Breakfast or snacks Archives

Moth Beans Curry (Easy Matki Usal)

Leave a Comment / Breakfast or snacks / By Shilpa

Moth Beans are these tiny beans that are popular in Maharashtrian cuisine. Misal Pav is one of the very popular dishes made with these beans. There was a time I would make the more traditional version but now due to time constraint, I started making this easy matki usal. I make this often on weekdays, I put everything in InstantPot before I leave for kids classes. By the time I am back home, I have the hot dinner ready.

Different ways to serve this Easy Matki Usal.
Serve with either pav/bread or chapati
– Topped with onions and lemon juice
– Topped with chiwda
– Topped with both onions, and chiwda
– Topped with some spiced yogurt(add chilli powder, chaat masala to yogurt)
– Just plan usal without any topping

Ingredients:
2 cups moth beans (matki)
1/2 cup onion
1/2 cup tomatoes
1 tea spn grated ginger
1 tea spn chilli powder
1 tea spn goda masala(or use garam masala)
1 tbl spn grated coconut
1 tbl spn coriander leaves
3 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock or water
A pinch turmeric
Salt
Oil

Method:
Heat oil, add onions and grated ginger, salt and fry for sometime.
Now add turmeric, chilli powder, tomatoes.
When tomatoes get a bit softer, add goda masala, fry again.
Add the stock or water.
Close the lid and cook for 4mins manual(if using sprouted matki, reduce it to 3 mins since it cooks really fast).
When pressure is gone, open the lid and adjust water.
Add coriander leaves.
Serve hot.

Serves : 5-6
Preparation time : 15mins

Matta Rice Idli/Dosas (Ukdo tandul poLe/idli)

2 Comments / Breakfast or snacks, Dosa Corner / By Shilpa

Few days ago I was chatting with my friend Priya and she mentioned using parboiled rice in idli/dosas. I don’t usually like the texture of idlis/dosas made with ukdo tandul(matta rice). She mentioned that she makes idlis with all parboiled rice. This is the only parboiled rice I have in the pantry. So I thought I would have to try Matta Rice idli/dosas again. I have to say this was one of the best idlis I have made in a while. They were pillowy soft and delicious.

This Matta Rice Idli/Dosa batter was used for a week in different forms – dosas, idlis, appe, uttappa. This became sour a bit faster than the all idli rice batter but it also made very soft and delicious idlis. I used 50% urad dal with skin. The skin gives some fiber. You can use all this or the whole black urad or dal/whole urad without skin. All the versions work well.

The next day, I made dosas with the same batter. Use a well-oiled tava for making the dosas. I served the dosas with a spicy chutney and they tasted amazing.

Then the next day was appe. They had outer crispy sides and but very soft in the center, just the way appe should be.

Last was uttappa. By now the batter had a sourness. The addition of a lot of onions and coriander leaves offsets the sourness. Give these a try and I am sure you would love these.

Check out these matta rice appe recipe too where the batter is specifically made for appe.
Check out the idli post here.

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Mixed Vegetable Sagu

1 Comment / Breakfast or snacks, Side dishes / By Shilpa

Most of the restaurants in Bangalore serve setdosa – mixed vegetable sagu or puri and sagu. This spicy, delicious, filled with vegetables sidedish makes a great side for so many dishes. My brother started making this and now my aayi makes this very often. When I tried this, it was a hit with my family.

Set dosa recipe is here.

Ingredients:
2 cups vegetables (carrots, potato, green peas, beans)
1/2 cup onion
1/2 cup tomato
5-6 curry leaves
1 tea spn mustard seeds
Oil
Salt

For the masala –
1 tbl spn hurigadale (putani/dalia/roasted chana dal) (optional)
1 cup coconut
1/4 cup coriander leaves
1/4 cup onion
A small piece ginger
3-4 garlic
3-4 green chillies
4 cloves
1/2″ cinnamon
2-3 cardamom
1 tea spn coriander seeds

Method:
Pressure cook the vegetables with little salt for 2 whistles.
Grind the ingredients under masala without too much water.
In a pan, heat a little oil, add mustard, curry leaves.
Add 1/2 cup onion and fry for few minutes.
Add 1/2 cup tomatoes and fry for few minutes.Now add masala and fry till the raw smell goes away.Add the cooked vegetables, adjust salt.
Cook till the masala boils for few minutes.
Serve hot.

Serves :5-6
Preparation time : 30mins

Banana Vada

Leave a Comment / Breakfast or snacks, Konkani festivals, Konkani Recipes / By Shilpa

It was vade panchami few days ago – it is celebrated at my kuldevasthan – family god’s temple at Ankola. Thousands of deities gather for the pooja. One of the biggest things (other than super delicious lunch) during this function is these banana vada prasad – so the function is called vade panchami. Many men gather to make these vadas and then the vadas are deep fried in huge pan. Some remove the vadas from the hot oil just by their bare hands without a ladle/spoon. It has been a long tradition going on for decades. I found this video on youtube of this. I have explained more about vade panchami in this post.

I was missing all these celebrations, so decided to try something similar. Ofcourse this is not the recipe followed at our temple but I just made it up. The vadas came out so delicious that I think I have to save the recipe.

