Softy Sandwich

Ingredients


Bread -4 slices
Hung curd - ½ cup
Coriander leaves - 1 cup
Green chilies - 1
Onion - ½
salt
Grated cucumber – ½ cup
Honey - 2 tbsp
Sweet mango
or
pineapple - ½ cup
Grated carrot – ½ cup
Tomato sauce -2 tbsp

Preparation


Make green chutney with coriander leaves,
Green chilies, onion and salt
Slice cucumber into juliann and keep aside.
Skin and chop mango or pineapple and mix in honey.
Grate carrot and keep aside.
Keep all these in the fridge in different containers.

Just before serving-

On the first sandwich bread, spread tomato sauce and grated carrot.
Top it with second bread which is spread with a teaspoon of curd .
Spoon in mango or pineapple honey on top of the second bread
and place the third bread spread with curd.
Spoon in cucumber and green chutney mixture on top.
Cover this with fourth bread which is spread with curd.
Slice it to get a triangular shape.
A very soft and healthy sandwich is ready.

To make hung curd – in a fine sieve or muslin cloth
Pour curd and keep on a vessel in the fridge for an hour.
The water will collect in the vessel and you
get thick curd to spread.

To make tomato sauce - In a blender put two cut
tomatoes,two garlic,salt,half tsp sugar,half tsp chili powder
and blend it to a fine paste.On medium flame boil till it reduces.
You get fresh tomato sauce without any preservatives.

Pidi and chicken curry

Ingredients

Rice flour -1 cup
Boiling water -2 cups
Salt -
Jeera - ½ tsp
First and second
Milk extracted from
Half coconut.

Preparation

Boil water add salt and pour
Little by little into the rice flour
And mix well
with a spoon.The whole rice flour will be wet
and cooked.It should not be watery.
(smoother version of
Chappati dough).Add crushed jeera powder to the dough.
Cover the dough and keep aside for 15 minutes.

Wet your palms roll the whole dough in
your hand to make it smooth.

Now make small balls from this dough.

In a vessel pour second coconut milk, add salt
And keep on low flame.
Drop the dumplings(pidi)
One by one into the simmering milk.
After 5 minutes
Pour the first coconut milk. Keep on the low flame till
You get thick white sauce. If it takes more time to get
thick sauce add ½ tsp rice flour.
Serve your pidi with chickn curry or chicken fry.

To get a sweeter version, you can add sugar and
cardamom just before adding first coconut milk.
A different payasam.

Pidi is a rice dumpling prepared in coconut milk
Or plain water. Pidi is mostly prepared
in northern part of Kerala. Syrian Christians
make small pidi(dumpling) in coconut milk.
Others make larger dumplings and drain the water.
Difference is like kanji and cooked rice.

Egg roast

This is Merin, writing my first post in my mother’s blog.
Like my mom I too love cooking and experimenting and I am pretty good at it( as per comments of those who have tasted my creations!!)
Among few of my specialties is egg roast.
Most of the hotels in kerala serve brilliant egg roast with appam and I can still recall the taste of the egg roast we had in a restaurant in kottayam when we were on our way to parumala church.
I am home for a short vacation and few days ago I made egg roast for breakfast.

Ingredients
Eggs -2
Onions – 3 (large)
Tomato – 1 (large)
Ginger – 2 inches long
Green chilli -1
Curry leaves

Red chili powder – 2 teaspoon
Kashmiri chilli powder- 1 teaspoon
Turmeric – ¼ teaspoon
Dry ginger powder – ½ teaspoon
Cumin powder ( saunf ) -1/2 teaspoon
Cinnamon powder – ¼ teaspoon
Cardamom crushed – 2
Oil -3 tablespoon
Black pepper powder – 2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Vinegar – 1 tablespoon


Preparation

Take a pan and heat oil. Add chopped onions and sauté until
golden brown. Then add chopped ginger and green chilli.
next add chopped tomatoes, curry leaves and mix
them all well. After the tomatoes are cooked well add a
dash of oil and all the dry ingredients(except pepper powder) given above.
Sauté them well in oil to remove its raw taste and then mix it up
well with the tomato- onion -ginger mixture. Add little water to
the mixture and let it cook for 2 mins. Then add crushed
pepper powder, salt and vinegar.
Boil the eggs and shell them.
Now prick the boiled eggs and add to the gravy.
Be sure that the water content is less
and the masala is dry and spicy.
The speciality in this recipe would be its spiciness
due to black pepper and mild tanginess of vinegar.
Garnish with fresh curry leaves and serve with hot chappatis or appam.

