Kallummakkai Achar (Mom's special)/ Pickled Mussel's

Everytime when I come back after a  vacation from home, I will be carrying a  lot of goodies that my amma has packed for me .I never thought how much work is going onto all of this preperation until this time when I got to see her doing all the preps.I always bring all the spice powder which would last for a year and this year too I packed up a whole lot of  chilly powder,corainder powder,turmeric powder,Puttu podi(rice flour) ,pickles etc .But now that I know how much work is behind it ,they are precious to me.

Kallummakai Achar is one thing that I would die for  and always bring back and this time since  amma was busy with few other things I was in charge of cleaning it.Oh God,I thought I never will ask amma to make this again for me.We bought 100 of them and I was standing in the kitchen for nearly 2 hours cleaning it and removing the poo from inside..phew! With just the cleaning done I handed over it to  amma and she did another 1 hour work to make this one jar of pickle. Eventhough that day I thought I am not going to make it again,every time I take a spoon full of it, it makes all our effort so worthwhile,what can I say more about it...

I have been relishing  this pickle for almost 2 months now, only taking it when I crave for it badly, just to save it for later. But now the pickle jar is almost empty and I thought I should blog about it before finish it off. All that I have got now is in the pic,weather was too gloomy today but I m sure if I wait for a sunny day to click it then there wont be any pickle in the jar :)

Here is my amma's recipe

Ingredients

Mussels/Kallummakkai - 100 nos
Dates - 10 no
Ginger - finely chopped ( 1 1/2 tbs)
Garlic - chopped ( 3 tbs)
Green chillies - 3-4
Curry leaves - few
Vinegar- as required
Pickle Powder - 1-2 tsp
Redchilly powder - 1 1/2 tbs
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt
Sugar - 1 tsp
Sesame oil

Method

1. Clean the mussels outer shell and steam them in a saucepan for few minutes until all the shells have opened.

2.Remove the mussels from the shell and discard  the shell.

3.Take out the poo and vein  from each mussel and clean.(quite tedious)

4.Marinte the mussels with redchilly,turmeric and salt and shallow fry them in sesame oil.

5.In another  pan add some sesame oil and saute ginger,garlic ,curry leaves and green chillies for 1-2 minutes.switch off the flame.

6.In a bowl mix mussels and  the sauted ingredients.

7.Make a puree of dates with little vinegar and add this too.

8.Finally add pickle powder,sugar,salt and vinegar if required.

Uthappam

 

After our vacation in India  this time, we kind of got used to a  habit of eating an elaborate breakfast daily.Since my mum in law  also came with us this time, we  continued  doing that here too . After spending nearly 40 days here  she went back to India  last  weekend. I am finding it a bit depressing especially the loneliness after a busy 2-3 months :( Now we are back to our cereals in the morining and finding it a bit boring ! Uthappam was a one breakfast menu we had when she was here, I like it a lot and love to have it with a little coconut chutney.

Here goes the recipe..

 Ingredients

For Dosha batter

Raw rice/idly rice - 1 1/4 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 cup
Cooked rice - fistful
Fenigreek  seeds- 1 tbs


For toppings

Onion - 1 finely chopped
Tomato - 1 finely chopped
Green chillies - 2
Carrot - 1 (grated)
Coriander leaves - finely chopped

Method

1.Soak and grind all the ingridients for dosha batter and ferment it overnight .
2.Add salt to the batter.
3.Heat a nonstick pan and pour and ladle of batter and spread it .Immediately sprinkle th veggies on top and cook it covered for 2-3 minutes.

Serve with coconut chutney !

Notes
1.If you are in cold country its better to place the batter in a preheated oven at 50- 60 degree centigrade,I  repeat heating it 2-3 times .
2.Its always  better not to flip the uthappam,you will not get a good looking uthappam .

Birthday cake !



Hope u all are doing great..I was thinking about  updating  my space since  many days,but  something or the other kept me busy. As I told before, we went to India for an amazing vacation and got back in the mid week of september and  this time when we came back my mother in law also came with us .It took few days for all us to setlle down  and adjust with chilly weather which welcomed us.Then next came lil A's birthday,I had only few days to organise everything and then the biggest  job ofcourse was baking the birthday cake ! He wanted a Mc Queen cake from Cars movie,Initially my plan was to try out a 3D mc queen cake,but then I was not confident enough to go for it,so I decided to go for sheet cake with fondant figurines of his favourite characters from the movie.

 

 I had to bake a cake for 20 kids and 20 adults ,so I baked 3 sheets of vanilla cake and filled it with swiss meringnue butter cream and vanilla buttercream and covered it with fondant .I made figurines of his favourite charcaters Mc queen and Mater from fondant too ! I made the figurines two days before the party and did all the baking and most of the decoration a day before the party.The whole process was quite laborious but when lil A said" thanks amma for making this cake " all my efforts became so worthwhile ! The cake tasted good too, everybody loved it !

You wont believe me when I say I didnt even get the time to click the pictures of the cake ,luckily a friend of us who  took the  party pictures  clicked the  picture of  the cake too ! Thanks to him :)

So see u all again with another post soon :)

Chicken Vindaloo ....and a break !

