Narali Bhaat

Today is Narali Punima and it is celebrated all over India and each one makes their own special coconut dish. 

Traditionally I make Narali Bhaat which is made with coconut milk and rice. 

The whole meal is similar to the meals made on shravan Fridays, but the sweet dish served is Narali Bhaat.

Recipe :

Ingredients :

Coconut Milk                             2 cups

Basmati Rice (washed)               1 cup

Jaggery        (grated)                 1 ½ cups

Cardamom                                 ½ tsp

Nutmeg Powder                         1 pinch

Raisins                                       ¼ cup

Almonds (peeled and sliced)        ¼ cup

Ghee (clarified butter)               1 tbsp

Procedure :

Add ghee to a heated pan and add rice and sauté it over a low flame for a couple of minutes. Add coconut milk and fully cook the rice in it. Add more coconut milk if needed to fully cook the rice. All different varieties of rice require different amounts of milk to cook.

Once the rice is cooked, take out in a big plate, spread it and let it cool.

In another pot take the grated jaggery and stir it till it becomes a smooth paste. Once it reaches a boil, take  some in a spoon and pour a drop of the paste in a bowl of water. If the drop is hard when removed from the water, the paste (paak) is ready to use. In Marathi that is called a pakka paak.

Lower the flame and add the rice to this paak. Stir for couple of minutes and add almonds, raisins and cardamom powder. You may add other dry fruits like pistachio and cashew.

Stir this all in the rice for couple of minutes and cover it and let it steam.

The rice is ready to eat!!

Enjoy!!

Moong Birdha

It’s been a couple of days since I added another blog, but I would like to add the recipe of Moong/Mung Birdha which we made on Monday, which is one of the dishes made for Shravani Somvar.

Ideally I make vaalacha birdha but I haven’t been able to find good vaal in the Indian Grocery stores in the US.

 Moong is a very nutritious bean.  There are 3 main forms of moong found in stores. One is the whole moong (unpeeled), two, the split moong (unpeeled) and the third is the split (peeled) one.

Each one is cooked in a different way, example, if you make spinach vegetable, add soaked (for an hour) split moong, a one inch stick of cinnamon and cook till the dal is fully cooked.

It is healthy, tastes good and the kids love it with white rice and ghee. 

Usually, the first solid food given to infants consists of moong (split – peeled) and rice. The split moong beans are first washed, dried and then lightly roasted on a pan.

They are then ground in a food processor and stored.

You can use a spoon full a day. Cook it well in some water till it forms a nice paste.

But I digress. Getting back to our birdha, I use whole moong, soak it in water for 4-5 hours.

Drain the water and let them sprout overnight.

Once they sprout, soak them in water for about an hour so that the peels loosen up.

After peeling, they are ready to use. I have a picture of the peeled moong along with the birdha.

Recipe :

Ingredients:

Moong Dal (sprouted and peeled)                   1 cup

Onion (chopped fine)                                    ½ cup

Asafetida                                                     1 pinch

Mustard Seeds                                              ½ tspn

Jeera                                                          ½ tspn

Jeera Powder                                              ¼ tspn

Turmeric  Powder                                        ½ tspn

Chili Powder                                               1 tspn

Coconut Milk                                               ¼ cup

Kokum                                                        4 -5 nos

Sugar to taste

Garlic Paste                                                ½ tspn

Green chili                                                 1 no.

Coriander Leaves

Coriander Powder                                       ½ tspn

Fennel Powder                                            ¼ tspn        

Oil                                                             2 tbspn

Water                                                        2 cups

Procedure:

Add oil to the heated pan. Add Asafetida, Mustard Seeds, Jeera and Turmeric powder. Then, add the moong and onion together and stir lightly. Add the water, Chili powder and salt.

Let the water reach a boil. Add jeera powder, coriander powder, fennel powder and garlic paste.

Let it cook till the moong is soft.

Add Kokum, sugar and coconut milk and let it boil for couple of minutes.

Finally add coriander Leaves and green chili as garnish.

Enjoy!!

Shrimp Fry

Sunday!!  The kids look forward to this day where they get a break from all the sweets and I make a non-vegetarian dish.  Usually it is either fish or shrimp.

We get a variety of shrimp including a dried version called ‘sode’. In Mumbai, we get fresh shrimp from the local City Light market and sode from the coastal region  of Maharashtra ( Konkan). The good thing about buying shrimp at the local market, you can get the fresh shrimp peeled.  

Sea food reminds me of some great times with friends and relatives. Whenever we have guests, they usually ask me to make an appetizer with sode, shrimp, kadya (dried Bombay Duck/ "Bombil" – it’s a fish commonly found in the Indian Ocean) or stuffed pomfret.

Today I added a lot of recipes to my journal. Some of sode, fish and shrimp.

Even the Khichdi that we made on Saturday, can be made with adding sode and a homemade ground garam masala. It tastes awesome!

Today, I would like to share the Shrimp fry recipe with you.

I always use fresh ground garlic, the bottled one does not give the same taste. The same is true for tamarind paste, always use fresh. Soak the tamarind in water and extract the paste from it. The store bought paste has more color and gives a slight bitter taste.
Sea food tastes best with fresh ingredients.

Shrimp Fry :

Ingredients:

Shrimp( Peeled and deveined)    2 pounds

Oil                                            2 tbsn                                                          

Turmeric Powder                       1 tspn

Chilli Powder                             2 tspn

Salt to taste

Garlic Paste( fresh)                   1 tbspn

Fresh garlic cloves                     

(with inner most peel intact)      5 small ones

Tamarind Paste (fresh)              ½ cup

Coriander powder                      ½ tspn

Garam Masala                           1 tspn

Water                                       ¼ cup

Procedure:

Marinate the shrimp for an hour with turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander  powder, salt, tamarind paste and garlic paste.

Heat the oil in a pan. Crush the garlic cloves and add them to the pan.

Once the garlic is slightly brown, add the shrimp.

Stir the shrimp till it starts to leave a little water.

Add the water and cook the shrimp.

Once the water has evaporated add the garam masala.

Stir the shrimp for a couple of minutes.

Add chopped coriander leaves to garnish.

Enjoy!!