Mathanga Erissery / Pumpkin Erissery

Erissery is an essential part of Kerala Sadya or Onam Sadya. Erissery can be cooked with different ingredients like mathanga, chena, Kaya or it can be cooked with a combination of vanpayar too. The cooking method will be the same in all. Here is how I make Mathanga Erissery....

Mathanga Erissery / Pumpkin Erissery

Ingredients:

Mathanga / Pumpkin - 2 cups, diced

Green chilly - 1, chopped
Salt to taste
Grind Together:

Grated coconut - ½ cup
Turmeric powder - ¼ tsp
Green chillies - 3
Cumin seeds - ½ tsp
Garlic - 1 clove
For Tempering:

Coconut Oil - 1 ½ tbsp
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Dried red chillies - 2, torn into 2 pieces 
Curry leaves - 2 strands

Small onion / Chumannulli - 3-4, sliced

Ginger - ½ tsp, chopped

Grated coconut - 1 tablespoon 

Method:

• Cook mathanga / pumpkin with chopped green chilly, salt and enough water. Mash pumpkin well with the back of a spoon.
• Grind coconut and all the other ingredients to a fine paste. Add ground paste to the cooked Pumpkin, Let it cook on low flame for 5-8 mins. Remove from heat.
• Heat oil in another pan and splutter mustard seeds. Add small onion, red chillies, curry leaves, ginger and coconut and fry till brown. 
• Pour this over the erissery, mix well and serve hot with rice. 

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Nadan Parippu Curry / Kerala Dal Curry

Parippu curry is a typical Kerala side dish for rice and also one of the main dish of Kerala Sadya or Onam Sadya. I usually make parippu curry with toor dal, but some people make it with Moong dal (cherupayar parippu / split yellow gram). If using moong dal, you have to dry roast it first to enhance the flavour and then cook in a pressure cooker.  If Parippu curry is served with hot rice, pappad and ghee you don’t need any other curry for rice.

Nadan Parippu Curry / Kerala Dal Curry

Ingredients:

Toor Dal / Thuvara Parippu - 1 cup

A pinch of turmeric powder

Grind Together:

Grated Coconut - ½ cup

Cumin seeds / Jeerakom - ½ tsp

Shallots / Chumannulli - 2

Garlic – 1 clove

Green Chillies - 3-4

For Tempering:

Coconut Oil - 2 tsp

Ghee -2 tsp

Mustard Seeds / Kaduku - ½ tsp

Shallots / Chumannulli - 2, sliced

Curry Leaves - 2 strands

Red Chillies - 2, torn into 2 pieces

Method:

• Grind coconut with the rest of the ingredients adding 3 to 4 table spoons water to a smooth paste and keep aside.
• Pressure cook washed toor dal with 3 cups of water and a pinch of turmeric powder for 8 whistles on medium flame.  Once done, mash well to a smooth paste with the back of a spoon.
• Add ground paste, salt and enough water to the mashed dal. Let it cook on low flame for 5-8 mins. Remove from heat.
• Heat oil and ghee in another pan and splutter mustard seeds. Add small onion, curry leaves and red chillies. Fry till small onion becomes golden brown. Remove from fire and pour everything over cooked dal. Mix well.
• Serve with rice and pappad and a drizzle of some ghee.

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Palak Paneer / Indian Cottage Cheese in Spinach Gravy

Palak Paneer is a popular paneer dish served in road side dhabas and in restaurants. Lightly fried paneer is cooked in a pureed spinach-tomato gravy. Goes well with boiled rice, chapathi or Nan.

