Huliogare, Mangalore style

Or Pulihora/Chitrannam, as Telugus like to call it. No, there is no equivalent for this in Hindi, because this is a South Indian main course dish, served as one of the items in a large meal at weddings or at festivals. However, this recipe is for the Mangalorean version of Pulihora/Huliogare.

Lemony Lentil Soup

Or just Nimbekai Saaru , for us Mangaloreans. Before I go further , these are the mugs Siri gave away for her Blog-o-anniversary. Cute, no? :-)

Now to this soup…

Kodyelu–a different one!

The more I cook Mangalorean food, the more I realize what Mangaloreans eat. How we get our proteins. How vegetables are imbibed in a subtle way into our meals. And how important coconut is for us all. :-)

Oh btw, in case you were wondering – Kodyelu means Sambar in Tulu, my mother tongue, the language spoken only in South Canara district of Karnataka state.

This is a sambar, very like the Paji masala kodyelu one I posted a while ago, with a slight difference. The earlier post had raw masalas in it, and this sambar uses roasted masalas.

Paji Masala Kodyelu

Paji-masala-Kodyelu is a staple in any Mangalorean household, and one of my favourites. It literally means raw-masala-sambar in Tulu, in which the main ingredients for the masala are not roasted. This is something that can be eaten with white or brown rice, and also with the Mangalorean Rotti.

Like all Mangalorean dishes, this one is incredibly easy to make and has coconut, and yes, is also garnished with coconut oil before being served, which you can of course totally skip if the idea of coconut oil in your food makes you squirm. My Mangalorean heart just died for having used the words ‘squirm’ for ‘coconut oil’ but yeah, I do know savouring the taste of coconut oil is not everyone’s cup of tea. :)

Fada ni Khichdi + Tambuli

Like most of the recipes on this blog, I came home this evening craving for some comfort food. And comfort food at dinner time for me is Khichdi. But tonight I wanted to eat something which wasn’t same as my regular khichdi recipe. I disturbed some Gujju friends at work, and searched around the web for some Gujju recipe for Khichdi, something healthy, and light, and finalized on this one.

I improvised the recipe from Tarla Dalal’s website to suit just one person, yeah, yet another meal for one. And decided to pair this with a Mangalorean no-cook curd-dish called Tambuli instead of Kadhi.
So here it is… born out of a craving to eat something North Indian and Mangalorean, my dinner menu for one :)

Pongal & Puli Kajipu

 

As it goes without saying, Pongal is a very famous South-Indian breakfast staple dish, eaten particularly on the Makar Sankranti festival.

Puli Kajipu, literally means, Sour Curry in Tulu. This one is so sour that your eyes will be in a perennial half-blink as long as you are eating this, and complements the slightly bland taste of the Pongal well.

I know, we are no where closer to Pongal, but suddenly last week, I began to crave for Mom’s Pongal and Puli Kajipu, the best I’ve ever eaten. I called her up, and asked her for the recipe, which I replicated to the T, and had a sumptuous breakfast. :)

Turns out Pongal is very similar to the Khichdi, but Mom’s Pongal has a special ingredient … Jaiphal or Nutmeg, which when added while the Pongal is cooking gives out a very distinct aroma to the entire dish.

Recipes, straight from my Mom’s kitchen, flowing through the phone … :-)

Rotti/Dose/Dosa

Now that Mom’s here, we are getting to eat a lot more of Mangalorean dishes, the way they are to be eaten, not like how I make them, all modified and with tons of short-cuts. Which is good, for the time-being. And I know that once she leaves, am going to miss all of it, and go back to my dessicated coconuts and ready-mixes of Rasams. Sigh.



So this morning’s breakfast was Rotti, also called as Dose or Dosa. This is like your regular South Indian dosa, but with slightly different ingredients, and its not left for fermentation. Its eaten with the regular chutney or with Hindi, a Mangalorean mango pickle/chutney or with Kodakene also. Like the Dosa, this is another staple dish in our households.