This breakfast meal gets your eyes opened for the day!!!
Bon appetite

Aloo Gobi Paratha (Stuffed Indian Bread)

Stuffing

Potato - 1
Cauliflower -5 florets
Onion - ½
Green chilli -1
Grated ginger -1 tsp
Chopped coriander leaves – 2 tbsp
Chilli powder - ½ tsp
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Lime juice -1 tsp
sugar – ½ tsp
salt
butter
oil

Mash boiled potato and keep aside.
Grate onion, cauliflower, ginger and chilli.
Keep a pan on low flame and pour a teaspoon
of oil and butter each. Now add the grated vegetables,
salt, chilli and turmeric powder. Saute till it is soft.
Add the mashed potato, chopped coriander, lime juice,
sugar and salt. Saute till it is mixed well.
Take out from flame,make lemon sized ball and keep aside.
(more spices can be added if you prefer so)

Paratha

Wheat flour -3 cups
Warm water
Salt
Add water as much as to knead into a smooth chappati dough.
Roll in your palm 8 lemon size balls.
Keep one stuffing in between two chappati dough.
Press all sides round and roll it with a rolling pin gently.
Dust it with some flour while rolling so that it does not stick.
On a hot tava (iorn pan) adding butter, fry the parathas on both sides.
Be generous with butter.Forget the calories.

To Serve

Parathas go well with deep fried green chillies.
Deep fry chillies for a minute.
Less hot chillies prefered.
Serve the parathas with fried chillies,
Cool thick curd accompanied by a cup of sweet
cardamom tea.
Take a bite of the green chilly, a piece of paratha
dipped in curd and then the cardamom tea.
That is the combination.

It is a breakfast enjoyed by people of north India,
especially during winter.
This brings me sweet memories of the foggy winter mornings in Delhi.

Onam Ada

Banana leaves -2
Rice flour -1 cup
Boiling water -2cups
Salt
Grated coconut -1 ½ cup
Jaggery - ½ cup
Water -4tbsp
Cardamom powder- ½ tsp

In a bowl put rice flour and sprinkle some salt.
Make a well in the middle and pour boiling water
little by little, while mixing with a spoon. Pour
as much water to get a smooth dough.

On a low flame in a wok , pour water and put jaggery.
As the jaggery melts, add grated coconut and cardamom
powder. As it turns thick, yet juicy, turn off the flame.

Wash and wipe the banana leaves.Tear the leaves into
rectangular pieces. Apply a drop of oil in each piece.
Dip your fingers in water, take a lemon sized dough,
keep on the rectangular leaves and lightly press
backward and forward to get a paper - thin look
on the leaves. On the half of the thin dough on the leaves,
put the coconut in jaggery and fold the leaves and press
it on three sides. In a steamer ,keep these
ada and steam for about 3 to 4 minutes.
Paper thin ada is ready. Have it hot,
it almost melts in the mouth.

Tips-
You can also roast the adas on a frying pan.
Which will give the ada a firm texture;
but will have a different flavour of the roasted banana
Leaves.
Youcan make variations in stuffing ,by adding sliced and boiled
ethapazham (Kerala banana) with grated coconut and jaggery.

In different parts of Kerala ada has different adjectives.
Onam ada –made on onam for breakfast, ela- ada as
it is made on Leaves, poovada as it is
soft and beautiful as a flower.

During festivals , from Maharashtra to south, ada is made in
different shapes with stuffings. In Karnataka ,
it is made in jack fruit leaves or turmeric leaves.
During Ganesh festival , it is modak and
in Kerala among Christians ,
it turns kozhukatta during kozhukatta-perunal.
With any shape or stuffing, ada is a healthy snack.

