Cabbage carrot Thoran

Well, I generally don't mix vegetables to make thorans with a few exceptions like cabbage + peas or carrots + beans. But this time towards the weekend my fridge was almost empty with a few carrots and half a cabbage leftover. So I made a thoran mixing both and it turned out to be simply super. This was a great combo with vengaya sambar (onion sambar).

Ingredients:

Cabbage - 250 grams

Carrots - 250 grams

Coconut - 25 grams

Mustard - 1 teaspoon

Jeera - 1 teaspoon

Dry Red Chillies - 2 nos

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Garlic cloves - 2 nos

Oil - 1 teaspoon

Salt - to taste

curry leaves - few

Method:

• Cut the cabbage lengthwise and grate the carrots.
• Add coconut, jeera, red chilli, garlic into a mixer and grind into a coarse paste without adding any water (just pulse a little). 
• In a pan, add oil. Add the mustard seeds. Let it sputter. Add the curry leaves and after a few seconds, add the chopped cabbage and carrots. 
• Sprinkle a handfull of water and cook till it is almost done. 
• Add the ground coconut mix, salt and turmeric powder. 
• Cook till the raw smell of garlic and coconut is gone.

Cabbage + Carrot thoran is ready!!!! Serve with rice and a gravy of your choice. This goes well with sambar.

Note: We can also add one finely chopped onion to this thoran. I didn't add since I didn't have them.

Karnataka Tamarind Rice

I got this recipe from one of my friends who is in Bangalore. Karnataka Tamarind Rice is a slight variation from the normal and traditional tamarind rice. The main difference is the powder we prepare and also the grated coconut. We can serve karnataka tamarind rice with any fried vegetable or papads.

Ingredients:
Tamarind - 1 lemon size
Cooked Rice - 1 Cup
Salt - To Taste
Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoon
Hing - a small pinch
Turmeric - 1/4 teaspoon

Ingredients For Seasoning:
Mustard Seeds - 1 teaspoon
Channa dal - 1 teaspoon
Urad dal - 1 teaspoon
Peanuts - 1 teaspoon
Red Chillies - 2
Curry Leaves - Few
Oil - 1 teaspoon

Ingredients For Grinding:
Red Chillies - 6-7
Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Oil - 1 teaspoon

Method:

• Soak tamarind in water and extract thick tamarind juice and keep it aside
• Heat oil in a pan, add red chillies and fenugreek and fry it till it turns golden brown and add this to mixer and grind it to a nice powder
• Heat remaining oil in pan, add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add dals and peanuts and fry it till the dals and peanuts turn to golden brown color
• Add broken red chillies and curry leaves and mix well
• Now add the tamarind extract and add salt, hing and turmeric and mix well. Allow the tamarind juice to boil till the raw smell goes of
• Add the ground powder and mix well and keep in medium flame for another 5 minutes
• When the tamarind gravy starts to thicken, add grated coconut and mix well and keep in low flame for another 2 minutes and remove from flame
• Mix the rice nicely using a wooden spatula. Gently mix it so that the rice doesn't get smashed

Serve the yummy and spicy tamarind rice with appalam or any papad!!!

Unniappam

Today finally I succeeded in making unniappam. This was my third attempt and I am so happy. This is my favourite sweet. My mom makes delicious unniappams. Ok in my mom and dad's place this sweet is called neiappam. But I got to know that in most parts of Kerala this sweet is called unniappam and there is another sweet in the name of neiappam which I haven't tried yet.



In my first attempt the appams were very hard and in my second attempt the appams were sticking to the appa chatti. Chatti in malayalam means pan. Appa chatti is a heavy bottomed pan which has small rounds within like that of egg tray. In Tamil Nadu side this is also known as paniyaram chatti. We need to pour the batter in these rounds to get small sweet appams. "Unni" in malayalam means small. Hence the name unniappam.

Karthigai is approaching and Unniappams are a part of the sweets made on this day. So celebrate this Karthigai with these yummy appams.




