Hellooo, how are you? It's been more than a month since we chatted, right?
Well, I'm back in Bahrain after a long break. Had a wonderful time back home, except for an awful experience at the airport on my return. How-much-ever, I want to whine about it to you, I've promised myself I wont do any whining in public. Since most of my dining is public, I think it's better to keep the whining private ;)
So, tell me, what news at your end? Everything all right?
On my end everything is still in “slow motion phase”, I'm yet to get back to my routine in full swing. Ok, that reminds me something I wanted to ask you… Are you a “routine” person? I mean whether you find comfort in having a routine or you hate the fact that you have to follow a routine? Why I'm asking is because something weird happened. After two weeks of being in India, I was feeling restless and I figured it was because I was missing my routine life! This is something I've noticed lately, whenever we travel somewhere, after the initial “oh la la” phase of excitement, I start thinking about Bahrain. Is it a sign of me becoming matured (growing old is another way of saying it)? So, tell me do you also feel like that? do you miss your routine?
Anyways, we will get to our recipe. Looks like it's koorka season now and it's one of my fav veggies. I always associate koorka with a meaty flavour, I'm not sure why though! I love everything about it, except the cleaning part! Well, if you've somebody to get it cleaned, then the rest is easy.
Coming to think of it, I've had koorka like this only. I mean I've never tasted any other koorka dish. I think this is the most common koorka recipe.
So, here you go…
Cook the cleaned koorka with salt and turmeric powder. Make sure you dont over cook it. There should be a small bite to it. Drain the excess water…
Crush together whole small onion, garlic and dry red chilli in mortar and pestle…
Heat oil in a pan and crackle the mustard seeds. Add crushed masala and curry leaves. Cook it till the small onion turns golden brown…
Add masala powders and fry for 2-3 mins. Add 2 tbsp hot water. Mix well…
Add cooked koorka and coconut bites. Mix well. Cook it on low flame for 10-15 mins…
Ingredients
- 400-450 gms Koorka (chinese potato) ( measured before cleaning)
- 12-15 Whole small onion / shallots
- 4-6 cloves Garlic cloves (I used big ones)
- 2-3 Whole dry red chilli
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp Chilli powder
- 1/2 – 1 tsp Meat masala / garam masala
- 1/3 cup Coconut bites (thengakothu)
- 1-2 tbsp Hot water
- 1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
- Coconut oil
- Salt
- Curry leaves
Instructions
- Wash and clean koorka. Cook the cleaned koorka with salt and turmeric powder. Make sure you dont over cook it. There should be a small bite to it.
- Crush together whole small onion, garlic and dry red chilli in mortar and pestle (if you dont own one, run it in a mixie for a few seconds, just crush it dont make it into a paste).
- Heat oil in a pan and crackle the mustard seeds. Add crushed masala and curry leaves. Cook it till the small onion turns golden brown. Add masala powders and fry for 2-3 mins. Add 2 tbsp hot water. Mix well. Add cooked koorka and coconut bites. Mix well. Cook it on low flame for 10-15 mins (refer notes)
Notes
I like koorka to be crispy, so I roast them for a long time.
I for one love my koorka in any method of cooking,it is almost a weakness or say my most liked dish in any form.only problem it is seasonal and not available outside kerala barring some big towns.
Hi Mohandas,
I also love koorka in any form or method :) But I’m not a big fan of cleaning it ;) Yeah I know it’s seasonal, but I guess in some places frozen koorka is available. May be you can check it out.
Cheers
Maria
Hi Maria,
Recently i came across your site, and i must say that its fabulous :)
I will. give this a try once I get koorka here in bangalore. Now insearch of it :)
Thank you very much Anjali :) I do hope you get to try the recipes from here and like it.
Cheers
Maria
Sounds delicious but I’ve never seen Koorka for sale in the UK. I will be looking out for them now but in the meantime I may try this with regular small potatoes.
Routine? Well I find that I am struggling to cope with a split lifestyle at present. We have a home in England and one in Florida and spend our time between the two each approximately 3 months long. Our routine in each place is completely different and I think my body is confused as to which one it should be following at any given time. Sometimes I long to just stay in one place.
Hi Angela,
I do hope you can find it sometime, but potato is a good substitute.
Earlier I used to think living in different places was exciting, well it still sounds exciting, but as you said may be after sometime you feel like staying put :) On a positive note, it’s also good that you’ve a change of scene every now and then.
Cheers
Maria
I used to hate Koorkka whenever Amma used to make it back home .. But now I crave for it .. So many things we take in life for granted , alle Maria !!
Hi Sangeetha,
That’s very true.. just the other days one of my friends was also saying the same thing. As they say everything has it’s time, so :)