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Moong Dal Tadka

2009-03-20T14:05:00.000+05:30

This post has been in my drafts for so long, that today I decided that its high time I post it or else it would never happen. Not in great writing spirits because of various reasons. One major reason being an apartment shifting due next weekend.. Packing, disposing off the waste, paying all dues and above all leaving behind couple of good friends here is very painful. However, one thing I am sure of carrying over to the new place is a lot of anxiety and apprehension about the new locality and the people I would meet!!

Ingredients:

1 cup - Moong Dal(whole or split), washed and soaked for 1 hour
Salt to taste
1/4 - 1/2 tsp - Asafoetida powder (adjust according to your taste)
1 tbsp - Oil
1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds
1/2 - Onion, sliced
2-3 nos - Green Chillies, chopped
1 - Tomato, chopped
Some coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

Pressure cook the washed and soaked dal till soft with required water, salt and asafoetida
Heat a kadhai with 1 tbsp of oil and splutter the cumin seeds. Saute in the onions till golden brown. Add the green chillies and tomatoes and saute till soft.
Add the turmeric powder and saute for 2 minutes
Now add the cooked dal into the kadhai and bring it to boil and simmer till you get the right consistency.
Garnish with some butter(optional) and coriander leaves.
Serve hot with rotis

Happy Holi - The festival of colors and obviously food!!

2009-03-11T15:52:00.005+05:30

It has been hell of a day and I am sure the evening is going to be equally fun. Morning we had a wet holi were water was mixed with colors splashed on each other. Kids running with Pichkari's (pumps used for playing holi), men and women drenched in all possible colors, walking around like monsters pulling out everybody from their houses and applying colors - it was fun watching all that. I knew I could not escape without allowing them to apply wet color on me, so stood for them to do what so ever they wanted to for once and for all. After that I peacefully stood in my balcony watching all the the fun. I am not too keen on playing the wet holi only because of the worry of washing and scrubbing all the colors off my skin. I wait for the evening time when everybody comes out with dry colors to indulge myself into this colorful festival.

When everyone were washing and scrubbing off their deeds of the morning, I was busy cooking (with a motive to finish off all my work and sit and blog everything before we leave for the dry Holi). This Holi I made Dahi Vada, Gujia, Ajwain Poori and Kaala Chana. Enjoy Maalpua from my previous post which is also a Holi speciality. Not much of time left so directly going to the recipes.

DAHI VADA:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup - Urad dal without skin, washed and soaked for 3 hours
Salt to taste
1 pinch - Baking Soda
1 generous pinch of Asafoetida powder
Oil for deep frying
200 gms - Curd, chilled and well beaten with required salt(if too thick add some water to loosen it up)
1/2 tsp - Red chilly powder
1/2 tsp - Jeera powder(dry roasted till it becomes deep brown and powdered)
Some coriander leaves

For Tamarind Chutney:

1 marble sized ball of Tamarind
1-2 tbsp - Grated Jaggery
1/2 cup - water
1/2 tsp - Red Chilly powder
Salt to taste

Method:

Drain the water from urad dal and grind it to make a fine batter. Use as little water as possible while grinding. Transfer into a bowl and add the baking soda and let it ferment for around an hour.
Mix salt and asafoetida into the fermented batter and mix well.
For the chutney, mix all the ingredients and let it stand for 30 minutes. Strain the pulp and keep aside.
Heat oil in a deep frying pan. Scoop out some batter using your hand and drop the batter into the hot oil little by little to form small dumplings. Fry till golden brown on medium heat. Immerse the fried vadas into a bowl of warm water for 2-3 minutes and squeeze out the water well. Arrange this on a serving dish and let it cool.
For serving the vadas, spread the curd over the vadas. Pour some chutney over it. Now sprinkle the chilly powder, jeera powder and coriander leaves. Served chilled

GUJIA:

Ingredients:

For the cover:

100 gms - Flour or Maida
2 tbsp - Oil or Ghee

For the filling:

100 gms - Khoya
2-3 - Cardamom, powdered
4-5 - Pista, chopped
4-5 - Almonds, chopped
6 tbsp - Sugar powder or to taste
Oil or Ghee for deep frying

Method:

Mix the 2 tbsp of oil with the flour. Add required water and knead into a soft but tight dough. Cover with a cloth and set aside for 20 minutes.
Crumble the khoya and roast it in a thick bottomed pan till it turns light brown. Keep stirring frequently.
Spread it onto a plate and let it cool. When cool, add the sugar powder, cardamom powder and dry fruits and mix well.
Divide the dough into marble sized balls and roll each one into a 4" diameter circles. Fill half the circle with the khoya mixture and fold it and seal the edges. Roll the edges inwards and press a fork to make the design on the edges. It would be a lot easier if you were to use a gujia mould. Prepare all the gujias and spread onto a cloth.
Heat ghee or oil in a kadhai and deep fry them till golden brown in color. Drain and remove onto a kitchen napkin to remove excess oil. Store in airtight containers.

KAALA CHANA:

Ingredients:

1 cup - Kaala Chana(Bengal Gram), washed and soaked overnight
2 tbsp - Oil
1/2 tsp - Cumin or Jeera
1" piece of Cinnamon stick
3 - Cloves
2 - Cardamom
1 - Onion, chopped
1 tsp - Ginger Garlic paste
2 - Tomatoes, chopped
2 - Green chillies, chopped
1/2 tsp - Red Chilly powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tbsp - Coriander powder
1 tsp - Garam Masala powder
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for Garnish

Method:

Pressure cook the soaked chana till nice and soft.
Heat a kadhai with oil and splutter cumin, cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom.
Saute the onions and chillies till light brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry them. Saute in the tomatoes too till soft
Add chilly, turmeric and coriander powder. Saute for 2 minutes.
Add the cooked chana and bring to boil. Season with salt and garam masala powder and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add water if required. Pour the lemon juice and turn off the gas
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with pooris.

AJWAIN POORI:

For Poori, mix whole wheat flour (2 cup) with ajwain or carom seeds (1 tsp) and salt and knead into a tight dough. Make small balls and roll into 4" diameter circles and deep fry in oil till golden brown and sieve and put onto a kitchen napkin to drain excess oil. Serve hot with kaala chana.

HAPPY HOLI!!

P.S : Sorry could not vet the post properly 'coz of time constraints. Hope there are not much of mistakes.

This post is going for the Holi Hai event by Purva's Dawat

Masala Kuzhi Paniyaram - Masala Fried Idlis

2009-03-10T10:18:00.000+05:30

I relate food with memories of my life( I am sure everyone does). The first time I had kuzhi Paniyaram was from my hubby's frineds place who hails from Kerala but was brought up in Tamil Nadu and had a major influence of Tamilian food habits. These cute little fried masala idli reminds me of the new year dawn of 2007 which we spent at their place. That was the first time I got to see as well as eat paniyarams with the tomato chutney she made. I had had left over idli's tempered in oil and seasoning (which is again a common snack for Tamilians) many time before but this was truly delicious.

I kept reminding myself of this unique dish for the past 2 years but was always hesitant of making it because it was a bit unhealthy version of our good old steamed idli because it required oil. But last week I kept away all my inhibitions and re-winded the conversation with her on how she made it and voila here it was on my breakfast table. My hubby is a person who likes variety in food and I knew he would any day appreciate new recipes no matter how much oil it requires. He jumped with joy when he saw me making Paniyarams. I made coconut chutney instead of her Tomato Chutney (soon to posted) on his request.

Ingredients:

To make idli batter:

1/2 cup - Urad dal
1 cup - Raw Rice
1/2 tsp - Fenugreek Seeds
1/4 heeped cup - Cooked boiled rice
Salt to taste
Water for grinding

For Tempering:

1 medium sized Onion, chopped
1-2 nos - Green Chillies, chopped
1/2" piece Ginger, chopped
1 sprig - Curry leaf, chopped
2-3 stem of Coriander leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
1 pinch - Asafoetida
2 tsp - Oil

Oil to fry

Method:

Wash and soak all the ingredients for batter(obviously except for salt) in water for 5-6 hours. Strain and grind to a fine paste with required water. Add salt and let it ferment. Idli batters need not be sour but Paniyarams batter needs to be more sour than idli batter. I generally soak by 3:00 in the afternoon and grind by 9:00 in the night and let it stay throughout the night for fermenting. Next morning I make idlis and refrigerate the left out batter for next day to prepare Paniyarams.
Heat a pan with oil for tempering. Add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Sprinkle the asafoetida and stir. Add the chopped onions, ginger, chillies and saute for a minute. Add the curry leaves and pour this into the batter. Add the coriander leaves and stir well. Add salt if required.
Heat the kuzhi paniyaram skillet and pour 1/2 tsp of oil into the holes. When oil is hot, pour half a ladle of the batter or till the brim of the holes and cook on low flame. You may cover for a minute or so. Else be patient and wait for it to cook. When its done, it will automatically come out of the hole. Gently flip it using a fork to cook the other side. When done serve hot with chutneys. The fun is dipping the hot-hot paniyaram into the chutney and gulping it then and there.
Kuzhi paniyaram in the making in a kuzhi paniyaram chatti (skillet)!!

Easy Mango Achar and a me-me tag :) !!

2009-03-06T10:55:00.008+05:30

Summers are fast approaching and the only thing that makes me happy and excited during those sultry hot days are Mangoes. As a signal for summer days I saw nice young and tender green mangoes last day on the vegetables aisle of a supermarket. I could smell the freshness, that tangy smell all around the place. With in no time I had 4 of them in my basket. And my hubby was like - "what are you going to do with all those Pacha Mangas(Raw mangoes) ??" The only answer I had was - "Baby, you wait and watch".

The first day I cut one mango and put into my yummy Ayila (Indian Mackerel) curry. And the second day I went on to make this easy manga achar for the first time in my life. I immediately called up my 911 for cooking - my mom!! Here goes the recipe.. Enjoy

Ingredients:

2 - Raw Mangoes, washed and diced (prefer mangoes which are still tender and the seeds haven't hardened yet)
Salt to taste
1.5 tsp - Red Chilly powder
A pinch of Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Fenugreek seed powder (simply dry roast the seeds and powder it using a mortar and pestle)
1/2 tsp - Asafoetida powder
2 tbsp - Gingelly oil (nellenna) or if not available use olive or groundnut or sunflower oil
1/4 tsp - Mustard seeds
A sprig of curry leaf

Method:

Mix the diced mango pieces with red chilly powder, turmeric, fenugreek powder, asafoetida powder and salt using a clean and dry spoon. Let it stand for 10-15 minutes
Heat a kadhai with the gingelly oil and splutter the mustard seeds and curry leaves on medium heat. Simmer the heat and put the marinated mango into the kadhai and mix well for just 2 minutes. Do check the salt content at this point of time. Turn off the gas and empty it into a clean, dry bowl and let it cool and later transfer it into a glass jar.

Note: If planning to finish it off soon (i.e with 2-3 days) then you may place it on your kitchen shelf itself else refrigerate. You may increase the amount of chilly powder and asafoetida according to your taste buds. This is how we like at home :)

Varsha had tagged me to 25 random facts (can u believe that, 25!!!) about me!! I have been racking my brain on this task for the past few days and have finally penned them down.

1. My favorite pass time is sleeping. And these days when not sleeping, I would be either cooking, eating or blogging!!

2. I am extremely emotional - quite obvious, I am a cancerian. Can you guess how much I cry!! I cry when happy, I cry when sad and I cry even when there is nothing to cry about!!

3. I love cats and had two pet cats, named Pussycat and Lola, during my childhood!!

4. I am a cleanliness freak and always want a clean kitchen countertop, bathrooms and desktop(I mean of my laptop)

5. I used to be crazy about Aftab Shivdasani and Viveik Oberoi during my school days. Now I wonder was I nuts??

6. I love the smell of old books, freshly spread bed spreads, first rain on the soil and the smell of fresh baked cake!!

7. I do not go gaga over Pizza and Pasta.

8. I love to collect boxes, greeting cards, gift wrapping papers, interesting pictures, patterns, old magazines, liquor bottles etc. to recycle them into interesting stuff.

9. I can't go to bed in the night without brushing my teeth and washing my feet.

10. When in any tense situation, I think about all possibilities and the result is - I worry more!! To reduce my burden I share it with somebody and end result is - the listener turns out to be even more tensed than I am. I hate this habit of mine!! I call myself a logical thinker at those times but people refer to this as pessimism!! :(

11. I love romantic English movies and my favorite movie is "Message in a Bottle". I would suggest this for any die hard romantic like me..

12. I hate being late and don't like anyone who comes in late too!!

13. I can never get tired looking at photographs - be it mine, my family and friends or of total strangers.

14. The most recent entry into my (already so long) wishlist is a Digital SLR camera.. So now you know what to gift me!!

15. I have a major sweet tooth!! And when I feel like eating something sweet I just go wild.. Needless to say I am chocoholic too. And when there is no sweet left at home, I drink Hershey's chocolate sauce.

16. I used to hate maths and still struggle with numbers and measurements in my kitchen.

17. I started this blog with a thought that it would just be passing fancy. Quite surprisingly I am going to reach the 1-year mark in couple of month and now its hard to stay away from the blogosphere even for a day!!

18. I am not at all a party animal and feel claustrophobic in dark and smoky places. I would any day prefer an evening with my loved ones in a serene and green place with good food.

19. I have started collecting books with an aim to build a huge library at home by the time I turn 50.

20. In the past two weeks, I broke 2 plates, a soup bowl and lovely stemware glass. Of course I am not proud of myself.. And the only point I am trying to make is that I simply can't learn from my mistakes - "Handle glass with care"

21. I do not talk to strangers while traveling!! I have, somehow, programmed myself towards this after a handful of bad experiences.

22. After a jaundice attack in 2003, I stopped drinking water served in restaurants and eating pani puri for good.

23. Its not easy for me to forgive and forget. I may forgive but never forget!! I cling onto them.

24. I am shopaholic. I can roam around for a whole day to get what I want!! I love accompanying others if they want my company to shop. All my friends know that I shall never say NO to them. And most of the times I end up spending more than the other person!!

25. Phew....I got tired thinking about myself...phew... I cannot concentrate on a particular thing for too long!!

Soon after I penned down those 25 facts (still can't believe that I did that, u know 25 facts) it was time for me to pass it on. Revenge time...ha ha ha (do u see that wicked smile on my face) !! So guys get on to racking your brains now. Do take as much as time as I took but do try posting it because I would love to read it!! So I would love to pass it on to:
Lubna, Tina, Veena, Mathew, Shn, Ann, Maria, Hema, Swapna, Vibaas, Mahimaa, Malar, Anudivya, Shaheen, Viki, Soma, Asha, Nags, Sig, Mona, Superchef, Srilekha, Reshma, Rachel and Bharathy.

Parippu Vada and a lazy Sunday evening!!

2009-02-28T10:46:00.001+05:30

A lazy Sunday evening in the winter, some hot Parippu Vada(Lentil fritters - thats the best name I could give to our good old snack from South India), a cup of hot black coffee and a nice book to read!! That would be just perfect for an evening like that.

After I clicked this I suddenly started wondering, how in the whole world did I get hold of this combination of parippu vada and kattan kapi(black coffee) as no one at my home has this habit and surprisingly I do not drink coffee/tea at any given point of time except for when having parippu vada. Like people who dip milk bikis biscuit in a piping cup of tea, I dip yummy vada in a hot cup of black coffee!! So for all who haven't had this till date, make sure you try it the next time you eat parippu vada.

