Thenga Aracha Meen Curry/ Fish curry with coconut

A typical scene back home(now seen only during vacation): It's 10.30 am in my house in Kerala and we are chatting around in the kitchen after the breakfast is cleared. The stomach is protesting from the hogging but Mom is already cutting veggies, assigning work to her helper B and discussing what to make for lunch. I just hover around, pretending to help while trying to take furtive notes....mom sometimes adds the magic ingredients when I turn my back....the kids are running underfoot and with their bellies full are for now appeased.

With so many people at home on vacation, food dominates the day. Whether it's my house or my in-laws, it's almost the same scene. "What's for lunch?" "What's for dinner?" is as much a conversation piece as the latest news and movies. Plus the endless cravings will pepper the discussion resulting in a skewed menu, meeting every one's demands.

Once back in the parents house on vacation, isn't it great to take a break from menu planning? No, I am not on vacation now, but was conjuring up home for a write up that Sailaja asked me to do. Once I started, it was like a time machine transporting me back!!

Anyway, to continue, just as we speculate on the itinerary for the day, the fish of the day makes an entrance. Wrapped in a newspaper,(earth friendly packaging, anyone?)placed in a designated fish bag, it seems like it's still alive and flapping. My mom's trusty helper B takes over, gets comfortable in the work area of the kitchen and meticulously cleans the fish, attracting a slew of stray cats, mewing pitifully while patiently waiting for their share. The palm trees are swaying and there is a kind of peaceful swishing all around. The green itself is so soothing!

Meanwhile, mom is busy in the kitchen, extracting tamarind paste, grinding ginger garlic and tossing some onions, green chilies, and spice powders into the clay pot. There is a constant chatter going on, sprinkled with a generous dose of gossip.

The ingredients are all crushed together by hand instead of stirring with a spoon...it blends the flavors, she says. Soon the clay pots are bubbling away on the fire... and B has the fish washed and clean in the work area, ready for the curry. No sign of any yucky stuff now, and the fish/fishes are quickly separated into fry pieces, curry pieces and moliyar/molaku chaar pieces. All the curries are made simultaneously. Small quantities, daily cooking..is the mantra.

When the mix in one claypot boils, the fish is added to it and when the fish is cooked, a fresh ground paste of coconut is added to it. (And if the fish is bad, you will know it the moment the fish hits the bubbling cauldron. It will stink up your kitchen!!)Seasoning is just curry leaves and shallots. That's it. This is in direct contrast with the other fish curries which need slow frying of shallots or roasting the coconut etc.
The other claypot has its own set of ingredients which will become the molaku chaar. And the fish pieces are marinated with chili powder, turmeric, ginger garlic and salt.. sometimes crushed shallots and curry leaves too are added to it.

This coconut based curry is best with the middle pieces of the fish.. the most meaty ones... the yucky parts will hinder the delicate flavor of fresh coconut. The head and tail are more suited to the rustic molaku chaar/ red spicy fish curry. (Once only head and tails were bought from the fishmonger for a much relished Molaku chaar!!!) And every piece is suited for fry but mostly the meaty pieces are reserved for it.

Ah! It's the weekend here so maybe I will replicate the scene in my kitchen. I will imagine the palm fronds and the lush green and try not to see the white blanket outside all around.


You will need:
Any fresh fish-/Porgie/Perch/Red Snapper/Pomapano-6 pieces
Onion(optional)-a very small pieces, sliced
Green chilies- 4
Ginger-1/2 inch
Garlic- 3 clove
Turmeric- 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder-1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds-1 tsp
Coriander powder- 1 tsp
Grated Coconut– 1 cup
Tamarind extract- 2 tsp or as extracted from a lime (small) sized ball.
Salt-1/2 tsp or to taste

