Tikhat Goad Sheera: A sweet and salty, quick breakfast

I like upma and most rava based dishes but this tikhat-goad (spicy sweet) sheera which has no onions and is made in a jiffy is my personal favorite. Among some Saraswat and Konkani Brahmins, it is a custom to abstain from onions and garlic on Mondays. This dish, which has the texture of sheera (sweet sooji halwa) and is made with rava (coarse farina/ semolina/ cream of wheat) was the quickest breakfast served in our home on Mondays. While I do not observe this Monday abstinence, I loved the flavors because they are a nice balance of sweet, spicy and salty. Although the original recipe calls for the use of ghee, I use oil with just a drop of ghee for the flavor.

Ingredients:
Oil, ghee, cumin, black mustard seeds, bedgi mirchi (dry red chili), cashews (some whole and some crushed), rava (coarse semolina), golden raisins, sugar, salt.

In a shallow pan, heat oil. Add cumin, mustard seeds, red bedgi chillies, cashews.
After cashews turn golden brown, add rava and let it roast to a golden color.
Add water, raisins (optional), salt and sugar to taste and cook with a lid for a minute and without a lid until the rava is cooked and soft.
You can add a small amount of ghee on top for taste.

The key ingredients here that lend flavor to the dish, are the bedgi chili, salt and sugar. The cashews are great for texture and nutty flavor. The tempering with ghee also adds a unique aroma to the dish. This dish is best served and eaten hot.

Enjoy! 

Microwave Mug Cake

A cake baked in a mug in the microwave is like a single woman's dream (a single woman with a sweet tooth like mine!) because it's the perfect single-serving cake and while I had heard of this recipe, I had never tried making it myself. So finally for Thanksgiving, I gave thanks for easy recipes like this one and tried it out. Following is a recipe for a coffee raisin mug cake:

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1-2 teaspoon instant coffee (you can replace this with chocolate powder)
1 tablespoon raisins
2-3 tablespoons sugar
0.5 teaspoon baking powder/ baking soda
1 egg
3-4 teaspoons veg/ olive oil or butter
2-3 tablespoons milk
1-2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, mix and beat all ingredients using a fork adding milk sparingly until the batter is smooth and semi-solid.
In a greased mug (I sprayed the mug with an oil spray and sprinkled sugar), pour batter such that it is about 3/4 of the mug.
Place in microwave and heat for 80-90 seconds. Don't overheat and watch to make sure mug doesn't overflow.

Done!

Kande Pohe--A quintessential Marathi dish

Pohe, a savory dish made with beaten rice comes in many variations depending on which region in Maharashtra or even India you are from. Here I describe the pohe that my ex-mother in law taught me. They are proper Marathi kande pohe served best with garam chai.

Ingredients:

Thick pohe soaked in water for a minute and then drained
Cumin, heeng, Turmeric
Onions chopped fine but lengthwise
Oil
Ginger
Green chillies chopped lengthwise
Peanuts (raw, unsalted are best)
Lime juice
Cilantro
Salt, sugar

• In a wide, shallow pan, heat two tblspns of oil
• Add heeng and cumin, let sputter. Add chopped green chillies. You can also add kadhi patta (green curry leaves)
• While the chillies are still bright green, add the peanuts and let them turn brownish. Add the lengthwise chopped onions. Wait for onions to turn translucent. Grate ginger into them. 
• Add turmeric and mix
• Put the soaked and soft poha into the sautéed onions and mix well until the poha is yellowish and coated well with the onions, oil and peanuts. 
• Add salt and sugar to taste. Add chopped cilantro leaves and mix. 
• Lime juice on top completes the dish. 
• A variation of this recipe includes adding sliced potato prior to the poha, cooking the potato covered and then adding the poha--this is called batata pohe. Some regions in Konkani sprinkle wet, grated coconut over the pohe and mix. Pohe are also served with "sev" on top. 

Serve hot with desi tea.

