Magge or moggem is a special kind of cucumber. It is widely used in cooking at our place. In Bangalore, it is sold as Mangalore Southekayi (cucumber), this is called Dosakaya in Telugu. This is usually cooked before consuming, but there are few recipes where tender magge is eaten before cooking. These sundried cucumbers or magge salli are very popular among Konkanis in our area. Tender magge which are called magge murto are used for this dish. Once the pieces are sundried with all the spices, they are served like pickle. They have a nice crunch to them. We used to make these very frequently when we grew magge in our backyard. These days were buy tender ones from sante (farmer’s market). These stay good for a week or so.
Pictorial: Cut magge and apply salt and sundry. Â Â Â Â Â Apply the spices and sundry again.
Sundried Mangalore Cucumber (Magge Salli)
Spices are added to tender magge/Mangalore cucumbers and then sundried to make these crunchy magge salli.
‘Narnga’ or ‘kanchi kaayi’ or ‘heraLe kaayi’ is a kind of bitter orange available in some(or all) parts of India. These are slightly bitter in taste, we have not seen anyone eating the ripened fruit. We always get the green ones which are used for sundried items or pickle. This is the season on Narnga here, so I prepared a big batch of narnga batte this year. Every year we get few of fresh narnga from our neighbors.
Narnga/Naranga batto/batti is one thing that almost all Konkanis like. These are usually given to the people who are suffering from fever and lost their taste. These are spicy, saltly and sour. They taste heavenly when consumed with rice congee(Pej/ganji). These are a must in most of the Konkani houses throughout the year. My kids and all the other kids who visited us loved these with congee.
We also make a tasty chutney with it. Thanks to Pelicano, we think it is called bitter oranges.
Ingredients: 5-6 narnga Salt 1/2 cup chilli powder 1/2 tea spn asafoetida powder or a big piece of asafoetida stone
Method: Cut narnga into thin pieces. Remove the white pit and seeds, discard them. In a ceramic jar, put the pieces and salt enough to cover pieces. Close the lid tightly and leave it in a dry place for about 15 days to one month till the skin becomes slightly soft. Every day open the lid and mix the pieces to make sure salt gets to all pieces. Take out the pieces. Add chilli powder, asafoetida to the pieces, mix very well. Sundry the pieces till they are completely dry. Store in dry air tight container. They get darker and darker in color as time passes, after almost a year, they get black but they still can be used.
This post was in our drafts for a while now. We sun dry many vegetables, which make nice crispy accompaniments with meals. One such vegetable is tindora or tendli. Once dried, these are stored in air tight containers. While serving, these are deep fried. For health reasons, I fry them in a tea spoon of oil, a handful at a time on a very low heat. They go very well with curd and rice.
Ingredients: 2 cup tendli/tindora pieces 2 tea spns chilli powder 1/4 tea spn asafoetida powder 1 tea spn salt (adjust according to taste)
Method: Apply salt to tendli pieces and keep it aside overnight. The pieces leave a little water. Discard the water. Spread the pieces on a clean cloth or a thick plastic paper and sundry them. After 2-3 days when they look slightly dried, make a paste of red chili powder and asafoetida with a tea spn water, and apply this paste to the pieces. Spread this on the paper again and sun dry them till they become very crispy. When they are cooled to room temperature, store in air tight container. While serving, fry them in oil. Pictorial:
Whole green chilies are one of the constituents of many North Karnataka meals. It is usually served with Jolad rotti or sajjige rotti. Many times it is replaced with mirchi bajji – green chilies dipped in gram flour mixture and deep fried. In the Karavali (coastal) belt of Karnataka, usually this taaka mirsang(Konkani) or majjige menasu (Kannada) – green chilies soaked in buttermilk(taak /majjige), sun dried and then deep fried, are very popular. Most of the Konkani functions include this along with other deep fried sun dried items like papads, fritters(vadis) etc. These chilies are very popular in other parts of South India too.
I usually make a huge batch of these chilies every year. I use a local variety called as Gokarn chillies which are light green, plump. The light green ones are mild and dark green ones are more spicy. I usually select the ones with medium heat. They are usually available after rainy season – from December onwards.
