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!

Blueberry Pancakes for Pancake Day !

It’s pancake day/Shrove Tuesday again and I can’t believe in about 1 ½ months’ time it will be Easter! I wasn’t aware of this day until a friend of mine invited me for a Pancake picnic few years back.  I didn’t even know how to make pancakes then and thanks to my friend for introducing pancakes to me.

 I make pancakes quite often now and that’s why you don’t see many pancake recipes in my blog. Things that I make often usually never finds its way to my blog as I postpone clicking pictures every time. But I knew that Pancake Day was coming soon and it seemed like a good time to post it. I have never been so organised in my life before, I actually drafted a post ready for today and was waiting for a good day to shoot pancakes to add the pictures but unfortunately that didn’t happen and I forgot all about it until the gals mentioned about the Pancake Day. I didn’t want to wait another year for posting this, so believe it or not, I did the shoot this morning. I even did a photo set up the last night and all I did  today was  I made the pancakes, shifted them to a plate and clicked them even before my son was up!

Recipe source-here

Ingredients

Plain flour/ Maida – 2 cup+ 2 tbs( for tossing blueberries)

Eggs -2

Buttermilk -2 cup (if not mix 1 cup milk with 1 cup yogurt)

Granulated sugar – 2tbs

Baking powder – 2tsp

Baking soda- ½ tsp

Blueberries- 1 cup + 1/2 cup ( for serving)

Cinnamon powder – ½ tsp(optional)

Vanilla extract – ½ tsp( optional)

Salt – a pinch

Unsalted butter/oil for frying

Method

• In a bowl add  flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon powder salt and mix.
• Beat egg, vanilla and buttermilk until combined.
• Toss the 200 gms blueberries in 2 tbs flour and keep it aside.
• Add the egg mixture to dry ingredients and mix until combined.
• Finally add the tossed blueberries and fold in gently. Let the batter stand for 10 minutes.
• Heat a pan and spray /brush with some oil or butter and pour 2 tbs of batter. Cook for 2 minutes on one side, flip it over and cook the other side for another 1-2 minutes.
• Serve with some fresh blueberries and maple syrup

Chicken and spinach Quesadilla

For the last few years I have been celebrating and hosting Newyear party at my place with my friends and the last two year happened to be with my bloggers gals. It was a potluck party this year and we all decided to try something new. After a bit of brain storming Suchi suggested Mexican and we all nodded and agreed. Till then I have only eaten Mexican and was not a big fan too.  It was a total experiment and I couldn’t wait to find out the outcome. I prepared Mexican rice and some Mexican Buffalo wings, Suchi got some pork stew and Nachos and Nisha got us this chicken quesadilla and Tresleche cake. Unlike Indian food I didn’t have to spend hours in Kitchen to whip up those two things. That was the same case with others too. Our Mexican themed party was a success in every way and my liking and outlook towards Mexican food changed. The fact that it only takes less time to make them was the best part for me. I have been making Mexican a lot ever since and this Quesadilla is our favourite now. This recipe is from Nisha, I have only changed the spice powder used. Do try this to fix a quick dinner on a lazy day.

Ingredients

Tortilla wraps – 10

Chicken thighs (boneless) – 500 gm (cut into small pieces)

Spinach – 200 gm

Onion (chopped) – 1 medium

Mexican cheese (grated) – 150 gm (I used Cheddar cheese with jalapeno pepper)

Garlic – 2 cloves (minced)

Fajita mix – 1 packet or 4 tbsp (replace with some chicken masala if you don’t get it)

Method

• Marinate the chicken with Fajita mix for 30 mins.
• In a pan add some oil and sauté onions until soft
• Add minced garlic and fry until raw smell goes.
• Add Chicken and spinach and cook until chicken is cooked. It should be dry.
• Place the tortilla wrap on a pan and spread the chicken on top of it.
• Sprinkle some cheese on top and place another wrap on top of it. Cheese will melt and the wraps will stick to each other. Flip it once until the wraps are slightly brown and crispy.
• Transfer it into a plate and cut into four slices. Serve hot.

 

Seekh Kebab

Once you take a break it’s really difficult to get back into that mood of blogging…I wonder whether it’s ever going to come back now…I really wish it does though as I miss blogging !

Its break time for me here and I am off work for a week, which also means I get to take pictures of what I cook in day light. Spring is near our door steps now, days are getting longer and temperatures are slightly getting warmer.  I was looking forward to this break  and have kick started the fun today catching up with friends with a  long gals day out  which ended with an elaborate  lunch and  a movie! 

Whenever we go out eat out in Pakistani restaurants, kebabs is something we try a lot. Last year I tried making shami kebab with the help of a friend which  tasted absolutely delicious so here I am again with another favourite kebab of ours which is so easy to make.

Ingredients

Lamb mince – 500 gm

Onion – 1 medium

Egg – 1 small (beaten)

Cumin seeds – 1 ½ tbs

Corainder seeds – 2 tbs

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Garam masala – ½ tsp

Green chillies – 2

Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp

Coriander leaves – fistful

Salt

Method

• Dry roast cumin and coriander seeds separately and powder it in a mixie/ coffee grinder
• Crush onions in a mixie (not paste) and keep it aside.
• Make a paste of green chillies and coriander and keep it aside.
• In a bowl add the crushed onion, ginger garlic paste and green chilli- coriander paste.
• Add salt, powdered cumin and coriander, red chilli powder and mix.
• Add minced lamb, egg and mix.
•  Refrigerate it for 1 hour.
• Take wooden skewers and with a wet hand stick the minced mix on the skewers
• Bake it in a preheated oven at 200 degree C for 25 minutes flipping the sides in between.

