Plantain Boiled or Steamed (Nenthrakka / Pazham puzhungiyathu)

I had a shower of guests over the Memorial Day weekend. I love the long weekend concept in U.S, where all the holidays are 'intelligently' designed to fall on either a Monday or Friday. So you get 3 straight days to leisurely rest, sleep... Oh-ho! I spoke too fast, I guess. I am now more tired than the normal working weekdays.

Guests staying at home definitely mean quick snacks since everybody is tired from the shopping, small local trips,talking endlessly etc.One of the many quick snacks I misunderstood, is the simple delicious boiled ripe plantains

I never understood why people boiled an already ripe plantain. The very few times I tasted them, I never liked them any better than having a ripe plantain (I think, they were not done right). But my husband loves it! He would buy plantains from the shop and would ask me to boil it. I would roll my eyes and ask him to eat it just plain. He wouldn't and I ended up eating them plain.

So, I had to 'learn' to boil them. And now I just love it. I think this is a very typical Kerala preparation. I am now a little scared to write traditional Kerala preparation, since these blogging days, I am amused to find so many 'traditional ' recipes done the same way in lot of other places too :)

Plantain is rich in fiber and potassium than her other banana cousins. Plantain is Nenthrakka in Malayalam.

Recipe for Pazham puzhungiyathuRipe Plantain - There are certain things you should keep in mind when you choose to boil them. The skin should be yellow in color and no black spots (means it is getting over-ripe). It should be firm and not soft to touch. Buy semi-ripe plantains and as soon as they turn a complete yellow, you can boil them.Cut off the two ends and cut into two inch round pieces. Steam them in a steamer basket for 10 minutes or until the yellow skin turns to dark. When steamed, plantains become more digestible (excellent for kids) and the sweetness is enhanced to higher proportions. The plantains we get here at my place, almost tastes like honey when boiled or steamed.If the plantains are a little on the unripe side, they will turn hard when boiling or steaming. So make sure they are ripe but firm.It can be served as a quick evening snack with tea, or as breakfast with puttu. Some sprinkle grated coconut on them. This is my entry for Meena's Picnic

Guess who ?

Sreyashi Dey
Photo Courtesy: Srishti Dances

Who is this little pretty thing below imitating the famous Odissi dance pose?
This is very easy guess! But wanted to show you the cute little dance pose.

Art of Paalappam (Milk Pancake?)

To me, making a perfect paalappam always was/is an art. The cook pours a ladle full of batter and then rotates the pan and makes a mini flying saucer, tiny aliens of the food world can travel on. The speed, with which this is done, looks like a mini hand acrobat.

However, attempts after attempts never gave me that perfect lazy saucer appam. I tried changing pans, changing flour; changing yeast and what not. Even wore a lucky charm.

Then, I would call up a friend to crib about how my appam flopped, and before beginning the cribbing session would casually ask, “How are you? What are you doing?”. She would answer, “Oh, I am eating paalappam and this time it came better than all times!” Clunk! I hate her.

But Ah! Now it is my turn! Any one with lousy paalappam can call me up and I can talk forever about my lacy paalappams. I have learned the art and now those tiny little aliens can travel safely!

Recipe for Paalappam made with yeast

1½ cups of Raw Rice soaked for 8 hours. Grind together soaked rice, 1/2 cup grated coconut to a smooth thick batter with minimal water.Cook ¼ cup raw rice powder with 1 cup water to a thick paste.pic of rice powder paste

In 5 tsp warm water (not hot, just warm), add 1 tsp sugar, mix and then add ¼ tsp (heaped) yeast and mix well and keep aside undisturbed in a warm place until it rises. (Usually for 10 minutes). If the yeast doesn’t rise, then there is no point in continuing. If the yeast rises, thick froth will appear on the surface of the sugar dissolved warm water.

Mix ground raw rice, thick paste (cooled down to normal temperature), yeast mixture and mix thoroughly. The batter should be thick-thick. Add 2 tsp of sugar also and mix again and keep aside.a pic of the batter

Remember to keep the batter in a vessel 6 times the original volume. Yeast is very naughty; it will spill your mixture otherwise.

Okay, after say 8 or 10 hours, it is time for some acrobatics. The batter will be double in volume.

