Hagalakayi Gojju

Hagalakayi Gojju or Bitter Gourd Relish

If you are North Indian after reading the title you are in splits, I can see that. To add to that the color isn't working in its favor either. Oh lets get beyond that poop joke and look at the huge lesson this dish stands for.

Life's experiences are bitter just like the bitter gourd but if you know how to live well then you turn those bitter experiences around to mellow and make them palatable. This Hagalakayi gojju is from the Karnataka repertoire. It requires a Gojjina pudi or a special masala that makes it nutty and fragrant. On my YouTube channel TALKATIVE ANJALI I have posted the video for Gojjina pudi go over to watch.

Ingredients

1 cup finely sliced bitter gourd/ Karela

2 tablespoons Gojjina pudi

2 tablespoons jaggery

2 tablespoon tamarind extract

1 teaspoon mustard

1 teaspoon oil

few curry leaves optional

First salt the sliced bitter gourd. Let it sit for 30 mins. Squeeze out the water to remove excessive bitter juice. This is your cured bitter gourd.

Heat oil in a small pot. Splutter the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the cured bitter gourd to the seasoned oil. Stir and let it cook for 2-3 mins. Add water to cover the bitter gourd put a lid and cook till soft. Then add the gojjina pudi. Follow in with tamarind extract and jaggery. Add salt as per taste. Let it come to a rolling boil and all flavors meld together. Let it thicken a bit and then put off the heat.

This hagalakayi gojju or relish is a beautiful palate changer in a thali. You can enjoy it with rotis, puris, dosas, etc as well as rice.

You can create different varieties of gojju with the same recipe. The most popular one is the pineapple gojju, check it out on my YouTube.

Corn N Peas Majjige Huli

The buttermilk had gone sour and I had more than a litre of it. The family was complaining that we were eating too many dal-rice meals. Sumeet found wonderful corn and got them home. I thought of this non traditional majjige huli idea, here in Mumbai not everyone loves their gourds so this corn made succulent in the curry was a safe bet. To add more color I included peas too but those sat at the bottom and didn't really help to make it colorful unless they were scooped up with a spoon. Yeah but it did surprise the diners, when they did.

Follow exactly the traditional recipe of Majjige HuLi With Mangalore Southekayi but instead of the cooking cucumber use corn on the cob, chopped into large chunks and add a cup of peas to the recipe.

It's so much fun to suck on to the corn and if it is as sweet as we had it was a perfect match for the sour curd curry.

Tip: In this curry I added the cilantro to the seasonings and it made a big difference to the flavors.

Avarekai Tovve

I have been brought up on very complex flavors like a true Koli. However I have evolved to love simple natural flavors. The Avarekai Tovve is one such recipe. Simple flavors of in season Avarekai/ Val laced only with fresh ginger.

When Dad was in Mumbai I spent a lot of time with Sulekha. Last Sunday she cooked for me. She is so self deprecating always she surprises me many times with some brilliance. This recipe is one such, so understated and yet flavorful. It was fun to watch Sulekha roll out the puris and make the Tovve coz she always finds it a pain to cook. I think she enjoys cooking only when she has people like me and her married daughter to appreciate it, the foodies we are. Does she know with all the fuss she creates she is quite a good cook!

I had taken Gucchi Olu and Methi dal for Sulekha so you see a bit of the bhaaji on my plate in the picture. While Sulekha kept it for later.

See the spicy sambhar I had posted before. There are many useful tips and the culture bit about the Kannada love of Avarekai explained in my post on Avare Kaalu Akki Roti.

Preparation: 

1/2 kg of Avarekai/ Val/ field beans. Separate the fresh beans from the pods and soak it in water overnight or in warm water atleast for an hour. This will swell up the skin and peeling the skin off the bean is a breeze. We sat together to do this task as I talked to her. It is always like this I just keep talking and talking with Sulekha. She listens sometimes making wise cracks.

It yields about a large bowl of hidikbele/ peeled beans.

Ingredients

1 bowl of hidikbele/ peeled Val/ field beans

1 onion halved and sliced

1 green chili

a big handful of chopped cilantro

1 inch piece of freshest ginger

2 teaspoons oil

salt to taste

Heat oil in a small pressure cooker. Add the onion and fry till translucent. Fry till they are half cooked in the oil. Now add ginger. Top up with water just to cover the beans. At this point add the chopped cilantro. Pressure cook for 3 whistles. Cool the cooker and then open the lid after the steam subsides completely. Mash the beans with a Ravi (masher). Boil once on high heat. Put off heat and just leave it undisturbed for the flavors to unite. 

