Potato Stir Fry / Batate Usli

Simple Potato Stir Fry / Batate Usli

There is no other vegetable as versatile as a humble potato. Most of the times potato gets lost in blend of spices or is used as a filler among other vegetables. This stir fry is rather a simple dish put together in 10 minutes with the potatoes being the center of attraction. The Konkani name for it is "Batate Usli", often served alongside Chapatis or Pooris.

2-3 medium sized potatoes
1 sprig curry leaves
A pinch or 2 of hing

Konkani Chick Pea Stew / Chane Vaagu

Konkani Chick Pea Stew / Chane Vaagu

Vaagu in Konkani means Tiger. Its also the name of a spicy stew, perhaps named for its beautiful Orange color and the heat of the red chillies that bring the mouth on fire.

The traditional Konkani Vaggu is made with potatoes and the sauce is prepared by grinding whole roasted spices. This dish has a strong flavor of hing and curry leaves. This recipe is simplified and some of the ingredients are substituted.

Red Spinach / Red Swiss Chard / Beet Greens Stir Fry (Bajji Upkari)

Red Spinach is a very different from Spinach. Also known as bajji in Konkani, harive soppu in kannada. Unlike spinach the leaves are tough and hold its texture very well. Does not wilt or get mushy like spinach. Here in Los Angeles, these are always available in Chinese or Indian grocery stores.

This Konkani recipe for the stir fry is usually made with Red Spinach. This recipe also goes great with Red Swiss Chard, Beet greens and also Kale! The end product of Red Swiss chard and beet greens is almost same as that of red spinach. But Kale takes a while to cook and is a little chewy.

Chicken Curry - Chettinad Style

This is my favorite chicken curry. I have been making this curry for a few years now and it never occurred to me that I have not posted the recipe yet. There are many different versions of chicken chettinad floating in the web. This is my version..it may not be the authentic one but surely is one of the awesome recipe.

Quick Basil Chicken Curry

I am a little admant when it comes to trying out new cuisines. My husband always makes fun of me that I cook food in my plate in the restaurants. I am always adjusting salt and pepper. I had a very hard time initially in US eating exotic foods. By exotic I mean anything non Indian and non-pizza!

For my surprise I just fell in love with Thai cuisine the very first time. The only secret being its so much closer to Konkani food. Yeah, true Thai and Konkani- bhai Bhai..!!

Tere Panna GanTi Butti - Colocasia Leaves in Garlic Coconut Sauce

Its raining cats and Dogs back home in Puttur, where my family lives. When I call home, my Mom always gives a detailed report of the current news and gossips of the town. From past few weeks she has been complaining how rains and floods are effecting their livelihoods. But all I could think about was about those seasonal goodies that grow in the wet rainy fields, making me extremely nostalgic.

A few months into the rainy season, specialty veggies start growing such as many varieties of Colocasia leaves.

Dill Potatoes - Quick and Easy

Dill or Suva baji is a very fragrant herb. It has a very strong aroma that overpowers any other ingredient in the recipes. Whats a better partner to Dill than the lovely potato. They just go together like made for each other.

I usually make a simple Dill stir fry with moong dal that I posted in the past. This time I wanted to make something different.

Mixed Vegatable Song

From a couple of months I have been making curries, the north Indian way with onions, tomatoes and garam masala. It got quite boring and I decided to ban the garam masala for some time. Thats when this new version of konkani recipe merged.

Batate song is a very well known Konkani recipe. Song in Konkani is a spicy curry made with a red hot chilli and tamarind sauce. Instead of using the usual Potato and Onions combination,

Cabbage Palya

Palya in Kannada is a stir fry or some dry dish. My mom used to make simple cabbage upkari or Konkani stir fry I posted a few weeks back. It is a simple dish chopped cabbage cooked in a seasoning of mustard, jeera, green chillies & curry leaves. This is good on its own, but I wanted to glorify it a bit. I kept searching on the net for different recipes and also happened to see my friend Seemas Mom-in-law making cabbage palya with kasoori methi.

Chana Masala

I grew up in a small town near Mangalore in a Konkani family. My mom always cooked authentic Konkani food. She never has garam masala in her kitchen, even till today. In fact, my mom hates the smell and taste of Garam masala, she finds it very strong and pungent. When I moved out of my town to pursue studies and career, I was introduced to a variety of north Indian and non Konkani dishes by my friends. It was amazing to learn so many new things and tastes.

My mom in law thought me a basic gravy with tomatoes using Garam Masala. She used to make egg curry with that recipe.

Mooga Usli (Sprouted Green Gram Stir Fry)

Sprouted Green Grams are my all time favorites. It can be raw, added into salads, chats etc. Sprouted green gram gashi called kirlail moogan gashi is the festive side dish made during Mahalaya avamasya. Will post that recipe sometime in the future. My favorite recipe is the Stir fried and lightly cooked green grams.

2 cups sprouted green grams
3 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp urad dal
pinch of hing
a tbsp shredded coconut, optional

Heat oil in a kadai, Splutter mustard seeds, add urad dal, slit green chillies, curry leaves. Add sprouted green grams, add little water and salt. Cook on medium flame. I cook it for just 5-10 minutes, I like mine crunchy. You can cook your desired consistency. Dissolve hing in a tsp of water and add. Optionally you can garnish with fresh coconut.