Ingredients:

1 cup - Chana Dal (Split Bengal gram) some people use Toor dal also
1 small - Onion, finely chopped
3-4 - Green Chillies, finely chopped
1" piece - Ginger, finely chopped
1 sprig - Curry Leaves, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Soak the chana dal (lentil) for at 2-3 hours.
Strain it until the water drains off completely. Coarsely grind the lentil in a mixie. The consistency should be such that some lentils are left whole, some broken and some tiny pieces. Do not add a drop of water at any stage.
Add rest all of the ingredients except oil and mix well. Check and adjust the salt content.
Heat the oil in a kadhai.
Take around 2 tbsp of the lentil mixture and make a ball out of it and then place it in the center of your palm and press it to flatten them using the other palm. The size of the vadas would be same as the center of your palm. The vadas would be at its best if you get it thin. Thicker vadas take longer to cook in the inside.
When the oil is hot, gently slide the vadas into the oil and cook on medium flame till both the sides are dark golden brown. Flip when required.
Remove from oil and place on kitchen napkins to drain the excess oil.
Serve immediately with hot tea or black coffee.

Note:
Once the mixture is prepared, do not keep it for long. The ingredients in the mixture like salt and onion starts to leave water, thus making it moist and which makes it difficult to mould.

This recipe is going to participate in the "Lentils Mela"

And now its award time!! Yippeeeeeee

Hema and Varsha have passed on the Emerald Award!! Thanks a lot for considering me as a good friend of yours!!

Varsha has passed on these two awards to me again. Thanks a lot Varsha. But I am still wondering whats the purpose of my blog? ...... And I guess finally I've arrived on an answer - to virtually feed the whole world and to pass on a smile all around!

To share my happiness I would like to pass the awards on to some of my new found friends and some well deserving bloggers - Ann, Swapna, Vibaas, Soma, Nags, Mahimaa, Viki, Malluspice, Mathew, Hema and Superchef.

Semiya Payasam or Vermicelli Kheer

2009-02-25T18:22:00.001+05:30

As a child, I never was too fond of Semiya Payasam because it was something which my mother used to prepare very frequently and my taste buds had somehow got used to the modest taste of it. Then I used to like more blingy stuff like Palada(made out of milk and cooked rice flakes) and Sarkara Payasams(made of lentil and jaggery) - which obviously meant a lot more effort for my mother. But today, even I go for the good old modest semiya payasams for the sake of ease and ohh yeah I do enjoy it more with the richness of added condensed milk and lots of nuts.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup - Semiya or Vermicelli
1 tbsp - Ghee
2-3 cups - Toned Milk
1/2 cup - Sugar (or according to your taste)
2 pods - Cardamom, powdered
1 Tbsp - Ghee
10 - 15 nos - Raisins
5 - 10 nos - Cashew nuts

Optional ingredients:

4 - Pista, blanched and chopped
4 - Almonds, dry roasted
A pinch of Saffron
3 Tbsp - Condensed milk

Method:

Pour the milk into a saucepan for boiling. In the meantime, heat a pan with n1 Tbsp of ghee and roast the vermicelli till it turns light brown in color
When the milk boils, simmer it and add the semiya and let it cook on low flame for 2-3 minutes and add the sugar and stir well. Let it boil and then simmer till it start getting thick. Now add the condensed milk and turn off the gas when you feel the right consistency has reached. Add the cardamom powder and stir.
Roast the raisins and cashew nuts till golden brown and add to the payasam and add the blanched pista and toasted almonds too. Sprinkle the saffron strands and mix well.
Serve hot or even chilled.

Note:
It may thicken when it cools down, so add boiled hot milk to loosen it up. Also make sure you adjust the sugar content then.

Pan Fried Chicken

2009-02-17T16:29:00.002+05:30

Fried means a lot of oil. But how can one resist from having Fried Chicken. So how about a PFC - the Indian style Pan fried Chicken!!

Ingredients:

1/2 kg - Chicken, cleaned and cut into large pieces
1/2 tbsp - Ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp - Chilly powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
2 tsp - Garam masala powder
1 tsp - Pepper powder
Salt to taste
2-3 Tbsp - Oil

Method:

Mix the chicken pieces with all the masala powders and salt and let it marinate for 30 minutes minimum
Heat a non stick pan and pour 1 tbsp of oil and place the chicken pieces and cover and cook on low flame until the chicken pieces are tender and the water is completely evaporated. Remove the lid and let the chicken fry on medium flame. Pour oil as and when required and fry the chicken.
Serve hot with lemon wedges, dahi ka chutney and salad made of carrot, onion and cabbage.

Vegetable Momos / Vegetable Steamed Dumplings

2009-02-12T14:12:00.002+05:30

A training program during the early years of my career took me to Chennai with an all girls team. It was 4 days of absolute fun. We used to wait for the training to get over so that we could eat out, roam around and shop like mad women!! And each evening we accomplished our tasks on our checklist. One night after loads of street shopping, 3 of us got into a very plush Chinese restaurant with mighty hunger pangs. While flipping through the menu I got rather fascinated by reading the name MOMO's which was then a new thing to my ears and stomach!! A friend of mine who belongs to Delhi educated me that it is a very famous starter among Nepalise and Tibetans and thus popular in Delhi and one must try tasting it. And we went ahead and ordered it and it was bliss for me after that. Right from the appearance to the smell to the texture to the taste it just made me fall in love with Momo.

It has been quite a while since I have been wanting to try making momos at home but never had the courage to try them. Yesterday while just browsing the net I thought of giving a search for the recipe for vegetable momos. After reading through a lot of recipes from various sites I decided to try something on my own without a direct reference from any site because it was that easy a recipe to try. You can make chicken filling too but as I had only vegetables available in my refrigerator I tried out the vegetarian version.

Ingredients:

1 cup - All purpose flour
Salt to taste
Water to knead

For the filling:

1 - Carrot, finely diced
6-8 - French beans, finely chopped
1 handful, cabbage leaves, chopped
2 - Spring Onions, chopped
2 tsp - Oil
1/2 tsp - Pepper
1/2 tsp - Soya sauce
1/2 tsp - Crushed red dry chillies
3 cloves - Garlic, chopped
1/2 inch - Ginger piece, chopped
Salt to taste

For Chilly garlic sauce: (the measurement of the items depends upon how you like it. Please feel free to change it according to your taste)

10-15 - Dry red chillies soaked in hot water or Fresh Red Jalapenos, de-seeded and chopped
4 big cloves garlic, chopped
Salt to taste
A pinch of sugar
1 tsp - White vinegar

Method:

Mix flour and salt and add adequate water to bind the flour. Knead it into a dough as you do for roti. Cover and keep aside
Microwave carrots and beans for 3-4 minutes
Heat a wok with oil and saute ginger, garlic, crushed chillies. Add cabbage and spring onion and saute for a minute. Add cooked carrot and beans and suate. Add soya sauce, salt and pepper. Turn off the gas and cool it.

Take a marble sized ball from the dough and roll it ito a thin circle of approx 3" diameter. It should neither be too transparent nor opaque but should be such that when you place it against light it looks translucent. Place it on to your left palm and place a teaspoon full of filling and seal it. I followed this link for understanding how to fold the momos. There are 2 ways of doing it. The first one being the half moon(semi circle) and second one the round momo(gunny bag style). Repeat the process till you finish the dough or filling.
Now apply some oil on the steamer and place them carefully on to it and cover it up and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Serve steaming hot momos with chilly-garlic sauce.

For the sauce :

Put all the ingredients in an blender and blend it to a coarse texture. Taste it to check if everything is balanced.
Pour it into a saucepan and heat it on medium flame and let it simmer for 5 minutes or until the raw smell goes. Cool and serve. Garnish with scallions.

Shahi Tukda - A Nawabi peshkash

2009-02-09T11:06:00.003+05:30

I always felt that the picture I captured when I prepared Shahi Tukda the first time was not really great and thus I am taking the opportunity to repost the recipe of Shahi Tukda with a new picture and small changes in the recipe, rather a small addition into the recipe. I did not have saffron last time I made them and this time I have added it and felt a very huge difference in the final output.

I took a special effort to make Shahi tukda taste the best because this time I made it for a pregnant friend of mine who specially requested me to make it for her. And this is special box of goodness for her!!

First posted on 24thAugust, 2008

My co blogger turned friend Lubna of Kitchenflavours has passed me the "Wylde Woman Award" and I am on top of the world. Its my first award and hope to get many more. One good thing about the bloggers world is to share everything. And I find pleasure in sharing the award by passing it on to: Pravs, Maria, Emi, Shn, Deeba and Srivalli

And to celebrate this beautiful day, I tried out the Shahi Tukda - in the Shahi/Royal way!! And one more reason for me to make it coz being in the royal twin city or pearl city of India how can I miss to try shahi tukda. It just too irresistible and its one dessert which you can make with things very much readily available at home.

Ingredients:

6 slices - Bread
2 Tbsp - Ghee
1 cup - Full cream milk or if health conscious can use toned milk too
2 Tbsp - Pista, blanched and chopped
1/4 cup - Sugar
1/4 cup - Water
1 - Cardamom, powdered
4-5 Nos- Almonds, toasted and sliced
Few strands of saffron

Method:

Cut off the edges of the bread and cut it diagonally into 2 triangles. Keep aside for minimum 2 hours to make it a little hard
Make sugar syrup by mixing the sugar and water and let it boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the gas and add the powdered elachi into it and set aside
Boil the milk and then simmer it done and let it reduce to 1/4th the actual quantity. Keep stirring occasionally. The fat in the milk will solidify thus whisk with a fork once its off the stove. Add pista and few strands of saffron when the milk is thickened. Keep aside
Apply ghee on the bread and lightly fry on a non stick pan until they turn golden brown on both sides.
Arrange the slices on a flat pan/tray
When the bread is still hot, generously pour sugar syrup over it. Wait until it seeps down. You may prick the bread with a fork to help the sugar syrup trickle down into the bread.
Now spread the milk mixture on top of it and sprinkle some almonds, pista and saffron strands on top. Cover it and refrigerate
Serve chilled after a meal of Hyderabadi Biriyani, Mirchi ka Salan and Dahi ki chutney

And I'm sending this recipe to Mona's Hyderabadi Cuisine Event in her blog Zaiqa

Also sending it to Sindhura's Bread Mania in her blog sindhura-bayleaf

Methi Parantha

2009-02-06T18:10:00.004+05:30

I always try and camouflage certain ingredients which Iam not too fond of eating and eat just because its good for the body. So making it into paranthas were a good solution. Have it with tomato ketchup, achaar or any sabji for that matter. An easy thing to make, it doesnot require cooking or stuffing. Just mix it with the flour and knead it into a dough and your job is half done. Fenugreek leaves and stems are a good source of calcium, iron and vitamins. So good for growing children and pregnant woman!!

Ingredients:

1 Bunch - Methi sag or Fenugreek leaves, chopped
2 cups - Wheat flour
1 - Onion, very finely chopped
1/2 tsp - Red chilly powder
A generous pinch of Turmeric powder
Couple of pinches of Jeera or Cumin seeds
Some coriander leaves, chopped
Salt to taste
Water to knead the dough
Oil to smear on the parantha

Method:

Mix all the ingredients except oil and water in a large bowl. Add water slowly and knead it into a soft dough like how you prepare for normal paranthas.
Take small portions of it and roll it into circles and put on a hot pan and cook both sides. Apply oil on both the sides and cook well. Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.

Note:
You can store this dough in the refrigerator for 3-4 days if kept in air tight containers and use for a quick snack or breakfast or as and when you are hungry.

A moment of joy!!

2009-02-05T16:42:00.002+05:30

It was been so thoughtful of some of my co-bloggers cum friends to have passed on some very valuable awards to me but I always forget to pass it on. And today morning when I received the award from Varsha I made up my mind to reciprocate my affection towards them as well as their creation by bestowing them with a very unique award - an award created by me exclusively for you all!! Anyways let me start by thanking them - better late than never :)

Thanks a lot Lubna for my first award - the Wylde Woman Award". It sure did make a lot of difference.
Thanks Veena for passing those bunch of awards like 360 degree foodie award, Butterfly award, Great buddy, Perfect blend of friendship, Yum yum blog award and Kreative blogger award. I was delighted to get all of those!!

Thanks Varsha to have passed on a "Good Chat Blog Award" - the recent most in my kitty of awards!!

So Lubna, Veena and Varsha - this one is for the three of you!!
I would also pass it on to three other special blogger friends of mine - Shn, Tina and Anudivya.

Feel free to share this award with people you feel are eligible .. Spread a smile around!!

Love
Divz

Unakka Chemmeen Varuthathu or Dry Prawns Fry

2009-02-05T14:48:00.000+05:30

"Chorum, rasavum pinne kurachu unakka chemmeen varuthathum ondakil pinne vere onnum venda... :) " meaning if there is rice, rasam and fried dry prawns then there is nothing more to ask for!! This was a very common dialogue at my place. I still remember how my brother and I along with my mother used to wait to have this combination for lunch. (as dry prawns was banned at home by our father) My father, had and i guess still has a strong aversion towards the smell that comes while frying dry prawns. On one hand we used to agree with him that it has a very peculiar smell and the whole neighbourhood would come to know that you are frying dried prawns but on the other hand we used to grieve on it!! So whenever Papa went on for an official tour or so, it would be party time for us. It was a fixed menu and my brother would take his bicycle and rush to that one shop near our home, which used to keep dried prawns in small packets and hang it on a hanger along with various home-made achaar packets.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup - Dry prawns, cleaned (ideal for 2 people)
1 - Large Onion, chopped
2 sprigs of curry leaf
1 tbsp - Oil, preferably coconut oil
1/2 tsp - Red chilly powder
salt to taste(if required)

Method:

Heat a pan or kadhai. In the meantime, quickly rinse the prawns in water and drain out all the excess water and put it into the hot pan. Saute till all the water has evaporated.
When the prawns is free of water, add half the quanity of chopped onion and curry leaves.
Pour the oil and saute it on medium heat till the onions turn light brown. At this stage add the rest of the onion and curry leaf. Add salt if required. As salt is put while drying the prawns, check whether you really need to add salt or not.
Fry till the prawns and the first set of onions get crispy. The second set of onions would be a little less done but thats what make it special. If the entire quantity of onion is browned there are chances of the dish tasting burnt.
Add the chilly powder just 1 minute before you turn off the gas. Mix well till the raw smell is gone.
Serve hot with rice

Note:
Have fried dry prawns in limited quanity. If consumed in large quanity it can upset your tummy.

Meen Peera or Fish with grated coconut

2009-02-04T15:58:00.002+05:30

The New year has come.. And by today this year is shorter by a month!! And yeah I have been missing from this blog world for over a month!! Lot of my friends(who know me personally) called up, smsed and scrapped me asking whether I am alive or not coz I was not active on my blog!! Now that was so sweet of all of them to have showed that affection towards me and motivated me so much that today I am back to business. May be its the new year hang over or something of that sort, today I am short of words so lets get to the recipe directly.

Meen Peera is a Central Kerala preparation!! Rather, yet another innovative creation using fish. Its a change from the usual fish curry or fry one has on a regular day. Also called peera at times, it can be prepared using small fish like smelt or locally refered as Kozhuva and occasionally using small sardines too!! I have had peera of seer fish (Ney meen) once and have heard people say that even tuna can be used. So basically what I learnt is that there is no hard and fast rule as to which fish to be used for Peera!! Its a very easy recipe - less time, less oil, less spice!!

Ingredients:

250 gms - Fish of your choice( i used sardine for this time)
2 pieces - Kokum (kudampuli)
5-6 - Shallots
2-3 - Green chillies
3/4 cup - Grated coconut
1/2 '' piece - Ginger
1 tsbp - Coconut oil
1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 - Shallots, sliced
1 sprig of curry leaf
Salt to taste
Water to cook

Method:

In a mixer, make a coarse paste of coconut, chillies, ginger and shallots and keep aside.
In a meen chatti( traditional earthen pot), put the cleaned and washed fish, turmeric powder, salt, kokum and little water and mix well and put the pot on the flame with a lid on. Cook till the fish is done. As I had medium sized sardines I had cut the fish into 2-3 pieces thus while stirring it, the fish broke into pieces. So very carefully stir it.
Once the water evaporates, add the ground coconut paste into the fish and cook for 2 more minutes and turn off the gas.
Take another pan and heat coconut oil and splutter mustard seeds and saute in the shallots and curry leaves and pour it onto the dish and mix again.
Serve immediately with rice

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T10:31:00.000+05:30

Let the roads that you take be less traveled and may each path take you to the best of things in Life!! Hoping and wishing the best of happenings in this New Year for all you beautiful people out there..

