Jackfruit seeds and Mango

I was in the mood of a quick simple dish, that can wash away homesickness. And it would be Jackfruit seeds along with sour mangoes in a simple coconut gravy. Both are not in season, so I open my freezer.

Half kilo jackfruit seeds, cooked. I bought the frozen one from store. But if you have them fresh, you would need to peel the hard skin and the soft brown skin and cook them thorough.


Add 2 cups of mango pieces and enough water to the cooked jackfruit seeds and when mangoes are done, add 1 tsp chili powder, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, coconut ground to a paste 1 cup and enough salt. As the coconut mix starts to boil, reduce heat to a min, wait for 5 minutes and take from heat. Mangoes should not bee too sour but enough to tingle your tongue.

Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil, when it starts to splutter, to this add 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 sprig of curry leaves, two dry red chili. Saute well and then add to the jackfruit mango gravy. Serve hot with boiled rice.

Ah! it smells like rain.

Brinjal Mezhukkupuratti

Many don’t like Brinjal due to its gooey texture after cooking. But at home, since my mom was very strict on us eating all kind of vegetables she could lay her hands on, we never got time to complain about texture. I was told by someone Brinjal didn’t have any nutrients and even plucked out some Brinjal plants. I was wrong. It has a stash of nutrients and those violet colors are good for you.

Mezhukkupuratti is malayalam for stir fry.

I cut brinjal in small rounds one inch thick. Dont cut them too thin, for they will squish too soon. You can cut them in one inch thick elongated pieces too.

For 3 cups of brinjal, dice ½ cup shallots, 1 pod of garlic, 4 green chilies.

Heat 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a skillet, splutter 1 tsp of mustard seeds, add two split red chilies, 1 sprig of curry leaves. Then add the garlic, green chilies and onion in that order.

Now add the cut brinjal and some salt and sauté them well in the oil and lower the heat to a minimum. Sweat the vegetables by covering it and then stir them occasionally.

When they are soft, take them off from heat.

Serve as an accompaniment to rice.

Raw Banana Stir Fry (Kaaya Upperi)

Raw banana with smashed shallots and chili, sautéed in some coconut oil… Love to have that with some curd and rice.

Buy raw bananas, any type. Usually in India, we get bananas that are used only for cooking. We call it ‘ponthan kaaya’, they are short and stout and is not good to eat when ripe. That is they are less sweet. So we cook them.

Anyway you can use the same for any raw banana.

Scrape the skin of lightly. Do not take the whole skin. Dip them in turmeric water (a little turmeric powder added to water) to avoid discoloration and to get rid of the sap while cutting.

Cook 3 cups of bananas diced into half inch squares in 2 cups of water with enough salt and ¼ tsp turmeric powder.

Heat 1 tbsp of coconut oil, sauté crushed shallots and a sprig of curry leaves, 4 green chilies, and add the cooked bananas. Sauté them well and smash it lightly. Instead of green chilies, you can add crushed whole pepper.

I have seen some add a tinge of asafoetida. I don’t, so you needn’t :-)

I would say coconut oil is a must for upperi/mezhukkupuratti (stir fry in English) like this, since the coconut oil gives the dish a very unique flavor and taste.

Serve with rice or roti.

Mashed Bittergourd and Potatoes

Don’t like bittergourd? Add them to potatoes. Yes, bittergourd and potato is a spectacular combination. Like one big happy family they cling on to each other sharing the sweetness and the bitterness. This is one great way to make all those bitterphobic kids and grownups to have a little iron in their food and to welcome bitter gourd, the nutrient rich gourd into your dinner plate.



Bitter grourd. Deseed and remove all the inner pulp. Cut into one inch pieces – 2 cups

Potatoes peeled and cut into one inch pieces – 2 cups

Boil them together with 2 cups of water, 1 tsp of chili powder, a little salt and ½ tsp of turmeric. When cooked mash the lightly.


Now heat 2 tsp oil, splutter mustard seeds, 1 sprig of curry leaves.
Sauté 1 crushed garlic pod with 1 cup of diced onion and 1/2 cup of diced tomato. Saute well.

Add the mashed potato bittergourd mixture and sauté for 5 minutes.

Serve with rice or roti.

Psst...If anyone asks why the potato has a slight bitter taste, you can exaplin to them that those potatoes are from the mountains of MachuPichu and the soil there turns them a little mineraly richly bitter and that they are having a taste of real MachuPichu…. Oh What all one has to do to get some iron in their food.

Simple Potato Curry

Puris and potato curry for a Sunday brunch, for a train journey, as a friend drops by – it is the simplest and the best.

