Tarlyache Amat Thikat (Sour Spicy Sardines)

This one is for spicy food lovers, spicy sour fish gravy. In Konkani amat means sour and thikat means pungent. I ate this first at my Aunt’s house (mom’s sister). She used to make this with sardines or mackerels and it was my cousin Ashas all time favorite.

You need to use dry red chilies that impart more color and should be less spicy like kashmiri or bedgi.

This curry tastes good after 7 to 8 hours of standing time.

Ingredients- 

12 sardines or 7 to 8 pieces of mackerels,

15 to 18 dry red chilies (Kashmiri or Bedgi),

10 garlic flakes,

½ tsp turmeric powder,

7 to 8 kokum,

7 to 8 tepla,

Salt to taste,

Water

Method- 

Wash and clean sardines, apply salt and keep aside.

Soak red chilies in hot water for 20 minutes.

Grind these soaked red chilies with garlic and turmeric with water to a very fine paste.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan and pour this masala.

Add sufficient water to make the gravy.

Throw in the Kokum, lightly pounded tepla and salt.

Let the masala get cooked well. Adjust salt.

Add more kokum if required.

Once the masala is fully cooked, add sardines and let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes without stirring.

Serve hot with rice.

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Egg Pulusu

Pulusu in tamil means sour. There are many Egg Pulusu recipes on the net. This is a simpler version from Aayis Recipe. The base for this gravy is onion and the sourness comes from tamarind. It tastes good with hot rice. Instead of eggs you can add different vegetables like potatoes cauliflower, beans, and peas etc to make vegetable pulusu.

Ingredients- 

4 peeled hard boiled eggs with deep slits on them,

3 onion chopped lengthwise,

2 onion finely chopped,

1 small piece of ginger,

10 cloves of garlic,

2 to 3 tsp red chili powder,

3 to 4 tsp tamarind extract,

4 to 5 curry leaves,

½ tsp mustard seeds,

½ tsp cumin seeds,

½ tsp fenugreek seeds,

3 tsp oil,

Water,

Salt to taste

Method-

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and fry lengthwise chopped onion, ginger and garlic till onion gets golden brown.

Cool this and grind to a smooth paste with very little water.

Heat the remaining oil in a deep bottomed pan and crackle mustard, cumin and fenugreek seeds. Fry curry leaves and then add finely chopped onion. Keep frying till onion gets brown.

Add red chili powder and tamarind extract and fry for 30 seconds.

Now add the ground onion paste and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add sufficient water to make thick gravy.

Add salt and eggs. Cover and let it cook for 7 to 8 minutes.

Serve with hot rice or chapattis.

Hirvya Masalyache Bombil (Bombay ducks in green gravy)

Ingredients- 

10 freshBombayducks (bombil) apply salt and turmeric powder,

2 tbsp dry grated coconut,

2 tbsp fresh grated coconut,

1 medium sized onion,

4 to 5 green chilies (as per you taste),

Hand full of coriander leaves,

6 cloves of garlic,

1” piece of ginger,

1 tsp jeera,

5 to 6 kokum petals

Water,

Salt,

3 tsp oil

Method- 

Dry roast dry and fresh coconut till light brown.

Keep the entire onion in a gas burner till the outer skin burns. Click here for more details.

Blend together roasted coconut with peeled and washed onion, green chilies, coriander leaves, ginger, garlic and jeera to a fine paste.

Heat oil a deep bottomed pan and fry this ground masala for 5 to 6 mins.

Add kokum, salt and water and bring it to a boil.

Add fish and let it cook for 5 minutes.

Do not stir once you put the fish else it will break.

Serve hot with rice or chapattis.

Mushroom Peas Pepper Rice

After a heavy non vegetarian lunch on Sunday, we prefer eating Khichadi for dinner. Last Sunday our pressure cooker stopped working, so had to make something else for dinner. I had planned to make Tomato Peas Pulao. I opened the fridge and saw a packet of mushrooms, so thought of using them in the pulao and naming it Mushroom Pulao. The quantity of mushrooms was less. It wouldn’t have given a good taste, so thought of adding green peas to it and naming it Mushroom Peas Pulao. Again I opened the fridge for something and I saw capsicum, took one out and thought of naming this dish Mushroom Peas Pepper Pulao. While chopping the veggies, a thought came to my mind to add little yogurt to it. Now I couldn’t call it Pulao, since yogurt is normally used in biryanis and not pulao. So I renamed it to Mushroom Peas Pepper Rice. The outcome was good.

Here is the recipe. 

