Halubai/Halbai made easier - celebrating Ugadi with a traditional sweet from Karnataka

Happy New Year!!

Wondering why I am wishing a happy new year when the calendar is turning to month 4 in a day? New Year is celebrated on different days/months in different cultures and parts of the world. Where I come from, traditionally our festivals follow what is called as Chandramana calendar (based on the lunar months) and Ugadi is the beginning of new year, it is celebrated in the month Chaitra representing the beginning of Spring. Every year has a name and it is called 'Jaya' this time meaning 'victory'. I wish you all a wonderful year filled with many great victories. It is celebrated today in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra - three southern states in India. Personally for me Ugadi stands for tender green mango leaves adorning the front doors of every house, smell of raw, green mango chitranna and bele obbattu coming from the kitchen along with a serving of bevu-bella symbolizing the two facets of life :-). My bevu-bella has morphed into Ugadi pachadi ever since I got married (more flavors) but the rest of the menu remains pretty much same every year if I can pull it off.

Our local grocery stores ran out of green mangoes last evening, I saw many disappointed faces as I stopped for a quick shopping. I just turned a little smarter getting a mango a couple days ahead of time, honestly it as not planned :-). But the surprise package was the small packet of tiny white neem leaves nestled in a few inches of the stalk along with one or two tiny, green neem leaves. I got a packet too to add it into my Ugadi pachadi. With the sole mango I had reserved for the pachadi, I couldn't make the mango rice so switched to Puliyogare (recipe to follow) and as obbattu is already featured here on the blog :-), I chose to make a different sweet to celebrate the new year.

This funny sounding dish is from Karnataka (I haven't seen anything close to it in other regions, let me know otherwise) and is made either with rice, wheat or ragi while retaining the rest of the ingredients same. Nammamma makes this almost always with rice and that is our default setting too. We all love this dish very much. Very minimalist in the number of ingredients required, this dessert however is fit for an occasion when made well. Without a fancy face to put forward, this sweet has mostly remained in the confines of private homes (or the reason being the professional chefs can never get it right unlike the home cooks :-)), so you will not find it on the menu in any restaurants. If craving hits, you make it yourself and enjoy.

I have seen nammamma soak rice, grind, grind and grind some more of the coconut to extract milk, then grind, grind and grind more of the rice to eliminate any traces of the grain when you hold it in between fingers. I know I said grind multiple times, that was my way of emphasizing the grinding involved and the effort and time it took in the days when the kitchens were not equipped with high powered electrical blenders. Imagine doing this on a large scale, amma would be spending an entire day preparing the delicious halbai. Once the coconut milk was extracted and grinding done, the next phase is to reduce it to the required consistency by constantly stirring it on heat. This not only required a fair bit of patience but also a flexible wrist and some good muscle power in the arms. So when nammamma slipped and fell and had her right wrist broken, her first reaction was 'How will I ever make Halbai again' :-), funny priorities she has in life. But her hand healed well and she made many more halbais before finally retiring from the kitchen recently. I miss that texture and taste of her halbai, nothing can ever come close to that. The only reason I can think of for her astonishingly delicious, melt in the mouth halbai is her love in what she cooked and served.

Though I crave for that halbai beyond any words, I am still a lazy person unlike my mom and look for short cuts. When I asked for the recipe a while ago, she said that it takes a lot of time, so instead I should get the quick version from my sister :-), Since it was a referral from Amma, I made my next phone hop, pestered akka to give me her quick recipe though I have not tasted it myself. Surprise, surprise, I made it and it was a very satisfying Halbai though I will say this, "not what amma made". But BH who has indeed eaten this in nammamma's kitchen said it was a very close attempt. DD who doesn't remember eating ajji's halbai said it was very delicious. That is a confidence boost and here I am with a family certified recipe for a traditional halbai. Thanks G for the recipe.

A halubai/halbai is made with fresh coconut, jaggery, a little bit of rice and a tiny bit of ghee (clarified butter). When I introduce most of Indian mithai or burfis to my non Indian friends or colleagues, I say it is similar to fudge so they can relate it. However Halbai is not as firm as the other burfis we make, there is infact a word in Kannada called 'Baluku' - if I were to translate it without doing an injustice, it probably would be called 'swaying'. So if you held a piece of halbai at one edge with your finger tips, the rest of the piece should gently sway down without breaking into two, but it is a completely non-sticky piece unlike the halwa in Indian cooking. Hope I made the consistency clear with all that banter :-). The best part of halbai making is that it doesn't have a 'take me off the stove now or I am ruined' kind of consistency of the burfis, it will stay soft even if you go over a couple of minutes. If it is underdone and sticking to the knife, put it back on the stove and continue to stir.

Before you attempt making halbai, here is something really, really, really important (I am not trying to fill my page by repeating words though it may look like that, it is my feeble attempt at trying to drive home a point :-)). Use fresh coconut in this recipe, no canned coconut milk or reconstituted dry/desiccated coconut please. The short cut will just not cut here. Sometimes, jaggery tends to have impurities, if you do not get good quality jaggery, melt it on heat in a couple of spoons of water, strain it through a fine sieve and reserve the clean, melted jaggery for use in the recipe.

What do you need to make Halbai? 
Makes about 15-18 1 inch pieces
2 cups grated fresh coconut (fill the cup loosely)
4 Tbsp rice flour
1 cup grated jaggery/palm sugar
1.5 cups water
1/2 Tsp ghee
1/4 Tsp freshly ground cardamom powder

How do you make Halbai? 

• Grind coconut with water into a very fine paste. Texture of your halbai is determined by how smooth this paste is. 
• If you have the time and inclination, pass the ground mixture through a cheese cloth or a fine sieve and extract the milk from it. This is recommended.
• Take the coconut milk in a pan (do not switch on the stove yet), add the rice flour and mix well to remove any lumps. The mixture will resemble a dosa batter at this stage. 

