Ragi Seviya Upma

Ragi vermicelli is available in most of the India grocery stores and is a very healthy choice for breakfast. When stumbled upon this very healthy ingredient in one of the stores, my mom & mom-in-law picked it up for breakfast and made this amazing Ragi Seviya Upma. Here is the recipe that my mom shared of this dish. Hope you find this yummy.

Recipe:
Ingredients:

Ragi Vermicelli- 1 small packet
Oil - 3 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Curry Leaves - 5
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida (Hing) - pinch
Onion - 1
Green Peas - 1 cup
Green Chilly - 4 (slit)
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp
Ghee - 4 tsp
Coriander Leaves - 1/2 cup
Grated Coconut - 1 cup (1/2 packet )

Preparation:

1. Add Ragi Vermicelli to warm water and mix well. Remove immediately and keep it aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let it splutter.
3. Then add curry leaves, cumin seeds, asafoetida (hing) and let it fry.
4. Next add onion, green peas and fry it well.
5. Add slit green chillies, ragi vermicelli, turmeric powder, salt, sugar and ghee. Mix well 
6. Add coriander leaves and grated coconut and mix well.

Ragi Seviya is ready to eat.

Vegetable Kurma

Vegetable Kurma is a tangy & spicy coconut based curry with mixed vegetables. My mom used to serve this curry with dosas sometimes and I must say that it was a heavenly combination. Here is my mom's recipe and I hope you enjoy it.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
Oil - 4 tsp
Coriander Seeds - 1 tsp
Jira - 1 tsp
Pepper - 4
Cloves - 1
Cinnamon Stick - a small piece
Red Chilly - 4
Coconut (grated) - 1/2 cup
Tamarind - small ball size
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Ginger (grated) - 1 tsp
Garlic (grated) - 1 tsp
Onion - 1
Tomato - 1
Peas - 1/4 cup
Potato - 1
Cauliflower (or any other vegetables) - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Coriander Leaves - 1/2 cup (for garnishing)

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan. 
2. Add cinnamon stick, pepper balls, cloves, coriander seeds, Jira and red chillies and fry for a few minutes.
3. Add grated ginger and garlic to the above mix along with turmeric powder, tamarind ball and grated coconut and fry for a few seconds.
4. Next grind the above mix into a fine paste once it cools down a bit and keep it aside.
5. Take some oil and fry onions.
6. Next add tomatoes, peas, potato and other vegetables you may like. Sprinkle some salt and continue frying until they are cooked.
7. Add the masala that was ground earlier and let it cook well until the bubbles form.
8. Once done, sprinkle some garam masala, mix well and garnish with coriander leaves.

Vegetable Kurma is now ready to be served with Dosa.

Loshni Chutney

Loshni Chutney (Garlic Chutney) is a side that is prepared when Jowar Roti is made at home. This is a very simple recipe and here is my mom's recipe to this yummy dish.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
Freshly Grated Coconut - 0.5 cup
Red Chilly - 6
Tamarind - small ball (marble size)
Garlic - 3
Salt - as per taste

Preparation:

Take all the above ingredients in a mixer. In order to get the rich red color and the spice, make sure you use a mix of Kashmiri red chillies (for color) and Byadgi chilly (for the heat). Add some water when you grind.

Loshni chutney is ready to be served with Jowar Roti.

Kalingana Pole (Watermelon Dosa)

Kalingana Paule, a.k.a watermelon dosa is one of the Konkani specialities. After the red portion of the watermelon is eaten, the white layer that remains is used in the preparation of this dosa. This is one of the best examples of how innovative our Indian cuisine gets when it comes to making use of everything from a fruit/vegetable.

 

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Watermelon - 1 (white leftover portion)

Uncooked Rice - 1 cup (soaked overnight)

Fresh Grated Coconut - 1 cup

Salt - to taste

Preparation;

1. Wash rice thoroughly and Soak it for 5 hrs or overnight.
2. We use the white portion of the watermelon (which is usually not eaten) to make this dosa. Peel the outer skin and just retain the white portion of the watermelon. Cut them into cubes.

3. Grind watermelon pieces, soaked rice and grated coconut to make a smooth paste.

4. Make dosa by heating the griddle, smearing it with oil and then pouring the dosa batter.

Serve the dosa hot with white coconut chutney.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Patholi

Patholi is a traditional and unique recipe which is made in every Konkani household during festivals. We use turmeric leaves (haldi paan) for making this dish which gives  it a great aroma. The rice and coconut paste is spread on the haldi leaves and stuffed with jaggery and coconut mix. My mom used to make this for breakfast, but during Konkani festivals, this is generally served as a dessert.

If you do not have haldi leaves, you could also use banana leaves like I did in my dish. But then, since haldi leaves add a unique flavor & aroma to it, its best you use it if its available. 

