Potato in coconut curry(Batate Song)

batate song

If I claim I have a Konkani food blog, anybody will ask the question “have you blogged about our great Batate Song??”. If my answer is “no”, then I definitely can’t claim of having a Konkani food blog. All I meant to say is, batate song(do not confuse this song with English ‘Song’) is a very very famous dish and every Konkani person is a great fan of it.

I still remember, when I was a kid, we visited my maternal grandmother’s house in Sirsi(A place near the Sahyadri mountain range, very famous for its Marikamba temple) during every summer vacations. My grandmother was a great cook. I still wonder where our older generations learnt so many great recipes. She always prepared this for us. This dish tastes great when made real spicy. It is usually beautiful red in color as if somebody has prepared it only using chillies.

This dish is prepared more than one ways, this version is what aayi follows. Here is the version without coconut.

Ingredients:
2 cups boiled and chopped potatoes
1/2 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup fresh/frozen coconut
1/2 tea spns tamarind extract or 2-3 pieces of tamarind
7-8 red chillies (Add as much as your taste buds can tolerate)
Oil
1 tea spn coriander seeds
Salt

Method:
Cook potatoes, peel them and cut into big pieces. Chop onions into medium size pieces.

batate song1
Fry coconut(without oil) till it turns just reddish. Grind with coriander seeds, red chillies and tamarind to a very smooth paste.
Heat oil and fry onions till they turn translucent. Add potatoes, ground masala and salt. If required, add a bit of water and let it cook till the masala is completely cooked and gravy is thick.
Serve hot with rice or alayle pita rotti.

batate song2

Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 25min

46 thoughts on “Potato in coconut curry(Batate Song)”

  1. You are right Shilpa, batata song is batata song 🙂
    I make it slightly different but your looks yummy as well. Why didnt you get the color? Which chillies do you use?

  2. Shilpa,

    Please accept my whole-hearted sympathies for not getting the authentic red color of batata song. I know how frustrating it can be. What bugs me even more is that my hubby is adamant about the color of the gravy rather than the taste, so I add a dash of food coloring only to this dish(something I’m not proud of!!)

    1. Dear Aswini , I am sure you married to Konkani husband who love the food more than wife who cooks it. what about me who married maharastrian and starving for Konkani food. Lucky, God sent me help. Shilpa, Aai and Varada pacchi. Today I made Batatya song. Color depends on different chillies. Next time you don’tget color add kashmiri mirchi wich gives color but not make it hoter than you want it. Thousands pranams to shilpa ,aai and varada pacchi. Regards and wishes.

  3. Ashwini, I used ‘red whole chillies’ of ‘Lakshmi’ brand. There were only two red chillies available in the market where we had gone. The other was round in shape. So I thought of buying these. I knew for sure that it wont give me the desired color and taste. Next time I will check in authentic Indian store for ‘kashmiri chillies’.
    Preeti, yours and my situations are same(In our case, I am the one who is adamant about both color and taste). But I haven’t yet tried to put food color. Thats the funniest idea :)). Last time, I kept on adding chilli powder hoping to get the color. Finally the dish was not edible and still it had the hopeless color :(.

  4. Love your recipes and your blog. Helps a bachelor to cook and stay healthy 😉

    I am a konkani too and your recipes make me feel at home though I am miles away.

    Cheers

  5. Hi Shilpa,
    I chanced upon your site yesterday. And I simply love it! Very nice work. Thanks so much for putting this site together. Your Batata Song recipe is different from what we make at home. We do not use Coconut in our Song. The recipe you mentioned above is what we call Batata Vaag. You can also find it listed in the Jaya V Shenoy Recipe book.

  6. Hi Shalini, Thanks for this info. I know there are a lot of different names for the same recipe. As far as I know, this recipe is called as ‘batate song’ in North Kanara. But I had found a bit of difference in a book, still I shared the recipe which has come from generations in our house :).

  7. hi shilpa, ur song was tasty. even i do without onion. btw i am happy to know hat ur from northkanara. i too hail from kumta. would like to b friend? more talk after ur reply. bye.

  8. hi all 2 get that reddish orange olour 4 ur batate song stop using narla in it i bet u’ll relish it we usually prepare it without using narla batate song tastes best with sheeta & jir irya kadi

  9. My grandfather used to say, it is aptly called “Song” because after you eat it you start to “Sing”… becos of all the red chillies. Yes, we make it differently. Although my mom used to add a little narlu to give the gravy some body, the authentic “song’ does not contain narlu. However, the onions are cooked in coconut oil and omit the coriander seeds. The best way to do this is to grind the red chilllies and tamarind together and add to the fried onions-cooked potatoes mixture !!! Viola, and then you eat it with rice and Dali Toi and then sing…..

