Kalasida Avalakki

In general it would be easy for our friends to assume that I might have picked up traditional dishes from Managalore - Udupi cuisine having been married to a Mangalorean for 30+ years. Even more so because I have spent a good few years living with his parents. Sadly, that is not to be. On the contrary, they had adapted to living in Coimbatore and other than an occasional neer dosa and shavige, on special weekends, I had not known traditional fare in that household.
We were at our friends' place one evening when she had made this for tea and while serving mentioned that it may not be new to us and both my husband and myself would have had it many times. I did not even recognize the name of the dish, even when they gave other names by which people call it. Mangalore masala avalakki, avalakki oggarane, and so on....nope none of which I had heard of. My husband went on to discuss how it used to be a teatime snack in his office in Mangalore and I still drew a blank. However, it was one very tasty snack and I loved the crunch with so little oil added in the snack. My friend showed me how thin is paper avalakki and told me to find them in Bangalore where most stores stock them.
I bought some red paper poha online and brought it here. I messaged her to share the recipe. In a few minutes my phone notified me with her message and that very evening, as luck would have it, having all the ingredients I tried the recipe. We enjoyed it and I promised myself that I need to post the recipe here, for my repository.

 

I looked up for more information on this dish and found that in the Udupi region it is called Bajil and mostly paired with sajjige as a filling breakfast during weddings and ceremonies. When I read out bajil, my husband said that he vaguely remembered that his father would mention it but he had never tasted the combination.
It is a quick and easy recipe to make. The sweet and spice flavours mingle so well that one cannot resist picking just about a spoon more and more. Keeping the recipe basic, one can find ideas to serve this dish.

Kalasida Avalakki
Recipe by my friend Ms. Lalitha Burde

Ingredients:
For 4 to 5 servings
2 cups Paper thin poha/ aval /beaten rice flakes
2 tablespoons roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
 4-5 dry red chillis that are low - medium in spice level (Byadagi or Kashmiri chillis)
Salt to taste
Jaggery powder to taste
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 &1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoons urad dhal
Few curry leaves
2 - 3 tablespoons fresh grated coconut

Method:
Dry roast the coriander seeds, two of the dry red chillis, few of the curry leaves until aromatic. Crush coarsely and reserve.
heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, allow them to crackle.
Add the peanuts and toss around so they are roasted to a crunch.
Add to these the urad dhal and allow it to brown until they are golden.
Quickly add the rest of the red chillis (broken in small bits), curry leaves, turmeric, asafoetida and salt.
Add the crushed coriander mix.
Toss them for a couple of minutes more and switch off the heat.
Transfer this to a serving bowl and add the coconut and jaggery powder. Mix with your hand slightly crushing them so the flavours combine.
Put in the paper avalakki and sprinkle some water. Bring them all together so the spices coat the avalakki while not crushing hard. Adjust the water, salt and jaggery according to taste.
Serve this with hot tea.

This dish stays fresh for another day also at room temperature. If you find it too dry by then, Sprinkle some water and heat just a bit in a microwave.
A very delicious snack to go with tea is ready with just about ingredients from your pantry.
You may sprinkle mint chutney  and top with some sev or pretty much serve like bhel.

Ready To Make - Moar Kuzhambu - Powdered Mix

Sometimes when I travel and my husband has to manage his meals, I try to make it easier for him to fix something, lest he skips his meal. I had tried part cooking and freezing foods which seemed quite handy. Then he found that if I post instructions, that might help him cook a few dishes. Thus, my counter top and refrigerator door would be filled with notes. He had managed very well that he would even grind his batter, make dhal and sambhar.
While I wrote some recipes for my daughter, she still had to juggle time with the demanding coursework and assignments; it was getting harder to cook something elaborate. Soon both of my nephews were also going away from home and were left to manage cooking for themselves.
It was then, my mother tried to coax us to make some ready to cook meals ideas. We had found that making the packaged dosa, upma mixes were easy to make at home. It took us some trials and misses to make them have longer shelf life. Thus, our puliogere ready mix and adai mix took shape. Little more experimenting lead to moar kuzhambu mix and  an 'all - in - one - sambhar mix'. This moar kuzhambu mix is a very quick dish that you cook the vegetable and mix this powder to the whisked curd. Give it a boil and add some tempering. So easy!

