Liver Masala Fry

Ingredients

500 gm - Liver ( Goat liver ) chopped to small pieces
1 tsp - Black pepper powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
4 - Green chili, slit in center
Salt to taste

To dry roast masala

2 tbsp - Coriander powder
1/2 tsp - Red chili powder
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder

Seasoning

6 big - Shallot, diced
1'' piece - Ginger, finely chopped
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
2 tbsp - Coconut cut to small pieces
Coconut oil

Method

1 ) Add into a pressure cooker, 1/2 cup water, black pepper powder, turmeric powder, green chili, liver and salt to taste. Pressure cook for 5 to 8 minutes.

2 ) In the meanwhile, when the liver is getting cooked, dry roast the masala powders and also fry the seasoning ingredients. To dry roast - To a pan add the masala powders and on low heat dry roast the masala powders. Roast till the aroma of the powders comes out and color of the powder changes slightly. Take off the stove.

3 ) Fry seasonings - heat oil in a pan, add curry leaves, ginger and fry for a second. Add shallots and fry to a light brown.

3 ) Open the pressure cooker and add the roasted masala powder and mix in well. Keep cooker back on flame, cook to reduce the water and make a thick gravy. Before the gravy fully dries up add the fried ingredients and coconut pieces. Mix with gravy and cook till the gravy is thick and coating to the liver pieces. Take off the stove.

Serve with rice or roti.

Brinjal Chutney

I was introduced to brinjal chutney, through a Andhra friend. I was not sure how a brinjal chutney will taste. I was really surprised by the unique taste that comes out when mixed with other ingredients.

Ingredients

5 medium - Brinjal or one big eggplant, chopped

3 to 4 - Green chili, slit in center

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

Small piece - Tamarind ( about half a key lime size )

2 flakes - Garlic

1/2 tsp - Jeera

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds

1/2 tsp - Asafoetida / Kayam / Hing

1 tbsp - Channa dal

1 tsp - Urad dal ( Optional )

5 flakes - Garlic crushed

2 to 4 - Whole red chili

1 sprigs - Curry leaves

1/2 cup - Chopped coriander leaves

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a pan, add green chili and fry for a minute or two. Take it out of the oil, to a plate and set aside. To the pan add chopped brinjal. Stir and fry. Sprinkle turmeric powder and salt to taste. Close with a lid and cook on low flame till the brinjal is well cooked and looks mashed up. Take off the stove and cool.

2 ) To a blender add tamarind, garlic and jeera. Grind these ingredients. Then add the cooked brinjal, green chili and coarsely grind.

3 ) For seasoning, heat oil in a pan, add mustard, then chana dal, urad dal, whole red chili, Asafoetida, curry leaves and crushed garlic. Stir and fry for a minute. Then add coriander leaves, fry for minute. Add ground brinjal to the seasoning and stir in well. Cook for a minute or two. Take off the stove and serve.

Serve with rice or chapati.

Tip

Chutney with cucumber, cabbage, red bell pepper, zucchini can be made following the same method.

Cuttlefish Pepper Fry

Cuttlefish is not a fish, but like squid and octopus, it belongs to the class of molluscs known as Cephalopods.

1 Lb - Cuttlefish
5 - Shallots, diced
2 - Green chili, slit in center
1 inch piece - Ginger, crushed
1/2 to 1 tsp - Black pepper powder
1 tbsp - Coriander powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
Salt to taste
Corn oil

Method

1 ) Clean and cut cuttlefish to small pieces.

2 ) Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add green chili and curry leaves. Stir for a minute, then add shallots and ginger. Stir and fry.

3 ) Add turmeric powder, black pepper powder and coriander powder. Stir and fry the powders for a minute. Add the cut cuttle fish. Stir and mix well with the masala. Cover with a lid and cook on a low flame till the cuttlefish is cooked.

4) Add little more oil, if necessary and fry the cuttlefish. Take off the stove and serve hot.

Serve hot as a side dish.

Note

Lessen the amount of black pepper powder, if you do not want it very spicy.

