coconut oil – Page 2

Bilimbi Saaru /Tree Sorrel Rasam :

May 23, 2021

Bimbuli / Beempuli, anyone? Yes! It is our local name to Bilimbi 😀
Averrhoa bilimbi, commonly known as Bilimbi, “Cucumber tree”, “tree sorrel”, is a tiny, tangy, juicy fruit that regularly appears in Coastal Karnataka cuisine.

Bimbuli is what we call it, and it is also known as Tree sorrel. It is a common backyard tree, and you would find it in every house of the coastal region. The beauty of our traditional cuisine is impressive. When we take only Mangalore cuisine, we find at least 6 to 7 varieties of souring agents used for specific purposes according to the ingredient and the recipe. For example, Kokum, tamarind, Monkey jack (known as Unde Huli or Kethe Huli), Hog plum, Bilimbi (beempuli), Raw mango and the list goes on.

Before the lockdown, I found this in my locality during our evening walk and introduced it to my daughter.

We used to eat this watery fruit by dipping it in salt and asked her to eat it with salt. She, who is fond of any khatta/ souring agent, enjoyed and asked for more. Besides eating, I loved pickle, which my paternal aunt used to prepare and get it.

While talking, remembering good old memories, my mother in law mentioned Bimpuli saaru, which her mom-in-law used to prepare. As a curious learner, I started asking her about the recipe? How did she use to make etc.?

As always, she said, what is the recipe? There is nothing in that saru—a little bit of cooked dal, green chilli and hing.

The next day, I made the saru, which I never tasted before, and it was indeed flavourful and delicious and thought of documenting it in my blog for future reference.

Ingredients:

Bilimbi /Tree sorrel – 6 to 7 or acc to your taste

Cooked toor dal – 1 small Katori

Salt

Jaggery – to taste

Green chillies – 6 to 8 (slit)

Hing – peanut size

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 tbl sp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Red chilli -1

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

-Take a one cooking pot, put Chopped tree sorrel, slit green chillies, salt, jaggery, hing, 2 cups of water as well as cooked, mashed dal.

-When chillies and sliced tree sorrels are cooked, adjust the consistency by adding water, if necessary, salt, jaggery or hing. Boil a couple of minutes more and add seasoning.

-To season, heat oil, splutter mustard, red chilli and curry leaves. Yes! It is so simple and tasty.

-This tasty saru is pairs well with hot rice and papad with any vegetable side dish to accompany.

Mundi Gedde – chana palya /Giant taro and dry chickpea curry :

May 17, 2021

Belong to the Alocasia family, and leaves are giant, glossy, resembles an elephant ear. Hence, it is also known as Elephant’s ear plant. Alocasia means “like the colocasia but not the colocasia”. Giant Taro is a good source of Vitamin C, Iron, and phosphorus.

In our native, leaves are used as an alternative to the plastic sheet, while sun drying papads or fryums in Summer months.

Which is best described as a “Stem crop” as the edible starchy stem is seen above the ground, which is light brown in colour, coarse outer surface grows upright, erect, in a cylindrical shape.

I have shared the details regarding Mundi Gedde/ Giant Taro in this post,

As most plant in this taro family, even this has Calcium oxalate, which itches our hand or mouth while eating if we do not handle it properly. Here, using hot boiling water and using the right amount of tamarind takes care to emit the itchiness.

Today, I will share one more traditional recipe of our region and one of the favourite side dishes you find in our wedding menu.

Ingredient:

Mundi/ Giant taro – around ¼ kg

White chickpeas – ½ cup

Salt- as needed

Jaggery – as needed

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp to 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

tamarind – one gooseberry size (soak in 1 cup of water)

For Masala: Coconut – ¼ cup, Methi – ¼ tsp, Red chillies – 3

For Seasoning: Coconut oil- 1 tablespoon, mustard – 1tsp, urad dal – 1 tsp, red chilli – 1 (optional), curry leaves- 1 spring.

To garnish: raw coconut oil – 1tsp and curry leaves – 2 springs.

Method:

-Soak dry chickpeas overnight and cook in a pressure cooker for 3 to 4 whistles or until done.

-Now prepare the giant taro;

-We usually do not wash the Giant taro stem before cutting nor peeling. Spread one newspaper, remove all the outer brown woody skin, chop the stem into pieces as you needed.

