Category: coconut

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.

 

Avalakki – Genasina upkari/ Seasoned Poha with Sweet potato and chana curry:

September 5, 2020

Bajil/ Avalakki is a default name for seasoned paper thin poha either with added chopped onion or plain. It is a speciality of our native, Mangalore .

When it is combined with Chana curry, which is known as Kadle- Bajil. It is very nutritious ,protein rich combo breakfast option and truly  filling to our tummy as well. Here I have used my home-grown Sweet potato with soaked black chana or Bengal gram. It is two very  easy dishes combined together to make a pair. It is a no onion dish and appropriate breakfast option for any day either feast / Vrat .

Even though many people would have tasted Avalakki oggarane in any of our temples. This particular dish is almost extinct in today’s world. Hence wanted to share it with you all.

At first, we would see, how to prepare Kadle/Chana curry: Addition of Sweet potato is an optional. 

It is a semi solid ,simple, little sweet as well as spicy seasoned dish.

Ingredients:

Black Chana – ½  cup

Sweet potato – 1 or 2 (optional) 

Salt

Jaggery (optional)

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Coconut oil – 1 tablespoon

Mustard – 1 tsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Hing – ¼ tsp

Red chilli – 1 or 2

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Coconut – (grated)

Method:

-Soak Chana , on previous night.

-Cook chana with little water and salt in a cooker. Dice Sweet potato with outer skin intact.

-When Chana is done, add sweet potato pieces and cook that as well.

-Prepare seasoning, heat oil, splutter mustard, add urad dal, red chilli, when dal becomes red, add curry leaves.

-Now add cooked chana and sweet potato and mash a little, to give a texture.

-Add jaggery, red chilli powder, adjust salt and Boil. when it becomes little thick, add grated fresh coconut, and switch off the gas. Serve with Seasoned Poha/ Avalakki Oggarane.

Now We would how to prepare Seasoned Poha/ Avalakki Oggarane:

Ingredients:

Fresh grated coconut – 1 cup

Salt

Rasam powder OR Roasted coriander, cumin, red chilli, little hing.

Little tamarind

Jaggery – ½ tsp

Paper thin poha – as needed

For seasoning:

Mustard – 1 tsp

Urad dal – ½ tsp

Red chilli -1

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

-At first, dry grind coconut, Rasam powder or roasted masala , jaggery, tamarind ,salt.

-To this mixture, add seasoning mix nicely by hand.

-Add required amount of poha and mix nicely by using your hand and serve with Chana and Sweet potato curry.

-Relish the Age-old filling breakfast with your near and dear ones.

Kantola Palya / Subzi/ dry curry:

August 4, 2020

Kantola has many names like Spine gourd, Teasel Gourd, phagila, Mada hagala, locally we call this as “Kaadu peere” in Mangalore. Kantola is one of the famous and nutritious vegetable of coastal region and some Eastern parts of states. This monsoon vegetable is loved by all. This resembles a bitter gourd in structure, but not in taste. It is a crunchy mild flavoured vegetable.  It is a great health food as it is rich in proteins, Iron, and antioxidants and low in calories. It is high in fibre too.                  

In my family, we usually relish this in two ways. One is crunchy,  tawa fry form or as a palya. I make palya in two ways. One is garnished with  fresh coconut. Other one is  with coconut, along with little crushed roasted peanut. Both side dishes tastes equally good.

Ingredients:

Kantola – 500 grams

Onion – 1

Garlic – 7 to8

Turmeric – 1 tsp

Tamarind – small gooseberry size.

Red chilli powder – 1 to 2 tsp

Salt – to taste

Jaggery –  to taste

Fresh Coconut – to garnish

For seasoning: Coconut/ Vegetable oil, Mustard, urad dal, chana dal, cumin , curry leaves.

Method:

-Wash Kantola, chop into small slices. Chop onion and crush garlic. Soak tamarind in a cup of water.

– Take one kadai, heat oil, splutter mustard, add urad and chana dal. Fry until it turns red. Add cumin and curry leaves as well as crushed garlic.

-Add chopped onion, add turmeric, fry until onion turns transparent. Add tamarind water, red chilli powder, salt, jaggery.

