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.

Bitter Gourd Rings(karate poDi)

Bitter Gourd or Karela or Karate in konkani is a vegetable very bitter in taste as the name specifies. The Bitter Gourd available in India is a little more crisp and strong in flavour than the bitter melon available in the local American produce.

Some people do not like bitter gourd because of its taste. But try this recipe, you are sure to like it. Karate poDi is a traditional konkani dish prepared during any special occasions or on festivals.

2-3 bitter gourds
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp chilli powder
1 chickpea or chana size hing
salt to taste
oil to fry

Wash and rinse whole bitter gourd. Slice into rounds of 0.5 Cm's thick. You can make it very thin if you want to avoid the bitter taste totally. Sprinkle a little salt over the bitter gourd slices and set aside.

Dissolve hing in a tsp of water. Mix chilli powder, rice flour, hing and salt. Be careful with salt because you have already sprinkled a few on the bitter gourd. Add a little water and make a thick paste. Add the bitter gourd slices and mix well so that the paste is coated on the slices. Adjust water if the paste becomes too dry. Add rice flour if the paste is too thin.

Heat oil in a kadai/wok to about 300-350F temperature. Put one slice of bitter gourd and check if the oil sizzles and the slice floats in the oil. If not wait for sometime and check again. Add the slices one by one to the oil. Do not crowd the wok, the slices will stick to each other and you do not get rings separate. Turn the slices upside down and fry till both the sides get dark red colour.

If you do not prefer a little bitterness in the taste, then remove the poDi/rings from the oil before they tum brown. If you like the rings crispy throughout then fry till they are dark brown on both the sides. Drian all the oil on a paper towel.

Serve with rice and dal or as an appetizer.

You can poDis out of kantola or paagiLa in konkani, raw bananas, suran, drumsticks in the same way.

Avocado and Guacamole

Guacamole served with tortilla chips

Avocado/butter fruit or beNNe haNNu in Kannada is a dark/bright green fruit which softens when ripe. It has a big hard seed inside and a soft light green pulp. The pulp is very creamy and hence the name butter fruit. My friend who is from Coorg/Madikeri used to get a lot of these fruits to my hostel during the college days. We didn't knew any recipes out of it then. We used to squeeze the pulp out, mix sugar and eat it for dessert. Now I have 2 recipes.

Heath benefits : As quoted in Wikipedia 'the fruit does have a markedly higher fat content than most other fruits, most of the fat in avocados is mono-unsaturated fat, which is considered healthy in the human diet. A whole medium avocado contains approximately 25% of the recommended daily amount of saturated fat. Avocados also have 60% more potassium than bananas. They are also rich in B vitamins, as well as vitamin E and K'. Also see WhFoods for more info.

This is the most easiest way to relish an avocado. Mash the pulp with the back of the spoon and mix it with sugar and simply eat it. Delicious! Its like mixing homemade butter with sugar.Yummy..

The second recipe is a spicy chutney that can be used as a dip for chips or as a spread for sandwich. I even like to eat it with chapati. Yes I am talking about Guacamole. This is a very popular Mexican chutney. There are many different recipes for this chutney on the Internet. I tried & tested this one.


1 avocado, mashed
1/2 tsp freshly crushed jeera
1-2 green chillies
1/4 bunch cilantro/coriander leaves
1-2 cloves garlic
salt
juice of 1 lime
1/2 onion, optional

Finely chop green chillies, cilantro. Mince the garlic. Coarsely crush the jeera. Alternately you may also coarsely grind the green chillies, garlic, jeera and cilantro in the mixer/food processor, but not necessary.
Mix in some finely chopped onion. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly along with the mashed avocado pulp. Adjust salt. Squeeze juice of 1 lime and mix. Keep it closed, it may get dark colored if exposed to air for long. To avoid this add few drops of lime juice on the top, this helps to preserve the bright green color.Let it rest for 2 hrs in the fridge.
Serve with chips or as a spread for sandwich or chapati or Dosa



I watch a lot of cooking shows. This is how I learnt to open an avocado without any hassle.

Make a vertical slit around the pit of the avocado.

Twist the two hemispheres and open it.

Hit the knife into the seed and pop it out. Discard the pit.

With a small knife make vertical and horizontal slits on the pulp. Scoop up the pulp with a spoon.
Transfer into a bowl and mash with the back of a fork.
You can retain the shells and serve the avocado dishes right on the shells.

Vegetable Tandoori

You can choose different vegetables of your choice to make Vegetable Tandoori. I used firm tofu, mushrooms, green and red bell peppers, potato and cauliflower. You can even use onions, zucchini, egg plants and other vegetables of your choice.

16 ounce water packed firm tofu
10-15 cauliflower florets
1 red and green bell peppers
10-12 mushrooms
1 big potato

Drain water from tofu, cut into 16 cubes. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Arrange the cubes in a single layer and bake for 20 minutes. The tofu will release water and turn light golden.

