mangalorean food

Badam Halwa / Almond Halwa :

July 5, 2017

Badam halwa, the name itself brings back so many fond memories of my two kiddos’ as well as of my late father in law. My memories go back to my delivery time. When my father in law heard about my twin daughter’s arrival, he celebrated his joy by preparing and distributing this sweet to our near and dear ones. While growing up, even my kids used to enjoy this sweet and used to refer to this as “Yellow sweet”. After so many years last weekend I prepared this to celebrate my hubby’s birthday and enjoyed every bit of the preparation by cherishing all these fond memories.

I Normally follow this age-old method-

Ingredients:

Almonds – 500 grams

Sugar – 750 grams

Milk – ½ to ¾ litre

Ghee – 1 to 1 ½ cup

Saffron – 1 tsp

Cardamom powder – ½ teaspoon

Method:

– Soak almond overnight.

– The next morning, peel the skin. Usually three fourth of the content will shed their skin, if you mash those swelled almonds inside the water, by using your palm.

– After removing the outer skin, put these in a mixer grinder jar, make paste by adding sufficient milk.

– Soak saffron in half cup of hot milk and keep aside.

– After grinding paste will look like idly batter with grainy texture.

– Put this paste into thick bottomed vessel and heat.

– Add sugar and boil for a while.

– When it starts bubbling, add ghee little by little at regular intervals until mixture becomes glossy.

– At this point, you can add saffron soaked milk and cardamom powder and proceed.

– When mixture starts to leave from the sides of the vessel and edges become dry and bubbly, switch off the fire and keep aside to cool.

– When it reaches room temperature, store this in a stainless steel or glass container.

Kanile Gashi /Bamboo Shoot and sprouted moong Gravy:

July 1, 2017

Kanile is nothing but Bamboo shoot. We coastal people, prepare some delicacies from this seasonal high fibre veggie, this curry is prepared by mixing with sprouted Green gram. which is very tasty and goes very well with Dosa or Rice. So, it is a seasonal treat for us.

We normally use fresh bamboo shoot and chop it in this manner. (please refer to the Post of How to chop Bamboo shoot)

Ingredients:

Ready Bamboo shoot – 1 cup (you can use frozen or tinned too)

Sprouted green gram /moong – 1 cup

Salt

Red chilli powder – 1teaspoon

Green chilli – 1

Turmeric – ½ tsp

For Masala:

Coriander – 2 tsp

Cumin- 1 tsp

Red chilli – 3

Garlic cloves – 2

Fresh grated Coconut – 1cup

Tamarind – ½ tsp

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1tsp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Red chilli -1

Method:

– Cook Sprouted moong and ready to cook bamboo shoots in sufficient water, by adding turmeric, red chilli powder, and slit green chilli.

– Roast coriander, cumin, red chilli and garlic by putting little oil for masala.
– Grind this into smooth paste by adding coconut and tamarind and sufficient water.

– Add this ground masala to cooked mixture and boil nicely.

– Do the seasoning. Heat coconut oil ,splutter mustard ,add red chilli and curry leaves fry and pour over the curry.

How to Chop Fresh Bamboo Shoot/Kanile:

June 30, 2017

Kanile or Bamboo shoots are a seasonal, hollow grass which is a young shoot of Bamboo and it is available in a very short period of rainy season. It has very distinct subtle, earthy flavour with crunchy texture while eating. It is considered as one of the health foods because of its high contents of dietary fibres,minerals and low in fat.

Preparing Bamboo shoot for cooking is little bit of a work.

Traditionally We follow 2 methods:

– One is Chopping and soaking in fresh water for 3 days by changing the water regularly every day and using.

– I personally don’t prefer this method, because it emits little odour of bamboo shoot and prepared curry will also contain that odour.

– I usually follow this second method, which I learnt from my father in law, who was super knowledgeable in all these traditional cooking procedures.

– At first take harvested Bamboo shoots which we get in hilly sides, some shops or in all Mangalore stores of Bangalore in this season.

