Thecha - where were you all these days ?

There is a Al Adeel grocery supermarket in Karama district of Dubai that sells practically every food item of regional ethnic Indian cuisine. In this shop, I came across many items that I was never aware of and I also saw those Marathi culinary items that I had almost forgotten during my stay abroad.

One such item was Thecha – a staple dish of Marathi farmer’s lunch box. I bought Kolhapuri Thecha – made by Pravin and marketed by Satara base firm Choradia Food Products.The packaging of this product is very international standard. It tastes yummy and zingy and now is important and essential part of my kitchen experimentation. When I googled ‘Thecha’, I came across a Blog that gave recipe with green chilli. The packaged food I have is with red one.

Thecha: Marathi chutney made with fresh chilies and garlic.

Take about 15 chilies and 4 cloves of garlic, destem the chilies. Heat a skillet and put the chilies and garlic (whole) on it…add abt 3 tbsps of water, cover and let cook for abt 10 mins…you will know with the aroma. Then, when it cools down a bit, make a coarse paste of it (not a fine one, I use a mortar-pestle), add a dash of lemon juice and some salt to taste and let stand for 10 mins. Then put the stuff back on the griddle and heat till you can wait no more…a tiny dollop of this with pita bread/Lebanese bread and some curds is mind-blowing…:As long as you don’t use dried chilies, it should be fine, the roasted peanut powder is optional, you can add some at the very end who loves Thecha but can’t eat anything too spicy. It stays in the fridge for about 4 days.
Japanese version of Thecha is 'Wasabi', the only differnce is Wasabi acts nose upwards while Thecha acts tongue downwards. Wasabi when made as a paste look similar to green chilli but it is actually made from horseradish- a root vegetable that is grated into a green paste. In grocery stores, wasabi is widely available as a paste or in powder form. Wasabi powder needs to be mixed with water to become a paste. Wasabi has a strong, hot flavour pungent vapour and makes dramatic effcct on nasal canal than a tongue. It is used with soya sauce in combination with soaked ginger slices for most Japanese dishes - Sashimi, Sushi and Soba Noodles. The recent novelty in Japan is wasabi flavoured ice cream.
I would love to attempt noodles with Thecha and Wasabi - to get a feel of ' hila ke rakh de' ( center fresh gum ad )

Comments

Anonymous said…
hi i am going to try out the recipe, it seems too tempting to resist except either you send me a loaf of lebanese bread or give an alternative...

nice
1:06 PM
Aditya From Dubai said…
Try the thai and shrilankan version called Sambal, It is ready made but yummy. Sambal can be tasted in the shrilankan restaurant near Venus, They will give you with string hoppers( Shevaya in Marathi an we have those with Coconut Milk).Eye watering experience.
5:15 PM

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