Here is my mom's recipe of this great dish:

Recipe:

Ingredients:

For the outer spread:

Rice - 1 cup

Grated Coconut - 1 cup

Poha - 1/4 cup 

For the sweet stuffing (hoorn):

Grated Coconut - 3/4 cup

Jaggery - 1/2 cup

Cardamom - 2 (powder it)

Turmeric leaves - 10

Salt

For serving:

Pure Desi Ghee

Preparation:

For the outer spread:

1. Soak the rice overnight.

2. Next day, grind the soaked rice along with grated coconut and salt. The paste should be thick since we are going to spread it on a leaf, so add just sufficient amount of water that is required for grinding.

3. In the final round of grinding, mix poha and grind again into a smooth paste. Poha is added for softness. 

The outer paste is now ready. 

Next step - we will make the sweet coconut stuffing. This is called as hoorn in Konkani and is very delicious. (You need to make sure to finish making the patholi's as soon as the hoorn is ready else someone at house may end up eating only the hoorn and we end up with just the outer layer - just kidding. This often used to happen at my place where all of us used to attack the hoorn when we know its ready - yeah, believe me, its that yummy).

For the hoorn:

1. For the hoorn, take a pan, add grated coconut, jaggery, cardomom powder and keep mixing it on low-medium flame till it becomes a thick paste. If you have the hard jaggery cubes, like I did, then its best to melt it with some water in a microwave before adding it to the pan.

2. Once the mixture is thick enough, then turn off the flame and keep it aside. Let it cool down a bit.

The hoorn is now ready.

Now lets move on to making the patholi.

1. Take a haldi pan and spread it on a flat surface. I've used the banana leaf in my dish since I didn't find turmeric leaves here. And I used a chopping board to spread it since I didn't have a big taat (thali).

2. Spread the leaf with the rice and coconut paste first.

3. Next add the hoorn to the center and fold the leaf as shown it the pic below.

4. We will need to pressure cook these for 15-20 mins. For this, take some water in the pressure cooker, add a plate and stack these patoli's on that. Put the lid on and let it steam in low-medium flame.

5. Once it is pressure cooked, remove the leaf and serve it.

Patholi's are best eaten with dollops and dollops of pure ghee.

Shrikand

Shrikand is an Indian style flavoured yogurt which is very popular in Gujrati and Maharastrian cuisines. Poori with Shrikand is one of the very popular combinations. You can also eat Shrikand as a dessert. The credit for this dish goes to aayi and kaku.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Curd - 1.5 kg

Sugar - 1.25 cup

Cardamom - 4

Saffron - for flavor

Milk - 3 tsp

Nutmeg (Jaiphal) - very small piece

Muslin Cloth - to tie the curd

Preparation:

1. Tie the curd in a muslin cloth and hang it overnight so that the water comtent drips off.

2. Powder sugar, cardamom, jaiphal in a mixer and mix with the yogurt.

3. Mix saffron in milk and mix with the yogurt. Mix well.

Shrikand is ready to be served with poori or as a dessert.

Tomato Chutney

I had tasted the tomato chutney for the first time at Meenakshi Temple and since then I was craving for it. I was lucky to get a chance again to relish this chutney during a visit to my friends place where her mom had prepared it and it was amazing. This time I made sure that I had the recipe written down. Thanks to Kavitha's mom and Kavitha for this wonderful dish.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Oil - 6 tsp

Red Chillies - 2

Tamarind - small piece

Onion - 1/2

Tomato - 1

Salt - to taste

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Urad Dal - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 6

Preparation:

1. Heat 4 tsp of oil in a pan. 

2. Add red chillies and saute it.

3. Next add a small piece of tamarind.

4. Add onion and fry till it becomes slightly golden.

5. Add tomatos and salt and fry it for a few mins.

6. Once the above mixture cools down, grind it into a fine paste in a mixer.

7. For tadka, heat 2 tsp of oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. 

8. Once it splutters, add urad dal and curry leaves.

9. Put this tadka to the grinded paste.

Tomato Chutney is ready to be eaten along with idly, dosa or vada.

Methi Puri

I'm not a big fan of methi, but when I tasted the puris made out of it by my mom in law, it tasted simply heavenly and now I'm all for methi. It's amazing how a well thought recipe can change the way you think about certain vegetables. Here is the recipe to this yummy dish. 

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Garlic - 4 cloves

Green Chillies - 6

Fenugreek leaves (Methi) - 2

Wheat flour - 2 cup

Gram Flour (Besan) - 1/4 cup

Rava -1/8 cup

Oil - 2 cups

Preparation:

1. Grind the garlic, green chillies and fenugreek leaves together into a paste.

2. Knead the dough by mixing wheat flour, gram flour, rava, the paste made above, heated oil and water. The heated oil is added to make the dough softer.