I am yet to find a pantry that doesn’t store potatoes. With around five thousand varieties, you get them in any part of the World. Imagine a World where there were no potatoes? Well, ask the Irish about the Potato Famine.

Cultivated some 7000 years ago in Peru, they are the quintessential food for many countries. Do you know in some of the old U.S stealth submarines, all they could store were potatoes and the soldiers ate them day after day, night after night which kept them alive.

It is only after moving to U.S, I knew people just eat them as main meal, the baked potato dish. The very first day in U.S, someone at the table ordered potato skins and I was like, Whaaat?? I just pick them up at the grocery like onions without even thinking and put them in everything. And finally when they are too many, I make the ever simple, ever delicious potato curry.

Peel and dice them small like this. 2 cups

3 green chilies
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Onions diced thin – 2 tsp
Turmeric powder -/12 tsp.
Salt
Peas cooked (2 tbsp) – optional

Heat 2 tsp oil, splutter ½ tsp mustard seeds, add the curry leaves, diced green chilies and onion and sauté well. Then add the potatoes, add ½ tsp turmeric powder and add 1 cup of water and cook in low flame. When almost cooked, add the cooked peas. Add salt to adjust taste.

When cooked, mash them lightly if you like it that way.

Serve with puris.

Aviyal

You have mean little brothers you can squeeze and bite and then one fine day they just grow up to be young men you rarely see and they send you an email asking,
'How to make aviyal?'
You put up a big sister show and ask, 'What, you making aviyal?' Then it hits you they are away from home staying at a place where they get aviyal but they terribly miss home food and your heart goes out to them for the FIRST time. :-)

They don’t want to ask anyone else other than you not 'cos you make the best aviyal, but just 'cos they want to feel you are making it for them…. Ooo I am a big sentimental idiot when it comes to little brothers and I kind of feel very lucky the more you have them.

This is the best aviyal I have ever made, just 'cos he asked me the recipe. I asked, 'I will put it on my blog and dedicate it to you, is that okay?' I am sure he rolled his large eyes and shook his head, but he nodded and grunted 'okeeh'

Will there be any other chance for me to embarrass him in front of my friends and to tell him love yoooooooooooouuuuuuu without seeing his disgusting frown.

Sshooo, here it is my darling brother, THE AVIYAL Love! From your sister.

Aviyal has a story behind it, like most of my recipes :-). A king in Travancore hosted a huge feast and the food was so delicious, people took too many second helpings and the food got over quickly.

King panicked and asked his chefs to make more. But since all the vegetables were made to dishes, chefs were forced to make a dish with the left over vegetables. And it suddenly became a big hit. That’s the story on aviyal.

It is Kerala’s most favorite vegetable dish and so easy to comfortable to make. Comfortable in the sense, I raid my refrigerator in the weekend for left over vegetables and whatever comes handy I make aviyal with that. No special vegetables needed.

The basic is quite simple. Mix and match vegetables. Do not use bittergourd since it’s bitterness would dominate the taste of the dish. Do not use beetroot since it would color it pink. Do not use leafy vegetables since they belong some place else.
Most common vegetables used are Carrot, Drumstick, Potato, Raw banana, Snake gourd, beans, Yam etc. And softer vegetables like Pumpkin, Ash gourd, Cucumber, Okra.

Now on to aviyal’s most famous vegetable cutting process. Cut each vegetable in length - the size of your middle finger and the width will be double the size of your finger. I had no clue about this length and size of the aviyal mix and would cut them in any way I want until I did that at my in-laws place and the maid looked at me in horror.

So these are the vegetables I had in store. These need not be the same if you make. There is no hard and fast rule for these. In Kerala, you get aviyal mix in vegetable shops where they cut and give. Or now you get frozen aviyal vegetable mix.

Boil the hard to cook vegetables in a pot with half the measure of water. That is, if you have 3 cups of vegetable, add 1 and half cup water, cook in low flame with enough salt and ½ tsp turmeric powder.

When they are almost cooked, add 1 cup of softer vegetables, mix and cook until the water is completely evaporated. Cover and cook so you don’t need much water. Make sure not to mash the vegetables.

For 4 cups of vegetables, have 1 and half cups of freshly grated coconut and crush them with 1 tsp of cumin seeds and 4 green chilies and enough salt and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder. Do not grind to a smooth paste.

We need some sourness for aviyal. You can either mix ½ cup of sour curd or cook one sour mango along with the hard vegetables. I like to add the sour curd. I mix it with the crushed coconut and add to the aviyal. But this time, I added mango pieces.

Add ½ cup water to the crushed coconut and add to the cooked vegetables, mix and cook for two more minutes covered.

