29th Jan - Special Day !

So, today it was mood for some Mediterranean food... Googled, and saw this recipe on a website. - Sayadiyah - Arabic Fish and Saffron Rice. Looked very tempting and also easy. Easy to make and tasty too ! Finished it off with a coconut pound cake. Awesome !

Chicken Tikka

Tomato Rice & Fish Roast

Tomato Rice recipe : I have been following Vahrehvah's for years. You could never go wrong with it and its absolutely tasty.

The Fish roast, I made it like a traditional mutta roast in kerala, except that I substituted 3/4 fried fish to the masala and let the rest of it cook in the masala.

Another attempt @ K's dedication !

Fish Molee with Appam

This was quick Christmas dinner I pulled off for a friend & family. Made Fish Molee ( King Fish ), Appam, Chicken Biriyani , Tuna Cutlet, Pappodom, Pickle and Raita.

Dosai

Chocolate Rum Cake

Recipe I followed is from here :

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/7480/chocolate-rum-cake/

This cake came out so moist and soft. Must try !

Aavoli Meen Pollichathu

Mutton Biriyani

Mutton Biriyani ! My all time favorite. Anytime of the day you give me this I can relish this food. I never get bored, my taste buds love them. Yum Yum Yum ! Absolutely delicious ! With a side of Indian raita, Lemon pickle, pappodom ! That feeling you get when it all goes to your mouth its indescribable ! 

Chicken Manchurian

Amma's Achappam

Amma's achappam :-)

What you need...

2 cups Rice flour
2 eggs
Salt - to taste
Sugar - to taste ( You have to decide how sweet you would like it to be )
Sesame seeds( black) - a table spoon
Coconut milk - 1 can
Oil - 1-2 cups

Whisk it all well to dosai maavu consistency. Keep aside.

Heat 2 cups of oil in a kadai.
Leave the "achu" dipped in the hot oil.
Dip it in the maavu, till 3/4 of the achu ( reason is , only then you can shake it off into the oil)
Dip the ache with the maavu into the hot oil, after 3- 5 seconds shake off the achu, so that the achappam is free the oil. :-) Its fun to make this. You have to be smart ;)

Tuna Cutlets

Those are tuna cutlets. Made when my dear friend S visited. The simplest of all cutlets. Made with canned tuna. 

What you need

Canned tuna - 2 no.s
Onions - 2 medium
Ginger/Garlic - finely chopped 1 teaspoon ( i don't add too much else it will over power the taste of the tuna)
Green Chillies - 3 long ones finely chopped
Curry leaves - finely chopped
Potatoes - 2 medium sized
Egg yolk - 1 used during binding
Egg white - 2 , used for making the outer layer
Breadcrumbs
Salt
Oil

Charles Mom's Original Brinjal Gravy

Yummmmm !!! is not the word. This is so good. If you are searching for the right brinjal gravy to go with the Biriyani, this is the one and I have no doubt you will stop searching for the right recipe for brinjal gravy.

Here's the recipe

What you need:

Small brinjal : 7-8
Onions : 2 medium sized
Green Chillies : 2-3
Tomatoes : 2
Tamarind : size of a lemon or more if you like it tangy
Poppy seeds : 1 table spoon
Sesame Seeds : 1 table spoon
Peanuts : 7-8
Urad Dhal : 1 teaspoon
Chilli Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Corriander Powder  - 1/2 teaspoon
Tumeric powder- 1/4 tea spoon
Mustard seeds 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Curry leaves
Sesame Oil : depends on how healthy you want to be. I add it well , when I have to feed guests. A compliment from them will take me longer way than a healthy food ! So, its up to you !

Use only Sesame oil to get the actual taste. Do not compromise !

