Authentic tried and tested simple recipes in mainly Indian cooking, including traditional mangalorean, Goan, East Indian, North Indian recipes and much more…
Papadi Bhaji – Surati Papdi vegetable (Lima Beans) Vaal Papadi or Sem
This is a winter vegetable in India and found in abundance in the winter season. The Gujarati famous dish “Oondhiya” is usually made when surati papadi is in season.
Ingredients
250 gms. Surati Papadi
1 medium onion
2 small tomatoes
2 green chillies (optional)
4 flakes garlic
½ to 1 tsp chilli powder
½ tsp. turmeric powder
¼ tsp. garam masala powder
1 tsp. salt or to taste
1 medium potato (optional)
1 tbsp. oil
Wash the papadi, drain. String the beans by removing the head and the tail and the fibrous string on both sides of the beans. Split open the papadi pods and remove the seeds and set aside. It is important to split them open because sometimes these beans are infested on the inside, discard the infested ones. The split pods can be broken or cut into ½” to 1” inch sized pieces. Sometimes the shells of the beans will be hard and are not edible, in such cases only the seeds are used for cooking.
Chop the onion and tomatoes, slice the garlic and tomatoes. Heat oil and add the
Onion, garlic and chillies and fry till translucent. Add the tomatoes and fry for minute. Add the chilli, turmeric and garam masala powder, mix and add the vegetables and salt. Add ¼ cup water and cook on high for 5 minutes. Then add the potatoes if using, mix, cover and cook further 10 minutes till vegetables are cooked.
Delicious, succulent and moist Stuffed Pomfrest in mouth watering green masala and cooked iun banana leaf which prevents the fish from absorbing too much oil! Use stuffing of your choice, red, green or recheado masala. Recipe is from my mother’s book “Mais Recipes”. Get hold of your copy soon. Here is the link for details: https://cooklikececilia.com/mais-recipes-contact-details
Raw bananas have several health benefits so we always find new ways to add them to our diet. This is a Kerala style preparation and one of the items on an Onam Sadya. Referred to as Chena Vazhakkai Erissery or Ellisery, this is a simple dish with the use of fresh coconut, curry leaves and cumin seeds as the only ingredients for the gravy apart from onion, red chillies and garlic with some coconut for garnish. Yam, pumpkin and beans are also included as per personal preference. I have added some pre-cooked jackfruit seeds. Enjoy with steamed rice or appams!
Ingredients
3 large raw bananas
½ cup boiled jackfruit seeds
½ tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup fresh grated coconut
½ tsp. black pepper (optional)
1 tsp. cumin seeds
2 sprigs curry leaves
½ tsp. mustard seeds
4 flakes garlic, cushed
1 onion, sliced
4 to 6 small round red chillies (or 2 long chillies, broken into pieces)
2 tbsp. oil
Peel the bananas and chop into small cubes. Immerse in water till required.
Boil the banana pieces with turmeric and salt and 1 cup water. Grind ½ the coconut, cumin and curry leaves to a paste adding water. Add to the cooked bananas, mix and cook 5 minutes. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seed and when they pop add the crushed garlic and onion. When light brown, add the remaining coconut and fry till nice and brown. Add to the erussery (reserve some for garnish) and mix well. Remove to a serving dish and serve hot garnished with some fried onion coconut mixture.
Famous Mumbai Street Food – One that is savoured by all and satiates the appetite instantly and provides comfort to the belly especially if you have been on the road for a few hours. Savour each bite of this crunchy, soft and tart sumptuous sandwich as a snack, which also doubles up as a quick lunch or dinner.
Ingredients
1 Loaf sliced Bread (Brown or white)
2 cucumbers
2 medium potatoes
2 tomatoes
Salt as required
Pepper powder as required
Chaat masala (optional)
Roasted cumin powder (optional)
Butter
Green Chutney
Ketchup
Fresh basil leaves (optional)
For Green Chutney
1 large bunch coriander leaves
1 large bunch mint leaves
4 to 6 green chillies
1 lemon, juice
1 tsp. salt or to taste
1 tsp. sugar
Grind to a paste, using as little water as possible.
Boil the potatoes, peel and slice thinly. Wash the cucumbers and tomatoes. Peel the cucumbers and slice thinly. Peel the tomatoes, slice thinly. Line half the sliced loaf on a board and apply butter, then green chutney. Top with cucumber slices, then potato slices, ketchup (using the excess pouches that usually come with home delivery), then tomato slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and chaat masala/cumin powder if using. Add the fresh basil, if you wish. The butter the remaining half of the bread slices and cover the sandwich. Also used the heel of the loaf, you can avoid if necessary. Grill the sandwich briefly to barely toast the bread if you like.
