Phodis - vegetables spiced and rolled in rava(samolina) and shallow/deep fried, are very popular among Konkanis. We make these from most of the vegetables. Some examples can be found in rava fries - post. These come very handy when we want to make a very quick side dish. They are very delicious and fast to make.

We get small button mushrooms here during the first rain. These are wildly grown in forests. Some people go and pick the edible ones and sell. These naturally grown mushrooms have unique taste to them and whenever we find these, it is a big treat. My both children loved these mushrooms. One of the dishes I often prepared was mushroom (almbe) phodi. Since these are very small, frying them individually becomes a very time consuming task. So usually these are neatly arranged on sticks from coconut leaves and then fry them. This way, it is easy to fry and fun to eat for kids.

Last year when we visited US, I noticed that the mushrooms available there are too big. But the bhindis from Indian store were quite smaller in size. Since my son-in-law loves bhindis, I thought of making these for him. We used wooden skewers. They looked pretty and as usual, they were very tasty. Make sure not to make too few, because they disappear from plate in minutes and the demand would outgrow supply.

Ingredients:
2 cups small mushrooms or okra
1 cup rava(semolina)
A pinch asafoetida
1/4 tea spn tamarind extract
1 tea spn chilli powder
1 tbl spn rice flour (optional)
Oil
Salt

Method:
Apply salt, asafoetida, tamarind, chilli powder to the mushrooms or okra (slitted). Leave it aside for 15-20mins.
Now arrange the pieces on skewers.

Roll them in a mixture of semolina and rice flour.
Shallow fry on tava. Serve hot.

Serves : 2-3
Preparation time: 30mins

I have almost stopped making any deep fried dishes these days. But from my childhood, I have been great fan of anything deep fried. Even though not very often, aayi would make puris, vadas etc and my brother and I absolutely loved them. I miss those days so much. So some times I get a real craving for these deep fried goodness.

So after almost 3 months (last time I ate them when I was in India), I made puris. V loves them with his favorite amras. I had to finish some spinach that was in my refrigerator begging to be used. So I made these very delicious puris and we loved them.

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped spinach
Wheat flour
1-2 green chillies
1″ ginger
1/2 tea spn cumin seeds
Oil
Salt

Method:
Cook in spinach in water for about 3-4mins. Do not add too much water, just add enough for cooking the spinach. Grind the spinach with chillies, ginger, salt and cumin seeds. If required, add the water used for cooking the leaves, but do not make it too watery.
Add the paste to wheat flour and make into a stiff dough.
Roll puris and deep fry them. (More details about making puris).
Serve hot.

Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 30mins

Massaru - Maseda(mashed) saru(a thin soup kind of gravy) is very popular among the ragi mudde loving Kannadiga people. I had read/heard about this so much, I wanted to give it a try. I am not sure if this is the traditional way of making massaru, because I have never tasted this before. This recipe is from a Kannada book. But I can say I absolutely loved it.

I am sending this to Srivalli’s curry mela.

Ingredients:
2 cups greens (any kind can be used. I used fenugreek)
1/2 cup any kind of lentils (I used toor dal) (optional)
1 tea spn chana dal
1 tea spn urad dal
1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut
1/2 cup onion
1 tea spn chopped garlic
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
1/4 tea spn tamarind extract
3-4 curry leaves
Oil
Salt

Method:
Cook toor dal and greens in pressure cooker.
Heat a little oil and fry chana dal, urad dal, coconut, onion, garlic for about 5-6mins. Grind it with dal and green mixture and green chilies.
Cook with tamarind and salt.
Heat little oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves. Add the seasoning to the gravy.
Serve with ragi mudde. I serve it with rice also.

Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 25mins