Now comes the best part, the coconut oil part. Heat 1 table spoon of coconut oil and add a sprig of curry leaves and add to the aviyal and mix. Yes, coconut oil is a must for the real flavour. Hey, don’t give me the cholesterol look. You are eating 4 cups of vegetables and a tsp of oil won’t hurt you.

I learned cooking after marriage out of necessity and so I used to splutter mustard seeds on aviyal until a friend who saw that rolled on the ground laughing. So I have been suffering all the embarrassment for you my friends, so that you make the best aviyal.

Always make sure you add water little by little while cooking vegetables since if you add too much water, it destroys the flavors.

Serve with rice. I just eat it plain. I love it so much…..just like my lovey dovey brother. Hehehe… Haven’t I embarrassed him enough?

- Your loving ‘Precious’ sister ;)

Oh BTW, Happy Vishu to all!

Aviyal

You have mean little brothers you can squeeze and bite and then one fine day they just grow up to be young men you rarely see and they send you an email asking,
'How to make aviyal?'
You put up a big sister show and ask, 'What, you making aviyal?' Then it hits you they are away from home staying at a place where they get aviyal but they terribly miss home food and your heart goes out to them for the FIRST time. :-)

They don’t want to ask anyone else other than you not 'cos you make the best aviyal, but just 'cos they want to feel you are making it for them…. Ooo I am a big sentimental idiot when it comes to little brothers and I kind of feel very lucky the more you have them.

This is the best aviyal I have ever made, just 'cos he asked me the recipe. I asked, 'I will put it on my blog and dedicate it to you, is that okay?' I am sure he rolled his large eyes and shook his head, but he nodded and grunted 'okeeh'

Will there be any other chance for me to embarrass him in front of my friends and to tell him love yoooooooooooouuuuuuu without seeing his disgusting frown.

Sshooo, here it is my darling brother, THE AVIYAL Love! From your sister.

Aviyal has a story behind it, like most of my recipes :-). A king in Travancore hosted a huge feast and the food was so delicious, people took too many second helpings and the food got over quickly.

King panicked and asked his chefs to make more. But since all the vegetables were made to dishes, chefs were forced to make a dish with the left over vegetables. And it suddenly became a big hit. That’s the story on aviyal.

It is Kerala’s most favorite vegetable dish and so easy to comfortable to make. Comfortable in the sense, I raid my refrigerator in the weekend for left over vegetables and whatever comes handy I make aviyal with that. No special vegetables needed.

The basic is quite simple. Mix and match vegetables. Do not use bittergourd since it’s bitterness would dominate the taste of the dish. Do not use beetroot since it would color it pink. Do not use leafy vegetables since they belong some place else.
Most common vegetables used are Carrot, Drumstick, Potato, Raw banana, Snake gourd, beans, Yam etc. And softer vegetables like Pumpkin, Ash gourd, Cucumber, Okra.

Now on to aviyal’s most famous vegetable cutting process. Cut each vegetable in length - the size of your middle finger and the width will be double the size of your finger. I had no clue about this length and size of the aviyal mix and would cut them in any way I want until I did that at my in-laws place and the maid looked at me in horror.

So these are the vegetables I had in store. These need not be the same if you make. There is no hard and fast rule for these. In Kerala, you get aviyal mix in vegetable shops where they cut and give. Or now you get frozen aviyal vegetable mix.

Boil the hard to cook vegetables in a pot with half the measure of water. That is, if you have 3 cups of vegetable, add 1 and half cup water, cook in low flame with enough salt and ½ tsp turmeric powder.

When they are almost cooked, add 1 cup of softer vegetables, mix and cook until the water is completely evaporated. Cover and cook so you don’t need much water. Make sure not to mash the vegetables.

For 4 cups of vegetables, have 1 and half cups of freshly grated coconut and crush them with 1 tsp of cumin seeds and 4 green chilies and enough salt and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder. Do not grind to a smooth paste.

We need some sourness for aviyal. You can either mix ½ cup of sour curd or cook one sour mango along with the hard vegetables. I like to add the sour curd. I mix it with the crushed coconut and add to the aviyal. But this time, I added mango pieces.

Add ½ cup water to the crushed coconut and add to the cooked vegetables, mix and cook for two more minutes covered.

Now comes the best part, the coconut oil part. Heat 1 table spoon of coconut oil and add a sprig of curry leaves and add to the aviyal and mix. Yes, coconut oil is a must for the real flavour. Hey, don’t give me the cholesterol look. You are eating 4 cups of vegetables and a tsp of oil won’t hurt you.

