‘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.
I don’t think I can find these in New York. I am always learning so much from you.
I wonder if you receive my comments…
Did you leave any other comments Norma? I think I am getting your comments. The site is having some technical issues last few days, so not sure if I missed anything. Please let me know.
hi.. I have been a silent reader of ur blog..
in Tamilnadu, there is a similar dish made of out of citrons (bitter sweet lemons) and although its made just with salt and sun dried, its called narthanga :-)) similar sounding name huh ? :-))
You are right Kalyani, in tamil it is Naarthanga and in Kannada its called Herale Kaayi
I have been looking for this recipe everywhere.
Thank you so much
Hi Shilpa.
We make chutney out of it, no drying required and taste gud with hot rice and ghee, try n let me know.
take out the pulp of the bitter orange. roast dry red chili, cloves, cinamon, grind it with coconut, ginger, garlic. in a pan heat little oil, add mustard and curry leaf and then add the ground mixture, jaggery, salt and the pulp and cook. its coorg style and it tastes heavenly, but be careful with cinamon and cloves quantity. sorry am not sure abt the quantity as my mom prepare them for me and it stays gud for week to 15 days wen refrigerated
Hi Shilpa,
I hope ur reading my coments and wil try the bitter orange chutney and let me know.
i wanted to give u some coorg recipes, can I? if yes, how to send tem to u
Waiting for ur reply.
Thanks Sanjana. I don’t get these oranges here. Will definitely try when I find them. You can email me the recipes at aayisrecipes AT gmail.com. I will definitely try the recipes when I can. Thank you
When I was very young I lived in Ambur, TN. Outside one door grew an orange “tree,” but the oranges were very bitter and only used for marmalade (and maybe chutney). For years I have tried to remember the name of that orange, but now I wonder if this is it. Does this tree have very long thorns? I would be very grateful for your help! Thanks!
Rebecca, this tree also has thorns. There are couple of kinds of bitter oranges that look almost similar. So the tree you are mentioning can very well be this one
is this musumbi ya oranges
No it is a different variety, you cannot eat it as it is as it tends to be quite bitter