August 2017

Banana Berati / Plantain Preserve:

August 29, 2017

Whenever you have large stock of over ripe bananas, this is one such procedure one can follow and finish off all the stock and preserve this for future use. This preserve stays good almost a year or more in the freezer. It is a very handy when you want to make banana payasam/kheer or Halwa. Here I have used yellow small variety of banana from Mangalore and we call this as Kadali.

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Ingredients:

Over ripe banana – 22

Sugar – 1 bowl

Method:

– Put all the peeled bananas to mixer grinder and make a smooth paste.

– Measure this by using any bowl of your choice. If this paste is 3 cups in quantity take one cup of sugar in that same measurement cup.

– So, your ratio of banana paste and sugar will be 3:1.

– Take one thick bottomed kadai, put this paste and keep gas flame in a very low flame and cook for a while.

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– When it changes its colour to milky white, then to a pale colour and when you smell the banana flavour in the air, add sugar and mix this in a regular interval.

– After some time, it will turn into a pinkish or reddish colour and it will start to leave the sides of the kadai. Now it is the time to remove it from the fire.

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– Keep as it is and when it reaches room temperature; store it in an airtight container or a zip lock.

– You can do this in a microwave as well. Only thing, you should remove the glass bowl at regular intervals and give a stir and proceed as given above.

Neeru Mavinakayi/ Brined mango chutney:

August 27, 2017

The word “Neeru Mavinakayi” makes me nostalgic and my mouth water. I am sure that is the case with every Mangalorean. We grew up with very basic comfort food during monsoons. Which consists of kucchilakki (Red rice) ganji accompanied with ghee and this chutney, which is made by using coconut and dried red chillies.

Raw mango in brine is known as Neeru Mavinakayi. During its season we normally preserve raw, firm mangoes by putting it in brine solution. This way, the mangoes can be enjoyed throughout the year. We do make varieties of recipes and this chutney is one of them.

Ingredients:

Brined mango – 1

Fresh Coconut – 1 cup

Dried red chillies – 3 to 4

Hing – ¼ tsp

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 tsp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Red chilli – 1

Curry leaves – 1 string

Method:

– Take out one mango from the brine, wash properly and peel outer skin and chop.

-Roast red chillies and hing in a drop of coconut oil.

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– Grind chopped mango, roasted items and coconut into coarse paste by adding very minimal water.

-It usually doesn’t require salt, if needed you can check the taste and add accordingly.

-Add seasoning by heating oil, when mustard splutters add curry leaves and add this to the chutney.

-Enjoy either with white rice or like us with boiled rice (red rice) ganji and ghee.

Menthe Kodilu/ Methi Sambar:

August 25, 2017

This is one of our traditional recipes and if you like a little sweetish tangy taste, this is the perfect combo for kotte kadubu / idly or semige.

We don’t use onion or garlic on any auspicious day and this side dish is usually prepared on such days and we relish this as a side dish with kotte kadubu/ Moode.

Here menthe is fenugreek and kodilu stands for sambar in our language. This is a very simple coconut based little sweetish gravy and needs very less ingredient and tastes good.

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Ingredient:

Fresh grated coconut – 1 big bowl.

Dried red chillies – 3 to 4

Methi / fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Coconut oil – 1tsp

Tamarind – ½ tsp

Jaggery – 2 tbl spoon

Salt

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 tsp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 1 springs

Red chilli – 1

Method:

– Take 1 spoon of coconut oil in a small kadai, heat.

– When it is hot, drop methi and fry for a while.

– When it is light brown, add red chillies and fry until it swells.

– Add coconut gratings, turmeric and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.

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– Cool this mixture and grind this into smooth paste by adding sufficient water, salt, jaggery and tamarind.

– Now take that same kadai, in which we have fried chillies and coconut. Pour ground batter, adjust the consistency by adding water.

–Boil this for a while and check for a salt and jaggery. If needed adjust that as well.

–Do seasoning by heating oil, mustard, red chilli and curry leaves and pour this over boiled kodilu.

Moode/ Kotte kadubu:

August 25, 2017

Moode or kotte kadubu is a local delicacy of Coastal Karnataka. We especially prepare this on the eve of any festivities. Now a day It is an integral part of any weddings in our region.

Moode or kotte is leaf cup which we prepare either by using jack leaves, Kedige flower leaves (Kewda, Fragrant Screw Pine, Umbrella tree, Screw pine) or Plantain leaf. It is based on availability and accessibility to leaf.

