Monday, January 14, 2013

Batate Pej Upkari


Blogging had taken a backseat last year. I was busy with my course,my little boy and a new place. Hopefully this year I will work on blogging not out of compulsion but because I am proud and much in love with this adorable space of mine. I plan to document a lot of family recipes along with the rugular ones from my kitchen. I wish to get into the world of baking and conquer the yeast monster. I have a packet of yeast that I bought some time ago but I am still not confident of going ahead and using it. This year is going to be different in a lot of terms. I wish to step out of my comfort zone in terms of food and would love to try out a variety of dishes.  Hopefully I will present them here.

This is a simple dish that I first tasted at temple feast. During our annual car festival which lasts 6 days, we have a lot of festivities followed by samaraadhana (naivedyam food served which itself is a feast). This feast starts late in the afternoon and goes on till 7-8 PM.  People sit on floor with a mat/newspaper and the food is served on plantain leaf. hundreds of volunteer gather dressed in traditional attire and serve thousands of devotees. In the mornings before the festivities start pejje jevan where kongee (rice porridge) is served. This is served with simple dishes like this pej upkari or exotic dishes like kadgi chakko( made with unripe green jackfruit) etc on a plantain leaf.  The gathering for the Pejje jevan is less compared to the evening samaraadhana. Thousands of people gather to seek blessings from Lord Venkatramana and partake in the samaraadhana. How I miss those days where you could meet friends and family and have fun! I miss Mangalore ~ a small yet beautiful place.

Coming back to this dish, it has minimum ingredients and yet tastes heavenly. Normally potatoes are not peeled for this dish but I did for the little boy.

Here is whats needed:
2 medium potatoes
a big pinch of hing
2 green chilies slit
salt to taste

Seasoning:
1 tbsp oil (Preferably coconut oil)
5 curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal

Procedure:
1) Wash and scrub the potatoes. Chop them into bite sized pieces with the peel on. Add water, green chilies and salt and cook till soft and done
2) Prepare seasoning by heating oil and add mustard seeds when they crackle add urad dal, followed by curry leaves and hing. Pour this seasoning over the potato mixture and serve hot with rice and dalithoy!
Simple as it can get and tastes divine. Simple pleasures

5 comments:

great-secret-of-life said...

Simple and yummy dish

http://great-secret-of-life.blogspot.com

sra said...

I don't think I've seen any potato dish look so white, I've got to make this now. It took me quite a while to recognise the fact that the fewer the spices, the sharper the taste.

Rajani said...

How simple and flavourful can this get! I can imagine the hing making the potatoes dance!!!

sourabh gupta said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hing making the potatoes dance... Nicely said. ;)