Baalekaayi Dose (Plantain dosa) - meet this delicious coastal Karnataka special!

"A child hugs everyone until an adult teaches it not to" ~ unknown

I sit down after a normal Sunday of chores & activities, looking at the hundreds of pictures I have taken and copied to folders, neatly arranged by the dish name, waiting for me to pick one and start writing.. I spend some time trying to pick the one dish that talks to me today, the one that I can talk about today with you all. I do choose what I want to blog about. But just as I start to catch the floating thoughts in my head, all that comes out as I try to hit the keys on my keyboard are jumbled words, nothing related to the recipe but everything related to the world around me, around us..

I sat staring at the screen for an hour, tried to take a break by doing something else, tried to organize thoughts by doing mundane tasks such as prepping for tomorrow's work day lunch, spending time on enhancing the pics, watermarking them etc but I knew in my heart that I wanted to say something different and far away from the recipe I chose to blog about today. I don't usually let things happening around me take control of my emotions but sometimes it is hard not to respond to what is happening around me. Every day this past week, I have woken up to read/hear about some incident, from Dhaka to Texas to Louisiana to France. People are hurting and it doesn't matter whether you white, black, male, female, adult or child. 4 college students lost their lives in this unreasonable violence, 4 young lives with hopes and aspirations, budding spirits just went away before it was time. Black & white family men lost their lives leaving young children and wives behind to tend to a life of memories and loneliness. I strongly believe that every life matters and deserves respect, irrespective of where you come from, what your religious beliefs are and the color of your skin. Let us teach the children to appreciate diversity, accept differences and embrace everyone as they are. My prayers for each of the families trying to face the grief due to the loss of a loved one. I am in general a very hopeful, positive person and believe that there is a lot of good in everybody, hope it finds the strength to prevail over violence.

I have a very simple recipe today, if you are a dose (dosa) lover, you will like this version. I saw this a few years back in the blogosphere, that was before I was a blogger. I have talked to my Mangalorean friends since then and learnt that it is a very common dose in the coastal homes since banana is grown in plenty in every backyard and most every part of the plant finds its way into the kitchen and into a recipe. A dose made with raw banana intrigued me and I tried it. The flavor is so fresh and the dose so tasty, we got hooked on it. Whats more, it is very easy to put together (soak, grind and pour) and doesn't require any fermentation at all. You can make this for breakfast, lunch or dinner as it can be as light or as filling as you want it to be. The traditional version has rice in it and just adds the chopped plantain. Over the years, I have made up my own version of this recipe by adding a little bit of urad dal (for the soft texture) and methi/fenugreek seeds as it is generally added to dose batter and brings a nice hue when dose is cooked. You can skip these and stick to the rice, plantain, salt version if you prefer. One of my friends adds 1/2 cup of shredded fresh coconut which also lends an undeniable sweet taste and soft texture to the dose.

Baalekaayi or raw banana/plantain is one of my favorite vegetables, and I always end up getting them from the grocery store if they look fresh. This versatile vegetable can go into the recipe all by itself or pair up and play nicely with others. You can find many of my favorite recipes using this vegetable on the blog here, here, here, here, and here :-). We have always had these plants in the backyard in Mysore and mostly grew the ripe fruit variety at home. I only have ornamental plants in pots here as the weather doesn't allow me to put them in the ground. They move in to the house as the cooler months come by but stay outdoors and sway happily during summer. Fruits or not, I love the plant just like that so they are here to stay with us..

What do you need? 
1 big plantain/green banana
1 cup quinoa*
3/4 cup millet (sawa or foxtail)*
1 tsp urad dal
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
3-4 green chilies
2-3 Tsp oil to roast dose

* Look in the notes for replacing it with rice

How do you make Baalekaayi dose? 

