Phodis – vegetables spiced and rolled in rava(samolina) and shallow/deep fried, are very popular among Konkanis. We make these from most of the vegetables. Some examples can be found in rava fries – post . These come very handy when we want to make a very quick side dish. They are very delicious and fast to make.
We get small button mushrooms here during the first rain. These are wildly grown in forests. Some people go and pick the edible ones and sell. These naturally grown mushrooms have unique taste to them and whenever we find these, it is a big treat. My both children loved these mushrooms. One of the dishes I often prepared was mushroom ( almbe ) phodi . Since these are very small, frying them individually becomes a very time consuming task. So usually these are neatly arranged on sticks from coconut leaves and then fry them. This way, it is easy to fry and fun to eat for kids.
Last year when we visited US, I noticed that the mushrooms available there are too big. But the bhindis from Indian store were quite smaller in size. Since my son-in-law loves bhindis , I thought of making these for him. We used wooden skewers. They looked pretty and as usual, they were very tasty. Make sure not to make too few, because they disappear from plate in minutes and the demand would outgrow supply.
Ingredients: 2 cups small mushrooms or okra 1 cup rava (semolina) A pinch asafoetida 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract 1 tea spn chilli powder 1 tbl spn rice flour (optional) Oil Salt
Method: Apply salt, asafoetida, tamarind, chilli powder to the mushrooms or okra (slitted). Leave it aside for 15-20mins. Now arrange the pieces on skewers.
Roll them in a mixture of semolina and rice flour. Shallow fry on tava . Serve hot.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time: 30mins
This recipe is sent to me by Sheetal. Before any of the people who know this dish bash me for picture of entirely different dish than the authentic “Caldinha” , I request to read my introduction .
Some background of Caldinha in Sheetal’s words – “There is a Goan fish curry which is mostly made by Christians as it is something that came from Portuguese influence. It is called Fish Caldinha pronounced Kaldeen . I had never tasted it in GOA but I learnt it from my Mother-in-law specifically as the Atlantic fishes like Sea Bream or Salmon taste very nice in this gravy. What I like about it is its simplicity. This curry goes very well with these Atlantic fishes as the Atlantic fish are sweet in nature”.
I read the recipe and for some reason, I wanted to try it when I bought the salmon the following week. Even though Sheetal had mentioned it was a gravy dish(which I had overlooked), I interpreted it as a dry side dish. Since I wanted to cook it immediately, instead of clarifying my doubt with her, I just went ahead and tried it. We both absolutely loved the dish. Then the next day I asked Sheetal for clarification. She sent me the pictures of the dish which I have posted below.
I thought I would try it again and then post it here. But because of the “tomato disease” here in US and also some other health issues, I have stopped buying tomatoes. So I decided to post this anyway with whatever pictures I had so that I can refer to the post when I need in future.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup onion finely chopped 1/2 tea spn garlic finely chopped 1/4 tsp tumeric 1/2 tsp cumin powder 1″ stick of cinnamon 1 small green chilli finely chopped. 1/2 tomato finely chopped. 2 small pieces of salmon or a small sea bream or a small Atlantic mackerel or prawns 1/2 cup freshly made coconut milk(optional) Oil Salt
Method: Apply sea salt to the fish pieces and keep it aside for 15-20mins. Heat oil and fry onion till they are translucent. Add garlic, green chillies, cinnamon(whole or powder) and fry for a min. Add cumin powder, turmeric, tomato. Fry for a minute and then add the fish. Add a little water, just enough to cook the fish. Add coconut milk(if using) and cook till fish is done. (I just cooked it till all the water was absorbed and fish was done).
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 20min
PS: Adjust the ingredient quantity depending on whether you are making gravy or dry dish.
