Jhovaan - Meal (in Konkani)

Recipe: Sone Upkari - Manglorean Chickpeas with coconut - Vegan

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:30:00 +0000

Upkari is a common method of cooking vegetables and lentils by the Manglorean Konkani community. It is similar to the Fugath cooked in Goan & Anglo-Indian homes.

This particular dish is made from the small white channa (chickpeas) rather than the full size kabuli channa. It can also be made with small brown channa.The picture below is to give you an indication of the size. The bowl on the right has the dry channa and the bowl on the left shows the soaked and cooked channa.

Ingredients:
150-200gms small white channa (chickpeas) soak overnight and pressure cook till done and drain.

1/2 coconut grated
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin/jeera seeds
3-4 dried red chillies
2 tsp urad dhal
pinch of hing/asafoetida
3-4 greeen chillies finely chopped (optional)
small bunch of corriander leaves finely chopped
3 tsps coconut oil (don't stint on this otherwise this dish will turn very dry)

Method:
In a pan, heat the coconut oil, add the asafoetida, then the urad dhal, then the mustard seeds, the jeera, dry red chillies and the curry leaves for tempering.

Next add the coconut and the fresh green chillies if using and fry a little until the coconut is cooked.

Add the cooked channa, use a little liquid from the pressure cooker, if you want more moisture.
Garnish with chopped corriander leaves.

This dish is a little dry to eat with just rotis. But goes very well with rice and sambhar or rice and dhal.

Recipe: Chaap ne Bataka Roast - Gujarati Roasted Lamb Chops with Potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:14:00 +0000

This recipe is from Banu Hajratwala's - Gujarati Kitchen, a book I cannot recommend heavily enough. Instructions are clear, precise and detailed. In case you haven't read my review yet and are wondering how lamb chops could be a Gujarati dish - its because this is Gujarati Kshatriya cuisine.

This recipe is reproduced here as part of my review of Banu Hajratwala's - Gujarati Kitchen for the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com.

My details here are not half as detailed as the way Ms Hajratwala's instructions are. While I do occassionaly say that a book is worth picking up, this book is a must have for anyone interested in a wider spectrum of Gujarati food or wants a simple introduction to Indian food. Gujarati Kshatriya cuisine is just one of the many cuisines cooked/available in India. What makes this a great introduction to someone new to Indian food is the detailed descriptions, substitutions possible and the coverage of Indian staples like rotis, dhal, curries, pickles in this book.

I've used olive oil instead of regular oil and apple cider vinegar instead of lemon juice. I also cooked just half a kilo of chops, since I was cooking for just the 2 of us. Since I was using a microwave oven to bake, I used plastic wrap instead of aluminium foil to trap the moisture inside. Other than this, I stayed true to the recipe even down to the 1/4 cup oil.

For my friends from Guwahati wondering how I could procure mutton chops here? - I used Al Kabeer's frozen chops.

Prepping the Meat:
Clean, rinse and dry 1/2kg mutton chops, removing extra fat.
Marinate in a mixture of 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and 1.5 tbsp salt for at least half an hour.
This reduces the smelll in the meat and also tenderises it.

After half an hour, drain the juices (they would have turned a bit cloudy - thats just a reaction of acid with protein), rinse and dry the chops.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp Gujarati fresh masala
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup oil
1/2 kg potatoes washed, peeled and cut into 1/2" wedges

Method:
Make a marinade with all the ingredients except the potatoes.

Apply 2/3rds of the marinade onto the prepped lamb chops and leave for at least 1-2 hours or overnight. Reserve the remaining marinade.

When ready to cook, prep the potatoes and mix them with the remaining 1/3 marinade and lay them flat in a single layer in a baking dish

Then layer the mutton chops on top of the potatoes.

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Cover the pan with aluminium foil (in regular ovens) or 3 layers of plastic wrap for microwave ovens)
Roast for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven, turn chops over and baste with dripping. (don't turn the potatoes, only the chops)
Cover & roast for another 20 minutes.

Remove from oven, turn chops over and baste with dripping. (don't turn the potatoes, only the chops)
Roast uncovered for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven, turn chops over and baste with dripping. (don't turn the potatoes, only the chops)
Roast uncovered for 10 minutes.
Thus total roasting time is 1 hour with 30 minutes on each side.
I also grilled the chops for 5 minutes to give a light golden tinge to the meat.

I served the chops with Rotis and Raita. It will go very well with garlic bread too.

Kitchen Essentials: Gujarati Fresh Masala

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:41:00 +0000

When reviewing Banu Hajratwala's - Gujarati Kitchen, I decided to cook Chaap Ne Bataka Roast - Roasted Lamb Chops with Potatoes. To make this, I needed 3 tbsp of Gujarati Fresh Masala. This recipe was also included in the book.

While the original recipe (page 45) makes 6 cups of masala that can be refrigerated for 6-8 weeks or frozen for longer, I wasn't sure whether I would be cooking that much Gujarati food to justify grinding such a large quantity.

However Ms Hajratwala had also conveniently included the quantities to make 3 tbsp of masala. Most of her recipes that require fresh masala, need 3 tbsp for a 2 person portion and 6 tbsp for 4 people.

Since I was making such a small quantity, I did not want to bring down my mixi (I have a really tiny kitchen here in Guwahati and there is no space to keep the rotimaker, mixi and other essentials on the kitchen work surface, so these are all stored in high up ladder accessed cupboards to be used only if absolutely essential) So I used my Thai mortar and pestle and it worked perfectly. The Thai Mortar and Pestle somehow manages to grind pastes much finer than any Indian mortar and pestle that I have used.

I substituted the oil in the fresh masala with olive oil and the lemon juice with apple cider vinegar and it tasted wonderful, I see myself grinding this in larger quantities to use in other recipes too. It tastes lovely and is wonderful as a marinade for any kind of meat. I can use this as frequently as I use my Manglorean staple of meet mirsang.

For 3tbsp fresh masala, I ground together
5 garlic cloves (since my cloves were small)
2" ginger
8 fresh green chillies
1.5 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

While I've added the oil and lemon juice in the picture above, before pounding, I always recommend adding wet ingredients last, after the masala is pounded, when pounding by hand - otherwise you will have to deal with a lot of splashing.

Book Review: Gujarati Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:13:00 +0000

When I first received Bhanu Hajratwala's "Gujarati Kitchen", I was expecting a Vegetarian Recipe book. I had, had a recent twitter exchange with a friend who wanted to know where she could find a Gujarati Restaurant in Mumbai, but it had to only serve Vegetarian food. I jokingly asked if there was any other kind. The only response that came up on twitter to this exchange was "perhaps Bohri Muslim Food" "Does Gujarati Parsi Cuisine count?"

So it was a wonderfully pleasant suprise to find that Bhanu Hajratwala's cookbook, covered Non Vegetarian food too. Reading the book, revealed that this was Gujarati Kshatriya cuisine. This is not to say that the book only covers non-vegetarian food. There are plenty of recipes for Gujarati staples like dhokla, rotli, daal dhokali, khandvi and theplas. The non-vegetarian dishes are made from goat, lamb, chicken and seafood.

Bhanu Hajratwala is a Gujarati who was born and brought up in the Fiji Islands (The first wave of Gujaratis migrated to the British Colony of Fiji Islands in the early 1900's) As often happens with early immigrants, the families held on to the sanctity of their original Gujarati recipes with minimal adaptation, other than forgetting recipes for which ingredients weren't available.

