Kerala Mela....

Do you have  those days when you  suddenly crave an ada or a pacha aracha sambhar or a kallumakai nirachathu, a particular payasam..... you haven't made it in a while and you can't remember exactly how to make it, or whether there is coriander in it or not.. if you are like me, it's probably tough remembering too many things and you keep a note or two around, post-its with recipes, a stash of printouts, a ton of bookmarks in the computer and still wonder!! If you are memory genius then you don't need any bookmarks..lucky you!! You can blog hop to the next blog then..

How many of you know about the site, Kerala Mela initiated some time ago? There were not so many blogs and bookmarking a fav blog  recipe was the only to remember all the recipes going through the blogosphere. Then when I wanted to search for a particular Kerala recipe, if it was not bookmarked, it was almost impossible to find it. So this site was meant to be a portal for all the varied Kerala based recipes blogged in detail by our very own bloggers..mostly for traditional style, since that is the basis for all cooking and then each person varies it to her tastes..hence fusion happens. But here I wanted to just capture the essence of Kerala Cuisine, which is the varied collection of recipes from every region.

I haven't been able to update the site too many times as I can barely keep track of all the Kerala recipes posted now...so I was thinking..
If this site is not used by anyone, I would like to shut it down. If you do think its useful, leave a comment. And bloggers, if you think its useful and would like to update your latest recipes there, the best way might be to make it open to all of you who can join it as co-admin and then update as needed. If you blog something traditional or something special, which you think is not a common recipe, then add that to the list on the site, Kerala Mela.
So if there is no feedback, I would probably close that site soon, so do respond.

Egg less Whole Wheat Almond Cookies..

How do you like your cup of tea or coffee.. with sugar or without?....and what do you like with it? something sweet or something spicy? Do you have it watching TV or with a book ? Or in the balcony looking at the clouds or  in the verandah, listening to the rain. Do you like it alone, catching a moment of peace or with everyone talking at once? Which is one time you can't do without it..morning , mid morning or evening? Any way you prefer it, we need something with the tea or coffee.  When we were new here, we used to wonder how the stickily sweet donut pairs with coffee. I figure the sweetness of the donut cuts the bitterness of the coffee and viceversa!
Then we liked our tea sweet and our snack spicy.. now its the reverse.. our tea is mostly unsweetened but then we need a sweet to go with it.. also similar to the Turkish who drink tea unsweetened but then place a sugar cube in the mouth to sweeten it!!

Whole wheat cookies filled with almond and flavored with cardamom...sounds too healthy for you? Well, these don't have eggs but do have some butter to enhance the nutty flavor of the whole wheat. No, they don't taste like digestive biscuits...They don't taste like rusk or whole wheat crackers....
The taste is best described as the taste of Whole wheat laddoos or atta laddoos for those familiar with it. Those laddoos are made by toasting the whole wheat flour and then binding them with nuts, sugar and ghee while they are hot. For these cookies, the flour , butter instead of ghee and sugar and nuts are all bound together in raw form and then toasted/baked in the oven.. the taste is almost the same.
So if you like whole wheat and like cookies, give this a try. It's very easy and this link to Manjula's kitchen has a video too which definitely makes it self explanatory.

This month’s Sweet Punch challenge was to make Whole Wheat Almond Eggless Cookies from Manjula's Kitchen.

EGGLESS WHOLEWHEAT ALMOND COOKIES
Recipe source: Manjula's Kitchen
 You Will Need:
Wholewheat flour- 1cup
Granulated sugar - a little less than 1/2 cup sugar
Salt-1/4 tsp
Cardamom powder-1/2 tsp
Almonds- 1/4 c chopped finely or cut into slivers.
Butter- 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted, at room temperature.
Milk- 2 tbsp or less.

