Mathi Peera Pattichathu (Fish in Grated Coconut)

Mathi or sardine is a very special fish for us keralities..  and mathi peera pattichathu is lot more special for me for many reasons. :)  this is the one of my master piece. Simple and tasty dish for the ones who likes fish. This is a very healthy and easy recipe. There is no oil in this recipe.

Dedicating this recipe to an ardent fan of my 'pattichathu'. This is for you Anichetta ( Kochus)  and we miss you…

 

Ingredients

Sardines(Mathi) - 600gm
Kudampuli –  3 – 4 nos or as reqd
Small onions(shallots) – 6 nos
Ginger – small piece
Garlic pods – 4 nos
Green chillies -3 nos
Turmeric powder – ½   tea spoon
Red chillipowder- 1 tea spoon
Curry leaves – Plenty
Grated coconut – 1 cup
Salt 

Method

Wash kudampuli properly and soak it in a little water for sometime.
Crush (pound) the onions, ginger, garlic and green chillies.
In a clay pot or pan, mix the above crushed mixture, coconut, turmeric powder, chilli powder, curry leaves and salt with your hands. Add kudampuli , add 1 cup water (or  water enough to cook the fish). Add the fish.  Close the lid and bring to boil,when it starts boiling reduce the heat. Remove the cover and cook till the water has dried up. Serve with rice.

Butter Chicken

Butter chicken, the common dish to order in an Indian restaurant. The word ‘butter‘ in the name might be misleading, I believe it stands for the creamy texture of the dish than the  fact that its loaded with butter. The recipe here did not use much butter and trust me, you’ll not miss it… 

Usually the chicken is grilled in tandoor or fried then mixing it with the rich creamy curry.  For a change instead of grilling or frying I cooked it directly with the curry and it taste equally good.  What you miss here is the Smokey flavor, For those who needs that smokey flavor,when the butter chicken is cooked Place hot charcoal in an aluminum foil floating above the curry and cover the dish, remove the cover just before serving. Discard the foil and charcoal and serve. The curry will be infused with a smokey flavor!, This tip I got from a friend. :)

Ingredients

700gm chicken (you can use bone or boneless pieces, skin should be removed)

Juice of 1 lime

Red chilli powder-1 tea spoon

4 cloves

1 tea spoon peppercorns

Cinnamon- small stick

Almonds- 8-10

Cardamom- 3 pods

Fresh yoghurt – 1 cup

Vegetable oil

Onions- 3

Garlic- 1 inch piece

Ginger- 3-4 cloves

Coriander powder- 2 tea spoon

Cumin powder-1 tea spoon

Turmeric powder- ¼ tea spoon

Tomato- 1 (ground into a smooth paste in a food processor)

Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)- 1 table spoon

Butter- 1 table spoon

Salt to taste

Coriander leaves to garnish

Method

Mix the chicken with lime juice, chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt, cover and keep for 20 min.
Dry roast the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, cardamom and almonds, grind into a coarse powder.
Mix yogurt, the spices powder, turmeric,  cumin and coriander powder and add the mixture to the chicken and keep it marinated for 30-45 min.
Heat oil in a big sauce pan; add 2 onions, ginger, garlic and green chillies and sauté on low/medium heat until it releases a nice aroma, remove from fire, allow to cool , add 1 ½ cups of water and make a paste of the mixture.
Heat oil in a pan, add one chopped onion, and sauté on medium heat until it turns golden brown, add tomato paste, kasthuri methi and add the chicken mix, sauté for a while. Add the onion paste and bring to boil , cover the pan and Cook till the chicken is tender and the gravy is reduced to half its original volume. Melt the butter and then pour it over the chicken. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Plum Cake

Christmas can never be completed without plum cakes. I love plum cakes and used to wait for the Christmas season for the cakes, This Christmas season I got very tasty cake from my friend, took the recipe from her and this is my first attempt with plum cake… and the result was good.

My husband and kids are not plum cake lovers, that’s the main reason for not trying this before.  But I’ve some good friends who loves plum cakes the way I do, got certified that my attempt was a success… :)

So here I’m sharing the recipe…

This recipe doesn't need you to soak the dry fruits in advance and it's alcohol-free so you can make it instantly just before you need it. 

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups dry fruits.

