Surnu-Ambuli Adgai( yam - raw mango pickle)

yam-raw mango pickle

 This pickle is not very long lasting but can be stored for a week if refrigerated. Adgai is typical konkani pickle with the combination of steamed or boiled mangoes and jackfuits are used.as well,like mango and yam or unripe mangoes.This goes well with our konkani style string hoppers/shevai/idiappam or with any types of dosa.This pickle is quite famous in our GSB wedding receptions with the combination of unripe mango and jackfruit during the summer season.

Prep time: 40 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Ingredients

• 1 cup Yam ( cut into long 1 inch pieces)
• 1/2 cup Unripe mango ( cut into cubes)
• 15 Dried red chillies
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1tsp Coriander seeds
• 1tsp Mustard
• 10 Pepper corns
• 5-6 Methi/Fenugreek seeds
• 1/2tsp Asafoetida
• 1/2tsp Mustard
• 1spring Curry leaves/kari bevu/kadi patta
• 2tsp coconut oil

Cooking Directions

1. Apply salt to yam pieces and keep aside for 30 mins.
2. After 30 mins squeeze the water from the yam and deep fry till golden brown.
3. Dry roast red chilles,coriander seeds,pepper,mustard,methi,asafoetida and turmeric on low flame and powder together .
4. Dissolve the 3-4tsp of salt into 1/2 cup of water and bring to boil.Let it cool completely before using.
5. Now grind the powdered ingredients with a portion of the salt water to a smooth paste.Recover adhering paste with the remaining salt water from the mixer jar and mix it with original paste.
6. Now add mango pieces to this paste and mix it well.
7. Lastly add the fried yam pieces and mix it again
8. Now prepare tempering.Heat oil in a pan,add mustard and curry leaveas and pour this over the hot pickle and it is ready .
9. Do not keep this for more than couple of days unless refrigerated.

Shevai/string hoppers and Adgai pickle

Pumpkin leaf vadi/duddi panna podi

Duddi/dudde panna podi is a  typical konkani style  fritter prepared with pumpkin leaves,which is served during lunch or dinner.But this makes a awesome appetizer or evening snack especially for vegetarians.You hardly get this  leaves in stores so better grow this in your kitchen garden as it takes very little attention.I have got plenty of these leaves in my backyard so i can relish it whenever i feel like.Other than vadi we can prepare so many dishes from this leaves,flowers and pumpkin itself  as it is very healthy and seasonal vegetable

Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 10-15 mins
Yield: 20-25
Ingredients

• 15 Pumpkin leaves
• 2 cups Dosa rice
• 1/2 cup Urad dal
• 10 Whole dried red chillies
• 1tsp Asafoetida /Hing powder
• 2tbsp Rava/semolina (optional)

Cooking Directions

1. Wash and clean the pumpkin leaves and let it dry completely.
2. Soak rice for about 1 hour and grind to smooth paste
3. Dry roast urad dal and red chillies till dal turns to brown colour
4. Mix urad dal powder to the rice batter and make a thick batter.
5. Add salt and asafoetida and mix it well.
6. Now spread one leaf and apply this batter evenly on that pumpkin leaf and then place one more leaf over that and repeat the process Stack 7-8 leaves at a time and gently fold it to make round rolls.
7. The same way make one more roll and refrigerate for 30 mins .
8. Now take the rolls out of the fridge and cut into 1 cm round disc as shown in the picture.
9. Heat oil in the pan and deep fry all the pieces till crisp and golden brown.

variation: Roll all the pieces in rava and fry till golden brown.

Palak-kabuli/ chick peas in spinach gravy

Ingredients

• 1 cup White chickpeas/kabuli chana
• 3 bunches Spinach
• 3 Onions
• 3 Tomatoes
• 10 Garlic cloves
• 2 Ginger (1 inch) pieces
• 3 Cardamom
• 6-7 Cloves
• 2 Cinnamon (1 inch) pieces
• 1tsp Cummin/jeera
• 2tsp Red chilly powder
• 2tbsp Oil
• 2tsp Kasoori methi

ONion paste

Boil spinach in water for 2-3 mins

Blanched and drain spinach

Spinach puree

Boiled chickpeas 

 Cooking Directions

1. Wash and clean spinach and blanch them for a 2-3 mins and puree.
2. Soak kabuli chana overnight and next day morning pressure cook with a tsp of salt for 30 mins or take 3-4 whistle.

For onion paste:

• Heat 1tbsp of oil in a pan,add cloves,cinnamon,cardamom,onion,garlic and ginger.fry it well until onion changes to golden brown.let it cool before making smooth paste.