Ingredients:

Raw Rice – 1 cup
Powdered Jaggery – 1 cup
Coconut – ¼ cup, cut into small pieces (optional)
Green Cardamom/Elaichi – 4 to 5
Blach till seeds - 1 teaspoon
Oil/ghee for frying



Method:

• Wash and soak the rice in water for 3-4 hours. 
• Grind the rice by adding as little water as possible. The batter should be very soft and thick.
• Now slowly add the powdered jaggery and keep grinding. Transfer into a bowl.
• Keep this batter aside for a hour or two.
• In a small kadai heat 1 spoon of ghee. Fry the till seeds and coconut and add this to the batter. Add the cardamom powder and Mix well. The batter should be of pouring consistency, not too tight or too runny. Add water if necessary.
• Heat a paniyaaram pan / appa chatti, fill 3/4 of each groove with a mixture of oil and ghee. Let the oil get heated.
• Now pour small ladleful of batter into each of grooves, flip over after a minute. Let this cook on low heat till a skewer inserted comes out clean.
• I had a bronze appa chatti so it was enough for me to have it in low heat. For others medium heat should suffice.
• Insert the skewer into each of the appams and transfer them onto a paper towel.

Yummy UNNIAPPAMS are ready!!!




Lessons I learnt:

• Try your best to grind jaggery and rice. The first 2 times I made a paste of jaggery and mixed it with rice flour/ rice batter which didn't work out.
• The consistency of the batter is very important to get soft appams. The batter should be of dosai batter consistency. Adjust consistency by adding water. If it is very tight, the appams will be very hard. If it is loose the appams will drink oil.
• The appams should not stick to the pan. After pouring the batter after about 2-3 minutes, the appams should leave the edge of the pan and start rotating in the oil.
• The appams generally become more soft after 2-3 hours.
• We can also add a banana in this batter but my mom never adds. So I just followed her steps.

 

Thakkali Rasam

For a quick lunch, rasam would be the main contributor. Rice, rasam and potato fry make a good combo. Rasam, can be made in so many differences. For an amateur, I used try different rasams and they all used to taste the same. But with time I have learned to make Rasam that has distinct taste.This one is my favourite.

Ingredients 

Tomato - 2
Rasam Powder - 2 tsp
Tamarind - the size of a lemon
Toor Dal water - 1/2 cup (or 1/8 cup of dal cooked in water)
Hing - a little
Ghee - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - few
Jeera - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - a little
Salt - to taste

Method 

• Soak the tamarind in warm water for about 10 minutes. Make a thick pulp out of this tamarind.
• Heat a pan, add the tamarind pulp and add tomatoes. 
• When tomatoes are cooked, add rasam powder, hing and salt. 
• After it is boils for a few minutes, add the dal water. 
• Usually if you are making rasam and sambar, the water of the dal is used in Rasam and dal part in sambar. 
• Otherwise you can just cook a little dal and whisk it into a clear water and add. 
• When it froths up, switch off. 
• In a small pan, add ghee. Add mustard. 
• When it sputters, add jeera and curry leaves.  Add this to the rasam. 
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Hot and steaming Tomato rasam is ready!!

Paal Payasam

I never realized my blog is one year old!!!!! What a bad mother.... Time runs pretty fast... It seems like just few days back I wrote my first recipe.. Phew...its hard to accept that more than 365 days have gone from there. Well anyways a belated birthday wishes to my blog :-)

My mom usually makes payasams on our birthday! And for my birthday it is always paal payasam since thats my favourite. There is a Krishna temple in Kerala in a place called Ambalapuzha. There they give paal payasam as the prasadam. That paal payasam tastes awesome, just out of the world. That temple has lot of cows and it is said that the paal payasam is made in the temple itself with the milk from the cows. If you get a chance do visit this temple atleast for the sake of paal payasam.

So celebrating my blog's birthday too with paal payasam. This is a very easy to make sweet dish with very few ingredients.

Ingredients:
Milk - One litre
Rice - 50 grams (just 2 fistful)
Sugar - 300 grams
butter - 15 grams



Method:

• Wash rice thoroughly in water, 2 to 3 times. Drain the water completely. 
• Now pour 1 liter milk to this. Do not add any water. 
• Now, place this in a pressure cooker close it and place the whistle. 
• The payasam should cook on low flame from the beginning for about 30 to 45 mins. Turn off heat. After the cooker cools down, remove the vessel from the cooker, you will  find that the milk has turned a nice pink color. 
• Now add the sugar (Adjust sweetness according to taste) and keep stirring for about 10 to 15 mins on low heat.
• In the end add the butter and mix well.
• Paal Payasam is ready. Traditionally no garnishing is done. If required cashews and raisins can be added. Serve this Payasam hot or cold. 
• We can also use broken rice to make this payasam.