2 cups powdered white sugar

2 cups vegetable oil

5 eggs
1 clove + 1 cardamom pod + small piece of cinnamon + a pinch nutmeg (ground together to powder)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

First preparatory step is to caramelize sugar.
In a pan on medium heat, melt 1/2 cup sugar slowly turn into a dark brown goop. Keep stirring and let it turn a deep dark brown colour. Don't let it burn. Turn off heat and add about 1/4 cup water. The sugar will harden. Turn the heat back on and slowly heat the mixture to get a dissolved caramelized sugar.  Let this cool and set aside. 
Take the dry fruits and add 2-3 table spoons of flour to coat it. This is to avoid sinking to the bottom of the batter while baking. Set aside. 
Beat the egg whites in  a bowl until they turns fluffy and a soft peaks form.
Mix the baking powder, flour and spices until well combined. Sift 2-3 times.
Beat together the oil and sugar in a bowl until they turns creamy, add one egg yolk at a time and blend well. Add the vanilla extract and beat well, gradually add the flour little by little and blend well. Add the caramelized sugar and blend, finally add the dry fruit mixture to the mixing bowl and gently mix it.
Fold gently the egg whites to the cake batter.
Preheat oven to 350F / 180C
Pour this cake batter to the greased baking pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely.

Vegetable Biriyani

A very Happy new year to all…

Something was keeping me away from my blog, you can put all the blame on the busy schedule… but reality is I was feeling too lazy to post . I’ve some in my drafts, but .. not complete.

Most of my newyear wishes includes wishes for my blog also. Wishing to see more on the blog this year…  that is something really nice and I am extremely happy to hear that… so this year I’ll try my best to  be more active on the blog. :) I don’t want to categorize this as my new-year resolution, coz my resolutions don’t last more than a month.  And I stop making resolutions long back… :) Thank you all my supporters for the encouragement.

Recently my kids complimented my vegetable biriyani.  So thought of sharing that as my first post this year…. Like my previous post, this is also not the typical biriyani… this is my version. Trying out some recipe here and there and then settling on my version of mix and match.

Ingredients

Rice- 2 cups

Garlic- 10 cloves

Ginger – 1 big sq piece

Green chillie -3

Onion-3 

Ghee- ¼ cup

Beans -10 nos

Carrot-3

Cauliflower

2 cloves

1 inch stick of cinnamon

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 whole cardamoms

Mace spice

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon of turmeric powder

½ cup freshly chopped mint leaves

1 cup coriander leaves

Salt to taste

Method

Cook the rice with 3 cups of water. The water added is less than is required, we don't want the rice to get fully cooked, as it will get cooked again.
Heat oil in a big sauce pan; add onions, ginger, garlic and green chillies and sauté on low/medium heat until it releases a nice aroma. Ground the mixture and keep the paste aside.
Dry roast  cloves, cardamom, fennel seeds, cumin seeds. grind all the roasted spices and keep aside.
Heat 3 table spoon of ghee in a pot, add the vegetable and sauté it for a while. Add the onion paste  salt to taste and slim the flame. Add a portion of the mint leaves ,coriander leaves, and the grounded masala.  With this masala being at the bottom of the pan , add half portion of  cooked rice add the remaining masala powder on top of the rice, add the remaining coriander and mint leaves, don't mix it as yet. Pour 1 table spoon of ghee on top. Now cover the pan with a lid and let it sit for 15 more minutes on low heat. Turn off heat and let the biriyani sit for another 15-20 minutes, covered.
 Heat the ghee or vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the raisins and cashews and cook, stirring, until the raisins are plump and the cashews are toasted. garnish your biriyani and serve hot.

Garlic Chicken

After a really long break, back in the blog.. It’s the vacation time and we been to kerala for a short 3 weeks trip. Trip was Short and sweet. I really had a good time enjoying the spl food from my mothers. Both my mother and Mother in law are wonderful cooks, I wanted to take some pictures of their dishes and share their recipes on my blog… But… enjoying them was the only priority and I forget about the rest…. Next time for sure… :)
Now back in my kitchen… with my routine cooking, and it’s time for another chicken dish… it’s the garlic chicken this time. This is different recipe of garlic chicken, receipe was posted in a Facebook group by one of our friend. Posted long back, This is an adaptation of the same recipe with some alterations from my side.

Ingredients:-
Chicken- 500g
Onion finely chopped-1 cup
Tomato -2 
Garlic- 20 cloves
Ginger paste - 1 table spn
Lemon juice – 2 table spn
Yoghurt- 2 table spn
Salt
Green chilli -4
Coriander leaves – ½ cup
cloves- 3
cardamom - small piece

Method

Marinate the chicken with yoghurt, lemon juice and a paste of ginger, chilli and 9-10 garlic cloves. add salt. Marinate it for  1 hr.
After the chicken is marinated use a thick bottom skillet or pan for cooking.
Pour oil in the pan , add cardamom and cloves along with crushed garlic. Turn the heat to medium, When the oil is hot enough, add onion. Let it saute until golden. add the tomatoes and stir fry for a while.
Now add the marinated chicken. Add salt .Let it cook on medium low heat stirring occasionally. It should be done in 20-30 minutes.
garnish with coriander leaves and Serve with rice or your choice of bread or naan.

