Posts by OCS | Saute Fry N Bake

Eraal karuvadu edichathu / dry prawn powder

Preparation time : 15 minutes

Cooking time : 10 minutes
Serves : 4 members

Description:

I was gifted a bag full of these dried small prawns. I have never ever made any thing with these but have eaten a lot at my grand mothers home. Wanting to make use of these beautiful tiny dried prawns. I recollected eating a powder made with dried prawns in calicut at a restaurant that’s famous for its fish sadhya ( meal’s ). I shamelessly kept asking the waiter to serve me the podi more than three times. It was perfectly powdered with the right amount of spice, sourness and salt. I tried to replicate the same using ingredients every add for Maldives dried fish ( maasi ) edichathu at home with an addition of tamarind, garlic and curry leaves. Here I made sure to roast all the ingredients too. Made the powder and tasted it. It was in fact even better than what was served to me in calicut.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Dry Prawns / podi eraal karuvadu	1 cup
Grated Coconut	1 cup
Dried Red Chillies	6 or 8
Small Onions	4
Garlic flakes	4
Curry leaves	half hand
Tamarind	Small gooseberry size
Salt	to taste
Coconut oil	2 teaspoon

Method:

Wash the dried prawns well under running water, rinse them 2-3 times, drain out all the excess water and let it dry thoroughly. Spread it on a paper at least half hour before you cook.
Heat coconut oil and roast prawns to a golden brown for five minutes. keep it aside.
Again roast dry red chillies until they puff up. Remove and roast grated coconut with garlic,shallots and curry leaves till the coconut turns golden brown in colour and curry leaves turn crisp in low flame. Do it in low flame otherwise coconut will not be crisp and brown.
Now add tamarind and salt, mix well, cool completely.
Podi eraal karuvadu is ready. Serve it with Idli, Dosa, rice or Chapati as a side dish.

Maqlooba

Preparation time : 40 minutes
Cooking time : 1 hour
Serves : 4 members

Description:

An Arabic style one pot rice dish made with chicken, vegetables and rice together. Maqlooba in Arabic means un side up. This dish is called so as it’s presented up side down before serving. There are many variations of this very same dish. I have shared the Saudi Arabia style being loyal my bahu dear who calls the nation home. This rice preparation was made by bahu dear where I was lucky to relish this awesome guilty culprit.

Ingredients for rice

Ingredients	Quantity
Oil	2 tablespoons
Onion	One chopped
Capsicum	1 chopped
Garlic	4 crushed
Salt	to taste
Chicken	1/2 kg with skin
Pepper	1/4 teaspoon
Saudi spice mix	2 tablespoons ( recipe in the end of this recipe)
Dried black lemon	1
Spring onion	1/2 cup chopped
Water	4 cups
Basmathi rice	2 cups

Ingredients for vegetables

Ingredients	Quantity
Brinjal	1 big cubed ( if using small use 8 )
Potatoes	3 cubed
Cauliflower flower let’s	1 cup
Tomato	2 sliced thickly
Green capsicum	1 cubed
Red capsicum	1 cubed
Onions	2 sliced thickly
Oil	to shallow fry
Salt	to taste

Ingredients for tomato paste

Ingredients	Quantity
Tomatoes	4 ground
Oil	1 tablespoon
Saudi spice mix	1 teaspoon
Salt	to taste

Other ingredients

Ingrediants	Quantity
Turmeric powder	1/4 teaspoon

Method

Heat oil in a large pan. Add chopped onion, chopped capsicum and crushed garlic with salt to taste. Sauté to brown. Add chicken with skin and brown well. Top with crushed pepper powder, saudi spice powder, dried lemon and spring onions chopped. Sauté well. Add water and cook to done.
Shallow fry cubed brinjal, red capsicum, green capsicum, potato, tomato rounds, onions rings and cauliflower flower let’s to golden brown and keep aside. Sprinkle salt over the fried vegetables.
Remove cooked chicken and add washed basmati rice – 3 cups. Cook to 1/2 done.
Grind 3 tomatoes. Heat one tablespoon of oil and sauté the ground tomatoes, salt, Saudi spice mix – 1/2 teaspoon and salt to taste. Sauté until it gets to a thick paste consistency.
Divide half cooked rice into two portions. To one portion add tomato paste and mix well. To the other 1/2 add turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoon and mix well.
Take a deep non stick vessel. Lay the bottom with fried vegetables. Then top it with chicken pieces and press well. Add the tomato mixed rice and press well. Top with turmeric powder mixed rice and press well. Add one cup of remaining chicken stock. Cook over low heat covered for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and after 10 minutes. Turn the rice vessel over to a large plate and serve hot.