Update: (Updated on 7th May 2018)
This powder stays fresh over a year even at room temperature. We had made this batch last year in May and I had carried with me a portion. i just finished my last tablespoon full ready mix powder today.

Ready To Make - Moar Kuzhambu - Powdered Mix

Ingredients:
Makes 5 standard cups of powder
200 ml / heaped 3/4 cup+1 tablespoon fresh grated coconut
125 ml / heaped 1/2 cup raw rice
250 ml / heaped 1 cup / 250grams pack channa dhal / Bengal gram / split chickpeas
250 ml / heaped 1 cup / 250 grams pack thuvar dhal / split pigeon peas
70 ml / heaped 1/4 cup cumin seeds
30 ml/ 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
16 -20 dried green chillis* (1&1/2 inches long and slightly high on heat)
60 ml / level measured 1/4 cup salt
5 ml / 1 teaspoon asafoetida
About 1/3 cup dried curry leaves**

Method:
*To get dry green chillis, wash them, remove the stem and pat them dry. Spread them on a very flat dish / paper / cloth and leave them to dry for a few days. Once they are dry, they become brittle, but the green colour is just about faded. They stay well for over a month and will retain the spice level.

** The curry leaves can be dried after separating them, washed and spread between layers of cloth in the sun. Or you may choose to oven roast dry leaves until they are brittle.

To make the powder, dry roast over a low the coconut until the moisture is gone and the coconut is dry. Do not roast it to turn shade over the white. transfer to a dish and allow to cool.
Then dry roast separately over low - medium heat  the dhals, rice, coriander seeds and cumin seeds until they are just about hot. Take care that they do not over roast. (When grinding for moar kuzhambu normally the ingredients are soaked and ground raw, so we do not over do the roasting here).
Transfer them to another dish.
Finally roast the sea salt until it turns pink and transfer to this dish.
Allow them all to cool.
Pulse all the said ingredients leaving out the coconut until they are a coarse powder, add the coconut and grind further to a powder that is not very fine.

Cool this and store in airtight containers. You may refrigerate this powder if the quantity is more. Usually, the mix stays well for two moths outside of refrigeration.

To make Moar Kuzhambu:
2 tablespoons of above powder
3 - 4 tablespoons thick, slightly sour curd
Vegetable of choice
2 teaspoons ghee /coconut oil for tempering
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
Few fresh curry leaves and fresh coriander leaves

Cook the vegetable and keep ready.
Mix the powder to the curd and whisk to blend them. Add another 1/3 cup of water.
Add the cooked vegetable and bring the moar kuzhambu to a boil.
Remove from the stove.

Heat the ghee / coconut oil in a small pan and add the mustard seeds. Allow them to crackle and add the tempering to the moar kuzhambu.

Let the kuzhambu cool down a bit before adding the curry leaves and the coriander leaves.
Enjoy the kuzhambu with steamed white rice or as a side dish for ven pongal.


 