-When it starts boiling, add chopped Kantola and mix everything , close the lid, and cook in a low flame.

-After water drains, Kantola turns soft, garnish with coconut or coconut as well as crushed roasted peanuts.

Mix everything and cook further 3 more minutes and switch off. Serve as a side dish with rice or roti.

 

 

Tri colour Capsicum Rice :

July 2, 2020

Capsicum flavoured one pot rice item, with added richness by coconut milk as well as lots of curry leaves and goes very well with any side dish of your choice. It is an absolute favourite at our office potlucks or any parties. It is rich in taste ,easy to make and nutritious too. I normally serve this with simple dhal fry .

I normally Use Basmati rice or small grain Jeera samba rice to make rice and all the three colours of capsicums.

Ingredients:

 Basmati rice – 2 cups

Onion – 1 big (sliced)

Green chilli – 1 (slit)

Ginger garlic paste – 1tsp

Ghee + Oil – 1 + 1 tablespoon

Bay leaves – 2

Cardamom – 2

Cinnamon – 1”

Clove – 2

Coconut milk powder – 2 tablespoons (I normally use Maggi brand)

To Garnish:

Red, Green and yellow capsicum – 1 each

Ghee or Oil – 2 tablespoons

Cumin – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Green chilli – 1 (slit )

Method:

-Wash ,soak rice for 10 minutes and drain.

-Take one cooker, add ghee and oil, Bay leaves, cinnamon,  clove and cardamom.

-Add sliced onion, green chilli and fry until it is golden. Continue frying with adding ginger garlic paste.

– Add drained rice, coconut milk powder ,4 cups of water ,salt and cook for one whistle ,keep it in a simmer for 3 minutes and switch off. 

To Prepare capsicum garnishing – dice all the three-coloured capsicum.

-Heat ghee, cumin ,curry leaves and slit green chilli and fry.

-Add capsicum ,toss for a while and sprinkle some salt and when it is done, add the ready rice and mix with a light hand and serve with your favourite side dish or simple dhal fry.

Pomegranate Peel Tambli:

June 27, 2020

Like coconut tree and banana plant , pomegranate is also an extremely useful plant to mankind. Starting from its bark, young leaves , fruits, and its outer peel have many medicinal properties.

In olden days, people never used to buy a fruit from outside. In our villages, people used to eat home grown seasonal fruits , which included wildly grown many berries, guava, chikoo, mango , bell fruits etc. Banana bunch used to be hanged at one corner of the house and it was the only fruit which was available  365 days. Pomegranate was rare, if any person is ill or recuperating after surgery etc  then only, it used to enter our houses. So, lady of the house used to treat that not less than the gold 😉 . She used to make it a point to clean the peel by removing all those white covers, break it into 4 to 6 pieces, carefully sun drying and used to store it near “chulha” / we call it as a “ole katte” ( it is basically a olden day’s cooking platform, which used wood as fuel). Throwing out the peel was not heard of and it had an enormous importance in every family in our region.

According to my co sister, who is an ayurvedic doctor, Ayurveda holds Pomegranate fruit in higher regards because of its antioxidant, pro biotic nature. Due to its anti-bacterial and anti-microbial quality, it helps to bind the stools and helps to control the diarrhoea. She says, Astringent- bitter taste of the peel is the reason behind its anti-diarrhoea quality. Hence, it can be used to cure diarrhoea and not in constipation. Pomegranate peel powder is good for oily skin. If powder is mixed with rose water and applied as a face pack , it reduces acne and brings glow to oily face.

In traditional home remedies When fruit has been used to treat Anaemia , peel has been used to treat dysentery/ diarrhoea (even with blood) . We normally prepare Kashaya by boiling couple of pieces of dried peel in a cup of water, reduced to half and consumed either plain or by adding little jaggery. Otherwise, every now and then, prepare Tambli and consume to maintain our gut health .

Tambli is preferred to total wellbeing of our gut because , it is more palatable than the Kashaya, as well as it consists  curd ,which again is a pro-biotic. Hence, if we include pomegranate peel in our regular diet every now and then, it helps in intestinal detoxifying and cleansing. In return it would helps to improve digestion.