• If you have good quality jaggery, you can pound them in a mortar & pestle and add it directly to the mixture at this time. Else, melt the jaggery in 2 Tbsp of water, sieve it to remove any impurities and add the sieved jaggery to the mixture. 
• Prepare a plate (I use my steel plate, anything that can stand the heat and provides a flat surface to the halbai will work) by smearing a couple of drops of ghee on the surface. 
• I like to add cardamom powder on top of the ghee so that my pieces get coated with the powder on their smooth surface (looks better in pictures :-)), you can sprinkle cardamom powder on top if you choose. 
• Set the plate aside, add 1/2 Tsp ghee to the pan, switch on the stove and start stirring on low to medium heat. 

• The quantities given here took me 30 minutes from start to finish once I switched on the stove. Side note: that mine is an electrical stove that takes a couple of minutes to heat up. 
• The mixture starts to thicken and also change color gradually, do not rush the process, it needs to be done on low heat. 

• After about 20 minutes, it becomes a blob and starts to leave the sides of the pan. 
• At 25 minutes, you will see the minuscule half Tsp of ghee doing its magic and giving a shiny coat to the underneath of the blob. 
• Watch the mixture at this stage, take a small blob, drop it on the plate and flatten it, if it doesn't stick to your fingers when you smoothen it, you are ready to switch off the stove. Else, continue for a few more minutes. 
• Once done, pour the mixture into the prepared plate and flatten it to the desired thickness. Dip your hand lightly in water and smooth the top surface. 
• Make markings to cut the piece with a sharp knife, let it cool down for about 10-15 minutes before cutting and separating the pieces. 
• Enjoy the delicious, melt in the mouth Halbai. 

Notes: 

• You will notice that there are no flavor agents other than cardamom here, that is to let coconut milk take center stage and play out. Do not add nutmeg, cloves etc that will overpower the halbai taste. 
• I do not decorate or garnish the halbai with the usual dry fruits either, while it is not illegal to do it :-), it is just against the principle of Halbai. 

Haagalakayi gojju - bitter gourd in a sesame flavored, tangy, spicy, slightly sweet sauce

Here I am today with one of my favorite vegetables cooked in my favorite way :-), this is nammamma's signature haagalakayi (bitter gourd) dish. I am sure I have professed my love for this bitter veggie on the blog here, here & here but I kept the best to later (not last, there are many other ways to cook this delicious veggie and I will introduce them to you over time). I know many people shy away from eating bitter gourd, it is an acquired taste but once you catch on, you are hooked and it is a never diminishing love story.

How many of you are readers? What kind of books do you read - fiction, non fiction, historical, scientific... I am so habituated to fall asleep only after reading some pages, no amount of web browsing brings me the kind of satisfaction and happiness that an old, wrinkled book in my hand does. Over the years, my taste in books have changed and the genre I read have morphed. I have some favorites that I go back to without fail after a decent gap :-). While in school, influenced heavily by nammamma's reading, I was a fan of Bengali literature. One of my uncles is well known in Kannada literary field and has translated a short stories collection from Bengali to Kannada. Most of these books were set in pre-independence India, of middle class or lower middle class struggles. Sharath chandra chattopadhyay was one of my favorite authors, it felt like all his women had strong characters and yet vulnerable in a very appealing sort of way. It must be my generation, I tried to feed the story to my 'Harry Potter' devouring daughter once and she had this incredulous look of disbelief about the story line on her face :-), I guess she just couldn't relate to it, not at her age atleast, either that or I made a very sorry attempt at bringing Sharat's novels to life by my limited imagination.

Why did I jump from bitter gourd to Sharat novels? here is why.. One of his very famous books is called 'Biraj Bahu', it is about this very sweet couple who have been married since they were little kids, are soul mates and go through many pains and pleasures in life with pain taking the upper hand. The story begins at the peak pf prosperity with bustling family home, happy joint family, multi coursed meals and lot of visible wealth but as the downhill becomes evident, they don't have much to eat on a daily basis. They become poor as the husband trusts everyone including a half brother who takes control of all the family fortune. So one of the days, the wife goes out and all she can find are a couple of bitter gourds, she brings it home and cooks something out of it and makes an excuse that she is not well at lunch time so she doesn't have to serve it to her husband. Only her sympathetic sister in law understands why she won't sit next to her husband during lunch time. To set this in context to anyone that don't relate - those were the generations when wives dutifully sat by the husband as they ate, serving them, making sure they were fed well, for her to give up her wifely privilege would have been akin to doing the 'unheard of'. It is a really emotionally charged and sad scene but every time I read it (yes, I read it more than once) my bitter gourd crazy mind would be asking the wife, "what is wrong with you woman? Go & enjoy the haagalakayi with your husband" :-) which totally broke the seriousness of the novel. Every time I make hagalakayi, I remember Biraj Bahu. Fortunately for me, my BH is as much in love with this gourd as I am and so we make it often and without feeling sorry for anyone except the gourd itself, we enjoy our food.

Here is a gojju that you will fall in love whether you like bitter gourd generally or not. Both nammamma and chikkamma(aunt) make this very deliciously albeit with certain differences of their own. Nammamma chops the bitter gourd very finely, doesn't peel the skin, makes it a slightly gravy gojju. Chikkamma cuts them into bigger pieces, cooks for a verrrrrry long time and brings it to an almost sticky, soft gum consistency. I like them both ways but like nammamma's version better :-) as it works well for both mixing with rice or as a dip for dosa, rotti etc.

You can use either white or black sesame seeds but the black ones give a stronger flavor and darker, more traditional color to the gojju. I used the black ones today.

Other than as a side dip that I can lick, I love to eat this gojju mixed with hot rice, a couple of drops of oil and a side of chopped onions, yummmm. Here is my lunch box for tomorrow - seasoned yogurt rice topped with haagalakayi gojju, I will think of you all when I eat it :-), have a great weekend and I will see you next week.

