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.

Easy Karimeen fry

This is a simple yet yummy karimmen fry recipe.

 

 

Ingredients:

Karimeen- 2
Maida powder- 1 tablespoon
Lemon juice- fro 1/2 lemon
Salt- according to taste
Green chillies- 3
Oil for frying
Coconut oil- for frying

For Grinding:

Fish curry masala- 1 tablespoon (I used grandmas fish curry masala)
Shallots-2 small
Garlic 2 cloves
Ginger- 1 small piece(just the sixe of a garlic clove)
Curry leaves- 1 spring

 

 

 

 

Preparation:

Remove skin and wash fish very well and make lots of gashes on the body. Rub with salt and turmeric powder and leave for 10 minutes and wash again.(just to get rid of the fishy smell)

Grind all ingredients under "grinding" in a mixer grinder to a very smooth paste. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, maida  and enough salt to the curry paste mix. Rub this mix to the cleaned fish and leave in the room temperature for couple of hours.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and add few curry leaves. Transfer the fish to the oil and gently fry both sides for about 20 minutes.

 

Avial without yogurt

An interesting myth about Avial copied from Wikipedia:


It is supposed to have been invented by Bhima (one of the Pandava brothers) during their exile. According to the legend, when Ballav (Bhima's name during this time) assumed his duties as the cook in the kitchen of Virata, he did not know how to cook. One of the first things he did was to chop up many different vegetables, boil them together and top the dish with grated coconut.^[2][3] There are mythological variations. Bheema is said to have prepared Avial, when there were unexpected guests for King Virata and he needed to serve meals for them. There was no sufficient vegetables to cook any single recipe for side dish, so Bheema used what ever available vegetables to make a new dish, which came to know as Avial.
Another narrative version relates to the attempt made by Kauravas to kill Bhima. After poisoning Bhima, Kauravas tied Bhima and threw him to water. Kauravas also communicated that they saw Bhima drowning in water. With the completion of the days of mourning, a funeral feast was planned and preparation were underway. Unexpectedly, Bhima emerged from the water, rescued by the Nagas. With this, preparations for the feast was cancelled. However, Bhima was unhappy with this decision, and decided to mix all of the vegetables to prepare a new dish, that later became popular as Avial.

Interesting!!!!!

I have cooked avail without yogurt for my vegan friends. I have substituted yogurt with tomatoes. The taste was almost the same but it gave a reddish colour to dish rather than the usual green.
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Plantain- 1/2
Potato- 1 big
Carrot- 1 big
Drumstick/Muringakol- 1/2 of a big stick
Okra/vendakka- 4 nos
Egg plant/ Brinjal- 2 medium sized
Ash gourd- 1/2 cup (big slices lengthwise)
Cucumber- 1/2 cup(big slices lengthwise)
Tomato- 1 big

For Grinding:

Scrapped coconut- 1 cup
Green Chillies- 2
Garlic- 1 small clove
cumin/ jeera- 1 pich
shallots- 1
turmeric powder- 1/4 teaspoon

Need some curry leaves and coconut oil to garnish at the end.

Preparation:

Put all ingredients for grinding in a mixer grinder and make a course paste out of it and  keep it aside. Clean vegetables after peeling off the skin from carrots, potatoes, ashgourd, cucumber and drum stick. You can leave the skin of plantain since it is highly nutritious but make sure to wash it well to get rid of the pesticides. Cut the vegetables lengthwise as seen in the picture.

Cook the vegetables by adding 1/2 cup of water and enough salt. Make sure to close the pan with a tight lid just to get the vegetables cooked from the steam. when the vegetables are soft enough, add the ground paste on the top of the vegetables and close the lid. Open the lid after couple of minutes and give everything a good stir and add the curry leaves.  Leave it open for a few minutes until the water evaporates completely and switch off the flame. Finally drizzle the coconut oil and mix everything very well. Enjoy with boiled rice.