Serve it as a side dish or snack. I like it for breakfast too.

How to sprout?
Soak 1 cup of green gram/moong in 3-4 cups of water. Soak it overnight or for 8-12 hrs. Drain and rinse water 2 times with water. You can tie green grams in a wet thin cloth. I just spread it and cover in a wide pan. Let it rest for another day till the sprouts have grown.

Batate Song (Spicy Potato Curry)

Batate Song served with chapathi
Batate Song is the spicy potato curry very authentic to Konkani cuisine. Its usually made with rice and dalitoy, so that the blandness of the dal is well balanced with the spicy song.

2 medium potatoes
2 medium onions
4 red chillies or 1 tsp chilli powder
1 inch cube tamarind
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp oil

Chop onions into cubes. Boil whole potatoes, peel and chop into cubes. Soak tamarind in a little water, squeeze the pulp and discard fiber.
If using whole red chillies, roast them in oil and grind along with tamarind into a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a kadai/wok, splutter mustard seeds, add onion and fry till they are wilted. Do not brown the onions.
If you opted to use whole chillies add the chilli-tamarind paste.
If you opted for chilli powder, add the chilli powder to the onions and fry till aromatic. Add the tamarind pulp.
Add salt and 1/2 cup water, bring it to a boil. Add chopped potatoes and simmer on medium flame.

Serve with rice and dal or chapathi.

You may also add peas or cauliflower to the song. But authentic batate song has only onion and potatoes in it.

Batate Gojju (Konkani Style Potato Salad)

Batate Gojju is a classic Konkani Potato Salad. The blandness of the potatoes is well spiced with chillies, tamarind and a dash of hing. The hing rules the flavor in this dish.

2-3 medium size potatoes
4 green chillies
small piece tamarind
1/4 tsp hing powder or small piece solid hing

for seasoning
1 tsp oil
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal, optional
2 dry red chillies

Boil potatoes in enough water. Peel the skin and mash it. Leave some small lumps of potatoes. Microwaved potatoes do not yield good results, so I recommend you to cook the potatoes in a pressure cooker with enough water.

Soak tamarind and extract pulp. Add to the potatoes.

Finely chop green chillies. In a mortar and pestle, crush together green chillies and a tsp of salt. Add to the mashed potatoes. Dissolve hing in a tsp of water and mix well. Add little water and bring it to the semi solid consistency.

Make a seasoning of mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and broken red chillies, add to the potatoes.

Serve with rice and dal or chapathi.

VaingaNa TaLasaNi (Eggplant Stir Fry with roasted garlic)

Eggplant Stir fry or taLasani or authentically made with a special breed of eggplant/brinjals called guLLa. guLLa looks like a green brinjal but has a dull skin, its not glossy like the brinjal. guLLa is grown in large quantities in MaTTu, a village near Mangalooru(Mangalore) and those are called MaTTu guLLa.

Eggplant taLasaNi

I do not find guLLa in the place where I live and hence make taLasaNi with brinjals called vaigaNa in konkani. So my taLasaNi becomes vaingaNa taLasaNi instead of the authentic guLLa taLasaNi .

3-4 small Indian eggplants
6-8 garlic cloves
3 dry red chillies
1 tsp oil

Clean and cut the eggplants into cubes. Immerse in salt water. Set aside
Crush garlic cloves. Cut them if the cloves are big.
Heat 1tsp oil in a kadai/wok, fry garlic till golden brown. Add broken red chillies and fry. Drain the water from the eggplants and add to the kadai. Add enough water till the eggplant is covered. Add salt. Cover and cook on low flame.

I cook the eggplants till they are over cooked and get a little mushy. This way they absorb more flavor. You can cook it to your desired consistency.

Serve with rice and dal.

Kuleeth Saaru & Usli (Horsegram soup & Stir fry)

Saaru in Konkani or Kannada is a general name for any thin flavored liquid that has to be eaten with rice. Saaru can also be savoured like a soup. Konkanis do often use the liquid from boiling any grains/legumes for making saaru.

Kuleeth Saaru Served with rice

Kuleeth/Kulthi or Horsegram is a brown flat legume. I had written more about Kuleeth in the past along with Kuleeth Dosa.

Kuleeth is cooked with lots of water, the liquid is separated and used to make saaru. The cooked kuleeth grains is used to make Kuleeth Usli, a side dish that can be eatedn along with chapathi or rice or just like a snack.

1 cup kuleeth
6-7 cloves garlic
2 green chillies
2 dry red chillies

Cook kuleeth in a pressure cooker for about 5 whistles. Drain the liquid from the kuleeth to a sauce pan. Add slit green chillies and salt and bring it to a boil. Keep boiling till the green chillies impart hotness into the saaru.

For the seasoning, roast garlic in a tsp of oil, fry broken red chillies and add to the saaru.
Kuleeth Saaru
Serve with rice or drink like a soup.