Puttu - Steamed Rice Cake In Coconut Shell

This breakfast dish is so common and very popular in kerala. It's called ' Puttu '. Steaming is the method used to cook puttu. Puttu is made with different cereal grain powders like, Rice, wheat, Ragi..... to name a few popular powders used. Puttu and kadala curry is a popular combination. On the other hand, rice puttu with banana, pappadam, some ghee and sugar, mixed is really a mouth watering combination. In my house Rice puttu and Potato ishtoo is very popular. I could never have enough of this combination. Every one has their favourite combination to have puttu with. The utensil used to cook puttu is called 'Puttukutti'. Here i have used the shell of a coconut to cook puttu in. A half of a coconut shell, to which 3 holes are made in the bottom. This will allow the steam to pass through.

Ingredients

1 cup - Rice flour
1/2 cup - Freshly grated coconut
Pinch of salt
water as required
1/2 cup - Extra grated coconut

Method

1 ) In a pan, add rice flour and dry roast lightly. Stirring continuously. The white color of the rice flour should change very lightly. Take care not to burn the powder. Cool the powder.

2 ) To the rice powder, add 1/2 cup of the grated coconut, mix and rub in with the rice flour. Dissolve salt in half a cup of water. Sprinkle this water on the rice flour, little at a time and with hand mix the flour. Repeat sprinkling water till the flour is wet.

3 )To know if the mixture is right to start steaming, just take some mixture in the hand and clasp with the palm. If the mixture holds together (like a solid shape, at the same time fall apart, when pressed slightly) you can proceed to make puttu. Otherwise sprinkle little more water.

4 ) Below is a pot shaped utensil with water. Placed on top of the pot is the coconut shell. There is a round steel with holes placed in the bottom of the coconut shell. This will help the contents put in the shell, not to fall out through the holes in the shell. Use a utensil on which the coconut shell can sit tightly.

5 ) Place the utensil on the stove. Fill half the utensil with water and boil the water. Meanwhile, in the coconut shell place the steel filter. Add some grated coconut, then the prepared rice flour mixture. Fill up the coconut shell fully.



6 ) Place the coconut shell on top of the utensil tightly. Cover the shell with lid. Steam for 5 to 10 minutes. Steam will come out, from the top of the coconut shell. Once the puttu is cooked. Take the coconut shell off the utensil, invert it to a serving plate. Puttu will come off the coconut shell.

Serve hot and enjoy puttu with your favourite combination of curry. Try with potato kurma and pappadam....or with egg curry

{ Don't be scared, seeing the lengthy explanation......it's not really all that complicated to make the simple and humble puttu :-) }

Wheat Puttu

Use one cup wheat flour instead of rice flour and follow the same method as above. With wheat flour, you have to be careful not to sprinkle too much water. It can end up becoming a dough, instead of a wet mixture.

You can serve with kadala curry, Erachi /Mutton curry or just have it plain with some pappadam.

Rawa Puttu

Making this puttu takes a bit more longer time, since there is two steps to follow to get a soft rawa puttu.

Ingredients are same as listed for rice puttu. Instead of rice flour, use one cup of rawa or cream of wheat.

Method

1 ) Dry roast the rawa lightly. Take off the stove and cool.

2 )Wet the rawa well by sprinkling water and mixing with hand.

3 )In the first step, steam the wet rawa. Take the wet rawa mixture and fill it into the puttukutti ( the utensil to steam ) and steam for 5 to 10 minutes, till a steady steam is coming from the top of the lid.

4 ) Push out the steamed rawa puttu to a plate. Then break and crumble the puttu to a powder form with a spoon. Let it cool a bit, then sprinkle more water and mix the mixture well.

5 )In the Second step, layer and fill the puttu kutti or coconut shell. First with some grated coconut and then with the rawa mixture.

6 ) Place the Puttu kutti or coconut shell on the utensil with boiling water and steam for 5 minutes, as in above pictures. Take off the stove and serve in a plate.

This is a bit longer method to follow.....but in the end you get a very soft rawa puttu. Taste more or less like rawa upma minus all that oil and other ingredients in upma.

Tags : Indian cooking , kerala puttu

Shammi Kababs / Kheema Kababs

This is my first try at shammi kabab. It's really quite delicious. Made with minced meat and bengal gram dal /chana dal, this will be a great appetizer or a starter.

Ingredients

500 gm - Minced meat ( goat or lamb )
1/2 cup - Bengal gram dal / chana dal
1 - Onion, chopped
6 flakes - Garlic
1 inch piece - Ginger
2 - Green chili
2 tsp - Crushed red chili powder
10 - Pepper corns
1 - Cinnamon
3 - Cloves
4 - Cardamoms
2 cup - Water
1 - Egg

Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry

To chop finely

1 - onion

2 - Green chili

1 cup - Chopped coriander leaves

Method

1 ) In a heavy bottom utensil, put minced meat, chana dal, onion, ginger, garlic, green chili, crushed red chili powder, pepper corns, cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, water and salt.

