Kande Chutney

Kande Chutney is the konkani version of onion chutney. Kande in konkani refers to onion. This chutney is most frequently served with Urda appe, but it can also be an accompaniment to idli, dosa, uthapam and the like. Here's my mom's authentic recipe for make this delicious side dish.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Coconut - 0.5 cup (grated)

Red Chilly - 3

Tamarind - small piece

Salt - to taste

Onion - 0.5 

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan. 

2. Once the oil heats up, add red chilly and tamarind.

3. Turn off the flame and add grated coconut and salt. Mix well.

4. Grind the above into a smooth paste.

5. Add onion and just pulse grind coarsely.

Serve it as a side to appe or the like.

Urda Appe

Urda Appe is a popular Konkani breakfast item. In Konkan cuisine, two versions of appe are prepared - one is this which is prepared with urad dal and rice and the other is a sweet appe. Both taste great. We eat this urda appe with kande chutney (onion chutney). Here is my mom's recipe to make this amazing appe.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Urad Dal - 1 cup

Rice - 1.5 cup

Onion - 1

Preparation:

1. Soak Urad Dal for 6 hrs. In another container, soak rice for the same duration.

2. Grind the urad dal and rice separately and then mix them.

3. Let it ferment for about 6 hrs.

4. Take small portions of the batter and add chopped onions as required into the batter.

5. Next grease the appe pan with some oil. The appe pan looks like below.

6. Add a spoon of batter in each hole. Cover the lis and let it fry.

7. Once they are done on one side, flip them over and fry the other side till they are done.

Once they are crisp, serve them hot with kande chutney.

Nik's Baingan Bahar

Baingan Bahaar is one of my hubby's speciality dishes which I love a lot. This curry is made with small brinjals and has a tinge of sweetness, tanginess and spice, which makes it a great accompaniment with rotis. Whenever this curry is made at our home, we lose track of how many rotis we've eaten - it's that addictive of a dish. Special thanks to my hubby for sharing this recipe.

Preparation:

Ingredients:

Peanuts - 2 handful

Poppy Seeds - 2 tsp

Gurala (optional) - 2 tsp (This spice is only available and used in Karnataka state in India)

Dry coconut powder - 1/2 cup

Red Chilly - 2

Tamarind - medium round ball

Garlic - 3 pods

Joshi Bagara Baingan Powder (optional) -  3 tsp (You get this at Joshi Brothers in Hyderabad)

Salt - to taste

Oil - 10 tsp

Brinjal (small eggplants) - 6 (slit into 4 parts)

Mustard Seeds - 1tsp

Hing - a pinch

Ginger - 1in (grated)

Onion - 1

Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp

Red Chilly Powder - 2 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

Jaggery - 1 cube

Curry Leaves - 6

Aayis Gurala Masala (optional) - 2 tsp

Recipe:

1. Roast peanut, poppy seeds, gurala, red chilly, tamarind and garlic. Once they are slightly brown, add dry coconut powder, joshi powder and salt. 

2. Once the above ingredients are roasted, grind it into a powder.

3. Next, heat 5 tsp of oil in a pan.

4. Add the brinjal and fry it. Add salt and cover it with a lid to help it cook faster. Once cooked, keep it aside.

5. In another pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Then, add hing, grated ginger, Onion. Salt, Turmeric powder, Red chilly powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. 

7. Add the dry peanut powder made in step 2. 

8. Put water and add jaggery. Grind it into a paste.

9. In another pan, heat oil, add curry leaves, add the paste made above. Let it cook.

10. Once the paste cooks, add fried brinjal and Salt. Then add Aayi's gurala masala. Cover with a lid and cook.

Serve it hot with chapathis.