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Achari Murg or Chicken made in pickle spice

2008-12-26T14:45:00.006+05:30

It was Christmas yesterday and we got onto task to try out something special and we browsed through the internet for what to be made!! We came across lots of recipes and got all the more confused and hence thought of referring to our good old (treasure) recipe book and found this recipe which was a cut out from a magazine.

Without much of preface I am directly writing the recipe. There are couple of reasons for no story this time. One is that I am leaving for my hometown tonight for a 10 day long vacation and the excitement to meet my family is bubbling and bursting . And secondly I have nothing to write about this time(probably my brain is not working well today)

Ingredients:

700 gms - Chicken, curry cut pieces
2 - Onions, chopped finely
1/2 tsp - Nigella seeds or Kalonji
1 tsp - Cumin or Jeera
1 tsp - Fennel or Saunf
1/2 tsp - Fenugreek Seeds or methidana
3 tbsp - Thick curd
1/2 tsp - Red Chilly powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
2 - Tomatoes, chopped finely
2 - Green Chillies, slit
Juice of 1 Lemon
Coriander leaves for garnish
3 tbsp - Oil
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat a kadhai or wok. Add the chopped onions and saute till it turns brown(a little more than golden brown).
Now add the nigella, fennel, fenugreek and cumin seeds. Mix well. Add the cleaned chicken into this and roast well on high flame for around 4 minutes. The chicken might stick to the kadhai thus stir gently.
Once oil starts separating, add the yoghurt and saute on medium heat till the curd is mixed well. Then add the red chilly powder and turmeric powder and saute till oil separates further. Add the tomatoes, green chillies and required salt and saute well. The more you saute the more darker the gravy gets.
Add 1/2 cup of water and cover amd cook for 10 minutes or till the chicken is soft.
Add lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve hot with rotis, parantha or naan

Merry Christmas with a Easy Fruit Cake

2008-12-24T21:34:00.005+05:30

Its Christmas time and unfortunately I really do not feel it here in the air, except for the surprisingly cold weather and for the malls being lit up and decorated - the colors of Christmas is not showing up elsewhere. No unusual shopping spree, no multi colored stars hung on the roads for sale, no Santa Claus in front of shops, no specially lit disco lights on the streets, no carols being heard in the neighbourhood.. And above all no one to invite us home for a Christmas Lunch with mouth watering dishes, wine and cake!!

So we decided that why not celebrate it on our own in our small home, eating good food, shopping and by watching the special Malayalam movies telecasted on TV :)!! The thought that no one is going to gift us a bottle of wine and fruit cake made me make the favorite Christmas time must have, the fruit cake.. I have my mom's version which doesnt need any liquor like rum or brandy. (We never used liquor in our fruit cakes because we never had anyone who drinks!!) And moreover when the final product tastes as good as a cake with liquor, what is the need to add something which is anyways not so good for your health!!

Ingredients:

250 gms - All purpose flour
225 gms - Sugar powder
200 gms - Butter, at room temperature
250 gms - Mixed dry fruits (Golden raisins, Black currants, Dates, Glaced cherries, Cashewnuts, Almonds)
20 gms - Candied orange rind
1.5 tsp - Mixed spice powder(cinnamon, cloves, caraway seeds(shahjeera))
1 tsp - Baking powder
3 Nos - Eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp - Vanilla essence
1/2 cup - Sugar
1/4 cup- Water

Method:

Heat a deep pan, put 1/2 cup of sugar into it and let it melt. Do not stir at this point. When its starts browning stir occasionally and when it comes to a boil switch of the gas and shift the pan into the sink and slowly, pour the 1/4 cup of water into the pan and stir. Empty this into a bowl and allow it to cool.
Sieve flour, baking powder and spice powder.
Chop all the dry fruits and add to the sifted flour mixture and mix well and keep aside. If this process is skipped, the fruits will settle down on the bottom after baking
Grease a butter paper and insert into a lightly greased cake tin. I opted for a round tin.
Preheat the oven at 180° C
Beat butter and sugar powder until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time with vanilla essence and beat well.
Add the caramel syrup and mix well.
Now fold the flour into the butter-egg mixture and mix well.
Empty the batter into the tin and keep it into the preheated oven and bake it for minimum 45 minutes. Insert a toothpick and check if done. If the toothpick comes out clean, then take it off the oven and let it cool.

Serve with home made sweet wine if available.

So you all out there having a visual feast of colors, have a great Christmas!! Have lots of food and wine but don't drink and drive ;)

Merry Christmas!!

Easy Doughnuts

2008-12-16T18:41:00.008+05:30

I never knew doughnuts were so easy to make until the day I saw this site and made up my mind to make it the very moment forgetting the calorie and fat content in it.

It was around 5:30 in the evening today when I started the prep, thinking that I can finish off by the time my hubby is back from work. But to my surprise I finished of my work, cleaned up the place, washed the dishes, took pictures, formatted them and now posting it at 6:30 p.m. It was that easy and just too good. Off late I haven't had such good doughnuts. It just melted away in the mouth.

I was so apprehensive about making them because I am not too good with confectionery and baking, thus ended up taking just half the quantity of ingredients. I also considered the fact that 18 doughnuts(according to the author of the recipe on allrecipes.com) would be too much for 2 of us to eat, even if it turns out to be good. I got 8 doughnuts out of this quantity. So my recipes goes like this. I also followed couple of comments mentioned by some reviewers which made the process easier.

Ingredients:

1.5 tbsp - Yoghurt
1/4 cup -Powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp - Butter, at room temperature
1/2 of an Egg
3 drops - Vanilla essence
3/4 cup - All purpose flour
A pinch - Baking soda
A pinch - Salt
Oil for deep frying
Some flour for dusting the marble
Some sugar powder for dusting

Method:

Cream butter and sugar in a bowl till smooth
Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix well
Sift the baking soda, salt and flour and keep aside
Stir in the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture alternating it with yogurt.
Mix and kneed well until you form a soft dough out of it.
Clean the kitchen marble and dust it with some flour and roll the dough on to the surface in 1/3 inch thickness.
Cut the dough using a doughnut cutter and let it stand for 10 minutes. As I did not have a doughnut cutter I used a small bowl with a sharp edge and bottle cap to get the shape. The dough which is cut from the center was collected and rolled again and cut.
After 10 minutes, heat enough oil in a wok type utensil and fry them till golden brown on medium low flame. It wouldnot take more than a minute to fry them. Strain onto kitchen paper towels and when still warm roll them on a pile of sugar powder and dust them well. Serve immediately.

My doughnuts have become cold and hubby has still not come home. :( Guess its his bad luck!!

Kurumulaku ittu Mathi Varuthathu or Sardines Fried with ground pepper

2008-12-15T15:57:00.018+05:30

ohile browsing through some of my old pictures on my system, I became all nostalgic about home, Cochin and above all, Kerala!! Suddenly my thoughts ran up to those narrow lanes of Fortkochi, Jew Street and Broadway which was infused with the distinct smell of spices. Cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, mace - you could smell it all there. The Broadway(on the contrary, not at all a broad street) was one of the streets I had to pass by every evening after work to get to the nearest bus stop. The smell of the spices enthused me even at that hour of the day. And ever since I remember the place, it always smelled and looked the same sans a few new shops.

Staying in this city rich for its spice trade, every family who has some land around their houses or in their backyard would make sure that they plant few essential spices. We too have some pepper vines climbing onto couple of adakkamaram(Arecanut trees), a nice and shady nutmeg tree, an all spices tree and a cinnamon tree in and around our house. Thanks to my father who planted all those trees that I could grow up seeing all of those spices. And no matter how far away from home I am, I would definetly carry a nice jar full of home grown black peppercorns for sure.

This fish fry is something which is very special to me because I crafted out of my own imagination using our own peppercorns and my hubby just loves it. We could have it everyday and still want for more. The taste obviuosly comes out of the pepper which is the main ingredient.

Ingredients:

5-6 Nos - Sardines
Coconut Oil or refined oil, to shallow fry
1 tsp and more - whole balck peppercorns
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
2-3 - Shallots
1 tsp - Ginger Garlic paste
2 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method:

Clean and cut the fish and score them and keep aside
Roughly grind all the ingredients and apply on to the fish. Apply it thoroughly on to the fish and smear the masala on the cuts. Let it remain for minimum half an hour
Heat a pan and pour some oil according to your wish. I use coconut oil most often, which increases the flavor. When the oil is hot, place the marinated fish and let it fry for sometime on both the sides over a medium low flame. As the masala paste is coarse there are chances of it getting browned faster and might sometimes burn also. So make sure the masala is just browned and not burnt(like what happened to couple of my fishes). This preparation is at its best when the fish is not too crisp.
Serve hot and sizzling with rice.

Note: If you can manage to get fresh green peppercorns, you can replace the black ones with them, which would taste even better.

Cocoa Coffee Souffle

2008-12-12T21:33:00.002+05:30

It was on a lazy afternoon(when I had absolutely nothing to do), that I was flipping through my recipe book. This book was created around 5-6 years back, from a bundle of cut outs from magazines and news papers my parents & I collected over a period of 2 decades. My mom used to cut the recipes and dad used to carefully keep all those cut outs in an old blue briefcase. And often on Sunday afternoons we used to browse through it to see what new can we try for that afternoon.

Years passed by, the collection increased and my parents transfered the responsibilty to me. Thats when I meticulously sorted it out and discarded the once which I would not give a try and pasted and indexed that book for an easy reference. And today because of this reason I consider this book of ours as a Treasure Book.

A small excerpt from my book. Now this book has some handwritten recipes too, which I have either noted when aired on the television or told by my mother over the numerous STD calls we make discussing recipes.

And last week while I was flipping through those pale yellow pages, I came across this recipe of a souffle which I have been eyeing for a long time. I have never tried my hand on souffles ever before. And now because of this blog I had the motivation to try it out.

The one which I thought of trying was the Chocolate Souffle but when I started accumulating the materials required, I found that I just had only 1 tbsp of cocoa whereas it required 3-4 tbsps. Thats when I thought I would alter it according to my availability of products and ended up with a new souffle all together, and I christened it as the "Cocoa coffee souffle".

Ingredients:

1/3 tbsp - Cornflour
2 tsp - Gelatin
1/2 tsp - Instant coffee powder
50 gms - Sugar
A pinch of Salt
1 tbsp - Cocoa powder
25 gms- Sugar
1.5 cup - Milk
1 - Egg, separated

Method:

Separate the egg yolk and egg white into two clean dry bowls.
Mix together cornflour, gelatin, coffee powder, 50 gms of sugar and salt in a heavy bottomed pan and swtich on the gas, keeping the flame low. Pour the milk slowly into it the pan while stirring the mixture continuously. Pour the milk in installments and not at once.
Once the entire milk has been stirred in, add the 25 gms of sugar and cocoa into the milk mixture and keep stirring. You will see that the mixture is thickening. Remove the pan from the gas when medium thick.
Beat the egg yolk with a fork and slowly pour it into the milk mixture. Stir well and keep the pan again on medium heat. Let it start boiling. When you see the first bubble come, switch off and keep the pan onto a tray of ice water. Let it cool.
Simultaneously, beat the egg white with a beater or whisk and make it stiff.
When the mixture has completely cooled down, slowly fold the stiff egg white into the mixture with a spatula. You will notice that the volume of the mixture suddenly increases when you add the egg white. That is how it ideally should be. And this is the difference between making a mousse and souffle.
Now transfer it into small glasses and let it set in a refridgerator till you serve. Serve chilled.
When serving you may decorate it with grated chocolate, cherry, icing sugar etc.

Njandu Varutharachathu or Kerala Style Crab curry - Obviuosly with oodles of coconut oil and coconut

2008-12-10T17:19:00.002+05:30

Whenever I eat crab, I just get reminded of one thing which my mom always says. "Njandu curry ondankil, randu curry venda!!"(means if there is crab curry, you neednot have another curry). And I often I related that statement of my mother as her laziness to cook more dishes the day crab was cooked.

As a kid, I never adored it as it was so difficult to eat them. The art of eating crab is something that one learns through years of practice. The day I learnt to eat them, I started enjoying it. To be frank, it is so difficult to eat crab minding your table manners. The day this thought struck my mind, things bacame easier!! And from then on I made it a point not to eat crab at a restuarants(unless and until its some preparation using the crab meat and doesn't involve the shell)!! Not having tasted many preparations with crab, I always tend to love the good old Kerala preparation, which my mother, aunts, mother in law and hubby makes!! This version comes from my hubby who is an expert in making sea food!!

Ingredients:

To cook:

1/2 Kg - Crab, cleaned and cut
1" piece - Ginger
1 sprig of curry leaf
1 tsp - Turmeric Powder
1/2 - Raw banana or 1 potato, cubed (optional)
Salt to taste
Water to cook

To roast and grind:

A ittle more than 1/2 cup of lightly packed finely grated fresh Coconut
4 - cloves
1" piece - Cinnamon
1 small pod of cardamom
1 tsp - Black peppercorns
2 cloves - Garlic
2 tsp - Coriander powder
2 tsp - Chilly powder
A generous pinch - Fennel seeds or perinjeerakam
1 tsp - Coconut Oil

For Tempering:(Optional)

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
2-3 - Shallots, thinly sliced
1 sprig - Curry leaf
1 tbsp - Coconut Oil

Method:

Clean the crab and cut the major part into two. The legs need to be crushed a bit. You can ideally just give a light crush with a pestle until you see cracks on the shell. This is done so that the spices and salt gets into the juicy flesh.
Now, in a pan, put all the ingredients in the 'To cook' section and pour required water and bring it to a boil and simmer and cook till the crab turns orange in color. If excessive water, turn the flame to medium high and evaporate it till the level you desire. We like a little thick gravy thus not much of water was retained.
Meanwhile, in a pan, pour the coconut oil and roast all the ingredients leaving the chilly and coriander powder. When the coconut turns nice and brown, add the coriander and chilly powder and stir continuously till the raw smell is gone. Make sure the mixture doesnt get burnt, for which you need to keep the flame medium low and keep stirring continously. Let it cool and grind it with very little water to a fine paste. The finer the paste, the better the curry's texture gets
Once done empty the masala paste into the cooked crab and mix well. If water is required add water according to your wish. Let the crab simmer in this masala for 10 minutes till all the aroma gets into the crab.
In a pan, pour 1 tbsp of oil and put in the mustard, shallots and curry leaf and pour on top of the curry. Close the lid and let it stand for 10 minutes and serve with Rice. Tempering is not a must do. I generally skip it as I cannot simply wait to have it. And yet another reason being less oil too

Kerala Muslim Style Chicken Biriyani

2008-11-26T22:21:00.002+05:30

It was a lazy sunday morning when both of us got the starnge craving for good Biriyani!! But instead of going to Paradise(a famous outlet in Secunderabad for Biriyani's) we decided to make it at home. Everyone says that being in Hyderabad why do you have to cook biriyani?? Whenever you feel like eating one, hop on to the nearest joint and you can get a decent one!! But very ironically the so much hyped Hyderabadi Biriyani didnot please neither my hubby's nor my taste buds!! After trying out from the best places here, my search for Biriyanis in this city's restuarants ended!! Thus I started my endeavor with lots of hope to recreate the taste of the Chicken Biriyani from my own homeland, Kerala!! The taste of the sumptuous Chicken Biriyani of Sagar Hotel in Calicut (which I had a decade ago) or the modest Kaikka's Biriyani from Mattanchery made me search the internet for the most authentic recipe.. In such a search I stuck against Mishmash's recipe!!
http://kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com/2007/09/chicken-biryani-indian-rice-flavored.html

It was this recipe on Shn's blog which enticed me to try it out no matter how much ever hard work I had to put in!! With almost half the quantity of rice and chicken it took me long 3 hours in the kitchen!! Was wondering how much time Shn took :D. Anyways, Shn, thanks a ton for sharing this recipe..

