Tambde Duddhya Doddak (Red Pumpkin Dosa)

Breakfasts were always important at my mom's place, but somehow after I got married, it took a back seat. Early working hours, managing all alone, packing lunch, all this seemed to take a toll on my breakfasts.
Bread was what I could manage, if at all. I was never a cereal person. I'd rather skip breakfasts that have cereals ! After about 2 years of completely messing up with my system - No breakfasts, just mugs of coffee at work and eating at wrong hours and I was suffering from terrible acidity. After that I got more serious about breakfasts, and now over the years, getting older and wiser(!) I realised how important breakfasts are...
So please guys, if you aren't eating breakfasts, time for you to seriously consider starting on them

Doddak (Thick dosa) was made very often for breakfast at Ma's place. I had almost forgotten about it till I saw this post for taushe doddak on Vani's blog. I made it every week after that. I then remembered Ma making this red pumpkin doddak. It had a sweetish taste and was one of the few sweet things I really enjoyed.

This one was what my son had with some jaggery syrup smeared on top..he can eat anything with jaggery syrup !



And this is my spiced up version...



What you need -

2 cups grated red pumpkin
1 cup grated coconut
2 tsp grated jaggery
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 cup semolina / rava /sooji
3/4 - 1 cup water
oil

What you do with it -

Mix all the ingredients, except semolina, water and oil
Keep aside for about 10 mins. The salt added to this will make it a little watery
Add semolina to this and add water just enough to make a thick batter. It should way thicker than what we make for a regular dosa batter
You may not need to use all the water - it needs to be a really thick batter
Heat the tava and smear a little oil on it
This batter cant be poured out, so spoon the batter onto the tava, maybe 2-3 spoon fuls
Spread as much as you can and then cover and allow to cook for 2-3 mins on medium heat
Flip over and cook for another minute or so
Serve hot with jaggery syrup / honey / butter

If you are like me and dont like the sweetish taste too much, add a few cumin seeds, chopped green chillies and chooped coriander. The sweet / spicy taste, I think, is way better !

Dudhya Koddel (Red Pumpkin with sichuan pepper and coconut)

I must have mentioned in all the posts related to Konkani cuisine, that we really cannot complete a meal without some(actually a lot) coconut in it. Its a staple in Mangalorean cuisine and isn't really considered unhealthy.

Either the side dish, or what we have with rice, or both in most cases, has to have coconut in it.
Bendhi, Humman (who-mann), Koddel, Sukke are made with a thick coconut masala, and had as a side dish. Each one had red chillies, tamarind and coconut in it, with a few variations and different seasoning



Teppal / Sichuan pepper is a spice (pod of a fruit) very specific to Konkani cuisine, and from what I read, also used in Tibetian, Bhutanese and Chinese cuisine ! It adds a wonderful aroma to the dish, but too pungent and strong in taste to be eaten. Teppal is used in koddel and a lot of fish curries, to help fight any gastric problem that the fish creates.

The red chillies used in this are the 'byadgi' variety, which give it a lovely red colour, but not that spicy. Must take some of these chillies back to Ahmedabad - there the chillies are super spicy, but there is no colour !

This koddel is a South Canara special and generally made with red pumpkin - there is also a puli koddel, made with ash gourd.

Koddel

What you need -

1 cup peeled and cubed red pumpkin
1 cup grated coconut
6 red chillies
small ball of tamarind
3-4 teppal (sichuan peppers)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp oil

What you do with it -

Fry red chillies in a tsp of oil
Grind together the coconut, red chillies and tamarind into a smooth paste
Steam cook the pumpkin pieces, adding a little salt when its almost done
Add pumpkin pieces to the coconut masala and bring to a slow boil
In 1/2 tsp oil, fry the teppal (sichuan pepper) and add to the pumpkin

* Warning: Do not eat the teppal / sichuan peppers - they are really strong in taste

Khatkhaten - Vegetables in a coconut base (Konkani style)

Making this is easier than trying to say the name of it !
You pronounce this as 'khat-khat-ein', where the 'ein' needs to be said with a real nasal twang, which we Konkanis are famous for !!
My dad's very close friend's family lives in Goa - they are like an extended family to us. On one of my visits, I happened to go to their place for a self-invited lunch on Monday. The lady of the house was so upset because Mondays are 'Shivraak', its the vegetarian day of the week and she could not make her famous prawn pulav or fish ambotik for me. My son was about a year old and I told her I wanted just simple home-cooked food.



