Batatae Saung is a staple dish in most Konkani households. It brings the much needed spice and flavor to a meal, most of us like to eat it in combination with just a dhal and rice, with a side of something crunchy like pappaD. My favorite story about this dish is associated with my older daughter Sarita. She was about 3 years old, and we were in a plane returning home from a vacation after a couple of weeks in Hawaii. My husband and I were talking about the fun we had, and also, that we couldn't wait to go home and have a nice home cooked meal. Sarita was listening to us, and all of a sudden she said, that the first meal she wanted after we got home was rice, dhal, batatae song, with happoL, pappaD, voDi (these are crunchy accompaniments) and cold milk or yoghurt. Guess what we did on the way home from the airport... We stopped at our neighborhood grocery store to pick up onions and potatoes so that "our little princess" could have the meal she wished for!! Here is the recipe for this spicy, yet "finger licking good" saung.
Pictured here - Rice, Dhalitoi, Batatae Saung, happoL, pappaD, voDi and a glass of cold milk
Batatae Saung
Recipe
Ingredients:
• 3 - 4 cups chopped onions
• 2 - 3 cups boiled and diced potatoes
• 2 tablespoons Chilli powder (more or less depending on your palate)
• 3 tablespoons oil
• Water (about a cup)
• 2 Tablespoons Tamarind pulp (about a teaspoon if adding Tamarind concentrate)
• Salt to taste
Steps:
Heat oil in a pan, add chopped onions (save a tablespoon of the onions to add later) and fry till golden brown.
Add the chilli powder and fry for a minute. This is to remove the raw smell and roast the chilli powder a little.
Add the tamarind pulp, the reserved tablespoon of chopped onions and the water and salt to taste and boil the mixture for about 5 minutes.
Add the diced potatoes and cook till done. The saung is semi dry, so wait till the water has reduced and the preparation has come together.
The spicy tangy semi dry preparation, your saung is ready to eat.
This dish goes very well as an accompaniment with steaming hot rice and dhal, or as a side dish with chapattis or puris. The leftovers can be a great filling in sandwiches made in the sandwich toaster. Yummy!!
Notes:
Saung can be made with 2 cups any of the following vegetables:
Potatoes - boiled and diced (Batata Saung)
Mushrooms - halved and cooked in the gravy, but not precooked (ALambya Saung)
Okra/Bhindi/Ladies fingers - chopped into big pieces, this is cooked in the gravy, not precooked (Bhenda Saung)
Breadfruit - chopped and diced, and precooked/steamed (Jeev kaDgi Saung)
Eggplant/Brinjal/VaigaNa - chopped into longish bits, cook in the gravy (VaingaNa Saung)
Lima Beans - precooked (Lima Beans Saung)
TingaLavre /canellini beans - precooked or canned (TingaLavre Saung)
Chinese Potato/ Kook/Kuruka - cooked, halved or quartered (Kooka Saung)
Variation Recipe:
Alternatively Saung can also be made with ground masala with coconut and spices.
• In a half teaspoon of oil, roast 6 seeds of methi and a tablespoon of coriander seeds and keep aside.
• Take a tablespoon of grated coconut with 3 - 4 roasted red chillies (or more if you like it very spicy), and a marble sized lump of tamarind (or a tablespoon of tamarind pulp/or a teaspoon of tamarind concentrate) and grind to a smooth paste.
• Add in the roasted spices and grind some more. Keep the paste/masala aside.Add in about 1/2 a cup of water into the blender and recover the adhering paste and add it into the reserved paste/masala.
• Heat oil, add chopped onions and saute till golden. add the masala and bring to a boil, add salt to taste.
• Add in the potatoes (or any of the suggested vegetables) and stir in the masala for 10 minutes.
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