Banana Bajji

Rainy days are here and the crave was to have some hot and crispy bajji for evening tea with my family. There was some raw banana's in the fridge and we chose to make bajji with it. It's a easy snack to make, and right for a rainy day tea or coffee.

Ingredients

3 - Unripe raw banana, washed
2 cups - Besan powder, shifted
1 tbsp - Rice flour
1.5 tsp - Red chili powder or to taste
3 to 4 big flakes - Garlic, crushed and finely grated
1/2 tsp - Hing powder
1 tbsp - Ghee
Salt to taste
Peanut oil or sunflower

Method

1 ) Make a thick batter by mixing besan, rice flour, chili powder, garlic, hing, ghee, salt to taste along with enough water.

2 ) Cut banana into thin slices longitudinally. Discard the skin on both edges of the banana, if you do not prefer the skin.

3 ) Heat oil in a kadai or wok. Dip and coat each banana slice well with the batter and deep fry in medium hot oil till golden brown in color. Oil should be hot enough before sliding in the slices. Drain out of the oil and place in a platter to serve.

Serve hot as is or with coconut chutney.

Ari + Dates Unda

A mixture of ingredients, Ari meaning rice in Malayalam, dates, peanut, coconut, dry ginger, cardamom and sweetened with jaggery makes this unda, meaning a ball or a laddoo. Very filling snack you can make for having with your evening tea.

Ingredients

1/2 kilo - Red boiled rice (matta)
1/2 kilo - Roasted peanuts or roasted cashewnuts
1/2 kilo - Jaggery
1/2 kilo - Dates, chopped to small pieces
50 grams / 2 big pieces - Dry ginger
10 - Green cardamoms
1 whole - Coconut, grated
A pinch of salt

Method

1 ) First wash rice well and drain. Drain water completely till the grains are completely dry. In a heavy bottom kadai / wok, add rice, dry ginger, cardamom and dry roast on a slow flame. Rice grains will start crackling, turn a light brown color and slightly puffed. Take off the stove and cool.

2 ) Take 2 cups water and heat to make jaggery syrup. Add jaggery and melt completely. Strain to take off any impurities. Keep back on stove add dates and boil well till the dates get mashed a bit.Then add grated coconut, a pinch of salt and boil for a few seconds. Switch off the stove.

3 ) Powder the dry roasted rice, dry ginger, cardamom to fine powder. Then powder roasted peanuts to fine powder. Mix both the powders well and blend in.

4 ) Now add the powders to the prepared jaggery syrup little by little and mix well with a big spoon. Let the mixture cool for a while. While it is still slightly warm, start making round balls taking little mixture at a time.

Serve and have as a evening snack. You can also mash a banana and mix with one ari unda and have.

For storing suggestion - Can be kept for a day outside, then refrigerate.

Ari Unda without dates

1 kilo  Or 4 cups - Matta, red boiled rice
1/2 kilo - Groundnut, roasted
1 kilo - Jaggery, make syrup with 2 cup water
10 to 15 - Green cardamom, powdered
50 gm - Dry ginger
1 whole - Coconut, grated
A big pinch - Salt

Method - The process is as given above. Just do not add dates, or do the steps with dates.

Black Pepper Chicken

I go visiting my mom's kitchen and there she is making a spicy pepper chicken, which is loaded with black pepper powder. So you get a rich peppery taste for the chicken and i loved having this spicy pepper chicken with roti /chapati.

Ingredients

2 kilo - Chicken, cut to small pieces

To marinate

4 to 5 tsp - Black pepper powder
2 tsp - Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Other ingredients

1 cups - Small onions / shallots, chopped
1 tsp - Black pepper powder
8 to 10 - Green chilies, chopped
1'' piece - Ginger
4 to 5 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Mix black pepper powder, turmeric, salt with little water and apply on the chicken pieces. Marinate for 1/2 hours.

2 ) Transfer chicken to a pan and cook on low flame, covered with a lid. Chicken will give out water, so cook in that water till chicken is fully cooked and tender. Dry out all excess water once the chicken is cooked.

3 ) Heat 3 tbsp of coconut oil in another big pan, add black pepper powder, fry for few seconds, then add green chili, curry leaves, ginger and fry for a minute. Now add onion and fry till onion is lightly browned. Add cooked chicken pieces, add more oil, fry very well till the pieces are browned well and you get a well browned chicken.

