Kannadiga Recipes : Soppu Saru | Soppina Saaru | Greens Curry

In bangalore, quite a few variety of leafy vegetables are available. For my recipe I have used Spinach(palak soppu), Methi ( Menthe soppu), Dill leaves ( Sabbassige soppu), Amaranath leaves (dantina soppu) and two more local soppu. We can as well use any of the two available greens for this dish.

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 each small bunch Green leafy vegetables explained above.
• 1/4th cup Toor dal
• 4 -5 Green chillies
• 1 big Onion cut into cubes
• 1 big Tomato cut into cubes
• 1 medium size Tamrind
• 1 whole Garlic, separated and cleaned
• 1 tea spoon Turmeric powder
• 1 table spoon Garam masala/ Sambar powder
• 1/2 tea spoon Mustard seeds
• Oil for seasoning
• 1 strand Curry leaves
• 2 Red chillies
• Salt as per taste

 Method:

• Soak toor dal for around 2 hours in water.
• Clean and wash all the greens and keep it aside.
• In a pressure cooker, add soaked toor dal, all the greens, green chillies, onion, tomato, garlic, turmeric powder, tamarind.

• Pressure cook it for 1 whistle.
• Once the cooker cools down, transfer the contents of cooker to blender.

• Don't blend it to smooth paste. Grind it coarsely as shown in picture.
• Finely transfer the contents of blender to a kadai.
• Add salt, garam masala / sambar powder and chilli powder if needed.

• Mix it well and let it cook for 4 - 5 minutes.
• In a separate small pan, add oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chillies.

• Add this seasoning to the curry and serve hot soppu saru with hot rice or ragi mudde.

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Quick Lauki Ki Sabzi | Bottle Gourd And Black Eyed Peas Curry Recipe - A Side Dish For Chapathi Or Roti

 

The above thali has 2 chapathis, bottle gourd curry and Kerala style Karimeen Pollichathu. Below is a very quick and tasty recipe of bottle gourd.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of Bottle gourd(Lauki) cut into small pieces
• 1/4th cup Black eyed peas
• 1 big Onion finely chopped
• 1 medium Tomato finely chopped
• 1/2 tea spoon Mustard seeds
• 1/2 tea spoon Cumin seeds
• 1 strand Curry leaves
• 1 tea spoon Chilli powder
• 1 tea spoon Garam masala
• Oil for seasoning
• Salt as per taste

Method:

• Cook black eyed peas in cooker and keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
• When it starts spluttering, add curry leaves and onion. Fry it till the onion becomes light brown.

• Now add bottle gourd pieces, add little water, close the lid and let it cook for 7 - 8 minutes.
• Add finely chopped tomato and cooked black eyed peas.

• Add chilli powder, garam masala , salt. Mix well.
• Cook for another 7 - 8 minutes.

• Lauki ki sabzi is ready.

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Mushroom Masala Gravy | Punjabi Style Mushroom Makhanwala | Mushroom Makhani Curry Recipe

Preparation Time: 50 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• Butter as required
• 2 packets( 18 - 20 in number) of Mushrooms
• 3 medium Onions
• 1 big Tomato finely chopped
• 3 - 4 Green chilllies
• 1 table spoon Ginger garlic paste (I have used Garlic pods and ginger piece while grinding)
• 2 strands of Coriander leaves
• 1 tea spoon Cumin powder
• 1 tea spoon Coriander powder
• 1 table spoon Chilli powder
• Cream if required
• Salt as per taste

Method:

• Cut mushrooms in small cubes as shown in picture.
• Cut 1 onion into big cubes.

• Grind the onion, green chillies, ginger, garlic and 1 strand coriander leaves in blender to smooth paste and keep it aside.
• Chop the 2 remaining onion into small pieces.
• In a kadai, put oil/butter and fry the finely cut onion till it becomes light pink.

• Then add finely chopped tomatoes and fry.
• Now add cumin powder, coriander powder, chilli powder, salt, ground masala and mix well. Dont add water as after adding mushroom the gray becomes more liquid.

• Add mushroom, mix well. Close the lid and let it cook for another 10 minutes.
• At the end sprinkle remaining finely chopped coriander leaves.