-Wash those pieces in water by using a spatula, drain and put immediately in boiling water, cook until it is almost done, drain and proceed to the actual cooking. Now it is ready to cook.

-For palya, prepare the seasoning. Heat oil, splutter mustard, fry urad dal, add curry leaves.

-Add tamarind extract, salt, jaggery, red chilli powder, turmeric and, boil until water evaporates.

-Meanwhile, prepare the masala. Fry methi seeds in little oil, when it is light brown, add dried red chillies, fry until it is crisp. Dry grind these ingredients with coconut.

-Add the ground powder to cooked veggies and mix nicely, allow it to cook for 2 minutes by closing the lid.

-Now, garnish with raw coconut oil and curry leaves. Close the lid, switch off the gas. Leave this for a while. Before serving, mix nicely and serve.

Greater Yam curry /Kachil curry :

May 5, 2021

In my last blog post, I have shared Greater yam Melara, and today I am going to share Kerala style kachil curry, which I prepare at home.

I have shared the details regarding Greater yam / Dioscorea alata in this post, and our traditional recipe, Melara, is here.

Kachil curry is Cumin flavoured, coconut-based curry. It is seasoned with coconut oil and shallots.

Ingredients:

Kachil cubes – 1 bowl

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Salt and jaggery – to taste

Tamarind – ½ tsp

Green chilli – 1

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Curry leaves – 1string

Shallots – 3

For masala paste: Coconut – 1 cup, Cumin – 1 tsp, Garlic – 1 clove

Seasoning: Coconut oil – 1 tbl spoon, mustard – 1 tsp, shallot – 3, green chilli – 1, curry leaves – string

Method:

-Pressure Cook kachil cubes for two whistles by adding salt, jaggery, little tamarind, one slit green chilli, red chilli powder, one spring of curry leaves, 2 or 3 sliced shallots with sufficient water.

-Make a smooth masala paste by adding coconut, Cumin, Garlic with little water.

-Mix in the ground paste to cooked veggie, adjust the consistency, boil.

-Add seasoning, heat oil, splutter mustard, sliced shallots, slit green chilli and curry leaves, fry until shallots turn brown and pour it on the curry.

Gujje Huli menasu / Tender jackfruit curry:

April 8, 2021

In our region, Raw jackfruit curry relished in every possible way and every possible stage of its growth. Huli Menasu is nothing but tamarind and dried chillies. The speciality of this sambar is no frying or roasting the masala. It is no fuss masala but, the flavour is unthinkable. It is an experience by itself. It is one of our family favourites, and today, sharing it with you all.

I have many raw jackfruit recipes in my blog, including “how to chop” the young jackfruit for beginners.

To get an authentic taste, one should use coconut oil and fresh grated coconut for this curry.

Now we will see the recipe part.

Ingredients:

Raw jackfruit cubes – 1 bowl

Salt

Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

Fresh coconut – 1 bowl

Red Byadagi chillies – 3 to 5

Tamarind – gooseberry size

Turmeric powder – ½ teaspoon

For seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 tablespoon

Mustard – 1 teaspoon

Red chilli – 1

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Garlic – 10 cloves (crushed)

Method:

-Cook Raw jackfruit pieces in a sufficient amount of water. Add salt and red chilli powder, turmeric as well.

-In the meantime, grind smooth masala by putting coconut, tamarind, red chillies.

-When jack pieces are soft/ cooked, add ground masala, adjust the consistency and boil.

-When the mixture boils nicely, switch off the gas.

-Prepare seasoning, heat oil, splutter mustard, add garlic, red chilli, curry leaves.

-When garlic becomes deep brown, add the seasoning over boiled gravy.

-Keep this closed for a while before serving to absorb all the flavours.

-Serve with hot rice.

Mango ginger Tambli:

March 22, 2021

Mango Ginger or Curcuma amada is a plant of the ginger family Zingiberaceae and is closely related to turmeric. It is locally known as kukku shunti/ Mangannari or Ambe kombu. Mavinakai shunti in Kannada and Aam Haldi in Hindi. Mango ginger is antioxidant,anti-fungal, antibacterial as well as anti-inflammatory in nature.

Our traditional cooking includes mango ginger in many forms. One such recipe is Tambli. Come summer, tambli is an integral part of our lunch platter. Tambli is a coconut-based, uncooked gravy enriched with any one of the herbs, with minimal spices and buttermilk to soothe our system.

