No Onion No Garlic

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.

Jowar/Sorghum Dosa:

March 31, 2021

My experiment turned out to a super hit, crispy dosa. As usual, I followed my regular dosa batter recipe by replacing dosa rice with Jowar grains.

Jowar or Sorghum is a gluten-free grain loaded with nutrients and fibre, great in taste. When it is high fibre, it becomes useful for anyone who follows a healthy diet. Being a complex carbohydrate, Jowar gets digested slowly, reduces appetite making it an ideal whole grain option for weight management.

If you are looking for ways to reduce the rice intake, this recipe for you – Enjoy in any form of dosa, like crisp or fluffy. Cone or masala filled, with chutney or sambar.

Ingredient:

Jowar grains -1 cup

Idly rice -1 cup

Urad dal – ½ cup

Bengal gram/Chana dal – 1 TBL sp

Fenugreek /methi seeds – 1 tsp.

Beaten rice – ¼ cup

Method:

-Wash all these ingredients a couple of times. Soak this insufficient water for 3 to 4 hours.

-Drain water from the rice and keep it aside. This water should be used while grinding according to the requirement.

-Grind soaked rice –dal mixture by adding salt into a very fine /smooth batter using a wet grinder or mixer grinder.

-Now, Mix the batter, adjust the consistency, keep this ground batter for fermentation in a big vessel to allow room for puffed/fermented batter.

– It will take anywhere between 8 to 16 hours (according to the outside weather)

-Next morning, mix the batter, check the consistency, adjust and prepare dosas and enjoy.

Note: In Bangalore, I usually soak my lentils around morning, grinding happens around afternoon 2 to 3 pm, and until the following day, I keep the batter for fermentation.

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.

Brown rice – Horse gram Laddu :

March 7, 2021

This Laddu happened by chance. I have heard “Keddasa” unique festival from our region. But, I never knew the details, how to celebrate and its significance until recently. My interest in digging and reading about it started after seeing my Instagram friend, Akshatha’s post regarding Keddasa – a unique practice of our Tulu Nadu.

Farmers of our region observe Keddasa or Keddaso to honour mother earth and obtain her blessings in the next harvest. They believed that the earth goddess would grant crops in abundance by following the tradition.

Keddasa is observed typically in February, the end of the winter and believed that the earth goddess becomes fertile for farming. Rituals spread in 3 days; those three days are considered a rest for any farming activity to provide rest to mother earth. In this duration, a different offering is also a part of the custom.

A unique dish, known as Kudu -Ari, is made other than the offering. The literal transition of kudu is horse gram, and Ari is Rice. Roasted, powdered horse gram – rice is seasoned with other roasted items; it varies from family to family, such as roasted coconut, peanuts, sesame, Jaggery. Sometimes, the whole moong as well. The perfect way to look after our bone health during the winter months n the name of tradition. How beautiful. To make this Brown rice – Horse gram laddu, I took the inspiration from another traditional unde, known as Thambittu unde, which I shared in my blog, and the recipe is HERE. It is indeed a perfect energy ball or mid-day snack in the winter months, and I loved it.

How I did – Took one small tumbler as a measurement cup.

Here Ready laddu mixture was around 277 grams, and I took 250 grams of Jaggery, and it turned out perfect for our preferred sweet level. You can take equal or a little less.

Ingredients:

Red boiled rice/ matta rice – 1 cup

Peanuts – ½ cup

Horse gram – ¼ cup

Coconut – 1 cup

Sesame seeds – 2 tablespoons

Cardamom powder – 1tsp

Powdered Jaggery – Equal quantity as laddu mixture or little less.

Ghee – 2 to 4 tablespoons

Method:

-Wash rice once or twice, drain the water, let it air dry until it is dry.

-Wash horse gram and let it air dry until it is dry.

-Heat one thick bottomed wok/vessel, add dried rice little by little and roast; it will pop a little and texture will become brittle and a little puffy. Do this procedure in 3 to 4 batches and cool it.

-Dry roast Horse gram as well. When it cools down, make powder in a mixer jar; Sieve this powder and keep it aside.

-Now dry roast, sesame seeds, peanuts, grated coconut until it emits fragrance. Keep aside.

-I did crush the peanuts by using whip mode by using a mixer jar.

-Mix everything, measure the content. If it is 2 cups, take 2 cups of grated Jaggery or a little less than that. If you have a measuring scale, you can measure as well.

