Moru Kachiyathu / Easy Yogurt curry

Spicy Chicken fry Kerala Style

Ingredients:

Chicken drumsticks- 10
Onion- 3
Tomato- 1
Ginger- 1/2 tablespoon (chopped)
Garlic- 1/2 tablespoon (chopped)
Green chillies- 2
Curry leaves- 2 spring
Oil 1/2 cup

For the marinade:

Kashmiri chilli powder- 2 tablespoon
Garam masala- 1 teaspoon
Ginger garlic paste- 1 tablespoon
Lemon juice- from 1/2 lemon

Preparation:

Clean chicken after removing the skin and make lot of gashes on both sides. Make a paste out of the ingredients for the marinade and add enough salt. Apply this to the cleaned chicken drumstick and leave for couple of hours in the room temperature. Reserve some marinade for the gravy.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and shallow fry chicken until brown by turning the chicken half way through. Remove from oil and keep it aside.

Sauté chopped ginger and garlic in the same pan you fried the chicken. Add a bit more oil if required. Add onion and green chillies when the garlic and ginger changes colour. Once the onions are soft, add rest of the marinade and sauté very well. When the raw smell disappears add the chopped tomato and curry leaves. Sauté for few minutes until the tomatoes are cooked and finally add the fried chicken. Sauté very well until the gravy thickens and get stuck to the chicken  pieces. Enjoy hot.

Kerala style Apple Pachadi

Autumn is the season for apples here in UK. Sour Green cooking apples are a good substitute to our pacha manga.

This year I have got a bag full of cooking apples from my friend and needless to say, I made good use of it.

Ingredients:

Cooking apple- 2medium
Chopped Onion- 1/2 cup
Green chillies- 2
Ginger- 1/2 tbspoon (chopped)
Mustard- 1 teaspoon
Coconut/ sunflower oil- 1 tablespoon

For Grinding:

Coconut- 1/2  to  3/4cup
Cumin/ Jeera- 1/4 teaspoon
Green chilli- 1

For Seasoning:

Coconut/ sunflower oil- 1 tbspoon
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Dried chilli- 2
Curry leaves- 2 spring

Preparation:

Remove skin and chop apple to very small pieces.

Crush mustard in a pestle and mortar and leave aside.

Put the ingredients for grinding in a mixer grinder and grind to a smooth paste. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and add chopped onion, green chillies and ginger. Add chopped apple once the onion turns soft. Sauté the apple very well and add 1/2 cup of water to cook the apple. Add the grinded coconut mix and crushed mustard when the apple turns soft. Boil everything and switch off the flame.

Season oil in a different pan and add to the pachadi.

I didn't add any yogurt since the apple was sour enough. Do a taste test and add yogurt if needed but before seasoning.

Stuffed Egg plant/ Brinjal Stuffed with some kerala spice

 I am a bit tired with usual nadan recipes and tried this Mediterranean dish with a little malayalee twist. It came out really tasty and I am planning to make this more often.

Ingredients:

Egg plant- 2 large
Onions- 2 large(chopped)
Garlic- 3 cloves(chopped)
Tomatoes- 4 medium (chopped)
Pepper powder-1/2 teaspoon
Garam masala- 1/2 Teaspoon
Chilli flakes- 1 teaspoon
Coriander leaves- 1 tablespoon (chopped)
Olive oil- 1/2 cup

Preparation:

Cut eggplant lengthwise to two equal parts. Scoop out the flesh and sprinkle salt to the scooped flesh and inside the eggplant. Leave it few minutes for the salt to get absorbed.

 
Heat some olive oil in a non-stick pan and sauté, onion and garlic until golden. At that point add the egg plant, chopped tomatoes, pepper powder, chilli flakes and garam masala. Cook this on a medium flame for about 15 minutes or until the eggplant is cooked.

 
Heat rest of the oil in a different pan and fry eggplant until softens on both sides. Start with the skinny side first.

 
Remove from heat and scoop in the stuffing. Garnish with coriander leaves.

 
You can serve this as a starter.