Papaya Thoran (Stir fried Papaya with Coconut)

Pappaya is a very common fruit something you can find in the yard of almost every house in Kerala. But when you are away from home… you miss all these garden fresh items.
Papaya has many nutritional values. Very tasty as a fruit as such.. but  things are different here at home, I donno why my kids don’t like the taste of ripe papaya, same with my husband also.. they don’t enjoy it the way I enjoy the fruit. So instead of waiting for the papaya to go ripe, I usually cook the green papaya. You can make a variety of dishes- curries, salads and so on..  and the easiest one is Thoran.
Thoran is a dry dish traditionally made of a finely chopped vegetables  and fresh coconut and spices, tempered with that touch of coconut oil. This popular and common dish is usually prepared to be eaten along with rice. You can make thoran out of any vegetable.
The interesting fact is unlike the fruit, papaya thoran is very much in demand here.  They love this , especially my boys… both father and son enjoys this thoran.
There’s nothing much to write about the recipe, its that simple, easy. tasty and healthy. :) … sharing my version of Papaya Thoran

Ingredients:-

Green papaya -  1 ½ cups , (Grated or finely chopped )
Coconut - 1/4 cup , grated
Green Chili - 2
small Onion –  4-5 , chopped
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves
Salt
Oil - 1 tbsp

Method

Peal the skin and grate the papaya.
Crush  the coconut , green chilies , turmeric  and cumin seeds.
Heat oil in a pan add mustard seeds allow it to pop Add small onions and cook till translucent.
Add curry leaves. Add the crushed coconut mixture. Mix well and stir fry for sometime.
Add the grated papaya and mix well and cook it covered in low flame for 4-5 min. add salt and mix well. Open the lid and stir cook it for another few minutes. Remove from the stove. Papaya thoran is ready to be served.

Mambhazha Pulissery (Mango Pulissery)

Its mango season in Kerala now and recently my husband  had a short visit, my mother in law send some fresh ripe mangoes from the tree in front of our house.  Sweet and juicy ripe mangoes. Very tasty as a fruit as such, Mangoes…. always makes you nostalgic. 
Mambhazha pulissery is a simple dish.. a perfect combo of ripe mangoes and yoghurt. The tampering with mustards, fenugreek and chillies gives the extra flavors and taste. My daughter loves this curry too.

Best with rice , Can be part of the Kerala sadya ,mambhazhapulissery contributes the sweet taste.
Here is my version

Ingredients :-
Ripe mangoes - 2
Red chili powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Water
yogurt / curd – 1 ½  cups

Salt
Grated coconut – ½  cup

Cumin seeds - ½  teaspoon
Turmeric powder- ¼   teaspoon
Green chili - 2 no.s
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Fenugreek seeds – ½   teaspoon
Dry red chili (whole) - 4 no.s
Curry leaves
Oil

Method

Peel the skin of the mangoes.  I used not so small mangoes. So I cut the flesh into pieces and discarded the skin. Cook the mangoes with ¼ tea spoon turmeric powder, ½ tea spoon chilli powder, salt and water.
Grind the grated coconut, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, and green chilli with some curd to make it a smooth paste.  Add the paste to the cooked mangoes and cook again for another 3-4 min.
Lower the flame and add the curd and mix well.
Heat oil in a pan , splutter the mustard seeds, fenugreek seed, red chillies and curry leaves.  Pour this tampering over the pulissery.
Mambhazha pulissery is ready!

Chilli Paneer

Indo Chinese fusions like chilli or manjoorian dishes has a special taste. very popular as well… more popular with chicken , But taste equally good with paneer or Gobi.

Increasing demand for paneer dishes made me cook this chilli paneer... :)
Chilli paneer  is a spicy dish which can be served  as an appetizer, it tastes great with fried rice and noodles .
Here is my version of chilli Paneer which I love to have anytime a day. The same for my kids also..  :) 

You can make it spicy by increasing the amount of green chillies.  As always I made it less spicy.

Ingredients :-

Paneer - 250gm
Capsicum -1/2 green and 1/2 red
Onions- 2 large 

Green chillies, 4 slit
Ginger garlic paste 1 tsp
Soya sauce 1 tbsp
Chilli sauce – ½ teaspoon
Tomato sauce- 1 table spoon
Sugar- 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

For the Marinade:
All-purpose flour - 3 tbsp
Corn flour- 2 tbsp
Pepper- 1 tspn
Garlic paste 1 tsp
Salt
Water

Method

 Marinate the panner pieces in a paste made out of the ingredients to marinade. Keep for 5 min. 
Add oil in a pan and shallow fry the paneer pieces, make sure all the sides are brown. Drain them and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan, add chopped onions, capsicum and  green chillies,. Cook until the onions turn transparent . Add ginger garlic paste , soya sauce, chilli sauce, tomato sauce and sugar. Stir-fry on high flame for about 1min  turn the flame to medium-low..  Add salt if needed.
Add the fried paneer cubes and combine well. Stir cook for sometime.. add corn starch (½ tbsp of corn flour mixed with 2 tbsp of water) and cook for some more time until the sauce thickens.
Remove from pan, Serve hot.