Ms. Hajratwala moved to the US when she got married and moved with her husband across New Zealand, Australia and the United States. Through all these moves, she enjoyed cooking for and feeding her family and friends while pursuing her own career as a physical therapist. Her friends soon started asking her to teach them how to cook Gujarati food and she readily agreed. This later expanded to conducting cooking classes and demonstrations and contributing recipes for community cook books.

The book begins with a list of ingredients commonly used in Gujarati cooking and other than ganthoda kokum, batrissu (a Gujarati spice mix), charoli and vaal they are easily available across India and in Indian stores abroad. A list of measurements follows which clearly gives liquid and weight substitutes for terms like 1 cup, 1tsp etc. Since the book uses US/Imperial measures throughout, Metric conversions are also provided in this section.

Gujarati cooking has a few spice blends specific to their cuisine like fresh masala & seafood masala and some commonly used ones like chai masala and garam masala. Understanding that many of the readers of this book may not be Gujarati or cook Gujarati food daily, Banu has also given exact directions to make smaller quantities (3 tbsp) of the fresh masalas that have shelf lives of 6-8 weeks in the fridge and this kind of thoughtfullness carries on through the book.

The recipes that follow are categorised in the standard format: starters, mains, breads, rice, kadhis & dals, sweets, chutneys & relishes, pickles, snacks for teatime, drinks and a special section for mukhwaas.

The recipes are very clear and easy to follow. Substitutes are detailed. For eg: in the preface, Banu explains that fresh or whole turmeric is much better and healthier than turmeric powder and then in all the recipes she gives quantities for both whole turmeric and powder for the convenience of those who have no access to, or the time to powder and grind whole turmeric. The recipe for Khandvi includes both the stove top cooking method and a microwave oven method.

Her husband, Bhupendra's support extends beyond the standard spousal variety. He has provided line drawings for this book.While in some cases they are purely decorative, in a lot of places they are illustrative. Like how to roll patra, fold a samosa and crimp a ghughara (gujiya).

Given that this was my first insight into non-vegetarian Gujarati cuisine, the first dish I decided to try from this book was the "Chaap ne Bataka Roast - Roasted Lamb Chops with Potatoes" Its difficult for me to follow recipes from a book to the letter, since I love to improvise, but since I was reviewing the book, I tried to stay true to the recipe. So I only substituted the oil with olive oil and lemon juice with apple cider vinegar, since I did not have enough limes/lemons on hand. The chops turned out very well, even though I served them with rotlis/phulkas rather than the recommended garlic bread and the recipe was very easy to follow.

Banu's instructions are precise and detailed, substitutes are very clear, notes on which food can be stored for how long and the ideal way to store them are also included. Her thoughtfullness towards the home cook show through every recipe. Banu says she originally started measuring quantities and writing recipes to share them with her children who were leaving home for further education. This concern and detailed attention shows in every instruction.

The only thing you need to watch out for, when cooking from this book is that the cooking time specified, is purely cooking time. It does not include pre-prep time or marinating time. It assumes that you have the spice powders & blends ready and soaking and sprouting time isn't included either.

"Gujarati Kitchen - Family Recipes for the Global Palate" is thus an excellent pick for anyone who is a new cook or a comfortable cook, someone who wants to learn Gujarati cooking or even someone looking for a simple introduction to Indian cooking.

Rating: 4.5/5

Book Review: The Tulleeho! Book of Cocktails

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:32:00 +0000

I first started writing (non-academic prose & to someone else's specifications and guidelines) way back in 1999, for a new dotcom venture called Tulleeho!.com. Chanty (Vikram Achanta), Venky (P Venkatesh) and I soon bonded online over our fascination for alcohol and penchant for drinking. I even met up with them while on a business trip (for my full time job) to Delhi and made it to the Tulleeho! Wall of Shame - the only woman to do so :)

The years passed by, Krishna Nagaraj joined them, Venky got back into the corporate world, they hired more staff, the website changed from being a set of reviews of places to drink at, to include cocktail recipes, coverage of new launches of alcohol related products in India and an online shop for bartending accessories among other things. They moved offline into cocktail workshops, wine and whisky tasting sessions and wine trails in India. I moved from India to the US and back, then to Egypt and Dubai before coming back again. In between, I attended their Cocktail workshops in Hyderabad, conducted by Shatbi Basu and kept bumping into them at the JLF and in Delhi. while staying updated via Tulleeho!.com and facebook.

I was very excited, when I heard that they had finally compiled the cocktail recipes on their website into a book and were due for launch just around the time, I was moving to Guwahati. I did not order the book off flipkart, because I was hoping to buy myself an autographed copy at a book launch while travelling to Delhi or Bombay. However, earlier last week, I was contacted by Blog Adda to review this book and I jumped at the opportunity. Scroll to the bottom of this post for details on how to join their book review program.

I had to wait longer than normal for the book to arrive, because the whole of Assam was closed for almost a week for the State Mourning and funeral of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika.The book came in the post yesterday and I eagerly tore it open to dive right in.

You can read this book like a regular book and start from page 1 and continue until the end or you can treat it like a cookbook and immediately jump to a recipe that catches your fancy. But its more than just a book of recipes, its a jewel of information regarding alcohol and all its attendant paraphernalia.

In the introduction, the authors say that they hope to make anyone who reads the book knowledgeable about alcohol, even if they have never taken a sip in their lives. I think they have succeded in this objective.

The Tulleeho! Book of Cocktails - instant karma, anarkali and other mouthwatering mixes starts with an introduction on different kinds of alcohol, barware, glassware, mixers, condiments and garnishes needed to stock a home bar. It then moves on to mixology - types of cocktails, bartending techniques, tips & tricks. There is a section in the middle which provides basic information about different liqueurs and other popular spirits. The bulk of the book is the recipes and the last few pages have valuable information, like where to shop for home bar requirements in the metros, alcohol calorie counter, hangover prevention and smart drinking.

The book is sponsored in part by Bacardi & Monin Syrups, so each get a few dedicated pages of cocktails revolving around their products in particular. Their logos also pop up across the book, but its easier to ignore than scroll bar ads on TV. However, their sponsorship also means that the reader only pays 395Rs (even less if you buy on flipkart or the Tulleeho website) for this bartending guide that is in full colour with an accompanying picture for each recipe, so its a great deal.

Grouped into different subsections depending on the primary alcoholic base (vodka, tequila, gin, rum, whiskey, brandy, beer, wine) each recipe includes its classification, the kind of glass that it should be served in, the skill level required to prepare it and the recipe. My favourite section most definitely is the dessert cocktails - cocktails that can be served instead of dessert. Most recipes also have a photo of what the finished product should ideally look like. There are also suggestions on which cocktails work best for particular occassions - holi, valentines day, monsoons, diwali and christmas.

The book has plenty of tips and trivia sprinkled across it, like how for the instant karma you can substitute 15ml Amaretto with 15ml almond syrup and up the vodka from 30 to 45ml. I especially loved the detailed information on tequila.

A lot of the recipes use fresh market produce - fruits and herbs.

The USP of this book is that almost all ingredients can be easily bought in India, of course some of them may be more reasonable if sourced from "duty free", but they are available in most well stocked stores too. There are a few recipes with Absinthe, Aquavit, Cachaca, Limoncello and Pisco which can only be bought from the countries of their origin. But these comprise hardly 5% of the recipes on offer. The other difficult to source syrups/liqueurs come with good substitute options.

My other concern was that some of the recipes call for Monin purees. Monin syrups are easily available, but I've never come across Monin purees in a shop which makes me wonder if these products are only available to bartenders. (in case you didn't know, there are plenty of processed food products in India that are only available to bulk buyers) I'll need to check on that. However in the meantime, I'm sure home made purees will suffice and be fresher and healthier - the only problem is that they oxidise quickly.

