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

Veggie Pizza

Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Warm Water - 0.5 cup
Sugar - 1 tsp
Dry Yeast - 1 tsp
Maida (All Purpose Flour) - 2 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Olive Oil - 5 tsp
Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce - 0.5 cup
Mozzarella Cheese - 1 cup
Oregano - 1 tsp

Toppings:
Your choice of veggies. Below combination tastes great!

• Mushrooms - 1 small box
• Capsicum - 1
• Onion - 1 (optional)
• Broccoli - 1 bowl

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, take warm water, sugar and dry yeast and leave it aside for 5 mins.
2. Then add maida, salt, 3 tsp of olive oil and knead it into a soft dough.
3. Add 2 tsp of olive oil on the side and leave it covered with a muslin cloth for 2 hrs. After 2 hrs, the dough fluffs up. 
4. We divided the dough into 2 equal portions since we had a medium sized pan. Onto the pan, spread aluminium foil, sprinkle some dry flour and slowly spread the dough evenly with the fingers, pushing the extra dough slowly to the outer rim.
5. Next make some fork shapes in the center and spread the pasta sauce. We used the tomato basil organic pasta sauce, but you can use any tomato sauce.
6. Next load it up with the toppings of your choice. We used lots of mushrooms, capsicum, onion and broccoli.
7. Top it with Mozzarella cheese. We love cheese, so we covered it up nicely.
8. Sprinkle some more pasta sauce on the top if you like it.
9. Sprinkle some oregano evenly. You can also sprinkle some chilly flakes if you like it.
10. Preheat the oven for 10 mins at 390 F
11. Now transfer the pizza onto an aluminium tray and put it in the oven to bake for 18 mins.
12. Once its baked, take it out. Use a pizza cutter to slice it. 

Pizza is ready to be served. Enjoy and relish it!

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.

Jire Mire Kadi (Jeera Pepper Kadi)

One of my all time favorite dish is this amazing kadi that my mom makes with Jeera (Jire in Konkani) and Pepper (Mire in Konkani). It makes even one of those boring meals interesting by giving your taste buds a twist. Here is my mom's recipe for this amazing kadi that goes great when mixed with white rice. Recently I had this kadi as a side for Chapathi and that combination also tastes amazing.

Recipe:
Ingredients:

Oil - 2 tsp
Red Chilly -7
Grated Coconut - 3/4 cup
Tamarind - small ball
Ghee - 2 tsp
Pepper balls - 9
Cumin Seeds -  4 tsp


Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add red chillies and let it fry for a bit.
2. Next add grated coconut and mix well.
3. Add tamarind and switch off the flame.
4. Grind the above mixture to a coarse paste.
5. Next in a pan, heat ghee, add pepper and cumin seeds to it and fry it.
6. Put this mixture in the coarse paste that was ground above and grind it finely.
7. Now for tempering this kadi, heat ghee in a pan and add crushed garlic. 
8. Once the garlic fries a bit,  add the finely ground paste and let it boil well for a few minutes till bubble forms.
9. Finally add salt as per your taste.

Jire Mire Kadi is ready to serve with rice or chapathi.

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.

Dahi Arbi

Taro Root cooked in yogurt and infused with spices - that is Dahi Arbi for you. I don't remember ever eating this vegetable in my childhood, but I have heard a lot about it. So when I stumbled upon Arbi (Taro Root) in the Grocery Store, I really wanted to give it a try and was looking up recipes on how to cook this veggie. Luckily, I stumbled upon a recipe for this on Vege Cravings blog and I've loved it so much that everytime we get Arbi, I end up making Dahi Arbi. This curry goes amazingly well with Chapati, but you can also eat it as a side to Pulao. Here is the version of recipe that I tried and wanted to put it on this blog as a collection of my favorite food recipes.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Arbi/Taro Roots - 8 (peeled and boiled)
Tomato - 1
Yogurt - 3 tbsp
Green Chilly - 3
Ginger - 1/2 tsp (Grated)
Oil - 4 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 0.5 tsp
Guralla Seeds - 3 tsp
Ajwain (Carom Seeds) - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds (Methi Seeds) - 1/4 tsp
Fennel Seeds (Saunf) - 1 tsp
Amchur Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

