A post that hit a century with a homemade cookie !

It's simply delightful to look back on the recipes i blogged and feel nostalgic. I was awe struck seeing very impressive food blogs before i started on my own. Over this period of eight to nine months, i have been able to make and meet some wonderful friends through the blog world. I appreciate all those who visit my blog, try out my recipes and sometimes give me a feed back that keeps me motivated to continue. I was so thrilled when two of my recipes were tried by Pecos Blue of East of the Pecos River fame and posted a post titled "Simply Spicy." Thank you Pecos Blue.
Now in Seattle, I got together with my good friend Lakshmi, who is by her own rights, a great cook. She told me about this simple homemade biscuits / cookies that is quite popular in her hometown. With minimal ingredients and less baking time, this cookie tastes simply awesome. It's something that you can do in a jiffy. This could be something you could bake with kids.

Ingredients

1 cup - Maida / all purpose flour
1/2 cup - Sugar
1/2 cup - Melted ghee ( at room temperature)

Method

1 ) Add maida, sugar and melted ghee into a mixing bowl.



2 ) Combine the ingredients to make a dough.

3 ) Take a small amount of the cookie dough, shape it to a small ball and then flatten it. Then shape with a cookie cutter or you can shape the cookie even with a glass as shown in the pictures below.

4 ) Transfer the shaped cookie dough to a baking tray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake the cookies for 15 minutes. The bottom of the cookies will be lightly golden in colour.

Transfer the cookies from baking tray to a wire rack and cool.

Treat yourself and your kids with this delicious cookie.

Note : Use only melted desi ghee for this recipe. Do not melt butter and use.

Mutton Varutharacha Curry

This is a Varutharacha mutton curry preparation, where the masala ingredients are dry roasted and then ground to a smooth paste. More of a nadan (country) style cooking.

Ingredients

500 gm - Mutton / Aattirachi / Goat meat
2 to 3 - Green chili, slit in center
2 inch piece - Ginger, chopped

2 medium - Potato, quartered

1 medium - Tomato, chopped
1 sprig - Curry leaves

Salt to taste

To dry roast

1 cup - Grated coconut

2 - Cinnamon sticks
4 - Cloves
1 tsp - Fennel seeds / Perumjeerakam

1 - shallot, chopped
3 tbsp - Coriander powder
1 tsp - Red chili powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

Seasoning

1/4 cup - Coconut bits ( Thenga kothu )
5- 6 - Shallots, chopped

2 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Pressure cook mutton along with green chili, ginger, potato, tomato and curry leaves. Add 1.5 cup water to cook and add salt to taste.

2 ) Meanwhile, in a pan dry roast grated coconut along with cinnamon, clove, fennel seeds and shallots on a low heat, till coconut turns to a light brown color. A little coconut oil can be used, but is optional. Add other ingredients listed, and stir till the masala powders turn a deep colour.

3 ) Cool the roasted mixture and then add to a blender and grind to a smooth paste with water.

4) Add the ground paste to the cooked mutton. Add more water if necessary to get a thick gravy. Adjust salt to taste.

5 ) Heat oil in a pan; add shallots and fry to a light brown color. Add coconut bits and curry leaves. Fry coconut bits lightly. Add this seasoning to the curry and take off the stove.

Serve hot with rice and papadam. Goes well with roti or porotta

Potato Ishtoo / Stew

This potato ishtoo is one of my favourites to go along with puttu, appam and idiappam. Cinnamon and cloves gives this ishtoo an aromatic flavour and Coconut milk enriches it.

Ingredients

2 big - Potatoes, quartered
1/2 of a medium size -Onion, chopped
2 - Jalapeno chili pepper Or 4 - green chili, slit in center
1 to 2 inch piece - Ginger, chopped
1 medium size - Tomato, chopped
2 to 3 sprigs - Curry leaves
1 stick - Cinnamon
4 to 6 - Cloves
1 whole - Grated coconut, to extract coconut milk
4 - Hard boiled eggs, cut into two ( Optional )

Garnishing

1/2 cup - Onion chopped, fry in oil to a light brown color
Coconut oil

Method

1 ) Extract coconut milk - In a blender/ grinder, grind grated coconut with little water and then extract the first thick coconut milk. Keep aside for final garnish.