The finishing touch is with a bit of lime juice, a very large pinch of freshly ground black pepper and a dollop of ghee.

Serve with hot puris is what Sulekha recommends. But I am quite confident it will taste heavenly with steamed rice too. It is a lot like our Maharashtrian goda varan. Yet very delicious as it is the in season Avarekai which is the star!

The meal was complimented with a fresh salad of carrot and cucumber shavings with chat masala sprinkles and Alphabet Payasa for dessert (until I post it keep guessing)!

Thank you Sulekha I enjoyed my time and it was very thoughtful of you to have me over so that I was not lonely! This is a dedication to you. For being my first friend since 2nd May 2005 when I landed in Bangalore  on a transfer. For help with settling down in Bangalore and the organization we work for. I have much more to Thank you for and only you know it. Love you, God Bless and Touch wood.

Potato and Onions in Yogurt, My Pick At the Potluck

Find the Potato and Onions in Yogurt in this collage.

A day prior to the Potluck as I was freezing the menu, Shrinidhi came to tell me he was getting along a Potato Salad. Knowing my interest in cooking he immediately described what he had learnt from his Mom. I went Yum~! A new recipe for my blog.

Tell me the authetic name, not your anglicized Potato salad. That is not acceptable. He did try naming it, for a man who was away from this country for more than a decade it was only a fair attempt. In Tulu, he said, Alu gadde something something...I agree with his wife, who is a Bengali that it did sound completely made up and needed a verification and certification by his Mom. Now how do I do that? Luckily there is a granny in the team so I turned to her, to which Sapna added its called Alu bhaji (sounded like Marathi for pakoda). Well I decided ultimately to go by the ingredients for the namesake.

So here I am presenting Shrinidhi's Mom's recipe of a delish salad that caught my taste buds by surprise by its simplicity in a potluck that had food from different states of India.

Ingredients

4 potatoes boiled and cubed
2 onions chopped fine
1 heaped teaspoon urad dal/ split black lentils
10 curry leaves
2 red chilies broken into pieces
1/2 litre fresh yogurt/ curd
salt to taste
2 teaspoons coconut oil

Heat the coconut oil to a point of smoking. Inhale the divine aroma :). Add the urad dal, fry till golden. Then crispen the curry leaves and red chili to smokiness. Now fry the onions just to get rid of the raw taste. Add the potato dices. Put off the heat. Mash the potatoes a bit with the back of the spoon. Mix in the yogurt or curd. I would prefer yogurt as it is more creamier but curd too works the traditional way.

Shrinidhi says this was a staple homecoming meal at his parents home in Manipal. They enjoyed it with hot steaming rice with more coconut oil drizzled on it. He has survived on this Potato salad in all his stays in Europe where a vegetarian tends to loose appetite for obvious reasons. I could live just on this salad without rice or chapati for accompaniment. As always I try to find similarities in cuisines, to me it is like a South Indian tasting Aloo chaat. It has the potential to freak you out as you squeeze out the juices of the yogurt drenched red chili to turn up the heat of a rather cool salad.

AND here is our...

Potluck Menu

Rice: Bisibele Bhat, Tamarind Rice, Lemon Rice, Veg Pulao, Curd rice

Indian breads: Chapati, Puri, Kozhakatai, Akki Roti with chutney

Curries: Chana Masala, Shahi paneer, Aloo-matar, Kadala curry

Starters: Kothimbir Vadi with Bedekar's garlic chutney and Ketchup, Potato wafers. Banana wafers.

Salad: Sprouts salad, Potato Onion in yogurt, Mix Veg slices

Desserts: Apple crumble, Nolen Gurer Sandesh, Vanilla Icecream, Gulab Jamun, Srikhand, Soan Papdi, Plum Cake.

Drink: Tang-Orange

Its easy to guess it was Kothimbir Vadi from me and I already wrote about the Apple Crumble. The Potluck in the true sense was a Melting pot of all recipes from North-South-East and the West. Quite a reflection of India and its food, we all appreciated the diverse cultures. United we are as the saying goes "Teams that eat together stay together". That one is an adapted one!

Well with this post I am crossing the FINISH line of the Nupur's 7-day recipe marathon. Yay! My Fellow Marathoners were inspiring all the way. I met new bloggers through this event. Thank you every one for making it fun.

Thank you Nupur for this idea. I know I enjoyed participating in this event immensely. Hope you enjoyed being a marathoner inspite of the Kitchen plumbing fiasco.

Finally before the clock strikes 12 here and we move into a brand New 2010. Let me hit the publish button.

