Kozhi Ada.../ Savory Meat pockets.

Posting here after a while since I couldn't think anything to write about and didn't feel like cooking too. My stories of our culture and home food fueled this blog and when my mind was preoccupied with other things, thinking about food seemed a luxury. Rhapsodizing about it and posting glory photos of food that is so elaborate that cooking it in itself is a vacation now, seemed even worse!


So I was job hunting instead. All my creativity went to creating cover letters and my photo skills into creating portfolios and resumes...blog hopping shifted to job site hopping...Instead of luscious food posted by friends, all I could see was insipid requirements and disheartening emails. All part of the striving force that we call life.:) That still goes on along with the myriad other demands in a day..:)


But yesterday I had a dream.(yeah,..in the middle of all this.. ) of these crisp delicacies and even the words that I should use to describe them..so here I am, taking a break from my full time occupation to blog. Before you make a beeline for my house, no, I didn't make these.. just remnants of the last visit home.

Kozhi Ada  means a savory crisp pocket filled with spiced chicken..but  its not an ada filled with Kozhi/chicken....the only ones I have eaten are filled with Beef.  I guess its made with chicken too nowadays. The name is a misnomer like the American Chicken Fried Steak , which is not chicken either..

Ada is the Kerala Dumpling.. steamed or fried crescent shaped dough filled with sweet or savory filling.

The sweet filling is mostly coconut and sugar flavored with cardamom powder. And the savory ones range from fish filling to chicken to egg.
They look like samosas but are super crunchy versions of it.. the wrapper is similar to chips or tortilla chips.. and the filling also is very dry and crunchy. They are made so small that you can pop a whole ada in your mouth at one go... bite into one and the dry spicy fillings just spills out..


Now these.. my mom never made .. too much effort , she says...but my mother in law is an expert and so are all members of her family, who are from North of Calicut in Kerala. So if you know anybody from that part of Kerala, ask them for a taste of the best Kozhi adas ever.  We are always lucky to have my MIL or her sister getting us a a big batch of these adas waiting for us when we reach home, which we all fight over. And trying to get it back here without turning into a powdery mess is an adventure in packing.. discovered a new use for Bubble wrap.:)


So if anyone wants to bring some over for me from home, I will give you my address.:)))
Anyway, do try this and try it with patience, as getting the wrappers crispy is the key to a good Kozhi Ada.


You Will Need:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Salt to taste
Water sparingly
2 Tbsp Dalda/Ghee/ Veg Shortening.


For the Filling:
1 cup Cooked chicken or beef (or raw meat)
1 cup Onions chopped finely
4-5 Green spicy chilies chopped
1 tsp red chili powder (use less for less spicy)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
Fennel seeds- 1/2 tsp
1 tsp Garam Masala
Salt to taste.


Preparation:

Mix the ghee(clarified butter) or veg shortening into the flour along with salt and work it in to resemble crumbles. Add just enough cold water little by little to make a hard dough . Keep aside. 

Cook the meat or chicken with the turmeric, red chili powder, coriander and salt. Shred the cooked meat or chicken with your fingers into strands.
Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions, curry leaves, fennel seeds and green chilies. When the onions start getting golden brown, add the meat/chicken and saute on low heat till the meat mixture is full dry and powdery, It is not the like the samosa filling which is a  semi-wet onion mix. Add garam masala and adjust salt.

To Assemble:

Roll out small discs of the dough..about 3 inch in diameter. The  dough should be thin but not too thin. Add 2 tsp of filling on one side, cover with the other side of dough and pinch the edges together in a pattern to make a crescent shape. Keep aside and continue making till all the filling is exhausted.

 Heat oil in a cast iron skillet, and when it is hot, add the adas one by one (not more than 4-5 at a time depending on the size of your pan.. do not over crowd) and fry on medium low heat till golden brown.. It takes patience, as if the heat is too high, the outside will get cooked but not the inside, and if its too low heat, the whole ada will be a soggy oily mess. You need it to get crispy and super crunchy all the way through. If fried well, it stays outside for days.

The Story of Aleesa and Haleem..

This is a  story I have angling to tell for a long time. The main characters are Aleesa and Haleem..kind of like Heer Ranjha, right? It could also be delusions brought on by the heightened state of the mind when it wanders while fasting.The one on the right is Aleesa and the one on the left is Haleem.

Aleesa is a winner in looks and has good taste. She has a gentle sweet personality evident in her creamy complexion and mild nature. Happy to take a shy side seating in a crowd, you notice her only when you take the first step in the conversation. Sugary, buttery, creamy..that's the first set of words that pop into your vocabulary. Then the mid tones of spice..cinnamon, cloves, cardamon hit the back of your throat and you take a second look at the unassuming Aleesa. She is not a fool, you decide, she's different..is she an appetizer or a dessert... and as she walks away, there is a lingering memory that you just can't place.(Not my place to tell you what that is.:))

Haleem, on the other hand, is a commanding presence. Happy to be in the center of attraction, he is popular with outstanding people skills. Though he is a bright yellow in complexion, with an assortment of colorful accessories, he manages to win over anybody willing to talk to him for a second. Spicy, tangy and hot run the chit chat initially till you get into the meaty part of the conversation and then everything gets serious. Frivolities aside, this is a serious person and needs to treated with respect.
They both come from the same ancestors and maybe centuries earlier, there was a love story between them which was forcibly broken apart by warring families and send to different parts of the world.
Now they no longer recognize their common traits and have forgotten their similarities. If they were to meet their Pakistani cousin, Hareesa( not the condiment), Mumbai cousin Kichra, or Turkish cousin keshkek,they would both know they once belonged to the same royal family in the Arab states. See this wonderful post on Turkish weddings if you still doubt the similarities.

If you wondering what am I blabbering about, its about two dishes, Aleesa and Haleem popular in the Muslim Communities in North India and Malabar. Haleem is found only in Hyderabad and Lucknow and Aleesa is a North Kerala dish popular in Muslim salkarams.

According to this site, Haleem is a soup-like Indian and Pakistani dish, brought to India from Persia. In Anatolia, Iran, the Caucasus region and northern Iraq, it is known by the names Keshkek or Harisa. Although the dish varies in other regions, it always includes wheat and meat. It is a tasty soup that is made from wheat ,barley and oats. Meat or Chicken can be added for different variations. It is generally made during Ramadan and in cold weather and can be eaten with naan(indian bread) and a dash of lemon juice. 

Well, its definitely not soup like (though I don't mind it like a soup too) and a measure of its quality is the thickness. The density( yeah,  getting technical.. this was told to me by my butcher)should be such that a spoon placed vertically in it should stand as is without any support. It's eaten as a thick porridge(worst word to describe a delicious recipe)and it has a stick to your bones kind of richness that is good in cold weather and also after a hard long fast. So its popular as an Iftar food everywhere. Both are very thick goopy food only as good as the flavorings and the ghee in it, so most people either love it or detest it.

Now Aleesa on the other hand, however the recipe reached Northern Kerala's Malabar region, is a sweet version of this Haleem. I wouldn't have thought it was till I cam across the a post on sweet wheat porridge(that word again.) called Haleem. Again there was this wheat and meat Persian breakfast also adding ghee and sugar instead of spices. No lentils in aleesa though  but still I am assuming there is a connection between these recipes..one sweet and one savory version of the same meat and wheat stew.
As for the recipe , see below.

