1. Pressure cook boneless meat, chana dal,whole red chillies and chopped ginger & garlic until meat is done. If you are using chicken, soak dal for atleast half an hour before cooking.
2. When meat is done, add garam masala to the cookeer and dry up all the liquid in high flame. Let it cool.
3. Grind meat alongwith the cooked ingredients in a blender or food processor to make a paste. Add boiled potato and lemon juice to it and blend again. Break one egg into this mixture. Mix well.
4. Mix the ingredients listed under the heading 'Stuffing' together and keep aside.
5. Now, take a portion of kebab dough, flatten to a circle, keep a tsp of stuffing mixture on it and cover the dough . Gently shape it like cutlets/patties.
6. You can either freeze your patties* or fry it as and then. Shallow fry these patties until it turns brown on both the sides. Serve hot with mint chutney or ketchup.
Notes:
You can follow the same tips to freeze mentioned here.
Some dips these kebabs in eggwhites before frying. Choice is yours.
1. Wash and clean chicken pieces and drain excess water from it.
2. Heat oil in a deep pan and pop in whole masalas and saute for a few seconds until its aroma comes out. Don't burn it ; otherwise the whole gravy would turn bitter.
3. Throw in onions and saute till it turns translucent and wilted so nicely. (important step). Saute ginger-garlic pastes and green chillies for a minute. Add tomatoes and cook till the oil leaves the sides of the pan.
4. Add masalas/spice powders to it. Saute till the raw smell disappears- for a few seconds.
5. Turn the flame to high and mix in the chicken pieces so that the masalas get coated well. Pour hot boiling water to it and cook till chicken is done. Adjust the consistency of the gravy.
6. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or rotis.
Ramadan countdown has begun. The blessed and most beautiful month is near and what better time to prepare for it than right now. It's not necessary to wait until Ramadan to change yourselves. Set your goals and start right now. Planning is essential beforeheand for the maximum utilisation of the month. Here is a beautiful article on time-management tips for Ramadan.
When I do posts on ramadan preparations, many say that ramadan is not about food varieties or stuffing yourselves with food etc. This is true. Me too agree on this. But at the same time we can't ignore the fact that we have to eat something and all. Infact, we have to ensure that we eat right to stay active whole day, to keep our body hydrated during hot days, to pray more and more and not to forget -to run behind our toddlers ;) .. Kids do fast and it's important to take care of their diet too. I can't avoid making tea time snacks, whether oily, wraps, bakes ... anything; but a little. A plate of snacks- just one variety would do. Stuffing is what is against our Sunnah and also spending a lot of time in kitchen, which we can avoid with proper preparations. Right from sorting the house chores, kitchen cabinets, refrigerators, to freezing some snacks, fillings, etc. the muslim ladies are busy during second half of Sha'ban. It's going to be quite hot and long fasting days this year for us Middle-easternites. So spending in hot kitchen during fasting days can be quite hectic. It's easier when you have some fillings or prepared snacks in the freezer. One such filling which could be frozen is coconut & kadalapparippu(chana dal) sweet filling. This could be used as a filling for Kaayada/Unnakaaya ,Bread fritters , Pazham nirachathu(stuffed plaintain) etc.
Ingredients:
3 cups coconut
6 tbsp of boiled chana dal
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 generous pinch of cardamom
2 Eggs (optional)
Method:
Heat coconut and sugar in a pan in low flame. Keep on stirring till the sugar melts and the coconut is well cooked; yet little moisture remains. It may take about 15 minutes. Reducing sugar may result in dried and uncooked filling. Add boiled chana dal/bengal gram to it. Mix well. If you are using egg, add now and saute nicely. Sprinkle cardamom powder on top and immediately transfer to a plate. Let it cool and use as a stuffing to your favorite snacks. You can otherwise freeze it in ziplock bags for later use.
Perfection in cooking seafoods , I believe, is the most toughest to achieve among all other non-vegetarian dishes. My grandma and my aunt who stayed next to me during my initial days of cooking taught me to cook this simple fish curry with all their efforts.lol.. It came perfect when they guided me then and there, but flopped again when made alone. After many trials and errors, I learnt this and thanks to my blogging that I finally jotted down the exact recipe.
When I was in my 1st Bcom, I had to cook lunch at home as my mom was in India busy with my sisters wedding. My uncle showed me to prepare fish curry and I asked him why didn't he add rice water to the curry. He laughed at me saying 'rice water?' .. I said 'yeah.. mom does so'.. He was not ready to accept the fact that rice water goes into the making of fish curry. He then told my dad about this and my dad started laughing too. I was pretty sure about that but both of them couldn't accept it. After a few days when my mom came back I told about this and she said 'why did you tell them? This is kept as a secret among ladies and no men or outsiders know about this. We add rice to the grinder hiding our sister-in-laws also. ' I started noticing this after that and what I found was really interesting. My aunts and all after adding spices to the machine , say something and all to their sis in laws so that their attention diverts and by that time they added rice to the machine... lol.. I don't know why they have to keep this secret. But anyways, I have never seen rice water added to the curries except in some regions of Kannur.
This is a very simple curry, made on a daily basis which could be served with plain dosas, appams, rice etc. The flavour of the curry varies with the fish we use; whether king fish, pomfret, small fishes etc.; any fish could be made with this recipe
INGREDIENTS:
Fish 1/2 kg
Oil 3 tbsp
Onion sliced 3 tbsp
Ginger crushed 1 tsp
Fenugreek/uluva 1 tsp
Green chilli 1
Tomato , chopped 1/2 of a medium sized
Red chilli powder 2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Cooked parboiled rice 3 tbsp
Water 1 1/2 cups
Tamarind 1 small ball
Curry leaves few
1. Keep everything ready beforehand as you don't get time to do it in between. Slice onions, crush ginger, chop tomato,clean fish , soak tamarind in 4-5 tbsp of water etc.
2.Grind cooked rice with water and spice powders in a blender.
