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Showing posts with label easy oriya recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easy oriya recipe. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Chingudi - Kakharu Manjee Checcha ( A blend of toasted shrimp and pumpkin seeds )

Nirvana. Jannat. Bliss. I could barely utter these words as I experienced the explosion of flavors on my tongue. The nuttiness of the toasted pumpkin seeds, the sweetness of the shrimp, the heat from the green chilis, the tang from the tomato, the freshness of cilantro and oh, just that hint of garlic. The coming together of all these elements had just awakened my senses. Ah, at last I was having a good decent odia meal. It felt quite liberating and exhilaratig to leave behind the almost sterile bhajas (fries) and the tarkaris ( curries). Poda (burnt/grilled), chakta(mashed) or checcha(crushed) is what captures the essence of Odia cuisine. And this amazing chingudi - kakharu manjee checcha just reinforces that belief !!

Read on for the recipe -


















Preparation Time : 10-15 mins

Ingredients -


  • 1/2 cups baby shrimp ( chuna chingudi)
  • 1/2 cup kakharu manjee (pumpkin seeds)
  • 1/2 of a small tomato
  • 2 garlic flakes
  • 1 green chillis
  • 2 tsp mustard oil
  • 2 tsp chopped onion
  • 2 tsp chopped cilantro
  • Salt to taste


Preparation: Wash and clean the prawns.

Chop the onion, garlic and green chilli into small pieces.

Cooking: Heat 1 tsp of oil in a wok. Add the prawn and fry on low to medium flame till crispy.
Remove and keep aside.


Add 1 tsp oil in the same wok. Add the pumpkin seeds and toast for 3 mins.
Remove from the wok.

Transfer the shrimps and the pumpkin seeds into a mixer/blender jar. Add the onions, garlic, cilnatro and green chillis. Sprinkle a few drops of mustard oil and salt. Give a quick buzz. ( Or you can do it the traditional way using a heavy mortar and pestle. )

Chingudi - Kakharu majee Checcha is ready .

Serve with pakhala/ rice .


















Shrimp

Monday, May 25, 2015

Stuffed Chachindra (Snake gourd)

Forget the zucchini boats or even the stuffed peppers ! This is a homegrown Odia dish that is as good as the imported ones. A rich stuffing of onions, freshly grated coconut and broken cashews lend this dish a sweet and rich taste. Some folks avoid adding potatoes to the stuffing but I just cant do without it.

And moreover this is one native dish that really looks beautiful without much effort on the presentation. I mean I have been working on my food photography skills to be able to click some decent photos of the food that I so painstakingly prepare. While I do not buy the logic of making food so good that one wants to take it home instead of eating it, I want my food to look presentable to a given degree. Sadly our dishes lacks the right amount of color but make up for it with the great taste.

Read on for the recipe -







Preparation Time - 30 mins

Ingredients -

  • 1 medium sized snake gourd (chachindra)
  • 3 tsp oil
  • a pinch of salt

For the stuffing -

  • 2 medium sized potatoes (boiled, peeled and lightly mashed)
  • 1 large onion 
  • 1 cup grated coconut (chopped into medium pieces)
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 1-2 green chilis (chopped into small pieces)
  • 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/3 tsp red chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp coriander powder
  • 2 pinch garam masala
  • 2 pinch turmeric
  • 2 tsp oil
  • salt to taste

Preparation - Wash and peel the snake gourd. Chop into 3 inch long pieces. Hollow them out by removing the mushy insides.


















Cooking - Heat 2 tsp oil in a wok. Add cumin seeds and chopped green chillis. Wait for them to start spluttering.

Follow with the grated ginger and fry for 1 minute. Add the chopped onions and fry till red on the edges.

Add all the powdered masalas and fry for 2 mins. Finally add the potatoes and stir fry for a couple of minutes till everything is nicely mixed.

Add the grated coconut just before removing from the flame. Keep aside it is just warm to touch.


















