Ada Pradaman

Ingredients( Serves 8-10)

Ada – 200 gm

Jaggery – 400 gm

Water – 1/3 cup + water for cooking ada

2 large coconut for extracting  coconut milk which yields;

 2 cups of thick coconut milk /Onnam pal

4 cups thin coconut milk /randam pal

Dry ginger – ¼ tsp

Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Cococnut slices – 1 tablespoon

Cashewnuts –  1 ½ tablespoon

Sultanas – 1 tablespoon

Ghee – 3 tablesoon

 Method

Boil few cups of  water with ½ tsp  of ghee  in a big pan. Make sure there is enough  water to  cook ada.  Cook ada  until it’s soft and cooked well.

Drain water and  wash the ada in a colander with some cold water to remove the excess starch. Strain and keep it aside.

Meanwhile add jaggerry  in a thick bottom pan /non -stick pan and melt jaggery with 1/3 rd cup of water.

Add cooked ada to the melted jaggery and cook the ada  with 1 tablespoon of ghee in jaggery until the jaggery coats the ada and begins to leave the sides of the pan.

Add the thin coconut milk to the ada and cook until milk reduces and thickens ( takes about 15-20 minute)

Finally add the thick coconut milk and mix well , remove from fire before it boils.

Add chukka/dry ginger powder and cardamom powder to the payasam.

In a small pan ,add 1 tablespoon of  ghee and  fry the coconut slices until brown. Add it to the payasam.

In the same pan add  another  tablespoon of ghee and fry cashewnut slices and sultanas until cashewsnut are brown and sultanas plumps up.

Add this to the payasam too. allow the payasam to rest for some time for the flavours to mingle.

Enjoy !

 

Unnakaya/ Unnakai /Kayi ada

Unnakaya is another Malabar special delicacy made with medium ripe plantain which is stuffed with a sweet coconut filling.

This time, it was my 11 year old  who did the stuffing part and I think he did a pretty good job shaping it like unnakayas.

Here goes the recipe

Ingredients ( makes 8 unnakayas)

Medium ripe plantain – 2

Grated coconut – ½ cup

Cashewnut – 1 ½ tbs ( chopped pieces)

Raisins/sultanas – 2 tbs

Sugar – 2 tbs

Cardamom – 5 pods

Ghee -1 tbs

Oil for frying

Method

• Steam cook the plantain for about 8-10 minutes. Do not overcook it, otherwise it becomes too watery and you won’t be able to shape it.
• Peel the skin and slit the banana into half to remove the black seeds inside.
• Mash the banana well without any lumps to form smooth dough.
• Powder 5 cardamom seeds with 2 tbs sugar and keep it aside.
• Add ghee in a pan on medium heat and when it melts add chopped cashews.
•  When it starts to turn light brown, add raisins. Fry it until it plumps up.
• Add grated coconut to it and fry for a minute or so. 
• Add cardamom sugar and cook for few more seconds until sugar melts.Filling is ready.
• Take a lemon sized ball of the mashed banana and flatten it with your palm.
• Place some filling in the middle and seal the edges and shape it like unnakaya.
• Repeat until all the dough is used up. I got 8 unnakayas from two  medium sized plantain.
• In a pan add oil and heat it on a medium flame. When the oil is hot fry the unnakaya in batches by flipping the sides in between until it’s golden brown.                                           

Enjoy !

Pazham pori

Hello all,

This has been a long break and this time there is a good reason. Some of my friends in FB and Insagram already know why.. ..It was a surprise for many of them indeed J. After long 8 years gap I have become a mum again. We have blessed with another boy, my not so little boy is a proud big B and is enjoying his new role.  Time is already flying and baby is 21/2 months now. I had the luxury of parents helping me until now but they are going to fly back home in a week’s time, that means cooking and blogging might  take a back seat for the time being , but time to time I will pop in and say hello here J

Today’s recipe is Amma’s special pazham pori. She makes pazham pori every now and then, especially when friends visit us to see the baby and it has been a hit with everyone. She doesn’t have any measurements for any recipe, so she took the effort of measuring all the ingredients for me when I told her I want to blog it. I know if I keep it for another day I will forget all about it so this recipe is coming almost straight from the plate !

