hey @saregama
can you name the malvani place your dad discovered a few decades ago. My current favorite in Mumbai is Chaitanya, which is in dadar/prabhadevi, also has a new location in andheri.
In mumbai, my other favorite maharastrian places are: Prakash and Aaswad in Dadar, and Aram in VT. Really like Aram’s vada pal
For folks in the sf Bay Area, there is a mahasratrian place (vegetarian) in the South Bay. Puran Poli in Santa Clara (I think)
A tale of two prawn recipes this evening:
First - Mumbaiya Butter Garlic Prawns
This was a pretty simple saute of shrimp (technically I used shrimp) with oil, butter, garlic, crushed red pepper, black pepper, and lemon.
Second - Marathi Kolambi Masala
This dish was a bit more involved, although I took a shortcut. You are to grind up a spice blend of chiles, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, coriander seeds, black cardamom, and green cardamom. I used this Konkani Style Koli Masala, that I made previously. So my spice blend had everything she called for and about 10 other spices… Otherwise, I followed the recipe as written. I toasted coconut and some onion and blended it to make a paste. Frizzled curry leaves in oil and then cooked down onions, and then tomatoes, adding the coconut paste at the end to also fry. The masala powder gets bloomed in the pan at this point. Add the prawns/shrimp, let turn opaque, and then season with a pinch of sugar and a little vinegar. Add coconut milk and more curry leaves and a squirt of lemon. Garnish with cilantro.
I have to say I really enjoyed both dishes. The shrimp masala was very rich and I think benefited from having the lemony garlic butter shrimp to take some bites of in between things. I rounded the plate out with some of the leftover Masale Baath, as well as steamed broccoli (which got a drizzle of salsa macha). I am very full right now!
More memories:
In my Bombay home, we had variants of these dishes, but not exact replicas, and never a dry prawn dish alongside a wet one. Other households may have differed.
My own versions of the two dishes have evolved from their Maharashtrian roots, so they may no longer be “authentic”, but here they are:
A] Dry prawns/shrimp (Jhinga in Marathi): Pop mustard seeds in ghee (the recipe you quote mixes olive oil and butter – Preeti Mistry would have another fit), lower heat slightly, add curry leaves and, as they crisp (in seconds), add the shrimp and about 15 seconds later quartered grape tomatoes, chopped chillies, microplaned garlic, salt and a big pinch of turmeric. Stir around for a few seconds (or minutes if you like your shrimp well done, not close to raw as I lately lean to). Turn off heat, and add finely chopped cilantro.
Notes:
B] Simpler wet prawns/shrimp: Saute chopped shallots and garlic in coconut oli, then when the shallots are translucent add coriander powder, some turmeric, chopped red chillies and whatever other dry masalas you deem fit at the time, salt, and a good handful or more of coconut flakes and grated ginger. Stir around till you nose tells you it’s ready, then scoop out at least half a cup of the mixture. (Totally non-trad, but totally worth it.) Add coconut milk and let simmer till everything is nicely melded. Add shrimp and cook to your palate’s desire. Garnish as you please, bit sprinkle some of the reserve spice-shallot mixture on each serving.
I am always so appreciative of the background and memories you share for these dishes! I also noted with some amusement the use of olive oil in the first recipe. I thought about reaching for my mustard oil, but then felt that perhaps that was too Bengali for this dish? As it happened, I ran out of my neutral oil and ended up using a little olive oil (but doubled the butter). This recipe felt very similar to Asma Khan’s Ghee Roasted Prawns (hers includes ginger rather than tomato). I liked the black pepper in this one, but it felt very, very similar to a scampi style preparation from the Mediterranean.
Interestingly, I went with Maunika Gowardhan’s recipe because the first one suggested pairing it with a very wet one from their Web site (Asma Khan also pairs hers for a suggested dinner with a wet coconut fish curry), so I was hoping I was heading in the right direction with one that was at least from the same region and somewhat drier in its finished incarnation!
Don’t tell anyone, but I use it too on many occasions, instead of ghee.
Although, as you say, it makes one feel Maha-Bengalian not Maha-Rashtrian.
Here’s an interesting parallel:
Closing out the quarter with Batatawada.
We haven’t eaten these since they were last made for my dad as a breakfast treat one morning, and it’s bittersweet to eat them without him because he loved them so much.
Still, mom perked up when they were suggested as a teatime snack option, so we made some, and she enjoyed them more than she’s enjoyed most things of late. They were pretty delicious. She had another one with dinner, which was encouraging given her recent lack of appetite at dinnertime.
Batter turned out light and crisp, the way we like it when they’re hot (when they’re cold it doesn’t matter because they’re still delicious).
Those are gorgeous. I could eat a whole platterful.
Somebody pass me a couple of buttered Pavs!
Me too! They’re deceptively simple of you want to try them. And you don’t have to deep fry them, the mixture just shallow-fried as patties is really good too!
No pav when they’re piping hot at home! Yes to pav at other times, with the dry garlic chutney to burn your mouth off for good measure hahaha
I looked up a recipe on youtube and I will give them a try!
Just as you can’t take the half-Maharashtrian out of the boy, you can’t take the boy out of the Maharashtrian quarter.
I hope that posting past the deadline does not violate the HOCC (Hungry Onion Code of Conduct).
In any case, simple VataNa pohé (called poha elsewhere) for an afternoon snack. 3 fistfuls of beaten rice, lightly soaked and squeezed, added to a pan where mustard seeds have popped, curry leaves sizzled and shallots and green chillies added. A sprinkling of turmeric and salt, a vigorous stir, a handful of green peas (the VataNa) added then finished with chopped cilantro and fresh (fresh-frozen in my case) coconut.
A popular tea-time snack in my youth.
How do you eat it? Scoop with spoon? Fingers?
I am not sure how @fooddabbler personally eats it and it may vary from time to time.
But fingers are best (as for most Indian food), but you can use a spoon or a fork if wished.
Yes.
Having said that, my distant memory of how we ate in my youth was that we used our fingers for every major meal (lunch, dinner), but often had tea-time food – pohé is an example – with spoons. I can even make a post-facto case for spoons over fingers in the case of pohé. Part of pohé’s appeal is that the rice flakes are loose and not stuck together (hence the care that must be exercised to avoid over-soaking). the flakes stay loose on a spoon but are inevitably squeezed together by your fingers.
The experiences of others might differ.
I use a spoon for poha and similar things at tea time and breakfast.
Yet I’ll happily eat rice with my fingers at lunch or dinner (and with preference, unless it’s something where the liquid ratio is high like kadhi).
Reminded me of this prior thread about eating with our hands:
Interesting: we rinse in a colander and leave the poha to absorb the residual water, vs. soaking (I do recall soaking being a method when I was little, but never squeezing lest the flakes break up)
Also the type of poha makes a big difference to the outcome: always the fat/big kind for this, not the smaller/thinner kind (which has a high risk of crumbling and lumping up in the pan).