– I usually buy my stock from the Mangalore store. After buying, remove outer tough layer, which is brown in colour by peeling one by one starting from the bottom.

– You can use your hand to peel the outer shell.

– After removing this outer woody shell, you will see only inner core which will be white in colour.

– This white inner layer will have 2 parts. One is soft edible part and in between nodes.

– Nodes will be thick, little sturdy and can be used in pickle making by adding lemons or mangoes.

–Now this is ready to chop. Take one vessel, which is filled with water and chop and immerse it in a water.

– You can either chop circular fashion or bit size pieces. It is up to one’s choice.

– Start to chop from top of the conical area, proceed until you find a hard node. When you feel the node (here nodes were thick from 5^th onwards) discard the node by cutting that part and proceed the chopping.

–Now Take all the chopped bamboo, sieve the immersed water and put fresh water and cook this in a cooker for one whistle.

– When you open the cooker lid, you will see the water in yellow shade, discard this water by draining.

Now collect the cooked Bamboo shoot and it is ready to cook by removing its impurities and natural bitterness.Use it in whatever dish you want to make.

How to Use nodes in Pickle making –

-Collect nodes, chop however you want and proceed with the above procedure as bamboo shoot. Cook in a pressure cooker with water and strain the yellow water, cool completely and use in pickle making.

Jack Fruit Dosa:

June 25, 2017

Jackfruit Dosa is known as “Halasina hannina dose”. It is a traditional recipe of Mangalore. Here we use Soaked Raw Dosa rice and ripe jackfruit to make the batter. we can call this as a Jack pancake and serve with honey or with ginger chutney.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Cleaned jack fruit – 1 big bowl

Salt

Method:

-Wash and soak Dosa rice in sufficient water for 3 to 4 hours.

– Chop the jack fruit, remove bulbs and separate outer cover and inner seed.

– Collect only the outer yellow shell and put it in a mixer grinder, give couple of whipping sessions and remove.

-So that while grinding it will be easy to handle.

– Now take soaked rice, ground or crushed fruit, put little water and grind this in to a smooth paste by adding sufficient salt. Batter should be a little thicker than normal Dosa.

-If you want to use this batter for the next morning, please refrigerate the same and use for the next day.

– make Dosa’s by using hot iron griddle. No need to ferment this batter. Use ghee while roasting this Dosa. It should be a little thicker than normal Dosa. (thinner than set Dosa). When it is cooked, flip it and cook on the other side.

-serve this with honey or with ginger chutney.

Note:

For ginger chutney: Fry red chillies with little oil and grind it with coconut, salt, little tamarind and piece of ginger.

Thondekayi Ele Geru beeja Palya / Ivy gourd with Tender Cashew stir fry:

April 12, 2017

Vishu is one of the important festivals of Kerala and our coastal region. It comes in April and usually on 14^th.Traditional rituals are followed to bring in prosperity and we (lady of the house) will assemble Vishu-kani at Pooja room. It comprises all the fresh crops, vegetables, rice, gold, money, flower and pot full of water and one mirror. On the festival day morning, after taking bath, family members will see this “Kani” and seek the blessings of the god and from the elders. Usually at this time of the year, fresh cashew crop starts and cashew is one of the main crops of our region. Only for this festival we pluck fresh raw green cashew and prepare either payasam or kheer with chana dal or cashew and ivy gourd dry curry. This particular side dish is a must in almost all the festivities and weddings. Which is a speciality of Mangalore region.

This side dish has no other masala’s other than green chilli and coconut flavour.

Ingredients-

Ivy gourd – 500 gms

Tender cashew – 100 kernels

Green chillies – 3 to 4 (slit)

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Red chillies -2

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 2springs

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Salt

Jaggery – ¼ tsp.

Method:

-At first we have to remove outer cover of the young cashew. Take one bowl, put all those young and raw cashew kernels into it, pour boiling water and keep it aside for 10 to 15 minutes by closing the lid.

collage

-When outer cover of the kernels swells, remove the outer cover and keep aside.

