Recipe for Saptige - Malnad / Malenadu Flat Beans Curry

In the quest to get you some authentic and yet somewhat lesser known recipes from Karnataka, this one is a flat beans curry. This recipe is from Malnad or Malenadu  and a very simple stir fry curry using fresh beans. The main flavour here is that of garlic. Since avare / chikadi kai / flat beans / Indian broad beans (yes, they have tons of names) are in season and growing in plenty in my little kitchen garden, I am happy to put them to use in whatever way possible. I served this curry with steamed rice and cucumber sassive, and the whole meal came together in less than 30 minutes. You can make a more elaborate Karnataka themed meal with the recipes I have shared this month. 

Karnataka Themed Thaali / Menu Idea

Steamed rice

Pineapple Gojju - Sweet Sour Spicy Pineapple Curry

Mysore rasam - South Indian soup

Chana Gassi - Mangalorean Chickpeas Curry

Cucumber Sasive - Cucumber in mustard yogurt sauce

Saptige - Flat Beans curry

Yogurt / Dahi

Pickle

Papad

Recipe for Flat Beans Curry / Avarekkai curry / Chikadikai Curry
Serves 2
Adapted from The Taj Magazine - Vegetarian Cookbook - 2006

Ingredients200 grams flat beans (or use any other beans variety)*
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 red chillies
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of asafoetida
4 big cloves garlic, finely minced
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp red chili powder (optional)

DirectionsBring a pot of water to boil.
Meanwhile, wash and de-string the beans. Split them open, check that the beans are clean inside. Add the split bean pods to the boiling water with turmeric and salt. They will be nearly cooked in 5-7 minutes, depending on how tender the beans are. Drain and pat dry.
In a kadai / wok, heat oil. Splutter mustard seeds, add chilies, asafoetida, curry leaves. 
Add garlic and onion, stir for 4-5 minutes on medium flame until onions are soft. Add the drained cooked beans, 1/4 tsp salt or to taste, and red chili powder if necessary.

Serve with roti or with rice. 
*for other beans variety cooking times may vary

This post is part of the project called 'theKitchenDivas' which will have a theme going for each month, wherein we will try to do a post a week. The theme for January 2015 is Karnataka Cuisine.

You can find more Traditional Recipes from Karnataka by #TheKichenDivas

Khara Baath by FunFoodFrolic

Mangalorean Padengi Ghassi  by Archana's Kitchen

Recipe for Easy Strawberry Cake

There is a small outbreak in our Indian food blogging community. Of the Smitten Kitchen Strawberry cake. It is catching the fancy of many a food-blogger who chances upon on a punnet of fresh strawberries. And some like me go in search of strawberries so we can bake this devastatingly beautiful cake.  I saw this first posted by Magic Marinade and then Haathitime made it, and then Monika and then many others, I'm sure. 

Also, my KitchenAid 7 speed hand mixer, that I won as a prize from KitchenAid India for the Xmas Baking Recipe contest (my entry), came in last week. I was waiting for something special to inaugurate it. And this strawberry cake was just perfect to get this hand-mixer whirring. It works like a dream, almost like the BMW of hand mixers :) And this is not the last you are hearing about it on the blog.

Back to the recipe, this cake is proof that I'm a girl who wont take directions. The blog clearly mentioned that the recipe doesn't sit well in a smallish tin and yet I took out this smallish tin, because I felt like it. And the result was that the batter rose well above the berries, burying them somewhat. Buried berries. LOL. But every cloud has a silver lining and so on and so forth. So my cake, while not having the ruby strawberries studding the top, they had this intense, oozy, beautiful (permit me three adjectives here, the situation is totally deserving of this) strawberry jam on the inside, that burst into every bite of cake. And the huge crystals of sugar, mostly stayed on the top, forming this crunchy crust giving way to a soft melt in mouth cake inside. So yes, if you have only an 8" round baking tin, this cake is still worth trying :)

Also, SmittenKitchen mentioned that you can use part barley flour, and it blends perfectly into this cake, without screaming "alternate flour". I used Jowar flour (sorghum), as I had bought a bag of this to experiment with gluten free baking and trust me, I couldn't even tell that this cake had anything but all purpose flour in it, it was so light!