Traditionally these are deep fried in hot oil. Many people avoid eating these chilies due to this. My grandmother used to shallow fry them in a little ghee on a low flame. This requires only a little oil/ghee. Ghee gives a very nice aroma, this is feasible only when a small quantity of chillies are needed.
At my home, everyone likes to eat it with plain curd and rice. It gives nice spice and taste to bland curd rice.
We have two methods of making taaka mirsang. In both, some additional flavoring is used which gives a very nice aroma to the chillies. Infact there is a third method in which these additional flavorings are not added. In method-1, some spices are added to the buttermilk and then the chillies are soaked in them. In method-2, chillies are soaked in plain buttermilk(with salt) dried and then the ground spices are applied to them. Both have their own taste. I usually follow method-1 as the chillies prepared with method-2 do not remain tasty for a long time.
Ingredients: 1 kg green chilies 1 liter buttermilk 6-7 tea spns salt (depends on the kind of salt used, so be careful while adding it)
Preparing chillies: Wash the chillies. Trim the stem(thottu) into half. Put a deep cut into chillies taking care not to slit them completely.
Method-1: Make a powder from 2 tea spns cumin seeds, 1/2 tea spn fenugreek seeds, 1/4 tea spn asafoetida. Add this powder and salt to the buttermilk. Immerse the chillies in this buttermilk overnight and next day, take out the chillies and dry them under hot sun.Do not discard the buttermilk. In the evening, put them back in the same buttermilk. Next day, dry them again. Repeat this procedure for about 4-5 days. By this time, all the buttermilk is soaked by the chillies and the spices give a very nice aroma to it. Once all buttermilk has been done, dry the chillies for 3-4 days more till they are completely dried and become crispy. Store in airtight container after they have cooled to room temperature.
Method-2: Immerse the chilies in buttermilk with salt. (No spices added at this stage). Continue soaking and sun drying them as above till all the buttermilk is done. Soak 6 tea spns of urad dal and 1 tea spn fenugreek seeds in water for an hour. Grind them to a smooth paste. Smear this paste on the chillies and sun dry for 3-4 days more.
Serving: While serving, deep fry them in hot oil or shallow fry in ghee/oil and serve. These fried chillies remain good for 5-6 days in air tight containers.
Pictorial: Chillies slitted ready to soak in buttermilk
Chillies after drying for 3 days and soaked in buttermilk, ready to be dried again
After all the buttermilk has been soaked, ready for 3 days of continuous drying
Papad (happolu in Konkani or happala in Kannada) is one of the constituents of Konkani as well as many other Indian meal. There are many types of papads. Banana papad is already on this blog. Jackfruit papads and wheat papads are known to many people. Many people make garlic papads. Making all these were possible in many joint families, because all the women joined hands in carrying out the project. Today I am posting this urad papad which many people make at home though it is a tedious procedure. Due to the availability of many branded papads (like Lijjat papads etc.) and non-availability of the assistance from womenfolk, papad making at home is vanishing slowly. Here and there, we find many women organizations making the papads on a large scale and selling them in the market. But some are still sticking to making them at home as they can get papads as per their own taste and to preserve this procedure for their next generation.
When I came to Kodkani after my marriage, I could not get any assistance from any ladies in my house. My mother-in-law had passed away and my sisters-in-laws were married. My husband and father-in-law were the only two people with whom I could share my views. We were getting whole uradgrams from the tenants. These were measured in kolaga which looks like follows.
After cleaning and sun drying, I would mix oil with the uradgrams and keep them overnight.The next day, I would make dal from these oiled uradgram using daante or beesuva kallu(which looks as follows).
We employed some help to hand pound this dal using the vaan/kaannan in Konkani or onake(in Kannada) which is a wooden long club meant for pounding paddy grains. This separated the skin of the black dal (so called moyu in Konkani). This much process has vanished now as we get better quality urad dal in market. I always use double ghoda brand uraddal as it is clean and white.
After a couple of years, I started making papads by taking help from neighboring women. Few of them would come to roll papads at our home and in turn Shilpa and I would go to their homes when they made papads. My father-in-law or husband would help in pounding the dough (which required a lot of strength) on hand grinder(ragdo) which looks likes this –
All the kids would help in spreading them and also making hapli(papad rolled into small discs). We had many rolling boards(called latpaLe) at home to make just these papads. We would usually make one batch of white(with green chilies) and one batch of red(with red chilies). Many years I have also made it many times to give to our relatives. I stopped making them at home after my children moved away from home. Our neighbor started her own small business of making papads and selling them. So now we buy from her.
