Potato

Wish you all a very happy new year 2017.

The highlight of 2016 for me was having my parents visit us here in Kansas. They stayed here for 2 months. We had the best time and food. Aayi cooked all my favorites from my childhood. Kids had a fantastic time with grand parents – It was awesome to see the kids running behind aabbu(grand dad) all day long. We took them to all our favorite restaurants. I wish they could stay more but the winter was making me nervous. We were also trying to think about some old/new recipes to post here. This batate kosambari was one such recipe.

Aayi has very fond memories of eating it while she was growing up. This is her grandmom’s recipe. This is a very easy recipe with few ingredients like most of the Konkani recipes. The raw onions give it a nice crunch. We loved eating it with rice and dalithoy while aayi talked about her grandmom.

Pictorial: Make the chutney with minimum water needed. Then mix with potatoes and onion.

Potato-Coconut Chutney (Batate Kosambari)

Ingredients

• 2 big boiled potatoes peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut
• 3-4 red chillies
• A small piece of tamarind
• Salt

Instructions

• Grind coconut, chillies, tamarind, salt into smooth chutney using very little water.
• Mix potatoes, onions with chutney.
• Serve with dalithoy or any simple dal and rice.

Potato-Coconut Chutney (Batate Kosambari)

Ingredients

• 2 big boiled potatoes peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut
• 3-4 red chillies
• A small piece of tamarind
• Salt

Instructions

• Grind coconut, chillies, tamarind, salt into smooth chutney using very little water.
• Mix potatoes, onions with chutney.
• Serve with dalithoy or any simple dal and rice.

My kids love shenga chutney pitto , probably that is the only way they eat peanuts without a fuss. So I have been thinking to use similar combination with vegetables. I have seen my Marathi friends adding a peanut powder to raitas, green beans and some other vegetables. So I prepared this nutty green beans last week and it was received pretty well, the two year old was pretty excited to (atleast) try the green beans.

A complete thali with ambat(dal), rice, fish fry, buttermilk chilli, spiced buttermilk

The roasted peanuts gave a nutty sweetish taste to otherwise spicy dish. The ginger gave a very good flavor to the beans. I am so used to adding potatoes to green beans, I feel potatoes pair really well with them. Today when I prepared the same dish, I added some chutney pitto to it instead of making the peanut-coconut powder. This was a good way to get some vegetables and also protein into the little tummies.

Pictorial: Dry roast peanuts and coconut and make a powder. Heat oil and add mustard seeds, urad dal followed by curry leaves, ginger, onion. Add green beans, potatoes and spices. When cooked, add the nut powder.

Nutty Green Beans

Ingredients

• 2 cups green beans use tender beans
• 1 cup peeled and chopped potatoes optional
• 2 tbl spns peanuts
• 1 tbl spn dry coconut
• 1 tea spn grated ginger
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tea spn red chilli powder
• A pinch turmeric
• 1/2 tea spn coriander powder
• 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
• 1/2 tea spn urad dal
• 5-6 curry leaves
• Oil
• Salt

Instructions

• Dry roast peanut till they are brownish and then add dry coconut(or dessicated coconut).
• Roast till coconut is brownish.
• Grind them to a coarse powder and keep it aside.
• Heat oil and add mustard seeds.
• When they start popping, add urad dal.
• Fry for a min and then add curry leaves, ginger.
• Then add onion and fry till brownish.
• Add green beans, potatoes, chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder and salt.
• Mix everything well.
• Cover and cook on a medium-low flame till the beans and potatoes are cooked.
• Make sure to cook on low heat, since there is no water added, it will get burnt if cooked on high.
• Add the peanut-coconut powder and mix well.
• Cook for another 1-2mins.
• Take off heat and serve hot as a sidedish with rice or chapati.

Notes: Roast a big batch of peanuts and make a coarse powder. Use this in various dishes like this to save time Instead of using dry coconut, use freshly grated coconut in the recipe