You need an appam pan. You get nonstick pans. I have an iron one which makes perfect saucer shapes.Now, below is a pic of my cute sprayer. I got it from Bed Bath and Beyond.Use gingelly oil which is good for iron pans. I fill this sprayer and use it on my dosa and appam pans.
Very Very handy! (A good buy for India trip). Back home, we use small pieces of coconut husk dipped in oil to rub on the appam pan surface.

For iron pans, spray the pan with gingelly oil the previous night and keep, if you are going to make appam next day morning. This will prevent it from any sticky issues.

Now when you are ready to make appams, heat the pan, spray it with gingelly oil, the surface should completely be sprayed. Make sure your ladle will fit ¼ cup of the batter for pouring.

The batter you prepared might be thick. Add milk (plain milk) to make the batter for thinner consistency, like the dosa batter. Add salt.The batter should flow easily from the ladle and you should be able to rotate the pan with the batter.

Heat the appam pan, spray the appam pan with oil, when the oil starts to smoke, make the flame to medium, hold one end of the pan’s ear, and pour a ladle full of batter in to the middle of the pan.a pic of batter spread completely inside the pan, immediately after pouring

Immediately hold the other end of the pan’s ear and rotate and make the batter spread completely on the inner surface of the pan. This is done in rotating the pan clockwise or anti-clockwise in a 45 degree angle.a pic of appam covered for cooking
The trick is the middle portion of the appam will be thicker and the sides will be thinner, thus forming the saucer shape.a pic of the saucer shape appam

Now cover and cook, until you see the sides the appam detach from the pan or turns crispy. Sugar makes the appam brown on the sides. But don't add, more sugar since it might make the appam stick to the pan. Keep a kitchen cloth near so that you can hold the ears of the pan quickly after pouring the batter. Make sure you hold one ear of the pan before pouring the batter so that you wont lose time.Appam is ready. Serve it with any type of gravy you like. I served it with egg curry. Egg curry is a favorite combination for paalappam.

In the mornings, you know your train has reached some station in Kerala, when you hear the vendors calling out “appam..muttee.. appam…muttee” meaning “appam…egg curry”.

Oh! I miss those train journeys. Holding a 10 rupee note and waving at them to buy the “appam muttee” packed in sautéed banana leaves and some old malayalam newspaper.

Ethakka Kaalan (Plantain in Curd)

Did you know that Jains don’t eat vegetables grown under the earth? I was friends with a young couple in Bangalore and oh boy!, the pains of ‘creativity’ I underwent when I invited them for lunch or dinner. I mean no onions, ginger, and garlic!

That’s when I found out some typical traditional Kerala curries are a perfect fit for followers of Jain religion. There is a piece of ancient religious history that Kerala was the seat of Jainism and then later to Buddhism. I don’t know whether there is this religious influence in these types of dishes.This is an easy, lip-smacking dish made of plantains and curd and a very must item for the famous Onam Sadya. No onion,ginger or garlic,yet delicious to the last drop!Recipe for Kaalan: (The ‘L’ in Kaalan should be pronounced by twisting and touching the tongue on the upper jaw closer to the throat and not near the teeth. If pronounced otherwise, it will mean ‘Yama’ in Malayalam :-).There is no proper translation for Kaalan, sorry.)

There are myriad recipes for this, it depends on whom you ask. I am posting my version.

Ethakka Kaalan (Plantain Kaalan)Semi-ripe plantain diced – 2 cups (Use semi ripe)Cook plantain with 1tsp pepper powder, salt and turmericWhen almost cooked, add 4 cups of sour curd and salt, lightly beaten with a spoon. Don’t use the blender. This should be boiled in low heat until the curd reduces to almost half. Stir occasionally to prevent the curd from curdling.pic of coconut mixtureGrind fine a paste of 2 cups of coconut, 1 tsp cumin seeds and 6 green chilies and add to the dish. When it boils, add 1 tsp of fenugreek seeds powder and take off from flame. Add water with the coconut ,if you find it too thick. The dish preferably is on the thicker side.

Heat 1 tsp of coconut oil, splutter 1 tsp of mustard seeds, sauté 2 red chilies split and 2 springs of curry leaves.Add to the dish. Let it sit for sometime.Serve it with rice. This stays good overnight.

