A simple sweetened snack made with beaten rice, jaggery, coconut and ripe plantain.
Snack on some crunchy masala peanuts and enjoy this savoury snack. A friend of mine told me, how to make this snack in the microwave. This is like a instant snack you can make, when you feel like it or you have a guest come by.
Note: Watch when cooking in microwave, as the peanuts can burn up very fast and also the plate might crack. So take the plate out and cool for a minute, check if peanut is crunchy enough. Toward the end if you need just little more cooking , then just microwave for 50 seconds and see if it is crunchy.
Serve with a cup of hot tea or coffee.
Chana also know as garbanzo beans, chickpeas is full of health benefits. You can read the health benefits of this legume here.
Today is April Fools day and did some of you have a good time making a fool of the other ? It was really funny in the school days to be silly and try all your stunts to make a fool of your friends. That's some good memories.
From a long time i wanted to try and make peas halwa and today is the day. When i started to make it, i was having doubts, will it taste like a halwa. Now the final taste is more like a milk peda. So i think peas peda will be a proper name. 
Tomatoes are packed with a lot of health benefits. Bright red tomatoes are the best to get good amount of lycopene, vitamins C, K & A, potassium, and fiber. Tomatoes does not lose it's nutritional benefits by cooking. Is tomato a vegetable or a fruit ? Tomato is actually a fruit, but considered a vegetable.Ingredients
1 cup - Basmati rice
5 - Tomatoes, chopped
2 inch - Ginger, paste
5 flakes - Garlic, paste
10 - shallots , chopped
1 - Green chili, chopped
1/4 tsp - Jeera / Cumin
1/4 tsp - Fennel seeds / Perumjeerakam
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
Sesame oil
Salt to taste
Method
1 ) Heat oil in pan. Add curry leaves, jeera, fennel seeds and fry for a minute. Then add green chili, paste of ginger - garlic. Fry till lighlty brown.
2 ) Add chopped shallots and lightly brown them. Add chopped tomatoes, fry and cook till tomotoes are a bit mashed. Add salt to taste.
3 ) Add 1.5 cup water and bring it to a boil. Add washed rice, bring to a boil and then simmer. Close with a lid and cook till the rice is fully cooked. Take off the stove. Open the lid only after, it has cooled down a bit.
Serve hot and enjoy this tomato rice.
This is my entry for the Jihva for tomatoes, hosted by RP of My workshop.
Spicy and tangy Kallumakai pickle. Pickling mussels is done in North malabar region, with the abundance of mussels available in the area. This is not any traditional recipe from that area, but some ingredients i put together. Ingredients
1 lb - Mussels / Kallumakai
2 tsp - Red chili powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
Sesame oil
Salt to taste
Ground to a paste
2 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 tsp - red chili powder
1/4 tsp - Fenugreek powder / Methi powder
1/4 cup - Vinegar
Seasoning
3 sprig - Curry leaves
2 inch - Ginger, minced
10 flakes - Garlic, chopped
5 - Green chili, slit and chopped ( Optional )
Method
1 ) Clean mussels and then marinate it with red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt for 10 minutes.
2 ) Place marinated mussels in a pan, cover and cook it on a low heat. Mussel will cook in it's juice. Once cooked, add oil and fry it well. Transfer the mussels to a plate.
3 ) Add more oil to the pan. Then add curry leaves, green chili , ginger, garlic to the oil and fry till light brown. Add the fried mussels, stir and fry.
4 ) Grind mustard seeds, red chili powder, fenugreek with little vinegar. Add this ground paste to the pan, stir ad cook for 2 - 3 minutes. Add salt to taste. Add rest of the vinegar to the pickle. Add some oil to cut the sharp taste of vinegar. Take off the stove and cool.
Once cool transfer to a sterilized container. Can use after a day. Since vinegar is a good preservative you can store outside for some days. Then refrigerate it.
Some pointer to note when pickling
Puran poli is a sweet, prepared and served as a snack or a dessert in different parts of India for different occasions. Different stuffing's are used in making poli. I came up with a stuffing with Tapioca, coconut, groundnut and jaggery.
4 )Wrap and cover the stuffing ball with the dough fully.
5 ) Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, as thin as possible.
6 ) Heat a pan and place the rolled out poli in the pan. Cook on both sides. Smear some ghee or oil on both sides. Take off the pan and serve in a serving plate.
