Daily Archives: November 19, 2013

Nonbhu kanji

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

A staple dish we mainly use to break our fast during the month of Ramadan . This is my mother – in – laws recipe . Light flavoured Rice porridge , soothing to the tummy after a long days fast . It is usually served with a brinjal chuntny , samsa ( samosa , this is how they pronounce at my hubby’s place ) , cutlets , paruppu vadai or any deep fried snack . A soup bowl full is filling to the tummy .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Broken basmati rice	1 cup heaped
fenugreek seeds	1/4 teaspoon
cumin seeds	1/4 teaspoon
garlic flakes	2
small onions	6
green chillies	2 slit
coriander leaves chopped	1 teaspoon
mint leaves	1/2 teaspoon
thick coconut milk	1 cup
water	6 cups
salt	to taste
ghee	1 table spoon
mustard seeds	1/4 teaspoon
cinnamon	1
clove	1
cardamom	1
curry leaves	4
ginger garlic paste	1/4 teaspoon

Method

Pressure cook , washed rice , small onions , garlic flakes , green chillies , mint leaves , coriander leaves , fenugreek seeds , cumin seeds along with the water for 4 to 5 whistles .
Add salt to taste and coconut milk . Mix well adjust the consistency to a flowing thick porridge adding water if needed .
Bring to boil . Heat ghee in a pan , crackle the mustard seeds , add the cinnamon , clove , cardamom , cut small onions 4 , curry leaves and ginger garlic paste .
Fry to brown and crisp and pour over the kanji and mix well .
Serve hot with brinjal chuntny .

Brinjal chuntny ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Brinjals	1/4 kg chopped (boiled with salt and water)
dry red chillies	3 fried to crisp
tamarind	a huge pinch
coconut	1/4 cup
salt	to taste
oil	1 table spoon
mustard seeds	1/4 teaspoon
urad dhal	1/4 teaspoon
curry leaves	few
onion	1 small chopped

Brinjal chuntny method

Blitze together coconut , tamarind , roasted red chillies and salt to taste to a coarse paste without adding water .
Add the the boiled brinjal and blitze again till all combine together . Taste and adjust and set aside .
Heat oil crackle mustard seeds , urad dal , curry leaves . Top with chopped onions and fry to translucent .
Add the brinjal chuntny and mix well .
Remove from heat and serve with kanji .

Murugga keerai poriyal

Preparation Time : 30 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

This is my grand mom balkees periyas recipe ( dads mom )very rarely did I get permission to stay with my cousins and grand Mom in Coimbatore at my uncles place ( dads last twin brothers ) as my grand mother used to live with them it was the place where all my aunts ( six of them , dads sisters ) and their children used to come often . Huge gang of people always in all age groups were there . I remember my 2 chachis , ( Mehar chachi and Shameem chachi ) sitting in a black bench sort of a sofa cleaning and cutting a lot of vegetables for lunch . Grandma used to cook . Once the vegetables are done it was served to the kids in small plates as a snack by 11.30 . I loved Murungga keerai that was served to me . After I started cooking wanted the recipe for this dish but my grand mom never let’s her recipes out , so had asked her to make it for me and quietly took note of how she prepared it .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Drumstick leaves	4 cups ( leaves alone )
coconut water of	2 coconuts
small onions	1 hand full sliced into rounds thinly
garlic	1/2 hand full sliced into rounds thinly
green chillies	2 chopped
coconut	1/2 cup grated
coconut oil	1 tablespoon

Method

Seperate the leaves from the stem and wash , clean and drain . Set aside .
In a kadai add small onions , garlic , green chillies and coconut water . Bring to boil .
Top with the drumstick leaves and cover with a lid , stirring every 3 minutes once till all the coconut water is dried out and the leaves are cooked .
Add little water if needed . Season with salt and add the grated coconut and coconut oil . Mix well .
Simmer for 3 minutes till all the flavours infuse together .
Serve hot or at room temperature with boiled rice as a side dish for lunch or with kanji .

