KADHI (WITHOUT PAKORAS)

Dont get me wrong I love my kadhi pakoras. However of late I have started eliminating the pakoras for health reasons. With curd always at hand this is another easy meal which goes well with rice.

Moreover kadhi evokes childhood memories of the prasad in the Pranami Mandir, steaming hot sal leaf plates of kadhi, rice and aloo ko achar. The Pranami faith having evolved in Gujarat brought along Gujarati dishes as prasad and kadhi slowly creeped into the daily menus of most of the Pranami households in our town.

WE NEED

1. 1/2 litre curd

2. 250 ml water to dilute the curd (I use buttermilk for a richer flavour)

3. Ginger 1" piece ground to paste

4. Garlic 3 cloves ground to paste

5. 4 green chillies (the amount may be varied according to the amount of heat you prefer) ground to paste

6. Asafoetida/ Hing 1 pinch

7. Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp

 8. Coriander/dhania seeds 1/2 tsp

9. Fenugreek/ Methi seeds 1/2 tsp

10. 2 dry red chillies

11. Gram flour/ Besan 3 tbs

12. Oil 1 tbs

LETS GET GOING

1. Dry roast the besan till it emits a nice aroma. 

 

2. Blend the roasted besan with the curd, turmeric and water/buttermilk 

3. Grind the green chillies, garlic and ginger to a paste.

4. Heat oil in a pan, add the asafoetida, salt, dry red chillies and sputter the seed spices (coriander and fenugreek). Add the ground masala and cook for five minutes.

5.  Add the blended besan curd mix and bring to a boil.

JHAT PAT MITHAI

No I wont call them Shahi tukda/toast, I prefer calling them jhat pat mithais coz my version is really jhat pat ( put together in a hurry) and I prefer the soggier version. I first had the soggy pineapple flavoured version in Andhra Bhawan, Delhi, fell in love with it and turned my back from the Shahi version forever.
 Ever since I have moved to the North East I have this eternal craving for sweets (fueled by the fact that there are no decent sweet shops around, the only ones found here serve sweets that qualify as sweets just because they contain sugar!!). This comes really handy when I suffer from these sudden "sugar fits".

WE NEED

1. Bread 1 medium sized loaf  (I prefer the thicker sliced handmade variety. Dont get me wrong I am not alluding to the fancy handmade breads in fancy shops with fancier prices...But the rotiwal ko pauroti)
2. Sugar 500 grams
3. Water 500 ml
4. Oil for frying
5. For flavouring one can use powdered cardamom or powdered cinnamom (1 tsp )  or pineapple essence(2 drops)    (Do not mix the flavours it meses up the whole thing)

LETS GET GOING 

1. Prepare the sugar syrup by boiling the water with sugar on a low flame till it attains 1 string consistency. Add the flavour of your choice and keep aside.
2. Cut the bread slices into halves or triangles and deep fry them till brwon and crisp.
3. If you want the crisp version then dip in the sugar syrup and immedeatly drain. 
4. If you want the soggy version arrange the fried bread slices in a serving dish and pour the syrup over it. 

EASY BREAKFASTS....UTTAPAM

This classifies as an easy breakfast in the sense all the hard work is to be done a day before :) and according to my mood I can churn out uttapams or dosas or set-dosas . I can vary the topping and get onion uttapams, tomato uttapams, cabbage uttapam, carrot uttapam, egg uttapam, cheese uttpam or a mixed uttapam and at times also pass it off as a pizza to fussy (but cheese and pizza loving) children . And invest in a good quality non stick tava (my wisest investment so far) ..... an oiless breakfast as well.

 WE NEED

1. Raw rice 1 cup
2. Urad dal 1 cup
3. Fenugreek/Methi seeds 1/4th teaspoon
4. Salt 1/2 teaspoon
5. For the topping : Chopped onions, tomatoes, green chillies, coriander leaves (actually one can also add grated carrots, cheese, chopped cabbage, eggs, anything that u like and catches your fancy)
6. Oil if preferred. ( I make mine oil-less)

LETS GET GOING

1. Soak the rice, urad dal and methi seeds in water in the morning.
2. Drain the water and grind the mixture to a smooth paste( Add little water to assist the grinding)
3. Add the salt and leave to ferment overnight. (the paste increase in volume and gives off a slightly sour smell). 
4. In a non stick tava spoon out a ladle full of the paste (the consistency should be runny enough to flow but not watery) and smear into a round shape. 

