Eden to Earth

God created Eden,
He created wind and water
Light and darkness
Birds and animals
Sparkling rivers and lotus ponds…

There stood an apple tree by the pond
Frogs hopping on the lotus leaves
Squirrels running up and down the tree
In the shade, lived a rat and a cat
Greatest friends in Eden!
Rat, string some apple seeds
Wore them as anklets;
Cat, tied a lotus leaf
As a bandana on his head
Handsome they looked
Hand in hand they sang and danced around…

On the sixth day-
With the leftovers
God created Man.
Man roamed in Eden with greed and pride.

On the seventh day, there was a lull…
Guilty of his last creation,
God left Eden.
Man stopped the river from flowing,
He axed the apple tree,
Crushing the squirrels underneath.
Caught the cat, tore off his bandana
Broke the anklets of the rat,
Poured hatred, the magic potion
Into their throat.
Eden was turned to Earth.

Then he roamed and roamed,
Round and round in search of GOD!

mini thomas

Stuffed chicken

Easter Special

The resurrection of Jesus gives us
the message of hope, peace and love!
happy easter to all my friends!




<Ingredients

Chicken – 1 full
Onions – 8
Tomatoes - 3 Large
Eggs- 2
Chilly Powder – 3 tbs
Turmeric powder – 1Tbs
Garam Masala powder – 3Tps
Curry leaves
Coriander Leaves
Bay Leaves -2
Salt - To taste
Lemon -2
Oil

Preparation

Clean the chicken both inside and outside
using a table spoon of lemon juice
and salt to get rid of the smell
and wash thoroughly with cold water.

In a bowl, make a paste of chilly powder,
turmeric powder, salt and juice of one lemon.
Add sufficient water to make the paste smooth,
but not watery.

Apply the paste all over the chicken
and let it marinate overnight.

Take a pan and heat sufficient oil for deep frying.
When the oil is hot, add the chicken and fry it
until it turns golden brown on all sides.

Stuffing

Slice onions and sauté them in oil
till golden brown.
Add chopped tomatoes, some coriander leaves
and curry leaves. Saute till the tomatoes turn soft.
To this again add garam masala powder,
chilly powder,some pepper powder, bay leaves and salt.
Add little water to wet the mixture and cook it for 5 minutes.

Boil two eggs and de-shell it.

Marinate the boiled eggs in half
quantity of the gravy.
stuff it inside the chicken.

Take the rest of the gravy add
some more water and keep on low
flame for few minutes.

In a baking pan, place the chicken and pour
the rest of the gravy on top of it.
Bake the chicken in an oven at 180 degrees for 15minutes.

Serve hot and enjoy with rice or roti.

This is a traditional malabari recipe
very tasty yet high on calorie.
Few restaurants in calicut
serve this delicacy.

This stuffed chicken is the creation of
our trio-Arun,Leah and Merin.

Bread Fruit Curry (kadachakka curry)

Bread fruit - ½
Onion - 1
Ginger - 3 inch
Green chillies -2
Curry leaves - a bunch
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Chilli powder – ½ tbsp
Garam masala -1 tbsp
(10 pepper corns, 2 cloves,
2 petals of star anise, 4 cardamoms)
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Grated coconut - of 1 full
Oil - 3 tbsp
Mustard - 1tbsp
Shallots - 4
Garlic - 4
Green chillies - 2
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tbsp

Peel , wash and cut bread fruit into small triangles.
Slice onion ,ginger, green chillies.

Combine these cut vegetables in a vessel with turmeric,
Coriander, red chilli powder, garam masala, salt, curry leaves
and half glass of water. Let it cook covered on low flame till
the bread fruit is soft.
In a blender, pour warm water and grated coconut to extract
thick and thin coconut milk.

Add thin coconut milk to the cooked bread fruit and let it simmer
on low flame for 10 minutes.
Now pour the thick coconut milk, keep on low flame for 5 more minutes.
Pour 1 tbsp of vinegar. Stir and add salt if needed.

In a wok add oil, mustard seeds. As it splutter add sliced- shallots,
Garlic, green chillies and curry leaves . As the green chillies turn
Brighter in colour, turn off the flame and pour on the curry.
Serve hot or cold with rice or chappati.

Though it is called bread fruit , it turns soft as butter when it is cooked.
You can make wafers, erisheri , cutlets etc. with this bread fruit.

Prawn Papaya Curry(chemmeen kapenga palucurry)

Ingredients
Prawns - 15 nos
Raw papaya - ½
Raw mango - ½
Grated coconut - 1 full
Onion -1
Green chillies - 3
Ginger -3 inch
Curry leaves - a bunch
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Fish masala -1 tbsp
chilli powder,fenugreek and dry ginger powder)
Kudampuli(gamboge,kokam) – 1
Salt - to taste
Oil - 3 tbsp
Mustard - 2 tsp
Shallots - 5
Garlic - 5
Dry red chillies - 4

Preparation
Peel, de-vein, wash and cut the prawns into pieces.
Size of the prawns does not matter.

In a wet chutney grinder, put 1 cup grated coconut,
1 green chilli, 1 inch ginger, half onion, 1 tbsp curry leaves,
1 tbsp fish masala, turmeric powder and ¼ glass of water.
Blend it to a fine paste and set aside.

Extract thick and thin milk from the
remaining grated coconut.
In a blender, pour warm water and
grated coconut to extract coconut milk.

Peel and cut papaya and mango into
about 3 inch long pieces.
Slice remaining half onion,green chillies and ginger.