-Chop ivy gourd after washing it thoroughly. Make 4 lengthwise pieces of each gourd.

-Now take one thick bottomed kadai or clay pot, heat oil for the seasoning. Put mustard, when it splutters add urad dal, red chillies.

-When urad dal becomes red, add curry leaves and slit green chillies and fry a little.

-Next, add chopped ivy gourd and cashew kernels, turmeric, salt, jaggery and fry until it wilts a little.

-Now add one cup of water and close the lid and cook this in a low fire until it is done.

-Lastly add grated coconut and mix and cook until it is done.

Note:

– One pack of Young cashew, that we get in the market has 100 kernels. In Bangalore, I get these from the Mangalore Store (all Mangalore stores will have it when it’s the season)

-If you are using regular cashew, cook the cashew first by putting water and salt in cooker for 2 whistles, drain the water and then proceed as above method.

RAW JACKFRUIT DOSA:

April 7, 2017

Raw jackfruit Dosa is known as “Halasina kayi dose”. It is a traditional recipe of Mangalore. Usually Jack season is always a feast in our coastal area. We have so many dishes of jack from its raw form to ripe. This particular recipe is one among them and it is freshly prepared and served with Honey or coconut- ginger chutney. No fermentation is required. This particular Dosa is very crispy as well as paper thin. Jack used in this is freshly plucked, before ripening and in a raw form.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Raw jack – 1 big bowl

Salt

Method:

-Wash and soak Dosa rice in sufficient water for 3 to 4 hours.

– Chop raw jack, which should be really fresh and should not be ripe. Remove bulbs and separate outer cover and inner seed. Chop these bulbs into tiny pieces, so that grinding will be easy in mixer grinder.

– Now take soaked rice, chopped bulbs, put little water and grind this in to a smooth paste by adding sufficient salt.

– If you want to use this batter for next day morning, please refrigerate the same and use next day.

-make paper thin Dosa’s by using hot iron griddle. No need to ferment this batter. Use ghee while roasting this Dosa.

-When it is little brown and roasted, flip this and cook on the other side.

-serve this with honey or with ginger chutney.

Note:

For ginger chutney: Fry red chillies with little oil and grind this with coconut, salt, little tamarind and piece of ginger.

Kadle Bele –Gerubeeja Payasa / Chana dal and Cashew Kheer:

March 29, 2017

Happy Yugadi! Yugadi is celebrated as the beginning of a new year in India (but through different names). In Bangalore, we start this festival by eating neem and jaggery. Neem denotes the bitterness we face in life, and the jaggery represents all the sweet things of life. By eating the neem and jaggery together, it is a symbol of promising ourselves to face the bitterness and sweetness of life with confidence.

In Mangalore, we celebrate this festival by savouring a kadle Bele (Bengal gram or chanadal) and gerubeeja (raw cashew) Payasa. It is a delicious dessert which is made more delightful because of the cashew nuts which are present in every spoonful.

pic main

We will see the procedure –

Ingredients:

Chana dal/Split Bengal gram – 1 cup

Whole raw Cashew – 1 cup

Coconut milk – 1 tetra pack

Jaggery – 1 ½ block (used Organic jaggery blocks)

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp.

Salt – ½ tsp.

Method:

-When outer cover of the kernels swells, remove the outer cover and keep aside.

collage 1

-Wash chana dal and cook this in a cooker by putting sufficient water for two whistles.

-Cook dal till it is perfectly cooked. Dal should be well cooked and easily crushed. Doneness is very important, after adding jaggery, dal becomes little stiff and firm.

– When its pressure relieves add cashew kernels and cook. After one whistle, switch off the gas and cool this.

-Now add salt and jaggery and boil till you get a nice aroma and till the raw smell of jaggery disappears.

– When it is done, add one tetra pack of coconut milk and give one boil. That is it. Garnish with powdered cardamom and enjoy.

pic main

Note: –

– If you don’t have access to raw cashew kernels, you can use regular cashew and you can cook this with Chana dal for 3 whistles and proceed by adding jaggery.

