"Kali Tori ani Kooka ghalnu koddel/ Black Pigeon and Chinese Potato Curry" ... a delicious and aromatic garlic seasoned curry from GSB Konkani Saraswat Cuisine prepared when seasonal kooka are available in plenty ... tastes excellent served with Ukde SheetHa/ Red Boiled Rice or steamed rice ... Yummilicious ....
** Koddel has been posted often as its one of my favorite dish that goes well with ukda rice/ red boiled rice. Koddel is a dish that is seasoned with garlic by and large and it imparts lovely garlic flavor to the dish which gives it a distinctive taste. I have posted the dish often with different combinations here before. This is no different from it, in fact there is only one root tuber along with pulses similar to previously posted recipes. However, if you wish to avoid garlic you can temper with mustard and curry leaves, which we call gashi and is done on festive occasions when we avoid onions and garlic.
** I have added in kooka/ Chinese potato to this curry which is in season now, ie the season falls on somewhere from the month of November to January. However, if not available in your vicinity or for any reason you want other choices you can add in bikkands (jackfruit seeds) or kadgi (raw jackfruit), suran (yam) too. You can also add Hogplum(Ambado) or Bimbul or Karmbala (Starfruit) to this curry to bring in the tartness taste, in which case to do not add tamarind while grinding the masala. Just add them when adding masala to the cooked ingredients and cook together till done.
** Here is my recipe for "Kali Tori ani Kooka koddel/ Black Pigeon and Chinese Potato Curry" ... my style which I learnt from Amma ....
** Wash and soak 3 cups of kali tori/ black pigeon peas overnight in plenty of water. Pick the pulse properly before soaking, as sometime they tend to have stones. Next day wash again in plenty of water and drain of the water. Put them in a pressure cooker adding enough of water. The level of water should reach about ¼ inch above the level of peas in the cooker. Pressure cook to 3– 4 whistles. Remove, keep aside and let cool.
** About preparing Kooka/ Chinese Potato : Cleaning kooka/ chinese potato is the biggest task. I have changed my method of cleaning, but your can prepare it anyway that is suitable to you. Having said this, cleaning also depends upon the quality of the kooka available to you. In Mumbai, sometimes we get really good ones, that peel off easily while sometimes we don't. So I will add in a few methods of peeling of the skin and you may follow as per the variety you get using trial and error method.
** Method 1 : One way of peeling the outer skin is, You can either just use the potato peeler and peel the kookas using it.
** The Traditional Method : The other traditional way is to put kooka in a gunny bag (Ghoni) and tightly packing it and then banging/ hitting it on to a stone firmly while rotating the bag all round as you go through the method. This loosen the skin and most of it comes off. Just scrub it with both hands retaining it within the gunny bag to loosen it more. This method is not used much now as it is difficult to access gunny bag. Even rice have been started to come in plastic type bags. If you have one, you can sure try this out. My mother used to make it this way and during childhood we used to loved doing it for her. We really did enjoying banging around the gunny bag to loosen the outer skin of kooka.
** My Method : I soak the required amount of kooka in plenty of water for about 5-10 mins, changing them a few times if they are too muddy. This loosens the dry mud that is sticking to the kooka. The I try loosening off the mud right there in the water by rubbing them between finger. Some kooka are well behaved and peel off easily, while some are stubborn and just don't listen making it difficult. So use the potato peeler and zap it comes out faster than when you run it on the drier one mentioned first.
** Important step of soaking in water once its peeled : It is very important to drop the skin peeled kooka/ chinese potato into water to prevent it getting discolored. So keep a bowl with plenty of water ready and drop the peeled kookas immediately into them. Once done, wash them in plenty of water, rinsing many times in fresh water and remember to keep it soaked in water till the preparation/ cooking time.
** Addition of Kooka/ Chinese Potato to this curry : After peeling the skin in any of the above mentioned method, wash it well in plenty of water and then cut it into 1 inch sized pieces depending upon the size of the kooka as they come in small and medium sizes. If large cut them into 2-3 pieces and if small you can retain them whole as it is. Just follow your judgement and keep the cut pieces even sized.
** When the pressure from cooker drops, open the lid and add cooked peas into a stainless steel vessel along with the water in which its cooked. Add in the prepared kooka/ Chinese potato, check and add water if needed and cook on medium heat to bring all to a boil, then lower the heat and cook until kooka is 90% cooked. Do keep an eye on the water level, do not add in excess at the same time there should be enough to cook.
** Masala to be Ground : Grind to a very fine paste 1 heaped cup of freshly grated coconut (soyi/ nariyal) with 10-12 kashmiri red chillies (byadgi mirchi/ kumte mirsanga) and a small marble sized tamarind (chinchama/ Imly) with as little water as possible. You can use the peas cooked water for grinding the masala too which is what I usually do. Also the masala should be ground to a thick and smooth texture without adding excess water which can always be added later if need be.
** Remove and add the masala to the cooked ingredients in the vessel. Mix the masala well, add in more water if necessary to bring to a thick gravy consistency. Add in salt (namak/ meeta) to taste and bring all together to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the curry is well done and the kooka too has perfectly been cooked. Remove and keep it aside till we go ahead preparing the tempering.
** For Tempering/ Pannaka : Heat 1tblsp oil (tel/ tela) in a small kadai. Add to it about 10-12 mashed garlic (losun/ lehsun) mashed/ crushed a bit, when evenly and lightly browned remove and pour it over the curry, cover and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes for flavors to be infused into curry. If you do not like garlic with the peel, you can peel it off and prepare the tempering too. However, It tastes awesome with the skin on as the skin imparts more flavor to the curry, though the choice is yours. But do try it out.
** "Kali Tori ani Kooka koddel/ Black Pigeon and Chinese Potato Curry" is done and ready to be served. Tastes best served hot with ukde sheetHa (red boiled rice/ keral matta rice) or plain steamed surti kollam rice as is how we GSB Konkani Saraswat's serve it in our home for lunch. However, if desired you can serve it with roti or parathas too. You can also serve with Idly/ dosa/ appo too, it tastes great. I must mention here that I sometimes serve spicy curries with mildly spiced rice dishes like, jeera rice, ghee rice, veg. pulav, too as we love the combo very much, do try it, tastes awesome.
** This is a delicious curry that is loved by almost all in my community and there is always demand for more as it also includes kooka/ chinese potato the season of which falls somewhere in the month of November to January. During this period most of us to whom this tuber is available in our vicinity prepare various dishes using the same like adding them on to curries, preparing upkari etc. I have childhood memories of relishing upkari which amma (my mom) prepared slicing them very thinly and it tasted wonderful. You can check out the same in the common link shared below for references.
** Sharing a few common links below for convenience of easy browsing of recipes. It includes all types of koddel recipes in various combinations, dishes prepared using kali tori/ black pigeon peas and dishes prepared using kooka/ Chinese potato. Do go through in leisure and try them out as and when possible. Also, please do drop in a comment of feedback as it helps in doing that much more. Thank you ....
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