Mushroom Masala ( अळंबीची भाजी )

I started enjoying mushrooms recently. I have not experimented much with mushrooms yet, this is the only dish I cook. All these years, I never cooked them, for some reason, I thought they were heavy to digest. I remember eating mushroom flavored dish in a restaurant long back and having a tummy upset. Ever since then, I did not have mushrooms, even while ordering a dish at a restaurant, I would specifically ask them not to add mushrooms!
I am trying to cut dairy and oil from my diet, relying solely on plant based food to get all the nourishment. While doing grocery shopping, my husband picked mushrooms few months back, and I thought, "why not give it another try?"

So here I am, enjoying mushroom gravy now :)

I have used water based seasoning for this recipe, you can use oil instead, if you want to.

Ingredients:
6-8 white mushrooms, sliced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp garam masala,
salt as per taste,
jaggery as per taste (optional)
coriander leaves for garnish

for grinding:
1/4 cup grated coconut,
a handful of cashew nuts, soaked
1/2 tsp jeera,


for seasoning:
2 tbsp water,
1/2 tsp mustard seeds,
a pinch of asafoetida,
1/2 tsp cumin or jeera,
1/2 tsp turmeric,
5-6 curry leaves
3-4 green chillies,
1/2 tsp grated ginger,
10-15 cashew nut pieces,

Serving: 2-3 people

In a heated kadhai (pan) add water for the seasoning. When the water starts bubbling up, add mustard seeds, asafoetida and jeera. Let it simmer for a minute. Add rest of the seasoning ingredients and cover it with lid for another minute. Now add chopped onion and mix well. Let it cook for 2 minutes, covering the pan with lid. Next, add diced tomatoes and stir. Let the tomatoes cook for 5 minutes. Add garam masala and sliced mushrooms. Cook for few more minutes. Next add salt, jaggery as per your taste and let the gravy simmer for some time until mushrooms are almost cooked.
Grind together coconut, cashew nuts and jeera with little bit of water to form a chutney consistency mixture. Add this coconut mixture to the simmering gravy. Adjust water in the gravy to get the required consistency. Simmer for 8-10 minutes. The curry will thicken with coconut and cashew paste mixture.

Enjoy this curry as a side dish or with rice or chapati. It goes well with bread too.

Sauted long beans (तेलावर परतवलेली वालीची भाजी)

In my family, all of us like munching raw long beans. I remember doing it since my childhood. Long beans are very easy to cook. Somehow I prefer their raw, tender flavor rather than cooked (boiled) flavor. I made this as a side dish along with palak paneer, which is my daughter's favorite vegetable for her school tiffin. I added walnuts to this dish for an extra crunchiness. You can add cashews too.

Ingredients:
A bunch of long beans, washed and cut into long strips
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp sesame seeds,
a handful of walnuts, chopped
1/2 tbsp olive oil or any other cooking oil
1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar or lemon juice and honey combination
salt as per taste
black pepper powder as per taste

In a heated kadhai, pour olive oil. Add garlic pieces, sesame seeds, black pepper powder, walnut pieces. Sautee for 1 minute till garlic pieces are well fried and turned brown. Next to it, add cut pieces of long beans and sautee on high flame for 1-2 minutes. Season with salt. Add balsamic vinegar and mix well. Sautee for an additional 1 minute. You can also use lemon juice and honey combination instead of balsamic vinegar.

This is a simple and tasty side dish cum salad with rice or chapati.

Cucumber Dhirde (काकडीचे धिरडे)

Ingredients:
1 cup grated cucumber,
1 cup jowar flour,
1 tbsp besan flour,
1-2 chopped green chillies,
1 tsp carom or ajjwain seeds (optional),
chopped coriander leaves (optional),
salt as per taste

Servings: 4 medium size dhirde

I used sambar cucumber for this recipe. You can use regular cucumber instead. Grate the cucumber and mix all the ingredients. Add very little water to get thick consistency (idli batter consistency).