Notes:  The amount of oil and onions make or break this recipe and using oil sparingly can lead to dried out pohe. To avoid this and still use less oil, I sometimes use soft pohe instead of coarse. They retain moisture and don't dry out after the tadka. But in using the soft/ fine pohe, limit the amount of water used for moistening and drain it immediately otherwise you will have a lump of gooey beaten rice on your hands. While making pohe, limit moisture and water. Pohe after soaking and draining is best made entirely with oil and spices and does not need to be covered to cook.

The Tale of Two Tilapia Curries

There are two recipes for fish and shrimp that I make. Both have Goan/Konkani flavors but one is more Portuguese stew like with its tangy tomato-garlic flavors.


Ingredients for recipe 1:

Tilapia filets (any kind of fish works...even fish with bone is good)
Garlic pods and ginger grated
Chopped onions
Tomato paste/sauce/purée
Cilantro
Coriander powder, garam masala (optional), haldi

Ingredients for recipe 2: coconut milk, and if you like a Goan Sichuan pepper called "teerphal" (the latter is an acquired taste and should be used sparingly soaking in warm water and adding to the curry whole), tamarind or kokum.

1. In a shallow pan, heat oil, add chopped onions and let onions soften and turn translucent. 
2. Add tomato paste and grated ginger-garlic. 
3. Add the dry spices--haldi, coriander powder, red chili powder, garam masala only if you prefer it.
4. Add some water and let this sauce thicken. 
5. Add the fish filets and make sure you coat them with the sauce. 
6. Let fish cook, add cilantro and mix gently making sure the fish doesn't break apart. 
7. Simmer curry, add salt to taste. 

For recipe 2, follow the same procedure, except add coconut milk and tamarind/ kokum in place of tomato paste at step 2 and omit the cilantro at the end. 

Some important notes for making fish preparations: you can marinate the fish with salt, haldi (turmeric) and red chili or you can use them directly and in my opinion it does not seem to make much of a difference. Even frozen fish or shrimp can be added directly to the simmering sauce. When using frozen shrimp, make sure it is deshelled and deveined. Also since the frozen shrimp is precooked, add it to the simmering curry till it starts to look the slightest bit pink and then switch off the heat. Do not boil it because overcooked shrimp is rubbery. You want it to be juicy and plump. Do not cover the pan for cooking either the fish or the shrimp. Simmering works best so the heat should be on medium to medium low. For both recipes, the amount of turmeric and garlic are key towards complimenting and accentuating the flavor of the fish. These same recipes can be used with shrimp and you can add potatoes as well. Make sure that if you are adding potatoes, you cook the potatoes in the curry before you add the fish or shrimp. 

Serve hot with rice or roti. I also eat the recipe 1 stew with pav/ bread.

Masoor aamti--the versatile little brown lentil

There are several ways in which masoor (the brown lentil) can be made: aamti to be eaten with rice, ussal--a dry stir fry of cooked and sprouted masoor with besan and lime juice. Here I describe a fairly easy to make masoor amti that was a staple in our household when I was growing up.

Ingredients:
Masoor
Garlic pods, grated ginger
Chopped onions
Tomato purée/ sauce/paste
Turmeric, cumin, heeng, bedgi mirchi or red chili powder
Kokum or tamarind paste
Salt, sugar.

Optional ingredients: coconut milk, cilantro, dhaniya powder

• In a pressure cooker, heat two teaspoons of oil. Add cumin seeds, heeng, bedgi mirchi and chopped up garlic pods. Let the diced pods turn slightly golden and add chopped onions.
• After onions turn translucent, add tomato purée, turmeric and grated ginger. At this stage, the Konkani recipe calls for addition of coconut milk or grated coconut purée with grated garlic, dhaniya powder and cilantro. For this recipe, green chillies work better than the bedgi red chillies. But I make it minus the coconut milk because it is lighter and I love the taste of the masoor. 
• Add masoor (you can soak masoor prior to use or just add it dry), double the amount of water as the masoor, kokum (you can add tamarind instead), jaggery, salt and sugar to taste.
• Pressure cook for 2-3 pressure cooker "whistles". 

Serve with rice. I like this particular dish with a simple beet root and chopped onion raita. Another favorite combination is rice and masoor aamti with either a piece of spicy pan roasted/ fried tilapia fish or some Bedekar sweet lime pickle.

Enjoy!