Aleesa Recipe
You will need
Skinned whole wheat(Haleem Wheat)-1/2 cup
Cloves-2
Cinnamon-1 small half inch long thin piece
Onion- 1 small one quartered
Cardamom-1 whole pieces
Chicken or Mutton- 1/2 cup cubes

Preparation:
Soak the wheat in warm water for 15-20 minutes. Add all the ingredients in a pressure cooker or thick bottom stock pot. Add 3 cups of water and pressure cook ( or slow cook with lots of water on medium low heat) till the first whistle comes and then cook on very low heat for 10-15 minutes. After the cooker cools, open, and blend to a coarse consistency. Not fully smooth and not fully granular. You could mash it by hand too using a potato masher. Add 1/2 tsp of salt and mix well. If its too thick, add some water and cook well. If its too thin, let it thicken over low heat. Transfer to a serving shallow bowl.
Now season it by frying 3 shallots sliced in 3-4 tablespoon( use more if u like it) of ghee till it browns well. Add some cashews and raisins and fry that too. Pour the seasoned ghee over the whole cooked aleesa. Serve with lots of sugar sprinkled on top or on the side.

Traditionally, the haleem is made over 7-8 hours in a slow cooking method that ensures the flavors meld together and there are traditionalists who only prefer that. With pressure cookers and food mills, it has a faster cooking time now. If I had a slow cooker, I would use that, but I make it in a pressure cooker for ease. There are videos on you tube which show how the real deal is made in Hyderabad. From the look of it, they don't use turmeric and their haleem looks different. Any feedback on that will be welcome.

As for the Haleem recipe, since that's something I have tasted only after coming here, and hence my recipe for that may not be accurate. There are lots of Haleem recipes blogged by able bloggers now, namely Zaiqa and health nut, but the one below is what I usually use and here it as it was blogged by Nabeela, whose blog I can't find now.  Shaan masalas also has a haleem mix which comes out pretty good too, except that I feel the garam masala and salt in that is overpowering. Try it either way or follow the directions on the back of the Shaan masala.

Haleem Recipe

You will Need:

2 BIG onions, sliced thin and deep fried to golden brown, then crushed
Bulghur wheat(about 2/3 cup), Masoor dal(1 handful) & Chana Dal(1 handful) - together 8 ounce
3 cups water
1 tbsp oil
1.5 lbs chicken/beef/goat, boneless
1 cup water
1.5 cups yogurt
1.5 tsp salt
4-5 green chilies
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 tbsp minced fresh garlic
8 cloves + 1/2 tsp cumin - ground
1/2  tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground pepper
1 1/3 cup water
Juice from 2 limes
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 cup chopped mint leaves
Lime wedges to serve

Procedure:
Cook bulghur wheat with masoor and chana dal in 3 cups water in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes. Set aisde and clean pressure cooker. Marinate chicken, water, yogurt, red chili, turmeric, garlic, ginger and salt for some time and then add them along with oil in same pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes till the meat has fallen apart totally. Using a food mill or a food processor, puree the wheat mixture and meat mixture into a 5 quart pot. Add 1/2 of the crushed deep fried onions, ground cloves and cumin, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground pepper, water and lime juice. Cook it on medium heat, stirring constantly. Taste and see if it needs more cinnamon and pepper. Adjust to your taste. Cook for 10-15 minutes till its thick and goopy. Add chopped cilantro and mint. Cook for a minute further. Serve hot with lime wedges, fresh cilantro and the rest of the fried onions sprinkled on top.

A Prelude to A Giveaway.. Grilling Ideas, Tandoori Paneer

You probably have seen it on every blog in the last two months.. You probably left a comment here, left a comment there , left a comment everywhere in the hope of being the happy winner...You probably buy lottery tickets every Friday and join in the office pool..

So what 's the best chance of winning something..I would say try, try and  try again...and again..

Last week, I was contacted by the team from CSN Stores to see if I was interested in doing a giveaway at my blog too. Should I do it?   Of course I said yes..since someone somewhere (actually only in US and Canada) is cut out just for this gift.

This giveaway is open to all, anyone of you can enter to try and win a $100 gift certificate from CSN stores which you can use to buy anything from their 200+ stores.

The actual giveaway will follow soon, so stay tuned and don’t forget to check back here.

Beef Varattiyathu/ Erachi Varattiyathu/ Beef Sauted with Spices.

Beef Varattiyathu is a recipe I started my spare kitchen with and I started my blog with it too! It was my one reliable recipe in the disastrous milieu of new cooking. Something I like to eat and something which turns out edible without too much effort.
But over time, there are versions of the same recipe that I make, depending on the mood. It can become a dry fry, it can be an almost curry and it can be a cry.. a cross of a curry and fry. This is one recipe that changes in taste each time I make it, thanks to the cut of beef, the proportion of spices I add, whether I use shallots or onions, whether I use coconut oil or olive oil, whether I fry first and then cook or cook and then fry the meat. I try to pin it down but can't; But it is so instinctive in my recipe collection, that once I decide to make it, the hands just take over and its all auto pilot and lo its done.
My mom makes this as a curry, frying the onions first and then adding the beef with all the spices and sauteing it till all the water is gone and then pressure cooking it.

Erachi Pathiri/ Paratha Stuffed with Minced Meat/ Fried Meat Pie...

A blog on Malabar Food will be incomplete without the palharams or snacks popular in our houses. I should have blogged this a while ago but I don't make these snacks often enough. Ramazan of course will see all of them make their rounds in my kitchen, but unlike my reader's imagination, my house is more likely t o have simple, light, un-interesting food on a regular basis than these delicacies.

Most of  the delicious Malabar dishes are meat based and spiced and fried to get its rich texture and taste.Comfort food in its raw form.... I love making them every now and then just to fill my kitchen with the ghost chatter and sounds of another time back home where it was made by more than one person interspered with a lot of conversation to take the tedium away.
Though why these dishes are called "palaharam", meaning a "light repast", or snacks is beyond me. They are delicious but in no way are they a "light" snack, unless u treat it as a pie and take just a slice. They are a meal in itself  and should get their time in the limelight on their own..not with a hazaar other co-stars. It's literally a crime to eat anything after eating one of these, except fruits or a sulaimani.

Erachi pathiri is a Ramazan delicacy in the Malabar regions, mostly in Calicut and north of there. Any salkaram/celebration there is not complete without this delicious and elaborate item on the table.Though a standard item in most houses, it is still not commonly available on the menu in restaurants. Wait for a Malabar Food festival to get a taste of the real deal or wangle an invitation to a house there. Zain's restaurant in Calicut is one of the only places that has it on the menu for those who want to try it.

Just like the name suggests, it is a chapathi/flatbread stuffed with minced and spiced meat.
It is made with beef mostly but you could make it with chicken or mutton too.  Not to be made with ground meat, it has to be meat cooked with the spiced and then chopped up and shredded by hand.
Kind of similar to the beef samosa but the pastry casing is fried after stuffing, and then dipped in a egg custard and shallow fried again. So the tastes vary from the sweet french toast like outer bites to the spicy meat-onion filling inside. I like it more than the uni dimensional samosa but my family goes for the spicy samosas more so that gets more show time.

