Bonda Soup

Bonda is a South Indian word for any snack that is round in shape and deep fried. To give an example, the famous Medhu Vada, is actually a “Bonda with a hole”!

The ‘Bonda Soup” is a specialty of Karnataka. I have been told that it is a delicacy of North Karnataka. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Few restaurants in Bangalore have this tasty snack on their menu. I have eaten this in one of the restaurants in Bangalore and found it to be very delicious. The Bonda is actually our “Biscut Aambado” (Konkani word for Medhu Vada) and the soup is our good old “Daali-Thoy”; except that the soup is made a little watery and instead of asafetida, ginger is used.

 

Bonda Soup

Ingredients for Bonda

Udad Dal (split black gram dal)	1 cup
Green chilies (chopped)	2
Curry leaves only (chopped)	3-4 sprigs
Fresh Coconut gratings/pieces	2 tbsps
Asafoetida	½ tsp
Salt	As per taste
Oil	For deep frying
Water (for dipping fingers)	1 small bowl

Method :

Bonda Batter

1. Wash and soak the udad dal for about 3 hours.
2. Then drain the water and grind them to a fine paste preferably without adding any water.  A little water may be added for the mixie to run.
3. Place the ground batter in a bowl. To this add the green chilies, curry leaves, grated/small pieces of fresh coconut, asafetida and salt. Mix well and keep it aside.
4. In a kadai or a deep frying pan, heat oil till it is hot and then lower the flame to medium.
5. First wet your fingers in a bowl of water and take a small quantity of the above prepared mixture and drop them gently in the hot oil.
6. At a time, drop about 6 -7 bondas (depending upon the size of your kadai) in the hot oil.
7. If the batter is ground well, the bondas will float on top within a few seconds. Fry them till they are golden brown in colour.
8.  Then remove them with a slotted spoon.
9. Continue in this manner for the remaining batter.

Ingredients for Soup

Toor Dal	¾ cup
Moong Dal	¼ cup
Green chilies (slit)	2
Ginger (chopped)	½ inch piece
Tomatoes (medium) chopped	2
Lime juice	2tsps
Salt	As per taste
Coriander leaves (chopped)	2 tbsps
Seasoning Ingredients:
Oil	2 tsps
Mustard seeds	1 tsp
Dry red chilies	1-2
Curry leaves	1-2 sprigs

Method:

1. Wash the Toor Dal and Moong Dal together and cook them in a pressure cooker for 12 mins.
2. Remove the cooked dals from the cooker and place it in a saucepan and mash well.
3. Add about 2-3 cups of water, slit green chillies, chopped tomatoes, chopped ginger and salt and bring it to a boil. Lower the flame and let it simmer for a few minutes.
4. In a small pan, add oil and then add the seasoning ingredients (mustard seeds and dry red chilies) and when the mustard seeds start spluttering, add the curry leaves. Remove from the flame and immediately pour it over the cooked dal.
5. Mix well and garnish it with chopped coriander leaves and lime juice.
6. Serve hot.

Makes: 24 Bondas

Bondas

Close-up of  Bondas

  
Soup

How to serve:

Bond Soup

• While serving, place the bondas and the soup in two separate bowls.
• Just before eating, dunk bonda in the soup.

Note:

• Grind the batter till its smooth and a few bubbles come on top. The crispiness of the bondas is directly proportional to the smoothness and fluffiness of the ground batter.
• For the soup, I added moong dal too. You may omit it if you so desire.

Bendekayi Gojju (Okra curry)

This is a typical Banglorean dish and a very tasty one too. In kannada language, "bendekayi" means lady's finger or okra as it is also called and "gojju" means curry.

I got this recipe from TOI (Times Of India) some months ago and tried this with a few alterations. Since its  a hit in our family, I do this quite often. Appearance wise, this dish looks like our regular Konkani "Sagle" which all the "Amchis" relish and are familiar with! The similarity however ends here. Tastewise, it differs though both are equally good.  I will leave it to you to try it out and judge for yourself!

Another easy and tasty recipe made form lady's finger is the "Stuffed Okra", which you can see here.

Ingredients:

Okra	250 gms
Onion (chopped)	1 medium
Grated coconut	1 cup
Tamarind	A marble sized ball
Jaggery powder	1 tsp
Sambhar powder	2 heaped tsp
Coriander leaves	A small bunch
Salt	As per taste
Seasoning ingredients
Oil	4 tsps
Mustard seeds	1 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Hing/asafetida	A pinch

Method:

Okras being Stir-Fried

Ground Masala

1. Wash the okras and pat them dry with a kitchen towel and after cutting off the edges, cut them into 2”-3” in length and keep aside.
2. Heat half the oil in a pan (preferably non-stick or a heavy bottomed one) and fry the chopped onions till golden brown in colour. Remove and allow it to cool.
3. Combine grated coconut, the fried and cooled onions, jaggery, sambhar powder, tamarind and coriander leaves (washed and chopped) in a blender and grind it into a smooth paste.
4. Heat the same pan (where onions were fried) on medium flame, add the remaining oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves and hing. Once it stops spluttering, add the cut okras and fry them till they are almost cooked. Sprinkle a little water if necessary so that the okras do not stick to the pan.
5. Add salt and stir fry till they are cooked.
6. Now add the ground masala. Mix well. Add a little water if necessary. Allow the masala to be absorbed for a few minutes and then remove from flame.
7. Serve hot.