Heat pan and apply little oil on the pan for greasing. Pour one ladle full of batter and lightly spread it in circular motion. Cover the pan with a lid and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Once the bottom side is brown and well roasted, flip the other side. Cover again with the lid. In about 2-3 minutes, the other side will be fried properly.

Dhirde is ready to serve. You can either serve it with a green chutney or curd based salad. My daughter loves it with ghee and sugar. 

Cucumber Thalipeeth (काकडीचे थालीपीठ)

I made this thalipeeth using mixed millets. I had bought sambar cucumber to use in Sambar. Thought of making this thalipeeth with leftover cucumber.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of jowar flour
1/2 cup pearl millet or bajra flour,
1/4 cup nachni or ragi flour,
1 cup grated sambar cucumber,
few coriander leaves chopped,
1/2 tsp chilly powder or chopped green chillies,
1/4 tsp roasted jeera,
1 tsp sesame seeds,
salt as per taste

Servings: 3 medium sized thalipeeth

Mix all the ingredients and knead into a dough. If the mixture is too dry, add little lukewarm water to knead into a smooth dough.

Divide the dough into three round balls. Using palm, press the dough into flat bread, keep turning the dough slowly while flattening to uniformly apply pressure on all sides. It should be slightly thicker than chapati.

Heat a pan on the gas stove. Once the pan is hot, place thalipeeth on it. Sprinkle some oil from the sides to roast it. Make 2-3 small holes in thalipeeth at different places to help it cook well. Keep the flame on low. After 3-4 minutes, turn the thalipeeth to roast the other side. After another 3-4 minutes, thalipeeth will be ready. Serve it hot with chutney, a dollop of butter or freshly grated coconut and curd.

Spinach Flatbread (पालकाची भाकरी)

I read this in a recipe book and found it very interesting. I have never tried mixing anything with jowar or any other grain flours other than wheat. It turned out to be very tasty.

Ingredients:
a small bunch of palak or spinach leaves
1 1/2 tsp roasted jeera
3-4 garlic cloves
2 green chillies
1 1/2 tbsp besan or gram flour
1 1/2 cup jowar flour or multigrain bhakri flour (mix of raagi, bajra, jowar flour)
salt as per taste

Servings:
4-5 bhakris

Wash spinach leaves thoroughly. In a pan, add spinach leaves and cook for 2-3 minutes until the leaves start wilting. Turn off the gas and let it cool for 5-10 minutes. Grind together wilted spinach leaves, green chillies, cloves, roasted jeera. In a flat plate, mix together gram flour, paste of spinach with other ingredients, salt and add bhakri flour slowly. Keep mixing and kneading. Adjust the flour or water to make a smooth dough. Divide the dough into 4-5 round balls.

Procedure to make bhakri:
Dust some flour on a ball. Using your palms and a flat surface, lightly  press the dough ball and rotate it. Sprinkle more flour if the dough is sticking to your palm or the flat surface. Keep pressing and rotating until you get a nice round chapati sized bhakri. Take a flat pan and heat it on medium flame. Using a spatula, slowly lift the bhakri and carefully place it on the pan. Turn the flame to maximum and spread some water on the top surface of the bhakri. Let it cook for 1-2 minutes, taking care not to burn the bottom surface of the bhakri. Flip the bhakri, allowing the surface on which you had spread water to cook. After a minute, take the pan off the flame using a pair of tongs and invert the bhakri and place it directly on the flame. Bhakri will begin to puff up. Turn the bhakri again and cook the other side of the bhakri. Serve hot bhakri with fresh home made butter and vegetables of your choice. Bhakri goes very well with gravy vegetables.

Ragi Sweet Porridge (नाचणीचे सत्त्व)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup ragi grains or 1/2 cup ragi flour (नाचणी)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup jaggery, grated
a few cardamom seeds, powdered
handful of chopped dry fruit nuts like cashew, pistachios

Servings:
3 people

You can either use ragi grains or store-bought ragi flour. If you using grains, soak them in water for 2-3 hours. Next grind them in a mixer with minimum water. Extract juice out of this paste, and strain it. This is called ragi satva or extract of the ragi grain. To this add, coconut milk, jaggery and mix well.