It is a quick, instant, no involvement recipe. It can be had as an appetizer or mixed with rice like any other curry.

Ingredients:

Mango ginger – 1” piece

Sesame seeds – ½ tsp

Dried red chilli – 1

Coconut – ½ cup

Salt

Jaggery – ½ tsp

Buttermilk – ½ cup

For the Seasoning: ghee – ½ Tsp, cumin – ½ tsp, curry leaves – 1 spring.

Method:

-Peel the outer skin of mango ginger, slice.

-Dry roast sesame seeds, then fry red chilli in a drop of oil.

-Take a Mixie jar, grind coconut, red chilli, sliced mango ginger, salt, jaggery and grind into smooth paste by adding water.

-remove this into a vessel, add buttermilk, and adjust the consistency by adding little water if needed.

-Consistency should be like regular milk.

– Add Seasoning by heating ghee, cumin and curry leaves.

– Enjoy this coolant with hot rice.

NOTE: If you want to prepare a vegan version, omit buttermilk and add little tamarind while grinding, or after preparing, add lemon juice and enjoy.

For the Seasoning: You can Opt for cold-pressed coconut oil.

Rice Nippattu:

November 11, 2020

In our Native, Nippattu is nothing but savoury Rice crackers. We normally buy our favourite Rice Nippat from “Popular sweet mart”, from my native town, Putter.

Maybe around 5 -6 years ago, while conversing, my husband asked me to replicate this particular item at home. I was thrilled to hear this and sat down with a couple of Nippattu, pen and paper. I noted down the ingredients one by one after tasting it bit by bit.

Then comes the trial session. At first, I used roasted urad dal powder and rice flour and used a roti presser for pressing. It turned out a little thick and hard.

After a couple of trials with different proportions, addition, and deletion of a couple of ingredients. I succeeded in replicating our favourite snack and it was published long ago in Readoo at that time. Finally, during this Deepavali, I did manage to publish in my own space 😀

Now we will see how it is made –

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 2 cups

Urad dal – ¼ cup

Chana dal – 2 tbl sp

Butter – 1tbl sp.

Green chillies – 4

Red chillies – 2

Cumin – 1 ½ tbl sp

Black sesame seed – 1 tbl sp.

Curry leaves – 6 strings

Asafoetida /hing – ½ tsp

Salt

Oil- for frying

Method:

-Soak chana dal in water for 2 hours.

-Cook urad dal with one cup of water for two to three whistles in cooker. Mash it by hand or whisker.

-Now add butter, soaked-drained chana dal, jeera, sesame seeds, hing, salt, chopped green chillies, red chillies, and curry leaves.

-Mix nicely and add rice flour. If needed, sprinkle some water while mixing.

-Make firm dough and keep aside for 5 minutes.

-Take small amount of dough and make roundels.

-Pat these into flat thin discs on greased wax paper or butter paper or any thick plastic sheet.

-Now keep Coconut or any preferred oil for deep frying. When oil is hot, add patted flat discs and deep fry until it is golden brown.

-Enjoy with evening tea!

Rajamudi rice Pundi:

October 30, 2020

Pundi/Unde/mudde is nothing but steamed rice dumpling from south canara/Mangalore region. It is our traditional Breakfast recipe. After steaming, we have two to three options to have this super healthy dish. One is with liquid jaggery combined with ghee, or pundi can be drizzled with coconut oil and dipped in an onion flavoured coconut chutney. Last but not the least, by soaking in a masala gravy, known as Unde bendi.

Traditionally we use Red boiled rice to prepare. Here I have used fragrant Rajamudi variety of red rice, that was earlier grown exclusively for the “Maharajas of Mysore” . It is high in fibre, antioxidants, and Iron. It is unpolished and grains are beautiful with the mix and match of pinkish red lines, which has a nice aroma and it surely enhances the flavour of the Pundi.

I did this particular trial for Rice Calendar 2019. Unique effort by Save Our Rice Campaign and Sahaja Samrudha to Popularize traditional Rice and Recipes.

Save Our rice campaign is proud to proclaim that it has successfully mainstreamed around 100 different varieties of traditional rice across the country. Each rice variety is unique and differs in its taste, colour, texture, and cooking quality and contains some special properties like being medicinal, scented, sticky and so on.

It is one of the four recipes ,which I have shared with and got to be a part of this project in a very small way.