An East Indian speciality. The chicken is cooked in just 4 spices ground in vinegar alongwith almonds and raisins and the masala is sauteed in a substantial amount of onions which not only adds body to the gravy but also makes it immensely flavorful, spicy complemented with sweetnes of the raisins and tartness of vinegar!
Ingredients
1 Chicken
2” pc ginger
1 whole head garlic
1 tbsp. cumin seeds
8 red chillies
1 tbsp. Almonds (or cashewnuts)
1 tbsp. raisins
¼ cup Vinegar
6 to 8 large onions
1 tsp. salt or to taste
2 tbsp. ghee
Cut the chicken in to suitable pieces, discard the skin, wash and drain. Clean the garlic and ginger and grind alongwith cumin and red chillies to a paste with vinegar. You can add a little water to get the contents moving in the grinder as excess vinegar could ruin the dish. Clean the onions and cut into thick roundels. Heat a vessel and add the ghee, when hot add the onions and fry till light brown. Add the masala paste and saute till fat separates. Then add the chicken, mix, cover and cook on medium 30 minutes till tender. Stir at intervals. After 30 minutes add the salt, mix and check seasoning. Simmer for further 5 to 10 minutes till fat appears on the surface. Serve hot with rice or fugias.
The recipe was given to me by my sister, which happens to be her in-laws family recipe, passed on to her by her Mother-in-law. An East Indian traditional dish, mandatory at weddings and festive occasions. Served with Sorpatel, Vindaloo or any spicy curry. I have paired it with Chicken Pickled Chops, another East Indian preparation!
Ingredients
500 gms.flour (maida)
2 tbsp rice flour
100 gms sugar
1 cup coconut milk
¾ water
2 eggs
1 tsp butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
Oil for deep frying
Method:
Add the sugar, coconut milk, water, butter and salt to a saucepan and heat until the sugar melts. Set aside to cool a bit. Take the flour in a large bowl or vessel, add the eggs, the yeast and the coconut milk mixture. make sure it’s not too hot but if it’s warm it may help in the dough rising faster. Use a hand mixer (if desired) and mix the batter till it’s like thick cake batter. Add more water as required to get the right consistency. Should be of dropping consistency but not runny. Leave to ferment for 4 to 5 hrs.
To fry:
A little bit of practice goes a long way in making Fugias. Mix the fermented batter. Heat a Kadai or a wok and pour sufficient oil. When hot, start making the fugias by grabbing the batter with your left hand and squeezing it between the opening in your palm between your thumb and forefinger, like when you form a fist. Moisten your right hand fingers in water and scoop small balls, one at a time, with your right hand and put in the oil and deep fry on medium flame turning often to cook evenly till golden brown. Instead of your right hand, you can also use a spoon to scoop the batter. Serve with your favorite curry or enjoy as a snack or with tea or coffee at breakfast.
A universal party snack – Most simple and so easy to make at home. Loved by old and young! Feel free to create your own toppings. Can be baked on the stove top using a pan.
Ingredients (makes 12 to 15 small circular pizzas)
1 ½ cup flour
1 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. warm milk
½ tsp. salt, or to taste
2 tsp. butter
2 eggs
½ cup Pizza sauce or as required
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Chopped and sauteed pepperoni or mortadella (optional)
Chopped onion (optional
Mix yeast and sugar in warm milk and stir. Cover and leave to bloom. Rub the butter into the flour. Mix in yeast mixture, stir in the eggs and knead well. If dough is too sticky dust some flour or grease your hands with butter and knead till smooth. Cover and put in a warm place for 2 hours, until double in size.
Knead risen dough for 3 minutes. Work into large flattened circles or use a cutter to make smaller pizzas. Arrange on a greased baking tin and spoon over with the sauce, and other toppings. Sprinkle over with grated cheese. Bake in a hot oven gas mark 4 for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately. To bake on the stove top, heat a flat pan on medium low heat till hot. Place the dough circles on the pan and quickly add the toppings. Cover and cook 10 minutes till cheese melts and underside is light brown.
Apart from being famous for sea-food, one of Goa’s typical breakfast menu is Chonya Ros made with dehydrated white or green peas which are soaked in water and boiled! Chonya Ros or Vatanayachi Bhaji is made with a coconut based gravy and served with puris for breakfast or poi and for lunch or dinner with rice. A regular item served on religious festivals which involve fasts abstaining from meat. Garnishing with freshly cut onion, tomato and coriander leaves is an option but lends an additional boost to the dish. Although mildly spiced, it is truly lip smacking and delicious. Enjoy as is without any carbs – for an excellent high protein meal!
