Sambar using roasted spices

Making sambar using home-made masala is not a hectic job at all. My family love it this way. We hear lots of stories on readymade masalas(spices) like they include animal fats, that they do some sort of adulteration etc. etc. What's the need of readymade ones when we can make it in no time. If spending 5 minutes extra in kitchen can give you peace and health, then it's worth the risk.  It's always better to use home made stuffs as far as we can. It's not that I don't use readymade stuffs at all..but a big NO to masalas .. I make my own garam masala and use a blend of my own spices for chana masala,pav bhaji, tandoori chicken or sambar.  We bring home made red chilli,coriander and pepper powders all the way from India and all thanks to my aunts there who never say 'huff' to our orders. :) I can assure you that this sambar is as tasty as the ones made with store-bought spices. Follow the instructions and recipes to the point and you get to eat delicious sambar in no time.

INGREDIENTS

Shallots                       6 tbsp

Tomatoes                      3/4 cup

Green chilly                          2

Masoor Dal              1/4cup/ 6 tbsp

Turmeric powder              1/2 tsp

Tamarind(with seed)**    10 gm/ lemon sized 
Vegetable               500gms/ 1/2kg

To Grind:

Coconut oil         2tbsp
Fenugreek                   1/2 tsp

Cumin                         1 tsp

Garlic                          2

Asafoetida                   a generous pinch

Coconut                       3/4 cup

Curry leaves                3

Red chilli powder       1 tbsp

Coriander powder       1 tbsp

Tadka:
Coconut oil     4-5 tbsp
Mustard seeds    1 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves    8-10
Dried red chilli      3

METHOD:

1. Soak tamarind in hot water and squeeze to take pulp. 

2. Pressure cook dal alongwith turmeric powder, onion, tomatoes and tamarind pulp.

3. After one whistle, open the pressure cooker and add vegetables except brinjal/eggplant and ladyfingers. These cook really fast and so it's safer to add later. Close the lid and turn off the flame after one whistle. Open the lid immediately. Add eggplants and lady fingers to this. Keep it aside.

4. Heat oil in another pan and dry roast coconut with cumin, fenugreek and curry leaves till the coconut turns dark brown. Switch off the flame and add asafoetida,  red chilli and coriander powders to it. Saute for a few seconds till the raw smell goes. Let it cool.

5. Make a paste of this roasted coconut and spice mix using water enough to blend.

6. Pour this paste to the cooked gravy and simmer for about 5-6 minutes. Turn off the flame.

7. Heat 4-5 tbsp of coconut oil in another pan and splutter mustard seeds in it. Throw in red chillies and curry leaves. Pour this tadka over the gravy and close the lid. Let it remain closed for a minimum of 5 minutes.

** Adding tamarind at first gives a nice flavor to the vegetables and thus the sambar

Pumpkin Erissery /Mathanga erissery

Onam is near and these days people go crazy searching for recipes for vegetable side dishes and you can see lots and lots of recipes online or on screen. We don't celebrate Onam, but still never forget to order Sadya from restaurants as this is the only time we get to eat 14-16 types of curries with our Choru (rice) and 2 types of payasams too. ..yumm!! Otherwise who cares to cook so many side dishes. Cooking is not that tough compared to chopping. I always felt that's the most difficuilt and time consuming task while preparing Sadya. Ofcourse grating coconut, if you are in India, could be more difficuilt ; but here, that's a blessing when you have a Lulu or Manama (supermarkets) near ;) where you get grated coconuts any time of the year.

Ingredients:

(Reference:Marias Menu) though made my own variations

Mathanga/Pumpkin     500gms ( 3cups)

Turmeric                      1/2 tsp

Water                           1 cup

Red chilly powder       1/4tsp

Coconut                       4 tbsp (to garnish)

Oil                                1 tbsp

To Grind

Coconut                       1/2 cup

Cumin/Jeera                 1/4tsp

Green chilly                 2 or more

Pepper powder            1/4 tsp

To temper

Coconut oil                  2 tbsp

Mustard                        1/2 tsp

Curry leaves                 few

Shallots                         4

 Method:

1. Cook pumpkins with water, turmeric powder, salt and red chilly powder till it is done. Mash nicely and keep it aside.

2. Grind 1/2 cup coconut with jeera, pepper and red chilly powder. Add this to pumpkin. Let it boil and simmer for about 5-6 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and roast coconut (kept for garnishing) till it turns brown and crispy texture. Remove it on a plate. Heat oil in the same pan for tempering. Crackle mustard seeds in it and throw in curry leaves and shallots immediately. Fry till the onion turns brown. Pour this over mathanga. Mix well. Serve with roasted coconut garnished on top. 