2 ) Cook on a medium heat, till the meat and chana dal is well cooked and all the water is completely used up. Take off the stove and cool. Pressure cooking method can be used to save cooking time. Pressure cook above mentioned ingredients with 3/4 rd cup to one cup of water instead of two.

4 ) Grind the cooked ingredients to a fine paste. Add one egg and mix well with the paste. Mix paste with finely chopped onion, green chili and coriander leaves. Make small balls and flatten, like in the pic below.

5 ) Heat oil in a wok or kadai. Deep fry till golden brown in color on both sides.

Serve hot with coriander chutney.

Tip

While frying if the kababs are breaking apart, then dip each kabab in beaten egg and fry.

Squid Masala

Ingredients

500 gm - Squid / koonthal / Calamari

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

1 tsp - Red chili powder

1 tsp - Coriander powder

1/2 tsp - Black pepper powder

1/2 tsp - Garam masala

Salt to taste

1 ) Marinate, squid with the above powders, for half an hour. Heat little oil in a wok or kadai. Add the marinated squid to it and cook the squid on a low flame. Close with a lid. There is no need to add water. Cook till the squid is well cook and all the water that came out of the squid is used up.

1 tbsp - Garlic - Ginger paste

10 - Shallots, diced

2 - Green chili, slit in center

1/2 cup - Coconut, chopped to bits

3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Coconut oil or Corn oil

Method

2 ) Heat oil in a pan. Add green chili, coconut bits, curry leaves and fry for a minute. Then add shallots and fry till light brown in color. Add garlic - ginger paste and fry for a minute.

3 ) Add the cooked squid, stir and mix well. Stir and fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Take off the stove and serve.

Serve as a side dish with rice or chapati

Tip

If the squid is too spicy, add half a cup of thick coconut milk to it and cook till the gravy is thick and coating the squid.

Small squids taste better than big ones and of course fresh is best.

Technorati tags : seafood squid masala

Vellayappam - Rice Pancake

This is a popular breakfast dish in kerala. Made with a batter of rice, coconut and yeast, which is fermented till the batter rises in volume. It's called vellay (white) appam (pancake). In the original traditional recipe, toddy was used to ferment the batter. It's got lacy edges and soft center.It's enjoyed with vegetable stew, Potato Kurma, mutton or chicken stew / Ishtoo, fish mollee or just simple sweetened coconut milk. This can turn out to be quite a heavy breakfast or a brunch.

Ingredients

2 cups - Raw rice or Basmati rice
1 cups - Fresh grated coconut
1/4 cup - Cooked rice
1/2 tsp - Yeast
1 tsp - Sugar
1/4 tsp - Salt

Method

1) Soak raw rice in water for 4 to 5 hours.

2 ) In a grinder, grind soaked raw rice, grated coconut and cooked rice, little at a time to a smooth paste with water. The batter should not be too watery nor too thick.

3 ) Pour the batter into a utensil. Since the batter will ferment and rise in volume, use a big enough utensil.

4 ) In a small bowl, take 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Add sugar, stir and dissolve it. Add yeast to this solution. Let the sugar work it's magic and the yeast will rise. Pour this yeast solution to the batter and stir well.

5 ) Rest the batter in a warm place to ferment and rise in volume. (You can make the batter in the evening and rest it overnight to ferment.) Add salt to the batter and stir.

6 ) Heat a non- stick pan or a vellayappa chatty to make vellayappam.Grease the pan with little oil. Pour one big spoon of batter to the pan, lift the pan from stove and slightly twist around to spread the batter in the pan to make a circular shape. Close with a lid and cook on low heat.

7 ) Take the cooked appam from the pan and serve hot. Use rest of the batter to make more vellayappam's.


Serve with egg masala curry and enjoy your breakfast !

Technorati tags : Indian breakfast, Pancake, fermented food,coconut recipe

Prawns Pulao

Ingredients

500 gm - Prawns
1 to 2 tsp - Red chili powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Clean prawns well and mix in with red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt. Cook prawns in this masala. Add some oil and fry well. Set aside.

