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.

Lemon Gojju - Awaken your taste buds with a spoonful

I write a lot about gojjus in my posts since I think this dish really deserves all the attention. What can you expect from someone who cleans up bowls of gojju without bothering about the main dish served on her plate :-). For such a humble name, this genre has so many variations that you don't feel the repetition at all. The name 'Lemon Gojju' makes me drool and I consider this one of nammamma's 'always made to perfection' dishes. Given that she is from the generation that doesn't tolerate tasting while cooking, I just can't explain how she achieved that consistently perfect taste every time.

Nammamma made this usually with the avarekalu kadubu or pumpkin idli and as she calls it is a total tongue cleanser. If you have had string of parties and eaten too much greasy food or sweets and feeling lethargic, this is the gojju to go to as it hits your taste buds in the right spots, awakens your senses and brings you back to life. This is a very simple recipe by any standard, get a couple of juicy lemons and you are on your way to tasting something totally out of this world. There is however a surprise ingredient in this gojju that you don't normally see in any of the other Karnataka gojjus. Nammamma says adding milk in this recipe is to beat the raw tangyness of the lemon juice and mellow it down and I totally agree with it as I have experimented with & without milk, so take my word and go with the milk. I use milk straight from the gallons here, nammamma used the usual boiled, cooled milk in India.

BTW, if you haven't noticed, I added a Recipe Index page over the weekend. Well.. the page got published over the weekend but had it coming for a while as I started to organize and group my various posts sometime over the Holidays. I was pleasantly surprised to see it coming together nicely though I haven't planned my posts in any order. Give it a look and let me know if you have any comments.

What do you need to make Lemon Gojju?
Juice of 2 good sized lemons - about 4 Tblsp
1 Tblsp Urad dal/uddina bele
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds/menthya
1 Tsp white sesame seeds/ellu
4-5 green chilies (adjust to suit taste, see notes)
2-3 sprigs cilantro
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 Tsp oil
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp crushed/grated jaggery
2 Tblsp milk
Seasoning:
1 Tsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp white sesame seeds
2-3 curry leaves

How do you make Lemon Gojju? 

• Heat 1 Tsp oil in a thick bottom pan, add urad dal and fenugreek seeds and broken green chilies and fry them on medium heat.
• Add the sesame seeds to the pan as the urad dal begins to change color slightly and continue to roast until urad dal turns pink and blisters form on green chilies. 
• Switch off and let cool.
• Grind the roasted ingredients, coconut, cilantro, salt, jaggery with a couple of spoons of water to a very smooth paste. 
• Take out the ground mixture to a bowl, add lemon juice and milk and give it a good mix with a spoon. 
• Heat oil for seasoning, add mustard and sesame seeds, let them splutter, add curry leaves and pour the sizzling seasoning over the gojju. 
• Let the gojju sit for about 30 minutes for it to absorb all the flavors before serving this lip smacking accompaniment with akki rotti, kadubu, pumpkin idli or Ragi mudde or anything else that you like. 
• This gojju will have a slightly thick pouring consistency (in between a dosa and an idli batter). The proportions above yield 2 cups of gojju. 

Notes: 

• It is important to let the gojju sit for about 30 minutes, so prepare ahead if you need. The seasoning can be done later to keep the crunch. 
• The jaggery, salt, green chilies and lemon juice should balance each other and also outpower each other in this recipe, make adjustments to suit your taste buds.
• Always remember to break or cut green chilies before roasting them as they will pop otherwise. 

• Roast the urad, fenugreek and green chilies on low-medium heat and make sure urad is roasted nicely without changing color too quickly to avoid the raw smell of the dal in the gojju. 
• Use brown sugar in place of jaggery if needed.

