Aviksha's Kitchen

There are variety of pickles. But my  favorite  is mixed vegetable pickle. Mixed vegetable pickle is spicy and tangy with lots of vegetable flavours and no oil. You can choose vegetables you like for this dish. The lifespan of this pickle is more than 2 month. Easy and very easy dish that goes well with rice, paej/rice soup, idli or dosa. In Konkani, Nonche means pickle and this dish has a lot of red gravy which makes it look more attractive.  NOTE :  Can add vegetables like beans, cauliflower, green chilly, lemon, ginger, carrot, ivy gourd/tendle and raw mango. Raw mango or lemon skin(keylime) should be fresh and sour.  Vegetables should be fresh too.  Lemon skin(keylime) should not have it's skin dried.  Use green chilly with no black seeds. Make sure that all the bowls,spoons, mixer jar, blender and vessels used during making pickle should be dry and clean with no water drops.   The pickle tastes best after 3-4 days once th...

My husband and I like the bitter gourd Fries.  Bitter gourd was one such vegetable that I hated as a kid and slowly started to like the fried bitter gourds after marriage.  We love to have it on rainy seasons and that was the reason for me to get the bitter gourd from the market. But unfortunately we both fell sick and I wanted to avoid the fried items but I had bitter gourds in my fridge and I had to use it. I tried to find out bitter gourd dishes but I was interested in none of them. Finally, decideD to make bitter gourd pickle that goes well with rice soup/paej.  Bitter Gourd Pickle/Karathe Kudko has a spicy coating and that tempted me the most as I love spicy food. This dish turned out to be so tasty and  mind blowing that now I prefer this instead of bitter gourd fries. You too try this and experience the spicy and sour taste of it. You have to taste it atleast once and the other advantage of this dish is it can be stored for weeks in an airtight container. ...

Kokam is a dark red colored fruit. Kokum Kadhi / Curry is a Goan / Konkan drink. It is good for digestion and acts as a cooler. Can have it lukewarm or chilled as a drink or along with plain rice. This is a curry prepared with no boiling process involved. Kokum Kadhi is very tangy and easy to make. Some people temper this curry with red chilly, mustard seeds.cumin seeds and curry leaves. This is made out of coconut milk and garlic cloves. Thus, this curry is little sour and spicy and can consumed as an appetizing drink. It gives a soothing effect by having it on hot summer. NOTE :  Number of chilies depend on how spicy they are. I am using 5 as mine are not very spicy. Can serve the kokum kadhi immediately or can keep it in a fridge and then serve cold. Remember, leftover kokum kadhi  should be refigerated as coconut milk can get spoiled in the hot weather. Can add a pinch of asafoetida also. Preparation Time : 30 Minutes Cooking Time : 5 Minutes...

Pan Polo / Neer Dose is a Mangalorean Dish. We get the best rice flour in Sinagapore, which is so fine that there is no need to soak the rice grains and to grind it. Thus this is the easiest dosa and very simple and quick to make. It is instant recipe and yet very tasty. Good for morning breakfast or with evening tea. This is called 'Pan Polo' in Konkani and 'Neer Dose' in Kannada . 'Neer' means water and 'Dose' means Dosa. Thus this dosa is so thin like a paper. Normally, this dish is made by soaking the rice grains for atleast 4 hours or overnight and grinding it with coconut to form a very thin batter with no fermentation process involved. Can be served with any type of chutneys, pickles, butter, sambar, kodel, gashi, veg or non-veg gravy, honey and ghee or with sugar.  NOTE : Optional - Can use grated coconut if needed. This will make the dosa soft. I am adding 2 tbsp coconut to make it more soft add 1/2 coconut. Adding Cumin seeds gives you n...

