I think every Indian cuisine has a set of ‘ chutney pitto/ chutney podi /chutney powder’ recipes. We too make different types of ‘ chutney pitto ‘ ( pitto -powder). Usually most famous chutney powders are the ones with coconut in it. We serve it with bhakris , dosas or idlis . Everybody will have their stock of chutney pitto all the time. I simply love this Shenga (peanut) chutney pitto ....
Unlike Bangalore, Belgaum we don’t find any chats at Kumta . So what is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of an evening snack in Kumta?? We can find many small shops(goodangadi) or carts with samosas, Jalebis, Batata vadas and other mouth watering dishes. One dish which can be found in such shops and loved by all is “chattambade”. I guess the name has come from “chappat”(flat) “ambade”(vada), not sure though....
I bought a big batch of kasoori methi sometime ago. Initially I was really hesitant to use it and now, it is one of the herbs that I am using very frequently. I just love the fragrance of these dried methi leaves. This recipe is from my reader Roopa Rao. She had sent this to me about a year ago. I read it half for the first time and thought it was similar to what I cook....
We get frequent requests from our readers to post some very simple recipes that even beginners can cook. We normally cook many such dishes every day, but when it comes to blogging, we start thinking if it is really worth posting?. But now we are going to make a conscious effort to post such recipes here. This is a very simple green peas usal(usli) that my sister prepares frequently....
This is not the authentic Hyderabadi, but just my interpretation. It was on my to-do list for a long time now. Finally last Sunday, when I wanted to get out of my busy office work and relax a bit, I decided to make a delicious lunch for us. I decided to make something elaborate, so that by the time it was done, I would have had a nice break from computers and laptops :)....
Ingredients: Mushrooms(chopped) 2 cups Onions 2 Chilli powder 1 tea spn Garam masala 1/2 tea spn Salt Oil 1/2 tea spn Coriander leaves Method: Heat oil and fry onion till it turns slightly brownish. Then add mushrooms, cover and cook for about 10 minutes. Add all the masala and cook for 2 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot. Serves : 2 Preparation time : 15min Mushrooms were available only during season at my native....
Few days ago, we had invited our friends for dinner. Our friend Jyoti told us, she makes this delicious Pad Thai atleast once a week to take in her lunch box. What interested me most was the fact that she told me, she does not use any kind of sauces in it. Though I have used Soy sauce, fish sauce etc in the past, I am making a conscious effort not to use them now due to various reasons....
This dish was in my draft for a very long time. I thought it is the best time to post it since Ganesh Chaturthi is just 3 days away. These pictures were taken at my native by my brother when aayi prepared these. When we were kids, my aayi would prepare these delicious treats in a big batch and we would munch on these for many days. The aroma that comes out of this when the peanuts are roasted, then mixed with sugar and cardamom is just amazing....
So I am back to my this weeks theme. Egg recipes.. When I was in Belgaum, my pachi(mom’s sister,I think I never mentioned it here, but she is the person from whom I had learnt all my easy-to-do cooking initially, because those were the things I could have prepared in my hostel room without using mixer) always prepared a “cauliflower gravy”. It had a very peculiar taste. I just loved that gravy....
Wish you all a very happy Sankranti. This year I wanted to make something special for Sankranti . While growing up, this was one of my favorite festivals. For me, the most important part of this festival is Tilgul – Til (sesame seeds) and gud (jaggery). We give spoonful of tilgul to others and say – “ tilgul ghya goaD goaD bola “(take tilgul and talk sweet), which finally evolved into “Take sweet, talk sweet and be sweet” in schools....
These days my cooking has been limited to very basic and easy dishes. As any moms with a year old toddler would agree with me, I hardly have any free time on hands. I try my best to make fresh lunch and dinner every day. Most of the dishes on the menu are decided based on what Ishaan likes to eat. The hardest part for me so far has been deciding his lunch....
I got this recipe from here . Those days I was not able to get good soft idlis . Then I followed the procedure explained here and now I can get good soft idlis . So I tried these stuffed idlis and they tasted amazing. I changed the stuffing according to my taste. I think kids will love this. I even tried ragi idlis and rava idlis which turned out great....
I am camera-less for next couple of weeks. I was way too excited to post something last time and even after many reminders from V, I was not very careful with handling the SD card. It got broken and stuck in the SD card slot. Looks like it was pretty bad and we had to take it to repair shop to get it fixed. Not sure how I am managing to mess up things these days!...
This is the simplest way of doing Urad dal dosa . Some people add one table spoon of chana dal for making the dosa very crisp and/or half tea spoon of fenugreek seeds for taste and fiber content. Ingredients: 2 cups dosa rice (or any normal white rice) 1 cup urad dal 1 tbl spn chana dal (optional) 1/2 tea spn fenugreek seeds (methi) (optional) Oil Salt As per taste...
With the advent of the rainy season, we find green vegetation all around. Since ancient times we were using many of these plants as ingredients in our cuisine. One such green leafy vegetable is Colocasia . These leaves if not boiled properly, produce itching inside mouth and down to the throat. If soaked in water, it produces itching of our hands too. So while using the leaves – Chop cleaned and dried leaves without touching water....
A must in all konkani functions. For this any or all of the vegetables mentioned below are used. Usually any one vegetable of sour taste like bimbal or ambado(amte kayi) is used. I use tamarind if both of these are not available. Ingredients: Coconut 1/2 cup Bittergourd(Hagalakayi or karathe) (Optional) 4-5 pieces Bhindi(Okra) (Optional) 4-5 Bimbal or ambado (amte kayi) or tamarind or raw mango 2-3 pieces Fenugreek seeds 1/4 tea spn Coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn Urad dal 1/2 tea spn Jaggery 1/2 tea spn Mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn Red chillis 5-6 Curry leaves 4-5 Oil 1 tea spn Salt...
About 2 weeks ago, we had invited our friends for lunch. I made a simple spread for them. At the last moment, I realized I had not made any sweet dishes. Somehow sweet dishes always slip out of my mind as we both don’t have sweet tooth. So I wanted to make something that gets ready very fast, but something special. I saw a big batch of dates and I decided to go ahead with this....
Every time I see some overripe bananas sitting on the counter, I think about baking cake but somehow it never happened until recently. Last week I prepared banana-carrot cake and both V and Ishaan loved it. Yesterday little prince came home asking for some cake. I promised him I will bake him something. I started preparing for the cake and he brought his tiny chair in the kitchen, stood on it and started getting into pretty much everything!...
We had some problem with our computer for last few days. Finally it was fixed yesterday. Here, due to electricity fluctuations and other problems, all the electronic appliances go bad every so often. It takes too long to get them fixed as we have to take help from someone from nearby Taluka place Kumta . Also, since ours is the only home with a broadband connection here, whenever something goes wrong in the telephone exchange, it takes a very long time to get it fixed....
Jackfruit is one of the most loved fruits at my place, ranking second after mango. During season, both ripe and unripe fruit is used in many different dishes. The edible part of the fruit is called ghare (Konkani) or soLe (Kannada), there must be some English name for it, which I don’t know. Making these chips is one of the sweet memories of my childhood. Raw, but firm and fresh jackfruits, just out of the tree, are used for this....