• Make second extraction with same ground coconut. Pour 1.5 cup water and make second extraction.
• Make a third extraction with 1.5 cup water.

With one whole coconut, you will get a very rich gravy. You can use half of one whole coconut too for the above ingredient proportion. Use less water in extraction.

2) Heat little oil in a sauce pan, add cinnamon, cloves and curry leaves to the pan. Add onion, saute till onions become soft. Then add chili and ginger.

3 ) Pour the 3rd extracted coconut milk. Add potato, salt to taste and cook till potato is fully cooked. Don't over cook the potatoes.

4 ) Add tomato and the 2nd extracted milk. Bring to a boil and simmer. Adjust salt to taste. Add boiled eggs and simmer for 2 minutes.

Finally add the thick 1st extracted coconut milk and take off the stove. Garnish with some onions fried to light brown color.

.

Serve with Appam, idiappam, puttu or neipathiri.

Tip

• If the gravy is watery when using half of a coconut, then mix little rice flour in water and add to the gravy. This will thicken the gravy.
• Mixed vegetable ishtoo / stew also can be made in the same manner, cooking other vegetables( peas, carrot, french beans ) along with potato.
• You can use canned coconut milk instead of extracting coconut milk. You will need one can of coconut milk. Dilute half of the coconut milk with water and use as 2nd extract. Use thick coconut milk as 1 st extract.Cook vegetables in water.

Kootu Curry

This kootu kari /curry is made with black chickpeas and vegetables. Yam/suran, unripe plantain are used as the vegetables, but i have made with just yam and black chickpeas. Coconut ground with other ingredients makes a good gravy and adds to the taste of this curry.

Ingredients

2 cups - Black chickpeas / Kadala / kala chana, cooked
1 cup - Yam / Suran, chopped
Salt to taste

Dry roast

1/2 tsp - Red chili powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

Grind to paste

1 cup - Grated Coconut , dry roast to light brown colour
1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds / jeera
2 - Shallots / small onions

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 - Dry whole red chili
2 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Cook suran in water with roasted red chili and turmeric powder.The vegetable should very well cooked. Add cooked kadala and salt to taste.

2 ) Add the ground coconut mixture, mix with the cooked vegetable and kadala. Add enough water for gravy and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

3 ) Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and pop it. Then add dry chili and curry leaves. Season the kootu curry with this.



Serve hot with rice. This will make a good addition to Onam sadhya.

Chakka Pathiri and Neipathiri / Neypathal

I had to be creative to be a part of "Jihva for Ingredients" and this month jackfruit is the chosen ingredient. Chakka pathiri is a innovation to incorporate jackfruit as an ingredient.
Pathiri, neipathiri or poricha ( fried ) pathiri are some of the specialities among Mappila (Muslims) in kerala.
Pathiri /Neriya pathiri is rolled out very thin and puffs up when cooked on a tava. Neipathiri denotes, pathiri fried in ghee. Present days other healthy oils are used instead of ghee.
Chakka is the malayalam name for jackfruit and pathiri is like a pancake made out of rice flour.

Ingredients

2 cups - Rice flour
2 cups - Water
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

To grind

1 cup - Raw jackfruit, chopped
1/2 tsp - Jeera / Cumin seeds
2 - Shallot / small onion
1/2 cup - Grated coconut

Method

1 ) In a blender, grind coconut, jeera and shallot without adding any water. Then add the chopped jackfruit and grind the ingredients together.

2 )Heat water to a boil with salt. Add the ground ingredients to the water and bring water to a boil again. Simmer heat, slowly add rice flour and stir well with a spoon. Turn off the heat and close with a lid. Open the lid after 5 to 10 minutes and when it is still warm, but manageable to knead, knead well without adding any more water. Knead to a smooth dough.

3 ) Make small balls of the dough....



4 ) With a rolling pin, roll the dough balls. Dust with rice flour as needed to help rolling the dough to a round shape. Use a round cutter or a lid to get a perfect round shape.
5 ) Heat oil in a wok or kadai. Slide in the pathiri and fry on both sides. Take off the oil to a serving plate.