What do you need for Haagalakayi gojju?
4-5 medium sized bitter gourd/haagalakayi
Big gooseberry sized tamarind
1/2 Tsp grated/crushed jaggery/bella
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
3 Tbsp shredded coconut
To roast: 
1 Tbsp chana dal/kadle bele
1 Tsp coriander
1/2 Tsp cumin
4-6 black pepper
1.5 Tbsp sesame seeds/ellu (black/white)
4-5 red chilies
For seasoning: 
3 Tbsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
2 dry red chilies (broken into pieces)
1/8 Tsp Asafoetida
8-10 curry leaves

How do you make Haagalakayi gojju? 

• Wash, pat dry and chop off the ends of the bitter gourd. 
• Cut them in half vertically, remove all the seeds, cut them into thin strips and chop into tiny bits. 

• Dry roast all ingredients under 'To roast' except for sesame seeds for 4-6 minutes on medium heat.
• When the chana dal starts to turn light pink, add sesame seeds and continue to roast.
• Continue roasting until sesame starts to pop, set aside to cool. 
• Once cold, grind it into a thick chutney consistency along with coconut. Keep aside until ready to use. 
• Soak tamarind in water for 20-30 minutes and extract the juice, discarding the pith and seeds. See notes for a quick & easy way to get the tamarind juice. 
• In a heavy bottom pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds and let them start to pop. 
• Add asafoetida powder, broken red chilies, curry leaves and give a mix. 
• After 10 seconds when the red chilies start to turn crisp and bright red, add the finely chopped bitter gourd. 
• Add salt and turmeric, mix well, lower the heat, cover the pan and cook for about 15-20 minutes. 

• Stir a couple of times in between and continue to cook until the pieces become soft and lose the raw bitterness. 
• Add the tamarind juice, continue to cook for another 5-7 minutes until the juice reduces, thickens and loses the raw smell. 

• Add the ground masala, jaggery and about a cup of water to thin it down, adjust salt and let it boil without covering for 7-8 minutes. 

• Keep stirring in between ensuring the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom, the sauce will thicken and you will start to see oil leaving the sides. 
• Switch off, let cool completely before storing in dry, air tight containers. 
• This gojju will stay fresh for upto a week if refrigerated. 

Notes: 

• I add about quarter to half cup to cover the tamarind in a microwave safe bowl and zap it for 30-45 secs. Let it stand for a minute before squishing the softened tamarind and extracting the thick juice. 
• I use my heavy gauge aluminium pan for curries with tamarind or tomatoes instead of the cast iron or non stick pan to avoid chemical reactions. 
• You need to add water along with the ground masala, else the thick mixture will start sticking to the bottom before it has a chance to cook.

• Instead of fresh coconut, you can use desiccated or dry coconut (kobbari/kopra), this enhances the shelf life of gojju. 
• I gave jaggery a slip today but the gojju tasted awesome. 
• If you want to be completely rid of the bitterness of the gourd, mix the chopped pieces with a few drops of oil, pinch of salt and turmeric, keep aside for 15 minutes and then wash it under running water. Squeeze the wet pieces to remove any water before using them.
• You can also lightly scrape the top skin of the gourd to mellow down the bitterness. 

Avarekayi gojju - creating drool worthy dishes from ingredients on its way to be discarded :-)

If you speak Kannada and saw my title of the post and if you are like me, you would have thought that I made a typo and said 'avarekayi' instead of 'avarekalu'. For the non-Kannada speaking readers, here is a description of the nuance I am talking about. 'Avarekayi' refers to the pod that holds the beans while 'Avarekalu' is the beans nestled inside the green pod. Now what is the big deal? Again, if you are like me, madly in love with avarekalu - (this being seasonal and tropical, getting it where I live currently is mostly a dream) you will be drooling at every rare sighting of this aromatic bean. But for last 2 years, I have found them in my grocery store atleast once a year (and twice when I was extremely lucky). Though it leaves a seriously visible dent in my finances, I can't stop myself from buying a couple of pounds on that one day when it appears in my local store. Many of my non-Kannadiga friends including BH's family doesn't seem to appreciate my un explainable drooling over this bean, all I can say to nay sayers and non-believers is, "Give it a try before you unfairly talk about it". Most of them are converts after a first taste. Long live Avarekalu!

Back to my title today, I did say avarekayi while I have been going on about how much I love the bean. In Karnataka, these beans are brought home, peeled, the beans are cooked and used in dish 1, 2 , 3, 4.... every day until the season is over and the stock is completely dry while the green empty pods are put outside the fence to feed the roaming cows. Oh, yes I come from a place where cows roam freely, atleast they used to when I left my town 15 years ago. Now with the unending traffic, they seem to not want to move about at all for the fear they might get bumped by a 2, 3, 4 or 6 wheeler. Anyways, the point I was making before I strayed off topic (much like the cow) is that we do not use the green pods, atleast I was not aware of it and nammamma never made anything out of it. I think the reason is you are smitten by the beans and most of the dishes in Karnataka need the bean to have grown fully and plump by which time the pods are pretty dry and tasteless, The only dish I have had which uses this pod in entirety is my favorite Gujarati recipe - Oondhiyu. The empty green pod is called 'sippe' in Kannada, a culinary derogative term to indicate a waste or byproduct :-). Why am I giving you a recipe of the sippe gojju or a curry made of the by product? There is a somewhat long story.., stay with me here and I promise I will treat you to a keeper recipe today.

I hadn't been to the grocery store in a couple of weeks as my refrigerator somehow seemed full all the time and finally when I went last week to do some Sankranthi shopping, I found a tub full of green avarekayi. I jumped, picked up a bag, filled it greedily to the brim before other like minded chefs and fans of the bean noticed it and very happily paid a 2 digit amount and came home. As always, DD wanted Avarekalu kadubu, this strange child of mine has some set food combinations and will not waver from them unless there is a calamity. So after dinner and clean up, I put the bag on the dining table to peel them and take out the beans. I got 3-4 good, plump beans for every 20 or 25 pods I picked and at the end of a 30 minute effort, I was left with a mountain of green peels and a small mouse sized bowl full of beans. The avarekayi had been picked way too young for the beans to have grown sufficiently and I had paid a ransom for the waste :-(. While I was sitting all bummed at the table, BH happened to pass by and asked why I had a long face. After listening to me, he very simply said, "make something with the pods". I know he has been a consultant and dishing out ideas is second nature to him but this seemed like a viable thing even though it came from a consultant :-) I do accept it had not occurred to me until then and will generously give all lateral thinking credit to the man.

