Pineapple Gojju

I am back from my work trip. My kids are just fine, so no worry there. I would be lying if I said I didn't have good time away from the family. It was a nice break even though one of my friends teases that I missed my kitchen the most. Coming to today's post, I was talking to my friend about my blog. She pointed out that I don't have day to day stuff on this blog. I agree totally. Unless there is some twist into a daily food recipe, I don't usually post it. Well, until today. I have decided to post lot of Indian dishes' recipes that I cook regularly at home. Am I trying to make a journal for my kids or trying to come out of 'baking blog' title? I have no clue. Yet..

We went to 'Shri Krishna Vrundavana' in NJ this weekend. It is a nice place where I could hear 90 % of the crowd speaking Kannada and it was nice. They serve food for people there. This is entirely Indian style where you sit on the floor in a row and they come and serve. It has been many years since I ate sitting like that and it was fun. It was a typical Madhwa food which had Pineapple Gojju included in the menu. I loved it. This was a little different kind with lot of masala and I wanted to try to figure out what it was. I could taste and smell a lot of cumin and coriander with little hint of fenugreek and of course, there was coconut unmistakably. That was good enough for me to figure it out and I had pineapple sitting on the counter too. What else do I need?

Ingredients:

• Pineapple - 1 Whole cleaned, cored and cut into chunks. You could use canned pineapple. Use two cans reserving the juice.
• Tamarind - 1 Big lemon size ball soaked in water and juice extracted. (This need not be a very thick extract)
• Jaggery - 1 lemon size or more to taste
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - 2 - 3 TBSP
• Red Chilli - 1 broken
• Curry leaves - a few
• Hing - a pea size
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric - 1 big pinch

For the Masala:

• Chana dal or kadale bele - 1/4 cup
• Urad dal or Uddina bele - 2 TBSP
• Coriander / Daniya - 1/4 cup
• Red chillies - 8 - 10
• Cumin/ Jeerige - 1 TBSP
• Fenugreek / Menthya - 1/2 TBSP
• White sesame seeds/ Bili Ellu - 1/2 TBSP
• Coconut - Grated about 1/2 cup

Method:
In a skillet, dry roast chana dal, urad dal, coriander, red chillies, cumin, fenugreek till golden. Keep stirring so that all get roasted well. Towards the end, add sesame seeds and turn off the heat. Heat of the pan is enough to toast the sesame seeds. Keep tossing couple of times. Set aside. When cool, powder in a blender/mixie. Add coconut and continue. Add enough water to make a somewhat smooth paste. In a sauce pan, add oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add broken chilli, curry leaves, hing. When they are done, add pineapple. Stir and add turmeric, some salt. Add some water and let it come to a rolling boil. Add the ground masala paste, tamarind juice, jaggery and bring it to a boil stirring occasionally. Adjust the seasonings. Serve with rice.

Note:
Amount of tamarind, jaggery given might have to be varied depending on the sourness of the pineapple. Mine was not very sour at all so I had to add more tamarind.

Enjoy!! Pin It

Strawberry Cranberry Gojju

What will you do if you have a box of strawberries sitting which no one wants to eat? I don't know what it is with kids. They love some fruit at one moment and when you buy a big box of it feeling happy that they like it, they decide they don't like it anymore. My older one used to love strawberries and she asked me to get more. I did. Then, after eating a couple, she says 'I don't like strawberries anymore'. I am left with a box of almost 2 pounds of strawberries. I ate some, and made milk shake with some. Even then, I had 1 pound of strawberries to be used up before they went bad. Then I thought, who says you need to make only sweet stuff with strawberries. If you have been reading this blog, you'll have seen recipes which are savory using mango, cranberries, pears, apples and now it is Strawberries' turn.
I kind of used what I had on hand and came up with this quick side dish for rotis, savory spread for bread or to be served with plain rice.

Ingredients:

• Strawberries - 1 pound cleaned and chopped 
• Whole berry cranberry sauce - 1 can
• Oil - 2 TBSP
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Red chillies - 2 broken
• Curry leaves - a few
• Hing - a big pinch
• Turmeric - a big pinch
• Salt - to taste
• Rasam powder - 1 tsp or to taste

Method:
In a pan, heat oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add red chillies, hing, cumin and fenugreek. When they are toasted, add chopped strawberries. Add some salt, turmeric. When it softens a little (about 3 minutes), add the cranberry sauce. Mix well. It will become watery. Don't worry about it as it thickens when it cools. Now, add rasam powder. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Adjust the salt and turn off the stove. This tastes great with Dosa, Idlis, rice, roti or bread.

Variations:

1. Instead of putting cumin and fenugreek in oil with other seasonings, dry roast them separately and powder and add it at the end.
2. Omit the rasam powder and use garam masala or chat masala or just red chilli powder.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It

Zucchini Gojju / Zucchini Curry

What do you think is a 'Recipe'? List of ingredients and some instructions to follow? If that is the case, there are lot of people like me who cannot follow a 'Recipe'. To me, a good cook or good chef is the one who has imagination and a very good sense of the ingredients. Each ingredient tastes differently when combined with something else. That is how all different dishes have emerged. If I remember how my grand mother made something, it was different compared to what my mother made. If I make the same dish, it'll be different for sure. I am not saying that my version is better than theirs. I am not even saying their version was better than mine. It is just different. I am just writing because of the recipe for this dish. I didn't learn this from anyone. It is just my imagination and trial that led to this. There could be other people who make this as a standard dish, but not in my place.

