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sprouted moong curry

Mooga moLe randayi is a very common and popular konkani curry. Be it any festival or pooja or any other occassion like marriage you can guarantee the presence of this randayi along with daaLitoi and a upkari of the most common vegetable. Typically in all these functions, it will be tenDli upkari.

This randayi is easy to make, however it requires some amount of planning (1 day before) as the moong has to sprout. Soak some moong in water at night. Early in the morning, drain the water and cover the vessel with a lid and set it aside. By late evening, the sprouts should have come out well. Wash the sprouted moong to remove as much skin as possible. (I dont remove the skin however as it is fibrous and good for health)

Either raw banana or potato or tender bamboo shoots(keerlu) are added to this randayi to enhance the taste. I added potato to this dish. (My personal favourite is bamboo shoots)

Ingredients

• Sprouted moong - 1 cup
• 1 small potato cut into medium sized cubes.
• Grated coconut - half cup
• Red chillies - 5 to 6
• Corainder(dhania) seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Tamarind - size of a marble
• Turmeric - a pinch
• Mustard - half teaspoon
• Curry leaves - 5 to 6
• Asafoetida (Hing)- a pinch
• Salt to taste
• Oil for seasoning

Method

• Pressure cook the sprouted moong with the potato cubes.
• Transfer the contents to a vessel and add enough salt to it.
• Fry the coriander seeds and red chillies with a little oil for a few minutes on a low flame.
• Grind this fried chillies and coriander with coconut, tamarind and a pinch of turmeric powder to a smooth paste.
• Add this ground masala to the cooked sprouts and cook well till the masala is fully cooked.
• Season with mustard, curry leaves and hing.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

moong curry

This mooga saaru is an easy to make, simple, tasty, wholesome saaru made of full moong. I guess most people would know about this saaru but I thought of posting it anyways as I love it and make it very often. The lovely aroma of garlic seasoned that goes into this dish makes me drool…

Ingredients

• Moong (green gram) - 1 cup
• Green chillies - 2
• Red chillies - 2
• Garlic - 6 to 7 medium pods crushed
• Salt
• Ghee/Oil - for seasoning

Method

• Pressure cook the moong till it is soft and mushy.
• Transfer the moong to a vessel, add salt and slit green chillies to it and let it cook for a while.
• Heat some ghee or oil (or coconut oil), add the crushed garlic and fry it well. Add the red chillies and fry it well. Add this seasoning to the moong saaru and give it a boil.
• Serve with rice and any sidedish…. yummy.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

vada

I made this biskooT ambaDo with aalle(ginger) chutney for today’s evening tea. The konkani biskooT ambaDo is nothing but the regular ‘uddina vada’. I dont know why it is called biskooT ambaDo :-)

There is an unwritten rule that this ambaDo is to be accompanied by aalle chutney. It is very easy to make this vada. But you should plan atleast one hour before (in order to soak the urad daal)

biskooT ambaDo

Ingredients

• Urad daal - 1 cup
• Green chillies - 2
• Ginger - half an inch
• Curry leaves - 4 to 5
• Grated coconut - 2 tablespoons
• Salt
• Baking soda
• Oil for frying

Method

• Soak urad daal for an hour.
• Then grind it to a thick paste (do not add any water).
• Cut green chillies, ginger and curry leaves into very fine pieces. Add it to the batter. Add salt to taste and a pinch of baking powder.
• Deep fry small amounts of batter on a medium flame till they are crispy. Drain excess oil and serve with chutney.

aalle chutney

Ingredients

• grated coconut - half cup
• Green chillies - 2
• Tamarind
• Ginger - half inch
• Salt to taste

Method

• Fry green chillies with a little oil.
• Grind coconut,green chillies, a little tamarind, ginger and salt with the required amount of water.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

shrimp fry

I love fish but my husband likes shrimp. So I make shrimp dishes regularly. It is also so much easier to make. Especially this shrimp fry will go with rice and any gravy/daal.

You can use both fresh or frozen shrimp for this. Just clean the shrimp by removing the outer cover (shell) and wash it.

Ingredients

• Cleaned shrimp - 1 cup
• Rava - 2 tablespoons
• Tamarind - size of a marble
• Chilli powder - 4 tablespoons
• Tumeric powder - half teaspon
• Garlic (optional)
• Oil
• Salt to taste

Method

• Cook the shrimp with some water till the shrimp changes colour and is well cooked (abt 10 minutes)
• Meanwhile make a paste of the tamarind with a little water. Add the chilli powder, turmeric and salt to it and mix it to a fine paste. You can also add 2 cloves of crushed garlic at this stage.
• Coat each shrimp with rava and shallow fry on a pan with a generous amount of oil.
• Serve with onion and lime wedges.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

okra sidedish

I had eaten this bhenDekaayi-gojju a couple of times at my friends’ places in Bangalore and liked it a lot. Then I asked my friends Savitha and Ashwini for the recipe. Both of them gave a slightly different recipe. So I came up with my own slightly tweaked version combining those two. I like okra in most forms and so I always have some in the fridge. I make this gojju along with Rasam usually. First we have rice with the gojju and then with rasam.