Puran Poli

Puran Poli, a sweet roti is generally prepared during festivals in many Indian households. The preparation process involves stuffing a sweet filling in the dough and then rolling it like a roti . It is served hot with lots of ghee or milk. When I was a kid, my mom used to engage me in the preparation process of this dessert and the whole exercise has made me grow very fond of this great dish. Recently, we tried this for the first time on our own and I must say, the results were quite amazing. Here's my mom's recipe for this lovely dish.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

For Dough:

Maida (All purpose flour) - 1 cup

Wheat Flour - 1/4 cup

Salt - to taste

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Water - as needed to knead

Oil - 1 cup

For Puran (sweet filling):

Chana Dal - 1 cup

Toor Dal - 1/8 cup

Water - as required for boiling

Jaggery - 6 cubes

Cardamom  - 4 (Powdered)

Preparation:

1. Knead maida, wheat flour, turmeric powder, oil, salt and water into a dough.

2. Put the dough in a bowl containing 1 cup of oil and keep it aside. This extra oil will be used later when we are making the dough balls stuffed with sweet filling. It also helps in making the puran polis soft.

3. Pressure cook the chana dal and toor dal for 3 whistles. The boiled mix should be mashy.

4. Remove the excess water and you can use it to make saar or discard it.

5. Add jaggery and powdered cardamom to the boiled dal mix and stir it till it becomes thick. Once it cools down, gring this so that it becomes a smooth paste.

6. Make small round balls and keep aside. This is the filling that we stuff in the dough, also known as puran.

7. Now comes the part where we stuff this in the dough. Apply oil from the bowl to your palm, spread a small piece of dough on your palm so that it completely covers the center of your palm. Then take the chana dal ball (sweet filling) and place it in the center. Next wrap the dough around this ball completely so that we don't see a trace of the filling. 

7. Coat some maida to this stuffed dough and roll it into a round roti shape. Its best to cover the rolling board with plastic to prevent sticking while rolling and its also helps with the cleaning process for the board.

8. Apply a bit of oil to a pan and to both sides of the rolled polis and fry these on both sides.

Serve it hot with ghee. 

Its always best to make less of the dough and more of the filling because we can make another sweet dish called Sukrondo with the leftover filling.

Surnoli

Surnoli is a sweet dosa that is made with cucumber or Mugge (Mangalore cucumber - if available) and is a speciality in Konkani cuisine. Traditionally, these dosas are to be prepared fluffy and not crispy like the Masala Dosas. They are served with white coconut chutney or with ghee mixed with chutney powder (also known as gun powder). Below is my Mom's recipe for preparing these green dosas.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Cucumber/Mugge - 1

Uncooked Rice - 2 cup

Fenugreek seeds (Methi seeds) - 2 tsp

Fresh Grated Coconut - 1 cup

Poha - 1/2 cup (1 mushti)

Jaggery - 1 cup

Tuermeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Preparation;

1. Wash rice thoroughly and Soak it in water along with fenugreek seeds for 5 hrs.

2. Grind cucumber, soaked rice and fenugreek seeds and grated coconut to make a smooth paste.

3. In the final stage of grinding, add poha and jaggery and grind it. Don't dilute the batter while grinding it. Make sure the batter is thick so we are able to make dosa with it.

4. Add turmeric powder to the batter along with salt and keep it for fermenting for 7-8 hrs (overnight).

5. Next day make dosas. If the batter was kept in fridge, make sure you keep it at room temperature for atleast an hour so you can make dosas out of it.

Apply ghee to the dosa and serve it hot with white coconut chutney and chutney powder + ghee.

Egg Fry

Egg Fry is one of the most simplest dish that you can make when you are running short of time but you still want to have something delicious. My mom makes these spicy egg fries and they are my all time favorite. This goes well with curd rice or rice mixed with any dal or gravy. Since the boiled egg are very blande, my mom used to marinate them with a  special chilly paste and fry them which gave it a great flavor and a crispy outer texture. Here goes her secret recipe.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Egg - 4 (Boiled)

Red Chilly Powder - 3 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp

Tamarind - small piece (Alternatively, Lemon juice can be used instead of tamarind juice too.)

Salt

Garlic - 1 (finely chopped/paste)

Ginger - a small piece (finely chopped/paste)

Sooji (Rava) - 1/2 cup

Preparation:

1. Boil the eggs. Once boiled, peel them and cut them vertically.

2. Make a tamarind pulp by heating tamarind in some water.

3. In the tamarind paste, add red chilly powder, turmeric powder, salt, garlic and ginger.

4. Coat each egg with the above paste.

5. Take Sooji in a separate plate and roll the coated eggs in that.

6. Heat a pan and spread some oil on it. Fry the rava coated eggs on both sides.

Egg Fry is ready to be eaten with rice.

