Now that’s a funny name!!!. Sud-sud (or sad-sad as some people say) in Konkani means loose and it looks very weird when I am writing it in English :). Sukke is a dry dish which usually has coconut. Kalva, Tisre, Khubbe are 3 different types of clams.
There are some people in your life, with whom you get attached/attracted very fast. One such person whom I totally adore is V’s maternal grandmother. She is 80+ years old, but she is so full of energy that I always get lots of inspiration from her. She was a great cook, but don’t cook these days because she cannot walk so much. But she still loves to learn new dishes, talk about them, give me new dishes. She knows I love to cook, so whenever we call her, she has one or the other recipe ready for me. She even collects them from newspapers to give to me.
This time when we were in Bangalore, we went to meet her. She wanted to give me so many recipes – some new, some age old. (I think V was very jealous because I was getting more attention than him 🙂 ). This recipe is one age-old recipe she gave to me.
I cooked this while I was in India. This was the first time I cleaned clams on my own. I left one shell with the clams to give it a “restaurant style food” look. You can discard both the shells or use one as I did. Anyway while eating, the shell is discarded, but according to me, it’s a lot of fun to eat the clams with shells (only some clam fans will understand what I am saying). I simply loved this dish.
This is my entry to Sig’s JFI tamarind . Thanks Sig for extending the deadline, I was having a brain block thinking what to send. I just realized today, this may be the best entry from me.
Ingredients: 5 cups clams-with-shells or about 1 cup without-shell-clams 1/2 cup onion 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut A pinch turmeric 1 tea spn chilli powder 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract or 2-3 pieces of tamarind soaked in water Oil Salt
Method: Heat oil and fry onion till they are translucent. Add coconut and fry for a min. Now add the clams, cook for 2-3mins. In a bowl, mix chilli powder, turmeric, tamarind, salt. Add this to the clams mixture. Cook till clams are done. Serve hot.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 15mins
There may be many people like me who like pickles very much. During my childhood, pickle was an essential item of the meal, no meal was complete without it. It was a must with congee( pej ) of boiled rice which is usually served between breakfast and lunch at around 11AM in Konkani homes. People use many vegetables to prepare pickles e.g. mangos , lemons , bimbal , bitter gourd , bamboo shoots, cauliflower , green chillies , gooseberries etc. At my home, everybody is pickle lover, so we have at least 2-3 kinds of them all the time. There are some which have very less short shelf life like this one.
Bilimbi ( bimbal in Konkani) tree is commonly seen in backyards of many houses here. Bimbal is sour in taste. Children like to eat them raw with little salt. They are used in many recipes as souring agents. These are available throughout the year. The tree bears hundreds of fruits. Since bimbal fruits grow abundantly, this pickle is prepared whenever a large quantity is required for any function on a short notice. Once prepared, this pickle should be used within 4 – 5 days. Only the light green firm bimbals are used for this pickle. As they grow, they become soft and yellowish in color and not used.
Ingredients: 1 cup bimbal pieces 2 tea spn salt 4 tea spn chilli powder 1-2 tea spn mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn fenugreek seeds 1/2 tea spn asafoetida powder 2 tea spn oil
Method: Take the light green bimbals. Cut them into 1 cm. thick round pieces. Mix the required quantity of salt with these pieces and keep it aside for about 2-3hrs allowing the bimbals to soak the salt. Take the oil in a small pan and heat it on a low flame. Add mustard, fenugreek and asafoetida. When mustards starts popping, cool them to room temperature and grind to powder. Add this powder to the bimbal pieces along with chilli powder. It is better to store the pickle in refrigerator as it gets spoiled early outside.