Here was an idea at a 10,000 feet level, no details to substantiate and make something edible out of it. Now I had to think of what to make with that green mountain staring at me. It is strange how the brain works, a minute ago I was mournfully looking at that pile and thinking how a cow (or two) would have been made happy if I was in India, here I don't see cows easily let alone stray ones that could be fed the green waste from my kitchen.. I know I know I am going off track again but as soon BH uttered those words, within minutes I knew what I was going to make with it. There is another variety of vegetable from the same genre called chapparada avare kayi (Kannada) and chikkudukaya (Telugu) which we use to make many a dry curry with powders and also a gravy dish. Belonging to the same family of vegetables, there is some similarity between the two. I love my gojju any day and gojju it was going to be with the avarekayi. That was how a keeper dish was born in my kitchen. I am sure my mom and sister will have a hearty laugh to hear I used the pods in gojju, but then such is life.

I have a few different gojju recipes on the blog already, check in my Recipe Index under 'Tasty Gojju' category as there are too many to list here. Today's gojju however is very different from those already here and I was saving this for later, the same ingredients can be used with chapparada avarekayi/chikkudukayi also. As my story today has already grown long, I will stop here and give you the recipe quickly. The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity and unmatched flavors, don't go by the unassuming pictures.

How do you make Avarekayi gojju?
2 cups of thinly sliced avarekayi (see recipe for details)
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
4-5 curry leaves
1 Tsp oil
small gooseberry sized tamarind
1 Tsp jaggery/brown sugar

2 Tblsp shredded coconut (fresh or frozen)

Gojju masala:
1 Tblsp mustard
1 Tsp chana dal
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp oil
4-5 dry red chilies
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
Seasoning: 
1 Tsp oil
1/2 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp chana dal (optional)
1/4 Tsp Fenugreek (optional)
1-2 dry red chilies

How do you make Avarekayi gojju? 

• Wash the avarekayi, see that these are tender and not full of plump beans. The way to test is the beans inside are either completely absent are very tiny and when you string the pods from the side, you do not get very thick strings. Basically you are looking for fresh, green and tender pods. 
• String them and chop the ends and discard. 
• Holding a few (as many as you can manage with hands), chop them into thin slices. 

• Heat 1 Tblsp oil in a pan, add the chopped avarekayi, chopped curry leaves, turmeric powder, salt and mix. 
• Cover and cook on low heat for about 8-10 minutes until the color changes to a light green and the strips look soft and cooked. 
• In the meantime, heat 1 Tsp oil in a pan, add the ingredients listed under "Gojju Masala" and roast them until mustard starts to pop and chana dal and fenugreek turn golden brown. Do the roasting on medium heat. Switch off and let cool. 
• Take the masala once cooled, add coconut, taramring and jaggary and blend it to a smooth paste using water. 
• Add the ground masala to the cooked vegetable, mix, test for taste and adjust. 

• This dish does not have a lot of gravy, but a wet curry with masala coating the vegetable. Let it boil for 4-5 minutes. 
• Seasoning this with mustard and fenugreek is optional. Use the ingredients listed under seasoning if you prefer. 
• Serve warm with rice or roti. 

Notes: 

• Obviously this dish can be made with the chapparada avarekayi/chikkudukayi which is more easily and frequently available. 

Menthya saasve - one of the forgotten curries from Malnad region

Been a while since I as here last, thank you to all those who checked in after me. Things are ok and I am doing well. Had to take a forced break as work got intense and I had voluntarily added something to my list to be completed by year end. Target complete and here I am with a couple of alphabets to add to the end of my name on my professional signature :-). It was mentally exhausting and physically difficult to go back to some serious school age studying (which obviously I had not done in a long time) but gratifying at the same time. DD has been equally busy the last week as she is going through a series of exams before her winter vacations start and then will have to get ready for the exams after the vacations :-(. I was completely drained last evening and dozing off at 6.30 in the evening while she was still chirping away and working on her homework. I asked her how she does it and she looks me in the face and quips, "Amma, do you realize you are old?", cheek of the kid to call her own mom old, I never said anything like that to my parents, EVER :-). Well, I promise I wont bore you with too much non foody stuff. Here I am back and rearing to go with my blogging.

A couple of days ago Srikanta Datta Wodeyar passed away, for those of you unfamiliar with who he was, this can't be more than another piece of news. He was the last of the Wodeyar dynasty which ruled Mysore province for generations. For me, he is part & parcel of my Mysore Dasara celebrations. Though he never was a maharaja (king) in the true sense of the word as post Independent India did away with kings & royalties, he represented a bygone era. Government had made provisions for this crown-less, throne-less king to live in the Mysore palace and also kick start the traditional Dasara procession with a pooja. Now, he becomes only a memory and a tiny bit of history that enriched the region.

For me, food blogging has been all about memories, remembering not just the taste of the food but the people who made them, served them, company you enjoyed with and incidences they were part of. This means that I talk about my family and personal life many times on this blog. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do writing them. I have a very homely recipe today that you will not find in any restaurants ever, sometimes simplest of the things make the most sense, bring absolute joy and contentment in life.

When you reach the western ghats in Karnataka and stop at someone's home in a place such as Chikmagaluru or Shimoga or further interior at Balehonnuru, the food takes on a completely different shape, flavor and taste. I believe the taste is enhanced because it is made with ingredients locally grown or available and not tainted by long journeys packaged and shipped from a different part of the World. While it limits the ingredients available to you, your chef's ingenuity shines bright as you come up with so many variations unrecognizable from the previous one. This region is known for its Tambulis (yogurt based cooling gravy), chutneys (abundant use of ingredients such as banana stem, banana flower etc), or the very unique saasve which is generally a gravy either with or without vegetables but definitely with ground raw mustard.