Serve with sweetened coconut milk or goes so very well with non-veg, mutton and chicken curries.

This chakka ( jackfruit ) pathiri is my contribution to JFI for this month, hosted by Jai & Bee of Jugalbandi.

To make Neipathiri, ingredients are similar, except for jackfruit. Method is the same as above. This is known as neipathiri or neypathal in the malabar region.

Ingredients for Neipathiri

2 cups - Rice flour
2 cups - water
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

To grind

1/2 cup - Grated coconut
1/2 tsp - Jeera
1/2 tsp - Fennel seeds
2 - Shallot

Method

1 ) Grind the ingredients listed to be ground without any water in a blender. Heat water to a boil with salt. Add the ground ingredients to the water and bring water to a boil again. Simmer heat, slowly add rice flour and stir well with a spoon. Turn off the heat and close with a lid. Open the lid after 5 to 10 minutes and when it is still warm, but manageable to knead, knead well without adding any more water.

2 ) Make small balls of the dough and roll out with a rolling pin. Dust with rice flour to help in rolling out. Cut with a round cutter or a lid to get a good round shape. Pathiri will be little thicker.

3 ) Heat a wok or kadai with oil on medium heat. Slide pathiri into the hot oil and fry on both sides. Take out off the oil and transfer to a plate.


Serve with non-veg curry. Try with -

• mutton masala chops
  
• Kori kari
  
• Aattirachi (Mutton curry)

Note

1 ) You can dry roast the rice flour lightly and use. This will help in the rolled out pathiri not breaking. I have not dry roasted rice flour for above recipes.

2 ) Instead of frying neipathiri, you can roll out a thin pathiri and cook in a tava or non-stick pan. Flip and cook on both sides.

Pacha Manga Curry / Raw Mango Curry

What's the difference between mambazha pulissery and this manga curry ? For this manga curry, pachamanga (unripe mango) is used and for mambazha pulissery, ripe mango is used.

Since pachamanga is sour, yogurt is not necessary to make this curry. I was supposed to make this curry with unripe mangoes, but by the time i got down to make this curry, mangoes became semi-ripe. Anyways, i went ahead and the final result was really a yummy mango curry. The aroma was overwhelmingly so similar to mambazha pulissery.

Ingredients

2 - Unripe or semi-ripe mangoes, peel skin off & chopped
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Red chili powder
Salt to taste

Grind to a paste

1/2 to 3/4 cup - Grated coconut
1/2 tsp - Jeera / Cumin
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp - Fenugreek seeds / Uluva
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
2 - Dry whole red chili
Coconut oil 0r sesame oil

Method

1) Chop mango to small pieces. Cook mango in little water with turmeric and red chili powder. Add salt to taste. Cook till mango is cooked, which won't take long.

2 ) Add ground paste to the cooked mango. Add just enough water to get a thick gravy consistency. Adjust salt to taste and cook for a minute on low heat.

3 ) Meanwhile, heat some oil in a pan. Pop the mustards, then add fenugreek seeds, dry chili and curry leaves. Season the manga curry with this. Take off the stove and serve.

Serve as a side dish with rice.

Recipes with mango

• Mambazha pulissery - Ripe mango curry
• Mango Kadhi with onion pakoda

Tinda Sabzi

I got a packet of frozen tinda, from the Indian store. The packet says "punjabi Tinda", which is also a Indian baby pumpkin. Then i looked up the web and wikipedia says -

Tinda,also called Indian round gourd or apple gourd, is an annual vine grown for its immature fruit, a vegetable especially popular in South Asia.

This vegetable is cooked in different ways in India, especially in the northern part of India. I heard about this vegetable from a close friend in school and was on the look out for this vegetable. Though i didn't get any fresh ones, these frozen ones turned out equally good.

