Paruppu Vadai w/ Coconut Chutney

We had our friends visiting us over the weekend after a long time.Since they are not from southern part of India , I decided to make the dinner completely South Indian .We started off with Vadai - Chutney for appetizer and followed with Idly , Pongal,Hotel Sambhar, Chutney  and some spice kothu parotta.Here is the recipe for Paruppu Vadai.


I used only channa dal to make these paruppu vadais for a long long time until one trip to the grocery store with my late father in law.He picked up a packet of "Pattani Paruppu aka Yellow Split Dal" and said 'This is what we should use for authentic Paruppu Vadai' . Since then I have used only this dal .

Paruppu Vadai

What do you need

Yellow split dal aka Pattani paruppu - 1 cup
Red chillies - 4
Asafoedita - a pinch
Curry leaves - as needed
Onion - 1/2 (chopped)
Green chillies - 2 (chopped)
Jeera - 1tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - for deep frying

How you make it


Soak yellow split dal along with red chillies and jeera for about 2 hrs.After 2 hours , take out 2 tbsp of dal and keep them aside. Grind the rest of the soaked dal into a coarse paste in a mixie(  using very very less water).Add salt ,asafoetida and 2 tbsp of soaked dal (that we kept aside) into this mix . Now add chopped onions, green chillies , curry leaves and make them into small patties. Heat oil for deepfrying in medium flame. Once the oil is hot enough start deep frying these vadai-s until they are golden brown. Serve them hot with coconut chutney.

Note  :Make sure you don't use too much water while grinding dal. Even slightly watery batter won't make good vadais. If at all you think the mix is slightly watery , you can use couple of tbsp of rice flour to adjust the thickness.

Coconut Chutney

What do you need

To grind

Coconut  -  1 cup (shredded)

Green Chillies - 2

Tamarind - a small gooseberry size piece 

Garlic - 1 small pod

Salt - as need

For tempering

Oil - 2tsp

Mustard seeds  - 1/4 tsp

Urad dal - 1/4tsp

Curry leaves - a few

How you make it

Grind the ingredients listed under " To grind" into a paste using little water . Check salt at this point and add if needed.The consistency of the chutney should not be watery,Heat a pan and do the tadka aka tempering with ther ingredients listed under "For Tempering". Serve this side for Idly , Vada, Dosa etc.

Kappa Puzhukku

Tapioca aka kappa another staple of Kerala.I cooked up the easy dish that we make to go with fish curry :D . 

What you need

Tapioca, cubed- 3 cups
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Water-  as needed to cook tapioca
Salt- to taste

To grind

Coconut, grated- 1 cup
Red chili- 3
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Garlic- 1 clove

For tempering

Coconut oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves- 1 sprig


How you make it

Peel the skin off of tapioca and cut them into small cubes .Wash them and boil them in a heavy bottomed pan with just enough water , salt and turmeric powder.On medium flame it should not take that long to cook. Once they are half way cooked , add in the grounded coconut mixture.Check the salt and let it boil until raw smell of coconut mixture is gone and tapioca is fully cooked.Try and smash some of the tapioca pieces and cook until the gravy is thick enough.

In another pan , heat coconut oil and temper the ingredients listed under "For tempering" . Pour these over the cooked tapioca . Serve it hot.

We had these with some nethili meen curry and king fish fry for sunday lunch . I personally love to have these as a tea time snack as well.

Tapioca/Kappa/Kizhangu Dosa is next on my list....

Kethel's Chicken - Proxy version

Hotel Rahmaniya's Kethel's Chicken is one of the famous chicken fry in my home town , Thiruvanathapuram.I happened to watch a youtube video of this Hotel and they were talking about this special dish .They happened to mention some of the ingredients that goes into this dish's masala. So ended up making my version of the famous Kethel's Chicken. 

The original recipe calls for deep frying in Coconut oil .But I chose to shallow fry instead.


What do you need


Baby chicken -1 ( cut is medium sized pieces)

Turmeric powder -1/4tsp

Salt - as needed

Coconut oil -3 tbsp

curry leaves - few

To coarsely grind the following :

Red chillies - 5

Perunjeeragam -2tsp

Whole black pepper - 1tsp

Please adjust spices according to your taste.


How you make it

Marinate small pieces of baby chicken with all ingredients except for Coconut oil & curry leaves and eep this aside for at least 1hr.

Heat coconut oil and add curry leaves in a heavy bottomed pan . Then add the marinated chicken pieces and cook it on medium high flame until chicken is well cooked and are golden brown .


Note :The main masala needs to be coarsely grind so that you can see the red chilli flakes.You can the red chilli flakes instead of grinding the whole red chilli.

Spicy Egg Masala

This is your normal egg masala.There is nothing different about the ingredients that you normally use.But the process is somewhat easy  and it involves Pressure Cooker :)

Few days while browsing through I stumbled upon Onion - Tomato gravy made using pressure cooker. Looked so simple that I had to experiment it right away.

What you need

-----------------------

Boiled eggs -  5 ( shelled and make small slits across the egg)

Onion  :  1.5 big onion ( chopped fine)

Tomato : 2 Roma Tomatoes ( chopped fine)

Ginger Garlic Paste  : 3 tsp

Turmeric powder : 1/4 tsp

Red chilli powder : 2-3 tsp

Coriander powder : 1 tbsp

Cumin powder  - 1 tsp

Salt - as needed

Oil - 2 tbsp

Tamarind Juice : From a  small lemon sized tamarind.