Usually two types of papads are made. White papads(dhavve happolu) are made with green chillies and red papads(tambde happolu) using red chilli powder. When same quantity of urad dal is used, we get more number of red papads than green papads. I always use Gokarn green chillies which are mildly hot (I know these are not available everywhere, but still thought of mentioning it) as it gives good colour and aroma.
Sometimes handful of special chilies called as sapur mirsang (thin chilies) are used along with normal chilies to give extra spiciness. Following is a picture of such chilies dried.
Many people like eating the dough before making the papads. Usually small balls of dough(called guLi) is dipped in coconut oil and this is a very popular way of eating them. The other popular way is nevri. A thin papad with one or more guLi is rolled and some loose urad flour is kept in center. A small well is created in the center and coconut oil is poured in the well. Now the sides are closed. A small hole is left open at one side. The kids would blow air into them like balloon and secure the end and eat them. This was one of the main attractions for kids in the whole papad making procedure. My husband and son both love this till today. Whenever my son visits us, he goes to neighbor’s home to bring nevri.
Traditionally, these papads are directly held on the hot stove to roast them(be very careful while doing this as they get burnt easily). Then few drops of coconut oil is sprinkled on them and served. But in large functions, these are deep fried as roasting them on stove takes a long time. They can even be roasted in the microwave.
All pictures of papad making were taken at our neighbor’s home as I didn’t make them in a long time now.
Ingredients: 3 kg urad flour 1 kg green chillies 50 grams baking soda 50 grams papadkhar 10 grams asafoetida 250 grams salt 4 teaspoonful pepper 500 ml coconut oil
To make red chilli papads use 500 grams of red chilli powder in place of green chillies.
Method: Add one teaspoonful of coconut oil to the green chillies and sprinkle some 3-4 teaspoonful of water. Steam boil the green chillies in a pressure-cooker. Cool it to room temperature and then grind it smoothly in a mixer or grinder. Add soda, papadkhar, asafoetida, salt and pepper powder to the paste and grind again.
Take the paste in a big vessel and mix with the urad flour. Leave aside 2-3 cups of urad flour as it is necessary while rolling papads. Add water enough to make it a dough.
Smear oil to the grinding stone (ragdo in konkani or oralugallu in kannada) and parayi/haare and then pound the mixture and make 4-5 balls. If necessary use a little quantity of oil while making the balls. Do not add much water to it. The balls should be harder than puri dough. Keep it overnight.
Next day, smoothen the dough by taking small pieces in hand and then kneading it by stretching again and again. Roll into a thick rope, cut into small pieces as in making puris. These are called guLi in Konkani.
While rolling, apply some coconut oil to the balls and then roll. Roll these into papads. The kids would roll them into small discs called hapli .
Then the elders would take hapli and make into big papads. This was to take help from kids, but at the same time, keep all the papads in same size, thickness and shape. To help in rolling, loose dry flour can be used).
Dry them under the hot sun. Store them in airtight container.
This is the last among this year’s sun dried items. I know summer is over and no one might be interested in making these in this weather, but still, if I don’t post these now, I am sure I will forget all about these by next summer. I definitely don’t want to forget one of my favorite vadis, so for my own reference and also for those who like to read about these, I thought of posting them today. One of my reader had very interesting suggestion for drying these during winter.
These are the tikshe(Konkani) or khara(Kannada) – spicy and salty versions of sweet sabudana vadi that I had posted earlier. I love these as much as the sweet versions. The whole cumin seeds that you can feel in your mouth give a very smoky flavor to these very simple vadis. Adjust chili powder and cumin seeds according to your own taste.
Ingredients: 1 cup sabudana/shabutandul/sabbakki 5 cups water 2 tea spns chili powder 1 tea spn cumin seeds 1/2 tea spn salt
Method: Wash sabudana in water and soak it in 2 cups of water for overnight. Add 3 more cups of water (2 cups used for soaking and 3 more cups at this stage to make a total of 5 cups) and cook this mixture on a low flame mixing continuously. When the sabudana is cooked, it turns transparent. Now add salt and boil for sometime. The consistency should be somewhat like dosa batter. If required add more water (keep in mind, the batter becomes drier and drier as it cools down). Add chili powder, cumin powder and mix well.