Ingredients

Ripe plantain/ etha pazham /nenthra pazham – 2 small

For batter

Plain flour/ Maida – 1 cup

Water – 1 cup (as required)

Sugar – 3-4 tsp

Salt – a pinch

Turmeric powder (optional) -  a pinch ( for colour)

Oil for frying)

Method 

•        Cut the plantain into two halves and slice each halves lengthwise into 3 pieces. You will be left with 6 pieces.  Do the same with the other plantain.
• ·      Make a batter by mixing all the ingredients mentioned under “for batter “. You might not need all of the water. Batter should not be too thick or too loose.
•        Dip the plantain slices in the batter and deep fry in hot oil for about 4 minutes flipping the sides until golden colour. 

Kerala parippu curry/ Kerala sadya parippu / Kerala dal curry

Wishing everyone a happy Vishu! I am glad that this year Vishu is falling on  a bank holiday weekend, so after ages we will get to celebrate Vishu the same day. We have a kerala sadya potluck  planned and I am looking forward to eat a scrumptious sadya tomorrow. 
 Today I am sharing a simple Kerala parippu curry/dal curry which is served as a part of Kerala sadya. It’s so easy to make and you can whip it up in less than 30 minutes.

Ingredients

Moong dal/cherupayar parippu – ¾ cup

To grind

Grated coconut – ¾ cup

Shallots /cheriya ulli – 3

Cumin seeds/ Jeerakam – ½ tsp

Green chillies – 4

For tadka/ thalikkal

Coconut oil /ghee

Mustard seeds – 1 ½ tsp

Shallots/ cheriya ulli – 2

Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Whole red chilli – 3

Method

• Soak the dal for ½ an hour
• Pressure cook the dal for 2 -3 whistles
•  Grind the grated coconut with ingredients mentioned above adding little water.
•  Add the paste to the dal and bring to boil
•   Finally in a small pan add oil/ghee sputter mustard seeds, add the finely chopped shallots.
•   Fry it for some time until slightly brown.
•   Finally add split whole red chilli and curry leaves and fry until red chillies get little dark    
• Add the tadka to the parippu/dal 
  

Kerala style varutharacha chicken curry

Can’t believe how time is flying. It’s already spring and the clock has changed here which means we get one hour extra sunlight in the evening! 

Last few weeks has been very hectic for me. We moved house last month and with 40 plus boxes to unpack, settling in took a while. This move has been eye opener for me to realise how much junk I have accumulated in the name of blogging. S was shocked to see all the things that came out of boxes and was getting into fight with me for that. So I am trying to prove to him that I will be using all of that and will be getting back to blogging soon. I get plenty of daylight in this house so I am hoping that inspires me to blog and take pictures for my blog.

Today’s recipe is a Kerala special varutharacha chicken curry which I made long time back. I am not a big fan of varutharacha curry/ roasted coconut based gravy but once in a while I enjoy  this and love to pair it with ghee rice.

Ingredients

To marinate

Chicken – 1 kilo

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp

Salt

To roast and grind

Grated coconut – ¾ cup

Cinnamon – 1 stick

Cloves – 5

Cardamom – 4 number

Fennel seeds – 1 tbs

Star anise – 1

Peppercorns – 1 tbs

Coriander seeds – 2  tbs

Poppy seeds – 1 tbs

Whole red chilli – 4 number

Curry leaves – 2 sprigs

Other ingredients

Onion – 4 number

Tomato small – 2

Green chilli – 3 number

Coriander leaves

Mint leaves

Water – ¼ cup or as required

Method

•   Marinate the chicken with ingredients mentioned for 30 minutes.
•  In a non- stick pan add a tbs oil and roast grated coconut for  few  minutes, when it starts to change colour add the rest of ingredients  mentioned and roast until the coconut is brown in colour and nice  aroma come out.
•    Let it cool down and then grind it to a smooth paste adding little water.
•   In a saucepan add coconut oil and saute the chopped onions until soft  and light brown in colour.
•   Add tomato and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.
•    Add marinated chicken and stir for a few minutes.
•    Add the ground  paste and water let eh chicken cook in the gravy until  its done.
•   Finally add chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves and remove from fire.