Nammamma made many of the Malnad region cuisine at home as part of our daily food but her repertoire was limited compared to those of my two Doddammas (aunts) who lived in the heart of Malnad for most of their lives. For us city bred Mysoreans, a visit to doddamma would be a gastronomical experience in the enchanting world of Saasve, gojju, paladya, mosaru bajji, tambuli along with an array of happala (papads) and sandige (I still can't translate this to anything justifiable :-)). I have followed this doddamma in all the small village-y places she has lived around Mysore most of my school breaks. Small, low ceilinged kitchens with a small window that served no actual purpose of bringing in light or air but was mainly installed as a formality where you squat infront of a stove placed on the floor (kitchen platforms or shelves were too fancy for these old houses) while Doddamma roasted a spicy horsegram papad or a sweet jack fruit papad directly on the flame or charcoal and gave it to us. The banana leaf spread infront on the floor would already be steaming with hot rice, ghee and saaru (not Rasam but close enough, I will reserve my saaaru Vs Rasam discussion for another day). On one corner of the banana leaf would be either a palya (stir fried vegetable), paladya/bajji (yogurt based gravy) or a saasve (if vocabulary challenged, you can call this chutney but the flavor is very distinct and different). The meal plan was simple, had to have some protein source (saaru with lentils fit the bill perfectly) and then you would have a vegetable or two. And you end the meal with buttermilk. You had to have extreme mind control not to eat those banana leaves too :-)

One of my friends is from malnadu and married into a family in the deepest part of the region, so all her strings to Malnad food are intact. On one of my India visits, she made this saasve which was out of the world and brought back memories of having tasted it in my Doddamma's kitchen once. So I went right after her for the recipe and recreated it at home and here is a much loved menthya saasve for all of you to enjoy. It makes a great side dish for rotis also but you can go ahead and create your own Malnad experience by spreading a green banana leaf and serving it with hot white rice. Mix it in with a drop of ghee and enjoy. Come back and let me know if you were able to stop licking your fingers anytime or even smelling the fingers after you had washed them :).

Saasve (or saasive) means mustard in Kannada. Keeping the ground masala same, there are umpteen varieties of this saasve as you can use different vegetables in place of fenugreek seeds. The one I have today is bisi(hot) saasve as the masala is boiled after it is ground. There are hasi (raw) saasve varieties where you just add the ground masala to a vegetable (raw such as cucumbers or radish) or to a cooked vegetable (such as fried okra) along with a ladle full of yogurt. May be I will post one of those some other time. I haven't used any vegetables today and the surprise ingredient is fenugreek seeds, no I didn't make a mistake when I said 2 Tblsp of fenugreek but I will tell you this - you wont bite into any bitterness here, the seeds lose their bitterness in this dish, instead lend a wonderful aroma and taste to the dish and makes it very delicious. Remember to keep the salt, spices and sourness in balance and to your liking. Enjoy!

What do you need to make Menthya saasive?
2 Tblsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 Tsp mustard seeds
1 Tblsp oil
4-6 curry leaves
pinch of asafetida
To grind:
Key lime size tamarind
2 Tblsp grated coconut
1 Tsp mustard
3-4 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
3-4 sprigs of cilantro
1 Tsp brown sugar or grated jiggery
1/2 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)

How do you make Menthya saasive?

• Heat oil in a pan, add mustard and fenugreek seeds. Keep the heat on medium to low and fry the seeds stirring frequently until mustard pops and fenugreek turns deep brown. Take care not to burn either of them.
• Add the curry leaves and stir it in.
• Mean while prepare masala - grind all ingredients under 'To grind' with 1/2 cup of water into a very smooth paste.
• Add the ground paste to the roasted fenugreek, add water to make a thin gravy consistency and let it boil on low heat for 10 minutes or until fenugreek seeds drink up the masala and plump up.
• Switch off, let it stand for about 20 minutes before serving with rice or rotis.

Notes:

• It is important to roast the fenugreek on low-medium heat so the seeds get roasted through.
• Taste the ground masala and adjust green chilies, salt or tamarind as needed. This is yummy by itself as a chutney.
• You can use dry red chilies in place of green chilies to make a 'kempu saasve'(red gravy) as we called it.
• The gravy is a blend of sweet, sour, spice and saltiness. Adjust them to suit your palate.
• It is important to let the roasted fenugreek boil in the masala and soften before you eat them, this process allows them to soak up the gravy, become soft and lose the bitterness. It is no fun biting into crisp, bitter fenugreek seeds.

Spring onions a.k.a eerulli kaavu gojju - deliciousness in every bite

We are having a heat wave this week :-) which means the temperature is soaring in 90s. My friends from Midwest laugh at me when I say it is the heat wave as soon as it touches 90. Many places are already experiencing 3 digit highs. Because of the mild climate and year round moderate temperature, most homes here are not equipped with air conditioners and so you have to live the heat taking help of other means. I just opened all the windows and doors and let the breeze come in until it became too hot. So Summer is definitely here and I am so tempted to get into serious business of making some happala, sandige (Yummyyyy), let us see if I can find the time and energy to do it. I will showcase everything I made here on the blog anyway.

BH & I took off for a weekend getaway this past weekend and spent a wonderful time at the beach. The weather was beautiful, water intoxicating and invigorating and we just stayed on the beach the entire time. Since it was a very small town with no hopes of decent vegetarian choices let alone Indian food, I made and carried food from home. In my anxiousness to not go hungry, I went overboard and there was lot of food left over when we came back last evening :-). So ate the last of gojjavalakki this morning for breakfast. with the blaring heat, I didn't want to spend any time infront of the hot stove but as I was almost running out of yogurt, had to think of something quick and easy. I found two bunches of spring onions in the refrigerator that I had got last week before we left.