Shepi Idli

Shepi leaves or Dill leaves are one of the  healthiest leafy vegetables and a great source of iron. In Konkani cuisine, we make a type of idli with these leaves along with jaggery and coconut. Wait a min - Jaggery - yes! You read that right. The traditional way of eating these sweet idlis is with dollops of ghee, but you may choose to have a coconut chutney as an accompaniment, whatever suits your tastebuds! This is unique to Konkani cuisine and one of the specialities of my mom. As a kid, I used to relish these green colored idlis and I've recently revisited those memories when I prepared this dish at home from the great recipe that my mom gave. Here we go...

Preparation:

Ingredients:

Shepi Leaves - 2 (cut the roots)

Coconut - 1.5 cup (1 full coconut)

Cardomom Powder - 0.5 tsp

Thick Poha - 2 cups (2 handfuls)

Jaggery - 1 cube (or as per your sweet levels)

Rice - 2 cup (soak for 2 hrs)

Salt

Reicpe:

1. Grind the Shepi leaves in a mixie.

2. Next add coconut, cardaomom powder, thick poha and grind the last 2 rounds. Make a smooth paste. We use a lot of coconut in this dish to get the great flavors.

3. Add jaggery to the mixture and keep aside.

4. Next grind the soaked rice without water in the mixie.

5. Mix all - rice powder with the shepi paste and keep aside for 2 hrs.

6. Add salt to the batter and then make idlis in the idli cooker. 

7. After steaming for 20 mins on low to medium flame, the idlis should be ready.

Shepi idli is ready to be served with your choice of accompaniment.

Satyanaryana Pooja Sheera

On Satyanarayana Pooja, this sweet is prepared as a prasad. It's my all time favorite dessert with a lot of deliciousness and goodness of the bananas. Here is the recipe from my hubby that always takes me back in time to my childhood days when I used to eat it in temples. This is one of his signature dish and highly praised by anyone who has ever got an opportunity to eat it.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Milk - 1.5 cup

Ghee - 1 cup

Water - 0.5 cup

Rava - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Cashews - 8

Chiroli - 10 (optional)

Banana - 3 (chopped)

Cardomom Powder - 0.5 tsp

Preparation:

1. Heat 3/4 cup of ghee in a pan. 

2. Fry rava in ghee and then put banana. Mix well.

3. In another pan, boil milk and water.

4. After the rava and banana mix is fried and mashy, put it in the milk and water mix.

5. Once the mixture dries in the milk, add sugar and cardamom powder.

6. Fry the dry fruits and chiroli in ghee and garnish to the above mix.

Satyanarayana Sheera is now ready. Eat it when hot!

Farfalle Parmigiana

Farfalle is a type of pasta in the shape of a bow-tie, hence it is popularly know as bow-tie pasta in the US. I had read somewhere that the name Farfalla in Italian means "Butterfly". Here is a simple and quick recipe that I tried at home using the butterfly pasta and it turned out yummy.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Farfalle - 3/4 cup

Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 4 tsp

Salt

Pepper - 0.5 tsp

Onion - 1/2 (chopped)

Tomato - 1(chopped)

Garlic - 1 clove (crushed)

Basil Leaves - 6 (chopped)

Parmesan - 1 cup

Water - 3 cups

Preparation:

1. Bring water with some salt to a rolling boil and add the pasta to it until the pasta is al dente.

2. Meanwhile, until the pasta is ready, we can start with the sauce. Heat olive oil in a pan, add onions and saute it until the onion cooks completely.

3. Add crushed garlic and mix.

4. Once onions are cooked, add tomato, salt and pepper. Let it cook.

5. Once the tomato cooks completely, add farfalle pasta and mix well on low flame.

6. Add parmigiano (parmesan) and mix well.

Basil Farfalle parmigiano is ready to be served.