Mushroom pulav

At home, my parents never forced us to eat anything if we refused to. Thus, the three of us grew up avoiding many vegetables, fruits and food as such without much ado. There were some that one of us might hate to eat while the rest of us were fond of. So such dishes were cooked and enjoyed by the ones who liked it; one's loss was someone's gain.
Even if my mother would have tried to force anything upon us, we stood our grounds and looked for our grandparents to support us. That is possibly the reason why my younger sister has lot many on the 'no, never to try' list! I had spent a few years with an uncle and his wife had seen to that I eat everything that was cooked and was acceptable for a child.
However, growing up in rural India in the 70s and 80s meant that we were not aware of the existence of many vegetables that are so easily available today. For instance, I came across broccoli and asparagus sometime in my late twenties. Even some of the regular vegetables were kept aside on specific days in our home and some vegetables had a 'no entry' limit.
I was introduced to mushrooms as fungi, for the wild mushrooms grew like everywhere in our back yard once the rains came down. And their health benefits were unheard of.
Then on my husband's first appointment with a shipping agency, he moved to Khor Fakkan in UAE. There the containers that carried food items were strictly subject to checking by the Ministry of Health.
As a representative of the line, my husband's job included that he facilitated such inspections.
The official and a dietician will randomly open some of the packs and take away samples for inspection before certifying them fit for consumption and clearing the consignment. Those randomly opened cartons were distributed to the dock workers by the consignee. Sometimes they might leave a pack or two with the line's office also. That way we have tasted some very good quality biscuits to some rancid crisps.
On one such occasion he was handed two tins of mushrooms. I had no clue as to how to cook them. Our neighbour, a doctor, suggested that they were acquired taste and since we were not seafood eaters, we might not like the taste. She offered to cook the same at her place and share the dish with us. Possibly, the apprehension stemmed from the mention of seafood and I did not truly like the taste.
Many years later, my sister cooked mushrooms in pulav and gravy and fed my daughter. She seemed to like them then. Thus, mushrooms gained their entry into my kitchen, but only for my daughter to eat. My husband would pick the tiny mushrooms out from his pizza wedges and I might swallow them without biting into those pieces.
I hope you have guessed where all this is leading to. Yes, our freespirit blogger pal Anupama suggested a theme for this month. She wanted us to make something that we have hated (still hate) and would avoid given the opportunity. Or, she said, if you were one of those who never refused something, try some ingredient that you have never used so far.
I am one who has more on the likes list than the counterpart. As a youngster, I avoided elephant yam, I never had even a sip of coffee until I went to work, even worse, as a youngster I would not drink anything if milk has been added to it in my presence. That was so long ago and a far away time. Today, I eat, drink, consume many things without sniffing at it.
Thinking hard and pondering on the theme, I had to decide on mushrooms only, for I had to give myself and my husband a chance to try them. I purchased a small can of sliced button mushrooms, called my sister to share the recipe, cooked it at home, conveniently on a day when I had a friend for lunch.

But, to be honest, I think I might include these once in a way for they seem to carry a 'HEALTH" label all over them.




Ingredients:
2 cups Basmati rice (brown rice or any long grain rice)
150 grams sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup coconut milk
1&1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1' piece cinnamon
5 units cloves
2 pieces maratta moggu
2 petals of star anise
1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 teaspoon green chilli paste
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
1 teaspoon crushed dry mint leaves
1 teaspoon dry fenugreek leaves
2 medium onions
3 tomatoes
Salt to taste

For garnish:
1 tablespoon ginger juliennes saute'd in olive oil
1 small piece bay leaf
Few cashew nuts (fried) (optional)

Method:
Wash the basmati rice clean and spread on a cloth to drain excess moisture.
Slice half of one onion finely. The rest, chop coarsely as you may be grinding them.
Grind the coarsely chopped onions, dry mint and fenugreek leaves along with the garam masala powder to a fine paste.
Heat 1 teaspoon oil in the pressure cooker, add the drained rice and saute' for a few minutes.
Transfer the rice to another bowl and add a cup and a half of water to the same. Keep aside for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile cook the tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes, cool and puree them.
Heat again 1/2 teaspoon oil and fry the onion slices until soft and transparent. Keep aside.
Heat the rest of the oil in the pressure cooker. Add the cinnamon, cloves, maratta moggu and star anise. Then add the ginger paste and then the green chilli paste. In a few seconds add the fine ground onion paste and then the garlic paste. Cook them in the oil on a very low flame until the raw taste subsides.

Drop the mushrooms in and add the salt. Toss until the mushrooms acquire a coat of the masala and then add the coconut milk.
While on a medium flame allow the coconut milk to warm and then add the rice along with the water and the tomato puree. Add another cup of water to the ingredients that are cooking. If the rice has been aged, you may require some more water.
Bring the above ingredients to a boil and place the lid of the pressure cooker on.
Soon as it steams, place the cooker weight and when the first whistle comes on, reduce the flame to the lowest and allow an extra minute to cook.
Switch the stove off and allow the pressure inside to subside.
Open the lid and give the cooked pulav a toss to fluff the same.
Transfer to a serving dish and add the saute'd onion slices and the ginger juliennes.
Serve hot with a curry of choice. I served mine with Lauki Koftas stewed in a gravy of ground almonds, cashews and onions.

Please stop by other Freespirit bloggers to check what ingredients were not their fancies, yet they wanted to try their hands on.