Serves: 3

Note:

• If the okras or lady's finger are small in size, you can keep them whole (after chopping the ends) and making a slit lengthwise (to check for any worms). I am a little paranoid about this.
• Stir-Frying the okras is necessary to prevent them from letting out a glue like substance.
• Instead of the regular tamarind, you can also use the tamarind extract whch is now easily available in the super market - in which case you can use about 1/2 - 3/4 tsp of the tamarind extract.
• This dish tastes good with rice and dal or rice and curd or even with chapatis.

Gharayi (Jackfruit Payasam)

In my last post, I had written about Jackfruit and had promised you all some sweet dishes using this fruit as the major ingredient. The first such dish is "Gharayi" which is commonly used as a dessert.

“Gharayi” (payasam /sweet dish) is derived from the konkani word "Gharaw" i.e. jackfruit plums. This is a very tasty sweet dish and is prepared during weddings or any religious festivals or during the jackfruit season!!

Generally coconut milk required for this recipe, is prepared by grinding the freshly grated coconut with water and squeezing out the juice. Ofcourse it gives a better flavour when prepared this way. But as you know, I always take the easier way out i.e. buying the coconut milk in tetra pack – it saves a lot of time.

Ingredients:

Jackfruit plums	8
Coconut milk	1 cup or 150 ml
Ghee (clarified butter)	1 tsp
Semolina (fine sooji)	¼ cup
Jaggery (powdered)	2-3 tbsps
Raisins	8-10
Cardamom powder	1 tsp
Water	3- 4 cups

Method:

1. Chop Jackfruit plums into cubes and set aside.
2. Roast Semolina (fine sooji) with ghee for about 5-7 minutes and set aside.
3. Boil water and add to it the chopped jackfruit plums. Cook on medium flame till they are soft.
4. Add roasted semolina. When semolina is cooked, add powdered jaggery.
5. When jaggery (molasses) is dissolved, add coconut milk and bring it to boil.
6. Add raisins and cardamom powder. Stir well and remove from flame.
7. Serve hot.

Serves : 4

Note:

• Jackfruit plums cook quickly so do not over cook it.
• It is always advisable to soak raisins in cold water first for 10-15 mins and then squeeze out the water completely before adding to the payasam.
• If the payasam consistency is thick, add more water.

Mixed Vegetable Pickle

This is my mother’s wonderful pickle recipe. In Konkani language it is known as ”Kochla Naunche”. This is generally prepared during rainy season when a lot of vegetables are available.

I make this often as my daughter and my husband are very fond of it. When some of the dishes are not to their liking, then out comes the pickle bottle !! As my daughter always says that whenever a dish does not turn out well, then a spoonful of this pickle on it will make that dish very delicious !!

Ingredients :

Lemon or Raw Mango	1 ½
Cauliflower	a small bunch
Tendle/Gherkin	7-8
Ginger	½” piece
Green chilies	4
Dry Red chilies	10
Mustard seeds	5 tsps
Asafoetida	½ tsp
Water	1 cup
Salt	5 heaped tsps

Method :

• Boil water with the salt and allow it to cool completely.
• Wash cauliflower, gherkin/tendle, ginger, lemon/raw mango, and pat them dry with a clean towel.
  
• Cut cauliflower into tiny florets, chop lemon/raw mango, gherkin, ginger and green chilies into tiny pieces.
• Add all the chopped vegetables into the cooled salted water and keep it covered overnight .
• Next day, grind red chilies finely with the same salted water (in which the chopped vegetables are added). No additional water is to be used.
• Then add mustard seeds and grind (coarsely) for a few minutes. Add asafoetida to it and run the mixer to mix it well.
• Add this ground mixture to the vegetable-salted water mixture. Mix well.
• Fill this in an aritight glass jar and refrigerate it.

Note :

This is a very tasty, easy to prepare and colorful looking pickle. You can also add carrots to it. It contains no oil and no drying in the sun. The amount of chilies used depends on individual taste.The pickle when refrigerated will last for a fortnight or so.

Suggestion: It is normally eaten with freshly made Shevai, idli/Khotto, aappau etc. Ofcourse, it tastes good with rice and chapattis too.