Poricha kuzhumbu

When you are down on vegetables , make this tasty curry. My grandma used to make it and it is my dad's favorite.

Ingredients:

Assorted vegetables like yam, brinjal, drumstick, bitter gourd, sprouts, carrot, raw banana, beans, snake gourd and pumpkin - 3 cups , cut into 1 cm squares.

Boiled tur dal -  4 tbsp

Tamarind pulp from gooseberry sized ball - 2 cups

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Salt- 2 tsp

Asafoetida powder - 1 tsp

Coriander seed - 1/2 tsp

Urad dal - 1 tsp

Chana dal - 1 tsp

Peppercorn - 1 tsp

Red chilli - 5

Asafoetida piece - 3 gms ( if not 1 tsp powder)

Coconut - 1 tbsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

Heat 1 tsp oil. Put in the asafoetida piece. Once it expands, take it out and fry the other spices till dal gets golden. Add the coconut last and turn off flame. Keep stirring till vessel cools.

If you do not have the asafoetida piece and are using the powder add it after the coconut, that is - at the very end.

Once cooled, grind into a fine paste.

Cook all the vegatbles in the tamarind water with salt, turmeric powder and asafoetida powder.

Once cooked add the dal and spice paste. Boil and keep aside.

Splutter 1 tsp mustard in 1 tbsp oil. Add 1 red chilli broken, 1 sprig curry leaf and 1 tsp coconut grated. Fry till coconut is golden and add to the curry. 

Serve hot with rice.

Aloo gobi

A beautiful amalgamation of Potato and Cauliflower in a lightly spiced onion-tomato gravy.
There are a zillion versions of recipes of this all time favorite... Let me add mine to it!
We like it dry at home and this is the recipe I follow.

I have cut the vegetables into small pieces so that they get cooked in the gravy. That way the spices get infused into the vegetables. If you want to have huge chunks of Potato and Cauliflower, I would advice you to parboil the vegetables separately until nearly done and then adding them as we do the raw vegetables.

Ingredients:

Potato - 2 large, peeled and diced into 2 cm squares

Cauliflower - 3 cups of separated flowerets

Onion - 2 small, chopped fine

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Tomato - 2 medium , chopped fine

Salt

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Chilli powder - 1 tsp (or more depending on your spice level)

Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Asafoetida powder / hing - 1 tsp

Whole spices:
Cloves - 4
Black pepper - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon stick - 1 inch 

Garnish (optional):

Coriander leaf

Tomato - 1, deseeded and sliced long

Ginger - 1 tbsp, julienned

Lemon slice - optional

Method:

Use a heavy bottomed vessel with cover.

Heat oil and ghee in this and once the ghee melts add the whole spices.
When the spices splutter add the jeera. 

As soon as it splutters add the hing.

After 5 seconds add the onion and fry for 1 minute on medium flame stirring continuously till it gets translucent.

Then add the ginger garlic paste and 1 slit green chilly (optional).
Stir well and reduce flame.

Stir occasionally and cook till onion starts turning golden.

Then add the salt, turmeric, chilly powder and coriander powder.

Stir for a minute till the raw smell goes.

Now add the tomatoes and mix well.
Cook on low flame , stirring occasionally till the oil starts to float. 

Stir in the potato and cauliflower and mix well till the vegetables gets coated with the masala.

Once the vegetables are well coated, stir for 2 more minutes on a medium high flame.
Then reduce flame and cover with lid.
Cook on low flame stirring occasionally till potato gets cooked.

Then remove the lid and cook on high flame for 1 minute.

Transfer on to serving dish and garnish. 

Serve hot with chapathy.

Poha

Tea with poha is a great combo. But for many years poha used to be an enigma for me. When we changed our residence my new neighbors gave me their recipe. Thank you Vidya and Lakshmi!

Ingredients:

Aval / flattened rice - 2 cups

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Red chilli - 1 broken into 3 pieces

Onion - 1 medium, chopped fine

Green chilli *- 1, chopped fine

Carrot - 1 medium, grated 

Potato - 1 medium ,chopped fine

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Salt

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander leaf - 2 tbsp

Ground nuts - 2 tbsp, toasted

Lemon juice - 4 tbsp

*This is the only spicy ingredient. If you wish, add more green chilly.

Method:

Be very careful when you wet the Aval. It is very thin and can easily disintegrate. Sprinkle water over the Aval and mix with hand until it gets wet. After 5 minutes, repeat. If you do not take care, you will end up with a big ball / dough.

Heat oil and splutter the mustard.

Add the jeera and red chilli.

After 10 sec add the onion,green chilli and turmeric powder. Fry on low flame till transparent.

Then add the potato, carrot and cover for  2 minutes. Since they are cut so small they will get cooked fast. 

Add the coconut, coriander leaf and salt.

Mix well.

Last add the wet aval. Fry on low flame and cover for 2 minutes.