3. Heat oil in a chatti (curry pot) and add 2-3 slices of onion and fry until it turns brown.
4. Add fenugreek and ginger; saute for a few seconds.
5. Throw in green chilli , tomatoes ; saute again for 20-30 seconds.
6. Pour the blended juice of rice and powders to this. Let this boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.
7. Add tamarind juice to it.
8. When it boils, keep the flame high and add fish to it. Let it boil again and then add salt.
9. Keep the flame low and let it simmer ,covered, for 10-15 minutes or until the fish cooks. Do not stir with spoon. Rotate the pan in between. Add curry leaves to this, close the lid and then switch off flame. Let it remain for a minimum of 5 minutes before opening the lid.
Some things in this world need no introduction at all... I think this is such a snack about which I'm sure many of you; infact almost each one of you might be knowing . Ripe plaintains are steamed and then blend to be stuffed in with sweet scrambled egg. This is then deep fried to nice golden color. This snack is usually served alongwith tea- an unavoidable snack in Malabar parties.
The plaintains should be ripen to perfect for this. Not too much and not that raw. If it is over ripened, then it'll end up in oily adas(snacks) and you may find difficuilt to shape them up too.. While picking up the plaintains choose the one whose skin started getting black spots-just few.
1.Beat in the eggs and sugar untill the eggs get mixed up nicely. No need to mix it until the sugar dissolves.
2.Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashew nuts until brown and take these out. Pop in the raisin and fry until it puffs up . Take them out as well.
3.Add egg mixture to it. Cook eggs while stirring continously. It should resemble Indian scrambled eggs; but little moist because of sugar. Add cardamamom powder and mix in the nuts and raisins. Switch off the flame.
my kids hate raisins, so i avoid it
Preparing the Ada:
1. Wash and steam the plaintains until it turns soft. You can either cut them into pieces and steam if you have a small steamer. Steaming as a whole is good though.
Uncooked: as you can see two colors there.
Cooked: Single color there
2. Now remove the skin and grind this in food processor, table top grinder, using egg beater etc. You can place this on a chopping board and mash this using a potato masher, rolling pin or a glass. Mash this with no lumps and should resemble a chappathi dough.
3. Make small balls. Then flatten these balls into a small circle just like puris (size depends) . Fill them with fillings and close it to form a semi-circle. (shall soon update with pictures). Stick the ends together and shape them like Ada or Ghujiiya.
4. Heat oil in a kadai or frying pan and deep fry these in oil until it turns golden brown. This is traditionally fried in ghee.
How to freeze:
Freeze this the same way as I explained in my previous post Freezing cutlets. Layer kaayadas in an airtight box. Place clingfilm on top of that; then again kaayadas and so on until all those are placed neatly. Cover this with clingfilm on top and then close the lid tightly. Keep this in your freezer.
Note: While frying, the oil should be steaming hot as adding frozen adas might turn the temperature down instantly which may result in oily snack.
It didn't take a minute for me to decide , when I saw Rafeeda's mail asking me to do a guest post for her. Being a mother of 3, I don't really get a chance to chat with friends or build online relations. I've a very few blogger friends and she is one among them. an upcoming blogger and a very soft person at heart!! I always missed mails, messages and FB feeds these days that I didn't know she owned a blog until recently. I was surprised to see many posts within such a limited time. Keep going Rafeeda! Her recipes are so easy to follow and simple to try out! Check out her blog here- THE BIG SWEET TOOTH.
When I was confused and asked her before deciding on the post, she mailed me saying it would be nice if it's anything from Malabar side. The only and much awaited post with me was muttamaala and pinjaanthappam . The most famous Malabar delicacy. Garlands made out of egg yolk and an egg-white pudding,served together. The name itself brings curiosity among outsiders. Hats off to Kannur ladies who invented this dish sometime in the history. I always wondered watching the garlands as a kid , but never ever tried to make one on my own. Thanks to my blog baby, that I'm learning and have learnt many a things , which I had never thought I would ever do. But, believe me girls, making muttamaala is not a rocket science, it is as easy as any other dish. There are small tips to take care of, and thats it. I shall try to explain it as simple as possible.
Egg yolk is cooked in sugar syrup into garlands while egg whites are steamed into pudding.
Check for the detailed recipe here Linking this recipe to my own event Mummy Ka Magic & Don't forget to take part for the giveaway!
Talking about the traditional foods, North Malabar had established its own place; especially Kannur & Kozhikode districts; Thalassery being their leader. There's a wide variety of pathiris, snacks, curries ,etc. associated with this region. Some of them are vanished from the modern kitchen while some others are modified to adjust to the changed lifestyles. Musuman means Whole(colloquially).This recipe is given as it was in the past. This was my Grandma's recipe and just came to my mom's mind recently & gave it a try . It was delicious & since then, Chicken Musuman found its place in our kitchen. In this recipe, chicken is stuffed with Chana Dal Masala & boiled eggs. Before it was prepared using big chicken which weighs about 1 1/2 kg or more; so that it was easy to stuff. But now-a-days we prefer small chickens & so we can't use much stuffing. I've given the recipe of 800gm chicken and I'm sure that u guys would luv it...
It's spicy as well as a bit sweet cos of the sugar we use ..The sugar is well blended with all the spices that it has a nice spicy -sweet combined flavor.
Ingredients:
Chicken 800-900 gm
Onion 2 medium
Tomato 1
Ginger 1 tbsp
Garlic 2 pods
Green Chilli 3
Red Chilli powder 1 1/2 tsp (spicy one)
Coriander powder 1 tsp
Sugar 1 1/2 tsp
Chana Dal 1/4 cup (for both the gravy & stuffing)
Egg 1 boiled (optional)
For Coconut Paste: Coconut 1 cup (3/4 + 1/4)
Fennel (Saunf) 1 tsp
Onion,sliced- half of a small onion
Clove 1
Cardamom 1
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
For stuffing:
Onion 1/2
Ginger -Garlic paste 1 tsp
Green chilli 1
Red Chilli powder 1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves 1 tbsp
Garam masala 1/4 tsp
Chana Dal
Method:
1.Soak Chana Dal overnight or for a minimum of 6 hrs.
