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.

Ivy Gourd Chutney

Tindora Chutney/ Ivy Gourd Chutney is a spicy and tangy Andhra style pachadi that I learnt from the Vah Chef. Using tindora this way was very new to me and I really loved it. It goes well with rice. Here is the recipe of the dish:

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Oil - 2 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Tamarind - a small piece

Garlic - 4 cloves

Green chilly - 4 (Slit)

Tindora/Ivy gourd - 10 (cut into small rounds)

Salt - to taste

Red Chilly - 1

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds, red chilly, tamarind, whole garlic and green chillies. 

2. Once it cooks a bit, add tindora and salt and let it cook for 10 mins.

3. Make a coarse paste of the above mixture.

Tindora Chutney is ready to be served with rice !!

Chana Masala

Chana Masala/Chole is a very popular Indian curry which finds its roots in the northern regions of India. It is a part of the Punjabi cuisine. It is usually served with Puri or Batura and can also be served with rice or roti. The same chole can also be used in the preparation of chaat. The hero of this dish is the Garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and the gravy is tangy and very flavorful. This is one of my favorite dishes and I'm sure you will relish it as well.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Garbanzo Beans (chickpeas) - 1 cup (soaked for 6-8 hrs)

Cloves - 4

Cardamom - 4

Cinnamon stick - a small piece

Bay leaves - 2

Oil  - 4 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 (chopped)

Tomato - 2 (chopped)

Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp

Chilly Powder - 1.5 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tsp

Cumin Powder - 0.5 tsp

Amchur powder - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves - to garnish

Salt - to taste

For the broth:

Tea leaves - 3 tsp

Cloves - 3

Cardamom - 2 crushed

Cinnamon - 1 small piece

Bay leaves - 1

Water - 1 cup

Preparation:

1. Soak the Chana (Garbanzo beans) overnight for 6-8 hours.

2. Add tea leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, clove and bay leaves to water and bring it to boil. Filter this and add the broth to the chana. 

3. Pressure cook the chana with this broth (5-6 whistles). Cooking the chana with the broth will add flavor and color to the chana. Make sure the chana is very well cooked and is easily mashable.

4. Make a powder of cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaves. We can use it in its whole form, but I don't prefer it that way since I don't want those pieces in my mouth. You can also use garam masala powder available in stores if you want, but I like to grind my garam masala this way.

5. Heat oil, add cumin seeds and the ground garam masala that we made above. Let it cook for a while.

6. Once they start spluttering, then add onion, salt and ginger-garlic-chilly paste.

7. Once the onion turns slightly brown, add tomatoes. Cook it until it becomes mashy.

8. Next add the turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and amchur powder. Let the masala cook for a bit.

9. Next add the pressure cooked broth to the above mixture and let it simmer for a while.

10. In the meantime, take some boiled chana and make a paste out of it. This will give a good consistency when added to the chana masala.

11. Add the above paste and the rest of the chana to the onion-tomato mixture and let it simmer on medium flame. 

12. The chana masala should be a bit tangy, so add the amchur masala as needed.

13. Garnish it with coriander leaves.

Yummy Chole is now ready to be served!!

Lemon Rice

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Oil - 3 tsp

Red Chilly - 1

Peanuts - 1/4 cup

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Chana Dal -1/2 tsp

Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp

Hing - pinch

Curry Leaves - 4 chopped

Ginger - 1/2 tsp grated

Onion - 1 small chopped

Green chilly - 4 slit

Haldi - 1/2 tsp

Cooked Rice - 2 cups (or leftover rice)

Salt - to taste

Lemon juice - 3-4 tsp

Preparation:

1.) Heat oil in a pan, add red chilly, peanuts and fry it till brown.

2.) Add mustard seeds, once it starts to splutter, add chana dal and urad dal. Fry till slightly brown.

3.) Add a pinch of hing, curry leaves, chopped ginger and onion.

4.) Add salt and let the onions cook a bit, next add green chilly, haldi and cooked rice. If you have leftover rice, then you can use it too.

5.) Squeeze lime juice and serve it hot.

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.

Thai Basil Fried Rice with Tofu

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Oil

Hard Tofu - 1

Eggs - 3

Ginger - small piece

Garlic - 7-8 cloves

Onions - 1/2

Green onions - 6

Brocolli - cut into 10-12 florets

Capsicum - 1/2 red, 1/2 yellow

Basil - 6 leaves chopped

Salt

Soy Sauce - 6 tsp

Hoisin sauce - 6 tsp

Green Chilly Sauce - 6 tsp

Rice - 1 cup (cooked rice)

Preparation:

1. Take oil in a pan and scramble the eggs and keep aside.

2. Deep fry the tofu in oil and keep it aside.

3. Take oil in a pan and add crushed ginger-garlic.

4. Add onions and saute them for a while.

5. Next add brocolli and capsicum.

6. Add green onions and chopped basil leaves. 

7. Once the vegetables cook a bit, add salt and fried tofu.

8. Add soy sauce, hoisin sauce and green chilly sauce.

9. Add cooked rice and mix well.

10. Add scrambled eggs and garnish it with basil leaves.

Guacamole

Guacamole is an avocado based dip which originated in Mexico. Avocado is a very healthy fruit loaded with important nutrients. This dip is usually made with ripe avocados. It is served with corn chips, and added as a side to burritos, tacos, enchiladas and salads in Mexican restaurants.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Avocado - 1

Onions - 1/4 piece chopped finely

Tomatoes - 1/2 piece

Pepper - 1 tsp

Salt

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Cut the avacado in the center and scoop the green part with a spoon. Remove the seed and mash the rest.

2. Add chopped onions, tomatoes, salt, pepper and lemon juice and mix well.

This is served with corn chips in many mexican restaurants.