Method:

1) Slit the brinjal from the end to the stem. I retain the stem. I love the look of it. Your choice !
2) Fry it  for a few minutes till its 1/4 done in oil. I deep fry .( unhealthy I know , you can micro wave it if you want or add it just as it is to the curry)
3) Dry roast the Poppy seeds, Sesame Seeds and Peanuts. No oil. Make sure you don't burn it.
4) Take a kadai, add sesame oil 2-3 table spoons, splutter muster seeds, urad dhaal, add onions, green chillies and sauté well, add curry leaves then add tomatoes and the powders . sauté well till the oil is seen.
5) Add the fried brinjals.  Cook in medium flame.
6)  Grind the dry roasted ingredients, you may add water according to need to grind it.
7) Add the paste to the gravy that is cooking. Let cook for another 5-7 minutes. Finally add the tamarind pulp into the gravy, cook till it starts boiling.

Your curry is ready ! Enjoy it with nice hot biriyani  or rotis :-)

A Sunset from our front yard

This definitely is not a food pic, but I have to put it here because its so beautiful ! Thank you Jesus for my eyes to see your beautiful creation.

Sunflowers 2015, Summer

I had to share this here, last summer I bought a packet of sunflower seeds from Walmart and I had more than 25 sunflowers ! I have to dig through my pics to see if I have a pic of all fully bloomed. This was taken sometime in the beginning . These flowers were such a treat to the eyes ! Another reason, to wake up every morning ! 

A special Egg Curry

This gravy is actually the base for the brinjal gravy that is served as an accompaniment to the Tamil Nadu Biriyani. I kept trying different recipes for the Brinjal gravy but never found the taste I was searching for until I ate at Charles and Preethi's place. Charles' mother prepared the brinjal gravy that day and it was the best and the perfect taste I was looking for. I will share with you the recipe of the brinjal gravy at some point in the blog. Well so that is the story of the base of this egg gravy. My guests loved it ! So, definitely I will be making it again.

Hubby's Birthday June 11th, 2015

So, the cake was from Harris Teeter. It was yummilicious ! We decided to do a BBQ for his birthday as the weather was so good ! It came out so well. We had some chicken thighs, corn and some tortillas. Chicken was marinated with the BBQ sauce bought from Costco and for extra spicy taste added a Jamaican Hot sauce. Hmmm... it was too good !

Panniyaram

So, last night I had some left over idli batter. Didn't want to make idlis again. So, to the batter, i added some chopped onions, green chillies and salt. Took the unniappam chatty :-) poured in oil. Once the oil was hot poured the batter into each hole of the unniyappam chatty. When its cooked on one side, turn over , cook the other side and fish it out of the chatty. Serve it hot with some chutney or sambhar or just eat it plain. Its delicious !

My recent additions... :-)

Wicker Collection :-)

These cane baskets are so useful and beautiful . It can be used to store breads/bakery, it can be used to store snacks , like a small snack bar in the house, it makes it easily accessibly accessibly to kids, without messing up the entire pantry. It can be used to store books, almost whatever you want to and looks so pretty.

My latest craze

I am so much in love with these little beauties. Love to keep looking at them. Each has a story behind  it. I can literally  hear the stories ;-) Don't want to sound spooky. So let me stop here...

Cabbage Thoren

Kodampulliyitta Meen Curry (Kerala Fish Curry)

I have to tell the truth here. This is such a common recipe that we make almost everyday in every home in Kerala. I don't use measurements. It just comes so natural. Almost like saying, we are not aware of the amount of oxygen we breathe in every time we breath. Well, I will try to make it as clear as I can.

Meen - 1 kg
Pulli - 3 pieces ( depends on the amount of pulli you like, wash well)
Ginger - sliced 3 table spoons
Garlic - sliced 3 table spoons
Pearl onions - 3-4 no.s chopped
Curry leaves - a nice sprig
Chilli powder - 2-3  table spoons ( depending on the spice tolerance level)
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Fenugreek powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Oil- 3 table spoons ( coconut oil is good here )
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Salt - ofcourse !


