Mooga – Moong , moLe – sprout, randayi – a watery sidedish with coconut, is a name very well known to Konkanis. I had posted the recipe of mooga moLe randayi few days back – this is the dish made in most of the houses during festivals, like Ganesh Chaturthi .
But today’s post is about a special Mooga moLe randayi made at the Shri Lakshmi Narayana Mahamaya Temple, Ankola . Every Konkani follows a family god which is called as Kuldev apart from all other gods. This god is the family/ancestral god. The families who follow a Kuldev are called Kulavis . One such popular Kuldev is Mahamaya of Shri Lakshmi Narayana Mahamaya, Ankola or popularly called as Hanumatta , which my family follows. We belong to one of the main devotees(Kulavis) – “Baleri”, of this god.
Once in a year, on Ashwin Vadhya Panchami (according to Hindu calender)- a panchami which comes after full moon day( Punav ) of Dasara , is celebrated as ‘ Panchami devkarya ‘( Devkarya – Pooja) or ‘ Vade panchami ‘(the name comes from the main naivedyam – a special kind of vada ). This day hundreds of devotees of this god gather at this temple and a pooja is performed. After Pooja, a delicious lunch is served on banana leaves at around 4.30. People wait for this lunch and a group of volunteers serve the food.
According to my opinion, the best dish served on this day is Mooga moLe randayi . I have not seen this dish served in any other place. My brother and I used to ask my Aayi to prepare this dish at home. From the taste of the dish, she came up with this recipe. This is one of the favorite dishes at my home now. Though I feel this dish tastes amazing, I still crave for that temple lunch :).
Ingredients: 2 cups sprouted moong 1 cup raw banana(plantain) pieces 1 cup coconut 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract 1/2 tea spn pepper( miryakan ) 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 4-5 curry leaves A pinch asafoetida Oil Salt
Method: Wash the moong to remove as much skin as possible. Cook moong with plantain pieces. Grind coconut with pepper and tamarind. Add this paste to cooked moong , add salt. Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves and asafoetida. Add this seasoning to the dish, Serve hot.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 25mins
Few days back, I saw a request in my recipe request page from Rochin. He said, “Recently I attended a south indian wedding. There I ate a kind of payasam made up of sabudana /tapioca and moong daal . It was very testy and delicious. Could you please post a recipe for it? I will definitely try it out”.
Whenever I get any request for recipe, I start searching for it. I can’t reply to all your requests, but sometimes, I get lucky and find the recipe easily from my Aayi. So when I asked her about this request, she gave me this recipe.
Sabudana is mixed with either vermicelli or moong daal to make payasam(paays) . Sabudana- vermicelli is a very popular combination compared to sabudana-moong daal combination. Both have exactly the same recipe.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup moong daal or 1/2 cup vermicelli 1/2 cup sabudana 1 cup sugar 1 tea spn raisins(dry grapes) 1 cup cashews 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder 1 tea spn ghee 1 cup milk
Method: Soak sabudana in water for about 30mins. Wash moong daal in water. Heat ghee and fry raisins and cashews for sometime. Add moong daal (or vermicelli) and fry till a nice aroma comes out. Now add milk, sabudana and cook till moong daal and sabudana are cooked well (You can cook them in water instead of milk, but milk gives a nice flavor). Add sugar and cook till sugar is diluted. Take out from heat and add cardamom powder. Mix well. Serve hot or cold.
Serves : 4-5 Preparation time : 25mins
PS: Instead of frying the raisins and cashews and ghee, they can be added with milk while cooking. Add more milk or sugar to suit your taste and consistency.