With certain minor changes in the procedure and ingredients I recreated the taste which I have been lingering to have!!

I started with the cooking of rice using the traditional stove top method and for the first time I got the most perfectly cooked basmati rice. The chicken kurma had the perfect color it should have had, I guess!! And the very instance I tasted the kurma, I became so sure that the Biriyani is going to be a hit!!

I did the closing ceremony by using the dum method as Shn had mentioned that it is a better way of making biriyani. For which, I greased a large vessel with lots of ghee (do not use steel vessel – the biriyani might get burnt). Randomly placed some chicken pieces along with gravy in the bottom of the dish; then spread some cooked rice, and sprinkled some ground aromatic masala mix; some fried cashew, raisins, fried onions and finely chopped coriander leaves, some ghee and some beaten curd.(Adding ghee and curd made it moist.) Repeated this layering process until the chicken kurma and rice got over. The layering should end with rice which should be topped with fried nuts, raisins, fried onions and finely chopped coriander leaves.
Then sealad the lid with the atta dough and cooked over low heat for 20-30 minutes. Once the gas was turned off I let it remain unopened for around 1 hour.

But the tragedy was that, by the time I was done with the Biriyani my hubby got all impatient and hungry that we pounced on to it and I forgot to take the end products picture. The picture which I have uploaded was the left over which I reheated and had the next day!! Hope to upload a pic next time I make it.. For then, Eat loads and enjoy!!

Spicy Mixed Noodles & Dry Chilly Cauliflower

2008-11-13T19:59:00.010+05:30

I think I have mentioned innumerable times about my liking towards Chinese food and how much my husband and I keep visiting restaurants (but obviously Chinese) time and time again. There have been times when we decide purposefully to go to a non-Chinese restaurants and end up eating a fried rice or Chinese starter or at least a Chinese soup. So without wasting too much of time lets jump to today's menu : Spicy Mixed Noodles and Dry chilly cauliflower(very Indian way - Microwave cooking)

Spicy Mixed Noodles:

Ingredients:

1 pack - Hakka Noodles(generally available in supermarkets)
1 tsp - Oil
1 - Carrot, thinly sliced
10-12 - Beans, thinly sliced diagonally
1/4 cup - Cabbage, sliced
1/2 - Capsicum, sliced
2 - Eggs (optional, omit if Vegetarian)
1/4 cup - Chicken, cooked and shredded (optional, omit if Vegetarian)
1 tsp - Tabasco sauce (generally used for Barbequed dishes, but this adds a peculiar taste to food and adds a lot of heat)
1 tsp - Chilly sauce
1 tsp - Soya sauce
Pepper (according to taste)
Salt to taste
2 tbsp - Oil

Method:

Cook and strain the noodles with a teaspoon of oil and let it cool for an hour.
Add a 1 tsp of oil and heat a wok or deep kadhai. Scramble the eggs with some salt and pepper and keep aside.
Add 1 more tsp of oil and saute the shredded chicken with salt and pepper and keep it aside.
Add the rest of the oil and add the beans and carrot and saute for 2 minutes and add the cabbage and capsicum and saute for another 2 minutes. The veges should not be overcooked but crunchy.
Once done empty the noodles into the wok and mix well and saute for 2 minutes.
Add all the sauces and mix well. If required add pepper powder and salt. For extra heat(spice) you may add Dry red chilly flakes.
Serve hot.

Dry Chilly Cauliflower:

Ingredients:

1/2 - Cauliflower florets
2 tbsp - Oil
1 - Onion, diced
1/2" piece - Ginger, chopped fine
2-3 flakes of Garlic, chopped fine
1 tbsp - Soya sauce
1/2 tbsp - Vinegar
4-5 -Green chillies, slit
1 medium sized - capsicum, diced
1 tbsp - Cornflour mixed with 1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp - Sugar
Salt to taste

Method:

In a microwave proff dish, add the oil, onion, ginger, garlic, soya sauce and cauliflower. Mix and microwave covered for 5 minutes on high.
Add all the remaining ingredients. Mix and microwave uncovered for 3 minutes. Mix and serve hot.

Aloo Poha

2008-10-28T17:19:00.001+05:30

Ingredients:

2 cups - Poha / Rice flakes / Avil (thicker ones are the best)
1 tbsp - Oil
1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
2-3 - green chillies, chopped
1 - Onion, chopped
1 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 - Potato, diced
1 pinch - Sugar
Salt to taste
Some Coriander leaves, chopped
2-3 - Lemon wedges

Method:

Put the poha into a large strainer and dip into a bowl of cold clean water. Let it remain for a minutes and take it out. Gently squeeze the water off and spread it onto a plate. This process has to be done very carefully and you should not soak it for too long as the flakes will become mushy.
Heat a pan with oil and splutter mustard and cumin seeds. Saute in the onion and chillies. Add turmeric and potatoes and cook covered for few minutes.
Add the soaked and drained poha, sugar and salt into the pan and mix well. If you notice that the flakes are getting dry, turn off the gas and sprinkle some water and cover it for 10 minutes.
Garnish with coriander leaves, onion and lemon juice.

Note: You can add any vegetable like french beans, carrot, cauliflower, green peas etc (depending upon your taste and availability) which would make it more interesting and nutritious.

Padavalanga Parippu thoran / Snake gourd - Lentil stir fry

2008-10-26T12:54:00.001+05:30

Ingredients:

1/2 cup - Chana Dal / Kadalaparippu, soaked for 1 hours
1 - Padavalanga / Snake gourd, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp - Cumin powder
2 cloves - Garlic
2-3 - Green chillies
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 cup - Grated coconut
1 tbsp - Oil
1 tsp - Mustard seed
2-3 - Shallots
1 sprig - Curry leaf
Salt to taste

Method:

Pressure cook the dal with just enough water. Do not cook it too much. The dal should be firm to look at but should get mashed when we press it between the forefinger and thumb.
Coarsly grind together cumin, garlic, green chillies, coconut and turmeric. Mix it with the cut gourd and add salt and keep it aside for 15 minutes.
Heat a pan with oil. Splutter the mustard seeds and saute the shallots and curry leaves. Put the gourd and cook covered for 5 minutes with very little water. When done, empty the lentil and stir fry for couple of minutes. Serve hot with rice

Palak paneer

2008-10-24T15:10:00.002+05:30

Palak Paneer is one dish liked by every Indian. Its nutritious and also tasty. My first attempt to try it was when I saw those lush green bunches of spinach in one supermarket. I carried them home and made some paneer at home and was all set to go. But was not sure how to make it. Thats when I typed "Palak Paneer+Recipe" in our very own Google and landed up with a loads of recipes. After reading many of them thought of trying something on my own and ended up with one yummy version!!

Ingredients:

100 gms – Paneer cubes
2 tbsp - Oil
1 - Bay leaf
1/2 tsp – Cumin seeds
1 - Onion, ground to a fine paste
2 cloves – Garlic, ground to a fine paste
1 tsp - Coriander powder
1 tsp - Cumin powder
1/2 tsp – Pepper powder
1 tsp – Garam masala
1 tsp – Cream (Optional)
1 tbsp - Grated paneer/cheese
Salt to taste

To pressure cook:

1 bunch – Spinach
½” piece – Ginger
1 – Onion, diced
1 – Tomato, diced
2 – Green chillies, slit

Method:

Add very little water and pressure cook the spinach with the rest of the ingredients (just 2-3 whistle is enough) and when done, cool it and puree it
Heat a pan with 1 tbsp of oil and fry the paneer cubes till golden brown and keep aside. In order to keep the paneer soft, immerse it in some lukewarm water with a generous pinch of turmeric powder.
In the same pan, heat the rest of the oil and crackle the cumin seeds and sauté the bay leaf. Add the onion and garlic paste and sauté till slight brown.
Add the coriander powder, cumin powder, pepper and garam masala, salt and sauté for 2 minutes.
Now add the spinach puree into the pan along with the fried paneer and mix well. Simmer for 2 minutes and turn off the gas
Garnish with grated cheese/paneer and some fresh cream and serve hot with rotis or paranthas

Unniappam

2008-10-23T16:37:00.002+05:30

Unniappam(when translated into English should be called baby pancakes, i guess) makes me a lot nostalgic and takes me back to my childhood days. And Iam sure the same happens to a lot more malayalis around!! Its one snack which every kid loves to eat(at least of my generation).

One day I was wondering whether the new age moms make unniappams for their kids these days or not?? The thought of unniappam being forgotten and becoming a part of history provoked me to carry a unniappam chatti (a special utensil which is used to make unniappams) to my Hyderabad home. The attempt to learn this wonderful snack and probably make it for my kids in future allured me a lot and I ended up making it with numerous calls to my mom!! And more than me it was her who wanted me to learn how to make unniappams(for sake of her future grandchildren) that she even bought and kept a non stick unniappam chatti for me this Onam!! :)

Ingredients:

1 cup – Raw Rice, soaked for 3-4 hours
1 cup – Jaggery, grated
2 Tbsp – Semolina or sooji
1 big – Ripe banana
¼ cup – Grated coconut or small pieces of coconut(Thenga kottu)
1 Tbsp – Ghee
1 Tsp – Sesame seeds, washed and drained
Refined Oil / Ghee to fry

Method:

Grind the soaked rice into a fine paste by adding just enough water. Blend the rice batter along with the grated jaggery. Empty the batter into a bowl, add the sooji and mashed banana and mix well. The more you mix it, the lighter it becomes and when fried it becomes more softer. Check whether its sweet enough. If not add more jaggery. Let it stand for 2-3 hours or till you see bubbles forming on top of the batter.
Once you see the bubbles forming in the batter roast the grated/chopped coconut till golden brown. Empty the fried coconut and washed sesame seeds into the batter and mix well.
Heat the unniappam chatti, the utensil used to make unniappam. Fill the holes with oil. Just fill only 3/4th of the hole. When oil is hot take a ladle full of batter and pour into the holes. Fry on medium heat till its golden brown. Slowly turn the unniappams and let the other side also cook. Once done remove it on to a kitchen towel to drain the excess oil.
Repeat the process for the rest of the batter.

Note : This quantity of batter gave me around 20+ unniappams. Infact I lost count coz I couldnot resist and started eating them immediately. Do not store it for too many days as it tend to become harder when days pass by and chances of it going stale are high as banana is added.

Nellika Juice / Gooseberry Juice

2008-10-18T14:02:00.006+05:30

Indian Gooseberries are one of those fruits which has all kind of tastes - sweetness, sourness and bitterness. Known for its robust source of Vitamin C & cooling effect, Gooseberry has lots of importance in Ayurveda. They are either consumed raw, dried or pickled. In north India there is this unique method of preserving gooseberry(called Morabba) which is sugar coated amla. Having a few pieces of Morabbaa every day is considered to boost your resistance power and immunity. In kerala gooseberries are used primarily for ayurvedic medicines, hair oil, pickling and even for preparing fish curry!!

Was Simply browsing when I came across this website which mentions innumerous benefits of this beautiful fruit. http://www.ayurvedictalk.com/amalakai-amla-indian-gooseberry/50/
Thats when I thought of jotting down this appetizer drink which I had from my Brother's Mother- in-law house. The proportion of the ingredients were derived through just mere trial and error basis, keeping in mind the taste of the juice aunty served.

Ingredients:(make 2 glasses of the drink)

1 large sized - Gooseberry/Nellika, cut into small pieces
1 sprig - Curry leaves
1 small piece - Ginger
Approx 2 cup - Water
Salt to tase

Method:

Grind all the ingredients with just enough water into a fine paste.
Add rest of the water and blend well
Strain it and serve immediately.

Fish Curry

2008-10-15T11:11:00.007+05:30

I have tried cooking almost all things which I love to eat but never tried my hands on cooking fish curry in the Kerala style. You call it luxury or luck, but my hubby is a great cook and its only him who cooks fish curry at our home. If we ever bought fish, it means its time for him to hit the kitchen. And this routine has been happening ever since our marriage, probably because of couple of reasons. One of which is, he loves cooking. Second because he never adored my family's preparation of fish except for the Karimeen Pollichathu and fish fries. And of late I have been craving to eat my mom's fish curry, which is a Tengaaracha meen curry(Fish curry made in ground coconut). Thats when, as usual, I picked up the phone and rang up my mummy to check out how to make Tengaaracha meen curry. She was surprised when I asked her this recipe because she knew that her son-in-law only likes his amma's meen curry, which is way too different from any fish curry we have ever had in our lifes. But then I had made up my mind too strong to break this ice and make him like our fish curry too.

Last night when he returned from work I was gleaming with smile and unable to control my eagerness to know how he reacts when he sees the curry . As usual he entered the kitchen and started lifting the lids of the dishes to find out whats cooking? And boy you should have seen the smile on his face!! And finally the magic worked... It was a recipe from my mothers kitchen but prepared according to his likes i.e with lots of red chilly and prepared in pure coconut oil. Ingredients:

4-5 medium sized pieces - Fish
2 Tbsp - Coconut Oil
1 pinch - Fenugreek seeds/Uluva
2-3 Shallots, sliced
1 small piece - Ginger
2 cloves - Garlic
1 sprig - Curry leaf
1 piece - Kokum/Kudumpulli, washed
Salt to taste
Water

For paste

1 handful of - Grated Coconut
1 tbsp - Coriander powder
1 tbsp - Red chilly powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

For seasoning

1 Tbsp - Coconut Oil
2 pinch - Mustard seeds
1 sprig - Curry leaf
1-2 Shallots, sliced

Method:

Prepare a very fine paste of coconut, coriander powder, chilly powder and turmeric.
Heat a meen chatti(traditional utensil made of clay used for preparing fish) and pour the oil. When hot put the fenugreek seeds and let it splutter. Add the shallots, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and saute for 2 minutes or till transparent.
Now add the coconut paste and saute well till oil separates. This will take 4-5 minutes
Add required water, salt, kokum and fish pieces and cover it for cooking. Thicken the gravy according to your wish and turn off the gas
Heat a small kadhai with oil and splutter tne mustard and saute in the shallots and curry leaves and pour on top of the fish curry(do not stir) and cover it with lid till you serve.
Serve with rice or kappa(tapioca)

Special Nasi Goreng

2008-10-13T12:09:00.009+05:30

Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian dish and literally means "Fried Rice" in Indonesian or Malay. This dish has lots of variations to it at and is made in different ways in different parts of the world. Its often prepared using the previous days left over rice. The rice used to make nasi goreng is cooked ahead of time and left to cool down (so it is not soggy), which is one reason to use rice cooked from the day before. A plain nasi goreng has cooked rice, shallots, garlic, soy and spirng onions.

Long back I had Nasi goreng from a restuarant in Bangalore and I was very fascinated by its presentation. It was served in a large bowl with a whole fried egg on top, which definetely looked very unique. The taste of it was very different and was unlike the taste of the Chinese fried rice. Years later I saw the recipe on television and jotted it down. And finally last day I thought of reviving the taste of the Nasi goreng which I had long back. With lots of ingredients missing from the original recipe I still could make something which I would make many more times in the future.

