traditional breakfast recipe

Balehannina Berati Payasa / Payasam by plantain preserve:

April 7, 2019

First, I want to wish a very very happy “Ugadi” to all my readers. Ugadi marks the beginning of the new Hindu lunar Calendar, which is based on the change in the moon’s orbit. Ugadi is a Lunar New year for us.

On the eve of this festival I made our traditional payasam and enjoyed with my family.

“Berati” is nothing but preserved fruit pulp, which is cooked until it forms into thick mass and usually made when it is in abundance and stored for future use.

How to preserve jackfruit and Banana / Berati is already shared in my blog.

In Coastal region we love jack and Banana in many forms. Berati Payasa (preserved Banana or Jack) is one of them.

Now we will see traditionally how it is made:

Ingredients:

Berati / Banana preserve – 1 bowl

Coconut – 1 (To extract milk)

-OR-

Thin coconut milk – 2cups

Thick coconut milk – ½ cup

Salt – ½ tsp

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

For Seasoning:

Ghee – 1 tbl sp

Thin Coconut slices – 2 tbl sp

Cashew pieces – 2 tbl sp

Toasted black sesame – 1 table spoon

Fresh coconut slices – 1 to 2 table spoons

Method:

Take out Berati from your freezer and keep aside for some time to attain room temperature.

Slice coconut by using small knife, chop these sliced pieces into small bits.
Toast black sesame and keep aside.
Take little ghee and fry coconut bits and keep aside.
If you want to, you can add ghee roasted cashew bits as well.
Grate coconut (coconut should be fresh), put one cup of water and grind this in a mixer jar and extract milk by sieving this ground mixture. This is thick coconut milk and you should keep this separately. We use this at the end stage of Payasa making.
Do this procedure a couple of times to get a thin extract and lastly discard coconut fibre.
If you are using readymade coconut milk, please skip this step.
Now take one thick bottomed vessel, put Berati, thin coconut milk and dissolve Berati and keep this on a gas stove to boil.
Usually while making Berati, we put Sugar, so no need of additional sugar.

Lastly add thick extract of coconut milk and give one boil. Don’t boil it much. Add Cardamom powder and mix.
Remove from fire and add fried coconut pieces, toasted black sesame or cashew brittles to prepared Payasa.
Serve with lunch thali or as a dessert.

NOTE:

Traditionally only toasted sesame and coconut bits are added.
Vegans can omit ghee and roast all the items, instead of frying.

Jackfruit kottige:

May 10, 2018

Halasina hannu is Jack fruit and Kottige is nothing but idly or kadubu,also known as Halasina Hannina kottige Or Gatti in local language. In which mixture is wrapped in pre-wilted banana leaves like pockets and steam cooked. Like bottle gourd kottige, which I have posted earlier, it is not a savoury kind, it is sweetish and bustling with jackfruit flavour which is enhanced even more with the usage of banana leaves wrap.

Jackfruit season is considered as a feast time in our region. Usage starts from tiny raw fruit form to ripened stage. You will find couple of curry recipes in my blog which I have posted earlier as well as Ripe jack fruit Dosa.

Now we will see how to make kottige, in our traditional method.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Jackfruit – 2 cups (cleaned)

Fresh coconut gratings – 1 cup

Grated jaggery – ¼ to ½ cup (according to your taste)

Ghee – 1 table spoon

Salt

Method:

-Wash Dosa rice (white raw rice) and soak for 2 to 3 hours.

-If you are using banana leaves, wilt the leaves on gas flame, wipe with a wet cloth and keep it ready.

-If you are using idli mould, grease the moulds with little ghee and keep aside.

-Chop jack fruit, separate fruit pods, remove outer thin white fibres as well as inner seed and take only yellow fruit part.

-Mix grated coconut and jaggery as well as ghee and keep aside.

-Grind rice into fine paste by adding very little water and salt.

-Now take jack fruit little by little and whip a little to chop roughly by using same mixer jar in which rice batter is ground.

-Take one wide bowl, mix in ground batter, roughly whipped fruit pulp, coconut-jaggery mixture.

-Mix nicely, spread the wilted banana leaves and pour one spoon and fold it like a sealed pocket. (refer the below pictures)

-Assemble all these packets in a water filled idli steamer or Momo steamer and cook this for half an hour to 40 minutes in medium to slow heat.

-If you are using idli mould, pour required amount of batter and steam cook like an idli.