Kayipola

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 40 minutes

Serving : 6 members

Description

A malabar authentic sweet dish . My favourite cuisine is malabar cuisine . From my childhood days have heard a lot about malabar cuisine And did get to taste and eat a lot as well from my friend gazeena sulu kunahameds home .( packed from her home to boarding school after holidays ) but my quest to gain knowledge about the malabar cuisine happened very recently after I got into food blogging . I took note of so many recipes from my most liked food pages I follow from the net . This recipe is also one among them . I think this is from yummy , yummy to the tummy . Tried it out when my gal was here . It was yum . ( I finished 3/4 of the entire kayapola . )

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Kerala plantain ( nentharam pazlam )	4 sliced
Milk	1 cup
Oil or ghee	to fry the bananas + 1 tablespoon
Sugar	to taste
Egg	1
Cardamom	2 crushed
Rose water	1 teaspoon

Method

Shallow fry the sliced banana pieces in oil or ghee to brown and set aside . Beat milk , eggs , cardamom crushed , sugar and rose water together .
Grease a non stick small pan with 1 tablespoon ghee . Layer the base with fried banana slices , pour half the amount aof the milk egg mixture .
Cover and cook in very low flame for 15 minutes until egg mixture gets dried up . Make sure not to burn the bottom .
Turn the side and pour the other half of the egg milk mixture and cook for another 15 minutes in low flame till egg mixture is dried up .
Remove to a serving plate , cut and serve hot .

Diet tuna Fish cutlet

Preparation Time : 25 minutes

Cooking Time : 8 to 10 minutes

Serving : 6 members

Description

2 weeks back got a message in sauté, fry n bake from grace Joseph of taxsas asking me for a healthy recipe for tuna fish cutlet Without useing potatoes and shallow frying instead baking . Broke my head over this message . Squeezed out my brains to come up with a healthy recipe . The word healthy to me relates to fruits and veggies . The next thing is wheat so instead of potato I substituted wheat bread , but has to be tasty also and the consistency should resemble potato . Soak the bread in water and squeeze out but taste again will be missing . Then I substituted water with salted butter milk . Followed the recipe as I do for normal fish cutlets but used egg whites instead of whole egg to dip the cutlets and rolled them in wheat bread crumbs seasoned with herbs , salt and pepper . Olive oil sprayed it and baked it . Worked wonders . Tasted so yum and was healthy too . Thanks grace Joseph to have asked me for a recipe as such . Other wise my brain is restricted towards diet recipes . (Not bad my brain is still alert and working a bit . )

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Fish	1/4 kg boneless skin removed
wheat bread slices	8
salted butter milk	2 1/2 cups
onion	1 big chopped
green chillies	1 chopped
coriander leaves	1 tablespoon chopped
salt and pepper	to taste
garam masala powder	1/4 teaspoon
olive oil	1 teaspoon
chilli powder	1/2 teaspoon
turmeric powder	1/4 teaspoon
ginger garlic paste	1/4 teaspoon each
wheat bread crumbs	2 cups
Chilli flakes	1 teaspoon
olive oil	spray
egg whites	2

Method

Cook fish with salt to taste , turmeric powder , ginger garlic paste and little water . Cook to dry and shread the fish , keep aside .
Soak the wheat bread slices in salted butter milk and squeeze out the liquid and keep aside .
Heat a non stick kadai with olive oil , fry the onion and green chillies to translucent . Top with fish , chilli powder , pepper powder and salt to taste , garam masala powder . Sauté for a minute .
Add a squeeze of lime And coriander leaves . Mix well . Add the squeezed wheat bread slices and mix well till all the flavours and ingredients combine together . Remove from heat and set aside .
Mix chopped coriander leaves , chilli flakes and salt to taste to the wheat bread crumbs . Mix well . Beat egg withes wig salt and pepper to taste .
Make lemon size balls out of the fish wheat bread mixture . Dip the ball into egg whites and roll in wheat bread crumbs mixture . Shape into circles or desired shapes .
Do the same with the remaining . Place a foil paper on a baking tray , place the cutlets . Oil spray on both sides of cutlets and bake for 2 minutes on each side till crisp crusts are formed .
Serve hot with tomato ketchup .