Method :

1) Wash the fish well. Make sure that sliminess of the fish is almost nil. If you want to , you may also wash with some rice flour or vinegar.
2) Take a non stick pan, add oil, once its hot, add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add chopped pearl onions, sauté well, curry leaves, then add the ginger garlic thinly sliced, sauté well.
3) Add a table spoon of water to the chili powder and turmeric mixture and make a paste. ( This is done so that you will not burn the chili powder when you add it to the oil. ). Let the paste cook well in the oil, till oil clears on top. Make sure you stir, so that you don't burn the mixture. Add fenugreek. Now switch off.
4) Take the traditional meen chatty, if you have one. Add the fish pieces into it. Then add the masala that you just made along with the pulli over the fish. Mix well. Add around 1/2 cup water. Switch on the stove.
5) Cook on medium high with a closed lid. You will have to check in between to make sure, its not getting burnt and getting stuck to the bottom of the chatty. After around 15 minutes, lower the flame and take the lid off and cook for another 10 minutes. Switch off the flame. Let it stand half open for some time.

Eat it with some hot rice, Morr curry, thoren, mezhukkuvaratty. Hmmmm...! Don't know what to say. Its so good. Some people like the fish curry the next day, after its cooked. For me, I always like it hot, while the steam is still flying . If you like Kappa, enjoy it with some Kappa !

Tiramisu Poke Cake

                                                           





I heard of this cake from my cousin Della, who is an excellent baker. I feel this picture doesn't do justice to the cake. If you have a chance, take a closer look at the pic, and you can see how moist the cake is. It just melts in your mouth. The recipe I followed is available in this link
Tiramisu Poke Cake


I followed it word to word. I have just added a pic which gives you a closer look at the ingredients used. Enjoy !

Kerala Beef Fry

Like every other blogger, let me also tell the story behind this recipe. ;) . There are some friends or some people with whom you share some special topics when you meet or talk over phone or chat or whatever. Manju and I have been good friends since college days, we discuss stuff but the best discussions I have with her is always recipes. This is the recipe I got from Manju, for me its mostly eyeballing the ingredients. I just cannot measure and add, but when I started doing the blog and people started demanding recipes, Manju came to my rescue and she has given me the measurements of each of the ingredients that go into this beef fry.  Thanks Manjukutta ! <3

Recipe:

Beef - 1/2 Kg
Cheriya Ulli ( pearl onions or shallots ) - 1 cup
Tomato - 1 
Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1/2 tablespoon
Corriander podwer - 1 tablespoon
ginger garlic crushed - 1 tablespoon
Vinegar - 1 tablespoon
Fennel Seed powder (Perumjeerakam podi ) - 1 teaspoon
Garam Masala - 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafetida - a nice pinch
Tumeric - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Slice 2 medium onions and keep aside -this is needed only the second half of the story wink emoticon

First half of the story :

1) Mix all of the above with a ladle or your bare hands (best method, so all of the ingredients are massaged into the beef) smile emoticon
2) Close and cook with 1/4 cup of water till beef is almost cooked. If there is water remaining, after the beef is almost done, open the lid and cook a little longer on a higher flame till all the water is evaporated.

You can stop it at this stage and store in the fridge and fry it the next day, it will taste even better as all the flavors would have been infused into the beef

INTERVAL

Second half of the story

3) Heat coconut oil in kadai (skillet) , add some whole garlic peeled or otherwise into the oil with a nice bunch of fresh curry leaves
4) Add the beef into the oil
5) Throw in 2 medium onions sliced lengthwise.
6) Put on low flame, keep stirring in between.

Enjoy this with some hot chappathis or some hot rice, Morr Kachiyathu. beans thoren and this yummy beef fry smile emoticon

Kerala Biriyani

This is my first post in this blog and I thought I will not be doing justice to this blog if I would start with anything else other than my favorite food "Biryani" ! :-)

This I should say is a variation of the Thalassery biriyani found on youtube. I have used two steps from their recipe into mine, rest of the recipe I can say , is absolutely my creation ! I have more than 3-4 recipes for Biriyani and I am sure most of us must be having multiple recipes. I think after trying out this recipe, I have never till now, gone back to my previous ones.

This one is a very simple one, the only thing that takes time here is frying the onions, which the Thalassery people call it the "bistha". Love that word, sounds so much better than "fried onions " ;-).

I generally, like making mutton biriyani when I have guests, because the fat from the mutton makes the biryani much more tastier.

Anyways, yesterday I had a couple of families over for dinner and this was my menu . To start with , we had palappam, Fish molee and tuna cutlets. Then, we had this chicken biryani with of course its never separable companions, raita, pickle and papoddom.

