Konkanirecipes.com

daal

This should have been my first post. This simple daal is called the ‘Kuladevata’ of Konkani cuisine :) Be it any function,pooja or party, the daaLithoi is inevitably present and infact for some people daaLithoi is a must everyday.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Toor Dhal
• 3 Green Chillies - slit
• Ginger - 1 inch
• Salt to taste
• Oil
• Mustard - half teaspoon
• Curry leaves - 6 to 7
• Red chillies - 2
• asafoetida (hing) powder

Method

• Wash and pressure cook the daal
• When the cooker cools down, open and churn the cooked daal.
• Add enough water so that the dhal is of the consistency you like.
• Add the green chillies, ginger cut into small pieces and salt to taste.
• Bring to boil and then cook on a small flame for a few minutes.
• For seasoning heat oil in a small pan.
• Add mustard seeds.When they splutter, add red chillies and curry leaves. Then add a large pinch of asafoetida powder.
• Add it to the daal and close the lid immediately.
• Serve with rice. Many people like it with ghee or lemon.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

greens curry

vaaLi is a kind of greens that is very common among Konkanis. It is called ‘basaLe soppu’ in Kannada. I am not sure about the English name. It tastes like spinach. However, this dish can be prepared with any greens.

Ingredients

• vaaLi - a bunchful (about 3 cups after cutting)
• Grated coconut - 1 cup
• Tamarind - apinch
• Red chillies - 6 to 7
• Garlic - about 7-8 cloves
• Salt - To taste
• oil

Method

• Wash the bhajji thoroughly. Separate the stems from the leaves
• Cut the leaves into small pieces and cut the stem into pieces of size about 1 inch.
• Cook the greens in a little water with some salt.
• Fry the red chillies with a little oil.
• Grind the coconut, chillies and tamarind to a smooth paste. Do not add a lot of water as it tastes good if the gravy is thicker.
• Add this to the cooked greens, add salt to taste and bring to a boil.
• Crush the garlic and fry with little oil till it starts turning slightly brown.
• Add it to the curry and close the lid immediately to retain the flavour of garlic.

Tips

• Do not add more tamarind as vaaLi bhajji has a tinge of sour taste.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

sweet dosa

Everybody especially the kids love this dosa because it is sweet and something different from the ordinary.

Ingredients

( Serves 4-5 people)

• Rice – 4 cups
• Grated coconut– 1 cup
• Parched Rice (poha) - half cup
• Grated Jaggery - half cup
• Fenugreek seeds (methi) - 2 teaspoons
• Cucumber - 1
• Turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• Cardamom

Method

• Soak the rice and the fenugreek seeds in a container with just enough water to cover for an hour.
• In a separate bowl, soak the parched rice for 15 minutes (with very little water)
• Peel the cucumber and cut into small pieces.
• Now grind together the rice, parched rice and cucumber pieces. Do not add water (the cucumber juice should suffice). The batter should be roughly as thick as idly batter.
• To this batter, add jaggery, a pinch of turmeric, cardmom powder and salt to taste.
• Leave the batter overnight. Do not refrigerate.
• In the morning, prepare thick dosas (do not spread). The dosas will turn out very fluffy. Serve hot with ghee or butter.

Tips

• Puffed rice can be used instead of parched rice.
• If cucumber is not available, use more coconut.

Preparation time: 1 hour , soak overnight

mango sidedish

This is a very common sweet n sour dish and is prepared very frequently in most konkani households throughout the mango season :-)

Ingredients

• Juicy mangoes - 4
• Grated jaggery - 4 tablespoons
• Oil - 1 teaspoon
• Mustard - half teaspoon
• Red chillies - 2
• Green chillies - 2
• Udad daal - half teaspoon
• Curry leaves - a strand
• Salt to taste

Method

• Peel the mangoes and squeeze the pulp. ( Do not throw away the seed )
• To this add the grated jaggery and mix well. If the mangoes are sour, add more jaggery.
• Heat some oil in a pan.
• Add the mustard. After it sputters, add the udad daal, red chillies, green chillies and curry leaves.
• To this add the mango pulp (along with the seed), little water to dilute and salt to taste.
• Bring this to boil.