Quail Fry (Kaada erachi varuthathu)

Some years ago, a newly married friend (one of my best friends) of mine shot me an email with the Subject, “Help, I am depressed”. She wrote in the mail,
“L.G. I like my husband and all…but I don’t think he is a good person. He even eats tiny birds. I don’t know how my marriage is going to be.”

I haven’t laughed like that in my life. I told everyone whom I could get hold of and it became the joke of the year at our office. My friend is a 100% vegan! I mean, she considers people who eat mushrooms in non-veg category. She married (yes, arranged marriage) a non-vegan, a 100% one.

Life is full of ironies, isn’t it? Before marriage she asked him everything – Smoke? No. Drink? No. Non-veg? Oh-no! Never. Well after marriage he said to her, “Oh I was just kidding to all the three. Did you take it seriously?"

Well, as any newly wed wife, eager to impress her husband, she even asked me for non-veg recipes. I think she covered her nose, mouth and eyes while cooking non-veg. And one day, her husband brought home Quail Meat or called as ‘kaada erachi’ in Malayalam. Thats how I got the email.

It is considered to be medicinal food and not easily available and hence a sought-after delicacy.

You get it here in U.S in specialty Organic stores like Wild Oats, Whole Foods etc.
Recipe:I didn’t take out the skin, since there is very minimal fat. For 4 quails (cut into 4), mix together 1 diced onion, 12 garlic cloves, 4 inch piece ginger, 4 springs of curry leaves, 10 green chilies slit, 1 tomato, 3 tsp meat masaala, 1 tsp pepper corns crushed, 1 tsp red chilipoweder, salt, ½ tsp turmeric, all crushed coarsely in a food processor.

Mix everything into the quail and keep aside for an hour. Dice 1 small potato.

Heat ½ cup of frying oil, add the potatoes and roast them for 3 minutes. Then add the quail and the mixture and in low heat, fry them. Cover and cook for 10 minutes and then turn the quail pieces and then open cover cook until done.Serve hot with rice or roti. It tastes almost like chicken but it has a different flavour, a little wild meat flavour.

She is living happily ever after with her two wonderful kids and her still-quail-eating husband :). But look who got in trouble for quail hunting.

Rava unniappam (Sooji mini pancakes)

I can't take it any more. I am reading about so many recipes with this unniyappam pan and so many different names. But what happened to the sweet delicacy called unniappam (or unniyappam or sweet mini pancakes) which I love, made with the same pan?

Small tea-shops you find at every corner in Kerala smell of this in the evening tea-time. They make it and store in large glass cases to test small kids, I think.

You can be groomed to become a well-behaved child every single day, but you know, you can’t help but ask your parent to buy you this, when you pass the tea-shop and will end up crying because parents normally like to deny anything you ask, especially from a shacky tea-shop.

Since it is fried in oil, at home, my mom would make it only when there were like hundreds of people, so she wouldn’t have to ‘waste’ the oil. The end result being, you can get your hands on only one or two of these, while your ‘brutal’ cousins and other relatives are having unniyappam chaakara in their mouths.I made it with Sooji or Rava.(There is another version with Rice flour and coconut which I will post later sometime)

The first thing you need is a special skillet as you can see from Indira’s recipes. Don’t worry, you don’t have to go to India but you can buy the pan (Western version) here.

Recipe:Mix 1 cup of Sooji with 1 tsp of ghee.Add enough milk to make it a thick mixture. The mixtures should be of thick consistency, a little thicker than idli batter. Mix in 1/4 cup mashed small banana.Add 1/4 cup jaggery crumbs heated with ¼ cup water and strained - 1/4 cup
OR if adding sugar, add brown sugar -1/2 cup.Mix everything together (try to make the mixture fluffy with air bubbles) and let it sit for one hour.

We need to fry this in oil (Mostly at temples,they fry this in ghee). Use any vegetable oil. Pour oil into each impression. Fill oil upto 3/4th full in each impression. Heat the oil.

When it starts to smoke, pour the batter into each impression filled with oil. DO NOT COVER the skillet. After 5 or 6 minutes, flip the uniappam to the other side and cook. (I couldn’t take good pics, but follow the steps in the recipe, and make it the same way except we don’t cover and we pour oil filling half of each impression.)Serve with hot tea or coffee. The smell of jaggery in oil is heavenly. I used brown sugar i.e. why the light brown colour, if jaggery is used it will be dark brown in colour.

