Delicious Dasara

Chinta Chiguru Mamsam 
Ingredients
500 gm mutton
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp turmeric powder 
Salt to taste
3-4 green chillies, slit
½ cup tamarind leaves
 2 onions, chopped
1 clove
1 inch cinnamon
1 tbsp red chilli powder 
3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp garam masala powder 
Salt to taste 

Method
Marinate mutton with ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder and salt and keep for one hour. Pressure cook the marinated mutton until it is tender and soft.
In a pan heat oil and add cloves, cinnamon, onions and green chillies.
Sauté until onion changes colour. Now add tender tamarind leaves and salt. Cover and let the leaves cook.
Now add the cooked mutton, red chilli powder and garam masala powder. Adjust water for gravy. Mix well.
Let it simmer for ten minutes or oil surfaces. 
Serve hot with rice. 

Podi Mamsumu
Ingredients 
500 gm mutton
3 tbsp oil
2 tsp saunf
1 onion, finely sliced
2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
8-10 red chillies
½ cup curd
2 inch piece cinnamon
4 green cardamoms 
2-4 cloves
8-10 black peppercorns 
2 tsp khus khus
1 tbsp coriander seeds
3-4 green chillies, slit
1 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
2 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped

Method 
Marinate the mutton with curd, turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste and salt for one hour. 

Dry roast red chillies, coriander seeds, green cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves, black peppercorns and poppy seeds one by one on a tawa over medium heat.

Cool, mix and grind to a fine powder. Heat oil in a pan and sauté onions till golden brown. Add green chillies and sauté for a minute. Add the marinated mutton and sauté on high heat for two minutes. 

Add one cup water and ground spices and simmer on low heat till meat is tender and completely cooked. Continue cooking till all water dries up and oil surfaces. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with rice.

Tip: Use Guntur red chillies to get the authentic Andhra taste. 
— Recipe by Umamaheshwari Mallela, home chef 

Tairi

Tairi 
Ingredients
½ cup rice, soaked
½ cup sugar
½ cup mixed dry fruits, chopped
A few drops of saffron edible colour
2 to 3 cardamom
1 tbsp ghee
2 bay leaves
1 tsp saunf

Method
Make syrup with sugar, water and one cardamom of two thread consistency.
Add a little saffron colour to it and keep it aside. 
Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add ghee, bay leaf and cardamom to it. Sauté for a few minutes and add soaked rice.
Stir it for a while and add water to it. Let it boil. After it’s half done add sugar syrup and saunf. Cook for a few more minutes till the rice is properly cooked. 
Garnish with dry fruits and serve with raita. 

Sindhi Kadhi

Sindhi Kadhi 
Ingredients
2 tsp besan
1½ cup assorted vegetables — cluster beans, brinjal, ladies’ fingers, potatoes, apple gourd, cauliflower, drumstick
1 tsp jeera
¼ tsp methi seeds 
¼ tsp mustard seed
1 cup tomato puree
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp kokam or amchoor
5 to 6 curry leaves
Salt as per taste

Method
Fry ladies’ fingers and apple gourd in little oil and keep it aside.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add jeera, mustard seeds and methi seeds.
After they sputter, add besan and sauté till it turns golden brown. 
Add a little water, tomato puree, kokam or amchoor, potatoes and cluster beans. Close the lid and cook for two whistles. 
Once the pressure is out, open the cooker and add little more water, salt, ladies’ fingers, drumsticks and apple gourd, and cook again for one whistle. 
After five minutes remove the lid and garnish with coriander. 
This kadhi is a popular sindhi dish eaten with plain rice or jeera rice. 

Ariselu

Ariselu 
Ingredients
500 gm rice powder
400 gm jaggery
Oil for deep frying
2 tbsp ghee
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp poppy seeds

Method
In a pan add jaggery and half cup water and boil till it becomes like a syrup. When the syrup is done add ghee and sesame and poppy seeds. Mix well and remove from the flame.

To this mixture add the rice flour and mix thoroughly.

Now take small cherry sized balls of and press it into small puris. Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry the ariselu on low flame till the colour changes to golden brown.

Tip: These ariselus can be preserved for 2 to 3 days in an air tight container. You can also sprinkle poppy and sesame seeds when ariselus are hot so that they stick to it. 