Arabic spice mix

Ingredients	Quantity
Black pepper	1 teaspoon
cumin seeds	1 teaspoon
fennel seeds	1 teaspoon
cardamon	4
cloves	4
cinnamon	1 big stick
coriander seeds	2 tablespoons
nutmeg	1 small piece
paprika	I used 4 dry red chilies
dried lime	I used a 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon zest

Dry roast and powder together.

Chia seed trifle

Preparation time : 30 minutes
Cooking time : nil
Serves : 4 members

Description
I am a hopeless person when it comes to cooking healthy food but my daughter does it with so much ease. This chia seeds trifle is also a trial from her side. I shamelessly steal all her ideas for serving healthy meals at home. Well being her mother, I do have the liberty of doing so, isn’t it ??

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Chia seeds	1 cup soaked in 2 cups of water over night
Strawberries	8 puréed
Ripe mango	half a cheek puréed
Hung curd	1 /2 cup
Mixed fruits ( apple , guava , ripe mango , musk melon , papaya , pomegranate)	1 cup chopped
Honey	to taste
Mixed Nuts ( almonds + cashew nuts + walnuts )	2 tablespoons chopped
Dates	2 seeds removed and chopped
Cranberries	1 teaspoon

Method

Mix 1/2 of the soaked chia seeds with the strawberries purée . Add 1/4 cup of hung curd and honey to taste . Mix well . Taste adjust sweetness.
Mix 1/2 of the soaked chia seeds with the ripe mango purée . Add 1/4 cup of hung curd and honey to taste . Mix well . Taste adjust sweetness.
Take a tall glass . Add a big ladle of strawberry chia seed mix . Add 2 tablespoons of mixed fruits . Then top with a big label of rip mango chia seed mix . Add 1 tablespoon of chopped fruits once again . Sprinkle chopped nuts , dates and cranberries.
Do the same with the remaining ingredients. Chill and serve for breakfast or as a snack or a dessert .

Cucumber poha

Preparation time : 15 minutes
Cooking time : nil
Serves : 3 members

Description:

Batkals a small Muslim community from the state of Karnataka. I didn’t know such an community existed until my bahu mentioned about them. Wanting to know more about them, I googled to find out their history. It’s said that, The Nawayaths arrived on the West Coast of India from countries including Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, as traders of spices, leather, jewelry and Arabian horses. They chose to settle there and married into another trading community of India, the Jains, who had been converted to Islam more than 1,000 years before. This led to the emergence of a new community. The people belonging to this community were characterized by facial features typical of Arabs and the fair skin of the Jains. It’s so interesting to know how a community is born. I was so fascinated with my new finding of a community that I never knew before. I grabbed the opportunity to do a batkal special ten recipe feature for a Tamil monthly magazine. That is when I got to know more about them. Their food culture is meat dominated with a lot of local produce like coconut, cucumber and other regional ingredients added to it. This one simple recipe was the best liked by me. It’s fresh, light, aromatic and apt to beat the summer heat.

Recipe

Gord faw / cucumber poha

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Poha / Aval	100 grams
Cucumber medium size	1 grated
Coconut grated	100 grams
Sugar	50 to 60 grams
Rose water	few drops
Rose essence	one drop

Method

In a bowl, mix Poha and cucumber. Set aside for ten minutes . Add coconut + sugar and mix well.
Sprinkle rose water + rose essence and mix well. Serve.

lapsi

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 10 minutes
Serves : 4 members

Description

I am sure we all Indians with no difference in caste and creed were die hard fans of the movie hum apke hai kuan. I am no exceptional to this. I really lost count of how many times I must have seen the movie. The [salty] Halwa scene.. one of the most memorable scenes from the film and a classic has always wanted me to try the North Indian version of the halwa. I ask my North Indian friends about this recipe. Each person gave me a recipe that’s a slight variation of its own. I decided to try a recipe to my convenience. As making the halwa, the salt halwa scene was playing in mind. The halwa was made with a big fat smile on my face.All I hoped for was Just a little bit of sparkling romance like Prem and nisha to happen at home after hubby dear would relish the halwa. The results of the halwa look wise was just perfect. The confident me waiting for hubby dears verdict …
He eats it with out uttering a word .. not even knowing it was a new sweet dish served to him ..
well that’s the level of romance that happened.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Qunatity
Wheat semolina	1/2 cup
Sugar	1/2 cup
Ghee	3 tablespoons
Almonds + pistachios	little to garnish
Water	2 cups
Cardamom powder	1/2 teaspoon

Method

Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed vessel. Fry the wheat semolina in low flame for seven minutes making sure the bottom does not burn.
Add water and cook over medium heat for 15-18 minutes until well cooked.
Add sugar and cardamom powder. Mix well and cook further for another seven minutes until the ghee separates.
Garnish with almonds and pistachios. Serve hot.

