Bisi Uppinakayi/Grated Mango Instant Pickle

A tasty pickle which will be ready under 30 mins .....

All you need is.........

Raw Green Mango : 2 (peel and grate)

Pickle Powder : 2 tsp (click and follow the link for the recipe)

Salt and jaggery (bella, vellam, gur/gud, bellam...)

Oggarane/Seasoning
Sesame Oil : 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds, hing/asafoetida, turmeric powder, garlic -2 pods chopped into fine pieces, curry leaves

Method:
Heat Oil in a thick bottomed pan. Add seasoning ingredients in the order mentioned. Brown the garlic before you add curry leaves.
Add grated mango and sautee till mango softens and gets cooked. Add pickle powder, salt and jaggery and mix well. Cook for another 5 mins till the contents gets mixed and oil separates from the mixture.

Shelf Life:
This pickle stays good for 5 days when kept outside. Refrigerated pickle stays good for 3 weeks or more.

Dhal filled paranthas

A very tasty and filling parathas for your lunch box.

Ingredients :
For Prathas :
Whole Wheat flour : 2 cups
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Water sufficient to make a tight dough. Mix the above ingredients to make stiff dough.

For filling :
Chanadal/deskinned, split chickpeas- 1/2 cup (1 cup=100ml of water)
Garlic: 1 piece( not the whole round of garlic just 1 pod)
Redchillies : 1 or 2
Cumin/Jeera : 1/2 tsp
salt
oil : 1/2 tsp

Soak chanadal for 3 hrs and pressure cook to make it soft. Drain water and keep dhal aside till it cools down.
Take cooked dhal, garlic, chillies, cumin and salt in a blender and blend to make coarse paste. Do not use water.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan and add the ground coarse paste of dhal and fry till water in the mixture dries away. Switch off the stove and make small balls of this mixture.

Take a pingpong sized whole wheat flour dough and roll into a circle of 5 cm diameter. Place the filling in the center and cover/lock the edges to the flour to make a ball again with stuffing in the center. Press down the ball and dip in little dry wheat flour and roll into 6 -8 cm diameter circle. Fry paratha on a hot girdle using oil.
Serve hot with any accompaniment of your choice. 

Challekayi Uppinakayi/Pickled Cordia Dichotoma

Have you heard of Challekayi ? ..some regional names ...


Kannada : Challehannu

Hindi : Bahuar

Telugu : Nekkara

Tamil : Viricu

Malayalam : naruveeli

Gujarati : Vado Gundo

Bengali : Bahubara

Assamese : Goborsuta


Other commonly known names : bird lime tree, clammy cherry, fragrant manjack, Indian Cherry, Sebastian Plum. Photo taken from here

This is my mother's favorite pickle. I must say it is a family favorite at my mother's parents place.We have many happy memories with this pickle. Pickling mainly happens in summer months. By end of April the pickles would be ready for consumption. April & May were holiday months for us and OMG..the way we licked away this pickle with almost everything is still fresh in my memory. It makes a fantabulous combination with chitranna, vangibath, uppittu, avalakki, mosaranna....


After eating we sat and counted the stones and there used be a competition "who eats more challekayi?" None could defeat my chikkamma (aunt)! She was (she can no longer take so much pickles and bonda now due to age factor )  a crazy fan of challekayi and menasinakayi bonda (mirchi bhajji).


In Kannnda ,'Challehannu thinsidra?' means asking the other "were you conned (Conn -Verb-to pursuade by deception) ?" Whenever I said I love this pickle my friends often laughed at me ...uh! whatever..we love it.


The recipe comes from my 85 yr old grandmother (my mother's mother) who narrated this when we were intensly discussing things which my mother liked. I noted it down and I was surprised to get a bottle of the pickle from my atte!


Few preparations :

1. Separate Challekayi from its stem, wash with water to remove dirt etc.

2. Spread them on a dry cloth and pat them dry.

3. Add salt. 4 cups of challekayi = 1 cup crystal salt

4. Take salt and challekayi in a big container (plastic/clay/bone china) and tie the mouth of the container with a muslin cloth. Let it stand in hot sun for next few days till all challekayi gets mixed with salt and changes it's color.