Jaggery - 2 tsp (optional)

Note : Please adjust the spice level accordign to your taste.

Tadka

Oil - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds  - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - a few

Whole Red chillies - 2

How you make 

-----------------------

Boil 5 eggs and remove the shells. Make around 4-5 minor slits across each egg for the gravy to soak in.Keep them aside.

In a pressure cooker , heat oil in medium flame. Once the oil is hot enough add in chopped onion and saute fore few minutes until is slightly pink . Now add in ginger garlic paste , tomato  and all powders including salt.

Mix them all together and close the lid.No need to add any water.Pressure cook this mixture on medium low flame for a whistle. It took around 15 minutes for me. Once the pressure is off , open up the cooker.Yopu can see the gravy is well cooked and oil is separated at the top. This is the consistency we want. 

The reason I like about this way of cooking the gravy is that , first and formost its the consistency and texture of the gravy.And you can make it in a batch and use it for different gravies.

In a separate pan , heat 2 tsp of oil and splutter mustard seeds .Add in curry leaves and whole red chillies .On medium flame , add in the Gravy mixture , tamarind juice and salt . Let it boil until raw smell of tamarind juice goes away. At this point add in the jaggery if you like. Once the gravy gets into thick consistency add in the boiled eggs. Keep the flame alive for few more minutes and let the eggs get coated with this gravy.Switch off the flame and serve the dish hot with rice/roti.

Recipe adapted from Vahrehvah.

Mutton Fry/Poriyal

What do you need

Mutton : 2 lbs ( boneless ,cut in cubes)
Small Onions : 20 no.s
Curry leaves  : a few
Red chilli powder  : 2 tsp
Jeera powder  : 1 tsp
Perunjeeragam : 1 tsp
Turmeric powder  :1/4 tsp
Pepper powder : 2 tsp
Oil : 3 tbsp
Cashews : a few ( fired) (optional)

To cook mutton  : 

Ginger garlic paste  : 2 tsp
Red chilli powder : 1 tsp
Turmeric powder : 1/4 tsp
Salt  : as needed


How you will make it

Mix  mutton along with turmeric powder, red chilli powder, ginger garlic paste and salt.Add a little water and pressure cook it until it's cooked tender. Note : I usually pressure cook all mutton pieces (both boneless and with bones )together and separate them for two different dishes.In this case I separated bone less  pieces for mutton fry and rest for a mutton gravy.

In a pan , heat oil and  saute perunjeeragam and  sliced small onion, curry leaves. Saute until onions are soft .Now add turmeric powder, red chilli powder , jeera powder and salt.Saute until raw smell is gone and add mutton pieces .Fry these on medium heat  until everything comes together and mutton pieces turn into brownish color. Finally add pepper powder and saute altogether.Switch off the heat and serve hot with rice/roti.

You can add fried cashews to make it extra special.

                                    

Potato-Mushroom Masala

What do you need

Potato: 2 cups (cubed)

Mushroom - 1 cup (sliced)

Onion - 1 large (Finely chopped)

Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp

Red Chilli powder - 2tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - as needed

Oil - 2 tbsp.

Salt - as needed

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves - (chopped) for garnish

How you will make it

In a pan on medium high heat, heat oil and sauté onions until they are golden brown. Add in ginger garlic paste and sauté until raw smell is gone. Now add in all the masala powders and sauté in medium low flame. Once the masala is sautéed well, add in the cubed potatoes and salt. Mix and cook it covered for about 10 minutes on medium low heat. Check in between and make sure potatoes are not getting stick to the pan. Once the potatoes are almost cooked but not breaking, add in the sliced mushrooms. Cover and cook again. Mushrooms don't take much time to cook. Once they are cooked, switch off the flame and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve it hot with rice or roti.We had this with rice and spinach sambar.

Chicken Mushroom Stir Fry

My way of sneaking in their 'not-so-fav' veggies with their all-time fav ingredient, Chicken :)

What do you need

Chicken - 2 lbs. (boneless)

Mushroom - 1/2 cup (sliced thin)

Green Capsicum - 1/2 cup (chopped)

Jalapeno Pepper - 1 (sliced)

Onion - 1 (chopped fine)

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Daniya/Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp.

Red chili powder - 1 tsp (optional if you want that extra spice level)

Tomato Sauce - 1 tbsp.

Oil - 2 tbsp.

Salt - As needed

How you make it

In a wok, heat 2 tbsp. oil and fry chopped onion until they are golden brown .Now add in the ginger garlic paste and sauté until raw smell goes away. Add in daniya & turmeric powder (and red chili powder) and sauté for about a minute before adding in the chicken pieces .Along with chicken pieces add salt needed. On high flame, sauté well until chicken is almost cooked. Now add in chopped capsicum and sliced mush rooms and 1 tbsp. of tomato sauce. Adjust salt if needed at this point. Keep sautéing until veggies and chicken are cooked and the dish is almost dry .Finally add in sliced jalapenos and sauté little more until they are soft. I garnished with chopped onion and served with naan.

Note: You can replace jalapenos with Thai green chilies. I had used only one jalapeno pepper and tried to take out seeds from half of it.

I had chopped capsicum/bell pepper into tiny pieces to make kids eat without any fuzz. If needed you can make them cut in normal stir fry size.