-Relish this jackfruit idli or kottige with ghee or coconut and ginger chutney.

-We usually steam cook this on the previous night and keep it ready for the next day’s breakfast. In this way, It will be easy in the morning as now you just have to prepare chutney and serve.

Balloon Vine Dosa:

February 6, 2018

Balloon vine is well known and widely used as medicinal herb. In Tamilnadu it is used mainly in treating joint pains. I was not aware of this super food until recently which was introduced to me by our beloved uncle Senguttuvan on our Facebook Foodie group. I am very lucky to experience the taste, because of my Foodie friend Ashwini, who came all the way to my home and dropped off the leaves and asked me to prepare the Dosa. 😊

It is a medicinal herb and botanical name is cardiospermum halicacabum (Family sapindaceae).

Balloon vine is also known as Heart seed, Heart-Pea, Love in a puff, winter cherry (English).

The plant got its name because of its Balloon like seed pods.

Some of the regional names are-

Indravalli – In Sanskrit

Agniballi, bekkinatoddinaballi, erumballi – In Kannada

Mudakathan keerai – In Tamil

Jyotishmati, katabhi – In Malayalam

Kapalphoti, khanphuti – In Hindi

It has numerous health benefits and is used in many ailments from Anaemia, diarrhoea, eczema, rheumatism in the form of tea, paste application, kozhambu or mixed with Dosa batter etc.

I tried this Dosa by grinding fresh batter by mixing the leaves in, and it was very tasty. It tastes like plain Dosa with green natural colour.

DSC_4279_Fotor

Now we will see the procedure-

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 1 cup

Idly rice – 1 cup

Urad dal –¼ cup

Chana dal – one fist full.

Methi – 1 teaspoon.

Balloon vine greens – 2 cups

Cumin – 1 teaspoon

Red chilli – 1 (use Byadagi variety)

Salt

Method:

-Wash and soak Dosa rice, idli rice, methi and soak for 3 hours.

-Wash cleaned greens and keep them aside.

Ribbet collage 1

-Grind soaked rice, greens, salt, cumin, and red chilli into a fine paste.

-Ferment the batter for 8 to 10 hours or overnight.

-Next day mix the batter, and adjust the consistency.

Ribbet collage 2

-Heat Iron Dosa griddle, pour one serving spoon of batter, spread and cook on one side.

-Pour some ghee or oil and flip the side and cook.

-Serve the Dosa with any chutney of your choice.

Sorekayi Kottige / Bottle gourd steam dumpling:

September 22, 2017

Sorekayi is nothing but humble bottle gourd, which we usually neglect to use in our daily diet, which incidentally has numerous health benefits. In our native, bottle gourd is mainly used to treat stomach illness or jaundice. It is believed that, it has the power (anti-inflammatory properties) to heal our Liver and intestine during the illness. Bottle gourd has close to 90% water content and is great on the stomach and light on digestion. Apart from this, bottle gourd juice is very good for weight watchers, diabetics and for a healthy heart too. We have so many traditional preparations of bottle gourd and all are very low in calories and tasty too.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Bottle gourd – 1 or 2 (according to size)

Salt

Banana leaves or turmeric leaves – to wrap

Method:

-Wash Dosa rice and soak it for 3 hours.

-Grate bottle gourd by using big hole of a grater or chop it into very small chunks.

-Grind soaked rice into a fine paste with minimal amount of water and salt.

-Mix chopped or grated veggie and rice batter.

-If you are using turmeric leaves, wipe it and use as it is.

-If you are using banana leaves, take banana leaf, hold it over a gas flame (for wilting) then clean it with a wet cloth.

– If you are using turmeric leaves, use 2 leaves, place it in a “Plus” position, now pour one serving spoon of batter and fold the leaves like a packet.

-If you are using banana leaf, pour batter, fold side wise, then close the ends.

-Steam cook these ready packets in a water filled idly steamer for 30 minutes to 40 minutes in a medium heat.

– Serve this kottige with jaggery syrup with ghee / Honey, coconut chutney or sambar.

Moode/ Kotte kadubu:

August 25, 2017

Moode or kotte kadubu is a local delicacy of Coastal Karnataka. We especially prepare this on the eve of any festivities. Now a day It is an integral part of any weddings in our region.

Moode or kotte is leaf cup which we prepare either by using jack leaves, Kedige flower leaves (Kewda, Fragrant Screw Pine, Umbrella tree, Screw pine) or Plantain leaf. It is based on availability and accessibility to leaf.