Finding out the exact recipe for this item, I have come to realize that there is nothing called "authentic" any more. Just like I modify recipes to my family's taste, each family back home also has modifications to its recipe. So what I consider "authentic" may not be your "authentic". If all the recipes of a particular kind have 75%of the method and materials  in common then , that should be called an "authentic style" of a particular recipe. Every house would have a go-to recipe for meat filling and though slightly different house to house, that's what gets used for the samosas, erachi pathiri and chattipathiri (with meat). Some use fennel in the filling , some don't. Some use more onions than meat, and some vice versa. So here is a recipe to get you started and then add your modifications as you need.
For meat filling (makes about 4-5)
Boneless Beef/Mutton -1/2 lbs
Ginger -1/2 inch long piece
Garlic -3 cloves
Green chilies- 3
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Roasted Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
Red chili powder -1/2 tsp
Fennel powder -1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
For Sautéing:
Onions – 1 lb(3 medium ones)
Small green chilies -4
Curry leaves- A handful
Oil- 2-3 tbsp
Preparation:
1. Clean and cut the meat into small pieces. Grind ginger, green chilies and garlic into a paste. Mix everything with the meat, including the spice powders and leaves.
2. In a thick bottom  pressure cooker, add the marinated meat and let it cook uncovered for 5 minutes. No need to add any oil at this stage. When the meat starts releasing its excess water, place the lid and let it cook on full flame till the first whistling sound and then lower the heat to the lowest and cook for another 5 minutes. (Some meat may need more time so open, check and redo the process.) Take it off the flame and open after the steam is fully released. If there is excess gravy, simmer uncovered for 5-10 minutes to evaporate it.
Slow cook the meat covered on low heat for almost 1hr if you do not have a pressure cooker.
3. Meanwhile, chop the onions, green chilies and curry leaves into very fine pieces.
When the meat cools down, chop that also. You could use a chopper for this.
4. Heat the oil, and sauté the cut onions, chilies and meat on medium high heat till it looks dry and slightly separated. The onions just need to be translucent, not brown.Add chopped curry leaves.
Keep stirring to avoid the mix from sticking to the base. Adjust the salt and spice level. When the mix cools down, the filling is ready. the filling should be semi-dry and not too moist.
P.S.If onions were cut by the chopper, it becomes a bit moister so the frying time increases.  
For the Custard:
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
sugar- 2-3 tbsp
Cardamom Powder- a pinch
Mix everything and keep aside. Make more custard in the same proportion if this is not enough.


For the wrapper dough:
3/4  cup wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour/maida
½ tsp salt and 2 tsp oil.
warm water -approx. equal quantity of flour.

 Make the dough the same way as for you would make for puri. Add warm water slowly. The dough should be hard but pliable, else it would be difficult to roll it out. Spread a drop of oil and cover with plastic wrap and keep aside for at least 15 minutes. Divide into even sized balls...about the size of a small lemon. 

Roll it out evenly till about 6 inch in diameter .Keep aside and roll out another chapathi of the same size. If they are nowhere near the same size, pile them up together and trim with a sharp circular lid. Now place one chapathi on the rolling board and place 2-3 tbsp of filling in the middle leaving a good 1 inch or more from the edges. Place the second chapathi over the this and press the ends together. The ends are crimped and pinched and rolled together to form a pattern.

Heat about 1 cup of oil in a saute pan. When it is medium hot, slide the stuffed chapathi into it and deep fry on each side for about 2-3 minutes. It should be brown and puff up. Drain onto paper towels.
Dip each stuffed chapathi into the egg custard and turn over once. Now shallow fry  the dipped chapathi in a non stick pan( uses less oil and the egg doesn't stick) with just enough oil to cook the egg on the outside.(Not deep fry). Drain and serve hot. Cut into slices if the pie is too big.

My measurements may be not be fully accurate for the dough-filling, so just bear with me. I will update with more details soon. If there are any queries they will be answered promptly.

Kappa Erachi/ Mashed Tapioca with Beef

Some of the food we enjoy the most are the most basic ones, with no frills..comfort food at its best, probably devised by some tired mother as a leftover special, whipping some of the contents of the fridge together. Kappa is Tapioca or Yuca and I grew up calling it "poolla".  Getting good kappa was not easy (we were outside Kerala) and when we did get it,  we used to love it.. in all the myriad forms of kappa.. ..sometimes served with fish curry,  sometimes made into "puzhukku", cooked together with sardines; sometimes cooked  with sweet potatoes, plantain peels, and yams and served with spicy red fish curry. As an escape from the routine rice-roti meals, I enjoyed it a lot and had a soft corner for any kappa item. It was much later that I found out that Kappa is considered a "poor man's food" in Kerala, a thattu kada food.

A thattukada is like a"dhaba" or a street food joint, or a NY food truck, but housed in a small restaurant.  The restaurant may not be something to write home about (in fact, if you are in college, better not to let your folks know where u are eating.), but most likely the food there was special. My classmates(guys) used always rave about a thattukada behind our college which served fresh meals while we cribbed about our hostel food. It was a boys only place most of the time, so they refused to take us there. In our final year of college, we finally got them to agree to take us there to have a "rice meal". Needless to say, we were the only girls there but the food was good.

There is a dhaba or a thattukada on the fringes of everyone's memories.... the dhaba where we went for the midnight  egg dipped fried alu parantha, the place where you got ur thattu dosa fix, the anda burji place, the puttu-mutton curry shoe hole, the appam stew place, the kuthu porotta joint.  Some are  liquor joints, the local place to get the nadan kallu, i.e. the country liquor, but a lot of them just cater to a hungry working/student  population with fast cheap eats, at all times of the day and night, when even the "decent" restaurants are closed off. Which one was your favorite thattukada? Anybody want to comment?

Now, far away from the crowd, this food is also a food group we miss, as much for the taste as for the fond memories of the time and place. Kappa Erachi, now known as a glorified "Kappa Biryani, used to be known simply as "erachiyum poollayum" in our houses, is a mashed concoction of spiced beef and tapioca, held together by a ground coconut paste. There are versions of this everywhere now, with more spices, more garam masala, with roasted coconut, but back home, its made very simply with some beef varatiyathu mixed into the kappa. My mom was amused to see our humble food being marketed as a ethnic gourmet delight in the TV and the resorts of Kerala. Well, I guess, as long as there are expatriate Keralites around, these resorts will do well and I definitely won't mind going and eating there.:)

Ingredients for 4-6 servings
Tapioca/ Yuca – 2 lbs
Beef – 1 lbs


For Cooking Beef
Shallots – 10
Fresh Ginger - Garlic Paste– 2 tbsp
Hot Green Chillies – 7
South Indian Garam Masala Powder – 1 tsp
Red Chili Powder – 1 tsp
Roasted Coriander Powder – 2 tbsp
Turmeric Powder – 1 tsp
Pepper Powder – 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds- 1.2 tsp
Curry Leaves – A handful
Salt – to taste

For Coconut paste
Shallots-2
Grated Coconut – 1 cup
Fennel seeds  – 1 tbsp
Curry leaves-1 sprigs

Preparation:
1.Clean and cut the beef into small cubic pieces. Peel the tapioca and cut into medium sized chunks. Do not use any portion that is discolored, has blue lines or looks too soft.
2.Mix the spice powders and salt and keep aside. Chop the green chillies finely and add  to the beef, along with the ginger garlic paste and spice powders under the beef heading. Keep aside for about half hour.
3. Add the marinated beef, 4 sliced shallots, ginger-green chili paste and the rest of the ingredients including the leaves. Add half cup water and slow cook the meat on low heat and covered for 1hr, and stirred once in a while to prevent it from sticking to the pan. The cooking time will vary with the quality of the beef. Usually beef back in Kerala used to take forever to cook and here  it gets over cooked too easily. So keep an eye on it. Alternately, pressure cook the meat without adding any water, for 2-5 minutes after the first whistle and then open the cooker and let the extra liquid dry up on medium low heat in the cooker itself.
4.  Meanwhile, boil the tapioca pieces along with salt and 1/2 tsp turmeric until tender. You would need to add water for boiling....about double the quantity of tapioca. I usually pressure cook that too in just enough water to cover it, for just one whistle.  If there is too much water after the tapioca is cooked, drain the water (reserve it)and keep the tapioca pieces aside. The tapioca should be soft.
5. Grind the coconut with the fennel, shallots and curry leaves. Optionally, dry roasting the coconut for about  5minutes gives it nice flavor.
6. Mix the tapioca pieces with the beef, its gravy and the coconut. Adjust salt as needed. Cover and let it simmer on very low heat for about 5 minutes till the flavors blend in. Leave it covered for some more time. The texture should not be watery, it should be semi- thick and chunky with pieces of beef and tapioca.
Heat 1 tbsp coconut oil and fry the remaining 6 shallots (sliced finely) till brown and then add the curry leaves. Pour this mix over the kappa erachi  and serve.

