Moru Kachiyathu / Easy Yogurt curry

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

Cabbage Thoran/ poriyal

Ingredients:

Cabbage - 1 cup (finely grated or chopped)
Onion- 1 big chopped
Green chillies- 3 nos finely chopped
Ginger chooped- 1/2 teaspoon
Oil- 2 teaspoon
Mustard- 1 teaspoon
Dry chilies- 2 or 3
Curry leaves- 1 spring

For Grinding

Coconut - 1/2 cup
Shallots- 1
Jeera- 1/2 teaspoon
Garlic- 1 clove

Preparation

Put all ingredients for grinding in the mixer grinder on the pulse mode for 2 secs. Keep this aside. Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds and then add curry leaves and dry chillies. Add cabbage, onion, greenchillies and ginger to the tempered oil and mix everything very well and keep on a low flame. Place the grinded coconut mixture over the cabbage and close the pan with the lid. This is to allow the coconut mix to get cooked in the steam. Open the lid after 5 minutes and mix everything very well. Stir continuously until the cabbage stats to turn brown in colour. Switch the flame off and enjoy with kuttari choru!!!!

Cucumber Pachadi

Ingredients:

Cucumber / Marrow/ Vellarikka - 1 small cup and (remove skin  and cut to small square pieces)
Grated Cocunut- 1/2 cup
Green chillies- 2 small or I big
Jeera- 1/2 teaspoon
Mustard - 1 teaspoon
Shallots- 1
Plain Yogurt- 1/2 cup

For Tempering

Coconut oil- 1 teaspoon
Dry Chillies- 2 nos
Curry leaves- 1 spring

 

Preparation

Cook the cucumber in a heavey bottom pan with some water until it become soft. Put the ingredients for grinding into the mixer grinder and grind into a fine paste. Add this to the cooked cucumber along with salt.  Switch off the flame when the mixture starts to boil. Add yogurt when the mixture cools a bit and give a good stir.

Heat oil in a small frying  pan and add mustard seeds. Wait for the mustard to pope and add the dry chillies and curry leaves. Switch off flame and add this to the prepared cucumber.

Cucumber pachadi is ready to serve!!!!

TIPS: I don't grind mustard seeds with the coconut in the mixer grinder.  I just grind them with pestle and mortar and then add to the grinded coconut.

Okra (ladies finger) Mezhukkupuratti(upperi)/ Bindi stirfry

Another favourite from "God's own Country". During a casual conversation over the phone with my mum the same old question came up. Mum- "what you cooking today?"  Me- "not sure. Thinking of cooking some veggies" and had a quick look inside the fridge. "Prav brought a bowl of okras for a pound yesterday. Have to cook it today otherwise it will go to the bin". Mum - I make mezhukupuratti couple of days ago with a recipe slightly different from our usual one" and she went on giving me the recipe.
NB: All this conversations was in Malayalam. I am not good at tying monglish. excuse me for this.

Ingredients:

Okra (ladies finger, Vendakka)- 3 cups sliced (wash okras and cut "head and tail" and discard them. Thinly slice the remaining part).
Onions- 1 big (thinly sliced)
Coconut oil- 3 tablespoon
Turmeric powder- 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves- as required

To Cursh:

Garlic- 3 cloves

Dry chillies- 4 (or according to your heat tolerance)

Shallots (small onions)- 6

Preparation:

 

Crush all ingredients listed under "to Crush" using your preferred method. I used a pestle and mortar myself but the small jar of mixie is adequate and long you use the pulse mode just for few seconds. ( use can also use store brought crushed chillies).

 

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and add the crushed ingredients together with some curry leaves and sauté well. Add sliced okra and onions once a nice aroma come out the shallots and garlic. Add salt and turmeric and mix everything very well. Cover and cook. After 10 minutes open the lid and stir continually until the okras become crispy. 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy with a bowl of rice.

Tomato Pulissery (Thakkali Morucurry)

Dear friends,

Welcome to my blog.I am starting with a very simple recipe which anyone can make with minimal ingredients. Pulissery is one of my all time favourite. My mom make it with naadan vellarika and it tastes wonderful. I started using tomatoes to make puliserry recently and the simple reason is the easy availability of this beautiful vegetable.

 

Ingredients:

Tomatoes- 3 or 4 (medium sized as shown in the pic)
Yogurt- 1 glass

For Grinding:

Scrapped coconut-  1 cup full

Green chillies- 1 medium sized

Jeera (Cumin seeds)- half teaspoon

Garlic- 1clove

Chilli powder- 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder- 1 teaspoon

Shallots- 1 (or 1/4 onion)

For tempering:

Cocunut oil (preferred)- 2 tablespoon

Mustard seeds- 1 teaspoon

Thinly sliced shallots- 1 spoonful

Dry chillies- 3 or 4

Curry leaves as needed

 

 

 

Preparation:

 

Cut the tomatoes to 4 to 8 pieces and add them to a heavy bottomed pan with some water just to cover the tomatoes. Cook this over medium heat until the tomatoes are half mashed.

 

Meanwhile put all ingredients listed under  "grinding" in the small jar of the mixer grinder with some water and grind it into a fine paste(You can use a food processor instead of mixer). Add the ground

 paste to the cooked tomatoes and allow them to boil in a low flame. Switch off the flame and keep it aside until it cool down. Add yogurt to this mixture and stir well (I used Tesco brought low fat yogurt). Add salt according to taste.

 

In a small non-stick pan add 2 tablespoon of oil as your choice. splutter mustard seeds and then add sliced shallots, dry chillies and curry leaves. Don't let them burn. Add this mixture to the prepared curry. This will go very well with a bowl of rice.

 

 

 

I hope you guys will enjoy my first post.