Most of the recipes in the book are easy or moderate and can be fixed by anyone who knows how to pour stuff out of a bottle and shake or stir. A few recipes are categorised difficult and this usually means that some form of fire or heating is involved. So they are still quite easy to fix at home.

The recipes in this book are completely geared for the home bartender and is such a huge and welcome improvement from the imported cocktail books I've seen in bookstores here. Those imported books are normally really thick and huge, but once you start scanning the list of ingredients, you realise that you can barely try to make even 25% of them at home. Either the ingredients are unavailable in India or the techniques involved require much higher skill levels.

So go ahead, pick this one up, who knows the bartending bug may bite so hard, that you may find yourself registering for a flair bartending workshop with Tulleeho!
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Rating: 4.5/5

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Also available at The Tulleeho Online Shop

Guest Chef: Mr Shankar Nagendra - the GoTo guy for Ribs!

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:21:00 +0000

Shankaranna is my dads youngest sisters husband. As a Sri Lankan, he shares our love for food in general and spicy food in particular. When they visited India earlier this year, we were fortunate enough to celebrate Holi with them and we got to meet them again in August, when we visited Canada.

Shankar makes the most amazing pork ribs I have ever eaten in my life. Honestly if I lived closer to these uncles of mine, I would never ever visit a restaurant again. The food they cook is so mindblowing, that restaurant food can never match up.

Their son Avinash assured me that it was his mum Yasmin who did all the hard work of going to the market, buying the ingredients, prepping and marinating them, while dad just hovered over the grill, sipping beer and turning stuff over. Even if I were to believe him, his dad still possesses the formidable skill of being able to cook ribs that just melt away from the bone. 3 months down the line, I'm still salivating at the memories of these ribs.

The Ribs

The chicken was just smoking on the top rack while everything else was cooking below.

With some of the salads

A Fattoush kinda of salad with sprouted gram added too

I promise you, there were some veggies under all that cheese :)

The smoked chicken

Blueberry trifle for dessert

Masterchef Shankaranna

It was wonderful to be able to spend time with Yasmin, Shankar and their kids - my youngest cousins on my dads side. This was my husbands first visit to Canada and he was meeting a lot of my family for the first time. They all made him feel so welcome, that he says he will consider the option of retiring there on the condition that my family keeps cooking and I let him buy a vineyard in the Niagra region. LOL

Guest Chef: Mr Ossie Rosario - BBQ Specialist

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 04:53:00 +0000

Most of my aunts (moms & dads sisters) have chosen husbands very wisely. These uncles of mine are excellent cooks and in many cases, churn out better food than their wives. :) Although the wives help out a lot in the prep and mis en place.

On our trip to Canada in August, it was a fantastic opportunity to eat meals that they had lovingly prepared for us and I hope to be able to dedicate a blog post to each.

Uncle Ossie is the husband of one of my dads sisters and all my cousins in Canada wait for an invitation for a meal at their house. Uncle Ossie's Xmas cake is a marvel, in how it stays together with hardly any flour in the mix. It lasts for years in the refrigerator, as we zealously hoard our portions until assured that another batch is on its way to wherever we are currently located.

August is lovely weather in Canada every meetup was an occassion for a Barbeque. So here are the pictures from Uncle Ossies Barbeque. No recipes, because the secret to this food is not in the recipes, its in the love put into its preparation. The massaging and curing of the meat, the slicing of steaks of equal size and the cooking to perfection. The husband and I resoundingly agree that these steaks were the best we have ever had, firmly pushing our previous favourite "Ruths Chris Steakhouse" to Second Place.

Unfortunately steaks don't keep as well as Xmas cake does, so we couldn't carry any back with us :(

The marinating meat

Is gently placed on the grill

Well done for most of the family

Medium rare for us - it still melted in our mouth

Uncle Aussie gets some veggies on the grill

The vegetables getting grilled in their pans

The meal, once laid out

Some freshly tossed Ceasar salad

My first plate - I lost count of how many steaks I ate
The orange sticks are butternut squash made by another Aunt - Belinda - which reminds me that I have to get that recipe from her and try it out with the local pumpkins

Sticking to the theme the dessert was also grilled

First Uncle Ossie grilled some cake and then some pineapple rings

1 layer of BBQ'ed sponge cake, followed with a layer of BBQed pineapple and a scoop of lovely ice cream

The next day, Uncle Ossie took us sightseeing and still brought us home and feed us home made burgers before dropping us to the station for our onward journey to Montreal.

A huge thanks to Uncle Ossie and Aunty Aureen for being such wonderfully warm and welcoming hosts and amazing cooks. We wish we stayed closer to you guys, even though it would be terrible for our waist lines.

Recipe : Home Made Stuffed Naan on a Gas Stove Tandoor

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:46:00 +0000

In the run up to Diwali, my husbands mom and maami are beseiged with menu requests from their husbands and visiting children. On Chhoti Diwali, the final consensus was for stuffed naan and paneer ki sabji.

I have to mention here, that my husbands mom and maami cook almost identically to each other without the aid of any written recipes. On a blind taste test it would be almost impossible to identify who cooked what. So its equally difficult to identify whom to attribute a recipe to and hence I will alwasy attribute it to them both.

There are 2 ways to make naan at home. The instant way is to mix maida (plain flour) with a bit of sugar and salt and then make the dough using only soda water. The dough is ready for rolling after resting for 5-10 minutes. You can also rest this dough for a couple of hours if you prefer.

But if you have enough time to rest the dough, you will get tastier naans by mixing maida (plain flour) with a bit of sugar and salt, a teaspoon of ghee or butter, a little cream, a little yoghurt and a bit of yeast. If you do not want to use yeast, you can again just make a dough with soda water. Rest this dough in a warmish place, so it can rise. If using yeast, let it rise for at least 8 hours.

The main equipment you need, to make authentic naan at home is a tandoor. A coal burning tandoor isn't practical for most homes and the electric tandoors take up too much place if you live in an apartment and only use it occassionally. My mom-in-law has an ingenious contraption that fits over a regular gas burner but works like a tandoor. This needs to be preheated before you can start using it, much like how an oven would operate.

This time they decided to stuff the naans with paneer or grated cheese, so there were 2 varieties of stuffed naans that were being rolled out simultaneously.

Mami was working so quickly with her hands, I had to get her to stop and work in extreme slow motion so I could capture the basic steps.

Flatten out a ball of dough.

Drop some stuffing on it.

Draw the edges to the top and crimp shut.

Carefully flatten again, so the stuffing does not pop out.

Roll out the naans.

There are 2 ways of doing the next step. The traditional method would be to lightly moisten the inside of the dome of the tandoor contraption and stick the naan onto that. Giventhat it is burning hot, the easier option is to lightly pre fry the naans on a tawa kept on a low flame.

Then place the pre fried naans on the grill of the tandoor.

Keep turning over every minute or so until done.

Dot lightly with melted butter and serve hot with a bowl of steaming curry/korma like the paneer gravy below.

Edited on 29 Oct 2011 to add:
My friend Michelle from Food, Football and a Baby asked for better quantities, so upon checking, its roughly
1 cup maida (plain flour), salt to taste, sugar about a teaspoon or more if you want it sweeter, cream 1 teaspoon, yoghurt 1 tablespoon, ghee/butter - 1 tsp and enough soda water to make the dough (no other liquid at all). They prefer not to use yeast in general.

