Valval is made with all different kinds of vegetables. You can use alsande beans( yard long beans), tendle ( ivy gourd), ghosale(ridge gourd) , magge( yellow cucumber / mangalore sautekayi), bikkand( jackfruit seed), batato(potato), soornu(yam), kanang(sweet potato), phagil(kantolas), bibbo (cashews) etc.

What you will need:
3 cups of vegetables
2 cups shredded fresh/frozen coconut OR 1 can of coconut milk
6 green chillies
2 tbsp ghee / clarified butter
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 strands of curry leaves
salt to taste

How to prepare:
Cook the vegetables with salt and green chillies.
Grind the coconut and strain the milk out of it or you can instead use canned coconut milk. Pour the coconut milk into the cooked vegetables. Bring the mixture to a boil. If you the curry to be a little thicker, then you can mix 2 tsp of maida in a little water and add to the curry. In a separate pan, heat the ghee. Add mustard seeds and when they crackle, add cumin seeds and curry leaves. Pour this over the curry. Serve hot with rice.

Kadge chakko is one of my favourite konkani dishes. My mom makes the best chakko, I have never had better. Though I follow the same recipe, its never as good as hers.

What you will need:
1.5 cups of raw jackfruit cut into pieces ( OR 1 can raw jackfruit)
1 cup fresh/frozen grated coconut
8-10 fried dry red chillies
tamarind - lime sized soaked in water
jaggery - lime sized
2 tsp urad dal
3 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp mustard seeds
2-3 strands of curry leaves
salt to taste

How to prepare:
Cook the raw jackfruit in a pressure cooker until soft.
Heat a drop of oil and fry the urad dal and coriander seeds and set aside.
Grind together the coconut, red chillies and tamarind into a paste. Add the fried urad dal ,coriander seeds, jaggery and salt and grind again. The paste does not have to be very smooth. Do not add too much water when grinding.
In a separate vessel, mash the cooked jackfruit coarsely. Add the ground mixture to it and mix.
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds crackle add curry leaves. Now add the jackfruit and masala mixture and 1/4 cup of water. Mix well and cover and cook for about 5 minutes on a low flame. Cook for some more time until the water evaporates.
Serve hot with rice and dalitoy.

This bhaji is very easy to prepare and its good for those auspicious days when people do not eat onions or garlic. This bhaji is usually served with dosa, poori and chapati. I like to place this bhaji in between toasted bread slices and eat.

What you will need:
3 medium sized boiled and peeled potatoes
3 red chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 strands curry leaves
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp chana dal
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
a pinch of asafoetida
salt to taste

How to prepare:
Cut the boiled potatoes into medium sized cubes. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When the seeds crackle, add curry leaves, asafoetida, red chillies, urad dal, chana dal and turmeric powder. Now add the potatoes and salt and mix everything well. Do not add water. Cover and cook on a low flame for 5 minutes.
This bhaji is served with poori or chapati.

This is one of the other easy dosas because you dont have to leave it overnight for fermentation. The same dosa can be prepared by using chana dal instead of moong dal.

What you will need:
1 cup urad dal ( black gram split)
1 cup moong dal ( green gram split)
4 green chillies
1" ginger
salt to taste

How to prepare:
Soak the urad dal and moong dal for 2-3 hours.
Grind both the dals. Add 2 of the green chillies and grind to make a smooth batter.
Chop the other 2 green chillies and ginger.
Mix it to the battter. Heat the flat pan, then grease it with oil and then pour the batter onto the pan. Cover and cook the dosa. Once the first side is done, pour a little oil adn flip the dosa. Fry on the other side.
Serve with any chutney.

This is one of the quick rasam recipes. If I come back late from work and dont have the energy to make any 'masala randayi', I make daali rasam with rice and some vegetable upkari. I do not use tomatoes for this rasam, but if you wish, you can add half a tomato. I made this at night and so the picture has a little glare.

What you will need:
1/2 cup toor dal(split yellow peas)
3 green chillies
a bunch of coriander leaves
tamarind - about the size of a lime ( soak in water and extract the juice)
or 1 tsp tamarind paste
4 tsp ghee/clarified butter
1 tsp mustard leaves
2 strands of curry leaves
salt to taste

2 tsp rasam powder
OR
Fry in oil and grind the following into powder:
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds ( methi seeds)
1 tsp jeera ( cumin seeds)
12 peppercorns
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp hing (asafoetida)
1 tbsp toor dal
4 dried red chillies

How to prepare:
Wash and cook the toor dal along with green chillies in a pressure cooker.
Mash the toor dal well. Then add salt,tamarind juice/paste and chopped coriander leaves. Add the rasam powder and bring the dal to a boil. Keep aside. Heat ghee in a small pan and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds crackle, add the curry leaves and then pour it over the dal.
Serve hot with rice.