Have you noticed that I haven’t posted that many recipes of Indian desserts/sweets here? Well, I’ve posted a number of Payasam/Kheer recipes and a Gajar (carrot) Halwa recipe and my Indian dessert recipe collection ends there. I’m not sure why I haven’t tried any major Indian desserts. Somehow I’ve associated it with too much of work and too much of ghee. I may be completely wrong, but I didnt bother to prove it otherwise.

Then this Rasmalai happened! We had this first at one of our friends, Abishek & Simi’s place. Jose fell head over heels in love with this one! Ever since he had that Rasmalai, he has been asking me to make it for him. Well, the loving wife that I am, it only took 3 years for me to grant his wish ;) The other day, when I was feeling all lovey dovey and wanted to surprise my husband (well there was a secret agenda of getting some things done on the site ;)) I decided to make this and that too under expert supervision. So I called up Simi and checked whether she was free. Luckily it was her day off from work, so I packed up everything and landed at her place. We had a fun time cooking, eating, gossipping and discussing about food. She is a major foodie and loves to experiment new stuff, all in all I had a gala time :) Thank you Simi for the recipe and for your time!

I’ve used Haldiram’s tinned Rasgullas for making Rasmalai. Though I’ve a bit of patience when it comes to cooking, I dont have that extra bit of it in me to make this from scratch ;) Ok, I need to tell you something. In the intro of most of my recipes, I usually tell you its easy and quick, but there is a slight modification for this one. It’s easy, but not quick! You need to reduce the milk to almost half the qty and it will take around 1- 1.5 hours, if it’s done on low flame! Ideally, it has to be done on low flame, otherwise, it may get burnt too, you dont want your Rasmali to look like it’s caramelised, right? I can assure you one thing, making this is time well spent and you will not regret. That deal sounds good, right?

Btw, I had posted a Rasmalai recipe long time. But it wasnt the real deal, so I deleted that and adding this new one.

Here you go…

Soak saffron in hot milk. Soak the pistachios and almonds in hot water to blanche them.

Heat milk in a deep and wide pan. Bring it to a boil.

Cook it on low flame till it reduces to half the quantity. Add saffron milk and sugar and stir.

Squeeze out the sugar syrup from the rasgullas and add it to the milk one by one. Add finely sliced blanched almonds and pistachios and crushed cardamom seeds and continue to cook on low flame for 10-15 more mins.

 

Are you a risk taker? I am, but… my risk taking is mostly limited to one thing, cooking! I should say, apart from making pretty basic stuff like tea, coffee, omelet etc; everything else was an adventure for me. When I try out something new and if it turns out well, it gives me a high! I think that’s one of the reasons I got hooked on to cooking.

When I got married 7.5 years ago… I had no idea about any sort of kitchen management, like what all pans and pots you need, what kind of dinner set you need and was absolutely clueless about the grocery part too. Okay, can you promise not to laugh at me? I still have some cloves (grambu) with me which I bought during my very first grocery shopping in Bahrain! Those days I never knew any measurement, less than a kg! So now you know why I said everything related to cooking was an adventure for me in the beginning.

Risotto with Lemon Garlic Sauce

Those days when I cooked, if a recipe called for some unusual ingredient, I made sure that I had it in my kitchen, that too minimum of 1 kg, even though I’ll be using it for just one time. I should say I had a grocery aisle of a mini supermarket at home. I never thought about ‘substitution’, that word was alien to me those days. Fast forward to present, my kitchen cupboard looks like the grocery aisle of a closing down mini supermarket ;) Somethings you learn in life through mistakes and experience, right? So experience taught me that if you are buying an expensive ingredient, buy it in a very small qty and make sure that you use it one way or another.

Recently, when I saw Nita Mehta’s book, “Italian cooking for the Indian kitchen”, at a friend’s place I wanted to check it out then and there itself. Though I haven’t tasted a wide variety of Italian dishes, somehow Italian cooking is something that fascinates me. I think the title of the book, is what made me more excited “Italian cooking for the Indian kitchen”.

