Potato Sukke

This is a wonderful potato preparation from our Saraswat menu.  Mildly spiced with a bit of tanginess and loads of flavour.  A must try.  We make a lot of combination meals like these.  We pair up certain vegetable gravies with lentil or coconut gravy preparations.  We also make this sukke as a combination, with a lentil preparation for rice called ambat.  Here, today I have served it with kholombo (sambhar variety).  Kholombo is a lentil preparation of red lentil (dal) a few vegetables of your chioce and fresh homemade masala (lightly roasted & ground spices).  The detailed post coming up tomorrow.  So getting to the recipe of sukke.  We call it batata sukke.  In our language (Konkani), we call potatoes "batata".  The recipe is as follows.

INGREDIENTS:

Potatoes	1/2 kg
Salt	1 tsp or as per preference
Coconut Oil	1 1/2  tsp
Black gram dal (urad dal)	1 tsp
Coriander seeds (Dhaniya seeds)	1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)	1/4 tsp
Coconut gratings	1/2 cup
Red chillies	5-6
Tamarind	A small ball
Turmeric powder	1/4 tsp
Coconut oil*	1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds*	1/2 tsp
Curry leaves*	6-7 leaves

* to temper

METHOD:

1.       Wash the potatoes well.  Cook them in a pressure cooker for 4-5 whistles.  Alternately you could cook/boil them in a vessel.  If cooking in a vessel, peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes (about an inch in size). Pour sufficient water in the pan and add salt, add the potatoes and cook until soft.

2.       Heat a pan and add oil. On low flame, fry/roast all the ingredients separately (black gram dal, coriander seeds and fenugreek seeds, red chillies) to a reddish brown colour.  (Be careful not to burn them as the dish will turn bitter).

3.       Once done with step two, grind together coconut, tamarind, turmeric and the fried/roasted spices to a fine paste adding a little water (say about 1/4 cup). Add more if the paste is too thick.

4.       If you have boiled the potatoes in a cooker, remove, peel and cut them into 1 inch cubes. Pour the paste/masala in a pan. Add potatoes and mix well. Adjust salt.  (add water if the masala is too thick).  This preparation should be a semi gravy consistency. 

5.       Give it a tempering of mustard seeds and curry leaves. Serve hot.
6.       Enjoy it as a side dish with rice or chappati (Indian flat bread)

NOTES:

1.       Fenugreek seeds may turn the dish bitter, so be careful not to use more than mentioned.
2.       If potatoes are boiled in a vessel remember you have added salt, so adjust accordingly.
3.       You could use any oil, but using coconut oil gives the dish a wonderful flavour.
4.       Adjust the spiciness according to your taste and the spiciness of the chiilies.
5.       Tamarind could be replaced with tamarind paste, if using paste, 1/2 tsp should work just fine.

 

 

Lunch Menu 3

Back again with a lunch menu after quite a gap.  Not that I wasn’t making these combo meals, just that I used to be in so much pf a rush with so many other things going on, that I couldn’t click pictures.  So today I made it a point to click and make a post.  This meal that I have put up is one of the combination that we Mangaloreans make.  There are many such mouth-watering and tempting menu's that I will put up as often as I can.  Today, the combination that I have come up with is batata sukke (coconut based potato curry), carrot salad, kholombo (sambhar, lentil preparation), chappatis (indian flat bread),rice, capsicum bhajiyas (capsicum fritters)(Clock-wise).  I did miss keeping the black eyed beans subzi that I made.  So putting up the post of batata sukke.  Others will follow soon. :) 

 

Nankatai

 Hello everyone.  I know I am back after a very long time.  Though I did put up a post in between, there have been many breaks.  Hope you all missed me, coz I did miss putting up recipes.  So without further ado, I will get to the recipe.  Today, I am putting up a cookie recipe.  I am sure there are many versions of nankatai.   Today am sharing my mom's version of the recipe.  She's been doing it for years.  A recipe she does with perfection and what I like most about the cookie, that it has the right amount of sweetness to it.  We call it "Nankatai", similar to what you could call a cookie or a biscuit.  So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Flour (maida)	390 gms
Chickpea clour (besan)	55 gms
Sugar(powdered)	200 gms
Baking powder	1 1/2 tsp
Vegetable fat (dalda)	260 gms
Vanilla essence	1 tsp
Nutmeg powder	1 tsp

Method:

1.       Sieve together white flour, chickpea flour and baking powder.

2.       Powder sugar along with nutmeg into a fine powder.

3.       Melt the vegetable fat and keep aside.

4.       In a bowl take the sieved flours and add the powdered sugar and mix well. 

5.       Add half the melted fat and knead well. Then add the remaining fat little by little kneading all the time.

6.       Knead this dough well for about 10 minutes.  To know if it is ready, make a ball and press it with the mound of your palm.  There should be no cracks.  That is the sign for it being ready.

7.       Make the balls and press them and lay them on a baking sheet or tray.

8.       Preheat the oven at 160⁰ C for 5-7 minutes.

9.       Once preheated place the tray in the oven and bake them at 160⁰ C for 12-15 minutes.

10.   Once all done store them in an air-tight container.  Stays fresh for over 15 days.  Well that is, if you can stay away from them.  Believe me, they are very addictive.

Notes:

1.       I will update with the cup measurements soon.

2.       Baking time varies from oven to oven, so please do keep checking once 12 minutes are up.