  10. Shilpa,
    I almost asked the question “Do you have batate song recipe” and I’mglad that I checked all your recipe database before I asked you. I get Kumta chilly/byadagi chilly here and color is no problem. However, you can use paprika available in mainstream groceries to bring the rich red color to the dish. Try it out.

  11. Hi Shilpa: I make Song the same way except instead of the red chillies I use Reshampatti Mirchi Powder. It gives you both the spice and the color. I use it for making shrimp pannaupkari and all the other Amchigale recipes. I love your website. You have tremendous patience.

  12. hi shilpa,

    have you tried making bread pudding?
    I remember having it long long ago and even the thought of it now makes my mouth water
    Could you post the recipe if you try it.

    thanks,
    neetu

  13. Hi Shilpa,
    I had seen your website a long time back when i was hunting for eggless cake recipes for a fussy friend. I was in India then, now I am in the US. I do wonder about one thing though. Which brand of mixer/grinder do you use, the one we have at home dosen’t grind as well, even after adding tons of water and i hate adding water when grinding unless necessary. I really miss my sumeet which is at home in India.
    I really like your website and make sure I recommend it to all my other friends who are here.
    Keep up the good work.
    Regards,
    Synuae

    Shilpa: I have Sumeet with me. I bought it online here in US.

  14. Dear Shilpa, years before i had tasted potato song at my konkani friends home.am v.glad to get d recepie.will make soon.thanks.

  15. hi dear shilpa, i had always liked this receipe, as i used to eat it at my friend’s place as she hails from kumta, i am also a GSB but from Goa, so for me it is a new receipe. but i used to always visit her home to eat this special batata song made by her mother, which was veryyyyyy yummy. thxs a lot dear.

  16. Hi Shilpa,
    Nice recipe… I tried it and it tasted very well.. Both me and hubby loved it.. I put 8 red chillies and still the color of my masala never came even near your’s. I have used the red chili(Deer brand) which we get in Indian stores in San Diego. Did you use any special kind of red chilli?
    Thanks a lot

    1. I use the byadagi chillies which I got from India. Sometimes they are also available in Indian store here. You can also use Kashmiri chilli powder for the color.

  17. dear shilpa,i happen to see your site during my usa visit
    with all the ingradients you use,i also use a few grains of methi,there the taste is a little good.and next time u go to India get 3 parts of Bedgi dry chillies and one part kashmiri chillies{by weight} pound together .this chilli powder has fantastic colour and good for all recepies especially for fish fry.

  18. Hi Shilpa,

    Really this recipe tempted me to try at home,the colour has come out very nicely.

    Good site for recipes

    Thanks a lot

  19. Its been a while I have been in the US now. I always have tried to be in constant touch with the traditional konkani food that amma and my bapama make at home but somehow I was either missing out on certain ingredients like ‘teppal’ or ‘desicated coconut'(Getting all these ingredients around a student campus ain’t feasible always) or it was lack of total details/ resources like kaylee(heavy iron pan) to make appams.

    Its hard to believe that I came across this site today after so long! its such a relief to see konkani dishes listed here with such lucid language and authentic konkani terms for the same.

    Thank you so much!Looking forward to enjoyable cooking more now.

  20. Sandeep Pandit

    We prepare batata song at home without the coconut and coriander seeds. Rest of the ingredients are the same. And we fry the onions in coconut oil. Try it. The taste is heavenly.

  21. Hi Shilpa I like your recipes and your friendly way of telling them ! In Mumbai my neighbours were G.S.B. and we loved their cooking Thanks again
    JAYA

  22. Ntd & thanks for your prompt reply. As far as I know being a south Indian all our dishes are seasoned (except for AVIAL – where we use raw cocunut oil + curry leaves) & hence the question. RAJI

    1. We normally use Byadagi chillies which is very popular in Karnataka. You can use any kind of dried red chillies if you don’t find these.

  23. Hi,

    At my place, this is also called Batata Hooman (Human) when we add the grated coconut. Without coconut and lots of onions, its called Batata Song. Even cauliflower can be added with potato, it becomes “Cauliflower Song”. This also taste yummy.

    And yes you are right, this is the pride of Konkani cuisine, being a basic, simple and yet delicious recipe.;)

    Regards,
    Manasi

  24. Dear,
    I aiways refer your recipes and they r authentic but this time i agree with Mansi shenoy.
    this reciepe is called batatya human. If it is without corriander seeds then the same recipe is called batatya wagh and the same recipe without coconut and corriander seeds then it is called song.
    this is a friendly guideline . u keep posting recipes u r doing a good job . i always appriciate ur work

    1. Padmaja, I think even among Konkanis same dishes have different names. Human, wagh etc were not very commonly heard in North Kanara Konkani which I speak. For us, this dish is and always will be a song..it has too many memories attached. But thanks to you and Mansi for leaving comment about the other names. I have learnt so much about the Konkani cuisine in last few years – the different names, dishes etc.

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