Tag: Thai brinjal

Kudane gojji/ Turkey Berry gojju :

December 7, 2021

Kudane, Thai brinjal, is widely used in our coastal region. We use it in its fresh, raw form, not dried. Earlier, it grew as a wild plant, and people never cultivated it. When my mother in law offered a sapling, I was excited and took the plant with me. Now, it is a part of my terrace garden and yields well.

Solanum torvum is its Scientific name. It also has many other names such as wild eggplant, baby brinjal, Devil’s fig, sundakai in Tamil and Usthi kai in Telugu.

 It is not only a nutritional powerhouse; it can heal our gut ( various intestinal issues ) and increase haemoglobin levels. It is one more locally-grown veggie, much neglected by us.

The taste of the turkey berry is more on a bitter side. Berry has to be processed in a particular way to eradicate its bitterness and to enhance the flavour. There are two ways to process.

The cleaning process is simple. The first one is to remove the stalk, crush it gently, and immerse it in water until you are done crushing every berry. Now, just before cooking, wash it a couple of times; in this way, most of the woody seeds settle at the bottom. Collect those cleaned berries, and proceed to cook according to the recipe, the recipe is HERE. 

If you opt for the second process, you need to fry those berries after washing them with Ghee or Oil. Then, mash a little and proceed to cook.

Now, let us know the recipe of Gojji / gojju. It is raw curry, no cooking recipe. If you are a person who is fond of sweet-sour-hot curry, this is for you.

Ingredients:

Fresh Turkey berries – 15 – 20

Ghee or coconut oil – 1 tsp.

Tamarind – small gooseberry size.

Onion – ½ (chopped)

Green chillies – 2 Or Bird eye chillies – 4 -6

Jaggery – grated

Salt – to taste

Seasoning: Coconut oil – 1 tsp, mustard – ½ tsp, crushed garlic – 6 – 8, curry leaves – 1 spring.

Method:

-Soak tamarind in ¼ cup of water.

 

-Remove stalks from the berries, wash properly.

-Take one small Kadai, put ghee or Oil, fry those berries until it turns light/ pale and starts bursting. Switch off the flame.

-Take one spoon, mash a little by using the back of the spoon.

-Now, extract tamarind juice, add it to the crushed berries. Add in salt, jaggery, chopped onions, crush the green chillies and check the taste and adjust.

-Now, heat oil, splutter mustard, fry garlic until it is brown. Add curry leaves and pour over the gojju. Serve with plain rice or with curd rice.

 

Mangalore Cucumber curry:

February 27, 2018

Traditionally we call this Sauthe kai Huli menasina Kodilu/Koddel. The literal translation of this is, Sauthe kai means sambar cucumber, Huli is tamarind, menasu is chilli, koddel is sambar or curry. It is sambar cucumber or coloured cucumber curry with a raw masala of fresh coconut flavoured with non-roasted masala.

Here we only use fresh coconut, Byadagi red chillies, tamarind as the main ingredient, and after boiling, seasoned with curry leaves, roasted garlic by using coconut oil.

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

DSC03963_Fotor

Now we will see the recipe part.

Ingredients:

Coloured cucumber – 1

Salt

Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

Fresh coconut – 1 bowl

Red Byadagi chillies – 2 to 3

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:

-Wash Mangalore/Coloured/sambar cucumber.

Chop off two ends, slice into four pieces, remove the inner core (seed part), and chop into bite-sized pieces.

Ribbet collage 1

-Check now for the taste. If it is bitter, soak the pieces in plain water for 5 minutes.

-Discard the water and proceed. If cucumber tastes good, there is no need to soak in water, and you can directly proceed with cooking.

-Cook these pieces in a sufficient amount of water. Add salt and red chilli powder as well.

Ribbet collage 2

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

-When cucumber cooks well, 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.

Ribbet collage 3

-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.

One more variation of this curry is by adding –Turkey berry.

To know about the Turkey berry, you can click the link HERE.  

The method is straightforward. Crush those washed turkey berries/ Kudane, put them in water, rinse them a couple of times, and remove the seeds as much as possible; in this way, the tartness of the berries vanishes. Keep as it is and follow the above procedure to make Cucumber curry.

-When cucumber cooks partially, add those washed and cleaned berries and cook further. Then, add freshly ground masala and curry by following the above description.

Note:

To maintain authentic taste,

-use fresh coconut, Coconut oil.

-Retain the outer skin of garlic and crush.

-Inner core or seed is used in a couple of recipes.

-One is Chutney, and the other one is Rasam. I will update ASAP.