Ingredients

350 gm - Tinda, cut to small pieces

1 small - Onion, chopped

1 medium - Tomato, chopped

1 tsp - yogurt / curds

Salt to taste

Grind to paste

4 flakes - Garlic

3 - Green chili

1/2 inch - Ginger

Masala powders

1 tsp - Coriander powder

1/2 tsp - Red chili powder

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp - Garam masala powder

1 tsp - Chat masala powder

Seasoning & garnish

1/2 tsp - Jeera / cumin seeds

1cup - Coriander leaves , chopped

Method

1 ) Wash and dry tinda. Cut into medium size pieces.

2 ) Heat oil in a kadai or wok, add jeera, onion and fry till onion is lightly brown in color. Then add garlic-ginger-green chili paste. Fry for a minute.

3 ) Add masala powders - coriander, red chili, turmeric and garam masala. Stry and fry for a minute, then add tomatoes and yogurt. On low heat, covered with a lid, cook till tomato is well cooked. Add a little water to cook tomato.

4 ) Add chopped tinda, stir and mix. Close with a lid and cook on very low heat. Add salt to taste.Cook till tinda is well cooked. Garnish with coriander leaves.

5 ) Sprinkle chat masala powder generously, stir and mix well.

Take off heat and serve

Serve with roti / chapathi. Since this is a sabzi, it's in a dry form.

Matar Parantha - Green Peas Paratha

Peas paratha is a delicious stuffed flat bread. I am discovering the different stuffed parantha's , that are very common and popular in a punjabi household, through my friend D.

Ingredients

For Filling

2 cups - Green peas, cooked

4 tsp - Besan, dry roasted

1/4 tsp - Ajwain

1.5 tsp - Coriander powder

1/2 tsp - Garam masala powder

A pinch or two - Amchoor powder

4 - Green chili, chopped finely

1/2 inch piece - Ginger, grated

1/2 cup - Onion, chopped finely

1 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped finely

Salt to taste

For dough

2 cup - Whole wheat flour

1 tbsp - Oil / Ghee

water to knead the dough

Salt to taste

Method

1 ) In a pan dry roast besan to a light brown color. Mash the cooked green peas well.

2 ) Add the roasted besan, mashed peas and rest of the ingredients listed for filling. Mix well and set it aside.

3 ) To make the dough - Mix wheat flour, oil and salt. Mix and rub the flour to get oil and salt well mixed. Then add water little by little, knead and make a stiff dough. Rest the dough for 20 to 30 minutes. Cover with wet towel, so that dough doesn't dry out. Then again knead the dough to get a soft workable dough.

4 ) To roll out the paratha - Make 10 small balls of the dough. Take one dough ball and roll it out with a rolling pin.

• Take a small amount of filling and place in the center of the rolled out dough.
• Wrap the dough around the filling ball and close, as is shown in picture below. Dust some flour and then lightly flatten the dough with hand.

• With a rolling pin, roll out carefully to make a round paratha, as in second picture above.

5) Heat a tawa or a pan, on medium heat and place the paratha in it. Smear some oil on top and around the paratha. Flip and cook evenly on both sides, till it's golden brown in colour on both sides.

Serve with some plain yogurt/ curds and pickle.

• Other stuffed parantha's to try -

Aloo parantha

Ras Malai

My little one turned two and i am reminiscing the day he was born, which is like yesterday to me. I think all mothers think likewise too. He was born a day before my birthday, which made him the best birthday present ever i could ask for. Let me check myself here, before i become too sentimental. Wishing my little one and myself a happy birthday !

I made this ras malai for the first time, which turned out quiet well.....

Ingredients

1/2 gallon - Whole milk
1 cup - Vinegar

For sugar syrup

5 cups - Water
1 cup - Sugar

For making ras for malai

1 can - Sweetened Condensed milk
2 can - Evaporated milk
( recommend carnation brand )
1/4 cup - Almonds, chopped
1/4 cup - Pistachios, chopped
A few saffron strands

Method

1 ) First to make malai, boil milk to the boiling point and pour vinegar to curdle the milk. Stir continuously. The milk will curdle and whey will separate. Take off the stove and let it stand for a few minutes.

(In picture boiling milk and then curdled milk )

2 ) Pour the contents to a cheese cloth placed on a sieve. Squeeze & drain out all the whey to get fresh paneer /malai.