Seasoning:
Coconut oil or Canola oil- 2 tbsp
Shallots- 6
Curry leaves- 1 sprig

Preparation:
1. Preparing the Fish: Clean and slice the fish. Wash it and toss with lime juice.
2. Dry Grind the ginger and garlic to a coarse paste.
3. Grind the coconut with the 1/2 cup water till it is a very fine paste. If you are using frozen coconut, make sure it is at room temperature before grinding to avoid clumping. Add water only as needed and not all together. When you think it's done grinding, grind some more to make it superfine. You could use coconut milk as a substitute.
4. Put the sliced onions, green chilies, ginger garlic paste, fenugreek seeds, the red chili powder, turmeric, coriander powder and the tamarind extract into the cooking saute pan or clay pot. If using tamarind extract, add 1 cup water. Crush everything in the pot by hand and mix well.
5. Adjust the sourness and add salt as required. Place this pot with the mix in it on the stove and when it is boiling, slide the fish pieces gently into the pan. Let it cook for 5 minutes without stirring. Add the ground coconut. If the ground coconut is a thick paste, add 1 cup water to it, else omit additional water. The water content is a matter of experience so add water slowly.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cover and let it cook for about 5-8 minutes. Do not stir with a spoon. Just hold the pan on the sides by the mittens and shake the pan to mix well. Remove from flame and keep covered.
6. Seasoning: Heat the coconut oil in a pan and sauté sliced shallots and curry leaves till slightly brown. Pour over the prepared curry. Serve with rice or with triangular paratha.

Beetroot Thoran...

There is change in the air and a new President here. The inauguration was everywhere...in schools, in offices., in libraries...they were showing it live everywhere and it was exciting to see such an occasion of history being played out in front of us. I watched the inauguration as I used to watch the Republic Day parades as a kid. The pageantry, the ceremonies, the commentary...it was a little too much but it is hard not to get swept into it. The sense of something big, something momentous happening was all around, so much so that I felt I should keep my fingers crossed so that the expectations doesn't end up tripping over itself and falling flat. Time will tell.:)

On another note, here's another thoran/Stirfry to add to the endless thoran list. By now everyone knows what a thoran is...a side dish of steamed/stirfried vegetables with coconut. This one is relatively new in my house. I am not a fan of beetroot..I always end up just tasting the earth/sand in it. Mom used to make very lightly, just steamed with a seasoning of mustard, curry leaves and green chilies, but that didn't work for me for this earthy vegetable. If you like that, great.. healthiest way to eat it. Skip to the comment section straight now.:)
But I adopted the other style of thoran...cooked with a crushed chutney like mix of coconut, chilies and shallots. You could add garlic to this mix too. These flavors dominate the blandness of the beets. The other trick I use is to cut the beets really tiny so they cook fast and the bites are smaller. And if you have the food processor or grater, the beetroot tastes best if it is grated and cooked. If you are using small beets with leaves attached, you could make add the leaves to the thoran as shown here.
Serve with rice . Leave the last spoonful of beets to be mixed in with rice and yogurt and watch as it slowly turns the rice pink in color!!Kids get a kick out of that..pink rice!!

You Will Need:
Beetroot-1 big one.
Green chilies-4
Shallots-1
Coconut-1/2 cup
Curry leaves-one sprig
Mustard-1/2 tsp
Oil-1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Chop the beetroot into very small cubes.. the smaller the better. You could even grate the beets. The one beetroot should yield about 2 cups of chopped beets. Pulse the grated coconut,curry leaves, shallot and green chilies to a coarse mixture without any water.
Heat the oil in a pan to high heat, add the mustard seeds, lower the heat and cover till the mustard stops popping. Add the crushed mixture and saute for a couple of minutes till the raw smell is gone. Add the beets and 2 tbsp of water. Maintain the heat at medium, cover and steam cook for 8-10 minutes. If the beets are grated, they don't require so much time to cook. Add salt to taste and turn off the flame but keep it covered for 2-3 minutes more. If there is still a bite left in the beets when you take it off the stove, don't worry..it will cook further while it is left covered. Serve hot with rice.

Kala Chana With Puri...

Wishing all my readers and my fellow bloggers a very Happy 2009. Got carried away with last minute flurries of studying, packing, shopping and managing sick kids.
I wanted to go to each of my favorite blogs and leave a new year greeting there, but instead went for a short break,with the exams being over. Results awaited of course, but I do hope to be blogging more often now.