I learned cooking after marriage out of necessity and so I used to splutter mustard seeds on aviyal until a friend who saw that rolled on the ground laughing. So I have been suffering all the embarrassment for you my friends, so that you make the best aviyal.

Always make sure you add water little by little while cooking vegetables since if you add too much water, it destroys the flavors.

Serve with rice. I just eat it plain. I love it so much…..just like my lovey dovey brother. Hehehe… Haven’t I embarrassed him enough?

- Your loving ‘Precious’ sister ;)

Oh BTW, Happy Vishu to all!

(There was some problem with the feeder and so I reposted it again. Closed the comment section here to avoid confusion. The same post is reposted on April 15th. Thanks.)

Vegetable Samosa

Who wants some potato vegetable hot samosa? I get Chinese egg roll wrappers at my nearby wal-mart store and I love to make samosas with them, quick and easy for a party. I didnt know they existed and was looking for pastry sheets and found these.

Boil potatoes, dice them in small squares. Heat two teaspoon oil, toss some diced onions, some fresh green peas, green chilies diced, ½ tsp diced ginger, and then when sautéed well add the potatoes. Add some salt and ½ tsp garam masala powder. Mix and remove from heat.

Cut the egg roll wrappers diagonally and place 1 tsp of each potato filling and wet the sides of the wrapper and close the ends in samosa shape i.e a triangle.

Then deep fry them in vegetable oil.

That’s it. Party time! Serve with tomato suace or mint chutney.

Kovakka mezhukkupuratti (Ivy gourd Stir Fry)

Mezhukkupuratti (or Upperi) and Thoran have one basic difference. Thoran has shredded coconut and has a raw taste since cooked in lesser oil while mezhukkupuratti has a slight oily stir fry taste.

I like this better than plain kovakka thoran or the thoran with shrimps I had blogged earlier. With the coconut oil coating, kovakka gets a new taste.

Wash the kovakka (Ivy gourd) thoroughly in running water, cut off both the tips. Cut into thin lengthy strips. Make sure the pieces are very thin so you don’t need to pre cook them before making mezhukupuratti.

For 3 cups,

Small onion – 1 cup thinly diced
One sprig of curry leaves
5 green chilies

Heat 2 tablespoon of coconut oil, for mezhukkupuratti we usually use a little bit more oil.

Splutter one tsp mustard seeds in low heat, add one dry red chili split, add curry leaves, then add shallots and diced green chilies and sauté well. Add kovakka pieces and mix well with 1.2 tsp turmeric powder and enough salt. Stir until the vegetable gets a nice coating and then in cook covered in low heat stirring occasionally.

Serve with rice or roti.

Mushroom Baji

Another easy snack item as a starter. Yes, Yes, I have been having too many parties at home :)

Bajis are a must have all Indians like easy snack item. In India, we usually deep fry stuff with besan flour. This is flour made out of channa dal.

Buy cleaned button mushrooms. There were around 40 hungry people at home and I didn’t get enough whole button mushrooms at store, so bought diced mushroom. It is good to make this with whole button mushrooms. Just wipe the mushroom with a wet cloth, don’t put it inside a tub of water etc to clean, since mushrooms are like sponge and they would hold the water.

You know mushrooms have niacin, which are extremely good for heart. But I am not sure what your heart is gonna do when you deep fry them. Hehehe.

Make a thick batter with besan flour, asafoetida, salt, chili powder, curry leaves diced thin, onions diced very thin, green chilies diced thin.

If you have never made baji before and is thinking about the proportions, I would say for 3 cups of mushrooms, mix two coups of besan flour with 1 cup of water, 3 tsp chili powder, 2 shallots diced very thin, 1 sprig of curry leaves diced thin, enough salt (taste the batter after salt is added), 5 green chilies diced very thin.

Dip the mushrooms and fry them deep in hot vegetable oil. Serve with tomato sauce.

My Lunchbox

I cook daily. That’s a big thing I have heard, especially if you are a working woman in U.S. I spend at least one hour or so in the kitchen daily. This actually relaxes me from the daily grind and I watch TV and news too during this time.

Here is what I do. I make one side dishes and one gravy for two days Sunday evening. I also make buttermilk alternate days. Then everyday during the weekdays I work, I make a single quick side dish or a gravy mostly vegetables, this way I always have a fresh dish. I am not a big fan of too many days refrigerated and frozen food. It makes a lot of difference to have the food fresh daily.

For lunch box, I take buttermilk (which I prepare the previous night) in a bottle to mix the rice with the side dishes. I also drink the rest of the buttermilk, which is a great cooling and also a good stimulant for digestion.