2. Coconut paste:
Now we have to roast coconut for the gravy as we do for our Varutharacha curry. The method is simple and goes like this:
a. Take a pan, add 2 tbsp of coconut oil. When hot, add 1 tbsp of parboiled rice ;let it roast a bit till it changes its color. Add 3/4 of the coconut ;saute well in medium-low flame;
b. add fennel seeds
c. & half onion in between. Keep on stirring to roast the coconut evenly.
d. Saute till it turns to brown. Don't make it too brown ;else a bitter taste may come. Add turmeric powder.Switch off the flame & let it cool. Throw in remaining fresh coconut ,cardamom & clove and make a paste of it.
3.Mix the Onion, Tomato, Green Chilli, Ginger Garlic paste, Red Chilli powder, Coriander powder , enough water and salt with chicken & cook till the chicken is done.
4.Meanwhile prepare Chana Dal Stuffing:
Cook Chana Dal. Take 1/4 cup of the cooked dal & keep aside for the gravy.
Take a pan, pour 1 tbsp of oil. When hot, add onion;saute well till it turns brown ; then add ginger-garlic paste, chilli, red chilli powder & the remaining cooked chana dal. Saute well. Finish it off with garam masala & coriander leaves.
5.When chicken is done, take it off & stuff with this masala & boiled egg. If the chicken is small, you can stuff it with only a few or1 tbsp of the chana dal masala.You can pin the chicken with tootpick so that the stuffing remains safe.(optional)I couldn't do it as my chicken was a bit delicate when done. Keep the chicken aside; no need to put it back to the gravy now.
6.Now add the coconut paste & chana dal (which was kept aside ) in the gravy & let it boil.
7. You can now put chicken in the gravy & let it boil for 3-5minutes. No need to boil it for so long and take care while serving, otherwise the chicken may break & it won't remain Chicken Musuman (musuman means whole);the stuffing may also come out.
8.Temper it with Ghee and onion.(add 1 or 2 tbsp of ghee in a hot pan & put a tbsp of sliced onion & add it to the gravy when brown).
9.Garnish with coriander & curry leaves & serve with Pathiris which complements well with this gravy.
Muttayappam is again a Malabar special recipe. It's usually made by the Kannurians with slight variations in their respective regions. Some add eggs to this, some make this in kaara (unniyappam kadai) while we make in iron Kadai /chhenachatti/chinese wok.
This is usually a breakfast recipe; but could also be made for dinner as well. These are deep fried pancakes, usually savoured with meat or fish curries. The dough is to be ground to pouring consistency and is poured into oil to deepfry. These are then, puffed up into puri like appams.
Ingredients:
(Serves a family of four)
White rice/pachari 3 cups
Cooked parboiled rice 1 1/4 cups
Water 1 3/4 cups
Salt 2 1/2 tsp or to taste
Oil enough to deep fry
Method
Soak white rice in warm water for 2-3 hours or overnight.
Drain rice through a strainer. (You can avoid this step; I'm doing this just to give you the exact measurement of water to be used .)
Now blend or grind it along with cooked rice and minimal water (as prescribed).
Heat oil in an iron kadai. The temperature of oil should not be too high. Once the oil is hot, sprinkle 2-3 drops of water to it and then, when the sound of bubbling water stops, you can proceed to the next step.
Set the fire to low. Pour a laddle-ful of dough into the oil. Once you poured, increase the flame to medium-high.
When the appam puffs up and it is done on that side, you may turn it and fry on the other side too.
You may now take it and drain it ona tissue or strainer.
Neipathal is one of the traditional treats seen in Malabar Muslim households. It is deep fried pathiris made of rice, coconut, fennel and shallots. You may call it as rice puri as it looks like a puri-a coarse ground or crispy rice puri.
This is usually served with beef fry (varattiyathu) or any other meat delicacies. The ingredients used here is same as that of aanapathal (kozhipidi); but the method of cooking is entirely different. Back home, people uses the giant grinders or tabletop grinders to grind this dough and they may or may not use any rice flour for this recipe. But this is not possible these days as most of us dont have such equipments with us these days, neither we ve so much of time to spend in kitchen. I shall try to explain the method of preparing the dough using tabletop grinders and juice machines.
Ingredients:
Parboiled rice/U.S style rice 3 cups
Coconut,grated 2 cups
Rice Flour (arippodi) 1 cup or more
Fennel seeds (saunf or perumjeerakam) 2 tsp
Onion 1 big
Water 2 cups
Oil to deepfry
Method:
Soak parboiled rice in warm water for 3-4 hours or overnight.
Drain rice through a strainer. (You can avoid this step; I'm doing this just to give you the exact measurement of water to be used .)
Now mix all other ingredients except rice flour and oil.
Its time to grind rice.
Table top grinders
If you have a table top grinder, then no need to add rice flour. Increase the quantity of parboiled rice to 4 cups and then coarsely grind the rice mix using minimal water. The dough should resemble that of roti dough or slightly tightier than that.
Juice machine grinders
You can coarsely grind the rice mix without using water in this and finally add some water . Then mix with rice powder to make the dough.
Juice Machines
Here we use the big jar, the usual one we use to grind dosa maavu or to blend any juices. I've Panasonic steel jar (bought from India) the one similar to Sumeet or any other indian brand. Its too good for grinding rice . In this we can grind rice by adding too little water. We need coarsely ground rice here. For that just pulse for 30 seconds each time; ie; once we put in the rice,coconut,onion and water in the jar , pulse it for 30 seconds and then you are done.
Mix this coarsely ground paste with rice powder using salt to make the dough similar to rotis/chappathis or slightly tightier than that .
Take a kadai/chinese wok or any other deep bottomed vessel and heat oil in it enough for deepfrying.
Now take a piece of cloth or plastic sheet on which the pathiri is rolled. Make balls out of the dough and then flatten on the piece of cloth or plastic using your fingers . The pathiri should be 2 or three inches in diameters and 1/2 inch thick.
