Bhooka: Mangalorean fish curry

Bhooka: Mangalorean fish curry: This one is a magical recipe. It has the power to transport you to the Mangalore coast Mangalorean fish curry Serves f...

Mangalorean fish curry

This one is a magical recipe. It has the power to transport you to the Mangalore coast

Mangalorean fish curry

Serves four, easily (in fact more than four)

Ingredients for the masala

Half a coconut – grated

Kashmiri red chillies - 5 (they give fabulous colour and are not too pungent)

One teaspoon coriander seeds

A pinch full of methi seeds

Other ingredients

One onion - coarsely chopped

An inch of ginger – finely chopped (or julienned if you like to bite into it)

One green chilli (or two, if you like that little heat) – Choppped (not finely)

One whole Surmai cut into inch-thick pieces. Cleaned and ready to cook (you can use any fish you want – prawns, pomfret, mackerel, etc )

Coconut oil – 2 teaspoons
Tamarind Pulp - one tablespoon

Method

• Blend in a mixer all the Ingredients for the masala
• Place a kadhai (pan) on the burner on low flame.
• Pour the masala into it
• Add the ‘other ingredients’
• Mix well
• Add water (the amount of water you add should be according to your choice of consistency)
• Add salt to taste
• Let it come to a boil
• Slide in the surmai pieces and cook for 8-10 mins on medium-low flame

Mom’s tips:

Blend the masala really well. At the point you think it’s enough, blend it for a minute more. The masala has to be a smooth paste, coz therein lies the fun of the dish

      

    

After the cooking is done add a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil for added aroma

 

Batate Song - Potatoes in hing and tamarind-flavoured coconut gravy

Ingredients

½ kg baby potatoes (even big potatoes cut into cubes will do)

5 red dry chillies (Kashmiri, for that great colour that a Song should have)

1 cup grated coconut

1 tea spoon hing (asafoetida)

1 small ball of tamarind

3 medium onions

Mustard seeds for tadka

Salt to taste

Method

• Boil the potatoes for three whistles in a pressure cooker
• Make a paste of the chillies, coconut, tamarind, hing in a blender. Add little water. Remember the paste has to be thick, not runny
• De-skin the potatoes
• Chop the onions
• Take 2 -3 teaspoons of oil (Preferably coconut oil. Anything else just does not make it GSB. Although, we have tried using olive oil a few times and it tastes ok, so you can safely use it. I will still recommend coconut oil, though) in a hot kadhai.
• Add the mustard seeds. After they splutter completely, add the hing and the chopped onions
• As soon as the onions turn slightly golden add the masala paste and a cup of water
• Now, add the potatoes and stir well. Boil for about five minutes and you rare done.
• Potato Song is ready
• Relish it with chapattis, steamed rice

Mom’s tips

• Add an extra pinch of hing after the Song is ready, it enhances the flavour
• Let the Song stay for a couple of hours after it’s ready. This way the potatoes absorb the flavours well and become tastier

Kadley Bajjil - Chana-Poha dish

 

Translated verbatim, Kadley Bajjil means Chana Poha - a simple, light-on-the-body, any-time-of-the-day snack

After my first post Khotta, some said (as I had expected) ‘can we have a traditional yet simple dish next’. OK. Here goes!

Ingredients

For Kadley

Brown chana – 2 cups (soaked in water overnight)

Curry leaves – about 10

Chillies – 2-3 (slit lengthwise)

Mustard seeds

Coconut oil 2-3 teaspoons (any other oil and you will never get the authentic taste)

Salt to taste

For Bajjil

Flat thin poha – 2 cups

Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon (too hot? Reduce it further, but do not eliminate)

Grated coconut – 1 cup

Salt to taste

Method to make Kadley

• Boil the soaked chana with a little salt. Take atleast 6 whistles on your cooker, or the chana may not be cooked perfectly. Take more, and they might get smashed. (Through many years of trials, my father, Jagannath Kamath has reached a conclusion and insists 6-7 whistles are perfect)
• Heat a kadhai or fry pan and add the coconut oil.
• Once hot, add the mustard seeds and let them splutter completely.
• Then add the curry leaves, let them splutter too
• Add salt to this (1. It’s my dad’s little secret and he happily shared it. He says if you add salt at this point it mixes evenly with the chana later. 2. Be careful with how much salt you add at this point. Remember, you have added salt to the water you boiled the chana in)
• Now add the chana and toss for two minutes. Throw some grated coconut on top and you are done.

Method to make Bajjil

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly. Bajjil is ready. Simple

Tips

• Serve Kadley and Bajjil separately on a single plate. Let the person eating decide his/her own morsels and mixes.
• Some like to put a bit of sugar in the Bajjil mix, but that’s completely optional as the sweetness of coconut drowns. But that’s my opinion.

 

Khotta - Traditional GSB delicacy

Khotta (also called Khotto)

I definitely do not know the history behind this particular common-man's-delicacy but I can comfortably say it is one of the most interesting dishes in a GSB house. Can’t say how many people still make it, as it requires a decent bit of effort and a whole lot of love to make.

But, my mom (Vinoda Kamath, in picture below) still makes it, to this day, and with a lot of love, hoping we do not forget such dishes in pursuit of easy-way-out cooking.

What you need

• Fresh jackfruit leaves. (You will need four leaves to make one khotta container, so take accordingly.)

• A few sticks of new, unused broom to tie the leaves together

• Idly batter

• Steamer or even cooker

Method

• Make containers as shown in the pictures below that can hold the idly batter. (We are just replacing the regular idly mould with these homemade, eco-friendly, flavour inducing containers.)

• After you have made the containers, pour the idly batter into it to fill about three fourths of the container. (The containers should be woven in such a way that there are no gaps, or the batter will just ooze out)

•  Immediately place the containers in the steamer/cooker and cook just like you would idlys

• After the khottas are ready (takes exactly the same time to cook as idlys), remove them from the steamer/cooker and tear off the leaves and take out the fluffy khottas.  

• Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambar.

Following is a step-by-step process of weaving the Khotta container

The chef, my mom, patiently posed and showed how to weave the container using jackfruit leaves

Start with two leaves and gently pierce with the sticks at the places shown in the pic.

Now, add a third leaf and weave as shown. The stick pieces will just be over an inch in length

After you have joined the fourth leaf, the shape of your efforts will look like this. Pretty neat, I say.

Now, lift two adjacent leaves and again get weaving

Then, join the next. The shape now will be as shown above

Now weave the last leaf in with the stick

Your ready container will look like this. You have now successfully created your own idly mould! After this, just pour the idly batter into it and steam in a steamer or cooker.

This is how the Khotta will turn out. (I have ripped the leaves open to show the Khotta within. When you lift it out of the steamer, it will come out as a nice clean closed unit)