Kokum Kadi

My domestic maid K gave me a bag full of these sour Kokum fruits which she got from her native. The botanical name is Garcinia indica. We usually use the dried peels of these fruits called kokum in our cooking. These fresh ones are used to make kokum sherbet (sweet juice) but I didn’t want to make it for the fact that a lot of sugar goes into making it. My mom suggested that I should dry the peels to make dried kokum but unfortunately we do not have a lot of sunlight coming into our house, so I dropped that idea. K told me about this recipe and I tried it the other day. It is much different than the usual sol kadi and it tastes amazing with plain rice or can be had after a heavy non vegetarian meal. It helps in digestion. So here is the recipe for Kokum Kadi.

 Ingredients –

10 to 12 whole kokum fruit,

1/4^th cup freshly grated coconut,

2 green chilies,

5 cloves of garlic,

A piece of ginger,

Handful of coriander leaves,

1/4^th piece of an onion,

½ tsp jaggery,

Salt to taste,

2 tsp oil,

1 tsp mustard seeds,

1 tsp cumin seeds,

Few curry leaves,

5 cups of water,

1/4^th tsp turmeric powder

Method –

Wash the kokum fruits and remove the stalk. Put the fruits in water and squeeze out the juice.

Squeeze till all the juices come out.

Strain this liquid, put salt and jaggery and keep aside.

Grind together coconut, green chilies, garlic, ginger, coriander leaves and onion with little water to a smooth paste.

Put this ground paste in the kokum water and bring to a boil.

Let it simmer for appox 5 minutes.

In a small pan, heat oil and crackle mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add turmeric powder, fry for a while and put this in the cooked kadi. Cover the vessel so that the aroma does not escape.

Serve with rice or drink it up after a heavy meal.

Advertisement

Green Masala Dal

Ingredients-

1 cup toor dal,

1 big ripe tomato chopped,

1 very small finely chopped onion,

12 flakes of garlic,

1” piece of ginger,

1 green chili,

1 cup coriander leaves,

1 tsp cumin seeds,

1 tsp mustard seeds,

Few curry leaves,

Salt to taste,

Water

Method –

Pressure cook toor dal till soft and mushy.

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

Heat oil in a pan and crackle cumin seeds and mustard seeds.

Fry the green paste for approx 2 minutes.

Now add the tomatoes and continue frying till tomatoes become little soft.

Add salt and the cooked dal. Mix well and adjust water. Let it boil thoroughly.

Serve hot with rice.

Goan Prawns and Drumsticks Curry

Here is an authentic goan prawn’s curry I made for Sunday lunch. As I mentioned in my previous fish curry posts- give this curry a standing time for the prawn taste to seep into the curry. You can replace drumsticks with ladyfingers or brinjals or radish or turnips or raw mango. It tastes amazing.

Ingredients-

1 cup shelled prawns,

3 drumsticks cut into pieces,

1 medium sized grated coconut,

12 dry red chilies (I used the thin long variety called Bedgye),

8 dry red goan chilies (optional),

1 tsp coriander seeds,

5 cloves of garlic,

7 to 8 fenugreek seeds,

5 to 6 pepper corns,

½ tsp turmeric powder,

3 tsp tamarind extract,

1/4^th piece of onion,

1 green chili,

3/4^th onion finely chopped,

2 tsp oil,

Salt to taste,

Water

Method –

Apply little salt to the prawns are keep them aside.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and fry coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and red chilies separately and keep them aside.

Grind together coconut, red chilies, coriander seeds, and garlic, 1/4th piece of onion, turmeric powder, tamarind extract, pepper corns and green chili with sufficient water to a very fine paste.

Now add fenugreek seeds and grind for 2 to3 minutes.

Heat oil in a pan and fry finely chopped onion till brown.

Add drumsticks and water and little salt. Allow the drumsticks to cook.

Add prawns and cook for another 2 minutes.

Now add the ground masala and adjust water and salt.

Allow the curry to boil for 5 to 6 minutes.

Serve with hot rice.