Tips

• Use mangoes that are not very sweet. This way these mangoes are put to a good use and the dish tastes sweet and sour.

Preparation time: 15 mins

I have chosen BangDa (Mackerel). However the method is the same for any fish.

Ingredients

For the roti

• Fish Pieces (Cleaned and cut) - 10
• Rava - 1 cup
• Tamarind - size of a lemon
• Chilli powder - 4 tablespoons
• Tumeric powder - half teaspoon
• Salt - To taste ( approx 2.5 teaspoons or more)
• Oil

Method

• Soak the tamarind in a little water.
• To this add the chilly powder, turmeric and salt and mix well. See if the salt is enough. ( After applying it to the raw fish, you may not feel like tasting it)
• Now apply the paste to all the sides of the fish pieces evenly.
• Set aside the fish for atleast one hour so that it absorbs the flavour (refrigerate it to prevent from spoiling)
• Now roll each piece generously in rava on all sides.
• Use a a wide bottom pan for shallow fry. Fry with sufficient oil on a small flame till the fish turns crispy on all sides (approximately 20 to 25 minutes)

Tips

• The longer you marinate it, the better the fish will taste.
• For added flavour, add a few flakes of crushed garlic flakes to the masala.

Preparation time: 20 mins , Marinate : 1 hour, Fry : 25 mins

Rice flour roti on banana leaf

This is a very popular breakfast item and literally oil free.

Ingredients

For the roti (5 nos)

• Rice Flour – 1 cup
• Water or coconut water – 1/2 cup
• Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
• Salt to taste
• Banana leaf - cut into pieces of about (1 feet x 1feet) which can fit into a pan.

For the Dry chutney

• Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
• Mustard - 1 teaspoon
• Tamarind to taste
• Red Chillies - 4

Method

For the rotis

• Mix together the rice flour,water,grated coconut and salt so that the batter is slightly on the thicker side of the dosa batter.
• Now take a handful of batter and spread it on the banana leaf.
• Cover this with another banana leaf and fry on tava.
• After 2 minutes remove one of the banana leaves and turn the roti batter side down on the tava.
• Similarly remove the other banana leaf after a few minutes.
• Now the roti is cooked on both the sides.

For the chutney

• Heat half a spoon of oil in a pan.
• Add the mustard. After it sputters, add the red chillies and fry for a few minutes and turn off the flame.
• To this, add coconut, tamarind and salt to taste and crush well. ( do not use mixer for this)

Tips

• This roti can be had with regular chutney also.

Preparation time: 20 mins

Rice flour Roti

This roti is very tasty, nutritious and oil-free. It goes well with any of the sabjis,chutneys used with regular chapatis or rotis. It is an ideal breakfast dish.

Ingredients

• Rice Flour - 1 cup
• Water - 1 cup
• Oil - half teaspoon
• Salt to taste

Method

• In a pan heat water with little oil and salt to taste. Bring it to a boil.
• Now add the rice flour. The proportion of the rice flour to water must be roughly in equal parts.
• Continue stirring the flour on a low flame for about 3 mins. Now the dough must be such that it does not stick to your hands. Close the pan with a lid and set aside for 2-3 mins.
• Now use small quantity of the dough to make regular rotis.
• Fry on tava without any oil.

Tips

• If you feel that the quantity of water or the flour is less, you can add it at any point of time.
• While making the rotis, rice flour can be applied if needed.
• The rotis need minimal time to be fried on the tava as the dough is already cooked.

Preparation time: 20 mins

Jackfruit Fry

Ingredients

• Unripe Jackfruit - small size
• Gram Flour - 2 tablespoons
• Rice Flour - 1 tablespoon
• Red Chilly Powder - 1 teaspoon
• Oil
• A pinch of Hing / Asafoetida
• Salt to taste

Method

• Peel the outer skin of the unripe jackfruit and cut into medium thick slices.
• Now cook these pieces in water by adding some salt for about 10 minutes.
• Drain the water from the pieces, add salt if required, chilly powder, hing, gram flour, rice flour and mix well.
• Now fry these pieces on a pan / tava on all sides on small flame till it is crispy.

Tips

• While cutting the jackfruit, apply edible oil on your hands.
• The seeds of the jackfruit are tender and very nutritious.

Preparation time: 30 m