Serve with roti.

This is for people who love spicy food !

Unakka Chemmeen Or Fresh Prawns Curry

Try this curry with dried shrimps or with fresh prawns. Cooked with unripe mangoes, which imparts tanginess to the curry, you will have to choose some real sour mangoes. Depending on the sourness of the mango, add one or more mangoes to get the desired tanginess for the curry.

Ingredients

2 cups – Dried shrimps or fresh prawns
1 or 2 medium size – Unripe sour mango, cut to pieces
2 tsp – red chili powder
½ tsp – Turmeric powder
½ tsp – Coriander powder
4 – Green chilies
½ inch piece – Ginger, grated
5 big – Shallots, diced
3 to 4 sprigs – Curry leaves
Salt to taste

Grind to a smooth paste

1 and ¾ cup to 2 cup – Freshly grated coconut

Seasoning

6 big – Shallots, diced
Coconut oil

Method

1 ) Wash dried shrimp well. Transfer to a pot or pan to cook in. Add mango, red chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, green chili, ginger, shallots, curry leaves and salt to taste. To this add 2 to 2.5 cups of water and place on stove. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook till shrimps and mango are cooked well and most of the water is used up.

2 ) Meanwhile, grind coconut to a smooth paste with water. Add this to the cooked shrimp. Add little more water to get a semi thick gravy consistency. Bring to a boil, lower heat and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Check salt to taste. Turn off the stove.

3 ) For seasoning, heat coconut oil in another pan, add diced shallots and brown it on lower heat. Add the seasoning on to the curry.

Serve with hot steamed rice.


Tip : If mango is not sour enough, add a piece of kudampuli , while cooking the dry Shrimp.

2 ) When cooking with fresh prawns, in the initial cooking with mango, you don't need 2 to 2.5 cups water to cook prawns. Use 1 or 1.5 cups of water to cook.

Vazhapoo / Banana Flower Thoran

I had no idea that banana flower could be cooked and is edible until the day i tasted this thoran cooked with it. It tasted so good and i wanted to have more of it. Deep purple in color with shades of pink to it, this flower's outer layers are discarded until you get a inner layer that does not have this deep color. Rather a pale colored inner layer is used for cooking. Discard till you reach that layer, then chop the flower in the center into two parts and then chop into small pieces. Immediately immerse chopped pieces in water, in which a little turmeric powder has been added. Wash well before using for cooking. keep immersed in water till you have to cook.

Ingredients

2 – Banana flower
1 cup – Chana dal
½ cup – Shallots chopped
½ cup – Freshly grated coconut
1.5 tsp to 2 tsp – Crushed chili flakes
½ tsp – Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Seasoning

2 tsp – Mustard seeds
3 to 4 sprigs – Curry leaves.
Coconut oil

Method

1 ) Wash chana dal and soak in enough water for one hour. Then in little water cook chana dal till it is fully cooked, but should not get mashed up. Add salt to taste. Check dal while cooking, so that it doesn't get over cooked. Switch off stove and drain off excess water, if any.

2 ) Heat a pan with little coconut oil, add mustard seeds and pop it. Then add shallots, curry leaves and fry till shallots are very lightly browned. Now add chili flakes, turmeric powder and fry for a few seconds. Then add coconut and fry for a minute.

3 ) Squeeze out all the water from the banana flower and add to the pan. Stir and mix in well. Cook on low heat till the flower is cooked, stirring in between. Add salt to taste. Once the flower has cooked, add chana dal and mix in. On low heat cook stirring occasionally, till ingredients are mixed well and cooked. Adjust salt to taste. Turn off the stove and serve.

Serve hot with roti or steamed rice.

Mani Puttu

Kerala culinary is so intertwined with the use of coconut in its cooking. This palaharam (snack) is so rich with coconut, were rice flour and coconut compliments each other to make a delicious and a filling snack.

Ingredients

2 cups- lightly roasted rice flour
1 cup – finely grated fresh coconut
1 and ¾ cup – Water
¾ tsp – Salt
1.5 to 2 cup – Thick coconut milk
Sugar to taste

Method

1 ) Combine grated coconut, water and salt in an utensil. Place on stove and just bring to a boil. Turn off the stove.