Preparation:

1. Peel Arbi and boil it in a pressure cooker for 1 whistle.
2. After it is pressure cooked, let it cool and cut it into small cubes.
3. Now, take 3 tsp oil in a pan and shallow fry the Arbi till it is crispy and has a golden brown color. Keep it aside.
4. In another pan, take the remaining oil, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, ajwain, methi seeds, fennel seeds and hing. Let it crackle.
5. Add tomato and let it fry for a few mins until it mashes.
6. Then add the spices - turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, amchur powder and salt.
7. Now, add the yogurt and stir it. Switch off the flame and add the fried Arbi.

Dahi Arbi is ready to be served with Chapati or Peas Pulao

Note:  Guralla seeds look like Shahi Jeera and are only found in Karnataka.

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.

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.

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.

Gobi Manchurian

Dry Gobi Manchurian (Cauliflower Manchurian) is a very popular North Indian dish. The Indo Chinese version of  manchurian generally tends to have a gravy base. This is served as a starter in Indian restaurants. I love the dry version of it and attempted to make it at home on several occasions, but I was never able to deliver it with restaurant style quality. Alas, my hubby made this dish and it turned out simply amazing. Here is his recipe for a restauarnt style Gobi Manchurian.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1

For the batter:

Corn Flour - 1/2 bowl

Corn starch - 1 tsp

Rice Flour - 3 tsp

Soy sauce - 2 tsp

Salt

Green Chillies - 2

For frying:

Oil - 2 cups

For the sauce:

Oil - 5 tsp

Ginger - 1 tsp (Chopped)

Garlic - 1/2 bulb (Chopped)

Onions - 1/2

Spring Onions - 2

Salt

Soy sauce - 3 tsp

Chilly Sauce - 3 tsp

Tomato ketchup - 3 tsp

Preparation:

1. Blanch the cauliflower for 10 mins. This process takes away the rawness and at the same time, does not make the cauliflower very soft. In addition, it also removes any worms that may be hiding in there.

2. Next step is to make the batter - Mix soy sauce, water, salt and green chillies to corn flour, rice flour and corn starch mixture and make it into a thick paste.

3. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Dip the blanched cauliflower in the above paste and deep fry it until it becomes very crispy. To make a great manchurian, the fried cauliflower should be very crispy. Make sure you fry them for long to get this cruch on a low to medium flame.

4. In the meantime, start preparing the sauce. In a pan, heat oil, add ginger, garlic, onions, spring onions and salt. 

5. After the onions are cooked, add soy sauce, chilly sauce, tomato ketchup and mix it.

6. Add the fried cauliflower and toss it in the sauce.

Serve it hot as starters. It also tastes great with Chapathi - you can make a roll by stuffing the manchurian inside. It taste great!!

Egg Ambat

Konkani people love coconut. Almost any dish we make, we try to add coconut which adds a unique flavor to these dishes. Ambat is a konkani word for curry. The egg ambat which my mom makes is a tangy coconut gravy which is so flavorful that you can't seem to have enough of it. I have eaten egg curry at so many places, but this signature dish from my mom beats all. Here's a toast to this mouth watering recipe.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Egg - 7

Oil - 6 tsp

Coriander seeds - 1 tsp

Cloves - 3

Cinnamon stick - small piece

Bay leaf - 1

Black pepper - 4

Red Chilly - 4

Grated Coconut - 3/4 cup

Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp

Tamarind - a small piece

Onions - 1

Tomato - 1

Salt

Coriander leaves - for garnishing

Preparation:

1.) Boil 5 eggs and keep aside. Once they cool down, cut them into two pieces. We are going to use 2 raw eggs later in this dish to give a thick consistency to the curry.

2.) Heat oil in a pan, add coriander seeds, garam masala (I am using the raw spices since it gives very good flavor, but you can use ready made garam masala too if you have it too - cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, black pepper), red chillies and once it fries, reduce the flame and add grated coconut. 

3.) Next put turmeric powder and tamarind and grind it into a smooth paste with some water.

4.) In another pan, heat oil, fry onions, once they are translucent, add tomato and let it cook.

