Parippu vada/Dal Vada

Yet another favorite tea time snack. This is one of the default items which would be present in small tea shops and thattu kadas in kerala and the smell of these freshly fried vadas bring water to my mouth . It can be made with either toor dal or channal dal. I used channa dal.

Ingredients

Channal dal  -1 cup soaked in water for atleast 2 hours

Onion minced - 2 cups

Green Chillies  - 3 tablespoons finely chopped

Ginger - 2 tablespoons  finely chopped

Salt - to taste

Curry leaves  - 2 sprigs finely chopped

Oil  - 3 cups for frying

Method

Soak the dal in water for at least 2 hours. Once the dal is soaked and ready, it  would be around 2 cups. Drain it and make sure there is no water left out. You can either cut onions/green chillies/ginger or put all these items in food processor and chop till the pieces are small. Put  dal also in the mixer/food processor and  grind until a coarse mix is formed. Remove the mix leaving around 1/4 cup in the food processor itself. Grind it to a fine paste. This helps the mix from breaking apart while frying. Mix all the ingredients and make sure all the items are incorporated well. Make small balls the size of the lemon . Take each ball and place it in one hand and with the other hand flatten it to a round shape. 

Heat oil in a deep pan and when the oil is hot, gently transfer the vadas and deep fry them until both sides are golden in color. Remove them from oil and place them on a paper towel so that excess oil is absorbed. Serve hot with tea.

Beef Cutlet

Cutlets are famous appetizers and would be present without fail as part of most non veg menus in kerala. My hubby would be waiting for me to finish frying and by the time I am done with all , half of them would be disappeared from the plate :). Its a bit time consuming task, but it is well worth the effort. So here goes my version of the same ..  

Ingredients

Beef - 1lb
Potatoes - 1 medium sized
Onion - 1 cup finely chopped
Green chillies - 4 finely chopped
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
Pepper Powder - 2 teaspoon
Chilly Powder - 1.5 teaspoon
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoonMeat Masala - 2 tablespoon
Coriander Powder - 1 teaspoonOil - 2 tablespoon + 1 cup for deep frying.
Salt - to taste
Egg - 2
Bread Crumbs - 1 cup

Method

Boil the potatoes in pressure cooker until 4 whistles. Peel of the skin and mash it nicely with spoon or hand. Make sure that there are no lumps. Cut the beef into cubes of one inch length. Soak in vinegar for 10 minutes and wash the pieces thoroughly and drain it. In a pressure cooker put the beef pieces and add 1 teaspoon of pepper powder , a pinch of salt and turmeric powder and cook till 2 whistles on medium heat. Allow it to cool. Open the pressure cooker and if there is any water left out in the meat , heat it until the pieces are dry. Mince the pieces in blender or food processor. Mix together the mashed potatoes and minced meet. Heat a bottom wide pan and add 2 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onions and green chillies. Saute them until the onions are translucent . Add ginger garlic paste and saute till onions are golden brown in color. Add all the remaining masala powders and saute till the raw smell goes . Add the potato-meet mixture and mix well. Add salt to taste and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes until the masala is fully incorporated. Allow it to cool down for 5 minutes. Now to make bread crumbs, u can either buy the crumbs or as I did u can grind the tea rusk to a medium coarse powder. Also beat the eggs well and keep it aside( I used only egg white) . Make lemon sized balls of the meat mix and shape it in to round or oval . Dip each ball in egg mix and then roll in the bread crumbs and keep it in a plate. Continue the process with all the balls. Now heat one cup of oil in pan and  deep fry the cutlets in medium heat till both sides are golden brown. Drain them in paper towel and serve hot with sauce :)


Note : You can also use shredded or minced beef instead, that will save you a lot of time.

Manga Mappas - Mango in coconut milk

Yet another mango dish. I love mangoes and I always find a reason to put them in what ever dish possible. This is a simple and tasty dish made of raw mangoes.