There was Solkadi, dal, rice, chapatis and this khatkhaten - it was a lovely meal, though I was invited the next day again for the fishy spead !!
My son loved the khatkhaten, and its so packed with veggies, that I have started making it very often after that...

Khatkhaten (Mixed Vegetables in a coconut masala)

What you need -

2 cups cubed red pumpkin
1 cups cubed potatoes
1/2 cup beans
1 cup cut carrot
6 triphals / sichuan pepper
10 garlic cloves
1/2 cup grated coconut
3 red chillies
1 tsp coriander seeds
small ball of tamarind
2 tbsp grated jaggery
salt to taste

What you do with it -

Steam the pumpkin, potaotes, beans and carrots
You could do this in a cooker, but keep it for just 1 whistle, or it could get overcooked
Add salt and jaggery to the steamed vegetables
Grind together the coconut, red chillies, 3-4 pods of garlic, coriander seeds and tamarind to make a smooth paste
Add the ground masala to the vegetables
Crush the teppals lightly in a spoon of water and add (Dont grind the teppals - they are too strong in taste)
Simmer on a low flame till it comes to a boil
Heat oil and add the remaining garlic pods and fry till they turn reddish-brown
Add the seasoning to the dish
The teppals can be discarded before you serve. Its used just for the aroma and taste it adds to the dish

This can be had with a simple dal and rice.
Teppal has a very sharp and strong flavour. It tastes great with the fish curries, but I love it in this dish too.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread and Potato Mushroom stew

It was another of those weekdays, when I was done with my work, little one was asleep and S was working late.
I wanted to make something different, something interesting - the boredom of seeing the same vegetables was getting to me. I didnt have the most interesting vegetables, other than mushrooms, (my vegetable vendor always gives me this - i seem to be his only customer for mushrooms in this area) and I had decided I will not go out buying any more, because I was well stocked, but I didnt want to cook anything that I had made earlier..

Scanned the 'fridge, surfed for recipes, rummaged through recipe books, looked thru my grocery, but still couldnt make up my mind about what I wanted.
After spending close to an hour on this fairly mindless searching, I decided on making the pumpkin bread, but i knew i didnt want it sweet.
I had to use up the mushrooms too, before they got blackish in colour - i like them really clean and as white as possible.

Tweaked around with the recipe i saw here and came up with this really nice spicy pumpkin bread. The fennel seeds and mustard gave it a really nice taste



Made a mushroom and potato stew to go with it - i had always made the Indian 'ishtew' with coconut milk, but wanted this one to be really different - the dinner turned out really good - i was terribly apprehensive about my 'different' menu, but S and I enjoyed it so much, that I have promised myself to make these 'different' menus more often




What you need -

Spiced Pumpkin bread

1 cup wheat flour
1 cup oatmeal (I used quick cooking oats and powdered it in the blender)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups pumpkin pieces
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

What you do with it -

Make a purée of the pumpkin. I scooped out the seeds and the peeled the skin and microwaved the pumpkin pieces in 1/2 cup water for about 7 mins and then mashed the pieces with a fork
Mix, in a large bowl, the wheat flour, oatmeal, salt and baking soda
Preheat oven to 180 deg C
Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, cinnamon powder, mustard powder
Combine with the dry ingredients (Do not beat / blend)
Stir in the nuts and fennel seeds
Pour into a greased loaf pan
Bake 30-3 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean
Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack

Mushroom Potato Stew

What you need -

15-20 mushrooms
2-3 medium potatoes
1 onion
4-5 pods garlic
1 stick cinnamon
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp mixed herbs
1/2 tsp crushed pepper
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup stock / water
1/2 tsp salt

What you do with it -

Wash the mushrooms well and chop in 4 quarters
Peel and chop potatoes into cubes
Chop onion into big chunks and chop garlic lengthwise
In a deep pan, heat the olive oil
Add cinnamon, onions, garlic and stir till onions are translucent
Add mushrooms, potato cubes, salt and pepper
Fry till the mushrooms are done, then add water or stock and cover till potatoes are cooked
If its too watery, mix a tsp of flour / cornflour in water and add to this to thicken
Add the oregano and mixed herbs and the chilli flakes
Adjust salt if needed

Sending the spiced pumpkin bread recipe to BBD#18-Quick Breads hosted by Mansi of the Fun and Food Blog