Since my parents are here, I am getting good home made food. I asked aayi to make something delicious and something that is not already on this blog so that I can post them :). They have also brought many recipes that they had collected from different sources, I will try those dishes only after my parents return back to India. My main concentration during their stay here would be to get as many authentic recipes as possible. That also would mean, I will be posting many coconut dishes – atleast 60% of Konkani dishes have coconut in them.
Yesterday we invited one of our friend for dinner. He wanted to have aayi’s food. So it was a all Konkani dinner and his request was for karathe kismuri . Last time when he was at our place, I had made karathe kismuri and he said his mom makes it in a little different way. So aayi thought of making this version which has a slight difference. We all liked this very much and I think I will be making this more often now.
Ingredients: 3/4 cup fresh/frozen coconut 3-4 red chilies 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract or 1 small piece of tamarind 3/4 cup chopped bitter gourd 1/2 cup chopped onion Oil Salt
Method: Cut bitter gourd into small pieces and sprinkle around 1 tea spn salt and keep aside for about 30mins. Squeeze the pieces with hand to remove as much juice as possible. In a pan, heat little oil and on a medium heat fry them till they become almost black and crispy. Grind coconut with red chilies and tamarind without adding much water. The paste should be thick (about chutney consistency). Mix a little salt with onion using hand(be careful with salt since the bitter gourd pieces retain the salt). While serving, mix the bitter gourd pieces and onion with the paste and check salt. The pieces should not be mixed in advance, otherwise they loose their crispiness.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 20mins
We ate fish at home after a very long time. Sig’s beautiful fish curry recipes and pictures had started fish cravings in me. Thanks to Asha’s links of Sumeet mixer , I have a very good mixer which makes very smooth paste. So I wanted to try some fish dishes that require real smooth paste. My hubby being a great fish fan, I thought he would enjoy aayi’s fish dishes.
So we went to Chinese market here to buy some fish. To our disappointment, we didn’t find many familiar fishes. Then I saw a piece of shark ( mori ) which looked very fresh. There was one more fish which looked familiar and we bought those two. The guys who were cleaning the fish didn’t agree to de-skin mori – this is one of the toughest fishes to clean. Removing the thick skin off the fish takes forever if you don’t know how to do it. Luckily they had cleaned the fish(it smells real bad if the insides are not removed) but had only the skin on.
At my native, mori is one of the most loved fishes. The day people get this, they have a big feast. At my home, this was not very frequent since removing the skin of this fish is very hard. Aayi used to ask the maid or someone else to clean it. As I said, this fish has a very peculiar smell which is not loved by many. So when we bought it here, my parents were very skeptic about cleaning the skin – the fish cannot be eaten with skin on since it is very hard and thick. I took about 30mins to clean it well (everyone was surprised that I could clean it, considering I have never attempted to clean it anytime before). Aayi made this delicious gravy. Everyone liked it very much.
Things to remember: – The skin is real hard and thick, so it has to be removed before cooking this fish. – The fish has only one hard bone in the center, it does not have any other bones. So usually it is cut into small 1″ by 1″ square pieces. They slightly increase in size after cooking. – Wash them very well in water. – Do not cook them for a long time.
Ingredients: 15 pieces of shark( mori ) 1 cup fresh/frozen coconut 6-7 red chilies 1/2 tea spn chopped ginger 1/4 tea spn turmeric powder 4-5 sichuan pepper( teppal ) 2-3 kokum pieces 2 green chilies Salt
Method: Grind together red chilies, coconut, ginger, turmeric powder into a very smooth paste. Cook the paste with enough water, slightly crushed teppal , slitted green chilies, kokum, salt and cook. When the gravy starts boiling, add fish pieces and cook for about 3-4mins (when it comes to a rapid boil. Do not boil for long after adding pieces, they become paste if cooked more). Serve hot with rice. Top with few drops of coconut oil while eating, this increases taste.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 15mins