2 ) Add rice flour to a mixing bowl, pour the hot water mixture slowly on the rice flour and stir well with a spoon to make a dough. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Then knead the dough. To test if the dough is ready to make small balls out of it. Take a little dough and roll on the palm and if it rolls out well without sticking, dough is ready to be rolled to small balls. Otherwise if it is sticky add little more rice flour, to get the desired proportion.

3 ) Take little dough at a time and make small balls out of it. You can make elongated shape too. Place the shaped dough in a plate. You can pile up dough balls on one another. It will not stick.

4 ) Use a steamer to steam or a pressure cooker. In a pressure cooker place the plate and steam without the placing the weight. Steam for 15 to 20 minutes.

5 ) Meanwhile keep coconut milk ready, sweetened with sugar. Take the steamed dumplings out and immediately immerse in coconut milk. Keep soaked for 15 minutes.

Serve mani puttu along with coconut milk.

Welcoming a brand New Year 2009

Wishing all my readers a very happy and prosperous new year! Let's usher in the new year with good health and a bountiful year ahead with prosperity and good wishes.

Koorkka Mezhukkupuratti / Stir Fry

This tuber produce is known as koorkka in Malayalam and if I am not wrong, known as Chinese potato that is available in asian stores. Now a days you get to see bigger sized koorkka, that are grown with fertilizers to make them bigger. Originally they were small in size and small ones tend to me more tasty.

Cleaning koorkka is bit tedious, if you have to clean a whole lot of them. After a long time, being back in India, I get to prepare some fresh koorkka. I had a bag full of koorkka to clean, which was covered with dirt. So I rinse off the dirt and just then get to know from my MIL that, putting these in a gunny bag, tying the bag loosely, then beat or toss the bag on a hard surface gently will help remove the skin off. Which really makes the hard part of cleaning so easy.

You don’t have to rinse the koorkka, if you are going to use gunny bag. Put it in dry. Take tossed koorkka out of the gunny bag and rinse off the dirt well. Scrap off any skin remaining on the koorkka.

Soak the cleaned koorkka in water, since oxidization will turn the koorkka brown. Another thing to keep in mind when cleaning koorkka is to use a gloves to avoid hands getting strained. Now this is a very simple recipe and the end result is a delicious koorkka mezhukkupuratti / stir fry.

Ingredients

4 cups – Koorkka, cleaned ( about 1 kilo )
2 tbsp - Garlic, coarsely crushed ( about 15 big flakes )
½ cup – Shallots, coarsely crushed
1 tbsp - Red chili flakes
¼ tsp – Turmeric powder
2.5 cup – Water
Salt to taste

Seasoning

1.5 to 2 tsp – Mustard seeds
3 to 4 sprigs – Curry leaves
3 tbsp – Coconut oil

Method

1 ) Quarter koorkka to small pieces. Use a mortar and pestle to crush garlic and shallots. Or chop very finely.

2 ) Heat a kadai or wok with 3 tbsp coconut oil, on medium heat. Add mustard seeds and pop it. Then add shallots, curry leaves and fry lightly for a second. Then add garlic and fry lightly just till garlic looses the raw smell. Don’t brown the garlic. Then add turmeric powder and chili flakes. Stir and fry till you get a good aroma of the powders fried on a low flame. Add salt to taste and stir in.

3 ) Add koorkka stir and mix in well. On medium heat, stir and fry for 2 to 3 minutes, so that the spices are infused into the koorkka. Then add 2.5 cups of water and bring to a boil. Lower the flame to the minimum. Cover with a tight lid and cook till koorkka is cooked and soft. Check in between to see if the koorkka is well cooked and soft. Once soft, take off the lid and dry off any excess water on high flame.

Serve as a side dish with rice or roti.

Nellikka Achar / Pickled Gooseberries

Indian gooseberry know as nellikka in malayalam, amala in hindi has many health benefits. Sour in taste, this fruit is used fresh and dried for different things.

Have Gooseberries, if you have vitamin C deficiency, like cold, bleeding gum etc for a natural cure, since gooseberry is rich in vitamin C. Also it’s very good for people who have diabetics. Taking gooseberries daily will reduce diabetics. Gooseberries are dried and used as a main ingredient in ayurvedic preparations to make medicines as it provides remedy to many diseases.With all its benefits, it will be a good thing to include gooseberries in our daily diet. Pickling gooseberries works out well. Uppillitta nellikka (gooseberries soaked in salted water for a duration of time) is a popular way of pickling in kerala. These salted gooseberries can then be used to make chammanthi or you can eat these salted gooseberries as is.