Uzhunnu vada/ medhu vada

ന്യൂസ്‌ പേപ്പറിൽ പൊതിഞ്ഞ ഉഴുന്നു വടയും പരിപ്പ് വടയും ഏതൊരു പ്രവാസിയുടെയും സൊകാര്യ നഷ്ടങ്ങളാണ്. മഴയുള്ള സന്ധ്യകളിൽ  വഴി കണ്ണും നാട്ടു പപ്പ ജോലി കഴിഞ്ഞു വരാൻ കാത്തിരിക്കുന്ന ഒരു കൊച്ചു പെണ്‍കുട്ടിയും അവളുടെ അനിയനും ഓർമയിൽ മിഴിവോടെ.....പ്രവാസം വെധനയകുന്നത് ഇതു പോലുള്ള ചില ഓർമകൾക്ക് മുമ്പിലാണ്.

Yes this recipe brings lots of memories.

Ingerdients:

Uzhunnu Parippu/ Urudu Dhal/ black gram Dhal- 2 cups

Rice Flour- 2 tablespoon

Baking powder- 1/4 teaspoon

Shallots- 1/2 cup (thinly sliced)

Ginger- 1 tablespoon (chopped)

Green chillies- 2 (chopped)

Curry leaves- 1 spring (chopped)

Oil- just enough for deep frying

Salt- to taste

Preparation:

Soak Urudu daal in cold water for about 2 hours. Wash it thoroughly and grind in a mixer grinder with very little water. Grind until you get a very smooth paste out of it without any solid mass.  Transfer the dhal mixture to a dish and add rice flour, baking powder, sliced shallots, ginger, green chillies and curry leaves. Give it a good mix and leave for about half an hour.

Heat oil in a cheenachatti (kadaai) and boil it very well. wet you hands and take some mix in your left  hand an make an oval shape out of it with your right hand. Wet your right index finger again and pierce it into the middle of the dough jus like the shape of a doughnut.  Drop it immediately to the boiling oil taking care not to burn your hands.  Cook in a medium flame until the vada turns golden grown.  

Serve it with chutney, chilli sauce or sambar. 

 

Ayala Curry/ Kerala Style Mackerel curry (Ayala mulakittathu)

I love this deliciously soft fish, fried, curry, molly, anything.  Here is a very simple Ayala curry recipe passed on to me from my mum.

Here is a cut and paste pic of Indian Mackerel for those who are confused of what I am talking about.

Ingredients:

Mackerel cut into medium sized pieces- 1/2 kg
Oil- 1 tablespoon
Garlic- 2 big cloves
Tomato- 1 big
Ginger 1 tablespoon (crushed in a pestle and mortar)
Green Chillies- 2 (cut lengthwise)
Curry leaves- 2 or 3 springs

For Grinding:

Chilli powder- 2 tablespoon (I used kashmiri Chilli powder)
Coriander powder- 1 tablespoon
Turmeric powder- 1/4 teaspoon
Fenugreek powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Tamarind- 1 goosebury size
Shallots- 2

Preparation:

Put all ingredients under "grinding in amixer grinder with little water and make a fine paste.
Heat oil in a manchatti and sauté the garlic until brown and then add the ground paste. When the oil starts to separate, add the cubed tomatoes.  When the tomatoes are done, add a cup of boiled water to  and allow the gravy to boil very well. Add fish pieces at this stage and close the pan with the lid. Open the lid after 5 minutes and add crushed ginger and green chillies. Close the lid and let it cook on a medium flame for about 10 minutes. Now open the lid once again and add curry leaves. Let the curry to simmer in the low flame for another 5 minutes.

Fish  curries tend to taste better if kept overnight in the manchatti.
 

Kadai Chicken- Kerala style

I have tried finding a recipe for Kadai Chicken and with a big disappointment, tried my own recipe. It did taste like the kadai chicken I had from Kerala during my last visit. Try it and let me know your suggestions to make it better.