It is basically normal idly batter which is poured in these cups, which is made by any one of these leaves and steam cooked in a water bath and served with chutney or any sambar.

I usually prepare this by bringing these leaf cups, from One of the many Mangalore stores, spread across Bangalore, during festival season. Sometimes I do prepare by lining a stainless-steel cup with small pieces of plantain leaves. This also works just fine like any other leaf cup.

Ingredients:

Idly Batter – Fermented

Tall steel glasses

Plantain leaves – as needed

Method:

– Hold plantain leaves on gas flame and wilt a little. It will help while folding or rolling the leaves.

–If you don’t wilt it, it will tear very easily.

–Take one wet cloth and wipe plantain leaves (you should move your hand from centre rib to edge as ridges moves in the leaves) and clean the leaves.

– Remove extra thick centre ribs (fibre) by holding your left palm to support over the leaf and pull the fibre by right hand.

-Cut this into small rectangle pieces.

– It is now ready to roll and place inside the steel glass.

–Keep idly steamer ready, when water starts boiling, pour the batter to the moulds.

–In these cups, usually 2 to 2 ½ serving spoons of batter will hold.

– If batter is more, cooking time should increase according to that.

–Keep it in a steamer, cook in a high fire for 10 minutes and when you feel the steam is uniformly distributed inside the steamer, reduce the flame and cook for 40 to 50 minutes in a very low flame.

–After it is done, switch off the gas, don’t open the lid and keep it for some more time.

–When you want to serve this, open the lid, remove the glass mould and pull the banana leaves out and serve with pouring little ghee and any side dish of your choice.

–Usually on festival days, we make coconut based sambar or chutney and totally avoid garlic and onion on any auspicious day.

–Our traditional side dish is called menthe kodilu and we relish these kadubu’s with menthe kodilu or sweetened cardamom flavoured coconut milk(kayi halu) and coconut chutney .

Panchakajjaya /Naivedym which offered to lord Ganapathi:

August 24, 2017

Panchakajjaya is integral part of Ganesh Chaturthi Naivedyam. Pancha means Five. As the name suggests it is made up of five ingredients. Chana dal, sugar, coconut, Ghee, black sesame seed. cashew nuts are optional. This powdery Prasadam is a treat which we look forward to every year on this auspicious day.

Ingredients:

Chana dal / Bengal gram dal – 1 cup

Grated fresh coconut – 1cup

Sugar – 1cup

Black sesame seed – 2 tbl sp

Cashew bits – ½ cup

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Ghee – ½ tsp

Method:

– Dry roast Chana dal until it is light golden and fragrant. Cool and make powder by using small mixer jar. Sieve and collect fine powder. Do this in small batches, little by little.

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– Powder sugar.

– Dry roast sesame seed and cool.

– Dry roast coconut gratings until light golden. Cool this.

– Fry cashew bits in ghee and keep aside.

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– Now take one bowl, mix everything together, and sprinkle cardamom powder. Offer to God.

Idly/Idli Batter:

August 24, 2017

Idli is very basic, staple breakfast of south India. It is very healthy steam cooked rice and lentil cake which is very nutritious too. Each place has their own rice and lentil ratio or proportion and grinding technique also changes from region to region. In Mangalore, we soak rice and dal separately and grind very fine paste of urad dal and either we mix rice rawa or we are grinding the rice, we keep it a little coarse, hence this batter will be a little coarse. After fermenting the batter, the next day we proceed to make idlies by using either idly stand or idly cups. In our region, idly cups are regular and very common in every house hold and we use special type of idly steamer and invariably we use this for so many kinds of steam cooking.

Ingredients for idli batter:

Idly rice or Idly rawa – 2 cups

Urad/Black gram dal – 1 cup

Poha – 1 fist full

salt

Method:

-Wash and soak rice in one vessel. If you are using idli rawa, you can wash idly rawa and put very little water and keep aside.

-Wash Urad dal and poha in another vessel and soak for 3 to 4 hours.

-At first, drain excess water from urad dal and put this into wet grinder.

-Grind this into smooth paste by adding water in-between while grinding.

-When urad dal batter becomes fine and smooth, its consistency becomes almost double and colour of the batter looks milky white.

– When you think urad dal batter is ready, add soaked rice or rice rawa by draining its soaked water.

-You can use this water while grinding or adjusting the consistency of the batter or to wash wet grinder at first to remove the dough that is stuck on the stone.