Bombay Ducks (Bombil) Curry

This is a very tasty and easy method of fish curry specially made out of Bombay Ducks. The recipe was shared with me by my colleague and friend Supriya. I guess it’s a Maharashtrian preparation. When I made this for the first time, I did not have coriander leaves. I tried it again with the leaves and the taste was amazing. It’s a little spicy curry which goes well with rice.

You can also try this curry with prawns.

Ingredients-

12 pieces ofBombayducks,

8 cloves of garlic,

5 pieces of dried kokum,

2 to 3 tsp red chili powder,

½ tsp coriander powder,

1/4^th tsp garam masala powder,

½ tsp turmeric powder,

2 tsp oil,

Water,

Salt to taste

Grind to a fine paste the following –

10 cloves of garlic,

A piece of ginger,

2 green chilies,

A handful coriander leaves (optional),

1/4^th cup water

 Method –

Wash the fish well, apply salt and keep aside,

Heat oil in a pan and fry crushed garlic till light brown.

Add turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder and stir well.

Immediately add 2 cups of water (Take care not to burn the masalas).

Add the ground paste, salt and kokum pieces and let it boil thoroughly.

Adjust salt and addBombayducks.

Cover the pan with a lid and allow the fish to cook. This will take approximately 4 to 5 minutes.

Do not stir the curry else the fish will break.

Serve hot with steam rice.

Chicken Xacuti

This is another well known chicken curry of Goa pronounced as Shakuti. It is generally made on Sundays in most of the Goan households and is eaten with pao (bread) and with rice.

The garam masala that I have used in this is my mom’s home made masala. Click here for the recipe. You can use any store brought garam masala but the taste differs. You can also make ‘roos omlet’ (another well known Goan delicacy) of the left over curry by just making an omlet of an egg,  soak it with this chicken curry and serve it stuffed in a Goan poli (famous bread of Goa). So here is the recipe of Chicken Xacuti.

Ingredients –

1 kg chicken cut into medium sized pieces,

2 onions finely chopped,

2 tomatoes finely chopped,

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste,

Juice of 1 lime,

1/4^th tsp turmeric powder,

1 bay leaf,

2 green chilies,

Coriander leaves,

5 tsp oil

To grind-

2 cups grated coconut,

1 big onion cut lengthwise,

4 cloves,

6 peppercorns,

A small piece of cinnamon,

4 tsp garam masala powder,

2 tsp red chili powder,

2 tsp oil

Method –

Marinate the chicken pieces with ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, lime juice and salt for a minimum 1 to 2 hours.

Heat oil in a pan and fry lengthwise cut onions till golden brown. Add coconut and keep frying till the mixture turns dry and light brown in color.

Add cloves, pepper and cinnamon and fry for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Once cooled grind this with garam masala and red chili powder to a very smooth paste with sufficient water.

Keep this masala aside.

In a deep bottomed pan heat oil and fry bay leaves and slit green chilies for half a minute.

Add finely cut onion and fry for 5 to 6 minutes till onion gets cooked. Now add tomatoes and fry well till tomatoes are done.

Add chicken pieces to this, mix well and cover it with a lid.

When chicken is half cooked, add the ground masala. Adjust salt.

Cover and cook till chicken is done.
Garnish with coriander leaves and add more lime juice if required.

Serve hot with pao or chapattis, or plain rice.

Chanyacho Roos (Green Peas Curry)

 

This is a Goan delicacy made with green peas and ground coconut. Green Peas are called as chanae and the gravy is called as roos in Konkani. These are not the fresh/frozen green peas that we get in season. You need to use dried green peas. This is Milo’s favorite Goan dish. We both like to eat it with hot idlis. We see to it that we eat this whenever we visit Goa or when my mom visits us. The garam masala that I have used in this is my mom’s home made masala. I will post the recipe for this very soon. You can use any store brought garam masala but the taste differs. So if you want authentic chanya cho roos then wait till I post my moms garam masala recipe.

Ingredients-

3 cups dried green peas soaked overnight in sufficient water,

2 cups freshly grated coconut,

1 big onion chopped lengthwise,

1 small tomato chopped,

6 cloves of garlic,

1” piece of ginger,

5 cloves,

7 to 8 peppercorns,

1 small piece of cinnamon,

2 tsp garam masala,

1 big tomato cut into 4 pieces,

Coriander leaves to garnish,

2 tsp oil,

Salt to taste

Method-

Pressure cook green peas for just one whistle. They should not be overcooked. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and fry onions till light brown.

