Moong Dal Curry and Chinese Bittergourd Fry

Moong Dal is one dal which doesnt make you bloat.
I think all other dals give you that hydrogen balloon feeling. Moong Dal is so widely used in Kerala from curries to sweets. Malayalees already have 'airs' so they don’t need other dals to give them that. :-)

Today I had an unexpected guest, so as usual had to clean out a bedroom (or used as 'safety box') in super fast mode. I can work so quickly I can clean an entire house in 10 minutes flat if I hear someone is coming home. Otherwise It will take years.

Moong Dal Curry
Roast 1 cup moong dal split. Ah? Whats moong dal split? Well, I didn’t know about moong dal-split until I came to U.S. It is prepared from the green moong dal after frying and peeling the skin. No don’t worry, you dont have to do all that. You get moong dal split in ready packets everywhere.

So, roast 1 cup moong dal into light golden brown colour and cook in a pressure cooker by adding 3 cups of water. Grind 1/4 cup coconut, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 4 green chilies, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, and 1 tsp of garlic to a smooth paste. Add to the cooked dal.Add salt. Heat 2 tsp of ghee, splutter mustard seeds, 2 red chilies split, shallot 1 diced or onion until brown and curry leaves in that order and add to the curry. This is the first item for Sadya after rice is served. I was too embarassed to click pictures since my guest had arrived.

Chinese bittergourd fry
When I used to live in one remote corner in U.S, I craved for our bittergourd. I used to hate it back home. But when you know you cant get it, you get cravings. I just wanted to touch it atleast. And I discovered a fairer cousin of our bittergourd. The chinese bittergourd. She is not that bitter, is fairer than her cousin, and holds lots of water.It is very easy to prepare this upperi. Cut into small slices and remove the seeds from inside.

Heat oil, mustard spluttering, saute onions and the usual stuff like you prepare for any upperi/fry/mezhukkupuratti. But dont cover this vegetable while cooking. It has lots of water. So It will become mushy very quickly. Keep in high flame too, so the water evaporates quickly. This is very tasty with morukaachiyathu or buttermilk curry due to its slight bitter taste.

Julia Child of Kerala

Well, there were days when I used to think boiling water and making tea made me a good cook. I was in Bangalore staying in a house with a kitchen (earlier, kitchens never existed in a house, only the dining table) and had to learn to cook the hard-hard way.

I didn’t know sambar needed toor dal. I had seen vegetables floating in it and thought oh ok, sambar is easy - cut all vegetables, add water, cook. I thought the yellow tinge is from the turmeric. And I even had the guts to serve it to friends. They never came back, of course. Oh I could curdle the curd curry to shame. I would add 3 tsp of turmeric to 1 cup of curry, and I thought my mom was really stingy in using her spices. I could boil the curries to death until you see one big sorry mush. I could make egg curry in water. Yes, I would add 2 boiled eggs, 4 tsp of garam masala (No, I cannot be stingy like my mom) and 4 cups of water and had the audacity to call it egg curry. I didn’t even know sugar won’t dissolve in cold water. I would add sugar to tang with ice cubes and would serve the sour tang. I would splutter mustard seeds on every curry. If you just had a spoonful of curry in your hand too, I would splutter mustard on them. I liked the "sshhhh" sound of it and the smell. That sound was like lunch/dinner bell back home.

I would call up my mom and ask for recipes, and she would yell at me saying "Oh My God! Who told you to cook? I am scared you wont switch off the gas stove properly. Don't even go near the kitchen. It is dangerous."

My mom had told me she too learned cooking the hard way. As a new bride she made chicken, she put chicken on the stove and started chatting. Well, the chicken charred, but her friends stayed. They said carbon is good for the body and ate the charred chicken. My friends were not that nice. Well, like mother like daughter, eh? Well, my mean friends started teasing me like anything and I was adamant I will learn cooking. I went to a bookshop at Brigade Road in Bangalore and got the first book I saw.I started to cook, slowly. The hard part was to translate all the English to Malayalam. I knew the vegetables only by Malayalam names. But I learned. My friends returned slowly with a wide grin on their mean faces. They would eat my curries and laugh like anything. They didn’t leave abruptly like the first time.I had never even heard of a Mrs. K.M. Mathew then.Then, one fine day I found her and then I started to love cooking, started to cook in a better way. She even taught me how to bake delicious fruit cakes.Mrs. K.M. Mathew is without a doubt the Julia Child of Kerala. Mrs K.M Mathew has authored around 21 cook books starting from 1953 I guess.Her cooking style is Central Kerala.It is a known fact that, if you give even papaya skin to women in central Kerala, they would cook up delicious dishes in minutes. Well I am too from central Kerala,but there are exceptions for everything you know.