Usually I am not a last minute person when it comes to packing and shopping especially if it is for a vacation,but this time I was shopping even today and still a few more last minute shopping to do,Suitcases are still empty and I have a pile of clothes to iron, and finally cleaning the house before I leave ! phew its a long list,You might be wondering am I crazy to sit and blog when I have so much things to do ? But this time its going to be long break thats another reason for me to update the blog at this last moment. I will be back only on sep 11 th and after coming back I have my lil boys birthday party to organise.So far I have only booked a hall and an entertainer ,so its going to be hectic when I come back.So hopefully after all that I might be able to get back to blogging. So my friends enjoy the rest of the summer and Eid mubaraak to all in advance !

Todays recipe is adapted from Anjum Anand's Pork vindallo recipe from I love curry , I just replaced pork with chicken and I warn you all,its really spicy ,reduce the chillies according to your spice levels.I felt it was spicy the first day but got a little milder and tasted much better the next day !

Ingredients
Chicken - 500 gms
Onion - 3

for grinding

cumin seeds - 1tsp
Coriander seeds- 1 tsp
Kashmiri redchillies (seeds shaken )- 5-10
Peppercorns - 6
Green cardamom pods - 3
Cloves -4
Cinnamon - 1 stick

Ginger -garlic paste - 1 tbs
Salt

Method
1.Grind all the whole spices and chillies to a fine powder.
2.Marinate the chicken with the spice powders ,ginger garlic paste , salt and keep aside for few hours or overnight.
3.In a saucepan add oil and saute the chopped onions till brown.
4.Add the marinated chicken and fry till brown on a medium flame for about 3-4 minutes.
5.Reduce the heat and cook it covered it until cooked.

Rice Krispy treats and a small carving attempt !

This is one of the easiest treat that you can fix for ur lil ones in a jiffy..My boy used to get this from nursery sometimes on some special days when they cook in the nursery and he brings his share home and after that always used to ask for more,so I have been thinking to try this at home for sometime now and today finally I got some time and made this.Lil A loved it and as the quantity I made was quite a lot for him , I thought to be creative with the rest ! And this is what I came up with,his favoutite Mc Queen Car from Disney cars movie :) I carved the rice krispy treats with a sharp knife and then coated it with a little buttercream icing and covered it with fondant.Its nothing great but it bought a big smile on his face !

Ingredients

Rice krispies - 1 1/2 cup

Mini marshmallows - 1 cup

Butter - 1 1/2 tbs

Method

1. Melt butter in a pan and add marshmallows.

2.Stir until marshmallows are completely melted.Switch off the flame.

3.Add rice Krispies and mix until well coated.

4.Transfer this into a greased dish and press it .

5.Allow it to set and cut them to desired shapes.

Beetroot Thoran/ Beetroot stir fry

Eventhough I love betroot I hate the mess it makes to my kitchen tiles and my fingers after I grate it.This time when I got betroot I forgot to put them in the fridge and left it among my onions and potatoes outside.So after 2-3 days when I saw it lying outside ,the skin was really soft and it was impossible to grate it . Eventhough chopped betroots taste much better than grated one I always preferd later as it is easier ,but this time since I didnt have a choice I had to chop and I found that its much easier to chop soft betroots and the mess is also less(didnt make my tiles red) ! Normally I wouldnt post this here,but since chopped version is a special one for a lazy person like me I thought I should post it here !

Ingredients

Betroot - 4 medium ones

Onion - 1

Grated coconut /Dessicated coconut - 2 tbs

Curry leaves - few

Redchilly powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Oil

Method

1. In a saucepan add little oil and sputter mustard seeds.

2.Add chopped onions and saute till soft.

3.Add chopped betroot ,chilly powder,turmeric and salt and cook it covered.

4.When it is almost done add grated coconut ,curry leaves and cook for 1 minute .

Moist Chocolate cupcakes with Vanilla butter cream frosting

Till the Olympics started in London a week before, me and S were not really into sports that much,so we didnt even bother to bid for tickets in the beginning but the whole atmosphere in London has changed our attitude towards sports,we are now hooked onto T.V watching all sorts of events and has been trying for tickets continously ever since Olypmics started.Eventhough they were releasing last minute tickets online , we were unlucky with those ticketed events,but we still we didnt give up and decided to make the most of free events like cycling ,marathon,race walk etc.We went for two events in the last few days and the Mens 20 km race walk was the most exciting one as 3 Indian were among the group,we cheered them with all our voice and we were glad that Irfan from kerala,finished 10 th and made all of us proud !Still one more week of Olympics and we are planning to go for Mens marathon race next week and then we are off to India for a month.

Coming to todays recipe its a moist chocolate cupcake which I made to take to a friends place,You can see from the pics that my frosting didnt cover the cupcakes well as I ran out of the frosting .I didnt want to make it all over again so I kind of decorated it with what I had :)

Ingredients
Flour - 1 1/4 cup
Cocoa Powder - 1/4 cup
Baking Powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Sugar - 1 cup
Oil - 3/4 cup
Egg -2
Milk - 1/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Method
1. Sift flour,baking powder,soda,salt and keep it aside.
2.In a mixing bowl beat eggs and sugar well.
3.Add oil,vanilla extract and whisk.
4.Add 1/4 th of sifted dry ingredients and fold in followed by little milk.
5.Continue adding flour and milk until all used up.
6.Line a muffin tin and pour the batter until 3/4 th full.
6.Bake in preheated oven at 175 degree centigrade for 20 - 25 mins or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

You can find the recipe for frosting here