– If you are using fresh coconut for extracting milk, take grated coconut (from one coconut), add one cup of water and grind, and extract milk. (This is a thick extract and should be added at the end)

– Once again add little water and grind, to take out thin milk and you can add this while boiling jaggery.

– If you are using regular jaggery, at first self-boil this with little water, make a liquid and sieve this before adding to the kheer, to remove impurities.

Mix Vegetable Cutlet:

February 9, 2017

Exam time and kids were craving for Mangalore style cutlets, like the ones you get in Pabba’s ice cream parlour in Mangalore. My daughter asked me to prepare that same chutney as well. Finally tried my hand in this combo and succeeded. Everyone at home liked and asked me to blog about this yummy snack from Mangalore.

cutlet11

Ingredients:

Potato – 3

Beans – 10

Carrot -1

Beetroot – 1 small

Green peas – ½ cup

Onion – 1 big

Green chillies -5 to 6

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Garlic – 5 to 6

Salt

Garam masala – 2 to 3 tsp (according to taste)

Bread slices – 2 to 3 (whole wheat is fine)

Coriander leaves – 2 table spoon (chopped)

Seasoning: Oil – 2 table Spoon, Mustard – 1 tsp, urad dal – ½ tsp, chana dal -1/2 tsp.

Slurry :– All purpose flour – 1 table spoon and little water

Bread crumbs- to coat

Oil –for deep fry the cutlet

Method:

Wash all the veggies, chop beans, carrot and beetroot into bits.
Make potato into 4 pieces and cook all these in pressure cooker with sufficient water by adding frozen green peas as well.

cutlet1

Cook this for one whistle and switch off the gas.
When pressure relieves, open the lid, drain the water and keep the veggies aside.
When it becomes cool peel the potato skin and mash.
Chop onions, garlic, chillies and curry leaves.

cutlet2

Take one kadai; add seasoning ingredients one by one from oil, when it is hot add mustard, then urad and chana dal.
When dal becomes red, add chopped curry leaves, garlic, chillies and onions and fry until onion becomes little brown.

collage 1

Now add cooked veggie, mashed potato, Garam masala, salt, powdered bread slices and mix nicely until it becomes like a mass.
Add chopped coriander leaves and mix nicely. Check for salt and adjust.
Now take one cookie cutter, fill the mix to give a shape or make round patty and arrange them in a plate and refrigerate for one hour OR you can keep this in a freezer for 10 minutes while preparing other patties and can proceed.(It will help the patty to firm up a bit)
Make maida (all-purpose flour) slurry to dip these patties. It should be little thinner than Dosa batter.

collage2

Remove patties from the fridge and dip one by one in the slurry and roll this in a bread crumbs and this is now ready to deep fry.
Heat oil in a kadai, when it is hot, drop these patties one by one and fry until it is brown. Remove from the oil, drain the excess oil and serve this with a mint – coconut chutney and tomato sauce.

cutlet15

Will post the chutney recipe in my next post 🙂

cutlet12

Note:

-You can use whole wheat bread as well.

-You can use the drained water in making curries, Rasam’s or soups.

– If you are using dried peas, please soak it and cook separately in cooker.

– I use Nayak’s brand Garam masala to give authentic taste and is available at all Mangalore stores in Bangalore.

Manoli Kadle Ajadina /Thondekai Kadle palya /Ivy gourd and chick pea Dry curry:

December 25, 2016

This is one of our family favourite curries, which is loved by all. We make two types of curries by using ivy gourd and chickpea.

One is with onion and garlic, other one without it.

This name is derived from Tulu language, which is a local language of Mangalore. Manoli is ivy gourd or Tindora, Kadle is black chick pea and Ajadina is dry curry.

This particular masala is used in Bunt community of Mangalore and it is an integral part of their festive cooking.