The cake slices better after cooling. But, if you are impatient like me (read cake-lover), you are totally forgiven for diving into this cake as soon as it is out of the oven and get your tongue burnt by the molten strawberry lava within. 

TL;DR: If you find fresh strawberries, this is the one cake to try. 

Also check out my Eggless Strawberry Yogurt Cake and Easy Strawberry Blueberry Tea Cake

RECIPE FOR STRAWBERRY CAKE

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 8 large slices

Ingredients

6 tbsp~85 grams unsalted butter (at room temperature, soft)

1 cup castor sugar +2 tbsp 

1 large egg

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup maida (all purpose flour)

1/2 cup jowar flour* (sorghum flour)

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)

300 grams fresh strawberries, hulled & halved horizontally

Directions

Prepare a 9 inch round baking pan with baking paper or butter and flour it and keep aside.

Preheat oven at 180°C.

With an electric hand mixer, beat the sugar (1 cup) and butter for 3-4 minutes until pale and creamy. If your granulated sugar has very big granules (like we get in India), it is worthwhile, running it in the mixer (mixie) for a few seconds, just to break down the granule size and then proceeding with the recipe.

Add the egg and beat for another 30 seconds. 

Whisk in the milk and vanilla extract.

Sieve all the dry ingredients and add into the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined, or blend with hand mixer for a brief 20-30 seconds.

Scrape out the batter into the prepared baking pan. 

Place the strawberries in a single layer on the top, cut side down. Sprinkle the 2 tbsp of sugar on top of the strawberries.

Bake at 180°C (in preheated oven) for 10 minutes, after which reduce the temperature to 175°C and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean (don't mind the strawberry jam sticking to the tester).

Allow to cool completely before slicing. Or not :)

*By all means use all purpose flour fully, instead of using any alternate flours. In that case, it will be 1.5 cups maida (all purpose flour) and no jowar flour. 

Check out Magic Marinade's Winter Strawberry Cake Movement compilation here. 

Recipe for Cucumber Sasive - Easy Cucumber Curry in Mustard Sauce

Continuing with our Karanataka Cuisine series this month, here's a really quick cucumber 'curry' if you may call it that. It's my kind of curry in a hurry. Goes perfectly with rice, and the mustard seeds ground into the spice paste give the mild cucumber a really good fiery kick. It is the kind of pungent heat that opens up your sinuses. I went one step ahead and ground some freshly plucked mustard greens from the garden to the spice paste, to get an extra mustardy punch. If you don't have the fresh leaves on hand, you don't need to bother about them. Since I used the food processor to finely mince the cucumber, this dish took me less than 10 minutes. It's the perfect last minute addition to a menu when you are expecting guests.

The same curry can be made using boiled and grated beetroots, ripe bananas and ripe mangoes. The sweeter or milder vegetables and fruits pair well with the spices in the curry. I've prepared the beetroot sasive several times, but the cucumber curry is even simpler as there is no cooking involved, saves time and I can imagine this would be a perfect curry for the summers.

Recipe for Cucumber Sasive - Cucumber Curry in mustard yogurt sauce

Serves 2

Less than 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 large cucumber (400 grams) or 2 medium

1 cup thick yogurt

3/4 tsp salt

For spice paste

1/3 cup grated coconut

2-3 green chillies

1 tsp mustard seeds

10 fresh mustard leaves (optional)

For tempering

1 tsp peanut oil or sunflower oil

1 dried red chilli

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 sprig curry leaves

pinch of asafoetida

Directions

Peel the cucumber and chop into large chunks and finely mince in food processor or using knife and chopping board. If there are too many seeds then scoop them out before chopping. If not, then leave them in.

Whisk the yogurt well in a medium bowl. Add the minced cucumber to this.

Using a mixer, in the chutney jar, grind all the ingredients for the spice paste using upto 1/4 cup water, to a fine paste.