Place this liquid on a low flame on gas stove and stir continuously. The mixture will slowly start thickening. Keep stirring continuously to avoid any lumps. After about 7-8 minutes, the mixture will be thickened and will develop a slight glaze. The mixture should be porridge thick. Turn off the gas once it is well thickened and garnish with cardamom powder and dry fruits.

Grease a flat plate with little bit of ghee. Pour the porridge while it is hot. Spread it uniformly on the plate using a spoon or a knife. Cover the plate with a lid and let it cool down for an hour. Once it is cooled down, place it in the refrigerator for further cooling. After an hour, the porridge is ready to be served. It is not very thick like a cake, but semi-fluid. Cut it into bite sized pieces and serve. 

Caramalized Fig (भाजलेले अंजीर)

I wanted to try grilling figs for a long time. I used a pan to grill the figs. This is a very simple and quick dish.

Ingredients:
4 figs, halved
little bit of honey for garnishing
little bit of cheese for garnishing

Servings: 3 people

Heat a flat pan and place halved figs on it, cut side facing the pan. After a couple of minutes, turn them to grill the other side of the figs, the skin part. Once it is well grilled from both sides, turn off the gas. Drizzle the figs with honey and serve. You can top it with blue cheese for garnish.

Moong Sprouts Salad (मोड आलेल्या मुगाची कोशिंबीर )

I had a bowl of moong sprouts, leftover after making moong usal. I tried making Thai bean sprouts salad using these sprouts. I did not have soy sauce and palm sugar at home. I added lemon juice for some sour flavor. Next time, I will try adding soy sauce and palm sugar to make it more authentic.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of long sprouts (moong or any other beans)
1/2 cup capsicum, diced
1-2 spring onion greens, chopped
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely pounded
1/2 tsp olive oil for mixing
1/4 tsp pepper powder or chilly powder
1/2 tsp lemon juice or soy sauce

seasoning:
3-4 garlic cloves, cut finely
1/4 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp oil

Servings: 3-4 people

Lightly toss together all the ingredients, except the seasoning. In a small seasoning kadhai, heat oil and saute garlic cloves and sesame seeds. Turn off the gas and let it cool a bit. Mix the seasoning with the tossed salad. Refrigerate and serve chilled.

Next time I will try making this salad with bean sprouts and will add soy sauce and palm sugar. 

Hummus (काबुली चण्याची चटणी)

Hummus is a Mediterranean dish. It is a thick chutney made using boiled chickpeas.

Servings:
3 people

Ingredients:
1 cup of boiled chickpeas (काबुली चणे)
4-5 garlic cloves
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp chilly powder or pepper
2 tsp lemon juice
salt as per taste

In a mixer, grind the dry ingredients like sesame seeds, pepper corns, and garlic cloves together. Next add boiled chickpeas and lemon juice and salt. Grind to a coarse paste. Do not add water for grinding, use little bit of lemon juice or curd instead, just enough to grind. Serve this with pita bread or lettuce leaves.

Orange Apple Salad (सफरचंद संत्र्याची कोशिंबीर)

Servings:
4-5 people

Ingredients:
2 apples
3 oranges, peeled
Lettuce leaves
assorted dry fruits like pistachios, walnut chopped
salt as per taste

Dressing:
juice of 1 orange
1 tsp of honey or agave nectar or any other vegan honey substitute
1/2 inch of ginger piece, julienne

Cut apples into chunk sized pieces. Peel oranges, remove the pith and cut them into bite sizes. Take juice of one orange and mix it with honey and ginger. Let it simmer in a vessel for about 10 minutes until it fills your kitchen with a nice aroma and the juice becomes a bit syrupy. Let it cool for some time.

In a large bowl or salad plate, toss together orange pieces, apple pieces and assorted dry fruits. Tear lettuce into bite sized chunks and add this to the fruits. Pour cooled down salad dressing on this. Sprinkle salt as per taste. Stir lightly and carefully so as to prevent lettuce from turning soggy. You can either serve it immediately or refrigerate it and serve it chilled.