Poli / Obbattu

Diwali  is just around the corner. And everyone would have started planning their list of sweets and snacks to be prepared. Here I am with a recipe of Poli (in Kerala) or Obbattu (in Karnataka).
In Karnataka, This sweet is usually prepared on festival days like Ugadi, Vara Maha Lakshmi Vrata and Diwali. On the other side It will be hard   to think about a marriage feast in the Thiruvananthapuram region of Kerala without poli and payasam.

 

Now this is the first time I am trying out Poli. I heard this is also called as Puran Poli and in Palakkad side iyer families this is called upputtu. The funny thing is in Karnataka Uppittu is actually Upma. Well my hubby after eating this was explaining to his friend about this dish and his friend has not heard the word poli or obbattu. My hubby said "well in aaloo paratha remove the aaloo and have a sweet filling - thats it". What a tag line for Poli!!! 

I also saw recipes where the ingredients for the filling differs. In karnataka people use only toor dal whereas in Kerala channa dal is used. In, Andhra, pasi paruppu is used. Well I used a mixture of toor dal and channa dal.

Ingredients:

For the filling:

Toor dal - 1/2 cup - 125 grams

Channa dal - 1/2 cup - 125 grams

Jaggery - 1 cup - 225 grams

cardamom powder - 10 grams

nutmeg powder - 5 grams

For the dough / outer layer:

Maida - 3/4 cup - 200 grams

Fine rava - 1/2 cup - 100 grams

Turmeric powder - 5 grams

Salt - to taste 

Oil -  preferably gingelly oil

Ghee - 150 grams

Method:

For the dough:

•  I didn't have fine rava. So I powdered the rava and used it.
• Sieve maida, fine rava, turmeric and salt together.
• Make a soft dough using water. The consistency should be that of chapathi dough.
• Transfer the dough to a utensil. Add water to it, so that the dough is immersed in the water completely.
• Keep aside for two to three hours.
• After about 3 hours Drain the water completely from the dough.
• Add 4-6 tablespoons of oil. Knead the dough, using your fingers till the dough becomes soft. When you pull-up small quantity of the dough, it should stretch without breaking. If it does not stretch, add little oil and knead again. The dough should look similar to that of a parotta dough now.
• Smear the dough with little oil. Cover with a bowl upside down. Keep aside for at least one hour.

For the filling:

• Wash toor dal and channa dal. Add about four cups of water, two pinches of turmeric and 1 teaspoon of oil. Cook till the dal is just tender. Do not cook till the dal is soft.
• The toor dal and channa dal would have different levels of cooking time. So cook thm separately for best results.
• Separate the water from the dal, using a strainer. Keep aside the water to make sambar or rasam.
• Break the jaggery into small pieces. Fry the jaggery pieces and  the cooked dal in a thick-bottomed kadai. After few minutes, turn the flame to low and keep mixing.  Otherwise, the mixture will get burnt quickly
• First, the mix becomes little watery. After sometime it becomes thick.
• Add cardamom powder and nutmeg powder. Mix. Switch off the stove. 
• Grind this mixture to a paste. The filling is ready.

The polis:

• Make lemon-sized balls from the filling and the dough.
• The traditional ways is to take a plaintain leaf and on the outer side (the side which is plain) apply some oil. take a dough ball and spread the dough to the size of poori.
• Place one ball of the filing in the center of the dough. Cover the filling completely with the dough, by lifting its edges and placing them on the top of the filling.
• Reverse the dough and press it lightly.
• Spread the dough into a thin chapathi, using your fingers or a rolling pin.
• Instead of plaintain leaf we can also use a butter paper.
• I have a chapathi press which I generally use for making pooris and pathiris. I made this poli with the help of that press and my life was easy...
• Heat a tawa. Spread little ghee.
• Reverse the plaintain leaf/butter paper which has the uncooked poli and place it on the tawa, so the poli will be placed directly on the tawa. Remove the plaintain leaf/butter paper.
• Wait for 1-2 minutes. When the poli color changes, sprinkle few drops of ghee and flip the poli. Cook till both sides are cooked well.
• I used a iron tawa so I always had the heat on minimum.

Poli / Obbattu is ready. Serve this with a teaspoon of ghee spread on the Poli.