Fafda

Fafda 
Ingredients 
1 cup besan
¼ tsp cooking soda
Salt to taste
¼ tsp ajwain
A pinch of turmeric powder
1 tbsp oil
Oil to deep fry
Black Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Mix besan, salt, cooking soda, ajwain, turmeric, oil and luke warm water to make a soft dough. Knead it well.
Grease a clean surface. Take a small lump of dough and drag it with the base of your palm. Lift it up with a thin blade and deep fry. 
Sprinkle black salt and pepper on the fried fafda and serve with hot jalebi and pickled chillies.

Tip: This method is a little difficult and need practice. Alternatively you can even roll it between two oiled plastic sheets and deep fry it.

JALEBI

Jalebi
Ingredients 
1 cup maida
½ cup sour curd
A few drops of orange colour
1 tbsp besan 
Ghee to deep fry for syrup
1 cup sugar
A few strands of saffron

Method
Mix sugar, water and saffron in a pan and allow it boil until it forms a one string thick syrup.

Mix curd, water and maida to form a thick paste. Leave this mixture for eight to ten hours to ferment. Once fermented, add besan and orange colour. If the batter is very thick, you can add some water. Fill this mixture in a icing bag or a sauce bottle with a long nozzle. Heat ghee in a kadai and drip the batter in circular shape like jalebi. If the jalebi turns flat it means the batter is runny; add some more besan and fry again.

After removing from ghee soak the jalebi in sugar syrup for a minute and serve hot. 

Chingri Malai Curry

Chingri Malai Curry 
Ingredients
400 gm prawns
3 tbsp mustard oil
½ tsp cumin 
2 tbsp ginger paste
1 tbsp cumin powder
2 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp turmeric powder
2 tsp sugar
1¼ cup coconut milk
2 tsp ghee 
Salt to taste 

Method
Blanch the prawns in turmeric water and keep aside. Now heat mustard oil in a pan and add sugar, cumin, ginger paste, cumin powder, red chilli powder and turmeric powder and sauté. Now add the prawns and slit green chillies and stir for few minutes. Add coconut milk and salt, and cook for few more minutes. Sprinkle garam masala and ghee on top and serve. 

tomato khejurer chutney

Tomato khejurer chutney 
Ingredients
1 kg tomatoes, chopped
1 cup dates without seeds
2 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
50 gm kaju
50 gm raisins
5 -6 elaichi, crushed 
2 dry red chillies
1 cup sugar
Salt to taste 

Method
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and dry red chillies. Sauté for a few minutes and add tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes. 
Add kaju, raisins, sugar and salt and stir well till the sugar dissolves. Cook till the mixture thickens. Now, mix in the dates. 
Add crushed elaichi and remove from the flame.  

Steamed hilsa or bhapa ilish

Steamed hilsa or bhapa ilish 
Ingredients
500 gm hilsa fish 
4 tsp black mustard seed (soaked in lukewarm water)
4 tsp curd 
3 tbsp freshly grated coconut 
1½ tbsp khus khus
1 tsp turmeric powder
4-6 green chillies
½ tsp red chilli powder 
4 tbsp mustard oil
Salt to taste 

Method 
Make a thick paste of black mustard, one green chilli and one teaspoon of salt and keep it aside. Make paste of khus khus separately.

Rub fish pieces in a mixture of half teaspoon salt and half teaspoon turmeric powder. Rest it for ten minutes.

Now in a bowl mix black mustard paste, khus khus paste, freshly grated coconut, curd, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, one cup water, salt and three teaspoons of mustard oil. 

Steamed hilsa can be prepared using a double boiler steamer or in microwave or in a pressure cooker.

Take a stainless steel container or a microwave oven safe container (if cooking in microwave) with a tight lid and rub some oil in the container. 

Now spread half of the previously prepared paste on the container and put two to three slit green chillies. Over it place fish pieces and finally put the remaining paste over the fish pieces. Pour one teaspoon of mustard oil on the top. Also place the rest of the slit green chilies. Cover the lid tightly.

If using pressure cooker, wait for one whistle and remove from the flame after the steam comes out of the cooker. 

In case of microwave, put the container containing fish in the steamer, and cook at high temperature for five minutes and then at low temperature for around 25 minutes. You can serve this dish with steamed rice.