In U.S I was introduced to this frail old lady through my television set. She was honest and funny in her cooking shows without any airs. I loved her! If she drops something on the floor while cooking, she would say, “Oh, it doesn’t matter, just wash it and use it”. She would say, use real butter, we need flavor - not margarine or cheap imitations. She lived to 91. So I know it is not the butter or the so called fats, it is ‘moderation’ that is going to make you live healthy.

My friends came for a get together last year and I prepared lunch for them (I am good at heart you see, even when their mean laughter were ringing in my ears). After lunch, they said, “Hmm…you have learned to cook”. Well that’s the ultimate compliment I can get from those mean brutal hearts!

When my aunt visited us last time, she nearly had a heart attack seeing me cook. " Mole, you didnt even know a spoon from a fork, and look at you now" - Well,well..ahem..I put on a humble face even when my head was hitting the roof :-)

Chakka Erisseri ( Jackfruit Curry)

Whats the exact translation of erisseri? I have no clue. I don't think everything we cook up is a curry? Or are all gravies curries?Names: chakka erissheri/chakka erisseri / ചക്ക എരിശ്ശേരി.My white boss wouldnt blv me when I said there is a fruit called jackfruit.

When I googled and showed him the pictures,he looked as if he saw an alien.Of all the names, why jack-fruit? Did a certain Jack discover this? I googled for jackfruit's etymology and found this link. Now it makes sense. The chakka in Malayalam got translated to jacka or jack. Ah!this is funny!It is not jackfruit season yet.

So I got the raw jackfruit which comes frozen.

Cut raw jackfruit pods into 4 or 5 thin pieces. For 3 cups, add one cup of water and cook them in water with little salt. Mash them lightly. Grind coarsely, 3 tsp of chili powder, 1 tsp of turmeric powder and 1 cup of coconut. Add this to the cooked jackfruit. Add sufficient water to make it a gravy. Boil for 5 or 6 minutes. While preparing curries, when adding water to semi cooked curries,make sure the water is boiling hot so that the curries wont stop cooking and lose the flavour when you add cold water.

Heat 1 tsp of coconut oil, splutter mustard seeds, sauté 1 tsp of thinly diced onions,sauté split two dry red chilies into two, add 2 tsp of coconut and sauté until the coconut is brown and add the curry leaves. Add this to the curry. The aroma of erisseri is so lovely. Wish you could smell this.

Guess the vegetable? (Drumstick)

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All these flowers are from my garden trumpeting the arrival of Spring.

One of them will turn into a vegetable we all love to eat and love to put in lot of our favourite curries. It has a hard outer skin and soft flesh inside.

Guess which vegetable? It is a vegetable,not a seed.(My digital camera is a sorry version since I got it free from Bellsouth for ordering their DSL, so pardon my pics, but I hope the pics are clear enough for you to guess)

Guess the spice? (Kudampuli)

This is also from in-laws (another nice sweet aunt) who make sure we have two or three kilos of this when we travel back to U.S. The only worry I have at customs is whether they will throw the whole bag out. I am pretty sure, if they ever do that, I will choose the spice bag than U.S. entry :-)

This is a must-use, very important, cholesterol lowering ingredient if you are from central Kerala. Most homes have jars full of this dried and if properly dried it will store for years. It turns from parrot green to blackish black when dried.

Yes, it is the favourite kudampuli. A friend of mine from Trivandrum actually ate this when I made fish curry for her. She didnt know that this should not be eaten. It is just to sour the fish curry.

I have had fish curry from Goa and they put kokum in their fish curries too. They even make some drinks with this I think. But I think kokum and kudampuli are not same,but they are cousins for sure.

BreadFruit Curry

There is a funny story behind bread fruit tree. My mom would never let my dad plant a tree in our backyard. She would constantly say “Those who plant bread fruit trees can never stay in their houses”. There is some superstition that it is not auspicious to have a breadfruit tree. Well, our neighbors planted one and to make my mom’s superstition strong, they all sold their home and left in couple of years. Where did they all go? To U.S.A! Well, so you now know what to do for that coveted visa. :-)Names: Kadachakka(sheemachakka) varutharachathu/ കടച്ചക്ക വറുത്തരച്ചതു

This is such a versatile fruit (vegetable), you can cook a lot of dishes with this. Here we get this at a Caribbean store. It is very hard to find in U.S. But if you find one, make sure the skin is in parrot green colour with no blemishes.