Palak Paneer / Indian Cottage Cheese in Spinach Gravy

(Recipe adapted from NitaMehta's Paneer All the way)

Ingredients: 

Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese) - 200 gms, cut in to 1" cubes

Palak (Spinach) - 1/2kg (1 bunch)

Onions - 2

Ginger - 1" piece

Garlic  - 5 cloves

Tomatoes - 2 medium, chopped

Green chillies - 2, chopped

Red chilly powder -1 tsp

Cardamom powder - ¼  tsp

Ghee - 3 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method:

• Wash and chop palak. Cook with 1/2 cup water for 10 minutes on low flame after the first boil. Cool and grind to a smooth paste.
• Grind onions, garlic and ginger together.
• Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a non-stick pan and slightly fry cubed paneer. Drain and keep aside.
• Heat rest of ghee in the same pan. Add onion paste and cook till onions turns golden and ghee separates.
• Add chopped tomatoes and green chillies. Cook for 5-6 minutes on slow fire, till ghee separates.
• Add ground palak, add a little water if too thick.
• Cook for 6-8 minutes on slow fire. Add salt.
• Add cardamom powder and fried paneer. Mix well and remove from fire.
• At the time of serving, heat 1 tbsp ghee,add 1 tsp red chilly powder. Remove from fire and pour this over the heated palak paneer.
• Mix well and serve at once with Rice,Chapathi, Paratha or Nan

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Kerala Chicken Stew Recipe / Kozhi Stew

Stew or Ishtew is a mildly spicy and creamy Kerala special delicacy which goes very well with appam,bread, puttu, chapathi etc. In most Kerala Christian families, Christmas or Easter breakfast is incomplete without appam and chicken or mutton stew. Stew has to be white in colour and you have to make sure not to brown the onion while sautéing. Cashew nut paste will enhance the flavor and make the gravy thick and creamy.

Kerala Chicken Stew Recipe / Kozhi Stew
Ingredients: 

Chicken - ½ kg (cut in to medium pieces, I used boneless chicken)

Potato - 1 small, cubed

Carrot - 1 small, cubed

Onion - 1, thinly sliced

Green chillies - 4, slit

Ginger - 1 tsp, finely chopped

Garlic - 1 tsp, finely chopped

Cinnamon sticks - 1 inch x2 pieces

Cardamom - 4

Cloves - 4

Black peppercorns - 1 tsp

Medium thick coconut milk - 3 cups

Thick coconut milk - 1 cup

Cashew nuts - 6 - 8 ground to a fine paste

Curry leaves - few

Salt - to taste

Coconut oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan and add cinnamon sticks, cardamom, cloves, black peppercorns and sauté. Add onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies and curry leaves and stir fry until they becomes soft and translucent. (make sure not to brown the onion).
• Add chicken pieces and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until the meat is lightly seared.
• Add cubed potatoes and carrots, medium think coconut milk and salt, and cook for 15-20 minutes over medium heat until the chicken, carrot and potatoes are fully cooked.
• Add cashew nut paste, thick coconut milk and vinegar, mix well and simmer for 2 minutes or until you get the required thickness.
• Serve hot with palappam, vellayappam, Idiyappam, Puttu, Chapathi or bread.

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Fish Tikka

Tried this recipe after seeing a popular cookery show, Annie’s Kitchen.  It came out really well so thought of sharing it with you. You can either grill or bake tikkas in the oven, use an electric toaster grill or on stove top. It’s a very easy and hassle free recipe. You can marinate the fish pieces and keep it overnight in the fridge before grilling. It is a perfect recipe to serve as a starter or as a main or side dish. A great addition to a party menu :) :) ...

Fish Tikka

Ingredients:

Boneless Fish - 1kg {can use Neymeen (Seer fish),  Motha (King fish) or any thick boneless fish pieces}

Onion -1 cup, cut into 1 ½“pieces

Tomato -1 cup, cut into 1 ½“pieces (remove seeds)

Capscium – 1 cup, cut into 1 ½“pieces

Butter – 3 tbsp

For the marinade:

Ginger paste - 2 tsp

Garlic paste – 2 tsp

Green chilly paste- 4 tsp

Mint leaves paste – 2 tsp

Ajwain powdered / Ayamodakam podi -1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Dried fenugreek leaves / Kasoori methi- ½ tsp

Lightly roasted Besan/ chickpea flour/ kadala maavu - 2 tsp

Hung Curd (yogurt) - 4 tsp

Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp

Lemon juice -2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method:

• Cut into 1 ½ inch pieces and rub the fish with little salt and vinegar to remove the fishy odour. Keep aside for 5 minutes. Wash well and pat dry on a kitchen towel.
• Mix all the marinade ingredients in a big bowl and add fish pieces and mix well to coat all the marinade to the fish pieces. Keep aside for half hour. (you can keep this marinated fish overnight in the fridge).
• Just before grilling, add onion, capsicum and tomato pieces to the marinated fish and well.
• Skewer the fish and vegetables alternately on skewers or tooth picks.
• If you are using an oven, place the skewered tikkas on the wire rack. Brush tikkas with melted butter and grill for 10-15 minutes overturning them every few minutes.
• If you are using stove top, melt little butter in a non-stick tava, add skewered fish tikkas and grill on medium flame until all sides are lightly browned and fish is cooked well.
• Serve hot decorated with lemon wedges and pudina chutney or sauce.

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Grilled Chilli Lime Chicken Fajita Salad

This salad caught my eye when I first saw the picture on the net. Tender and juicy chicken grilled in a chilli lime marinade and served with avocado slices, grilled capsicum, onion and lettuce. The best part of this recipe is that the marinade is also used as a dressing. Just make the marinade and use half of it to marinate chicken and other half can be kept in the fridge to use as dressing. We really loved this flavourful salad and is a great addition to a party menu :) 

Grilled Chilli Lime Chicken Fajita Salad

(Recipe from here)

Ingredients:

Marinade/Dressing:

3 tablespoons olive oil

100ml (just over ⅓ cup) freshly squeezed lime juice

2 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander leaves

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon red chilli flakes 

½ teaspoon ground Cumin

1 teaspoon salt

Salad:

4 boneless chicken

½ yellow bell pepper, deseeded and sliced

½ red bell pepper, deseeded and sliced

½ an onion, sliced

5 cups lettuce leaves, washed and dried

2 avocados, sliced

Extra coriander leaves to garnish

Sour cream (optional) to serve

Method:

• Whisk marinade ingredients together to combine. Pour half the marinade into a shallow dish to marinade the chicken fillets for two hours if time allows. Refrigerate the reserved untouched marinade to use as a dressing.
• Heat about one teaspoon of oil in a grill pan or skillet over medium-high heat and grill chicken fillets on each side until golden, crispy and cooked through. (Grill in batches to prevent excess water being released.) Once chicken is cooked, set aside and allow to rest.
• Wipe pan over with paper towel; drizzle with another teaspoon of oil and fry pepper and onion strips until cooked to your liking.
• Slice chicken into strips and prepare salad with leaves, avocado slices, peppers, onion strips and chicken. Drizzle with remaining marinade/dressing and serve with extra coriander leaves and sour cream.

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Kerala Style Beetroot Pachadi / Beetroot in Yogurt and Coconut Gravy

Wishing you all a Very Happy and Prosperous Onam :) :)

It is Onam today and I was hoping to post some Onam sadhya recipes at least this time around!  But as usual just after summer vacation I was trying hard to settle down here.... School re-opened for my son and they are getting ready for their first semester exams by next week....  So in between all this, I didn’t even get time to update the blog which was idle for the last 2 months.... I tried my best to reply to the comments and queries, but if I have missed any please let me know.... Today I thought of sharing the recipe of Beetroot Pachadi the way I make it. I don’t know if it is the traditional way.... Some people don’t add coconut, but somehow I like pachadi this way.... Here is a list of a very few Onam special recipes I have posted earlier, if in case you are searching for any :)....

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Falafel Salad

This salad recipe was shared by my friend, Neethu in Kuwait. A classic Arabic salad and a party pleaser too.... You can prepare falafel ahead of time and fry them just before preparing the salad. For healthier options you can even bake or grill the falafel.... you can add any leafy vegetable like spinach, cabbage etc to the salad.... 

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Spicy Barbecue Sauce Recipe

I always keep a bottle of barbecue sauce in my kitchen and I add a little when I make chicken for pizza topping or in sandwiches or while grilling chicken, fish etc.  I used to make homemade Tomato Sauce when tomatoes are in season … When I saw this Barbecue recipe in a burger book, I tried it and it came out really good. It is easy to make but a little time consuming and definitely healthier than the store bought ones as it does not contain any preservatives … Here is how I made Spicy Barbecue Sauce…

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Tomato Jam Recipe

My mom was an expert in jam making and I have already posted her Mixed fruit jam and Banana jam recipe... But this Tomato Jam was something new I learned from my mother-in-law... she used to make it frequently and she passed her recipe to me... recently while flipping through my recipe collection I noticed this one and realized that I haven’t made it in years!.... It was my hubby’s favorite jam while he was a kid and he used to eat straight from the bottle and still does the same :D.... Try this tomato jam when tomatoes are in season but make sure not to overcook it.... if you cook more it will become very hard and sticky after cooling....  