Ladle out the paste into the tava

 Smear into a round shape

5. Cook on high heat. After few bubbles start appearing on the surface turn down the heat and add the topping. Cook till the uttapam easily separates from the pan (which indicates the bottom is cooked)

 Add the topping

6. Flip the uttapam and cook the topping side on a slow flame. You may add few drops of oil at the sides as there is a chance of the topping sticking. 

7. Once it is cooked remove from the tave and serve hot with chutney.  

 Remove once cooked.

CHYA PANI

The best memories album invariably holds pictures of family members gathered together on chilly evenings in the verandah with hot tea and garam pakoras.

TOMATO RICE

Every day after school I would rush back home hoping that Kanchi didi, our cook would have made Bhutey ko bhaat. Bhutey ko bhaat is essentially stale rice that is fried... the cook decides whether it is fried with just cumin seeds/ onions/ onions tomatoes green chillies or a whole lot of veggies. Kanchi didi used to make these amazing varities of bhutteyko bhaat. Later on when I started discovering and exploring South Indian cuisine I discovered a huge variety of rices/ saadams which were essentially bhuttey ko bhaats in different forms...lemon rice, curd rice, tamarind rice, tomato rice, coconut rice, bissi belle bhaat etc. 

Yesterday my neighbour sent me a huge bag of ripe red tomatoes from her garden. As I was feeling lazy to cook a complete meal I made this tomato rice.

WE NEED

1.  Rice 2 cups
2. 6 Ripe red tomatoes (you can use less but I like my rice moist with the juices so I add more tomatoes)
3. 1 small onion
4. 3 cloves of garlic
5. 4 green chillies
6. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds  
7. 5-6 curry leaves
8. 1/2 tsp garam masala
9. 1 pinch asafoetida
10. 3 tbs oil 

LETS GET GOING

1. Cook the rice and keep aside
2. Chop the tomatoes, onions and green chillies finely
3. Grind the garlic to a paste
4. Heat oil in a pan and add the asafoetida
5. Sputter the mustard seeds and curry leaves
6. Add the chopped onions and garlic paste and cook till the onions till transluscent
7. Add the tomatoes and green chillies.
8. Cover and cook on a low flame for 15 minutes.
9. Add the salt and garam masala. Cook on a high flame for 5 minutes. Mash the mixture with a ladle as it gets cooked. 
10. Mix the cooked tomatoe masala with the cooked rice and serve. 

An intersting thing about tomato rice is letting it stand for about an hour a two improves the taste as the masala seeps deep into the rice grains giving a more flavoursome rice.  I discovered this as the tomato rice that a colleague brought from home in a tiffin box always tasted great. I simply thought that his wife was a great good till I suffered from pregnancy induced midnight hunger pangs and had to do with leftover tomato rice from dinner. It was a good discovery no doubt.:)

CRISP HOT DAL VADAS

Tucked away in the bylanes of Delhi's crowded Inderpuri is a Tamil colony and market complete with a Malai Mandir, Tamil provision shops, vendors selling jasmine flowers and also the customary Amma flashing her twinkling nose pins selling vadas/bhajjis. Sick of the samosas with a piece of paneer tucked away in the pointed end sold in the snack shops we often used to cycle down to this Amma for her hot vadas and bhajjis and tomato chutney. After consuming what would qualify as a hillock of vadas and bhajjis, washed down with a huge glass of cold refreshing Shikanji( a syruppy, sodaey, limey, salty drink) from the pot-bellied Sardarjee in the main market; cycling back to the hostel used to be quite an ordeal. 

The evenings here have been a bit chilly and windy ...ideal for fried stuff with ginger tea.:) Hence these dal vadas or masala vadas. 

 WE NEED

1. 1/3 cup urad dal
2. 1/3 cup channa dal
3. 1/3 cup arhar dal/ tur dal
4. 1 onion finely chopped
5. 2 green chillies finely chopped
6. 5-6 curry leaves
7. 1/2" ginger grated
8. 1/2 tsp garam masala
9. Salt as per taste

 LETS GET GOING

1. Mix all the dals and soak them for about an hour

2. Drain the water and leave in a strainer for about 10 minutes

 3. Grind the soaked and drained dal roughly. There should be visible   pieces of dals in the mixture.

  4. Finely chop the onions, chillies and grate the ginger. 

5. Add the chopped onions, chillies, ginger and curry leaves to the dal mixture. 

6. Add the garam masala and salt and mix well.

8. Shape into flat cutlet like vadas.

9. Heat oil in a pan and fry the vadas in low heat till crisp and golden  brown.

10. Serve hot with tomato chutney. 

FRIED BABY POTATOES

This year's harvest of potatoes wasnt very good. Maybe due to the stubborn insistence on organic farming (read no pesticides were sprayed resulting in heavy ant attack.). However the baby potatoes were unharmed. This is a very simple yet lovely recipe using baby potatoes. 