Fortunately, Nita Mehta’s book calls for ingredients which I normally use. I was pretty curious to try out some recipes and this is the first one I tried from that book. My previous experiments with her recipe, Dal Makhani and Chicken Malai Kabab were good, so I was almost sure about this dish too and I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve adapted the recipe from her book, but I’ve given the measurements I used.

Here you go….

Soak saffron threads in warm water. Heat butter in a pan and add minced garlic.

Add onion and fry till soft. Add washed rice and toast it lightly.

Add salt, pepper, coriander/parsley, saffron, water to the rice. Let it boil. Reduce flame and cover and cook. Meanwhile, heat butter in another pan and add minced garlic.

Add prawns, lemon juice, salt to the pan and cook for 3-5 mins, till the prawns are cooked. When the water in the rice is nearly dry, add the cooked prawns with stock and grated cheese. Mix gently.

 

 

Have I told you about the Kerala restaurants in Bahrain? I dont know how I missed telling you about it… Anyways, there are so many Kerala restaurants here starting from our typical chaya kada (tea shop) style ones to upmarket Kerala theme restaurants. Our friends who left Bahrain for good say that, the one thing they miss most about this place is the Kerala restaurants here. Ok, I’ve also come across a few who dont appreciate the food in these places. But I should say, it’s a minority. If you are so particular about the qty of ginger, garlic, curry leaves in your dish n how it is chopped/sliced, those sort of things, then I think those places are not meant for you :) If you ask me, some of them do a real good job and you get to taste home cooked style food at a very reasonable price.

Do you remember the “meals ready” board that used to be displayed in front of the hotels back home? You can see that here, also the Malayalam version of “uunnu thayyar” (meals ready). Yeah, that’s another thing I like about living in this part of the world. You dont miss home much :) I’m sure back home this boards are replaced with flex boards n stuff. It reminds me what some people say… if you want to see the real Onam celebration these days, you should go to Dubai ;)

Ok, let’s come back to what we were discussing, Kerala restaurants. Since I make Kerala fare regularly at home, we are not frequent visitors of these hotels. But if I’m in a mood to have an elaborate lunch, I mean the typical Kerala style lunch, we head to one of the these restaurants. For a decent price, you get a wide variety of spread with 2-3 non veg items and 4-5 veg items and dont forget the payasam in the end!

I had this dish for the first time when we had lunch from one of these places a few months ago. I had had potato mezhukkuperatti before, but the combination of kaya n potato was new to me. I liked it so much and concentrated my whole appetite on this. In the end the waiter started giving me a weird look, because I just had a spoonful of rice and almost a plateful of this! From that day onwards I wanted to try this at home.

So, I finally tried this dish at home, if you are thinking whether I got the recipe from the chef… no. It’s a very simple one, you could actually taste all the ingredients and it’s no rocket science. The only difference I felt between my version and the restaurant one is in the looks. While mine had a mat finish look, the restaurant one had a glossy look.  I couldn’t bring myself to add that much oil. You can make it either mat finish or glossy, obviously the glossy one is more tastier.

Here you go…

Cook potato and raw banana separately, with salt. heat oil and splutter mustard. Add sliced onions, salt and curry leaves. Cook till the onions start changing the colour.

Add minced/crushed garlic and cook for 2-3 mins. Add all the masala powders and cook till the oil starts appearing.

Add water and let it boil. Add cooked potato and raw banana and mix gently. Continue to cook on low flame for a few more mins.

 

Shall we bake? It’s been sometime since we baked right? Here is something simple to put together, if you are in a hurry. I was searching for a simple eggless chocolate cake and google took me here. This cake is really moist and I fell in love with its colour :) I think, this will be my go to recipe for an eggless chocolate cake. What I liked most about it is, it isnt very sweet, even with the frosting. Just the right amount of sweetness for me.

I wanted this cake to have a very homely look, because I was baking it for a friend… who is crazy about homemade baked goodies. So what do you think, does it look like a simple homemade chocolatey goodness to you?

You ready with your whisk, measuring cups, flour and apron… shall we roll?