Malabar mutton curry/ Varutharacha mutton curry

We don’t buy Mutton/ lamb at home often, even when we buy it’s usually for biriyani so if you check my blog I don’t have much mutton recipes, but during this holiday time we have been entertaining a lot and I  have been cooking with mutton too. For my last party I promised my friends Keralan food so when I bought mutton, the first thing which came to my mind was this varutharacha mutton curry which my amma used to make a lot. To be honest I was never a fan of varutharacha curry back then so I rarely made it myself.

My hubby did ask me whether I am sure I want to experiment  as this is not something I cook often, usually when he say something like that I lose my confidence and give up on that dish and go for my tried and tested recipes but this time I was determined. I am glad that I didn't listen to him  as this curry turned out  super delicious. My friends loved  it too !

In this recipe I have added a leaf ( ramba leaf ) which was very new to me until my friend who is from Srilanka introduced this to me, something which they add a lot in Srilankan cooking usually to flavour rice. It’s readily available in Indian/Asian groceries here.You can read more about the leaf here. It's an optional ingredient so please don't bother if you don't have it. 

Recipe source – Amma and my own

Ingredients

Mutton/Lamb – 1 kilo
To marinate

Chilli powder -1 tbsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

salt
Ginger garlic paste – 1  tbs

Onion - 6 medium

Tomato -3 small

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbs

To roast

Grated coconut/ ചിരണ്ടിയ തേങ്ങ – 1 ½ cup

Shallot/ചെറിയ ഉള്ളി – handful

Coriander seeds/ മല്ലി – 2 tbs

 Cinnamon /പട്ട– 1 stick

Cloves/ഗ്രാമ്പു– 4-5

Cardamom/ഏലക്ക -5

Star anise/തകോളം

Fennel/പെരുംജീരകം – 1 tbsp

Peppercorns/കുരുമുളക് – 1 tsp

Whole Red chilli/ വറ്റല്‍ മുളക് – 3

Curry leaves/കറിവേപ്പില – 5-6 sprigs

Poppy seeds/cuscous/കസ്കുസ് – 1 tbs

Ramba leaf/ രംഭ ഇല /  ( optional) – 1 small piece

Coriander leaves/ മല്ലി ഇല

To temper

Coconut pieces/തേങ്ങാ കൊത്തു – 1 tbs

Shallots/ ചെറിയ ഉള്ളി  -4 thinly sliced

Curry leaves/ കറിവേപ്പില– few

 Method

• Marinate the mutton with red chilli, turmeric, salt and 1 tbs ginger garlic paste for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• In a pan add some coconut oil and add the whole garam masala (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, fennel,star anise) and when nice aroma comes out add grated coconut, coriander seeds, whole red chillies, curry leaves and roast for few minutes. When it start to turn change colour, add poppy seeds and carry on roasting until golden brown. DONOT roast beyond this point.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Once it’s cool grind it adding very little water into a smooth paste and keep it aside.
• In a pressure add coconut oil and add chopped onion and saute until light brown.
• Add in the rest of the ginger garlic paste and saute until raw smell goes.
• Add chopped tomatoes, few curry leaves and cook for few minutes.
• Add in the marinated mutton, 2 cups of water and pressure cook for 4 -5 whistles or until mutton is cooked.
• Once the pressure releases open the pressure cooker and add the ground masala paste, curry leaves, ramba leaf and boil everything for 5-10 minutes. 
• In a small pan add coconut oil and fry the sliced shallots, coconut pieces separately until brown, throw in some curry leaves along with them before you remove them fire and add it to the gravy.
• Add chopped coriander leaves and garnish. 