Though I make the side dish the previous night, I cook rice in the morning. I cannot even think of eating rice made the previous day and refrigerated. I am very particular about that. I cook rice in the pressure cooker along with the morning tea and by the time I am ready in half an hour or so, I get cooked rice hot and fresh.

I use the Indian casseroles (or food flasks) as lunch box, which keeps food hot. I heat the side dish and take the buttermilk and my lunch box is ready. This way I don’t have to microwave the food in the afternoons. I don’t like that too. :)

Now, butter milk is a life saver. Seriously! It won’t stink like the gravies if you take lunch to office. I don’t normally take gravies like sambar to office.

This is how to make buttermilk. Crush1 tsp of ginger, 1 sprig of curry leaves, 1 green chili. Then mix 1 cup of water to ¼ cup thick curd and mix with enough salt. Add the crushed ginger etc to this and leave it in the refrigerator the previous night.

That’s it. A sneak preview to my lunchbox.

Tomato Rice with a Kerala touch

I have had tomato rice at hostels and I hated it. Even if they were good, hostel food reminds how far you are from your mother and everything tastes painful. Thus I disliked tomato rice. But then occasional visits at tamilian friend's house and I knew I was missing something. Then one fine day my son told me he loves tomato rice and he wanted to have it badly.

There I go searching frantically for recipes and recipes and didn’t know which one would be good. Then I timidly asked dear Bee who was posting an authentic lime rice recipe and she was kind enough to get hold of a wonderful tomato rice recipe.

None of us at home would eat plain white rice unless it is biriyani rice and that too made it in biriyani way. And If I was going to introduce a different kind of cooked rice at home, then I had to make sure I don’t upset the Kerala rice-immersed- in-gravy combinations. Also, none of us entertain the idea of having a little dry rice. Dry rice preparations like pulav are eaten at home laden with yogurt, curries and what not. But then to get the real flavor of tomato rice, I wanted to introduce it as it is but with a few changes.

I just took the risk of making it with Kerala rice and made it a little bit more on the mushy side so that people at the dinner table won’t scream, ‘where is the curry’.

I also added hot black pepper instead of red chili pepper.

Loved the result. Everybody loved it.

Thank you Bee.

Guar Beans Thoran

I was so happy today. I finally found a seed I was looking for. I didn’t know the name of the beans since my mom called it sambaar payar, just because she puts it in sambaar. I knew that can’t be the name and then somehow like other things I never could find the name and even I missed blogs posts on other blogs that mentioned the name.

And finally I knew it was called Guar beans. I searched and searched but didn’t think anyone would carry the seeds, since it was too indianish. But yippee, I found it here and right I went and ordered those. The best part is it is an upright plant, unlike other varieties and you could grow it in a pot too without any trellis. That’s neat for apartment people with patios.

There is a tinge of bitterness in these beans, but not like bittergourd. The slight tinge of bitterness gives it an edge when you make thoran.

String the beans, dice them very thin so you just need to steam them.

For 3 cups diced beans, heat 2 tsp pf oil, splutter ¼ tsp mustard seeds, sauté 2 whole red chilies, 1 sprig of curry leaves, 5 diced green chilies, 1 pod of garlic diced and ¼ cup shallots. Add the beans, sprinkle 1 tsp of water, add ¼ tsp if turmeric powder and enough salt. Cover tightly and steam in low flame until done.

Then add ¼ cup of shredded coconut, mix and sauté dry for 4 minutes.

Serve with rice. Serving size – 3.

Ambazhanga Chammanthi

Just like sour mango chammanthi, you came make a delicious chammanthi with ambazhanga.

At home, we kids use to pray for certain vegetable plant to stop producing. Since my mom would put that in everything, in breakfast, lunch and dinner. Similarly everybody at my home is praying to stop the shower of ambazhanga and korkka, since I am getting quite innovative these days. ;-) . Maybe next time I would have a garage sale on my blog.

Ambazhanga washed and cut. I didn’t peel of the skin. If you want you can. - 1 cup
Lime – 1. Squeeze the juice.
1 small shallot
1 tsp of ginger
5 green chillies

Grind to a coarse paste.

Then add 1 cup of coconut and grind for one minute.

Serve with kanji.

Black Channa in Coconut Milk Gravy

The other day a friend of mine from Kerala asked me what I was having for lunch and I told her, kadala curry. How you can eat kadalacurry with rice, she exclaimed. Is that a good combination? , she wondered.

Oh honey, this is U.S.A. Anything goes with anything. Actually you can eat kadala curry as breakfast with oats too. All combination looks good when one is hungry, juggling between jobs, kids, school, work, laundry, house cleaning. Jeez! People in Kerala have been spoiled a lot, I say.

