This is a great day for my blog. Bacause this is my 100th post!!. I would love to publish this as a book at some point of time in my life.If possible, I will open a restaurant where in one can eat all possible Konkani food. Through my blog I want to bring the awareness about konkani(mainly North and South Kanara which are in the Coastal side of Karnataka) food to outside world....
This is another classic recipe that I got from V’s grandmother. Kadi is usually a very thin-almost watery dish. I would think this is more like tambli than kadi . She called it amla kadi. So I thought of mentioning both names. Few pieces of the dried gooseberries are fried with spices and then ground with coconut to make a thick gravy. The gravy is not cooked. It is served at room temperature....
When I go shopping, I have a habit of picking up any vegetable that catches my fascination. Most of the time, I don’t even know what I am going to do with it. Few days ago, I picked up some bitter gourds from Indian store. After they sat in fridge for a while, I asked aayi if she has any new recipe with it. She gave me the recipe for “ Karathe Bendi ” (D in bendi is pronounced as ‘th’ in ‘this’) – A Konkani dish, which I had never tasted before....
This recipe was sent to me by Aruna few months back. I forgot to try it for a long time. Last week when I was going through her mails, I found this. Aruna said, “This is a little sweet version of Kadhi served with Gujarathi thali – the white colour one. I got this recipe from a Gujarathi collegue of mine in my ex office”. I have tasted Gurjathi thali only once back in 2002 in San Diego....
Hope you all had/having a happy Valentine’s day. We usually don’t celebrate this day. But this year, I wanted to do something special. May be because of all the celebrations I am observing in blogs and on TV. So I decided to bake this cake. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible because V does not like too much icing. He loves simple plain cakes. I tried to decorate with whipped cream but no matter how much I refrigerated it, it was becoming watery as soon as it touched the cake....
We had posted the traditional way of making Hittu/khotte or kadubu couple of years ago. Making the baskets for these is a time consuming work and takes some expertise. Any mistake and the idli batter comes out of the baskets and makes a mess. So here are some easy ways of making these delicious hittus. In Banana leaves : Usually(atleast at our place), hittu is prepared in jackfruit leaves. But these are hard to find everywhere....
Lunch for today is very simple. Lemon rice and fruits (grapes, strawberry, apple, banana). Honey is packed separately as it becomes watery if mixed with fruit. I am not very sure whether the banana will remain fresh in lunch box or not. But if I included it separately, it promptly came back without being touched. So I have cut it into pieces and packed today :). ‘KaDamb’ is one of the most popular Konkani breakfasts....
Who does not like mango? Many of us have fond memories of our childhood like getting to stone the mango tree for fresh raw mangoes, playing in mango groves etc. But how many of us know about the medicinal values of this tasty fruit? I still remember when we were kids, my parents used to force me and my brother to brush our teeth with tender mango leaf and a pinch of salt granules....
The very first time I tasted paneer was when I was in engineering college. Our all parties involved atleast one paneer dish. I have tried including it in my cooking, but I don’t say I have been very successful. I buy it once in a while when I remember. Recently, we are having lot of get togethers and we get to taste atleast one dish with paneer, thanks to my North Indian friends....
I had promised long ago that I would post these simple poha dishes that are very popular in Konkani homes. These are basically 10 minute dishes and no cooking involved. Just mix( kalayi in Konkani) all the ingredients with fresh coconut and thin poha and the job is done. These pohas were very popular in any Konkani wedding/function breakfasts, but in the recent times over the last decade or so people have started preparing more fashionable/modern breakfasts....
This is one of my favorite sweet. In my native North Kanara, I have seen some people who are experts in making these. I think a lot of patience and experience is required to get the perfect texture of this. I tried this for the first time, it tasted heavenly. Though I know I can improve a lot. This is called Holige or Obbattu in Kannada. Unlike the normal obbattu, we add a pinch of turmeric to make it look yellowish(If there is another reason for adding turmeric, I am not aware of it!...
Avalakki/poha is supposed to be one of the easiest and cheapest snacks. We have heard in Mahabharat that Sudaama gave avalakki to Srikrishna which he ate with much pleasure. Many people like the dishes prepared with it very much. Many dishes are prepared with it depending upon individual taste. Kuttavalakki – kuttida (powdered or in literal meaning, pounded) avalakki ( poha /flattened rice) is a dish prepared with powdered avalakki ....
This is one of my favourite combination for breakfast. Hot puris and heavenly Amras…slurp… This combination is a must in all North Kanara homes during mango season. We have more than 10 mango trees at home of different variety. So Aayi prepares this with fresh and ripe mangoes. This is usually prepared using Ishad(Vishad) types which have lots of pulp, though other types of mangoes are also widely used....
Pongal has become one of our go-to comfort foods these days. I end up making a simple pongal with rice and moong dal or a simple pej( Congee with red rice ) on many days when I do not want to cook elaborate meals. Some days when I want to make it more healthy, I add some vegetables to it, then it becomes a one pot complete meal (although my family prefers plain pongal, they don’t complain)....
When the work scene is tight, it’s hard to manage all the fancy stuff while cooking at home. Even with so many things going on, I think I am managing lunch and dinner pretty well. Most of the times it is not something great, but for sure, it is something easy and very filling. Since V likes chapathis for lunch, I make them in the morning. Most of the times I make the sides in the evening so that I have to make just chapathis in the morning and carry previous days sides....
This is a very easy sweet dish prepared in most of the festivals in India. I am posting this for my own reference and to help cooking newbies. Few days back, I did not know how to make this. I would call up my aayi everytime I wanted to make this. Some people make these Vermicelli or Shevayi (Konkani) or Shyavige (Kannada) at home. The home made variety is best comapred to the readymade....
This is one easy to do and very tasty breakfast. My mom prepares this often, but I had not got it straight anytime. Madhura sent me this recipe as well as the gorgeous picture last week. When I followed her recipe, I got the best vermicelli upma, just like my mom prepared. Thanks a lot Madhura 🙂 . In Bangalore, a bit of turmeric is added to this upma and served with chutney....
There is a saying in Kannada “ Tambali antha ootavilla kambalianth hodikeyilla ” -Â meaning, there is no meal like the one with tambali and there is no cover (wrap up) like blanket or rug. Rice is the main constituent of any meal for people in the south Indian region. Hence a curry is an essential thing to go with rice. As coconut is available freely, people started using it to make different types of tamblis which are easy to cook and very tasty....
Bangalore, the IT capital of India, is a place where you can find all types of food from all over India. It may be because people from all over India come to Bangalore in search of jobs. So along with all other types of food, the Bangaloreans have their set of dishes which are very very famous. The most famous dishes being ‘ Chitranna ‘ and ‘ Bisi bele bhath ‘ (‘ Bisi ‘-hot, ‘ beLe ‘-lentil, ‘ bhath ‘-rice item....
Bitter gourd or karathe(konkani) or Haagala kaayi(kannada) was never part of my cooking until recently. But I knew one or the other day I would start cooking it. Beleive me, this dish and the others which I am going to post soon, never had any bitter taste. We didn’t even know it was bitter gourd. This recipe is from my sis-in-law Rashmi. Since I could not get the Indian bitter gourd, I used the Chinese bitter melon ....
