Kittale Sippe Gojju - Orange Peel Gravy

My friends from high school and college know my Mother as the one who makes Gojju from Orange Sippe.. Yuckkkkkkk! Nobody would even bother to taste when I would tell them about the ingredients. I used to coax them to eat because I wanted to finish it off from my lunch box!!! I used to tease my mom whenever she made it. Later, she started improvising on her recipe and well, yeah..the gojju got better. Remember, those were the days with no internet nor cooking shows on TV. I suppose she learnt it by herself or might have heard it from her neighbors.

Its been a week since we had brought Clementines from the market and they were still lying around. Its then this recipe occured to me, and I wanted to give a try. But it was late in the afternoon and Mom would be still sleeping (in India). So I didn't want to disturb her nor did I want to wait for another day to try this.

I followed my little cooking knowledge I had gained over the last few months and made an attempt. And the once I-Hate-Kittale Sippe Gojju turned out to be Not-too-bad-Kittale Sippe Gojju!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is How I made it:

Wash and Peel Clementines/Orange. Chop the peel to small pieces.

In a non-stick pan, heat about a teaspoon of ghee and fry the pieces till they turn light brown. I actually loved the aroma it was eminating when I was frying them. Keep aside after done.

Heat about 5-6 soons of oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and Channa Dal.

Cut a small onion and fry them till translucent. Add the already fried peel pieces.

Take about 2 spoons of concentrated tamarind paste, dilute it and pour to the pan. Add in chilli powder , salt and Jaggery. All the four ingredients can be on a little higher side. Keep cooking this until the orange peel pieces gets properly cooked. It should turn soft and has to absorb all the spices.

In the meanwhile, grind together grated cocunut, a few groundnuts (5-6), 1-2 cloves and Poppy seeds (gasagase)

Once the gravy is cooked, add in the above made coconut paste. Cook for another 5 minutes.

Check for salt and spice again and add if required.

Voila... gojju is done!! This can be served as a side dish along with chapathi's. You could also mix it with hot rice and a spoonful of ghee. Yummicious!

Believe me folks, this didn't taste bitter at all. Infact my husband had his whole meal without even knowing what it was made up of. ;) Its still my little secret. But he kept saying "Honey, this tastes different. what is it? It tastes something like .. something like..."


Shhhh.... I am not telling him yet!!