Poha Chivda (पातळ पोह्यांचा चिवडा)

Ingredients:
1/4 kg flattened rice, thin variety (पातळ पोहे)
1/2 cup roasted groundnuts
1/2 cup puffed rice (चुरमुरे)
1 1/2 tbsp of split roasted gram (डाळे)
A handful of dry coconut pieces
3-4 pieces of dried kokam, cut into pieces
salt as per taste
powdered sugar as per taste

For seasoning:
1/2 tbsp of  oil
1 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
a pinch of asafoetida
8-10 curry leaves
1 1/2 tsp of sesame seeds (optional)
2 tsp turmeric powder
3-4 green chillies

In a large kadhai, dry roast flattened rice for about 5-10 minutes on low flame until they turn crispy. Keep it aside. Similarly dry roast puffed rice for 2-3 minutes for added crispiness. Keep it aside.  Allow these two ingredients to cool down a bit.

Add oil to the kadhai and do the regular seasoning with mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, sesame seeds and green chillies and turmeric powder in that order. Next add groundnuts and stir for a minute. Now add kokam pieces, dry coconut pieces and split roasted gram. Mix well and stir for another 5-7 minutes. Once all the ingredients are well roasted, turn off the heat. Allow the seasoning to cool down.

In a large container, mix dry roasted puffed rice, flattened rice with salt and powdered sugar. Once the seasoning has cooled down a bit, mix seasoning with puffed rice and beaten rice. Mix all the contents thoroughly and chivda is ready to serve.

Once the chivda has completely cooled down, store it in an air tight container.
This chivda stays fresh for about a month.

Solkadhi (सोलकढी)

Ingredients:
5-6 dried kokam pieces
3/4 cup freshly grated coconut
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of carom seeds or ajwain (optional)
2-3 green chillies
a pinch of asafoetida
salt as per taste

Soak kokam pieces in about a cup of water for 2-3 hours.  Grind together coconut, garlic, green chillies, carom seeds. Add little bit of water, just enough to grind it together. Extract the juice out of this, strain it. Optionally add about 1/2 cup of water again to the mix and grind it for second round of juice. Add this juice to the water containing kokam pieces. Add asafoetida and salt. Stir well and adjust the water if you think it is too sour.

Solkadhi is a great combination with fried fish or potato and other chips. It also helps in digestion of food. Solkadhi is prepared daily for lunch along with other meal preparations in Goan houses.

Black Chickpea Salad (काळ्या छोल्यांची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Black chickpeas, boiled,
1 medium sized tomato, diced
1 medium sized onion, chopped finely
fresh coriander for garnish

Seasoning:
salt as per taste,
ground pepper as per taste,
lemon juice

Boil the black chickpeas in a pressure cooker. Add little salt while boiling. Drain the water once the chickpeas are cooled down. Mix remaining ingredients and the salad is ready to serve.

Tip: Moong, matki and other pulses can also be used in place of black chickpeas.

Moong Dal Dosa (मूगाच्या डाळीचे डोसे)

Ingredients:

1 cup moong dal, soaked for 5-6 hours

1/2 cup buttermilk

3-4 green chillies

1 tsp jeera

4-5 garlic cloves

7-8 coriander sprigs

salt as per taste

Servings: 2 people

Drain the water from the soaked moong dal and grind it together with green chillies, jeera, garlic cloves and coriander. Add little buttermilk to grind it to a smooth paste. Add salt to the batter. The batter should be of dosa batter consistency.

Heat a frying pan and grease it well. Add about a ladle full of batter and spread it in round motion. 

This makes about 5-6 small dosas. Serve with coconut chutney or tomato sauce.