This is that “combination” kadalacurry in coconut milk.
Black channa dal comes dry and you have to soak it twelve hours in water before cooking. So you see you got to think ahead these days. :-) After soaking, wash it thoroughly and drain. When you soak, small insects etc come out from the dried channa if any and so it is a must you wash it after soaking.

For 3 cups of soaked black channa, add 1 cup of thinly diced onion, 1 tablespoon of diced ginger, 6 pods of garlic diced, 2 tomatoes diced, 2 sprig of curry leaves, 2 teaspoon of chili powder, ¼ teaspoon of turmeric powder and enough salt.

Microwave for one minute, 4 table spoon of coriander seeds, 3 cardamom, 1 cinnamon, 3 cloves, 2 tsp pepper, 2 cashew nuts, 1 bay leaf, 2 tsp mace. Then grind it in your coffee grinder and add to the mix.

Add water 2 cups of water to this mixture. Pressure cook for double the time you use for toor dal.

Now heat two tablespoon of oil, splutter ¼ tsp mustard seeds, sauté ½ diced onion, 1 sprig of curry leaves and add the cooked black channa. When it starts to boil, add 1 cup of coconut milk. As soon as it starts to boil, take off from heat.

Oh yes, serve it with anything. As long as you are hungry, anything goes.

Koorkka Parade

Just 1500 square miles, blessed with the greenest green, richest soil, lushest rains. A semi-metropolitan culture that soaks in everything and integrates like weaving a beautiful saree of different color threads. No matter how many picturesque pictures you see, no matter how much coconut you add to your curries, no matter how much you try to recreate it, you have to live and feel Kerala. Kerala is a country on it's own with every mile giving you a different history and culture. It is not something you can export it to other countries and create a gathering and celebrate. Not even in Dubai where you can find the most number of Malayalee expatriates, you will get the real essence of Kerala.

This is one state where you will find the disparity of income among the rich and poor very low. This is one state where you will find the infant death rate almost nil, where you will find the poorest of the poor has a voice, know their rights, know how to read and write. This is one state where you will rarely see poverty in villages, but pristine villages roads and excellent infrastructure, with the newest home theater systems blasting and resonating on the slanting teak wooden roofs of old quaint houses. A state in a third world country living like a first world country not in luxury, but in thought process. This is why were are called Devils own people in Gods own country. We are known to be devils advocates questioning everything, be it governments, political process or a coke plant.

This might be the only place where students and people came out in support of Mandela or for America's attack on Iraq. Yes, we gather and protest not only for our state and country, but for World affairs. We are not just educated, but aware. You will find instant-intellectuals in the shack tea stalls, talking passionately about Global pollution to Benazir’s death. Do you know even though this is such a small state, yet it has the maximum newspaper readership among people, compared not with just India but with World? 70% subscribe to newspapers. Any surprise we are socially conscious?

Kerala is like tender coconut, you cannot package it. Drink it instantly pure and fresh.

Put aside all that and there is one thing she is best at.
She has one of the tastiest cuisines I have come across and they are so vibrant and rich. She has the choicest vegetable and meat dishes. Her cuisine even has Spanish, Arabic and European influences. The only thing she lacks is in desserts, but we sweet people make up for it :)


To celebrate her, a koorkka parade for RCI Kerala by Jyothsna.

Koorkka in Dal

Cook 2 cups of cleaned and washed koorkka with 1 cup of toordal with a sprig of curry leaves in 3 cups of water

Grind ½ cup of coconut, 3 pods of garlic, ½ tsp cumin seeds, 5 green chilies, ¼ tsp of turmeric powder and enough salt to a fine watery paste.

Add to the cooked dal and koorka. Boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Sauté 2 tsp of coconut oil, splutter mustard seeds, red chili split, and 1 sprig of curry leaves and add to the dish.

Serve with rice or roti. Recipe Courtesty: Daly

Koorkka with Sardines

Koorkka Stir Fry

Koorkka with Beef


Koorkka from the Garden

Koorkka Upperi

This is the simple stir fry version of koorkka loved by all.

Skin Scraped Koorka, washed and cleaned thoroughly, boiled with little salt and ¼ tsp turmeric powder – 3 cups
Shallots or small onions – 1 cup diced thick and crushed
Crushed red chili flakes – 2 table spoon
Curry leaves – 2 sprigs.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil; add shallots, chili flakes, curry leaves and sauté them until light brown. Add the boiled koorkka and in low flame sauté for 5 minutes.

Serve as snack, with rice or with roti. Mostly everyone likes this in this form. Simple preparation but it brings out the real taste of koorkka.

