Chana Ghashi (Chickpeas with tender jackfruit)

Since my mother is visiting me and it is Thursday today, I have made this chana ghashi. (She does not eat onions and garlic on Thursdays, only satvik food). This is one popular Konkani dish, which is served in important functions and on festival days.

Ingredients:

1 cup of chickpeas

1/2 kg of tender jackfruit

1 cup shredded coconut

4-5 red chillies

1 small ball of tamarind

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 sprigs of curry leaves

A pinch of asafetida

1 teaspoon oil

Salt to taste

Method:

Soak the chana or chickpeas overnight. Cut the tender jackfruit into small pieces (This is a sticky job. You can get it cut by the vendor to make your job easy). Now cook the chickpeas and tender jackfruit in pressure cooker until it becomes soft. Fry the fenugreek seeds in a little oil and keep aside. Grind the shredded coconut, red chillies, fenugreek seeds, and tamarind to form a thick masala. Mix the chickpeas and jackfruit, ground masala, salt, and turmeric powder and bring it to a boil. Heat oil in a small pan. When it is hot add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds crackle, add curry leaves and asafetida. Season the chana ghashi and serve hot with rice and upkari.

Cabbage Sannakotto

This is a spicy side dish prepared with shredded cabbage. This is a Konkani dish which goes very well with rice and saar upkari or dali thove. I have prepared this today and I think I should share this simple recipe with you. This sannakotto can also be prepared only with onions.

Ingredients:

2 cups of shredded cabbage

2 onions finely chopped

1 cup grated coconut

1 cup rice soaked in water

One half-cup toor daal soaked in water

A small piece of tamarind

6-7 red chillies

Salt to taste

Method

Wash and soak the rice and toor dal for half an hour. Chop the onions and cabbage into very small pieces and set aside. Grind together red chillies, tamarind, and half of the grated coconut to form a thick paste. To this paste add the rice and toor dal and grind to form a coarse batter. To this mixture, add the onions, cabbage, rest of the grated coconut and salt to taste and mix well.

Now grease a deep dish and pour the cabbage and rice mixture. Cook in pressure cooker without weight for 20 minutes like we do for idlis. Once it is cool, cut the cabbage sannakotto into square pieces. Serve this hot spicy cabbage sannakotto with coconut oil. This is a perfect spicy side dish, which goes well with rice and dal.

Chakuli (Crispy rice snack)

My mother at 65 is an expert at Amchigale khaan (Konkani snacks). This is her age old recipe for Chakuli. This is a dish I regularly make for Diwali. Its a great evening snack. Tea and chakuli is heavenly on a nice warm evening with an interesting book.

Ingredients :
2 cups Rice flour
1 cup Gram flour
1 tbsp Til seeds (sesame seeds - Soak the seeds in water for 20 minutes.)
3 tsp Chilli powder
½ tsp Heeng (Asafoetida)
2 tbsps Butter
Oil as required
Salt to taste

Method:

Mix both rice and gram flour, add chilli powder, asafoetida, butter and salt. Add the soaked til seeds to the flour mixture. Add water and knead into a soft dough. Put small quantities of dough in a Chakuli mould, hold it over a deep frying pan with hot oil and press chakulis into the oil. Remove chakuli from kadhai when brown and crisp.

Ambya Sasam (Ripe Mango curry)

Just before monsoon, my village produces kilos and kilos of mangoes. There are so many varities during this season. We make pickles and juices and saath (candy) using Mangoes. But mangoes are hardly a part of the meal. They are almost always served as desert. This recipe however is unique. It brings this beautiful tasting fruit into the meal. Here is a recipe which will leave you licking your fingers and asking for more. This is my sister in law's recipe.

2 to 3 small ripe mangoes peeled (you have these special mangoes which we get in our village in Karwar called 'Gotto' which is just apt for this dish)
1 small pineapple cut into bite size pieces.
1/2 cup coconut grated
2 dried red chillies
2 tsp mustard
jaggery (godda) to taste
2 green chillies, chopped fine
salt to taste
curry leaves
oil (for tadka)

Add salt and gur to taste, add green chillies and mix all together.
Grind coconut and red chillies to a coarse paste, then add 1 tsp mustard and grind to a fine paste. Add this masala to the mango and pinapple mixture and fold, till everything is mixed well.
Add enough water to bring the gravy to desired thickness - its preferred that you allow it to stay thick, making it watery will spoil the dish. Make tadka of curry leaves and mustard and add to the sasam.

This is a sweet and sour dish with a tinge of hotness.

Karathe upkari (Bitter gourd sabji)

My family has a long unfortunate history of people with Diabetes. Research has shown that bitter gourd is extremely good for people suffering from Diabetes. It reduces the blood sugar level. I cook this often for my husband.


Ingredients:
2 Julienned Bitter gourd
1 medium onion Julienned
1/2 tsp Mustad seeds
1 tsp Red chilli powder
a pinch of Turmeric
2 tsp Oil
Salt

Method:
Julienne the bitter gourd, add salt and leave aside. The salt does two important things - it allows the water in the gourd to come out and secondly it enhances the overall taste of the dish. Keep this aside for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, julienne the onion. I am an avid fan of cookery shows and see that the finer you cut the vegetables the better they taste.