WE NEED

1. 200 grams Baby potatoes
2. 1 tsp Cumin/Jeera seeds
3. Salt to taste
4. 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
5. 1 tbs oil

LETS GET GOING

1. Wash the baby potatoes well and cut into halves
2. Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Sputter the jeera seeds and add the potatoes.
3. Cook covered for ten minutes over a low flame.
4. Add the salt and turmeric and cook uncovered over a slow flame for 10 minutes till the potatoes turn golden brown and crunchy.

Better butter

 

What can be better than fresh home churned butter? 

LOVE AT FIRST BITE

I never really liked Kachoris till I bit into one of these Jhodpur's famous pyaz ki kachoris along with those culinary bombs called mirchi vadas washed down with a HUGE (believe me when I say huge) glass of sweet lassi. They were hot, spicy and out of the world. Later on someone directed me to a shop in Dehradun's Ballipur chowk where they made these pyaz ki kachoris (almost close to the pyaz kachoris of Jhodpur) every sunday and thus began my weekly trysts with pyaz ki kachoris. After moving out from Dehradun I have yet to find a shop which sells these kachoris so I tried and tested and failed several times and have now come up with something close to those Jhodpur kachoris.

 

WE NEED 

For the Kachori dough

1. Maida/refined flour 2 cups
2. 1/2 tsp salt
3. 4 tbs ghee/oil
4. 1/2 cup water

For the Kachori filling

1. 3 large onions (chopped)
2. 5 green chillies (chopped) You can reduce or increase the number of chillies acording to the degree of spiciness you prefer.
3. 1 tsp Kalonji/Kalo jeera/nigella seeds
4. 1 tsp sauf/fennel seeds
5. 2 bay leaves/ tej patta
6. 2 tbs dhania powder
7. 1 tbs garam masala
8. 1 pinch Hing/asafoetida
9. Salt to taste
10. 2 tbs besan powder/ gramflour
11. 1 tbs oil

Oil for frying kachoris

LETS GET GOING

1. Mix the maida, salt and ghee till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs
2. Add water and make a dough.
3. Cover and keep. 
4. In a pan heat 1 tbs oil, add the bay leaves, hing, kalonji and sauf.
5. When the sauf becomes brown add the chopped oinions and fry till the onions turn pink.
6. Add the chopped green chillies, besan, dhania powder, garam masala and salt. mix well and cook for 5 minutes on a low flame. 
7. Divide the dough into balls (depending on what size you want your kachoris. I make mine into tweleve lemon sized balls). 
8. Stuff the dough with the onion filling and shape into kachoris.
9. Deep fry on a low flame till golden brown.
10. Serve hot with sweet tamarind chutney, pudina chutney or tomato ketchup.

 

 

murukkus for my mama..

My Saila Mama (third maternal uncle) has recently developed severe gluten allergy which means he is off wheat totally. The other day we were all enjoying hot nimkis with tea when Mama remarked with a woebegone face that tea and nimkis used to be his favourite snack. So I thought of making murukkus for him which would also be savoury and crisp (similar to nimkis) but most importantly not having any wheat. I hunted for an old wooden murukku press (inherited from my grandmother) which had not been used since her death  and got into the business of murukku making. I could not handle the three star nozzels of the murukku press so they turned out to be rather large ones...but the taste was very good for a first time murruku maker.
Needless to say I have a very happy Mama now cruching away his murrukus to glory. :) 

WE NEED

1. Par boiled rice 1 cup
2. Urad dal 1/2 cup
3. Salt to taste
4. 1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
5. 1 tsp roughly ground pepper corns
6. 1 tsp white seasame (til) seeds
7. Hing (asafoetida) 1 pinch
8. 3 tbs unsalted butter
9. Oil for frying

LETS GET GOING

1. Soak the rice overnight. Drain properly and grind with the help of little water (about 1/4th cup) to a smooth paste.(the paste should not be too watery.
2. Dry roast the urad dal and grind to a powder.
3. Mix in the jeera, salt, hing and seasame seeds with the urad dal powder.
4. Mix this powder into the ground rice paste add the butter and knead into a dough (similar to that for making rotis). 
5. Heat oil in a kadai.
6. Put small amounts of the dough into the murukku press and prees out murukkus into the hot oil. Fry till golden and drain.
7. Store in an airtight container. 

