Egg Chat

Egg Chat And Paratha

We had EGG CHAT and PARATHA for lunch today. EGG CHAT was a last minute decision when I realised the curds that we normally have with paratha had not set.

To make EGG CHAT you will need:

6 hard boiled eggs

2 green chillies, chopped   

1 big onion, chopped fine

1 tsp tamarind chutney

1 tblspn dates chutney

I tblspn tomato ketchup

Coriander chopped

Method :

1.       Cut the boiled eggs in quarters (I make ½ of quarters).

2.       Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

3.       Serve as a snack or accompaniment.

Coconut Barfi/Khobri Vadi/Khobre Cha Vadaya

This is again my mother's recipe. It never fails and tastes very good..

Ingredients:

1-cup coconut (grated)

 3/4 cup sugar

¼ cup cream

¼ cup milk

Elichi powder

Raisin

Cashew nuts

Method:

1. Mix coconut, sugar, cream milk raisin and cashew nuts in a thick-bottomed pan and keep aside for some time.

2. Grease a dish and the bottom of a bowl. Keep aside.

3. Now put the pan with the coconut on low flame and cook stirring constantly.

4. When the mixture is done the whole thing starts to form a lump in the pan, also the upper portion starts to dry up. Now add elichi powder.

5. Now transfer the mixture to the greased dish and with a greased bowl press the mixture to form a thin layer.

6. Cool a bit then cut into cubes/diamonds Cut into & cool.

Lime Pickle/ Limba che lonche/ Limbikai Upinkai

Spicy Lime Pickle

Of all the pickles that abound the planet earth LIME PICKLE is my favourite.

Both Mom and Mom- in –law made lovely pickle. My mouth waters at the thought, all my efforts to make pickle like them ended with the lime giving up, frustrated with me.

So life continued with store brought pickles.

 They were nice but not like what I remembered.

 I had the recipe to make the pickle but not on the job experience. This is where my neighbour a sweet old lady came into picture. She told me the trick is to stir the pickle with a dry spoon everyday. I quote her ," Chamcha firaw, khalce war and war the khalei kar" !  Which litrelly tanslates as stir it thoroughly.

Here are the ingredients:

25 lime, washed dried and quartered

¾ cup salt

I tsp heaped haldi/turmeric

10 grms hing/asafoetida

1   cup sugar (about 200 grams)

1 cup chilli powder( I use a mixture of 1/2 Kashmiri chilli powder and Badgi Cchilli powder)

You will also need a dry jar sterilised.

Method:

1.        Mix the cut pieces of lime with salt.

2.       Put in the dry bottle and close the lid tight.

3.       Stir the mixture with a dry spoon everyday for 8 days. Inhale the beautiful fragrance everyday when you open the bottle. If it smells good you are on the right track.

4.       On the 8^th day mix, in a big kadhi mix the sugar with a tblspn of water and heat to soft ball stage.

5.       Remove from heat. Add the hing/asafoetida powder, haldi/turmeric and chilli powder. Mix a little and add the lime pieces from the bottle.

6.       Mix well till all the chilli powder is evenly spread in the entire mixture.

7.       Return to the bottle.

8.       Stir again and serve after 8 days.

P.S. If you lime yours sweet and spicy increase the sugar by 1/2 cup and reduce chilli powder by 1/4 cup

Narkasur

Today is Narak Chaturdashi, the day the demon Narkasur is killed by Lord Krishna.  

Here in Goa we have effigies of Narkasur almost everywhere. This is something I have not seen in Maharashtra or Karnataka so I feel it is uniquely Goan culture.

The process of building… nay making of Narkasur is very fascinating. 

First you start off with some hay and sacks wrapped on   scrap iron skeleton.  Next   papier-mache the skin and spray paint him.    Early in the evening you see Narkasur flaunting his body and jewellery sans the head which is fixed later at dusk.  Some music and lights and the show is on.

A chariot readied waiting for its Krishna 

There are Narkasur competitions and after food people make it a point visit as many as possible, as     unfortunately these Narkasur are burnt at dawn signifying the victory of GOOD OVER EVIL!!


Happy Diwali