5.) Next add the grinded paste to the above mix, add some salt and bring it to boil until the bubbles start coming.

6.) Next add the 2 raw egg and stur continuously. This gives a very good taste to the curry and also thickens the curry.

7.) Put the boiled egg in the curry and garnish with coriander leaves.

Egg curry is ready to be served with rice or Chapathi.

White Randayi

My mom used to prepare white randayi (white coconut curry) with cucumber and ladies finger which I used to relish very much as a kid. I just loved the taste of those two vegetables when they were cooked in this rich and flavorful curry. Here's the recipe which I got from her and I hope you enjoy making it.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Cucumber - 2 (cut into big pieces)

Ladies finger - 6 (cut into medium pieces)

Salt 

Oil - 5 tsp

Coriander Seeds - 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 12 seeds

Green chillies - 2

Cumin seeds - 0.5 tsp

Grated Coconut - 1 cup

Turmeric powder - 0.5 tsp

Tamarind - small piece

Rice - 2 tsp (soaked)

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 5

Red Chilly - 2

Hing - pinch

Preparation:

1.) Boil cucumber in 2cups of water. After sometime, add the ladies finger and let it boil well.

2.) Meanwhile, in a pan, heat oil, add coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, green chillies, cumin seeds, turmeric powder and tamarind and let it fry.

3.) Once the above mixture is fried, put the flame on low and add grated coconut. 

4.) Grind the above fried coconut mix into a paste with little water.

5.) Once the paste is almost done, add some soaked rice and grind it again.

6.) Mix this paste along with the boiled cucumber and let it cook well in this gravy. Let it cook till the bubbles start coming.

7.) Next add tadka to this. For tadka, heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, red chilly, hing and fenugreek seeds. Add this to the cucumber mix and stir well.

White Randayi is ready to be served with rice.

Karathe che Koshimbir

Bitter Gourd or Karela is called as Karathe in Konkani. Koshimbir is a Konkani and Marathi word for salad. So this dish literally translates to Bitter Gourd Salad. But don't get confused by the name- this salad in no way looks or tastes like the one you would normally have had. What I've seem to think of is that, in our cuisines, anything raw or partially raw side dishes are called koshimbir. At our home, we call a mix of all vegetables, salt and masala as koshimbir. In addition, if we mix vegetable in a coconut, onion, red chilly mix, then thats also called a Koshimbir. Karathe Koshimbir follows the latter recipe. This side dish goes very well with curd rice. You can also eat it with chapathi. Here's a delicious recipe from my mom-in-law. Hope you enjoy it.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Bitter Gourd - 2

Oil - 2 tsp

Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup

Onion - 1/2 (chopped)

Red chilly Powder - 2 tsp

Salt

Lemon juice - 2 tsp

Sugar - a pinch

Preparation:

1. Remove the outer skin of the bitter gourd and chop it into very small cubes.

2. Heat oil in a pan and fry the chopped bitter gourd.

3. In a container, add coconut, onion, red chilly powder, salt, lemon juice, a pinch of sugar and the fried bitter gourd and mix them with hand.

You can make this similar koshimbir with fried papad or with dry shrimps (my mom used to make this with dry shrimp during my childhood). For making with these, you can skip the lemon juice and sugar.

Kolumbo

One of the specialities of my mom is Kolumbo. This curry goes well with rice, idli or dosa. I usually love mixing Kolumbo with rice and eat it with Pokoras, Ketchup & Onions on the side - one of the best combinations ever. Here is the recipe of this amazing dish.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 1/2 cup (or 1.75 idli cup)

Vegetables (carrot, cauliflower, potato, beans, Ivy Gourd, eggplant, drumstick) - 1 of each type

Tomato - 2

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Oil - 10 tsp

Coriander Seeds - 3 tsp

Red Chillies - 6

Coconut - 0.5 cup

Tamarind - small piece

Salt - to taste

Chana Dal - 2 tsp

Urad Dal - 2 tap

Fenugreek seeds - 2 tsp

Peppercorn - 9

Cloves - 5

Cinnamon Stick - very small piece

Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Hing - a pinch of hing

Coriander leaves - 0.5 cup

Curry leaves - 5 leaves

Preparation:

1. Soak toor dal in water for 20 mins.

2. Cut the vegetables into medium sized pieces.

3. Pressure cook the soaked dal along with carrot, cauliflower, potato, beans, Ivy Gourd, 0.5 tsp turmeric powder and 1 tsp oil for 2 whistles. Keep it aside.