Pictorial:

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup milk
2 tbl spn jaggery
1 big banana (about 2/3rd cup mashed banana)
Salt
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Mix all the ingredients except oil in a bowl.
Take a big ball of the mixture and flatten it on a plastic.
Gently pick up the vada and deep fry in hot oil.
Enjoy while it is still warm with chutney.

Makes about 8
Preparation time :30 mins

Note: If you don’t have almond flour, substitute with wheat flour or rice flour.

Bottlegourd Thalipeeth

Leave a Comment / Breakfast or snacks, Simple and Easy / By Shilpa

Thalipeeth is a famous Marathi dish. It is prepared with a variety of flours and roasted till it is crispy. There is a specific way to roast the thalipeeth but I just make it like a akki rotti/pita bhakri. It comes out good. Traditionally little holes are made in thalipeeth after it is spread on tava and oil is added to it. I tried it this time but did not execute it properly!.

Bottlegourd/lauki was not used much in our cooking. Then suddenly this vegetable became popular in India, thanks to Baba Ramdev‘s yoga programs. He often told people to eat lauki, drink lauki juice etc. I started using it after everyone was talking about it. I make ambat, khadi/burfi, paays and many more. Few days ago, I thought of adding it to thalipeeth. It came out great. I grated the lauki with its skin, which gave a bite to this.

Pictorial:
Take all different flours in a bowl.

Add chilli powder, cumin seeds, salt.

Peel and grate bottlegourd.

Add to the mix, add water a make a thick mixture.

Spread on a hot tava. Make few holes in it and add oil.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup besam(gram flour)
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup ragi flour
1 tea spn chilli powder
1 tea spn cumin seeds
1 cup grated bottlegourd(lauki/gardudde)
Oil
Salt

Method:
Mix all the flours in a big bowl.
Add chilli powder, salt, cumin seeds.
Peel the bottlegourd and grate it.
Add the grated bottlegourd to flour mixture.
Heat tava and spread the mixture on it. (if possible, make some holes in the thalipeeth and add oil to make it more crispy).
Add few drops of oil and roast till it is crispy.
Serve topped with butter and with a side of coconut chutney.

Serves :4-5
Preparation time: 30mins

Mixed poha (Kalayile phovu)

27 Comments / Breakfast or snacks, Poha/Avalakki / By Shilpa

I have already given the introduction to this here.

This is the simplest of pohas prepared in this way. This was a must in all Konkani wedding breakfasts along with upma. But these days idlis and wadas have replaced this traditional dish.

I could not get the red color to this poha because of the chili powder. The large stock of chili powder that I have here gives very good taste but the color is pathetic.

Ingredients:
Poha/avalakki (thin) 1 cup
Coconut (fresh) Â½ cup
Jaggery 1 tea spn
Phova pitto 1 tea spn
Salt

I tried this dish with medium thick poha, but taste was not at all something like the original thin poha.

Method:
Dissolve jaggery in 1-2 tea spn water (Usually black color jaggery, which is in thick liquid state is available at our native, is used for this dish. But since it is not available here, use normal jaggery).

Add salt, coconut and ‘phova pitto’ and mix well with hand. Now add poha and mix (if required sprinkle some water, just to make the poha soaked. Since thin poha is used, it gets mushy if more water is added).

Serves: 2
Preparation time: 5mins

Moringa Leaves Rotti (Maskasangi Palle Rotti)

4 Comments / Breakfast or snacks, General, Konkani Recipes, Simple and Easy / By Shilpa

I grew up playing around moringa(maskasangi) trees. Everyone has atleast one tree in their garden in our place. My parents always told us how maskasangi was full of iron and slightly nudged us to eat it. But I had never tasted the leaves(pallo). Aayi would make phodi (which is still one of my all time favorite dishes) out of the flowers and the pods were used in many dishes. Few years ago, I started reading about leaves being used in many dishes and when I asked aayi, she also confirmed it. So I started buying it here and made up my own recipes. This Moringa leaves rotti is one such dish that I tried and we all enjoyed it very much.

The first time I tried it, I prepared this with only rice flour. But then I started adding the other flours. These days I have started using almond flour a lot in my cooking. So this time, I used it in this rotti. Adding warm milk to the flours cooks them slightly and gives a very soft rotti compared to using normal milk.

Pictorial:

Moringa Leaves Rotti (Maskasangi Palle Rotti)

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Servings 3

Ingredients

2 cups rice flour
1 cup almond flour
1 cup oats flour
1 cup wheat flour
1 tea spn butter
1 and 1/2 cups hot milk
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
1 cup chopped moginga leaves
Ghee/Oil for frying
Salt

Instructions

Heat milk till it is hot (No need to boil it).
Take all the flours in a bowl, add butter, then pour the hot milk over it and mix well.
Add salt, chopped onions, carrots and chopped leaves (after removing all stems). Mix everything.
Heat a cast iron tava (cast iron gives very nice crispiness to rotti).
Spread little oil or ghee and then spread a half inch thick layer of the mixture on the tava with your fingers(Dip the fingers in water before handling the mixture to make it easier to spread).
Cover the tava and let it cook, after couple of minutes, turn it upside down and cook on other side.
For a crispier texture, spread ghee/oil on top while cooking.
Serve hot.