Kerala Chicken Stew

Many many  years ago when I went for a Wedding reception in Kochi they served appam with a Kerala chicken stew. I was probably only 8 years then but when it involves food I have a photographic memory! There was karimeen fry, fish molly , pork ullarthu and lots of other yummy food. Now when I think about it seemed like a posh reception to be serving a buffet party that long ago! Any way the taste of that food is still lingering in my mouth and appam and chicken stew became my favourite food. I do make this stew a lot at home and my son loves it too. I usually makes the stew for dinner and pair it with appam and next morning I make some fresh idiyappam to eat the left over stew and I have to say those two combination are probably the match made in heaven !

Ingredients

Chicken with bones – 500gm

(Whole garam masala)

Fennel seeds/ പെരും ജീരകം  – 1 tsp

Cinnamon stick/പട്ട – 1 small stick

Cloves/ ഗ്രാമ്പു – 3-3

Cardamom/ഏലക്ക – 3-4

Star anise/ തകോളം - 1

Bay leaf / പട്ട ഇല – 2

Onion (medium) – 2 chopped + ½ thinly sliced

Ginger garlic paste – 1 ½ tsp

Potato – 2 small

Carrot – 1

Coconut milk – 1 cup ( ¾ cup thin milk + ¼ cup thick milk)

Green chillies – 2

Curry leaves – 2 sprigs

Cashewnut – ¼ cup  soaked in water and ground to paste (optional)

Coriander powder- 1 tsp

• Turmeric powder – pinch (optional)
• Pepper powder- 1 tsp
• Salt
• Oil/Ghee
• Water

Method

• Marinate the chicken with salt and pepper and leave it aside.
• In a saucepan/kadai/ ചീനചട്ടി  add oil and add the whole garam masala ingredients mentioned and when it starts to give a good aroma  add the chopped onions. Saute the onions until light brown in colour.
• Add ginger garlic paste, green chillies, curry leaves and saute until raw smell goes off.
• Add coriander powder, pinch of turmeric and fry for a few seconds.
• Add the chicken, cubed potato and carrots and add the thin coconut milk too. Cover and cook until chicken is almost done.
• Finally add the thick coconut milk, cashew paste and water as required and when it is about to boil remove from fire.
• In a small pan add oil/ghee and add thinly sliced onions and fry till brown. Add the fried onion to the gravy.
• Serve hot with Appam/Idiyappam /chapathi or Porotta!

Malabar Mutton Biriyani

Every night   just after winding up everything  and just  before hitting bed I get some free time, a nice 1 hour for me and that’s the only time I really get to sit down and do things I like. Even though I always think I should make  the time useful and do a  post here I don’t get into that mood and I rather spend the time watching TV or  trying to finish  a book which I borrowed almost a month back from the library. Some days I just don’t do anything and just spend time in social media and that’s it pretty much it, so until I find motivation, my  blogging is going to take a back seat I guess.

These days more than cooking I find shooting it rather challenging. If it’s a weekend our day usually start very late and by the time lunch / dinner is ready we are usually so hungry so if I take the camera out for taking pictures with a hungry child and hubby, it would be like putting myself into trouble, so to be safe I don’t take that risk !Anyway few weeks back when   I made this  mutton biriyani  I  took some extra effort to take pictures to blog about it. We don’t eat mutton much and hardly buys mutton at home as we tend to avoid red meat as much as we can, so I didn’t have a trusted mutton biriyani recipe with me .That's when I came across this recipe in  Kothiyavunnu and decided to give it a go. It’s an awesome recipe and have made this few times now and every time  it went down as a treat for us  !

