MATTI GULLA PODI

MATTI GULLA PODI

Gulla is a variety of brinjal that is seasonally available in our home district of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in the coastal belt of Karnataka. History has it that this special type of brinjal was cultivated first in the small village of Mattu, near Udupi. It is from here that this vegetable got its present name of Matti Gulla. For more on the origins of Gulla, you may like to see this very informative article in The Mangalorean.

Matti Gulla preparations are considered a delicacy of sorts in our Konkani cuisine. Elsewhere in this blog, you will find recipes for other favourites from Konkani cuisine such as Batate Saung, Vaingana Puddi Sagle, and Cabbage Sannan.

Today's recipe is for an easy to make shallow fried side dish, which we call Podi, using Matti Gulla.

Ingredients:

• Matti Gulla, medium-sized, 1
• Rice Flour, 1 tbsp 
• Chilli Powder, 2 tsp or to taste 
• Turmeric Powder, 1/8 tsp
• Hing (Asafoetida) Powder, 1/4 tsp 
• Medium Rawa (Semolina), 1 and 1/2 tbsp 
• Salt, to taste
• Oil, as required to shallow fry

Method:

Wash the gulla and discard the stem. Pat the gulla dry and slice it into roundels of uniform thickness. These roundels should not be too thick or too thin. 

Mix well together the rice flour, chilli powder, turmeric powder, asafoetida powder, salt, and a little water to make a paste, in a bowl

To this add the gulla roundels one by one and coat them uniformly to marinate them 

Keep aside the coated gulla roundels for 5-10 minutes

Heat the tawa and grease it with a little oil,
Dust each of the coated gulla roundels (on both sides) in the rawa and shallow fry them 

Once the lower side of the gulla gets done, flip and shallow fry the other side as well by drizzling oil around it as required
Transfer to serving plate 

Serve the Matti Gulla Podis as an accompaniment /side dish with the main meal