Ingredients:

Rajamudi rice – 2 cups

Salt

Coconut oil – 1 tablespoon

Coconut – ½ cup (grated)

Method:

-Wash, soak rice for 3 to 4 hours

-Grind rice into little grainy texture by adding salt.

-Put ground batter, oil, coconut in thick kadai, cook this into ball like mass.

-Cool a bit, take little cooked dough at a time, and make roundels.

– Place this in an idli steamer and cook for 20-30 minutes and enjoy with chutney or liquid jaggery mixed with little ghee.

Unde/Pundi Bendi/ dumpling in masala gravy:

Here, we ned to break pundi into big chunks and keep it ready.

For Masala: Take one bowl of grated coconut, roasted red chillies – 2 to 4 , 1 tsp of coriander, ¼ tsp of cumin, 2 cloves of garlic, little tamarind, and grind into smooth paste.

In a wok, heat 2 tsp of coconut oil, splutter mustard,1 broken red chilli and add curry leaves. Add half finely chopped onion and fry until it turns brown.

Now, add ground masala paste into the seasoning and adjust the consistency, add salt, pinch of jaggery and boil.

When it starts to boil, add broken chunks, and further boil for 5 more minutes or until it reaches the thick consistency.

Serve hot and enjoy.

Mangalore style Traditional Chakkuli/Chakli:

October 23, 2020

Today, I am going to post my mom’s chakli recipe – which used to be made on the same day of the festival/ pooja to offer as an offering to the god. This recipe does not need much planning. In our tradition, offerings to the deity should be done on the same day. It cannot be made beforehand nor readymade from the shop.

Here, you can take any tumbler as a measuring device.

Dosa rice – 1 cup

Urad dal – ½ cup

Poha or Sabudana – 1 tablespoon

Salt

Butter – small lemon size

Sesame seeds – 1 to 2 tsp

Method:

-Wash, soak dosa rice for an at least 2 hours.

-Dry roast urad dal until light brown and poha or Sabudana until crisp. Cool and make a fine powder.

-Sieve and collect those rough powder, repeat the grinding process to get fine powder. Keep it aside.

-Now, take soaked rice, grind into smooth paste with very minimal water and required salt.

-Now mix rice batter, sieved powder, butter, sesame seeds and make a smooth dough by adding required water, if needed.

-Heat coconut oil or any vegetable oil, prepare chakli’s by using chakli press. Drain excess oil, cool and store in a sir tight container.

Nugge soppu/Moringa leaves Pathrode:

September 28, 2020

Pathrode is a much-loved Mangalorean delicacy made with colocasia leaves and spice batter. We also make two versions of Pathrode, one is masala batter smeared, rolled, and steamed. Other one is by chopping the greens, mixed with masala laced batter, wrapped in wilted banana leaves , and steam cooked. This version can be prepared by using many other greens as well as banana blossom or flower as well.

After steaming these flat steamed dumplings/ pathrode’s, they can be enjoyed in many ways. We usually steam cook this, the previous evening and relish hot Pathrode paired with fresh coconut oil when it is hot. Next day, we normally, break those dumplings by using hand, prepare 2 types of seasoning. One is Sweet- with coconut and jaggery. Other one is – without jaggery, by adding onion. This version is my childhood favourite and even now, I cherish it to the core.

In the evening, if Pathrode is left, we even make Pathrode bendi. It is nothing but big chunks of Pathrode, dropped in masala gravy , simmered, and cooked. It is the most loved version in my husband’s family.

I would share all the possible relishing methods in this post. First, we should look into the main preparation,

Ingredients:

Moringa leaves – 1 big bowl

Rice – 2 cups (1 cup red boiled rice or Kerala matta rice +1 cup dosa rice) OR only dosa rice

Coconut – from half coconut

Red chillies – 10 -12 ( Byadagi variety)

Coriander – 2 tablespoons

Cumin – 1 tsp

Tamarind – 1 big lemon size

Hing – 1 peanut size (optional)

Salt

Jaggery – 2 teaspoons

Coconut oil – 2 teaspoons

Method:

-Soak rice for 3 to 4 hours after washing it.

-separate moringa leaves from the twig, wash, drain, chop and keep aside.

-In the meantime, wilt banana leaves over a gas flame, wipe in a wet cloth and keep them ready.

