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Tag: traditional food

THE TREE OF LIFE

May 16, 2019 smitahegdedeoLeave a comment

A coconut tree is once such tree where each and every part of the tree is useful. The roots were used to make dyes, tooth brush, mouthwash and it also has medicinal values. The leaves are used to make thatched roofs. Also used in making containers for storage. We store rice The coconut water, weContinue reading THE TREE OF LIFE →

Moringa! ……not a film character but a tree!

February 8, 2019February 8, 2019 smitahegdedeo1 Comment

Yesterday I went to the local market gadding about looking out for some unique vegetable that I could buy and cook. After walking for a bit I reached my regular vegetable vendor Ram Prasad who usually sells leafy vegetables and I found a small cane basket full of tiny white flowers tucked away slyly inContinue reading Moringa! ……not a film character but a tree! →

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Sunday brunch is fun at home. A simple one pot meal is just the perfect option for a lazy day. Today we have salli chicken with soft chapattis and a kachumber. Normally we make it with mutton but today we had a special request from Yug to make it with chicken... what’s cooked at your home ?
Today for my tiffin I have made peeth perun simla mirchi chi bhaji, chapatti and koshimbir. When I got married the food cooked at my in laws home was very different than what I was used to. Every dish had ginger, garlic paste and garam masala with a roasted coconut and fried onion paste. Where I was used to fresh coconut and mild flavors this kind of rustic flavors was feeling too strong for my palate. Well, there is something called adjustment, and then slowly and steadily you get used to it and then hey! You enjoy the flavors as well. One such dish that I began to enjoy in the recent past was vegetables like capsicum, cabbage smothered with loads of gram flour and cooked to perfection and relished with bhakri or chapatti. Specially, on a rainy day the weather is just perfect for a garma garam peth perun bhaji and soft chapattis. Here is the recipe for those you are experimental and who love vegetables cooked with gram flour I have chopped ½ kg capsicum into ½” cubes. 2 medium onions roughly chopped (this is optional, but I like the crunchy taste of onions so I have used) Heat 3 tbsp oil and add the onions, capsicum, 1 tsp ginger, garlic paste, 1 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp kolhapuri masala (you can use garam masala as well) ½ tsp turmeric powder and sauté for a few seconds and then cover and cook for 3-4 minutes on a low flame. Then add about 2 cups of gram flour and sauté till a nice nutty aroma of the gram flour releases. Add salt, mix well. sprinkle ½ a cup of water and mix well again and cover and cook till the capsicum and gram flour is cooked. Shut the flame and add juice of ½ a lemon and mix well and serve. Happy cooking and relishing
The Halakki Vokkaliga My Amma (grandma) lived in Aversa a small village nestled in the northern tip of Karantaka and every summer holidays we would visit her for a few days. With so many of us around, extra help was required and so only for those few days, Lalitha would be there to help around. I used to find her gorgeous, she would dress up in a very unique way. Her saree would be wrapped around like a sarong and she would be adorned with beads and necklaces, heavy nose rings, tons of glass and bead bangles. She fortunately could speak Konkani and so I had lovely conversations with her.  She worked really hard. I would often ask Amma why does she need to do so much work? Why does she dress up so differently? Amma said she belongs to a tribe called the Halakki Vokkaliga where the women were really strong. Most of them would be working in the fields in the scorching sun and so they would simply wrap the saree without a blouse to adapt to the hot weather. They also held the members of their community together and so they had a very important position within the society, to which I started calling my Amma a Halakki as she always held our family together. One afternoon I accompanied Lalitha to the well where she was to wash the clothes. I asked her where was she from? She answered that she lived just out the outskirts of the village. I asked her what does Halakki mean like we are GSB’s wich means Goud Saraswat Brahmins. To that she narrated a story that was told her by her grandma, where once Parvati (Lord Shiva’s wife) dropped milk and rice that she had collected. She then decided to make dolls of the mixture of the rice, milk and the mud that it fell on and Lord Shiva put life into them and gave them the task of accompanying him to the fields. And named them Halakki which means milk and rice. Hallu means milk and Akki means rice and since this tribe is known to work in the fields they are called the Halakki. That was such an interesting story I thought.  But one year she was not around and Amma said she had gone to a bigger town in search of work and finally had settled there. I hope and pray she is hail and hearty PS: some photos are stock shots
Today my tiffin has the Bharli tondli (stuffed ivy gourd), koshimbir (salad) and Bhakri (ragi roti) This is a very traditional Maharashtrian lunch with an amazing combination of sweet, sour, spicy, crunchy flavors.  The Bharli tondli is a recipe, which I learnt from our cook Ranjana maushi who has been with us for the last 25 years and taught me this dish to perfection. Initially it was a task to stuff the gourd but then I realized that even if you smother the gourd with the prepared masala is good enough.  My mother in law didn’t really prefer the ivy gourd as she felt that by consuming it the tongue becomes heavy as a result it affects the speech, well I’m not so sure of that, but yes while chopping it the fingers do get sticky and black so I usually apply some oil on my hands before I chop ivy gourds. As a child making me eat vegetables was a task as I only lived on potatoes, dal and rice. So my mum would always relate vegetables to some things that I like so she would call Ivy gourd mini watermelons and make it sound so exciting that I would happily eat it.  I love the crunchy taste of the vegetable and in Karwar we simply sauté it in coconut oil and dry red chillies and garnish it with grated fresh coconut. But today’s bharli tondli is also one of my favorite and here is the recipe…. Im sure this will be on your list of favorites as well i.  Roast 1 ½ cup fresh coconut till nice and brown ii.  Fry 1 large sliced onions till golden iii.  Grind together the coconut, onions along with ½” ginger, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp thick tamarind pulp, 1 tbsp goda masala, ¼ tsp pepper powder, 1 tbsp chilli powder, ½ tsp turmeric powder, 2 tbsp jaggery and 3 tbsp roasted peanut powder to a thick paste using very little water iv.  Add the salt and mix thoroughly  v.  Chop off the ends of ¼ kg ivy gourd and make a deep slit  vi.  Peel ¼ kg baby potatoes and make deep slits  vii.  Stuff the ground masala in the ivy gourd and the potatoes  viii.Take a broad based pan and place all the vegetables in it. Pour 3 tbsp oil around it. Sauté the vegetables for 3 minutes, add 1 cup water and cover and cook till the vegetables are done.

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Recipe Video

Get Curried | Sevai Roas | Chef Smita Deo

This Ganesh Chaturthi Get Curried brings you a unique delicacy from Karnataka. Learn making supremely delicious 'Sevai Roas' with Chef Smita Hegde Deo.

Posted by Get Curried on Thursday, September 13, 2018
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