Ingredients
15 big size - Nellikka / Amala / Gooseberries
2 tbsp – Red chili powder
¼ tsp – Fenugreek powder / methi / uluva
¼ tsp – Hing powder / Asafetida
1 tsp – Mustard seed
3 to 4 sprigs – Curry leaves, washed and dried well.
4 to 5 tbsp – Sesame oil
3 tsp – Salt or to taste

Method
1 ) Powder the mustard seeds. Wash gooseberries well, then wipe dry off any water. Cut gooseberries to small pieces.

2 ) Heat a kadai or pan with 2 tbsp of oil on medium low heat. Add the cut gooseberry pieces, 1 tsp salt and fry the pieces till pieces turn soft, which will take 2 to 3 minutes. Once the pieces are soft, transfer the pieces to another utensil and set aside.

3 ) Add 2 to 3 tbsp oil into the pan and heat the pan on low flame. Add curry leaves and fry the leaves crisp, then add red chili powder, fenugreek powder, mustard powder, hing powder, one after the other. Fry the powders in the oil, till you get a good aroma of the powders. But take care not to burn it.

4 ) Add fried gooseberry pieces to this masala , 2 tsp of salt or to taste, stir and mix well. Coat the pieces well with the masala. Take off the stove and cool.

Use a sterilized bottle to store this pickle in. Bottle should be wiped well off any water in it. Once the pickle has cooled off, transfer pickle into the sterilized bottle. Can keep the pickle outside for two to three days then refrigerate.Do shake the bottle to coat the pieces with masala and oil each time you take it.

I was so eager to taste this pickle, that i tasted the pickle, after an hour of making it. By then the masala had settled in a bit on the pieces and tasted like an instant pickle.

Ridge Gourd Thoran

A simple prepartion with ridge gourd, that is simple and delicious. The young and tender ridge gourd will make a good vegetable to cook with, but when allowed to reach it's maturity, this vegetable can be used during bath as a body scrubber, which will exfoliate the skin well.

To make this natural body scrubber, ridge gourd is allowed to mature and then let to dry in the vine of the plant.Once dry all that is left is the skeleton of the vegetable with seeds inside.To remove the seeds, top portion of the vegetable is cut off and seeds are removed.Then ridge gourd is washed well and soaked in water, which will make it soft.Then it is dried and is used as a scrubber.

Ingredients

2 to 3 medium size - Ridge gourd
1/4 to 1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/2 cup - Small onion / Shallots, chopped
3 to 4 - Green chili, slit in center
1/2 cup - Freshly grated coconut

Seasoning

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

Method

1 ) With a knife or a peeler, scrub off the hard ridges and then lightly scrub the skin of the ridge gourd. Then wash well and cut into small pieces.

2 ) Heat little oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and pop it. Then add curry leaves, then shallots, green chili and lightly fry them for a minute. Now add turmeric powder, stir a few seconds, then add coconut and fry for a minute on low heat.

3 ) Add ridge gourd, salt to taste and give a good stir. Mix all the ingredients well.Close with a tight lid and cook on a very low flame till ridge gourd is fully cooked. Ridge gourd will give out some water and will get cooked in that water. Once ridge gourd is cooked, open the lid, increase heat and cook, if there is excess water to be cooked away. Stir and cook till all the water is used up. Take off the stove once you get a dry thoran.

Serve as a side dish with rice.

Unakka Chemmeen Chammanthi

A good quality, cleaned and dried small shrimps are avaiable in the market now a days to make this delicious condiment, which will go so well with kanji / rice porridge or can be squished with some rice and had. In the past, chammanthi's are ground to chammanthi form using ammi kallu. But now in modern life style, blender / grinder will have to do. Using ammi kallu to preapare chammanthi, will brings out unique flavors, which a modern day grinder might not.