I love the flavor of Spring onions. They are called 'Eerulli kaavu' in Kannada and the stalks are stronger and sturdier than the ones (with flowers at the tip) I find here. Usually Spring onions are harvested when they are still tender as they are mostly used raw and as garnishes. I found some hefty ones this time in the store. Eerulli kaavu being seasonal went into either akki rotti or gojju in our home. The fresh Spring onions impart such a wonderful flavor, you will lick your fingers long after the plate is empty :-).

Being a working day, I wanted to finish up cooking quickly and chose to make the gojju. This is a very typical Karnataka gravy made with many different vegetables. Heat from the chilies, tartness from tamarind, a subtle sweetness from jaggery, salt and the roasted sesame seeds define a Gojju in Kannada homes. This gojju makes a perfect side dish for rice or roti. So grab a bunch of Spring Onions next time from your grocery store and try this lip smacking Spring Onion or eerulli kaavu gojju.

What do you need to make Spring Onion gojju? 
2 bunches (about 10 stalks) of Spring onion
2 Tblsp grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
2 Tblsp roughly chopped cilantro
Gooseberry size tamarind - soak in water and extract juice
1/2 Tsp crushed jaggery or brown sugar
2 Tblsp oil
To roast:
1 Tblsp chana dal
1/4 Tsp Urad dal
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds
4-5 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp sesame seeds
seasoning: 
1/2 Tsp mustard
1/8 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp chana dal (optional)
a few curry leaves
pinch of asafoetida

How do you make Spring Onion gojju? 

• Wash, pat dry the spring onions. 
• Chop and remove the root end, chop the remaining stalk in bite sized pieces and discard the very thin green portion on the stalk. 
• Heat 1 Tsp oil, add the chana dal, urad dal, fenugreek seeds, green chilies and let the dals roast to a light golden brown. add the sesame seeds and continue to roast for for another 30 seconds. remove from heat and let cool.
• Grind the roasted spices with grated coconut and cilantro into a smooth paste using 1/2 cup of water. 
• Heat the remaining oil, add the seasoning ingredients the order given above and fry until mustard crackles and chana dal turns golden brown. 
• Add the chopped Spring onions and cook for 3-5 minutes stirring frequently. 
• Once the Spring onions become soft and lose the raw smell, add the tamarind extract, ground masala paste, salt, jaggery. Adjust consistency by adding water. 
• Let it come to a rolling boil, switch off and serve it hot or cold with rice, roti, akki rotti etc. 

Notes: 

• Use sturdy (but not so tough they break with strings when you chop them) part of the Spring onions and the tiny bulbs at the end. Use fresh ones and discard any limp looking parts. 
• You can use tamarind paste instead of soaking and extracting the juice or can put the dry tamarind along with the roasted ingredients and grind it into the masala paste. 
• Chana dal in the masala turns the gravy thick as it boils and cools, so make sure to adjust the consistency to your liking. 
• We had the gojju with cooked Quinoa and a side of cool tomato raita. 

BOlu gojju(curry without vegetables) - when the spices took over

Gojju as far as I know is a very Karnataka recipe, it is typically a curry with ground spices and boiled or stir fried vegetables in it. I have other gojju recipes on the blog, check it out if interested. But today's recipe does not have any vegetables in it.

I am not sure how many of you are familiar with this dish. You may have some version of it or call it by a different name but it goes by 'BOlu Gojju' in our family. This funny named dish (BOlu~empty/bald since it is devoid of vegetables, gojju~curry)is one of my doddamma (my mother's older sister) and amma's signature recipes. My doddamma was one of those cooks who made everything taste divine (remember the mosaravalakki?), I can't even pick a favorite from her menu as I would eat every bit of everything she cooked. The only issue I had with her was her extreme 'rules in the kitchen' - do not touch this with wet hands, do not touch this without wet hands, don't ever serve food with right hand, do not put plates in the same pile as the dishes, etc, etc..:-). Nammamma being the flexible one, I almost had a free reign in the kitchen and used to be terrorized by Doddamma whenever she stayed with us.

Once when I asked doddamma how she made such delicious stuff with barely any ingredients, she looked up at me and said, "We barely had ingredients to use but had to feed a big family", I think necessity is truly the mother of invention. Times changed and by the time I was old enough to notice her cooking, there was plenty in her kitchen. Whether she made a vegetable curry, a saaru, a ghee laden dessert or a simple bolu gojju they were all finger licking good except that she would never allow you to lick your fingers :-). Me & my little brother have spent many a school vacations with this doddamma as my cousin was transferred to many rural medical facilities and doddamma moved with him and his young family. Rich, unadulterated milk from the villagers, fresh vegetables brought to the door steps every morning all no doubt made the food much tastier but I can never forget those breakfasts in her kitchen - golden crisp akki rotti with a dollop of home made benne (butter) and a side of yogurt so thick it would not fall down if you tipped the cup over, a menthya dose with a heavenly aroma served with more benne and coconut chutney made in the traditional stone grinder, or avalakki vaggarane (seasoned poha) on a green banana leaf with a mouth watering midi uppinakaayi(baby mangoes pickled whole).

I think the bolu gojju was invented on a day either in hot summer or cold winter when there were no vegetables in the backyard, and there was no one at home to fetch it from the store. Or it was simply a day at the end of the month for a family on a regular income and they had to wait until the next pay day to hit the grocery store. Or it was a day when the mother just couldn't find a vegetable in God's green land to satisfy the conflicting needs and wants of her family and she decided to skip the vegetable all together and cook up something different. OK, those are all 'imaginations uncontrolled' as to how the humble bOlu gojju was born :-), I get carried away sometimes, and this is one of those times.

When I was writing this draft earlier this weekend a very tired BH was almost dozing off at the other side of the bed. I wanted to pick his brain for a few minutes and also subject him to a preview of the draft. He doesn't get caught easily on these chores, so attacking him when he is least expecting it and defenseless seems to work. In that dreamy state and to get a relief from the nagging, he said the bOlu gojju was born when the spices went on a strike as they were all tired of making up a perfectly harmonious gravy only to be out done by some vegetable. I think that might have been it, do you agree? So they told the lady of the house that she should create something where all that would be visible was the masala and its lasting taste and the kind hearted woman agreed with them and thus the Bolu gojju was born on a day when both the cook and the spices boycotted the vegetables.

