Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Thankful for....

A thankful list to mark the year end, 

  1. Kids...That too happy ones (well most of the time) ..ever thankful.
  2. Family – You know who you are, especially thankful for finishing up a conversation with me in person/phone ;)
  3. Friends – Again encouraging /commenting whenever needed.
  4. Skype – Feels I am never far way from Mom.
  5. Job – and that too an exciting one.
  6. My Kitchen – a perfect one, to show off my rage/happy moods.
  7. People – Mostly whom I meet on daily basis, an INSPIRATION!
  8. TV/Movies –for helping forget my dull moments.
  9. Father in Law – Most amazing optimistic person I have met. Help me grow as an individual. Missing you.
  10. Though we had our share of similar & opposite opinions, am thankful for the one who encourages and keeps me going, Picks me up   when I fall (which is quite often) -Dear Husband.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Meen Thoran /Poriyal



Meenu thoran/poriyal , another delicacy from Amma .I made this with tilapia fillets  from costco.
This is easy one and goes well with any hot gravy.We had this with vatha kuzambu.




Ingredients
=======

Tilapia - 5 fillets
Ginger/Garlic/Green chilli - 2 tbsp minced
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - 2 tbsp
Onion -  1 small (finely chopped)
Coconut - 1/4 cup shredded (adjust according to your taste).
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Method
=======

Boil Tilapia fillets with enough water, salt and turmeric.This gets cooked very fast, so as soon as it is cooked, drain the water and switch them to another vessel.Make sure there is no water retained.With a fork, slightly pull the fish fillets apart ,  making it into tiny pieces .

We need about 2 tbsp ginger/garlic/green chilli mixture minced (not a paste). YOu might need about a 1/2 inch piece of ginger, 3 cloves of garlic and about 3-4 green chillies.Increase the no.of green chillies if you like it spicy.

Now, take another pan and heat oil in a medium low heat.Once oil hot, splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves and onion.Once onions are golden brown, add the minced g/g/g mixture and fry until raw smell is gone.Now add the fish pieces, add salt, turmeric as needed now and slowly mix .Be careful not to mush it.

After few minutes in medium low heat, add coconut to the fish mixture and turn the heat to medium high.
Constantly stir and cook for another 5 minutes .Serve it with rice & any kuzhambu.





Monday, November 07, 2011

Chicken Ularthiyadhu / Kerala Chicken Fry


This is yet another lip smacking chicken fry that I usually make if I want to impress !Got it via a Malayalam cookery show. The best part of the dish for me is to eat the last part of the dish left after all the big pieces of chicken is gone! You will understand what I am talking about when you finish cooking.

Ingredients
=========
Chicken - 1 whole chicken (cut into small pieces)
Onion - 2 medium sized( sliced length wise)
Green chillies - 4-5 
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic - 4-5 cloves
Whole black peppercorns - 2tbsp
Red chilli powder - 2tsp
Daniya powder - 2tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coconut - 1/2 cup (shredded) (the more the merrier)
Curry leaves - quite a few
Whole garam masala - 1 piece cinnamon, 2 cardamom, 2 cloves , 1tsp perunjeerakam
Oil - 4 tbsp
Salt - as needed


Note : I made this one extra spicy (as usual) to go with a bland dal :)
And even 2-3 tsp of aacchi red chilli powder goes a long way.

Method
=======

Clean and marinate the chicken pieces with red chilli, daniya, turmeric  and salt for about 20-30 minutes.
Add ginger, garlic , green chilli, pepper corns, whole garam masalas and few curry leaves in a chopped/mixie and give it a quick pulse.The point is not to make it a paste.Give it just a quick grind, so we can see few pieces of ginger/garlic/pepper etc. The main recipe calls for us to add coconut and onion slices to ginger garlic pepper  when grinding.I didn't do it as 1) my coconut were very thinly shredded and 2) I am always afraid of grinding raw onion even if it  is for a quick pulse. 

Now, add the ginger garlic pepper mix, coconut, onion into a bowl and mix is very well with your clean hands.Make sure you break few of the onion slices to bring out the juice.Now add this mixture into marinated chicken and mix well.


Add oil into a heavy bottomed pan placed in medium high heat.Add this chicken mixture and few curry leaves into the pan and cover n cook for about 5-6 minutes.Once you see chicken is releasing water, remove the lid and let is cook on medium high heat.Try to break the chicken pieces, this makes this dish extra special.This dish is very dry, so keep cooking until all the water is evaporated from the dish.I usually cook it on high heat for last few minutes.It should look like the same in the picture.