Ingredients:

1 cup – Basmati Rice, cooked, drained and cooled
½ cup – Boneless chicken
2-3 – Shallots, sliced
2 cloves – Garlic, sliced
2 – Eggs, beaten
¼ cup – Carrot, cut into long thin strips
¼ cup – Cabbage, cut into long thin strips
¼ cup – Leek leaves(if available, I managed without it)
2 tbsp – Sambal paste
½ tsp – Soya sauce
Salt to taste
Pepper
Oil
1 - Fried egg, for garnish
1 - Spring Onion, chopped, for garnish
For Sambal paste:
5 – Dried red chillies
2 cloves – Garlic
1 tbsp – Shrimp / prawn paste
1 – Onion, diced
¼ tsp – Turmeric powder
Oil to sauté
3-4 - Kafir lime leaves (if available, I again managed without it)

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and sauté all the ingredients for the sambal paste and when cooled down, make it into a fine paste
Heat oil in a wok or large kadhai and sauté shallots and garlic till transparent
Add chicken and sauté till tender
Mix in the beaten eggs and scramble
Add the carrot, cabbage, leek leaves and cook
Add the sambal paste and sauté again
Now add the cooked rice and fry it well till all the moisture is gone. Make sure you do not over cook the rice, like I did the first time. Also use a fork to fluff the rice than a spatula
Add soy sauce, salt and pepper and mix well
Top it up with pieces of fried eggs

Chemeen Chamanthi or Prawns Chutney

2008-10-08T12:55:00.009+05:30

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well"

Thats such a beautiful statement written by Virgina Woolf and its just so perfect for me. The best meal I had in this season was the dinner on the last day of our trip to Kerala in September. It was the simplest meals yet the best ever one can have. I at times think how lucky am I to get married to a family who loves food and loves to cook and eat, the same way I do!! I should also confess at this point of time that the love for food and urge to learn new things was a result of my marriage and introduction of me to this new family of mine!!

Ingredients:

1 handful of Prawns, cleaned and deveined
¼th of a Coconut, cut as chunks not grated
1-2 - Kanthari mulakku or Green Chilly
1 tsp – Chathacha mulakku (Red Chilly flakes)
1 sprig Curry leaf
1-2 – Shallots
Salt to taste
1 tsp – Coconut Oil

Method:

Cook the prawns for exactly 2 minutes in water and salt.
Coarsely grind the all the ingredients together without adding water.
Mix the coconut oil and serve immediately with Kanji or Kerala rice!! Worlds best and simplest meal!!

**Note: The meaurements of the prawns and coconut is not very precise as it depends upon an apporximation and also the size of the coconut and prawns. Please adjust the measurement of both according to the your taste. In our family, we prefer to have the flavor of prawns to stand out and mostly all who love prawns would like it that way.

Vellaiappam

2008-10-08T10:29:00.006+05:30

After my trip to my hometown, I was waiting to indulge into the blog world but soon I realised that my internet connection is acting funny and is getting disconnected the moment I tried posting a new recipe. My net is working now and is back to normal, but I have got such a huge pile of "to be posted recipes" by now!! Lets see how fast we can catch up!!
Appam is one of my favorite Kerala Breakfast. Very light and ummmmm so delicious. This Onam when we went to Kerala, I made sure that I bought an Appam Chatti which is an utensil used to make appams - its either nonstick or traditional iron ones, which i call as stick stick pans.
Before bringing home this possession I used to make my favorite appams on a flat non stick pan by smearing it like dosas. Though the appearance wasn't any great it did taste heavenly. After our trip from Kerala I tried out my same old recipe in my new appam chatti and here is what I got. Yummy appams but I realised that I need to master the art of swirling the Appams to perfection. The sides of the Appam should be thin with lots of tiny holes, which reminds me of some one who said that the sides of a perfect appam should resemble a brides veil - white, thin and netty!!

Ingredients:

1 cup - Raw Rice, soaked for 6 hours
1 ½ cup - Grated Coconut
3 tbsp - Cooked rice (Kerala, boiled rice)
2 tsp - Sugar
1/4 tsp - Yeast
1 tbsp - Warm milk
1 tsp - Sugar
Salt to taste
Oil (if required)

Method:

Mix yeast, warm milk and 1 tsp sugar and keep for about 10-15 minutes.
Grind the soaked rice and the cooked rice into a fine paste with sufficient water.
Grind the coconut to a fine paste. Mix this to the rice paste and blend once again. Add 2 tsp of sugar and mix well.
When the yeast gets froathy, mix with the batter and keep overnight or till it rises(atleast for 4-6 hours). I also understood that by keeping the batter overnight esp during summers) makes it sour by the next morning. So it would be good if you could grind the batter by around 4 in the evening and let it rise and refrigerate it overnight and use in the morning.
In the morning mix the batter with required salt. Heat the appam chatti. Smear with oil if not using a nonstick chatti, pour a laddle full of batter and swirl it around. Cover and cook for 30 seconds on low flame or till cooked. Remove when done and repeat the process for the rest of the batter.
Serve hot with vegetable/chicken stew or Chicken curry or egg curry.

For recipe of Vegetable Korma: http://yum-world.blogspot.com/2008/08/vegetable-korma.html
For recipe of Chicken curry: http://yum-world.blogspot.com/2008/07/chicken-curry.html

Kerala Calling!!

2008-08-30T16:20:00.002+05:30

Off for a vacation!! 2 weeks of action packed trip... which means loads of eating, shopping, relatives, friends, rains, malayalam movies etc etc!! But unfortunately would not have enough time to blog or read anyones blog :(
Definetely gonna miss all from the blog world but hope you all have two great weeks. Happy Blogging!! And to all those who are celebrating Onam, Wish you a Happy & Prosperous Onam.

Beetroot Pachadi & Cucumber Pachadi

2008-08-28T12:12:00.011+05:30

This is yet another simple dish. It is an important elements of the sadya / the kerela feast because it has all the tastes like tanginess from the curd, crunch of the veges, bitterness of the mustard seeds, heat from the chilly!! Pachadi is a true south indian dish with variations found in every state. It can be made of any vegetable like okra, bitter guard, cucumber, yellow cucumber, onion, beetroot, tomato, mango etc but suprisingly every pachadi differs in taste because of the unique taste of the veges. The procedure however is same!!

Beetroot Pachadi:

Ingredients:

1 - Medium sized beetroot, skin peeled and grated
1 piece - ginger
1 - Green chilly
salt to taste
Water
1 cup - Thick Curd

Cucumber Pachadi:

Ingredients:

1 - Medium sized Cucumber(kheera), skin peeled and diced into small pieces or you may use Yellow cucumber(Kani vellarikka)
1 piece - ginger
1 - Green chilly
Salt to taste
Water
1 cup - Thick Curd

Procedure for Paste and Tadka for any pachadi is same

For paste:

1/2 cup - Grated coconut
1 pinch - Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp - Cumin / Zeera
1 clove - Garlic
2-3 - Shallots

For Tadka:

Oil
1/4 tsp - Mustard Seeds
1 sprig - Curry leaf
2-3 - Shallots, sliced
1 - Dry Red Chilly

Method:

Cook beetroot /yellow cucumber / any veges you prefer with ginger, green chilly, salt and a (very) little water ,until it is soft and dry. If you are using cucumber(kheera) you need not cook as we consume it raw as well. So just need to mix all the ingredients into the diced cucumber and keep aside. If you are making pachadi of Okra or bitter gourd fry them in oil to make it crispy and crunch.
Make a paste of all the ingredients to be ground and keep aside.
Mix in the ground mixture to the veges and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the curd and salt if required and stir well.
Heat oil in another pan and splutter the mustard seeds. Add in red chillies,curry leaves and shallots and fry them until golden. Add this to the pachadi and serve with rice

Pacha mulaku aracha Mooru curry

2008-08-27T11:32:00.012+05:30

I am extremely sorry for being unable to convert this dishes name into English!! For all Malayalis out there I guess can understand it!! For people from North Indian, its like Kadhi which you make from Curd. But tastes very different. This is a very special and different dish and my husband who likes spice just loves it. Infact I inherited this recipe from him and he inturn had learnt it from one of his friends father!! Must admit - "Men do cook well!!"
The first time my husband made it I was shocked to see the number of green chillies he put in the curry.. But then I realised that the flavour the chillies gave was just superb!!

Ingredients:

1 cup - Curd
1/2 cup - Grated coconut
5-6 - Green chillies(depending upon your taste)
2 pinches - Zeera / Zeera powder
2 cloves - Garlic
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Oil for tadka
1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 - dry chillies
1 - sprig curry leaf

Method:

Grind the grated coconut, green chillies, zeera and garlic into a very fine paste. Add required water.
Whisk the curd and mix in the coconut paste into the curd.
Heat oil in a pan and splutter the mustard seeds, Chillies and curry leaves.
Remove the pan from the heat and pour the curd into the pan and stir well.
Place the pan on low flame and keep stirring to avoid curdling of the curd for around 2 minutes.
Serve with rice.

Kadhai Chicken

2008-08-25T21:16:00.006+05:30

Ahhhhh... Today I was in great mood to cook something special for Dinner!! And when I come in mood I can never stop putting all those fattening and heavy things... And you know, its pardonable once in a while!! The perfect Kadhai chicken was accompanied by amazing parath parantha of Sumeru which is very easily available in almost all supermarkets!! But a word of caution : Its was a very heavy dinner. Its just 10 p.m and I have yawned almost 4 times since I started writing this post!!

Ingredients:

1 Kg - Chicken pieces
1/2 cup - Curd
1/2 cup - Cream
1 tbsp - Kasuri Methi
1/2 tsp - Kala Zeera
2 tbsp - Oil
1 tbsp - Butter
Salt to taste

Masala (to grind):

2 - Onions
2 - Tomatoes
10 - Cashewnuts, soaked in hot water for 20 mts and ground
1 tbsp - Chilly powder , 1tbsp - Special Garam masala, 1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder, 1 tsp - Coriander powder, 1 tbsp - Ginger-garlic paste

To make special Garam masala(make around 60 gms of powder):

25 gms - Coriander seeds
12 gms - Cinnamon
5 gms - Cardomom
5 gms - Cloves
5 gms - Jeera / Cumin
5 gms - Saunf /Fennel
5 gms - Pepper

Method:

Heat a pan with butter and slightly fry the chicken and keep aside
Heat oil in a kadhai and when hot put the kala jeera and let it splutter. Saute onion paste till golden brown on low flame.
Add the 4th ground masala paste and fry
Saute in the tomato puree till the water is absorbed
Add the chicken pieces and season with salt and pour enough water and cook over low heat till tender
Add the curd and cashew paste and simmer
Add cream, stir and remove from fire
Dry roast the kasuri methi in a pan and add it into the curry and cover it from some time so that the flavour doesnt escape.
Serve hot with parantha

Kootu Curry or Veges and Lentil in Roasted coconut gravy

2008-08-20T14:36:00.004+05:30

Kootu curry is one of my favorite curries in the whole sadya platter. Its the perfect combination of chana and veges with the lovely smell of coconut oil and the crunch of the fried grated coconut. The best part is that it uses all those ingredients which we get from our own backyard!! The freshness of the paccha nendrankaaya/raw banana and the earthiness of the mud clad chena / yam that one digs out freshly makes it just perfect for anyone to fall in love with it!!
The procedure is simple but patience pays off!!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup - Black Chana / Kadala, soaked over night and pressure cooked till soft
1/4 cup - Yam/Chena, diced
1/4 cup - Raw Banana/pachakaya, peeled and diced
2 - 3 - Green chillies
1/2 tsp - Red Chilly powder
1" piece - Ginger
1 clove - Garlic
Salt to taste
1 tsbp - Coconut Oil
1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 - Dry red chillies
1 sprig of curry leaves
Handful of shallots, sliced
1/2-3/4 cup of grated coconut

Method:

Cook the boiled chana, yam, raw banana along with green chillies, red chilly powder, ginger, garlic and salt till soft. Note: This was the first time I made kootu curry with out anyones help. So I accidentally put turmeric powder coz of which it was more of yellow colored. Make sure you avoid turmeric or else put very little amount.
Heat a kadhai with coconut oil and slutter the mustard seeds. Put the red chillies, curry leaves, shallots and grated coconut and roast on medium flame till it gives out the flavour and the coconut is brown in color. The more you roast the coconut without burning, the better it looks and tastes.
Add the cooked veges and chana into this masala and mix well till its coated well with the masala. Dash some coconut oil for added flavour if required.

Cherry Cake

2008-08-11T16:58:00.008+05:30

It has been ages since I baked cakes (Ages means couple of months for me!!) The last time I used my oven I heard some hissing sound followed by a spark and then silence. Ever since that day my oven never worked. Have been lazy to give it for service too!! So now its laying around in one corner of our home. Last weekend my husband got a craving to eat home made tea cake.(Ya men do get cravings, but they never use that word. Instead they say I feel like eating the tea cake you used to make, honey!!) Aaaahhhhhh then I too feel the same. But what to do now?? How to bake?? So he said lets try the gold old pressure cooker method.. And quite obviously as I had never tried that method I was very apprehensive about it. Though he had seen his mother make plain simple cakes in a cooker without any hassles, he never knew the technicalities. So we rang her up and checked out the methodology..

That morning while shopping for grocery, we also bought a pack of processed cherries to be put in the cake. That again was my hubbys mastermind - to make a Cherry Cake!! And trust me it was good. Except for the cherries, the recipe remains as simple as a normal tea cake.

Ingredients:

2 cups - Flour / Maida
1/2 level tsp - Baking powder
1 cup - unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup - powdered sugar
3 - Eggs
1 tsp - Vanilla extract
100 gms - Processed & candied cherries, chopped
2 tbsp - Warm milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease the tray. As I used the pressure cooker preheating was not required.
Sift together flour and baking powder twice and keep aside
Dust the chopped cherries in some flour and keep aside. This helps the cherries to be afloat. Otherwise it wud all sink onto the base of the cake
Beat the butter until creamy. Add sugar and continue to beat till sugar dissolves
Add egg one at a time and mix gently.
Add vanilla extract and mix.
Take flour in small quantities and slowly fold into the butter sugar mixture
Add the cherries and mix gently
Add some warm milk if the batter is too thick, mix well till small bubbles form
Pour the batter in to the greased baking tray/cooker and bake for 30 minutes or till done. To check if done insert a knife and see. If the knife comes out clean the cake is done. (Note: If at all anyone is wanting to cook in a pressure cooker like I did, please follow few things. Firstly, use a 5 ltr cooker. Secondly, cook it on very low flame. You may open and check whether its done or not in between too. Thirdly a cake of this size will require 35-40 minutes)

Prawn Pulao

2008-08-02T15:13:00.006+05:30

Ingredients:

1 cup - Basmati Rice
2 cup - Water
1/4 cup - Prawns, cleaned and deveined
3 - Cloves
1" long - Cinnamon stick
2 - Cardamom
1 Large - Onion, sliced
1 tsp each - Ginger and Garlic paste
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tsp - Chilly powder
1/2 tsp - Garam masala powder (Optional)
1 - Tomato, chopped
1 tbsp - Coriander leaves, chopped
2 Tbsp - Oil or ghee
Salt to taste

Method:

Cook the basmati rice in 2 cups of water. Strain and cool the rice and keep it aside
Heat some oil in a kadhai and when its hot, put the cloves, cinnamon and cardamom and let it splutter
Add the onions and saute till golden brown. Add the ginger and garlic paste and saute for 2 minutes
Add the chilly and turmeric powder and saute.
Now add the tomatoes and saute till mashed. Now add the garam masala and saute.
Now add the prawns and pour some water and cook covered for just 2 minutes. Fry this masala well and add the rice and saute till the rice is coated well with the masala.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with raita.

Lemony Melony

2008-08-01T15:56:00.006+05:30

This might not be the right season for a glass of chilled watermelon juice....but who cares?? I need no reasons to have it and neither do i care for the right season... So lets get indulged in some chilled, crunchy, tangy, melony, gingery flavored drink. This juice is extremely good for cleansing your body. It helps in flushing out the toxins in your body. And for those who want to lose weight this is one of the best things to eat!!

Ingredients:(for 2 glasses of juice)

Around 300 gms - Watermelon
1-2 Tbsp - Sugar / Honey
1/2 tsp - Lime juice
1/2 tsp - Ginger root juice
1 cup - Crushed ice
3-4 leaves of mint (optional)
2 slices - Lemon

Method:

Cut and deseed the watermelon and put it into a deep bowl.
Put all the other ingredients except ice and crush the melon and mix it well. Make sure that you do not mash it too much that it loses the crunchiness.
Now add the ice and mix well.
Pour it into a glass and place a lemon slice on the rim of the glass.
Serve chilled!!