 

JACK"MUTTON" CURRY

 

 Whenever hubby craves for good mutton curry I tell my gardener to get some jackfruit and rustle up this jack "mutton" curry. :). Well I cook it the way mutton is cooked hence the name jack "mutton"curry and if I can satisfy the non -veg taste buds with pure vegetarian food then why not do it..

WE NEED

• Unripe Jackfruit 
• 2 bay leaves
• To be ground to a paste

1. 2 large onions
2. 4 cloves garlic
3. 1" piece of ginger
4. 6 dry red chillies

• to be ground to a dry powder

1. 1 star anise
2. 1 " stick of cinnamom
3. 2 cardamoms
4. a pinch of grated nutmeg
5. 2 cloves

• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• 30 ml oil (I prefer mustard oil for this dish)

LETS GET GOING

1.  Peel and cut the jackfruit into small pieces (oil your hands well before peeling to avoid the latex from sticking to your hands)
2.  Marinate the jackfruit pieces with salt and turmeric and keep aside for half an hour. 
3. In a pressure cooker heat oil and fry the jackfruit pieces till brown and tender. Drain and keep aside. 
4. In the same oil add the bay leaves and the wet masala paste and cook till the masala separates from the oil.
5. Add the jackfruit pieces, salt and a pinch of sugar and mix well. 
6. Add two cups water and pressure cook for 5 whistles. 
7. Add the powdered masala and cover for 5 minutes.
8. Serve with rice or rotis. 

EASY BREAKFASTS

One of the easiest breakfast fixes which unlike cereal or bread also manages to look like a decent wholesome breakfast is roasted chiura/poha/beaten rice with chana ko jhol (Bengal gram curry) or matar ghugni (dried pea curry). Husband has aquired a taste for the ghugni and the chana ko jhol is akin to the kerela kadala curry so this combo works well for me. This post includes three recipes :- roasted chiura, yes I am including it as a recipe :), chana ko jhol and matar ghugni. 

ROASTED CHIURA

In a pan dry roast the chuira on low heat till crisp and brownish. 

CHANA KO JHOL

WE NEED

1. 200 grams Bengal gram/Horse gram/Kala chana (soak overnight)
2. 2 onions
3. 2 tomatoes
4. 1 tsp turmeric powder
5. Salt to taste 
6. 1 tbs oil
7. To be ground to a paste

• 1" ginger
• 3 cloves garlic
• 5 green chillies
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds

LETS GET GOING

1. Pressure cook the chana till three whistles and keep aside without draining the water.
2. Slice the onions and tomatoes finely.
3. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and fry the onions till translucent, add the ground masala paste, turmeric powder and tomatoes till the masala is cooked. 
4. Add the boiled chana with the water in which it was boiled to the masala mixture. Pressure cook till three more whistles and remove from flame.
5. Serve with the roasted beaten rice/chiura.

 

MATAR GHUGNI

 WE NEED

1. Dried peas/matar 200 grams (soaked overnight)
2. 4 onions
3. 2 tomatoes
4. 1 tsp turmeric powder
5. Salt to taste 
6. 1 tbs oil
   
7. To be ground to a paste

• 1" ginger
• 3 cloves garlic
• 5 green chillies
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds

LETS GET GOING

1. Pressure cook the matar till three whistles and keep aside without draining the water.
   
2. Slice the onions and tomatoes finely.
3. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and fry the onions till translucent, add the ground masala paste, turmeric powder and tomatoes till the masala is cooked. 
4. Add the boiled matar with the water in which it was boiled to the masala mixture. Pressure cook till three more whistles and remove from flame.
5. Serve with the roasted beaten rice/chiura.

   I also cut up onions, coriander leaves, green chillies and lemons to furthur spice up the breakfast.

for more on ghugni

KARELA AND ALOO BHARTA

 

If your family likes bhartas and you have invested in a sturdy pressure cooker with compartments and you are a rice eating family ....Bhartas are a godsend for the working woman.On most days lunch consists either of curd rice, papads and a subzi or dal rice and bharta.