Mango Halwa

Yup I am posting after a very looooooooooong time. Life is very hectic these days.... I am not finding time for blogging... And yes when there are numerous priorities, blogging takes the last one...

Now that I am posting after a long break I thought of starting with a sweet. Here comes mango halwa. Though the mango season is over, I still find mangoes in the market and do we need a reason to take home this king of fruits? Well I made this for the first time. It was simply delicious and very easy to prepare with very few ingredients... The inspiration was ofcourse from the blogging world.

Ingredients:

Mango Pulp - taken from 1.5 kgs of mangoes
Sugar - 250 grams
Ghee -  5 tablespoons
Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method:

• I took the mango pulp from a mango available in the name of "sendhooram". Its a nice pink and yellow colour on the outside.
• In a non stick kadai, Heat 2 tablespoon of ghee and add the mango pulp and sugar.
• Simmer for around 30 minutes stirring once every 10 minutes.
• Add the remaining ghee little by little and simmer for another 20- 30 minutes until the whole mixture changes color and becomes glossy
• Switch off the flame and pour the halwa into a greased plate
• Allow it to set for 2 hrs and then cut it into desired shapes

Note:

• There is no food color added. The color should change by itself to dark
• We can also add cashews, raisins etc.... to make it more flavourful.

Paav Bhaji

 Paav Bhaji is the most famous street food that you can see in almost every street in Mumbai. Go to any street fast food, paav bhaji is sure to stand out as a main item in the chaat menu. Spiced up potatoes and vegetables, simmered in butter and some spices, served with pav buns has been a favorite road side food for many many decades.

In Mumbai households I have seen that houses receive one pack of Paav everyday along with a bottle of milk and the morning newspaper. So paav is part of everyday meal over there just like idli/dosa for the Tamil people I guess. Paav means "a small bun", while Bhaaji means "vegetable". Paav Bhaji is so wholesome you can have it as a meal.




Ingredients:

• Potatoes,boiled and mashed 4 medium
• Tomatoes,chopped 4 medium
• Onions,chopped         2 medium
• Carrots,chopped,boiled       1 medium
• Green capsicum,chopped deseeded 1 medium
• Green peas,shelled, boiled 1/4 cup
• Ginger-garlic paste       1 tablespoon
• Cumin seeds         1 teaspoon
• Oil 3 tablespoons
• Green chillies,chopped 3-4
• Pav bhaji masala 1 1/2 tablespoons
• Salt to taste
• Butter 3 tablespoons
• Pav 8
• Fresh coriander leaves,chopped 1/4 cup
• Lemons,cut into wedges 2

Method:

For the bhaji:

Heat the butter and oil in a kadhai and add the cumin seeds.
When the seeds crackle, add the chilli-garlic paste and green chilliesand sauté on a medium flame for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add 3/4th chopped onions and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, while stirring occasionally.
Add the capsicum and sauté for 1 more minute.
Add the tomatoes and carrots and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, mash well using a potato masher.
Add the salt, pav bhaji masala, chilli powder and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the green peas, potatoes, mix well and cook along with 1/3 cup of water for 1 to 2 minutes, while mashing it with the help of a masher.
Add the coriander, mix well and cook for 1 minute.

For the pav:

Slit 2 pavs vertically and keep aside.

Heat a large tava, add 2 tsp of butter and slit open the pavs and place on it.

Cook on a medium flame till they turn light brown and crisp on both the sides. (add more butter if required).

How to serve:

Place ¼th of hot bhaji, 2 pavs, ¼ cup of onions, a lemon wedge and a papad on a plate.

Top the bhaji with 1 tsp of butter and serve immediately garnished with 1 tsp of coriander.

Mangai Thokku

Mangai Thokku is a very easy to make pickle. We got introduced to this recipe when we spent time in Tamil Nadu. I have not heard of this recipe atleast from the Keralites. But this is an awesome dish and goes with most of the rice varieties in particular the curd rice. 

I usually make this with what I call as "Salem Manga" or the famously called kilimookku manga. And I feel Salem Mango is the best suited for this pickle. This tangy and spicy pickle lasts for about a month if refrigerated. This statement I got from my mom because at my place it never lasts for more than a week.