Ingredients

Raw Mango - 1 Medium size, Cut in to small pieces
Onion - 1 cup sliced
Green Chillies - 5 cut diagonally
Dry red chillies - 3
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Mustard - 1/2 teaspoon
Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Chilly Powder - 1.5 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 1 teaspoonCoconut milk Thick - 2 cups
Water - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tablespoons

Method

Heat oil in a pan and when the oil is hot add mustard seeds and fenugreek. When they pop , add dry chillies and saute for 10 seconds. Add the sliced onions and salt and saute till they are translucent. Add green chillies and curry leaves and saute till onions turn golden brown. Add the spices and saute till raw smell goes. Add the mango pieces and saute till the mango pieces are coated with masala. Add water just enough for the mango pieces to be cooked. Once the mango pieces are cooked and translucent, simmer the heat and add the coconut milk. Bring the entire mixture to a boil and then remove from stove. Allow it to cool and serve with rice.

Fish Fry

Its a long time since I posted a recipe. Has been busy with my work and then got kind of lazy also. So finally though of restarting with my favorite dish :)

Fish is the favorite non vegetarian  item  in our house. I love fish in any forms, be it curry or fry . So here is what u will need.

Ingredients

Fish - tilapia fillet (3 pieces)
Small Onions (button onions) - 5
Chilly Powder - 1 table spoon
Coriander Powder - 1 teaspoon
Fish Masala powder ( I used grandma's fish masala) - 3 tablespoon
Pepper Powder - 1 teaspoon
Lemon Juice - 1 table spoon.
Salt - to taste
Oil for frying

 Marination

Grind the button onions with a little water to form a fine paste.Mix all powders in a bowl with warm water and add the onion paste to this.Mix it together until it forms a thick paste.

Clean the fish pieces( put in vinegar for around 15 minutes, that will remove any bad smell if it has) and cut into pieces of desired size. Make small cuts on both sides of the fish so that masala is absorbed. Marinate the pieces in masala until a  think coating of masala is formed. Keep the marinated fish in freezer for 30 minutes so that the masala will not fall off from the fish during frying.

Frying

You can either deep fry the fish in oil or bake in oven .

If you are deep frying , heat enough oil in a frying pan to cover the fish pieces . When the oil has heated up add the fish pieces. Make sure the pan is not over crowded. Continue frying the pieces on both sides until the pieces are crisp.

If you are baking , then cover the baking tray with aluminum foil and then spread a tablespoon of  oil evenly over the tray. Then keep the fish pieces in the tray and pour few drops of oil on the top of the fish pieces.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then keep the tray in the middle rack for 20 minutes. Take out and turn to the other side and bake for 10 more minutes
After that take a frying pan and add 1 tablespoon of oil and carefully transfer these fish pieces from the tray and fry until both sides are brown.

Cheeda/Cheeppappam

This is a very tasty tea time snack. Its the first time I am making this and it is worth the effort.

Ingredients

Rice flour  - 1.5 cups

Grated coconut - 3/4 cup

Sesame seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

sugar  - 1 cup

Oil - 2 cups 

salt - a pinch

Method

Roast the rice flour in a nonstick pan for 3 to 4 minutes until the raw smells goes. Allow it to cool. Roast the grated coconut in pan without oil until the water evaporates. Grind the coconut to a coarse paste. Mix together rice flour coconut cumin seeds and sesame seeds and water to form a stiff dough. Keep it aside for 15 minutes. Meanwhile heat 1 cup of water in a pan and add 1 cup of sugar. Boil the mix until the syrup reaches a medium thick consistency.

Make small balls the size of 1/2 inch. Flatten it out with both palms until it is around 2 inch in size. Mark an impression with fork on this and roll in so that the impression is outside the roll.