Now we would see how to dry those fruit peels at first: It is quite simple. Remove all the white sheath beneath the fruit kernels, dry under the sun or keep it near the windowsill . When it is crisp ,breaks while folding, that is it. Store it in an airtight jar or zip lock. Use whenever it is needed.

Tambli preparation:

Ingredients:

Dried Pomegranate peel – 2 pieces

Black whole pepper – 6 to 8

Cumin – ½ – ¾ tsp

Fresh grated Coconut – 1 fistful

Curd – 1 to 1 ½  small serving spoon

Salt

Ghee

Method:

-Fry pepper, cumin, broken pieces of the peel until it is  crispy.

-Grind these into fine paste by adding coconut ,salt and sufficient water.

-Add curd, adjust the consistency by adding water.

-If needed season with ghee, cumin and curry leaves and serve with rice or drink as it is.

NOTE:

1) For vegan version, instead of ghee or clarified butter one can use coconut oil .

2)You can use whole black pepper corns or white pepper corns.

 

 

 

 

Coconut-Fresh Coriander chutney (Grandma’s style)

June 17, 2020

One more recipe from Smitha, dear friend of mine.  which I always relish with Oats and rava idli is age old recipe of her grandma. Though I have done little changes to the original recipe, taste wise it is the same and if you like khatta meeta chutneys, this is for you to enjoy with vegetable Oats rava idlies or plain oats – rava idlies or Rava idli with oats.

Ingredients

Fresh Coconut, shredded – 1 Cup
Fresh Coriander – A little more than half cup
Green Chilies – 4 to 6

Tamarind – Size of a Gooseberry
Hing – ½ tsp
Jaggery – 1 & 1/2 Tablespoon
Oil – 2 tsp

For Tempering: Oil, Mustard, Curry Leaves

Method

-Soak tamarind and jaggery in little bit of water to make it soft.

-Heat a pan. Add oil, Sauté the green chilies, until the outer skin looks partially white. Add the coconut and give it a mix. Once the coconut has turned warm, turn off the flame. Cool it.

– In a blender jar, put this mixture, along with tamarind-jaggery mix, hing, salt, fresh coriander and blend into smooth paste by adding water.

-Do seasoning, by heating oil, splutter mustard add curry leaves and add  ground paste, boil for 2 minutes.

-Cool and serve with Oats Rava idli. This chutney stays good for couple of days, under refrigeration.

Jackfruit Cup cake:

May 24, 2020

My idea behind this cup cake is our very own, traditional Jackfruit Kottige or Idli, that we have been making for ages. When I wanted to try cup cake, somehow, I was not convinced to use All-purpose flour due to my motto of healthy baking . Also, I was not ready to use an egg with jack.

Now, the biggest challenge was how to make it? That is when I thought of incorporating our traditional ingredients, which pairs very well with Jackfruit.

So, I took Rice flour , instead of fresh coconut opted for a homemade coconut flour. It would have helped to give an airy texture to cake. Now comes the egg replacer, without any doubt went with flax gel. Worked out really well.

Now comes the tasting session, whoever loves the Jackfruit and its preparation? They all loved it. Whoever does not love jack fruit or its flavour, they said…No 😉

My verdict: Cake was soft, airy ,not at all dense. Tasted more of Jackfruit. After all it is Jackfruit cake 😀

 

Now, we would move towards the procedure 😀

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 1 cup

Coconut flour – 1 cup

Baking powder – ¾ tsp

Baking soda – ¾ tsp

Salt – ¼ tsp

Flax gel – Replacement for 1 egg

Buttermilk – ¾ cup

Jaggery powder – 2/3 cup ( you can add brown sugar or normal sugar as well)

Ghee / clarified butter – 1/3 cup

Jack fruit chunks – ½ cup (heaped)

Method:

-Pre heat oven at 180 °C , grease the muffin pan. If you want to keep jack fruit piece at the bottom, you can keep one piece on each mould and keep it ready.

