Konkani Fare

Having experimented with a lot of Bengali food..i decided to go back to my roots and dish out some of my comfort foods...and to my delight my Bengali Hubby enjoyed them as well.
Konkani/Goan food known to most are the Portuguese influenced dishes commonly served in restaurants. There are a whole range of dishes never known to the outside world since they are only cooked at Konkani homes.This is my humble effort to introduce you to some authentic dishes cooked by my mother.
Starting the series with simple saatvik dishes made out of lentils and dals generally cooked during Ganpati festival. This is the most important festival for any Goan Hindu. Describing the amazing experience of Ganpati celebrations deserves another blog. Coming back, today i will introduce you to Mugagathi, green sprouts cooked in a mild gravy of coconut milk, accompanied with Daliche Wade, chana dal wadas. Konkani cuisines uses chana dal very sparingly. The only other dish known to be made with it is Mangane, a sweet dish. Watch out for my next post for more details.

Mugagathi
Ingredients:
1 cup green moong
1 half cup coconut shredded
4-5 green chillies
1 small ball of tamarind
1 big spoon grated jaggery
1 tsp Turmeric pdr
salt to taste
2 tsp Oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp hing
4-5 curry leaves
7-8 cashewnuts halfed

Method:
Soak the green mung in water 24 hrs before you plan to cook this dish. After about 8 hrs , they would have enlarged. Remove them into a cloth and tie them tightly. Leave it aside overnight to germinate. Once ready, you can either remove the skin or cook it by itself. I prefer to retain the skin since its enriched with proteins and flavour.
At the time of cooking, add some water to the sprouts and cook them.
Saute chillies in 1 tsp of oil
Grind together coconut, sauteed chillies, turmeric pdr and tamarind.
Add this mixture to the sprouts when they are half done.
Add jaggery and cashew nuts and cook till the sprouts are done.
In another small pan, add 1 tsp of oil and give tadka of mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves. Once the curry leaves get aromatic, Add this mixture to the cooked sprouts.
Mugagathi is ready. A mild coconut moong gravy with a hint of spicy, sweet n sour touch.

I served this with plain white rice and another konkani side dish called Daliche wade.

Daliche Wade
Ingredients:
1/2 cup chana dal
1 small onion chopped
1 small piece of ginger chopped
3-4 green chillies chopped
few strands of coriander leaves chopped
salt to taste
oil for frying

Method:
Soak the dal for about half an hour. Grind coarsely.
Add the remaining ingredients to it.
Heat little oil in a shallow pan. Drop small portions of the mixture and flatten it with the back of your spoon. Make small 5cms diameter circular wades. The wades have to be shallow fried.
Cook till brown n flip over. Brown the other side too.
Daliche wade is ready.
Serve as side dish with any meal or as an evening snack with chutney or ketchup.

Both dishes are very high on the health quotient and taste as good. Stay tuned for more exciting Konkani homemade dishes!!!