Majjige Huli (Kodakene)

 

All that talk about different cultures, traditions and idiosyncrasies associate with each community at work today (oh yes, we talk all this stuff and much more in my team, one heck of a fun team it is!) made me all nostalgic.

Like how if you are attending a lunch at a Shivalli Brahmin household, you will not see any dal, and the course starts with Saaru, and with a dozen or so sweets. Or how any outsider would freak out when he/she attends a lunch because of all the shirtless, potbellied , old men talking in the fastest Tulu possible in the loudest voice allowed.

Well, I’ve always maintained that, if only the population of the Tulu speaking Shivalli community was a little higher, and we were not scattered as we are now, we would’ve become a famous community by now, like all those Punjus, Gujjus or Mallus. You will see a Udupi hotel in nearly every corner of the world, well almost, but there will be just one or two of them. That’s how scattered my community is. All of us cling to our roots with a strong hope by refusing to speak any other language except Tulu among ourselves, jump with joy and behave like long lost cousins exchanging family names and relatives when we hear anyone speaking the slightest of Tulu, using up one coconut a day for all our dishes, sticking to our saaru da pudi recipes staunchly, thinking of the good times had while eating Gujje bajji, Shavige, Patrode or Pelakkayi Gatti, and looking out in the markets for Manjalu da Ire (Turmeric leaf) for our moodes.

We all know that its hard to stick to our culture, especially if you are not married to a Shivalli person, and don’t speak your mother tongue on a daily basis and so do our best to retain our homes in our kitchens. Ooh yes, I am missing my roots. Everything about them. My mother tongue, my native place, the smells in Mom’s kitchen and the food I grew up on. I felt the urge to be in touch with them all.

One such attempt is tonight’s dinner attempt. By the time I was getting home, I was yearning for something Mangalorean to eat, something from my Mom’s kitchen and something that I love.

Kodakene (in Tulu) or Majjige Huli (in Kannada) is a Kannada dish, but as for every dish , there is a Mangalorean twist to this, I am told. Mom tells me that I am not to add any spice to this except green chilli. She just allowed one red chilli for the colour of the masala, which I adhered to.  She asked me to not use desiccated coconut imploring that it is sacrilege to do that and gave me strict instructions on how to cook the vegetables - that I should cook the okras in butter milk, if I am using them. And that I should only cook the winter melons for one whistle in the pressure cooker, and not more. And options to thicken the yogurt sauce with rawa or soaked cashew nuts. Armed with all those instructions, I started off to cook my most favourite Mangalorean dish.

Ingredients

For the masala
Fresh Coconut – 1/4 cup, chopped
Green chilli – 1
Red chilli – 1
Wheat rawa – 1/8 cup, soaked in water for atleast 15 mins

For the Huli
Yam – cleaned and chopped in inch pieces – 3/4 cup
French Beans – diced in inch pieces – 1/2 cup
Thick yogurt – 1.5 Cup
Salt to taste

For the tempering
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Methi seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 4-5

Instructions

Pressure cook the beans and yam pieces with some salt.

Mix the ingredients for the masala into a thick paste.

Mix the masala and yogurt with the cooked vegetables. Heat this mixture on the stove till it boils once. To achieve the desired consistency, use water, preferably from the cooked vegetables.

Heat the ghee, and add the curry leaves, mustard and methi seeds to this.

Add this tempering to the Kodakene and eat it with hot rice.

You can use almost any vegetable to make this, provided it is cooked in the method it has to be. (Okra with butter milk, egg plants in oil etc) . This dish is primarily to be eaten with rice, but can also be eaten with Rotti (a Mangalorean dosa).

The Essentials –Sambar

Idli-Sambar. Vada-Sambar. Sambar Rice. Masala Dosa with Sambar.

