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. Since this place is very close to sea, seafood is very popular among many people here. I am constantly in search of these dishes as I feel I don’t know anything about non Konkani sea food dishes from Uttar Kannada. I covered most of the Konkani sea food dishes on this blog but I am yet to find others. So when I saw this dish, under the heading “Uttara Kannada Special”, I was very interested. I gave it a try immediately. We absolutely loved this.
Ingredients: 15-20 shrimps 1/2 cup coconut 1/2 cup chopped onion 1/2 tea spn chopped ginger 1/2 tea spn chopped garlic 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract or 1-2 pieces of tamarind 3-4 green chilies 3/4 cup coriander leaves Oil Salt
Method: Heat oil and fry onion, ginger, garlic, green chilies till onions turn slightly brownish. Grind these with coconut, coriander leaves and tamarind. Heat oil and fry shrimps till they turn whitish. Now add the paste, salt and cook till the gravy thickens and shrimps are completely cooked.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 15mins
I love rice noodles in all its forms. We call it Shevayi in Konkani, Shyavige in Kannada and Idiyappam in Malayalam. We make a couple of different types of them – aayi’s special with boiled rice and Konkani special . Both these versions require a little bit of planning as the rice needs to be soaked for few hours. I make them very often, the boiled rice version being my choice always.
Recently I saw a recipe for Didhir Sihi Shyavige – KairaLi style (Instant sweet noodles – Kerala Style) in a Kannada magazine. I have seen this in many different blogs too, but somehow never tried it. Few days ago, on a Saturday, I wanted something good for breakfast. Usually weekends are idli/dosa days at my home, but somehow that weekend, I had not prepared the batter. So I thought it is right time to try this recipe. It got ready in about 40mins or so and was lip smacking good. This is going to be a regular at my home now. Next time I will try with some spicy topping.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup water 1 cup rice flour 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut 2 tea spns coconut oil(optional) 2 tbl spns sugar 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder Salt
Method: Heat water along with salt in a large pan. When it comes to boil, switch off the heat, add rice flour and close the lid. Leave it for about 5mins. Then open the lid and mix with a spoon to remove any lumps. Close and leave for another 5mins.
When it is cooled enough to touch, mix it well with hands. Add coconut oil (just to give extra flavor, it can be ignored) and mix well. Make small balls out of it, if needed sprinkle little more water.
In a separate bowl, mix coconut with sugar and cardamom powder.
Grease an idli stand with little oil. Take the balls in a shevayi dante ( idiyappam press) or chakli press which is greased with oil. Press the noodles on the idli plates. Traditionally, it is pressed on banana leaves and then the leaves are kept on the idli plates, I didn’t have the leaves, so I directly pressed them on the plates.
Now, top each of them with about half table spoon coconut mixture.
Steam it in a steamer or in a cooker(without weight) like idlis for about 12-15mins. Serve when they are still hot.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 40mins
PS: For a better taste, instead of ready made rice flour, make it with homemade version. Wash rice and spread it on a towel till it is dry. Grind to a smooth powder. Roast this powder till a nice aroma comes out. Store in an air tight container. Ready made “ Idiyappam flour” can be used for more taste. I used normal rice flour available in market. I made them slightly thicker as I was running out of time. They taste great when made very thin.
