This is used as a side dish. A sweetish chutney which is very flavorful.
Ingredients:
1/2 fresh/frozen coconut
1/4 tea spn tamarind extract or 1-2 pieces of tamarind
10 strands coriander leaves
2 tea spns jaggery
2-3 red chiles
Salt
Method:
Heat the chillies directly on the gas flame for 1min(be careful while doing this). Grind all the ingredients together. Serve as a side dish with rice.
Serves : 3
Preparation time : 5min
Paddu(Kannada), appe(Konkani), ponganalu (Telugu), paniyaram(Tamil), unniyappam(Malayalam), is one very popular dish in South India. To make this we require a special paddu tava (Appe Kayli), which looks like following.
Usually we get two kinds of tavas, one of black colour(of cast iron) and other silver color(I guess it is aluminium). In silver one the batter does not stick to tava, so preferably use that. These days we get non stick paddu tava, which looks like following. If using cast iron tava, grease it with oil in the night and use it for making paddu next day. By doing this, paddu does not stick to tava.
Click here for sugarcane juice appe.
This is usually done from a day old bread that remains after making some sandwiches or other bread dishes. In the above picture I haven’t used coriander leaves and coconut, but if you add both or one of them the taste will increase.
Ingredients:
4-5 cups bread cut in to small pieces
1/2 cup onions(optional)
2 tbl spns fresh/frozen coconut(optional)
3-4 green chilies
A pinch turmeric (optional)
6-7 curry leaves
A pinch asafoetida
1/2 tea spn each mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal
1 tea spn sugar (optional)
Oil
Salt
Method:
Heat oil and add mustard, cumin seeds, urad dal. When they start popping add curry leaves and chillies. Add onions and fry till they turn brownish. Add bread pieces and mix well. Add sugar, coconut and salt. Mix well.
Serves : 4
Preparation time : 10min
This is a pulav I grew up eating. These pulavs were considered as some fancy dishes at home. So aayi would prepare them once in a while and we would go crazy over them. It is very simple to make, healthy and very delicious.
Ingredients:
2 cups basmati rice
1 cup chopped vegetables(Green beans,Cauli flower,Carrot,potatoes etc)
1/2 cup onion
7-8 strands coriander leaves
2 tea spns ginger-garlic paste
3-4 cloves
2 cardamom
2″ cinnamon
4-5 green chillies
Ghee
Salt
Method:
Soak rice for 10min in water then let it dry by spreading on a cloth.
Make a paste of coriander leaves and green chillies. Heat ghee in a pan. Add cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, fry them for few minutes. Add onions, ginger-garlic paste, coriander paste and fry till onions turn slightly brownish. Add rice and fry for sometime. Add all vegetables. Fry for 5mins. Add about 4 cups of water and salt. Cover the lid and let it cook. After about 10mins of cooking, open the lid and check. If all water is evaporated and rice is not yet done, add more water. For better results, cook on medium heat. (Avoid mixing the pulav when it is cooking, the rice gets mashed if mixed again and again. It can be gently stirred once in a while). Serve hot with raita(carrot, tomato, onion, coriander leaves, green chilies, salt mixed in yogurt).
Serves : 4
Preparation time : 40 min
Aayi makes these dosas whenever we get watermelon. Many people throw out the white part between green skin and the red sweet part. We normally use this white part (or the red part of not-so-sweet watermelons) to make this dosa. Cucumber can also be used instead of watermelons.
Ingredients:
2 cups dosa rice(or any normal white rice)
1 and 1/2 cup water melon or cucumber(taushe or magge) pieces
1 cup fresh/frozen coconut grated
Oil/ghee
Salt
Method:
Soak rice for around 5-6hours. Grind rice with other ingredients. Make dosas. Serve with coconut chutney.
Serves : 4
Preparation time : 10min
In North Canara, we get mushrooms when the rain starts. These are usually naturally grown in forests. Some people who know about where to find good edible mushrooms, pick them up from these places. They are the tastiest mushrooms I have ever tasted. Aayi prepares this dish with those mushrooms. You can even use artificially grown ones which we get in markets these days.
