This is a traditional Konkani recipe and I always end up cooking this dish when there are no vegetables in the fridge and I have only have potatoes and onions left.

Method

1. Boil 3 medium sized potatoes with the skin on. Cut them into big (around 1-2 inch) pieces.
2. Add 2 tsp oil in a pan.  Add  2 medium sized onions chopped finely. Saute till it is pinkish in colour
3. Take a different pan and dry roast 1 cup freshly desiccated coconut, 1 tsp coriander seeds and 2-3 red chillies. Grind in mixie with a small marble size ball of tamarind and water. Add this thick paste to the onions and sauté till the rawness of spices is gone. Add salt to taste.
4. Add the boiled potatoes and water and cook the dish till the gravy is ready.
5. Keep the gravy slightly thick and use this as a side dish with rice. I use coconut oil in this dish as it gives a beautiful flavour to the curry.

Crabs are my all time favourite. Whenever I have a trip planned to Mumbai, I ask my mom to keep the crab curry ready - that is my sole demand on each of my visit.  Here is my mom's recipe for Kurle Ambat

Method

1. Clean the crabs. I still haven’t mastered this art and get it cleaned from the place where I buy the crabs. I just wash the crabs thoroughly before starting
2. In a small pan take 1 tbsp oil and  roast 1 tsp coriander seeds and 4-5 red chillies. Grind in the mixer with 1 cup freshly desiccated coconut , a pinch of turmeric and 1 marble sized ball of tamarind. Grind this to a fine paste as finer the paste better the taste.
3. In a large pan, add 2 tsp oil.
4. Fry 2 medium sized onions till pink. Now add crabs and sauté for a minute. Add the masala and salt and cook. Crabs take around 15 mins to cook on medium flame. Serve hot with rice.
5. The crabs almost always taste better the next day after absorbing all the masala.

The crab available is Mumbai is much more meatier than the ones available in Hyderabad. I havent verified this personally but it is also said that crabs should be bought when alive as they start losing their body fat and flesh after losing life.

Mud crab that is easily available in Mumbai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scylla_serrata)

The blue crab which we get here in Hyderabad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_fisheries)

This is one quick Konkani dish to cook and requires no heating. This goes well with rice.

Method

1. Grind together 1 onion,1 cup grated coconut, 1 marble sized ball of tamarind, and 3 dried red chillies to a very smooth paste, adding sufficient water and salt. The consistency should be thinner than chutneys as this is used as a substitute for curry with rice.

Fine pieces of onion and ginger can also be added in the end to give it a crunchier texture.

Jackfruit (Phanas in Konkani) is one key ingredient in Konkani Cooking. Raw jackfruit (Kadgi in konkani, kathal in hindi) is cooked with a lot of different pulses in our curries. The seed of jackfruit is dried and stored and again added to pulse gravies. But my favourite is the sweet ripe jackfruit pods. I can never have enough of this. I also like to cook these jackfruit fritters and store them in the refrigerator so that I can eat the jackfruits for a longer time. We get these ripe jackfruit in summers and then in the early rainy season.

1. Grind around ripe 20 Jackfruits pods in a mixie to get a coarse paste. Add 2 tbsp Rava (Semolina), 2 tbsp Coconut grated.
2. Add salt according to taste. Add jaggery in case the dough is not sweet enough. Make it into a cake dough like consistency.
3. Heat oil in a kadhai. Make small balls of the dough and deep fry. Cook on low flame for the jackfruits to cook thoroughly. Traditionally we do not add any water in this dough. However if you find it difficult to make the balls, you can sprinkle a little bit of water. Also you can dip your fingers in water before making the balls so that they don’t stick to your hand.
4. When the fritters are brown on the outside, remove them on a tissue paper and serve hot.
5. One can also store these for 4-5 days in the refrigerator

The jackfruit fritters in the picture is slightly browner than golden because of jaggery.

I like to keep the jackfruits coarse and don’t overgrind it as I like to bite into the jackfruit while eating the mulik. Sometimes I add freshly cut jackfruit pieces into the batter just for the extra texture.

This is a traditional Konkani dish and is a regular fare at Konkani weddings. Like all Konkani dishes, we use coconut, red chilli and tamarind here. We cook a lot of different pulses in Konkani cooking but somehow the masala remains the same and yet every curry tastes different. So sometime back I started grinding together this masala to suffice a weeks cooking and storing it in the fridge and using small portions every day. This reduced cooking time drastically.

Method

1. Soak 1 ½ cup of black chickpeas (kala chana) overnight
2. Next day pressure cook it till  tender but not completely soft.
3. For the masala, dry roast 1 tsp of coriander seeds, 3-4 dry red chillies and grind together with ½ cup of freshly grated coconut and 1 small marble sized ball of tamarind to a fine paste. Dont add too much water while grinding
4. Now pour the masala and the cooked chana in a pan. You can add the water used to boil the chana too. Add 1 potato cut into cubes/  or raw banana cut into cubes or 1 cup yam cut into cubes
5. Add salt according to taste and cook till gravy boils and the potatoes are cooked. Turn off the gas.
6. Give a chaunk/seasoning with oil,1 tsp mustard seeds, pinch of asafoetida, 5-6 curry leaves. Cover the dish and let the gravy absorb the flavours of the seasoning
7. Serve with rice

I have used raw jackfruit (kathal in hindi) in the above picture instead of potatoes.

Dal is one of the essentials of Indian cooking. However every different state has their own Dal version. Dalitoy is Konkani dal recipe and is a must in every Kokani festival or wedding menu. It is a quick non fussy recipe.

Method

1. Cook 1 cup Toor Dal with a pinch of turmeric, 2 green chillies (slit along the middle) and 1 inch ginger piece and 2 cups of water in a pressure cooker
2. Once the Dal is cooked, heat it on medium flame. Add salt to taste and mash the Dal.
3. In a Chaunk/seasoning  pan add 1 tbsp ghee, Add 1 tsp mustard seeds. When they splutter, add  2-3 red chillies broken into 2 at the centre, a pinch of asafoetida and around 10 curry leaves.
4. Pour this on the Dal and cover with a lid. Serve hot with rice
5.  Garnish with Coriander leaves and serve

My mom also adds one tomato finely chopped in Step 2 and let it cook with the Dal and serves it with coriander garnishing. You can also add garlic to the seasoning.