Add this to the bowl of cucumber and yogurt, along with salt and mix well.

Heat the oil in a small tempering ladle or saucepan. Add the dried chilli, curry leaves, cumin seeds and add the pinch of asafoetida. Once cumin starts spluttering, transfer over the sasive in the bowl.

Serve with steaming hot rice.

Karnataka Menu:

Steamed rice
Pineapple Gojju

Mysore rasam

Chana Gassi

Cucumber Sasive

Yogurt / Dahi

Pickle

Papad

This post is part of the project called 'theKitchenDivas' which will have a theme going for each month, wherein we will try to do a post a week. The theme for January 2015 is Karnataka Cuisine.

You can find more Traditional Recipes from Karnataka by #TheKichenDivas

Hurali Kaalu Saaru by Sinamon Tales

Kori Rotti by WhiskAffair

Ragi roti with Tomato Chutney by FunFoodFrolic

Mangalorean Neer Dosa by Archana's Kitchen

Mangalorean Chana Gassi / Ghassi - South Indian Chickpeas Curry

Gassi (also spelt as Ghassi or Gashi) is a popular curry from Mangalore, made using fresh ground spices and coconut. The most popular one is Kori Gassi, which is a chicken curry. While the spice paste for the curry remains the same, you can make vegetarian versions of the gassi using chickpeas (chana), or black chickpeas (kala chana), mushrooms or breadfruit chunks as the chicken substitute. The gassi is typically served with a roti that is thin, crispy, made using rice flour. The roti is crushed and added to the bowl of curry to soak up all the liquids, and it makes a much satisfying lunch.

You can also eat it with Neer Dosa or regular dosas or even rice. It is a super quick chickpeas curry that doesn't involve chopping and sauteeting onions, tomatoes for the bhuna masala.

Recipe for Mangalorean Chana Gassi (Mangalorean Chickpeas Curry)

A curry from South India

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

1/2 cup dry chickpeas, washed and soaked overnight in water

For Masala paste: 

3-4 dried red chillies 

2 tsp coriander seeds

2-3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup coconut scrapings (unsweetened)

2 flakes of tamarind or 1/2 tsp tamarind paste

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

3/4 tsp salt

Tempering: 1 tbsp coconut oil, few curry leaves, 1/4 tsp mustard seeds, pinch of fenugreek seeds, pinch of asafoetida

Cooking the chickpeas

Drain the chickpeas that have soaked in water for 8-10 hours. Place in a small pressure cooker, cover with fresh water, until they are just submerged. Keep on a high flame, with the whistle (pressure) on. After one whistle, keep on sim (lowest flame) for 12 minutes so. Switch off and allow to cool.

Making the masala / spice paste

In a small kadai/wok, dry roast the red chillies until crisp, about 1-2 minutes, along with the coriander seeds. In a mixer, grind to a fine paste - the red chillies, coriander seeds, garlic, coconut, tamarind, using up to 1/2 cup of water. 

Making the curry

Once the cooker has cooled, you will be able to open it. Ensure that  the chickpeas are very soft - on pressing with the thumb they should completely disintegrate. Drain the cooked chickpeas and place them in the kadai along with the freshly ground spice paste. Add 3/4 tsp salt or to taste and turmeric powder. Bring to a simmer, adding a few spoons of water if required to thin it to a curry consistency.

Tempering

In a tadka ladle or a small saucepan, heat the coconut oil (or you can use any other cooking oil). Splutter the mustard seeds, add the curry leaves, red chillies, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida and transfer it over the curry.

Serve hot along with rice rotti, rice or dosas. 

This post is part of the project called 'theKitchenDivas' which will have a theme going for each month, wherein we will try to do a post a week. The theme for January 2015 is Karnataka Cuisine.