I am pleased to send this to Kavi's Healthy Lunch event, which is part of Smita's Healthy Cooking Challenge.

Pudina rice with brown rice

Having read in many blogs the benefits of brown rice, I could not resist picking a pack when I found it in the local super market. I have to tell you here, that the country where I live in, such stuff are rare to find. Many a things I would take for granted in my grocer or upmarket stores in India, cannot be found here. So I just picked a pack of brown basmati rice the other day when I spotted just three of the 1 kilo packs in all! Apparently, the super market was putting it up as feelers to see the response.

I have repeatedly proclaimed that I am a mint and ginger freak. Naturally, my first trial with the brown rice was pudina rice with a touch of ginger in it.
The brown rice cooks a while longer than the normal basmati rice, needs more water to cook and will be a bit gathered as opposed to the soft yet separate grains. The yield is almost the same, but it can fill you up quickly too.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown basmati rice
1and 1/2 -1and 2/3 cups water (I used vegetable stock for cooking the rice)
1 medium onion sliced finely
1/4 cup green peas
1/4 teaspoon salt
A pinch of turmeric powder
1 table spoon ghee or cooking oil

For the mint sauce:
1/2 cup mint leaves, washed and cleaned
3 red chillis
2" piece ginger chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 heaped table spoon Urad dhal
1 and 1/2 teaspoon oil
A medium marble size Tamarind-pulp extracted or replace with 1 tablespoon yoghurt
Salt to taste

For garnish:
About 1 tablespoon finely sliced ginger roasted in ghee/oil




Method:
Mint sauce:
Heat the oil in a pan. Add the red chillis and ginger. Saute until the chillis acquire a shine.
Add the garlic and the urad dhal. Toss for a few minutes, just until the urad dhal is golden.
Add the mint leaves. They will wilt soon. Remove from the stove top. Allow to cool.
Blend in a mixer the above with the tamarind or yoghurt and the salt.
Wash the jar and add the water to the paste.
Rice:
Wash the Basmati rice thoroughly well.
Soak in 1 cup of water for about 45 minutes.
Drain the water and spread on a cloth for a few minutes.
Heat oil in a non stick big vessel. Add the sliced onions, salt and turmeric powder. Saute until the onions are pink.
Put the drained rice in and saute for a few minutes.
Add the stock or water. Bring to a boil, add the peas, reduce the fire and cover the vessel with a lid.
Stir once in a while and when half way done, add the mint sauce. Replace the cover and cook until the rice is soft to press. Depending on the age of the rice, you may require to add some water.
Place a heavy tawa on the stove and keep this vessel on the tawa. Keep the heat at the lowest.
Continue to cook for 8 minutes.
Switch the heat off and add the ginger slices for garnish.
Serve hot with a tomato or carrot raita.
I have not tried to cook in the pressure cooker as I cannot judge the time or the number of whistles to allow. If you do in the pressure cooker, you may skip the last part of placing on a tawa and cooking.

Sambhar saadham

Way back in 2000, I was looking for an authentic recipe for Bisi bele baath and found one very interesting on Mr. Hemant Trivedi's cookery corner. I printed a copy of the same and have been using it ever since. It turned out so well that I keep his recipe of sambhar powder handy at all times. My mother goes one step ahead. She has also kept the special masala readymade by dry roasting the ingredients. Lately, I read in one of the blogs that the authentic BBB does not include shallots. So, I dropped the BBB title and simply call it Sambhar saadham.

This recipe features on our dining table whenever, I need to empty my fridge before a visit to the green grocer.Depending on the type of veggie I have left over, the menu transforms as pulav, avial, kootu etc.

I have stuck to Mr. Trivedi's recipe mostly, only the quantity of rice, dhal and veggies vary.

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Thuvar dhal - 1/3 cup

Mixed vegetables (cut in big pieces) - 1/2 cup

Shallots -1/4 cup

Tamarind -1 medium lemon size ball.

Salt to taste

Sambhar powder (recipe below) - 2 teaspoons

Masala powder (recipe below) - 1/2 teaspoon

Grated copra - 3 tablespoons

Ghee - 3 tablespoons

Turmeric powder -1 teaspoon

Mustard seeds -2 teaspoons

Curry leaves, Coriander leaves - for garnish

Peel the Madras onions and retain in full pieces.

