Monday, January 21, 2008

Batatya Upkari Ani Daalitoy (Potato Curry and Daal-South Canara Style)















Batatya Upkari (Left Hand Side)
Daalitoy (Right Hand Side)

Speaking of Konkanis and to be more specific, at my place, this is the most sought after meal.
Some of them swear this Daal to be their 'Kul-Dev', while the other lot prefers to simply slurp it down tossed with melted ghee! The accompaniment is dry curry which is generally called 'Upkari' and can be made of several veggies, but our fave is either Tendley(Gherkins) or Batato ( Potato).
The potato curry is usually garnished with freshly scraped coconut, but I have skipped that.


Batatya Upkari :

Ingredients -
6 medium sized potatoes
1 tsp rai
5-6 red chillies (bydagi)
Salt
Oil

Method -
Wash the potatoes thoroughly. The potatoes are not peeled. Cut into french fries style mini pieces. (As shown in pic). Heat around a tbspn of cooking oil in kadhai, pop the mustard seeds, halve the chillies and add till glossy with oil. Next add the cut potatoes, stir till coated uniformly with oil, cover the lid, allow to cook in its own steam, stir in-between so that it doesn't stick to the bottom. Add salt to taste. Cook for 10-15 min or until done. It should get cooked but not mashed, the shape should be intact. Cover till serving for flavours to blend. Garnish with a tbspn of freshly scraped coconut if desired.


Daalitoy or Toay :

Ingredients -

1 cup tuvar daal
1 pinch hing powder / lapsi sized crystal of hing
2 green chillies
1 tbspn coconut oil
1 tsp rai
5-6 red chillies (byadgi)
Ghee while serving

Method -
Pressure cook daal along with green chillies with double the amount of water for upto 3 whistles.
In a vessel take salt and hing (dilute the crystals if using those with warm water) pour the daal in it, churn it a little. (At this stage add more water if you like it liquidy or let it just be if you like it thick.) Throw away the cooked green chillies. Simmer the daal again on gas top, medium flame. In a tadka pan, heat coconut oil and pop the mustard seeds, add the halved byadgi chillies till glossy and pour it over the boiling daal. Put the flame off and cover with lid for flavours to blend.

Serve hot rice, top the rice with ghee, pour Daalitoy and relish it with Batatya Upkari!!


(PS: This is how the dish is made by my mother, there are variations and combinations that people like and I am representing only my family's taste here.)


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8 comments:

KonkaniBlogger said...

Aahhh !!! Ofcourse its kuldev for me, terrific combo, simple and satisfying :)..I love Dalitoy with phodis or even just papad and pickle...And batatya upkari is heaven for me.. Haav atta daalitoyak phanna ghalnu ayile, talk of coincidence :)..

Shilpa said...

Hahahaha..the disclaimer to the post is good... no chance for a lengthy discussion about what is daali thoy :D.

I love this combo too. V can give anything for this.

Meera said...

Purnima, this is comfort food indeed. We call this batatya talasani. Our version also has a tiny amount of hing. and smeared with coconut oil. but loved the way u have explained cut into french fries style. that's exactly we make at home. Batatya talasani, dali tauy & shith(rice) -- I am hungry now, and I just had my dinner!! drooling!!:-)

Purnima said...

Maya --> Hey my mother is a big phodi fan! (Gulla phodi goes so very well with this!)

Shilpa --> Sandra incident can happen anywhere! So better b safe! :D

Meera --> Batatya talasani is new name with hing+coco oil, hmm? In Mumbai when I was working on potatoes for making upkari, hub's cousin who is a secondary student and loves french fries asked me whether I was making 'Mini French Fries' for him! Thats how I mentioned it here! :D

indosungod said...

Love anything made with potatoes, love your version of the dish. How we cut the potatoes also make a lot of difference to the taste :)

Purnima said...

ISG-->Try it once, you will love it.

Siri said...

Hey Purnina... The potato curry looks so yummy...:) U can send it to Potato Events - Ode to Potatoes and The Potato Fe(a)st organised by Sia and Dhivya respectively.. I am sure it will be a great entry.. Details of the events can be found here:

www.events-n-roundups.blogspot.com/

~ Siri

Purnima said...

Siri--> Tku for visiting, tku for letting me know abt the event!