Ingredients:

Chicken- 1kg
Onion- 6 medium sized (Cubed)
Tomatoes- 3 (Cubed)
Ginger garlic paste- 1 tablespoon
Dried chillies- 5 nos
Bay leaves- 2
Curry leaves - 2 spring
Ghee- 2 tablespoon
Coriander leaves- 2 plants

 

 For Dry Roasting:

Chilli powder- 1 1/2 tablespoon
Coriander powder- 1 tablespoon

 

 

Preparation:

Dry roast chilli powder and coriander powder in a very low flame until its raw smell disappears and onion start to change colour. Do not allow this to burn.

 Marinate the cleaned chicken with the dry roast mix and little salt and keep it aside.

 Heat Ghee in a kadai and add cubed onions, bay leaves, curry leaves and whole red chillies and sauté very well. Add ginger garlic paste after 5 minutes.  Once the onions turns transparent, add the cubed tomatoes.  Wait for the tomatoes to soften and then add the marinated chicken. Close the kadai with the lid cook the chicken in a medium flame. You don't need to add water as the chicken will get cooked from its own juices. Open the lid every 10 minutes to make sure the chicken is not get burned. Can add a little bit of water if you think there is not enough water to cook the chicken. The chicken usually gets cooked in 30 minutes. Open the lid and stir the chicken mix until to get your desired consistency. Add coriander leaves towards the end.

 Please let me know your feedback or if you have a better option to cook kadai chicken with a Kerala twist.

Simple Egg Roast

This recipe is from the chief cook here. You guessed it right. My only hubby. It is not easy to get the exact measurement as he is very confident in his senses.

 

 

Ingredients:

Eggs- 6
Onions- 3 big
Tomato- 1 big
Green chillies- 2
Curry leaves- 2 spring
Chilli powder- 2 teaspoon
Coriander powder- 2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder- 1/4 teaspoon
Garam masala powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Pepper powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Oil- 2 tablespoon

Preparation:

Hard boil eggs, remove shells and keep it aside.
Heat oil in non-stick pan and sauté onion, green chillies and curry leaves until onion turns transparent. Reduce the flame and add chilli powder, turmeric power and coriander power and mix it very well with the onions. Add tomatoes to this mixture and add water just enough for the gravy. When the gravy starts to boil, add garam masala and pepper powder and finally the eggs. your egg masala is ready to be served. Enjoy with Appam, idiyappam or chappati.

Spicy Tomato Rasam without Dal

Ingredients:

Tomato- 3 big (cubed)
Tamarind- 1 small gooseberry size
Chilli powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Sambar powder- 1 teaspoon(I used store brought Eastern Powder)
Asafoetida powder- 1/4 teaspoon
Fenugreek Powder- 1/4 teaspoon
Coriander leaves- A small bunch

For Crushing: 

Ginger- 1 inch piece
Garlic- 10 big cloves
Peppercorns- 1/2 teaspoon

For tempering:

Vegetable oil- 2 tablespoon

Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon

Fenugreek seeds- 1/2 teaspoon

Curry leaves- 1 spring

dried chillies- 2

 

Preparation:

 

Soak tamarind in 1/2 cup of water and extract the juice. keep this aside.

 

Crush the ingredients under "crushing" using pestle and mortar and keep it aside.

 

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and splutter mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds followed by all other ingredients for Tempering. Add the crushed mix to this and stir until the ginger and garlic turns brown. Now add the chilli powder, coriander powder and sambar powder. Mix everything in very low flame and add tomato pieces to it. Stir continuously until the tomatoes starts to cook. Add tamarind juice to this mixture along with 2 cups of water. (Do a taste test and add more water if the rasam is too strong for you) Add fenugreek powder and asafoetida powder along with coriander leaves and allow everything to boil for 2 minutes. Switch off the flame and enjoy hot!!!!!

 

 

Potato Kootucurry with Soya chunks (Trivandrum style)

Potato and soya kootucurry is a substitute for Vadakootucurry which is a famous dish in Trivandrum. It gets served for wedding sadya,  onam sadya and even with dosa and appam for breakfast. Very easy to make yet yummy. So give it a try.