-Make flax gel: The basic ratio is 2 ½ tsp of flax seed powder and three tablespoons of  hot water  and then you simply whisk in the mixture until it becomes gelatinous  to replace one egg.

-Make  Jack fruit pieces by using chopper or mixer jar (by opting Pulse option)

-Take one bowl, add both the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and mix nicely or sieve couple of times. It is our dry mixture.

-Take one more bowl, make a wet mix. Take flax gel, ghee, buttermilk, and beat nicely.

-Now add jaggery or sugar and beat until frothy. Now add Jack fruit and mix.

-Pour  wet mixture into dry mixture and fold in and make a uniform mixture. Do not over mix.

-Pour the ready batter to muffin mould and bake in a Pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. Check the doneness and take out. 

-Cool and enjoy gluten free Jack fruit cupcake.

NOTE: – if you want to use all-purpose flour, please go ahead, and use 1 ½ cup and follow the same recipe.

Coconut Flour and Buck wheat Chocolate chip cookies:

May 17, 2020

In my earlier posts I have discussed regarding homemade coconut flour as well as  eggless coconut flour cookie with chocolate chip.

One thing we must keep in our minds while using coconut flour is, do not underestimate its absorption power by seeing its light and airy texture. It absorbs moisture like a sponge. What I learnt from my previous experience is, it needs almost equal amount of moisture content as flour volume.

Here I have tried with egg as well as without egg by adding  flax gel as an egg replacer, mainly because of its gel like texture. Coconut flour does not have any holding capacity, so thought of using flax gel.

In this experiment I have taken equal amount of coconut flour and buck wheat flour ( I did try with millet flour as well)  it did absorb the liquid, swell and gave me Eleven  cookies 😊 More than everything, this was interesting!! Baking Coconut Flour by adding millet/ buck wheat flour . This was a little experiment, and the results were not bad at all! I got the big thumbs up from my twins.

Let us see the procedure for With Egg Version –

Ingredients:

Coconut flour – ½ cup

Millet/ Buck wheat flour – ½ cup

Choco chip – ¼ to ½ cup

Pink salt – ¼ teaspoon ( you can use normal salt as well)

Cinnamon powder – ½ tsp

Cooking soda  + baking powder – ¼ tsp ( 1/8th  tsp  each)

Eggs – 2

Ghee – 2 tablespoons

Vanilla – ½  teaspoon

Organic Natural brown sugar – ½ cup (you can use normal sugar or jaggery as well)

Method:

-take one bowl, add all the dry ingredients: Both the flours, salt, cinnamon powder, cooking soda, baking powder and Choco chip. Mix everything and keep it aside.

-Beat the egg , add vanilla, sugar, and ghee. Beat everything until you see a bubbly texture.

– Pour wet mix into dry ingredient and fold everything and prepare a dough. It would be sticky and wet.

-Keep this in a refrigerator at least for a half an hour. By this time, coconut flour would absorb the moisture and batter would be perfect to scoop out.

-Pre heat oven at 170 °C. Line the baking tray with the butter paper.

-Scoop out the mix by using ice cream scooper and arrange in a lined baking tray.

-Bake this in a pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

-Do not touch while removing, it will be incredibly soft. Remove the tray and cool as it is.

-After cooling, it will harden a bit. After it cools down completely, store it in an airtight container.

– These cookies are slightly crunchier at outer circle, soft and chewy at the centre.

– It becomes a little harder and firmer the next day .

For Without Egg Version:

For Egg less version, please use any egg replacer or 

Flax gel: The basic ratio is 2 ½ tsp of flax seed powder and three tablespoons of  hot water  and then you simply whisk in the mixture until it becomes gelatinous  to replace one egg.

-Here, after mixing the wet and dry mixture, you can directly proceed to baking. No need to keep it in the fridge. Dough is less liquid, compared to the with egg version.

-Cookies turn out much more heavy and crunchier than the with egg version. Does not spread while baking. It holds the shape very nicely.

Beans Palya:

May 10, 2020

Fresh French beans are really tasty and loaded with high fibre and nutrients. One of my twin daughters doesn’t like beans in any form and it is very tedious to make her eat this veggie. Whenever I want to cook this veggie, I surely reach out to this fool proof recipe of my mom, which is really simple with very minimal ingredients, at the same time, full of flavours of green chilli and onions. This Subzi tastes good with rice or roti.