It is basically normal idly batter which is poured in these cups, which is made by any one of these leaves and steam cooked in a water bath and served with chutney or any sambar.

I usually prepare this by bringing these leaf cups, from One of the many Mangalore stores, spread across Bangalore, during festival season. Sometimes I do prepare by lining a stainless-steel cup with small pieces of plantain leaves. This also works just fine like any other leaf cup.

Ingredients:

Idly Batter – Fermented

Tall steel glasses

Plantain leaves – as needed

Method:

– Hold plantain leaves on gas flame and wilt a little. It will help while folding or rolling the leaves.

–If you don’t wilt it, it will tear very easily.

–Take one wet cloth and wipe plantain leaves (you should move your hand from centre rib to edge as ridges moves in the leaves) and clean the leaves.

– Remove extra thick centre ribs (fibre) by holding your left palm to support over the leaf and pull the fibre by right hand.

-Cut this into small rectangle pieces.

– It is now ready to roll and place inside the steel glass.

–Keep idly steamer ready, when water starts boiling, pour the batter to the moulds.

–In these cups, usually 2 to 2 ½ serving spoons of batter will hold.

– If batter is more, cooking time should increase according to that.

–Keep it in a steamer, cook in a high fire for 10 minutes and when you feel the steam is uniformly distributed inside the steamer, reduce the flame and cook for 40 to 50 minutes in a very low flame.

–After it is done, switch off the gas, don’t open the lid and keep it for some more time.

–When you want to serve this, open the lid, remove the glass mould and pull the banana leaves out and serve with pouring little ghee and any side dish of your choice.

–Usually on festival days, we make coconut based sambar or chutney and totally avoid garlic and onion on any auspicious day.

–Our traditional side dish is called menthe kodilu and we relish these kadubu’s with menthe kodilu or sweetened cardamom flavoured coconut milk(kayi halu) and coconut chutney .

Marakesavu Pathrode:

July 25, 2017

Pathrode, name itself will make any Mangalorean drool. That too if it is marakesavu leaf, fun is even more. Marakesavu is non-itchy, seasonal colocasia leaves. It is one more classic monsoon special from Mangalore. Pathrode is usually served with coconut oil either plain or pan fried by slicing.

Marakesavu is commonly known as hitchhiker elephant ear and botanical name of this leaf is Remusatia vivipara. Leaf is large, oval, leathery textured, glossy on both the sides. Foliage disappears in winter and emerges after the first rain during monsoon. Grows widely on big tree trunks or in-between the stones, mainly emerges from the moss bed. The name itself suggests about its habitat. Here, “Mara” is Tree and “Kesavu” is colocasia.

We will see the Procedure-

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 3 cups

Fresh Coconut – 1 ½ cup

Dried red chillies – 12 (Roasted)

Hing – ¼ teaspoon

Salt

Jaggery – 1 table spoon

Tamarind – 1 table spoon (if normal colocasia use little more)

Marakesavu – 3 bundles

Coconut oil – for serving

Method:

– Wash the leaves, remove stem and trim.

– Wash and soak rice for 3 hours.

– Fry red chillies by putting very little oil.

– Grind soaked rice, coconut, tamarind, jaggery, salt, roasted red chillies into smooth paste by adding sufficient water.

– Batter consistency should be like Dosa batter.

– Now, we are ready to make Pathrode.

– Take biggest leaf from the lot, place upper glossy part downwards and apply ground batter on back side of the leaf. (pc:step 1)

– After applying on the first leaf, keep second one (slightly smaller than the first one)

– Proceed with the application. After applying on second leaf, keep the third leaf then fourth one and proceed.(pc: step 2&3)

– Now lift sideways, and fold. Make it like a mat. Apply some batter on these folds as well.

– Roll from the tip and proceed until the end and apply some batter on outer shell and keep this in a water filled idly steamer.

– Cook this for 45 minutes to one hour, depending on the quantity of the content inside the vessel, in a low fire.

– Serve fresh with coconut oil by slicing these cooked rolls or apply coconut oil and fry these in an iron tawa on both the sides and enjoy as it is for breakfast or with lunch or dinner.

NOTE:

-Tamarind is a key ingredient while making Pathrode.

– If it is Mara Kesavu, it is non-itchy and quantity of the tamarind doesn’t matter.

– If you are using normal colocasia leaves, tamarind plays a very crucial part, in removing the itchiness of the leaves. Use little more quantity than normal.