1 cup - Basmati rice
1.5 cup - water
1/2 cup - Peas
1 - Cinnamon stick
3 - 4 - Cloves
2 - Black Cardamom
2 - Bay leaves
1 - Big Onion, Sliced thin
2 - Tomato, quartered
1 tbsp - Lemon juice
1 bunch - Coriander leaves, cleaned & chopped
Corn oil

Grind to a paste

4 flakes - Garlic
1 inch - Ginger
2 - Green chili
1 tsp - Fennel seeds/ Perumjeerakam
1 tsp - Poppy seeds / Khus-khus

Method

1 ) Wash Basmati rice, strain well. Set aside.

2 ) Heat oil in a heavy bottom deep pan. Add cinnamon, clove, cardamom and bay leaves.

3 ) Add sliced onion and fry till golden brown in color. Add ground paste, stir and fry. Then add coriander leaves.

4 ) Add rice to the pan. Stir and fry the rice for 2 to 3 minutes. Add peas, cooked prawns and tomato. Stir and mix on a low heat.

5 ) Meanwhile boil 1.5 cup water and add this water to the rice. Add lemon juice and salt to taste.

6 ) Close with a lid and cook on a low heat till the rice is cooked. Take off the stove.

Serve hot with raita, pappadom and coriander chutney.

Tip

Make stock with the prawns shell. This will enhance the flavor. For this recipe, instead of water, use 1.5 cups of stock, made by boiling prawns shell in water.

Vellarikka Kootan

Vellarikka is a cucumber. This vegetable is kept for 'Vishu Kani'. Here is a mild tasting curry made from this vegetable.

Ingredients

1 - Vellarikka
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Red chili powder

Grind to paste

1 cup - Fresh coconut
1/4 tsp - Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp - Jeera / Cumin
1 - big shallot
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp - Red chili powder


Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
Few curry leaves
Oil
Salt to taste


Method

1 ) Cut the vellarikka into small cubes with the skin on. To each cube give 2 - 3 slash, as shown in the picture. Discard the seeds.

2 ) Cook the cut cubes in one cup of water with turmeric powder, red chili powder and salt.

3 ) Grind coconut, jeera, shallot, turmeric and red chili powder to a smooth paste. Then add mustard seeds and then just pulse the blender, so that mustard seeds gets crushed and not ground too much.( Do not grind too much after adding mustrad, as it will spoil the taste - this is important to note.) Once the mustard seeds are crushed then the paste is ready for the next step.

4 ) Add the ground paste to the cooked vellarikka. Do not add too much water, as it will turn too watery. Cook to a boil, simmer to a low heat.

5 ) Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. After it pops, add curry leaves. Garnish the vellarikka curry with this seasoning.

Serve with rice.

Tags : Cucumber recipes

Olan With Zucchini

Usually Olan is made with white pumpkin. Olan with Zucchini, turned out well. Coconut milk gives an enriched flavor to this dish. Olan is the name of this dish, popular in kerala.
Ingredients


3 - Zucchini, chopped
3 to 4 - Green chili, slit in center
2 - Shallots, diced
1/2 cup - Thick Coconut milk
Curry leaves
Coconut oil
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp - Black pepper powder (optional)

Method

1 ) Wash and cut zucchini into thin even slices.

2 ) Cook zucchini in a heavy bottom pan with green chili, shallots and enough water. Add salt as required. Cook till zucchini is cooked.

3) To the cooked Zucchini, add coconut milk and bring to a boil. Meanwhile taste to check if olan is spicy enough. If not add black pepper powder.

4 ) Garnish with some coconut oil and take off the stove.

Serve with rice.

Tags: Zucchini recipes, Indian recipes

Meen Vattichathu - Fish Curry

With the fiery looks and the hot & spicy taste, this fish curry is a popular dish in kerala. It's mostly cooked with oily fish. The oil of the fish enhances the taste of this curry. I have cooked with salmon. Back home in kerala, it's cooked mostly with sardine and mackeral. Sardine tastes just great with this prepartion, when the fish is very oily. To reduce the spicy level, Kashmiri chili powder can be used. But those of you who like the hot and spicy taste, just go ahead and cook with the red chili powder. Tamarind used here is kodampuli. If you don't have kodampuli, use regular tamarind. In kerala this curry is cooked in "chatty" which is a earthen pot.