Method for the gravy:

1. Now in the same pan add remaining oil put some jeera,let it crackle, then add Finely chopped tomatoes,red chilly powder and salt to taste,stir till oil comes on top.
2. Add in palak puree,boiled chickpeas and cook till the gravy becomes thick,at this stage check for seasoning and add kasoori methi lightly crushed with your hands.
3. Boil for a minute and switch off the gas.
4. Garnish with onion rings and fresh red or green chillies
5. Serve hot with chapati or rice.

Gooseberry/Amla salad

This is simple yoghurt based salad,can be used as a dip for chicken fries and paratas or just serve as a salad for lunch or dinner.This is very healthy salad as it rich in vitamin C and very refreshing dip too. Gooseberry juice has a great strength to replenish your lost energy source.This small fruit amla/gooseberry has the same food value has two oranges,which is anti-scorbutic .It is also used to cure problems like, diabetes, cerebral gastro and cardiovascular illness, low libido and many more.

Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 5mins
Total time: 10 mins
Ingredients

• 5 Amla/avala
• 2 cups Thick yoghurt
• 2-3 Green chillies( finely chopped)
• 2tsp olive /sunflower oil
• 1/2tsp Mustard
• 1 big pinch Hing/asafoetida
• 1spring Curry leaves
• 1/2tsp Sugar
• 2 Dried red chillies( cut into pieces)

Cooking Directions

1. Boil amla in enough water till soft.
2. Now grate or finely chop amla and add it to beaten yoghurt along with finely chopped green chillies,salt and sugar.Mix it well
3. Prepare tempering by heating oil in a pan,when it is hot add mustard,let it crackle,drop in red chillies,curry leaves and hing and pour this over yoghurt salad and serve
4. You can use some freshly chopped coriander for garnishing .

Kooka Masala/ GSB Konkani style chinese potato

Kooka( chinese potato) Masala

There is nothing like fresh fruit and vegetables at their seasonal best. There is something so good about eating food when its just been picked. It tastes better, it is better value and it is a better deal for the planet.Winter is the month you really enjoy so many vegetables specially root vegetables and these" Chinese potatoes" popularly known as kook in south canara and kooraka in kerala, harvested from spring through fall, and are an excellent storage vegetable to hold through winter. Here i have one typical konkani style dish featuring such potato which is enjoyed specially during the hindu month" karthik".It is aslo available in some parts of kerala. Few days back i got my stock from my mom from Mangalore and i prepared 2 types of dishes which is my all time favourite Kooka upkari and Kooka masala. Kooka masala is a spicy dish which i love to have it with plain rice and simple  dalithoy(GSB style dal)

Prep time: 60 mins
Cook time: 60 mins

Ingredients

• 1/2 kg Chinese potato/kook
• 1/2 Grated coconut
• 1tbsp Coriander seeds
• 1/2tsp Methi/ Fenugreek
• 10-12 Whole dried red chillies
• 1 Lemon sized ball of tamarind
• 4 Onion ( chopped)
• 2tbsp coconut oil
• 1 spring Curry leaves

Cooking Directions

1. Wash kook thoroughly in plenty of water and pressure cook for 20-25 mins or till 2 whistles.
2. Peel off the skin and cut into 4 pieces each depending on the size of the potato and  keep aside.

For masala paste:

1. Heat 2-3 tsp of coconut oil in a pan,add red chilles ,roast on low flame till it changes color to darkish red,drain out and keep aside.
2. In the same oil add coriander seeds and roast till it changes to almost most darker in color,add in methi/fenugreek and fry again for a couple of seconds  or until it well roasted and changes to light brown color.
3. Now add all the roasted ingredients to grated coconut ,along with tamarind and ground to paste.The masala should be little coarse.
4. Once the masala is done,heat a big kadai,add in remaining oil and add chopped onion and few curry leaves ,fry till it changes to light brown color.
5. Add in ground masala and stir for a second.
6. Now add cooked and peeled Chinese potato/kook and salt to taste and mix it well.
7. Add a glass of water and cover it with a lid and cook on low flame the dish is semi dry.
8. serve hot with rice and Dal

Baked fish stuffed with eggs

A quick and simple baked fish served with stir fried veggies.I have baked this fish with little mustard oil and coated with bread- corn flakes crumbs..a healthier way to get crispy tasty fish. I have used mostly mild white fish like Pomfret with great results. Don't be scared by the number of ingredients it is mostly vegetables and herbs. Please adjust the spices, especially salt, to your taste. I have tried to post a balanced blend here but feel free to adjust mild, spicy, lower sodium etc...