GBP Summer 2006 - May - Green Roma Tomatoes

After I posted about the Green Blog Project and when kind-hearted co-bloggers started to link the Project, I got nervous. Real nervous! I double, triple checked my plants every other day, checked my pots and soil to make sure I have them and they are okay and doing fine.

You know, I was nervous "What If none of my vegetables grow and I can’t post any?
"Well, I got nervous unnecessarily. They have no clue about the GBP for summer and they are all doing fine, healthy and happy (Now, touch wood!).
*Silence, Lights out********Tadang!!!! *Applause, All Lights*

For the month of May for Green Blog Project, I am introducing Garden Fresh Tomatoes.
Green Roma Tomatoes,grown in my garden from seeds, right from Italy…err…sorry from nearby Home Depot.I grow Roma Tomatoes, since they are medium shaped and the right amount for one batch of curry. Roma Tomatoes are heirloom variety from Italy, firm when ripe and very good for sauces and canning.
Tomato flowering in my yard

I got them as seeds (I normally don't like to buy plants, since I want to get that gardener’s satisfaction of starting my babies from seeds).Baby tomatoes starting to form from pollinated flowers

I collect plastic cups after a party, punch couple of holes at the bottom, fill it 3/4th with soil and compost, dig a hole with my finger through quarter way of the cup from top, put the seed in, cover with soil and water it regularly and give them good amount of sunshine. After the danger of frost, I plant them outside in the yard.Tomato ready to pluck for our dishI planted them on February end and now they are growing with vigor giving me a bunch of tomatoes to pick every other week. I pluck them before they turn ripe, for fear of tiny little birds that visit my garden and like to feast on them.Tomatoes are high in Lycopene content, though it is not advised to eat them raw regularly, since their skin can cause kidney stones.
Recipe for Green tomato fry:Green Tomatoes – 3 cups deseeded. Take out the seeds and the pulp after cutting them into half, seeds will make the dish mushy.Cut them into small pieces.Coarse grind or crush 2 pods of garlic, a pinch of cumin, a pinch of salt, ½ cup of coconut in a mortar pestle or without any water in a wet grinder.
Heat 1 tsp of oil, splutter ¼ tsp mustard seeds, sauté 1 sprig of curry leaves, one whole red chili split into two, ½ cup of red onions or shallots diced, 4 green chilies, a pinch of turmeric and salt – in that order.

Add the cut tomatoes, cover and cook for 10 minutes in low flame or until semi done. Now add the coconut paste in the middle, cover the coconut paste with the tomatoes and cover and cook again for 5 or 6 minutes. Open cover and in high flame, stir everything together continuously or until it becomes very dry.Serve it with rice or roti. Isint this a green green blog? :-). They taste similar to brinjal fry, but a little, a very little on the sour side. The coconut mixture actually balances the sourness of rawtomatoes.

Green Peas Gravy (in coconut milk)

I was reading the other day about protein content in vegetables at Indira’s blog. I don’t know why people think you have to eat non-veg for protein content. That’s not true at least for Indian people. Most legumes we eat have more protein content without the fat. Green Peas is one such legume.
Excerpt from the link, A 1 cup serving of peas contains more protein than a whole egg or a tablespoon of peanut butter yet has less than half a gram of fat.

My mom would make us eat every vegetable she can cook and especially legumes, declaring while pouring big spoons of curry on our rice laden plates, "this one spoon of legume is equal to 3 spoons of mutton". Well, we would have preferred 9 spoons of mutton then. ;-)
Sarah, I read somewhere you wanted to have this green peas curry? You are a doc, tell us about protein please.

Recipe for Green Peas Curry or Gravy:This curry uses coconut milk – a Kerala speciality for certain curries.

I don’t use canned coconut milk, but If you use canned coconut milk, scoop out the cream first, without shaking the can – this will be your thalappal or thick coconut milk. The rest of the liquid will be the thinner coconut milk.
OR
Coconut milk thicker – Thalappal in Malayalam. This is made just by grinding scraped coconut without the thin brown skin (not taking about the shell), sprinkling little or if fleshy coconut, no water for thicker milk consistency)

Coconut milk thinner – After squeezing out the thalappal, add I cup of water for 1 cup of scraped coconut, grind and then thinner milk is squeezed out.