Kuleeth Usli
Make kuleeth usli or a stir fry snack with the cooked grains.
1 cup cooked kuleeth
2 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard
hing
1 tbsp shredded coconut, optional

Heat 1 tsp oil in a kadai/wok. Splutter mustard seeds, add slit green chillies, curry leaves. Add cooked kuleeth, salt and a little water. Cook till all the water evaporates. Garnish with coconut.

Kuleeth Usli

Serve as a side dish or breakfast or snack.

Spinach Song (Spicy Spinach Curry)

Spinach Song is a spicy curry made with chilli powder and tomatoes with a roasted garlic. This tastes somewhat near to konkani batate song, and hence my konkani name for it "Spinach Song". You can add soy chunks or soy protein granules to it, optionally.


Spinach Song is not a authentic konkani dish. My my mother-in-law came across a similar recipe somewhere in north India a few years back and she gave a konkani touch to it. She has been making this since then and everyone in my family loves this.

1 bunch spinach
10-12 soy chunks(badi), optional
3 garlic cloves
2 ripe tomatoes
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder

Clean the spinach and chop. Set aside. If you opt to add soya chunks, soak them in warm water.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic Put turmeric and chilli powder and fry until they are puffed. Add tomatoes and fry on low flame for 10mins until the tomato is cooked and turns into a thick puree

Add spinach, salt and little water bring to boil. Do not add more water. The leaves cook fast and reduces to small quantity within no time. Squeeze the water from the soy chunks and add them. Cover the pan and cook on low flame until the spinach is cooked and soy chunks are soft.

Serve with chapathi or rice and dal

Konkani Style Stir Fry (Upkari)

Upkari is a Konkani style Stir fry that is made with bare minimum spices and very little oil . Its very mild and the very taste of the vegetable rules. You can relish on just the upkari like a snack or a salad. Upkari can be made with french beans, long beans, gherkins/tenDLe/tonDekai and many other vegetables. Usually only one kind of vegetable is used and can be combined with potatoes.
If you are new to upkari, I recommend you try this first time with french beans.

French Beans Upkari

2 cups french beans
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp urad dal, optional
3-5 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp coconut, optional

Wash, clean, rinse french beans in enough water. If the beans are over grown then remove the strings on the sides. Chop the french beans to 1 cm size.

Heat oil in a wok/kadai, splutter mustard seeds. Now add urad dal and fry till light brown. Add slit green chillies and curry leaves, fry for a moment. Add chopped french beans and salt. Add just enough water till all the french beans are soaked. Cover and cook on medium flame till the french beans are tender. Now add coconut, if you opt to and gently mix into the upkari.

Serve with rice and dal or with chapati. I also like to eat it like a snack.

Red Hot Bhindi Curry(Benda Song)

Song is a authentic konkani side dish made with tamarind and red hot chillies. Its made very spicy and often paired up with the konkani dal ,daLitoy. The mildness of the dal balances well with the red hot spicy song. Song made with potatoes, Batate song is the most popular kind of song. I had no idea that song could be made with different other veggies too. When my Mom-in-law made song with bhindi i was amazed. I did learn a lot of other curries that resembled the song too. Will post them in future.


2 cup chopped bhindi or okra.
2 medium size onions
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 inch cube tamarind
2 tsp oil

Wash okra/bhindi in plenty of water. Rinse them thoroughly, drain all the water. Slice them and set aside

Soak tamarind in a cup of lukewarm water. Squeeze the pulp and discard the fiber.

Heat oil in a kadai/wok and fry the onions on a low flame till golden brown. Its very important to fry them till golden brown. Add chilli powder, coriander powder and fry till aromatic. Add the tamarind pulp and another cup of water. Bring it to a rolling boil. Add the okra and salt, stir and cook on medium flame. Cook till all the water is evaporated.

When its still cooking,if the water is very less in the kadai, add some hot water. If the okra is cooked when the sauce is still thin, put on high flame and evaporate most of the liquid.

Serve with rice and Dal or chapati

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.

Dill Curry

Dill

Dill is a aromatic herb with a distinct smell and pungent flavour of its own kind. Dill is known as Suva bhaji or Sabsige soppu in Kannada. Dill can be used for garnishing soups, dals, sambars or rasam. A few sprigs of dill are enough to fill your sambar with its strong flavour. I was amazed when my friend Seema bought few bunches of Dill at the Indian Supermarket. This is the recipe I got from her.

Dill Curry with chapati

2 bunch dill leaves
5 green chillies
1/2 tsp mustard
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp mung dal

Soak mung dal in water for 30mins. Drain the water and set aside the dal. Clean and rinse dill leaves in water. Drain the water and chop the leaves. Set aside.

Heat oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds, add green chillies, add mung dal and fry till it gets light dark colour. Now add dill leaves. Add very little water. Add little salt and cover the kadai. Cook on low flame. The dill leaves on cooking wilt and the quantity reduces a lot, so be careful with the amount of salt you add. Cook for 5 minutes. Put it on a high flame to evaporate all the water.

Serve with chapati. Do not worry about the little quantity of the curry that a bunch of dill yields, the curry is very aromatic and it eats like pickle.