-Grind this into small rawa consistency by adding salt and remove this ready batter into big vessel. If you are using rice rawa ,allow batter to mix for couple of minutes and then remove.

-I usually grind urad dal first, then mix in drained rice so that batter mixes uniformly and becomes light and airy.

– Batter consistency should be a little thick and when u hold and drop the batter it should not drop very easily and it should stick to the spoon.

-Close the lid and keep this batter for 8 to 10 hours or more (according to outside weather where you live) for fermentation.

-Next day morning fill idly steamer or pressure cooker with sufficient water, place the porous plate at the centre of the vessel and keep this on the fire.

-Mix fermented batter vigorously, if needed add water and adjust the consistency keep it ready.

-Rinse the idly moulds in fresh water once, it will act as a non-sticky layer between idly and mould.

-When water starts boiling, pour one spoon of batter into respective moulds and steam cook.

-If you are using cups, cook this in a steamer for 15 to 20 minutes. Cups holds more batter than idly stand.

-If you are using idly stand, 7 to 8 minutes of steam cooking is sufficient.

-When it is done, switch off the gas, open the lid and remove moulds outside.

-Once it is cool, remove idly and serve with chutney or sambar or with your choice of side dish.

NOTE:

-Use wet grinder to get awesome soft idlies.

– Use soaked and drained water from the dal or rice while grinding. It will enhance the taste.

-Always mix and pour the batter to the moulds, only after water starts boiling.

Guacamole / Mexican Avocado or Butter fruit dip:

August 23, 2017

I tasted my first fresh and authentic Guacamole which was prepared by a native Mexican couple in Key west during my recent trip. Personally, I had never liked it before. It was by accident that we spotted a cart over there, due to my tiny niece who loves her dose of Guac at any time of the day, and that is the reason why we picked up one.

We got an opportunity to taste Authentic key lime pie and visited “Peppers of Key west” which is a small pepper bar. We sat at the pepper bar and did a taste test as well. They had more than thousands of varieties of sauces and dips with spice levels ranged or ranked from 0 to 10 and my daughters and sister who enjoyed this tasting session earned their ” I have the Hottest tongue in this island” badge as well.

At Mallory square, one will get to see lots of things like Magic shows, tarot reading or some amazing food in different kinds of carts. We browsed a bit and decided to taste Budapest special Chimney cake, Caribbean grilled corn and this Guacamole. After all these experiences and eating sessions, we enjoyed the sunset over there.

Now we will see how I tried to replicate their recipe and I want to dedicate this recipe to that couple.

Ingredient:

Avocadoes/ Butter fruit – 2 (small size)

Garlic cloves – 5 to 6

Crystal cooking salt – as needed

Tabasco chilli sauce – 1 tea spoon

Tomato ketch up – 1 teaspoon

Tomato – 1 (big)

Spring onion greens – 2 table spoons

Fresh Lemon juice – as needed

Method:

-Make a paste of garlic, salt and Tabasco sauce by using pestle and mortar.

– it should be like a semi ground paste and it takes little time and energy of yours.

-Now cut open the fruit, remove seed and scoop out the flesh and mash this into fine texture.

– Mix in tomato ketch up and ground garlic and salt paste.

-Garnish with finely chopped spring onion, tomato and juice of lime .

Serve fresh with tortilla chips or with some other choice of yours.

Soba Noodles with Vegetables in Honey based sauce:

August 19, 2017

Once again testing period for me. Yes!! I was keeping and not at all interested to cook these dull Soba noodles. My sister gave me this pack of soba noodles “to experiment” when I visited her this summer. Last week, she had asked about Soba and told me, she is waiting for the foolproof recipe. I had no option but to cook. I was hesitant at the beginning, by thinking about my ever-choosy daughter’s palate.

On the eve of Independence Day, I was thinking about something special for our menu. So, I thought of cooking this special noodle for the first time and made my own mixture by using Honey as a base.

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Honey did help to uplift the taste of soba noodles, which is otherwise very bland in taste.

First, we will see, what are Soba noodles. Soba noodles are Japanese noodles that are made from buckwheat flour. Buckwheat flour is greyish in colour so the noodles have that dull grey colour and it is gluten-free as well. Due to this, noodle is very brittle in nature.

As 100% buckwheat, gluten-free noodle tends to break, people do add some wheat flour when preparing their noodles. What I had was 100 % with buckwheat flour and needed extra caution while boiling and cooling.