Recipe adapted from - Kothiyavunnu

Ingredients

For rice

Biriyani rice/ Jeerakasala rice/ Basmathi rice – 2 cups ( I usually use Jeerakasala rice for all my biriyani's which I bring from Kerala )

Onion – 1 ( thinly sliced)

Water drained from cooked mutton – 2 1/2 cups

Boling water – 1 1/4 cup

Lime juice – 1 tbs

Cinnamon stick – 1

Cardamom – 4 pods

Cloves – 4

Ghee – 1 tbs

Oil – 1 tbs

Salt

For Mutton masala

Mutton – 500 gm

Onion – 4 ( sliced lengthwise)

Tomato – 1

Cinnamon stick – 1 inch thick stick

Cloves – 3

Cardamom pods – 3

Bay leaf – 1

Star anise – 1

Peppercorns- 1 tsp

Green chillies – 15

Ginger – Thumb size piece

Garlic – 4-5 cloves

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Yogurt – ½ cup

Water – 1 cup

Lime juice – 1 tbs

Salt

Ghee – 2 tbs

Oil – 2 tbs

Mint leaves - few

For garnishing

Fried onions- Handful

Cashewnut halves – 2 tbs

Golden raisins – 2 tbs

Ghee – 2 tbs

Coriander leaves

Method

Make a paste of green chillies, ginger and garlic in a mixie and keep it aside.

Marinate the mutton with above paste along with chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, yogurt and whole garam masala and keep it as long as you can(preferably overnight ) or at least for ½ an hour.

In a thick bottomed saucepan/ wok add ghee + oil and sauté the sliced onions until it’s nicely browned.

Add in chopped tomatoes and cook until it’s mushy.

Add the marinated mutton, salt, mint leaves, 1 cup of water and transfer it into a pressure cooker and cook  for 4-5 whistles.

Once the pressure is released drain the 2 1/2 cups of water from mutton and keep it aside.

Cooking Rice

Soak the rice for ½ an hour, drain and keep it aside

In a big pan add oil+ ghee and add the whole garam masala and sauté for a minute.

Add in the sliced onions and sauté until soft.

Add the rice, salt, lime juice and fry the rice for a minute or so.

Add the mutton stock, remaining water and bring it boil.

Cover and cook the rice until done.

Layering

In an oven proof dish spread a layer of rice evenly.

Add mutton masala on top; continue layering until all rice and mutton masala is used up.

Cover the dish tightly with a lid or seal it with maida and dum cook it in a preheated oven of 180 degree C for 15 minutes.

Garnishing

In a small pan add ghee and fry cashewnuts until golden brown and raisins until plump.

Open the biriyani pot and garnish the biriyani with fried onions, cashewnuts, raisins and some chopped coriander leaves.

Mathan Erissery/ Pumpkin Erisserry

This is a long overdue post, I was hoping to post this for Onam but I couldn’t post it.  There was so much going on past few weeks, after school activities with my boy, three birthday cakes which I made neck to neck and a wretched flu which kept me drowsy for almost a week and finally a full time job alongside the studies!  I don’t want to waste my time nagging here, so l will get straight to recipe, but before that let me thank some of my friends who support and encourage me to keep blogging and who take some time to give positive feedbacks about the recipes which they tried from my blog. That is the only reason why I try to update my blog as much as I can.

Coming to the recipe, Mathan erisserry is usually made with pumpkin and black eyed beans but I find the combination with cherupayar/mung tastes much better than traditional black eyed beans version, so now I usually make my erisserry with cherupayar . I always make this erisserry  for Kerala Sadya as we all love it.

Ingredients

Pumpkin – 250 gm

Cherupayar/ Mung – ¼ cup

Grated coconut – 1/2 cup + 2 tbs

Shallots/ Kunjulli – 4 number

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Salt

Curry leaves

Mustard seeds

Whole red chilly

Coconut oil

Method

• Soak Mung/ cherupayar overnight or at least for few hours and pressure cook it for 1-2 whistles adding little water.
• Make a coarse paste of ½ cup grated coconut, shallots and cumin seeds.
• Cube the pumpkin into medium sized cubes and cook it in a saucepan adding little water adding red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
• Add the cooked mung and coconut paste to the cooked pumpkin and cook for a 2-3 minutes .
• In a small pan add some coconut oil and sputter mustard seeds, add in the 2 tbs of grated coconut, whole red chillies and curry leaves. Roast coconut until brown add the tempering into cooked pumpkin.