When the oil is too hot, you can sink in the pathiris just like we do for puris. This will puff up and once it is done in one side, turn it upside down and fry the other side too till it turns crispy brown.
Serve hot with beef fry, kadai chicken or any other non veg thick gravies.
Battura-- and malabar?? yes , you read it right... Malabar cuisine is so broadminded that it embraces the best of any other cuisine and blends it in its own food culture. This reminds me of Amir Khan's ad 'Athithi Devo Bhava'. :) Jokes apart, Battura, deep fried bread, originally hails from North India; but we make it in slightly different way which make it look more puffy and 'bread like' inside. Have a look at Pic 2.
This dish was new to us when we saw this during my uncle's reception in the bride's house and was quite fascinated by the story behind its introduction to their house. My aunt's (the then bride) brother was getting married to his first cousin. There was no much excitement on the function as they knew both the families and the guests to attend the function were common. So they thought of conducting the function at one place and would make it grand. They hired catering from Calicut which was about 90 kms away from the place; and that too 25 years back. Those people came a day before and said that they would make battura and they need some 40-50 litres of milk for that. Aunt's mom was saying they ran here and there for collecting milk as then it was not available in markets also. They ran to their neighbors' and relatives' house; milked the cows and somehow arranged the milk at night. But the hard-work paid and this dish was loved by all the guests that since then, there was no single party left without Batturas in their house.
Ingredients:
Maida/ White flour 2 cups
Egg 1
Instant Yeast (pizza yeast)1/2 tsp
Baking powder 1/4 tsp
Salt
Sugar 1 tbsp
Yogurt 2 tbsp
Garam Masala 1/4 tsp
Milk- enough to knead the dough
Oil for frying
Method:
Mix Flour, Salt, Yeast , Sugar, Garam masala and Baking Powder together. Make a well in between and beat the egg in it. Add yogurt to it and mix the flour nicely in it. Knead into a dough using warm milk.
Keep this dough aside in a warm place for an hour or more till it is doubled its size... OR .. Heat your oven at high for 5-10 mts, switch off the oven and then keep your dough in it. It eases the fermentation. If you have a fan attached to your oven, heating may not help. So what you can do is keep the dough in your oven, take some boiling water in a cup and place it in the oven along with the dough and close the oven. The steam coming out of the water helps the dough rise fast.
Heat oil enough for deep frying in a deep pan or kadai.
Knead the dough again and make small balls using the dough. Size depends upon the size of your frying pan or kadai.
Flatten it to a size thicker than puris; atleast twice the size. Make it round or oval. You can cut it using zigzag cutter or knife to give it an appealing shape.
Deep fry these just like puris till batturas puffs up and turn brown.
Serve hot with any stews, butter chicken or chana masala..
Madakkupathal is a malabar layered parantha/pathiri soaked in sugar syrup. This is an easy one compared to muttamaala (egg garlands) and many other malabar desserts. It is often served as a starter during functions like marriages, receptions and all.
Ingredients:
(Makes 5)
White Flour/Maida 1 cup
Egg 1 +4
Sugar 1/2 cup
Water 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
Method:
1.Make a dough using maida,egg ,salt and enough water. The dough should be same as we do for rotis.
2.Make 5 equal balls out of this. Roll out them into rotis one at a time. Brush ghee over it and fold it just the same way as we do for Madakku Chappathi .ie; into a square box.
3.Roll them again in such a way that four corners are stretched a bit.
4.Then again fold those stretched ends to the centrepoint.
5.Stick them there and turn them upside down.
6.Now roll them again into thick squares.
Second Folding
7.Deepfry these squares just like puris until it turns brown.
8.Now beat the remaining 4eggs using a fork with a pinch of cardamom.
9.Heat a tbsp of ghee in a non-stick pan. Dip these pathiris/paranthas; one at a time; in beaten egg so nicely that these are well soaked in egg.
10.Pan fry these pathiris dipped in egg. Turn and fry the other side too. Take this out from the pan onto a plate and pour sugar syrup over it.
11.Let the pathiris soak well in syrup. Serve warm
For Sugar Syrup:
Boil sugar and water together till it reaches one string consistency. Add 1/2 a tsp of cardamom powder to it.
Kinnapathal/Kinnapathiri is a layered pathiri seen in Malabar region. An awesome but time consuming dish which you may wish to have again and again.. Kids will love it too as you get the layers separated and they enjoy doing so.This was about 20 years ago that we got to introduce to this wonderful dish from my aunt's house. We never got it right at first ; but then it seemed to be an unavoidable one in our kitchen. It goes well with any stews or other curries as well.
Ingredients:
Jeerakashala / Basmati Rice 3 cups
White Rice/ Pachari 1/4 cup
Thin Coconut milk /second extract - about 5 cups
Ghee 2-3 tbsp
Thick Coconut Milk 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Method:
1. Soak both the rices for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
2. Grind them along with Thin coconut milk. The consistency should be thinner than the Dosa dough.
3. Arrange a steamer on fire and a dish which could be placed inside the steamer easily. The size or shape of the dish doesn't matter.
4. Now mix ghee with the first extract of coconut milk well and keep it aside.
5. Line the dish to be placed inside the steamer with ghee and then start with the layers.
6.First pour a deep spoon/spatula full of dough into the dish. Then cover with a lid. The lid should be slightly opened in one side so that the pathiris won't puff up and it disturbs layers. Wait till it cooks well for about 3-4 mts.
7. Now open the lid and pour a tbsp of thick milk & ghee mixture & then repeat the same procedure again - pour dough ,cover with lid and wait till it cooks. This procedure is repeated till your dish is full or the dough is finished. Once your dish is full, keep it covered for another 5 minutes so that all layers are cooked well. Then, take another pan & repeat the same. The thick milk and ghee mixture can be used in between; but not necessary to pour it between all the layers.
8. Once it is over, cool the pathiris nicely before you unmould them. Run knife through the sides and umnould carefully. You can cut this in triangles and serve.
