There is a new place in town called Simply South by Chef Chalapathi Rao. We went there recently and had their heavenly Kerala stew with Appams and fell in love with this dish. The coconut milk was light and aromatic and the taste of the dish still lingers.

Here is my version of the stew. 

Method

1. Slice 1 carrot, 1 potato, 12 beansinto cubes of equal sizes and keep aside
2. In a pan, heat 1 tsp coconut oil.
3. Add the spices - 3-4 cloves, 1 cinnamon, 2 cardamom and 1/2 tsp black pepper and saute till for 2 mins.
4. Add 1 finely chopped onion to it and saute it. Add finely chopped 1 inch ginger and 5-6 garlic flakes and saute till the onions become transparent. Don't let it become brown.
5. Add 1 handful of curry leaves and 2-3 finely chopped green chillies and saute it for a few more minutes.
6. Add the sliced vegetables and saute well.
7. Now add 1 cup of thin coconut milk *, salt and bring it to boil.
8. Lower the flame, cover and cook it till vegetables are soft for around 10 mins.
9. Now add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of thick coconut milk * and cook for another five more minutes.
10. Garnish with curry leaves fried in coconut oil.
11. You can serve this vegetable stew with chapatis, appams or rice.

*Thick and Thin Coconut milk

1. Take 1/2 coconut and grate it. Blend it in the mixer with water and a pinch of salt to a fine paste. Strain the first batch and this gives you thick coconut milk
2. When the same leftover coconut is again blended in the mixer with more water and strained, you get a batch of thin coconut milk.

We have a lot of Tulu friends and this is one dish I love in their cuisine. Very elaborate dish but is so good that I dont mind spending the extra time in kitchen to cook it.
Cooked it recently for one special set of friends who love Mangalorean cuisine. 




Method

1. Clean and cut 1 kg chicken pieces into cube sized pieces along with the bone and keep aside.
2. In a pressure cooker, take 2 tbsp oil and heat. When hot, add 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp jeera seeds and when they splutter add 5/6 sprigs of curry leaves. The curry leaves give a distinct flavor to this dish and hence feel free to go heavy on them
3. Now after sauteeing it for 2-3 mins, add 1 finely chopped onion and some salt. Saute the onion till it is pinkish in color.
4. Now add the chicken and saute it well. 
5. As the chicken is cooking, dry roast 1 tsp coriander seeds, 7-8 dried red chillies, 10 pepper corns, 5-6 garlic pods, 1 inch dalchini, 1/2 tsp jeera, 4-5 cloves, 1/2 tsp khus khus(poppy seeds) with 2 tsp of onion and 2 tsp of grated coconut till the aroma of the spices fills up your kitchen. Let this cook for some time and then grind it to a coarse paste in the grinder.
6. Add this to the chicken, mix well  and pressure cook it for 1 whistle. Pressure cooking though not the best way to cook meat, is the easiest and hence I took this option. You can just cover the pan with a lid and cook for 15-20 mins till chicken is cooked. Adjust the water according to the consistency you want. I like it to have some gravy so that it goes well with chapatis.
7. Now again dry roast, 1 cup grated coconut, pinch of haldi and 5-6 pods of garlic and 1/2 tsp jeera till coconut is slightly brown. Grind this to a coarse paste
8. Add it to the chicken when chicken is almost done. Mix well and cook for 3-4 mins with lid on. You can add some more curry leaves for additional flavors.
9. You can serve this with chappatis, hot neer dosas or in this case we made Rice Rotis (Tandlachi Bhakri). Here is the recipe of these awesome Rice Rotis 

This is a traditional Konkani recipe and one of my favorite dosas.

We cook this for breakfast but it also tastes very good with traditional Konkani coconut chicken curry. This dish is only easily available in breakfast joints in Karnataka.

Method

1. Soak  1 cup of rice overnight (We use dosa rice but you can use the normal raw rice too – this can also be made with brown boiled rice)
2. Grind with salt and ¾ cup freshly grated coconut the next morning( if you can add malai  or tender coconut , the dosas taste even better). The thinner the batter the better – it is much thinner than the normal dosa batter and the consistency should only be slightly thicker than water.
3. Spread ½ cup of batter on a hot tawa and if possible rotate the tawa so that the batter spreads finely.  Cover and let it cook in the steam for 2 mins. These dosas have to be cooked from only one side.
4. Serve with coconut chutney

For the coconut chutney

Heat 1 tsp oil in a vessel, Add 1 green chilli, 1 pinch of asafoetida  and fry for a minute. Grind this with one cup of freshly desicated coconut and water to a thick chutney consistency.

We also add ½ cup of watermelon whites (the portion below the red edibile part of the watermelon) This gives a nice pinkish texture to the dosa and tastes good.