Recipe: Food made from Prashad of Gaay-Bachde ki Puja

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:47:00 +0000

The day before Dhanteras (i.e. 3 days before Diwali) is celebrated as Gaay-Bachde ki Puja - veneration of cows and calves by some families in UP. My husbands Naani (maternal grandmother) and Maami (mothers brother's wife) observe this, while his mother doesn't. (From what I have come to understand, married women here, observe the rites and rituals followed by the matriarchs of their husbands family and add on any rites and rituals from their own families if they feel very strongly about them - There are so many festivals and rituals in the UPite Hindu Calendar that there is ample choice to pick and choose.)

On this day, the women offer various kinds of grams/dhals/lentils to a cow and her calf and for the whole day, they only eat foods made from grams/dhals/lentils or their flours (primarily besan). While lentil soup/dhal seems the most straight forward option, it feels weird to eat just that without rice or rotis. So pakodas (deep fried balls) are what tends to be made of these dhals.

We reached after the puja was over, so I unfortunately don't have any pictures of that, but I do have plenty of pictures of the food.

Any kind of dhal needs to be soaked before it can be ground for pakodas. Urad dhal needs the longest time 6-8 hours. Channa dhal needs 4-6 hours and moong dhal can be soaked for an hour or so.

To make the pakodas, the soaked dhal is ground to a paste with enough water. You can then add flavourings like onions, green chilli, coriander leaves, ginger. But technically you only mix enough for them to be flavourings, but not so much that they turn into onion pakodas.

Urad dhal pakodas aren't very tasty on their own or even with cuttings, so these get turned into dahi vadas. Just grind soaked urad dhal, you can add a little ginger and green chilli if you like. Personally I also like to split a few raisins in half and add it to the batter. Drop little balls of batter into hot oil and deep fry.

As soon as you take them out of the pan, they are dropped into a bowl of water. If you want to cool them first, then they need to be soaked in hot water later. Soak for about 5-10 minutes (depending on size of your pakodas/vadas). Then squeeze out all the liquid from the soaked vadas.

Layer them in a deep bowl. Pour lightly whipped curd/yoghurt over these vadas.

Sprinkle with chilli and jeera powder.

Serve topped with sweet and sour chutneys.

Mamiji made some pakodas with channa dhal and some with moong dhal, some with onions and some without.

While most of us kept merrily popping these golden balls of deep fried goodness into our mouths, those who wanted a slightly more substantial snack, smashed them between slices of bread for a more filling option.

Guest Chef - Mrs Anju Mishra

Recipe: Manglorean Tendli (Gherkin) Fry (Vegan)

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:54:00 +0000

Tendlis are one of my favourite vegetables. Its one of the few veggies that really retains its crispness and also absorbs the flavour of whatever you cook it with.

The tendlis available here in Guwahati are very different than the ones we get in Mangalore. Manglorean tendlis are thin and long, the ones I got here are shorter and fatter and hence take longer to cook, but the taste is the same.

Looking at the seeds, tendlis are more likely to belong to the cucumber family, rather than the parval family, but I'm not too sure about this.

Ingredients:

200 gms tendlis quartered vertically
1 onion chopped
2 dry red chillis
4-5 methi dana (fenugreek seeds)
7-8 peppercorns (optional for heat)
1 tsp jeera (cumin)
2 tsp channa dal
2 tsp urad dhal
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp vegetable powder
1-2 tsp tamarind paste
salt to taste
1-2 tsp of dessicated or fresh coconut to taste (optional)
1 sprig curry leaves (I've run out and they aren't available here, so I haven't used them)
1-2 tsps oil (preferably coconut, but any other refined oil is ok)

Take a look at the Manglorean tendlis to see what I'm talking about regarding size.

Method:
Keep all the seasoning ingredients ready, so you aren't fumbling when its time to put them in. (since there are so many of them, the risk of them burning while you search for ingredients is quite high)

Heat a pan (the wider the surface the better), add the oil to it. Now add seasoning ingredients in the following order: methi, peppercorns, channa dhal, urad dhal, jeera, curry leaves, red chilli, mustard seeds. The spacing between each is dependant on how long each one takes to cook and to avoid burning.

Add the onion and coconut, fry lightly for a minute or so.
Then add the quartered tendlis and fry on low heat.
When half cooked, add the tamarind paste (if its commercial check the salt content and dilute in a bit of water, so that it will spread out rather than stick in a ball) and vegetable powder.
Conitnue to cook on low heat until done.
Serve hot with rice and dhal or rotis.

This is a dish prepared by the Konkana community in Mangalore. I have also seen a version of this cooked in Andhra Pradesh.

Recipe: Stuffed Capsicum (with leftover mince)

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:22:00 +0000

This is another lovely way to use up leftover mince rather than just making cutlets out of it. You need small capsicums for this dish and not the regular size. Chopping the capsicum into smaller pieces won't help, because we want the curve to hold the filling in.

Most mince dishes will go well with this recipe. I normally do this with an Indian recipe for mince, but I use others too. Leftover shepherds pie when all mixed together does the trick too. If you have mince from your burgers, that will work too but remember to cook the mince before stuffing it.

This time I had some leftover bolognese sauce made with chicken mince. I just dried off the sauce on a stove top and added some boiled potatoes to the mix so it would bind together.

Ingredients:
Leftover cooked mince (chicken/mutton/beef/burger)
Some boiled potato to bind it together if necessary
Baby capsicums (depending on how much leftover mince you have)
1-2 eggs beaten with some salt and pepper

Method:
Deseed the capsicum and split in half. You can leave it whole if you want to bake it in the oven.

Warm the mince to slightly above room temperature and stuff the capsicum halves with it.

Dip the capsicums in the egg batter and put them in a heated & lightly greased frying pan, mince side down first. The egg will slide down the rest of the capsicum, don't worry about it.

Fry it on a really low flame, so the egg won't burn but the edges of the capsicum touching the pan on this side can cook.
Then gently turn it over and fry on a low flame until the capsicum skin is slightly charred. and the capsicum turns to a cooked shade of green.

The dish may not be very pretty to look at, but I assure you its extremely tasty and you won't be able to stop popping them in your mouth.

They go well as a side dish or even smooshed up as a filler for sandwiches.

Recipe: Chawla's Cream Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 02:16:00 +0000

This is the first recipe that I cooked from The Food Trail of Punjab. Mr Yashbir Sharma says that this is the original Chawla's recipe for Cream Chicken.

The recipe in the book was for 700gms chicken, I had a 1.2 kilo chicken with me so I changed the quantitites around.

The ingredients are very simple and can be found around any pantry except perhaps the kasuri methi. Given how the dish tasted, when I make it next time, I will add more ginger and garlic and also a few split green chillies to contrast against the richness of this dish.

For this time, the pickled onions were a great contrast and palate cleanser between bites of the rich chicken.

Ingredients:
1.2kg chicken
12 cloves garlic crushed
2 tsp ginger paste
900 ml milk (room temperature or warm)
1.5 tbsp black peppercorns (kalimirch) crushed
3 tbsp kasuri methi coarsely ground
1 cup cream
salt to taste

Method:
Clean and dry the chicken and marinate it with garlic, ginger and salt for at least 10 minutes.
Heat a deep bottomed pan, drop the chicken into it (no need for oil if its a non stick) and slightly sear the chicken, it will start to give a nice caramelisation.
Add milk and boil for 10 minutes or so. (Don't worry if it looks like the milk is splitting, it will come back together when you add the cream later.)
Add pepper powder and kasuri methi and cook till alost done. Let the milk dry out a bit.
Add cream and cook on low flame for another 5-10 minutes. (This is the stage at which I would also add the split green chillis)
I just let it simmer gently until it reached the consistency that I wanted.