Easy Mutton/ Lamb curry kerala stye

Ingredients:

Mutton - 1 kg with bones
Onion- 4 medium sized
Ginger - 1 tablespoon (chopped)
Garlic- 1 tablespoon (chopped)
Curry leaves- 4 springs

For Marinating:

Garlic - 3 cloves
Ginger- Same amount as garlic
Mutton masala- 1 tablespoon

For Dry Roasting:

Red chilli powder (I used Kashmiri chilli powder) - 2 tablespoon
Coriander powder- 2 Tablespoon

For Home made masala powder:

Fennel Seeds- 2 tablespoon
Cardamom- 3
Cinnamon stick- 1 inch long piece
Star Anise-1/2
Cloves- 4
Mace/ Jathipathri- 1

Preparation:

The key ingredient in this recipe is the raw home made masala. Yes. I said raw masala. Just put all ingredients for the home made masala in the mixer grinder and make a fine powder. You can keep this in an air tight container but make sure you use it within few days.

Dry roast chilli powder and coriander powder in a non-stick pan and dry roast until the raw smell disappear. make sure not sure not to burn the powder.

Wash mutton very well and mix with some turmeric powder and salt . Leave it for 5 minutes and wash again. crush ginger and garlic with a pestle and porter. Add this to the washed mutton pieces and then add the mutton powder. Transfer this to the pressure cooker and gently cook up to 2 whistles.

Sauté onion in a non-stick pan and keep this aside.

In a separate pan, add some oil and sauté chopped ginger and garlic and curry leaves.. Add dry roast masala to this and then add the cooked mutton pieces (without water). Sauté everything very well until the masala get coat to the mutton pieces. Now add the water (gravy) was remaining on the pressure cooker. Give everything a good mix again and close the lid. Cook in a medium flame for about 10 minutes and open the lid and add the cooked onions and curry leaves. Top up with boiled water if needed. Cook for further 10 minutes and then add the home made masala. Switch off the flame and enjoy hot.

Dry Beef Fry/ Unakka erachi chathachathu

Dry beef is fairly a new dish for me as we don't have it in Trivandrum. One of my friend introduced me to this exceptionally tasty dish and now I am a big fan of it. Not to mention my hubby.
Dry beef chathachathu is a great comfort food which goes very well with kanji.

 Ingredients:

Unakka beef- 10 pieces

Chilli powder- 1/2 teaspoon

Dry chillies- 5

Bird eye chillies/ kanthari mulaku- 5

Shallots- 10

Garlic- 3 cloves

Curry leaves- 1 spring

Oil- to fry

 

Preparation:

Soak dry beef in cold water for about 1/2 an hour just to make it a bit tender. Wash very well and marinate in chilli powder. Shallow fry beef on a low flame for about 5 minutes and remove from oil. Sauté all other ingredients in the same oil for few minutes. (you can substitute bird eye chillies to green chillies or dry chillies.).

 

Transfer all ingredients to a mixer grinder and crush on the pulse mode. Your unakka irachi is ready to be served.

Beans and Carrot Thoran/ Beans and Carrot Stirfry with coconut

 

 

 

Ingredients:

Carrot- 2 cups (finely chopped)

Beans- 2 cup (finely chopped)

Onion- 1 small (finely chopped)

Green chillies- 2 (finely chopped)

 

For Grinding:

Scrapped coconut- 1 cup

Chili powder- 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric Powder- 1/4 teaspoon

Garlic- 1/2 a clove

Cumin seeds- 1/2 teaspoon

 

For Seasoning:

Oil- 2 tablespoon

Mustard- 1/2 spoon

Curry leaves- 1 spring

 

Preparation:

 

 Put all ingredients for grinding in the mixer grinder on the pulse mode for 2 secs. Keep this aside.

Mix together carrots, beans, onion and green chillies and transfer to a non-stick pan. Add two tablespoons of water and enough salt and cook on a medium flame for about 5 minutes. Add the coconut mixture to the top of the carrot beans mix and close the lid. Open the lid after 5 minutes and sauté until water evaporates and the vegetables cooks very well.

 

Heat oil in a different pan and splutter mustard seeds and then add curry leaves. Season the oil over the cooked vegetables.