No matter how much you change your palette to adjust to new kind of food, you always crave for the food that you grew up eating. I stayed away from my favorite Konkani dishes for a few months, just because I was trying out new things. Now we have reached a stage, we crave Konkani food every single day. Konkani kadis – like Jeer mirya kadi , taka kadi are some of the things that we are having these days. Recently, I made this long forgotten muga dali kadi. It has the same basic spices like jeer mirya kadi , but it also gives the protein due to the addition of one of the easy-on-your-tummy and easy-to-cook dals – yellow moong dal. The garlic seasoning makes it so heavenly. I prepared a big pot and we had it for two days, it tastes much better on the second day.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup yellow moong dal 1 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut 2 red chillies 1 tea spn cumin seeds 1/2 tea spn pepper 1/2 tea spn thick tamarind extract 1 tbl spn chopped garlic A pinch turmeric Oil Ghee Salt
Method: Cook dal with turmeric and water till it is completely mushy. I cooked it in pressure cooker for about 1 whistle. Heat a little oil and add cumin seeds, pepper. When they are slightly browned, add chillies, coconut. Take off heat and grind to a smooth paste. Add the paste, tamarind and salt to cooked dal. Add enough water to make it into a gravy consistency. Bring it to boil. Heat a little ghee and add garlic. When the garlic is browned, pour it over the kadi and cover. Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 30mins
Over the last few years, we have made some really good friends here in Kansas. Since we all have kids of almost same age, we try to meet often for potluck or get-together. My friend Subhashini makes very delicious Tamil food every time we meet. My food intake usually doubles when I am at her home!. My latest favorite is her tamarind chutney – that’s how she translates it to me. She said the Tamil name for the dish is Puli Kuzhambu (hope I am spelling that right). She serves this with curd rice and the combination is just out of this world. I am sure all curd rice fans there would love this on the side. The ingredient quantities are approximates only, change it according to your taste.
Last week I prepared a big batch of this and refrigerated. One day I served it with pongal – I followed Indira’s pongal recipe with matta rice . I don’t usually add vegetables to pongal because we like it simple and plain. Puli Kuzhambu went great with it. It remains good for a week in refrigerator.
Ingredients: 2 cups chopped shallots/sambar onions 3-4 pepper 1 tea spn coriander seeds 1 tea spn cumin seeds 1 tea spn rice 1 tea spn toor dal 4-5 red chillies 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn urad dal 1/2 tea spn fenugreek/methi seeds 4-5 curry leaves 2 tbl spns garlic cut into big pieces 2 tea spns thic tamarind extract or soak one big lemon sized ball of tamarind in water Asafoetida/hing Oil Salt
Method:
Heat a little oil and fry pepper, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, rice, toor dal, red chillies. Â Grind to a paste. Now add 1/2 cup of shallots and grind again. Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they pop up, add urad dal, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves. Give it a min. Then add remaining shallots and garlic. Fry for few minutes till shallots turn translucent. Now add ground paste, tamarind, hing, salt. Let it cook. Serve with curd rice . This remains good for a week in refrigerator.
Serves : 5-6 Preparation time : 20mins
