WHAT I COOKED FOR DINNER.....

I just want my friends to know what i had for dinner last night..
i would love it if my fellow bloggers would send me links of what they had last night for dinner with photos of the whole plate groaning with food... and i will post it in my blog...
yesterday i had a punjabi thali for dinner
the menu was
roasted corn salad
butter chicken (made by my own recipe)
dal fry
rice
rotis
and gulab jamun as dessert.
i will be posting the recipe of butter chicken soon.
pls send me your dinner plates along with the links at my email id....

KHATKHATE......

KHATKHATE is a very special vegetable preparation for goan hindu GSB(gaud saraswat brahmin ) families. This dish is usually prepared for weddings,pujas and during many other festivals . It has lots and lots of vegetables and hence its always made in a large quantity and shared with others .It becomes a one dish meal and can be eaten on its own without any accomplishments.

during earlier times when freezing facilities where not available khatkhate was one way for the lady of the house to finish off her leftover uncooked/raw vegetables and this was prepared atleast once a week.
i think the problem of finishing off the leftovers gave birth to such a wonderful recipe.

This vegetable preparation is extremely filling,nutritious and tasty.

The essential vegetables are RED PUMPKIN AND RADISH

The rest of the vegetables are optional . i will be giving you the list of vegetables that i use .

do not add brinjal and lady finger as these are slimy and will spoil the texture of the vegetable

recipe will follow.

SORRY FRIENDS FOR THE DELAY....
posting the recipe for this dish just got postponed so here i am writing the recipe

Cooking khatkhate is a bit complicated or should I say a many step process so let me give it to you in steps

STEP 1

Chop vegetables like yellow pumpkin, radish, cucumber, carrots, arbi, corn, and every other vegetable you have in your fridge other than karela, bhendi, brinjals or capsicum (this gives a different flavour which does not go well with khatkhate). Chop them into big cubes.
Cook fast cooking vegetables like pumpkin, cabbage, or cauliflower in a big kadai and cook the rest of the vegetables which take a longer time to cook in a cooker. Also cook the below Tovar dal and peanut mixture in the cooker, off course in a separate vessel.

STEP 2

Soak ½ cup Tovar dal and ½ cup peanuts for about 2 hours.

STEP 3

Grind together 1 cup grated coconut
3 red hot chilies (dry)
1 tsp haldi powder
Marble size tamarind
Marble size Jaggery

FOR THE FINAL ASSEMBLY

Mix all the vegetables, peanut and Tovar dal together
Add the ground coconut paste.
Add salt to taste.
You have to take trepala or teephal as we call it in goa; teephal is a small fruit which has a peculiar smell. it has to be added to this at the end to bring out its flavour.

You get this nice saffron colour to the khatkhate; you can also use Kashmiri chili powder to get the desired colour.

Khatkhate is ready to be relished…

SAANSAV.....

GHONTAM SAANSAV
ghontam are small sucking ripe mangoes which are very tasty, usually these baby mangoes are eaten by sucking them. ask any elderly goan he will have a pleasant memory of climbing trees with friends and sucking these lovely , luscious mangoes and staining their white banyan with the juice of these mangoes and being spanked by their mothers.
the memory of mangoes overpowers the pain of spanking.some of the mangoes are sweet while some are sour-sweet variety.The latter are used for making the saansav.
This is one dish that has all the flavours sweet, sour and spicy.
this is a favorite recipe of my hubby and my father.hence every mango season it is made atleast twice a week.



ING:

6 small sucking mangoes.
3/4 cup grated coconut
tamarind marble size
1/2 cup jaggery
11/2 tsp chilli powder or 2 bedgi red chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds
salt to taste

METHOD:

1.wash and peel the mangoes.

2.squeeze the juice out of the mangoes and make a thick pulp .Dont throw the seeds they should be used for this preparation.

3.grind together coconut,chillies,jaggery and dry roasted mustard seeds which should be added at the end when the grinding of the other ingredients is almost done.

4. The mustard seeds should be just about crushed and not finely powdered or the whole dish will taste bitter.

5. remember the jaggery and the tamarind should balance each other and should be added in proportion with sourness of the mangoes

6 The whole preparation should taste sweet , sour and a little hot.

TAUSALI ......

TAUSALI

ING:

2 cups grated cucumber
1 cup roasted rava with a little ghee
one cup grated coconut
1 cup jaggery or as per taste. some like it more sweet.
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom powder.
Pieces of cashew nuts.
Ghee

METHOD:

The method is very simple you have to just mix together all the above ingredients
The mix should have a little water if not you can add a little milk
{ I use a special ,very old ,manual oven. which is my mother’s. It’s about 30 yrs old she used to bake cakes in it along with tausali while I bake only tausali in it.}you have to apply ghee to the vessel from inside before putting in the batter.
put it in the oven which is placed on a plate with sand in it and heat it on the gas stove.
Tausali is ready in 30-45 mins
You can test if its ready with a toothpick, when it comes out clean you know its ready.
You can pour a little or more ghee as per taste on the hot tousali when you serve.
It can be eaten cold or hot.
SLICED TAUSALI

BABA'S FAVORITE FOOD.....

Today is my father’s(BABA’S)birthday and on this day I would like to post the recipes which are his favorite.
My baba is a typical goan and for him nothing compares to a hot , fresh home cooked goan meal. For him a goan meal is ultimate and hence whenever he comes visiting I see to it that the menu is goan , he is not very choosy when it comes to goan food as long as there is some fish, which may be fried or as a curry and a sol-kadi to end the satisfying meal he is happy.
When I was young I have several memories of my baba fulfilling our food cravings, It was not that he could afford to give us all the material comforts ,but when it came to food,baba saw to it that we never longed for anything .Our every little wish was fulfilled .
I remember , it may sound uncanny, but many a times it has happened that I used to feel like eating something and my father used to get it, when he returned home from office.
I used to feel so surprised as to how he knew that I felt like eating jalebi’s and batata wada and he gets the same things while coming home.
It gives my baba great pleasure to buy food stuff for me and my family , whenever he comes visiting he waits for me to tell him to go out and buy something and I do that just to see the pleasure on his face.




GHOTACHE SAASAV
His favorite is tausali a goan sweet dish
Once there was this dialogue between us .
I had bought a toushe or a large green cucumber
So my father asked me
“are you going to make tausali”
I said,
“no”
he says,
“ok…”
I know he loves tausali and he is not supposed to eat too much…
My plan was to make it before he returns from his evening walk.
So I make it ready before he comes home
When he comes home
I asked him,
“baba will you have tea”
he says..
“no”
I say,
“baba will you have coffee”
he says,
“NO”
I say,
“baba will you have biscuits”
he says,
“NO”
{I think he was a little disappointed that I was not making a tousali}
I said,
“baba will you have a piece of tousali”
he said,
“NO”
I said,
“fine”
This was when he realized he had said “no” to tausali
And so he said “did you say tausali , when did you make it”
And he had such a wide grin, that it made my day.


TAUSALI