Bharta is essentially boiled/roasted vegetable (mostly potatoes and brinjals) mashed and mixed with onions and chillies and flavoured with a little mustard oil. I have extended the meaning of bhartas to few more things like bittergourds, pumpkins, sponge gourds and masoor dal. The bharta featured in this post is great for summers as it requires very less oil and the karela cools down your body. 

WE NEED

1. 2 large potatoes
2. 1 medium sized karela/bitter gourd
3. 1 ripe tomato
4. 1onion
5. 2 green chillies
6. 4 urad dal vadis (I prefer the ones u get in Bengal/Orissa)
7. salt to taste
8. 1 tsp mustard oil

LETS GET GOING

1. Wash the potatoes and bittergourd and boil them.
2. Peel the boiled potatoes and deseed the boiled bittergourd. Mash the boiled vegetables to a smooth consistency.
3. Finely slice the onions, chop the green chillies and roughly mash up the tomato.
4. Mix the boiled vegetable with the onion, tomatoes, chillies, 1/2 tsp mustard oil and salt. 
5. Crush the urad dal vadis and fry them lighly in the remaining oil.
6. Mix the fried vadi pieces in the bharta.
7. Serve with rice.

SAMBAR POWDER-1

I love sambar. And a recent craze of mine has been to collect recipes for home made sambar masalas. The sambar masalas I discovered vary from  house to house in South India. (Much like aloo-dum varies from house to house in Darjeeling :).    Moreover sambar isnt a single dish and there are so many varieties of sambar depending upon the vegetables added.

Since there are so many recipes for the sambar powders or sambar podis I am simply calling them sambar podi 1,2 etc.

WE NEED

1. 1/4 cup urad dal
2. 1/4 cup channa dal
3. 1 cup dry red chillies
4. 1 cup coriander seeds (Dhania)
5. 1/4 cup fenugreek (methi) seeds

LETS GET GOING

1. Dry roast all the ingredients
2. Grind to a powder
3. Store in an airtight container.

GIVE ME RED

These red jewels are among my favourites (BTW I have hundreds of favourites). They are a great source of vitamin C calcium, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, phosphorus and potassium, besides having loads of fiber and being low in calories, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. Packed to the brim with anthocyanins (pigments which gives it the blood red colour) it has also got great cancer fighting and antiaging properties. 

I crunch it up for breakfast, whip up juices, sprinkle some into my salads and brighten up my curd rice. And yes let me not forget the in between meal  snacks.

MUSHROOM 65

 Pecos is this no nonsense "we serve only beer" pub in Bangalore. Having scant interest in the pitchers of beer I was bowled over by the mushroom 65 they serve here. Its enough to make me overlook hubby happily guzzling a pitcher of beer. 

 WE NEED 

1. 250 grams fresh mushrooms (I used oyster mushrooms) 
2. 10 fresh curry leaves
3. Tamarind juice
4. Salt to taste
5. 4 tbs oil
6. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
7. Masala Paste (to be ground)

• 1"ginger
• 4 cloves garlic
• 6 dry red chillies
• 1 tbs black pepper corns
• 1 tbs fennel seeds (sauf)

LETS GET GOING

1. Wash and chop the mushrooms finely
2. Mix the tamarind juice, masala paste  and curry leaves
3. Marinate the mushrooms in the masala/tamarind juice mix for 1 hour
4. Heat oil in a pan and sputter the mustard seeds and add the marinated mushrooms
5. Add salt and cook covered for 10 minutes on slow heat
6. Remove cover and cook on high heat for 5 minutes.
7. Serve hot with rice. 

FIERY WAYS TO MY MAN'S STOMACH

What would happen if you ate red hot fiery fish curry ???

Fishy fires in the stomach and well I need not elaborate more.  This is a version of  a typical kerala fish curry (the one without coconut) cooked in a clay pot also known as chatti. This ensures ample satisfaction (read happy grunts) for hubby when he simply craves for "punch wala food" (read unhealthy and spicy).