• Also add cream(if required), butter (if required) while serving.

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Indian Desserts : Cantaloupe sweetdish | Konkani Chibbada Hashale | Chibda Phovu

Chibbad is a kind of sweet melon. It is known as Karbooj in Hindi and Cantaloupe in English. This fruit is a seasonal fruit  and a good variety chibbad just dissolves in mouth and the flesh of it becomes like rava, This sweet dish is very famous in Konkani people.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 medium size Chibbad(Cantaloupe) cut into small cubes
• 1 ½ cup grated Coconut(preferably tender one)
• 1 cup Jaggery

• 4-5 Cardamom peeled and powdered
• ½ cup Phovu(Avalakki in Kannada, thin, optional)

 Method:

• Wash poha in water and soak it for some time.
• Grind grated coconut and jaggery to smooth paste.

• Now mix cubes of chibbad, the above prepared paste, cardmon and phovu.
• Serve chilled.

 PS:  The coconut to be used in this should be as tender as possible. The tender coconut makes this dish more tasty.

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Kerala Style Karimeen Pollichathu Recipe

Preparation Time: 60 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

For the marinate

• Karimeen 2 in number
• 2 table spoon Chilli powder
• 1/2 table spoon Turmeric powder
• 1/2 table spoon Pepper powder
• Salt as per taste
• Oil to fry
• Banana leaf for wrapping

For the Masala gravy  

• 1 big Tomato finely chopped
• 1 big Onion finely chopped
• 2 table spoon Ginger garlic paste
• 2 Green chillies finely chopped
• 1/2 table spoon Pepper powder
• 1/2 table spoon Coriander powder
• 1 tea spoon Garam masala powder
• 3 table spoon Thick coconut milk (optional)
• 1 strand Curry leaves
• A small bunch of Coriander leaves finely chopped
• Salt as per taste
• Oil to fry

Method:

• Cut and clean the fish.
• Peal the skin of the fish completely or make diagonal slits on them. This helps in marinating the fish.

• Make a paste of chilli powder, turmeric powder, pepper powder and salt.
• Apply this paste to the fish all around, and keep aside for an hour, to get the fish marinated.

 For the Masala

• Put oil in a kadai, add green chillies, ginger garlic paste and curry leaves.

• Fry till the raw smell disappears.
• Now add chopped onion till it turns to light brown.

• Now add tomatoes and rest of the powders given above.
• Finely sprinkle coriander leaves.

• Fry the marinated fish on a hot tawa, in oil till it is half done. Cover the fish with lid and fry both the sides of the fish.

• Now Clean a medium size(the size should be enough to cover the fish completely) banana leaf.
• Place a layer of the above masala on banana leaf.
• Now place the fried fish.

• Apply another layer of the masala above the fish as shown in picture.
• Carefully wrap the leaf and tie it.
• Heat a tawa, put little oil.
• Keep the above wraped fish on it, and fry both the sides.
• Cover it with a lid for a nice aroma.

PS: One can add lemon juice while preparing Masala if you like. or one can add lemon juice at the end, while eating.

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Konkani Randap : Pathradya Phodi | Pathrode | Colocassia Leaf Rolls

Pathrado is one among Konkani traditional dishes. This dish is prepared using colocasia leaves. Some times eating some of these leaves end up itchy tongue and itchy throat.  So one should be very careful while using these leaves. Back in my hometown,  we grow these leaves in our backyard is very handy to use in case we are short of veges.  These leaves are called as taro in Konkani. There are a lot of varieties of pathrado one can prepare. The instructions given below are  the recipe which is popular in Konkani people of north canara of Karnataka state. 

Preparation Time: 50 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

 

• 6 colocasia/collard greens
• 1 cup grated coconut
• ½ cup toor dal 
• 1 table spoon urad dal 
• ½ table spoon coriander seeds
• 2 table spoon jaggery
• 5-6 red chillies
• 1 medium piece tamarind
• Turmeric powder
• 3 table spoon Flattened rice (Phovu)
• ½ cup rava/sooji
• Oil
• Salt

Method:

• Soak toor dal in water for an hour.
• Fry flattened rice, urad dal and coriander seeds in pan.
• Grind together flattened rice, urad dal, coriander seeds, grated coconut, tamarind, jaggary , red chillies by adding very little water. This masala should not be very soft.