Parippu Pradhaman or Kheer made out of Lentil and Jaggery

2008-07-31T10:36:00.010+05:30

The first thing I get reminded when I see parippu pradhaman is Onam!! The onam during my childhood days where the best!! I still remember how we used to get up in the morning and pluck flowers to make a pookalam(floral carpet) in the front of the house. Once thats done, help mumma in making the whole sadya.. My duty was generally to cut the veges and grate 1 coconut. My brother being elder to me and ofcourse stronger took the responsibility to grate 2-3 coconuts in one go and then extracted the coconut milk.. Probably that was the toughest job I must say. But it was fun that way. Lots of things have changed now but the memories remain fresh!! Thats the photo of parippu pradhaman on the backdrop of a Kerala Saree!! What a delightful sight!! Waiting for Onam to come. Countdown starts!! 41 days to go!!

Ingredients:

½ cup - Moong dal / Cherupayar Parippu
1 cup - Water
1 cup - Sharkara Pav / Jaggery melted in water and thickened
½ cup - Thick coconut milk (Onnampaal)
2 cups - Thin coconut milk (Randampaal+moonampaal)
1/2 tsp - Cardamom powder
1/2 tsp - Dry ginger powder / chukku podi
2 tbsp - Ghee
10-12 - Cashewnuts and Raisins
Handful of Thengakottu/chopped Coconut slices

Method:

Traditionally this dish is to be made in a uruli(huge, flat vessel made of bronze) but coz of the unavailability have to go for a pressure cooker. :( So heat the pressure cooker and dry roast the Moong dal, till the flavor of the dal comes out. Empty it on to a plate and let it cool completely. Add the water and pressure cook it till soft.
Once the cooker is opened, add the melted jaggery into the dal and keep stirring on low flame, till it becomes nice and thick.
Add the thin milk into the misture. Keep stirring and bring it to boil. When the bubbles come, simmer the heat and add the thick milk and again bring it to boil on low flame. Keep stirring continuously.
Add the cardamom powder and dry ginger powder and mix well. Garnish with cashewnuts, raisins and coconut pieces roasted in ghee.
Serve with papadam and pazham!!

This recipe is going to participate in the "Lentils Mela"

Fish Molee or a Fish in mild coconut milk gravy

2008-07-30T11:28:00.007+05:30

Another delicacy from Gods own country!! Last week when i made this recipe I was wondering how this name originated.. Probably, ages ago, it was some Molly chechi in Malabar Kerala who first made this recipe and named it fish molee (Some people even refer it as moilee as well). Thats when I realised that Molly chechi would not be the reason for this dish. :)

Trying to research on the origin of Fish Molee I came across people(elderly people) who said that it probably might have originated centuries ago when the French, Spanish and Portuguese people sailed to the coastal belt of Kerala. In the barter system, they took all our spices to their country and in return left one of their delicacies. I had also read somewhere that mole in spanish actually means stew. So guess there ended the hunt for the origin.. And as the famous Malayalam saying goes, "Kuzhi ennanda, appam thinna porey?"

What makes this dish special?? Firstly the freshness of the fish. Molee/stew has a very mild flavor thus if you use a bad fish, the mild gravy would not be able to cover it up. You can use any fish like prompret, seer fish or pearlspot to make molee. Secondly, the fresh coconut milk. Coconut is one thing which is in abundance in Kerala. But getting the milk would be the most tough part in this recipe. If that part is resolved rest everything is done. I use only freshly grated coconuts milk. Do not prefer canned or milk powder. And finally the way it is prepared. The fish is marinated and slightly fried before stewing it. Frying the fish has two advantages. Handling it becomes easier and it makes the dish different.
Now, lets plunge into the recipe!!

Ingredients:

2 medium sized - Karimeen or pearlspot, cleaned and scored
1 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
2 Tbsp - Coconut oil
1/2 tsp - msutard seeds
1 large - Onion, thinly sliced
1" piece - Ginger, julienned
2 large - Garlic cloves, julienned
2-3 - Green chillies, slit
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
1 tsp - Pepper powder
1 - Tomato, sliced
1/2 cup - Thick coconut milk (Onnampaal)
1/2 cup - Slightly thin milk (Randampaal)
1 cup - Very Thin milk (Moonampaal)
Lime juice / Vinegar(chorka) to taste
Salt to taste

Method:

Smear the fish with turmeric and salt and keep it aside for 15 minutes.
Slightly fry the fish in a flat pan.
Heat a meen chatty(earthen pot used for cooking fish) and pour the coconut oil. Crackle the mustard seeds.
Add the ginger and garlic and saute for half a minute.
Add the Onion, curry leaves, green chillies and saute till it becomes transparent. Add the tomatoes and saute for a minute more. Donot mash the tomatoes. Add the pepper powder.
Simmer the heat and add the thinnest coconut milk/Moonampaal and place the fish carefully. Season with salt and cover the pot and cook the fish. As the fish is half done while frying you just need to cook for another 2 minutes.
Now pour the 2nd milk / Randampaal and stir slowly. Let it cook slowly for sometime till the fish completly absorbs it.
Now remove the pot from the fire and pour the thick milk/Onnampaal. Place it on low fire again for a minute and lift the pot and gently shake so that it gets mixed . Do not stir as the fish might break.
Take it off the stove and add some lime juice or Chorka(it is a vinegar made out of toddy - again a by product of coconut). Top it up with some coconut oil in the end.
Serve with appam, pathiri, idiappam or even boiled rice.

This recipe is participating in the curry mela held by Cook4allseasons by Srivalli http://cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com/2008/07/announcing-curry-mela-event-to.html

Karimeen Varuthathu or Fried Pearlspot

2008-07-29T11:18:00.010+05:30

This weekend was a very very happy weekend because this is was the first time we got naadan fish, karimeen(pearl spot) here. Otherwise we always get the local fish, which i do not adore much. I always use to browse through the other blogs which wrote about karimeen, aila and mathi and used to feel jealous that why in the whole world am I not able to eat those fishes!!
Karimeen is one of my fav fishes.. Nothing can beat it for its earthy flavor, for the very Kerala flavor. And the taste of our very own fresh ginger, green peppercorns and coconut oil makes it just perfect!! There was a time when I used to hate the smell of coconut oil. I could not stand the taste of it. But as I grew up I started enjoying its flavor. Now most of my naadan cooking is next to impossible without coconut oil.
Ingredients:

3 Medium sized - Pearl spot / Karimeen
Coconut Oil to fry

For the marinade:

1 - medium sized Onion
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
1" piece - Ginger
2 tsp - Green / Black peppercorns
1 tbsp - Red Chilly powder
1 tsp - Turmeric powder
salt to taste

Method:

Roughly grind all the ingredient to make a paste. Need not be a smooth paste.
Clean and score the fish and smear the masala on to the fish and refrigerate for atleast an hour
Heat a pan with coconut oil in it and fry the fish till both the sides are golden brown in color. Because the masala is a little coarse there are all chances that the masala can get burnt. But you can avoid that if you fry the fish on low flame and carefully wait and watch!!
Serve hot. I feel it can be a full meal on its own for me.. I do not need anything to ruin the divinely flavour :)

Hot and spicy Prawn Roast

2008-07-28T12:53:00.006+05:30

Prawns!! and the only word that I can recollect is "YUMMY"!! Its one non veg which needs only 2 minutes of cooking.. And you can find prawns in various sizes and colors. I somehow always enjoy eating the tiny ones. Ya, tiger prawns are good if they are barbecued!!
This recipe comes right from Kerala but its my mothers way!! I have had variations of Prawn Roast or chemmeen ularthiyathu but I always loved my mummas prawns roast!!
Ingredients:

250 gms - Prawns, cleaned and de-vained
1 tbsp each - Ginger and Garlic, roughly pounded
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 - Large Onion, Chopped
2 - sprigs of Curry leaf
1 - Green chilly, slit
1 - Tomato, Chopped
1 tsbp - Red chilly powder
1 tsp - Pepper Powder
2 tsp - Garam masala powder
2 tbsp - Coconut Oil or Refined oil
Salt to taste

Method:

In a pan, put the cleaned prawns, ginger, garlic, turmeric powder and salt. Add some water and cover and cook for 2 minutes. If the water is not completely evaporated but the prawns is cooked, let the water vaporise.
Add some coconut oil(and if you do not like the taste of coconut oil use refined oil) and add the onions, slit green chilly and 1 sprig of curry leaf and saute till the onions turns golden brown
Add the tomato and saute well for another 2 minutes.
Add all the dry masalas and saute till the masala gets coated onto the prawns.
Garnish with the sprig of curry leaf and ginger juliennes and serve with Kerala Boiled rice and mooru curry

Vegetable balls in Manchurian Sauce

2008-07-28T12:51:00.003+05:30

Ingredients:

1 cup - Cabbage, Cauliflower, Carrot, all very finely grated
Maida or Flour
2 tsp - Cornflour
Salt & Pepper according to taste
Oil to fry
1 - Large Onion, diced
1 tsp - Garlic, chopped
1 - Capsicum, diced
2 tsp - Soy sauce
1 tsp - Chilly sauce
1 cup - Vegetable or chicken stock

Method:

Mix the grated vegetables with salt and pepper and fold in maida and cornflour. Cornflour brings the crunch to it. I have not mentioned the quantity of maida because I keep putting it slowly until the veges bind. The consistency is very important. Too much of maida will ruin it too.
Make small balls out of this mixture and deep fry it.
Heat oil in a deep pan and saute the Onions and garlic for 2 minutes. Saute the Capsicum for a minute.
Add both the sauces and stock and bring it to boil. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the fried balls and let it simmer till the gravy starts becoming thick. Now add a mixture of cornflour and water into it to quicken the thickening process.
Serve hot with steamed rice or fried rice

Uthappam

2008-07-28T11:56:00.002+05:30

It was the best morning of the week - Sunday Morning!!
I had prepared dosa batter the previous night like almost all saturday nights!! Yesterday when I saw that the batter had not risen, I was shaken!! It had never happened..my dosa batters were always perfect.. It was probably the damp and cold monsoon morning which hindered the rising of the batter!! It rained all through the night.. Like how I was lazy to rise up, probably my batter was also lazy to rise!! I was all worried..what now?? And then enters my hubby as an Angel to solve the problem...This is the story of that Sunday dosa!!
Ingredients:

Dosa Batter - Quantity depends on how many yummy dosas you can eat!!
Salt to taste
Oil or ghee
Chutney podi

For Egg Topping :

2 - Eggs, Beaten with chopped onions, green chillies and salt

For Veges topping:

Tomatoes, Onions, green Chillies, Curry leaves - Chopped very finely

Method:
For the veges Uthappam:

Heat a flat non stick pan. Smear it with very little oil and when hot pour a laddle full of batter and spread it on to the pan in a circular motion to make a little thick dosa.
Put the topping lavishly on to the dosa and pour some oil on to the sides and top. Sprinkle some salt and sprinkle the chutney podi lavishly on top of it. When the other side is cooked / golden brown turn the dosa carefully and cook the side with the topping for just a minute. Serve hot

For the egg uthappam

Pour a laddle full of batter on to the hot tawa and spread it on to the pan in a circular motion to make a thin dosa. Turn the dosa and let it cook on both sides.
Pour the beaten egg with seasoning on to the dosa and pour some oil on to the sides and let it cook. Turn again and let it cook for half a minute and serve hot

Egg & Green Veges Fried Rice

2008-07-22T14:38:00.006+05:30

Chinese or Oriental food is what I have an unqunechable greed for!! Iam never tired of eating it. And I can say that finally my husband and I have something in common. So even if I suddenly pop up with an idea to eat out at a Chinese outlet I have no oppositions to face!! And with in no time we can be spotted in the nearest Noodle bar or Mainland China or Wangs..

I have heard from various people including my husband who has travelled to Far eastern countries that Oriental food is very weird in taste in their country. Probably we have been accustomed to an Indianised chinese food!! That reminds me of a program which was aired on Discovery Travel & Living about the person who first invented the (once upon a time) most prefered chinese dish in India which you would apparently never find in China, the Gobi Manchurian and the (red in color, maida coated) chilly chicken. But thank God, far eastern cuisines has evolved drastically over a period of time in India that we get to eat a better looking and healthier versions of Oriental food these days!! It is no longer ajinomoto that lets out the flavor to food!!

Ingredients:

1 cup - Small grained rice
1 shoot - Spring Onions, Chopped
1/2 - Capsicum, chopped
6-8 - French Beans, chopped
2 - Eggs, beaten
Salt to taste
1 Tsp - White Pepper Powder
2 tbsp - Sesame Oil

Method:

Cook and strain the rice and cool it for atleast an hour. Cold rice when sauted on high flame remain separate and do not tend to stick. Whereas if you use steaming hot rice to make fried rice it sticks to the wok when on flame.
Heat a flat pan with some vegetable oil. Put some salt and pepper into the eggs and make an omelete. Once done cut it into square pieces 1"x1" dimension.
Heat the sesame oil in a wok or large kadhai. Chinese use sesame oil predominantly which gives a very distinct flavor. Some people dont like the strong earthy smell of sesame, in that case you may mix vegetable oil with sesame oil in equal quantity and use.
Put the beans and saute for a minute on high flame. Saute the spring onions and capsicum and the eggs. Spirnkle salt and pepper according to taste. Once done empty the rice into the wok and saute till the rice is coated with the oil and the flavoring.
Serve with any chinese side dish

Aloo ka Bhujia

2008-07-21T11:02:00.004+05:30

Ingredients:

2 - Potatoes, sliced into long pieces(similar to those for french fries)
1 tsp - Zeera
2 nos - Whole dry red chillies
1 tsp - turmeric powder
2 tbsp - Oil or mustard oil
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat some oil in a kadhai and splutter zeera. Add the red chillies and saute.
Add the cut potatoes and sprinkle turmeric powder and salt and mix well.
Add some water and cover it up and cook till the potatoes are done.
Now let the potatoes to fry for sometime in the kadhai. Serve hot with rotis or paranthas

Sattu Parantha

2008-07-18T11:04:00.008+05:30

Yet another bihari dish. Courtesy my bihari neighbour!!
This is probably one of the easiest stuffed paranthas I have had coz it requires no boiling, grating or mashing for the prepartion of the stuffing!! You just need to powder some roasted chana dal and store. When required mix all the masala and its ready. Roasted chana dal is very easily available in Indian supermarkets. Please do not confuse sattu with besan as both are different. Now please do not ask me how are they different, as I just know it is different.

Sattu mixed with water, lime, and salt or sugar is had to cool your body during summers in Bihar, says my neighbour. So obviously one can understand how good it would do to your body. Apart from that it is full of fibre and is extremely nutritious. Sattu is popularly used to make stuffed pooris, paranthas and yet another Bihari delicacy called Litti.

Ingredients:

For dough:

3 cups - Wheat flour
salt to taste
water to kneed

For stuffing:

2 cups - Sattu
3cloves - Garlic,
1 - Onion, finely
1 - Green Chili, finely
2 tsp - Coriander leaves, chopped
1 tbsp - Lime
1/4th tsp - Ajwain or carom seeds
1 pcs - Green or Red ChillyPickle
Salt To taste
1 tbsp - Mustard Oil

Method:

Kneed the wheat flour to make a little hard dough.
Mix all the ingredients and make the stuffing.
Divide the dough into small portion and roll it into round shape. Apply some oil on to the inner side for the roti so that its puffs up when cooked.
Place a portion of the sattu mixture (approx 2tsp) in the middle, enfold the filling and pinch off the excess dough.Then roll out into parantha.
Cook on hot tawa, applying oil/ghee(prefer ghee) till both sides are cooked and golden brown in colour.
Serve with aloo bhujia or baigan bharta or choley masala along with beaten curd.