Hope all of you had a big bang start to the new year!! And wish you all prosperity and good health.

The vacation was a well deserved break from the routine and of course from the cold weather here. We went to Disney World..not really a dream place to unwind but definitely a place where a grown up can be a kid again. It's hectic, it's crazy crowded and yet fun. What's better than screaming on roller coasters or when you have spiders coming down at you or mice running under your feet in the dark?(Make believe of course!!) I chickened out of the scariest rides but there was still plenty of good shows and rides.

And of course what's a vacation log without a discussion on the food?
Before I left, I had reached the end of my cooking spell, being sick of my own cooking, and the same old stuff... Deciding what to cook was a pain!! Well, nothing like a week of burgers( veg/nonveg, whatever..) and fries and chicken nuggets to get the tastes buds craving for spicy Indian food! Though the food there was the tastiest fast food we could get, with a variety of toppings for the sandwiches,it still didn't hit the "I am satisfied" button in our stomachs. We usually like variety and are open to all different cuisines in food, but without spice, can't eat much. It all tastes the same and insipid after some time and we start craving Indian food.

One evening an old friend who stays there visited us and the discussion turned to dinner. He was familiar with the area and got us some "Kottayam" and "Alleppey" fish curry from a South Indian restaurant a bit away from where we stayed and we made rice to go with it. Just fish curry and rice and curds....somebody should have taken a photo of our faces after that meal!! It was so good and yet it was not really an authentic Kerala curry but who cares... It had the right balance of spice and sourness (eruvum puliyum) in it!!Why bother with elaborate cuisines.. if you really want to whet an appetite that has fallen by the wayside, just feed the person the opposite of what they like for a week and see.
Now we want puttu-kadala, fish fry and more fish, the spiciest chicken curry, or just chammandi and rice...avial....the list goes on.. my friend who was with me was salivating over dosa and sambhar and chutney..:)

So I will get back to posting more recipe studded stories..but for now lets start the new year with puri-chole recipe...Most of you must be used to puri-alu or chole -bature but this is a good combination more familiar in North India. It's my fav combination,.. love the pure Punjabi dry kala chana and suji ka halwa with this.yum!! Over time though, this got modified a bit to make some more gravy for the sake of family. So now it's semi-dry which goes well with puri or chappathi.

You will Need:
Kala chana/black chickpeas-1 cup
Ginger-1 tbsp crushed or paste
Garlic- 1 tbsp crushed or paste
Onion-1 1/2 medium size- finely chopped
Green chilies-3 sliced
Tomatoes-1 chopped
Roasted Cumin Powder-1 1/2 tsp
Ground coriander-2 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
Red chili powder -1 tsp or as per taste
Dry mango powder (amchoor )-1/2 tsp (substitute with 1 tsp lemon juice)
Salt To Taste
2-3 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp garam masala
Cilantro leaves- 2 tbsp chopped

Garnish:
Cilantro leaves-1/2 cup finely chopped
Shredded ginger-1 tsp
Green Chilies-1 chopped finely

Preparation:
1. Soak Chole in water overnight or for about 6 hr. Cook the chole with salt and enough water in the cooker for about 20 minutes or till fully done. Drain, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid.
2. Heat oil in a cast iron or heavy bottom pan and add onions and sauté till golden on medium heat. Then add the garlic and ginger and green chilies. Keep stirring till the raw smell of the garlic reduces.
3. Add tomatoes, mango powder or lemon juice, cumin powder( to make cumin powder, roast the cumin seeds on a tawa for 5-6 minutes on low heat or in a microwave for one minute and then powder it), coriander, turmeric and chili powder and sauté over low heat until the oil separates. This takes patience to do it with little oil. Keep stirring. If you are in a hurry, add extra oil to speed it up. If the tomatoes are bland, then u could add 2 small ones but too much tomatoes changes the taste of the curry. Add the chole, the reserved cooking liquid, salt and let it come to a boil .Then cover and simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes.
Add a pinch of garam masala and serve the chana sprinkled with the remaining coriander leaves and shredded ginger.
For Puri recipe, click here.
This is my entry for Srivalli's "My Legume Love Affair"