Goan Egg Curry

Most families from the Konkani speaking community have a 'family deity' temple in Goa. Goa, best known for its beaches, food and as a great holiday destination also houses a whole lot of temples and churches.
I remember my friends from school who would be so awed that Goa is my temple town !! Our 'kuladevi' (family deity) is Shantadurga and there is this really beautiful temple in Goa that we have often visited when we were kids.



Rice, coconut and fish is the staple food in most homes in Goa. The cooking styles of the Hindu and Catholic community in Goa varies slightly, in that, the Catholic style of cooking generally uses more vinegar. There is a lot of Potuguese influence in the this cuisine.
The Hindus do not eat fish/meat on Mondays ('Shivraak', the day they pray to Lord Shiva) and do not eat beef for religious reasons.
There are a lot of fresh spices used in this cuisine and along with the coconut, it adds a lot of flavour to any dish.

This recipe was written down in a big hurry, from a recipe book at my uncle's place. He is a great cook and the lunch that day was all Goan cuisine, made from this book. This egg curry was brilliant and I have made it many times after that.
Cant remember the name of the book or author - will definately update it once I check with them.

What you need -

6 eggs
1 cup grated coconut
4 red chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
5 cloves garlic
1/4" piece of ginger
1 tsp turmeric
1 onion
1 tomato
2 tsp tamarind extract / extract from a few rinds of kokum soaked in water
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

What you do with it -

Hard boil the eggs and cut in half
Grind coconut, chillies, cumin, mustard, garlic and ginger to a paste
Mix in with tumeric and tamarind extract / kokum water
Slice the onion and chop the tomato
Fry onions in a kadai till it turns brown and add the ground masala, salt and chopped tomato
Fry for 2 more mins and add a cup of water and bring to a boil
Cook for 5 mins
Place the eggs over the masala
Cover the pan and cook for 4-5 mins
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves

'Toast' to Friendship

I cant remember when I last hand-wrote a letter to anyone or sent a card for someone's bday. Its emails, e-cards and even websites/mobiles/e-calenders that send you reminders about your friends' birthdays and anniversaries.
I hate myself for using this 'technology' like a crutch to remember a few dates, but I guess thats how life has become now, though I am glad I belong to a generation where hand-written notes were valued so much...



On one of my birthdays a few years back, I received this small packet by courier. It had about 20 sheets of hand written recipes, neatly indexed and tied up with a little red satin ribbon.
I think that was one among the most thoughtful and touching gifts I have received in a long time. Sometimes, a really 'little something' can make you feel so good...

Miri, who's been a very dear friend for a long time now (way before I knew what food blogging was !!) had sent me this as a birthday gift.
I had visited her a while before that and seen that she has this book with a whole load of recipes and I told her I must get down to noting some - someday.
The sweetheart that she is, sat and wrote down about 40 recipes and sent it for my birthday ! Can't tell you how touched I was...
Thank you Miri, you're the best !!



This is one of those recipes and the one I make most often. I dont like my bread sweet, so that version happens for the husband and son and I love this one
Dont know how 'french' this is, but this is what Miri called it...

What you need -

1/2 onion
1/2 tomato
4 green chillies
1/2 cup coriander leaves
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
6 bread slices
salt to taste

What you do with it -

Grind onion, tomato, chillies, coriander leaves, and salt to a paste
Beat the eggs, add the masala paste and milk
Heat a tava, add a little butter
Dip the bread slices one at a time in the egg mixture and fry on the tava till both sides are done

Handvo (Baked version)

One thing you can never run short on in Ahmedabad is FOOD - fancy restaurants to roadside carts with some amazing food dished out all thru the day. My favourite is the awesome Gujarati thali, and there are restaurants at every corner serving these thalis. Its convenient, you dont need to order, just sit and a stream of people queue up to serve you in the this really big round thali / plate(my little one can easily sit in it), with a minimum of 7 bowls placed neatly in it.
There is this order in which people come to serve you and each item goes into the designated bowl.
'Farsaan' is a common word for a snack, which could be deep fried like kachori, samosa or somthing like khamman dhokla, sandwich dhokla, and is a integral part of every thali.



Handvo is a snack which you dont get so easily in these restaurants or the 'Ganthiya' stores. Its more of a regular home made healthy snack.
My friend here had made handvo once, it looked more like a well-done uttapam and was made in a deep pan /kadai
My aunt (whose husband is Gujarati) was visiting and she told me she baked the handvo, it takes lesser oil and tastes much better !

Now that sounded really nice..
I found this 'handva nu loth' / handvo flour at the flour mill close by, and tried the handvo. It turned out so good and was a real healthy snack with a whole lot of vegetables. I've bought a lot more of the flour now and I'm sure this will be made more often at home...The flour is a mixture of various dals made into a coarse powder



What you need -

3 cups handvo flour
(you can blend 1 cup rice, 1/4 cup moong dal, 1/4 cup ural dal, 1/4 cup chana dal and 1/4 cup tur dal into a coarse powder if you cant find any ready handvo flour)

2 cups curd / enough to soak the handvo flour
1 medium sized bottle gourd
2 carrots grated
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1 cup corn kernels
1 tsp ginger-green chilli paste
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
a generous pinch of asafoetida
1 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp oil

Seasoning

2 tsps oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp chilli powder

What you do with it -

Soak the handvo flour in curd and mix well. Allow to ferment overnight

Mix the ginger-green chilli paste and turmeric in the fermented batter and mix well
Add the chopped coriander leaves and salt to the batter and keep aside

Peel and grate the bottle gourd and carrot. Squeeze the water from the gourd
Add the gourd, grated carrot and corn kernels to the batter
Heat a tsp of oil and add 1/2 tsp chilli powder in it. when it sizzles, pour it into the batter and mix well

Prepare the seasoning with the mustard seeds, sesame seeds and chilli powder

Preheat the oven to 190 C

Grease a pan with oil or butter and pour the batter into it
Add the baking powder and baking soda in 1/2 tsp oil. Mix and pour into the batter
Mix well, add the seasoning and immediately transfer it to the oven

Bake for about 40 mins at 190 C
Cut into squares or triangles and serve with coriander-mint chutney

Masala Keli (Spiced Bananas)

When I was out grocery shopping last week, I found this 'Kerala Store' that stocked a lot of white pumpkins(the veggie vendors here never have this), small red pumpkins and the famous 'nendra pazham'/kerala bananas. I had never seen these bananas or even the elaichi bananas that you get in Bangalore, in a real long time. I was so thrilled to see all this, that I bought a cute little red pumpkin and 4 of the nendra pazhams.

I made the mathanga erissery from Nags' blog with the red pumpkin and Ma made this masala keli with the nendra pazhams. The masala keli / spiced bananas is traditionally made with a chutney stuffed in the bananas, but this is Ma's easy version, and I totally love it




You could try making this with any variety of bananas I guess, but the nendra bananas have a very different flavour and it suits this the best

What you need -

4 nendra pazhams / ripe bananas
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
2 red chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
3 tbsp grated jaggery
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ghee

What you do with it -

Peel the bananas and make thick slices
In a bowl, add the bananas, coconut, jaggery, coriander leaves and salt
Toss and keep aside for about 10 mins
For the seasoning, heat the ghee add mustard seeds and the broken red chillies
Add the seasoning to the bananas

If you try this with any other variety of bananas, do let me know how it turns out

Will try the authentic version of stuffing the bananas with the chutney and post it soon