Wait, Wait! Read about koorkka before you leave with a mouthful.

I was searching for koorkka on Google and was surprised to find not many details on this delicious food. I somehow had a hunch that the name Chinese potato is just a quickly thought out name by some Mallu moyalaali (owner) who is exporting all this cleaned and washed koorkka to his koorkka crazy malayalalee counterparts in Gulf and U.S. Everybody loves this but what is the purpose if Google doesn’t have it? I asked my South American friends, my Chinese friends all to get the original name of this and none other than a fellow malayalee blogger friend helped me in finding koorkka. He, who blogs as Devaragam really took pains and wrote to me,

(verbatim)

Inji,

Alright I went to central tuber crop research institute and found this research paper. From there to bihrmann and from there to wiki.

This stuff has a thousand names. Koorka in central to North Kerala, Tamilnadu & Srilanka, cheevakizhangu @ TVM/kollam, Hausa Potato, Chinese Potato, Country Potato, Fra-Fra-Salanga, Pesa, Fabirama ratala, Hausa potato, frafra potato, Sudan potato, coleus potato, Zulu potato, and Zulu round potato, hausakartoffel, innala etc. in various other parts of world in different languages.

That’s why we go for binomial nomenclature. It rarely happens, but unfortunately it has two scientific names too! Plectranthus rotundifolius & Germanea rotundifolia :)

It is believed to be native of Mauritius. Nobody is sure. its highly popular in Sudan & south India (may be we took it with us when we migrated from Africa 1.75 lakh years ago :)

Pictures are here. She belongs to the mint family Lamiaceae (same as panikkoorka and pudina)

In India we call it Chinese potato in English. Strangely, they don’t grow this in China :)

(end)

This post is for dear friend Devaragam. Thank you so much! On Behalf of me, the Koorkka fans association of North America, All Kerala Koorkka Society of India, and www.koorkkaWorld.com :)

Small is better. Koorkka!

Have you ever felt that that something so tasty is just your imagination? That your taste buds are tricking you and such a thing can't exist? Well, that’s exactly what happens when you eat koorkka.

Malayalees love koorkka. There might be some who dislike Kerala’s favorite food kappa, but koorkka we all love from north to south, from east to west. What?! You mean to say, I said the same about kappa too? ;)

Well, last vacation I got three small sized tuber,planted it in three small cups and made them sprout. Summer I re-planted them into a big cow manure pit and yesterday it just rained koorkka. I got a sack full, yes a sack full of koorkka. Almost 5 pounds of koorkka. Can you believe it?

Koorkka is known as Chinese potato in U.S. This information comes from visiting Indian stores. I don’t have a clue what it is really called. I don’t even know whether this is available in any other place other than Kerala.

But if you haven’t tasted this tuber, then you haven’t tasted bliss.

Koorkka can be just stir fried like a potato or put in meat curries. I made beef curry with koorkka. You can use it like a potato.

Since they are small in size, it will take time for you to peel them. Back home, I have seen my mom cover them in a muslin cloth and hit on the ground to get their skin off. What I did was boiling them until tender and scraped the skin. Or if you have a lot of patience, you can just scrape them raw. I think boiling makes it a little, a pinch less tasty.

Koorkka unlike potato takes time to cook and won’t get mashed easily like potato. So cook them a little longer than potato.

Recipes will follow this whole week. Watch this space for koorkka glory!

Fried Rice

At school I would peek at my friend Arya’s lunch box and would wish we could switch mommies. Arya’s lunchbox always had food packed in aluminum foil in a plastic box that had cute stickers on it and her food looked as if she got a share of what the real fairy pretty people would eat. Her lunchbox was not runny or messy and would look like her, short haired and trim, very proper and polite, saying the right words with a soft node. She would always have some fried rice and a fruit with the right amount of flavors and color, everything subtle like pretty pink lace on her handkerchief that was pinned on to her shirt. Oh! How I wish my mom would be that sophisticated to prepare my lunch boxes like those that looked straight from a story book.

Mine was packed in a steel lunchbox up to the brim with rice and fish curry that would run a little outside which was wrapped in a check kitchen towel and it always contained a shocking colored vegetable thoran instead of an expensive fruit. At our house, food was always prepared during the early wee hours of the morning. Momma would fill the lunchbox with steaming hot food and I have seen her blowing away the steam in a hurry so that it doesn’t condense when she closes the lid. There was no need of reheating the food since it would still be piping hot during our lunch time.