Just talking about it is enough to activate those taste-buds!
Oh, this dish is an absolute essential in all South-Indian homes.
Be it as a side-dish for breakfast, or in the main course to be eaten with rice, Sambar is almost a staple.
There are different varieties of Sambar, the one you eat for breakfast are different from the ones that are eaten with rice. There can be variations in the tempering you add to this, thus altering the taste altogether. There are Telugu, Kannada and Tamil Sambars.
There is a thin difference between Rasam and Sambar, depending on the masala you use, vegetables you add, and the inclusion of dal.
And then, there is a Mangalorean variety of Sambar called Paji-Masala-Kodyelu, which uses uncooked masala in it, which I am going to try one of these days. Well, for me, its no fun cooking if I don’t have fresh Jeegujje (Bread fruit, apparently, in English. This one belongs to the jackfruit family, but is much smaller in size), but I’ll still make an attempt.
The Telugu variety of Sambar can also be called as Pappu-Chaaru, something which does not always use a mixed-masala.
This recipe for the Sambar I tried is a Mangalorean , Shivalli variety, to be eaten with Idli, Vada or Dosa. It is not advised to mess with the recipe of sambar but I tried making it with the ingredients that are easily available, and not the ones that require a lot of prior planning. Desiccated coconut instead of grated fresh coconut, store-bought sambar powder instead of Mom’s powder or the one you make fresh, and the vegetables that I had at hand. As for the veggies, you can totally pick and choose what you want. Vegetables like Potato, beans and carrot go well for the sambar. I’ve never eaten a sambar with cauliflower in it, but you can give it a try.
I use the tamarind paste that Mom makes for me, you can use the Dabur Homemade stuff, or make it yourself. Instead, just soak up a fistful of tamarind in hot water for 30 mins, and squeeze it to result tamarind water. This can be used in the sambar in an appropriate quantity.

Ingredients (Makes enough for 40 Idlis)French beans – chopped in inch-sized pieces – 250 gm
Tomatoes – medium sized , 4 , cut into large pieces
Green peas – 1/2 C (thawed if frozen)
Onions – medium sized, 2, diced
Desiccated coconut – 3 tbsp
Jaggery – 1/8 C
Thick Tamarind paste – 3 tbsp
MTR Sambar powder – 4 tbsp
Toor Dal – 1/2 C, washed
Salt – to taste
Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp
Turmeric – 1/2 tsp

Sunflower oil – 1 tbsp
Garlic cloves – 8-10, crushed/chopped
Coriander leaves – For garnish
InstructionsPut the cut tomato pieces in the same vessel as the washed toor dal. In another dish, put half the amount of diced onions, beans, peas and any other vegetables that are being used and pressure cook all of this together.
Once the dal cools, using a hand blender or a masher, mix the cooked tomatoes and dal together, till they are mashed well.
Pour this toor dal + tomato mixture in a deep , thick bottomed pan. Add tamarind paste, jaggery, desiccated coconut, turmeric, red chilli powder and half the quantity of the sambar powder. Bring this to a boil, and add the cooked vegetables to this. Add salt per taste, and let this mixture boil.
Now check the taste and add more Sambar powder if required. Let this mixture keep boiling.

In another small pan, heat the oil, and sauté the remaining onions with the crushed garlic. Once these turn golden brown, add these to the Sambar.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with the main dish.

Bisibele Bath

Ah, the days of meal-for-one are back! But unlike eating just some vegetables under the pretext of salad, or a fruit calling it diet, I’ve decided to eat something substantial yet light for dinner. But then, cooking for one person is always a big pain. First its the quantity. No matter how less you make it, you will notice that its too much to eat for one person. Then its the taste. Only you know how it tastes. This is certainly a good point when an experiment goes bad, but in my case where 9/10 experiments are edible and tasty, I will have no one to compliment the food. And if the food is not complimented, I don’t feel the interest to cook again! (There, you’ve been notified on what to do, if you were to eat something I cook! :))
Tonight, I was in a mood to eat something rice-based, but not elaborate. Something like a one-pot-dish but not as boring as Khichdi. A friend suggested I make Bisibele bath, and that’s when I realized I hadn’t made it in a zillion years. And being a Kannadiga/Mangalorean, its something I should be ashamed of. See, you should always eat what you’ve grown up eating, and Dal and curry are not what I ate growing up… It was coconut-vegetable-filled delicious Mangalorean stuff that I ate till I was 22, and random, unmentionable, yucky, unhealthy hostel/hotel food till I was 25, and since then its just been pappu (dal) , koora (curry) every single day. EVERY single day. Phew! So every opportunity to cook non-dal-curry food is savoured and enjoyed to the hilt , and that opportunity comes mostly when the husband is not around! :-)
Back to BBB, I always have this Mom-made-awesome-BBB powder handy in the fridge, and all I had to do was to find the veggies in there. Turns out I’ve been living like a hermit feeding only on air, because the fridge had none of them. Yes, I am hopeless that way! Some rummaging in it revealed one capsicum and some spring onions, and thankfully some green peas. And I set about to make myself some tasty dinner…
Ingredients1/2 cup Toor dal (preferably soaked for atleast 30 mins)
1/4 cup Rice
1 cup Veggies
2 tbsp BSB powder (You can use MTR BBB powder)
1 tbsp Tamarind paste (Dabur Hommade to the rescue, Mom for me!)
1 tsp oil, to slightly fry the veggies
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Salt – To taste