-Make masala by adding coconut, coriander, cumin, hing, salt, jaggery, and red chillies. Add soaked, drained rice, and grind into a batter. A batter needs to be thick in consistency. Add very minimal water, and grind.

-Mix chopped moringa leaves with the batter, add coconut oil, and adjust the consistency, it should be semi-solid but pourable.

-Pour the mixture, fold it, and steam cook in an idli steamer for one hr on a low flame. You can leave these overnight in an idli steamer itself.

-At night, you can remove a couple of pathrode, and relish hot Pathrode paired with fresh coconut oil when it is hot. This is an experience in itself 😀

Next day morning,

For Sweet Oggarane/ seasoning:

Take 2 pathrode’s, break them into pieces and keep them aside.

To make coconut jaggery mixture, take a fistful of grated coconut, 2 to 3 tablespoons of grated jaggery and mix by hand.

For seasoning, take 2 tsp of coconut oil, splutter mustard, urad dal, one broken red chilli, fry until it turns red, and add a spring of curry leaves.

Mix in crushed Pathrode, coconut jaggery mixture and mix everything and allow it to heat and jaggery to melt and hold the flavour.

For Khara Oggarane/ Seasoning:

Take 2 pathrode’s, break them and keep them aside.

Chop one small onion little fresh coconut gratings.

For seasoning, take 2 tsp of coconut oil, splutter mustard, urad dal, 1 broken red chilli, fry until it turns red, and add a spring of curry leaves.

-Add chopped onion, fry until it turns transparent, mix in crushed Pathrode, coconut gratings and, mix everything and allow it to heat as well as to hold the flavour.

Now comes the,

Pathrode Bendi/ dumpling in masala gravy:

Here, we must break Pathrode into big chunks and keep it ready.

For Masala: Take one bowl of grated coconut, roasted red chillies – 3 to 4 , 1 tsp of coriander, ¼ tsp of cumin, and two cloves of garlic and grind into a smooth paste.

Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil in a wok, splutter mustard, and one broken red chilli, and add curry leaves. Add half the finely chopped onion and fry until it turns brown.

Now, add ground masala paste into the seasoning and adjust the consistency; add salt and a pinch of jaggery and boil.

When it starts to boil, add Pathrode chunks, and boil for five more minutes or until it reaches a thick consistency.

Serve hot, and enjoy.

Thondekai melara / Ivy gourd Kayi huli:

September 16, 2020

Melara is one of our specialities, only found in our community and must in our functions or any festivity. Melara has different names according to the region from which we belong to such as Kayi Huli / Majjige Huli. This post was long due and glad to be able to post at least now.

Kayi is nothing but Coconut. Here, fresh coconut ( which is known as Hasi kayi/ not dried/should be filled with coconut water, not dehydrated one) is ground without any masala and added to cooked veggie , lastly one serving spoon of slightly sour buttermilk or beaten curd has been added and seasoned.

Melara can be done with extremely limited choices of vegetables. Well known suitable vegetables which can be used in this curry are, Ivy gourd, Tender Mangalore coloured cucumber( which should be green and white) , Ivy gourd and Mangalore cucumber mixed together, Yam alone or with White Kabuli Chana , Bread fruit ,Giant Taro alone or with White Kabuli chana, White Bitter gourd , Red Amaranth greens, yard long beans, brined raw jackfruit etc are some of our traditional “qualified” vegetables to cook melara.

As time passes by, even this list has some additional English vegetables 😉 (Yes! Other than our native veggies are known by this name) like Raw green tomato, Capsicum, potato, and beans)

Now we would move towards the recipe –

Ingredients:

Ivy gourd – 500 grams ( Or Vegetable of your choice)

Green chillies – 2

Salt

Grated fresh coconut – from ½ to ¾ coconut

Thick buttermilk – 1 serving spoon

Coconut oil – 2 tsp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Red chilli -1

Curry leaves – 1 string

Method:

-Wash ivy gourd ,chop into 4 pieces lengthwise. Cook with just enough water to immerse, by adding salt, slit green chillies.

-Make a really fine paste of fresh grated coconut. When veggie cooks, add this ground masala, adjust the consistency and boil for 2 minutes.

-Add buttermilk or beaten curd and when it starts to boil, switch off.

-Prepare seasoning, heat oil, splutter mustard, add red chilli and curry leaves fry and pour over melara.