Black Chana Dry Curry and Rasam (Chana saar upkari)

It has only been few years ago when I learnt that even Black Chana/ Kala Chana are referred to as Chickpeas. I had assumed that only Kabuli Chana was referred to as Chickpeas. I make the usual Chana Masala with the Kabuli Chana and Saaru and upkari (Konkani for Curry) using the Black Chana.  This is a simple dry curry and rasam made with minimal ingredients from the pantry. Kala chana is first soaked, cooked and then finally seasoned. The cooked water is used to make the rasam by flavoring with seasoning of garlic. This is my younger brother’s favorite…

Bitter Gourd Stir Fry

I usually make either Karate Kismuri/ BitterGourd Onion Coconut Mix or Bitter Gourd Crisps/ Bittergourd Rings (Microwave) with bitter melons at home. Both are quick, easy and make wonderful side dishes with their bitterness hardly noticible.  But on occasions when I have the time and energy I make this Biiter Gourd Stir Fry which is slightly elaborate. In this stir fry, bitter gourds are cooked along with onions and flavored with masala powder. If the Masala powder is made in advance then it reduces a lot of steps and all that is left is chopping and cooking.

Turnips Curry Recipe

You know how you go to the same place again and again and kind of memorize the landmarks, right? For us going to the supermarket is like it, we have been going to the same place for years now and we are used to the specific spots to find the things we want. Onions here, potatoes there, beans on the extreme right and so on. So being used to the weekly drill, I don’t carry a grocery list anymore (not that I carried it earlier), I just pick the items from the spot, not bothering to look anywhere else and…

Multi Beans Spinach Dry Curry

You know how we buy those small bags of beans, use them for whatever and then have handful of them remaining? And then we wonder what to do with them? That is what happened to me; I had little amount of black eyed beans, red beans, pinto beans, cannellini beans all lying my pantry waiting to be used. And I thought, why not mix them together and make a curry? As the saying goes “Health bhi….taste bhi” 🙂  So I mixed them altogether, soaked them, cooked them and made this easy, delicious and nutritious Multi Beans dry curry/subzi. You can…

Moong Daal Beans Subzi (no onion no garlic)

Onions and garlic play an important role in my everyday cooking. In fact, it would be fair to say that my cooking starts with the chopping of onions. Garlic, I could do without as there are many recipes for which I do not use it; but not onions as I use it very religiously. I guess it was a few days ago, probably Thursday or so when we were out of onions. I could do without many other items, but being so used to cooking with onions, I felt lost. Anyway I did not have the mood to go to…

Potato, Pepper Dry Curry and Konkani Daal (Daali Thoy)

This post has been in my drafts for ever. For one reason or the other I never got around posting it. And now that the New Year is just around the corner, I thought this was an opportunity to clear out the old ones and make way for the new ones. This combination of Daal and potato-pepper curry is simple yet filling and comforting meal. At the end of a long day, nothing spells more comforting than the combination of potato curry, rice with bowl of thick Daali thoy. The Daal called Daali Thoy/ Dali Toi in Konkani is a…

Red Beans and Red Pumpkin Curry

I made this curry on a whim last evening. I used whatever ingredients I had on hand that needed attention, threw them together and made this yummy tasting curry. In my defense, most usually I plan our dinner in advance as I can be prepared about tasks to do in the evening. If you ask me, the most daunting task about cooking is the planning part, making something that is easy, healthy and which everybody in the family likes. Anyway, I do my planning usually while driving to or back from work. Now that is the time of the day…