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I have fond memories of Jackfruit ( Panas in Konkani), my pappa and me having a competition to see who eats more. My brother and aayi didn’t like it as much. Though we loved the ripe fruit and the dishes prepared with unripe tender fruit, we all shared a common dislike for anything prepared with ripe fruit. It must be the the smell that bothered us. So unlike any other Konkani home, where ripe jackfruit dishes were very common, they never made their way to our table....

Summer in our region brings a lot of seasonal fruits like mangoes, jackfruits etc. We have few jackfruit trees in our backyard and during season, the trees give so many fruits. Jackfruit is eaten ripe, cooked into curries (both ripe and upripe), chips and lot many dishes. During season, we take out the seeds, which we call Bikkand in Konkani, dry them and use them in variety of dishes throughout the year....

Have you caught up with Kale craze yet? I have been reading about Kale so much in blog world and watching it on TV regularly these days. First time I tried making something with Kale, no one wanted to even try it. I tried few different things and this soup is one dish that we all enjoy very much. I make these kind of hearty soups regularly for V’s and Ishaan’s lunch boxes....

Aayi’s pickles are loved by everyone. They are the best and somehow I feel when I make the same pickles, they are not as half good as hers. I don’t know what is it that I miss. I am one of those, who cannot eat her meals without pickles. Lime/lemon pickles are my favorites. Aayi makes a huge batch of them just for me. When she came here about 1 and 1/2 years ago, she made a huge batch of it for me....

A fresh bowl of soup is something I want to have when I reach home daily from work. Sometimes when I am not very tired, I make something special apart from usual dinner. This is one such soup I tried. We loved it. Ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped vegetables – I used bellpeppers(capsicums) of 3 colors, cauliflower, green beans, carrots 1/2 tea spn fresh chopped ginger 1/2 cup macaroni 1/4 tea spn pepper + 1/4 tea spn red pepper flakes 1 tbl spn chopped basil 2 tbl spn milk 1-2 tbl spn Parmesan cheese 1 tea spn corn flour Salt...

Masoor Ambat is a dish that holds a special place in my heart—a comforting Konkani gravy that brings back memories of home-cooked meals and family gatherings. In North Kanara, where coconut trees grow in abundance, coconut paste is a key ingredient in many traditional dishes, lending them a rich, creamy texture and a distinct coastal flavor. This version of ambat, made with whole masoor (brown lentils), is one of our absolute favorites....

Ganesh Chaturthi (or Ganapati festival) is a very popular festival in India. A Ganesh idol made of special clay is brought home, wherever they have this tradition spanning generations. There is also public Ganesh pooja popularised by India’s national leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak since the days India’s freedom struggle. I am here to talk about how we celebrate Ganesha Chaturthi at home. The preparations begin atleast one week before the ‘ Bhadrapada shukla chaturthi ‘ a day on the Hindu calendar which normally occurs in August or September of every year....

I guess this is a Andhra dish, its called Pesarattu(I got it from a Tamil friend). I got this in some book. Tried it and it came out very nice. I prefer this with tomato chutney. Ingredients: Rice 1 cup Moong daal 1 cup Onion 1 large Ginger 2” piece Green chillies 2-3 Coriander leaves 2-3 strands Cumin seeds (Jeera) 1 tea spn Method: Soak rice and moong daal overnight....

This delicious dish is from Mrs. Sheela Hebbal (My friend Vinyas’s mother). I have heard a lot about her from Vinyas. She is a great cook and has a lot of interesting talents like knitting, embroidery etc. I used to trouble everybody in my office to get recipes. I had heard a lot about Mrs Sheela from Vinyas. So I asked him to get the recipe for his favourite enne rotti....

Song is a very spicy Konkani dish. There are many different versions of this dish – one with coconut base and onions , one without coconut and many more. Different homes have their own version of song, the only similarity is that the dish is always prepared very spicy. At my home, we have always loved the one with coconut and onions. Some of our relatives are vegetarians who do not even eat onion and garlic....

Aayi has brought a big collection of recipes for me this time. Few of them are very traditional ones which her grandmother and others used to prepare. Aayi has hardly prepared them, but luckily she had the recipe in her diary. Usually chitranna is a kind of spiced rice prepared with left over rice from previous day (this is not always the case since people even make fresh rice for this)....

Nonche (Konkani) is pickle. Ambli (Konkani) is unripe mango. This is a special chutney prepared using the salted unripe mangoes. During mango season, unripe mangoes which do not have very hard seed are put in big Bharnis (Ceramic jars – used to store pickles) and lot of salt is put on top of them. On top of this, two big stones are kept for weight. Then the top of this jars-usually called as mouth of the jars, are tied along with the lid with a cloth to seal the lid....

Kolmbo is Konkani Sambar. Kolmbo was one of my favorite sambars from my childhood. When I posted my Aayi’s recipe of this, few of my readers said they make it without coconut. So I was searching for the other method to prepare this dish. Few days back, one of my readers requested for Rajma Kolmbo . I was a bit surprised at this request as I didn’t know that anybody can make a sambar with kidney beans....

There is a very beautiful river very close to our home, this means we get very fresh seafood. Most of the times the shrimp we get here are alive when we bring them home. One of our favorite dishes to make with these shirmp is this vada. Use small or medium sized shrimp for this. If you do not find them, cut the large ones into small pieces. Serve them hot when they are still hot and crisp....

I am a great fan of shrimps and crabs. Even though I absolutely love my aayi’s dishes with these two, I like to try out any new dishes that comes my way. So while going through a Kannada magazine, this dish caught my fancy. Uttara Kannada or North Kanara is a beautiful district in Karnataka state. My native is a part of this district. So obviously I get fascinated when I read something about this place....

Who doesn’t like corn? Although we find very good corn around the year here, I miss fresh babycorn. I haven’t seen it yet here in Kansas (not a fan of canned one). So when I found it in Bangalore during my last India trip, I had to try it. I made couple of dishes with it and loved to eat every last bit of babycorn. Here is a simple pulav I made with babycorn....

Zunka is a popular Maharashtrian dish and it is also very popular in Karnataka-Maharashtra border area. Though I got exposed to several dishes when I was studying at Belgaum, this Zunka is something I could never appreciate till I got married !! The dryer version of Zunka has a texture and husky smell of Chickpeas flour(Besan) which kept me away from this. The credit of making me like this dish goes to Rashmi, my wife....

We have become big fans of Sweet tomatoes which is a soup-salad buffet restaurant. We visited it for the first time many years ago and at that time we were not very impressed. We became regular customers here after Ishaan was about 1 year old. This soon became the only restaurant where Ishaan would sit and eat!. V loves the salads and muffins, I love everything they serve – from salads to soups to bread....

I am trying to include more chicken into our diet. Although I mostly make Indian dishes at home, once in a week, I experiment with new dishes. This was one such dish which came out really well. If you are a vegetarian, you can leave out chicken in this, it will still taste very good. It is a rich and creamy dish we absolutely loved. Ingredients: 1/2 lb tender tender chicken 1/2 lb small cut pasta 1 cup vegetables – onion, corn, carrot, red bellpepper Dried basil, red chilli flakes flakes – according to taste 1 cup cheddar cheese 1/2 cup tomato Olive oil/butter 1/2 tea spn pepper 1 tbl spn whipping cream Salt...

Wish you all a very happy and colorful Holi. The festival of color is around the corner and I could not think of a better sweet than this Bottlegourd halwa or gardudde halvo . Aayi prepared this for us during Diwali and it was so delicious. Bottle gourd was rarely bought at home when we were growing up. I would almost always ask aayi to make burfi(khadi) from it. I could eat it anytime....