Variations:

Try with cowpeas/ vanpayar added to mathanga. ie; 250gms mathanga and 1/2 cup cowpeas for this same recipe.

Roast coconut a little more time if you prefer it that way.

Malabar Fish Curry with Saturday Snapshots#2

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

Saturday Snapshots Click #2 sending to Merry Tummy and Siris Food

METHOD:


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.

Heavenly Delight

The name says it! It's heavenly delicious. This 'melt-in-your-mouth' recipe was a hit when I had posted this on a recipe sharing group named Friends Cookys; 4 years ago.  I was in search of a name for this recipe, when one of my FB friends, Najiya Aziz, suggested this name.. Heavenly Delight.  The bottom layer of breads dipped in coffee, two layers of cream flavored with caramel and dreamwhip powder and a biscuits layer in between .. all together proved justice to the name. 

INGREDIENTS

(Prepared by Hanan)

White Bread                        a few pieces

Marie biscuits                      enough for the layer
Instant coffee                       3 tbsp
Creme-caramel sachet*.      1
Dream whip powder**.         1
Nestle tin cream                   2
Condensed milk                  1 tin
Gelatin                                 2 tsp
Sugar if required

1. Prepare strong black coffee with 2 cups water, 3 tbsp coffee and the caramel sachet (inside the Creme-caramel pack). Let it cool down.

2. Take a small pudding tray and keep it aside.

3. Dip bread in this coffee and then strain the coffee out by pressing in between your palms.

Layer this in the pudding tray.

4. Beat 1 nestle cream, dream whip powder & 1/2 condensed milk in a bowl.

5. In another bowl, beat the other nestle cream, remaining half of the condensed milk,caramel powder & sugar if required.

Keep both these bowls aside.

6. Dissolve gelatin in hot water (not boiling) & add half of this to both the bowls. Mix well.

7. Pour the first cream mixture on top of the bread layer.

8. T

hen layer biscuits dipped in coffee on top of that.

9. Then pour the next cream mixture.
let it set in refrigerator and serve cold.

*Instant Creme Caramel pack is used here. Two sachets are available inside the pack;one is caramel sachet and the other is Creme sachet. Both are used separately in this recipe. 

** Dreamwhip is whipping powder. You can use any brand. No need to whip first.Only the powders are used.

Linking this to Independence Day Event by Recipes Passioin

Your Best REcipe by Spicie foodie

Spicy KingFish Curry

It is only recently that I have noticed that I didn't post any simple fish curry recipe in my blog all these years. It might be because I make fish fresh and hot and serve rightaway without any time left for clicking pictures. This recipe was dumped into drafts since 2 months; one of the first pictures I clicked with my new camera. I was not about to post this as I was not so happy with the pictures. But still I couldn't ressist as I loved the simple flavors of the dish and so wanted to share. I shall update a better picture soon. InshaAllah! :)

Ingredients:
(Courtesy: Silwena Rowe)

Kingfish                          400g
Kashmiri Chilli Powder    2 tsp
Coriander powder           2 tsp
Turmeric powder            1 tsp
Coconut oil                     5 tbsp
Vegetable oil                   4 tbsp
Mustard seeds                2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds(uluva)   1/2 tsp
Ginger paste                    2 tbsp
Garlic paste                     2 tbsp
Shallots, finely chopped- 12
Curryleaves                     10 

Thick Coconut milk          1 cup

1. Mix chillli, coriander and turmeric powders with the coconut oil to make a paste.

2. Heat vegetable oil in a heavy pan. Add mustard and fenugreek seeds. Once their mustard stops spluttering , add ginger-garlic paste and stir on low heat for 3 to 4 minutes.

3.Add the prepared spice paste, season with salt and saute until oil begins to appear on the surface and the sides of the pan.

5. Add a little water to dilute the sauce slightly then add the fish. Sir gently to ensure that the fish is well coated.

6. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 25 minutes or until the fish is cooked thorough and the sauce thickens. 

Serve with rice, rotis, pathiris, dosas etc.