Saaru Upkari (Black Eyed Peas Soup)

Happy New Year all! The last and only konkani dish I have posted so far was the spicy and tangy batate song (potato gravy). I am going to make a conscious effort to post more konkani dishes - really simple ones. Coz honestly, I can't make the traditional konkani dishes that typically involve the coconut. :| I think it's high time I learnt them - but the husband isn't a fan of the coconut - ARGH!

Saaru upkari is a really simple konkani dish and can be made with any dried beans like white peas, navy beans, chick peas - etc. Saaru in konkani means soupy water, like rasam. Upkari is sabzi or stir fry. So, this combines both in a single dish! One of the reasons I like this recipe is that it doesn't need a lot of ingredients and you don't need to constantly stand near the stove and monitor it.

Recipe

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

Dried beans of your choice - 1 cup (I typically use black eyed peas)
Green chillies, slit - 2
Water - 1 to 2 cups (depends on how much soup you want)
Salt to taste

For seasoning
Dried red chillies, broken - 2/3
Garlic pods, chopped - 2 big ones. Garlic is the key ingredient here, so don't be afraid to add a strong seasoning!
Oil - 1 tsp

Method

- Soak the beans overnight or at least for about 8 hrs. Pressure cook them until soft and mushy.

- Take the cooked beans in a sauce pan, add the slit green chillies, water and salt.

- The dried beans are pretty bland on their own, so make sure you bring it to a good boil. I let it boil at least for 5 mins on a high flame and then simmer on low for another 10 mins. Don't forget to stir in between and you can even mash the cooked beans slightly with your spatula.

- For the seasoning, heat a tsp of oil and add the chopped garlic. Let it brown slightly and then add the dried red chillies, allowing it to fry a bit.

- Add it to the saucepan, switch off the flame and let the cooked beans soak in all the flavors.

Have it with rice and pappad. I usually devour this as soup with just a few rice grains and lots of pappad pieces! Yummmmm!

Batate Saung (Spicy potato sabzi)

I think I am going to take back my words from the previous post where I said the blog was all about food and recipes and not about me. It is of course about me and mainly my experience with food and cooking. Just giving a heads up!
Here is my first recipe (rather my mom's recipe) , a very common konkani dish - batate saung. Saung in konkani, generally means a spicy, thick gravy and in this case it's a spicy potato gravy. 

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 15-20 mins

Ingredients:
2 -3 medium sized potatoes - peeled and cut into small cubes
1 medium sized onion - half cut into cubes and the other half chopped
2 tsp oil
quarter tsp tamrind paste diluted in water or a small piece of tamrind that has been soaked in water
1 to 2 tsp chilli powder (as per spice level)
salt as per taste

Method:
First pressure cook the potatoes and the first half of onions together with just enough water for about 2 -3 whistles. Let them cool down. 

In a kadai, saute the chopped onions till they become soft. Add the chilli powder and saute for a few seconds. Now add the cooked potato-onion in the kadai and cook on a medium flame. Add the tamrind paste (or the squeezed tamrind juice), salt and mix it well into the sabzi. Cover and cook on a low flame for a few minutes until the gravy thickens a bit. Your batate saung is ready!

This sabzi is super easy and super quick to make. If you want to save time, you can just microwave the potatoes, mash it into medium sized lumps, chop all the onions together and follow the same procedure. The reason the onions are also cooked along with the potatoes are so they form a nice, thick gravy while cooking.

The sabzi goes well with rice, rotis or even as a side dish for idlis or dosas. Today I had it with pita bread but one of my favorite combinations is rice, simple dal with batate saung.