Ingredients

• Okra cut into bite size pieces - 1 cup
• Grated coconut - about half cup
• Green chillies - 2 (add more if you like spicy)
• Tamarind - to taste
• Mustard - half teaspoon
• Hing/Asafoetida - a pinch
• Turmeric - a pinch
• Oil
• Salt to taste

Method

• Fry the okra in a pan with a little oil on a low flame till it gets cooked.
• Grind all the remaining ingredients (everything raw including mustard) to the consistency of a chutney.
• Add this chutney to the okra and cook it for a while (till it boils once)
• Enjoy this delicious gojju with rice/chapati/dosa.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Also known as mangaLooru bajji. This is a very very tasty and easy to make bajji. Prepare it on a cold evening or when its raining and serve with pipng hot tea.. yummy !!!!

As with other bajji/pakoras there is no need to chop onions etc and hence this is easy to make.

Ingredients

• Maida (all purpose flour) - 1 cup
• Gram flour (besan)- 2 tablespoons
• Sour curd - about half cup
• Ginger
• Green chillies - 2
• Curry leaves
• Oil to fry
• A pinch of baking soda
• Salt to taste

Method

• Chop green chillies, ginger and curry leaves into fine pieces (use the quantities and proportion to suit individual taste)
• Add the flours, salt and make into a thick batter-like thing using curds. If you have enough curds at home, do not add any water to the batter. Use curds alone. (The batter should be a little thicker than idly-flour consistency)
• Add a pinch of baking powder.
• Heat oil in a kadai and make bajjis by deep frying small amounts of the batter.
• Drain excess oil on tissue paper and enjoy the bajjis.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

spinach stir-fry

I love most varities of Indian greens especially palak and methi. I like the stir-fry (upkaris) anyday better than the curries. This upkari is one of my favourites and goes great with any simple daal/rasam etc.

Ingredients

• Spinach (washed and chopped) - 2 cups
• Urad daal (black gram)- 1.5 teaspoons
• Onions(cut into small pieces) - 1 small size
• Grated coconut - 2 tablespoons
• Red chillies - 2
• Oil
• Salt to taste

Method

• Heat some oil in a kadai and add the urad daal.
• When the urad daal starts to change colour, add the red chillies broken into 2 pieces each and onions.
• Fry for 5 mins on low flame and then add the spinach. Keep stirring on low flame.
• After 5 mins, add some salt and grated coconut. Cook on low flame stirring frequently. In another 5 mins, the upkari must be done. It will taste yummy.

Note: Do not add too much of salt. No water is required as palak + salt will discharge some water

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Last weekend we had a late breakfast and till 2 0’ clock I hadnt thought about what to cook for lunch. But then we were very hungry and I made this quick chicken pulav. It is a recipe from my father’s very close friend. Uncle S had once cooked this Chicken pulav and invited us for dinner when his wife was away. It gets ready in 20 minutes and is yummy.

Ingredients

• Cleaned chicken (cut into small pieces) - 10 to 12
• Rice - 2 cups
• Onion - 1 medium sized cut into thin long slices
• Ginger, garlic paste (fresh homemade for better taste)- 1 teaspoon
• Green chillies - 4 to 5
• Cinnamon - 1 stick
• Cloves - 5 to 6
• Pepper - 5 to 6
• Cardamom - 1
• Saunf/badishippi - half teaspoon
• Bay leaves - 1
• Yogurt - 2 teaspoons
• A pinch of turmeric powder
• Oil
• Salt to taste

Method

• Apply salt, turmeric, ginger-garlic paste and yogurt to the chicken pieces and set it aside.
• Wash the rice and set it aside.
• Heat a generous quantity of oil in cooker and add onions and green chillies. Fry for 5 mins.
• Crush all the other masalas into a coarse mixture and fry it along with onions.
• Now add the chicken pieces, salt and fry well till the raw smell goes away and you get a nice aroma. At this stage, add rice and fry gain for 5 mins.
• Add sufficient quantity of water and allow the pulav to cook according to your cooker specifications.

Enjoy with your favourite salad :-)