Mutton Stew My Style

Its Feb already and there is hardly any signs of the great winter letting up.. The schools closed in preparation for the great storm that assailed the East coast and now will open only mid next week... now at least I can sleep in on these cold cold days without gearing up to confront the icy winds seeping in from the windows. I guess I am going into hibernation, putting on more padding to keep warm as well as turning indoors to avoid battling the cold. Though once we are dressed in clothes, well, layers and layers of them, the cold is not so bad, but the body is just stiff and unbending.

Just kidding.. I love the snow  and the white beauty all around..it is so picturesque and calm..They say its a "storm"..to me storm means lightning and thunder, floods of water and general mayhem.. the Kerala Monsoons. Well, the mayhem and floods of snow are there on the roads as is evident in the news, but the glamorous sound and light show is missing and the "storm" is a day filled with an eerie unnatural silence with a steady stream of cotton candy floating down covering the roof and trees with "frosting".

Kadala Kari/ Parippu Paysaam with Pidis/ Chana Dal Kheer

It's been a long month and am just glad to be sitting here nearly at the end of it, sighing in relief! Some days dragged their feet, some days got stretched taut like a rubber band only to have to let go and let it snap back with a sting. If I start to tell you what all happened in the last month, I will be here all evening, so suffices to say that our house has finally changed hands and we have moved out into an apartment. Even though I am writing it here now, it's still a bit hard to believe and sink in.
Since this is the country where you can return anything ( well, anything you buy and sometimes what you don't buy) I still get nightmares where our buyer wants to return the house for some weird reason or the other. I guess it will take a while, to settle in.

Chicken Samosas..

This is one of the Ramazan specialities, samosas filled with meat. It is made completely by hand but feel free to replace with ready made wrappers such as spring roll wrappers, samosa wrappers or puff pastry sheets (Bake it as per the instructions on the box if you use puff pastry to make chicken puff). Ground meat(chicken or beef) is not recommended for samosas as it changes the texture. Chicken can be made either by pressure cooking, or by just cooking the boneless pieces in the spices and mash it up for a shredded texture. Also, the quantity of onions to meat is a personal preference. Increase or decrease as you like.
If you have any leftover grilled or fried chicken or chicken dry curry , u could add onions and chilies and make the filling masala.  The filling should be dry for the samosa to hold together.

Kheema Mutter/Ground Beef with Green Peas...

Every two three days there is a house showing a.k.a."pennukanal" and my cooking is a mad rush now or there is no cooking on those days coz I don't want to mess up my super clean kitchen and clean again. The market is not the right time to sell a house but it's the best time to buy so whenever we take a price cut, we get consoled that wherever we buy, there is a price cut there too. So the loss-gain factor is moot in our case.

Whereas I used to make a variety of food earlier, now its down to the least common denominator. One main item, whatever works with minimal splatter, minimal cleanup, minimal pots to clean. I think of most of our Malabar dishes and they are so labor intensive that they get relegated to the sidelines in the current situation. With Ramzan approaching though, I will have to think of easier items to make.

Beef Tacos...

A couple of weeks just ran by. I stopped to look but it was too fast for me, running as I was to get all the crazy things that only moms think need to be done. My Hindi music craze has just come to an end, thanks to a virus that rode on my browser and hijacked into my computer. No more downloads. Karma, some people would say.:)
Anyway, I just could not get this virus out of my computer and finally had to reformat it. Lost some info and got setback momentarily but now I have a clean "new" computer.:)
Phew!Surfing is as dangerous as living in a war stricken zone. You don't know where and when you are going to get hit.

In another twist,a family friend lost all their belongings in an apartment fire that started in their neighbor's apartment.They escaped unhurt due to another neighbor's timely warning. Cause as yet unknown. What escaped the fire got damaged by the fire fighter's water. They had time to just grab their kids,documents and jackets. So all the past few years of weekend shopping and parties and birthday gifts etc all got reduced to what you can hold in your hands and leave. The only thing my friend really worried about was the kids photo albums and videos.:)I agree with her...memories are hard to find and rebuilt.

If you had to leave everything and go, other than yourself and the kids, what would be the one thing you would really want to take? Needless to say, we first organized our documents into a grab-and-go bag over the weekend. My little one chose the DS as the indispensable treasure (The game cube needs the TV to work, so DS is more portable.)

Our friends are slowly getting rehabilitated in another apartment. The insurance will cover most of the stuff but how can you put a value on certain things? Makes you get a reality check in this recession period. There was a time after we came here and started earning that every weekend was an exercise in consumerism..and now that we reduced shopping due to myriad reasons, the Govt is saying "economic stimulus, go spend some money...":))




well, anyway, this is my foolproof dinner to appease all kinds of appetites at home..Spicy, has NV, has veggies and is wholesome. A taco is the Mexican equivalent of Chapathi/roti. We eat the chapathi with our hands, breaking a piece and scooping up the curry and vegetable. The taco is eaten simply as a roll or folded in half and stuffed with the fillings. The fillings can be grilled chicken, ground beef, or anything you can think of. Here I used ground beef, cheese, avocados, yogurt cream and shredded lettuce. You could substitute the avocados with guacamole and the cheese with shredded carrot too.

You Will Need:
Lean Organic Ground beef-1 pound
onion -1 chopped finely
Garlic -3 cloves, minced
Jalapeno peppers/Hot Green chili -3, chopped
Chili powder( Paprika/Kashmiri Red Chili Powder)-1 teaspoon
Roasted and Powdered Cumin-1 tablespoon
Oregano(Fresh/frozen)-1 tablespoon(Use less if using dried oregano)
Fresh cilantro-2 tablespoons
Cayenne pepper/Paprika-1/2 teaspoon
Your choice Salsa-1 cup
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup of oil
Lime juice-1 tablespoon

Preparation:
Heat oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the onions, garlic and peppers, and saute for about 5-8 minutes. Add the meat and let it brown evenly, taking care to keep breaking up the lumps. Add all the other ingredients including the salsa except the lime juice and cilantro, stirring occasionally until meat is browned.
Cover the pan/skillet, turn heat down to low, and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The whole mix should be semi-dry with not too much of the liquid left. Add the lime juice and the cilantro and mix well. Adjust salt to taste.

Note:No salsa? Substitute with the following mix: 2 chopped tomatoes, one green bell pepper chopped finely, 1 teaspoon of vinegar and one bunch of scallions chopped finely.

To serve: Heat a tortilla on a skillet till it puffs up. Spread either the guacamole or yogurt cream, place some of the beef, and fold in half and top with cheese and lettuce.


Yogurt cream: Just a substitute for sour cream. Hang yogurt in a muslin cloth or line a handled sieve with a paper towel and hang over a deep bowl. Keep this in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or even over night and you will get thick creamy yogurt. Add 1 crushed garlic, a bit of salt and 1/2 tsp olive oil for a yummy spread.

Guacamole:
One ripe avocado, mashed
1 tbsp Lime juice
3-4 green chilies or 1 jalapeno
1 small Red onion, finely chopped
1 Tomato, chopped
1/2 cup Fresh cilantro, washed and coarsely chopped
Sea salt
The avocado is ripe when it is dark and soft to press. Mash the whole avocado into a bowl with a fork . Take 3-4 green chilies or jalapeno peppers, 1/2 tsp of salt and 2 cloves of garlic. In a mortar, crush this with a pestle or heavy stone till it is all mixed in. The sea salt helps in crushing it finely. Scrape this mix into a bowl, and add the rest of the ingredients and taste. You may want to add more lime juice or salt or adjust the amount of tomato, onion, etc.
Once you do this once, you will be able to change the taste to your liking.. less spicy, more sour, no onions, ..whatever.
If you add some of the yogurt cream to this, it becomes a dip for the tortilla chips.