We would get ready in frenzy for school and she would run behind us to give us the lunchbox that always looked like a baton exchange in a 400m relay. She would have her saree in a mess, her hair frizzed up and a dirty kitchen towel on her shoulder and would hold the hot lunch box with her saree pallu and would stuff it into our school bags while we were running and then would hold me tight and kiss me when the whole school bus was watching and would say, you should eat the rice completely without brining a morsel back, and I would be so embarrassed and would instantly wipe away the kiss and wished badly I had Arya’s mommie. I always saw Arya’s mommie in a starched crisp house-coat just waving at her, pretty and calm, no frenzy there, and Arya was always ready when our school bus stopped in front of her house.

Arya’s mom would prepare the lunch the previous day and would re-heat it and give it the next morning. It was always fried rice since it was so easy to make and it won’t run and it looks good in a lunchbox.

My mom never cared about those pretty and polite things in life. She wanted her child to have the freshest food and no fried rice but her signature fish curry and vegetables. Now years later, I will die for my mother to kiss me everyday, leaving the wetness on my cheeks before rushing off to office and get that steel lunch box and to do that baton exchange. If wishes were horses…

This is Arya’s fried rice recipe. This is very simple to make. Fried rice is Chinese, but somehow it ends up looking like a little Indian whenever I make it.

White rice. In fact it is better to use previous day's cooked rice. Fried rice was invented so you could dress up the old rice and make it look good. – 2 cups cooked and refrigerated.

Green Onion stalks chopped – ½ cup
Cucumber with skin chopped into thin strips. Steamed – 1/4 cup
Beans cooked – ¼ cup
Green Peas cooked - ¼ cup

You can use a mix of any kind of vegetables that you have. Don’t use vegetables that would seep out color into the rice. I normally use watery kind of fast cooking vegetables.

Mix ¼ cup soy sauce and ¼ cup chili sauce and keep aside. If you want it hotter, I add crushed red chili flakes to this.

Heat a wok or a frying pan, add 1 tsp of vegetable oil and fry the cooked rice for two minutes, then add the vegetables and the sauce mix and sauté everything quickly and coat the rice in this.

Now lower the heat and move rice to the sides of the wok away from the center and to the center of the wok or the pan, break an egg and scramble it quickly and incorporate into the rice. Sprinkle salt. Soy sauce is salty so make sure you adjust salt accordingly.

Serve with soy sauce or some fried meat or fish.

Pindi Thoran

My writing has gone rusty. I stare at a Word document for minutes and nothing comes to my head. Too much of a break from blogging makes you so out of league from everything. There are great food events going here and there and there is a big event FAHC, yet I feel completely disconnected. Not that I used to write great stuff earlier, but something which took me a maximum of 15 minutes to write a post is now a humongous job for me.

I am sure that’s what has happened to a lot of other bloggers too who were regulars, their blogs now look abandoned and lonely. Their mamas are having starting trouble to write something. So this is a warning dears, do not go out of league and take a long break….

You might find this post squeaky squeaky with all that rust, but I know all you darlings out there is worried only about the food. :)

Kerala has this big fascination for banana stems. We use all portions of a banana plant. The fruit is used in cooking and eating, leaves as organic throw away plates and the stem and the flower after a fruit is matured in cooking. After the fruit is matured, you cut the fruit from the plant and hang it in a warm place for ripening. A single banana plant has only onetime fruiting capacity and should be removed. When you cut off the stem, you peel away the greenish layers and there you get a creamy white round part. This is known as unnippindi.

Poets describe a woman’s hands as round and slim and smooth like an unnipindi where unni means small. It is also known as vaazhappindi, where vaazha means banana. Essentially pindi is the name without any metaphors added.

I shake my head and grin when I hear about all the fiber talks in television and health magazines. They talk as if this is the new invention. Hello, this was there long existing...this fiber thingie in vegetables and you missed it all this while is what I want to say to them.

Pindi is fiber. Simple! You can get all the vegetables that claim to have fiber, add them up but a small piece of pindi can shame them all.

What does it mean? That it is a little hard to cut and clean it. First wash it and cut into round thin pieces. From each round, brush over a small stick to catch all the fiber. Yeah don’t be surprised, I was talking about fiber right? Do this to all pieces and discard the fiber ball.

Cut into small pieces; immerse it in water with a little turmeric added to prevent discoloration. This actually will feel like sugarcane pieces. Wash and strain

Splutter mustard seeds, one sprig of curry leaves and split red chilies. Sauté ¼ cup onion then add the cut pindi(1 cup), add little salt, add 1 tsp red chili powder, ¼ tsp turmeric powder and cover and cook in low flame. When half done, add grated coconut if needed, mix well and cook until done.

Serve with rice or roti. It tastes so good!

There it is, I have finally written a post and not bad took me only 20 minutes. :-)