Pineapple Gojju - A tangy refreshing curry for the beginning of Summer

Yesterday marked the official beginning of Summer here in the US. We are yet to see the Summer where we live, for now we are still enjoying the rains and the gray skies. School year ended and ended well too, DD is home, happy with her performance at school and extremely happy thinking about the long, lazy days that lie in front of her for the next two months :-). She has admonished both of us from reminding her about her Summer activities, cleaning up and the umpteen other things that parents usually do as soon as the kid gets a break from school. While trying to be 'parenty', we know too well she deserves the break, year had been hectic for her and us with the relocation, new surroundings, new school etc but she came out smiling as always. For that I am grateful!

Pineapple gojju is a popular curry in Karnataka. At one point, it had become a must have menu item on all wedding lunches. I don't know if it still enjoys that status as I haven't been to a wedding back home in a while. We love it for the exploding flavor of this gojju. Though it can be prepared with canned pineapples, I prefer the fruit when it is in season. Last weekend our supermarket was literally filled with pineapples on sale. I am not sure if it was a bumper crop some where or messed up transportation but I was happy to find these yellow beauties for a bargain. They were smaller than the usual ones I buy at Costco (everything is giant sized at the wholesaler anyway) but were just ripe and juicy. We sliced and ate one of the fruits while the other one got transformed into a yummy gojju.

Minimalistic in its demand for ingredients, this gojju stays well and accompanies almost anything from rice to rotis.

What do you need to make Pineapple gojju? 
1 medium sized ripe pineapple - cored, cleaned and chopped into 2 cups of bite sized pieces
1 Tblsp grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup water
1 Tsp crushed jaggery/brown sugar
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
2 Tsp cooking oil

To roast in oil: 
1 Tblsp urad dal
1 Tblsp white sesame seeds
1/8 Tsp fenugreek seeds (about 6-8 seeds)
6-8 curry leaves (reserve about 2 for later)
1 inch piece of tamarind or 1/2 Tsp of tamarind concentrate
4-6 dry red chilies (I use a combination of guntur and Byadagi for the heat and color respectively)

How do you make Pineapple gojju? 

• Heat 1 Tsp of oil in a pan on medium heat and roast all the ingredients listed under 'To roast' until urad dal turns pink and you get a nice roasted aroma. Keep aside to cool. 

• Grind the roasted mixture with coconut adding 1/4 cup of water into a very smooth paste. 

• Heat 1 Tsp oil in a cooking pan, add the curry leaves and the ground masala, adjust the consistency by using the remaining 1/4 cup of water. 
• Add jaggery/brown sugar, salt and bring it to a gentle boil. 

• Add the chopped pineapple pieces and let it boil once before switching off. 
• Let the curry stand for an hour before serving it warm or cold. 

Notes: 

• Choose a pineapple that is ripe (but not over ripe or mushy).
• If you are using canned pineapple, drain the juice, wash the pieces in running water before adding them to the curry. 
• Adjust jaggery and tamarind based on the sweetness and tartness of the fruit. 
• You can use dry coconut to increase the shelf life of the gojju but I usually make it with fresh coconut as we consume it quickly. Fry the dry coconut well in oil before grinding it.

Bendekayi Gojju - Tangy, spicy okra gravy

A typical conversation around meal time at home follows:
He says 'Sambar', I say 'Huli'.
He says 'pachadi', I say 'Chutney'
He says 'charu', I say 'saaru'
He says 'koora', I say 'Palya'

He makes fun of me when I serve a yogurt based gravy calling it bajji, for him bajji is a deep fried snack. I smile at the generic term pachadi used for both kinds with vegetable pieces and ones with ground up veggies. Thus goes on our light hearted banter in this cross border marriage until food fanaticism takes over, becomes personal and turns into fights. We end up having a Tu Tu - Mai Mai session  until the food beckons us, then all is well with the world again atleast until the next time.