Shrimp Biryani...

Thanksgiving came and went. Eid came and went.:) and my hands were too full to sit down and wish you all properly. This is what happens when you decide to study in old (:) age. Everything takes second place even celebrations.
Eid Mubarak to all my readers! Happy Thanksgiving too!! Hope you all had a wonderful days on both occassions with friends and families.
I was talking to my parents and they were regaling me with incidents from the Eid lunch at my Grandpa's house with all the cousins and aunts and uncles. Eid lunch there is something I miss, even more than at my house. My grandma makes the best beef biryani ever. Though now she is old and hardly has any energy at home, she would still make everything from scratch, finely slicing to mincing to grinding the chutney on the ammi (stone grinder). No food processor or grinder for her. The house will smell of all the green leaves and green chilies chopped up, just before the fragrance of dalda and ghee takes over. She believes that dalda makes every thing taste better and that what she uses in her biryani. I never got the opportunity to sit with her and learn to cook her way so even now the mystique remains. For me and my cousins, biryani, Eid and grandparents house go hand in hand.

Eid has been quiet here.. Just another monday. But I will take that any day compared to the mayhem in Mumbai. That's all that is there everywhere, from the media to the mind. Though we here always complain that the US media never covers the world news, this is the saddest way to have the complaint answered. The Taj burning is an image that won't be ever go away, just like the cars I saw burning a eon ago in the 84 riots and people jumping off the WTC in 01. The people hurt have no relation with the senseless killers hurting them!!The terrorists have to be brain dead to inflict such damage without thought. Words are inadequate to express the anger towards those killers and to understand the anguish of those affected.

Now it's all cold and rainy outside and its one of those days that you just want to curl up with a good book or movie, with someone taking over the kitchen.:)It's almost the end of the year and almost the end of the time period I set for myself to finish my long drawn out exams and now there is so much to do and so little time. Soon it will all be over and then we can move on to bigger discussions.

So hardly feel like blogging anything. So just posting a biryani I made a while ago but didn't get around to posting. Enjoy while I hit the books again!!

Shrimp Biryani is very similar in preparation to the fish biryani..in both, the fish/shrimp is marinated lightly and fried just a bit to seal the flavor and then placed on the masala/gravy and layered with rice and baked. It's pretty simple and though there are a couple of steps, if you have more than one stove burning, the work is done simultaneously and its gets you the fastest and easiest biryani.
For 4 people.
The Marinade
Shrimp- 1 1/2 lb more or less
Red chili powder- 3/4 tsp
Turmeric-1/4 tsp
Lemon Juice-2 tsp
Salt-1/2 tsp

For the Masala:
Onion –3 or 4 medium ones( one onion is for garnish onions)
Tomato - 2 medium sized ones cut into chunks.
Green chilies –10 in number
Ginger - 1” piece
Garlic pods –5 cloves (big)
Pepper powder – 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Plain Yogurt- 1/2 cup (thick)(Drain the yogurt to thicken it)
Fennel Seeds/Perinjeerakam/Saunf - 3/4 tsp
Cashew nuts-4
Poppy seeds (Khus khus) – 3/4 tsp
Mint leaves (Pudhina) - 1/2 cup chopped
Cilantro leaves (Dhania) - 1/2 cup chopped
Curry leaves- a handful chopped
Biryani Masala- 1 teaspoon
Lemon juice- juice of 1/2 lemon.
Salt-2 tsp Or as per taste

For the rice:
Basmati rice - 2 cups
Cinnamon (Karuvapatta) -1 stick of 1 inch length
Cloves (Carambu) -2
Cardamom (Elakkai) -2
One bay leaf, salt -1tsp.
Lemon juice- 2 tsp or juice of 1 lemon
Garnish: Cashew nuts – A handful, Raisins- A handful
Clarified butter (Ghee) – 2-4 tbsp or 2 tbsp mixed with 2 tbsp oil( For frying garnish onions)
Salt to taste
Canola/Vegetable Oil -3/4 cup or as needed for frying the fish.

Biryani Masala:
Cinnamon 2 inch piece
Cardamom 8
Cloves 8-10
Nutmeg (Jathika)-1
Bay leaves- 1
Fennel seed- 1tsp
Mace( Javithri/Jathipathri) 5-6
Caraway seeds/Shah Jeera- 1 tbsp
Star Anise-1
Dry roast all together and grind to a fine powder. Store in a tight lidded bottle and use only 1 tbsp for this biryani.

1.Basic Preparation: Soak the fennel(Perunjeerakam) seeds, cashew nuts and poppy seeds in a bowl with water for an hour at least. Wet grind the soaked nuts and seeds with very little water to a fine paste. Only after that, add the green chilies, ginger, garlic and pulse to make it into a coarse paste. Keep aside. Alternately, you could first powder the poppy seeds and fennel seeds and then soak and grind to make it smoother. Chop the tomatoes into cubes and slice the onions. One onion should be sliced extra fine. This one is for the fried onion garnish.
2. Marinating and Frying shrimp: Cut the shrimp into medium size pieces,wash with 1 tbsp lemon juice and drain. Marinate it with the chili powder (use Kashmiri chili powder if you want it milder), turmeric, lemon juice and salt. Keep aside for half hour to one hour.
Heat up 1/4 cup oil(even less if u are using a non stick pan) in a wide shallow pan and pan fry the shrimps on medium high heat till they just look cooked on both sides. The shrimp should just change color and NOT get crisp as in a fry. Drain onto paper towels and remove any pieces left in the oil. Drain all the oil into a bowl.

3.Frying the Garnish: Heat the ghee/oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add the garnish portion of the sliced onions and fry, till golden brown and crisp. Sprinkle some sugar over the onions to speed up the crisping. This should take about 10 minutes. Remove the onions and fry the cashew nuts and raisins on medium heat till it turns brown on all sides. Remove onto paper towels. Drain the ghee/oil into a small bowl and keep aside for flavoring the rice.
4. Rice Preparation: Clean and soak rice for 10 minutes. Drain and keep aside. Boil 4 cups of water. Heat the ghee/oil mix and saute the whole spices and one onion. Add the rice after 2 minutes and saute that till the grains turn opaque. Add 3/4 tsp salt. Add the boiling water and stir well. Let the whole rice mix come to a boil and then lower the heat to medium and cover it. Cook it for about 10 minutes and check. If all the water seems to have disappeared but there is still water left beneath the top layer, remove from fire and just let it sit covered for another 10 minutes. It should be cooked perfectly by then.
5.Cooking the biryani masala/gravy: Use 2 tbsp of the reserved shrimp oil and add the rest of the sliced onions to the pan and saute on medium heat till it starts getting brown on the edges(about 8 minutes). Add the poppy seed – ginger garlic green chili mixture, tomatoes, curd, lemon juice, pepper, salt, turmeric, biryani masala one by one. Cook on medium heat for another 10 minutes till the tomatoes get cooked and everything comes together. Add the coriander, mint and curry leaves and mix thoroughly. Check the taste and add salt or lemon juice if needed. There should be some semi-thick gravy left. Mix in the shrimp with this gravy. Take it off the stove.
6. Layering the Biryani: Spread a bit of the gravy around it. Spread the cooked rice over the shrimp and garnish with the onions, raisins and cashews. If you want more flavor, you could add the oil from frying the shrimps over the rice now.:) Only if you want to. Not more than 1/4 cup of oil altogether.
Pour 2 tsp lemon juice over it. Now cover with a lid and set it back on the stove over high heat for 6 minutes and then on very low heat for 10 minutes. Turn off the flame and let it remain covered for another half hour. You could heat a cast iron griddle/pan or tawa and place the covered pan with biryani in it over that and let it cook for 20 minutes on medium heat and just leave it there on the tawa without flame after that for another 15 minutes.

