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 !

 

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 
  

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.

Pavakka Kichadi / Tempered Karela Raita

I  am still in that holiday mood after the 3 day bank holiday here and I  don't  feel like getting back to usual routine. The glorious sun  is shining  ever so brightly now and  usually in summer my cooking and blogging suffers a lot , well that was the case till last summer. I love spending most of the time outside and then by the end of the day I always go for some simple cooking !!

This long weekend we decided to be a bit adventurous and went for a Safari, well not that adventurous as it was not a deep forest , it was just  a safari park and there the animals were well fed , so going into the wild was not risky as the animals were too lazy to even get up when cars were passing by !! Can you see those lions lying down dont they looked so full and lazy  ??

Another exciting thing was monkeys, they were absolute cheeky monkeys, climbing on cars roofs, side view mirror and jumping from  cars to cars. Initially they were not jumping on our cars much to  lil A dissappointment. Monkeys only had interest  in brightly coloured cars and big van, so they totally ignored our car. But  just before we left the monkey area we got lucky and few of them jumped on to our car :)

And then yesterday  I had a great day with my blogger buddies Nisha and Finla. It was a fabulous day with lots walking, giggling , shopping and most importantly eating !! The first picture on the left is from a famous restaurant ottolenghi  ,Nisha took us there to taste their sweet treats and we had tough time even  picking a treat from there, then for lunch we went to an Indian restaurant  where we had some cocktails and chicken biriyani and thali ,finally we splitted up with a cup of coffee in the evening !

Coming to todays topic, this is something which I made for my Vishu Sadya last month. If there is one vegetable that I hate most ,then it has to be Bitter gourd or Karela or Pavakka or kaipakka as we call it , and the only preparation I like with this veggie is this Pavakka Kichadi as the bitterness from the vegetable is harldy noticable because of the way its cooked, so if you hate this veggie because of its bitterness then give this a go ! 

Ingredients

Pavakka /Bittergourd - 1 (large )

Green chillies - 2 (optional ) I didnt use 

Curd / Yogurt - 1 cup

Curry leaves- few sprigs

Whole red chillies

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Oil (preferably coconut oil ) 

Method

• Slit the pavakka into two by running a knife in the middle and remove all the seeds from inside.Wash and clean.
• Slice it very  thinly and keep it aside.
• In a non stick pan add oil and saute the pavakka slices until brown in colour, it takes 10- 15 minutes.
• Once its brown, add curry leaves and green chillies (if using ) and saute for 2-3 minutes and remove from fire.
• Let it cool down for some time and then transfer it  into a serving bowl.
• Add slightly beaten curd/yogurt to pavakka pieces and give it a good mix.
• Meanwhile in a small pan add little oil and add mustard seeds, when it sputters add whole redchillies, and curry leaves and once the whole red chilly turns dark in colour turn of the flame and pour the tempering into pavakka mixture.

Beetroot pachadi

                             

Ingredients
Beetroot - 1
Green chillies - 2
Salt
Grated coconut - 1/8 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp (for grinding)
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Yogurt/Curd - 1/2 cup
Whole redchillies -1-2
Curry leaves

Preparation

Grate the beetroot and cook by adding salt and green chillies.
Grind coconut with cumin seeds and mustard seeds by adding little water.Add this to the cooked beetroot.let it cook for 2-3 minutes and turn off the flame.Beat yogurt with a spoon and add to the pachadi.In a saucepan take some oil and sputter mustard seeds,add redchillies and curry leaves.Season pachadi with tempering.

Avial

Hope all those who celebrated Vishu and Newyear had a fabulous day yesterday. Thank you all for your warm wishes on my previous post. As mentioned earlier I arranged a Vishukkani and made a small sadhya.With just me, my hubby and my little one to eat I didnt pepare all the sadhya items. I have loads of leftover in my fridge even after making on a small scale. I prepared a Kallathappam(kannur special),Payasam,Sambar. Avial, kootu curry,Pachadi and a Thoran.

Today I am going to post the simple recipe of Avial which was requested by one of my friend last month , since Vishu was around the corner I posponed making it till yesterday.

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Ingredients

1 1/2 cup vegetables chopped lengthwise. I used

Carrot ,Plantain,Yam (chena),Long Green beans and Drumsticks

Greenchillies- 3

Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup

Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

Cuury leaves- few sprigs

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Curd/Yogurt - 1 cup

Salt

Coconut oil

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Preparation

Cook the vegetables by adding salt and turmeric powder,

In a blender make a coarse paste of grated coconut,green chillies , cumin seeds and curry leaves.When vegetables are cooked add this paste and cook for 1 - 2 minutes. Add the beaten curd/yogurt and give it a good stir and turn off the flame immediately. Add coconut oil and give a good mix again.