Pickling meat comes in handy for those lazy days when you don't want to cook an elaborate meal. So then you can cook some rice and have with pickle and maybe some yogurt.
Ingredients
500 gm - Boneless mutton, cut to small pieces
Masala
1 tbsp - Ginger paste
1 tbsp - Garlic paste
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
4 tbsp - Coriander powder
1 tsp - Black pepper powder
1 tsp - Red chili powder
1 tsp - fennel seeds
Roast and powder
5 - cloves
2 - Cinnamon stick
1 - Star Anise
Seasoning
2 to 3 sprigs - Curry leaves
5 - whole dry red chili
1/4 tsp - Asafoetida / Hing
1/2 cup - vinegar
Salt to taste
Method
1 ) Heat good amount of oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add ginger - garlic paste and fry till ginger- garlic is lightly browned.Then add turmeric powder, red chili powder, black pepper powder, coriander powder and fennel seeds. Fry on low heat for a minute.
2 ) Add mutton pieces, stir and mix in well with the spices. Add little water and salt to taste. Simmer and cook the meat till well cooked. Add oil and fry meat till lightly browned.
3 ) Heat oil in a pan. Add curry leaves, whole red chili, hing, roasted powder (star anise, clove and cinnamon ). Fry for a minute. Add to the meat, fry and mix in well. Then add vinegar and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Take off the stove and cool.
Put the pickle in a sterilized container. Start using pickle after a day or two of preparing it. Refrigerate after a day outside. All the masala will settle into the meat by then.
Some pointers when making pickle
Yummy yummy mango kadhi, relished with onion pakoda's. Kadhi's are very popular in northern India. This kadhi is sweet and sour in taste. You can enjoy this kadhi, on it's own.
First make Onion pakoda and keep it ready.
Ingredients
1 cup - Bengal gram flour / Besan
1 big - Onion, chopped
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Red chili powder
1/4 tsp - Ajwain
Salt to taste
Method
1 ) In a bowl make a thick paste of besan, turmeric powder, red chili powder, ajwain and salt to taste with water.
2 ) Add chopped onions to the besan mixture and mix in well.
3 ) Heat oil in a wok or kadai. Take a small amount of prepared mixture and add to oil and fry to golden brown color. Strain and keep aside. In the same way make pakoda's with rest of the mixture.
You can serve this onion pakoda / fritters as a snack. Now for this recipe, keep pakoda's aside, to add later to mango kadhi.
This is similar to how cauliflower pokoda is made. Have a look to see pics....
Mango Kadhi
Ingredients to make mango kadhi
2 - Ripe mangoes, peel the skin & cut to pieces
2 cups - Yogurts / curds
2 tbsp - Besan / Bengal gram flour
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1.5 cup - Water
For Seasoning
1 tsp - Mustard seeds (optional)
1/2 tsp - Jeera / Cumin seeds
1/4 tsp - Asafoetida/ hing
1 sprig - Curry leaves
2 - Whole dry red chili
1/4 tsp - Fenugreek seeds/ Uluva / methi
1 tbsp - Ginger & green chili paste
1/2 bunch - Coriander leaves, chopped
1 tsp - Sugar
Salt to taste
Method
1 ) Add mango pieces to a blender and blend to a smooth paste. Add yogurt, besan, turmeric powder and salt to taste to the blender. Run the blender and mix the ingredients well.
2 ) Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard. After mustard pops, add jeera, asafoetida, curry leaves, whole red chili , and fenugreek seeds. Fry for a minute on low heat.
3 ) Add ginger - green chili paste and fry for a minute or two. Now add the mango mixture, water and sugar. Bring to a boil, simmer and stir. Add chopped coriander leaves to the kadhi . Cook for 2 - 3 minutes on low heat. The consistency of the kadhi should be like a thick soup. Take off the stove.
4 ) Add the prepared onion pakoda's to the mango kadhi. Immerse pakoda's in the kadhi.
Serve hot with basmati rice.
Mango Kadhi is so similar in taste to mambazha pulissery of kerala.
An evening snack with your tea or coffee. Potato is the main ingredients used to make this snack along with other ingredients and spices. Other recipes with potato
Erissery made with a combination of chakka ( Jack fruit ) and vanpayar ( red beans ) is delectable. My usual combination is raw plantain and red beans for the same recipe.