Ingredients:
Salem Manga - 2 (appr 500 grams)
Turmeric Powder - 10 grams
Chilly powder - 50 grams
Salt - 2 tsp

For Tempering:
Oil – 2 tbsp
Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida – a big pinch

Dry roast and grind:
Fenugreek Seeds – ½ tsp

Method

• Wash and peel the mangoes. Cut into small pieces. You can even grate the mangoes. I prefer grating...
• Heat a Kadai with oil. Temper with mustard seeds. Add asafoetida.
• Next add the mango pieces and turmeric powder and salt.
• Saute on medium flame, till the mango pieces are almost cooked.
• Now add the chilli powder and sauté for some more time or till you see oil on the sides. The pickle will leave the sides of the kadai and become a whole mass.
• Remove from heat.
• Dry roast fenugreek seeds and powder with the help of a mortar and pestle.
• Finally add this fenugreek powder and mix well.
• Cool completely and store in airtight containers.
• Tastes best when served with curd rice

Note: Some people also add little bit of jaggery to this. Since the type of mango used here is not so sour, I generally avoid this.

Home made Mixture

Phew!!! What a hectic time I have these days.... And no time to visit blog... Of course in times like this writing a blog takes the least priority... So least a priority that I didn't even notice that my blog has crossed 10,000 views... Well thanks a million to my readers who keep visiting my blog even though I don't update regularly. I will try my best to regularly update.

Now over to the recipe. It was a tough thing to choose what to post today since I have some 20 recipes in my backlog to be posted. Well I rounded on a crunchy snack - mixture which my mom usually makes around Diwali time. This is a wonderful snack and we never tire of eating this. Mixture is also a very good accompaniment to sambar, rasam or curd rice.



Now Mixture as the name goes is mixture of various items. Some of which I have posted earlier. Many people think making mixture at home is a tedious task. But I will not say it is tedious. Little time consuming - yes!! But then in my case after spending around 1.5 hours I made about 1.25 kgs of mixture which stayed for about 2 weeks. Worth the effort right?



Ingredients:

Besan - 600 grams
Beaten rice (Aval/poha) - 50 grams
Fried gram (pottu kadalai) - 100 grams
Peanuts - 50 grams
Curry leaves handful
Oil for frying
Salt and chilli powder for taste



Method:

Make Khara omapodi as given here with about 200 grams of besan.

Make Khara bhoondi as given here with about 200 grams of besan.

Make Khara Sev as given here with about 200 grams of besan.

• With above 3 we have actually completed the time consuming task.
• Crush the omapodi, and khara sev and keep it aside.
• Heat one spoon of oil in a kadai. Add fried gram (pottu kadalai) and fry for about 5 minutes and keep it aside.
• In the same kadai, add one more spoon of oil and fry the poha (aval) for about 5 minutes. 
• In the same kadai, add 2 spoons of oil and fry groundnuts until they turn brown in colour.
• Dry roast the curry leaves and powder them.
• Now mix everything together and sprinkle a little salt and chilli powder on it. Mix well again. There are no hard and fast rules regarding measurements though I have given it approximately. If you like boondi more, you can add more of that. Likewise if you like omapodi (sev) more,then you can add that more.

Enjoy mixture with a hot cup of tea!!!

Curd Rice

Summers are almost reaching an end and we are eagerly awaiting the monsoons... Nevertheless I am posting a summer special here.

curd rice is generally part of everyday meal, where we just mix rice and curd and have with some pickles. But when curd rice is packed for lunch or travel/picnics, it is done little differently and here goes the recipe.



Ingredients:
Cooked Rice - 2 cups
Curd - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Green chilly - 1 (finely chopped)
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece (finely chopped)
Salt - to taste

To temper:
mustard - 1 tsp
urad dal - 1 tsp
channa dal - 1 tsp
curry leaves - few
red chilly - 1
oil - 2 tsp

Method:

• Mash the cooked rice very well with the back of a flat ladle. 
• Add green chilly, salt, and milk and mix well. 
• Finally add the curd and mix well.
• Heat a pan with oil, add mustard seeds, when they crackle add the urad dal and channa dal and fry till brown. 
• Lastly add red chilly and curry leaves. Pour this over the curd rice and mix well.

Curd rice is ready!!! Serve this with nice spicy pickle and with some fried spicy vegetables.