If you don’t know how to cut this up, follow the pictures.Cut the skin until you don’t find any greenish tinge. Cut the skin like you would cut a pineapple.
Then cut open the fruit and cut off the stalk (? – I am not sure of the name, but I think you will get an idea from the picture).Then cut it into very small pieces.For 3 cups of diced breadfruit, dry roast 1 cup of coconut until brown.Dry roast 2 tsp of coriander seeds, 1 tsp of cumin seeds, 3 cardamom, 4 cloves, one cinnamon stick and grind with some hot water to a smooth paste.

Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil, splutter mustard seeds, sauté two pod crushed garlic, curry leaves, one diced onion, 4 green chilies split, and then one small tomato. Then to this add breadfruit slices and sauté for one minute with 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and enough salt. This vegetable is like potato, so salt should be added appropriately. Add the coconut paste and add 4 cups of warm water to cook. Cook closed in medium heat. This takes a long time to cook, so make sure there is enough water. Serve with rice.

Mussel Fry

Names: Mussel Fry/ Kallumakkay varattiyathu / കല്ലുമ്മക്കായ് വറുത്തത്/ kakka erachi ulathu?

My mom used to make this Mussel fry regularly at home and we all used to love it so much. Then one fine day, my brother had an allergic reaction to it and there goes this lovely dish out of the window and my mom never made this, even when we, rest of the kids pleaded. Need any other reason to hate your brother?If you are from Kerala you would love fish in any forms. Mussels are very sensitive creatures and any impurity in the water, it will die. So it is said that the water is very good where mussels are growing abundant.

Here in U.S, I buy frozen mussels, since fresh mussels are so expensive. If buying fresh mussels, make sure you don’t buy any open ones. Open ones should be discarded.Immerse and boil the one bag of mussels (one bag has two packets or around 50 mussels) of mussels have two with the shell in water with 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, 2 tsp vinegar, and salt.

After they open or in boiling water for 7 to 10 minutes, take out and discard the shells and take out only the flesh from inside. It will come up to one cup.Heat 3 tsp of any frying oil, splutter mustard seeds, sauté 2 tsp ginger and garlic crushed, curry leaves, one red onion(until brown) and 3 green chillies diced , add mussels, and then on to it, add 3 tsp freshly ground pepper, one tsp meat masala, 1 tsp oil. Sauté for 5 or 6 minutes until dry.You can add thin slices of coconut if you want to. Sauté them after onion.

Husky Rice

Just when you think you have heard it all, there comes another simple thing you have never ever heard of or even remotely imagined...I was so surprised to see the purple potato.

Then I thought, hey why don’t I turn the limelight onto the coloured rice I eat. Introducing…tada…wholesome "Kerala red rice" or Kerala Double boiled rice (I am not sure whether par-boiled is same as double boiled)Names: Kerala kuthari, Chambavari, Palakkadan Matta (കുത്തരി, ചമ്പാവരി, പാലക്കാടന്‍ മട്ട )

I think only people from Kerala eat this. Once you get accustomed to this, which we are -- 'forcefully' fed by our adoring mothers with ghee and mashed dal and veggies from your 6 months of life, you can never eat 'white rice' and feel satisfied. The red rice I eat is boiled with the husk and thus it maintains its fiber. White rice is scrubbed and polished and made hip, but sadly it loses all its nutrients. But the fun part is when my cousins visit us from outside Kerala; they find it very difficult to eat.

“Too big, too big” they would fuss… Ah! Sissies!

(I have seen Bhutanese red rice at Organic Food Stores. No, No, we are not the same dear!)

3 whistles for Pork

Whenever I cook pork, I am reminded of my mom's warning, “cook pork well until the pressure cooker gives you 3 whistles". Well, I didn’t know how to cook back then, but my mom would ask us to switch off the stove after 3 whistles.

Pork is a delicacy back home eaten very rarely during special occasions. It should be cooked thoroughly since its diet is (or was) very unhygienic at least in India. But the taste of pork fry is so yummy; nothing can hold you back from this once you have tasted.