Ingredients:
2 cups basmati rice
1/2 cup onion
1 cup finely chopped mushrooms
1 tea spn cumin seeds
2 tea spns chili powder
A pinch turmeric
2 tbl spns ghee or oil
Salt
Method:
Heat oil and add cumin seeds. When they start popping, add onions and fry. Add mushrooms,chili powder,turmeric powder and salt. Fry for some time. Add rice and fry for 2min. Pour about 4 cups of water. Cover and cook on medium heat. Check after about 10mins to see if all water is absorbed. If it requires more water, add it.
Serves : 5
Preparation time : 15 min
I learnt this recipe from some book. Everybody makes fun of me when I say we can make potato dosa. But if you try this once, you will never forget the taste!!!. This dosa is a bit hard to take out from pan. So my initial trials were all big disasters. But this dosa was so tasty that I wanted to master this. So after trying it many times, I could make them perfect. The key is to add as much rice flour as required to make them easy to remove from pan.
Ingredients:
1 cup boiled, mashed potatoes
1 cup rice flour
5-6 strands coriander leaves
1 tea spn ginger-garlic paste
2-3 green chillies
2 tbl spn yogurt/curd
Oil
Salt
Method:
Grind all the ingredients(except rice flour). Add rice flour. Mix well and make dosas. Some times, the dosas get sticked to tava. Add more rice flour and try again.
I usually serve this with honey or mango syrup(ambe paank).
Serves : 2-3
Preparation time : 10min
This is a recipe mostly done in rainy season. Usually this is made of different kinds of leaves grown in the gardens. Very very good for health. This and Pathrado is a perfect combination. Vandelaga leaves are called Brahmi in Sanskrit and Ekpanni in Konkani. I used watercress when I prepared this here in US.
Ingredients:
1 cup Vandelaga(brahmi) leaves
4-5 green chilles
3/4th cup fresh/frozen grated Coconut
1 tspn cumin seeds
1/2 tspn ghee
1/4 tea spn pepper
1/4 tspn tamarind extract or 1-2 small pieces of tamarind
Salt
Method:
Heat ghee and fry the leaves till they turn yellowish. Remove from pan and fry coconut(without oil) for 2-3 min. Grind coconut and leaves with all other ingredients. Add salt and serve with rice. (After grinding, it should not be heated).
Serves : 4
Preparation time : 10 min
This is a very common breakfast in North Canara. The combination differs. Some people eat this dosa with normal coconut chutney or jaggery(molasses) or chutney powder. But I like this dosa with garlic chutney the way my mother does it.
This is called Neer dosa in Kannada and served with fish/chicken curry in Mangaloren restaurants. Traditionally these dosas are prepared on cast iron tavas which are well oiled. My aayi applies oil to the tava, keeps it overnight and makes dosas on it the next morning. This helps in avoiding dosas sticking to the tava.
Ingredients:
1 cup rice (use dosa rice if available, otherwise use any normal uncooked rice)
3/4th cup coconut (tender coconut works the best)
Salt
Method:
Soak rice overnight. Grind with salt and coconut. Make the batter very thin. Prepare dosas. These dosas have to be cooked from only one side. (Since coconut is used, there is a chance of dosas getting sticked to tava).
Serves : 4
Preparation time: 10 min
Cabbage vada is a very popular Konkani dish, usually served as a side dish. This can be prepared with drumstick (maskasangi) flowers instead of cabbage. In North Canara, almost everybody has drumstick trees in their backyard. The leaves and flowers are used in many different dishes.
Ingredients:
1 cup shredded cabbage or drumstick flowers
1 cup onions cut into small pieces
4-5 red chillies
2 tspns jaggery
1 tspn coriander seeds
1 tspn urad dal
1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut
2 tbl spns toor dal
2 tea spns rice
Oil
Rava(sooji)
Salt
Method:
Soak toor dal and rice in water for 30mins. Heat 1tspn oil. Fry coriander seeds and urad dal. Grind coconut, soaked dal, jaggery,red chillies, fried dal, coriander seeds and salt using minimum quantity (almost no) of water. Mix the ground masala with cabbage(or drumstick flowers) & onion. Make small balls and press with the palm to make it flat. Apply rava and shallow fry on a tava.
Serve hot.
Serves : 4
Preparation time : 25 min