Ingredients-

2.5 cups basmati rice soaked in water for half and hour,

200 grams mushrooms chopped into pieces,

1 cup fresh/frozen peas,

1 bell pepper (Capsicum),

2 onions chopped length wise,

2 big tomatoes chopped,

12 cloves garlic,

1.5” ginger,

2 green chilies,

A small bunch of coriander leaves,

2 tsp red chili powder,

½ cup yogurt,

6 cloves,

1 inch piece of cinnamon,

5 cardamom,

2 bay leaves,

1 tsp caraway seeds (sahi jeera),

4 tsp oil,

5 cups water,

Salt to taste

Method- 

Grind ginger, garlic, green chilies and coriander leaves to a fine paste with very little water.

Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan and crackle sahi jeera. Add bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon and cardamoms.

Add onions and fry till onions turn translucent.

Add the green paste and fry till raw smell goes.

Add chili powder and continue frying for a minute.

Add peas and mushrooms. Mix well.

Add tomatoes and yogurt. Let it cook for some time.

Now add the drained rice and pepper and mix well.

Add 5 cups of boiling water to this and season with salt.

Let it boil. Mix well, cove and reduce the flame.

Once the water is reduced, keep the pan on a hot griddle on a low flame.

Switch off the gas once the grain is cooked.

Serve hot with raita.

Masala Egg

I had some leftover ground masala used for Stuffed Mackerels. I made this quick dish with eggs. It tasted amazing. You can also make this by breaking raw eggs slowly over the masala at different places, cover and let it cook till the egg is done. For people who do not eat eggs, try adding potatoes.

Ingredients-

2 hard boiled eggs,

1 cup coconut masala used for stuffed mackerels with finely chopped onion and salt,

1 tsp red chili powder (omit this if your ground masala is spicy)

1 big ripe tomato chopped

2 tsp oil

 Method-

Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan and put chili powder.

In this put hard boiled eggs. (Make some gashes on the egg for the masala to incorporate).

Fry the eggs till light golden brown. Remove the eggs and keep aside.

In the same pan put the chopped tomatoes and salt. Stir well cover and keep on slow flame.

Cook till tomatoes are soft and mushy.

Add the ground masala, very little water, salt and the eggs.

Stir well, and let it simmer till the masala gets cooked well.

Serve with bread or chapattis.

Potato Dosa

I wanted to give a try to Potato Dosa. I had read on some blog that it tastes like Aloo Paratha. I made all the preparations, my batter became thicker. The quantity of potatoes was more in that. I went ahead with it and started making dosas. My first dosa became very thick. I could not spread it. So I kept it little fat. Tried to turn it – it broke. I still cooked it further and tasted it. The taste was too good- just like Aloo Parathas.

I tried putting another dosa. It was the same. They were not at all crispy – very soft from inside. So I took some batter and added more rice flour and made the third one. This one was perfect – thin, crispy and could be spread easily. But the taste was not as good as Aloo Paratha.Milosaid it tastes like Khichadi. 🙂

I made some more dosas this way. We all had breakfast and there was still more original batter remaining. I didn’t have more patience to modify it, so I just put the entire batter in the frying pan with little oil, covered and kept on low flame for 5 minutes. Made small pieces and turned each piece and fried the other side well till brown. I served this with tomato ketchup for lunch and it tasted like yummy potato cutlets 🙂

Here is the recipe-

Ingredients-

2 large potatoes boiled, peeled and mashed,

1.2 cup rice flour,

1 cup yogurt,

3 green chilies finely chopped,

2 tsp cumin seeds,

Salt to taste,

Water,

Oil to make dosas

 Method-

Mix all the ingredients except oil to a smooth batter.

Drizzle oil on a griddle. When hot, pour a ladle full of the batter and try to spread it into a circle.

Let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes on a slow flame. Once done, flip and cook the dosa on the other side. Serve hot.

Rava/Semolina Cake (Eggless)

I had tasted this cake long time back and I wanted to make it, but didn’t have an oven. So I surfed a lot about making cakes in a pressure cooker but I never had the guts to try it in the fear of burning the cooker. So now since I have an oven I decided to make it. I got this recipe from a blog. Almost every blog has a recipe for this, so I don’t remember which one I followed. I also reduced the ghee/butter quantity in this.

Ingredients-

2.25 cups fine rava or semolina,

2 cup milk,

1.5 cup sugar,

2 cup yogurt,

1 tbsp ghee,

1/8 tsp cardamom powder,

3/4th tsp baking soda,

Few pieces of broken cashews,

1/4^th tsp salt

Method-

Beat the yogurt and sugar together till the sugar is dissolved.

To this add the milk, salt, ghee, baking soda, rava and beat this together.

Keep this mixture aside for 6 to 7 hours.

Grease a baking pan with butter and transfer the contents to it.

Garnish with cashew pieces.

Preheat the oven and bake if for 20-30 minutes at 175 degree C.

Use a knife and pierce the center of the cake with it.