In U.S grocery stores, you get very lean pork and it tastes like paper to me. All the fat is trimmed out. The fat is what makes the pork so delicious. So you would have to search around in Chinese food stores. Ask for pork belly in Chinese stores. This looks and tastes similar to the pork we get back home. My uncle is the one who shared this "pork belly is the real pork" snippet with me.When cut up into square cubes, the pork belly has 3 layers of fat, and one layer of meat. Looks like layered crème cake ;-)(Raw pork)Wash the pork thoroughly and squeeze and strain the water from the meat. For one and half cup of pork, add 3/4 cup of diced onions, 6 crushed garlic, 2 tsp of ginger diced and crushed, 3 sprigs of curry leaves, 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder,1 and half tsp of meat masala powder (I grind my own meat masala, will post that later), 2 tsp of red chili powder, green chilies 4, 1 small tomato diced. Add salt. Mix everything with the cut pork and cook it in a pressure cooker in medium flame for 1 whistle (only in india I think the pork needs 3 whistles).(Pork ready to cook)Cut coconut pieces in to 1cm length.If the cooked pork has water, open the pressure cooker and cook it until the water is completely gone. This is a semi dry dish. Now heat two tsp of oil (instead of adding oil again, you can strain the pork fat from the cooked pork), add curry leaves, add one small shallot, add 1 tsp of meat masala powder, add the coconut pieces and sauté well in low flame. Add the cooked pork to this and sauté well again and make it dry on high flame. Once you taste this dish, there is no looking back.

Snake Gourd Fry

Names: Padavalanga Thoran / പടവലങ്ങ തോരന്‍

My mom is very scared of this vegetable. It is a very long vegetable, very nutritious and delicious. Due to its shape, it is called snake gourd. My mom would never make this, since she was scared of it :-).

I love this vegetable. It is sooo very hard to get it fresh in U.S. But I got it last week at our vegetable vendor. The dish is called Padavalanga thoran back home. I forgot to click a picture of the snake gourd vegetable as whole.

For 3 cup snake gourd cut into very tiny pieces. Scrape lightly the skin before cutting.

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup, cumin seeds - 1/2tsp, garlic - 1 pod, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder - coarse grind or better just crush everything together.

Heat 1 tsp e.v olive oil, splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, whole chili broken into two, curry leaves,5 shallots diced - Sauté in that order.

Add the cut gourd and sauté for 5 minutes. Sprinkle 1 tsp water, add salt and cover tightly and cook in low flame. After 6 or 7 minutes or so or until 3/4th cooked (it should be crunchy),add the coconut mixture in the middle and cover the mixture with the gourd pieces and cover and cook again for 5 more minutes or until soft and done. This is a dry side dish for rice with some gravy.My mom makes excellent sauté vegetables. She won’t add any water and cooks vegetable very nutritiously. All her pots are S shaped. So it is easy to cook without any bit of water. I have to sprinkle some water, since all my pans are flat. The less water added to the vegetables, the better. So always only sprinkle water to these kinds of vegetables, cover tightly and cook in the steam. If not cooked, sprinkle water again. Remember always to keep in very low flame...not even medium,but low flame.

5 minute shrimp express

I buy frozen shrimp packets from Wal-mart which costs only around 2$. It is more than enough for 4 people. The packet shrimp comes cleaned and cooked and it is dirt cheap. So you can just make a quick curry on those lazy days or on a guest burst.

Heat Olive Oil in a flat saucepan, splutter mustard seeds,curry leaves (add lots since shrimp is high in cholesterol, curry leaves will neutralize the effect), ginger (3 tsp) and garlic (3 tsp) crushed, 3 greenchillies split, One big Onion diced, three small tomatoes diced.

Saute everything in that order and then add the shrimp. Don't cover and cook, just saute the shrimp and add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, 2 tsp chilli powder and 1 tsp pepper powder fresh after adding the shrimp. Saute on high flame for one minute or so until the shrimp is coated with everything and thats all. Add salt.

It is such a tasty dish in just 5 minutes. Serve with rice or rotis. (My guests always think, I buy expensive fresh shrimp just for them. ;-) )(The shrimp is already cooked, so no need to cook them again. It will turn hard. You need not defrost the packet also,you can directly put the frozen shrimp on to the saute pan.)

Pesaha Appam (Appom?) and Paalukurukku.