You can find more Traditional Recipes from Karnataka by #TheKichenDivas

Jowar Roti with Chicken Saaru by Sinamon Tales

Ragi Ambli by WhiskAffair

Rava Idli by FunFoodFrolic

Thouthe Kodel (Mangalore Cucumber Curry) by Archana's Kitchen

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mocha Mix Recipe

New additions to our bedtime routine:
Fans switched off
Extra tee shirt layer for me and a sweater for the kid
Snuggling my feet into fluffy night socks

That's Bangalore nights for you these days (and early mornings too!). 
This morning at 8, the car dashboard read 15°C. Brrrr!
Hey, I'm not complaining, just gloating over my friends from Bombay.

For someone who was born and brought up in a winter-deprived Bombay, without a single sweater in my wardrobe, any winter is welcome. It's such a comforting feeling to snuggle inside the duvet and making sure not even a finger is exposed to the chill in the room. I can feel the Delhi readers and others from the colder climes scoffing at me here, but trust me, for someone from Bombay, even this chill is a lot to get excited about! 

After putting the kid to bed, I like to make myself a big mug of hot chocolate and catch up on the reading from all my bookmarked sites. But many a times, at the end of a tiring day, I am plain lazy to even mix up the ingredients for a hot chocolate in my mug. 

When I spotted sachets of Choco Mocha, Hot chocolate etc in my neighbourhood supermarket in the other day, I picked up one for such bedtime cravings. The ingredients on the pack were dead simple, and of course, being a commercially sold product, the first ingredient was sugar and cocoa was listed as 1%. 

This inspired me to make a bottle of my own Mochaccino (or call it cafe mocha or hot chocolate mocha or anything else you please) mix - so whenever the desire strikes, just add hot water, stir and it's ready - a steaming hot mug of chocolate and coffee, with hints of cinnamon, and hey, we have well over 1% cocoa here! Where chocolate is concerned, more is less, always.

The best hot chocolate mix I have tried is the one from Vosges that the husband had got me from one of his NYC trips - and this was the Aztec Elixir - with added chili to it and it was divine! In fact, we had a pact that we will have it only when both are at home, so one doesn't finish off the good stuff on their own.

Coming back to this homemade mix, it uses regular ingredients from your kitchen. All you need to do is measure out, mix, put into a nice glass jar, label it and you're all set to face hot chocolate cravings. You do have to heat a mug of water though! You can spike it with your liquor of choice, a sprinkle of chilli powder or nutmeg, or a marshmallow, or just have it plain. 

These also make the perfect edible gifts. Wrap up a pretty ribbon around the bottle and add instructions on the label. I can't think of anyone who wont be excited to receive this, especially in winters.

DIY Homemade Hot Chocolate Mocha Mix
Makes over 2 cups of mix
Enough for 16-18 cups of Chocolate Mocha or Mochaccino 

Ingredients
1.5 cups milk powder (also called powdered milk or dried milk)*
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tbsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp ground cinnamon (optional)

Directions
You'll need a large mixing bowl, measuring cups, a whisk or fork and a bottle with a lid. Ensure everything is thoroughly clean and dry.
In the mixing bowl, measure out all the ingredients. With your (dry) finger tips gently break any lumps and mix well and then do the final mixing with a whisk or a fork. 
You can also add in 1 cup of castor sugar to the mix, but I leave it out, so that each cup can be sweetened as per taste - or if someone wants to add a sugar substitute, they can do so while making a cup.

To make a mug of chocolate mocha or mochaccino, add 2 heaped tablespoons of the mix in a mug. Bring a cup of water to boil, add to the mug with constant stirring until the mix is dissolved. Sweeten with a tsp of sugar or sweetener of choice. You can also make this with milk or half and half (half milk-half cream) for a more decadent drink. 

If you are more of an iced coffee fan, check out the video of my favourite (super simple) Vietnamese Iced Coffee

*Difference between milk powder, evaporated milk and condensed milk:
You may wonder, as I have in the past, if there is a difference between milk powder, dried milk, evaporated milk and condensed milk. 
Milk powder and dried milk are essentially the same thing. 
Evaporated milk is actually liquid in consistency, thicker than regular milk. According to Wiki, "It is fresh homogenised milk from which 60% of the water has been removed. The process involves the evaporation of about half the water from the milk, after which the product is homogenized, canned, and sterilized".
Condensed milk also has 60% water removed but has added sugar, while evaporated milk does not have sugar. Sugar prevents the growth of microorganisms in condensed milk which is why it has a long shelf life.

