Patrode made easy / Sanna Kotto

Happy Gowri Tritiya & Ganesh Chaturti to all my readers.

Here is one humorous version of the story from the Hindu Mythology. Lord Ganesh was returning from a scrumptious dinner on his Birthday riding on his mouse. The mouse saw a snake on its path, frightened, it ran away tripping down Ganeshji. Ganeshji fell and burst open his stomach. The moon saw this disaster and made fun of them. Out of humiliation, Ganeshji wore the snake around his stomach like a belt. He chased the moon and later cursed him that none of the Ganeshji's devotees would look at the moon on Ganesh's Birthday.

Veggie Patty with Brown rice & Barley

I just love the veggie patty in the Subway Sandwiches. Last week, I was reading the recipe for Aloo tikki on Homespices and an idea just flashed me to make the veggie patties at home. Aloo tikki is an great alternative for the veggie patties, but I wanted it be filled with veggies and high fiber. I peeked in my pantry and found some brown rice, barley and bits and pieces of leftover veggies. I managed to come up with a my own recipe for veggie patty. It was just delicious, I gobbled up a few for evening snack, they were like cutlets.

Mulik (Jack Fruit Fritters)

Its Jack fruit season! Jack fruits always make me nostalgic. I have sweet memories of childhood where my brother would climb the tree in our backyard to pluck the jack fruits and my sisters would be helping him. It was like a mini circus going on every day.

We put almost every part of the jack fruit tree to use. The young jack fruit used in curries, the seed is also used up. Sometimes the seeds are sun dried and stored for the winter. Once the fruits start to ripe first few weeks we would just survive on jack fruits. A few weeks later my mom would make Jackfruit idlis (muddo) and then comes the Jack fruit fritters (mulik). Even the leaves aren't spared. The leaves are cleaned, trimmed and sewn together with coconut leaf stalk to make a container in which idlis called (kotto) are steamed.

Biscuit Rotti (Mangalorean Kachori)

Biscuit Rotti, A Mangalorean Style Kachori with coconut filling
When I was a kid, eating in the restaurants was a luxury. I usually spent my summer holidays helping my Dad in his little shop. He would get some munchies from the near by Hotel Taj Mahal(thats how we would call restaurants back in India) or sometimes got it delivered by the catering boy. BiscuitambaDe, TairambaDe, Puri Bhaaji, GoLi bhaje and Biscuit Rotti were my favorite picks. Yeah I know, for many of you these names might sound alien. They are just the Mangalorean names for Urad vadas, Dahi vada, Maida bonda & Mangalorean Kachoris in the same order!

Kele Podi (Ripe Banana Fritters)

I love Thai food. When I first arrived in the USA, some of my cousins introduced me to the red and green Thai curries and since then I am hooked on to those. But I have not tried many of the Thai delicacies yet. Actually the Thai cuisine is very much close to the Konkani cuisine. We use bamboo shoots, jack fruits, bananas in the curries based with coconut sauce.

Daiya Povu (Poha in Sweetened Yogurt )

Yogurt, Poha and Sugar
Daiya povu is a simple quick snack. This always reminds me of summer holidays of my childhood. We did not have a refrigerator at home and craved for some cold, soothing snacks to beat the heat. My mom would prepare Daiya povu. Its simply Poha in Sweetened Yogurt. An ideal snack for ikra ganTe tannik i.e a light snack between breakfast and lunch usually had around 11 am.

1 cup poha/povu/beaten rice
1 cup yogurt
sugar as desired

Beat the yogurt, add water if its very thick. Dissolve sugar till the yogurt is sweet as desired. Mix in the poha and let it soak. Serve.

Kids surely love this.

Churmundo (Wheat flour ladoos )

This is one of the all time favorite ladoos among the Konkani people. The ladoo is made of wheat flour and not maida. It has very little ghee in it, made dry and explodes into powder in the mouth. This was my elder brother AshokaNNas favorite ladoo and my paternal aunt used to make never ending dabba full of Churmundos for him whenever we visited her. You cant stop at one, believe me!

This recipe with the wonderful picture was sent to me by my jhaava, Nayana Shenoy. Jhaava in Konkani means husbands brothers wife. Husbands elder brother is called bhaiyyo. Nayana is a great cook. You will see many more recipes from Nayana in future.

Chana Besan - 1/3 Cup
Chapati Atta - 1 Cup
Powdered Sugar - 1 Cup
Ghee - 1/4 Cup
Cardamom Powder - a pinch

Seave besan and wheat flour separately and set aside.
Heat ghee in a pan. Add chana besan and fry on medium heat for about a minute. Add chapati flour and keep frying until you get a nice roast aroma. Remove from flame and keep aside to cool.
When completely cooled, add powdered sugar, cardamom powder and mix well.
Make laddoos by firmly squeezing a small portion of the mixture in the palm. Ghee may be added if the mixture does not stick together to form firm laddoos.

Store in air tight containers.

Corn Mixture

Corn mixture
Corn Mixture is very easy to prepare from the scratch at home. Yes It tastes as good as the one you buy from the bakery. I learnt to make Corn Mixture from my close friend Seema.

The main ingredient you will need is Raw Corn poha. It is available in most of the Indian stores, usually kept next to the poha and murmura. It looks like poha but little tougher and yellow as shown in the picture here.

Corn poha before frying

200 gm corn poha
1 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 sprig curry leaves, optional
2-3 tsp groundnut, optional
1 tsp cashew, optional
1 tsp raisins, optional
oil for frying

Mix red chili powder, salt and sugar in a small cup and set aside.

Heat oil in a deep fry wok. If you use deep fry thermometer, bring it to 300-350F or 150-175C. Add a few corn poha and see if it puffs up and remain crisp. You can eat a few and test that they are fully fried and crispy throughout. If the oil isn't hot enough, the poha remains hard inside and also it absorbs more oil.

Now add a handful of poha into the oil. Add only a little, they puff up and occupy a large area on the oil surface. Do not crowd the oil by adding too much of poha at a time. Remove the poha from the oil and drain on a paper towel. Sprinkle the chili-salt-sugar mixture on top of the hot poha. Continue frying another batch of poha and do the same until you are done with all the poha.

If using raw nuts, take a tsp of hot oil in a small wok, roast the nuts and add it to the poha. In the same oil roast curry leaves until it is crispy, drain on a paper towel and add to the poha. Add raisins. Mix well.

Let it cool. Store in a air tight container.

Chakkuli

2 cups rice flour (slightly coarse for more crispiness)
1 cup urad flour (black gram)
1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
1/2 tsp jerra
1/2 stick butter/oil
salt to taste
2 cups ghee for frying
Fry urad flour in a dry pan on the flame until it darkens a few shades. Let it cool down. Mix the rice flour, urad flour, butter, sesame seeds and jeera in a large container. Add sufficient quantity of water and salt to the flour and butter mixture. Mix all the ingredients by hand to make a soft dough and knead well. Using a chakli press, press the dough to make round chaklis on a plastic sheet. Deep fry the chaklis until brown over slow heat.

Chaklis are usually very crisp. You can make urad flour at home by washing the urad dal, drying in the sun, frying slightly and grinding to a fine powder.