You can discard the soy chunks if you don't like the taste of it. It still tastes great.

Ingredients:

Potato- 2 small (cubed to medium sized pieces)
Onion- 2 small (cubed just like potatoes0
Soya chunks- 1/2 cup (soaked in water)
Chilli powder- 1tablespoon
Coriander powder- 1 tablespoon
Garam masala- 1 teaspoon
Thin coconut milk- 2 cups
Thick Coconut milk- 1/2 cup

For tempering:

Coconut oil/vegetable oil- 2 tablespoon
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves- 1 spring
Dried chillies- 2

Preparation:

Cook the cubed potatoes, onions and soya chunks in 2 glasses of thin coconut milk with enough salt .  Add chilli powder and coriander powder once the potato turns soft. Allow everything to boil very well until the raw smell of the chilli powder disappear.

Now add the thick coconut milk along with garam masala powder. Switch off the flame immediately and give everything a good stir.

 

Temper the oil using the usual method and pour it over the curry. Serve hot.

 

 

 

 

Inji Curry Trivandrum style

I am sharing the recipes I made for onam sadya. So today is a vegetarian day and of course many of them are Trivandrum style. (can't forget the roots). I promise I will come back with some tasty nonveg dishes in the near future.

Injicurry does takes a lot of time and you need a lot of patience to make this dish. But the end result is awesome.

Ingredients:

Inji/ Ginger- 250 gms (Thinly sliced to very thin pieces)
Tamarind- 1 big goosebury size
Chilli powder- 1 tablespoon
Coriander powder- 1 tablespoon
Fenugreek power- 1/4 teaspoon

For Tempering:

Vegetable oil/ coconut oil-  2 tablespoon
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves- 1 spring
Dried chillies- 3

Preparation:

Clean, peel skin, wash and thinly slice the ginger as seen in the pic.

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan and stir-fry the ginger until it turns golden brown. Add oil in between if you find the ginger is getting stick to the pan. Alternatively you can deep fry the ginger but have to discard the oil afterwards. It does take a lot of time to get the ginger cooked. So be patient.

Soak the tamarind in 1/4 cup of water and extract the juice once after a while. Keep this aside.

Grind the ginger once it is cooked along with chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric juice. keep this aside.

Heat oil in pan and splutter mustard seeds followed by curry leaves and Dried chillies. Add the ground ginger mix to this and bring it to boil.

Add fenugreek powder at this stage and mix everything very well.

You can keep the injicurry refrigerated in a glass bottle for more than a month.

Goes very well with kanji!!!!!

Beetroot Pachadi Kerala (Trivandrum)Style

Another easy sadya recipe. I love this dish for the wonderful colour and aroma.
OK. no more katti.  Let us go straight to the recipe!!!

Ingredients:

Beetroot- 2 nos (deskinned and finely grated or cubed)
Thick Curd/ Natural Yogurt- 1/2 cup

For Grinding:

Coconut- 1/2 cup
Chilli powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder- 1/4 teaspoon
Garlic- 1 small clove
Jeera/Cumin seeds- 1/4 teaspoon
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon

For Tempering:

Vegetable oil/coconut oil- 1teaspoon
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves- 1 spring
Dried chillies- 2or 3

Preparation:

 

Cook the grated beetroot with some water and salt and grind it very well using the small jar of the mixer grinder. Keep this mix aside.

Grind all the ingredients under "For Grinding" in the mixer grinder.

Mix together the ground beetroot and ground coconut mix in a heavy bottom pan and allow this to boil in a low flame until till the coconut cooks well. Switch off the flame and add yogurt once the beetroot mix is cool.

Heat oil in a cheenachatti (Frying pan) and splutter mustard seeds. Add curry leaves and dried chillies after the mustard and pour this mix over the beetroot.
Your beetroot pachadi is ready to serve.

My 4 year old was feeling abandoned by mum since I was concentrating on taking pictures of my dishes ignoring him who was trying pose for my camera. So I decided to take a picture of his little hands as you could see above.