Curry Leaves and Jeera Pulav

We had thunder showers and heavy rains for a couple of days giving a chilling effect to the summer here. Oh it was very soothing... Now I have a small garden at my home and after this showers most of the plants started growing like crazy... Curry leaves in particular. Now I have a big bunch of curry leaves to be exhausted...



The other day while browsing through arusuvai-kurippu, I found a recipe for pulav using curry leaves. There was no second thinking... I immediately tried it and the dish tasted wonderful... This is a very healthy recipe... I just made 1 or 2 changes to the original recipe like used ghee instead of oil and so on..

Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup
Onions - 1
Curry leaves - 1/2 cup
urad dal - 1 tbsp
pepper - 1/2 tbsp
Jeera/Cumin - 1 tsp
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Garlic - 2 pods
Ghee - 2 tsp
salt - to taste



Method:

• Pressure cook rice with salt and enough water.
• Finely chop the onions and garlic.
• In a non stick pan, dry roast the urad dal until the urad dal turns slight pink in colour.
• Add pepper and curry leaves. Switch off the stove.
• Saute for about 5 minutes until the curry leaves shrink and turn slightly crisp.
• Cool and powder the roasted ingredients.
• Heat Ghee in a pan. Add cumin and fennel seeds. Let it sizzle.
• Add chopped onions and garlic. Fry until onions turn translucent.
• Add the curry leaves powder. Add little salt. Mix well. 
• Switch off stove. Add the cooked rice and mix well.

Curry leaves and Jeera Pulav is ready!!! I served this with raita, pickle and papad.

Flavoured Rice

One of my colleagues used to stay in a PG during her bachelor days. She was a workaholic and never used to bother about food. But her PG owner was a caring lady. The PG owner always used to insist one must not goto bed in an empty stomach. My colleague, when she stays late in office used to call up and inform her PG owner that she would not be available for dinner and that she would manage a bite in office. But she would be so engrossed in work that she will forget her dinner. When she went home late in the night and the PG lady finds out that she has not had any dinner, she would be furious. The lady would immediately prepare this flavoured rice in a matter of 15 minutes and serve with some pickle it seems. My colleague used to relish the rice. And she shared with me the recipe of this rice.

The name flavoured rice was given by my colleague and I would like to maintain it.

Believe me its too quick to make and goes with any spicy side dish. This would be a great lunchbox idea.

Ingredients:
Rice - 200 grams (1 cup)
fennel seeds - 2 grams
cloves - 2 nos
cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick
cardamom - 1
ghee - 1 tbsp
mint leaves - few
coriander leaves - few
garlic - 4 pods
ginger - a small piece
salt - to taste

Method:

• Wash the rice and keep aside.
• Grind the mint leaves, coriander leaves, ginger and garlic coarsely.
• In a pressure cooker, pour ghee.
• Add the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and fennel seeds. Fry for about a minute.
• Add the ground paste and fry until the raw smell disappears.
• Add the rice and fry for about 2 minutes.
• Add 2.5 cups of water and the required amount of salt. Mix well.
• Pressure cook for about 2 whistles.

Flavoured rice is ready!!! I served this with egg curry, pickle and papads. We enjoyed this on a rainy night.

Linking this to nivedhan's WTML who is guest hosting for gayathris

Egg Curry

I have already posted a recipe of Muttai Curry. This is a slightly different version. I got to know that in hotels, they generally don't add tomatoes to the egg curry. Instead little coconut or coconut milk is added. So tried this version and it tuned out to be yummy. I served this with flavoured rice... Recipe will be shared soon..

Ingredients:

Onions - 200 grams
Eggs - 3
cocnut - 25 grams
Garlic - 10 grams
Ginger - 5 grams
Chilly powder - 10 grams
Coriander powder - 10 grams
Garam Masala powder - 5 grams
Coriander leaves - little
Pudina leaves - little
Oil - 20 grams
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Spices:
Fennel seeds - 2 grams
cloves - 4 nos

Method:

• Full boil the eggs. Remove the shell and keep it aside.
• Finely chop the onions, ginger and garlic.
• Grind the coconut with little warm water and extract the coconut milk
• In a kadai, pour oil. Add the ingredients listed under spices. Fry for about a minute.
• Add the finely chopped onions. Fry until the onions turn brown colour.
• Add the ginger and garlic. Saute until the raw smell disappaears.
• Add salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder and coriander powder.
• Once the raw smell of the powders disappear pour the coconut milk.
• Mix well and heat until the gravy thickens.Once the gravy starts boiling, switch off the stove
• Add the boiled eggs. You can either add them as a whole or cut into 2 pieces and add.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and mint leaves.