Add the grated coconut, ginger, garlic, cloves, pepper and cinnamon to the pan and fry well by keeping the flame very low.

The onion coconut mixture should become dry after frying and the color should be light brown.

Add the small chopped tomato and fry for 2 minutes.

Allow it to cool and grind to a very fine paste with sufficient water and garam masala powder.

Add the ground masala to the cooked green peas.

Add salt and more water if required and let the masala cook well.

Add the big pieces of tomato and coriander leaves.

Cook the tomatoes till they are little soft but are intact.

Serve hot with chapattis, rice, idli or pao.

Tomato Curry

I make this curry whenever we are fed up of eating the same dal everyday. This is my mom’s way of making this curry. She adds rasam powder to it which gives it extra taste. This curry is my favorite and I end up eating more rice when this is made 🙂

Ingredients-

1 cup fresh/frozen grated coconut,

5 big ripe tomatoes,

6 dry red chilies,

1 tsp coriander seeds,

5 garlic flakes,

2 tsp rasam powder (optional)

For tempering –

1 tsp mustard seeds,

1 dry red chili,

1 green chili,

4 cloves garlic,

4 to 5 curry leaves,

1/8^th tsp asafetida,

2 tsp oil

Method –     

Cook the tomatoes till soft. Once cooled, peel them and keep aside.

Fry coriander seeds and red chilies in very little oil and grind this with peeled tomatoes, coconut and 5 garlic flakes with sufficient water to form a fine paste.

Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan and splutter mustard seeds.

Add dry red chili cut into 2 pieces, green chili, 4 cloves of crushed garlic, curry leaves and asafetida. Fry for a few seconds and add the ground paste. Add salt, rasam powder and water to make gravy like consistency.

Let it boil. Serve hot with rice and papad.

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.

Jackfruit Seeds and Drumsticks Sambar

A delicious sambar tried from spicytasty site. I followed the recipe as it is and only added brinjal to it. It goes well with rice, dosas and idlis. Thanks to spicytasty for this recipe.

Egg Omelet Curry

A different style of making egg curry is to make a plain omelet of eggs and mix it in onion tomato gravy. This idea of omelet curry has been adapted from Anju ji (she was my mom’s neighbor in Goa in my childhood days). I learnt a lot of north Indian dishes from her. I was just a teenager then. She used to make a lot of delicacies and send us. My sister and I used to take recipes from her and try out different food. She moved out of Goa pretty soon and we are no longer in touch with her.

The egg cubes in this gravy looks like paneer pieces. I have modified the gravy here by putting onion cooked on gas directly and I have also added pav bhaji masala for a different taste.

Ingredients –

5 eggs,

2 onions,

1 big tomato,

8 garlic,

1 piece ginger,

2 green chilies,

Hand full corrianger leaves,

2 tsp garam masala,

2 tsp pav bhaji masala,

¼ tsp turmeric powder,

2 to 3 tsp tomato ketchup,

2 tsp grated coconut,

Water,

Salt to taste,

Oil

 Method-

Beat eggs with little salt till fluffy.

Heat oil in a pan and pour the egg mixture. Cover with a lid and let it cook.

Before the top layer gets cooked, fold the egg omlet and let it cook for 1 min more.

Now switch off the gas and let it cool. Cut it into squares and keep aside.

Keep one entire onion with its peel on a gas burner on a very slow flame. Once the onion becomes soft, wash it under running water and remove the burnt skin.

Grind this onion along with ginger, garlic, coriander leaves and coconut with little water. 

Heat oil in a wok and fry one finely cut onion. When it becomes golden brown, add garam masala, pav bhaji masala and turmeric powder. Let it fry till oil separates. Add tomatoes and fry till tomatoes are cooked.

Add the ground masala to this and keep frying till the raw smell goes off.

Now add tomato ketchup and 2 to 3 cups of hot water, adjust salt. Once it boils thoroughly, add the egg pieces.

Let the egg pieces cook in the gravy. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with chapattis.