Chocolate Brownie Fudge

A yummy dessert so rich in chocolate . It has a very thin cracked hard crust and a fudgey base .it needs no sauce or anything to accompany it , can be had just like as it is . If you want to make it look even more appealing serve it with venilla ice Cream or any berries made this a few days back just like that no guests or kids at home . My hubby had just 2 slices , the rest ………. Ok I myself gobbled the rest .( not all at once ) I had the nigella lawson moment where you are drawn to sneak towards your refrigerator to have a sinfull indulgence . When I eat I just enjoy the moment but afterwards feel so bad about eating . Wonder why I am not able to change this one thing in me .

Ingredients
Butter melted – 1/2 cup , eggs – 2 beaten , cocoa powder – 1/3 cup , baking powder – 1/4 teaspoon , sugar – 1 cup , flour – 1/2 cup , vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon , salt – 1/4 teaspoon , chopped nuts – 1/2 cup ( I used peacan nuts , can use cashewnuts , almonds , walnuts or pistachio ) chocolate chips – 1/2 cup ( I used Cadbury milk chocolate chopped )

Method ;
Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius . Grease a 9 inch square baking pan . I usually when ever baking a cake prefer to cover the base and sides ( a bit higher than the sides of the baking tray as it will be easier to life the cake once done ) with foil paper or butter sheet . Then grease . Mix sugar , melted butter and vanilla essence together and mix well . Add the beaten eggs . Mix well till the sugar dissolves . Sift together baking powder , flour , salt and cocoa powder three times . Gradually add it to the egg mixture . Mix till it is nicely incorporated and well blended . Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts . Spread the batter in the greased baking pan . Bake for 30 to 40 minutes . Remove and cool completely . Cut into squares and serve .

Stuffed Bun

Preparation Time : 30 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serving : 8 members

Description

My friend fathima had come to Coimbatore for shopping once when I was there . She stayed in her sister – in – law Farzanas( farju , thats how she addresses her ) house . It was a 2 day trip . The entire day we used to shop together and hang around . It was great fun . On her way back to Salem she dropped into my place to bid me bye . She handed a box to me asking me to eat it . The box was warm . Opened to check what it was . Saw 3 pav bhajibuns toasted on all sides . I was like where is the veg gravy (bhaji ) for the pav ( buns ) . Called her to find out if she forgot to drop the gravy . She laughed her guts out telling me it’s stuffed bun made by Farju . Dum me , then I tasted it . God it was so very yummy . I tried it once I got Back home . Turned out well and every one liked it .the stuffed buns Which fathima had given had onion masala filling with 1/2 boiled egg inside . Here my filling is with chicken and vegetables .

Happy snaking on a wonderful Sunday.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Pav bhaji buns	8
egg	1 beaten with salt and pepper to taste
ghee or oil	4 teaspoons to toast the buns

For Filling

Ingredients	Quantity
Boneless chicken	1 cup ( boiled with little turmeric powder 1/4 teaspoon ginger , garlic paste salt to taste along with little water and shredded )
mixed vegetables	1 cup ( carrot, beans , capsicum , cabbage , green peas ) chopped
onion	1/4 cup chopped
oil	2 teaspoons
chilli flakes	to taste
pepper powder and salt	to taste
lime	a squeeze

Method

Heat oil in a kadai . Add onions and vegetables and sauté for 5 to 8 minutes . Top with the cooked shredded chicken and mix well .
Add salt , pepper and chilli flakes . Toss well and fry for 2 minutes . Finally squeeze lime , mixing well . Taste and adjust .
Remove from heat and cool completely . Set aside .
Make a square on the under part of the pav bun with a knife . Keep the square part aside .
Remove the inside part of the bun with your fingers to get a hollow space in the bun to stuff the filling inside .
Carefully stuff the hollow space of bun with the filling . Dip the square lid of the bun under part in the beaten egg and close the stuffed bun .
Mix 1/2 teaspoon of removed bun crumbs with little beaten egg to get a paste . Use this paste to seal the square lid all around .
Heat oil or ghee in a tawa and fry the stuffed bun on the sealed part first as to cover the stuffed part together . Fry in low flame on all sides to a golden colour . Serve hot with tomato sauce and masala tea .