• Wash quinoa and millet in a couple washes of water. 
• Soak them together for 4-5 hours
• Wash, pat dry the plantain. 
• Remove the ends and peel the plantain.
• Chop into bite sized pieces. 
• Drain the water, take it to a blender along with the green chilies. 
• Grind into a coarse paste with 1/2 cup of water. 
• Add the chopped plantain pieces and grind to a smooth paste. 
• Add water if needed and bring the consistency to a pouring liquid (imagine a thick buttermilk)
• Add salt, mix well and let it sit for about 10 minutes. 
• Heat the dose griddle, add a drop or two of oil on the pan. Take a piece of paper towel and rub down the oil evenly on the surface of the griddle. 
• Mix the batter, take a ladleful and pour it in the center of the griddle, using the back of the griddle and in a circular motion, spread the dose to a nice, round circle. 
• Add a couple drops of oil around the surface of the dose and let it cook for a minute and half until the bottom side cooks well and turns golden in color. 
• Using a spatula, slowly nudge the dose from the edges and remove it from the griddle. 
• If you want to, you can cook it on both sides. Fold the dose in half and serve with your choice of chutney or pudi :-)

Notes: 

• Traditionally this dose is made with rice as it is the grain of choice in Karnataka, I replaced it with a combination of quinoa & millet. If you want rice, use 2 cups of rice instead. Rest of the procedure is same. 
• Green chilies add a tiny hint of spice, if you are making it for children or don't like chilies, reduce or skip them together.
• I sometimes add some fresh cilantro or ginger while grinding to make it flavorful. 
• Taste in this dose comes from the plantain, choose green skinned, firm plantains in the recipe. 
• I use my cast iron pan for making dose, it is well seasoned by years of use and hardly needs extra oil to roast dose and gives a bright golden color to the dose. 

Tips for making good colored dose: 

• Use heavy cast iron pan if possible. 
• Heat the pan well, when you sprinkle a few drops of water, it should sizzle furiously. 
• Rub the surface of the pan with a chopped piece of onion before you ladle out the batter. 
• Reduce heat to medium while you pour the batter and once done, increase the heat. 
• Some doses are cooked on one side only while others are roasted on both sides. 
• Thickness (or thinness) of dose is a personal choice. Thinner ones are for people that enjoy crispy doses while thicker ones are for those who love the soft, velvety texture :-)
• Adding 1/2 Tsp of sugar brings the golden color in dose, if you are ok with the extra sugar, go ahead. 

This is how BH likes to make this dose :-)

He was preparing it on a weekday morning and I usually wrap the breakfast to go, so he made my dose, slathered it with loads of chutney pudi, deep roasted it and rolled it for easy handling and eating once I reach work. Ah I am blessed!!

Pour the batter, add a liberal dose of chutney pudi on top. Let it cook

Once the bottom is golden brown, flip it over and let the other side get hot for a few secs

Take it onto a foil, roll it! I gobble it after I reach work and ready to eat bf

Halasina kaayi (Tender green jackfruit) Palya (Dry curry) - some 'home alone' ramblings

My pantry doesn't seem to be shrinking at all, I am on a voyage (read my last post) to clean up my pantry and refrigerator and until then I have promised myself I am not going grocery or produce shopping. The refrigerator is pretty much bare (used up most stuff and threw out some) and it is no longer easy to just stick your hand in the dark inside the refrigerator and come up with something edible and yummy :-). The progress on the pantry has been really slow for various reasons primarily that my family has decided to or having to go on out of town trips while I am the only one at home. While DD is still getting pampered in India, BH is travelling this week on business which leaves me all by myself at home except when I am at work. Well, I did caution you in the title of the post itself that today it is all about me being home alone, I will try and make this sound less 'whiny' and 'clingy' than it feels to me :-). Let us move onto other things in life..

I didn't cook much this past week, whatever I made on Sunday night before BH took off was enough to give me company until almost Wednesday and I ate salads for a day. Even large doses of boring things on netflix, didn't motivate me to get up and cook something during the evenings. Friday was a work from home day and as I was contemplating on what to put together for lunch, I discovered this can of tender jackfruit in the pantry shelf. I must have got it on one of my trips to the store and never found an opportunity to cook with it.