Spicy Mixed Flour Vada

Leave a Comment / Breakfast or snacks / By Shilpa

We were in Belgaum in December and we visited pachi (aayi’s sister). As usual, she had a feast planned for us. I have so many memories associated with her food that I can clearly feel the taste just by looking at the dishes. When I saw her making these, I did a happy dance. These are a variation of Maddur vadas. She said these are usually made with bhajani flour, but she had just mixed a variety of flours she had on hand. We all loved these spicy mixed flour vadas so much that I wanted to make them after coming back home.

I pretty much used all kinds of flours I had in my pantry. I also wanted to spice it up, so I added a little garam masala and chilli powder. These are crispy, spicy and delicious. I served with coconut chutney.

Pictorial:
Mix all the dry ingredients.

Add mix and make a paste. Take small balls on oiled sheet and flatten it out.

Deep fry till golden brown.

Spicy Mixed Flour Vada

Spicy and delicious vadas that are perfect for a snack or breakfast.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Total Time 35

Servings 7 -8

Ingredients

1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup each oats flour wheat flour, gram flour(besan), sooji, corn flour
1/4 cup coconut
1/2 tea spn chilli powder
1/2 tea spn garam masala
1/2 tea spn cumin seeds
1/2 cup onion
1 tbl spn coriander leaves
1 tea spn butter
3/4 cup milk
Oil
Salt

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients(except oil) in a bowl. Make sure the mixture is not too thick or too loose.
On a thick plastic(or just use palm of your hand), apply a drop of oil.
Take a ball of the mixture and flatten it out. Make a whole in the center.
Heat oil and deep fry the flattened discs.
Serve hot with butter or coconut chutney.

Vegetable-Chicken Curry and Puffs

2 Comments / Baby/Kid friendly, Breakfast or snacks, Chicken / By Shilpa

I always look for more ways to include both protein and vegetables into our meals. When I make chicken curry, I make a paste of cooked vegetables and add it to chapati dough or add vegetables to rice that is served with curry. But sometimes I make a curry with both chicken and vegetables. This vegetable-chicken curry is one such dish that my family really enjoyed.

The next day, I used the same curry to make puffs. My 7 year old loves puffs. This was a perfect way to get some interesting dish in his lunchbox. He even asked if there were leftovers after school.

Pictorial:
Marinate chicken.

Fry the spices.

Fry tomatoes in spices and grind. Then fry onions.

Add chicken and fry. Then add vegetables followed by spice paste. Cook till done.

Vegetable-Chicken Curry and Puffs

A tasty and healthy vegetable and chicken curry with coriander leaves and spices paste. The puffs are made by baking the dry curry in pastry sheets.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Total Time 35

Servings 4 -5

Ingredients

1 lb about 1/2 kg boneless chicken
1/2 cup each green peas carrot, corn
1/4 cup spinach
1/4 cup tightly packed along with thick stems coriander leaves
3 green chillies
1 tea spn fresh ginger-garlic paste
1 tbl spn lemon juice
A pinch turmeric
1/2 cup tomatoes
1 tbl spn fresh/frozen or desiccated coconut
2 black cardamom moti elaichi
1/2 cup onion
Oil
Salt
Spices for the paste:
3 cloves
2 " cinnamon
1 tea spn coriander seeds
1 tea spn cumin seeds
1 tea spn poppy seeds khas khas
1 tea spn ani seeds saunf/badishep
For Puffs
2 puff pastry sheets

Instructions

Make a paste of coriander leaves, green chillies, ginger-garlic and lemon juice.
Marinate chicken in that paste with salt and turmeric.
In a little oil, fry cloves, cinnamon, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, poppy seeds, aniseeds.
Then fry tomatoes and coconut.
Make a paste and keep aside.
Heat oil and fry black cardamom, onions.
Then add chicken, fry for few minutes.
Add peas, carrot, corn, spinach.
Then add the paste, salt, water and cook till done.
For Puffs:
Preheat oven at 400F for 10mins.
Heat the curry till all the water is absorbed.
Cut pastry sheets into required size pieces.
Keep a small portion of the dry curry on it.
Seal the edges with water and press them down.
Bake for about 15mins (or according to packet instructions).
Serve hot with ketchup.

Banana Dosa (Kele poLe)

14 Comments / Breakfast or snacks, Dosa Corner, Konkani Recipes / By Shilpa

For a long time now, I am trying to include more fruits in our diet. But somehow it is one food group that is most neglected in this home. I buy bananas, most of the times we finish them off before they get to the overripe stage. Lately, I find atleast 1 or two that get to that stage before I had a chance to finish them. I thought of making banana bread with them, but get too lazy to bake. Couple of times I made banana puri/buns with them. But lately this kele poLe or banana dosa has become my go to dish. It is made on the similar lines of Konkani classic Surnali. Cardamom makes these slightly sweet dosas very festive.

Pictorial:
Grind all ingredients to a smooth batter and keep overnight.

Make thick dosas.