Now, take a pan, heat it with oil. Add mustard seeds till it crackles. Add the onions and fry till they turn translucent. Once the onions turn pink, add turmeric and red chilli powder. I occasionally add a little bit of green chillies but that is optional.Drain the water from the bitter gourd and add to the pan. Since the karathe (bitter gourd) were soaked in salt there is no need to add salt for this dish. Fry till they are cooked and serve with Dhali thove and rice.

Rava Idli

This dish happens to be one of my favorites. You can prepare the batter which can be refrigerated for a couple of days and this will serve well as a morning breakfast or evening snack. Perfect for a day when you are feeling a little lazy. Just take out the batter and steam.

2 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon split husked Bengal gram (chana dali)
1 teaspoon split husked black gram (udad dali)
4 green chillies chopped
4 cups sour yoghurt
1 cup coriander leaves chopped
2 cup grated coconut if available
1 teaspoon soda bicarbonate (optional - but helps the batter rise)
1 tablespoon cashewnut bits (kaju bee bits)
1 sprig curry leaves
1 cup semolina

salt to taste


Heat the coconut oil in a pan. Toss in the mustard seeds till they crackle. Followed by the different grams and fry till the seeds splutter fully. Add the green chillies, cashewnut bits and curry leaves. Stir-fry on medium level for about 3 minutes or till the grams are red in color.

Add the semolina and stir-fry on medium to low level for about 3 minute(s) or till golden in color and aromatic. Let cool. Once cooled, mix in the salt as per taste and the soda bicarbonate.
Divide the semolina mixture into two portions to steam then in two batches. Take a portion of semolina mixture and mix in half the quantity of yoghurt, coconut and coriander leaves.

Keep aside for 15 minutes to ferment. Meanwhile, heat water in a steaming vessel. Pour the batter onto greased idli moulds and place it in the steaming vessel. Cover and steam on high level for about 10 minutes or till the idlis are fluffy and well cooked. Repeat the procedure to make the next batch of idlis.

Mangalore bajji or goli bajji

This is an evening snack made with chickpea flour and maida. Today Amma reminded me about this recipe. I will be making this for my daughter in the evening. Hope you will try this simple recipe and enjoy the goli bajji.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/2 cup plain four or maida
1 green chillie finely chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
1 teaspoon cut curry leaves
1 teaspoon chopped coriander leaves
1 cup curds
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Method:

Mix all the above-mentioned ingredients (except oil of course) into a thick batter and keep aside for two to three hours. Heat oil. Make round goli bajjis out of the batter and deep fry them until golden brown in color. Serve hot with coconut chutney.

Aavale juice (Gooseberry drink)

Since this is the season when you get plenty of gooseberries, I tried this gooseberry drink recipe given to me by my friend Mala. I am sharing this recipe with you since it is a health drink and also tastes very good.

Ingredients:

1 kg gooseberries (Aamlah)
100 gm of ginger
3 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of water
4-5 lemon

Method:

Wash and wipe the gooseberries dry. Grate them along with the ginger. Extract the juice of gooseberry and ginger by putting them in the mixie. Now sieve the juice. In a saucepan boil the gooseberry and ginger juice for 10 minutes until the raw smell of the berries go. Make sugar syrup with 3 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup of water by boiling it. Once the sugar syrup is thick of one-thread consistency, add the gooseberry and ginger juice and bring it to a boil. When it is cool, add the juice of 4-5 lemons and bottle it in an airtight bottle. While serving add water to dilute the juice and add honey and serve.

Avale kadi

This is another Konkani recipe, which we have almost forgotten. Avale is gooseberry. This is a spicy randai or curry made with gooseberry, coconut, red chillies and other spices.

Ingredients:

3-4 avale or gooseberry
1 cup grated coconut
6-8 red chillies
1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4-5 garlic for seasoning
1 teaspoon oil

Method:

Cook the gooseberries in the pressure cooker and deseed it. Fry the red chillies, jeera and black pepper in little oil and then grind it to a fine paste with the grated coconut. Now add the gooseberries and grind it to form the gravy consistency. Bring it to boil. Heat the oil in a pan and add the crushed garlic. Once the garlic gets golden brown, add it to the kadi. You may serve this kadi with rice.

Arbi Raita

Hi everyone,

I am starting this blog all over again. Since I am new to blogging, I was not aware of the fact that I cannot take images from other sites. However, thanks for visiting my site and leaving all those comments and making me aware of this. Konkani recipes are vast. The ingredients and method does not vary much. I will be writing some simple Konkani recipes with commonly found ingredients. Hope it will be useful for those interested in Konkani food. Today, I will be writing this simple recipe, which is quite common in North Kanara vasarees. Hope you will like it.


Ingredients:

250 gm arbi
1-2 onions finely chopped
2 green chillies chopped
1/2 cup curd
1 teaspoon of chopped coriander leaves
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash the arbi well and cook them in a pressure cooker. Once it is cool, peel them and then mash them well. Add rest of the ingredients to the mashed arbi and mix well. This is a good side dish for a spicy randai or gassi.

This raita can also be done with cooked and mashed potatoes.