Prep time: 40 mins
Cook time: 30-40 mins

Calories per serving: 256.8
Fat per serving: 3.2 g

Ingredients

• 2 Medium sized Pomfret or any flat fish
• 3 Hard boiled eggs
• 1tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 2-3 tsp Chilly powder
• 1tsp Garam masala
• 1 tsp Lemon juice
• 2tsp Mustard oil
• 1/2tsp Turmeric powder
• 1tsp Crushed black pepper
• 3tsp Finely chopped coriander leaves

For stir fried vegetables

• 2 Potato (cubed)
• 1 Carrot ( cubed)
• 10 Shallots
• 4 Spring onion bulbs
• 1 Green capsicum( diced)
• 1 Red capsicum ( diced)
• 1tsp Light soy sauce
• 1tsp Pepper
• 2tsp Olive oil

Cooking Directions

1. Scale and clean the fish.The fish is served whole, so trim the fins and the tail portions first.
2. Slit the stomach horizontally, carefully clean the stomach contents from the cavity,wash it thoroughly.
3. Marinate the fish with turmeric,salt,lime juice and Mustard oil. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
4. After 2 hours,make the second marinade by mixing ginger-garlic paste,chilly powder and garam masala powder.
5. Now apply this marinade to the the fish and leave it for 30 mins.
6. In the meantime boil cubed potato,carrots and shallots till half done with little salt and keep aside.
7. Preheat oven at 180 C/350 F" .
8. Slice eggs and season it with pepper and salt.Sprinkle some fresh coriander and our stuffing is ready.
9. Now Stuff the Pomfret with boiled egg slices
10. Mix whole wheat bread crumbs with corn flakes crumbs
11. Brush the fish with lightly beaten eggs and then sprinkle some white
12. flour/maida, Dredge fillets in crumb mixture and place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
13. Bake for 35 minutes or until fish is golden brown and the fins come off easily when pulled,its done. This will take 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the fish.
14. Toss red and green capsicum , spring onion bulbs and boiled vegetables with olive oil and soy sauce. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
15. Serve fish together with the vegetables.

Quick Sweet Beaten rice "Pachakajjaya"

Panchakajjaya is a must for every south indian puja.It is offered to god and then distributed among devotees.This beaten rice and popped rice panchakajjaya is splecialy prepared during Gana homa and during karthik masa in every temples.My amma(mother) used to prepare this on tulsipuja . If you are someone with an isstiable craving for sweets you definitely won't need a reason to cram down those calorie-rich sweet dishes.Your fitness regimen and low cal diet notwithstanding! As a teenager,i often embarked on culinary expeditions, whipping up those sweet items that required micro efforts,but gave macro gastronomical pleasure.So here is my all time favourite sweet dish kallailo povu ..sweet beaten rice.

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 0
Total time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cups Beaten rice/avalakki/poha ( thin)
• 1 cup Popped rice/layi/aralu
• 1 cup Jaggery
• 1 1/2 cup Grated coconut
• 1/2tsp Black sesame seeds/thil
• 1/2tsp Cardamom powder
• 2tsp Ghee ( optional)

Cooking Directions

1. Roast black thil over low flame till you get nice aroma.
2. Take a vessel add jaggery ,ghee and coconut,blend it well with your hand until jaggery melts completely and mixture becomes sticky add in all the remaining ingredients and serve.

Caramelized Banana

Children and adults alike love sweet, nutritious bananas. Since bananas come neatly packed in their own wrapper, they are very portable. They may be eaten in their whole form, sliced into fruit salad or mashed and added to muffin and bread recipes.Caramelized bananas goes well with any kind of desserts or pancakes . Bananas are easy to digest. When you're sick with a virus or indigestion, bananas can be an appealing way to get some important nutrients into your system without upsetting your stomach. Mashed bananas are also often used as an introduction to solid foods for babies. Your body uses carbohydrates as a primary source of energy. Eat a banana after a workout to refuel. A banana with breakfast will start your day off right and will give you the energy to make it through to lunch without snacking. Bananas also deliver small amounts of other vitamins and minerals. A banana provides some iron, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus as well as vitamins A and E, foliate, carotene and choline. Bananas also contain trace amounts of many amino acids. Bananas are known for their high potassium content, with over 400 mg potassium in a single medium-size banana

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 4-5 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 3 Bananas
• 1/2 cup Granulated sugar
• 2tbsp Butter

Cooking Directions

1. Slice bananas into thick coins or lengthwise strips, depending on your preference.
2. Add butter into a medium size non-stick pan, and heat over medium high heat. Add bananas and sugar.
3. Cook bananas until light to golden brown underneath, about 4-5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook or burn them (if you smell them browning, or see color in the pan, flip them right away). Keep in mind these times will vary, depending on your stove.
4. Gently flip bananas over to brown other side, turning heat down to medium. The second side will brown in about one minute.
5. Transfer to a plate that has been coated with butter (otherwise they may stick - they are gooey and sticky!) and serve. Alternately, slide them right onto your ice cream, pancakes or  plain whipped cream and Enjoy !