Egg curry is ready!! Serve this with appam, idiappam, chapathi or some mildly flavoured rice.

Thakkali Thokku / Tomato Pickle

A few days back I had mentioned that we got around 20 kgs of tomatoes and had promised a recipe on "Thakkali Thokku". So here it is... I was just waiting for the tomatoes to ripen on their own. Nice red colour tomatoes are the best for this recipe. This would be a very good side dish for Idli, dosa, appam, adai, chapathis and even curd rice. I like to just mix rice with thakkali thokku and have it with nice vadams or papads.

The best thing about this recipe is neither my mom nor my MIL makes this. I somehow caught hold of this dish from my friends and am a huge fan of it. H likes to have this with idli/dosa. So for few days down the line my breakfast preparation time would decrease since I need not have to worry about side dishes.

The ingredients are very few and the preparation time is also very less about 10-15 minutes. But the cooking time would be more because we need to boil down the tomato puree until they become a thick paste. Of course this depends on the quantity. More the quantity, more the cooking time. This pickle stays in fridge for about 3 months and if kept outside stays fresh for about 5-6 days. Always use a clean and dry spoon to serve the pickle.



Ingredients:
Tomatoes - 6 kgs
Chilly powder - 250 grams
Hing / asafoetida - 25 grams
fenugreek seeds - 25 grams
Gingelly oil - 200 ml
mustard - 25 grams
Salt - to taste



Method:

• Wash and clean the tomatoes.
• Make a juice of all the tomatoes and keep it aside.
• Heat a heavy bottomed, wide mouthed pan or a uruli.
• Dry roast the fenugreek seeds. Powder and keep aside.
• Pour the oil in the pan. Using gingelly oil gives a longer life span for this thokku. We can also use other oils.
• Add mustard. Once mustard splutters, pour the tomato juice. 
• Now our job is to keep stirring until the juice gets reduced to a thick paste.
• If we use a non stick pan probably its enough to stir every 5 minutes or so. 
• It took me almost an hour to complete this task.
• Now add salt, powdered fenugreek, chilly powder and hing.
• Mix well and let it cook for another 10 minutes.
• Switch off the stove. Let it cool and store in an airtight container.

Delicious Thakkali Thokku is ready!!!

Nendram Pazham Nurukku / Ripe Plantains in Jaggery Syrup

We had been to a relatives house some time back in Kerala and they served us a fantastic breakfast. The breakfast was fantastic because we gave them just 1.5 hours notice :-). Well the list was idli, medhu vadai or ulundu vadai, coconut chutney, coriander chutney, sambar and the sweet was this nendram pazham nurukku. That was the first time I tasted this sweet and immediately became a fan of it. I immediately noted down the recipe and got to know that it hardly takes 10 minutes to prepare it. Isn't that WOW!!



I have been introduced to nendram pazham in my childhood days but way back then I used to hate this.  Offlate I have been introduced to a variety of recipes using this plantain and I have started liking almost all of them like unnakaya, pazham porichadhu etc... Malayali's make yummy recipes out of Nendram pazham and I would say one of the simplest and tasty recipe is given below.



Ingredients:

Nendram Pazham (ripe) - 2 (big ones)
Grated jaggery - 20 grams (3 tbsp)
Ghee - 5 grams (1 tbsp)
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Method:

• Remove the banana skin and slice the banana into smaller pieces.
• Microwave the banana pieces for about 3 minutes. Check if the banana is cooked well.
• Alternatively, heat a pan with one cup of water. Add the sliced bananas and allow them to cook in the simmer for about 5 mins. 
• Now in a pan add the cooked banana pieces and the grated jaggery. Sprinkle a handful of water and mix well. Keep the flame in simmer.
• In 2-3 minutes the jaggery will be dissolved and get mixed with the banana pieces.
• Add a teaspoon of ghee and the cardamom powder.
• Mix well and serve. 

Nendram Pazham Nurukku is ready!!! The beauty of this sweet is that it is delicious both hot or cold.

Linking this to nivedhanams walk-through-memory-lane who is guest hosting for gayathris