3. Heat oil for frying. Make round balls, roll into a circular shape and deep fry it.

Methi Puri can be eaten by itself or with a side of chutney powder.

White Poha

White Poha is a very common breakfast side in Konkani Cuisine. My mom used to make either this or the Red Poha as side with the other main breakfast items. This poha has a tinge of sweetness and saltiness and is prepared by mixing poha with freshly grated coconut. This doesn't need the use of stove and is prepared simply by mixing the ingredients. Its a quick snack when you are hungry and have no time to cook.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Thin Poha/Nylon Poha - 1 cup

Green chilly - 1

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 2 tsp

Salt - 0.5 tsp

Preparation:

1. Take freshly grated coconut. You can use the defrosted frozen coconut too, if you don't have the fresh one.

2. Add sugar, salt and green chilly and mix well.

3. Add Thin poha (preferable) or nylon poha and mix it well.

White Poha is ready to be served. You can serve this with mixture or Chivda too.

Batata Vada

Recipe:

Ingredients:

For filling:

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 2 tsp

Oil

Hing - pinch of it

Green chilly - 4

Potato - 4 small

Salt - to taste

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Curry Leaves - 5-6 chopped

Coriander Leaves

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

For Frying:

Besan/Gram Flour - 1/2 cup

Water - as need to make a thick paste

Salt - to taste

Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil - for deep frying

Preparation:

1. Boil the potatoes and mash it thoroughly. I usually don't prefer lumps of potato, so I boil it for a long time and mash it very well.

2. Take oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let it splutter.

3. Next add cumin seeds, hing powder, green chilly and let it cook for a while.

4. Add curry leaves and mashed potato and mix well.

5. Add turmeric powder, lemon juice, coriander leaves and mix well. Take it off the stove.

6. Make small balls of this filling.

7. Take gram flour, water, salt, red chilly powder and mix well. This should be of semi-thick consistency so that it can hold onto the filling.

8. Heat oil for frying.

9. Once the oil is hot enough, dip the filling in the gram flour batter and deep fry it.

Batata Vada is ready to be served with Chutney.

Red Puri

Red Puri is a Maharastrian speciality which I learnt from my Mom-in-law. This is typically eaten with chutney powder or by dipping it in tea. Here's the recipe for it:

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 2 cups

Red Chilly Powder -2 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Sugar - 3/4 tsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Water -1/2 cup

Oil to fry

Preparation:

1. Take 1 tsp oil and add cumin seeds, red chilly powder, sugar and salt.

2. Next add wheat flour and water and knead it into a dough. The dough looks like this:

3. Make round balls and roll it into a circular shape.

4. Deep fry it in oil.

You can serve it with any curry or simply eat it with chutney powder. In the below pic, I have served it with Masoor Dal.

Red Poha

Red Poha is a popular breakfast side in Konkani Cuisine. The masala used in this is readily available in some towns of Karnataka. If you do not have the masala, you can prepare it as shown in this post. Here is the recipe straight out of my Mom's Kitchen.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Coconut - 1 cup

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Hing - a pinch of it

Salt

Sugar - 1 tsp

Thin Poha - 2 cup

Oil - 1 tsp

Red chilly powder - 2 tsp

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan.

2. Add mustard seeds, let it splutter.

3. Next add a pinch of hing.

4. Add red chilly powder and remove it from stove.

5. Add salt and sugar.

6. Once the mixture cools down, add grated coconut and mix well.

7. Finally add the thin poha and mix it well. Add some pressure while mixing to mix it better.

You can add peanuts to make it taste better. Alternatively, you can serve it with chivda too.

Buns Bhaji

Buns Bhaji is a Konkani breakfast menu item popular in Goa and Mangalore. Buns looks like Puri's and are made from very ripe bananas which are often not consumable. It is usually served with aloo bhaji (potato curry) and coconut chutney.

Recipe:

Ingredients - For the Buns:

Ripe Bananas
Jaggery
Salt
Cumin seeds
Baking Soda
Wheat Flour
Water
Butter

Preparing the Buns:

1. Mash the ripe bananas, add jaggery, salt, cumin seeds, butter, baking soda and a little water.
2. Next add Wheat flour and knead it into a dough.
3. Roll them as you would for a puri (for buns, it can be thick). Deep fry it. 

Ingredients - For the Bhaji:

1. Heat oil in pan, add cloves, coriander seeds, cinnamon stick, red chilly and pepper balls. 
2. Add grated coconut. tamarind and salt.
3. Grind the above into a paste.
4. Heat oil in a pan, add onions. 
5. Once the onion cooks, add the potatoes.
6. Next add the ground paste with some water to the above mix.
7. Cover with a lid and continue until the potatoes are cooked.
8. Once cooked, garnish with coriander leaves.

Buns Bhaji is now ready to be served !!