** I usually keep two steamers at a time so that I could do it faster.
1. Pressure cook boneless meat, chana dal,whole red chillies and chopped ginger & garlic until meat is done. If you are using chicken, soak dal for atleast half an hour before cooking.
2. When meat is done, add garam masala to the cookeer and dry up all the liquid in high flame. Let it cool.
3. Grind meat alongwith the cooked ingredients in a blender or food processor to make a paste. Add boiled potato and lemon juice to it and blend again. Break one egg into this mixture. Mix well.
4. Mix the ingredients listed under the heading 'Stuffing' together and keep aside.
5. Now, take a portion of kebab dough, flatten to a circle, keep a tsp of stuffing mixture on it and cover the dough . Gently shape it like cutlets/patties.
6. You can either freeze your patties* or fry it as and then. Shallow fry these patties until it turns brown on both the sides. Serve hot with mint chutney or ketchup.
Notes:
You can follow the same tips to freeze mentioned here.
Some dips these kebabs in eggwhites before frying. Choice is yours.
1. Wash and clean chicken pieces and drain excess water from it.
2. Heat oil in a deep pan and pop in whole masalas and saute for a few seconds until its aroma comes out. Don't burn it ; otherwise the whole gravy would turn bitter.
3. Throw in onions and saute till it turns translucent and wilted so nicely. (important step). Saute ginger-garlic pastes and green chillies for a minute. Add tomatoes and cook till the oil leaves the sides of the pan.
4. Add masalas/spice powders to it. Saute till the raw smell disappears- for a few seconds.
5. Turn the flame to high and mix in the chicken pieces so that the masalas get coated well. Pour hot boiling water to it and cook till chicken is done. Adjust the consistency of the gravy.
6. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or rotis.
Ramadan countdown has begun. The blessed and most beautiful month is near and what better time to prepare for it than right now. It's not necessary to wait until Ramadan to change yourselves. Set your goals and start right now. Planning is essential beforeheand for the maximum utilisation of the month. Here is a beautiful article on time-management tips for Ramadan.
When I do posts on ramadan preparations, many say that ramadan is not about food varieties or stuffing yourselves with food etc. This is true. Me too agree on this. But at the same time we can't ignore the fact that we have to eat something and all. Infact, we have to ensure that we eat right to stay active whole day, to keep our body hydrated during hot days, to pray more and more and not to forget -to run behind our toddlers ;) .. Kids do fast and it's important to take care of their diet too. I can't avoid making tea time snacks, whether oily, wraps, bakes ... anything; but a little. A plate of snacks- just one variety would do. Stuffing is what is against our Sunnah and also spending a lot of time in kitchen, which we can avoid with proper preparations. Right from sorting the house chores, kitchen cabinets, refrigerators, to freezing some snacks, fillings, etc. the muslim ladies are busy during second half of Sha'ban. It's going to be quite hot and long fasting days this year for us Middle-easternites. So spending in hot kitchen during fasting days can be quite hectic. It's easier when you have some fillings or prepared snacks in the freezer. One such filling which could be frozen is coconut & kadalapparippu(chana dal) sweet filling. This could be used as a filling for Kaayada/Unnakaaya ,Bread fritters , Pazham nirachathu(stuffed plaintain) etc.
Ingredients:
3 cups coconut
6 tbsp of boiled chana dal
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 generous pinch of cardamom
2 Eggs (optional)
Method:
Heat coconut and sugar in a pan in low flame. Keep on stirring till the sugar melts and the coconut is well cooked; yet little moisture remains. It may take about 15 minutes. Reducing sugar may result in dried and uncooked filling. Add boiled chana dal/bengal gram to it. Mix well. If you are using egg, add now and saute nicely. Sprinkle cardamom powder on top and immediately transfer to a plate. Let it cool and use as a stuffing to your favorite snacks. You can otherwise freeze it in ziplock bags for later use.
Perfection in cooking seafoods , I believe, is the most toughest to achieve among all other non-vegetarian dishes. My grandma and my aunt who stayed next to me during my initial days of cooking taught me to cook this simple fish curry with all their efforts.lol.. It came perfect when they guided me then and there, but flopped again when made alone. After many trials and errors, I learnt this and thanks to my blogging that I finally jotted down the exact recipe.
When I was in my 1st Bcom, I had to cook lunch at home as my mom was in India busy with my sisters wedding. My uncle showed me to prepare fish curry and I asked him why didn't he add rice water to the curry. He laughed at me saying 'rice water?' .. I said 'yeah.. mom does so'.. He was not ready to accept the fact that rice water goes into the making of fish curry. He then told my dad about this and my dad started laughing too. I was pretty sure about that but both of them couldn't accept it. After a few days when my mom came back I told about this and she said 'why did you tell them? This is kept as a secret among ladies and no men or outsiders know about this. We add rice to the grinder hiding our sister-in-laws also. ' I started noticing this after that and what I found was really interesting. My aunts and all after adding spices to the machine , say something and all to their sis in laws so that their attention diverts and by that time they added rice to the machine... lol.. I don't know why they have to keep this secret. But anyways, I have never seen rice water added to the curries except in some regions of Kannur.
This is a very simple curry, made on a daily basis which could be served with plain dosas, appams, rice etc. The flavour of the curry varies with the fish we use; whether king fish, pomfret, small fishes etc.; any fish could be made with this recipe
INGREDIENTS:
Fish 1/2 kg
Oil 3 tbsp
Onion sliced 3 tbsp
Ginger crushed 1 tsp
Fenugreek/uluva 1 tsp
Green chilli 1
Tomato , chopped 1/2 of a medium sized
Red chilli powder 2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Cooked parboiled rice 3 tbsp
Water 1 1/2 cups
Tamarind 1 small ball
Curry leaves few
1. Keep everything ready beforehand as you don't get time to do it in between. Slice onions, crush ginger, chop tomato,clean fish , soak tamarind in 4-5 tbsp of water etc.
2.Grind cooked rice with water and spice powders in a blender.