If you are from Karnataka, you must know about Gojju. I am posting the same, but did it a little differently.
Here goes my recipe..

Ingredients:

• Zucchini - 3 large peeled and diced into big chunks
• Oil - 2 TBSP
• Salt - to taste
• Jaggery / brown Sugar - 2 - 3 TBSP or to taste
• Tamarind - half of a lime size (Or 3/4 tsp of paste)
• Curry leaves - a few
• Red chillies - 8 or more to taste divided use
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric - a big pinch
• Bengal gram dal / kadale bele - 2 TBSP
• Coriander seeds / Dhaniya - 1 TBSP
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
• Sesame seeds - 1 tsp
• Coconut shredded - 1/2 cup
• Hing - 1/2 tsp

Method:
In a pan, dry roast bengal gram dal, coriander seeds, all but one of red chillies. When they are almost done, add cumin, fenugreek, sesame seeds. Roast till all the spices are golden. Set aside. In a pan, heat oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add reserved red chilli, curry leaves, hing. Now add the chopped zucchini pieces, turmeric, salt and stir. If using tamarind and not the paste, soak it in 1/4 cup of water and extract the juice. Cover the pan with lid and let zucchini get soft. Meanwhile, grind the roasted ingredients with coconut adding very less water (you can use the tamarind juice instead of water). into a smooth paste. When the zucchini is cooked, add this paste, jaggery and add the tamarind extract. You can add some more water at this point to get the desired consistency. Check for salt and adjust if needed. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 2 - 3 minutes and turn off. It tastes great with rice and goes very well with chapathis, rotis too.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It

Heerekayi Gojju in peanut sauce / Chinese Okra gravy in peanut sauce

Usually Chinese okra is used in making dal (tovve in kannada), bhajis, chutney. I wouldn't call this vegetable suitable for making every kind of dish since it is very watery. One more problem with this vegetable is it shrinks too much and leaves you with so little after cooking. This dish I am talking about goes very well with rotis, chapathis and even rice. Best part is you can make it very quickly. The same recipe can be used with eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes or combination of the two vegetables and tomatoes.

Here goes my recipe..

Ingredients:

• Chinese Okra - 3 big peeled and diced into chunks don't throw the peel. You can make chutney out of it.
• vegetable or peanut oil - 2 TBSP
• Dried red chillies - 2 broken
• Curry leaves - a few
• Hing - a big pinch
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric - a big pinch
• Salt - to taste
• Rasam powder - 1 - 1/2 tsp or to taste
• Jaggery - a lemon size
• Tamarind - a lemon size ball soaked and thick juice extracted.
• Peanuts - 1/3 cup - 1/2 cup

Method:

In a sauce pan, heat oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add broken chillies, curry leaves, hing. Mix it for a few seconds. Add all the vegetables now. Add turmeric, some salt and mix well. You can add some water and cover the lid and let it cook. Chinese okra or heerekayi cooks very fast that it hardly needs more than 5 minutes. Meanwhile, grind peanuts and rasam powder in a mixie. You can add some water to make a smooth paste or leave it like a powder. I like the paste better since it blends very well with the whole mixture. Once the vegetables are cooked, add this paste, jaggery, tamarind extract and mix well. Boil for a few minutes till jaggery is dissolved and the raw smell is gone. Adjust the seasonings if necessary and turn off the heat. You can control the consistency of this gravy by adding desired amount of water. I make it thin if I am serving with rice and thick if serving with rotis.

Tips:

If you do not want to use rasam powder, you could just use red chilli powder but add some cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds to the oil along with mustard seeds. You could try adding some coriander - cumin powder too.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It

Green Mango Apple Gojju

I am very fond of Mango let it be green raw one or ripe yellow one. My mother used to make a lot of savory dishes with green mango like Mango rice, mango gojju, chutney, uppinakayi/pickle. The green ones we get here in U.S are not that sour but this hasn't stopped me in making these dishes with it. I had just one green mango and I wanted to use it up. I mixed this with tart granny smith apples to make this dish. Here goes the recipe..

Ingredients:

1. Green Mango medium size - 1 seeded and chopped.
2. Granny smith apples medium size - 3 cored and chopped.
3. Oil - 2 - 3 TBSP 
4. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. Turmeric - a big pinch
6. Hing - a big pinch
7. Red chillies - 2 broken
8. Curry leaves - a few
9. Salt - to taste
10. Tamarind - lime size ball. Soaked and pulp extracted.(You could use ready paste here about 3/4 tsp)
11. Jaggery - a lime size ball or to taste.
12. Rasam powder or saarina pudi - 1 1/2 tsp - 2 tsp or to taste

Dry roast and grind to powder:

1. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
2. Methi seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Black sesame seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add broken red chillies, hing, curry leaves. Now add chopped mangoes. Add turmeric, little bit of salt and saute for couple of minutes. When they are semi cooked, add chopped apples, saute for a minute, add water to cover and let it cook. When apples and mango are cooked, add tamarind pulp or paste, jaggery, rasam powder. Let it simmer for a few minutes. Check and adjust the seasonings. When the raw smell of jaggery is gone, mix in the roasted ground spice powder and switch off the heat. Mango Apple Gojju is ready. This taste great with rice, but goes well with chapathi or akki rotti too.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It