How I make this-

Ingredient:

Ivy gourd – ¼ to ½ kg

Black Chick pea – 1 cup

Salt

Jaggery – ½ tsp (optional)

For Masala:

Fresh grated coconut- 1 cup

Coriander seeds – 1 tsp

Cumin – ½ tsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Methi/ fenugreek seed – ½ tsp

Dry red chillies- 3 to 4

For Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 to 2 tbl sp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

-Soak black chick peas in water overnight. Next day discard soaked water and add fresh water, salt and cook this in a cooker for 3 to 4 whistles.

-Wash ivy gourd, cut this lengthwise into 4 pieces. Cook this by putting very little water and salt and jaggery. keep aside.

-When pressure releases from the cooker, open the lid, drain the water and keep chick pea aside. Don’t discard the drained water. You can make really yummy Rasam or soup out of this.

Next is the masala preparation-

-Heat little oil, fry methi seeds until it is light brown, add remaining ingredients, coriander, cumin, urad dal, red chillies, and fry nicely.

-Take one mixer jar, put roasted masala, make a powder, and add coconut into it and whip couple of times to get dry coarse powder.

Now we can proceed to make palya-

-Take one kadai, put coconut oil, when it is hot, splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves.

-Now add ground masala and fry for a while.

-Now add cooked chickpea and ivy gourd mix well, check for the salt and adjust.

-Cook this until it becomes like a mass and veggies are coated well with the masala.

-Serve this as a side dish with hot rice.

NOTE:

-Usage of coconut oil will give authentic taste.

-Don’t discard drained water from cooked chick pea. It is very nutritious and you can prepare really tasty Rasam, and it is here.

How to cook Vermicelli:

December 7, 2016

Initial days of cooking are very challenging. We face lots of hardships at the kitchen. Generally in south Indian cooking, the quantity of water used, is crucial and the end result is depends on that. So, if we know the requirement of water for cooking that particular ingredient, half the battle is won.

Usually I get a query in my message box regarding some doubts or the other from my near and dear ones. In one such query’s person had asked me, why she can’t cook perfect vermicelli Upma? Further she said, her preparation becomes little soggy each time she makes vermicelli upma. That day, while answering her query, I thought of making one separate category for learners in my future blog and today here I am, writing my first post, dedicated to cooking learners.

Here, I will guide you to make simple Vermicelli Upma –

pic-9

Ingredients:

Vermicelli – 2 cups

Onion – 2 medium

Green chillies -2

Salt

Grated coconut – 1 table sp

Lemon – 1/2

For seasoning –

Mustard – 1 teaspoon

Urad dal – 1teaspoon

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Cumin- ½ teaspoon

Red chilli -1

Oil /ghee – 2 table spoon.

Method:

-First, Chop the onions, chillies and measure vermicelli and keep aside.

pic-1

Keep one small bowl of water for boiling.

pic-2

In another burner, keep thick bottomed kadai; do seasoning by heating ghee or oil, or mix of both. When it is hot, add mustard. When the mustard splutters add urad dal. After it becomes light brown add red chilli, cumin, curry leaves.
After this add chopped onion, green chillies and fry for a while.

pic-3

If you wish to add turmeric, you can add it now.
Add little salt and fry onion until it is light brown.
Add vermicelli and fry for a while.
How to check if oil is sufficient or not: while mixing vermicelli, if oil coats vermicelli and becomes wet and shiny, oil content is perfect for this upma. If you feel vermicelli is dry and it is not holding together, add little more oil or ghee.

pic-4

Next- how much roasting or frying is needed? After frying it for a couple of minutes on a low flame, you will see the colour change and each strand will becomes whitish and crispy. It is now time to add boiling water.(refer to this above picture)

pic-5

How much quantity of water? Please refer to the picture. While pouring, Water should be just above the vermicelli. Mix the mixture and check for the salt. If salt is needed add and cover the kadai with a lid and cook it in a low flame.

pic-6

After a couple of minutes, open the lid, if water is evaporated and top part of the layer appears cooked, that is it. If you find, it is yet to cook, sprinkle little water and keep it covered for couple of minutes.

pic-7

If you like to garnish with coconut, add coconut and add lemon juice and mix.

pic-8

Serve this upma with a cup of coffee or tea.