Shilpa

Mushroom Pulav

almbe pulav.jpg
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
almbe pulav1.jpg

Potato Dosa

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

Vandelaga tambali (Ekpanni tambali)

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

Coconut dosa (Soyi polo/Pan polo/Neer dose)

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

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

Daal (Dalithoy)

Daali Thoy
Daali Thoy

Daali thoy(dalitoy/dalithoy) is the first recipe learnt by all konkani people when they start cooking. It is simple daal with chilies, ginger, asafoetida etc. This is a must in almost all Konkani functions and festivals. May be one of the very important comfort food. The traditional recipe does not call for coriander leaves, but I like this dish with coriander leaves.

Some places, like in South Kanara, ginger and turmeric are not added. But in North Kanara usually both of them are used for this dish.

Daali Thoy

Daal (Dalithoy)

Konkani special basic dal spiced simply with ginger and a simple seasoning.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 3 -4

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup toor dal
  • 3-4 green chillies
  • 1 inch piece ginger
  • A pinch turmeric powder
  • Coriander leaves optional
  • 2 tspn ghee or coconut oil
  • 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
  • 1 red chilli
  • A pinch asafoetida
  • 4-5 curry leaves
  • Salt

Instructions
 

  • Cook dal in pressure cooker with a pinch of turmeric, green chillies and finely chopped ginger. Typically it gets cooked in 3 whistles.
  • Heat the cooked dal with salt.
  • When it starts boiling, take off the heat.
  • Garnish with finely cut coriander leaves.
  • Heat ghee or oil.
  • Add mustard.
  • When mustard starts popping, add curry leaves and red chillies.
  • Add asafoetida.
  • Pour this seasoning over the cooked dal and close the lid.
  • Serve with hot rice, ghee and lemon.

 

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