Chana Poha ( sweet n spicy beaten rice with chicpea sauce)

Chana poha is usually served as an evening snack or as main breakfast dish during the fasting days in Konkani Cuisine. Since this dish is filling and healthy it was prepared frequently among the joint families. At my grandma's place this dish was almost a daily affair as an evening snack. My mother made it a weekly affair during her fasting days( be it Monday or Friday). Thankfully we all liked it during our childhood days and even now. My daughter too adores it. I make it on weekends either as an evening snack or on any other lazy day when I have some cooked chickpeas in my fridge.
I learnt this dish from my mom hence Mamama(grandma)'s Chana-poha for Sakshi.
This dish is for the Event "Cooking for Kids with love" hosted by Pritya.

Poha Chutney(Sweet n Spicy Beaten Rice):
Ingredients:
Thin beaten rice - 2 cups
grated coconut - ½ cup
grated jaggery - 2 tbsp
salt to taste
seasoning:
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
dry long red chillies - 2
curry leaves - 1 sprig
coconut oil - 2 tsp

Method:
Heat coconut oil in a small pan. Splutter mustard seeds, add red chillies and curry leaves and rosat on low flame till nice and brown. Let aside to cool.
In a wide bowl, pour this seasoning and crush well. Add beaten rice, grated coconut, grated jaggery, salt and mix well. Sprinkle little water to moisten the poha. Cover and keep for 5 minutes before serving.

Note: In a jiffy, mix sambar powder to the remaining ingredients and season only with mustard and curry leaves.

Chana (Brown Chickpea sauce)
Ingredients:
Brown chickpeas - ½ cup
salt to taste
grated jaggery - 1 tsp
seasoning:
coconut oil - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 4 leaves

Method:
Pressure cook chickpeas with 2½ cups water till soft and done.
Add salt and jaggery and get to a boil.

Season with mustard and curry leaves.

Note: Raw banana or potatoes can be added as bharshi( to get along with in konkani) with chickpeas to give a thicker consistency.

Serve the poha and then pour chana over it or serve side by side. The gravy from the chana soaks up the poha and makes it soft and delicious to relish!!!

Chana Sukke (Brown Chickpea masala)

This is a typical Konkani dish usually prepared during festivals and marriages. This humble dish goes well with any kind of saaru/daals. I made this specially for the event CHICKPEAS.

Ingredients:
Dry brown chickpeas - 1 cup
suran/yellow cucumber or magge - a small piece
Frozen/fresh grated coconut - 1 cup
dry red chillies - 8
urad daal - 2 tsps
coriander seeds -3 tsps
tamarind - marble sized
oil - 1 tbsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig
salt to taste

Method:
Soak chickpeas overnight. Pressure cook till done and keep aside.
Chop suran or yellow cucumber into cubes and cook separately till done. Mix the chickpeas and suran and keep aside.
Roast dry red chillies till crisp separately. Now roast urad daal and coriander seeds in ½ tsp oil till brown.
Blend dry red chillies, grated coconut and tamarind to a smooth paste. Finally add roasted seeds and blend further for 30 secs.
Add the blended masala, salt to the chickpea-suran mixture and get to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Heat oil in a small pan/panna kayli add mustard and curry leaves. Pour this seasoning over the chana.
Serve hot with rice and daali.

This dish is off to the Event JFI Chickpeas at Sometime foodie

Rulaava Bhakri ( Spicy Semolina Dosa)

This is the dosa i hated the most all my life until my marriage. When I was doing my Engineering at my Aunt's place she would make this dosa once in a fortnight and I couldn't tell her that I hated this dosa. I used to eat only half and when nobody's around slowly flip the dosa under the book and give it to my friend who used to yearn for homely food. Finally I was caught red handed when i forgot the book at my study table and my aunt saw ants all over my book to see dosas inside!! ;))

Infact I used to tell my amma that i will totally ban this dosa after marriage. Gosh!!!! This is my hubby's favourite and he wouldn't mind having it everyday for breakfast and now my daughter's too. I had to take back my words and nobody believes when i say that I have started liking this dosa now... Really strange!!! Ultimately we are ready to do anything for our family!!! Now i don't have any particular dislikes as such. Now thats the part of growing up!!!

There are many variations to this basic batter like adding cucumber makes it thoushe bhakri. Basic ingredients also varies with each household. So its your taste that decides the ingredients going into this dosa!!!

Ingredients: makes 5 dosas
Semolina - 1 cup
grated coconut - ¼cup, fresh or frozen
green chillies - 2
ginger - 1" piece (optional)
coriander powder - 1 tsp
jeera powder - ½tsp
salt to taste

Ingredients:
Pound grated coconut, green chillies, ginger and salt to coarse paste. One can blend this in a blender. Another option is to chop the green chillies and add. Now take semolina in a bowl add the coarse paste and coriander- jeera powder. Add enough water to make a thick batter. Leave aside for 10-15 minutes.
Heat a tawa till moderately hot. Now take a fist full of batter and spread it out with your hands to dosa shape. One can also use ladle to do the same. Cover and cook on medium flame till the rawness disappears. Flip over to the other side and cook till nice and brown. Add ghee/butter while frying. Serve hot with a dollop of butter or have it with sugar or just like that.