Stuff this into the hollowed out snake gourd.

Heat a wok or skillet on a low flame. Add the remaining oil. Place the stuffed snake gourd pieces on the skillet and sprinkle a little salt over them. Cover with a lid. Remove the lid at regular intervals and turn them on their sides.

Let it cook on a low flame till completely done. Remove from the skillet .

Garnish with some more grated coconut and cilantro. Serve hot with white rice and dal . 




Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Gurubariya Ambila ( A rustic vegetable soup from Odisha )

Well...excuse me for the 'Gurubariya' bit . I kept thinking of a name for this recipe and could not come up with anything better. While the Ambila is a popular dish from Odisha which is somewhat similar to the Andhra rasam, this version is made only during Manabasa Gurubar or the thursdays of the Hindu month of Margasira. Devoid of the generous garlic tempering and made to include only a few select vegetables ( sweet potato, radish, banana stem & taro ) that are usually offered to Goddess Lakshmi, this has a unique taste which is unlike the regular vegetarian version (click here for recipe) or the non-vegetarian version(click here for recipe).

Read on -







Preparation Time - 15-20 mins

Ingredients -


  • 1/2 cup radish (cut into circles)
  • 1/4 cup sweet potato (cut into circles)
  • 1/4 cup taro/arbi (cut into circles)
  • 1/4 cup banana stem (cut into small pieces)
  • 1 green chili
  • 1 dry red chili
  • 1 sprig curry leaves
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/2 tsp ginger juliennes (my addition)
  • 1 tbsp jaggery
  • 1 lemon sized ball of tamarind
  • pinch of asafoetida
  • salt to taste
  • 1/5 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1/2 tsp refined oil/ghee


Preparation - Mix the banana stem pieces with a bit of salt and set aside for 20 mins. Squeeze out the water from the pieces.

Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup warm water for 15 mins. Mash it with hands and strain the liquid. Discard the solids.

Cooking - Add all the vegetables to a pressure cooker along with 4 cups of water, green chili, turmeric and salt to taste. Cook for 2 whistles. Remove from flame and keep aside till steam escapes.

Put the pressure cooker on a low flame. Add the jaggery and the tamarind to it. Allow to simmer for 6-7 mins. Adjust consistency.

Heat the oil/ghee in a small pan. Add the cumin seeds, asafoetida, broken red chili and curry leaves to it. Once it gets spluttering, pour the tempering over the contents of the pressure cooker. Boil for 1 minute before removing from flame.

Serve it hot with meals or enjoy as a light soup.







Sunday, December 7, 2014

Capsicum-Mushroom Stir Fry ( Shimla Maricha - Chattu bhaja)

My Odisha trip is coming to an end and the last of these days are turning out to be quite hectic. Hence I am not getting time to do much cooking apart from the regular meals. And I try and stick to quick and simple dishes whenever possible so that we can get more time to spend with family and friends.

This is a simple stir fry I made today with some capsicum and leftover mushroom fry ( simply fried with a bit of salt and turmeric ). Read on for the recipe -




















Preparation Time - 15 mins

Ingredients -



  • 1 1/2 cup mushroom (chopped in small pieces)
  • 2/3 cup green capsicum (chopped into small pieces)
  • 1 large onion (chopped into thin long pieces)
  • 2-3 green chilis (finely chopped)
  • 2 pinch turmeric
  • 4 tsp mustard oil
  • 1/5 tsp salt or to taste


Cooking - Heat 2 tsp oil in a wok. Add the mushrooms along with turmeric and a little salt. Stir fry on high heat till the mushrooms no longer ooze water. Remove from wok and keep aside.

Add more oil to the wok. Add the chopped green chilis and onions. Fry till onions turn translucent.

Add the capsicum and the fried mushrooms. Adjust the salt and stir fry for a few minutes on high till the capsicum just starts to wilt.