Serve hot with parathas or rotis. This dish when thickened, doesn't go as well with rice.

As you look at the ingredients, you will realise that this dish is very rich in calories. Its a lovely dish for the original Punjabis who used to work hard in their fields and then consumed a lot of milk, ghee, cream and butter with their meals. But not the lightest option for those of us with desk jobs.

Lower fat option:
I've found that I get a similar consistency and texture, by adding hung curd to the chicken marinade. That is a dish I've been cooking since quite a few years. Then, there is no need for milk or cream when cooking.
You just have to make sure that you bring the marinated chicken to room temperature before you start to cook it (so the curd won't split) and keep it on a low flame so it cooks gently.

Recipe: Low fat Parathas using the Roti Maker

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 01:53:00 +0000

As I've blogged befoe, using the roti maker has been a huge boon as it means so much less washing up. The husband is the only one who eats rotis at home and earlier the amount of cleanup and washing to make 3-4 rotis or parathas was just too much.

The roti maker eliminates all the extra flour used when rolling, which then flies all over the kitchen and gets into the holes on the gas burner. There is no chakla belan to be washed. And the roti maker itself, just has to be wiped clean with a damp cloth. so all I have to wash is the bowl in which I mix the dough or have stored the dough in.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour
salt to taste
water to make the dough
a little ajwain - optional
a little ghee/butter to fry

Method:
Make the dough, the same way that you would for rotis or phulkas.
When using the roti maker, don't press down as hard as you would for a roti, so that the parathas aren't too thin.
Fry on one side for 15-30 seconds, turn over.
Rub a drop of ghee on the top surface, turn over and repeat.
Keep turning over every few seconds until the paratha is cooked.

You can even close the roti maker in between, to speed up the cooking.
Parathas are much faster this way and I find that I use so much less ghee. Just 2 drops of ghee to a paratha.

Serve hot with any gravy or dry dish. In the first picture in this post, it has been served with Chawla's Cream Chicken and pickled onions.

Book Review: Food Trail of Punjab

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 04:58:00 +0000

Rushina, had been very enthusiastic some time last year about the release of "The Food Trail of Punjab". She had met Mr Yashbir Sharma and was quite impressed with his love for food that drove him to self-publish. This is his second book after "The Dhabhas of Amritsar" She even helped him launch the book in Bombay. Unfortunately I was in Delhi at that time and missed the Bombay launch, but that did not stop me from buying a copy of my own.

I'd flipped through "The Food Trail of Punjab" when I was in Delhi, but it wasn't a very serious effort. Punjabi food was easily available within 15 minutes of dialling a number, so I didn't bother cooking anything Punjabi while I was in Delhi.

Now that I'm in Guwahati and my favourite Punjabi restaurant here: Khalsa Parivaar has been closed for 3 months with no signs of reopening in the immediate future, I needed to take a closer look at my Punjabi cookbooks. Why Punjabi? No I'm not craving the ghee :) Punjabi food while rich with milk products is also very simple to put together. Ingredients needed are minimal and easy to find in any kitchen pantry or even Guwahati's food stores.

Given my paucity of food ingredients here, I've been thinking that Punjabi food will be much easier for me to cook here, than pasta or stir fries.

So I sat down to flip through "The Food Trail of Punjab" again. And this time I was hooked. The wealth of information is amazing. If a foodie were to try and visit all the eateries mentioned in the book, they wouldn't be able to cover more than one page in a day.

Food Trail starts with a brief travelogue of Amritsar and Wagah, before proceeding to Jalandhar, Ludhiana & Patiala. Then Mr Sharma gets down to buisness, he starts listing out all the eateries he has eaten at and what their specialities are with a bit of background to the history of some of the eateries and some recipes that he managed to get these long term khansamas to share (which is a heroic feat in itself).

As I had expected, the recipes are simple and when I cook them at home, I can lower the ghee and malai (cream) content in most of the savoury dishes. (Never compromise on ghee, cream and butter in sweet recipes, the results will be disastrous)

The pictures aren't what you would see in a glossy Hermes House or Good Housekeeping cookbook, but the recipes are very authentic. If you buy cookbooks for the pretty pictures, then this one isn't for you. But if you buy the Penguin "The Essential" cookbook series because there are some great recipes in there, then you will be happy just to have pictures in this book.

A beginner cook or someone who isn't familiar with the names of these dishes, may have some trouble with some recipes in this book, because steps aren't as clear as could be. But anyone who is comfortable improvising while cooking, will be able to figure out the instructions very easily.

For eg to make motichoor laddoos:
Step 1 Mix besan and meetha soda together and sieve.
Step 2 Mix desi ghee, milk and a little water to make a thick batter.
If you understood that the ingredients of step 2 have to be added to those in step 1 to get the batter, you will be able to cook from this book.

The only other problem with this book is the editing. This could just be my editing experience speaking, but I really wish I could have got my hands on the manuscript before it was published. The content is vast and information tremendous. It would just have been so much pleasanter to read if the grammatical errors and misused turn of phrases had been caught before publishing. Mr Sharma if you plan to publish another food book or need to reprint this one, I volunteer my services for the editing.

Contentwise the book as I mentioned before, is marvellous. You can plan a 2-3 week holiday in Amritsar just for sampling the fare from the eateries montioned in this book. The recipes are simple, ingredients required are very basic. Other than paneer, brains, curry patta and baby corn I should be able to procure them quite easily here. And ingredients like garam masala, chaat masala and black salt, you will be able to source quite easily from Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi stores elsewhere in the world.

Some ingredients like yellow chilli powder, I have not yet come across and some like magaz had me rushing to google. But there is a glossary on the last page for a handy translation for most ingredients.

Some recipes like the chicken chaat are so simple, a child could assemble it whereas the motichoor laddus will take more experience if you plan to make the boondi/motis too at home. I've already bookmarked some recipes to try in the near future. Will let you know how it goes.

The book is not yet available on Amazon, but it is available on flipkart

Recipe: Grilled Breakfast Hash & Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 21:31:00 +0000

I've been extremely remiss with this blog for a couple of months and its only fair to let you - my readers know why. First our cat whom we adopted 4 years ago and who has shifted 3 countries with us was sick with a very serious case of jaundice and we almost lost her. Fortunately the brilliant doctors at CGS Hospital, whom we went to for a second opinion before putting her to sleep were able to save her with intense medication, 6 hourly drips and constant care over a month. Not a very conducive mindframe for cooking, you must admit.

As soon as she was fit to travel, we moved from Delhi to Guwahati and had to live in the guesthouse for a month until we found a place of our own to move into. Couldn't step on the cooks toes, by taking over the kitchen here, could I?

Setting up house in Guwahati has been a challenge because of supply issues. We are now in the North East of India and can completely sympathise with the general feeling of being cut off from mainland India.

Guwahati is a small town, supplies of manufactured products have to come in from Calcutta or Delhi. Basic food items that I took for granted like skimmed milk, 30 liter water jars and yoghurt are just not available here, forget gourmet cheeses and sauces. If I want chicken, I have to buy the whole chicken from the market, no special cuts. (I've finally found a guy who supplies boneless chicken) If I want to buy mutton, I have to take whatever the guy at the butcher shop decides to give me and it is minimum 70% of bones and skin and kidneys and liver.