3. Heat oil in a chatti (curry pot) and add 2-3 slices of onion and fry until it turns brown.
4. Add fenugreek and ginger; saute for a few seconds.
5. Throw in green chilli , tomatoes ; saute again for 20-30 seconds.
6. Pour the blended juice of rice and powders to this. Let this boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.
7. Add tamarind juice to it.
8. When it boils, keep the flame high and add fish to it. Let it boil again and then add salt.
9. Keep the flame low and let it simmer ,covered, for 10-15 minutes or until the fish cooks. Do not stir with spoon. Rotate the pan in between. Add curry leaves to this, close the lid and then switch off flame. Let it remain for a minimum of 5 minutes before opening the lid.
Some things in this world need no introduction at all... I think this is such a snack about which I'm sure many of you; infact almost each one of you might be knowing . Ripe plaintains are steamed and then blend to be stuffed in with sweet scrambled egg. This is then deep fried to nice golden color. This snack is usually served alongwith tea- an unavoidable snack in Malabar parties.
The plaintains should be ripen to perfect for this. Not too much and not that raw. If it is over ripened, then it'll end up in oily adas(snacks) and you may find difficuilt to shape them up too.. While picking up the plaintains choose the one whose skin started getting black spots-just few.
1.Beat in the eggs and sugar untill the eggs get mixed up nicely. No need to mix it until the sugar dissolves.
2.Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashew nuts until brown and take these out. Pop in the raisin and fry until it puffs up . Take them out as well.
3.Add egg mixture to it. Cook eggs while stirring continously. It should resemble Indian scrambled eggs; but little moist because of sugar. Add cardamamom powder and mix in the nuts and raisins. Switch off the flame.
my kids hate raisins, so i avoid it
Preparing the Ada:
1. Wash and steam the plaintains until it turns soft. You can either cut them into pieces and steam if you have a small steamer. Steaming as a whole is good though.
Uncooked: as you can see two colors there.
Cooked: Single color there
2. Now remove the skin and grind this in food processor, table top grinder, using egg beater etc. You can place this on a chopping board and mash this using a potato masher, rolling pin or a glass. Mash this with no lumps and should resemble a chappathi dough.
3. Make small balls. Then flatten these balls into a small circle just like puris (size depends) . Fill them with fillings and close it to form a semi-circle. (shall soon update with pictures). Stick the ends together and shape them like Ada or Ghujiiya.
4. Heat oil in a kadai or frying pan and deep fry these in oil until it turns golden brown. This is traditionally fried in ghee.
How to freeze:
Freeze this the same way as I explained in my previous post Freezing cutlets. Layer kaayadas in an airtight box. Place clingfilm on top of that; then again kaayadas and so on until all those are placed neatly. Cover this with clingfilm on top and then close the lid tightly. Keep this in your freezer.
Note: While frying, the oil should be steaming hot as adding frozen adas might turn the temperature down instantly which may result in oily snack.
It didn't take a minute for me to decide , when I saw Rafeeda's mail asking me to do a guest post for her. Being a mother of 3, I don't really get a chance to chat with friends or build online relations. I've a very few blogger friends and she is one among them. an upcoming blogger and a very soft person at heart!! I always missed mails, messages and FB feeds these days that I didn't know she owned a blog until recently. I was surprised to see many posts within such a limited time. Keep going Rafeeda! Her recipes are so easy to follow and simple to try out! Check out her blog here- THE BIG SWEET TOOTH.
When I was confused and asked her before deciding on the post, she mailed me saying it would be nice if it's anything from Malabar side. The only and much awaited post with me was muttamaala and pinjaanthappam . The most famous Malabar delicacy. Garlands made out of egg yolk and an egg-white pudding,served together. The name itself brings curiosity among outsiders. Hats off to Kannur ladies who invented this dish sometime in the history. I always wondered watching the garlands as a kid , but never ever tried to make one on my own. Thanks to my blog baby, that I'm learning and have learnt many a things , which I had never thought I would ever do. But, believe me girls, making muttamaala is not a rocket science, it is as easy as any other dish. There are small tips to take care of, and thats it. I shall try to explain it as simple as possible.
Egg yolk is cooked in sugar syrup into garlands while egg whites are steamed into pudding.
Check for the detailed recipe here Linking this recipe to my own event Mummy Ka Magic & Don't forget to take part for the giveaway!
Talking about the traditional foods, North Malabar had established its own place; especially Kannur & Kozhikode districts; Thalassery being their leader. There's a wide variety of pathiris, snacks, curries ,etc. associated with this region. Some of them are vanished from the modern kitchen while some others are modified to adjust to the changed lifestyles. Musuman means Whole(colloquially).This recipe is given as it was in the past. This was my Grandma's recipe and just came to my mom's mind recently & gave it a try . It was delicious & since then, Chicken Musuman found its place in our kitchen. In this recipe, chicken is stuffed with Chana Dal Masala & boiled eggs. Before it was prepared using big chicken which weighs about 1 1/2 kg or more; so that it was easy to stuff. But now-a-days we prefer small chickens & so we can't use much stuffing. I've given the recipe of 800gm chicken and I'm sure that u guys would luv it...
It's spicy as well as a bit sweet cos of the sugar we use ..The sugar is well blended with all the spices that it has a nice spicy -sweet combined flavor.
Ingredients:
Chicken 800-900 gm
Onion 2 medium
Tomato 1
Ginger 1 tbsp
Garlic 2 pods
Green Chilli 3
Red Chilli powder 1 1/2 tsp (spicy one)
Coriander powder 1 tsp
Sugar 1 1/2 tsp
Chana Dal 1/4 cup (for both the gravy & stuffing)
Egg 1 boiled (optional)
For Coconut Paste: Coconut 1 cup (3/4 + 1/4)
Fennel (Saunf) 1 tsp
Onion,sliced- half of a small onion
Clove 1
Cardamom 1
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
For stuffing:
Onion 1/2
Ginger -Garlic paste 1 tsp
Green chilli 1
Red Chilli powder 1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves 1 tbsp
Garam masala 1/4 tsp
Chana Dal
Method:
1.Soak Chana Dal overnight or for a minimum of 6 hrs.