Ingredients:

Soba noodles – 3 serving bundles

Vegetables – 1 bowl of your choice

white sesame seeds – 1 tablespoon

Corn flour – 1 tablespoon

Water – 3 tablespoons

Salt

Oil – 2 tablespoons

Sauce Mixture:

Sriracha sauce – 2 tablespoons

Rice/ plain vinegar – 2 tablespoons

Light soy sauce – 2 tablespoons

Honey – 5 to 6 tablespoons

Garlic – 1 ½ tablespoons (sliced)

Ginger – 2 teaspoons (grated)

Red chilli flakes – ½ teaspoon

Method:

– Make sauce mixture by Combining Sriracha, vinegar, soy sauce, honey, red chilli flakes, garlic and ginger in one bowl and keep aside to release its flavour.

– Mix cornflour and water and keep aside.

– Dry roast sesame seeds and reserve this for garnishing.

– Boil water with one spoon of salt and oil. Put noodle, cook until al dente (it should cook and texture should be firm)

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– Drain the water, rinse the noodle in cold tap water.

– Collect one small cup of the drained water and keep it aside for next use.

– Chop vegetables according to your taste. Here I have used broccoli, beans, carrot, baby corn and zucchini.

– Take one wide Kadai, add oil. When it is hot, add chopped veggies and a little salt and fry for a while.

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– Add all the sauce mixture, cornflour mixed water and fry vigorously to avoid this to burn.

– If the mixture becomes very thick, add a little reserved cooked and drained water of noodles. Check for the salt. If needed add and adjust.

– When it starts boiling, add noodles and mix.

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– Garnish with dry roasted sesame seeds and serve.

Instant Oats-Rava Idli:

August 15, 2017

This is how I prepare oats idli/idly at home. This recipe is so handy, healthy and a very good option to finish off our stock of sour curd. I usually roast rawa and oats the previous night and proceed directly to prepare in the morning, so that one can save time and it also gets enough time to cool down properly. I don’t use any seasoning and make it exactly like our regular normal idly and serve either with hing or onion and coconut chutney.

Ingredients:

Quick cooking oats – 1 ½ cup

Normal rava/semolina – 1 cup

Sour Curd – 2 cups

Water -1 cup

Eno fruit salt – 1tsp

Salt

Ghee /clarified butter – 1 table spoon

Method:

– Take one tawa and roast rava by adding ghee.

– When rawa becomes white, sandy in texture, add oats and proceed frying it for 2 to 3 minutes and switch off the gas.

– Cool this properly. (I usually do this the previous night)

– Mix curds, water, required amount of salt (around 1 tsp) and Eno.

– Add roasted rawa and oats mixture. Consistency should be like regular idly batter.

– Set cooker for steam cooking, by adding 1 to 2 cups of water and keep it on a fire.

– Rinse idly moulds or stand with clean water (This will help as a non-sticky coating)

– Pour 1 serving spoon of a ready batter, steam cook for 8 to 10 minutes.

– Serve with any chutney of your choice.

Beaten rice/Poha laddu:

August 12, 2017

Wish you all my lovely readers a very happy Krishna janmashtami. As beaten rice is one of the favourite things of lord Krishna. Beaten rice is also known as poha in Hindi and Avalakki in Kannada.

This ladoo is one of my twin daughter’s favourite things in this whole wide world. I learnt this addictive crunchy ladoo recipe from my sister’s Mother-In-Law. Now let’s get started with the recipe.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour-1 cup

Chickpea flour/Besan -1 cup

Thick beaten rice – 2 cups (thicker variety, which is used for deep frying in savoury making)

Sugar- 2 ½ cup

Clarified butter (ghee) – ½ to ¾ cup (as required)

Dry fruits – 1 cup (We like chopped almond and cashew)

Cardamom powder – 1tsp

Method:

1. Dry roast wheat flour and chickpea flour separately in a thick bottomed vessel and keep small flame in a gas stove, so that flour will not get burnt and fry uniformly.

2. Fry dry fruits with little ghee and keep aside.

3. Deep fry beaten rice and put it in a tissue.

4. Take all these things (roasted flour, dry fruits, fried beaten rice, and cardamom powder) in a large bowl, to this add powdered sugar and mix everything nicely.

5. To the above mixture add melted little hot clarified butter or ghee and mix it with clean hand.

6. Once you can make ladoo stop adding clarified butter and continue making ladoo.

7. After it cools down, store this in a clean, dry airtight container and enjoy whenever you feel like.