Do not forget to eat the last part :)

We had this with roti  and dal.






Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Kodi Kura - Chicken Roast (Andhra style)




This recipe I got off from a TV show and came out delicious.Very easy to make and to top it all it's a one pot dish.What more do you want? .I have tried mutton version of this and will post that later.

Ingredients
------------
Chicken -  1 whole chicken (cut into small pieces)
Onion - 2 Onions(sliced and then cut across)
Tomato - 3 (medium sized, chopped)
Green chillies - 6-8 (slit across)
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 2 tbsp
Daniya/Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil -4 tbsp
Curry leaves - a lot (atleast 2 springs)

Method
--------
Clean the chicken and try not to leave any water behind after you clean.Mix all the ingredients except for oil in a pan with your hand.Make sure to mash some of the tomato pieces, green chillies. Do not add any water.
If you want and have time, leave this mixture for abt 15- 30 minutes to marinate.I didn't do it, but it came out very tasty.

Start cooking the chicken mixture in a medium low flame with lid covered for about 5-8 minutes.And when you see water is coming out of the chicken, remove the lid and start cooking.Once you see enough gravy is in the dish, increase the flame and keep stirring the dish to avoid burning.Once the dish is almost dry, add 4 tbsp of oil and keep roasting the dish without burning.When it reaches roast consitency, swich off the heat and garnish with more curry leaves.Serve with Roti or rice/dal.

Note : I made it very spicy, please adjust your spice as per your taste.
Before

After


Sorry for the bad picture..too lazy to get the camera and used my phone instead...

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Egg Curry -Andhra Version


Egg curry from Vahrevah.com . Since I found this recipe I have prepared this numerous times :)


Sunday, January 09, 2011

Thuvaram paruppu masiyal/Toor dal gravy with Masala Egg

We enjoyed this paruppu masiyal with masala egg over the weekend.This is one of those simple yet comfort food. Masala egg recipe is from my sweet SIL's blog, fusion of life.It came out really good.Hope you all enjoy as much as we did.

Ingredients
-------------

Toor dal : 1/2 cup
Vendhyam/fenugreek seeds : 1 tsp
Turmeric powder : 1/4 tsp
Dry Red chillies : 5
Green chillies : 5 (slit)
Curry leaves : few springs
Tomato : 2 (chopped)
Tamarind : small lemon size ball
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds : 1/2 tsp
Perungayam/ asafoedita : 1 pinch
salt : as needed

Method
---------

1. Pressure cook toor dal, fenugreek and turmeric powder with just enough water for more than 4 whistles. Mash cooked toor dal mixture well and keep it aside.
2.In a pan, heat oil and fry mustard seeds, asafoedita and dry red chiiles.Now add chopped tomatoes and slit green chilles.Saute well until tomatoes are cooked enough.
3.Now add tamarind water to the pan and bring it to a boil.
4.Now add mashed toor dal mix to the pan and add salt and water as needed.
5.Garnish with chopped coriander or curry leaves.I used curry leaves as I prefer them.

We enjoyed this with hot rice and masala egg.

Recipe Source for masiyal :Vikatan

Paruppu Masiyal


Masala Egg

Monday, January 03, 2011

Happy New Year and Banana Payasam

Happy Happy New Year to all Foodies out there.
I know I am surprised too, how time flies by.I have been out of blogging for a while now and so much things have happened in my life in the mean time.But I haven't stopped cooking though!.Now I am at a better position (I Hope) to continue my passion.So decided I will try my level best to post at least one recipe per week (one of my 2011 resolution :) ).

So my first recipe to share this year would be Banana Payasam, a famous dessert from Kerala.



Ingredients

Nenthra pazham : 2 ( well riped)
Jagarry/Sarkarai : 1 cup (grated)
Coconut milk : 1 can
Cashew nuts, golden raisins : as needed
Cardamom/Elakkai : 2 numbers
Ghee : 2 tbsp
Javvarisi/Sabudhana - 1 handful
Water - as needed

Method
---------------


1. In a pan, heat ghee and saute sliced bananas until they are almost darkish brown.Mash them well with a fork and keep aside.

2. In a pan boil javvarisi about 2 cups of water.

3.Once it is cooked enough, add shredded jaggery and mix well.If needed add water just enough.Make sure there is no lumps are there.

4.Reduce the flame and add coconut milk and mix well.At this point do little taste test and if needed add more jaggery.

5.Finally add the mashed banana and mix well.Bring this to a boil and switch of the heat.

6.Fry Cashews, raisin and cardamom in ghee and pour over the payasam for garnish.