Alternately, you could layer the shrimp and gravy and rice and garnish as described above in a oven proof dish and bake at 250 degrees for half hour. Mix the rice with the masala gently and serve.
Serve with coconut chutney (biryani chammandi), Onion relish (Ulli surka), Yogurt and Papadam.

That's how my dirty rice looks all mixed together. :)

Muringya Ela Curry/ Drumstick Leaf curry

Ramazan Mubarak to all my readers!! I don't like to dwell on the religious aspects here as this is a food blog so let me jump to a very popular recipe back home.

Sometimes the things you enjoy the most and yearn for the most are the simplest and easiest to find in the right place and time. But taken out of its context and it becomes a delicacy, a rarity and a treasure.

Muringya ela curry is one of those curries that's made with the leaf of the Drumstick plant. A very common tree, easily grown in most households, it gives really a unique tasting leaf and the luscious drumsticks. The leaves have to be plucked without the stems..quite a labor intensive process best done by a couple or more ladies together with some gossip thrown in to break the monotony of the job.

Now this preparation of the leaves cooked in a coconut gravy goes best with the light Pathiris and tire pathiris.(Recipe coming soon ...) And since both these pathiris are really from the outlying areas of Kozhikode, I think this curry is also originally from the inlands of Malappuram, Vadakara etc.

In Kozhikode, pathiris are served mostly with ishtoo..chicken stew, beef stew, mutton kurma etc..even for breakfast.. but in Malappuram, its only in the last decade or so that meat and fish became readily available and commonly consumed. During my childhood visits to the tharavadu at Malappuram, Pathiris were served with this muringa curry for breakfast. There was a drumstick plant adjacent to the property "compound" wall. The leaves were then plucked by us kids, climbing on the wall and stretching precariously to reach the upper leaf laden branches. A couple of falls each time with some minor scrapes were common too.
The Malappuram pathiris are so thin and airy that dunking them with this curry, two folds down and you can easily down a good number of them without blinking.

On the east coast here, we haven't seen Muringa/Muringya leaf yet in the Indian stores though its available in the West coast. So we really enjoyed this curry at our parent's house for breakfast and even got it for dinner at my aunt's house who made it especially for me. So if you get this leaf in CA or Dallas, here is the recipe to go with it.


You Will Need:
Drumstick Leaves: 1 cup
Green chilies- 2
red Chili Powder- 1/2 tsp (more or less as per taste)
Turmeric- 1/2 tsp
Coconut grated: 1 cup
Shallots- 3, very thinly sliced
Curry leaves
Oil for seasoning.

Preparation:
Wash the drumstick leaves well. Take care not to have any bits of the stem. Cook the leaves with the slit green chilies, turmeric, chili powder and salt in 1 1/2 cup water for about 10 minutes. Grind the coconut with 1/2 cup water to a very fine paste and add to the cooked leaves. Allow the whole mixture to boil once. Adjust salt as required. Some people add garlic and cumin seeds to the coconut while grinding but its optional.
Heat the teaspoon of oil and fry the shallots till light brown and then add the curry leaves. Pour this oil over the curry. Serve with Pathiri, chapathi or triangle porotta.

Vegetable/ Tomato Soup

This is my version of a tomato soup, initiated when my not-so-little one got hooked on the tomato soup and the grilled cheese sandwich meal at pre-school. Tomato soup in itself is too tart for one or too sweet for the other person and its very uni dimensional in taste for me. "No Flavor", says my little one.:)
Playing around with different variations over time, we have a standard soup acceptable to everyone in the house now. And all I did was add a handful of carrots, onions, celery or leeks or fennel, and a small piece of potato to thicken it. Pair with a crusty bread, grilled cheese sandwich or Panini and that's our Sunday evening meal!

Panini itself is another addiction if there is some good bread available. So if there is soup, we make a beeline to get some bread and if there is bread, then soup has to be made. The panini can be as varied as you like it with whatever leftover meat and veggies going into it, all grilled to a crisp.

That's it. Each of our taste in soups are unique and one person saying "this is the best soup ever" never works. So try this soup, vary it to your taste, add or subtract the ingredients as you like it and you will get a soup that everyone in your house likes.


You will Need:
Tomatoes-2 big ones(beef steak or 3-4 plum ones)
Potato-1 half of a small sized one.
Onion-1 small one
Garlic-1 fat clove
Carrots- 2 thin full ones
Celery-1 stalk (substitute with 3 scallions or 1 piece of fennel)
Pepper-1/4 tsp or as per taste
Paprika-1/8 tsp
Salt to taste
One bay leaf
Good EV olive Oil-1 or 2 tablespoon
Water-2-3 cups of water (or low sodium chicken stock)

Preparation:
In a pressure cooker, heat the olive oil and add the garlic, onions and celery. Saute for a minute and add the rest of the ingredients except salt. Saute on medium heat for about 5 minutes, add the water, close the lid and pressure cook for a couple of whistles. When it cools down,, open, remove the bay leaf and puree using a hand blender or the blender jar. Add salt and add more water if it feels too thick. Serve with a dot of butter and pepper to taste.

Variations: The amount of carrot and potato determine the taste of the soup so be careful before you get excited and add too much. It may end up as a carrot or potato soup. So if the carrot or potato is too big, reduce the quantity. If you have leftover tomato diced or tomato sauce in a can, add that too as that really gives a nice flavor and color. Add cilantro or parsley or basil as desired.

Aatukaal Soup/Paaya Soup/ Mutton Soup

I know I am not going to find much takers for this soup, given the effort and that its a pure non vegetarian soup from my hometown. It's similar in taste to the French Onion Soup but its without the cheese and the bread. It's a clear soup back home but I like to chew on some tiny morsels of meat and cooked shallots to add texture so I added some of that to the soup.

As a kid I never used to like this soup due to its intense meaty taste and murky coloring but I like it sometimes now. My mom never made this frequently during my childhood but now she fed me this, post-delivery to regain strength and vitality. I used to laugh at the restorative powers of this soup but now my mom and other aunts make it often as their backs are catching up with their age.

My grandma always says this soup is good during monsoons and cold weather to get rid of all body aches and pains, probably due to the medicinal properties of the fenugreek and shallots. She makes it with the leftover mutton pieces after Bakrid or any big family function. I don't know how true it is, but apparently the bones also add to the medicinal powers of the soup.
But I do know that the fenugreek is known for its extensive value for nursing mothers and is excellent for post-delivery recovery and for any kind of arthritic pain. It's also good for recovering patients and convalescents.

I am sure some of my cousins and family members will remember this soup and try it at least once. For the queasy ones, the next one is a vegetarian one..



You will need:
Mutton - 1-2 pounds
Onion-1 medium sized one
Red Shallots- A handful(10-12)
Fennel Seeds- 1 tablespoon
Black Pepper (Whole)-1 teaspoon
Fenu greek Seeds-one and half tablespoon
Water- 4 cups
Cilantro to garnish
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Clean and wash the bones. Select some pieces with a bit of meat on it too.
Chop the onions and powder the fennel seeds.
Take a pressure cooker and cook the pieces with the onions, and all other spices as specified above. You would have to cook for about 20 -30 minutes on very low heat after the whistle.
Remove the lid after the cooker has sufficiently cooled down and remove the pieces with meat on it. Reserve the meat and a couple of spoonfuls of the fenugreek-onion from the stock. Remove all the bones and then mash the remaining stock and the onions with a blender or back of a spoon. Strain the liquid through a medium sieve.
Adjust the salt of the strained soup and add the reserved onions and the meat pieces. Garnish with fresh cilantro and pepper. Serve hot.