Ingredients
2 cups dehydrated yellow or green peas
2 medium onions
1 cup dessicated coconut or dried coconut
4 flakes tamarind
½ tsp. garam masala powder
1 tsp. chilli powder
2 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. salt or to taste
Pick and wash the peas and soak in water overnight. Drain the water, replenish with fresh water and cook till tender and soft, may take an hour or more. At the end of cooking add 1 tsp. salt and mix and simmer for 5 minutes. You can pressure cook if you prefer. Meanwhile, heat a pan add a little oil and fry one onion, roughly chopped into pieces, till light brown. Add the coconut and fry until coconut turns brown. Grind it with tamarind to a paste. Take a vessel and add 2 tbsp. oil, when hot add one chopped onion and fry till translucent and soft. Add chilli powder, garam masala and fry for a minute. Add the coconut tamarind paste and saute for 2 minutes. Add the boiled peas with the stock and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes till oil surfaces. The gravy should be runny. Remove to a serving bowl and garnish with chopped onion, tomato, lemon and coriander leaves (optional). Serve with hot crisp puris for breakfast and with rice or bread for lunch or dinner.
Sheviyo or Shevigo also known as Idiyappam or string hopper is made with ground rice steamed and then pressed into a hand held sev mould or a typical stand alone shevigo equipment. In Kerala, Tamil Nadu etc Idiyappam is made of rice flour mixed with hot water 2:1 proportion with salt and little oil and kneaded to a soft dough. The dough balls are then put in the sev mould and pressed onto idli trays and steamed.
I have illustrated the Mangalorean and Goan style of making the Sheviyo i.e. soaking rice, grind to a paste then steaming the batter as a rice cake which is then cut into pieces and pressed as string hoppers with a sev mould.
It can be eaten as a sweet dish for breakfast or a teatime snack garnish with chunn i.e. a jaggery coconut filling or with sweet ros i.e. coconut milk and jaggery mixture.
As a savoury dish serve them with any coconut milk (Roce) curry like chicken or mutton or vegetable stew.
Ingredients
2 cups boiled rice or 1 cup basmati and one cup boiled mixed
1 tsp. salt or to taste
Coconut Jaggery (Chunn) filling
1 cup fresh grated coconut
½ cup jaggery grated
¼ tsp. cardamom powder
Coconut Jaggery Milk
2 cups coconut milk
½ cup jaggery or to taste
¼ tsp. cardamom powder
Wash and soak the rice for atleast 6 hours. Gridn to a smooth paste, add salt, mix and transfer to a cake tin to steam. Set the steamer and when the water boils place the dish with the rice batter on the steamer and steam for 20 to 25 minutes on medium high. To check if done, pierce a knife and should come out clean. Cut the rice cake into large pieces and press the pieces through a sevio or sev (ghatia/chakli) mould using the plate with large holes (if you prefer thinner strands, use the plate with smaller holes) and press like noodles into small circular heaps.
To make the chunn – heat a pan and add the grated jaggery, add a little water to speed up melting and cook till fully dissolved. Add the coconut and cook for a minute, then add the cardamom powder and keep aside till required.
To make the sweet milk – Heat the coconut milk till it reaches boiling point and then add the jaggery and simmer till dissolved. Add cardamom powder, mix and take off heat.
Serve with coconut jaggery filling or sweet coconut milk for breakfast or as teatime snack and with chicken or mutton curry or vegetable stew for lunch or dinner.
Rogan josh orroghan josh or roghan ghosht, is an aromatic curried meat dish of Kashmiri origin. It is made with red meat, traditionally lamb or goat. It is coloured and flavoured primarily by alkanet flower or root and Kashmiri chilies. It is one of the signature recipes of Kashmiri cuisine.
Rogan josh is a staple of Kashmiri cuisine and is one of the main dishes of the Kashmiri multicourse meal (the wazwan). The dish was originally brought to Kashmir by the Mughals, whose cuisine was, in turn, influenced by Persian cuisine. The unrelenting summer heat of the Indian plains took the Mughals frequently to Kashmir, which has a cooler climate because of its elevation and latitude.
While the traditional preparation uses whole dried chilies that are de-seeded, soaked in water, and ground to a paste, non-traditional shortcuts use either Kashmiri chili powder – source: Wikipedia
I was inspired to try this dish after watching Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film Shikara (a 2020 film) where the protagonist is shown cooking and then announcing to her husband the Rogan Josh is ready! The film is based on the love story of a Kashmiri Pandit couple at the peak of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir during the 1990s and the subsequent exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley
A fairly simple recipe, without onions, garlic and a minimum of spices!
