Khatkhate

I set out to make Khatkhate, a Goan delicacy but it was such a disaster that I have to record it, after this blog is all about my trails by the stove(& of course also by my long suffering Family).

Khatkhate is vegetable that has delicate flavours of a mixture of various vegetable like Munli in Konkani or arbi in Hindi, potatoes, raddish, white peas (soaked overnight), carrots, pumpkin, maize, , raw banana, ammado(Konkani) hog plum in English, cauliflower . The vegetable are boiled in salted water in the order as listed above and the next is added as the first is half cooked.

In the end fresh coconut (I needed 1 ½ coconut ) freshly grated , with 1 tsp odf coriander seeds, haldi, red chillies ground fine is added and simmered. Adjust salt to taste.

My recipe the disaster started with toooooooo much of water, so finally I had to use corn flour to thicken my gravy.

The end result in Girish's words, "its a cross between khatkhate and udmethi."

Better luck next time family dearest!!

Nan Katai

I am writing after a long time, my excuse again is lack of time. Anyway between office, home and playing Caesar I seem to have very little time.

The other day I had made Nan Katai only the kids were told that I am baking cookies. It was after they demolished the entire batch that I told them what the cookies are called and now I am being sweet-talked into making more of them.

This is the basic recipe.

2 cups or 150 grams Maida
¼ tsp Baking powder
¾ cup or 100 grams ghee
1 cup or 115 grams sugar
2 tsp curds
½ tsp cardamom/elichi /yallaki and nutmeg/jaiphal/jajikai powders

1. Sieve Maida with the baking powder 3 times.
2. Beat the ghee, add sugar and beat well again.
3. Add the flavourings, curds mix.
4. Add the maida and make balls.
5. Bake at 180ºC on a greased foil. Allow room as the nan katai spread.

My variation, this time is
1/3 cup of a mixture of milk powder and Bombay rava and 3 tblspn cocoa powder. I also used self raising flour instead of the maida and hence I left out the baking powder. Yes I also used vanilla essence about ¼ tsp. Since the mixture was too dry I have used approximately 1 cup milk. This I think is avoidable if you let the mixture stand for about 1 hour it becomes soft as purl dough.

Next time I am going to reduce the amount of ghee and use some milk.

I got 27 pieces, but of course, you have to take into account the fact that some of the balls were made by Akanksha.

You could also use cookie cutters to give it some nice shapes.

Macaroni Supreme

On Friday I told Apeksha, my elder daughter that she has to cook lunch for us on Sunday; she was 'Head Chef' & I the Assistant. I gave her my recipe book and let her choose. Her choice was Tarla Dalal's Macaroni Supreme from the 'Joys of Vegetarian Cooking.'

The whole thing was fraught with some anxious moments, like the recipe for white sauce, we were supposed to add flour to the butter after it had melted we did not and were worried that the sauce may become 'brown sauce' .

I was worried that the baking of the whole thing may fizzle out, it may not set, most importantly no one will like it and Apeksha will be facing a disappointment.

Happily my fears were all laid to rest, as everyone liked it.

The ingredients are

3 teacups boiled macaroni (dry weight 180g)

3 ½ teacups white sauce (we used 4 cups)

½ teacup parsley

¼ tsp nutmeg powder

½ tsp dried oregano

1 teacup cheese (grated)

1 sliced tomato

A little butter

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

1. Add parsley, nutmeg powder, oregano salt pepper and ¾ cup of cheese to the white sauce.
2. Mix macaroni and the white sauce and spread on a greased baking tray. Put the tomato slices on top.
3. Cover with remaining cheese and dot with butter. Bake in a hot oven at 450ºF or 232ºC for about 25 minutes.
4. Serve hot.

White Sauce

This recipe is copied from Tarla Dalal's 'The Joys of Vegetarian Cooking'. It makes 2 tea cups of white sauce.

2 tblspn butter

2 tblspn flour

2 teacups milk

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

1. Melt the butter, add the flour and cook for 2 minutes without browning, stir throughout.
2. Remove from heat and gradually add the milk .mix well until blended.
3. Return to heat and cook slowly, stirring throughout until the sauce thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.