Don’t throw away the squeezed out pulp. You can add this to vegetable fry mixing with fresh scraped coconut. i.e. for 1 cup of fresh grated coconut, you can mix the squeezed out pulp half and the fresh grated coconut half. That way, you are not throwing away the pulp. You can store the squeezed out pulp in the freezer.

Dried Green Peas soaked overnight– 2 cups. I don’t make curries with the frozen ones, since they are very sweet.

Ginger garlic crushed or diced thin – 2 tsp
Red Onions – ½ cup
Tomato - 2
Garam Masala Powder or Meat Masala Powder – 1.5 tsp
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Green chilies - 4
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves.
Coconut milk thinner - 1.5 cup
Coconut milk thicker - 1/4 cup(You can add 1/2 cup diced potato, but this is optional)
Bay Leaf – 1 whole (Peas curry gives out an unpleasant odor sometimes, so to make it pleasant)

Cook the soaked peas next day in a pressure cooker with salt. Make sure you don’t over cook this, since the soaked peas is very soft.

Heat 2 tsp oil, splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, sauté curry leaves, diced green chilies, onion diced, ginger and garlic paste, diced tomato in that order. Add turmeric and salt to the sauté. (Remember we have also added salt to the peas).

Add garam masala powder, red chili powder and sauté again for one or two minutes until the raw smell is gone. Add the peas (potato if you want), bay leaf and the thinner coconut milk. Boil the gravy for 6 or 7 minutes or until potato is done if you have added. Before taking out from heat, add the thick coconut milk, mix well and immediately take out from heat.Serve it with rice or roti. It is very nutritious and tasty gravy.

Guess the fruit?

Bursting through the roof in anti-oxidant content,I read in Newsweek, the juice of this is the current fad among health nuts. I am not sure whether it will really fruit this year, but it is producing lots of flowers.

Dry ginger coffee (chukku kaappi)

Please raise your hand, if you have never ever had chukku kappi or dry ginger coffee.
(I hope I don’t see any raised hands, since you have missed out something great in your life. :-))

I have a sore throat and nothing, let me tell you no over-the-counter medicines can even come near this one.You can buy dry ginger powder here in U.S Indian stores. Or you can get dry ginger (rarely seen) from a store here or can bring it from India. Dry ginger is called chukku in Malayalam. Fresh Ginger is sun dried to make chukku. Read about God's own coffee.

It has been raining here since morning, it stops to drizzle for an hour and then again it starts to rain heavily...and chukku kaapi is the best when rain plays hide-and-seek!

Recipe: (for one sore throat)
Dry ginger - 1/2 inch piece nicely ground or crushed Or 1/2 tsp of dry ginger powderWhole Peppercorns - 2Coffee powder (Instant also will do)Boil 1.5 cups of water, then add dry ginger and crushed peppercorn. Boil it again for 4-5 minutes. Take off from heat, add instant coffee powder and jaggery (Or can add sugar, usually back home instead of jaggery, 'karippetti' -- another form of jaggery, is added). Add good amount of sugar, since the coffee is spicy-hot.Hmm...Nice good medicinal coffee! And there…it has started to rain again....I think I am being transported back to good old Kerala. Try this during rainy season, if you want to visit Kerala without the tickets ;-)
I don’t know at what stage of cane sugar making process, this 'karipetti' is formed. If someone knows please let me know.

Kanji (Rice gruel)

People from Kerala are mockingly called “Kanji” by fellow Tamilians :). I think it all dates back to a story when Tamil Nadu had famine, we send them ‘kanji’. Now don’t get ideas and call me kanji L.G :-) (My tamilian friends always do that!!Grr)

Kanji is simple rice gruel which is enjoyed by the poor and the rich equally in Kerala. It is a comforting food which is eaten as breakfast/dinner. Normally people don’t have it for lunch since it is very light.(Even the Italians have a version of Kanji too! – called risotto. Elsewhere in the world, it is called congee.

I am happy to note that it is derived from the all Malayalee Kanji.)If you google for Kanji, you get this, which is completely different. :-)

Most homes in Kerala have it as dinner, though at my mom’s ancestral home they had it as 10 a.m. breakfast (Yeah, they had two breakfasts, a light one at 6 a.m. and kanji at 10 a.m.!! *snort*).