Chicken Curry (Chettinadu style)

Another Chicken Dish… Chicken curry in Chettinadu style..
Deeply flavorful chicken dish , cooked in coconut milk with a blend of the flavors of quite a few spices.
Its not the usual ‘easy’ recipe . There’s no marination or frying or anything involved in my version of  recipe but preparing the ingredients consume more time than the actual cooking.  But worth the effort….
Serve hot with Chapathi or rice. I love it with both :)

Ingredients:
Chicken – 700gm
Shallots/ small onion - 1 cup
Tomato -3 medium size
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Coconut Milk - 1 cup
Green Chillies - 2 nos
Garlic – 8 flakes
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Salt
Coriander leaves

Curry leaves

Masala ingredients:
Coriander seeds - 1 tablespoons
Dry red chillies - 6 nos
Black Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Fennel seeds - 1/2  teaspoon
Cardamoms - 2
Cinnamon - 1 small piece
Curry leaves

Method

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a pan and roast the masala ingredients- (black pepper, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, red chillies, cardamom, cinnamon and curry leaves) for 2-3 min on medium heat with constant stirring. Remove from fire, cool and grind.
Make a paste of ginger, garlic , green chilli and soaked poppy seeds keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan, add small onions and curry leaves, sauté till the onions becomes transparent,
Add the ginger garlic chilli paste mixture and cook in medium heat for a min, gives you a good aroma, add chicken, with constant stirring cook for 3-4 minutes on a high flame.  Add turmeric powder, tomatoes and salt , mix well cook this for some more time. Transfer this to a pressure cooker and add coconut milk. Cooking time varies depending upon the quality of the chicken used.  For me the chicken was done in two whistles. ( around 5 min)
Open the pressure cooker, add the grounded masala and combine well. Cook for another 3-4 min. the gravy gets thicken , add more curry leaves. Remove from stove.
Transfer to a serving dish. Garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve Hot.

Chicken Roast

This dish is a fantastic blend of Chicken, Onion, Tomatoes and Spices.
Adaptation of this recipe is  again from a cooking program on TV,  with some alteration to customize it according to our taste buds.
The aroma  of curry leaves and the coconut oil makes it a complete Kerala dish. .. a mouth watering one….
The chicken is usually deep fried and then mixed with masala.  For a healthier option, I avoided the deep frying and pressure cooked it instead.It goes well with rice or chappathi
Sometimes I have the feeling, that I now cook so I can take pics.. I’m not sure that the picture gives enough justice to the statement.  Anyways I enjoy both…. Caputuring it on camera and eating it as well!! 

Ingredients
Chicken -750 gm
Pepper powder – 2 table spoon
Lemon juice – 2 table spoon
Chillipowder  2 table spoon
Turmeric powder-  ¼  teaspoon
Coriander Powder- 1 teaspoon
Onion – 5 medium size( finely chopped)
Ginger – 2 ½ table spoon
Garlic-2 ½ table spoon
Green chilli
Tomato -3 big
Garam masala- 1 tea spoon
Salt

Preparation

preparing the chicken includes two sets of marination.
First Marinate the chicken with ½ teaspoon of pepper powder, salt and lemon juice, for about 30 mins.
For the second marinade - 1tablespoon Chilli powder – , ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder, ¼ teaspoon pepper powder, add water and make it a paste.  Mix it well with the chicken and keep it aside for sometime.  Deep fry the marinated chicken in coconut oil… that’s the original way.
My version has some changes here , after the first marination , I cooked the chicken in pressure cooker.. then I did the second marination.  Since the chicken is cooked already…  a stir fry was enough to change the raw taste of the marinade. 
Now the masala part….
Heat oil in a pan,  add ginger , garlic and green chilli and fry  till there is a nice aroma,  Add the onions, sauté it til it become golden brown, Add 1 table spoon chilli powder,I teaspoon coriander powder, ¼ tea spoon turmeric powder , fry  for a minute. Add the tomatoes  and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Add garam masala and curry leaves and mix well..
 Now add the  fried chicken and roast  it for  sometime  till the masala gets well coated over the chicken. add more curry leaves , Remove from stove .
serve with rice or chapathi.