The ingredients list though looks like a tall order, notice that they are all very common spices found in most Indian pantries. Amma usually made this with Pongal as a side dish. It is a perfect complement to the bland pongal.  This tastes so awesome you don't need to wait until you make pongal or even until you have run out of all your vegetables :-). And you don't even slog infront of a hot stove for more than 5 minutes.Don't go by the pictures, they don't do any justice to how the dish tastes. I can eat it anyday, it tastes good with hot rice or akki rotti too.

What do you need to make Bolu gojju? 
2 Tblsp grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
1 cup boiled black chana or black chickpeas
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
small piece of tamarind
1/2 Tsp crushed jaggery or brown sugar
1 Tsp salt
1.5-2 cups water
To Roast:
1 Tblsp chana dal
1/2 Tsp urad dal
1 Tblsp white sesame seeds
1/8 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1/8 Tsp cumin
1/4 Tsp coriander seeds
2 pieces of 1 inch long cinnamon
1 clove
6-8 black pepper corns
1-2 dry red chilies

How do you make Bolu gojju? 

• Dry roast all ingredients under 'To Roast' on medium heat in a heavy bottom pan, stirring frequently not to burn any ingredients for 5-7 minutes. 

• When the dals turn light pink and fenugreek gives out its roasted aroma, switch off, keep aside to cool down.
• Grind all the roasted ingredients with coconut, salt, tamarind and jaggery. Add water to bring it to a thick flowing (not dropping) consistency. 
• Add the chopped onions and boiled black chana. Mix well. 
• Seasoning is completely optional for this gojju (remember, you made this because your pantry & refrigerator were almost empty :-)). If you do like it, you may season it with a Tsp of mustard and 1/4 Tsp fenugreek roasted in a Tsp of oil until they pop. Throw in a couple of curry leaves. I did it just for the picture :-). 

To prepare the black chana:

• Soak a handful of dry black chana (black chick peas) overnight in water. 
• Drain, wash and pressure cook with a cup of water and a pinch of salt until it is soft, takes 3 whistles in my pressure cooker. 
• Switch off, let cool, drain the cooked peas and use it in the gojju. 
• I normally soak a bigger quantity and end up making some quick usili with the remaining peas. 

Notes: 

• Roast the masala ingredients on medium to low heat so they get roasted well without any raw smell. This is key to a great tasting gojju as it is not cooked or boiled afterwards. 
• If your tamarind feels wetwhen it comes from the package, add it to the other ingredients and roast it to remove the raw smell. 
• Since there are no vegetables added and the ground masala itself constitutes the bulk, plan to scale the proportions up or down depending on the servings you need. The above yields a medium soup bowl full of gojju. 
• Adjust black pepper and red chilies depending on your spice tolerance and the variety of red chilies you use. 
• I have not used garbanzo or kabuli chana or white chick peas in this recipe any time, may be because I associate this gojju always with black chana and it is as much about recreating the memory in my kitchen as much as enjoying the food. Try the substitution at your own risk -) if you have to.

Apple gojju - Autumn specials

Hope everyone had a great Diwali celebration. We did too. I am kind of going slow on my posts as things are moving very fast at home & work but all the pictures I take are going into drafts and they will show up pretty soon on this space. We are expecting family over this weekend and looking forward to spending time together. If you are tired of all the sweets and the deep fried goods made for Diwali, here is a very easy spicy apple gojju to bring your taste buds to life.

Growing up in South India, apples were mostly considered as expensive, seasonal delicacies. The one variety I remember clearly is the Kashmiri apples (small, roundish ones, very juicy and sweet to taste). I would never have believed such easy access to apples and I am sure would never have imagined all the different varieties of this fruit if I had not traveled across the seven seas (we all know that is just an expression :-)).

Apple picking is a favorite Fall time activity here in many states of USA. Vast farms full of apple trees bending low from the weight of the fruits of different colors, taste and sizes, families of young & old wrapped in warm clothing to ward off the chill, warm cider and hay rides are all part of the package called 'U-pick apples' open to public during the season. You end up coming home with not only an apple overloaded stomach but bushels of fresh picked apples. You enjoy them the 1st and 2nd day, hand it over to friends & neighbors you happen to meet on the 3rd & 4th day, try to get to as many of them as possible before they go bad over the week all along wondering what the heck you were thinking of bringing home such a large quantity of apples when there are only three people to eat them :-). But the experience of U-pick in itself is wonderful so you get over the temporary dislike you have developed for the apples and head right back to the farms at the next opportunity :-)).

Well, some of the apples find their way into home made apple sauce (Yumm.. apples & cinnamon) but as we do not enjoy the sweet versions so much, I tend to look for spicier alternatives. I tasted the apple gojju in one of my friend's house, made some modifications (adding roasted sesame seeds brings it so much more closer to South Indian gojju) and it has been part of my recipe repertoire for a long time now. This is a very easy to fix, quick to prepare and delicious to eat gojju. We missed apple picking this time as things have been busy but I got home some very firm and fresh looking Granny Smith apples from the store and turned them into this yummy gojju.

Apple picking, climbing on daddy's shoulders to reach those beauties. She doesn't need them (shoulders I mean) anymore

What do you need to make apple gojju? 
4 servings
2 medium sized firm green apples (I used granny smith, use any tart variety you get)
1/8 Tsp tamarind concentrate (see notes)
1/2 Tsp crushed jaggery/brown sugar
1/2 Tsp red chili powder (adjust to taste)
1 Tblsp white sesame seeds
1 Tblsp oil
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds
4-5 curry leaves
1 Tsp mustard
1-2 red chilies broken into pieces
1/8 Tsp asafoetida powder
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
About 1/2 cup water
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)

How do you make apple gojju? 