Moong Dal Curry (मूग डाळीची आमटी)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Moong dal, boiled
4-5 Garlic cloves
1 medium sized tomato, wedged
2-3 green chilies
coriander leaves for garnish
salt as per taste
1 tsp of jaggery or as per taste

For Seasoning:
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds or Jeera
1 tsp Ghee or oil
a pinch of Asafoetida or hing
1/2 tsp of turmeric

Servings:
3 people

Boil moong dal in a pressure cooker, adding sufficient water. Keep it aside for cooling. In a kadhai, add ghee or oil. Season with jeera, asafoetida. Add chopped garlic cloves, turmeric and stir for a minute. Next add tomato wedges and let it cook for 5 minutes.  Now add the cooked moong dal. Season with salt and jaggery. Let is simmer for 5-10 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves and lemon juice.

Peanut Flax Seed Ladoo (जवस शेंगदाण्याचे लाडू)

I make these laddoos very often. They are good substitute for cereal bars. Ever since I read about goodiness of flax seed, I was searching for recipes that include flax seed. I found the laddoo recipe on this website. I have modified the recipe a bit to include more dry fruits like pistachios, almonds, cashew nuts. These laddoos are easy to make and are ideal for travel food and/or office snack.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup peanuts
1 tbsp Sesame seeds
2 tbsp Flax seeds
8-10 Pistachios
7-8 Almonds
3/4 cup Jaggery (as per taste)
1 tsp cardamom powder
A pinch of salt

Servings:
Makes about 25 small laddoos.

Dry roast peanuts in a kadhai on medium flame. When they are fully roasted, they turn slightly brown and give a nice aroma. Transfer peanuts to another bowl. Now in the same kadhai, roast sesame seeds. Stir continuously to prevent sesame seeds from burning. They roast quickly in about a minute or two. Take it out and add flax seeds to the pan. Stir them and cover the kadhai with a lid as flax seeds start cracking once heated. Take the flax seeds off the heat and next roast pistachios for about 1-2 minutes, stirring continuously. Lastly roast almonds in the kadhai for 1-2 minutes. Once all the ingredients are cooled down, grind them together with jaggery and cardamom powder and salt. I did not grind the powder very fine; instead I prefer coarse powder.

These laddoos do not need any ghee for binding. The oils from flax seeds, peanuts serve as binding agents. I add other dry fruits like cashew nut powder, dry date powder (Kharik) etc for added flavour and nutrition.

Moong Dal Chilla (मूगाच्या डाळीचे चिला)

Moong dal is very popular in diet meals. Moong Dal Chilla makes for a perfect breakfast dish. I followed this recipe for Moong Dal chilla. Food For Thought is a well organised blog, with tasty recipes and equally appetizing pictures. I stumbled upon it some time ago searching for a recipe on internet. I refer to it, especially for Konkani cuisines.

Ingredients:
2 cups of split yellow moong dal, soaked overnight
4-5 garlic cloves
2-3 green chillies
1/4th cup of boiled green peas (optional)
A small piece of ginger

1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
Coriander leaves, finely chopped
Salt as per taste

Serves:
2 people, makes about 5 medium sized Chillas

Grind together soaked yellow moong dal, garlic cloves, ginger and green chillies. The mixture should have same consistency as Dosa batter. To this, add boiled green peas, finely chopped onion, coriander leaves and salt. Mix well. Adjust the consistency of the batter by adding little bit of water. Heat non-stick pan and pour about 2 ladles of batter on it. Spread slightly to form a thick Chilla, like Uttappa. Cover with a lid. Keep the gas stove on medium to simmer. After about 2-3 minutes or once the pan side of the Chilla is browned a bit, flip it and cook for another minute or so. Serve Chilla with plain coriander coconut chutney, sauce or any other chutney of your choice.

Spinach soup (पालकाचे सूप)

Ingredients:
1 cup of blanched spinach leaves
1 medium sized onion
6-8 florets of cauliflower
1/2 cup green peas
1-2 green chillies (as per taste)
oil for seasoning
salt
1 tsp of cream for garnish

Servings:
2-3 people

Blend together spinach leaves and onion in the mixer to form a fine puree. Heat oil in a kadhai and stir fry cauliflower and peas for about 2 minutes. Now add the puree and salt and stir for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of water and let it simmer for some time. Transfer the soup into a soup bowl and garnish with cream.