Appam (Rendha appam)

Raw rice - 3 cups
Cooked rice - 1 cup
Grated coconut –1 cup
Sugar – 2 tbsp
Dry yeast fresh -1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Soak rice in the morning . In the evening
By 8 ,in a ¼ glass of warm water ,desolve 1 tsp sugar and1/2 tsp yeast .
Keep it aside for ½ an hour . Meanwhile in a
mixer grind the soaked rice , adding only the necessary water to
get a smooth batter . Now in a small mixer bowl ,separately
grind the cooked boiled rice and sugar and grated coconut into a fine paste .
Now combine the three together .Add yeast to the rice batter .
Mix well and keep in a warm place for the batter to ferment over night .
In the morning in a appa chatti ,kept on a medium flame , pour 3 tbsp of batter and tilt the vessel round and let the batter flow to the center , to get a small mount in the middle .Close the lid ,keep on a high flame for a minute and on medium flame for 2 minutes .Serve hot or cold .
Key to a fine appam is fresh yeast ,right mesurement ,fine batter
And a warm climate .
As the sides of the appam looks like a lace it is called rendayappam .

Mutton Stew

Mutton -1/4 kg
Potatoes – 3
Carrot - 1
Peas -2tbsp
Beans –6
Onion -1
Chillies - 2
Ginger - 2 inch
Garlic -3
Curry leaves
Bay leaves -1
Water -1/2 glass
Oil -1tbsp
Vineger -1tbsp
Cinnamon -2
Cardamom -4
Cloves -2
Pepper -12
One whole coconut grated
maida -2tsp , pepper powder -1tsp
Cut mutton and potatoes in big pieces .
Crush garlic , ginger and chillies .Also crush cinnamon ,cardamom ,
Cloves and pepper .
Extract coconut milk from 1 full coconut grated .Keep aside the first and
Second milk .
Keep a pressure cooker on fire , pour 1 tbsp of oil add the crushed
spices ,then chilli ,ginger ,garlic and onions . Add salt and sauté for
2minutes ,add peas ,beans ,carrot ,potatoes ,mutton , bay leaves
and curry leaves with ½ a glass of water and salt to taste .Pressure cook it for 30 minutes .
Turn off the flame . After 5 minutes open the lid and add the second
Coconut milk and let it simmer for 10 minutes .Now pour the first
Milk and keep on low flame for 2 minutes then add the maida desolved in
¼ glass of water , go on stiring for 2 more minutes .Turn off the fire and
add vinegar , pepper powder and stir .Serve after 10 minutes .
You can make a vegetable stew the same way .

Oroti (rice roti with onions)

Rice flour - 1 cup
Grated coconut –1 cup
Small sambar onions –1/1/2cup
Water –2cups
Salt
Oil
Keep water for boiling.In a bowl, take rice flour and add salt .
Pour the boiling water little by little to the bowl .
keep on kneeding the flour with a spoon till you can roll it into a nice dough . Mix the grated coconut and thinly sliced onions with the dough
,and cover it with a cloth and keep it aside to cool .
Apply oil on your palm.Take a handful of
dough,roll and pat it to a round shape.Pour a teaspoon of oil on the
hot frying pan and fry the roti golden brown on both sides.As you turn
the roti to fry on other side , pour a teaspoon of oil more. Serve the oroti after 5 minutes.

With the nice aroma of the onions this roti, is a great hit on our breakfast table. Oroti goes well with egg ,fish or chicken curry.

Egg Curry

eggs -2
large onion -1
green chillies -2
ginger -1 inch
curry leaves
vineger -1tbsp
grated coconut for paste –1/2 cup
coriander powder -1 tbsp
meat masala -1tbsp
pepper corns -5
cardamom -2
cloves - 1

oil
grated coconut to extract milk -2 cups

Boil eggs and keep aside.
Slice onions ,chillies and ginger thinly -
. Grind into a paste -grated coconut ,coriander powder ,meat masala ,
Pepper corns ,cardamom and cloves keep aside. Put 2 cups of grated coconut and
1 cup of water in a blender .Seive it into a bowl and keep the first milk, aside.
Again put the same coconut in the blender with a cup of water to extract the second milk.