Fish is river fish and we are sea fish eaters. Vegetables are completely seasonal (a concept I confess I had forgotten) and there are a lot of them that I have never seen before. A couple of trials cooking them and the tastes still haven't grown on us. Food items are expensive. Coconuts are 50Rs a piece. Tomatoes 45Rs a kilo. Mutton (70% bones and skin & spare parts) 250Rs/kilo. And on top of all of this I have a really tiny kitchen. I've never before worked in such a tiny kitchen.

Plus in the last 4 months since we moved, I've made trips to Delhi, Shillong, Canada and London and the dh has been travelling much more than that. So I haven't really found a reason or the inspiration to cook. I'm not someone who decides a menu and then goes out shopping. I go out to the market, see what looks freshest and what inspires me and then I bring it home and dishes suggest themelves in my head as I start prepping my ingredients.

So its been a challenge for me to cook anything more than dal-chawal-sabji and if its just me at home, its chawal and chutney pudi or achaar.

However, its also quite depressing for me to keep eating unimaginative food, so I have to kick myself out of this rut and find ways to work with the limited ingredients I can buy here or carry from Delhi in a suitcase when I visit.

Today the husband asked for something baked with eggs and cheese, so I immediately remembered a recipe for Bacon Hash and Broiled Eggs that I read just yesterday in my quest for online inspiration and thought I could tweak it to accomodate the ingredients that I had in my cupboards. Hopefully I can keep finding enough inspiration to keep our meals exciting, so wish me luck!

Ingredients:

100 gms Bacon (thats all I had left) cut into strips across the grain
2 large potatoes diced (not too fine, but small enough to cook quickly))
1 large onion diced (I kept the pieces large enough to be able to bite into and taste their caramalised flavour in the finished dish)
2 tsp kasundi (local whole grain mustard) for flavour
400gms of corned beef
7-8 eggs
salt & pepper to taste
100 gms of cheese (I used a mixture of smoked cheese and mozarella)

Method:
In a large pan, fry the bacon until it renders the fat.
Then add the potatoes and onions and cover and cook for a while.

When the potatoes are half cooked, add the corned beef and mustard and stir well. I did not add any salt because the bacon and corned beef were salty enough. So test your mixture before adding any salt.
Keep frying till the mixture is dry and starting to crisp up.

Turn the gas off and start plating this mixture into ramekins, leaving enough space on top for the egg and cheese. I got 7 ramekins.

Drop a raw egg on the top of each ramekin and sprinkle with a little pepper (I again avoided salt because of the processed meats)

While the original recipe calls for broiling, I set the microwave on grill and grilled the ramekins for 4 minutes.
As soon as the eggs look cooked well enough for your taste (we like them a little runny) take the ramekins out.

Sprinkle cheese on top of the eggs and grill again for 2 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Serve hot.

While this seems like a classic breakfast combination, we had this quite happily for dinner. The dh loved it with toast and I just had it with a salad on the side.

Kim's Tips:
From what I saw today, it would be better to make a well in the centre of the mixture in the ramekins. The yolk will then stay in the center. If the yolk does not directly touch the sides of the ramekin, the risk of it splitting open is minimised.

Do not press the mixture in tight into the ramekins, you will lose texture when the ingredients get smashed.

You can cook the mix as long as you like before grilling. Personally, we prefer it crispy rather than soft.

Note: All cheese and cold meat was carried from Delhi/London on my last trip.

World's 50 most delicious foods & Global Foods we can't live without

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:08:00 +0000

A friend of mine pointed me towards CNNGo's World's 50 most delicious foods and that took me on a journey to a lot of interesting food related articles on the CNN Go website.

I wanted to save the series and addresses and thought most of you would like to browse through the articles too:

40 Mumbai foods we can't live without
From street food spice bombs to favorite fasting foods and meat dishes fit for a Mughal invader, here are a selection of foods that any true Mumbaiker revels in

40 Thai foods we can't live without
Some iconic, some obscure, these are the dishes that make Bangkok one of the world's finest eating cities

40 Hong Kong foods we can't live without
Street-style comfort foods, reptiles, and a lot of pork -- here are our picks of the most delicious and iconic food items of this foodie's paradise

40 Shanghai foods we can't live without
From simple street fare to Bund-style cuisine, here are our picks for the most delicious and iconic food items that define the Shanghai food scene

A Toast to Buttered Toast

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 16:58:00 +0000

I rarely dedicate an entire blog post, to a post made by someone else.

But this particular article resonated so strongly with me and seemed to express everything I thought and never got around to saying, but in a much better way than I could ever frame it.

So from the author of Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin Einstein Varghese here is an awesome piece on food (Sidin's first as far I can tell) :

A toast to buttered toast

I completely identified with :
"When you’re staying in hotels, for instance, tanking up on toast somehow seems a waste of all the other scrambled, fried, poached and griddled delicacies. Especially if a breakfast buffet is involved."

And his final advice for all:
"Scoop a generous helping of warm butter in one go, enough for the slice and then come. Then dab it strategically at one or two points towards one edge. Then work it across the whole slice in broad, confident strokes. Only in one direction please. Otherwise you will apply, remove, apply, remove, apply, remove like Pakistani life cricket ban. At the end take any excess butter and throw it away. Do not reuse. Especially don’t think you can move quickly and butter another slice with this. That is the kind of reckless, wasteful adventurism that led to Pune Warriors."

Read the entire article at : A toast to buttered toast

Recipe: Mrs Nath's Mattar Parathas - Indian bread stuffed with peas

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 05:12:00 +0000

This is a recipe from my friend Arindam's mom. He served them to us at dinner at his place. The parathas were really very tasty and we gladly accepted the offer to take home leftovers to be refried the next day.. He has been kind enough to share the recipe.

Of course technique is key to making parathas and I'm terrible at stuffing and rolling out parathas (I can barely manage rotis), so my pictures look a bit mangled. But the taste was so good, that I had to share the recipe.

Ingredients:
Roti dough / paratha dough (made from wheat flour, a pinch of ghee and salt)
For the Stuffing:
1 cup fresh/frozen peas (not dried - you won't get the flavour from dried peas)
1 tsp saunf - fennel seeds
1-3 green chillies (adjust heat to your taste)

pinch of sugar
salt to taste
ghee to fry (or oil if you want to keep it vegan)

Method:
Puree the green peas (if frozen, let them come to room temperature) in a blender
Saute the pureed peas with the saunf, chillies, sugar and salt.
Fry on a low flame until it reaches the consistency slightly drier than mashed potatoes.
Stuff this filling into balls of dough and roll out the parathas (how much stuffing you manage to put in is completely dependent on your competence at stuffing- my MIL who is supremely competent in this art has more stuffing than dough in her parathas - something I can only aspire to)

Slowly fry the parathas in ghee (for best taste use at least a tsp per paratha) on a low flame till well cooked on both sides.

Serve hot.

The simplest accompaniment to stuffed parathas is yoghurt and pickles.
You can get fancy and serve it with a raita.
Its a wonderful filling breakfast to start a busy day.
Stuffed parathas aren't normally served with dhal, if they are, it would be with a black dhal rather than a yellow dhal.
You can serve it with a dry vegetable side or a semi gravy side of meat. In the picture below, its served with tawa kebabs.

Recipe: Cucumber & Peanut Salsa Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 06:08:00 +0000

In the heat of Delhi, its quite a painful process to even attempt any cooking, and also you know that no one has the appetite to eat anything piping hot or heavy.

We end up having lots of milk shakes, lassis and ice cream for lunch alternated by the occassional healthy salad and this is one of those easy to assemble salads if you roast and skin the peanuts in advance. If you have cooked skinned peanuts, then you don't even need to turn on the gas, which is something I dread doing in the afternoon heat.

