Ginger Candy and Injithair

It has been a couple of blog years since I took part in JFI. I know I know they have been missing my entry :-). RP reminded me of JFI and this time the ingredient is JFI-Ginger. How can a ginger girl from ‘Ginger and Mango’ not take part in that?

So, I thought of all complicated dishes and ended up on this very complicated dish called Injithair in South Kerala. This I have seen only served during Onam festival sadya.

Grate some ginger 1 cup, 3 green chilies, crush them together, add 1 cup of curd.
That’s it. Injithair is ready.

Then I remembered how long back Sarah wanted the recipe for injimuttai or ginger candy. This candy is sold especially in bus stops by small vendors, for this can alleviate the nausea and discomfort during the bus journeys. This was the only candy that passed the test of parents and you could eat them lot.
I didn’t get the recipe for injimuttai. I searched for ginger candy and ended up with lot of recipes. I am unable to remember whether the ginger candy we used to eat was made from whole ginger or ginger juice? Anyway I made with ginger pieces. Boil 1 cup of diced ginger pieces in water for 15 minutes and strain. This makes the ginger pieces softer.

For 1 cup of ginger, add ½ cup of sugar and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil and then simmer until the sugary water evaporates completely. Make sure ginger pieces do not start to stick to the pan. Take off from heat, arrange the ginger pieces on a wax paper and dry them. (I used brown sugar and the candy resembled garnet)
I am not sure whether the ginger candy or the nostalgia tasted great.

Thank You Series - 2

Blogging is so much fun but it turns a little sour when an anonymous leaves a nasty comment. But then I shouldn’t generalize about anonymous since there are a lot of sweet anonymous(es) out there who leave absolutely wonderful comments like these.

My darling husband bought a bag full of cranberries thinking it was cherries (don’t roll your eyes please; it happens a lot in our home). The same day chanced upon Krishna Arjun’s post on cranberries and was curious about this cranberry thokku recipe left as a comment by ‘ash’.
Thokku is pickle, where the main ingredient is used in a mashed form. There is mango thokku, gooseberry thokku, tomato thokku etc.

Cranberries – 4 cups, cook with a ¼ cup water until soft.

Heat ½ cup gingelly oil, splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, lower heat and add fenugreek seeds and 1 tsp asafotedia. When the fenugreek turns a slight brown, add 2 tsp chili powder and 1.5 tsp salt. Sauté well and let the water evaporate completely until the cranberry turns a thick paste with no water. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pan.It tastes so delicious. Serve with rice or roti.

I am not sure of the shelf life so I have refrigerated the pickle. Thank you once again ‘ash’.

Dont laugh at the picture please, but I too made vettu cake. I think I am serious competition to Archana in cooking and photography. Poor girl! :-) . Had never even heard of such a thing until she wrote about it.

Then, I made Hyderabad Biryani following Nabeelas recipe and it turned out just great. This is as she says is 'Dum Biryani' where the meat and rice is cooked together.
Made cranberry salsa, following Krishna Arjuna's recipe

Thank you all once again.

Kadala Curry or black channa dal curry

Everybody makes channa dal and then my aunt makes channa dal…

Usually in Kerala households, black channa is made with ground fried coconut or coconut milk. Kerala has a special liking for black channa, but even then I don’t think our coconut version of channa dal curry or kadala curry is impressive.
Though this big secret of non-impressive kadala curry has been hushed up by many mothers and grandmothers, the rebel that I am had to come out with the truth one day.
“Actually, you know, err…I am not really found of our Kerala style kadala curry. Channa and coconut do not blend together and all the curries I have tasted of channa, the adamant black channa refuses to get infused with the delicate coconut”

There was absolute silence as I blurted this out during an unofficial family gathering and then my lovely aunt, held my hand, looked into my confused eyes and told me…
”I know what you are saying. I have been there. Come, I will teach you the secrets of this harsh World…err…sorry I got carried away…I will show you how to make proper kadala curry”

She then taught me how to make the best kadala curry I have tasted and how to ditch the coconut.

Black channa dal – 2 cups washed and soaked for more than 12 hours.

Pressure cook 1/2 cup onion, 2 tsp of chili powder, 1 tsp of garam masala powder, ¼ cup garlic crushed, 1 tsp ginger diced, 3 green chilies and ¼ cup tomato diced with the soaked black channa adding enough salt and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and add ½ cup water. Pressure cook well. Black channa needs a lot of time to get cooked.

Heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, sauté 1 spring curry leaf. To this add a little salt and a pinch of turmeric. Then add the cooked channa mixture. Now is the trick. Add ¼ cup of ordinary tomato sauce, mix well in the curry and then let it simmer for 5 minutes.Serve it with rice, roti, or puttu.

Guess?

After a long time, I am blogging again. Was itching to blog, but I had to cook something, for this is a food blog. Couldn’t put pictures of food someone else cooked (hehehe).
Anyway will be cooking again and back to blogging and sharing recipes. Hurray! (What? You didn’t feel the same hurray?) hehehe… I am just silly!

Okay, before all that…ahem…let me see whether you can guess these two. (Or in other words, while I start to cook, just to keep you entertained)

Below are pictures of two spices we use regularly. Guess them. (Note: a pretty little baking fairy is not allowed to guess!) ;-)