Masala Bhindi

This is the dish i found from Jaya V. Shenoy's "Oota Upahaara" when i was eagerly looking for No onion-garlic recipes and I must say it is one of the healthiest and easiest dishes I have ever come across.

Ingredients:
lady's finger/okra/bhindis - ½ a kilo
lemon - 1
Besan/gram flour - 1 cup
coriander powder - 1 tsp
jeera powder - 1 tsp
hing powder/gum - 1 pinch
salt to taste
red chilli powder - 1½ tsp
oil - 1 tbsp

Method:
Wash and pat dry the bhindis. Trim off the ends. Slit the bhindis vertically almost to the end (but keep the end intact).

Sprinkle salt all over the bhindis and leave aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile sieve besan and add red chilli powder, coriander powder, jeera powder and hing powder/gum(dissolved in water).
Mix well.

Sprinkle this mix over the bhindis till well coated. Sqeeze out the juice of lemon onto the bhindis.
Heat a non stick pan add oil, and arrange the spice coated bhindis in a single layer. Cover and cook on medium flame stirring in between. Cook till the bhindis turn out crisp and nice.
Serve hot as a starter or with steamed rice.

Batata Vaagu (Potatoes in spicy masala)

This dish falls into the category of Konkani cuisine/Amgele Randapa which is usually prepared and served at "Tera javana/Pejje javana" in temples during Car Festivals for five days. This course of meal is served in the mornings. Paaj is Rice gruel/kanji/ganji served with delicious side dishes. One among them is batata vaagu. Batata is potatoes and vaagu literally means Tiger probably bcoz of the redness and hotness of the dish. This hot dish goes very well with the bland rice gruel or with steamed rice and daalithoy. Batata vaagu is similar to Batata saung in many ways but only that this is a No onion-garlic dish

Ingredients:
Potatoes - 2
Tomatoes - 1
Dry red chillies - 5-7( I used 5)
coriander seeds - 1 tsp
fresh/frozen grated coconut - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig
salt to taste
coconut oil - 1tsp + ½tsp

Method:
Wash, peel and boil potatoes in a Microwave oven for 8 minutes HIGH. OR
Pressure cook whole potatoes till done and peel them.
Chop the boiled potatoes into small cubes.
Heat ½ a tsp of oil and fry red chillies and coriander seeds till light brown. Take care not to burn the seeds.
Now blend the fried red chillies and coriander seeds along with grated coconut and tomatoes to a smooth paste. Heat another tsp of oil in a pan and add mustard seeds let them splutter. Add curry leaves saute and add the spicy masala. Saute this masala over medium flame till rawness disappears and the gravy is bright red in colour. Now add salt, ½ a cup of water and chopped potatoes. Cover and cook on medium flame for around 8 minutes. The gravy thickens. Cook till the dish is semi-dry.

Serve hot with rice or chapathi.

Note: I have made a slight variation in the making of this dish. Traditional recipe calls for blending only fried ingredients with coconut. Chopped tomatoes are normally added to the pan after seasoning with mustard and curry leaves and cooked along with the ground paste. I wanted it to finish up fast and hence a shortcut. Its tastes all well anyway!!!!

Coriander Kadi

I made this kadhi for lunch today and believe me when i say I got it from one of the cookery shows (Kannada channel - Suvarna) today morning at 9am. It was an instant try. These days we are on saatvik diet (pure veg - no onion-garlic) and this dish came as a blessing in disguise. One of the easiest gravies best served with white/brown rice. I also made cabbage upkari and cauliflower/capsicum bhajo(bhajia) to meet up with the new dish I introduced to my family. Both my hubby and kiddo loved it. A real comfort food one can really yearn for!!!!

Ingredients: Serves 3
fresh/frozen grated coconut - 1/2 cup
coriander leaves - half a bunch
green chillies - 1
cumin/jeera seeds - 1/2 tsp
Yogurt/buttermilk - 1 cup
salt to taste

Seasoning
coconut oil or any oil - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
dry red chillies - 2 long
curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method:
Pick and wash coriander leaves and chop them roughly. Wash and chop green chillies roughly.

Grind grated coconut, chopped coriander leaves and green chillies, jeera seeds to a fine paste in a blender. Transfer the ground paste into the pan/pot/vessel. Add ¼cup water and salt and get to a boil. Now put off the flame.

Beat the yogurt till creamy or just use buttermilk. Add this to the boiled mixture and put on the flame and cook on low heat till u get a first boil. DO not boil for a long time as the yogurt will curdle.

For seasoning, heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Then add dry red chillies and curry leaves fry for 3 seconds and pour the seasoning into the kadhi. Serve it warm with rice.