2. Coconut paste:
Now we have to roast coconut for the gravy as we do for our Varutharacha curry. The method is simple and goes like this:
a. Take a pan, add 2 tbsp of coconut oil. When hot, add 1 tbsp of parboiled rice ;let it roast a bit till it changes its color. Add 3/4 of the coconut ;saute well in medium-low flame;
b. add fennel seeds
c. & half onion in between. Keep on stirring to roast the coconut evenly.
d. Saute till it turns to brown. Don't make it too brown ;else a bitter taste may come. Add turmeric powder.Switch off the flame & let it cool. Throw in remaining fresh coconut ,cardamom & clove and make a paste of it.
3.Mix the Onion, Tomato, Green Chilli, Ginger Garlic paste, Red Chilli powder, Coriander powder , enough water and salt with chicken & cook till the chicken is done.
4.Meanwhile prepare Chana Dal Stuffing:
Cook Chana Dal. Take 1/4 cup of the cooked dal & keep aside for the gravy.
Take a pan, pour 1 tbsp of oil. When hot, add onion;saute well till it turns brown ; then add ginger-garlic paste, chilli, red chilli powder & the remaining cooked chana dal. Saute well. Finish it off with garam masala & coriander leaves.
5.When chicken is done, take it off & stuff with this masala & boiled egg. If the chicken is small, you can stuff it with only a few or1 tbsp of the chana dal masala.You can pin the chicken with tootpick so that the stuffing remains safe.(optional)I couldn't do it as my chicken was a bit delicate when done. Keep the chicken aside; no need to put it back to the gravy now.
6.Now add the coconut paste & chana dal (which was kept aside ) in the gravy & let it boil.
7. You can now put chicken in the gravy & let it boil for 3-5minutes. No need to boil it for so long and take care while serving, otherwise the chicken may break & it won't remain Chicken Musuman (musuman means whole);the stuffing may also come out.
8.Temper it with Ghee and onion.(add 1 or 2 tbsp of ghee in a hot pan & put a tbsp of sliced onion & add it to the gravy when brown).
9.Garnish with coriander & curry leaves & serve with Pathiris which complements well with this gravy.
Muttayappam is again a Malabar special recipe. It's usually made by the Kannurians with slight variations in their respective regions. Some add eggs to this, some make this in kaara (unniyappam kadai) while we make in iron Kadai /chhenachatti/chinese wok.
This is usually a breakfast recipe; but could also be made for dinner as well. These are deep fried pancakes, usually savoured with meat or fish curries. The dough is to be ground to pouring consistency and is poured into oil to deepfry. These are then, puffed up into puri like appams.
Ingredients:
(Serves a family of four)
White rice/pachari 3 cups
Cooked parboiled rice 1 1/4 cups
Water 1 3/4 cups
Salt 2 1/2 tsp or to taste
Oil enough to deep fry
Method
Soak white rice in warm water for 2-3 hours or overnight.
Drain rice through a strainer. (You can avoid this step; I'm doing this just to give you the exact measurement of water to be used .)
Now blend or grind it along with cooked rice and minimal water (as prescribed).
Heat oil in an iron kadai. The temperature of oil should not be too high. Once the oil is hot, sprinkle 2-3 drops of water to it and then, when the sound of bubbling water stops, you can proceed to the next step.
Set the fire to low. Pour a laddle-ful of dough into the oil. Once you poured, increase the flame to medium-high.
When the appam puffs up and it is done on that side, you may turn it and fry on the other side too.
You may now take it and drain it ona tissue or strainer.
Neipathal is one of the traditional treats seen in Malabar Muslim households. It is deep fried pathiris made of rice, coconut, fennel and shallots. You may call it as rice puri as it looks like a puri-a coarse ground or crispy rice puri.
This is usually served with beef fry (varattiyathu) or any other meat delicacies. The ingredients used here is same as that of aanapathal (kozhipidi); but the method of cooking is entirely different. Back home, people uses the giant grinders or tabletop grinders to grind this dough and they may or may not use any rice flour for this recipe. But this is not possible these days as most of us dont have such equipments with us these days, neither we ve so much of time to spend in kitchen. I shall try to explain the method of preparing the dough using tabletop grinders and juice machines.
Ingredients:
Parboiled rice/U.S style rice 3 cups
Coconut,grated 2 cups
Rice Flour (arippodi) 1 cup or more
Fennel seeds (saunf or perumjeerakam) 2 tsp
Onion 1 big
Water 2 cups
Oil to deepfry
Method:
Soak parboiled rice in warm water for 3-4 hours or overnight.
Drain rice through a strainer. (You can avoid this step; I'm doing this just to give you the exact measurement of water to be used .)
Now mix all other ingredients except rice flour and oil.
Its time to grind rice.
Table top grinders
If you have a table top grinder, then no need to add rice flour. Increase the quantity of parboiled rice to 4 cups and then coarsely grind the rice mix using minimal water. The dough should resemble that of roti dough or slightly tightier than that.
Juice machine grinders
You can coarsely grind the rice mix without using water in this and finally add some water . Then mix with rice powder to make the dough.
Juice Machines
Here we use the big jar, the usual one we use to grind dosa maavu or to blend any juices. I've Panasonic steel jar (bought from India) the one similar to Sumeet or any other indian brand. Its too good for grinding rice . In this we can grind rice by adding too little water. We need coarsely ground rice here. For that just pulse for 30 seconds each time; ie; once we put in the rice,coconut,onion and water in the jar , pulse it for 30 seconds and then you are done.
Mix this coarsely ground paste with rice powder using salt to make the dough similar to rotis/chappathis or slightly tightier than that .
Take a kadai/chinese wok or any other deep bottomed vessel and heat oil in it enough for deepfrying.
Now take a piece of cloth or plastic sheet on which the pathiri is rolled. Make balls out of the dough and then flatten on the piece of cloth or plastic using your fingers . The pathiri should be 2 or three inches in diameters and 1/2 inch thick.