Related Links:
Another spicy version of the Mutton Soup.

Pasta With Meat Sauce

Some weeknights when I drag myself home, I am hungry enough to eat the first person in sight, but my fridge is empty, and only my pantry is stocked. If my little one and I discuss the options for dinner, it always ends up in pasta. Pasta is wholesome (mix regular white and whole wheat pasta and it's no worse than rotis or rice!!)and can be made and ate with minimum fuss. No grinding, no coconut, no rolling of rotis, no seasoning..A one pot dish.

Normally the sauce is made before hand and ready in the freezer or fridge on the weekend itself. Or I start with a jar of the simplest pasta sauce and customize it. It all depends on how much time there is before dinner. If I have 20 minutes, and pasta sauce ready, that's all it takes to prepare the entire dish. Making a good sauce is not difficult at all but needs a half hour (at least) or more(up to 1 2/2 hrs)which you may not have all the time.


A note on ready made pasta sauce:If you are buying pasta sauce, look for the one with the least amount of sodium (10% or less),and least amount of ingredients on the label. The lower the ingredients, the purer is the product. Go for one which says natural or organic and has no meat, no mushrooms, and no cream in it..all those add hardly any flavor and adds tonnes of calories. Try Trader Joe's Organic Marinara Pasta Sauce or Roasted Garlic Sauce which is the closest to home-made and has no aftertaste of preservatives.

Growing up, pasta was Bambino's macaroni and mom made tomato sauce. Then I saw the whole world of pasta shapes and names and recipes here and calling all of them macaroni seemed silly. It's like thinking all Indians look alike. Now the elbow macaroni is reserved for Mac N Cheese. I used to just buy by the shapes as the names eluded me..(just the faces stayed after the introduction)..but now over time, I got to know a couple of the common pastas..(some of them are our constant companions ):))Penne, Bowtie, Fusilli, Cavatappi, Rigatoni...and they are mostly welcome in my house any day.
Any shape which has ridges in it would work well with this chunky sauce.


For those who want to make the Meat Sauce from scratch:Serves 4
Olive oil -2 or 3 tbsp
Onion- 1 medium sized one
Garlic-3 cloves
Carrot -1
Celery stalk- 2
Red/Yellow/Orange peppers-1
Lean minced Beef or veal-1/2 lb (1/4 Kg)
Ripe Red Tomatoes-4 medium ones or 1 lb (1/2 kg)
Salt - 3/4 tsp or to taste
Milk- 1/2 cup
Dried Parsley-1/4 tsp
Dried Thyme- 1/4 tsp (optional)
Fresh parsley- 1 handful
Black Pepper-1/4 tsp


For Pasta:
Pasta-1 lb
Salt-1 tbsp
Olive oil- 1 or 2 tbsp
Fresh Parsley-one handful
Parmesan Cheese- grated 1/4 cup

Preparation:
1. Chop the vegetables into small even sized dices. Wash the meat and let it drain. Chop the garlic or mince it. Chop the parsley finely after washing. Chop the tomatoes and puree them. If you have the time, cook them in boiling water for 5 minutes and when cool, remove the skin before pureeing. Else use 2 tbsp tomato paste and 1 can (16 ounce)of the whole or crushed tomatoes.

2. Heat the oil in a large deep heavy pot or nonstick deep pan. Saute the onions, celery, carrot, and garlic over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the meat and cook over moderately high heat, stirring and breaking up lumps, until no longer pink, about 6 minutes.

3. Stir in tomato paste, milk, 1 cup water and spices/herbs and gently simmer, covered, until sauce is thickened, 1/2 hr to an hour.(Keep checking to see if the sauce has thickened too much or not. Add water or meat broth if it sticks too much.) The sauce is ready when you see flecks of oil rising to the top of the sauce. Add salt, fresh parsley and pepper and remove from heat.

Sauce may be made 2 days ahead and cooled, uncovered, before chilling, covered. Frozen, it keeps for 1 month.

4. Making sauce from bottled pasta sauce: Heat 1 tbsp olive oil, add 2 cloves garlic and when it sizzles, add the meat and let it cook for about 6-7 minutes. Keep stirring to distribute the heat and when it starts looking brown, it is cooked. Optionally, add 1 cup chopped carrots and red/yellow peppers. Add the whole bottle of pasta sauce, 1 cup milk (or 1/2 cup half and half) and let it simmer for as much time as you have..15 minutes to 1 hr. The milk cuts the acidity of the ready made pasta sauce and makes it creamier. If you are using low fat milk, you will need more to get the same effect. 2-3 tbsp of grated Parmesan cheese can be added to the sauce for flavor at the end.

5. Making Pasta: Bring a big pot half full of water to a boil. Add salt and pasta. Cook for 8-11 minutes(or according to the package directions) till the pasta is tender but still firm to the bite. Drain the pasta. Toss the pasta with the oil to avoid it from getting too sticky. Some people like the sauce soaked into the pasta and some like it separate. So as per taste, either add it to the meat sauce just before serving or add it to the pot/pan and let it simmer on low heat for about 5-10 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with fresh finely chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese.

Related links:
Kalyn's Yummy Garden Tomato Sauce
Nabeela's Penne Strascicate
Another Favorite: Nabeela's Bell Pepper Pasta.. It uses roasted peppers pureed into a sauce and its an excellent way to get veggies in at the same time.

Three Pepper Fajitas

It's always fun to sit back and smile as the guesses pour in just to see the versatality of everybody's imagination. Jackfruit in a fajita..the prize of originality goes to Sra while Nandita came the closest with yellow peppers. Still, thanks for being a sport.

Its a veggie fajita filled with sauted peppers, onions, cilantro, grated cheese and the optional sour cream and gaucamole. Yep, I did make some quesadillas too with the peppers and chicken but that's next on the posting list.

I buy the multicolored bell peppers from the price club on a regular basis just becacuse they look so good and they are so good for you. Every time, I go there the red, yellow and orange peppers just whistle charmingly to me as I walk past them, their colors making them stand out in the midst of all the vegetables. I force my eyes elsewhere, figuring I can go for a couple of weeks without them. But no,at the end of the shopping, there they are in my cart, and I am already conjuring up new ways to cook them.



So how good are they for you?
Brightly colored bell peppers, whether green, red, orange or yellow, are rich sources of vitamin C and vitamin A (through its concentration of carotenoids such as beta-carotene), two very powerful antioxidants. Red Peppers also contain lycopene, a carotenoid which aids the body in warding off cancer. Additionally, they are low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol, and Sodium while being high in fiber, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Potassium, Manganese, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate, Pantothenic Acid and Magnesium. For more info, click here. Did I get any converts? Don't eat this if you aiming to gain weight coz as you read above, they are low in fat.

Sweet peppers are plump, bell-shaped vegetables featuring either three or four lobes. They usually range in size from 2 to 5 inches in diameter, and 2 to 6 inches in length. Inside the thick flesh is an inner cavity with edible bitter seeds and a white spongy core. Bell peppers are not 'hot'. They contain a recessive gene that eliminates capsaisin, the compound responsible for the 'hotness' found in other peppers. When sauted or grilled, they are sweet with a fruity flavor. Here I have sauted them for multiple uses.