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Pazham Jam Recipe / Banana Jam Recipe

I grew up watching amma making different kinds of jam according to the seasonal fruits available. The varieties she made included mixed fruit, pineapple and Pazham (banana) jam.... and if you ask me which is my favorite, the answer without hesitation will be Pazham Jam :)...I love it to the core... This banana jam we made while I was in Kerala last summer, I know almost a year back :D… When I went for a short visit to my aunt’s place she had lot of Palayan kodan pazhams in her backyard.... I ate a lot of them and then she made a bottle of jam for me as she knows how much I like banana jam :)...

Pazham jam is a Kerala specialty and it is best made out of Palayan Kodan pazham (sorry I don’t know the English translation), a smaller variety of bananas available in Kerala. The jam get’s its deep reddish colour from the quality of the banana used... unlike other regular jam’s pazham jam will be little watery in consistency and if you cook more it will become very hard and sticky.... You can use other types of bananas but the colour and the taste will definitely vary....

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Nelllikka Chammanthi Recipe / Amla Chutney Recipe / Indian Gooseberry Chutney Recipe

Everybody knows the nutritional benefits of Nellikka / Amla / Indian gooseberries. I buy some whenever it’s available and the best way to eat it is raw dipped in some salt.... Sometimes I make wine, pickles, chutney and once in a while I even throw it in the blender and make juice.... If you haven’t tried it as chutney do try this tongue tickling chutney..... 

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Chicken with Bell Peppers

I have been making this for quite some time and it’s a Ree Drummond recipe. The original recipe is with Beef and here I used chicken instead, but I have tried beef also many times and both are equally good.... The main thing we love about this curry is that it goes with almost anything like rice, noodles or even with chapathi.....  It can be served as a side dish or as a main dish after mixing it with some noodles..... 

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Arabic Stuffed Zucchini in Tomato Sauce / Kousa Mihshi Recipe

Kousa Mihshi (Stuffed Zucchini) is an Arabic main dish and widely popular in this region. Minced beef / lamb is mixed with raw rice and spices and then stuffed inside the cored Kousa / koosa (marrow squash / Arabic zucchini) and cooked in tomato paste. I used minced chicken instead of red meat.... I got the basic recipe from my maid and then I searched on the net and made this dish to suit our taste buds.... While searching the net I remember reading on one site that you can make a vegetarian version of this dish by replacing the meat with chopped mushrooms, I never tried it though.... If you like zucchini you will enjoy this mildly spiced dish. Serve as a main dish along with some nice salad.... 

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Saucy Paneer Recipe

Since it is the Lent Season vegetarian recipes are much in demand.... deciding the daily menu without any non-veg dish is challenging for a Christian family :D.... Since Paneer is loved by almost all I thought of sharing this Saucy Paneer recipe with you today.... with just a couple of sauces you can make this curry very quickly and it goes well with fried rice, noodles or even with chapathi.....  If you don’t have 8 to 8 sauce at home you can easily omit it or substitute with sweet and sour sauce like I do when I run out.... Instead of paneer you can also use Tofu for a vegan version..... Check out the other Paneer recipes I posted earlier too.....

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Pacha Manga Chammanthi / Raw Mango Chutney

Pacha Manga Chammanthi, every Malayalis’ favorite with a bowl of kanji and pappadom.... This simple tongue tickling dish is best when prepared on an Arakallu but in modern kitchens we have to make do with the small wet grinding jar of our mixer grinder.... This is best when made with Kanthari mulaku/ bird’s eye chillies and if that’s not available you can use green chillies or dry red chillies.... Make sure not to add any water while grinding.... usually manga chammanthi is serverd with rice but it can be eaten as a quick snack by spreading between bread slices....