Happy New Year... Bloggers! Readers!! All you out there!!!
May there be sunshine in your lives by God's grace.

Majjige HuLi With Mangalore Southekayi

Majjige HuLi, steamed rice, a blog err blob of pickle, Corn and Carrot Kosumbari and Chili bhajji, that's a Bangalore Mini Meal!

Majjige HuLi has been on the wedding menu of almost all the weddings I have attended so far here in Blr.

With the 7-day recipe marathon hosted on One Hot Stove I knew it was time to give it a try.

Majjige HuLi translates to Buttermilk Sour, the sour refers to the curry ofcourse. I used this recipe. It turned out really tasty.

I started off with plans of a Majjige HuLi with Madras cucumber in my earlier post on that special Sambhar with the cucumber. Then D, my dear friend tells me this Madras cucumber is also called Mangalore Southekayi. Thought this post would sound more authentic with the Mangalore Southekayi. No fusion brought in even in the name by moi Maharashtrian. Essentially like GOD with all possible names is still the same. Call it Madras cucumber or Mangalore southekayi it is the same form. Don't know if they worship it in these individual regions ;)!

She went on to educate me that it is one of the few vegetables which stays good in the tropical climate of Mangalore and is used widely in many preparations besides Sambar. By now I needn't say she hails from Mangalore, you got it!

This curry is a good change from the dals & Kadhis that I am used to. It is going to be made often in my kitchen now with different vegetables. I have eaten one with Ridge gourd at our friend Ashwath Narayan and Parimala aunty's home.

Most of the traditional cooks chop the vegetables into large chunks on the pretext that the gourds which are so popular for this may crumble into the curry. I infact disagree with that. The curry is just about brought to a boil. So there is no chance of vegetables loosing their identity in there. So I gave the Anjali touch to it. The HuLi stands out with 1/4 inch slices of the cooking cucumber. It is a delicately flavored curry and a little more delicate handling of veggies will only enhance its beauty when plated.

See I told you!

I did not want to repeat the recipe here but this little procedure is important so I'll go all the way enumerating my tweaking. I skipped the turmeric in the original recipe as I have never seen turmeric or tasted it in any Majjige HuLi I have eaten so far.

Ingredients

1/2 Madras Cucumber/ Mangalore Southekayi
300 ml sour curd
2 teaspoon oil
4-5 curry leaves
handful chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
salt to taste

For the masala

1/2 cup grated coconut
1 green chili
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander powder
2 teaspoons Roasted split chickpeas/ Kadale bele/ DahaLe in Marathi
1 inch piece of ginger
2-3 pepper corns

Prepare the masala first. Grind together all the items with a bit of water to get a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Beat the curd in a bowl and add enough water to get buttermilk of medium consistency fit for a curry.

Now in a pot, heat 1 teaspoon oil. Add the sliced cucumber. Stir for a min. Add water just to cover it and let it cook until pale. Now add the masala paste. Follow in with the buttermilk. Stir to homogenize. Leave it on heat for 10 mins. and just as it starts boiling put it off.

Make the seasonings with mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves. Pour over the boiling curry and cover.

The aroma of fresh ground ginger, cumin and coriander powder permeates the entire home. People are pulled in to the kitchen like a magnet. "Something different today?" Yes a white curry. Hope you like it!

Bisibele Bhat with Unpolished Rice

My entry for Click Jan 09: RED

When we last visited Navadarshanam I bought a packet of unpolished rice. Unpolished rice is not easy to make on a working day but on weekends I have space for it. This weekend it was cold and we need our dose of warmth from soups and khichdi. So I made Bisibele bhat.

Bisibele bhat in Kannada literally means Bisi-Hot as is steaming hot, bele-dal, bhat-rice. It is a not your tame khichdi. Here you have a Khara pongal which is like our khichdi and then there is the Bisibele bhat. It has the complex flavors of spices, tamarind juice and creamy dal completely blended with rice and for the crunch, mixed vegetables like beans, carrots, potatoes etc. I add almost anything that I have on hand. While serving it is always garnished with Khara boondi instead of your usual apalams.

The Bisibele bhat with unpolished rice makes it even more rugged. It keeps you stuffed till evening and though it is creamy it lends a texture you enjoy unlike the pasty versions. We got 5 servings of Bisibele bhat from just 1/2 cup of unpolished rice and 1/2 cup of dal.