Extract pulp from tamarind to make about 1/2 cup of extract.

Cook vegetables separately according to their cooking time and mix them.

Cook dhal in a pressure cooker until tender but retains form.

Cook the rice a bit longer than regular. (as for curd rice or pongal).

Roast the grated copra until very bright red and flavoursome.

In a pan heat the ghee. Put in the mustard seeds and let them crackle.

Add shallots and saute them until they are brown. Pour the tamarind extract, add turmeric powder, salt and sambhar powder.

On medium heat let the tamarind extract simmer and reduce in volume.

Meantime add the cooked vegetables to the same and let it simmer.

After about 10 minutes add the cooked dhal and let it boil.

Now carefully transfer the rice and mix well not allowing it to stick to the pan. Stirring occassionally, let the rice and sambhar mix well.

Add the copra and the masala powder. Mix thoroughly. Take off the heat and garnish with curry and coriander leaves.

A very delectable one dish meal is ready to be served hot with anything from roasted potatoes to just crisps.

Sambhar powder:

Redchillies -1 cup

Dhania -3/4 cup

Urad dhal -1/2 tablespoon

Channa dhal - 1/2 tablespoon

Thuvar dhal - 1/2 table spoon

Black pepper -1/2 tablespoon

Turmeric powder -1 teaspoon

Asafoetida -1 teaspoon

Curry leaves - 3-4 sprigs

Fenugreek -1/4 teaspoon

Mustard -1/4 teaspoon

Cumin seeds ( optional) -2 teaspoons

Dry roast all the above ingredients individually. Then mix them in the still warm kadai. Close with a lid while it has cooled down slightly (so that no water condenses) and let it stand so for about an hour. Powder them coarsely. Store in airtight bottles. ( Mr. Trivedi says this will serve only for 3 or 4 times as he is not in favour of storing these powders for long lest they lose aroma.)

( But I store them. They keep well in our fridge for atleast two months.)

Masala powder:

2"X 4 pieces cinnamon

7 numbers cloves

25 grams Maratta moggu.(A unique spice.) if you don't find them, I guess it is okay. I use less than 25 grams.

10 pieces red chillies if they are spicy or slightly more.

In a pan, put some ghee (I dry roast this also), and add the maratta moggu on medium fire until it cracks open slightly.

Immediately remove and keep aside.

In the same pan, roast the redchillies and other ingredients on very low flame for exactly a minute and a half.

Add to the maratta moggu, let them cool. then powder not so fine, but coarse to touch.

Vaangibaath

Yesterday, after posting a comment for one of my dishes, Niki, my daughter mailed updating her Summer class schedule etc. in order that we plan our chats and calls accordingly. I mailed back filling in news here as it is almost a week that she left home. I promised to post more of recipes that she and her friends can fix amidst their crazy class and labs that seem to fill their days.

This will be one such recipe. Best of it will be that she can put it in her one nonstick pan and get done with if she chooses to. However, the microwave enthusiast that I am, I used more plates and dishes than she would :(

I've tried to simplify specifically with those foursome in mind. You are free to chop, grate or grind masalas to make it taste better.

Ingredients:
Brinjals (tender ) -200 grams
Basmati Rice - 150 ml
Coriander powder -2 teaspoons
Red Chillies -2 pieces
Very thin tamarind extract - 1 tablespoon
Shallots (Madras onions ) - few
Garlic - 2 cloves
Roasted peanuts - 1 tablespoon
Curry leaves - few
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Oil or ghee - 2 tablespoons
Garam masala powder - if desired, in some small quantity.
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt - to taste

Wash and cut brinjals. Wash basmati rice and cook till tender but grains separate. Crush the garlic and shallots coarsely or simply chop.

Heat oil in a pan, crackle mustard seeds. Drop the red chillies, onions and garlic in the pan. Add coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and roasted peanuts. Saute for few minutes and put in the brinjal and tamarind extract. Add salt and cook brinjal until pieces are tender. With the fire low, add the cooked rice and mix well. Garnish with curry leaves just before switching fire off.




Serve hot with crisps and any pachchidi.