Kadumanga Trivandrum style/ Raw mango pickle

We had a wonderful onam here in UK with some of our family friends. The sadya was amazing and the atmosphere too!!!!!

In this post I am going to share a very simple sadya dish hails from Trivandrum the South most part of Kerala. I tried to recreate the original recipe from my mum.

Ingredients:

Raw mango- 5 nos (cut to small cubes)
Green chillies- 3 no(thinly sliced)
Gingerly oil or vegetable oil- 250gms
Chili Powder- 3 tablespoon
Turmeric powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Fenugreek Powder- 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida Powder-  1/2 teaspoon
Mustard seeds- 1 teaspoon (to crush)
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon (to splutter)

Preparation:

Add salt to the cut mango and green chilli and keep them overnight.
On the following day crush mustard seeds in a pestle and mortar and keep it aside. Mix together the chilli power and turmeric powder and add the crushed mustard to it. Add 1/4 cup of boiled water to make the chilli paste to a running consistency.
Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and splutter mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the chilli turmeric mix and let it boil on a low flame. Simmer until the gravy turns thick. Switch off the flame and add fenugreek powder and asafoetida powder. Add the mango pieces when the gravy is still hot and mix everything very well. Transfer to a dry glass jar and keep refrigerated.

Pacha Cheera thoran/ Green Amaranth stir fry

See!!!! How lucky I am to get this fresh leaves here in UK? There are lot of good thinks about Globalisation. Do you agree??

 

 



Ingredients:

Pacha cheera- 1 bunch(Washed and drained and thinly sliced)
Onion- 1 big (Thinly sliced)
Green chillies- 2 medium sized

For Grinding:

Coconut (Shredded)- 1/2 cup
Garlic- 1 clove
Jeera- 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder- 1 teaspoon

For Tempering:

Oil- 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Dried red chillies- 2 nos

Preparation

Grind all the ingredients under "For Grinding" on the pulse mode of the mixer grinder without water for few seconds. Alternatively you can use the pestle and mortar for grinding. Keep this mix aside.
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Add dried chillies, onion and the green leaves successively. Mix everything very well and add the grinded coconut above the top. Do not mix coconut at this stage. Close the pan and allow it to stand for couple of minutes. By this the coconut mixture will get cooked by the steam produced by the leaves. Open the lid and mix everything very well.  Stir-fry until everything cooks very well.

 

Naadan Kilimeen / Threadfin Bream curry

I brought this temptingly beautiful fish on my last visit to East Ham.

 

Those who never heard of East Ham: East Ham is a small town in London resembles the streets in India indeed is a small India.  You wont be able to find much English people there. There is lots of South Indian restaurants in East ham who serves amazing south Indian food and are much cheaper than any other city as there is lot of competition  among this restaurants.

 

      This fish come in packet of 700gms cut,  descaled and cleaned make the job easy for me.

 

 

Ingredients:-

Kili meen- 700gms

Green Chillies- 3 (cut lengthwise)

Tomatoes- 1 big

Curry leaves- 1 spring

Oil- 2 tablespoon

For Grinding

Kashmiri Chilli Powder- 2 tablespoon (If you are using normal chilli powder reduce the amount according to your tolerance level)

Coriander Powder- 1 tablespoon

Fenugreek powder- 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder- 1/2 teaspoon

Grated Coconut- 1/2 a cup

Shallots- 2

Garlic- 1 clove

Tamarind- small ball (almost the size of an Indian gooseberry)

 

Preparation:

Dry roast chilli powder and coriander powder in a non-stick pan. Keep the flame very low so that the power don't get burned. Switch off the flame when the powder starts to change colour and remove the pan from the flame ASAP. Grind this with the other ingredients listed under grinding into a smooth paste. 

 

Heat oil in the manchatti and add the grinded paste to it and sauté very well until the oil start to separate. Add fish along with the green chillies and tomatoes and add enough water and salt and cook on a medium flame for about 15 minutes or until the gravy thickens.  Add curry leaves halfway through.