Radish Sambhar

It’s been sometime that I added a new post on my blog. Not that I lost interest, just that work was hectic and I had no time at my disposal. Last night I prepared Radish Sambhar…Here’s how I prepared it...

Ingredients…
1 cup toordal, pinch of turmeric, One onion chopped, 2 ripe tomatoes finely chopped, white radish – cut into medium peices, 3 tsp of tamarind pulp1tsp of red chilli powder,
2tsp of salt, 3 tsp of sambhar powder
Oil, mustard, jeera, curry leaves for tadka

Method…
Pressure-cook toor dal thoroughly until it falls apart, with turmeric in two cups of water. Mash and make a paste. While the toor dal is pressure-cooked, heat 1 tsp of oil in a big saucepan, crackle some mustard seeds, jeera and curry leaves. Add onions, tomatoes, white radish, sauté them for few minutes.Stir in the tamarind juice, salt, red chilli powder, sambhar powder and 1 glass water. Mix it well, cover with a lid. Bring the water to boil, then add mashed toor dal. Let it simmer for fifteen minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally, till the good aroma emanates. Serve hot with rice.

Goli Baje

Everytime we visit Mangalore, we don’t miss visiting Hotel Taj Mahal and Ideal Ice Cream Parlour. My husband loves the Goli Baje’s served in Hotel Taj Mahal and the Ice creams (Gud Bud, Parfait, Dilkush, Banana Split, Chocolate dad…) from Ideal.

Goli Baje’s are very easy to make. This is my third attempt. I remember the first time i made it, the snack had become so hard. But the second and the third time, it came out well. Here's how I did it…

Ingredients...
1 and 1/2 cups maida(all purpose flour), 2 tsp gram flour (besan), 3/4 cup curd or yogurt or buttermilk, 1 tsp finely chopped ginger, 1 tsp finely chopped green chilies, 3-4 leaves curry leaves, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp sugar, Salt, Oil for deep frying

Method...
Sieve Maida and Besan into a bowl. Now add yogurt or buttermilk to make a dough which is not too thick nor thin. Add all the ingredients (except oil) into the dough. Leave the dough for around two hours.
Use a spoon to drop the dough into hot oil. Deep fry. Serve with coconut chutney.

Kozhi Varuthathu

Another dish I prepared this weekend was Kozhi Varuthathu-A very hot chicken!
from Shynee’s isouthpotpourri. This is the second time I am preparing it and my guests gave thumbs up for this one. One of them even suggested that next time when all our relatives in Pune get together, I should prepare this one. I will…

You can get the original recipe and the picture at http://isouthpotpourri.blogspot.com/
This is my version. The recipe is as follows…

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts-250g (chopped into small bits), Onion-1 large-chopped fine, Tomato-1-cut into small pieces, Copra-1 half-cut into small pieces , Ginger-25g, Garlic-25g, Green chillies-5, Red chilli powder-1 tsp, Pepper powder-1 tsp, Coriander powder-1 tsp,Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp, Cinnamon powder-1/4 tsp, Cardamom powder-1/4 tsp, Cloves powder-1/4 tsp, Fennel seed powder-1/2 tsp, Nutmeg powder-1/4 tsp, Curry leaves-2 sprigs, Salt-as required, Oil-as required

Method:

Marinate chicken pieces with a little turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt and keep it aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile whisk ginger, garlic, green chilli in a mincer.(Should not be ground to a paste).Heat oil in a wok. Add curry leaves. Once it has spluttered add onion. Saute it to a brown tinge. Add tomato, ginger-garlic-green chilli mix, saute everything together till you get a nice aroma. Keep stirring so that it doesn’t stick to the vessel. Now add the copra pieces. Now add chicken pieces, all the spice powders and salt as rqd. Mix everything well. Keep stirring the whole mix until the chicken is properly browned and cooked.(In case the chicken that u use requires more time to cook, it is ideal to cook it separate and add to the spice mixture.) Serve it hot with chappathi, paratha or with rice.

Kane (Lady fish) Rawa fry

Weekend was pretty eventful for me. With guests at home, I had my hands full. There was Lady Fish fry on the menu. Of all the fishes I find it very difficult to clean this fish. It has so many slippery scales on it. Nevertheless I put in my best effort and here’s what I did…



Ingredients...

Kaane fish (Lady fish) – 4-5 (big ones)
Chilli Powder – 2 spoons
Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp
Tamarind (soaked in ½ cup of water)
Salt as per taste
Oil to fry

Method….

Clean the fish. And put cut marks on it. Mix chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and soaked Tamarind’s water. Mix well and apply this on the cleaned fish. Marinate it for an hour. Now heat a pan. Pour some oil… take the marinated fish. Roll it on rawa and fry it on both sides. My aunt deep-fries the fish. Though I like them pan fried.

Dosa-Chutney

I’ve always felt that South Indian breakfasts are heavy. In Pune, people have simple breakfasts like Kanda Pohe, Sabudana kichidi, Upma, Baakri. This morning I prepared dosa. It never has been my favs, but BKV likes them. He wants them just like the way we get in hotels, thin and crispy. I try my best, but so far I have failed royally in all my endeavors. This morning too I tried, but was unable to get that crispness. I’ve never like thin and crisp dosa’s. So here are some not so very thin dosa’s…




Ingredients…
2 Cups Raw rice, 1 cup Urid Dal, some seeds of methi, 1 cup cooked raw rice, salt to taste

Method of preparation…
Soak raw rice, urid dal and methi seeds. After 3-4 hours grind this soaked mixture with 1 cup cooked raw rice into a fine paste. Leave this mixture for about 8 hours to ferment. Ad salt and mix this batter.

Scoop some of this fermented batter and pour it on a hot dosa tawa. Quickly spread it around in circular motion till you get a thin large dosa. ( I always fail while doing this).

The heat should be regulated so it does not burn. Apply a dab of oil or butter on top. With a flat spatula, try to up root the dosa. Turn it over and cook the other side for a minute. Wipe the skillet with a tissue before starting another dosa.

Chutney…
½ cup Coconut scrapings, 3tsp Roasted Chana Da (Phutane) 3-4 green chillies, ½ inch ginger, a small ball of tamarind and salt. Take them all in a blender, add little water and grind to smooth paste.

Butayi Puli-Munchi (Hot-Tangy Sardine)

Winter is setting in Pune. As the cold winds blew my taste bud yearned for some thing hot and tangy. Usually when I crave for something hot and tangy, BKV and I go to Kalyan Bhel Near Law College Road Pune and feast on chats. But today I thought I would cook my all time favorite Butayi (Sardine) Puli-Munchi (Tamrind-hot red Chillies). Here's how I prepared it…



The ingredients…

10-12 Sardines. Generally for this curry whole sardines of small size are used. The ones I got were really big, so I cut them into two.
A: 10-12 Red Chilies (preferably Bydagi chillies), 1.5tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp Jeera, ¼ tsp methi seeds, 1tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp fennel seeds (a must), a pinch of turmeric.
B: One big onion sliced, 4-5 flakes of garlic, 1.5 inch of ginger
C: Lemon sized tamarind soaked in water
D: 2 tsp oil, Curry Leaves, Salt to taste

Method of Preparation…

Dry roast all ingredients in A. Roast the ingredients in B with a little oil. Now grind A, B and C to a fine paste. Let the paste be thick and not too watery. Take a vessel, I usually use earthen pot to make this curry. It gives it a distinct flavour. Put two spoons of oil. When the oil heats, put few sprigs of curry leaves. Then add the ground masala and bring it to boil. Now add salt. Now add the fish to this boiling masala. Cook for 10 mins. Tastes superb with hot rice.