In an earthern vessel, add prawns, papaya,
mango, green chillies,ginger,curry leaves,
coconut-fish masala paste, salt, small kudampuli
and the thin coconut milk. Cover the vessel half and
cook on low flame till the papaya pieces turn soft.

Add the thick coconut milk and
cook for 5 minutes on low flame.

In a wok,on low flame pour oil,add
mustard seeds,thinly sliced shallots,
garlic,dry red chillies and curry leaves.
Saute,till the ingredients turn crisp.
Pour this on the curry and close the lid
to lock the flavours in.

As the curry cools,it gets thicker and creamier.
All the taste of the prawns and mango are absorbed
in the gravy and papaya pieces.

This prawn curry is one of our all time favourite dishes .

A bit of history

There was a time when prawns was affordable to
both rich and poor.Though not tiger prawns,the
small shrimps were abundantly available.
It is extremely difficult to clean but those
small ones are realy tasty.

Necessity is the mother of all inventions.
To feed the large number of family members,
the queen of the house had to come out with some new ideas.
Which resulted in adding suitable vegetables with
those shrimps, to bring out recipes which could double
the quantity with out compromising taste.

Thus in cochin side with prawns, raw papaya, mango,
long beans,snake gourd and many more were combined
to make tasty dishes.

Prawns- fresh or dry, roast or fry, curry or chutney powder,
you name it... prawns was essential part of dining.

Muffins

Ingredients

Plain flour -2 ½ cups
Baking powder - 2 ½ tsp
Sugar - 1 ½ cups
Salt - ½ tsp
Soft butter - 7 tbsp
Egg -1 large
Curd - ½ cup
Vanilla essence – ½ tsp

Preparation
Sift flour and baking powder twice and keep aside.
Powder sugar and mix in butter.
Wisk till smooth.
Beat an egg to its peak and fold in to the butter sugar mixture.
Add salt, vanilla essence and curd. Mix well.
Spoon by spoon fold in flour baking powder mixture.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Line muffin tins with paper cups.
Fill the cups to the top.
Pre- heat oven.
Bake for 20 minutes at 180c.
Prick the muffins with a skewer to see whether it is done.

Morning Glory

Manglore Kadri kambla fields

The cool breeze,
The scent of wild flowers…
The chirping of birds…
Awaits the morning walker.
Take a deep breath;
Walk briskly,
To keep energetic the whole day.

Sauteed Bitter gourd (paveka ularthu)

Ingredients
Bitter gourd -1
Tomato - 2
Onion -2
Green chilli -2
Water - ¼ glass
Oil -1 tbsp
Curry leaves
Turmeric powder -1 tsp
Chilli powder -2 tsp
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Salt

Preparation
Wash the vegetables thoroughly. Split open the
bitter gourd (karela/ paveka)
and discard the seeds.
Length wise cut into four and slice thinly.
Chop tomatoes, cut onions into cubes and split green chillies.
In a vessel,add the cut vegetables, salt ,
½ tsp turmeric powder,water and let it cook
on low flame till the bitter gourd
and tomatoes are turned soft.

In a wok on low flame, pour oil add curry leaves,
½ tsp turmeric powder,2 tsp chilli powder
and sauté for a minute.
Now, add 1 cup of grated coconut, a pinch of salt
and sauté till the aroma of the fried coconut fills your kitchen.
Mix in the cooked vegetables and stir fry
to serve hot, with rice and moru curry (moru kachiyathu).

Bitter gourd is a very nutritious vegetable rich in iron and vitamins.
In southern part of India we find white bitter gourd which is less bitter.
In north India dark green bitter gourd is available which is more bitter.
There is a smaller variety of bitter gourd with less spikes
and but not bitter at all.
In Delhi markets,this veriety is found very often
We call it yeruma paveka.
Bitter gourd juice is advised for diabetic patients.
It has something like plant-insulin which
helps in lowering sugar level in our body.

Inspiration...
At Shornur railway station there is one restaurant
run by ladies that serve simple hot and fresh lunch.
This recipe is inspired by
the paveka ularthu they served us.
As its inspiration came from Shornur, we at home call it
paveka shornuri.

Our Rivers
Shornur is a small town on the banks of river Bharthapuzha.
Half of the year the river stays almost dry due to the
dams built on it and also due to uncontrolled digging for sand.

A movement to save and revive our rivers is very urgent.
Many small rivers and brooks have disappeared.
In my own native town Tripunithura,there was a rivulet
bodering, the eighth century- built
Karingachira church.
I remember my father narrating his childhood memories
of going for a swim with his friends
to this Karigachirapuzha(rivulet).
Now the rivulet is no longer visible...?

A river is like an artery –a lifeline in the area which
connects people, culture, religion …

Legend and the river....

There is another old story told by my father about
Karingachira river and Poornathrayesha temple, the
main temple of Tripunithura.
During the temple festival, there was an old custom of
offering or gifting a certain volume of coconut oil
to Karingachira church by Poornathrayesha temple.
The Deity- Tripunithura appan on an elephant,
adorned with netipattam(jewellery worn on the forehead of the
elephant)would lead a procession through the main road.
As it reaches the Karingachira church,
offers the usual gift of Coconut oil,
takes a dip in the Karingachirapuzha and returns.

Once, after the procession, as the nettipattam was lowered,
it was noticed that one of the golden dome shaped ornament on
the nettipattam was missing…
It was considered bad omen and the reason for this was enquired.
The answer from Tripunithura appan was-
“You have deviated from
the old tradition of gifting my brother; Correct it and you will
get the jewel back from the Karingachira river”.
The story goes that the temple authorities gifted the coconut oil
and got back the gold ornament from the river.