The unpolished rice is an earthy red so that fits perfectly for this month's Click.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of unpolished rice
1/2 cup of Toor dal/ yellow lentils
2 cups chopped mixed vegetables
(I used field beans, capsicum, potatoes, carrots, onion, tomatoes)
1 tablespoon sambhar powder
2 teaspoon oil
1/4 cup thick tamarind pulp
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
few curry leaves

Preparation: Soak unpolished rice and toor dal in water for min 2hrs.

Put the small cooker on heat. Add oil and do the seasoning with mustard, asafoetida and curry leaves. Then follow in with sambhar powder, chopped mixed vegetables, soaked dal and rice. Top up with 5-6 cups of water. Pressure cook for 30 mins or 5 long whistles.

Let it cool till you can open the lid. Now add the tamarind pulp and mix well. Incase you find the rice to be thick add more water and make it to creamier pourable consistency.

Serve in a bowl topped with Khara boondi and a curry leaf. Here comes a perfect spicy khichdi from Karnataka - the comforting Bisibele bhat. Would you like to taste some?

Avare Kaalu Mixture

Its is Mahashivaratri today and many of you must be fasting on this day. Today one should fast in the real way and not by feasting on food that is special on such days. Yet for those of who love to cook but not eat today here is a preservation recipe you can try. We shall say good bye and farewell to the Indian winters with this Avare Kaalu mixture yet enjoy the Avare even after the season is over just like the Kanadigas do.

Recently we visited friends in Chintamani 70 kms from Blr. The family gave us so much love that it got difficult to take their leave. It was a day full of sharing all from their side. Since they know how much I like to know about culture and sacred heirlooms they opened up a treasure to me. They are a noble family in the real sense. I took some pictures that will be in my private treasure till I'm alive. This recipe is shared with us by Shri Venkatesh Murthy family.

Ingredients

1 cup Avare Kaalu
1/4 cup peanuts
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Oil to fry

First we are going to get the Avare dal ready as explained in highlighted para in the Avare Hidikbele Sambar post. Pat dry the Hidikbele on a kitchen napkin.

Heat the oil. On medium heat fry the hidikbele till crisp. Also fry the peanuts till golden brown. Drain on a mesh or absorbent paper. While the fries are still hot sprinkle the chilli powder and salt and mix well. This mixture can be stored after cooling completely for almost a month. If stored in tuperware it should stay good for atleast six months in the fridge.

Enjoy the munchies with your favorite hot or cold drink.

Check out other Avare Recipes:

• Avare Hidikbele Sambar


• Avare Kaalu Akki Roti

Keep Visiting. 22 Exciting Recipes In The Draft.

Avare Hidikbele Sambar

I had mentioned about the Avare Hidikbele Sambar in my post on avare akki roti. This is a recipe I have made from what I tasted at my Kanadiga friends homes. Each one some how always made this dish for us when we visited them since its a speciality here in Blr till I could even predict the menu koshimbari, payasam, rice with tomato rasam, this sambar and curd rice.

The name Avare Hidikbele Sambar comes from the fact that the avare kaalu/seeds are soaked in hot water overnight and then deskinned in the morning.

Here is my variation:

Ingredients
1/2 fresh avarekai seeds
2 onions chopped
1/2 cup grated dry coconut
lime sized ball of tamarind
2 inch piece of jaggery
2 green chillies
1 teaspoon Sambar masala powder
4 cups water
salt to taste
2 teaspoons oil
handful chopped cilantro

Firstly soak the fresh avarekai seeds in water enought to cover it overnight. In the morning when the skins have loosened deskin the seeds by pinching them off. Remember good things don't taste good without the slogging. How food can get even lazy bums to work! The peeled dal is called Hidikbele.



Now to prepare the masala. Begin by heating the oil and frying the onions till translucent. Add the grated dry coconut and fry a bit. Now in go the chillies and sambar powder. Leave it to cool.

Meanwhile soak the tamarind and jaggery in boiling hot water and let it stand. We will come back later to extract the pulp once the masala is ground.

Put all the fried masala that has cooled by now and salt into a mixer and grind to a paste.

Then in a pressure cooker mix the masala with the peeled avare dal add all the water till covered well. Cook for 3 whistles or about 20 mins.

While the cooker is working extract the tamarind pulp and keep ready.

Open the cooker add the tamarind and jaggery pulp mix lightly so as not to crush the dal. Boil just once to blend it well top up with chopped cilantro. The Avare Hidikbele Sambar is ready to eat. This sambar can be enjoyed with the untraditional combination of a soft fresh homemade bread as you see in the picture like I did or lacy appams.

The bread you see is the Mumbai pao I had made. I had forgotten to add salt in the dough but since I ate it with this sambar it just absorbed the gravy and tasted superb.