• Wash, pat dry and peel apples. 
• Core the apples and cut them into bite sized pieces.
• Dry roast sesame seeds until they start to pop, let cool, powder them in a coffee grinder or pound them in a mortar & pestle. Keep aside.
• Heat oil in a wide pan on medium heat, add asafoetida, mustard, fenugreek seeds and let them pop. 
• Add the red chilies, turmeric powder & curry leaves and fry for about 30 seconds. 
• Add the chopped apple pieces, salt and fry for a minute. 

• Add the tamarind concentrate, red chili powder, jaggery and 1/2 cup of water and let it come to a boil. 
• Add the powdered sesame seeds, mix and switch off the stove. 

• Enjoy the sweet, tart & spicy gojju as a side dish.

Notes: 

• Do not let the apples cook soft, they taste better when the pieces are slightly crunchy. 
• Apples absorb the juices in the gravy even after you switch off, let the gojju sit for atleast 30 minutes before serving. 
• The gojju needs to be sweet, tart and spicy at the same time, adjust the red chili powder, tamarind & jaggery according to your taste.
• If you do not like the bite of fenugreek seeds, dry roast them until pink and powder along with the sesame seeds. 
• Taste the apples before cooking to feel their level of tartness and adjust tamarind accordingly.
• Feel free to adjust the consistency of the gojju with addition of water.
• This gojju doesn't (and shouldn't) have to be boiled to thicken it up. It is just enough to bring it to a boil so that the tastes have a chance to mix well. 

Soutekayi gojju - curried cucumbers in coconut sauce

I am finally sitting down tonight and dismantling our bommala koluvu and cleaning up all the stuff in the basement. All the dolls will rest cozily wrapped up in papers and inside their boxes until next year. Some will go back to their every day place on the mantle or around the house. I am looking forward to the next month as we have family visiting, it will be busy and fun and no doubt lotsa food.

As I have mentioned before, gojju is a 'very Karnataka' recipe, in a very simplistic description it is curried vegetables and does not have lentils in it. It is a very common side dish for a rice based meal. Gojjus are typically high on their spices (chilies and tamarind) and go well with a piping hot Saaru/rasam on a rainy day.

Cucumber gojju is a very simple and common quick fix as it doesn't involve any cooking. Chop the cucumbers, add the ground masala and the 'hasi gojju (raw gojju)' is ready to eat. I eat it like a heavily dressed salad without really feeling the need for rice, they are good to mix with rice or have with rotis.

One of my doddamma's is a fantastic cook, her gojjus, saaru, uppinakayi are all to really die for, she is the one that eats mosaravalakki on a regular basis for dinner and I have sat in the kitchen waiting for her to drop a handful into my stretched palms :-). She made butter at home and put a dollop on top of the akki rotti or dosa for morning breakfast, I can never forget that taste even after all these years. She is not only an awesome cook but is very artistic and is adept at making things with household raw materials - she had taught me how to make wire baskets, beaded purses, home made winnows by soaking and grinding old newspapers, making clay lamps and many, many more. I only absorbed a tiny bit of her oceanic skills given my artistic limitations. Many of the things she did are either dying art or already extinct and replaced by store bought, plastic stuff.  She is old and frail now and doesn't cook anymore..but for all of us the taste of her cooking still lingers on the tongue.

Cucumbers are chopped very small for this gojju, doddamma used a method called 'kochu' in Kannada, she used the traditional vegetable chopper/coconut shredder and take a whole, peeled cucumber and keep making sharp, an inch and half long vertical cuts all over the cucumber, then turn it around and chop them horizontally to get really small pieces. Repeat this process of alternate vertical & horizontal cuts until you reached the end of the cucumber. This gives the tiniest yet not mashed up cucumber pieces best suited for this gojju and the traditional kosambaris. You can kind of imitate this process with knife or just chop them as small as you can. Choose a cucumber that is tender or cut in half and discard the seeds.

What do you need to make cucumber gojju? 
Serves 4 people as side dish
1 big green cucumber
1 heaped Tblsp grated coconut
1 Tsp crushed jaggery/brown sugar
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
3-4 twigs of cilantro (optional)
To roast in oil:
1 Tsp oil
2 Tblsp chana dal/kadle bele
6-8 fenugreek seeds
1 Tblsp white sesame seeds
4-5 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1X1 inch piece of tamarind
To Season: 
1 Tsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
4-5 fenugreek seeds
2-3 curry leaves
pinch of asafoetida

How do you make cucumber gojju? 

• Wash, peel and chop cucumber into very small pieces (discard seeds before chopping if they are big and hard).
• Heat a Tsp oil on medium heat and fry all the ingredients under 'roast in oil' until chana dal turns light brown and green chilies develop blisters.

• Take the roasted ingredients + coconut + jaggery + salt + 1 Tblsp of chopped cucumbers and cilantro (if using)to your mixer/blender and blend into a very smooth paste. Adding cucumber while grinding lets out water needed for grinding. The paste should be semi solid or a thick chutney. 

• Add the ground paste to cucumbers and mix well.
• Prepare seasoning - heat oil, add asafoetida, mustard, fenugreek seeds and let them pop. add curry leaves and switch off. 
• Pour the seasoning on top of gojju and give it a mix. 

Notes:

• I use the long thin English cucumbers sometimes which hardly has any grown seeds, so the entire thing gets chopped up. 
• Adding cucumber pieces while grinding lets water and helps the grinding process, if you want add a little bit of water but make sure the ground paste resembles a thick chutney. 
• Serve this soon after preparing as cucumber leaves a lot of water on mixing with water and makes the gravy diluted if you keep it for long. 
• Addition of jaggery is recommended but not mandatory. 
• Adding fenugreek seeds to the seasoning gives a wonderful flavor and bite to the gojju, skip this if you don't like fenugreek.
• Adding tamarind while roasting the ingredients softens it up and makes it easier on the grinder. 
• Break the green chilies by hand or roughly chop them before adding them into the hot oil, whole green chilies pop all over the place.