Ingredients

500 gms - Fish
1 tbsp - Chili powder or Kashmiri chili powder
4 - Shallots, chopped
2 - Green chili, slit in center
1 inch - Ginger, chopped
3 - Kodampuli
1/4 tsp - Fenugreek seeds
2 to 3 sprig - Curry leaves
1 cup - water
Coconut oil
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Soak kodampuli in little water, wash and clean, set aside.

2 ) Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan or kadai. Add fenugreek seeds. When it turns light brown add shallots, green chili, ginger and curry leaves. Stir and fry for few minutes.

3 ) Add chili powder, stir and fry for a minute. Add water and kodumpuli. Cook to a boil. When using tamarind, extract 1 cup of tamarind juice and add after frying chili powder.

4 ) Add fish pieces and salt to taste.Cook to a boil and then simmer the heat. Cook on low heat for 10 -15 minutes till the gravy thickens up and the fish is cooked.

5 ) Add some coconut oil, like a final garnish and take off the fire.

This is served mostly with kappa vevichathu or with rice.

Banana Halwa

Nenthra Pazham halwa is prepared used extra ripe plantain. Nenthra Pazham is the malayalam name for ripe plantain. My hometown calicut, is very famous for it's halwas and banana chips. Banana halwa is one of the best halwas to try, when in Calicut...also known as Kozhikode. This is my version of making banana halwa.

Ingredients

3 - Extra ripe plantain
1 cup - Whole milk
1 cup - Sugar or Jaggery syrup
1 - cardamom, powdered
1/2 cup - Ghee ( Clarified butter )
Few cashew nuts to decorate.

Method

1 ) Place the ripe plantains to steam in a steamer.


2 ) Steam till banana is well cooked. You will see, like in the picture below, the skin split from steaming and banana is cooked. Or you can microwave the banana. Cut to 3-4 pieces and place in microwave safe plate and cook till cooked.


3 ) Remove the skin and cut the banana in the center. You will be able to see, black seeds in the center. Remove the seeds and mash the banana well.


4 ) In a heavy bottom pan add milk. When using sugar, add sugar to milk and boil, to melt the sugar. Then add mashed banana, cook till all the milk is used up.Add cardamom powder and mix in. Then add ghee and cook till halwa is leaving the sides of the pan and has browned in color.

5 ) When using jaggery, mix mashed banana and milk and cook till the banana is well mashed up and all the milk is used up. Add Jaggery syrup and cardamom powder. Stir and cook till all the liquid is used up. Add ghee and keep stirring till the banana paste is leaving the sides of the pan and the colour of the paste has turned to a deep brown.

6 ) Grease a plate with ghee and spread the banana halwa on the plate. Apply some ghee on the back of a spoon ( this will help to shape the halwa ) and smooth down the top of the halwa and shape it.

Cut into squares and decorate with roasted cashewnut. Serve when cool.

Pazham Pradhaman

Welcoming 2007 with this sweet treat from kerala.........Pazham Pradhaman !Pazham Pradhaman is cooked with ripe plantains knows as 'nendra pazham', jaggery and coconut milk. Traditionally it is cooked in a vessel called uruli. Cooking in uruli gives a better taste to the pradhaman.

Ingredients

250 gm - Extra ripe plantains
250 gm - Jaggery
1 big whole - Coconut grated (for extracting milk)

For Garnishing

1/4 cup - Coconut chopped into bits
1/4 cup - Cashew nuts
1/2 cup - Ghee ( clarified butter )

Method

1 ) Extract coconut milk three times with the grated coconut, using a blender. 1st extract - 1 cup, 2nd extract - 1 cup, 3rd extract - 1 1/2 cup. Set aside.

2 ) Chop the ripe plantains into 4 parts and steam cook till well cooked. Cool and then peel the skin off. Cut in the center and remove the seeds. Grind with little water to a smooth paste and set aside.

3 ) In little water melt jaggery and make a thick syrup. Strain to remove any impurities and set aside.

4 ) In a heavy bottom pan, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of ghee. Add the ground plantain paste and the jaggery syrup. Cook till it thickens to a Varattiyathu stage.

5 ) Add 3rd extracted milk. Stir and cook till it thickens up. Then add 2nd extracted milk and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the 1st extracted milk and take off the stove


6 ) In a pan fry coconut bits and cashew nuts in ghee till it's a golden brown in colour. Garnish the pradhaman with this.

Serve hot. Personally i like to refrigerate the payasam and have it cold.