• Now wash the colocasia leaves and pat them dry. Slightly crush all the veins of these leaves using knife which makes cooking easier and makes these leaves less itchy.
• Apply a layer of the above ground masala on one leaf.

• Keep another leaf on the first leafe and repeat the procedure till you have 6 leaves stacked on one antoher.
• Now roll them neatly as shown in picture.  Don’t forget to apply masala on top as well, While rolling.

• Once nicely rolled, put them in the steamer and steam it for at least 15 minutes
• Pock a knife and see if the knife catches the batter if it doesn't then its done. If batter sticks to the knife, then boil it for some more time. 

• Leave cooker/steamer for another 10min before taking out the pathrado.
• Cut with a sharp knife to thin rounds 

• Heat a non stick pan. Roll the pathrado in rava on both sides. And keep on the hot tava.

• Fry both sides of the pathrado using oil.

• Hot spicy and tasty pathrado ready to eat.

PS:  One should have a right proportion of  tamarind, red chillies and salt. Because these are the ones which make or spoil the taste of pathrado. In rainy season, when we visit our native, pathrode, rice and  ankre tambli is the tastiest and very healthy combination, we have. 

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Konkani Randap : Ambadya Nonche | Hog Plums Pickle | Kannadiga Amatekayi Uppinakayi

A tangy and spicy pickle recipe goes here.

Preparation Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 15 – 17 Hog plums ( Ambade)
• 2 table spoon Red chilli powder
• 2 cups grated Coconut
• 5 -6 table spoon Jaggery syrup
• 2 table spoon Mustard seeds
• 1 table spoon Fenugreek seeds (Methi seeds)
• 1 table spoon Urad dal
• A pinch of Asafoetida for seasoning
• 2 strands of Curry leaves
• A pinch Turmeric powder
• 2 table spoon oil
• Salt as per taste

 Method:

• Cook the hog plums in water as shown in picture. After cooking mash them a little and keep them aside.

• In a kadai, heat oil put mustard seeds.
• When it starts spluttering, add fenugreek seeds, urad dal, asafetida and curry leaves, one by one.

• Add a pinch of turmeric powder to it. Now add the cooked hot plums to it.
• In a separate vessel, mix red chilli powder, grated coconut, jaggery and salt nicely.

• Transfer this mixture to the kadai.
• Mix it well and cook it for around 13 – 15 minutes.

 PS:  This pickle has to be preserved in refrigerator for longer use.

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Quick And Easy Breakfast Recipe : Instant Rava Idli

Rava Idli is one of the famous South Indian breakfast dish, which takes very less time to prepare compared to regular Idli. Here goes the recipe of soft and puffy  Rava Idli.

Preparation Time: 60 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Rava/Sooji
• 3 cups Curds
• 1 table spoon Cumin powder
• ½  table spoon Mustard seeds
• ¼ cup grated Carrot
• ¼ cup grated Coconut (optional)
• 2 – 3 Green chillies finely chopped
• ½ table spoon Ginger paste
• ½ table spoon Urad dal
• ½ table spoon Chana dal
• ¼ table spoon Baking soda
• Salt as per taste
• 6-7 Cashew nuts broken in to half
• A small bunch Coriander leaves finely chopped
• 1 table spoon oil

  Method:

• Heat oil in a kadai, fry cashew nuts and keep it aside.

• In the same kadai, heat ½ table spoon oil, add mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, green chillies, ginger paste and cumin powder one by one.

• When dal turns light brown, add rava and roast it nicely as shown in picture. Now add grated coconut and fry it for a while.

• Allow it to cool. After it cools, add salt, baking soda, cashew nuts, grated carrot and curd one by one. Mix it well without lumps. 
• Add water if required, to get the consistency of regular idli batter.

• Let the rava idli batter rest for 15-20 minutes .

• Pour it on greased idli moulds and steam cook for 10-15 minutes just as you do for normal idlis.
• Hot and tasty Rava Idli is ready. 

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