Ingredients

1 cup - Dried small shrimps
8 to 10 - Dried whole red chilies
1/2 cup - Freshly grated coconut
5 flakes - Garlic
small piece - Ginger
A small marble size - Seedless tamarind
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Heat a pan with little coconut oil, add dried shrimps, red chilies and on a low flame fry, taking care not to burn the ingredients till the shrimps are fried and cooked in that low flame. Take off the stove and cool.

2 ) Add to a blender / grinder, the fried ingredients, run the blender and powder the shrimp and chilies. Then add garlic, ginger, curry leaves, tamarind, coconut and salt to taste. Run the blender and grind all the ingredients well to a coarse mixture.

Serve as a side dish with kanji or rice.

Elaanji / Crepes with sweet filling - 2nd Blog Anniversary !

Simply spicy turns 2 years old and it has been quite a wonderful journey so far.With 200 plus posts, it's a pleasure to think back on the day i started this blog.It was with much admiration after seeing some wonderful work of now fellow bloggers, i wanted to have a space of my own and chronicle recipes i have learnt from my mom and over time from friends and relatives. It's been quite a journey and this blog has and have been a learning ground. Over time i have discovered new recipes, traditional and others. And now sharing these recipes i liked with rest of the world, it's a pleasure when someone tries the recipes and gives me a feedback. Those are very encouraging words that has made this journey so wonderful. So thanks a ton to all those wonderful readers out there who seek "simply spicy" for a recipe and come back for more.

Now over to snacking on something sweet. "Elaanji" is what this crepes is known as in norther part of kerala. I have even heard it is called as a 'love letter', but am not sure why so. A sweet snack for tea time, filled with coconut, sweetened with sugar and spiced with cardamom.

Ingredients

1 cup - All purpose flour / Maida
1.5 cup - Cold Whole milk
1 - Egg
A pinch of salt
Ghee

For filling

1 whole - Coconut, freshly grated
10 - Green cardamom, powdered
3/4 cup - Sugar

Method

1 ) To make the filling - heat a pan on low flame, add 2 tsp of ghee, coconut, cardamom, and stir till all the ingredients are mixed well.Let the sugar mix in well with coconut, stir for a minute or 2. Take off the stove and set aside.

2 ) To make the batter - Shift all purpose flour and set aside. To a mixing bowl, add egg and beat well with a wire whisk. Then pour in milk, a pinch of salt and give a good whisk. Slowly, little by little add flour and make thin batter.Batter should be very thin, so if needed add more milk to make a thin batter.

3 ) Heat a crepe pan /non-stick pan over a moderate flame. Wipe the pan with cloth dipped in oil. When the pan is hot, pour a ladleful of batter on the pan and spread around with the ladle in a circular motion to form a thin layer. Lower the heat, drizzle some ghee on the sides and let the batter cook and set.

4 ) Take a spoonful of coconut mixture and place it on the edge side of the crepe. Then fold and roll the crepe till the end.Repeat the same with the rest of the batter and coconut filling and make more crepes.

Serve as a snack with tea.

Note - Few drops of vanilla extract can be added to the batter. This is optional. But if you don't like the egg smell in the batter, vanilla extract will help to take away that smell.

Kaipakka / Bitter gourd Curry

I am sure bitter gourd is not a popular veggie with every one. But then certain preparations makes this veggie likable, as is the case with this bitter gourd curry. When ever my mother prepared bitter gourd this way, there was no complaints to have bitter gourd. Bitter gourd known as pavakka / kaipakka in malayalam, is known for its curative properties and is a good source of iron.

Ingredients

2 medium size - Bitter gourd

Grind to a smooth paste with little water

1.5 cup - Freshly grated coconut
2 big - Small onions/ Shallots
3/4 tsp - Chilly powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seed
6 big - Small onions / shallots,chopped
2 - Green chili, chopped
3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Cut bittergourd into very small fine pieces. Heat little oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and pop it. Then add onion, chili and curry leaves. Fry for a minute then add bitter gourd. On a slow flame, fry till bitter gourd is light brown in color.

2 ) Add ground coconut mixture into the pan with bitter gourd. Add just little water to make a thick gravy. Add salt to taste and just bring to a boil. Don't boil over. Take off the stove.

Serve with rice as a side dish.

For all bittergourd fans out there, other recipes to try out :

1. Pavakka Pachadi,
2. Pavakka pulli curry,
3. Pavakka Thoran
4. Kaipakka / Pavakka Kondattam