If it comes out clean then the cake is ready. Let it cool and they invert the pan to remove it.

Stuffed Mackerels

I first tasted this fish at the mess of a camp which I attended long time back. It tasted very nice. One of my friends who also attended with me gave me this recipe. The masala should be made a little pungent. She also said that we can use the same masala for fish cutlets (boil fish in salt water, debone it, mix with this masala and make cutlets). I will try these cutlets one day.

Any leftover masala can be refrigerated for a week.

Ingredients- 

2 medium sized washed and cleaned mackerels,

1/4^th cup freshly grated coconut,

6 cloves of garlic,

1” ginger,

1 tsp coriander seeds,

2 cloves,

4 peppercorns,

1 small piece of cinnamon,

6 to 7 dry red chilies,

2 green chilies,

1/4^th tsp turmeric powder,

3 tsp tamarind extract,

1 small onion finely chopped,

Salt to taste,

4 tsp fine semolina (rava),

Oil 

Method- 

Make deep vertical slits in the mackerel like a pocket to stuff them. Also make horizontal cuts on the bone part of the mackerel.

Apply salt and keep aside.

Grind coconut, garlic, ginger, coriander seeds, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, red and green chilies, turmeric powder and tamarind extract to a fine paste.

Mix in the finely chopped onion and salt in the ground masala.

Wash the mackerels with water and pat them dry.

Stuff this masala in the mackerels and apply some on the outer sides of the mackerel.

Let it marinade for 2 to 3 hours.

Coat it with fine semolina and shallow fry with little oil till on both the sides.

Drumstick Masala Curry

Drumsticks are found plenty at my mom’s house. They have a tree which yields many of these during season. I used to get fed up eating them when I was small. Here in Mumbai we have to buy them and it’s not cheap – now I have started liking them. J

We use drumsticks only in dal. For a change I wanted to make something nice out of them. Recently I tried to make a curry with grated coconut (not ground).Milodid not like it. He does not like pieces of coconut in his food. It should be ground to a fine paste. So I searched the net for some recipes, took ideas from various blogs (I went through so many blogs that now I don’t even remember from which blog I took this). The original recipe didn’t use tamarind. Also the coconut and onion were not roasted before grinding.

This curry tasted amazing. Milo said it just tastes like some non vegetarian curry. My FIL said a few prawns in this would taste very nice. Verdict – All liked it.

 Ingredients- 

10 to 12 index finger size pieces of peeled drumsticks,

1 medium sized onion chopped length wise,

1 small up dry grated coconut,

1 medium sized tomato chopped,

1.5 tsp coriander seeds,

1 tsp jeera,

2 cloves,

1 cardamom,

1 small piece of cinnamon,

12 flakes of garlic,

1” ginger,

1.5 tsp red chili powder,

1 tsp Mustard seeds,

Few curry leaves,

2 tsp tamarind extract,

Salt to taste,

2 tbsp oil,

water 

Method- 

Dry roast onion and coconut till brown. Once cooled, grind it with coriander seeds, jeera, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, garlic, ginger and red chili powder.

Cook drumsticks in little water and salt till 3/4^th done.

Heat oil in a pan and crackle mustard seeds, add curry leaves and fry the masala paste for approx 5 to 7 minutes.

Add drumsticks along with the water, tomatoes, salt and tamarind extract.

Cover and cook till drumsticks are fully cooked.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or chapatis.

Hare Masale Ke Mutton Chops (Green Masala Mutton Chops)

This recipe/dish has been made by my sister, Shilpa. I had asked her to contribute some recipe on our site. After thinking for a while on what to post, she thought of the mutton chops got by her husband Ganesh. She went through some different magazines and came up with this recipe. She says it tastes good when served hot.

For the click to look good, Ganesh made the green chutney. Thanks Shilpa and Ganesh for the recipe and the pic. Waiting to eat this when I visit you’ll next 🙂

So here is the recipe in Shilpa’s own words…

Ingredients- 

Mutton Chops ½ Kg,

Ginger Garlic Paste 2 tsp 

Masala (grind together the following)-

Chopped Tomato 2,

Chopped Onion 2,

Chopped Coriander Leaves 1 cup,

Chopped Mint Leaves ½ cup,

Jeera 1 tsp,

Green Chilies 4,

Corn Flour 2 tsp,

Salt to taste,

Whole Pepper Corns 1 tsp,

Garam Masala Pwd 2 tsp

 Coating-

Beaten Eggs 2,

Bread Crumbs,

Oil

 Method- 

Marinate the mutton chops with ginger garlic paste and salt for 4 to 5 hrs.

Pressure cook the chops till done.

Apply the above ground masala to the cooked chops.

Dip in egg and roll in bread crumbs.

Shallow fry on both sides till done.

Serve hot with coriander chutney or sauce.