In the years I have been married to BH from the neighboring state, I have learned many nuances of the Telugu cooking while teaching him the subtleties of the Kannada cuisine. Big time foodies that we both are, we have enjoyed finding similarities and differences in the many recipes that we come across from the two regions. When I am annoyed with him, the one thing I shove at him is the famous gojju which doesn't (according to me) has an equivalent in his vocabulary so I can feel like I scored one :-), then he does retort back that some curries from Andhra cuisine have similar ingredients but having similar ingredients is not the same as having the same ingredients.

Gojju for me is that ultimate treat, a perfect blend of multiple tastes resulting in a burst of flavors. We always had more of this side dish than the usual main dishes as we would finish bowlfuls of the gojjus nammamma made. There are variations to making a gojju, it is a spicy, tangy gravy that makes a great accompaniment to rotis or rice. Nammamma makes perfectly consistent gojjus bringing out the individual flavors of the vegetables used by a subtle variation of one of the spices used or the way it is cooked. Gojjus are made with different vegetables (fried, boiled, steamed), there are hasi gojjus (no boiling/cooking involved) and bisi gojjus (heating or cooking involved). Gojjus are rarely made with a combination of vegetables, the only combination I encourage in my kitchen is the onion-tomato (a.k.a eerulli-tomato) gojju. Talk about weirdness..

Today's recipe - Okra gojju is a favorite at home, daughter loves it with rotis or chapatis, I love to eat it mixed with rice and BH loves it both ways :-). Like bitter gourd, people get divided into okra lovers or okra haters generally without any middle ground. Treated with care, this is a delectable vegetable with a very mild flavor and nutrients. If you are a first time user of okra, follow the tips at the end of the post to get a non-slimy, tasty okra dish.

What do you need to make Okra gojju? 
1 pound of okra (about 25 tender ones)
small lime size tamarind - soaked in warm water for 15 minutes
2 Tblsp grated coconut - fresh or frozen
4-5 stalks of cilantro, cleaned and trimmed
1 Tsp jaggery/brown sugar
1 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp cooking oil
1/2 Tsp turmeric powder

For the gojju masala: 
2 Tsp chana dal/kadle bele
1/2 Tsp urad dal/uddina bele
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds/menthya
1 Tblsp white sesame seeds
4-5 green chilies cut into half
1 Tsp cooking oil

For vaggarane/seasoning/Tadka:
1 Tsp cooking oil
1 Tsp mustard seeds
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds
3-4 curry leaves
1/2 Tsp asafoetida

How do you make Okra Gojju?

• Prepare Okra - Wash and drain them, pat dry with a towel each of the okra until there is no moisture. 
• Remove and discard both ends of the okra, cut the okra into roundels of 1/2 inch thickness. 
• Heat 1 Tsp of oil in your cooking vessel on medium high, add the okra pieces, turmeric, cover and let cook for 8-10 minutes until okra softens and turns pale green in color.
• Open the lid, mix it once and add the tamarind juice extract from the soaked tamarind.
• Add salt, cover and cook further for 5 minutes. 
• Fry the ingredients listed under 'gojju masala' in oil until the dals turn light pink and green chilies develop blisters on skin. Let cool
• Grind the fried masala ingredients along with coconut and cilantro into a smooth paste by adding 1/2 cup of water. 
• Pour the masala into the okra pan, add jaggery and mix. 

• Adjust the consistency of the gojju with water, it should be neither runny nor dry. 
• Let the mixture come to a rolling boil, switch off the stove. 
• Prepare seasoning by heating oil, add ingredients listed under vaggarane except curry leaves, let mustard and fenugreek crackle, switch off the stove, add curry leaves and pour the sizzling vaggarane on top of the gojju to finish off. 

Variations: 

• Use 1 Tsp of tamarind concentrate in place of tamarind.

