Cumin Pepper Gravy (Jeere Meere Khadi)

Cumin Pepper Gravy (Jeere Meere Khadi)

Jeere meere khadi is a cumin + pepper gravy from Konkani cuisine. It is tangy and spicy with a nice big flavour of garlic seasoning. It's made using cumin, pepper in a coconut gravy along with sour buttermilk/yoghurt. Garlic seasoning makes it all the more appetizing.

Any gravy having curds in it is called khadi in Konkani. And since this curry has cumin & pepper in it, the name jeere meere khadi. Jeere means cumin in Konkani and meere means pepper in Konkani. 

Konkani's prepare this gravy/khadi for lunch or dinner and eat rice with it. My hubby's favourite lunch when paired with potato stir fry (batate upakari). At home everybody loves this curry (jeere meere khadi) with dosas too. Especially with brown rice-white rice dosas (ukde suray polo/bakri polo in Konkani). That's a lovely combo. I usually make dosas for breakfast just to enjoy them with this curry.


Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon of cumin
  • 7-8 peppercorns
  • 3/4 cup grated coconut
  • 3 dried red chillies
  • 1/2 cup of sour curds/buttermilk
  • 1/2 lemon sized tamarind (if your curds/buttermilk isn't sour)
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tablespoon of oil

For seasoning:

  • 2-3 tablespoons of oil
  • 7-8 garlic cloves

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 20-25 minutes


Preparation Method:

1. In a tempering pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil, add cumin, peppercorns, roughly broken down pieces of dried red chillies and fry them until cumin starts to splutter or for 2 minutes. Remove from heat & let them cool down completely.

2. Grind them along with grated coconut, tamarind (use only if your curds/buttermilk aren't sour enough) into a smooth paste using as much water as you need.

3. Transfer the ground paste into a cooking vessel and add water to bring the curry to a semi-thick to watery consistency.  As the curry cooks it'll thicken and it'll further thicken on cooling, so keep it watery to semi-thick to begin with. Jeere meere khadi should be semi-thick in consistency in the end. We don't want the curry too thick or too watery.

4. Add salt to taste and bring the curry to boil. Once it comes to a boil, add in sour curds/buttermilk and mix well.

5. Simmer for few minutes until rawness of the masala goes off and remove it off heat.

6. Seasoning: Heat remaining oil in a tempering pan, add slightly crushed garlic and fry them till they start to brown. Add this seasoning to the curry/khadi and mix well. 

Garlic are crushed so that they impart their flavour & it also prevents them from spurting out.

7. Serve this cumin, pepper gravy hot with a bowl of steaming hot rice and enjoy.


Side Note:

Traditionally, jeere meere khadi is prepared using curds. But my MIL skips curds and uses 1 lemon sized tamarind instead, while grinding the masala. She also substitutes garlic seasoning with onion + mustard + curry leaves seasoning. I love the garlic flavour to jeere meere khadi and my hubby likes jeere meere khadi with the onion seasoning.

For onion seasoning, season mustard + curry leaves in a cooking pan, fry finely chopped 1 medium sized onion, until they start to brown and add it to the cooked gravy. I think it should be called jeere meere ambat. More appropriate word for it. 


Find more Konkani cuisine curry recipes here


Tags: Spicy, lunch, gravy, khadi, vegetarian, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani food, jeere meere khadi.