In a kadhai/pan, heat oil, drop spoonfuls of the prepared mixture in it and fry on both sides till lightly browned and cooked.
- Serve hot or with a green chutney or just by themselves.

Note :
- You can add just Red Chilli powder or green chillies. But i find the combination of both of them lend a nice flavour, so like to add it.
- If using froxen methi leaves, defrost it, squeeze out the extra water and then add to mixture.
- Add besan according to your judgement, coz sometimes, if the mixture is very thin, then you will need to add more besan.
- Baking soda makes the pakodas puff up and soft. So you can use it optionally. I have not added it this time. Also note that adding too much baking soda makes the pakodas absorb more oil, so be careful.