There was one time, when I absolutely hated horse gram. Aayi even stopped cooking with it after the tantrums I would throw when she made anything with this. Somehow it has changed in last couple of years. One of my friends recently asked me for this traditional Konkani recipe.
Koddel is a kind of watery side dish with coconut. I recently prepared it with horse gram and drumsticks. This combo along with the garlic seasoning creates absolutely yummy dish.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup horse gram 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut 1/2 cup vegetables – any one of drumsticks, sooran , raw banana, kooka( chinese potatos ) 4-5 red chilies 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract or 2 pieces of tamarind 1 tea spn chopped garlic Oil Salt
Method: Cook horse gram with enough water in cooker till it is completely cooked (I soaked it for about 8hrs and then cooked, even though some people say, unsoaked version tastes better). Cook the vegetable. Dry roast the red chilies till they are crispy. Grind them with coconut, tamarind to a smooth paste. Add the paste, salt and vegetable to cooked horse gram and cook until the gravy thickens. (Even though this is a side dish, it is bit watery like most of the Konkani side dishes with coconut). Heat a little oil and fry garlic. Add this to the koddel and mix well. Serve hot as a side dish with rice.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 40 mins (horse gram takes a long time to cook. All other steps are pretty fast).
Note : Even though it is not traditional way of making koddel , those who don’t eat garlic, substitute it with teppal (sichuan pepper) . If this ingredient is chosen, slightly crush it in 1tbl spn of water and add to the paste while it is boiling.
This is not the traditional Christmas cake.
The bold letters for those, who came here looking for traditional Christmas cake. I don’t think I have ever tasted a traditional fruit cake that is associated with Christmas. I wanted to try one for a long time now. But most of the recipes I saw had rum in it. As I have never used any kind of alcohol in my cooking, I was a bit hesitant to try it. The second reason was eggs. 90% of my readers want eggless cakes, I have been observing this for a long time now. If I post some cake with eggs, they anyway ask for a substitute. I feel very uncomfortable giving some advice that I have not tried myself. So I thought of trying out something without these two star ingredients. Also, I didn’t want to go out for grocery shopping in this cold weather, wanted to try with something that I have in my pantry.
This recipe is based on a rich plum cake recipe that I saw in a old Kannada magazine. It originally had 6 eggs and some of the proportions were different. I spent almost an hour thinking of substitutes for most of the ingredients. But when I started posting this, I realized I could have searched in the google and would have found so many recipes that would have fitted my requirements :(. Anyway, I am happy that I tried this, because it came out very moist and very delicious. I could not stop myself from digging in to this as soon as it came out of oven. So it kind of crumbled :).
Check out some fruit cake recipes at Jugalbandi , Dalithoy , Spyciana , Mishmash , Passionate about baking , whats for lunch honey , Food in the main and others.
Ingredients: 1 cup(125 gms) all purpose flour 1/2 cup(100gms) + 1/4 cup(50gms) sugar 7 tbl spn(100gms) butter Spice powder – 2″ cinnamon + 4 green cardamoms + 5 cloves powdered 3/4 cup fresh orange juice 1 tea spn vanilla extract 1/2 tea spn baking powder 1 tea spn baking soda 2 tbl spns orange marmalade (any mixed fruit jam can be used) 1/4 tea spn salt Dry fruits –
1/3 cup(50gms) raisins 1/4 cup(50gms) chopped prunes 1/2 cup(50gms) chopped pecans 1/2 cup(50gms) chopped cashews 1/2 cup(100gm) tutti frutti
Method: Preheat the oven at 350F for about 10mins. Take all the dry fruits in a bowl. Melt the butter and add it to the fruits. Mix. Heat 1/2 cup sugar with 1tbl spn water in a thick bottomed pan till it becomes dark brown in color ( caramel . If you burn this, the cake become bitter, so be careful).
Add this to the fruits and mix. When it is cooled a bit, add orange marmalade, orange juice, 1/4 cup sugar and salt, spice mixture, vanilla.
Sieve together flour, baking powder and soda. Add these dry ingredients to the fruit mixture a little at a time, mixing with a spoon.
Grease a baking dish and pour the batter into it. Bake it at 350F for about 25-30mins or till a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Wait till it cools down to room temperature and then cut it. (I tried to cut it before it cooled, so it crumbled).
PS: This cake is very dense due to amount of dry fruits used in it.