-Boil Jaggery put in one cup of water when it melts; sieve this solution to remove any impurities. (Pictorial guide is here)

-Take this liquid and boil further till it reaches one thread consistency. At this stage, you will hear “Tup” “Tup” bubbling sound, too (this is the clue which I have received from the elders)

-When it reaches one thread consistency, mix in the prepared content, ghee, and cardamom powder.

-Mix nicely. At this stage, the mixture will be too wet to handle. So, keep aside for 10 o 15 minutes till the mixture becomes a little dry and ready to handle. When you feel it is ready, take a small amount in hand, make Laddu, and keep it aside.

-When all the mixture gets over, and you have finished the process, store these laddus in an airtight container. This Laddu stays good for long, even at room temperature.

Plantain flower Proso millet dosa :

February 27, 2021

I have discussed plantain flower, traditionally, how to chop, how to use etc., in my earlier blog post, which included my mom’s best chutney recipe. We all know the banana flower is rich in fibre, antioxidants, iron, potassium, calcium, vitamins, and other minerals. It is used mainly to treat constipation and anaemia in villages of our native in and around Mangalore and is part of our day to day cooking.

I Tried the recipe long ago, liked and finalised it with the recipe for my millet calendar project, which was published in 2019 and filing the recipe under Diabetic friendly recipe in my blog.

Ingredients:

Proso millet – 1 cup

Dosa Rice – 1 cup

Urad dal -1/4 cup

Chana dal – ¼ cup

Methi – 1 tsp

Poha – ½ cup

Jaggery – 1 tsp

Salt

Tamarind – 1tsp

Red chillies – 4

Coconut – ½ cup

Plantain flower – 1

Method:

-Wash, soak millet, rice, chana and urad dal, methi and poha for 3 hrs.

-Take one bowl of water with added one serving spoon of buttermilk.

-Chop whole plantain flower, soak in buttermilk water, drain. You can check the process here as well.

– cook the drained banana flower by adding tamarind water, salt, red chillies, jaggery.

-Cool the cooked mixture, grind with soaked items by adding coconut into a smooth paste.

-Ferment and make dosas like any regular dosas and serve with chutney.

NOTE: It can be made as a vegan, instead of buttermilk, use tamarind water and instead of ghee, you can use any vegetable oil.

Millet roti/ pulka :

February 25, 2021

Millets are “no glutenous” flours. To attain soft-edged, easy to roll roti’s, we need to prepare the proper, pliable dough. When you want to prepare roti dough, you can either add little rice flour or whole wheat flour to millet flour. Even though it is not a traditional method, it works out just fine to my family needs. It remains soft even after cooling, easy to make and works out just perfect for any rolls or wraps.

How: First, make a porridge of millet flour or a mixture of two to three millet flours by boiling water, salt,0ne a spoon of any cooking oil. When it starts boiling, add millet flour and cook until it is glossy.

When it is cool, add rice or whole wheat flour and make a dough. In this way, you would get very soft pulkas.

How I usually do is –

Ingredients:

Ragi flour – ½ cup

Bajra flour – ½ cup

Jowar flour – ½ cup

Whole wheat flour- as needed

Water- 2 cup

Salt

Oil -1 tsp.

Method:

-Take two cups of water, add oil, salt and boil. Now add millet flours and keep this for 2 to 3 minutes or until it cooks. Now remove from the flame and keep aside.

-When it is ready to handle, add whole wheat flour, make a firm ball like Chapati dough. Cover and keep this aside for 10 minutes for resting.

-Then start making a little thicker Chapati than the regular Chapati/ pulka’s and cook both the sides and place it on fire to fluff and serve either as it is or by applying ghee or oil.

NOTE:

-To make Glutenfree roti, add rice flour instead of whole wheat flour.

-To make an initial porridge, you can use the microwave as well.

Millet –banana stem dosa:

February 18, 2021

Every part of the banana plant has its benefits to our health. Banana stem is one such thing, which is high in fibre and filled with nutritious water. It is perfect for Human gut as well as the kidney.

The juice of the banana stem helps in flushing out toxins as well as to prevent kidney stone formation as well. Overall it acts as a healing food for the human body. In coastal Karnataka, we do use plantain stem or flower in various recipes. I have already shared our traditional Dosa recipe, and it is here, and previously I have shared Raw salad, curd salad and Rasam recipe.

When Plantain stem and millet combine, it is a perfect balance and can be a diet food or whoever is cutting down their rice intake due to their health issues. This dosa turns crispy and goes very well with any side dish of your choice. Tried and did this for my millet calendar project, published in 2017 and filing the recipe under Diabetic friendly recipe in my blog.