Preparation:
Pre-heat the oven to 360F .
Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make sure the butter is soft and melted and then work it into the dry mix with your finger. 
Knead  well as you would mix a dough. If the butter is really soft, then without adding any milk, you should get a pliable dough.  Don't add the milk in that case.
Add the milk teaspoon by teaspoon only if the dough feel hard. Knead well and divide the dough into equal sized balls.. you should get about 22- 26. 
Roll each one in your palm till they get a smooth texture and then flatten them to the final size you want them to be. They don't spread much while baking.
Line a Cookie tray/baking tray with parchment paper and place the cookies an inch apart. Bake them in the middle of the oven for anywhere between 15 to 18 minutes, depending on your oven's heat. They should be soft and be slightly golden color when you remove them. 
They may look undone but they harden after cooling on a wire rack. Store in airtight containers.

Pan Fried Shrimps..

A whole lot of prayers and wishes going towards Japan and its catastrophe.  As heartrending the earthquake's visuals are, the radiation's aftermath will be worse.   Hope they control the reactors from releasing radiation and creating unspeakable tragedies. Brought back memories of the Bhopal Gas tragedy an era ago. Makes you wonder why they do have nuclear power plants in the first place. Let's hope everything gets resolved soon.

On a more positive note, slowly, the snow has melted away and the chill around me has also thawed.  I have also started coming out of my hibernation and started smelling the spring in the air. There is less of the ice in the air and more of a cool nip.. even the birds have decided to stop by and say hello on their way to warmer weather.. swooping down in hordes, settling on the trees and grass, searching the ground for some leftover seeds and leaving en-masse in a flash.. the original flash mob.

Shrimps are something ready to cook in a flash, defrost and cook in under 10 minutes. BUT.. maybe its the masala gene in me, I prefer it marinated and spiced up well enough to compliment the sweetness of the shrimps. Usually, the shrimps back home (best ones in my opinion, though they are miniscule) are made into moliyar/molaku chaar, (a super spicy red shrimp curry) or deep fried into extinction.  Or shrimp varatiyathu, or shrimp biryani... i could go on but then I would have to book tickets to go home.

But over here, that deep frying just ends up smelling up the winter insulated sealed house and is not "supposed" to be "good for you" so now we have started pan frying the shrimps with very little oil, just enough to cook the spice paste and leave the shrimp juicy inside. Grilling works well too but in that case 1 tsp of oil has to added to the marinade.
This is usually made without any chili powder( or only paprika) for the kids and with the whole spice cartel for the grown ups. Adjust the spice and salt to taste.
The ready to buy chili paste, sambal olek works wonders with getting flavor into the shrimp so you can marinate the shrimps in just that for as much time as you like and pan fry too. Fry only when everybody is at the table and you are ready to serve.:)

You Will Need:
Shrimps-about 25 (1/2 pound) medium sized ones
Red chili powder- 1 tsp
Paprika/Kashmiri Chili powder- 1 tsp
Turmeric-1/2 tsp
Vinegar- 1 tbsp
Salt- about 1 tsp.
Ginger Garlic Paste-1 tbsp.

Preparation:
Shell, devein and wash the shrimps well and drain excess water. Marinate with all the ingredients for about 1 hour (at room temperature ) or upto overnight in the refrigerator.

Heat a cast iron skillet or a frying pan with  1-2 tbsp oil. Coconut oil tastes good but use any oil preferred. Add the shrimps in one layer around the pan (don't crowd them) and cook on medium high heat for 2 minutes on each side. Cover the pan and cook on medium heat for another 3 minutes and then raise the heat and let the shrimps sear on each side on a minute. Toss in couple of curry leaves and saute. Serve hot with rice or chapathi.

Butter Chicken/ Chicken Makhani ...

It's funny how our family dinners now are getting dictated by my kids more and more. Growing up here, they are more attuned to the western recipes and prefer that to most of the recipes I long for.  They can't handle the spice and  the mouth tingling masala combinations. So most days the recipes are simplified and  lightened up to handle their spice level, resulting in my spouse and I reaching for the spicy pickles.

