When I was doing my bachelors in Belgaum, I used to go to my mom’s sister’s – Pachi’ s house almost every weekend. She cooks some of the tastiest dishes. I learnt many dishes from her when I started cooking, since her dishes are always simple. Most of the times, she cooks non vegetarian dishes on weekends.
One particular chicken dish that I loved was a simple chicken gravy – chicken rassa ( rassa meaning gravy). It has few simple ingredients and is very tasty. It tastes great with chicken biryani . So when one of my readers asked me for the gravy served with biryani in Bangalore, I remembered this. Though the gravy served in these restaurants does not have any chicken pieces in it, the gravy tastes almost similar to this rassa . I tried getting this recipe from pachi , but I could not explain her which was the dish I was looking for since she makes so many different gravies. So I tried to reproduce the recipe from what she had told me long ago. It turned out to be just superb. This and biryani is a perfect combo for any weekend lunch.
Ingredients: 6-7 chicken pieces 3/4 cup chopped onions 1/4 cup chopped tomato 3/4 cup fresh/frozen coconut 3/4 cup yogurt/curd 1/2 tea spn poppy seeds( khus khus ) 4-5 cloves 2″ cinnamon 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds 1 tea spn ginger-garlic paste 3-4 red chilies 3-4 coriander seeds Oil Salt
Method: Heat a little oil and fry cloves, cinnamon, poppy seeds, coriander seeds, red chilies, 1/4 cup onion. When onion turns slightly brownish, add coconut and fry for sometime. Grind them. Heat oil and fry remaining onions, ginger-garlic paste till they are slightly brownish. Add the tomato and fry till tomatoes become slightly tender. Now add chicken and paste, fry till oil separates. Add well beaten yogurt, salt and cook till chicken is completely done. Add chopped coriander and cook for another 1-2mins. Serve with biryani .
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 25mins
PS: This tastes better and better as time passes. So cook it atleast 2-3hrs before serving. For better results, marinate the chicken pieces with yogurt and ginger-garlic paste for around 30mins.
I have heard a lot about koddel before, but I had never cooked it. It is more popular in South Kanara and it is not made at our place. I found this recipe in Udupi special article in a Kannada weekly. Puli – sour and koddel – gravy, is a sour gravy.
I had seen ash gourd many times in Indian store. But never bought it. So when I saw this recipe, I tried it with ash gourd – kuvaLe (Konkani) or budi kumbaLa kayi (Kannada), (I hope these names are correct). This turned out to be very tasty. Too good to be true. It is sweetish by jaggery, sour from tamarind and has a very strong aroma of coconut oil.
Ingredients: 2 cups big pieces of ash gourd 1 cup toor daal 2 tea spn sarina pudi 1 tbl spn coconut oil 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn urad daal 1 red chili 4-5 curry leaves 1/2 tea spn tamarind extract or 5-6 pieces of tamarind 1 tbl spn jaggery 2-3 green chilies 2-3 strands of coriander leaves A pinch turmeric A pinch asafoetida Salt
I didn’t use coriander leaves and curry leaves since I did not have them.
Method: Cook toor daal with turmeric. Take thick juice of tamarind (if using whole tamarind). Cook the ash gourd pieces in 2-3 cups in water with jaggery, green chilies, tamarind and salt. When the pieces are cooked, add sarina pudi , daal , coconut oil and cook. Add coriander leaves and cook again. Heat a little oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add urad daal , asafoetida. Add curry leaves, broken red chilies. Add this seasoning to the daal and mix well.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 20mins
