SOUTH INDIAN - Summer 2024 (Jul-Sept) Cuisine of the Quarter

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
,
161

GOAN STYLE TONAK ALSANYACHE (BLACK EYED PEAS IN TONAK MASALA)

Goan style black eyed peas and lentils with potato
Goan style black eyed peas and lentils with potato1221×919 215 KB

Not the most photogenic bean stew, but definitely tasty! This stew has a masala of cinnamon, coriander seed, cumin seeds, dried red chiles, green cardamom black peppercorns, and cloves. It is incorporated into a base of green chiles, onion, garlic, and coconut. This is all cooked and then ground together. The linked recipe is for a pressure cooker, but I cooked my peas for a couple hours first, then made the base, and added the peas, turmeric, and potato to cook further in the oven for another hour at 275F (and an extra 1/4 cup of brown lentils to help tighten everything up). I stirred in about 2 tablespoons of tamarind paste in at the end and some cilantro. I will be having this over brown rice for my lunches this week. It tastes great now, but I’m sure it will only get better as the flavors meld overnight!

7 Likes
Lunch 2024
162

Saw this post today! I stay away from main discussions now, but I occasionally check out the notifications :slight_smile:

Let me be brutally honest. The pol sambol in that recipe is a disaster although the recipe says it’s the best. You never use desiccated coconut for that, never unless you cannot find fresh coconut at all. You must use fresh coconut only. And you should never add coconut water in a proper coconut sambol. And you never add curry leaves in a traditional coconut sambol. And definitely nobody squeezes water out of a coconut sambol.

Here’s a rough recipe for a traditional pol sambol. I cannot say for sure exact amounts as I never measure them. But if you need, I’ll measure the next time and mention it here.

Main ingredients:

Finely shredded fresh coconut.

Dried red chillies.

Shallots.

Salt and lime to taste.

Ingredients to enhance the taste:

Maldive fish thinly peeled with a sharp knife (not broken using a blender)

Some people like it with a hint of garlic, freshly crushed.

Some add naga chillies or ghost pepper but that’s for the “advanced users” lol.

For a proper traditional coconut sambol you will need a grinding stone. But without that you can use a mortar and a pestle to crush the red chillies into a paste. It becomes a paste when you crush the red chillies and shallots together.

Then add the thinly/finely peeled maldive fish and salt, and crush them into the paste. But don’t crush maldive fish into a fine paste, visible small pieces are the best. Then add some more shallots and coconut, and crush them again. Then add the lime juice to taste, and crush a little bit more. Taste, balance, and serve.

Made properly, the sambol will have a orange/red colour, and tiny pieces of maldive fish and shallot visible. Some people also burn one red chillie, crush it, and add it but that’s mostly in the North as I’ve seen.

Curry leaves cannot be preserved in its green fresh colour for more than a few days. We don’t use dried curry leaves. However you can grind them into a paste and keep it in the refrigerator for a longer time than you would the fresh leaves. :slight_smile: You can easily grow a curry leaf plant in the garden, or a pot. I’ll send you some seeds if you need :slight_smile:

5 Likes
163

Thank you! I think I will be sticking with the tomato sambal for now!

2 Likes
164
1 Like
165

Lots of intriguing comments about chutneys!

Could I make it with chard stems?

2 Likes
166

Madhur Jaffrey’s Goan shrimp curry. Tasty.

41800779-D34F-4281-A896-B62A466C7964_1_201_a
41800779-D34F-4281-A896-B62A466C7964_1_201_a3299×2711 893 KB

1 Like
167

Interesting but healthy choice of side veg!

168

Yeah, TBH I was a bit stumped. I briefly considered roasting a whole cauliflower with a similar spice paste but… roasted cauli doesn’t feel like a proper veg side to me — if that makes any sense. It gets so creamy, nutty & rich when you roast it I worried it might be too heavy with the rich coconut sauce.

And I can always, always eat my boo’s bok choy :hugs:

What would you have made on the side instead (for future ref, as this may actually be a repeat)?

1 Like
169

Hmmmm. There’s no set rules, but if the shrimp curry is creamy and rich, you could do a fresh and crunchy salad - cucumber, thinly sliced red onions, some leaves or herbs and lime juice with any seasonings you fancy. A dry simple curry of cauliflower florets, peas and cubed potatoes would be my go-to side: par boil or steam the veggies, then heat a tablespoon or two of oil/butter/ghee in a pan, toast any spice you like (we like cumin or whole mustard seeds, with dried red chilli and some asafoetida), add a teaspoon of turmeric powder, salt to taste, your steamed veggies and fry on medium heat until cooked to your preference.

1 Like
170

Sounds great! I love a fresh & crunchy salad :slight_smile:

1 Like
171

The bok choi looked like a good choice - green and crunchy.

172

It’s one of my favorite vegetables, and my PIC makes it so well :hugs: … minus the odd fishy taste yesterday — a first and hopefully last!

1 Like
173

Also, would you say that the omission of garlic and ginger is typical for Goan cuisine? I was flabbergasted neither was included. And using lemon vs. lime juice? :thinking:

1 Like
174

I’m not very familiar with Goan cuisine. I just looked at my copy of The Essential Goa Cookbook by Maria Theresa Menezes and there are a few shrimp/prawn/lobster curry recipes in it. All but one (which doesn’t include ginger) have onions, garlic and ginger. Jaffrey is not Goan but she was one of the key people responsible for making Indian cookery accessible to Western audiences. She may have adapted some recipes to make them more user friendly.

1 Like