Ingredients
1 kg. Mutton
1 cup yogurt
½ bunch coriander leaves
2” pc ginger, chopped
2 tsp. chilli powder or to taste
Pinch of asafoetida
½ tsp. cumin seeds
1” pc. Cinnamon
2 cardamoms
2 cloves
4 peppercorns
Pinch of nutmeg powder
½ tsp. mace
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. saffron
2 tsp. hot milk
4 tsp. ghee
Clean and cut mutton into large to medium pieces. Beat yogurt and mix with coriander leaves, ginger, chilli powder and asafoetida. Marinate the mutton with the yogurt mixture for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, grind all the ingredients from cumin to mace to a smooth paste by adding a little water. Heat crush and soak saffron in milk. Heat ghee and add the mutton with the marinade. Cook on moderate heat till all the water dries up. Will take 15 to 20 minutes. Cook further stirring constantly till ghee separates. Add the paste, saffron and salt just enough water to cook the meat. Cook for 30 minutes or till done.
The zucchini, courgette or baby marrow is a summer squash, a vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp (rind) are still soft and edible.
Ordinary zucchini fruit are any shade of green, though the golden zucchini is a deep yellow or orange. At maturity, they can grow to nearly 1 metre (3 feet) in length, but they are normally harvested at about 15–25 cm (6–10 in).
In botany, the zucchini’s fruit is a pepo, a berry (the swollen ovary of the zucchini flower) with a hardened epicarp. In cookery, it is a vegetable, usually cooked and eaten as a savory dish or accompaniment.
Source – wikipedia
Ingredients
(I am using 12 zucchinis approx. in the video recipe, so the ingredients used are proportionately more)
4 to 6 Zucchini
½ tsp ginger garlic paste
1 to 2 tbsp. Vinegar or Lemon juice, or to taste
½ tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. chilli powder or to taste
½ tp. Cumin powder
½ tsp. coriander powder
3 to 4 tbsp. rice flour
2 tbsp. corn flour
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
Method
Wash and drain the zucchinis. Trim the head and tail and cut vertically into ¼” thin slices. If the zucchinis are tender and unblemished the skin can be retained. Sprinkle 1 tsp. salt and set aside for 10 minutes. Then drain the water which is released from the zucchinis. Mix the ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder, rice flour, corn flour, vinegar and salt (if required because the zucchinis are already salted) and make a thick paste using as much water as required. Mix the slices with the batter. A;ternatively you can dip each slice in the batter to coat before frying, in which case more batter will be required. Heat oil for deep frying, when hot reduce flame and fry in small batches till crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen towel. Serve immediately when still crisp as a side with a main meal or with tomato ketchup as a snack or appetizer.
P.S.: The same batter can be used to fry arbi, egg plant, raw banana, bread fruit, potatoes, yam, mushrooms, etc.
Cut the brinjals into four lengthwise, removing the head and soak in salted water till required. Heat a vessel and add the ghee, when hot add the red chillies and fenugreek seeds and fry for ½ minute. Add the brinjals and fry till they change colour and turn brown. Add salt, sugar and green chillies. Mix the curd with the corn flour (this helps stabilise the curd and prevents it splitting while cooking). Add the curd to the brinjals and stir then add the water. Cover and cook till the brinjals are tender and the gravy is thick. Roast & powder the mustard and cumin seeds. I usually roast, powder and store the spices separately so have not shown it in the video. Add the roasted powder to the cooked brinjals. Stir well and serve hot with pooris or any Indian bread.
Slit the green chillies and grate the amlas. Discard the seed. Heat a pan and add ghee, when hot, add the mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the channa dal, urad dal, cashewnuts and fry till light golden. Add the green chillies and curry leaves and saute for a minute. Add the grated amla and (raw mango if using) and fry for a minute. Add turmeric powder and salt and stir and mix well. Cook the mixture on low heat for 5 minutes, mix and check seasoning. Add the cooked rice, mix well and heat through.
Heat the oven to 220 deg C. Clean and scrub the potatoes well keeping them whole. Prick lightly with a fork to avoid the potatoes bursting. Mix the olive oil, pepper and salt and brush the potatoes with the oil. For softer skins, wrap the potato in silver foil, for crunchier potatoes leave open. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 ½ hours depending on the size and oven temperature. To speed up baking pierce a metal skewer through the potatoes so that heat is conducted to the centres. To test if potato is done pierce with a skewer which should go through easily.
Prepare the filling while the potatoes are baking so it is ready to be stuffed into the potatoes when baked. Cut a slit or a cross on the top of the potatoes and squeeze the sides so the top is pushed open. Use oven mitts as the potato will be hot. Fluff the flesh of the potato with a fork. Top with your desired filling. Spoon sour cream mixed with a little olive oil and garnish with green onions and serve with a generous helping of corn salad or fill with sour cream and/or corn salad. Makes a delicious meal or starter or a side.
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