Mini English Breakfast and 7 years of blogging !

I am a bit late in doing the first post of the year and I have to admit I was not intending to do one today too until it struck me that it’s a special day for my blog today. It’s a great mile stone indeed..7 years of blogging! I owe it to you all for encouraging me  carry on this hobby which I started to kill boredom for 7 years. It has  helped me to become a better cook, good baker, to find a passion in food photography and most of all make new friends. Thanks a ton to you all for that.

It was some 9 years ago that I got to eat English breakfast first and I have to say, it was not a good experience for me back then. Coming from South India with a palate for spicy food, I found it too bland and fatty. I don’t want to go into the details of what they actually serve for a full course English breakfast here, as some of you may find it gross! I was brave enough back then and tried everything for the sake of trying it but not anymore, now I pick and eat only the things I like.  Few weeks back I made English breakfast at home and I have to say  there is nothing much to do to make  a mini breakfast like the one I did. Open a tin of baked beans and heat it, grill some sausages, make fried eggs or scrambled eggs and shallow fry some tomatoes and hash brown( made from potatoes) and voila..one mini English breakfast is ready to eat !

Lemon and dry fruit biscotti

It was last year I got to eat  some home -made biscotti from Suchi,  ever since I have been  keen on   making it  at home but  like many other recipes I wanted to try  and lost track off , this one got forgotten too ! This year after making my some Christmas fruit cake, I had some left over mixed dry fruits and was looking for something to make with it and that’s when I saw a biscotti recipe in foodoclious pictured. It was a simple recipe and I had almost all ingredients handy. It seemed liked a perfect recipe to bake with my son.  I always bake with my boy during holidays and he is such a good helper apart from the mess he makes and extra cleaning up I have to do afterwards! Anyway I decided to choose this recipe to bake together and as usual he was super excited and he did most of the job except grating the lemon zest and cutting the biscotti diagonally..yes that’s how simple it is. He waited eagerly to get the biscotti out from the oven and was so happy to feed us his biscotti J. They are so addictive and we have been munching on them non -stop till it got finished!

Before I go to the recipe, let me all wish you a very Happy New year. I  will see you all  again in 2015 !!

Ingredients (makes 10 biscottis)

Plain flour / Maida – 1 ¼ cup

Baking Powder – ½ tsp

Salt – a pinch

Egg – 1

Sugar – 1/3 cup

Mixed dry fruits – ½ cup (Mine had  raisins , sultanas, cranberries etc)

Lemon zest – 1 ts( use unwaxed lemon)

Lemon extract – ½ tsp

Vanilla extract – ½ tsp

Olive oil – ¼ cup

Method

• Sift flour, baking powder, salt and keep it aside.
• In a bowl break one egg, add lemon zest, sugar, lemon and vanilla extract and beat until mixed.
• Tip in the flour and dry fruits and knead to get a smooth dough.
• Place the dough onto a floured surface and roll them into rectangle 10” * 3 “
• Bake it in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 30 minutes
• Take it out and cool if for 15-20 minutes and then cut it diagonally into ½ inch slices and pop them back in the oven and bake for 12 -15 minutes flipping the sides in between.
• Cool completely before storing them in a airtight container.

 

Kerala style Green Peas curry

This is the time of the year when I cook and indulge. I really don’t care about going a size up at this time of the year. There is always a tomorrow to work out and loose those extra pounds right? After repeatedly eating cereals on weekdays many weeks I am pampering myself with cooked kerala breakfast now. I am a bit worried that I might get used to it and going back to cereals won’t be a smooth transition. But I would like not to think about it now and enjoy the food now.

I was never a breakfast person until I got married, there was a time when I used to eat half dosa or half idly but on the other hand my other half believes in eating a heavy breakfast and got me into that habit too. Now I don’t think I will be able to function if I skip or eat light breakfast. Even if its cereals, I top it up with an extra cup of smoothie and it helps to keep me going until lunch time without snacking.

Back home we only used to get dry green peas and I never saw or ate fresh peas until I went to Pune. I was only used to dry green peas  and my mum used to make a curry with  dry green pea often for breakfast . I still prefer dry green pea over fresh ones. I  guess it’s all about what you grow up eating with !

 I usually serve this curry  with  Idiyappam or Appam and they make a good breakfast combination !

Ingredients

Dry green peas – 1 cup

Onion – 3 small

Tomato – 2 small

Ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp

Chilli powder – ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Coriander powder – 2 tsp

Chicken masala powder – 1 tsp

Garam masala- ½ tsp( optional)

Green chillies – 2 ( split lengthwise)

Curry leaves – few

Coriander leaves – few

Coconut milk – ½ cup ( I dissolved ¼ cup Maggie  coconut milk powder in hot water)

Salt

Oil

Water ( as required)

Method

• Soak dry green peas overnight in hot water and cook with enough water for 4-5 whistles.
• In a saucepan add oil and sauté the chopped onions until soft and light brown
• Add curry leaves, green chillies, ginger garlic paste and cook till raw smell of ginger garlic paste goes.
• Add chopped tomatoes and cook for another few minutes until tomatoes are a bit mushy.
• Add all the spice powder expect garam masala and cook for few minutes until the raw smell of masalas goes off.
• Add the cooked green pea, salt, enough water and boil for 5-10 minutes.
• Finally add  coconut milk, garam masala and when its starts to boil remove from fire and add chopped coriander leaves.