What is a vegetable that is called fruit? Tender jackfruit :-). Yep, that is how rusty my stand up comedian skills have become with no one home to target or practice on :-). But when I say that jackfruit is one of the most delicious fruits in this creation and jackfruit also makes an equally delicious vegetable when it is young, tender & green, I am not exaggerating. I am sandwiched between 2 jackfruit crazed ladies - nammamma and dear DD, they both can eat this fruit anytime, anywhere. While I am not that big a fan of the ripe fruit (Mainly because I don't even stand a chance with even one of them around cut jackfruit), I love the tender green ones used as vegetables even more.  This is a big part of coastal Karnataka & Malnad region recipes - everything from papads to curries to dosa to idli to snacks are made using both the tender and the ripe ones. Unfortunately for me no-one in the family appreciates this vegetable like I do. BH feigns allergic to halasina kaayi or all matters related to jackfruit and I don't feel good about cooking it around him. So with both BH & DD being away, I decided to treat myself to the simple deliciousness of this stir fry and after making sure the expiration date was still long ways away(it is a critical precaution to take especially when you pull out things from the back of the pantry :-)), I set about making the dish.

One of akka's friends in Mysore had this tree in their backyard that yielded deliciously sweet fruit when ripe. The fruits are gigantic and they would normally get distributed among friends but the tender ones were more sought after since they would cut when small in size. While the friend's mom generously shared atleast part of one fruit every season, the tender ones rarely made their way to us :-). If it was my friend, I probably would have come up with some sneaky barter to get hold of the unripe ones but akka never bothered. On the bright side though, the vegetable markets would be flooded with this fruit and vegetable during the season in Mysore. Nammamma made a Huli (sambar) from the vegetable with some black chickpeas thrown in and this simple stir fry as a side dish and I loved both. Making it from a tender jackfruit is labor intensive and I took the easy way out with my store bought can of tender jackfruit and totally avoided all the sticky glue, oiled knives experience :-)

Andhra weddings typically serve a side dish with tender jackfruit. I had never eaten the dish in my long married life but had heard enough from various family members on different occasions about 'Aava pettina panasa pottu koora' (I know it is a mouthful, so let me break it out, aava - mustard, panasu - jackfruit, essentially indicating the ground raw mustard mixed in with chopped jackfruit). I went to a niece's wedding couple years back drooling just by the thought of eating this during the wedding but was majorly disappointed with what was served :-), It had pieces of jackfruit floating in a gravy which was not very tasty and completely masked off the jackfruit taste, personally a 'no-no' for me. It seemed like someone's desperate attempt to serve a non vegetarian dish in a pure vegetarian fare. So instead of attempting the curry with gravy, I made this simple sauteed version from nammamma's kitchen, it turned out so delicious and I had a bowl of the palya with a glass of buttermilk for lunch and repeated the dose for dinner too :-).

The little heat from the red chilies, slight tang from tamarind, hint of sweetness from jaggery perfectly complement the inherent taste of jackfruit.

Note: Sorry for the sub standard pictures today. I never thought of blogging about this dish when I started making it and so no intermediate steps either. After tasting a spoonful, I felt so happy and wanted to share this deliciousness with all of you, grabbed the camera and shot as well as I could at the time. Sorry about it and don't let the pictures dampen your enthusiasm to make this dish at home. It is delicious. 

What do you need to make Halasina palya? 
2 cups chopped tender jackfruit
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/4 cup thinly sliced onion
2 Tbsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 Tsp cumin seeds
1/8 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
4-6 curry leaves
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste, note canned ones have some sodium already)
3-5 dry red chilies (adjust to taste)
small piece of tamarind
1/2 Tsp jaggery/brown sugar

How do you make Halasina Palya? 