Dice potatoes into 1 inch into cubes. Boil water in a big sauce pan. Drop potatoes into the boiling water. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove the potatoes and plunge into cold water containing ice cubes to stop the cooking process.

Separate cauliflower into big florets. Drop them into boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove the florets and plunge into cold water containing ice cubes to stop the cooking process.

Now to make the tandoori marinade mix in the following ingredients in a bowl.
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp oil
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 cup vinegar or lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
whisk in all the ingredients in a bowl.

Now mix the prepared vegetables, mushrooms and the marinade. Marinate for 8-12 hours in the refrigerator. I did not marinade the bell peppers.

Soak the bamboo skewers in water for 2 hrs. Dice bell peppers and onions into 1 inch cubes. When ready to make tandoori, thread in the vegetables and two skewers. Using 2 skewers just gives more control over the veggies when turning on the grill. The veggies tend to dance around the skewer if only one is used.

When you are done with threading all the veggies onto the skewer, prepare the grill. I do not have a grill, so I used the broiler beneath the oven on my gas stove range. Place the skewers on the grill and spray with cooking oil. Grill for 5 minutes on each side and continue till the veggies get crispy.

Serve with a wedge of lemon on the side.

Instead of making the marinate at home you can buy Shaan Tandoori Chicken BBQ masala and follow the instructions on the the packet. I have tried making Chicken tandoori with the Shaan mix, its yummy. This time I did not have enough of the Shaan tandoori mix at home, so I made the marinade of my own and added 1 tsp of tandoori mix too. Thats how I got the deep red colour on my tandoori.

Cabbage Pakora(Cabbaga ambaDo)

3-4 cups chopped cabbage
1-2 cups chopped onions
2 tsp coarsely crushed coriander seeds
7-8 finely chopped green chillies
2 tsp red chilli powder
Besan
salt
oil for frying.

Chop cabbage and rinse it with cold water. Shake it and let all the water drain. Corasely crush the coriander seeds. Its enough if you manage to break all the seeds into two. Do not use coriander powder. I use a mortar and pestle. Mix cabbage, onions, crushed coriander seeds, chopped green chillies and salt. Keep this mixture ready.

To the cabbage-onion mix, add 1-2 cup besan and red chilli powder and mix. Add little water and mix thoroughly. It should just form a lump. Try to add less and just enough water such that when you take a tablespoon of the mix and make a ball it holds the shape.

Heat oil in a wok/kadai. Heat it till it reaches 300-350F. Make small balls out of the mix and add it to the hot oil. Fry for 5mins till the raw besan on the upper side gets little darker. Turn the pakoras upside down and fry for another 5mins. Keep turning upside down till the pakoras turn golden brown. Remove the pakoras from the oil and drain excess oil on a paper towel. Serve with Ketchup.

I do keep the cabbage-onion mixture in a separate bowl and mix the cabbage-onion mixture to the besan before frying each batch of pakora. This keeps the batter tough and helps the pakoras to hold the shape. If you are making a large quantities of pakora, the batter just keeps becoming thin by the time you are done frying with 2-3 batches.

My friends do like this pakora a lot. A medium sized cabbage hardly satisfies 4 people!

Apple and Avocado Fruit Salsa

You need
1 apple, variety of your choice
1 avocado
10-15 grapes
1 lime/lemon
1 jalapeno pepper
3 sprig cilantro
3 onions, could be green onion or any other

Wash and core the apple. Slice into small bite size pieces. Chop onion, jalapeno and cilantro.

Cut avocado into pieces. Here is an easy and clean way to chop avocados. Slit avocado along the center line of the avocado i.e all around the pit. Turn or twist the 2 halves in different directions. The upper half just pops out, leaving the pit in the lower one. With a single stroke beat your knife into the pit and twist it. The pit comes out with your knife. Now with a small knife make vertical and horizontal cuts on the pulp of the avocado when it is still inside the shell. Do not cut the shell. Spoon out the pulp, the small pieces fall out.

In a bowl mix chopped apple, avocado, grapes, onions, jalapeno and cilantro. Squeeze the juice of a lemon, add a pinch of salt. Fruit salsa is ready to be served. This recipe serves 2 people

Lettuce salad with Homemade vinaigrette

To make homemade Balsamic vinaigrette you need
3 tsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tsp balsamic vinegar or any other vinegar
3 cloves garlic finely minced
1 tsp salt
Mix all the ingredients in a glass bottle and refrigerate for 24 hrs before using. This will stay upto 2-3 weeks.



To make salad, I used 3 leaves of romaine lettuce and 4 leaves of iceberg lettuce. You may use any leaves of your choice. Wash the leaves under water. Use plenty of water and float the leaves. Then transfer the leaves to a bowl and let them drain. Its easier to drain till the last drop in a salad spinner. If you do not have one just let the leaves drain for 30 mins. Chop the leaves into tiny ribbons or strips. Pour the vinaigrette onto the leaves and gently mix them.