Kanji is a complete wholesome meal, easily digestible and very nutritious. Ayurveda, India’s ancient medicinal system attributes most of all ailments to the food we eat and the digestive system.

Kanji is one super healer for your digestive system, when you are sick, old, kids etc. Especially at night time when you are supposed to eat light. So mostly, old people have it as their dinner. Most ayurvedic physicians recommend kanji or kanjivellam for your diet when you are sick.

Kanjivellam (or Rice Water strained from par-boiled or double boiled rice) is our home’s standard remedy for everything from sore throat to flu. A little salt is added to the kanjivellam, that’s all.a pic of kanjivellam

Kanji can be had with a lot of accompaniments. Yesterday's fish curry gravy, mango-coconut chutney, a variety of other chutneys especially the grilled coconut chutney, pappadam, pickle especially whole mango pickle, a little shaved coconut etc. – it is up to your imagination for toppings. I love to have it with some left over gravy.

We eat everything else with our hands,but for kanji we need to have a 'spoon'.Before the invention of spoon, people in Kerala (or India?), used this as the use and throw spoon.Quite indigenous aren’t we? Even with all the spoons, my grandfather used to eat Kanji with this until he died. This is made from plavila or Jackfruit trees leaves.Yesterday for dinner we had kanji and I was taking pictures of it, when my husband declared, he is not going to have any more food which has already been photographed! Of course, he is teasing me. He picks up a banana peel or an onion skin and teases me saying, “Hey take a picture of this one, people would like to see this, I am sure.” I am learning to ignore!

To make kanji, par-boiled or double-boiled rice is best, since it should be of a creamy consistency. I use double-boiled red rice. There is also, another variety, broken double-boiled rice (called ‘podiyari kanji’) which is given mostly for fever or cold or for children, since you don’t have to chew on it.

Recipe for two people: ½ cup red double boiled rice (You can use any variety par-boiled rice)½ cup whole green moong beansCook it in minimal water until everything is of mushy consistency. I cook it in a pressure cooker with 3 cups of water. You don’t strain the water from the cooked rice, so make sure you don’t add too much water. Serve hot only.

Some people skip on the moong beans and add rice instead.Moong Beans is called 'kanjipayaru' in Kerala and is a typical addition in Kerala kanji’s (No pun intended!)Add your favorite toppings, a little salt and have a good wholesome meal! What I like best is, it is the quickest wholesome meal one can prepare and you don’t hear any complaints of any curries when they slurp their kanji! Now thats what I call a real Happy Meal!

Vanilla flavored shrimp

Yes, you read the title right.

Barabara's Spice is Right II challenge, was really interesting I put on my thinking cap, which I use very rarely.

I very much wanted to participate in Indira's JFI:Mangoes, but I was stupid. I thought I had to create the recipe on May 1st itself. And May 1st was such a bad day for me, if I got mangoes that day, I would have thrown at someone, instead of cooking with it.

So, this challenge I couldn’t just let it go. C'mon I said and I started to think of a spice. Yes! I hit on vanilla. I had some beans left from my last India trip.I am really hesitant to make a fool of myself and the last thing I like is to experiment with ingredients or 'create' recipes, since my past experiences haunt me still.

Vanilla is not native to Kerala. But it is now widely cultivated in Kerala for the past 15 or so years and it grows well in Kerala's climate. When Madagascar, the original world of Vanilla, flooded, Vanilla made many Malayalees instant millionaires.

It was pricier than Gold, and young men started to advertise in matrimonial columns as "Looking for bride, age 20-24, fair, brought up in a vanilla farm"(hehehe. Just kidding!)

Anyway I thought no one can even think of make something savory with vanilla. Well I was wrong as always. Just like I thought cinnamon can never be used as a sweet spice. I had to just google vanilla savory recipe and though not a lot, there were few I could find.

This recipe asked for king fish, I didn’t want to destroy an expensive king fish steak. I got shrimp for 5$.