– You can prepare this same recipe by using big spinach leaves as well.

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.

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.

Tomato Omelette /Dosa:

December 14, 2016

tomato-omlette

This time when we went to Sirsi, we stayed at Hotel Madhuvana. When I looked at their menu, I was very curious to taste this special omelette, and ordered the same .When I tasted it, it was this amazing blend of flavours, and not at all like the usual tomato omelette which I prepare. Everybody liked the taste. It was little sweet, tangy at the same time filled with flavour. Immediately, my curious mind, started to check the ingredients. I had asked my hubby to note it down, one by one while I was checking the ingredients .After coming back, I took that list and tried to imitate the same and succeeded. Here I am, sharing this super tasty Dosa recipe.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice- 3 cups
Fenugreek/methi seed -2 tsp.
Beaten rice/poha- 1 ½ cup
Coconut – 2 fists full (grated)
Jaggery -2 table sp.
Salt –to taste
Turmeric – ½ tsp.
Eno fruit salt or cooking soda – 1tsp (optional)
Cumin- 1tsp.
Grated ginger – 1 tsp.
Firm tomatoes – 2
Coriander leaves – 2tblsp.

Method:

-Wash and soak Dosa rice, beaten rice and methi for 2 to 3 hours.

-Grind this into a smooth paste by adding turmeric, salt, jaggery, coconut to an idly batter consistency (little thicker than normal Dosa).

-Pour this batter into one big vessel, add jeera and keep it aside for fermentation.

-If you are living in the cold climate, next day morning add 1 tsp. Eno fruit salt, mix nicely and keep it aside for 10 min.

-Now chop Tomatoes, coriander leaves and grated ginger.

tomato-omlette-batter

-Mix this into Dosa batter and start making Dosa by pouring one serving spoon of the batter on a hot iron or non-stick tawa, don’t spread much. You will see thousands of holes on the upper surface. Smear with butter or clarified butter. When it is cooked, flip and cook on another side too. Serve this spongy tomato omelette with coconut chutney. Here I have served this with coconut-ginger chutney.

Munge Dosey/Coconut Sprout Dosa:

December 5, 2016

Come December, coconuts start sprouting and in our native, Agricultural background people will become so busy with seasonal activities. Usually December –January is the time frame to make coconut oil. First thing of the process starts by removing all the coconuts from the attic, where it was stored after each harvest.

Then comes, removing outer husk and inner fibre. Third job is breaking each and every coconut from the lot. This is the time; we find lots of sprouts, inside the coconut and these sprouts are so tasty to eat and spongy in texture.

Sprouted Coconuts or coconut sprouts are the edible spherical sponge-like cotyledons of germinating coconuts. They have a crunchy watery texture with a slight sweetness. They are eaten in coconut-growing countries either as is or as part of various dishes. We call it as munge, “sprout” which is a default name of coconut sprout and dosey which we prepare out of it is “Munge dosey”

People eat it as it is or make some delicacies. One of such item is Coconut sprout Dosa, which is very delicious and it has a mild earthy flavour. When I went last month to my native, my mom in law gave me some coconuts and one of the coconuts was sprouted and I felt so happy to see this sprout. First thing that came to my mind was this Dosa and I felt Nostalgic by thinking of my childhood.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2cups

Coconuts sprout -1 ( if you have 2 sprouts, no need to add grated coconut)

Grated Coconut – ½ cup

Salt

Method:

–Wash and soak Dosa rice for 3 to 4 hours. Chop coconut sprout in to small chunks.

-Grind soaked rice with chopped pieces of 2 sprouts, or one sprout with grated coconut by adding little water and salt.

-Make smooth paste. This batter must be like our regular Dosa batter and there is no need for fermentation.

-You can make use of this batter straight away. Usually we prepare this batter in the morning itself.

-If you want to prepare this batter in the evening, to make the Dosa in the morning, you can store the batter in the refrigerator.

-To prepare Dosa, heat iron Dosa tawa. When it is hot, don’t apply any oil .

-You can pour one serving spoon of batter and make Dosa like our regular Dosa. Pour ½ tsp of ghee and Close the lid. Or make little thinner batter and pour like a Neer Dosa or rawa Dosa.

-When it shows little brownish spots here and there, flip the side, cook upper side and serve with Coconut and onion chutney or honey or liquid jaggery syrup with ghee.

Note: If you have more than one sprout, no need to add grated coconut while grinding. Instead of one sprout, use two.