Line up a plastic paper under the sun. Spread some water on it (just sprinkle a handful of water and spread it). When the batter is cooled down, spread the vadis.
Dry it till they come out easily off the paper and they have become crispy.
Cool them to room temperature and then store in air tight container.
While using, deep fry them in oil (traditional method) or microwave them for 1 min(or less) till they have puffed up. Enjoy as a snack or sides with rice.
As I said in my earlier posts, I asked my aayi to make as many different types of sun dried items as possible. So every weekend we did some vadis/papads, weekends because I wanted to see how she makes them and also take all pictures. If she had stayed here for few more days, I could have written a book on sun dried items ;).
Nanchne(Konkani) or ragi(Kannada) is finger millet. I had helped my neighbor (whom I called mami), in spreading these, when I was a kid. After that, though I tasted these many times, I had never actually got into making these myself.
We made these with the ready made ragi flour, so these were very easy to make. Only problem was, these vadis shrink a lot when dried. Even though we were careful about the salt, the ready vadis became slightly salty. But these were very crispy, had great taste of sesame seeds in the background.
Ingredients: 1 cup ragi(finger millet) flour 5 cups water 3 tea spn chili powder 2 tea spn sesame seeds (til) 1/4 tea spn asafoetida powder Salt
Method: Mix ragi flour and water and cook it on a medium flame mixing continuously. Add chili powder, salt and keep mixing till the mixture is cooked. It should be of a consistency of thick dosa batter. Let it cool to room temperature, add asafoetida powder, sesame seeds.
Spread a plastic paper under hot sun. Sprinkle a handful of water on it and then spread small vadis.
Dry it for 2-3 days till they are completely dried and are very crispy. Cool them to room temperature and store in an air tight container. When required, deep fry them in oil (or microwave them in a single layer for 1min) and serve.
PS: When the vadis are dried, they become tiny and usually become salty if you add salt according to the batter volume. So keep in mind to add less salt than normal. Traditionally whole ragi is soaked in water for overnight, ground to a smooth paste. Then it is strained using a cloth to remove any skins and other steps are followed like above. Some people make a little hard dough and then press it in chakli press like normal chaklis, then, dry them under hot sun.
Kando or piyyav are the Konkani names for onion and EeruLLi/NeeruLLi is the Kannada name for it. I didn’t know much about this vadi before this comment from my dear reader Purnima. Luckily, aayi knew this recipe and she agreed to make it for me immediately. I say luckily because, this turned out to be one of the best vadis.
These vadis are made of rice, so they become super crispy and light when deep fried or microwaved. Loads of onion pieces are added to it, which give a very nice flavor and aroma to them. They are pretty easy to make and dry up very fast under hot sun. So in all, these were a big hit at home, a must try for all those onion overs.
Ingredients: 1 cup rice 4 cups water 1 cup finely chopped onion 3 tea spns chili powder Salt
Method: Soak rice overnight. Grind to a very smooth paste using enough water. Add remaining water (total should be min 4cups including the water used for grinding). Heat the mixture with chili powder and salt on a medium flame till the paste is cooked.
If required add more water. The batter should be of dosa batter consistency. Take off the heat.
Cool it to room temperature, the batter thickens when it cools down. Now add the chopped onion and mix well.
Mix 1 tea spn of oil in 1 cup water. Spread a plastic paper under sun. Sprinkle a handful of oiled water on the paper and spread it. Now spread the vadis.
Dry them for 2-3 days until they are well dried and crispy. Cool down to room temperature and store in air tight container. When required deep fry them in hot oil (or microwave in a single layer for 1min) and serve.PS: When these vadis are dried, they shrink considerably. So be very careful while adding salt. It is better to add less salt to the mixture than what you would have normally added.
(In the above picture, the left one is raw papad and the right ones are deep fried ones)
I hope my readers don’t get bored of my sun dried item series, because I have few more coming after this :).? I took advantage(or disadvantage) of my parents stay here to learn these all. So I can’t wait till I post them all here.