4. In another pan, heat 4 tsp of oil, add coriander seeds and let it fry.

5. Add 5 red chillies, 0.5 tsp turmeric powder, tamarind, salt and coconut and turn off the gas. We use less coconut in this masala.

6. Grind the above fried masala along with water into a very coarse paste and keep aside.

7. In another pan, heat 3 tsp of oil, next add chana dal, urad dal, fenugreek seeds, peppercorns, cloves, small cinnamon stick, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and a pinch of hing.

8. Add the above fried mix to the coarse grinded paste and grind it further into a very fine paste. Keep it aside.

9. Separately boil tomato, drumstick and eggplant as they take less time to cook. Don't pressure cook it with the rest as it will melt off in the gravy.

10. In a pan, add the boiled tomato, drumstick and eggplant, add the fine masala that was grinded earlier, water and salt. At this step, if the dal is not cooked properly, then add it to this mixture. Else, if dal is properly cooked, then we can add it in the end once the masala cooks well. Bubbles will start appearing once the masala is cooked well.

11. Once the masala cooks, add dal (if not added earlier) and add coriander leaves.

12. For tadka, heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, add curry leaves, 1 red chillies, 0.5 tsp mustard seeds and a pinch of hing. Add the tadka to the above mix.

Kolumbo is ready to be served.

Alambe Randayi

This mushroom curry is one of the amazing recipes that I learnt from my Mom. Alambe in Konkani means Mushroom and Randayi means Curry. While this can be best eaten with Urad Dosa or rice, you can also relish this dish with parotha or even Chapathi. Here's the recipe and I hope you enjoy it too.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Mushroom - 1 box

Water - 2 cups

Onion - 2

Salt

Oil - 5 tsp

Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp

Jira - 0.5 tsp

Red Chillies - 8

Coconut - 1 cup (if you are using frozen one that we get in US, then you can use half of the packet)

Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp

Tamarind - a small piece

Preparation:

1. Heat water in a pan.

2. When it comes to boil, add mushrooms and 1.5 onions and let it boil well.

3. Once it boils, add salt.

4. In the meantime while that is boiling, heat oil in a separate pan.

5. Add coriander seeds, very little jira, red chillies, coconut, turmeric powder, tamarind and fry it.

6. Grind the above into a fine paste.

7. Add this masala to the boiled mushroom & onion mix and let it cook well.

8. For tadka, heat oil in a pan, fry the remaining half onion and add it to the curry prepared in the above step.

Alambe Randayi is ready to be served with rice or urad dosa.

Valli bhajji Randayi

Valli bhajji is a type of spinach which we get very easily in South India. Valli bhajji is referred to as Malabar Spinach or Chinese Spinach in English. Bhajji in Konkani means leafy vegetable and Randayi means curry. Here is my mom's  recipe for this delicious dish.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 1/2 cup 

Malabar Spinach/Chinese Spinach (Valli bhajji)- 2 bowls

Onion - 1

Water - 2 cups

Oil - 5 tsp

Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 0.5 tsp

Red Chillies - 8 

Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup

Tamarind - a small piece

Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp

Garlic bulb - 1

Preparation:

1. Wash toor dal and soak it in water for 20 mins.

2. Pressure cook the dal, malabar spinach and onion together with 2 cups of water for 2 whistles.

3. Heat oil in a pan, add coriander seeds, cumin seeds, tamarind, turmeric powder and red chillies and let it fry.

4. Next add the grated coconut once it is taken off the flame or on low flame.

5. Grind the above mix along with some water into a fine paste. 

6. In the boiled mix, add salt and the grinded paste and let it cook well until the bubbles start to appear.

7. For tadka, heat oil, add crushed garlic bulb and add it to the above mix. Again, make sure that it boils well.

Valli bhajji Randayi is ready to be served with rice.