Every South Indian cuisine has its own recipe for Vadas . Here is Andhra Version of it. As Preeti says here , this is a must in any wedding meal ( Vardike/lagna javan ) for Konkanis.
‘ Biscuit ambado ‘ is prepared as an evening snack at my home. Aayi makes these vadas with ginger chutney . Her vadas are very soft and crispy and one of the best vadas I have ever had. She always makes them in the shape of vadas (with a hole in between – called as thoothu vadas ) for my brother, but usually the traditional ‘ biscuit ambade ‘ has no shape, may be because giving the nice shape is extra work. I don’t bother about the shape as far as I am getting the proper taste :D.
Ingredients: 1 cup urad dal 2 tbl spns fresh/frozen coconut + few pieces of fresh coconut 4-5 curry leaves 1 tea spn ginger (cut into tiny pieces or grated) 2-3 green chilies(cut into tiny pieces) Oil Salt
A handful of urad dal with skin makes vadas become very crispy.
Method: Soak urad dal for around 2 hours. Grind it into a paste (with minimum or no water), the paste need not become very soft. Add coconut, curry leaves, ginger, green chillies and salt. Mix well. Heat oil. Drop small balls of the batter in hot oil and fry on a medium flame. Serve with ginger chutney .
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 15mins
Karathe Sasam
‘Sasam’ are the Konkani dishes having uncooked coconut masala (like ambe-ananas sasam , beetroot sasam ). Karathe (Bittergourd/karela) or bhende(bhindi) sasam is used as a gravy, it has crispy fried bittergourd/okra in coconut masala. (Karathe sasam is more famous compared to bhende sasam).
My dad always loved this dish, but since I hated Karela, I used to ask mom to give this sasam without karela in it. But recently when I prepared this dish (with Karela) I simply loved it. It gets its unique taste because of crispy Karela.
Though I had the picture clicked a long back, somehow this dish had slipped out of my mind. Varsha , thanks for reminding me.
Ingredients: Bittergourd/Bhindi (Cut into small pieces) 3/4 cup Coconut(fresh) 3/4 cup Green chilies 3-4 Tamarind 1/2 tea spn Ghee 1/2 tea spn Salt
Some people add 1/2 cup buttermilk to this before serving.
Method: Add salt to bittergourd and leave it for 1/2 an hour. Then squeeze out the water to remove bitterness. Wash with water. (If using okra, ignore this step). Heat ghee and fry bittergourd/okra on a low flame till they turn very crispy. Grind coconut with green chilies, salt(be careful while adding salt, bittergourd retains some salt in the previous step) and tamarind to a smooth paste. Add sufficient water to bring it to a gravy consistency. Just before serving, add the fried bittergourd/okra (Since this dish tastes great with crispy bittergourd/okra, store the gravy and vegetables seperately in refregerator. Bring them to room temperature before serving and then add the bittergourd/okra. Alternately, serve them seperately and while eating, mix both).
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 15mins