Garnish (Tadka)1 tbsp Ghee (clarified butter)
Some nuts – Cashew or peanuts
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Urad Dal
1 tsp Chana dal
1 tsp Jeera (Cumin seeds)
Some Hing (asafoetida)

InstructionsIn a pan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add the dal and rice to this. Close the pan and keep an eye on it. Wait till they are both half-cooked.
Meanwhile, cut the veggies, and fry them slightly in the oil. Add one tbsp BBB powder to this mixture, and fry a bit more.
Once the rice and dal mixture is half-cooked, add the half-fried veggie mixture to this, rest of the BBB powder , tamarind paste, turmeric and salt.
Add 1 cup water and cook this mixture till the water is absorbed or the veggies and rice-dal are cooked.

In a smaller pan, heat the ghee, add the nuts, urad and chana dals first. Wait till they are almost brown and add the mustard and cumin seeds. Switch off the stove, and add the hing to this.

Add this Tadka mixture to the cooked Bisibele Bath.
Bisibele Bath literally means Hot-Dal-Rice and hence this should be served hot.

You could eat it with Boondi or Potato chips, or also with Raita. 

Since I prefer raita to the other two options, I made myself a cup of onion raita, garnished it with dried mint leaves and had a very tasty healthy dinner!

Bell Pepper Wheat Rotti

Akki rotti(rotti here doesn’t mean roti,its more like a mix between Dosa and roti) is a very popular Mangalorean dish, mostly eaten along with chai (tea) for snacks. This is generally made with rice flour, and is applied on a non-stick casserole and toasted till brown and chewy. It is then eaten with either a pickle or coconut chutney.
This recipe is a slight variation of the Akki Rotti mentioned above, and incorporates the healthier aspects of my Mom and cousin’s Ragi(rye) rotti. Loads of vegetables, clarified butter for the good fat and wheat and rye flour for the fibre content, and voila, you have a very healthy snack!
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup
Rye flour - 1/2 cup (optional)
Desiccated coconut powder - 1/2 cup
Salt - a pinch
Indian yogurt - Mixed into a pouring consistency, just enough to mix the ingredients into a batter - approximately 1 cup
Green chillies, finely chopped - 2
Onion, medium, finely chopped - 1
Green bell pepper, finely chopped - 1
Cilantro, finely chopped - a handful

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients into a batter, preferably pancake batter consistency
2. Heat the non-stick pan and slightly apply the butter/ghee on it
3. Pour one ladle-ful of batter on the pan, and spread using a butter knife or spoon. Please note that you will not be able to make it very thin or with a ladle. This will be slightly thick
4. Cover the non-stick pan with a lid, and let it simmer for 5 mins
5. Check if the side on the pan is browned, and reverse it, so that the other side is slightly toasted too
6. Cut into pieces and serve with coconut chutney
Notes:
1. You can increase the quantity of rye flour to increase the fibre content of this recipe
2. Mix and match yellow and red bell peppers too into this
3. You can also have this rotti with hummus, more protein that way
4. Instead of the coconut + yogurt mixture, you can also use coconut milk. Gives the flavour and still keeps the rotti soft.