Pazlam Pori

Preparation : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 8 to 10 minutes

Serving : 8 members

Description

Pazlam varuthathu or pazlam pori as we call it at home . A regular snack in all the house holds in Palghat . It is so tasty that it needs no sauce or chuntny To accompany . As it gets fried , we eat it then and there even before it comes to the table to be served . My native place is Palghat .my mother is from Palghat and dads native is a small village called puthunaram near Palghat ( but my grand father migrated to Coimbatore even before my dad was born to start textile business ) my roots are stuck with Palghat a lot . We are a confused lot of people as we talk Tamil at home but live in Kerala . The Tamils call us mallu (kanji) as we live in Palghat but people in Kerala call us tamilians ( pandy ) as we talk Tamil at home . Have to mention about the Tamil spoken in Palghat as it is 3/4 Malayalam and 1/4 Tamil . In any case we are tamilians from Kerala .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Kerala plantain ( netharam palazlam as known in Tamil )	2 peeled , cut into 2 and sliced into 1/2 inch thick slices long
maida	2 cups
rice flour	1/4 cup
sugar	100 gm
soda- bi- carbonate	a pinch
salt	a pinch
water	1 cup or more
oil	to deep fry

Method

Mix maida , rice flour , sugar, salt and soda – bi – carbonate together .
Add water gradually to get a thick batter of bajji batter consistency .
Make sure no lumps are formed and the sugar is dissolved completely . Set aside for 15 minutes .
Heat oil to deep fry in a deep kadai . Dip the plantain slice into the batter making sure the batter has coated the plantain slice all around well and deep fry to a pale golden colour to crisp .
Drain on absorbent paper and serve hot

Sothi

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Serving : 4 to 6 members

Description

A mind bobbling yummy vegetarian gravy dish very own to the Pillai community people of tirunelveli . I first had this dish at my father – in – laws Elder brothers house . This dish is usually served with iddiappam or boiled rice . The side dish for Sothi is enggi pachadi ( ginger chuntny ) . I am a very bad vegetarian . I used to hate the sight of vegetables on my plate . I did my schooling in a boarding school . Our diet was so balanced so the amount of vegetables served to us was a lot . Every table of 10 children had a teacher sitting with us to check if we ate well and right . To add upon this check we had a duty teacher who used come at the end of every meal to check if any thing was not consumed by us . Was way too much irritating then but I thank all my teachers and mam ellasama thomas specially who did this to us . Now , even I follow a diet chart at home very similar to school with 2 vegetables for lunch and a fruit after lunch .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Carrot	1 big cubied
potato	1 big cubied
beans	5 cut into 1 inch long pieces
drum stick	1 cut into finger length pieces
small onions	1 hand full cut into half
green chillies	6 slit
moong dal	50 gm
thin coconut milk	2 cups
thick coconut milk	1 cup
roasted chick pea powder ( chuntny dal or pottu kadalai as we call in Tamil )	4 teaspoons
salt	to taste
coconut oil	4 tablespoons
cummin seeds	1 teaspoon
curry leaves	1 strand

Method

Pressure cook carrot , potato , beans , small onion , green chillies , moong dal along with little water enough to cook the vegetable and dal for one whistle .
Boil the drum stick with salt seperately . Add boiled drum stick to the vegetables .
Pour think coconut milk and simmer mixing well . Mix roasted chick pea powder with thick coconut milk making sure no lumps are formed .
Pour over the simmering vegetables and mix well to get a thick pouring consistency gravy of pale yellow colour .
Add salt to taste . Taste and adjust . Remove from heat .
Do not boil the gravy as the coconut milk might curdle . Heat coconut oil add cumin seeds and curry leaves .
Once they crackle , pour over the Sothi and mix well .
Serve hot with iddiappam or boiled rice .