Saute onion ,chillies , ginger and curry leaves .Add the coconut paste and salt and stir till it is dry . Now add the second coconut milk and boiled eggs . Keep it on low flame till the gravy is thick . Add the first coconut milk and keep on stiring on low flame for two minutes.
.Add vineger and turn off the flame.

Mango Jam (without preservatives)

Mango pieces –5cup

Sugar _2cups

Cloves -3

Mix mango pieces and sugar in a vessel.
Keep it in low flame.As it starts to boil,
Smash it with a ladel.
Stir it continuously till it gets thicker.
Add crushed cloves
And turn off the fire.
Can keep in air tight container in the fridge for two weeks.

Tips-


For getting a deeper colour add five dark plums.
Remember to remove the seeds.

Spread on your morning toast or with chapatti, this jam is great…

Kadala Curry (chana masala kerala style)

Ingredients

Kadala - 2cups
Grated Coconut - 1cup
Coriander powder - 1tbsp
Meat masala - 1tbsp
Peper corns - 1tsp
Onion - 1 large, sliced
Green chillies - 2,slit
Ginger - 1 tsp,thinly sliced
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Small onions - 1tbsp,thinly sliced.
Dry red chillies - 2
Curry leaves

Preparation

Soak kadala previous night in water.
Fry coconut in a kadai till golden brown ,add
coriander powder,meat masala
and pepper,grind this mixture to a fine paste.
Mix coconut paste, onions, green chillies,
ginger with kadala in pressure cooker.
Pour enough water to soak this mixture.
keep on high flame for one whistle
and on sim for another two whistle.
keep a kadai on fire, pour oil add
mustard seeds, sliced onions,dry chillies and curry leaves.
Fry till golden brown.
Add a pinch of turmeric and chilli powder for colour.
Mix it with your kadala curry add enough salt and serve hot.

Tips-

Buy small brown kadala(chana), which goes well for this curry.
Puttu and kadala curry can be a good Sunday brunch.
Feeling lazy, can make the masala paste in
advance and store in the fridge.
Sure your hubby will help you Sunday morning.

Puttu

Rice flour-1 cup
Wheat flour-1/4cup
Milk -1/4cup
Warm water-1/4cup
Salt
Grated coconut-1cup

In a bowl mix rice and wheat flour,sprinkle a pinch of salt.
Now slowly add milk and rub with your fingers like breadcrumbs.
pour warm water as you rub and see that the flour dosen’t get sticky,
but have a wet look.
Tips
If gets very sticky,sprinkle some rice flour and give it a stir in your
Mixie.Just buy ordinary rice flour(not instant puttu podi).
Keep puttu kudam(pot) on the fire with 2 glasses of water.
Take puttu kutti,put 2tbsp of grated coconut and little sugar.
Now add wet flour till half of the puttukutti,layer it with
Coconut and sugur,again fill it with wet flour top it with
Coconut and sugar,keep the lid and place on top of the pot.
wait for the steam to come keep for 3more minutes on fire.
Release it to a plate and have it with hot kadala curry and
Papadam,banana and honey.

There is variety of cereals you can use to make puttu.
Chamba  rice, puttu podi which is reddish you get
 ready-made mainly from the Kuttanad Kerala.

White rice flour,wheat flour, and tapioca flour puttu
Stuff with vegetable thoran or beef ularthu or
serve it with any curry.
Serve it straight hot.

As Puttu is cooked in steam, it is considered a healthy dish.
Available in mostly all restaurants these days.

black coffee (kattan cappi)

palm jaggery - 2tbsp

coffee powder - 1 1/2tsp

water - 1 glass


Add jaggery to a glass of water and bring to a boil; add coffee powder. Strain it into a tumbler and drink it hot... a great day begins... :)

Tips-

-Palm jaggery is more dark in colour; available in super markets.

-Rich in iron and good for health.

-Use fresh coffee powder (not the instant one).