 While seafood dominates the Kokani Muslim cuisine, there are other forms of meat too that the Kokani’s enjoy eating. Apart from seafood, MAAS or mutton is also popular in the #KokaniMuslim cuisine. Unlike seafood it is not used for everyday cooking. It's use is reserved for special ocassions, festivals, weddings and family get togethers.
The curries so made are relished with DHAAN (steamed rice), BAGHARI DHAAN (Also called Sada Pulao made by tempering rice with sliced onions &/or whole spices) and SAANDAN(steamed rice cakes). Mutton is used to make a number of flavourful curry dishes called MAASACHA SAALNA, SHIKORI, GORISO etc. depending upon the region in the coast you are from. A common way of preparing the mutton is a flavourful gravy or saalna as Kokanis call their gravies. Also, Kokanis love to flavour their non-seafood preps too with smokiness of roasted coconut so this dish too is not spared from the addition of coconut. We savour this dish most with saandan or traditional steamed rice cake. This combination brings back childhood memories of Eid day when grandma would have saalna and saandan prepared as a festive meal. Here is my recipe of arriving at this flavourful curry.
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 This is a winter special sweet delight made from the calabash/bottle gourd in our Kokani Muslim community. Evers since I was a child, every winter without fail I have seen the calabash making its way from our village to our Mumbai home only to be used for this dish by my late grandmother and thereafter my mother.
The recipe is noteworthy in the way it is slow-cooked for hours and entails use of onions although it is a sweet dish. The calabash is mixed with chopped onions, jaggery, coconut, green cardamom, cinnamon and cooked very gradually to allow intense caramelization to take place. Once ready this preparation is relished as is or with chaawrachi roti (rice flour bhaakris/chapatis). I am very happy to post this recipe and it has also been featured in Mumbai Mirror and Pune Mirror today. Here is the link to the epaper to find same: https://www.google.co.in/amp/punemirror.indiatimes.com/others/you/winter-is-coming-on-your-plate/amp_articleshow/61896420.cms  In the Kokani Muslim cuisine, khichri or blend of dal-rice cooked in a mixture of thin coconut milk and water. Hence it is called NAARALI KHICHRI.
Coconuts are abundant in the Konkan coast and hence lend themselves to use in myriad dishes. While the thick milk is used in curries and sweet dishes, the last extract or thin milk is often used for cooking rice and lends a beautiful flavour to the rice dish. This khichri is often served as an accompaniment with a spicy seafood curry and thinned curd maatha. So on the ocassion of #KhichdiDay here is the recipe of this flavourful dish:  It’s Diwali, the festival of lights and a time to indulge in some sumptuous sweet delights. Since everyone is adding to the festive cheer with traditional recipes, I thought of making a very traditional sweet, SHAKARPAALE to celebrate the occasion with friends. The most popular version of this sweet is a deep fried one made with refined flour and is crispy in texture. However, the Kokani Muslim one is that made of semolina, not deep-fried and has a crumbly texture.
So, here is my recipe for adding a sweet touch to Diwali celebrations today:  All my childhood years I have seen every winter without fail my grandmother would make these laddus. Packed with the nutritional goodness of fenugreek (methi) seeds, jaggery, ghee and much more, these laddus have a peculiar bitter-sweet profile. While in our Kokani Muslim community we generally relish these as a winter sweet, women who are in their early post-natal months too are prescribed to consume these.
Every household has their own rendition of arriving at the recipe which has usually been passed down from one generation of ladies in the family to the next by mere word of mouth. Here is my rendition of the recipe for arriving at crumbly textured methi che laadu for celebrating #LadduDay today:  This recipe is a very traditional way of preparing eggplants in the Kokani Muslim cuisine.
Coarsely powdered toasted, black sesame seeds are introduced in an onion-coconut-dry spices masala that serves as filling and doubles up as gravy base too for the eggplants. This dish is best relished with chaawrachi roti or rice flour flat breads or steamed rice. Here is the detailed recipe for your perusal:  Coconut is used extensively in Kokani Muslim cuisine and is also a key ingredient of some traditional chutneys. A very special cooked chutney recipe with scraped coconut is Shijleli Naralaachi Chutney that is enjoyed as a dish with fresh rice flour bhakris.
So, as a round up to #ChutneyDay on Sept 24 here is my recipe for this chutney.  In Kokani Muslim cuisine the use of dry red chillies for chutneys and masala is a common practice. The chutney made with these chillies called LAAL MIRCHYACHI CHUTNEY is often an accompaniment with a rice delicacy of the cuisine called 'gudh pulao'.
So, as round up to #ChutneyDay on Sept 24 here is my second recipe.  Its #ChutneyDay on September 24, so as my round up to it I am sharing some traditional Kokani Muslim chutney recipes. Kokani Muslims are an ethnic clan that inhabit the Konkan stretches of Maharashtra state in India. As a result of proximity to the sea, coconuts are in abundance in the region and hence utilized to a great extent by the community in their cooking.
Today I am sharing the recipe of BHUJLELYA SUKHYA KHOBRYACHI CHUTNEY or a flavourful, roasted, dried coconut chutney that is relished with dal rice (varan bhaat) or rice chapatis (taandulchi bhaakri). Traditionally chutneys, even masalas were made on the grinding stone or ‘paata-varvatta’ (the term for the pair of grinding stones in our Kokani dialect). So, I have used a grinding stone and not a machine blender to make the chutney. Hence I could achieve a beautiful texture and lots of flavour. Here is how the recipe goes.  Rice being a staple in the Konkan coast of Maharashtra also finds itself at the center of Kokani Muslim gastronomy. In Marathi rice is referred to as taandul whereas in the dialect Kokani Muslim community speak, rice is called chaur. Stemming from rice, the community prepares chaawrachi roti or as the dish is popularly known, tandulchi bhaakri on a regular basis. This unleavened rice flour flat bread is traditionally eaten during all three meals of the day - in breakfast with various egg preparations and for lunch/dinner with flavourful stir-fries and gravies.
Here is the recipe followed in my kitchen to make this humble chaawrachi roti: |
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December 2018
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