Recipe Source: Food Tale

In a large bowl sift together the all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and sugar. Make a well…

Add all the wet ingredients one by one. With an electric mixer, beat the mixture on low speed for 2-3 minutes until the dry and wet ingredients are well combined.  You can also use a wire whisk. Do not over beat it.

Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake in the pre heated oven for about 30 min. Check the cake with tooth pick. Toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake should come clean when the cake is ready.

 

Do you remember how the heroes were introduced in 80′s and 90′s Malayalam movies? I think the most common one was where the hero gets down from an old bus, in front of a chayakada (tea shop). The hero then proceeds to the chayakada, order a tea and some snacks all the while keeping the curious chayakadakkaran (tea shop wallah) on suspense about his trip intentions. Fast forward to today’s movie… the hero alights from a helicopter or at least a S class Benz and goes straight to shoot a gunda (gangster). To be fair, I think the movie makers should not be blamed. They are trying to make realistic movies these days and in today’s reality chayakadas are a rare sight and the roads are crowded with Audi, BMW etc;

May be I can suggest an alternative introduction scene. The hero can alight from his fancy car in front of a Bhel Puri stand. During my past visits to Kerala, I’ve noticed more number of “Yadav Bhel Puri Stand/Corner” than chayakadas. I’m referring to Cochin here. I’m not saying Parippu Vada and the sort has become extinct but looks like they have found a more comfortable space in well lit shelves of bakeries than the “niram mangiya kannadi koodu” (fainted glass box) of chayakada, just like our heroes coming in a fancy car instead of a bus! All I can say is whenever I see a Bhel Puri Stand, a phrase comes to my mind “Kochiyude marunna mukham” (changing face of Cochin), I think I read it in some Newspaper or magazine. Well, I’m not saying this is bad, it’s change! Whether you like it or not, change is the only constant thing or so the experts say….

See what all things came to my mind when I sat down to write about this humble snack, no wonder the typical Kerala communist used to thrive on it  ;) Anyways, parippu vada dominated my evening tea sessions during the last trip. Mummy (my MIL) makes very good parippu vadas. So here’s her recipe specially for you :)

As promised in the earlier post, I do have step by step pictures taken in mummy’s kitchen. Here you go…

Soak chana dal for 2-2.5 hours. Drain the water completely…

Pat dry the drained dal with a clean kitchen towel. Grind the dal in mixie for a few seconds. Please note that that the dal should be crushed and should not be made into a smooth paste.

Add all the other ingredients, except oil, to the dal and combine it gently. Make small balls with the dal mix.

Heat oil in a deep pan. Meanwhile, wet your hands and flatten each ball within your palms. When the oil is hot enough add the flattened dal mix…

Fry the vadas on low-medium heat, till it becomes crispy and a dark shade of brown. Drain the fried vadas on tissue paper…

 

 

Usually when I call my friends, just after saying “hello”, the first thing I ask is “are you busy”? I like to talk to a person when he or she is relaxed and not in a rush. Are you also like that? So let me ask you, are you busy now? Because I’m in a mood to chat today. If you are busy… no probs, go finish your work and come back, I’ll wait for you.

So the other day I told you I was in Kerala, right? The thing is… after our India trip in March, we didnt even put back our suitcases. Yep, we were planning another trip, but not to India. It’s been sometime we had a proper travel holiday. For the past 2-3 years, whenever we plan a trip, it gets jinxed! So this time, we wanted to make it happen so badly and planned ahead for a three week long holiday, everything was almost ready. But…. ten days before our trip, Jose got a flu. We slowed down our trip planning a bit, so that he could take rest and recover fast. Hhmmm… but the flu had more determination than our desire to go for holiday. Anyways, it was good that our suitcases were still outside, because within a day’s notice, we traveled to India. The day we landed (just before Easter), I was down with fever! There you go… So that’s the story about being in India again so soon.

Now this brings me back to the very question that Jose and myself always discuss about. Whether we should plan things or not? Since, nothing in my life has happened as per plans, I thought “planning” is not somebody I can trust completely and so I decided to part ways. But Jose is a believer in planning and gives more chances to him and they continue to be friends. So are you a friend of “planning” or not?

