KhatKhata

 Khatkhata is a Maharastrian specialty made from 21 or more vegetables. This curry is made on the first day of Ganesh Chaturthi and is very nutritious and healthy. My mom in law shared this recipe with me and we love it so much that its now made frequently at home. My kid especially loves eating corn cobs from the curry. Here goes the recipe for this amazing dish.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Green Chilies - 7

Fresh Coriander Leaves - 1 small cup

Toor Dal - 3 tsp or 1/2 vati*

Peanuts - 3 tsp

Grated Coconut - 1 small cup

Tamarind - a small marble sized ball

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Hing - pinch

Vegetables: Take 21 or more vegetables of your choice. Take small portion for each vegetable.

Slow Cooking Vegetables: To be Pressure cooked

Raw Banana

Raw Papaya

Elephant Yam (Suran)

Chayote Squash

Ivy Gourd (Tindora)

Snake Gourd (Padwal)

Round Cucumber (Dosakai)

Turnip 

Radish (Mooli)

Sweet Potato

Corn

Carrot

Green Peas (or black dry peas)

Cluster Beans (Chitmitki)

Taro Root (Arbi)

Fast Cooking Vegetables: To be boiled in vessel separately so that they don't get mashed in the pressure cooker.

Drumstick

Red Pumpkin

Brinjal (White, purple, long green or any variety or a combination)

Ridge Gourd (Ghosale)

Bottle Gourd (Dudhi)

Green Beans

Cucumber

Potato

Green Tomato (Optional)

Preparation:

1.) Take toor dal, peanuts, the slow cooking vegetables and water and pressure cook them.

2.) Heat oil in a vessel, add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add hing to this and the fast cooking vegetables and water and cover it with lid to boil them.

3.) After it boils, add the pressure cooked vegetables to it.

4.) In a mixer, take some coconut, tamarind, green chilies, coriander leaves, salt and water and grind it into a smooth paste.

5.) Put this paste in the vegetable mix and let it boil well.

Khatkhata is ready to be served with rice.

*vati = idli vati

Kurma Bhaji

Kurma Bhaji, a dish I fell in love with the first time I tasted it and I instantly got my notes ready to take this recipe down from my mom-in-law. The green color bhaji was so flavorful and infused with all the spice and goodness. Here is the recipe for this amazing dish.

Recipe: 

Ingredients:
Oil - 4 tbsp
Onion - 1
Tomato - 1
Potato - 1
Peas - 1 bowl
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Ginger - small piece
Garlic - 4
Green Chilly - 2
Coriander leaves - 1 small cup
Salt - to taste
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan.
2. Add onion and fry till the raw smell goes away.
3. Add tomato and let it fry for 5 mins.
4. Add chopped potato and let it cook well.
5. Then add peas.
6. In a mixer, take coconut, ginger, garlic, green chilly, coriander leaves and grind it well with some water.
7. Put this ground mix to the potato-peas mixture and season with some salt as per your taste.
8. Mix well and let all of this cook well until the bubbles come.
9. Finally add garam masala, turmeric powder and salt to this mixter. Mix well and serve.

Kurma Bhaji is ready to be served along with Puri or Chapathi. It goes great with rice too.

Kadgi Suki Bhaji (Raw Jackfruit dry curry)

Raw Jackfruit (Kadgi) is widely used in Konkan cuisines. They call it the vegetarian version of Chicken. This is my mom-in-law's speciality and it goes great with Chapathi or even rice.

Here is the recipe for this yummy and simple dish.

Recipe:
Ingredients:

Raw Jackfruit (Kadgi) - 1
Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Tamarind water - (soak a small ball in 1/2 cup warm water)
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Oil - 3 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Hing - pinch
Red Chilly -1
Curry Leaves - 8
Jaggery - 1 tsp
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup


Preparation:

1. Cut the raw jackfruit into small pieces and boil it in the cooker for 3 whistles.
2. Crush it with hand once its cooled, then add red chilly powder, salt, tamarind water, garam masala and mix it well. Keep it aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan. Once heated, add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Then add hing, red chilly, curry leaves and put the above raw jackfruit mix to this.
4. Then adjust the salt and add jaggery and mix well. It should cook on low flame.
5. Finally add grated coconut and serve.

Kadgi suki bhaji is ready to be served with Chapathi.

Ale Kande Ambat

Ale Kande Ambat (Ginger Onion Curry) is a popular Konkani seafood curry. This is the gravy for most fish curries in the konkan cuisines. My mom makes a vegetarian version of this with small diced potatoes since I love this curry a lot.

For all the seafood lovers, just use fish instead of potatoes.

Here's the vegetarian version of my mom's famous fish curry.

Recipe:
Ingredients:

Oil - 3 tsp
Byadgi Red Chilly - 4 (for spice)
Kashmiri Red Chilly - 4 (for color)
Coriander Seeds - 1 tsp
Grated Coconut - 1 cup (1/2 packet)
Tamarind - a small ball
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Potato - 1
Onion (small) - 1
Ginger - 2 in
Green Chilly - 3
Salt - to taste

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan, add red chillies, coriander seeds, grated coconut, tamarind, turmeric powder and let it all fry.
2. Next grind the above into a fine paste.
3. Meanwhile, boil a potato separately, cut into small pieces and keep it aside.
4. In another pan, heat oil, add onion, ginger cut into very small pieces and green chilly and fry it well.
5. Add the grinded paste to this and potato and let it come to a boil.
6. Adjust the salt as per your taste.

