Kube-Mutlim in Konkani and Maruvaai-Pundi in Tulu, means an ethnic Mangalorean dish that is prepared with cockles and rice dumplings cooked in a thick spicy gravy. Let us call it a Cockle-Dumpling curry.
The ingredients stated here are for 1 kg cockles and ? kg ‘boiled’ rice (sufficient for 4-6 people).
Preparation of Mutlim: Soak the boiled rice for 2 hours (after cleaning it 3-4 times) with water. Then grind it to a thick paste with salt (as per taste). To make the batter more dry, tie the paste in a cloth and steam it for a while. (My way of making the paste dry is by putting it in a frying pan in small quantities and stirring it on low fire till it becomes dry as needed.) Now make small dumplings and steam them. (If you want to reduce time and work, you can shape the dry paste into sausage shape and steam them. When they are cooled cut them into small cylindrical shapes as can be seen in the picture.) Now the dumplings are ready.
Preparation of cockle curry: Clean the cockles well and then open each of them.
To grind:
1 small coconut
8 red long chillies
2-3 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds
? tsp turmeric powder
? tsp mustard seeds
1 marble size tamarind (as per your taste buds)
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 medium sized onions
Fry the above ingredients on a pan one by one (except cumin seeds) and then grind it to a fine paste. (to fry coconut or not, its your option. Either way, it?s ok!)
Preparation of gravy:
Take little oil in a cooking vessel and fry the curry leaves, add one sliced onion and fry to a golden brown colour and then add the ground masala and fry for 2 mins (no need to fry the masala again as the ingredients are already fried). Now add water and very little salt (cockles are normally salty) and keep the gravy thin (because, after adding cockles and mutlim, the gravy becomes thick). When the gravy starts to boil, add the opened shells and take a good boil for another 5 mins. Once the shells are cooked in the gravy, add dumplings and take one last boil. Your Mangalorean special Kube-Mutlim are ready.
Please note:
The preparation of the dish can be varied slightly. For e.g. instead of using the entire quantity of coconut in the curry, half of it can be ground with the ingredients and another half can be used to make coconut milk/juice which can be added to the gravy at the end, just before the last boil.
Remember:
No recipe is complete without your own tasty innovations! But try them only one at a time! If you want to do them better next time, ask the opinion of those who eat. That is how one improves cooking skills.
From: Wilma’s Home Delicacies
Author: Wilma Pereira- Bahrain