Ingredients:

French beans – ½ kg

Onion – 1 or 2 (medium)

Green chillies – 2

Salt – as needed

Jaggery -as needed

Fresh grated coconut – 2 table spoons

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Curry leaves – 2 springs.

Method:

-Wash, remove fibre from both sides by breaking both the tops of French beans.

-Hold fistful of beans in your left hand and chop uniformly.

-Chop onions and green chilli.

-Take one thick kadai or wok, do seasoning. Heat oil, splutter mustard, add urad dal, cumin.

-When urad dal becomes red, add curry leaves, onion and green chillies and fry for a while until onion becomes transparent and glossy.

-Next add chopped beans, salt, jaggery and toss for two minutes.

-Add one cup of water, close the lid and cook this in a low fire.

-When water evaporates, if beans are yet to cook, add little extra water and cook further.

-When it is done, garnish with fresh coconut and mix this mixture. Cook further for 2 minutes and enjoy this super delicious, simple palya/ Subzi either with hot rice, Rasam or with chapati/Roti.

 

 

Vegan/ Vegetarian Thai Massaman Curry:

May 3, 2020

Massaman curry, is a wholesome, flavourful ,peanut based Thai curry. It originated from the south part of Thailand, near Malaysia. It has Red fresh masala, which includes Red chilli, whole spices, lemon grass, galangal and roasted peanuts to give a creamy texture as well as the richness of coconut flavour by adding coconut milk.

Massaman curry pairs really well with small grain rice either steamed, normal or flavoured one.

Vegetables which I have used are Broccoli, beans, capsicum and carrots. Since the lock down, I am not finding all the options due to my restricted outing. Hence, it is also proved as a non-fussy curry 😉

How I made:

For homemade Massaman Curry paste: (For single use/Serves 4)

Dried red chilli – 3 to 4 (According to the required hotness)

Whole coriander – 1 tablespoon

Cumin – ¾ tsp

Cinnamon – 1” piece

Clove – 3

Whole black pepper corns – 4

Galangal – 1” piece (you can substitute with ginger as well) 

Lemon grass bulbs – 2

Garlic cloves – 3

Shallot/ tiny onion – 1

Lemon rind – From 1 small lemon

Soy sauce – 1 tablespoon

Maple syrup / jaggery syrup – 1 tablespoon

Juice of lemon – from 1 small lemon

Roasted peanuts – ½  to ¾ cup

Method:

-Take ½ cup of water, boil and add broken red chillies , close and keep aside to soak.

-Dry roast Coriander ,cumin, whole pepper corns, clove, cinnamon until it changes colour and you feel the aroma.

-Dry roast peanuts and keep aside.

-Grate lemon rind, make it half, take out the juice from the same lemon and keep it ready.

-Slice shallot,  lemon grass bulbs, galangal ( I had my home-grown harvest, sliced and frozen)

-Now, take one mixer jar, powder peanuts, add roasted masala, soaked chilli with water, lemon rind, lemon juice, maple syrup, soy sauce, shallot ,lemon grass ,galangal and make a fine paste. Now you have a fresh homemade curry paste with you 😀

Next Comes the Easy part:

For Vegetable Massaman Curry:

Ingredients:

Massaman Curry paste – Whatever you have prepared and kept.

Vegetables of your choice – 1 bowl (Broccoli, beans, carrot, capsicum)

Shallot – 1 (sliced)

Oil – 1 tablespoon

Salt

Coconut milk –1- 1 ½  cup fresh or 1 tetra pack or 1 coconut milk powder sachet.

Method:

-Take one wok, heat oil, fry sliced onion, add washed ,cleaned veggies and fry for a while.

-Add salt and when vegetables start wilting, add prepared curry paste mix everything and fry for 2 minutes.

-Add sufficient water, allow to boil , adjust salt. Lastly add coconut milk and allow to boil once and switch off.

-Serve with choice of rice you wish to have. I normally make small grain flavoured steamed rice.