Now coming to keLe(banana) happoLu(papad). From my childhood, I have loved eating these. During my aayi’s childhood and college days, she had made these innumerable times. But down the line, somehow she stopped making these. Still we had a constant supply of these at home all the time. These taste great when deep fried or when fried on charcoal(kenDa). In my aayi’s words, “the poha particles puff up like mothi(pearls) when these are deep fried”. Though she didn’t make these papads at home, she served the papad dough(hapLa peet) as side dish every now and then.
At our place, we get a special kind of cooking bananas that we call as anbaLi or phodi keli(used to make phodis). But any kind of cooking bananas can be used for this, by cooking banana, I mean the ones which are not eaten raw. These are usually available in vegetable isle in supermarkets. We used the ones that we bought from Indian store here.
When we were making these, hubby had no clue about all the excitement my aayi and I were showing. He said, “I don’t think I am going to like to eat those”.? We didn’t say anything, we knew once he tastes them, he will never forget. We had two small bananas, from which we got just 10 papads. Do I need to say they were instant hits once we deep fried them? They tasted just out of the world, spicy, very light and crunchy and had a asafoetida flavor to them. They were dried instantly and shrink considerably in size when dried.
Ingredients: 2 plantains/cooking bananas (AnbaLi/phodi keLi) 2 tbl spn chili powder 1/4 tea spn asafoetida 1 cup coarse powder of poha/avalakki Salt
Method: Keep the poha under sun for some time so that it becomes slightly crisp (this step is only to help grinding poha easily, we spread the poha on a hot tava for a short time to make it slightly crisp). Powder it coarsely. Cook bananas(with the skin) in steam, ie, in cooker, take the bananas in a vessel or plate and add very little water(may be 1 or 2 tbl spns) and cook.
Take out the bananas and peel the skin off the bananas, when they are still hot, the skin comes off very easily.
Grease a mixer/blender vessel with a little oil and grind the hot bananas with chili powder, salt, asafoetida, without adding water. Take out the paste, apply a little coconut oil to hands and make small balls from the mixture.
Wrap a plastic paper or aluminum foil to both rolling pin and rolling table (lat paLe). Roll the balls into round thin papads, apply as much poha powder as needed to help rolling.
Carefully take them off the paper and spread them on a sheet or a cloth under hot sun.
When the papads are dried completely and have become crisp, cool them to room temperature and store in air tight container. While serving, deep fry the papads and enjoy.
PS: Be very careful while grinding bananas. These bananas are very hard to grind and they make a sticky paste. So cut them in to small pieces before grinding. When they cool down, they become hard and you cannot grind them. Mixer/grinder gets stuck most of the time. I had thought my new Sumeet mixer had burned out when we were grinding this, but luckily it survived :).
The ready dough(cooked banana+chili powder+salt+asafoetida) can also be served as a side dish with rice and any dal/gravy.
This is one more kind of vadi/odi with mirsang(chilies), which is bit less popular than the classic kuvaLe(ash gourd) vadis. This is a must at my home and aayi makes these almost every year. These are generally not used for gravies like ash gourd vadis, but these are served along with papads with meals. A huge amount of green chilies are added to it to make them quite hot. Few people make some vadis which have both ash gourd and green chilies, but at my home we prefer these as separate ones. The batter is quite easy, but when deep fried and served with simple rice and curd, these make a very tasty and filing meal.
Ingredients: 1 cup urad dal 1 cup green chilies 1/2 tea spn asafoetida powder 2 tea spn sesame seeds(til) Salt
Method: Soak urad dal in water for overnight. Grind it to a very smooth paste adding little water. If the paste is not smooth enough, the vadis become hard and difficult to eat. Grind the green chilies(without water) for a very coarse paste. Mix the dal paste, chili paste, salt, sesame seeds and mix.
Mix 1 tea spn oil in 1 cup water. Spread a plastic sheet under hot sun. Sprinkle some oiled water on the sheet. Spread vadis on it. Leave enough space between two vadis, since they spread after sometime.
Dry them till they come out of sheet easily and they are crisp.
Cool them to room temperature and store in air tight container. When required, take them out, deep fry and serve as side dish (like papads).
 
 
 
 
 