You will need:
Bell Peppers-3, one of each color
Onion-1
Red Pepper Flakes-1/4 tsp (optional)
Garlic-1 clove
Olive oil-1-2 tsp
Cilantro- a handful
Lemon Juice-a dash
Salt to taste
Black Pepper-1/2 tsp
Grated Cheese-a handful

Preparation: Slice the peppers vertically along the edges so as to remove the central seed core. Slice them thin into equal size pieces. Slice the onion finely. Crush the garlic. Heat the oil in a skillet and add the garlic and red peppers. Add the sliced peppers and onions, salt and saute them while stirring all the while. Lower the heat to medium and cover for 2 minutes. Open, increase the heat and continue stirring. They should wilt and get cooked in about 5-7 minutes. The high heat is to evaporate the water that the peppers give out. Add lemon juice and pepper. Now they can be used as a topping for fajitas, quesadillas, or even burgers.

Fairly good flour tortillas are available in supermarkets almost everywhere. Select the ones which are 6 or 7 inches in diameter. Warm them up by on a skillet and wrap them in a cloth napkin to bring them to the table.

For assembling the fajitas: Lightly toast a tortilla on a skillet on both sides. Spread a tablespoon of the peppers on it. Add grilled strips of chicken or beef if so preferred. Sprinkle chopped cilantro, grated cheese and a spoon on sour cream. Roll or fold over..Done.

Nadan Erachi Porichathu /Country Beef Fry

Beef fry is made famous and infamous by the various thattukadas and restaurants in Kerala. Every restaurant along the highway from Kannur to Trivandrum has their local derivative of the Beef fry ranging from dry to semi-dry served with porotta or borotta. More of a bachelor's favorite it is easy to make and crowd pleasing.

My name for it as "country fried beef" is a pun and comes from "Nadan", the malayalam word for "anything relating to the homeland (nadu)" which we translate quite roughly as "country"....:)So it is no way related to the American country fried steaks, smothered with gravy.

In my house, beef fry is little more than a sauteed extension of Beef Varatiyathu, where the meat is cooked with spices and herbs and then further sauteed with curry leaves, mustard seeds etc. The simple fried version is reserved for tiffins for long trips and for pickles taken to US for the beloved kids starved of nadan grass fed beef.

With US being the largest consumer of beef, you would think the meat here would be out of the world. Well, it is good for steaks and grills, with all the marbling and fat content, but when it comes to a dry meat fry (nadan erachi porichathu),nothing compares to the meat back home. Organic beef here is the closest that tastes similar to that.
After my wedding, at one of the earliest salkarams at my better half's relatives house, I wsa introduced to another side of the meat fry. Decadent, deep fried, fiery spicy and "can't stop eating it" yummy. One version was tiny pieces fried and mixed with chukkappam, button shaped chips made of rice flour. The other version was bigger pieces as a side dish for rice or porotta.
Also saw a hitherto before unknown side of my better half who couldn't put the plate down. As a newly married, it made a indelible impression..so the way to a person's heart is through their stomach.....of course, I had to get the recipe from his aunt which she happily gave as it is not so much of a recipe as a state of mind.
And since then, I keep trying the recipe with varying degrees of frying to replicate the taste. The proper way is to deep fry it but I still can't get myself to do it that all the time, being squeamish of the oil, (as RP makes fun of me), but love the clean spicy taste. This is my current final recipe for the nadan beef fry. For the best taste, dunk it in a deep fryer, but otherwise try it my way.

You Will need:
Beef: 1 lb
Hot Red Chili Powder- 3 tsp, more or less as per taste.
Turmeric-1 1/2 tsp
Shallots-4-5
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Clean and cut the beef into small or very small pieces. Mix the red chili powder, turmeric and salt with the beef, adding 1 tsp vinegar. Keep aside for at least 15 minutes. Pressure cook the marinated beef for 1 whistle or 2(Depends on the quality of beef)till the beef is tender but not crumbly. US beef is soft so doesn't need a lot of cooking so vary the times according to your experience.
When the pressure cooker cools, open it and let the gravy be absorbed into the meat on slow heat. Taste and adjust the salt. Add no oil at this point. Heat oil in a nonstick preferably or a cast iron skillet or cheenachatti, add curry leaves and shallots sliced and then add the meat. Saute till the beef becomes dry and slightly crispy on the outside. Add more oil if it starts sticking to the bottom. If you like it hard and crunchy, keep frying and adding more oil. Serve hot.

Puttu/ Steamed Rice Cakes

Puttu is rice soaked and powdered coarsely and then layered with coconut into a bamboo or any other kind of tube and steamed to form long tubes of a soft crumbly texture.The coconut layers impart flavor as well as help in breaking up the tubes into serving sizes. So what is the fascination with puttu that we have? Is it the fresh flavor of steamed rice and coconut in a hollow bamboo or is it its versatility that it can be eaten as a staple instead of rice with any combination of curries?

While growing up, I disliked it immensely (yes, even though I am a Keralite!) and its only marrying a puttu fanatic that I started appreciating it.
It is a staple at my grandmothers and aunts' houses for breakfast. The kids eat it with milk and sugar, with plantains boiled with coconut(my favorite), fried plantains, or with the any of the plethora of tropical tiny bananas such as the Mysore Pazham, Poovan Pazham, Njavali Poovan etc. I remember one of my cousins eating it with milk tea! Then there is also meat puttu (Erachi puttu) and Fish Puttu (Meen Puttu) which is not as common but has meat or fish layered inbetween the rice powder instead of coconut.

The spicier accomapaniments to puttu are fish or Mutton curry, Beef fry, Kadala curry, Cherupayar curry, Vegetable Stew or Egg curry. As kids, we used to call the puttu-kadala breakfast as reinforced concrete with its coarse-soft texture as it would sit solidly in the stomach till late noon.

In Calicut, I couldn't understand how anybody could eat fish curry and puttu for breakfast! But it is in fact a way to use up the previous day's fish curry and start cooking anew with the day's fresh caught fish. The taste of fresh puttu squished into the claypot(chatti)with the remnants of the previous day's fish curry and the flavor of the claypot has us all fighting for it over dinner though. My mother mixes the previous day's Yellow Fish curry (with coconut)and the Red Fish Masala (Moliyar without coconut) to make a unique tasting curry. Some crushed papadams and it is perfect.

There are lots of Puttu recipes already in the blogging world and I thought I should my own recipe also to it. I am not going into the details of the vessel and flour as that has already been covered here and here.

A few pointers that might help..
1. The rice flour should be wet enough to hold together when you try making a fist with it and dry enough to break apart at a simple knock with the thumb. It shouldn't be clumpy or too powdery. Keep breaking it with the hand as you mix. The amount of water varies with the kind of rice flour used. So keep adding in small quantities.
2. The rice flour from the grocery stores use up more water and after leaving it wet for 15 minutes, you may need to sprinkle a bit more water.
3. Grated raw Tapioca or Cassava (1/4 cup or so per cup of rice flour) added to the rice powder while mixing makes the puttu moister as the tapioca cooks inside the puttu.
4. The puttu is cooked when the steam comes out at the top steadily.
5. While reheating the puttu use a steamer to make it soft again.


This is a ragi puttu that is made alongside the white rice puttu.

Ragi or Finger Millet is rich in B vitamins, especially niacin, B6, and folacin and offers calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. It is only grain that retains its alkaline nature when cooked, millet is ideal for those who are allergic to wheat and gluten. Depending on the variety, millet's protein content is very close to that of wheat, with a half-cup serving, cooked, providing 4.2 grams. One-half cup raw millet contains 11 grams of protein. Millet's use is diverse, including in cereals (including porridge), soups, breads and stuffings, fermented beverages, and baby food.

Ragi is full of fiber and vitamins and hence healthier for you. The taste is rougher and more chewy but if you get used to it,it is a healthier version of the traditional one. It is made in the same way as the regular puttu using preroasted ragi flour.