Cluster beans (Chitmitki in Konkani) is a vegetable that is frequently used in Konkani cooking. Many people do not like this. Chitmitki upkari is a very common side dish prepared with this vegetable. I add a little bit of jaggery to give a slight sweetish taste. Another variation is to combine it with pumpkin which gives a very nice sweetish taste. Since we all like pumpkin, we enjoy this combination very much....
When we go to fresh vegetable section or to farmer’s market, I feel like trying the new vegetable that I haven’t tried before. My such experiments were not always successful. So last few days, I stuck to “known” vegetables. But last week, I saw these beautiful banana peppers at farmer’s market. They were very fresh and looked gorgeous. So I bought them. Now, I had to figure out what to make with them....
It was many years ago, one of my readers sent this recipe to me. I had only tried traditional pathrode till then. This recipe looked very interesting. I wanted to try it, but somehow, I forgot about it. Now, last few months, I have tried to dig any and every recipe using spinach. I just could not find the email with the recipe, so I apologize for not mentioning the reader’s name here (please post a comment if you are reading this)....
I read this somewhere. They were using palak and other leaves also for this. But I had only spring onions. I usually bring a lot of different vegetables whenever I go to market. I never think what I can cook with those vegetables. Then while cooking I do some R & D and make something out of it. Sometimes it comes out well, but most of the times, it straight away goes into dustbin....
There are many names for this famous South Indian delicacy. These crispy vadas are loved by all. I remember while growing up, my brother used to pester aayi to make these often. She would serve it with coconut chutney . I have remained a fan over the years. I like to order these whenever we go to any Indian restaurant here or any restaurant in India. I love mine dipped in sambar....
One of my friends asked me if I am out of Konkani recipes because I am posting these non-Indian dishes continuously. No, don’t worry, I won’t run out of Indian recipes even if I write a post everyday for next 10 years(I am not exaggerating) and I am not even counting my experimental recipes. Many of my readers asked for this pizza recipe, so I thought of finally posting it....
When I was a kid, watermelon was a must at home during summer. Since I absolutely love the chilled watermelon pieces (my mom used to cut them and keep in refrigerator, but she never knew how the pieces disappeared within an hour!!!), my father brings watermelon whenever he comes across them anywhere in the market. My mom never wasted the white part of watermelon, she makes the delicious sweet dosas and normal dosas with them....
Are you thinking how I started making Andhra dishes? I had some knowledge of it before, thanks to my friends. But it is the food bloggers who gave that extra push. I always loved Gongura pickle in Andhra restaurants in Bangalore. But I never knew what it is made of, didn’t even know there is a plant called Gongura. After reading about different Gongura recipes, I even tried asking few Indians in a local farmer’s market about this plant (I didn’t know who they were, they might be thinking I was crazy :D)....
Those who know about Koddel (a Konkani dish with coconut base), may say this does not look like or taste like koddel . When I read this recipe in “Udupi special” in a Kannada weekly, I felt like trying it. I have not seen or tasted any koddels before. They are more popular in South Kanara , and we don’t have this dish in North Kanara (from where I come)....
I bought one pomfret hoping to make the ‘masala fish’ that we got in “Curry House”, Bangalore. Unfortunately, when I serached on the google, I could not get the exact recipe for it. But I knew how it should taste and I got one recipe which looked more or less like the one I was searching for. When I prepared it, it was quite different from the one I was searching for, but the taste of it was superb....
I made these cookies a while ago when my cousin visited us. It was derived from a marble cookie recipe that I found somewhere. I changed them completely to make them eggless. They are also very mildly sweet, the way I like them. They were bit on the harder side, but still I loved the taste. Vanilla part: 1 cup all purpose flour 1/4 tea spn salt 1/4 cup sugar 4 tbl spn butter 1/2 tea spn vanilla extract 1/2 tea spn baking powder 1/4 cup milk...
Poha is one of the most important part of our breakfasts. Aayi makes the poha a bit sweetish spicy. I love this version more than the normal spicy poha that we get in restaurants. This is a very simple and tasty breakfast. For cooking newbies, be careful to use proper poha for this. There are 4 types of poha available in markets. They are – Thick poha (Degdi poha ), this type can be used for chivda ....
This is a traditional recipe from North Kanara. I never used to like it when I was kid. Aayi used to prepare it well, but i never used to touch it. Now when I have grown up & learnt cooking, just for the sake of trying, I tried it and liked it very much. It may be because, I have come to US and I have a limited choice of vegetables here....
One of my reader Vanishree sent me this recipe few months back. I forgot to try this for a long time. When I was checking my mails few days back, I saw this recipe and thought of giving it a try immediately. As most of us know, upma is usually prepared with wheat rava/sooji . Akki tari is the Kannada name for rice rava . I had read many recipes with akki tari , but for the first time heard about akki tari uppittu ....
The name may be a bit misleading here as I haven’t actually stuffed the bellpeppers(capsicum) while taking pictures, the reasons being the bellpeppers were too big. The paste can be stuffed into bellpeppers like this or this if you get smaller ones. This is again a recipe from my friend Roopa . She made ennegayi with eggplants for us when we visited them in December. The main difference in her recipe was – she used one green bellpepper cut into pieces and one potato along with the stuffed eggplants....
Among all upmas , this version and the one with peas were/are my favorites. Mom uses her home made sambar powder for this. Vayngan , is eggplant(brinjal) in Konkani. In North Kanara, upma is NOT served with chutney, but it is served with sev . It is usually a bit dry compared to the one we get in restaurants in Bangalore. In Bangalore, I have seen people using eggplant in upma ....
My Pachi(mom’s sister) is a expert in morphing one dish to other. She makes different cutlets with left over side dishes. They are always very tasty and you can not make out they are from old side dishes. She also makes these simple cutlets from potatoes which taste heavenly and are very filling. Ingredients: 2 potatoes(cooked) 1 cup green peas 1 cup soya granules or bread(soaked in water, squeezed & then crushed) 1 tbl spn cream 1 tea spn chili powder 1 tea spn garam masala 4-5 strands coriander leaves 1 tbl spn corn flour or maida 1 cup fine sooji(rava) Oil/butter Salt...
I always look for more ways to include both protein and vegetables into our meals. When I make chicken curry, I make a paste of cooked vegetables and add it to chapati dough or add vegetables to rice that is served with curry. But sometimes I make a curry with both chicken and vegetables. This vegetable-chicken curry is one such dish that my family really enjoyed. The next day, I used the same curry to make puffs....
Today this blog turns 5 . Thanks to all of you who supported this venture. We had started this place, 5 years ago as a place to save our home-made food recipes and also some new trials by us. In the beginning, I had no clue about blogs, let alone food blogs. I only discovered them about 4 months after I had gotten started. I was really happy to find so many like minded people....
There is a big story of my experience with preparing this dish first time. We were in Sydney and invited by one of our friends for Ganesh Chathurthi. We thought of taking some sweet with us. But I did not know how to cook any sweet (because I don’t like any sweets). Then I found “Gajar ka halwa” recipe somewhere. But I did not know how much carrot should be used for that....