American chop suey

Preparation Time : 45 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

My favourite chinies dish . My mother used to accompany dad to help him out in work at our saree shop in Coimbatore every day . So my holidays were always no parents at home most of the time ,but even we were taken along with them to our shop often . Family time at home was so rare . It happened only once in a blue moon . In one among the blue moon occasions , we had lunch ordered a take away , from a three star hotel surya (Now its vivantha taj ) I usually order only new wired names from the menu . I did order american chop suey . I remember we all were watching a scary English movie in the down bed room having lunch together . The American chop suey was so yum but the movie was not letting me enjoy the meal and company of my parents and brother .

Ingredients for Sauce

Ingredients	Quantity
Onion	2 sliced
carrot	1 juliens
beans	6 juliens
cabbage	1 cup shredded
capsicum ( red , yellow , green )	1 cup
light soya sauce	1 teaspoon
chilli sauce	1 1/2 teaspoon
vinegar	1 teaspoon
tomato sauce	1/4 cup
sugar	1 teaspoon
cornflour	1 1/2 teaspoon diluted in 1/4 cup water
salt	to taste
garlic	2 flakes crushed
pepper	to taste
chilli flakes	to taste
oil	2 teaspoon

Ingredients for Fried Noodles

Ingredients	Quantity
1 packet par boiled chinese eggnoodles	Drained and Dried on a kitchen towel
cornflour	1/4 cup
maida	1/4 cup
Salt	to taste
oil	to deep fry

Method

Heat oil in a large wok , add garlic and onions fry to translucent .
Top with all the vegetables and sauté for 5 minutes . Mix together all the sauces , vinegar , pepper , sugar and salt . Mix well . Taste and adjust .
Pour over the vegetables along with 2 cups of water or stock . Bring to boil and cook for 3 to 4 minutes .
Add the diluted cornflour and stir continuously till thick and coats the vegetables . Remove from heat and set aside .

For Fried Noodles

Mix cornflour , maida and salt to taste together .
Sprinkle over the boiled noodles and toss well making sure no moister is left on the noodles .
Heat oil to deep fry . Fry one cup noodles reducing the flame to medium to get crisp and golden colour noodles .
Drain in absorbant paper and repeat with the rest of noodles . To serve , place the fried noodles on a plate .
Ladle the vegetables sauce over the bed of fried noodles and top with the half boiled bull’s eye fried egg . Serve warm .

Steamed Apple Pudding

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Serving : 8 members

Description

Steamed apple pudding . I learnt to make this pudding at the beginning when i started to cook. I was confident with only steamed puddings then. Remember how i used to go through all the cook books possible for steamed puddings . I made it for the first time when my uncle jaffer ali came over to my place to visit me . He is not at all fussy with food even kanji (boiled rice with its starch) and payaru upperi (green gram boiled) will do for him . In fact it’s his favourite.I was so surprised when he asked me for a second helping of the steamed apple pudding . It’s that delicious and very easy to prepare with few ingredients. A regular pudding on my table very often.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
apples	2 peeled , cored and cut into thin sliced
milk	2 cups
eggs	2
sugar	1 cup +4 teaspoons
mixed fruit jam	5 tablespoons
milk powder	1 cup
vanilla Essence	1 teaspoon
butter	to grease

Method

Immerse sliced apples in water or apply little lime juice to prevent discolouring .
Pour 1/4 cup water and 4 teaspoons of sugar to the apples and cook for few minutes . Drain the syrup and set aside .
Blend eggs , milk , sugar , milk powder and vanilla essence together till sugar dissolves .
Grease a pudding dish with butter all around . Spread jam evenly on the base and sides .
Arrange stewed apples in a round decorative manner on the base of the dish on top of the jam . Press the apple pieces firmly towards the jam .
Pour the egg , milk mixture gently over the apple pieces , making sure the apples are not messed up .
Cover the dish with a lid .preheat water in a pressure cooker , place a stand in the Center . Keep the pudding dish over closed with a lid and pressure cook for 3 whistles .
Remove from heat , cool and refrigerate for 5 hours . Run a knife all around the pudding .
Turn upside down on a flat plate and serve chill .