And with shrimp I knew I couldn’t go wrong. If it doesn’t work, I know I can convert the shrimp to something else.So, here is the recipe I 'created'.2.5 cups of shrimp shelled, deveined and cleaned

Crushed dry red chilies - 8 dried red chilies or use as you prefer it (Don’t grind to a fine powder, just crush them in a coffee grinder)

Garlic pods diced thin - 4 tsp
Shallots diced thin - 4 tsp
Ginger diced thin - 1 tsp
Vanilla beans - 1 cut into pieces (Or use vanilla flavor – 1 tsp)
Balsamic Vinegar - 1/4 cup with 1/2 cup water
Tomatoes - 3 small diced
Heat 3 tsp olive oil, sauté garlic + ginger and shallot in that order.

Add tomatoes and vinegar and water. Cook the tomatoes. When tomatoes are cooked, add crushed chili and vanilla beans or flavor. Add shrimp and mix everything. Add salt.

Cover and cook until it boils and then open cover and let the vinegar water evaporate completely. This is a dry dish. Let everything get coated nicely on the shrimps.The thing is, the flavor of vanilla is so overpowering, the typical ginger garlic taste everything gets absorbed by the flavor of this vanilla, though I couldn’t find much taste difference.

It turned out real good. Hope you could see my delightful glee!This is an excellent appetizer or side dish. Serve with wine or some carbonated drink.Since I added a good amount of chili, it tasted hot, a little sweet and a little sour. The combination of balsamic vinegar and vanilla makes the aroma of vanilla a savory kind. (I think it is similar to cinnamon, how the aroma changes with sugar.)

The best part of the dish is the heavenly aroma which makes your husband get up from the couch and visit the kitchen (a rare thing!).

Aval nanachathu (Rice Flake Snack) and Egg Puffs

When Kuchelan visited Lord Krishna (his classmate) at Dwaraka, all he had was a little bit of aval.

When today I had unexpected visitors at tea time, all I had was little bit of aval too. I hope I get that mansion tomorrow.

Rice Flake Snack (അവല്‍ നനച്ചതു)
This is such a simple and quick snack, and certainly tastier than any "hip-hop" snacks, my mom would prepare it in the evening, for her hungry starving children from school. This is so filling, after eating this snack, we kids wouldn’t harass her with 'I-am-hungry' for the next two or three hours.I used to bring bags of these from back home, since we never used to get the red flake rice here. But nowadays everything is readily available; you only have to fill your suitcases with home-made eatables. It is written brown on the packet,it is the same.

1 cup red/brown rice flake (It is made from this)1/2 cup coconut powder1/2 cup jaggery1/4 tsp of cumin

Now mix everything, think about a person whom you hate most and crush the ingredients with your hand thoroughly. The rice flake should be smashed with your hand nicely. At least for 10 minutes, do this and keep aside for 10 minutes for everything to greet each other. Serve with ripe bananas.If you find it little hard, sprinkle some milk and mix it again.

Egg Puffs
I used to collect money (well, ’collect' it is, don’t ask) to buy this snack from the nearby bakery at school, since for some weird reason my parents believed, one should not eat stuff from outside.

So egg puffs would be a rare treat like on a Wedding or some occasion or from the bakery I sneak out to ;-). I can still remember the aroma of egg puffs that makes one weak and hungry, when you walk past those bakeries on your way to school. Do we think with our noses or what?

I don’t know whether pastry sheets are available in India. But in U.S, it is available and it is so easy to make a quick snack.

For 4 eggs,Masala: Heat 1 tsp of vegetable oil, sauté 1 diced onion, 1tsp of diced ginger, 3 green chilies, 2 sprigs of curry leaves, salt, 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric, add 1 diced tomato in that order. Take from heat and add 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala. Divide into 8 equal portions.Boil eggs hard. Take out the shell, and cut the egg into two halves.Roll out the pastry sheet like dough and cut into 4*4 inch square pieces.

If dough is sticking, sprinkle some all prupose flour on the sheet and roll again. On a pastry sheet, place the egg and put the masala portion on top.Roll and seal it like egg puffs, i.e. fold two ends of the pastry sheet and seal them.If you use your hand for putting the masala on top of the egg, your hand will be oily enough to seal both the ends of the sheet.

If you brush, beaten egg white on top, it will look good, but I don’t do it. Seal only two ends.

Dont seal the other two ends.

I dont know why, but the eggs peeking out makes it look good.

Bake for 20 minutes on 350 degrees, or until the pastry sheets are turning golden brown. The pastry will puff up and will turn flaky and crispy. Line your baking pan with parchment paper so that you don’t have to brush oil on the baking pan.Serve with tomato sauce. Kids just love it.