Paneer Vindaloo

We went to this Indian restaurant - Kiran's for celebrating our anniversary and this starter just made me fall in love with paneer and this dish. It was so delicious and full of flavors that it left me guessing the ingredients that went into making it. Luckily, when i tried this at home, it turned out almost like the one I had at the restaurant. So here's the recipe and I hope you enjoy its myriad flavors.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Paneer - 1 cube (cut into rectangular pieces. Make sure the paneer is fresh and soft)

Coriander seeds - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Garlic - 8 cloves

Ginger - 1 inch

Coconut - 1/4 cup (grated)

Red chillies - 3

Cinnamon stick - small piece

Cloves - 4

Lime juice - 1 tsp

Onion - 1/2 (finely chopped)

Jaggery - 1 small cube (grated)

Salt - to taste

Red Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp 

Preparation:

1. Roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, grated coconut, red chillies, cinnamon stick and cloves for few minutes and then keep it aside.

2. Next, add turmeric powder, 1/2inch ginger, 6 garlic and lime juice and grind it into a fine paste. 

3. Marinate the paneer cubes with this paste and leave it for 30 mins.

4. Heat oil in a pan, add finely chopped onions and fry till brown, next add ginger-garlic paste (prepared from remaining ginger & garlic) and let it cook.

5. Next add the red chilly powder, grated jaggery, salt and marinated paneer pieces and let it cook for few mins.

Paneer Vindaloo is ready. Serve it hot!

Thousoli

Another amchi dish from the heart of Konkani land is this quick and healthy breakfast item - Thousoli. Thousoli (Cucumber dosa) derives its name from the konkani word for cucumber i.e thoushe. This is served with white chutney and tastes great!

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 1 cup

Cucumber - 1 (Grated)

Salt - to taste

Coconut - 1/2 cup (Grated)

Water - 1 cup

Oil - for making dosas

Preparation:

1. Mix rice flour, grated cucumber, grated coconut, salt and water. Make sure you mix well so that no lumps are formed.

2. Heat a pan, put 1 tsp oil and spread over the pan. Put a big spoon of batter and spread it on the pan. Allow some time for it to cook. Turn it around when done so that the other side now cooks.

This is best eaten with white chutney on the side.

White Coconut Chutney

Almost every other day for breakfast, my mom used to make this white coconut chutney as a side for idlis, urda vada, batata vada and her many varieties of dosas. She used to sometimes also make the red coconut chutney - the difference between the two being the kind of chillies you use for preparing it - this one is prepared with green chillies and the red one, of course with the dry red chillies. The recipe for this chutney is very simple as you can see below. 

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Coconut - 1 cup (Grated)

Green Chillies - 2

Tamarind - a small piece

Salt - to taste

For tadka:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 6

Hing - a pinch

Oil - 2 tsp

Preparation:

1. Grind coconut, green chillies, tamarind and salt into a fine paste.

2. For the tadka, heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let it splutter, next add curry leaves and hing. Add this sizzling tadka into the grinded paste.

White chutney is ready!

Masala Dosa Masala

Many of us love the Masala Dosa - not just any dosa, but the masala dosa. Obviously the aloo masala served with the dosa appeases our palate the most. Well, this delightful dish is also served with puri and chapathi. Making this dish has been quite a challenge - although its a very simple recipe, I just couldn't get the restaurant style taste during my attempts. Luckily, one fine day, my hubby made it and many memories came gushing down. I was elated to learn the perfect recipe, better than in any restaurant I had. Take a bow, here comes the awesome recipe.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Oil - 4 tsp

Peanut - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Hing - small pinch

Onion - 1/2 (chopped)

Ginger - 1/2 tsp (grated)

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt

Green chillies - 2

Curry leaves - 6 (chopped)

Potato - 2.5

Water - very little

Sugar - 1tsp

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Preparation:

1. Pressure cook the potatoes until three whistles and keep aside. Once it cools down, remove the skin and mash it.

2. Heat oil in a pan. Once heated, add peanuts and let it fry for few mins.

3. Add mustard seeds and let it crackle, then add hing and onion. Fry till the onion  cooks.

4. Next add grated ginger, turmeric powder, salt, green chillies, curry leaves, and mashed potato. Add a little water if the curry looks dry.

5. Add sugar, lemon juice and garam masala and mix it well.

Aloo Masala is ready!

Alternate way to present it - Below we've used avacado skin to present.