I bet my folks are sitting and laughing now remembering how picky I was and how my mom used to ask "enthu kazhikannulla vishappanu?" meaning "what are you hungry for?' instead of just telling me what is there to eat.

Our food is spicy and our traditional curries are rich with onions and chilies, all pieces to be fished out and kept aside.  Not many of our gravy recipes are pureed into a silken ubiquitous green / yellow/ rainbow hued sauces used as a drizzle all around a white plate. It's rough textured and it's meant to be mixed into rice, mopped up with a naan or roti and dipped into with a puri. When I tell my not so little ones about some of the recipes I showcase here in this blog, they look at me as if I am from another country.

And one week of the kids being home (mid winter recess) meant a lot of kid friendly food... Now that I feel is the toughest thing to write about in a blog. What works once for the kids may or may not work the next time so I really wing it each day and hope that some of what they eat stays in their memory and one day they will ask for it by name. (Or maybe all that will remain will be relegated to "butter chicken, erachi curry, dal, beans, naan and biryani.)

Anyway, growing up , I can't remember eating butter chicken at all. Its such a restaurant item that its only now its become mainstream in households. Wonder why? Its so easy to make!! Or maybe its a dish more popular outside India!! Butter chicken or Chicken Makhani is grilled pieces of chicken in a tomatoey creamy sauce. It can made with boneless chicken or with bone in chicken, marinated in a tandoori spice and lightly fried or grilled.

Well, amongst our friends's families and our house too, it is a popular item with the kids, so gets made at every get together, ensuring the kids will eat naan and butter chicken without any fuss! What's not to like.. it has a smooth velvety sauce with simple flavors, not too spicy(though I can't resist spicing it up!!) and the grilled chicken adds a smoky twang to it. The main flavors are the garam masala and the kasoori methi, which is the dried fenugreek leaves, without which it just won't taste the same. I add Amul butter if I have it.. does it taste better? I believe so but any butter is fine.  I use more milk than cream for the family but guests get the richer creamier experience. The grilling is avoidable and instead just dry cook it on a hot cast iron skillet with very little oil..not frying though.

You will need: Serves 4

Chicken-1 lb cut up into pieces (without bone or bone in)

Marinade: 

1/2 pack tandoori masala(National or shaan)

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste(fresh)

1 cup regular unflavored yogurt

1 tbsp oil

Sauce:

1 can (425 gm) tomato puree without any added flavors

Onion-1

Garam masala- 1 1/2 tsp

Red chili powder- 1 tsp (add more as needed)

Turmeric-1/2 tsp

Kasoori methi- 1 tsp                                                                                                                                                            

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Amul butter-1 tbsp

Cream+Milk -2-3 cup altogether, any amount of each

1/2 cup water

Preparation:

Marinate the chicken(washed and drained) with all the ingredients of the marinade and keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 hrs or overnight. Preheat the oven to 450 f and then place the chicken on a foil line tray and grill for 8-10 minutes. Raise heat to broil and broil the pieces for 2-3 minutes till the outside just starts to crisp. Remove(it will be undercooked, but will finish cooking in the gravy) and keep aside.

Heat a pan with 1 tbsp of oil and saute the onions. The onions have to be chopped really fine so it melts away. After a 2-3 minutes, add the ginger garlic paste and saute well for a minute. Add the tomato puree and the red chili powder, turmeric and saute on medium heat till the tomato comes together and moves as a mass. 

Add the salt, butter, the water, the milk and cream combination(if you add just milk, it will curdle, so add a bit of cream or butter and then add the milk.)and let it simmer. Add the grilled chicken pieces and cover and cook for about 10-15 minutes on very low heat..barely a simmer. Add the kasoori methi and the garam masala and adjust taste. You may need a bit more of salt or even some butter or sugar or cream to cut the tartness.  Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve with hot butter naan.