[this post first appeared on Huffington Post India]

Recipe for Mysore Rasam - Karnataka Cuisine

My disdain for rasam is as strong as my love for sambar. In fact, I will happily give rasam a skip at family lunches and wedding 'elai sappadu' (banana leaf meals) - to have a double helping of sambar rice. But there's one exception to this rule - Mysore Rasam. This is one of the three dishes that are named after the city Mysore, the other two being Mysorepak and Mysore Masala Dosa. 

While most soups in the rasam family are called 'Saaru' in Karnataka cuisine parlance, this one, despite being from Karnataka is still called rasam. It is full of flavour from the freshly ground spices, and the dal (lentils) in the spice mix, makes the rasam somewhat thicker than its watery counterparts. Both my mum and grandmum make this rasam often. When there's Mysore Rasam on the menu, there is no sambar, and rasam gets the position of star of the meal. 

I am somewhat lazy to make this often due to the roasting and grinding of spices, plus if I'm cooking for one, it's too much effort. To sort this out, I prepare the entire masala given in the recipe and use 1 heaped spoon or so, if i am making this just for myself. The rest can be put away in an airtight container in the freezer. 

This rasam recipe gets my double thumbs up, and it is a perfect warming dish for the winter evenings. Steaming hot rice, topped with lots of rasam, a spoonful of ghee that melts immediately when it hits the hot rasam-rice, to be had with a good potato roast curry - this is bliss.

Recipe for Mysore Rasam

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 tsp ghee
4 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp chana dal (Bengal gram dal)
20 pepper corns
5 dried red chillies
1 cm chunk of asafoetida (if you don't have this, use the powder while preparing rasam)

3 tbsp desiccated coconut (unsweetened) 

Lemon sized ball of tamarind + 1/2 cup hot water OR 1 tsp tamarind paste

1 tsp salt

2 cups cooked tur dal with turmeric (Video: how to cook dal)

1 tomato, diced

For tempering: 1 tbsp ghee, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, curry leaves

Coriander leaves for garnish

Directions

Preparing the rasam powder or the fresh masala for the Mysore Rasam

Fry coriander seeds, asafoetida chunk, red chillies, peppercorns, on a low flame, in a few drops of ghee, until the chillies crisp up and other spices are aromatic. 
Toast the chana dal (lentils) on a medium flame for 5 minutes or so, until golden.

Roast the dessicated coconut separately until golden and keep aside. 

In the chutney attachment of the mixer or a small blender, grind this to a fine powder. 
You can blend using some water to a fine paste, but this wont stay for long on refrigerating.

Making the rasam
Make a tamarind pulp by soaking lemon sized tamarind in hot water for 15 minutes and squeezing out all the extract. Alternatively use 1 tsp of tamarind paste. 
Boil the tamarind pulp or 1 tsp paste+1 cup water, diced tomato for 5-7 minutes, until tomatoes are tender.  Add ground spice powder (all of it, to serve 6 people), 2 cups cooked tur dal, and 3.5 cups water. Add the salt and let it come to a simmer on a low flame. 
Heat the ghee in a small saucepan for tempering. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, when they splutter, add curry leaves, remove from flame and transfer over rasam. Remove rasam from heat and keep covered until ready to serve. 
Serve hot.

Serving suggestions:

• With steamed rice and a dry curry, along with banana chips or papads
• Can also be had as a soup to start an Indian meal

This post is part of the project called 'theKitchenDivas' which will have a theme going for each month, wherein we will try to do a post a week. The theme for January 2015 is Karnataka Cuisine.