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Passion Fruit Frozen Yogurt Recipe

When Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt was introduced in Kuwait a couple of years back there used to be a huge queue in front of the shop and we literally had to wait for at least an hour to get a scoop of frozen yogurt.... and it’s a very rare sight to see Kuwaitis wait patiently to get something :P.... Now Pinkberry has opened lot of outlets all over Kuwait and the novelty has worn off and so have the queues.....We love Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt and undoubtedly a die-hard fan of Passion Fruit, I tried to recreate this at home using the recipe from David Lebovitz's  The Perfect Scoop..... I have added some Passion fruit puree to his basic Vanilla frozen Yogurt recipe and it tasted awesome and very similar to Pinkberry’s Passion Fruit Yogurt....

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Poached Pears in Homemade Grape Wine

I was thinking of making this for quite some time and now that pears are in season I decided to go ahead. It turned out to be one of the most elegant and perfect fruit dessert I have made in recent times!  Pears cooked in spiced wine will pair with anything you can come up with whether it’s served with a dollop of ice cream, whipped cream, marscapone, crèmefraiche, devonshire cream ,chocolate sauce, custard or as a topping for plain cake, crepes, waffles or simply as it is; truly amazing.... As this can be made and stored ahead it’s a perfect dessert for parties.... You can use either red wine or white wine, store bought or homemade.... Spices can be added according to taste.... I tailor-made this to suit our personal taste..... so you are free to + / - any ingredients..... colour of the poached pears depends upon the colour of wine you use and mine was homemade light red wine, so my pears didn't turn out deep red... try this lovely dessert this season and I am sure you will love it..... 

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Empanada Gallega ~ September 2012 Daring Bakers’ Challenge

Patri of the blog, Asi SonLos Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

Empanada (or empada, in Portuguese) is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried in many countries in Western Europe, Latin America, and parts of Southeast Asia. The name comes from the Galician, Portuguese and Spanish verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread.The filling for empanada can vary, meat, chicken, cheese, fruit and vegetables. It is really up to your taste and preference and there is plenty of room for creativity. It can be served warm or cold. I chose to make individual sized empanadas instead of one big one and I used ground meat filling with some slight differences.

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Nutritious Milagai Podi Recipe

Milagai podi / Idli/ Dosa podi is very common in South Indian homes... There are many recipes for this powder with minor differences.... I got the idea for this nutritious Milagai podi from my cousin’s mother in law, Sashi aunty; she told me, while making, she used to add different types of nuts, dals, beans etc for her grand kids.... So I also thought my dosa loving son may like this and made a batch of it.... But he prefers Sambar for his dosa.... But I know a lot of kids loves have dosa spreading Milagai podi on top of it… so if your kids loves Milagai podi try this nutritious one next time when you make..... just add little bit of different types of nuts. beans and dals, roast well and powder together.....  

Nutritious Milagai  Podi Recipe 

Ingredients:

Dried Red Chillies – 3 cups (45gm)

Urad Dal / Uzhunnu Parippu – 1 cup

Bengal gram dal / Kadala Parippu – 1 ½ tsp

Parboiled Rice / Ari - ¼ cup

Black Sesame seeds / Ellu – 1 tbsp

Curry Leaves – 12

Black Pepper / Kurumulaku – 2tbsp

Salt to taste

Sesame oil / Nallenna – 1 tbsp

Additional Ingredients to make it Nutritious:

Almonds / Badam -2 tbsp

Cashew nuts – 2 tbsp

Pistachios / Pista – 2 tbsp

Soybean – 2 tbsp

Thuar dal / Thuvara parippu – 2 tbsp

Method:

• Heat a wok and add oil and roast the red chillies, taking care not to burn them, in a low flame till the colour changes and its aroma comes out. Remove chillies and keep aside.
• In the same wok roast all dals and all other ingredients separately until deep brown stirring continuously.
• Cool the roasted ingredients and powder altogether in a mixie till you get a slightly coarse powder.
• Store this in an airtight container for several weeks.
• When needed, mix 2 or 3 tbsp of this powder with 1 tbsp of Coconut oil and serve with Dosa or Idli. 

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