Continue the same with all the balls . Heat oil in a pan and when the oil is heat add the cheeda pieces. Fry it till the pieces turn golder brown. Remove the pieces from frying pan and place it on a paper towel so that the oil is absorbed. Add the pieces to sugar syrup and then keep for 1 minute. Take out the pieces from sugar syrup and allow it to cool. Store in an air tight container and use with tea :)

Puttu and Channa Masala

This is one of my favorite breakfast item, however during working days I never get time to prepare this in morning. So we generally have it either on weekends for breakfast or mostly for dinner. 

Ingredients

Channa (Gorbanzo Beans) - 2 Cups

Onion - 1 Cup sliced

Tomato - 2 cut into small pieces

Green Chillies - 4

Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Cloves - 2

Bay leaves - 1

Cinnamon  - 2 (1 inch sticks)

Chilly Powder - 1 teaspoon

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon

Garam Masala - 1 teaspoon

Coconut milk - 2 tablespoons thick milk

Oil - 3 tablespoon

Curry leaves - 5

Salt - to taste

Method

Soak channa in water overnight or for 4 to 5 hours. Cook it with 2 cups of water and salt in pressure cooker until 6 to 7 whistles. Allow it to cool. Heat a cooking pan and add oil. When oil is hot add the spices and allow it to be roasted. Add the sliced onion pieces and fry it until in turns golden. Add green chillies and curry leaves and fry for 1 more minute . Add the chopped tomatoes and saute the mix. Smash the tomato pieces with the spoon and continue cooking until the mix starts leaving from the sides of the pan. Open the pressure cooker and add the water from channa to this mix and allow it to boil. Add channa and cook till the gravy becomes medium thick . Add 2 tablespoons of coconut milk and cook for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and server hot with puri/chappathi/puttu.

I had it along with puttu. I generally make wheat puttu and believe me, its tastes better than the white one. I used the readymade puttu mix from kerala store.

Custard with jelly

Yet another favorite of my hubby. I make it quite often as it is very simple . Most of the steps are printed in the jelly and custard packets itself, but i generally does a little tweaking here and there.

Custard

Ingredients

Custard Powder - 4 Tablespoons

Milk - 1 ltr

Sugar  - 8 Tablespoons

Method

  

You can use any brand and any flavor for making custard. I personally like Brown&Polson brand. Today i have used vanilla flavor. Take the custard powder in a mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup of milk and dissolve the powder completely in milk. Keep this aside. Heat the remaining milk in medium heat stirring in between. When the milk is hot , add sugar and stir continuously. Once the milk starts to boil, remove it from stove and add the custard mix, stirring the milk while adding. Heat the mix for 2 more minutes and remove it from stove. Allow it to cool and then transfer it to a container and refrigerate it. We like custard a bit thick. If you want to make it more watery, then add only 3 tablespoons of powder instead of 4.

Jelly

This is the easiest part 

Ingredients

Jelly mix - 1 Packet(170g)

Water - 2 cups

Method

Transfer the contents of the jelly packed into a mixing pan. Heat the water and when it boils add it to the mix and stir continuously for 3 to 4 minutes. Allow it to cool to room temperature and then move to a moulding pan if you have one , else transfer it to a glass vessel. Keep the mix in freezer for around 45 minutes and then take it from the pan and cut it to desired shapes and serve with custard or ice cream. If you are not planning to use it immediately then also remove it from freezer and keep the jelly in the bottom section.

Mango Chutney(Chammanthi)

This reminds me of my school vacation days . We had big mango trees in our house and its during the summer vacation time we pluck the mangoes to make pickle and all. My Mom used to  make this for me everyday at that time. Missing her very much :(

Ingredients

Raw Mango - 2 cups cut into cubes

Small Onions - 4

Green Chilly - 10

Grated Coconut - 1 cup

Salt - to taste

Method

Grind together all the ingredients in the small jar of mixer. Mine became a little more watery as i didn't have the small jar and had to use the large one :-(. Tastes better when its dry. Its an excellent combination with rice and pickle or kanji.