Okay, let me go to the recipe.


What you need to get started 

Basmati Rice - 5 cups ( U.S. measuring cup ) ( I used Royal Basmati rice)
Chicken - 1.1/2 kgs
Onions - Large yellow ones from Costco - 2 No.s
Tomatoes  - 3 no.s
Pearl Onions or Shallots (Kochulli )- 10 no.s
Pudina (mint leaves) - a handful
Malliella ( coriander leaver )- a hand full or a little more
Curry leaves - nice large sprig
Green chillies - 7-8 ( depending on your tolerance )
Ginger - 3 tablespoons ( chopped )
Garlic  - 2 table spoons ( chopped )
Curd - 2 table spoons
Lemon Juice - 2 tablespoons ( Add more if you like the tangy flavor)
Poppy seeds - 2 tablespoons
Almonds - 10 nos.
Raisins - ( I use the black ones ) - 3 tablespoons ( you can use 2, if you want to reduce that sweet flavor , I really love that taste and smell )
Spices:
Cinnamon - 1-2 inch long
Cloves 4-5
Fennel seeds- a teaspoon
Star anise - 2 nos.
Bayleaf 2-3
Elachi  3-4
Vanilla essence 2 table spoons
Milk 5-6 table spoons
Yellow food color if you want
Salt - ofcourse :-)
Method

1. Soak the raisins, poppy seeds and almonds in 3-4 table spoons of hot water, keep aside
2. Start frying the large onions, the whole thing should be fried to a golden brown color and kept aside. (Don't fry it too dark, it darkens as it sits)
3. Make a paste of the Tomatoes, pudhina, malliella, green chillies.
4. On your pester mortar or if you don't have one, in your small grinder jar, make a paste of the ginger garlic. In malayalam, I would say, chathechedutha paruvam.
5. Soak the rice.
6.Add dalda or ghee or oil into the pan. I generally use Dalda and ghee. Add the raw spices, Cinnamon, Cloves, Elachi, Star anise, Fennel seeds, Bay leaf
7. Add the sliced pearl onions with the curry leaves. This brings a good aroma in the house, pearl onions, curry leaves cooking in ghee, makes an Indian house smell good ;) bringing back memories of home in kerala.
8. Once that is sautéed , add the paste of ginger garlic.
After the raw smell of that goes, add the paste of tomatoes, mint leaves, coriander leaves and green chillies.
9. Once the raw smell goes, add the chicken and cook for 5-10 mins., closed with a lid, stirring in between. At this point, you may want to add the salt.
10. Add 3/4 portion of the "Bista" now.Keep cooking
11. Add the paste of raisins, poppy seeds and almonds.Keep cooking
12. Add Yogurt, let it still keep cooking
13. Finally the lemon juice.
Check the taste, switch off now  !

(Within 25 minutes, your chicken should be done cooking. Add needed amount of salt as needed.)

Then comes the story of rice

1. Dont soak the rice for more than 30 minutes.
2. Keep a big pot of water to boil, and once it boils, add the raw spices, 1 cinnamon stick, 3-4 cloves, 2 star anise, 2-3 bay leaves, Elachi 3-4, add the rice and then some salt ( this is your last chance to decide the right amount of salt for your biriyani). Now, keep checking the rice, when you think its almost done, you can drain the rice. I spread the rice on a flat foil tray so that it doesn't get cooked in the heat in your colander.

Marriage between the Chicken and Rice


1. Mix the Vanilla essence and milk, if you want you can add food color or saffron.
2. On a flat foil tray, add a few table spoons of ghee, then add rice, a thin flat later, add 1-2 spoons of the milk vanilla essence.
3. Add your cooled chicken gravy a portion over the rice.
4. Keep repeating the process, until its all done. Cover with foil.


Preheat oven to 300 F, put the tray of biryani into the oven and let it bake there in the oven for a nice 60 minutes. You can keep it longer, by bringing down the oven temperature to 275 F and baking it for 2 hours.

Once, its done. Take it and serve it to your guests, Enjoy !