3 ) Wash the paneer well with water. You can run water into the drained paneer in the cheese cloth, by placing under a tap.This will remove the vinegar taste.

4 ) Squeeze & drain all the water very well.

• Then you have to knead the paneer very well. You can knead with hand ( which you will really have to knead for a long time to get soft paneer dough ) or place paneer in food processor and do as dough is made for chapati.

5 ) Make small patties of the paneer.

• Meanwhile to make sugar syrup, boil water and add sugar to it. Once the sugar has dissolved. Bring the syrup to a good boil, simmer then add the paneer patties to the syrup.
• On a medium heat cook the paneer patties with lid closed for 5 to 8 minutes. Paneer will double up in size. Switch off the heat and take off the stove. ( It's best to cook paneer patties in small batches, since there should be space in pan, when paneer doubles up)
  

6 ) To make ras - Mix together evaporated milk and sweetened condense milk.

• Drain paneer patties from sugar syrup and add to the ras.
• Then add chopped up almonds, pistachios and garnish with few saffron strands. Refrigerate for an hour.

Serve cold and enjoy this sweet treat.

Kadala Curry

Puttum kadalaum...hmm....irrestible combo for a malayali. There are other combinations with which puttu is had with, but this the most popular one. Black chickpea is used to make kadala curry. Kadala curry goes so well with vellayappam too. A detailed post on how to make puttu, was posted before. So here is the kadala curry i learned from my mother.

Ingredients

3 cups - Kadala / Kala chana / Black chickpea ( cooked )
1 medium - Tomato, quartered
2 - Green chili, slit in center
1'' piece - Ginger, grated
2 to 3 tbsp - Coconut cut to small bit's ( Thenga kothu )
3 to 4 sprigs - Curry leaves

To Roast & grind to a smooth paste

1 to 1.5 cup - Grated coconut
4 big - Shallots, chopped
6 big - Garlic flakes
1 medium size stick - Cinnamon
2 - Clove
1 tsp - pepper corns
1 - Star anise
1 - Cardamom
2 tsp - Fennel Seeds / Perumjeerakam
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tsp - Red chili powder
3 to 4 tsp - Coriander powder
3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Seasoning

2 tsp - Mustard seeds
1/2 of one - Onion, chopped
Coconut oil or Seasame oil

Method

1 ) To cook kadala - Soak kadala over night, then pressure cook for 30 minutes, with little turmeric powder, a small stick of Cinnamon, salt to taste and enough water.

2 ) To make masala for the gravy - Heat little coconut oil in a pan, add coconut, fennel seeds, star anise, cardamom,cloves, cinnamon, stir and roast till coconut turns medium brown in color on a low flame.Transfer to another utensil to cool.

3 ) Now add little coconut oil to the pan, add pepper corn, small onion, garlic, curry leaves - stir on low heat. Add turmeric, red chili and coriander powder, stir till the powders looses the raw smell. Take off the stove and cool.

4 ) Transfer browned coconut and roasted masala powders to a blender. Grind the ingredients to a smooth paste with water.

5 ) To make the curry - To a big utensil, add cooked kadala, stock from the cooked kadala, tomato, green chili, ginger, curry leaves , coconut bit's and cook the kadala till the tomato gets cooked. Then add the ground coconut masala paste to the kadala. Add enough water to make a semi thick gravy. Bring to a boil, adjust salt to taste.

6 ) Seasoning - Heat coconut oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and pop it, then add onion and brown the onion to golden brown color. Pour this seasoning on the curry and mix in.



Serve for breakfast with puttu or appam to experience keralites favorite breakfast.

Aloo Paratha

Paratha's are flatbread made with whole wheat flour. Mostly they are stuffed with vegetables, like potato, radish, cauliflower, cabbage and so on. Aloo paratha's are more popular among paratha's. Spiced potato stuffing is used as a filling to make aloo paratha. Though i am a beginner at making paratha's, here is a picture presentation of how i made it.