• I am going to assume you have cleaned jackfruit pieces to start with :-)
• If using canned ones, pour out all the preservative brine, wash thoroughly under running water atleast a couple of times. 
• Cut the pieces into bite sized chunks unless you want to chop them up small and end up with a spaghetti squash consistency :-). 
• Add coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, cumin and red chilies along with a couple of drops of oil in a pan. 
• Roast for a minute and half or until the seeds sizzle slightly and give out a whiff of aroma. 
• Add asafoetida and mix. 
• Take them out into a blender jar, add coconut, tamarind piece and jaggery and blend them to a coarse mix. Do not add water if you don't have to. 
• Heat the remaining oil in the pan, add mustard, curry leaves and let mustard pop. 
• Add sliced onion and let it sweat a bit for 1-2 minutes. 
• Add the jackfruit pieces, turmeric powder, salt and the blended spices and give a good mix. 
• Lower heat, cover the pan and let it cook for 20-25 minutes (stir once every 8 minutes or so to avoid burning) and have the flavors mingle well. 
• Check to see if the jackfruit pieces are tender and absorbed the flavors, switch off and serve hot or warm. 

Notes: 

• Skip onion if you do not like but it enhances the taste delightfully. 
• Do not go overboard with coriander, cumin as they tend to take over the flavors. Keep in mind you want to taste jackfruit more than the spices. 
• Add extra red chili powder if the spice mix is not hot enough. 
• Cutting the pieces too small makes them break apart, I like the bite a little bit and hence made them bigger pieces. 

Ghassi - a delectable Konkani fare when you really don't want to make the regular huli/sambar

"Ah, music! A magic beyond all we do here!" - Albus Dumbledore

From Harry Potter & Sorcerer's Stone 

Well, that is what I have been doing these past days, more than I normally do. Listening to music, more music and good music. Outside of reading, if there is another activity I most love, it is listening to music. Cooking & music go hand in hand. We have some music going on most of the time at home, no matter what other things we are doing. But last week was slightly different as we went to Cleveland to attend the annual Tyagaraja Aradhana. For those of you familiar with Carnatic music, you would have attended some celebration of this festival wherever you are and even performed as part of it. I grew up listening to the Pancharatna (5 gems of compositions by Saint Tyagaraja). DD has been attending the festival for a few years and really wanted to go back this year. Despite missed practices and last minute chaos with all her intertwined college visits, the program went off well and we came home after enjoying some good, live music.

It amazes me every time that even in the proverbial cold country that Cleveland is, during these 10 days the city seems to come alive with people hustling and bustling across streets and more and more kids participating in various activities. Also, you get to see and display your precious Indian wardrobe and fine jewelry that merely sits at the back of the closet for the rest of the year :-). More than anybody, the grandparents who attended for the first time were beaming with joy the entire time :-). Where there are people, there is food and here is the simple, homely yet delicious lunch served on the first day.

Back home, music still filling the ears and the soul. Lots of travel, extremely hectic schedule at work have marked the last couple of weeks. Trying to balance it all and looking forward to things settling down in a month or so. Will keep you all posted. Cooking continues without a break so does eating, only hiccup is in blogging :-), hope to get better at it as things settle down.

As a vegetarian, what is my typical everyday food? I try to add in as many nutrients as possible yet keep the taste fresh and interesting enough day after day. I plan to have atleast a good serving of proteins which translates into pulses, lentils, legumes in my plant based food world and add in different kinds of veggies (roots, stalks, leaves, fruits and more) so every meal is close to being a complete meal. When you have a 'hard to please' teenager at home, also compounded by the diet restrictions or lack there of of elderly parents - making the same dish over & over again won't fetch you any favorites and you get pushed to cook outside of your comfort zone.

When I was little, nammamma had a pattern to lunches, it would be a saaru & palya or saaru & gojju or a single huli (also known as sambar outside of Karnataka). The rationale was saaru is typically devoid of vegetables but is loaded with lentils while the palya/gojju brought in the veggie servings to the plate. On the other hand a Huli was an 'all in one' dish with both lentils & vegetables. She made food interesting by little tweaks and turns, using seasonal vegetables or with a variety of lentils & whole pulses, sprouted & non sprouted. There were always the tiny, tantalizing chutneys or pudis on the side. This worked perfectly too since we all sat together for lunch & dinner. Things have changed and my 5 member family doesn't always sit together for meals, especially week day lunches when eating out of lunch boxes is the norm for 3 of us.