Notes

The same can be done using jaggery instead of sugar.
Once cooled, to reheat the lapsi. Add 2 tablespoons of milk and re – heat.

Chutney stuffed squares

Preparation time : 40 minutes
Cooking time : 15 minutes
Serves : 5 members

Description

In my early days of blogging and exploring of food recipes through the world wide net, my favourite interest’s were filled and stuffed Indian snacks ( it’s still my favourite though ). I used to take note of all the recipes that interested me in my hand written cook book. Recently while cleaning my cook book shelf in the kitchen … dusting and wiping the cook books. I just flip pages of all my hand written cook books. This very recipe caught my interest at that moment. Well, the next thing was to try it. The long process and stages of this very recipe did get me tired but it all vanished away until I had my first taste bite of this divine stuffed square. I swear .. it was a perfect all in all one bite with taste and flavour. As I am typing, there is a tsunami of saliva in my mouth .. As a matter of fact, I have to have this snack right now.

Step 1

Ingredients for the crapes

Ingredients	Quantity
Flour / maida	1 cup
Salt	to taste
Water	1/4 cup or more
Oil	little to grease

Method for crapes

Mix all the mentioned ingredients together except for oil to get a lump free loose batter.
Heat a griddle. Grease with oil. Pour a ladle of the loose batter and rotate the griddle making sure the batter is spread evenly through out to get a thin crape. Once cooked on one side, flip over and cook further for 30 seconds. Remove and keep aside . Do the same with all the batter.

Step 2

Filling ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Chicken or meat mince	boiled 1/4 kg
Ginger garlic paste	1/8 teaspoon each
Salt	to taste
Turmeric powder	1/4 teaspoon
Onions	5 big chopped
Green chillies	4 chopped
Mixed vegetables	carrots , beans , cabbage , green peas , capsicum ( red , green , yellow ) , mushrooms chopped and boiled in water with salt - 3 cups
Celery	chopped 1 teaspoon
Tomato sauce	1 teaspoon
Light soya sauce	1/4 teaspoon
Vinegar	1/4 teaspoon
Red and green chilli sauce	1/4 teaspoon each
Pepper powder	to taste
Red chilli flakes	to taste
Oil	2 tablespoons

Method for filling:

Heat oil in a non stick pan. Add onions and fry to translucent.
Add green chilies,boiled chicken or minced meat, boiled chopped mixed vegetables, celery, salt, chilli flakes and pepper to taste. Add all the sauces and vinegar.
Mix well and keep stirring for 3 minutes letting all the flavours infuse together.
Remove from heat, cool and set aside.

Step 3

Chutney ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Coriander leaves and stem	1 bunch
Garlic	4 cloves
Red dry chillies	10
Tamarind	goose burry size
Grated coconut	1/2 coconut
Oil	1 teaspoon
Jaggery	1/4 teaspoon
Salt	to taste

Method

Heat oil, fry the red dry chillies to golden. Remove, then fry all the other ingredients except for jaggery to golden separately. Remove and cool completely. Grind together along with jaggery and salt to taste in a food processor adding very little water to a coarse paste. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Step 4

Other ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Boiled eggs	3 cut into half
Eggs	2
Salt + pepper	to taste
Bread crumbs	2 cups
Oil	to shallow fry

How to proceed

Place one crape over a clean work surface. Top with 1 tablespoon of cooled filling mix in the middle. Spread it out to a square shape with in the crape.
Top with 1 teaspoon of coriander chutney and spread it over the filling.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over the cut boiled eggs. Place one half of boiled egg over the chutney. Fold the sides of the crapes towards the center. Now fold in the top and down portion of the crape in wards to get a square shape stuffed square. Do the same to all the crapes, filling, chutney and boiled eggs. Keep aside.
Beat 2 eggs with salt and pepper to taste. Toss the folded stuffed squares with beaten eggs. Remove and toss over bread crumbs making sure the bread crumbs has stuck all around well. Do the same to all the stuffed squares. Keep aside.
Heat a griddle with little oil. Shallow fry the stuffed squares to golden and crisp on both sides. Remove from heat. Cut into triangles and serve hot.

roof afza lassi

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : nil minutes
Serves : 2 members