I also assemble the salad without adding the peanuts (so they don't lose their crunch) and pop it in the fridge for upto a day and mix the nuts just before eating. So the cucumber is really chilled and its even more refreshing on a hot summer day.

Kid's love it, but depending on your child's spice tolerance you may want to balance the chillies.

Ingredients:
1 cucumber - skinned and diced (deseeded if you prefer)
1 small onion - diced (optional)
1 green chilli - finely chopped (deseed, if you don't want it too spicy)
1 handful of peanuts - roasted and skinned (or boiled and skinned for a different texture)
juice of half a lime (I had some salted green mangoes that I needed to finish off as they were dis-coloring, so I used a few slices of that chopped up - it imparts both a salty and sour flavour)
salt to taste

Method:
Just mix all the ingredeints and serve as is or slightly chilled.
If you want to preassemble: Mix everything upto a day before. Except the peanuts - add those just before serving.
The peanuts are high in protein, so its quite balanced to have as an entire meal.
Or serve it as a salsa side with grilled meat or a salad with Indian food

Options:
You can add a handful of sprouted gram to make it healthier.
Onions give a different taste if added
Personally, I'm not a fan of raw tomato, but its also an option.
Use chaat masala instead of salt

I've submitted this recipe for Kid's Delight - Cool Comforts which is part of Srivalli’s Kids delight event.

Click here to view the 80 other entries.

Recipe : Mutton Chops - Kerala Style - from Flavours of the Spice Coast

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Wed, 11 May 2011 05:34:00 +0000

I roughly followed Mrs K M Mathew's Recipe from Flavours of the Spice Coast. I had earlier tried Chicken Piralen from the same book. While her book is wonderful and has some lovely looking dishes, I wouldn't recommend it to a newbie cook or someone completely unfamiliar with Malyali (Kerala) cuisine. The instructions aren't precise, so unless you know where you are headed and have a fair idea of what you want you dish to taste like, you may find the book quite confusing.

When I made the dish, I mainly used her ingredients with a few changes and roughly followed her recipe with some modifications. It was quite easy to throw together as I just had to chop up some onions, everything else I used powders and pastes.

Ingredients:
1 kg mutton
salt to taste
1 cup water
1 tsp oil - (regular not coconut)
3-4 onions chopped (1.5 cups)
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1.5 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp pepper powder
juice of 1 lemon (or more to taste)
1 tsp jeera (cumin) seeds
4 cloves
4" cinnamon
2 pods of cardamom

Method:
Wash & clean mutton and cook on low flame with the water and some salt.
Drain and reserve stock.

Heat oil, add onion and fry till brown

Add ginger garlic paste and fry some more.

In a bowl, mix all the powders with a little water and add to the onions

Fry well, then add the meat and brown.
Add 1 cup stock(add water if not enough stock) and lime juice, lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Powder the whole spices roughly and add to the mutton.

When gravy thickens, take off the fire. Garnish with corriander leaves and serve hot with rice or Roti

Read a review of Flavours of the Spice Coast in The Hindu

Recipe: Mosaranna - Curd Rice

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:23:00 +0000

The minute summer sets in, then the body starts craving cooling foods. Better still if they can be served at room temperature or colder.

Curd Rice is an extremely common item on the menu of many South Indian vegetarian families on a daily basis. At the most basic level, the final serving of rice is mixed with curd (yoghurt) and salt and eaten as is or with pickle.

Curd Rice can be prepared in a myriad of ways and how simple or complicated you make it is upto you.My mum never had curd rice on the menu when we were growing up as the rice that we eat is the red rice and that is definitely not conducive to this dish - you need a soft white rice - also neither me nor my siblings like curd in general. However I now enjoy curd in a few dishes - with sweet curd with parathas, raita with biriyani, curd marinades for meat, curd based curries and the occasional curd rice. I'm not a lassi drinker, nor do I like plain yoghurt with my meals - much to the consternation of my MIL who serves curd with every meal and exclaims - "But you are South Indian!"

When I make Curd rice, its normally the only item on the menu other than pickles and at the maximum a spicy crisply stir fried vegetable on the side. So I incorporate vegetables and proteins into the curd rice itself.

The method I have given below is the most elaborate curd rice that I prepare. You can use just one item in your seasoning if you prefer (I would advise combination of curry leaves and mustard seeds) and skip the vegetables completely. Go ahead - mix & match and suprise yourself with the results.

Fresh pomegrante pods also make their appearance in quite a few versions of this dish and give a nice sweet contrast and a change in texture when eating curd rice.

Ingredients:

3-4 cups cooked rice (preferably a day old - needs to have dried out a bit)
1-2 cups curd (how thick or watered down you like it is a matter of personal preference - beat lightly so its is smooth)
1/2 cup of groundnuts roasted & skinned ( I do this in the same pan that I use for cooking but before I start assembling the rest of the dish)
1 carrot grated
2 onions finely chopped
2-6 green chillies chopped (depending on how spicy you like it)
1/2" - 1" ginger grated or finely sliced
salt to taste

For Tempering:

1 sprig of curry leaves
2- 3 dried red chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds
8-10 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp methi (fenugreek seeds)
1 tsp jeera seeds (cumin)
1 tsp ajwain (caraway / carom seeds)
a pinch of heeng (asafoetida)
1 tsp oil or ghee (don't use a strongly flavoured oil, as the rest of the ingredients have very delicate flavours)
You must note that all these tempering ingredients are very healthy and healing for the body in summer or good for the digestive system.

Method:

In the pan in which you roasted the groundnuts, add the oil and slowly start adding the tempering ingredients Methi & pepper go in first as they are the thickest & take the longest to cook.
The curry leaves and chillies go last as these will burn the fastest. You can add them once the jeera and mustard seeds start popping.

Now add the groundnuts, when they brown lightly, add the onions and green chillies and give a stir fry. The onions should remain crisp not soften.
Then add the carrot and give a quick twist in the pan and turn off the heat - you don't want to cook the carrot at all.
Let the mixture come down to room temperature then add the curd (else it could split) and let it soak for a few minutes - so the curd absorbs flavours as well as releases flavour into the other ingredients.

Finally add the rice and mix well. I prefer the curd rice to a firmer consistency just a little more soggy than a pulao.
Tip: Keep a little extra rice on hand or add just half the curd at first and then slowly adjust the balance of rice to curd to suit you.

Serve with pickles and papad or a crsp dry vegetable on the side

Seen above: this curd rice has been served with bhindi/ladiesfinger/okra crisps, ambade/baby mango pickle and gongura/sour greens from Andhra pickle

Recipe: Kori Rotti - Chicken Curry - Manglorean Style

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 09:53:00 +0000

Kori Rotti are thin sheets of ground rice rolled out and sun dried.

This is a traditional dish of the Bunts (Tulu Speaking) Community that originate from Mangalore. This dish is available in most Manglorean Restaurants in Bombay (majority of non-vegetarian Manglorean restaurants around India are owned by the Bunts)

This particular curry is poured over the Kori Rotti and the Rotti is eaten half crisp, half soggy. As far as I know the Rotti is no longer made in homes, it will be available in any Manglorean store in Bombay/Bangalore. I carry 4-5 packets of Rotti with me from Mangalore whenever I visit.

This dish can also be made with boiled eggs, for egg eating vegetarians and for strict vegetarians you can substitute chicken or eggs with potatoes.

The curry also goes well with plain rice or dosas, if you don't have access to Rotti.