You can find more Traditional Recipes from Karnataka by #TheKichenDivas

Pineapple Rava Kesari by FunFoodFrolic

Ellu Saadham by WhiskAffair

Obbattu by Sinamon Tales

Mangalorean Manoli Curry by Archana's Kitchen

Recipe for Pineapple Gojju - A sweet sour spicy pineapple curry from Karnataka

When Ratna shared a photo of pineapple gojju in the making on her Instagram feed, I knew I wanted to make it and taste it. It promised of tastebud-awakening sweet, spicy and sour flavours, when had with steaming hot rice and a spoonful of ghee- ah heaven! She was kind enough to share the recipe with me. This is my adaptation of her gojju recipe, with a little alteration in the quantity of spices and dals to suit my tastes. Go check her superb book called 'How the Banana Goes to Heaven' - which has a detailed history of some of the foods we eat and interesting recipes too!

Gojju is a kind of curry from Karnataka, which is made using a variety of seasonal vegetables / fruits such as pineapple, mango, bitter gourd, okra or even tomato and onion.

RECIPE for Pineapple Gojju - Indian Pineapple Curry

Sweet and sour pineapple curry from Karnataka

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 medium sized pineapple

2 tsp coconut oil**

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1-2 sprigs curry leaves

2 dried red chillies

pinch of asafoetida

1 tsp tamarind paste* (I use Dabur Homemade)

1 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 inch piece of jaggery (optional)

For Masala 

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tbsp chana dal

1 tbsp udad dal

4 dried red chillies

1/2 cup fresh or frozen grated coconut (unsweetened)

Optional garnish tempering:

1-2 tsp coconut oil**, 2 dried red chillies, few curry leaves and pinch of mustard seeds

Directions

Peel and prepare the pineapple into bite sized cubes, or buy the ready prepared pineapple. If using canned, then choose one that is NOT canned in sugar syrup.

In a heavy bottomed wok or a pan, heat 2 tsp coconut oil. Add the 2 red chillies, mustard seeds, curry leaves and pinch of asafoetida. Add the pineapple cubes and toss for a few seconds. Add the water, tamarind paste / pulp, bring to a simmer.

Cover and cook till somewhat soft - this should take 8-10 minutes, but do check that it doesn't turn mushy.

While the pineapple is simmering, in a smaller pan, toast the ingredients for the masala (except the coconut) until the chana dal is golden brown. You can toast each of them individually if you have more time on hand, such that the cumin, coriander and fenugreek seeds are lightly aromatic, the dals are golden brown and the red chillies crisp up.

Grind this along with the coconut to a fine paste, using upto 1/2 cup water.

Add this paste to the nearly cooked pineapple pieces and bring to a simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Remove into a serving bowl.

Heat the oil for tempering in a small ladle / pan. In hot oil, splutter mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves and transfer on the top of the curry.

Serve with steamed rice.

The same curry can also be made with a semi-ripe mango.

*If you dont have tamarind paste, then soak a lemon sized ball of tamarind in 1/2 cup hot water for 15 minutes and squeeze out the pulp and use that in the curry.

**Coconut oil imparts a lovely depth of flavour to the dish. If you don't have it on hand, or if you don't like the taste of it, by all means use any other neutral flavoured cooking oil. 

The colour of the curry in the photo is somewhat darker due to the tamarind paste I've used, if you use the pulp, you'll get a more golden yellow hue and the consistency turned out thicker in my case as I had approximated from Ratna's recipe. I have adjusted the ingredients in the recipe here to get the correct consistency, which should be somewhat thinner than a thick dal. 

5 of us foodbloggers have undertaken an interesting project for 2015 - just something fun to keep the blogging mojo going. It's called 'theKitchenDivas' and will have a theme going for each month, wherein we will try to do a post a week. The theme for January 2015 is Karnataka Cuisine and gojju which is a favourite curry from this state, is my first post to kick off the series.

You can find more Traditional Recipes from Karnataka by #TheKichenDivas

Maddur Vada by FunFoodFrolic

Bisi Bele Bhaath Masala by WhiskAffair

Kundapur Ghee Roast by Sinamon Tales

Pan Fried Mysore Bonda by Archana's Kitchen