It’s an ultimate feast for the eyes, and a hungry pet (stomach).
Eversince the inception of Aayi’s Recipes, I wanted to post a traditional Konkani thali here. But somehow could not manage to post it. First of all, whenever I cook, I try to make only 2-3 items as it is almost impossible for me to finish off leftovers. So I had to wait till I got back to India to do this. When I was at home, I was a bit hesitant to ask aayi because I didn’t want to pester her with my foodie ideas. But it looks like she knew what I had in my mind, and she said she will cook a traditional feast for me :).
So we decided what we will be cooking. Aayi told me about 4-5 items. I promised her to help her in cooking. The previous day I stayed at my in-laws’ place. Considering the places are just 11km apart, I told aayi that I will reach home early morning and will help. But next day, we got a call from a friend who was visiting Kumta and wanted to meet us. So we had to go there, and then we had to pick up a couple of things. It was already 11 and I called aayi to tell her I will be late. She said I need not worry because she had already finished cooking. I got upset because I could not help her. We reached home by 12 PM and I asked her what she had cooked. I could not believe she had made such a huge spread. Everything was so delicious and perfect.
Now coming to the thali , usually in any functions at our place, the main dishes served are rice, dali thoy (Konkani traditional dal ), one or two kinds of coconut dishes( randayis ), upkari with different vegetables, pickle, phodis , fruits, papad , a sweet. In all the functions, food is served on banana leaf, although these days people are switching to steel plates.
There is a particular way of serving food. – The narrow part of the banana leaf( Suuv ) always has to be on the left hand side. – Salt and pickle are served at the top left corner. – Sometimes when the leaf is small, another small leaf( cholko ) is attached on the top. – A spoonful of sweet is served on the right hand side. – In NK , 99% of functions include dali thoy and muga moLe randayi . Sometimes kolmbo replaces dali thoy . But as far as I know, muga randayi is not included in all the functions in SK .
Usually food is served in 3 courses – In the first course, all the side dishes are served with rice and gravy (usually dali thoy ) – Second course is usually sweet dish, even though a little sweet dish (any paays or kesribhath ) is served in first course, more of the same dish is served in this course. – Third course is normally called taaka (buttermilk) sheeth (rice). Here rice is served with buttermilk.
Kokum kadi is usually optional. But during kokum season, it is usually served.
Below are the list of dishes on the thali
– Salt – Instant mango pickle ( karmbi nonche ) – Snake gourd side dish ( padvale upkari ) – recipe coming soon. – Moong dal kosambir ( muga dali kosambari ) – Raw jackfruit side dish ( kadgi sushal or kadgi chakko )
– Sprouted moong side dish ( muga moLe randayi ) – Cucumber – Mangoes – Urad papad – Fried buttermilk chilies ( taka mirsang ) – recipe coming soon – Fried green chili fritters ( Mirsangi vadi) – Banana fry ( kele phodi )
– Kokum kadi – Ivy gourd – cashew sidedish ( tendli bibbe upkari )
– Rice – Ghee (it got melted, so cannot be seen in the picture) – Konkani dal ( dali thoy ) – Bottlegourd sweetdish ( gardudde paays )
It was a lunch break about a year ago. It was the time when Cindy and I had our little afternoon chats. We started talking about cooking. She said she makes a pecan pie which her husband loves. That time I had no idea what a pie was. In the next few months, I tasted chocolate pecan pie . By then Cindy had taken up a new job, so I mailed her to ask if she will share her recipe with me. She is very sweet to send it to me. I tried it couple of days later and absolutely loved it. V has become a great fan of it.
Now, I feel it is very difficult to cook something which I have never seen/tasted. So when the pie was baked, I thought something was wrong because of the color. But then I googled and I think I got it right. It does not look as good as it tastes, may be next time, I will do a better job.
With Cindy’s permission, I am posting her recipe as is with exact wordings because she has explained all the steps so well. Thanks dear.
Pie crust: 1 1/8 Cups (5 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus some for dusting work surface 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sugar 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces About 3 Tablespoons ice water, plus more if necessary
Method: Combine flour, salt, and sugar in food processor, pulse twice. Add butter and turn on machine. Process until flour and butter are blended — will look like cornmeal, about 10 seconds.
Place mixture in a bowl and sprinkle water over it. Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to gather mixture into a ball. if mixture seems dry add 1/2 teaspoon more water. When you can make into a ball, do so and wrap in plastic.
Flatten ball into a disk and freeze dough for 10 minutes. Roll out to 10″ round (less than 1/4 inch deep) and sprinkle with extra flour. Put into 9″ pie pan and prick sides and bottom with a fork. Bake in a 425F oven for 12 minutes after lining pie shell with foil and weighting with a cup or two of dried beans (to keep the pie shell’s bubbles down).
Remove pie from oven and turn down temp to 350F. Bake another 10-15 minutes more — until golden.
Pie Filling: 2 Cups shelled pecans 5 eggs 1 Cup white sugar — I used just 1/2 cup of white sugar because we usually like less sweet 1/2 Cup brown sugar pinch salt 6 Tablespoons butter, melted 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Method: Set oven to 375F. Place pecans on baking sheet, toast lightly for 5 minutes or so. Cool pecans. Coarsely chop half or all of the pecans. Beat eggs well, until foamy. Beat in sugars, salt and butter. Warm mixture in a medium saucepan over medium low heat until hot to touch. Don’t let mixture boil. Stir in vanilla and pecans.
Assembling the pie: Place pie plate on a cookie sheet to catch any spill over. Pour pecan mixture into prepared pie crust.
Bake 30 – 40 minutes until mixture shakes like Jello but is still quite moist. Cool on a rack and serve warm or at room temperature.
Serves : 8 big pieces