INGREDIENTS

250 grams Fish preferably sea fish ( I am literally at sea if you ask me the varieties, a pure vegetarian, fish is essentially divided into sea fish and river fish for me)

2 bulbs Garlic ground to a paste

1" piece Ginger ground to a paste

2 teaspoons red chilly powder

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 pinch asafoetida

1/2 teaspoon of jeera/cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds

5 peppercorns

5-6 pieces of garcinia/kokum (one can also use a small ball of tamarind) soaked in about 100ml water

Salt to taste

2 tablespoons oil

2 cups water

METHOD

1. Clean the fish and keep it aside (I get mine cleaned and cut from the fishmonger itself)

2.  Heat oil in a pan (not the chatti) and add the asafoetida

3. Sputter the mustard and jeera seeds and curry leaves

4. Add the garlic paste and ginger paste and fry for five minutes over a low flame till the mixture browns

5. Add the peppercorns, turmeric, salt and chilly powder and stir.

6. Add the garcinia to the water in which it was soaked and mix well.

7. Add the water and bring to a boil.

8. Carefully arrange the fish in the chatti and add the cooked red gravy and cover the pot.

9. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes.

10. Serve with rice.

SWEET NOTHINGS

Its been quite sometime since I blogged on Bhanchaghar..Actually I havent been doing much of cooking and am sticking to boiled food and salads due to my evergrowing weight. This is one of my few luxuries...very basic but nice

We need

4 ripe bananas

Rasins (soaked for five minutes in water) 1 tbs in fact as much as you like

Fresh cream 1 tbs

Honey flavoured cornflakes 2 tbs

Lets get going

1. Peel the bananas and slit them lenght wise into two or three

2. Place them in a serving dish

3. Spoon in the fresh cream. (I also put a few tbs of milk as well)

4. Sprinkle with raisins and cornflakes.

Simple but simply yummy

GREEN APPLE CHUTNEY

I generally don't eat apples. Not that I don't like them but the only thing that's nutritious in an apple is its skin (The red carotenoids are anti carcinogenic) but I bet its skin contains more pesticide residues than carotenoids. Anyway last week I somehow got tempted by some really fresh looking green apples (this time round the temptation was not in Eden but in the vegetable market). I paid an astronomical price them but they turned out to be too tart. I couldn't bear to throw them nor does my Spartan kitchen allow processing them to jam or baking them so I came up with an apple chutney much in the lines of the ubiquitous tomato chaatney of Bengal.

INGREDIENTS

4 Green apples (Even plain apples will do) grated

1 cup Sugar/Jaggery (grated)

1 dry red chilly

2 bay leaves

2" stick of cinnamon (Dalchini)

2 large cardamons (grind seeds to a coarse powder)

1/2 tsp sauf/Fennel

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp chilly flakes

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp oil

LETS DO IT

1. Heat oil in a kadai

2. Add the bay leaves, cinnamon and dry chilli.

3. Sputter the mustard and fennel seeds.

4. Add the grated apple and salt. Cook on low flame for 10 minutes

5. Add the sugar/jaggery and chilly flakes. Continue cooking on a low flame stirring constantly till the chutney acquires a thick consistency.

6. Add the cardamon powder and mix well.

The chutney once cooled can be stored in a clean dry bottle.

Gobi carfreal

I attended a party recently where the table was loaded with food or rather overloaded with some three to four varieties each of fish, chicken, prawn besides several other types of sea food. However I got little to eat besides rice, watery oversalted dal and salad. People just dont think vegetarian in Goa, I think only cows and goats are vegetarian here. Its another story that I had already anticipated the menu and eaten before leaving for the party. Everyone around were praising relishing and taking good second and thrid helpings of the chiken carfreal which got me interested. It looked and smelt good. Later I got lot of information about carfreal from Googleji . It had travelled to Goa via the Portuguese colonies in Africa and today any self respecting kitchen in Goa serves carfreal especially on special occasions. The carfreal is unique due to its minty flavour and long hours of marination. Here I have tried to recreate carfreal in its vegetarian avatar.
WE NEED

1 medium sized Cauliflower broken/cut into large sized florets

1 large sized bunch of mint leaves (about 50 grams in weight)

1" piece of ginger

5-6 large cloves of garlic

1 tsp garam masala powder

5-6 dry red chillies

1 tsp black peppercorns

juice of 1 lemon

3 tbs rum

Salt to taste

6 tbs of oil

LETS DO IT

1. Grind together the ginger, garlic, red chillies, mint leaves, peppercorns to a paste.

2. Mix in the garam masala powder, lime juice, salt and rum to the paste

3. Rub in the paste to the cauliflower, cover the vessel and let it marinate for a good 8 hours.

4. Heat oil in a kadai and add the marinated mixture.

5. Cover and cook on a low flame for 10-15 minutes.

6. Garnish with either steamed cauliflower/palak leaves and slit green chillies .

7. Serve with steamed rice or bread.

P.S. I made it later on with mushrooms which too turned out really good.