Ingredients

For dough

3 cups - Wheat flour
1 tbsp - Ghee /Oil
Water to knead the dough
Salt to taste

Instead of ghee or oil, i used 1/4 cup - crumbled paneer, freshly made. ( This helps in making paratha soft)

For filling

4 - Potatoes, boil & mash
1/2 cup - Onion, chopped finely
2- 3 - Green chili, chopped finely
1/2 tsp - Ginger, grated
1 cup - Coriander leaves, chopped finely
1/4 to 1/2 tsp - Ajwain
1 tsp - Coriander powder
1/2 tsp - Amchoor powder / Dry mango powder
1/2 tsp - Garam masala powder
2 pinch - Roasted jeera powder / Roasted cumin powder
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) To make the filling - Boil potatoes and mash it well. Add rest of the ingredients listed for filling and mix well with potato.

2 ) To make the dough - Mix wheat flour, oil and salt. Mix and rub the flour to get oil and salt well mixed. Then add water little by little, knead and make a stiff dough. Rest the dough for 20 to 30 minutes. Cover with wet towel, so that dough doesn't dry out. Then again knead the dough to get a soft workable dough.

Here is two methods to roll out the paratha.

Method 1

a ) Make 10 small balls of the dough. Take one dough ball and roll it out with a rolling pin.

• Make a small ball of filling and place in the center of the rolled out dough.
• Now as in picture in the middle, wrap the dough around the filling ball and close. Dust some flour and then lightly flatten the dough with hand.
  

b) With a rolling pin, roll out carefully to make a round paratha.

Method 2

a ) Out of the 10 dough balls. Divide each dough ball into 2. So now you have 20 dough balls in total.

• To make one paratha, roll out 2 dough balls.
• In one rolled out dough, spread the filling, as in picture above.
• Place the other rolled out dough on top of the filled dough. Press the edges to seal in. Dust with flour and roll out the paratha.

b ) If pressing the edges is not working out then try as shown in third picture above, by folding the edges and roll out the paratha.

3 ) Heat a tawa or a pan, on medium heat and place the paratha in it. Smear some oil on top and around the paratha. Flip and cook evenly on both sides, till it's golden brown in colour on both sides.

Serve with plain yogurts /curds or raita and pickle.

Enjoy this hearty meal with a glass of Sweet or salty Lassi.

• Other stuffed parantha's to try -

Matar Parantha - Green peas paratha

Kori Kari - Chicken Curry

Here is a typical mangalorian chicken curry known as kori kari. This is a kudla style of chicken preparation. Flavoured with coconut and spices, gives this curry a tantalizing taste, which has similarities with kerala kozhi curry.This goes well with neer dosa, appam, idiappam and rice.

Ingredients

2 lb - Chicken

2 medium size - Tomato, chopped

Marble size - Tamarind

1 medium - Onion, chopped

1 cup - Thick coconut milk

To fry

2 tsp - Khus khus / Poppy seeds

4 - cloves

1 - Cinnamon stick

1/2 of one - Onion, chopped

1/2 cup - Grated coconut, fresh

Dry roast

1 tbsp - Coriander seeds

1/2 tsp - Jeera / Cumin

1/4 tsp - Methi seeds / Fenugreek / Uluva

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

20 - Whole dry red chili ( increase or decrease as per individual taste buds )

Preparing the masala

1 ) Heat oil in a pan, fry khus-khus, clove, cinnamon and onion. Fry till onion is lightly brown. Then add coconut and fry till coconut is lightly browned. Take off the stove and cool.

2 ) Heat a pan to dry roast, coriander seeds, jeera, methi, mustard, turmeric and red chili. Roast on low heat for 1 minutes. Take off the stove.

Now add to a blender both the fried and dry roasted ingredients. Add tamarind, some water and grind to a paste.

To make the curry

3 ) Heat oil in a heavy bottom saucepan. Add onion and brown it lightly, then add tomatoes and chicken. When the chicken is half cooked add the ground masala. Add salt to taste and little water. Cook till chicken is fully cooked.

4 ) Add coconut milk and bring to boil. Garnish with coriander leaves and take off the stove.

Serve with appam, neer dosa, or with rice.

Kori kari tastes even better the next day. Spare some for the next day and taste the enhanced taste of this curry.