Ale Kande Ambat is ready to be served with rice.

Methi Miryakan Ghalnu Ambat

Methi Miryakan Ghalnu Ambat (translates to "Curry made with fenugreek seeds and pepper balls") is a very popular konkani curry prepared when making Konkan style prawn curry (Jeeve sungta Ambat). I love this curry so much that my mom used to take some out before adding fish or shrimp to it.

For all the seafood lovers, you can follow this recipe with the only addition of adding fish or prawns in the end and boiling.

Here goes my mom's amazing curry.

Recipe:
Ingredients:

Oil - 3 tsp
Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Byadgi Red Chilly (for spice) - 4
Kashmiri Red Chilly (for color) - 4
Grated Coconut - 1 cup (If using frozen, put 1/2 packet)
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Tamarind - 1 small ball
Fenugreek seeds (Methi seeds) - 1/2 tsp
Pepper balls - 8
Onion - 2
Salt - to taste

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan, add coriander seeds and fry well.
2. Next add cumin seeds, red chillies, grated coconut, turmeric powder, tamarind and fry it. Switch off the flame.
3. Grind the above mixture into a fine paste.
4. In another pan, heat oil, add fenugreek and pepper balls and let it fry.
5. Add it to the paste above and grind it.
6. Next heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Let it fry. Then add the grinded paste, salt and mix well.
7. Let it boil well till you see bubbles coming and then turn off the flame.

Curry is ready to be served with rice.

Ambade Bhaji

Ambade chi bhaji is a dry curry made with Gongura leaves. This healthy side goes great with Chapathi. Here is my mom-in-law's recipe for this dish.

Recipe:
Ingredients:

Gongura Leaves - 2 cup
Rice - 1 small cup  (this is used to make rice rava and we only need 1 cup of rice rava for this dish).
Oil - 5 tsp
Garlic - 4 pods (crushed)
Green chilly - 4
Salt - to taste

Preparation:

1. Take gongura leafy vegetable and remove the leaves. Wash it thoroughly and chop the leaves and keep it aside.
2. Boil the gongura leaves in water. After boiling it for 2 mins, the color would change. At that point, drain the water.  This helps remove some sourness from this leafy vegetable.
3. Next wash rice and dry it. Make rava with this rice by grinding it in mixer into a fine powder. Only 1 small cup of this rice rava is needed for this dish.
4. After the gongura leaves cool, add the rice rava to it and mix well.
5. Heat oil, add crushed garlic and green chilly.
6. Once it fries a bit, add the gongura - rice rava to the tadka. 
7. Put water and let it cook on low flame until the rava blows up.
8. Add salt as per taste.

Ambade Bhaji is ready to be served with roti.

Nik's Amazing Dal Fry

Dal fry is one of my hubby's specialty dishes. It takes the simple toor dal and adds a rich tempering which when served with rice feels like heaven. A must try dish if you are yearning for a recipe to take your taste buds on a gastronomical ride.

Preparation:

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 0.5 cup (soaked in water for 20 mins)
Onion - 0.5 (chopped)
Tomato - 2 (chopped)
Garlic - 1 (chopped)
Coriander leaves - handful (chopped fine)
Ghee - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds (jira) - 1 tsp
Hing - small pinch
Red Chillies - 2
Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp
Salt - to taste
Sugar - 0.5 tsp (or to taste)
Coriander leaves - 0.5 cup


Recipe:
1. Soak toor dal in water for 20 mins. Chop all the vegetables and keep it ready for making dal fry.
2. Take ghee in a pressure cooker.
3. Add jira, hing, red chillies, chopped garlic and onions. Mix well and let it cook till the onions turn brownish in color.
4. Next add chopped tomato and mix well.
5. Add turmeric powder, soaked dal, salt and sugar to taste.
6. Next add coriander leaves and water. Close the pressure cooker and let it pressure cook for 1 whistle. Remove from gas.

Dal fry is ready to be served with rice.

Matki chi Usal

Matki chi Usal is one of the healthiest curries that also tastes great. Its popular in Maharashtra and the northern Karnataka. It goes well with Poori or even Jowar roti. It is made from the sprouted Moth beans and has many health benefits. Here goesNik's recipe for making this delicious dish.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Moth Beans (Matki) - 1 cup (soaked overnight until sprouted)
Oil - 4 tsp
Peanuts - 10 (optional)
Cumin Seeds (Jira) - 1 tsp
Asafoetida (Hing) - pinch
Mustard Seeds - 1tsp
Onion - 1
Salt - to taste
Chili Powder - 2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 tsp (grated)
Sugar - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Soak Matki for a few hours and drain the water. Leave it overnight in a cheese cloth so that it sprouts.
2. Boil the matki in pressure cooker for 2 whistles.
3. Heat Oil in a pan.
4. If you like to use peanuts in your curry, then fry them in oil first.
5. Then add jira, hing, mustard seeds and grated ginger. 
6. Once the mustard seeds crackle, add onion and salt. Let it cook for a few mins.
7. Once the onion is cooked, add chili powder, garam masala powder and mix well.
8. Add matki with very little water and cook for a while. 
9. Add sugar and adjust the salt as per your taste. Cook on low for sometime and then garnish it with coriander leaves.

Matki Chi Usal is ready to be served with Poori or Jowar Roti.

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.