Btw, did I tell you… I’m back in Bahrain now. Reached here yesterday night. I’m happy to be back mainly for one reason… it’s sooooo hot back home. (Sounds silly when say you are going back to the Middle East, because its hotter in India!) Oh, and don’t forget the official and unofficial power cuts! So here’s something that helps you to stay cool.

I used to have “thayir idli” regularly during my college days. After my classes, I used to go straight to Tesschechy’s (my aunt’s) house and she used to make this for me, whenever they had Idli for breakfast. I remember being fascinated with mini idlis during my childhood days and I should say the fascination still continues.

So next time you make idlis at home, try this one. It’s healthy,refreshing, tasty and super easy! We made it once for a tea party at home along with some cookies and cakes, but this turned out to be the star attraction! Again, this time also, I dont have the step by step pictures. I promise to post a detailed one next time, agreed?

 

All set for Easter?  This year, we are celebrating Easter at home in Kerala. This is the first time we are celebrating Easter with family after our wedding. Btw, if you are wondering how I ended up in Kerala, again so soon, that’s another story. I’ll tell you about it in the next post. I know you are busy now and not in a mood to listen to my stories ;) So here’s a chicken dry roast recipe. I dont have step by step pics for this one.  I made it sometime ago and was planning to post on some special occasion. Look’s like now is the time….

We wish you a very happy Easter with your loved ones! May the risen Christ bless you and your family!

Here you go…

 

This fish curry is kind of a revelation to me. So far I thought we use varutharacha (roasted and ground coconut paste) masala only for theeyal and chicken or other meat items. I never knew this can be used for fish curry also. During my recent trip, when mummy (my MIL) said she is going to make varutharacha meen curry, I was quite fascinated by the idea. I was thinking about the different varieties of fish curry that we have in Kerala itself. In my home, if you say meen curry, it’s usually meen vevichathu. I think the only dish where we use coconut milk for fish is fish molly.

Btw, I was on lent that time and I was strongly tempted to break it. The aroma, the colour and the richness of the gravy was too good to resist. And me a poor soul with a weak heart couldnt resist, so I tasted it. Since, the title of “queen of excuses” is conferred upon me by my dear husband, I decided to do justice to the title. So here is my excuse… I tasted it for YOU, yes, for You only. If I had to post the recipe on the blog, I should know how it tastes right? I mean, I want only the best for YOU. Ok, jokes apart, I just tasted it and found it really hard not to lavishly enjoy it. We had it with rice that day, but it’s good with chapathi also. I think, it goes best with puttu, if you like the combination of meen chaaru (fish gravy) and puttu. Try it sometime and let me know, okies? Though I took the step by step pictures, of making the curry, I forgot to get the exact measurements of the recipe from mummy. So she wrote the whole recipe and scanned and sent it to me :)

Btw, have you started planning the Easter Menu? I’m planning to make some kozhukatta for Osana perunnal/kuruthola perunnal (Palm Sunday). Also, if you want to make Indri appam and paalu for pesaha, you can find the recipes here.

Now, back to our fish curry recipe. Here is the pic and the recipe:

Heat a pan and dry roast the ingredients listed under ‘to roast and grind’…

Roast it till it turns golden brown…

Let it cool completely. Add 2-3 tbsp of water to the roasted ingredients and grind it to a thick smooth paste…

Meanwhile, heat oil in a manchatti (earthen pot) or a thick bottomed vessel. Add pearl onions, ginger, garlic and green chilli…

After around 4-5 mins, add turmeric powder and cook for a min or two…

Add ground paste, salt and water. Let it boil. Add cocoum pieces and cook for a few more mins…

When the gravy boils, add fish pieces and swirl the pot, so that the fish pieces are coated with the gravy…

Cover and cook. When the fish is half done, add tomato (refer notes) and continue cooking till the fish is done…

Switch off the gas and add 1 tbsp of coconut oil and curry leaves. Let the curry rests for a while for the flavour to settle in…