Red Fish curry (Kottayam Style)

Kottayam in Kerala is known as the land of lakes, letters and latex. To me, this beautiful town is all about ‘the red fish curry’ and Arundhati Roy.

This dish is a Kottayam or a central Kerala specialty. My mom however hates this fish curry. First reason is she doesn’t know how to make it, second we all love her 'special coconut fish curry' too much!

But, my dad loves this fish curry. He is nostalgic about it, since his mom used to make it and one time, one rare time, my mom tried this red curry but it flopped miserably. So I was on a mission to learn how to make this red fish curry to prepare it for my dad. Now, the hard part was, everybody makes it differently...add a little that too, they would say and it changes the fish curry completely.

Anyway I tested this fish curry umpteen times, I was brave enough to serve it to my dad, last time I went back home and he loved it! Well, that’s all it matters and that’s the recipe I am going to write. He told me “Just like my mom used to make" What more does a daughter need in life?

He wanted me to prepare it for next day lunch also. But, the next day something happened to our kitchen sink and the water had stopped. But my dad told me, "If you will make that fish curry one more time, I will carry the big syntex water tank to the kitchen"...Well...well...well...My envious sister is trying to learn how to make this now…hehehe...Red Fish curry Fish slices (Use fleshy ones like king mackerel/king fish, mackerel, pomfret, pompano, snapper etc). Cut into 3 inch pieces. (At our fish store here, they will cut into "curry pieces", yes, that’s what they ask, "steak or curry")

Wash the fish 5 or 6 times in water and rub with salt and keep aside for 15 or 20 minutes so the water will run from the fish pieces. Discard the water and wash the fish again. Some people take the skin out of every fish, but I don’t. I just rub it really really clean with a sharp knife and rub salt nicely on the pieces.

For 4 cup of fish pieces , (I got fresh pompano,which looks like a fatter version of pomfret)
Red chili powder - 1.5 tsp
Paprika - 1 tsp (Now don’t ever buy Laxmi brand paprika, it is a total waste). I don’t use paprika anymore, I get the Waynad brand red 'piriyan' chili which is bright red in color but is not that hot. Or grind to a fine powder, the outer skin of dried chilies without the seeds. This is for the bright red color for the curry.
Pepper – ¼ tsp
Fenugreek – ¼ tsp (Roast dry and powder)Kudampuli – 4 pieces sliced and immersed in 1/4 cup of water
Red onion – 1/2 cup diced thin and short
Ginger – 1 tsp
Garlic – 5 tsp
Curry leaves – 3 or 4 sprigs.

Slice and crush ginger and garlic. Mix together the chili powder, paprika, pepper powder, fenugreek and ¼ tsp turmeric and add little water to make it a thick paste.

Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil, sauté the onions well, sauté ginger and garlic, add the paste and in low flame, sauté the paste for 3 minutes. Add the kudampuli with the water; add the curry leaves and the fish pieces. Mix the pieces with the paste and the mixture. Add 1 cup of water. It is very important you prepare in a shallow pot or a mannchatti so that you don’t need to add water. Add salt and adjust.

Remember you have rubbed the fish pieces with salt,so dont add too much salt.

Cover and cook until the water boils, then simmer the heat until the fish pieces are done. There should not be much gravy for this curry. Rotate the pot once or twice, while cooking, so that fish pieces will be covered with the gravy.
Serve it with rice. Yummy! This curry actually tastes excellent the next day. So if you are planning for dinner, prepare it in the morning.

For that fishy smell in your hands,this is really good. I tried. It is available at Bed,Bath and Beyond too. I have no idea how it takes the stink out of your hands.

Guess the fruit? (Wax Jambu)

This fruit evokes strong memories for me. For summer vacation we would go to my dad’s ancestral home and the first thing I do is climb on this tree, fold my skirt like a bag, get as many pink ones as I can collect in my little bag, tuck as many story books (balarama, poombaataa) into my armpit and run to the nearest stream with my cousins…munch on them and read…until the supply is over.

I know this is an easy one. But it has so many different names every 2 k.m. Want to get all the names as possible.

It has just started to fruit in my garden, Waiting impatiently for it to mature! I don’t know whether it is those memories or the taste that makes me go and stare at it everyday.