Orotti | Rice flour tortillas

Yay !! Exactly 2 more weeks - 12 more recipes to complete this mega marathon. Well I am not yet fully prepared for next week's recipes.. The last set of alphabets seem to be the most difficult. I am still hoping that I will get authentic kerala recipes for those letters. Moving over to today's alphabet 'O'. The first choice for alphabet O was obviously - olan. But I already had the recipe of olan in my blog. So then I started my search for recipes from O and landed up in thasneen's page. Here I saw a recipe named Orotti. This was the first time I heard this name.

On further reading I understood that Orotti is a chapathi kind of recipe made out of rice flour. It is similar to pathiri but has some additional ingredients. Pathiri is quite thin and has a soft texture while orotti is slightly thick. It seems the muslim community in Kerala make this during the ramzan month. I surfed for more recipes for Orotti and found very few. All of them differed a bit so i decided to stick to thasneen's page.  This would be a very good breakfast recipe when served with mild spicy chutney or kurma. I served with hariyali chicken. While having orortti, some people pour coconut milk over the orotti and then pour the spicy curry over it.

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 2 cups

Water - 1 and 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil / Ghee - 1 tbsp

Method:

• Boil the water in a saucepan, when the water starts to boil add the oil/ghee and salt to it.
• In a bowl, mix the flour, grated coconut and cumin seeds.
• From the boiling water keep 1/2 a cup of water aside and then lower the heat.
• Add the rice flour mixture to the boiling water and mix well. Take care not to form any lumps.
• Use a wooden spoon for best results. If the 1 cup of water is not sufficient add the water from remaining 1/2 cup little by little and mix the flour. I ended up adding 1 and 1/4 cups of water.
• Remove the flour dough from heat. Let it cool down a bit - say for 10 minutes.
• Then knead the dough with your hands when the dough is still warm. Knead thoroughly such that the dough becomes a smooth ball.

• Make medium shaped balls out of the dough.
• You can press the dough in chapathi maker or tortilla maker or directly on the tava.
• Heat the dosa tava. Grease it with little oil. Place the orotti over it.
• Let small light golden brown spots form on the bottom side, flip it over.
• Cook for one minute. The orotti will slightly raise.
• Remove and place it in hot pack.

Serve with your favourite curry. Preferably some spicy masala curry.

Notes:

• Remember to grease the tava after every orotti is cooked otherwise the orotti may stick to the tava.
• If the dough is too dry, sprinkle little warm water to make it smooth.
• The orottis should be thick - don't make it too thin.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63

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Naranga Achar | Lemon pickle

I cook the planned food, take photos and keep it aside. I work on the photos and the post later whenever I get time. This time I was not satisified with the pics for naranga achar when I copied the pics and saw them in my PC. But I couldn't take another set of pics because by that time naranga achar was over!!! And I couldn't plan or cook another recipe from N because the realization came in very late. So had to settle down for "not-so-good" pictures. Probably I shall change them in due-course when I get good clicks.

I had decided a long time back that I will post Naranga Achar for N in this month long blogging marathon. Naranga is the malayalam word for lemon. There are multiple ways to prepare lemon pickle. The method I give below is the one which my mom follows and I feel this method makes the lemon pickle without any bitterness. Achar is the malayalam word for pickle but sometimes I have heard this being called naranga kari.

Kerala sadhya always has pickles included and most  of the time it is the lemon pickle since lemon is available in almost all the seasons. Home made pickle always taste good than the store-bought ones. So here we go:

Ingredients:

Lemon - 20 nos
Dried red chillies - 5 nos
Turmeric powder - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste (I used 5 tsp salt)
Red chilly powder - 4 tbsp
Fenugreek powder - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida powder / Hing - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Gingelly oil / sesame oil - 4 tbsp
Vinegar - 1 tsp
mustard - 1 tsp

Method:

• Clean, wash and pat dry lemon/lime. Steam in steamer or idli vessel for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the fire and take out the lemon from steamer. Let it cool and wipe it well with a kitchen towel
• Cut the lemon into halfs and then each half into 4 pieces. So totally 8 pieces out of one lemon.
• Take care not to loose the lemon juice while cutting.
• In air tight dry glass jar or in a ceramic jar (bharani); add chopped lemon pieces,turmeric powder, salt according to your taste, mix well and keep for 10 to 15 days in room temperature. You can also keep it in sunlight for an hour daily.
• Shake the jar once everyday or stir the mix once a day using a clean,dry spoon.
• On the day you are making the pickle - Heat the 2 tbsp of sesame oil/gingely oil in pan. Add the mustard seed, when  it’s starts spluttering, add the curry leaves and dry red chillies;
• Simmer the flame. Add the red chili powder, asafoetida powder, fenugreek powder and saute for couple of  seconds.
• Allow the mix to cool down and then add the lemon slices along with the juice; mix well and adjust the salt. Set aside and let it cool.
• Add vinegar and combine well in a such a way that vinegar has to get into all the parts of the pickle and leave it in the pan for 4-6 hours.
• Transfer it in an air tight glass jar or in a ceramic jar (bharani) and add 2 tbsp of gingely oil. Keep it in a room temperature for atleast a week for the flavor to set in and then refrigerated it for further use.