Momos/dimsum

Chicken momos/dim sum with hot chilly sauce

Momos are basically the unofficial national dish of Tibet,it is also knows as dim sum or dumplings in different parts of Asia . Every family has a slightly different momo recipe, with various theories on how to make them the most juicy and delicious, or how to keep the dough skins to the desired delicate thinness.The variations are endless momos can be meat, vegetarian, steamed (the most popular), fried, and cooked in soup. 

                    Momos are undoubtedly an innovative low calorie snack! flour wrappers are filled with a healthy filling of chicken and mixed veggies like carrot,cabbage,capsicum (red and green) and spring onions and steamed to make an appetizing snack.In this recipe i have used only 2tsp of oil just to glaze the momos. In this momos i have used chicken breast mince ,which is a great source of protein. One 6 oz. serving of chicken contains 48 g of protein.It is also rich in potassium, calcium and contains no carbohydrates. The nutritional make-up of chicken makes it a healthy, filling food option. By eating healthy cuts of chicken, you'll consume only a small amount of calories and your stomach will stay full for hours. This decreases your likelihood of snacking on unhealthy foods later in the day .Along with chicken i have used 3 "C" carrot,cabbage and capsicum. 

In short Momos are bundle of vitamin C, a range of B vitamins ,beta carotene and rich source of protein.

Prep time: 60 mins
Cook time: 10-15 mins

Yield: 25
Cooking Directions
For the Dough:

• 3 cups Maida/all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup water for kneading

• Mix the flour and water very well by hand and keep adding water until you make a pretty smooth ball of dough.
• Then knead the dough very well until the dough is flexible.
• Now leave your do
  ugh in the pot with the lid on while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.You should not let the dough dry out, or it will be hard to work with.

For themomo filling:

• 2 Onions
• 2 inch Ginger
• 7 - 8 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 bunch of coriander
• 1 cup cabbage chopped finely
• 500 Grams Chicken breast
• 1 each Red and Green capsicum
• 1 carrot
• 2 tsp light soy sauce
•  Salt to taste

1. Chop all the following ingredients into very, very small pieces:
2. mince the chicken and then put all of the ingredients in a pot or big bowl,and then add two tablespoons of soy sauce.
3. Mix everything together very well.
4. Then use your food processor to blend all the ingredients ,now our filling is ready.

Shaping the Momos

1. When your dough and filling are both ready, it is time for the tricky part of making the dumpling shapes.For this, place the dough on a chopping board and use a rolling pin to roll it out quite thinly.small ball of dough and rolling each ball in your palms until you have a smooth ball of dough.
2. Then, you can use a rolling pin to flatten out the dough into a circle, making the edges more thin than the middle. Now that you have a small, flat, circular piece of dough, you are ready to add the filling and make the momo shapes.
3. The half-moon momo is very pretty.
4. For this style, you begin the same as with the round momo style, holding the flat circular dough in your left hand and putting a tablespoon of filling in the middle of the dough.
5. Then you have to fold your circle of dough in half, covering over the filling.
6. Now press together the two edges of the half circle so that there is no open edge in your half circle, and the filling is completely enclosed in the dough.
7. You will now have the basic half-moon shape, and you can make your momo pretty by pinching and folding along the curved edge of the half circle.
8. Start at one tip of the half-moon, and fold over a very small piece of dough, pinching it down.
9. Continue folding and pinching from the starting point, moving along the edge until you reach the other tip of the half-moon.
10. You can experiment with different folds and pinches to find the way that is easiest and nicest for you.
11. I have prepared 3 different shapes half moon,boat shape and round shape which i have used in my soup
12. You can lay the momos in the lightly-greased steamer and keep the lid on them, or you can lay them on wax paper and cover them with the damp cloth.

Final step...steaming

1. Finally, you should boil water in a large steamer.
2. Oil the steamer surface lightly before putting the momos in, so they won�t stick to the metal, then place as many as you can without touching each other.
3. Add the momos after the water is already boiling.
4. Steam the momos for about 10 minutes, then serve them hot, with hot sauce to dip them in.

Hot Chilly sauce:

1. 10-red hot chillies soaked in vinegar for 2days (1/2 cup vinegar)
2. 10 - garlic cloves( crushed)
3. 1tbsp-tomato puree
4. 1-shallot
5. 1tsp - Worcestershire sauce
6. salt and sugar or to taste

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients into one pot,simmered gently for 10-15 mins then whirled into a puree in a blender.
2. your sweet, fresh, acidic and tangy garlic-chilly sauce is ready to relish!

Variations:

• Vegetarians can try this with soya granules or paneer /cottage cheese or tofu as a chicken substitute in your favorite dimsum recipe.