Ingredients:

Foxtail Millet – 2 cups

Rice – ¾ cup

Urad dal – ¼ cup

Banana stem – from 6” piece

Methi – ¼ tsp

Poha – ½ cup

Buttermilk – 1 cup

Method:

-Wash millet, rice and urad dal together. Add poha.

-Soak in buttermilk for 2 to 3 hours.

– To chop banana stem, remove the outer cover and make slices of inner pith.

-While slicing, you will find little thread-like fibre, discard that by drawing by hand.

-After slicing into round pieces of dice and use this for grinding.

-Grind soaked items with banana stem and salt.

– Ferment overnight and next day morning you can prepare Dosas.

Note: You can use any millet instead of foxtail. Taste doesn’t change.

Little millet Salad

February 1, 2021

It is a low-calorie lunch or dinner option for weight reduction or diabetic patients- Very filling and at the same time low in calorie and filled with so many nutrients.

Ingredients:

Samai or little millet – ½ cup

Sweet corn kernels – from one cob (boiled)

Sprouted Green gram – ½ to 1 cup

Grated raw mango – ½ mango

Pomegranate – 1

Fresh Coconut – 1 tablespoon

Salt

Coriander leaves.

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 teaspoon

Mustard- ½ teaspoon

Hing- 1 pinch

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Green chilli -1 (chopped)

Method:

-Dry roast little millet for 2 minutes. Wash and cook this in a cooker (one whistle) by adding ¾ cup of water and pinch of salt.

-After cooking, remove the cooker lid and spread the cooked millet in a wide plate and cool.

– When it cools down, mix in boiled corn, sprouted green gram, grated raw mango, pomegranate, fresh Coconut, salt and chopped coriander leaves.

-Do the seasoning by heating coconut oil. Add mustard. When it splutters, add hing, chopped green chilli and curry leaves.

-Add this to salad and mix lightly and enjoy as a meal.

Barbeque Oyster Mushrooms:

December 5, 2020

Oyster mushrooms are Fan-shaped, soft, with a mild Umami in flavour, when compared to button mushrooms. They appear in different colours starting from white, baby pink, cream, light grey etc. Mushroom is known for its low calorie, rich in protein, low in calorie aspects.

According to my daughters, it tastes much better than the button mushrooms and one of my twins who doesn’t love button mushroom started loving mushrooms by eating a pink variety of Oyster by seeing its cute colour :D. My family prefers simple olive oil, garlic salt and pepper tossed Oyster or Barbecue style (My jugaad style 😉 ) / marinated and baked version as a side dish or salad with fried rice or noodles.

How I made:

Ingredients:

Oyster Mushroom – 2 packs

Sriracha sauce – 1 tablespoon

Tomato ketchup – 1 tablespoon

Vinegar – 1 tsp

Soy sauce – 1 tsp

Brown sugar or Maple syrup – as needed

Black Pepper powder – ¼ tsp

Olive oil – 1 to 2 tablespoons

Method:

-Clean the mushrooms, drain thoroughly.

-Heat the olive oil, drop Mushrooms, roast it, and remove.

-Prepare the sauce by mixing all the sauces from Sriracha to black pepper. Marinate the roasted mushroom in this sauce for 10 to 20 minutes.

-Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 10 minutes and serve as you wish.

Note: You can use Iron Tawa to roast, instead of the oven.

Cheenikayi thirulina dosey/ Pumpkin Core dosa:

November 26, 2020

Delicious dosa by using nutritionally rich , pulpy pumpkin cores which we usually tend to throw away. Whenever we use pumpkin in larger quantities such as pumpkin puree , Sambar , kalasu etc, the inner core would be more in quantity and it is an awesome way to utilise in dosa batter. In this way, it can be utilised and turned into a healthy breakfast option.

Let us see how I make this super soft, porous dosa.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Urad dal – ¼ cup

Methi seeds – 1 tablespoon

Inner soft core – ¼ cup to ½ cup ( quantity may vary according to the availability)

Salt

Method:

-Wash , soak dosa rice, urad dal, methi in water for 2 to 3 hours.

-Clean the pumpkin core, remove seeds, and keep it ready.

-Grind soaked rice and pumpkin core by adding sufficient salt into smooth paste.

-Ferment overnight or 8 – 10 hours. Next day prepare soft Dosas .

-If you like crisp roasted one, spread as thin as possible on heated iron griddle.

-Serve with coconut chutney or any other curry.