Tips: 

• Before you start cutting okra, make sure you have dried it completely. I usually leave it to air dry before patting them individually with a dry towel. This step is crucial to reduce the sliminess of okra. 
• As you cut okra, you will notice your knife picking up the clingy thing from okra, keep a paper towel handy to wipe off the knife before you continue cutting. 
• Gojju should be balanced in its sweet-sour-spicy-salty tastes, adjust the ingredients to get it to your taste. 
• The chana dal in the masala makes the gravy thick on boiling, adjust the water to get the right consistency. Note: Leave the Gojju in a slightly liquid form when you switch off, it thickens as it cools. 
• Tamarind, yogurt or tomatoes help remove the sliminess in okra, use these in various dishes to get a slime free okra dish. 

Don't discard the peels - Orange peels gojju

I have very high regard for people that create new dishes. I always think I haven't actually dished out an 'original', do you know what I mean? Remember the English class from school where they taught us the difference between 'invention' and 'discovery'? the first one alluded to something new that didn't exist before while the second one was more of uncovering a hidden truth. When I think about my cooking, I feel like I am just copying and tweaking those recipes created by somebody in most cases to suit my taste and available ingredients - in essence 'rediscovering' recipes.

Think about a dish like Orange peel gojju, the main ingredient here is the peels of an orange. Making a delectable dish from a discard is not intuitive. For my unimaginative but slightly scientific brain, it is just a peel that comes with the fruit, protects the fruit and gets discarded when the fruit is consumed. But somebody with an imagination felt they could actually turn these peels into a delicacy by adding a few spices. I am glad I have had the privilege of tasting this wonderful flavor of a dish. We love it any day as much as we love the dear oranges.

Well, this is a gojju nammamma often made during Orange season in India - typically winter months. Very pantry friendly, the recipe uses spices usually found in any well stocked home and can be made in a jiffy. It makes for a very good side dish and gives your taste buds an extra kick of flavors. Gojju refers to a spicy gravy in kannada and this is one of the many varieties of gojjus prepared.

What do you need to make Orange peel gojju?
Peel of 2 oranges - washed, cut into thin strips or chopped fine. I like the bite and so cut it into strips.
Juice of one orange
1 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tblsp crushed jaggery/brown sugar
4-5 curry leaves
1 Tblsp cooking oil
1/2 Tsp turmeric powder
1 Tsp mustard seeds/saasive
water

For the masala:
2 Tblsp grated coconut - fresh or frozen
1 Tsp chana dal/kadle bele
1/2 Tsp methi seeds/menthya
1 Tsp white sesame seeds/ellu
1/2 Tsp cumin/jeerige
2 medium red chilies
3-4 black pepper corns

How do you make Orange peel gojju? 

• Add a few drops of oil and a pinch of salt & turmeric to the washed orange peels and set aside for 10 minutes. This helps to mellow down the slight bitterness of the peels. 
• Rinse the peels in water and squeeze them to remove excess water. You can skip these 2 steps entirely if you like the strong taste of the peels.
• Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds & curry leaves.
• When mustard seeds crackle, add the cleaned orange peels and fry for about 5-7 minutes on medium heat until the peels soften a little. 
• Heat a pan on medium high, roast all the ingredients under 'masala' except for the coconut until the dal turns light brown and a nice smell surrounds your kitchen. 
• Once the spices cool down to room temperature, grind it along with coconut & a Tblsp of fried orange peels to a smooth paste by adding water. This should not be very thin but of the thick chutney consistency served with Dosa/idlis.
• Add the mixture to the remaining peels, add salt, jaggery/brown sugar and orange juice and let it boil for 5 minutes. 
• Adjust the consistency of the gojju by adding water as needed, the gojju thickens once it cools down.

We like to eat it on the side with rice or roti. A favorite way is to mix it with hot rice with a drizzle of oil/ghee and eat it with fresh cut onion slices, yummmm... 

Tips: 

• Make the gojju a little watery so you don't end up with a dry mixture when it cools down. 
• I strongly recommend tasting the gojju when it is boiling to adjust levels of salt & jaggery, you will see a filibuster of flavors in the mouth when you eat it. 
• You can use dry coconut gratings to increase the shelf life of the gojju or if you plan to pack it for a trip.