Potato Fry

This is my hubby's favorite dish. There is nothing more he loves than eating it everyday.I too like it a lot, but eating this very often is not good for health due to all cholestrol and fat concerns. So i have restricted myself to make it only once in two weeks or so. I make it generally when i am too lazy to cook as my hubby is the one who does all the chopping stuffs :-)

Ingredients

Potato - 2 Medium size cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Onion - 1 cup finely chopped

Chilly Powder - 1.5 teaspoon

Dry red chilly - 4

Oil - 3 tablespoons

Mustard - 1/2 teaspoon

Curry Leaves - 6 

Salt - To taste

Method

Heat oil in pan(nonstick ) and when oil is hot , splutter mustard seeds. Add the dry red chillies and then add the chopped onions. Saute it for 2 to 3 minutes and then add salt. Saute till the onions are lightly golden. Add chilly powder and saute for 1 minute. Add the chopped potatoes and saute the mix well. Continue stirring in between so that the mix doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Keep the heat in medium and cook till  the pieces are lightly fried. 

Koorkka Upperi(Chinese Potato)

This is one of my favorite side dish with rice.We used to cultivate this in our home. The part I hate is removing the skin from it. That was what prevented me from making this often. After coming to US that also got resolved as we get this in semi cooked form from Indian supermarkets. That doesn't taste as good as the raw ones, but thinking about the ease of making , I love it :-)

Ingredients

Koorkka/Chinese potato  - 1 lb

Small Onions - 15-20

Garlic - 3 pods

Green Chillies - 8 

Salt - to taste

Turmeric - 1/2 teaspoon

Curry Leaves - 2 Springs

Oil - 3 Tablespoon

Mustard - 1/2 teaspoon

Method

If you are using raw koorkka , cut it to 2 inch long pieces and cook it in pressure cooker with a pinch of salt and a cup of water  till two whistle.Allow it to cool.

Crush small onions, garlic and green chillies to form a coarse mix. Heat oil in a pan and when the oil is hot add mustard. Add the crushed mix and curry  leaves. Saute the mixture well for 8 to 10 minutes until it turns slightly golden. Add salt and turmeric powder and saute for 1 more minutes. Add previously cooked koorka pieces to this and saute well. Keep the heat in medium and saute till the pieces are slightly fried. Remove from heat .

The combination I like with koorka is moru curry and pickle.

Enjoy the dish :)

To Start With....

Its been a long time since I thought of starting a blog for my recipes..

My hubby always motivates me for that, but I was too lazy to even take an effort for it...

Today I am in a mood to write something and hence thought of doing the basic steps..

Donno how long its gonna last :-)

Ok so I will start will a simple and sweet one

Madakku aka Love Letter !!!!)

I tasted it for the first time from our college hostel when I was doing my pre-degree .

We all used to call it love letter and i never knew the actual name was madakku until i saw it in some recipe sites.

Ingredients

Maida Flour - 2 cups

Water -  1 Cup

Salt - To taste

Sugar - 3 Tablespoons

Grated Coconut - 2 cups

Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Jaggery - 4 cubes/Sugar - 5 tablespoons

Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Preparation

Filling

Heat a nonstick pan and melt jaggery/sugar with 1/4th cup of water. Once the jaggery is melted add the cumin seeds and saute for 1 minute. Add the grated coconut and saute for 1 minute. Remove the mixture from the stove and allow to cool.

Batter

Mix together maida, salt, sugar and turmeric flour. Add water to the mixture and mix until there are no lumps.

The batter should have dosa batter consistency.

Heat a nonstick bottom-wide pan. Pour one spoonful of batter to the pan and rotate the pan  until the batter is thin and evenly spread .Wait for 2 to 3 minutes and then turn to the other side. Add 2 tablespoons of the filling in the centre ofdosa and then fold from both sides. Allow it to stay in pan for a minute and then remove it to a serving plate.

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