Tori Saar Upkari

There are cookbooks and there are cookbooks. And then there are mothers who are treasure troves of recipes. This time around when my parents visited us, I made it a point to specifically ask for some dishes and made note of the recipes. I found that Amma's style of amchi cooking isn't exactly the way Rasachandrika has it. There are minor tweaks here and there. This saar-upkari is a great example.

I've made two kinds of saar-upkari before. This one feels like a saar-upkari with a twist in the tale.

1 cup Pigeon Peas

1 tbsp Coriander Seeds

4 Red Chillies

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

2 tbsp Coconut

1 tbsp Jaggery

Salt to taste

For the seasoning:

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

For the Upkari:

Cooked Pigeon Peas(from recipe above)

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

4-5 Curry Leaves

Salt to taste

Pressure cook the pigeon peas with 4-5 cups of water. Drain the liquid into a vessel. Keep the pigeon peas for the upkari.

Grind together about 2 tbsp of cooked pigeon peas with the coconut, coriander seeds, tamarind paste, and red chillies. Add some of this paste to the liquid in the vessel. Add the salt and bring to a boil. In a frying ladle, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this to the saar.

Upkari

In a kadhai, heat the oil. Add the mustard, red chillies and the curry leaves. When the mustard splutters, add the cooked pigeon peas, salt and jaggery and the ground paste. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.

This is my idea of a super sunday!

Kadgi Tori Ghasshi

Of late, Amma doesn't seem to cook that many amchi dishes. I figured this was because she only has to cook for two people. Appa has very limited tolerance for spices. What's amchi cooking without the fiery heat of bedgi chillies. Moreover, Appa seems to like typical Iyengar food and stuff like Italian and Chinese. It is not that he won't eat the other stuff, these would be his preference.

So I am not partial to either of them. One morning, I decided to cook some amchi food. Of the four members in the house at this point, three love this cuisine. So, whyever not? I had asked Amma to bring some more Pigeon Peas (Tori) from Bombay. When I get fresh stock of things I don't get in Delhi/Gurgaon, I am tempted to use them right away.

250g Raw Jackfruit, cut and cooked

1/2 cup Pigeon Peas (Tori/Tuvar), soaked overnight and cooked

2 tbsp Scraped Coconut

3-4 Red Chillies

1 1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste (Add more or less to taste)

Salt to taste

1 tsp Oil

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

2-3 Garlic Pods, crushed

For a no onion/garlic version, use this tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

Heat the oil in a small kadhai and fry the chillies and coriander seeds. Grind this together with the tamarind paste and coconut. Add a handful of cooked pigeon peas to this and grind to a paste.

In a vessel, combine the cooked pigeon peas, jackfruit, the paste and salt. Add some water to this and bring to a boil.

In a frying ladle, heat the oil, add the garlic pods. If using the other tempering, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and asafoetida, and when the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add the tempering to the ghasshi and serve hot.

P.S.: Amchi is an abbreviation for "amchigele" which is how konkani people refer to the language (and other people who speak the language).

Mixed Bean Soup

I've talked about how I'm on my way to soon becoming Ms. Bean! One of the things that I made recently was this: Bean Cutlets. I had some mixed beans leftover from this exercise and decided to try out this soup. It tasted more like a not-so-spicy Indian bean dish than a soup. But we had it with some toast and it felt like a full meal for S and like a soup for me!

1 1/2 cups Mixed Beans, soaked and cooked

1 tbsp Oil

1 Onion, sliced

1/2 cup Potato, diced

1 Carrot, chopped

1 tsp Green Chilli Paste

1 tsp Garlic Paste

1/2 tsp Coriander Powder

1 tsp Chilli Powder

3 cups Water

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a pan. add the onion, potato and carrot and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the chilli and garlic pastes and cook for another minute. Add the coriander powder, chilli powder and the water. Bring this mixture to a boil and cook for 20 minutes. Stir in the mixed beans and season with salt and pepper.

My beans were mashed earlier and I think this soup is likely to taste much better with the cooked beans left whole.