Description

Those days of video cassette recorder’s ( VCR) where we would get a black flat box called a tape to watch movies or other recorded visual treats. It mostly would be movies. All video tape movies would have advertisements in between at least twice. Those days we could count the number of advertisements that we had the privilege to watch. I some how found all the limited edition advertisements to be so interesting. To name a few .. sionara TV, Rasna drink, Amul butter, Natraj pencil, Vicks action 500 …. oops and the Rooh afza advertisement too where a young fair good looking dude holding half a dozen of Rooh ahza sherbath in his hands along with a charming smile (he sure did melt a hell lot of teenage hearts like mine ) And then there is a voice saying …
” Greatness needs greed. Don’t let your thirst for greatness fade away. Stay refreshed and re- energised with Rooh Afza with coolest blend of 13 herbal ingredients to quench your thirst .. yet leaving you asking for more.”
( Gosh , not bad I remember every bit )
I would rewind this advertisement and watch it over and over again is when my brother would start a fight with me asking for the remote control .. which always leads to a pillow fight and then wrestling … either of us getting hurt badly and I get shouted at by mom no matter what as I am the elder sibling ( cliche happenings at most homes ).
With all theses thoughts in my mind, I ended up making this awesome lassi. Happy .. joyful moods do help to create lovely dishes always.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Curd	1 cup
Rooh afza	4 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons to garnish on top
Sugar	4 tablespoons
Sweet Milk kova	1 tablespoon
Saffron strands	few
Ice cubes	6
Ice water	2 cups
Vanilla ice cream	2 scoops
Almonds + pistachios + cashew	nuts Chopped - 2 tablespoons together

Method

Blend curd, sugar and 4 tablespoons of rooh afza together until smooth. Add ice water and ice cubes and blend further.
Pour the blended mix into two tall glasses. Top with sweet milk kova equally.sprinkle chopped nuts and place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Pour remaining rooh afza on top. Finally sprinkle few saffron strands and serve chilled.

Mirchi ka salan

Preparation time : 20 minutes
Cooking time : 15-20 minutes
Serves : 6 members

Description

Hyderabad is one place, I have not visited yet. Every holiday we plan a trip there but some how or the other it does not work out. Having a huge gang of my school mates from Hyderabad kept me glued ( and is still ) to what they all had to say all about this age old city. Though I got to hear so much about its rich cuisine, never did I get a chance to relish it. Once , at my home town in Tirunelveli. We were invited for a wedding who’s native was Hyderabad. They had served us authentic Hyderabad meal for lunch. The entire wedding hall was filled with the aroma of the Hyderabad biriyani. At the lunch table we were served a grand feast. The mirchi ka salan was my favourite that helped me to gulp in a lot of the mildly flavoured Hyderabad biriyani. Later, I managed to get the recipe from our friend’s family. Once in a while I substitute the regular ennai katharikaaei or katta with this mirchi ka Salan as an accomplishment for biriyani. When ever … where ever served it’s always followed with a “recipe please .. umm and ahh’s “.
Do I need to brag any more about this dangerously delicious side dish.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Bangalore chilly / Italian pepper ( bajji milagaaei in Tamil )	1/2 kg slit from the tail up to the middle of each chilly
Curd	300 grams
Ground onion paste	1 cup
Tamarind pulp	1/2 cup
Curry leaves	few
Poppy seeds	1 tablespoon
Turmeric powder	1 teaspoon
Cumin powder	1 tablespoon
White sesame seeds	1 tablespoon
Coriander powder	1 tablespoon
Tomato	4 ground to a paste
Fenugreek seeds	1/4 teaspoon
Ginger and garlic paste	1 teaspoon
Red chilly powder	2 teaspoons
Groundnut	1/4 cup powdered coarsely
Grated coconut	2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds	1 teaspoon
Coriander leaves	few chopped
Oil	4 tablespoons
Salt	to taste

Method

Grind white sesame seeds, grated coconut and poppy seeds together adding little water to get a smooth paste.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel. Add fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Once they crackle, top with onion paste and ginger + garlic paste. Sauté until raw smell vanishes for about five minutes, stirring constantly making sure the bottom does not burn and oil separates.
Add red chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, groundnut powder, ground tomato, curd and salt to taste. Sauté for seven minutes until oil floats on top. Add ground coconut mixture paste and mix well. Boil further for two minutes making sure the bottom does not burn.
Top with slit Bangalore chillies, tamarind paste and water as needed to cook the chillies. Mix well, cover and cool. Once the chillies are cooked, Simmer for five until oil separates. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot as a side for biriyani, plain rice and pulao.