Naranga achar is ready!!! This is typically served with biriyanis!!

Notes:

• Vinegar can be omitted.
• You can also add garlic pods to this pickle. I generally don't.
• You can avoid steaming the lemons also if the lemon skin is very thin.
• If you want the pickle to be less sour, then remove the juices formed before mixing the chilly powder with the lemon pieces.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63

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Meen Moilee | Fish curry with coconut milk

Meen Moilee - Another fish recipe for this kerala special marathon. Meen is the malayalam word for Fish. This is yet another famous fish preparation in Kerala. I don't know why this recipe is called moilee. Probably an aunty named "moilee" innovated this recipe ??

Moilee is a preparation where fish is stewed in coconut milk and a mild flavored masala is prepared with coconut milk, so that flavor of the fish dominates the taste of the curry. It seems this fish-meen moilee marks the foreign influence especially of the Portuguese on the cuisine of Kerala. Actually I found the recipe to be very similar to vegetable stew - famous in kerala along with appam, except the vegetables are replaced with Fish.

You can use any firm fleshy fish for fish moilee. Cut into small pieces and proceed with the rest of the recipe. Incidentally while searching for this recipe I came across a fish named UnniMary. UnniMary is a famous actress of the 80s time. She had big eyes.... and was beautiful ofcourse. Many men have lost their sleep over her. Now, since this fish which is big and is kind of pink colored - has very big eyes, it is called UnniMary it seems!!!

Ingredients:

King fish /Pomferts or any firm fleshed fish : 1 lbs or 2 medium sized

Turmeric Powder : 1 tsp

Red chilly powder - 2 tsp

Lemon juice : 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Onion : 1 large (thinly, sliced)

Tomato : 1 medium (sliced)

Ginger : 1 inch piece (crushed)

Garlic : 2 cloves (crushed)

Black Pepper Powder : 1 tsp

Thick Coconut milk -1st extract /Onnampaal : ½ cup

Semi Thick Coconut milk - 2nd extract /Randampaal : ½ cup

Thin Coconut Milk - 3rd extract /Moonampaal : 1 cup

Curry leaves : 2 sprig

Green chillies : 5-6 nos, slit

cinnamon: 2 1″ pieces

cloves: 4

cardamom: 2

Coconut Oil : around 1/2 cup (to fry the fish)

Method:

• Clean the fish and add turmeric powder, some salt, and red chilli powder to the pieces. Also add the lemon juice and Rub well and leave aside for 30 minutes to an hour. I usually refrigerate the pieces so that the pieces are firm for frying.
• Heat about 1/2 cup oil in a small frying pan and fry the fish until half done. The idea is to semi-cook the fish rather than fry it well. Drain and set aside. Don't make it too brown.
• After frying the fish, from the leftover oil, take aout 1-2 tsp of oil  in another pan and add the cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. Fry for about 1/2 a minute
• Add the onions and saute the onions until soft and pink.
• Add the green chillies, curry leaves, ginger paste and garlic paste and saute till raw smell goes.
• Add the turmeric powder and salt and stir for a few seconds
• Add the sliced tomatoes and cook till it becomes soft.
• Add the thin coconut milk and let the mixture boil for about 3 minutes.
• Now add the fried fish pieces and the semi thick coconut milk.
• Hold the pan and shake a bit. It is better that spoon is not used lest it breaks the fish.
• Check for seasoning/salt. Let the mixture boil and become thick.
• Finally add the thick coconut milk and shake again. When it starts to boil, switch off heat.
• Sprinkle the black pepper powder at the end.

This curry goes well with Rice, Appam, Idiyappam etc.

Notes:

• If you need the gravy to be more sour, you may add 1 tsp of vinegar or 1 tsp of lemon juice.
• Fresh coconut milk works best for this dish. Store-bought coconut milk will lend a different flavour.
• While checking for salt, remember that thick coconut milk will be added in the end. So make it little bit salty.
• Using coconut oil brings in the authentic kerala taste and flavor

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63

An InLinkz Link-up