Turn off flame and leave uncovered for 5 minutes turning mix over every once in a while.

Add the lemon juice, ground nuts and adjust to taste.

Serve with tea.

Jackfruit / idichakka thoran

This is a typical Kerala dish. You will not get this in any non keralites house. Guaranteed! 

Jackfruit or chakka is seasonal. But in Kerala it grows in abundance. Before the jackfruit matures, the young jackfruit is made into a tasty dish - chakka thoran.

My version is a typical Brahmin one with no onion or garlic. 

Ingredients:

Young jackfruit - 4 cups

Coconut - 2 cups

Jeera - 1 tsp

Red chilli - 4 + 2

Coconut oil - 3 tbsp + 1 tbsp

Mustard seed - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 1 tsp

Curry leaf - 1 sprig

Salt

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Jackfruit needs to be handled in a certain way. Use loads of coconut oil to grease all surfaces including your hand, cutting board and knife. Use newspaper to cover your counter top. Following is a pictorial tuitorial.

Cut into cubes and put into a greased pressure cooker. Add salt and turmeric powder. 

Add 1 cup water and pressure cook for 2 whistles. When the pressure is released...

You can break up all the pieces with your fingers like this and freeze for another day.

And on the day of cooking.

Grind 4 red chillies with coconut and jeera without any water.

Heat 3 tbsp of coconut oil. Splutter the mustard and fry the urad dal till red. Add the 2 broken red chillies and 1 sprig curry leaf.

Add the ground coconut to this.

Fry until good smell comes (About 2 minutes). Then add the cooked broken jackfruit.

Mix well and taste.

Cook covered for 2 minutes on a low flame.

Then fry uncovered for 5 minutes on a medium flame stirring occasionally.

Just before serving add 1 tbsp coconut oil. And mix well.

Tasty chakka thoran is ready!

Enjoy!

Chocolate banana cake

Chocolate - yum! 

Over ripe bananas - throw away.

Mix these 2 together and bake a great chocolate cake!

Oven temperature - 180C 

Baking time - 35 min

Mix together in 1 large bowl :

Powdered sugar - 1 cup

Refined oil - 1/4 cup

Milk - 1/4 cup

Water - 1/2 cup

Egg - 1

Ripe banana mashed - 1/2 cup

Sieve together in another bowl

Maida - 1 cup

Baking powder - 3/4 tsp

Baking soda - 3/4 tsp

Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp

Salt - 1 pinch

Now mix in the dry ingredients into the wet mix and fold in. Pour into a oiled and lined baking tray (9 inch * 7 inch). Decorate with sliced almonds and Bake in a preheated oven @ 180C till skewer comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes.

I have used Hershey's chocolate syrup over the cake. But that is just not necessary!

Masala kappalandi / masala peanuts

Movies or walk in the park or a temple visit is incomplete without buying some peanuts from the kappalandi karan. Those small cone shaped paper having hot hot peanuts which were fried in sand for uniform heating might contain some stones. But the taste was / is delicious. 

Masala peanuts was always bought by dad from the local bakery. I remember seeing it in those huge glass jars and if you were lucky the person weighing it might just get generous and present you with a handful!

Here is my version on those crunchy spicy delight.

Raw Peanuts - 1 cup

Kadala mav / besan / chana dal powder - 2 tbsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil for deep frying

Curry leaf - 2 sprigs

Mix together the powders - besan, salt, turmeric, asafoetida, chilli powder.

Take the peanuts in a deep vessel and tip the mixed powder over it.

Take water in a cup. Also take a spoon.

Carefully pour water by spoonfuls to just wet the mixture. The dough must be very thick while coating the peanuts.

Keep aside for 10 minutes.

Heat oil in a kadai.

While frying the peanuts, reduce flame and try to sprinkle individual nuts into the oil, ie, avoid cluster.

Keep mixing often and take off flame when golden.

When last batch is done, add the curry leaf to the hot oil and turn off flame. Remove using slotted spoon after 5 minutes. Mix with the masala peanuts.

When the peanuts cool down, store in airtight containers.

Vazhakka poriyal

Raw banana - 3 numbers

( padathi kaya or nenthiran is the best)

Dry Red chilli - 4 numbers

Kadala parippu / channa dal - 1 tbsp

Asafoetida powder / kayam - 1/2 tsp

Salt

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp + 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaf - 5 numbers torn into half

Heat 1 tsp oil and fry the channa dal and red chilli until dal turns golden. Turn off flame and add the asafoetida powder. When this cools down, powder and keep aside.

Peel and Cut the raw banana into small pieces. Cook in water (add salt and turmeric powder to the water) until soft but holds shape.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a kadai and splutter mustard seeds. Add the cooked banana and curry leaf. Mix well.

Add the powdered spices and mix to coat all sides of the banana.

Heat on medium flame for 1 minute and serve.