Ingredients:
1 kg chicken
3 onions
1+1/2 coconut (or 1/2 coconut + 3-4 200ml packets of Dabur coconut milk)
1/2 lime sized tamarind
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
12 short red chillies
10 long red chillies
1 tbsp corriander seeds
1 tsp peppercorns
1/2 tsp methi seeds
1 tsp jeera
1 pod garlic
little oil
salt to taste
a few curry leaves

Method:
In 1 tbsp oil/ghee fry one sliced onion. Add half a scraped coconut, tamarind, haldi and dry roast for a while.
Dry fry chillies seperately.
Dry fry corriander, pepper, methi
Lastly add jeera and garlic.
Grind all these ingredients to a fine paste

Extract coconut milk from 1 coconut or use Dabur coconut milk.
Mix the ground paste into the thin coconut milk and put on a low fire When the masala begins to bubble, add chicken pieces and 1 sliced onion.

Add salt to taste and cook till done.
Put the fire on sim and add the thick coconut milk and give it a very slow single boil.
Temper with 1 deep fried onion
Serve with kori rotti or rice.

Add more coconut milk if the curry is too spicy for you. If you run out of coconut milk, you can use regular milk to balance the spice quotient.

Recipe: Utthappams

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 12:11:00 +0000

Utthappams are traditionally eaten at tea time with batter leftover from breakfast dosas, but now with refrigeration and other techniques, they are eaten for breakfast too.

The ingredients for utthappams are simple - leftover dosa batter and whatever toppings you choose. And a little eno fruit salt if required for aerating the batter. The batter needs to be slightly on the thicker side and slightly sour.

Onions, tomatoes, green chillies and corriander are the traditional toppings for utthappams and can be used in any combination. Since our house has slightly picky eaters: one wont eat raw tomato another doesn't eat raw onions, I normally have all these ingredients chopped but I don't mix them up. I then scatter the appropriate ingredient on the utthappam depending on whom I'm frying it for.

Method:
Bring the batter to room temperature.
Add some eno fruit salt to the batter to aerate it if required.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan.
Pour some batter into the pan and spread into a circle.
Sprinkle the toppings of choice on top of the dosa.

Once the bottom starts to crisp up, you can either flip it over (the toppings will get a bit fried) or cover the pan and steam it slightly (the slightly raw sweet taste of the toppings remains) so the top is also cooked.

How much you fry the utthappam can also vary depending on personal preference. I like mine crispy like below for tea time and softer as further below for breakfast (and as you may have guessed from the pics below, I :) am the picky eater who doesn't like raw tomatoes)

Serve with chutney.
The picture above is with Green Tomato Chutney and the picture below is with Mummy's White Coconut Chutney and my MIL's Green Tomato Chutney

Utthappams are great for breakfast or an evening snack. But can also be your meal if you like.

Options:
While onions, tomatoes, green chillies and corriander are the traditional toppings for utthappams and can be used in any combination. Grated coconut is also an excellent topping if you like. You can experiment with any vegetables that cook quickly like shredded carrots, chopped bell peppers and pair them with appropriate chutneys or curries.

Grated cheese is also an option for fussy children who may not like the veggie toppings. (but try and avoid overturning the uttappam if this is the option you choose, instead cover the pan and cook till both sides are done.

You can even experiment with cooked minced meat if you like. The only things you need to keep in mind are:
1. the topping should be cooked within the time it takes for the utthappam to fry - so precook the topping if necessary
2. the toppings should not be too heavy, else the utthappam will collapse.

Also refer my previous post on Onion Utthappams

Recipe : Green Tomato Chutney

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 11:20:00 +0000

This is my Mother-in-law's recipe. She makes this chutney in huge quantities whenever tomato season is on and this chutney is then served like a pickle on the side during meals.

When this chutney is ground on a silbatti, it is a semi-dry chutney. Since I use this chutney with dosas and other South Indian dishes, I add a little more water (this also makes it easier to grind in a food processor)

Since this recipe does not include onions, it keeps well in the fridge and lasts for 2 weeks or more (provided you use a clean dry spoon) without any need for preservatives.

Ingredients:
3 tomatoes
3-4 cloves garlic
2" ginger
4-10 green chilies (depending on your spice tolerance)
a bunch of fresh corriander - roots chopped off
lemon juice or vinegar to taste
salt to taste

Method:
Skin the tomatoes by either of these 3 methods:
- blanching in hot water and immediately immerse in cold water
- microwave the tomatoes on high then seal them in a plastic/ziplock bag while still hot - the skin will losens and peel off easily
- if you are really adventurous you can roast the tomatoes on a flame like brinjals for bhartha - this gives a smoky taste - if using this method to skin the tomatoes, you can optionally minimise the other ingredients for a smoky tomato chutney. Fair warning - this method can result in a mess on your gas stove if you aren't careful.

If you are in a hurry and don't care about texture, leave the skin on, but semi cook the tomatoes before grinding.

Grind all the other ingredients except lime juice and salt on a silbatti/grinding stone or mixi. Add minimal water.
Adjust lime juice/vionegar and salt to taste.

Serve with dosas or any kind of Poli

Or serve as a side with a roti / rice + dhal kind of meal

Picture above is tomato chutney with Onion Utthappam

Recipe: Laziza Chicken Biriyani

noreply@blogger.com (Kim) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:13:00 +0000

At the IITF where I was hunting for Shaans Memoni Mutton Biriyani mix, I first saw this other Pakistani stall named Laziza. I had never heard of them before, but being willing to try anything, I bought one packet of Laziza Biryani Masala Mix from them too.

Ingredients:
2 chicken legs + thighs (about 1/2 kilo)
1 pack Laziza Biriyani mix
500 gms basmati rice - washed and soaked for 15-30 minutes
3 medium onions sliced
3 medium tomatoes cut into circles
200 gms potatoes cut into big chunks
1/2 cup curd/yoghurt
salt to taste
small bunch mint and corriander leaves chopped fine
2-3 green chillies slit long
1 tsp ghee + oil (since chicken doesn't have much fat like mutton, I do use a little ghee)

Method:
Heat the ghee + oil in heavy bottom pan
Fry the onions in it till translucent.
Add the meat, potatoes, curd, chillies and Laziza biriyani masala.
Cook the meat until done and let it have a little liquid in it.

Cook the rice in salted water (you can add a stick of cinnamon and star anise to the water if you like) till 3/4 done. Drain.

Put the meat at the bottom of the dish.
Cover with a layer of tomato rings and the chopped mint and corriander (reserve some for garnish)
Layer the semi cooked rice on top of it. (don't mix)
Garnish with the remaining mint and corriander.
Cook on dum or finish in an oven.

Sprinkle deep fried onions on top before serving and serve by spooning both layers onto a plate.

Optional shortcuts:
The meat can be marinated in the yoghurt and Laziza biriyani mix the night before or even earlier and taken out just when ready to cook.

The method detailed above is slightly more labour intensive. When I'm in a hurry, I just cook it altogether.

Cook the meat till 3/4th doneness in an open pressure cooker.
Layer the tomatoes, corriander and mint.
Add the soaked basmati rice and adjust water levels.
Close the cooker and cook for 3 whistles.
Let the pressure release on its own before opening.

While I do mention Laziza biriyani mix in this recipe, you can use any biriyani masala with this recipe. If your biriyani masala does not have any ginger in it, you may like to add a tsp of ginger paste before adding the meat to the onions.

I sometimes cook the onions and chopped tomatoes together instead of layering the tomatoes

Serve hot with Raita