Pathiri or Rice Roti

2008-07-07T13:26:00.010+05:30

This is one of my most favorite kerala delicacies. I just love it. I have had really good ones from lot of restaurants in Kerala but I equally love the pathiri my mom makes. And I proudly present the yummy soft pathiris made by my mom as I still have not been able to master the skill to make these lovely rice rotis.
Making pathiri is actually a skill, which comes out of practice and perfection. There are 3 stages in it and all the 3 stages are very important. Making the perfect dough, rolling it into nice perfect rounds and cooking it... ha ha ha...in short its a pretty difficult task. But all the hardwork is worth it!!
Ingredients:

2 cup - Rice Flour
Water
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat water and salt in a vessel.
When it boils well, put the rice flour into it and mix well with a spoon till it kind of binds. This should be done on low flame.Remove the vessel from fire and allow the content to cool. Knead it to a fine dough using hand without adding water. Ensure that the dough should not stick to the walls of the vessel. (Note:-This kneading part has to be done before the flour is completely cooled.)
Make it into small lemon sized balls.
Roll the ball on some rice flour and roll it into rotis. Make it as thin as possible. Dont worry about the shape as you may cut it into perfect round shape using a round and sharp edged steel plate.
Heat a flat heavy bottom tawa and cook both sides till done. Make sure that its cooked on medium flame and try pressing the rotis gently with a cloth so that it puffs up.Serve hot with chicken curry.

Chicken Curry

2008-07-07T10:07:00.006+05:30

I very well remember that I made chicken curry for the first time in my life when I was around 12-13 year old. It was during one of those summer holidays which I spent at my uncles place when my cousin sister and I for a change ventured into the kitchen. She, I must say, knew a lot of cooking when compared to me those days!! Come on, now how can u expect somebody in their early teens to be interested in cooking when there are so many other exciting things in the world to venture!! ;)
So yeah, this chicken curry is the simplest one and very yummy too!!
Ingredients:

1/2 kg - Curry cut chicken pieces
Oil (Quantity depends upon you, more oil-more tasty, less oil-more healthy)
Cloves(4 nos), Cardomom(2 nos), Cinamon(1" stick), Bay leaf(1 No), Fennel/saunf(1/2 tsp)
2 - large onions, chopped
Coriander powder(3 tsp), Chilly powder(2 tsp), Turmeric powder(1 tsp) - make a paste of all these by mixing some water
1 - Tomato
2 tsp - Ginger garlic paste
Water
Salt
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
Handful of coriander leaves

For marination:

1 tbsp - Ginger garlic paste
1 tsp - pepper powder
2 tsp - Red chilly powder
1 tsp - turmeric powder
1 tsp - Lime juice

Method:

Marinate the chicken for 1 hour with all the masala.
Heat oil in pressure cooker. Saute in all the spices.
Add the onion and saute. When golden brown add the ginger garlic paste and the wet masala paste and saute. Add the tomato and saute till oil separates. Add the fresh curry leaves too.
Empty the marinated chicken and pressure cook till done. I generally allow 2-3 whistle to come.
Garnish with coriander and serve hot with pathiri, appam or roti.

Mattar Parantha

2008-07-03T11:57:00.003+05:30

Ingredients:

For the stuffing:

1 cup - Fresh Green peas
1 tsp - Oil
1 tsp - Zeera
1 - Onion, chopped
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped
2 - Green chillies, chopped
1/2 tsp - Lemon juice
2 tsp - Gravy of Mirchi(green/Red) pickle
3-4 drops - Mustard oil (optional)
Salt

For dough:

2 cup - Wheat flour
Water to kneed
Salt to taste
Ghee

Method:

Heat some oil in a pan and splutter some zeera. Add the green peas and salt and cook till soft
Chop the cooked peas coarsely. Mix all the ingredients with the peas and keep aside.
Kneed the flour into a soft dough
Like any other normal paranthas fill the stuffing and cook on a tawa. Apply some ghee on both the sides and cook till done.
Serve hot with a dollop of butter on it

Soya Bean - Snake gourd Curry

2008-07-01T15:30:00.006+05:30

Recently the intake of soyabeans in any form available has been recommended by health conscious people across the globe. I somehow never had any particular liking towards it. But eversince I started reading about these small wonder beans I began developing some kind of respect towards them. Now soya milk taste funny to me so consuming it is out of question. Tofu can never replace our good old paneer. So the best thing is to eat the beans in this wonderful and easy recipe. Another good part of this dish is that I can camouflage another vegetable which is rather very bland and is found in south India in abundance.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup - Soya bean, soaked for 3 hours
1/2 cup - Snake gourd, diced
1/2 tsp - Zeera
1 tbsp - Oil
1 - Onion, chopped
1 - Tomato, Chopped
1 tsp each - Ginger & garlic paste
1 tsbp - Coriander powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tsp - Chilly Powder
2 tsp - Garam masala powder
1 cube - Maagi tastemaker(Optional)
Water
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

Heat oil in a pressure cooker, splutter the zeera
Saute in onions till golden brown. Add all the masala powders leaving garam masala and maagi tastemaker. Saute till oil separates. Saute in the tomato well.
Add the beans and snake gourd and fry a little. Add the garam masala and required water and mix well. Pressure cook till the soyabean is done. It generally takes 9-10 minutes after simmering the gas post the first whistle.
When done sprinkle the maagi taste maker and mix well. Garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with roti

This recipe is participating in the curry mela held by Cook4allseasons by Srivalli http://cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com/2008/07/announcing-curry-mela-event-to.html

Crispy Chicken & Cheese rolls

2008-06-28T21:15:00.000+05:30

Ingredients:

Half inch chicken cubes
Lemon juice
1 egg
Pepper
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves
Cheese cubes
Bread crumbs
Oil to fry

Method:

Marinate chicken cubes in lemon juice, egg, pepper, salt and coriander leaves mixture for half an hour
Pierce it on to a satay stick/toothpick alternately with cheese cubes
Dip it in the batter and roll it in bread crumbs and deep fry it
Serve with mayo and tomato ketchup

Rolls

2008-06-28T14:00:00.002+05:30

I never knew the abcd of baking apart from thriving on the baked stuff from various joints in my hometown or for that matter any place I have been. My favorite being Oven, in Kochi!! The chicken puff we used to get there was unmatchable.
It was this love for the crusty, crunchy, heavenly smelling baked items that provoked me to take lessons from one of the renowned culinary tutors in Kochi, Mrs. Anita Isaac. She is too good at it man!! I must say, she made baking look so easy.. I still remember the amazing smell in her kitchen and this huge lady with sharp voice always in the midst of food!! And I always wondered how lucky her children must be!!

Ingredients:

For bread base:

1 cup - Maida
1/2 tsp - Sugar powder
1/2 tsp - Instant yeast
Salt to taste
1/2 Tbsp - Butter, at room temperature
1 - Egg
1 tbsp - Butter, at room temperature
Lukewarm water or milk

Method:

Sieve maida with salt. Mix in sugar powder and yeast
Add water or milk and kneed into a soft dough. The dough should not be tough/tight as it would hamper the yeast to grow
Now add the butter and kneed again
Cover the dough with a wet muslin cloth until it rises to double size
Once done, remove the cloth and punch down and kneed again.
Roll into the desired shape and fill the filling** and allow it to rise for another 15 minutes.
Give an agg wash and bake it on 200 degree celcius for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Once removed out of the oven it would be rock hard. Give it a butter wash and leave it for 15 minutes. It would become soft once cool.

**For filling:

You may prepare a filling of your own choice. I boiled some eggs and sliced it. Sauted some onion and added some cabbage and sauted well. Added salt, pepper and some oregano. Mixed into the sliced eggs and filled into the rolls.

Carrot Rice

2008-06-19T14:23:00.004+05:30

I still remember my schooldays and mostly the lunch break time. We used to eagerly wait to see whats in our friend's tiffin box. Out of all sorts of food I have tasted from my friends/gangs dabbas, my all time favorite had been carrot rice, which one of my friend used to bring. Whenever I asked for the recipe both she and her mother used to keep mum. I still wonder why? So, one day I decided to try it out on my own. Now, the version I have here might not be the replica of my friends mom's carrot rice but it surely taste good. These days whenever I am at home alone and lazy to prepare a whole meal I go for something like this- quick and yummy!!
Ingredients:

1 cup - Rice, cooked and drained
2 tbsp - Ghee
1 tsp - Fennel or Saunf
1 - Onion, thinly sliced
3 No - Big carrots, peeled and grated
1 tsp - Red chilly powder
Salt to taste
1/4 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped

Method:

Heat a kadhai with the ghee. Splutter the saunf and saute the onions till transparent
Add the carrot and saute till cooked. Add in the chilly powder and salt. Saute
Add the cooked rice and mix well till the moisture in the rice is completely gone.
Garnish it with the chopped coriander leaves.
You may serve it hot with anything like aachar, curd, pappad or have it just like that.

Paneer Butter Masala

2008-06-19T12:04:00.003+05:30

Ingredients:

250 gms - Paneer cubes
2 Nos - Large Onions, chopped
2 Tbsp - Dhania powder
1 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tsp - Zeera
1 tsp - Chilly powder
1 tsp - Garam masala powder
2 tsp - Ginger garlic paste
2 nos - Tomato(pureed)
2 tbsp - Butter
1 tbsp - Oil
2 tbsp - Cream

For marination:

1 tbsp - Ginger garlic paste
3 tbsp - Curd
1 tsp - Chilly powder
1 tsp - Lemon juice
Salt to taste

Method:

Mix together all the ingredients for marination with the cut paneer peices and set aside for 1 hour.
Grill it on an oven till done. If an oven is not available, lightly fry the paneer in some butter till golden brown.
Heat a kadhai, fry half of the chopped onions till golden brown and grind with zeera, ginger-garlic paste, chilly powder, dhania powder, and turmeric powder.
Heat the kadhai with butter and add rest of the chopped onions. Saute and add the masala paste and saute well for 3 minutes.
Add the tomato puree, salt and some water and bring it to boil.
Add the fried paneer and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the garam masala powder.
Add the cream and simmer for another 3 minutes and garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve hot with Roti, parantha or poori

Chicken Noodle Soup

2008-06-12T09:51:00.002+05:30

I generally make this soup on one of those damp rainy days and pour it my coffee mug and sip and slurp it standing in the balcony of our apartment. And unknowingly I am taken back to my MBA days in Bangalore, when my roomie and I used to sneak and prepare Maagi chicken noodle soup using our electric heater(which was supposedly banned in the hostel due to the bombastic bills) during one of those wintery nights and sip it from our mugs snuggling inside the blankets. We used to have those soups after our dinner just to keep us awake till 2 in night so that we could yap, gossip and bitch about the whole world laying asleep outside our room.

Ingredients:

1 - Chicken breast/Thigh
2 cups - Water
Salt to taste
Pepper powder according to your taste
1 tbsp - Butter
1 tbsp - Cornflour
1/4 cup - Carrot & beans chopped
1/4 cup - Noodles, cooked and strained
1/2 tsp - Oregano

Method:

Cook the chicken in the water till soft. Strain the chicken and keep aside. Keep the broth, season it with salt. Shred the the cooked chicken.
Heat some butter in a pan and and saute the shredded chicken well. Add salt and pepper also. Keep it aside.
Heat some more butter in the same pan and saute the cornflour till it turns golden brown.
Now add the chopped carrots and beans and saute once again. Add the chicken pieces also. Add the broth into the pan and bring it to boil. Simmer and stir it for a while till it starts turning thick.
Just 2 minutes before turning off the gas, add the cooked noodles and bring it to boil again.
Season with Oregano and serve hot.

Dahi wale Aloo

2008-06-11T18:05:00.000+05:30

Potato is one of those vegetables which is inevitable in our diet. There cannot be a single day when I dont peel, boil, cut or mash potatoes. Thanks to my Hubby. Now, my husband and I are extremes on this issue-POTATO!! He loves it and I do not prefer it. Now tell me how can one eat potato every other day? But guess what I have been having it very fruequently that now I have started innovating with it so that it makes sense to my taste buds too!! Dahi wale Aloo is one such innovation which camouflages the taste of Potato and both of us are happy(he has his share of potato and I have a curry which is tasty!!)

Ingredients:

300 gms - Potatoes, boiled and pealed
1 tbsp - Oil
1 tsp - Zeera or Cumin
5-8 Nos - Black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Paste of 1 big Onion
2 Nos - Green chillies, slit
1 tsp - Ginger-garlic paste
1/2 tsp - Turmeric Powder
1 tsp - Red Chilly Powder
2 tsp - Coriander Powder
1 cup - Curd
2 tsp - Ghee or Butter
1/3 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Put cumin seeds, pepper and bay leaf and saute.
Add the onion paste and saute till golden brown. Add the Ginger-garlic paste and green chillies and saute for a minute.
Add the red chilly, turmeric, coriander powder and saute. Add salt.
Cut the boiled potatoes into cubes and add it into the masala. Let the potatoes get coated in the masala.
Now add the beaten curd and let it cook on low flame for 5-7 minutes. Its necessary that you stir frequently, otherwise it might curdle. Add a pinch of sugar if the curd is too sour. Add water if required to loosen the gravy.
Now add the ghee or butter and garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve hot with rotis or naan.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

2008-06-09T15:54:00.001+05:30

Ingredients:

175 gms - All purpose flour or maida
225 gms - Butter, at room temparature
225 gms - Powdered sugar
4 Nos - Eggs
50 gms - Cocoa powder
1 level tsp - Baking powder
1 level tsp - Baking Soda
2 tsp - Vanilla essence
1 cup - Water

For Fudge Icing:

1 tin - Condensed milk
2 tbsp - Cocoa
1 tbsp - Butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. You may either grease the baking tray with lots butter and dust with flour or grease the tray with butter and put a greased butter paper.
Sieve flour with baking powder and baking soda twice and keep it aside
Take a thick bottomed vessel and cook the cocoa powder in 1 cup of water. Stir it well. Make sure that lumps do not form. Ideally whisk it rather than . Cool it once done.
Empty the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat till sugar dissolves.
Add the eggs one by one. Beat well and add the next . Mix gently in one direction otherwise it might get curdled.
Add vanilla essence
Fold the flour into the batter slowly using a spatula
Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix well.
Now pour the batter into the baking tray and bake it for 30 minutes. To check if done insert a knife and see. If the cake is done the knife will come out clean.
Take it out of the oven once done and insert a knife onto the sides of the tray and loosen it to let it cool.

Method for fudge Icing:

Mix everything together and cook on low heat until thick. Pour on top of the cooled cake while icing is still warm. Let it stay for sometime till it set.

Crispy Fish and Raw Mango Salad

2008-06-07T15:09:00.000+05:30

Saw this on television and was so inspired to try it out, that even with lot of ingredients missing it tasted just superb. So improvised it according to our taste and availability of material and here it is!! Originally this is a Thai dish and they use Catfish, a special variety of red chilly and add fish sauce too. I use any fish which doesnt have too many bones(Prefer Kingfish).
Ingredients:

1 & 1/2 cup - Fish
Salt to taste
1 tsp - Pepper powder
1⁄3 cup - Vegetable oil
2-3 Nos - Green chillies
2-3 Nos - Shallots
1/2" long - Ginger
1⁄3 cup raw mango, peeled and grated
1/2 tsp - Soya sauce
1 tsp - lime juice
1 Tsp - Sugar

Method:

Cut the fish into small cubes and mix salt and pepper well and keep it aside for some time.
Heat some oil in a pan and fry this fish piece till they turn golden brown. Make sure you doit on low fire. Drain it on to a paper towel.
Mince the green chillies, shallots and ginger . Mix all the ingredients with the fried fish, and grated mango.
Mix in the lime juice, soya suace and sugar. Add salt if required.