Remove from the wok and serve hot with rice/rotis.





















Click here for more delicious mushroom recipes !!

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Alu Pitha (Potato Dosa)

During my childhood days, my grandmother used to travel to her native village frequently. She used to bring back all kinds of freshly harvested produce from our ancestral fields and we would eagerly lap it up. Among all the things she brought back (including the smoked fish and the bamboo shoots), i loved the newly dug out baby potatoes the most. They had a taste and such a wonderful texture that one does not find in the variety sold in the markets.

Most of the times we used to cut it into half and stir fry it with a little mustard paste. That would be the heavenly accompaniment with 'Pakhala' (Read more about the famous 'watered rice' from Odisha HERE) during the hot summer months. Sometimes, we made alu dum with it. But on rare occasions, we turned it into a pitha or a dosa/uttapam kind of dish that goes very well with rice. I had quite forgotten about this recipe but when my mom made it during my recent trip to Rourkela, the memories came flooding back.

Read on for the simple recipe -


















Preparation Time - 10-12 mins


Ingredients -


  • 9-10 baby potatoes
  • 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1-2 dry red chili
  • 1 tsp rice (i used arwa/raw rice but one can also use Sona masuri instead)
  • 2-3 tsp mustard oil
  • salt to taste


Preparation - Soak the cumin seeds, red chili and rice for 30 mins.

Slightly crush the potatoes using a mortar and pestle . (else you can also chop it into small bits)

Take the soaked cumin seeds, red chili and rice in a mixer jar. Buzz it to get a smooth paste. Then add the crushed potatoes and give it another quick whiz. The mix should be coarse.

Cooking - Heat the oil in a pan/tawa. Add the potato mix to the pan and flatten it out like a pancake or uttapam. (do not spread it too thin)

Cook on one side till it turns reddish. Flip it over carefully and cook it to the same extent on the other side as well.

Remove from the pan.

Serve it piping hot with hot rice or pakhala.



















Note - It does not taste good after it cools down. Re-heating also affects the flavour adversely. So, make it the last dish you cook when sitting down for your meal.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Special Alu Bharta

Had a very bad experience yesterday!!!! A very popular Odiya website 'http://recipe.fullodisha.com/'  is copying my images ( from very old posts ) and claiming it as own. While I duly sent them a message, they have not reverted back to me. Feel sad when people display a lack of spine. I have been working hard for the last 5 years trying to collect Odiya recipes from various people that I come across and showcase them as a part of our culture. This incident made me feel like going off the public platform. But then we do not throw away the tea cup if a fly falls into the tea. We discard the tea and start afresh. Hence will be 'water marking' all my pics thereafter. Hope this serves as a lesson for all bloggers.

For today, a special alu bharta that my mom used to prepare.............

















Preparation Time - 10 mins


Ingredients -



  • 2 large boiled potatoes
  • 1 medium sized onion ( chopped into mediun sized pieces )
  • 1/2 inch ginger (grated)
  • 1-2 dry red chilli (broken)
  • 1-2 green chilli (broken)
  • a pinch of jeera
  • a pinch of mustard seeds
  • 2 pinch curry powder ( or one can use meat masala /sambar powder - anything that you like )
  • a handful of peanut seeds ( my mom does not add it )
  • 2 1/2 tsp oil
  • salt to taste



Preparation - Peel and slightly mash the potatoes.

Cooking - Heat the oil in a wok.

Add the peanuts and allow to crackle . Then add the mustard, cumin, red and green chillis. Fry for 5-6 seconds.

Add the onion and ginger. Fry till translucent.

Finally add the curry powder and fry for 1-2 minutes.

Add the mashed potato and fry till it starts to leave the sides and come together.

Remove from wok.

Serve hot/warm with rice/roti/parantha.





Note - While adding sambar powder, my mom used to add a few curry leaves and some tomato. Though not authentic alu bharta, it tasted great.

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