To soak and  grind : (measurements are given for '10 seru' challekayi. I am not sure about the conversion of 'seru' to kg but in my experience it is approximatly equal to 1 Kg)


Soak and grind :
Byadgi Menasinakayi/ 'Byadgi' red chillies : 250g

Agase Beeja/Flax Seeds :100g

Bellulli/Garlic : 5 gadde

Menthya/Fenugreek seeds : 100g

Harishinakommu /Turmeric in stems/ Turmeric Powder : 7 numbers/2 tbsp

Grind the above ingredients to a fine paste with water. Add this paste to salted challekayi. Tie back the muslin cloth and let this vessel stand in sun for next 30 days or till the gum inside the challekayi is not felt when you bite it open. Keep stirring the pickle with a long spoon twice everyday. The pickle is ready to serve. If you feel the pickle is too thick add boiled and cooled water and add to pickle and let it stand in sun for few days before it is consumed.

Akki happala / Sun Dried Rice Flour Crispies

This is one of my reader's request. Here you go with the recipe of Akki Happala/Sun Dried Rice Flour Crispies.

You need the following to make them :

Rice Flour : 2 cups
Sago Powder : 1 tbsp (Sago = sabudana, pearl tapioca, sabbakki, sabbeemu )
Green Chilli paste : 1tsp
Sourd Curd : 1 cup
Salt to taste (If chili paste has salt in it, I advise you to use salt carefully)

Dilute sour curd with 1 cup of water. Add salt, chilli paste and Flours. Mix and let it stand overnight. Add more water if required. The batter should be of the consistency of Idli batter.
Next morning make idlis out of the batter.
Do not take out the all idlis from the plates. Take one idli at a time and let the rest stay in the cooker.
Divide 1 idli into 4 equal pieces. Oil your hands and make small balls out of each divided piece and press it down to make disc or roll it down between two sheets of non stick paper/polythene.
Arrange these discs on a thin cloth under hot sun and let them dry.
It takes about 2 - 3 days for these discs to dry completely.
Once dried store them in a airtight container.

To make Happala :

You need sundried discs
Oil

heat oil in a thick pan. When oil is sufficiently hot slowly drop in discs one after the other.Deep fry till they are crisp. Drain them on a tissue paper.











Enjoy it with a cup of hot tea/coffee or with hot rice and sambar :D

Potato Vepudi/Stir fried Potato

Probably this is one simple dish that everyone loves to eat. It goes well with chapathi and rice.


Ingredients: (sufficient for 2 people)

Potato : 3 numbers
Oil : 2-3 tbsp
Turmeric : 1 pinch
Mustard : 1/4 tsp

To make powder:
Cumin: 1tsp
Redchilli Powder: 1tsp
Garlic: 1 (optional, I have used in the recipe)
Dry grated coconut: 1 tbsp(optional, I have used in the recipe)
salt

1. Make coarse powder of the ingredients mentioned under that category.Keep it aside.
2. Peel and chop potatoes into small cubes. Soak them in water to prevent discoloration of potatoes. Before adding it to hot oil drain water and then add potatoes.
3. Heat oil in a wide pan. Add mustard and wait till it stops popping. Add turmeric.
4. Add chopped potatoes and fry it in oil till they turn soft and crisp.
5. Add powdered chilli cumin powder and mix. Stir and fry for next 2 mins till the powder is well mixed and fried.
6. Remove and serve hot with chapathi or rice.

Amma ..we miss you

ಅಮ್ಮ ನ ನುಡಿ ಚೆಂದ ಅಪ್ಪನ ನಡೆ ಚೆಂದ
ಅಕ್ಕನ ಜಡೆ ಚೆಂದ ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಹೂವು ಚೆಂದ ...
ಚೆಂದ ಚೆಂದ ಬಲು ಚೆಂದ

ಎಂದೋ ಕಲಿತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಶಿಶು ಗೀತೆ ನೆನಪು ಬಂತು ನೋಡಿ ನಾನು ಇವತ್ತು ಬರಿಯೋಕೆ ಶುರು ಮಾಡಿದಾಗ .....ನಮ್ಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಆಡಿಸಿ, ಓದಿಸಿ ಬೆಳೆಸಿದ ಆ ಜೀವ ಇನ್ನಿಲ್ಲ ...ಅವರ ಆತ್ಮಕ್ಕೆ ಶಾಂತಿ ಸಿಗಲಿ ಎಂದು ನಾವೆಲ್ಲಾ ದೇವರಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದೀವಿ.

ಬದುಕೊಂದು ರೈಲು ಗಾಡಿ, ಎಲ್ಲರು ಒಂದು ದಿನ, ಒಂದಲ್ಲ ಒಂದು ಕಡೆ ಇಳಿಯಬೇಕು .....ಅವರು ಮುಂದೆ ನಾವು ಹಿಂದೆ ....

May her soul rest in peace.. We miss you amma ............