But I continue to work around the idea of feeding the necessary nutrients to my family at the same time juggling to satisfy different age groups and palates:-). Variety is key to a happy tummy, feed the same stuff for 2 meals continuously, I am sure I will have a coup on my hands :-). I take refuge in this Ghashi when I don't feel like making the standard huli/sambar. This strikes all the right keys and tastes while providing both legumes and vegetables. The spices used are minimal and generate a mild yet tantalizing taste. You don't have to worry about cooking lentils/dals, but can prepare it in a jiffy with a little planning. Even if you didn't plan ahead, look in your pantry and pull out a chickpeas/garbanzo beans can reserved for emergencies like I did(believe me, it was an emergency earlier this week when I came home late in the evening and had the brain power the size of a teaspoon and couldn't really concoct anything elaborate). The best part of this recipe is that it stays well and makes a good lunch box addition. So, go for it whenever you are looking for a change.

Mangalorean cuisine is close to my heart given their liberal use of coconut, I am a nut when it is especially prefixed with coco :-). Broadly there is Tulu food without any meat or non vegetarian and then the Konkani food which makes use of seafood in addition to other meat. My father spent a year in Mangalore alone when we were little kids (since we were all in different stages at school & college and it would  have been uprooting to the family to move out of known and much loved Mysore). He grew a fond appreciation of Mangalore cuisine especially from the Udipi region. We got our Shavige oralu (handy tool to make rice noodles) from there and also some of the recipes rubbed off on Nammamma. Depending on which side of the coast you move up or down, the cuisine also leans heavily with either Kerala dishes or Goan recipes and hence tastes totally different. I have a couple of different variations of Ghashi from my different Mangalorean friends, one uses coriander seeds (which tastes very similar to huli and so I skip that) and another one makes use of fenugreek seeds which is what I have today.

There are different combinations of ingredients for Ghassi too, some popular ones are in the Notes section.
What do you need to make Ghassi? 
2 medium sized green plantains
1 cup cooked chick peas
1/2 cup grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
1 Tsp jaggery/brown sugar
small piece tamarind (about 1tsp of dry tamarind)
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
To roast: 
1 Tbsp urad dal
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds
4-6 dry red chilies (per taste)
1 Tsp oil
Seasoning: 
1 Tsp oil
1/2 Tsp mustard
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
4-6 curry leaves
2 dry red chilies (broken into pieces)
2 cloves garlic (optional, I didn't use it)

How do you make Ghassi?

• If you are using dry chick peas, soak them in water overnight and cook them with a pinch of salt until soft. 
• I skipped this step and used canned, cooked chickpeas. Drain water completely and rinse it a couple of times under running water. 
• Peel the plantain, remove ends and chop into bite sized pieces. Keep them immersed in water until ready to cook to prevent them from blackening. 
• Heat a wide kadai or heavy bottom pan, add a Tsp oil and roast the red chilies until they crisp up (30-45 seconds). Remove them to a plate. 
• Roast urad dal & fenugreek seeds in the remaining oil until both turn light pink in color (2-3 minutes). Remove onto the plate. 
• Once cooled, take all the roasted ingredients along with coconut, tamarind, jaggery, add 1/4 cup water and grind to a smooth paste. 

• Add the chopped plantain pieces to the pan along with 2 cups of water, salt and turmeric powder. Let it cook until plantain is just soft. 

• Add the cooked chickpeas, ground masala to the pan and mix well. 

• Let them come to a good boil on medium heat. Adjust consistency with water and salt as you prefer. Switch off. 

• Heat a seasoning pan with the tsp of oil, add mustard, curry leaves and dry red chilies and garlic if you are using it. 
• Once mustard starts to pop, add asafoetida, switch off and pour it onto Ghassi. 

• Serve this warm or hot with steamed rice or rotis. 

Notes: 

• Other favorite combinations for Ghassi - red pumpkin with cooked black eyed peas, sprouted whole green with potato, raw jackfruit with black chana. Idea is to mix to add vegetables and whole lentils together. 
• If you want to bring in the authentic konkan flavor, use virgin coconut oil for the seasoning, yummy :-)