Kozhakatta or Rice balls with jaggery and coconut filling

2008-06-06T16:08:00.000+05:30

The memories of this snack goes back to my childhood days as this used to be one among those dishes which mom used to prepare for me and my bro when we used to return from school at 4 in the evening. The one thing which I enjoyed the most about it was the way I used to eat it. My first lessons of using fork and knife were practised on the hot, steaming kozhakattas.
I also remember our maid who was a christian used to make kozhakattas for their festival and used to bring for us. Her kozhakattas had a distinct flavor of fire and smoke as they used to use the verag aduppu(mud stove which is lit using wood)
Ingredients:

1 cup - Rice Flour
Water
Salt to taste
200 gms - Jaggery
200 gms - Grated Coconut
1 - Cardamom or Ellachi

Method:

Boil some water in a bowl.
In a separate bowl put the flour and salt and mix well. Now pour some boiled water and bind the flour by gently kneading it(Dont try kneading with your hands. You pour hot water. So you can first stir with a spoon and when cooled down use your hands). Knead till the dough doesnot stick to the bowl.
In a kadhai, pour 1 cup of water and add the jaggery. Let it melt and boil. When it starts thickening, add the grated coconut and ellachi powder and mix well and stir till the water is gone from the mixture.
Make small balls and press to flatten it into small circle and fill the jaggery-coconut mixture and close it. Perfect the ball again.
Cook these rice flour balls on a steamer for around 10-15 minutes on medium heat.
Serve either hot for cold.

Note: If you wish to make rice flour at home, please follow this. Wash and soak rice and spread it on clean cloth to dry. Once 90% water is dried up, grind the rice without adding water. It should not be coarse nor like maida, somehere in between. Heat a kadhai and saute this rice powder for 2 minutes on low heat. Keep stirring. This rice powder can be used for making most of the kerala delicacies like Appam, Idiyappam, Ada, Pathiri etc.

Dahi Vada

2008-06-05T15:28:00.002+05:30

The best thing about this dish is that this is the most perfect fusion of north Indian and south Indian culinary. The crispy yummy vadas of south, in the creamy thick curd with very earthy flavors of the north. Uummmm....thats just perfect!! Now this is not so difficult to make until you get the vadas perfect..

Ingredients:

For the vadas:

1/2 cup each of Urad Dal & yellow Moong Dal
8-10 - Black peppercorns
Salt to taste
Refined oil for deep frying
1/4 kg - thick curd(beaten)
1/2 tsp - Dry roasted Zeera powder
1/2 tsp - red chilly powder
1/3 cup - Chopped Coriander leaves

For the chutney:

25 gms - Tamarind
25 gms - Jaggery or gur
1/2 cup - Water
1/2 tsp - Red Chilly powder

Method:

Soak the dals in water overnight. Strain the water and grind it to make a fine batter. Make sure you add very little water. If it is a thin batter, the vadas would not be fluffy.
Let it ferment for 4-5 hours(for summer) or more.
PS: If you do not have yellow moong dal you can take 1 cup of urad dal and soak overnight and grind it and use immediately. No need to ferment the batter in this case
Add the Salts and peppercorns.
Heat oil in a pan and spoon the batter into the hot oil and fry on low heat until golden.
Put the fried vadas immediately into lukewarm water for 5 minutes and squeeze it gently and refrigate it if time permits.
Mix the tamarind, jaggery, chilly powder in water until the jaggery dissoves. Strain and keep aside.
Serve the vadas on to a platter.
Add salt and a pinch of sugar into the beaten chilled curd and pour over the vadas.
Pour the chutney on it in the desired design.
Garnish with red chilly powder, zeera powder, coriander leaves and salt to taste

Bottle Gourd Raita (Lauki Raita)

2008-06-05T14:32:00.000+05:30

Lauki raita is one of my favorite form of curd. Raitas are always so cooling and soothening but when it is enriched with something which has amazing medicinal values what more do you need. This dish is another Bihari dish which I had at my Bihari neighbours place. Now at the first instance I never was able to guess what the light green grated vegetable in the raita was. I had been thinking it is cucumber coz I never imagined lauki in a raita. Let me tell you, anyone who doesnt like eating lauki in its original form would relish this dish. This is another instance of camouflaging.

Ingredients:

2 Cups - Curd or Yogurt
1 cup -Grated Bottle gourd or lauki
1tsp - Cumin powder (dry roasted and powdered)
2 tsp - Coriander leaves, very finely chopped
1-2 nos - Green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp - Black salt or kala namak

Method:

Boil grated lauki till soft. Cool it and squeeze off the excess water.
Beat the curd, add the lauki and mix well.
Add black salt, cumin powder, coriander leaves, green chillies and mix well. Add salt if required. Keep in refrigerator for an hour. Serve chilled.

Paapdi Chaat

2008-06-04T22:46:00.002+05:30

Ohhh chaats!! who doesnt like it.. I used to relish on those road side chaat shops so much once upon a time!! But since the day I was struck with jaundice in Bangalore, I developed this phobia towards it. But then came in my zeal to try out chaat at home!! You know its so easy to prepare chaats at home if you get the basics correct. So next time you go into one of those chaat walas, notice what all they put in. I've at times asked out of sheer curiosity and ofcourse shamelessly too, "Bhaiyya yeh kya cheez daala apne?"

Ingredients:

For the papdi:

1/2 cup - maida
1/4 tsp - carom seeds or ajwain
1/4 tsp - zeera
Water to knead the dough
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

For the topping:

2 - Potatoes, boiled and chopped
1/2 cup - Cooked Chick peas
2 tsp - Tamarind-Jaggery chutney
2 tbsp - Coriander Leaves, chopped
1/2 cup - Chilled Curd
1 tsp - red chilly powder
1/2 tsp - dry roasted zeera powder
A Handful of sev
Salt to taste

Method:

Make a dough of maida, ajwain and zeera. Knead well and make small papdis. Prick it with a fork and fry it in oil. Strain and slightly crush them and arrange on a plate.
Spread chopped boiled potatoes and chole on it. Make sure you add salt before your spread it on the papdis
Add salt into the curd and pour the curd on top.
Pour the chutney on top and sprinkle red chilly powder, zeera powder and chopped corianderleaves
Sprinkle sev generously on to it and serve.

Easy Paani Poori / Gool Gappe

2008-06-04T22:10:00.001+05:30

Ingredients:

1 packet - Puchka or poori

For the pani:

1 lemon sized ball of tamarind
3 cups - water
1 tbsp - Corainder leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp - Red chilly powder
1 tsp - Chaat Masala
1/2 tsp - Dry roasted Zeera powder
1/2 tsp - Black salt

For the masala:

2 Big - Potatoes, boiled and mashed
1/2 cup - Dry peas, cooked and slightly mashed
1 - Big Onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped
1 tsp - Chilly powder
Salt to taste

Method:

Boil the water with the tamarind for few minutes. Strain it and chill the water.
Once chilled, mix all the ingredients. The measure of ingredients may vary from person to person. Some people like it extremely spicy thus add lots of chilly powder and at times, green chilly paste. You may add pudina paste if you like the flavor. I ike it sour so I put lots of chaat masala and aamchur too.
To make the masala, mix all the ingredients into the cooked and mashed potatoes and peas.
Make holes on the pooris. Fill the masala and dip it into the water and gulp!!

Aloo Tikki Dahi Chaat

2008-06-04T21:40:00.000+05:30

Ingredients:

For the tikkis:

2-3 Nos - Potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 - Big Onion, finely chopped
3 Nos - Green chillies, chopped
1/3 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped
1 tsp - Chilly powder
1/2 tsp - Coriander powder
Salt to taste
Butter or vegetable oil to shallow fry (according to your choice)

For the chat:

1/2 cup - Dry peas soaked for minimum 1 hour
1/2 tsp - Turmeric Powder
3/4 cup - Curd, prefer chilled
1/3 cup - Onion chopped
1 tbsp - Corainder leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp - Red chilly powder
1/2 tsp - Dry roasted Zeera powder
Black salt / Salt to taste
a Handful of Sev

Method:

Mix all the ingredients for the tikki and keep aside.
Heat butter or oil( I prefer butter coz it gives a special flavor) in a pan just enough for shallow fry. Make flat patties/tikkis and shallow fry it in a pan till golden brown.
Arrange it on a serving plate
Mix salt in the cooked peas and mash it slightly and top it on to the tikkis.
Beat the curd well with salt. Add a pinch of sugar if it is too sour. Pour it on to the plate with tikkis.
Sprinkle black salt, chilly powder, and zeera powder on top of it.
Spread the chopped onions and coriander leaves too.
Sprinkle lots of fine sev on top and serve.

Vegetable Biriyani

2008-06-03T22:05:00.000+05:30

Ingredients:

1 cup - Basmati Rice (serves 2 people)
3 nos - Cloves
2 nos - Cardomom
1/2 tsp - Fennel Seeds
1 inch long Cinnamon stick
Ghee
1 big Onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp - Ginger-garlic paste
2 nos - Green chillies
1 tsp - Turmeric Powder
2 tsp - Chilly powder
1 - Tomato, chopped
1 cup - Vegetables of your choice, diced into sqaure pieces of 1 inch (I took cauliflower, potatoes, beans, carrot)
1/3 cup - Coriander leaves
1 cup - Curd
15 nos - Raisins
15 nos - Cashewnut
Salt to taste

Method:

Cook the basmati rice till it is 3/4th done. Pour some 1 tsp of oil and a pinch of salt while cooking. Strain and keep aside
Heat a pan and pour 2 tbsp of Ghee and put all the spices and saute
Put 3/4 of the sliced onions and saute till golden brown. Sprinkle some salt, it will fasten the process
Add ginger-garlic, green chillies, red chilly powder and turmeric powder and saute well
Add finely chopped tomato and saute. Add salt to taste
Add the vegetable, mix well, cover it and cook for a while
Add half the coriander leaves and 3/4 cup of curd into the vegetables. Simmer and mix well till the oil separtes.
Fry the rest of the onions and keep aside.Fry the raisins and cashewnuts in ghee.
Take a deep and thick based bowl, put 1/3 of the gravy into the bowl and layer it with rice. Put chopped coriander leaves, fried onions, raisins and cahsewnuts. Sprinkle some curd and ghee. Repeat the process. Cover the bowl tightly and cook on low heat for 10 minutes
You may serve this with raita.

Maalpua

2008-06-03T21:35:00.001+05:30

The courtesy of this dish goes to my hubby, who had spent a good part of his life in Ranchi(earlier part of Bihar) . This delicacy is simple to make and is probably the only mithai which can be made in a jiffy. Maalpua's are prepared predominatly during the holi time. But ever since my hubby made it for me we make it very frequently as I simply cant wait for Holi to come, which apparently happens only once in a year!!

Ingredients:

1 cup - All purpose Flour
Milk to make batter
1 tbsp - Sugar
1/2 tsp - Fennel Seeds(saunf)
Ghee for frying
1 cup - sugar syrup

Method:

Make a smooth batter of Flour, Milk, Sugar and fennel seeds. The consistency should be of that of a dosa batter
Heat a non-stick pan and pour ghee just enough for shallow fry. You may do a deep fry too but both of health reasons I prefer shallow fry
Take a laddle of batter and pour into the pan to make 2" diameter pancakes. Fry the pancakes till they turn golden brown in color.
Once done immerse the pancakes into the sugar syrup and let it boil till the sugar syrup is thickened.
Maalpua's are ready and can be served by removing it from the syrup.
Optional : To garnish sprinkle thinly sliced almond and pista.

Punjabi Chole Masala

2008-06-02T16:19:00.000+05:30

Ingredients:

250 gm - Chick Peas or Chole
1 tsp - Tea powder
2 tsp - Refined Oil
1/2 cup - Chopped Tomato
1/2 tsp - Zeera
1/4 tsp - Mango powder or aamchur
1 tsp - black pepper powder
2 tsp - Ghee
Salt
For Wet masala(1):
2 Nos - Clove
1" long Cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp - Black pepper corns
2-3 - Green chillies
1" long Ginger piece
For Dry masala(2):
1 No- Bay leaf
2 tsp - Mustard seed
2 tsp - Zeera
1 tsp - Fenugreek seed
3 Nos - Cloves
2 - Whole Dry Red chillies

Method:

Soak Chick Peas over night in a bowl of water. Make a small pouch of tea powder and drop it in this bowl. After minimum 12 hours, pressure cook the chana along with tea leaves pouch till channa is soft. When cooked discard the tea leaves pouch and drain the chickpeas into a bowl. Do not discard the water.
Prepare a paste out of masala(1) and mix this paste with cooked chickpeas and let it stay for atleast 10 minutes.
Dry roast all the masalas(2) in a pan and when cool make a fine powder out of it in a mixer. You can make this masala and store. This makes the work easier.
Heat some oil in a kadhai. Splutter some zeera and add some chopped onions and saute till golden brown. Saute the chopped tomatoes too.
Now put the marianated chickpeas and add the dry masala(2 tsp), aamchur, black pepper powder and simmer the flame and let the water evaporate.
Heat the ghee in a small pan till the smoke comes.Pour this ghee into the kadhai and keep it covered for sometime.
Serve hot with batura or poori or even roti!!
Optional : Garnish it with coriander leaves and chopped onion and tomatoes.

Chena Chamanthi or Yam Chutney

2008-06-02T14:08:00.000+05:30

The credit to this lip smacking chamanthi goes to my Mother-in-law. I was quite amazed to see her make this yam chutney because I had never heard of this recipe ever before nor imagined anything of that sort. I was little hesitant to try at first but when once tasted never felt like saying NO!! The tang of the tamarind and the burnt flavor of the yam and shallots just perfect the recipe.

Ingredients:

3" sqaure piece, 1/2 "thick cut Chena or Yam piece
3-4 Nos - Shallots or kunjuolli
2 Nos - Dry Chillies
1 sprig - Curry leaf
1 small piece of Tamarind
1/2 cup - Grated Coconut
1 tsp - Coconut Oil
Water to grind
Salt to taste

Method:

Roast the yam by keeping on gas stove directly till all the sides are cooked and turn slightly black in color. When cooled cut of the burnt sides
Roast the shallots and Dry Chillies slightly.
Grind coarsely all the ingredients along with the roasted items except coconut oil. Put very little water just enough to grind it.
Mix coconut oil into the chamanthi and make it into a ball.
Serve with kanji or boiled rice.

Sponge Cake - My First Post

2008-06-01T16:04:00.002+05:30

This being my first blog I thought probably I should start with something sweet and simple!! The sweetness that coats the whole world and the sweetness that lasts for ever...

I shall try and put all those recipes on yum-world which I have tried and tested and those which I have inherited from my mom, dad, hubby, friends and ofcourse those ones which I love the most!! Keep reading and would definetly appreciate any form of encouragement and critical opinions..

Sponge cake is the most simplest cake in the world. This cake is the one which a starter should try while baking for the first time. And I am sure you can not go wrong with this if you replicate the recipe. And another important thing - my mother always says that baking can be fun when there are two people. So next time you bake pull in your better half also!! :)

Ingredients

1 cup - All purpose flour or maida
3/4 level tsp - Baking powder
3/4 cup butter at room temperature
3/4 cup - powdered sugar
2 - Eggs
1 tsp - Vanilla extract
2 tbsp - Warm milk

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. You may either grease the baking tray with lots butter and dust with flour or grease the tray with butter and put a greased butter paper. For amateurs I would suggest the latter.
Sift together flour and baking powder twice and keep aside
Whisk the butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to beat till sugar gets dissolved.
Add egg one at a time and mix gently.
Add vanilla extract and mix.
Take flour in small quantities and slowly fold into the butter sugar mixture.
Add warm milk, mix well till small bubbles form
Pour the batter in to the baking tray.
Bake for 30 minutes or till done. To check if done insert a knife and see. If the cake is done the knife will come out clean.
Take it out of the oven once done and insert a knife onto the sides of the tray and loosen it to let it cool. Wait for the cake to cool completely before your turn or cut