When the oil is too hot, you can sink in the pathiris just like we do for puris. This will puff up and once it is done in one side, turn it upside down and fry the other side too till it turns crispy brown.
Serve hot with beef fry, kadai chicken or any other non veg thick gravies.
Battura-- and malabar?? yes , you read it right... Malabar cuisine is so broadminded that it embraces the best of any other cuisine and blends it in its own food culture. This reminds me of Amir Khan's ad 'Athithi Devo Bhava'. :) Jokes apart, Battura, deep fried bread, originally hails from North India; but we make it in slightly different way which make it look more puffy and 'bread like' inside. Have a look at Pic 2.
This dish was new to us when we saw this during my uncle's reception in the bride's house and was quite fascinated by the story behind its introduction to their house. My aunt's (the then bride) brother was getting married to his first cousin. There was no much excitement on the function as they knew both the families and the guests to attend the function were common. So they thought of conducting the function at one place and would make it grand. They hired catering from Calicut which was about 90 kms away from the place; and that too 25 years back. Those people came a day before and said that they would make battura and they need some 40-50 litres of milk for that. Aunt's mom was saying they ran here and there for collecting milk as then it was not available in markets also. They ran to their neighbors' and relatives' house; milked the cows and somehow arranged the milk at night. But the hard-work paid and this dish was loved by all the guests that since then, there was no single party left without Batturas in their house.
Ingredients:
Maida/ White flour 2 cups
Egg 1
Instant Yeast (pizza yeast)1/2 tsp
Baking powder 1/4 tsp
Salt
Sugar 1 tbsp
Yogurt 2 tbsp
Garam Masala 1/4 tsp
Milk- enough to knead the dough
Oil for frying
Method:
Mix Flour, Salt, Yeast , Sugar, Garam masala and Baking Powder together. Make a well in between and beat the egg in it. Add yogurt to it and mix the flour nicely in it. Knead into a dough using warm milk.
Keep this dough aside in a warm place for an hour or more till it is doubled its size... OR .. Heat your oven at high for 5-10 mts, switch off the oven and then keep your dough in it. It eases the fermentation. If you have a fan attached to your oven, heating may not help. So what you can do is keep the dough in your oven, take some boiling water in a cup and place it in the oven along with the dough and close the oven. The steam coming out of the water helps the dough rise fast.
Heat oil enough for deep frying in a deep pan or kadai.
Knead the dough again and make small balls using the dough. Size depends upon the size of your frying pan or kadai.
Flatten it to a size thicker than puris; atleast twice the size. Make it round or oval. You can cut it using zigzag cutter or knife to give it an appealing shape.
Deep fry these just like puris till batturas puffs up and turn brown.
Serve hot with any stews, butter chicken or chana masala..
Madakkupathal is a malabar layered parantha/pathiri soaked in sugar syrup. This is an easy one compared to muttamaala (egg garlands) and many other malabar desserts. It is often served as a starter during functions like marriages, receptions and all.
Ingredients:
(Makes 5)
White Flour/Maida 1 cup
Egg 1 +4
Sugar 1/2 cup
Water 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
Method:
1.Make a dough using maida,egg ,salt and enough water. The dough should be same as we do for rotis.
2.Make 5 equal balls out of this. Roll out them into rotis one at a time. Brush ghee over it and fold it just the same way as we do for Madakku Chappathi .ie; into a square box.
3.Roll them again in such a way that four corners are stretched a bit.
4.Then again fold those stretched ends to the centrepoint.
5.Stick them there and turn them upside down.
6.Now roll them again into thick squares.
Second Folding
7.Deepfry these squares just like puris until it turns brown.
8.Now beat the remaining 4eggs using a fork with a pinch of cardamom.
9.Heat a tbsp of ghee in a non-stick pan. Dip these pathiris/paranthas; one at a time; in beaten egg so nicely that these are well soaked in egg.
10.Pan fry these pathiris dipped in egg. Turn and fry the other side too. Take this out from the pan onto a plate and pour sugar syrup over it.
11.Let the pathiris soak well in syrup. Serve warm
For Sugar Syrup:
Boil sugar and water together till it reaches one string consistency. Add 1/2 a tsp of cardamom powder to it.
Kinnapathal/Kinnapathiri is a layered pathiri seen in Malabar region. An awesome but time consuming dish which you may wish to have again and again.. Kids will love it too as you get the layers separated and they enjoy doing so.This was about 20 years ago that we got to introduce to this wonderful dish from my aunt's house. We never got it right at first ; but then it seemed to be an unavoidable one in our kitchen. It goes well with any stews or other curries as well.
Ingredients:
Jeerakashala / Basmati Rice 3 cups
White Rice/ Pachari 1/4 cup
Thin Coconut milk /second extract - about 5 cups
Ghee 2-3 tbsp
Thick Coconut Milk 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Method:
1. Soak both the rices for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
2. Grind them along with Thin coconut milk. The consistency should be thinner than the Dosa dough.
3. Arrange a steamer on fire and a dish which could be placed inside the steamer easily. The size or shape of the dish doesn't matter.
4. Now mix ghee with the first extract of coconut milk well and keep it aside.
5. Line the dish to be placed inside the steamer with ghee and then start with the layers.
6.First pour a deep spoon/spatula full of dough into the dish. Then cover with a lid. The lid should be slightly opened in one side so that the pathiris won't puff up and it disturbs layers. Wait till it cooks well for about 3-4 mts.
7. Now open the lid and pour a tbsp of thick milk & ghee mixture & then repeat the same procedure again - pour dough ,cover with lid and wait till it cooks. This procedure is repeated till your dish is full or the dough is finished. Once your dish is full, keep it covered for another 5 minutes so that all layers are cooked well. Then, take another pan & repeat the same. The thick milk and ghee mixture can be used in between; but not necessary to pour it between all the layers.
8. Once it is over, cool the pathiris nicely before you unmould them. Run knife through the sides and umnould carefully. You can cut this in triangles and serve.
** I usually keep two steamers at a time so that I could do it faster.
