Mushroom Theeyal

Theeyal prepared with different types of veggies and even non-veg like prawns theeyal is a typical kerala dish, were coconut and spices are roasted to a brown color and cooked along with tamarind juice. I guess i didn't roast the coconut enough to attain that typical theeyal deep brown color. None the less, theeyal was tasty when cooked with mushrooms and went so well with rice. Adding a teaspoon of cornflour in water, makes cleaning mushrooms easy. The dirty surfaces to the top quickly.

Ingredients

200 to 250 grams - Button mushrooms
10 big - Shallots, chopped
2 - Green chili, slit in center
2 to 4 big flakes - Garlic, chopped
A marble size - Tamarind

To roast & grind

1 cup - Freshly grated coconut
4 to 6 - Dry red chili
1 tbsp - Coriander seeds
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
6 - Black pepper corns
A pinch - Fenugreek seeds

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
3 to 4 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Cut cleaned mushrooms in halves. Add 1/2 cup water to tamarind and extract juice. Heat a pan, add little coconut oil, then add coconut, fenugreek seeds, red chili, coriander seeds, peppercorns stir and roast on low heat till it becomes golden brown in color. Then add turmeric powder and further brown the coconut to a deep brown color without burning it. Take off stove and cool. Transfer to a blender/ grinder and grind to a smooth paste adding very little water.

2 ) Heat little coconut oil in a pan, add mustard seeds,let it pop then add curry leaves ( you can do the seasoning in the last if you like and skip doing it in this step ) Then add green chili, shallots and garlic and fry for a minute. Then add mushroom and saute for a minute or two. Now add salt to taste, one cup of water and cook till the mushroom is well cooked.

3 ) Now add the ground coconut paste, wash the blender well with little water and add to the pan. Close with a lid and cook. Then add tamarind juice and bring to a boil. Adjust salt to taste. Now if you skipped seasoning, in step 2, you can finally season with mustard and curry leaves in the end.

Serve with rice and you may not need any non-veg curry for this meal.

Mixed Vegetable Korma

A flavorful korma with a mixed vegetables like mushroom, peas, potato and carrot which is cooked with aromatic spices, will make a good side dish to go with appam, steamed basmati rice or roti.

Ingredients

2 cups - Button Mushroom, chopped
1 big - Potato, quartered

1 cup - Green Peas

1 medium size - Carrot, chopped

1 big - Tomato, quartered

3 medium - Onion, diced

1 - Bay leaf

1 small piece - Cinnamon stick

2 - cloves

1 to 1.5 cup - Freshly made thick coconut milk

Grind to a paste

3 tbsp - Poppy seeds / Khus khus

6 to 8 - Green chili

6 flakes - Garlic

Garnishing

1 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped

Method

1 ) In a pan boil with enough water, peas, potato, carrot and tomato till half cooked along with bay leaf, cinnamon and cloves. Then add mushroom and cook till all the veggies are fully cooked with salt to taste.

2 ) Soak poppy seeds in warm water for 10 minutes. Then grind to a smooth paste along with green chili and garlic.

3 ) In another pan heat some oil, add onion and fry till light brown in color. Now add the ground poppy + chili + garlic paste and fry in oil for 5 minutes till the raw smell goes. Now add boiled veggies with stock, mix well and bring to a boil. (If there is no enough stock along with boiled veggies then add little water and bring to a boil). Adjust salt to taste. Now simmer and add coconut milk, bring to a boil. Garnish with coriander leaves and take off the stove.

Serve hot with appam, rice or chapathi.

Kakka Irachi Molagu Chaar - Spicy Clams Red Curry

A simple curry that doesn't need much of ingredients is this clam curry, that mom used to make for lunch. It used to be so yum that i didn't need any other curry to have with rice as a kid. Now when i got some fresh clams, i got back those memories and made the same clam curry, just as mom made it. The gravy is very thin and spicy with red chilly powder giving the curry a red spicy look.

Clams have to be cleaned well before cooking. Have a look here to learn how to choose good clams and clean them.

Ingredients

1 to 1.5 cup - Cleaned & shelled Clams

2 to 3 tsp - Kashmiri chili powder

1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder

2 to 3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard Seeds

1/2 cup - Shallots / small onion, chopped

Coconut oil

Method

1 ) First to clean the freshly brought clams in the shell. Wash the shells very well, many a times. Then place the shells in a pot with enough water to cover the shells well. The stock obtained from this, is used to make gravy. So add enough water. Now bring to a boil, remove any scum that surfaces on top. Once the clams have opened the shell, stopped boiling and take off the stove and cool. Discard all those shells that have not opened.

2 ) Take the meat out of the shell and discard most of the shell, saving some to cook with the gravy. This will give more flavor. Now you can clean the clam meat in water to further clear out any dirt. Strain out clear stock obtained from boiling the clams in shell.

3 ) Pour the clear stock into a chatty, pot or a pan, add chilli powder, turmeric powder, some cleaned clam shells, salt to taste and bring to a boil. Add the clam meat and curry leaves. Simmer and cook till for 5 minutes. Pour little coconut oil on top and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes more. Now turn off the stove.

4 ) Season with mustard and shallots. Heat coconut oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and pop it, then add shallots and fry till lightly browned. Pour this seasoning on top on the curry and cover the curry pan immediately to hold the aroma of the seasoning in the curry. Open after 5 minutes to serve hot with rice.

Serve hot with rice.

Paneer Bhurji

I hope every one had a good start of the year and are sticking to the new year resolutions :) Now to kick start the year 2010 blogging, let me present you with this Paneer dish. It's called paneer bhurji, which means scrambled paneer. Along with green peas and freshly made paneer, this makes a lip smacking side dish to have with roti.

Ingredients

2 cups - Freshly made crumbled Paneer
1 cup - Green peas, boiled
1 cup - Spring onion Or 1 big - Red onion, finely chopped
1'' piece - Ginger, finely chopped
2 - Green chili, finely chopped
1 big - Tomato, chopped
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Garam masala powder
1 tsp - Coriander powder
1/4 tsp - R ed chili powder
Salt to taste

Garnishing

1 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a pan, add green chili, ginger and fry for a second then add spring onion or onion and fry the onion, till lightly browned. Then add the powders - turmeric, coriander, red chili and garam masala powder. Fry for a second in oil, then add tomato, green peas and salt to taste. Close with a lid and cook on low heat till tomato is fully cooked.

2 ) Now add paneer and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Close with a lid and cook for few minutes. Open and garnish with coriander leaves. Stir and fry till you get dry bhurji.

Serve hot with roti.

Note - Instead of green peas you can use bell pepper. To make it colorful you could use, red, green and yellow bell pepper. If the paneer turns out too dry then add one spoon of whipping cream.