Names: (Passover Bread and Milk Porridge) - (പെസഹാ അപ്പം , പാലുകുറുക്കും)Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday.This means in simple terms, day of Last Supper. The day Christ humbled himself and washed his twelve disciples feet and he was betrayed later that night. After evening mass and celebrating the Pesaha or Passover, we have the Pesaha Appam and the Paalukurukku as a tradition after Supper. This is a tradition for Kerala Catholics. I have no clue about other traditions on this day.

I remember my mom taking great care, taking only new vessels for the rice and the coconut milk. “Everything should be new, since it is a holy thing” – she would shoo us away from the kitchen fearing, us kids would touch and make things dirty. She would wash the rice and spread it on the roof to dry and I was supposed to watch for crows or birds feasting on the rice. I would sit there and draw on the clouds.
I think the Pesaha Paalukurukku or Passover milk porridge is a substitute in Kerala for the Wine. This is the recipe I followed. Though Kerala is such a tiny state, every district has different way of cooking. I 'think' I followed the Kottayam style.

Pesaha Appam (This is a substitute for the Passover Bread in the Middle East)
Raw Rice - 1 cup Urad Dal - 1/3 cup Cumin seeds - 0.5 teaspoon Garlic - 3 cloves Coconut, shredded - 3/4 cup Wash and soak raw rice overnight. Roast Urad Dal until golden brown in a frying pan in a slow flame. Take care not to burn it. Soak this roasted urad dal for two hours.

Grind all ingredients together adding water to form a thicker than idli batter consistency. Do not grind to a fine paste. Add salt as needed. Pour into a dish and steam it in an idli cooker until done. Make a cross with the Palm Leaves you get on Hosana and place it on top of the bread before steaming. (There are many other ways for making this. Some make it like dough and place it between banana leaves and steam. Some add shallots and cut coconut and make it like dosas).This is traditionally taken after Supper and with a prayer.

For Pesaha Pal
Freshly made Coconut Milk - 3 cups Rice flour, Jaggery – 1/2 cup or according to your sweet tooth (I added brown sugar instead), Cardamom (powdered) - 2.
Mix flour, coconut milk and jaggery in a saucepan. Sir Continuously for 5 or 10 minutes until thickened like gravy. Add powdered cardamom. Take from flame and keep stirring for 5 more minutes. The bread is dipped in the porridge and eaten.My mom wouldn’t let us waste a drop of it, since it is holy. Since it is sweet tasting, we would gladly agree.

Which fruit?

Yes it is Guava or lovingly called as Perakka
From our garden...It is guava indeed.

Pumpkin Curry

Names: Pumpkin Erissheri (Erisshery?) / Mathanga erisseri / മത്തങ്ങ എരിശ്ശേരി

This preparation I think is South Kerala style. The norther you go, cooks add red mung beans.Will post that recipe later.Cook Pumpkin cut into cubes - 3 cups
Grind together to a paste with little water, coconut grated - 1 cup, cumin - 1 tsp, red chilies - 10, garlic - 1 tsp, shallots - 1 tsp, turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.

Add salt. When pumpkin is half cooked, add the coconut paste. Boil in slow flame until done.

Splutter mustard seeds,red chilies whole, curry leaves, shallots -1/2tsp, Coconut grated (saute until coconut turn golden brown) - 2 tsp in that order and add to the curry when done. The aroma and the taste of the fried coconut makes this curry very delicious.Serve with rice.
This is a very traditional Kerala dish especially an item for the sadya. In Kerala, most of the population consumes meat unlike other states. But yet, I find an explosion of excellent vegetable curries each varying so differently which tastes exceptional in Kerala cuisine which impresses me. You would think traditional vegetable Kerala recipes were compiled by a certified nutritionist, since they are all very healthy.

Appachatti or appakaara

As I was trying to buy a non-stick appachatti my m-i-l told me to take her iron one. I didn't know this was good and better than the non-stick ones until my friends and aunts swooned over it. I am now trying to make perfect laced appams from scratch without any store bought powders. Once I get the hang of it,will post the recipe.This is the recipe ammachi told me to use.

One cup of raw rice soaked for 8 hours and 1/4 cup of fresh grated coconut ground to a good consistency. Take some raw rice powder, i think 1/4 cup and add some water and put it on stove and make it like a paste.

Cool it down.Add 1/4 teaspoon of yeast in two teaspoons of luke warm water and add to the ground paste along with the rice paste. I think the rice paste is for glutening effect.