This is my favorite dish. Sambar is called as Kolmbo in Konkani. I prepare this dish atleast once in a week. Very simple, tasty and easy recipe. It goes well with plain rice, idli, dosa and ragi balls. I use sambar powder prepared by my  mother-in-law . Before I used to make it from MTR or Ganesh sambar powder. I will post someday the recipe for my mother-in-law's sambar powder. Who ever has tasted my mother-in-law's kolmbo has become a fan of it and I too belong to that group. So my mother-in-law gets me a bottle of sambar powder every time. NOTE : We are adding turmeric powder and oil while boiling toor dal as it helps to boil fast. I am not cooking toor dal and vegetables together because toor dal will take more time to cook by then all the vegetables will get over-cooked. Better to dissolve sambar / kolmbo powder in water or tamarind water. Time Taken : 20-25 Minutes Yield : 3-4 servings Sambar / Kolmbo Ingredients: Seasoning : Red Chillies ...

Vaali Ambat is a very famous Konkani dish. Vaali means malabar spinach or Indian spinach or ceylon spinach in English. Well, this is a traditional Konkani curry which we call it as ambat. This curry can be prepared with any kind of leafy vegetables, pulses or vegetables. Along with pulses or leafy vegetables one can add raw papaya, yellow / Mangalore cucumber,yam, fresh prawns, dry prawn / shrimps to enhance the taste. This dish is very healthy as it is rich in proteins, fiber and minerals. Malabar Spinach or Vaali grows as a creeper and we have this grown in our house at Mysore. We use it fresh when needed to make this curry and the aroma spreads in the entire house. Tender stem is used in the curry but the harder part is a waste. This curry is made out of coconut, toor dal and fried onions for seasoning. NOTE :  Number of chilies depend on how spicy they are. I am using 8 as mine are not very spicy. Adding Turmeric Powder and little oil will help to cook ...

Upkari means a side dish in Konkani. Cabbage Upkari is very simple and tasty. This recipe can be made with not only cabbage but with any veggies like beans, snake gourd,potato or pumpkin. Cabbage Upkari is a side dish for lunch or dinner. NOTE :   Number of green chilies depend on how spicy they are. I am using 5 as mine are not very  spicy. Don't add water as cabbage leaves little water on cooking or use steaming method by covering the pan with a broad plate/thali instead of lid and adding some water on top of the plate so that the water in the plate doesn't allow veggies to get burnt or stick to the bottom of the pan. People who are diet conscious can skip adding coconut. Optional - Can add 1/2 tbsp turmeric powder and a pinch of asafoetida. Cabbage with grated coconut has a low life span so consume within a day or refrigerate. Cabbage cooks much faster than any other vegetables so be careful. Preparation time : 5 minutes Cooking Time : 7 Minute...

This dish is very popular in South India. In different states this recipe is known in various names. In Karnataka and Tamilnadu, they call it as masala vada. In Kerala, parippu vada and in rest of the states of India it is well known as Dal vada. In Konkoni, they call it as Chet Ambodo. Very delicious snack  well known for it's texture and is crunchy outside and puffy inside. You get this snack in almost all the tea stalls of South India. You too enjoy this snack along with hot tea and experience it's  awesome taste. NOTE :   Number of green chilies depend on how spicy they are. I am using 6 as mine are not very  spicy. For Masala Vada, we add crushed garlic fennel seeds, mint and onion. Optional - Can add 1 onion finely chopped and 3/4 tsp garam masala if needed. Don't add water while grinding. Green Chilies can be replaced by red chilies. If we don't soak chana dal and urad dal for enough time, vada might become hard and very crispy. Some people use...

This is a very famous Konkani dish high in proteins and thus very healthy. Very simple, tasty and easy recipe.  Kulithu means horse gram in Konkani and thus the name Kultha Kadhi/Soup. Goes well with plain rice. In Villages, the cattle's are fed with cooked horse gram and the water used to cook is used by the people as a soup. They also make a thick syrup of this by boiling for hours and store it. And later use it whenever needed. Some people call it as kultha saar-upkari which means gravy and a dry item of horse gram. They boil the horse gram in a water and then they separate the water and horsegram. The water separated will be seasoned with garlic and chilies and will be called saaru and the separated horse gram will be seasoned with garlic and chilly and this is called upkari. I prefer not to separate and have it together.  NOTE :   Can use yellow or old cucumber along with this. Can separate water and horse gram if need...