Hyderabad lukme

Preparation time : 40 minutes
Cooking time : 20 minutes
Serves : 6 members

Description

This Hyderabad version of the mince samosa made me raise my eyebrows when I first got to see it in made in a television show. From then it was added to my to try list and only recently did I take the efforts of fulfilling it. Made with cupboard friendly ingredients with just the folding of the samosas being a tedious job. All that hard work sure flies away when you bite into the lukme with the fatty mince in it. A must try snack that sure will be added to your regulars at home.

Ingredients for the lukme cover

Ingredients	Quantity
Flour / maida	1 cup
Wheat flour / atta	1 tablespoon
Semolina	3 tablespoons
Salt	to taste
Oil	1 tablespoon
Water	little as required

Method for lukme cover

Mix flour, wheat flour, semolina, salt to taste and oil together. Sprinkle water and knead to get a smooth and tight dough for ten minutes. Keep covered for 1/2 an hour.
After 30 minutes knead the dough once again for five minutes. Roll into equal lemon size balls.

Ingredients for the filling

Ingredients	Quantity
Mutton mince	1/4 kg
Onion	1 chopped
Green chillies	1 chopped
Ginger and garlic paste	1/2 tablespoon
Red chilly powder	1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder	1/4 teaspoon
Lemon juice	1 tablespoon

Method for filling

Marinate mutton mince with red chilly powder, ginger and garlic paste, turmeric powder and salt to taste for 1/2 an hour. Pressure cook for one whistle with out water . Boil and reduce the water in the mutton mince to get a dry consistency mutton mince mixture.
Heat oil, add onion and green chillies. Sauté to golden. Add the cooked dry mutton mince and mix well to combine in low heat for five minutes. Remove from heat. Cool completely. Add the lemon juice. Mix well . Check seasoning and keep aside.

Other ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Oil	to deep fry
Flour	to dust

How to proceed

Roll out the lemon size balls to a big circle. Cut the circle with the help of a sharp knife into equal three portions.
Place one tablespoon full of mutton mince on to one cut portion in the middle. Bring both sides of the cut dough towards the centre over lapping the mutton mince to get a triangle shape. Wet the edges with water and stick together keeping the filing inside intact.
Do the same to all the dough and mutton mince.
Heat oil to deep fry. Drop the lukme in batches and deep fry to golden and crisp. Drain and serve hot with curd, coriander chutney and tomato sauce.

Karupetti kaapi / palm jaggery coffee

Preparation time : 5 minutes
Cooking time : 8 minutes
Serves : 5 members

Description

Early morning kitchen at my mother in law’s place would always have a pot full of palm sugar and ginger bubbling away in the stove top. The aroma would wake you up ( as my room was just beside the kitchen ) from your sleep signalling it’s time to wake up. Sleepy me, would enter the kitchen to get tea for hubby dear and see huge vessels of fresh cows milk and thickly set creamy full fat curd all ready to be sold out. As I never drink milk, tea or coffee .. I would just enjoy the aroma and the sight of fresh dairy produce there. Later one day hubby dear asked me to get karupetti kaapi instead of his regular masala chai. Karupetti kaapi was made in a large vessel mainly to be given to helping hands at home. It is a very lightly coloured hot drink which was watery, sweet and spiced with ginger flavour. This kaapi is had only in steel tumblers not sure why. I took the karupetti kaapi for hubby dear. He asks for mixture ( South Indian snack ), I was like so early in the morning with a million things about this in mind. He sprinkles the crispy mixture over the hot karupetti kaapi and drinks it reading his morning news paper. I found it so weird but wanted to give a try to this new combination. I take a sip from hubby dears steel tumbler. The crispy mixture which has soaked up a little of the karupetti kaapi inside them swelled a bit yet crispy, along with the sweet karupetti kaapi was a burst of flavour’s and textures in one mouth. At times the mixture is replaced with crushed muruku ( a South Indian deep fried crispy snack made with rice flour and urad dal flour ) From then on, when ever I feel like having a hot drink, I always end up with a glass of karupetti kaapi in hand. The mixture or the muruku is had only when I want to treat myself. Though this drink is called kaapi ( coffee ) it’s made with tea dust. A Few funny facts of our authentic recipes always with a twist to it like me I guess.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Karupetti / palm jaggery	1/4 kg powdered
Tea dust	1 tablespoon
Water	4 glasses
Milk	1/2 glass
Ginger	1 and 1/2 inch piece crushed

Method

Boil karupetti, water and crushed ginger together. Add tea dust and boil further for two minutes. Remove from heat and keep closed for ten minutes. Strain the above clear liquid alone leaving behind the scum below.
Add hot milk to the clear strained solution. Garnish the kaapi with mixture or broken murukku and serve hot.