Duck gravy Kerala style

While we were living in Singapore I have had the fortune to savor the famous Pekin duck. A whole duck, basted with lot of spices, slowly roasted to perfection. Carved duck meat is then rolled into paperthin rice papers and served. It is worth a visit to Singapore or China only for this. Please don’t try Pekin Duck at P F Chang’s in U.S. They have no clue how to make Pekin duck.

Duck meat is a delicacy mainly due to its scarcity. Fresh duck meat is available here in U.S, a little expensive, but we get them extremely fresh from duck farms out here. We point to a whole live duck gobbling around and they would kill and clean it for us. That fresh!

Duck meat is harder, so you would have to cook it longer. While cutting or cleaning the duck, you will realize how hard the meat is than chicken. Accordingly, use more time in cooking duck meat. Check Asian or other specialty stores for duck meat.

Here is a Kerala style recipe for preparing duck. (You can use this method for any poultry)Cut and clean into bite sized pieces. Keeping or removing the skin is up to you and depending on the duck you get. If duck is fatty, don’t keep the skin. If not fatty, keep the skin.

For 3 cups of duck,

3 tsp of garlic and 3tsp of ginger grated and made to a paste
1 cup of onion

Heat oil, Saute onion and when translucent, add ginger garlic paste, 4 green chilies diced, 2 sprigs of curry leaves. Add ½ tsp of turmeric powder and salt. Sauté well.

Dry roast 6 tsp coriander seeds, 4 cardamom, 10 cloves, 1 tsp mace, 2 stick of cinnamon and grind dry. Add this and 2 tsp of red chili powder to the onions and mix and saute for one minute. Add the cleaned duck and mix well and add 3 tbsp of water and enough salt cook well. Cook until the meat is very soft.

Now, Roast 1 cup of coconut, 3 pods of garlic and 1 sprig of curry leaves until light brown. Grind this to a paste.

Heat oil, sauté ½ cup diced onion until brown, and then add ½ cup diced tomatoes and ½ cup potatoes and add the ground coconut mixture with 1 cup of water. When it boils, add the cooked duck and cook with lid open until the gravy is thick.Serve with rice or roti.

Cabbage Thoran

What is in a simple cabbage thoran? It is the simplest thing anyone can do. Why blog about it then?

There might be one new wife out there, a new student out there missing home and mama terribly, frantically looking and searching and thinking what to do with this whole cabbage he or she just bought it from the shop. She/he would have tasted the cabbage thoran umpteen times, but never thought of cooking it until now. These simple recipes, as simple as they might seem, always are a help to the new little chefs out there.

I always encourage people to blog about these simple dishes which we normally don’t get in restaurants and it doesn’t matter if there is a hundred posts about the same cabbage. That’s what blogs are all about. No matter how many homes you visit or no matter how many times you eat the same food, each time, each home makes it a little different. To me, food blogs are a celebration of that to be precise.

That’s why food blogging is so much fun. You create, you serve the food at home and then you share the experience with your virtual friends. Sharing is the most beautiful thing in this World. Take off two or three leaves off the cabbage and wash thoroughly. Cut a portion of it without the stalk in the middle. The hard stalk in the middle and the base of the cabbage should be discarded.

I have never been able to replicate my moms cabbage dicing. She makes small cuts like tak tak tak and then dices it very thin. I have never been able to do that, so I cut off a seven inch large piece and then dice it small like I do with onions.

For 4 cups of diced cabbage,
Heat 2 tsp oil, splutter 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, sauté 1 red chili split, 1 sprig of curry leaves, add 3 tsp of whole urad dal until light brown and add ½ cup diced onion and sauté well until the onion is translucent.

Add ¼ tsp turmeric powder and add the diced cabbage and lower the heat to minimum. Add salt and mix well and cover tightly and cook for 10 minutes.

Coarse grind 3 pods of garlic and ½ cup of grated coconut, 4 green chilies and ½ tsp cumin seeds. Keep this mixture in the middle of the cabbage and then cover the mixture with the cabbage.

Cook closed for another 10 minutes in low flame. Mix well and sauté until dry.Serve with rice or roti.

Bloggers protest against Yahoo!

(This post is edited continuously as I get more and more links)

David Filo and Jerry Yang were once students, sitting inside a crowded trailer in 1994 thinking about the new Internet explosion and how to categorize and organize this information enormity. Their time, creativity and thoughts later evolved in to this big corporation now we all know as Yahoo!

Similarly, we are all now couple of bloggers investing our time, creativity and thoughts to express ourselves in this new and vibrant medium known as blogs. There are doctors, lawyers, house wives, farmers -- people in every social fabric finding this new medium of creativity a boon to relax from their hectic schedules or to utilize their free time. The content we bloggers provide is free, free only to entertain the readers.

Unless specified, it is not free to copy the text, copy the pictures and paste it onto some other blogs or some other type of media. There have been many cases of plagiarisation and as the blogs grew rich and professional in content, there were more thieves eyeing the content.

One such thief is none but Yahoo! itself. Yahoo! India is a subsidiary of Yahoo Corporation. When Yahoo! India launched Indian Language portals, they copied contents (recipes, poems, stories) from bloggers. Easy to start a portal, right? One cannot believe a huge corporation would do that. But it happened. Read the related stories, evidence.

1. Jif credits: Ziya

We all make mistakes, we apologize later. Don’t we all? To live in a society we have to follow such norms. We bloggers complained to Yahoo! and Yahoo! India. How did they respond? They simply refused to apologize. Yahoo! India office even had the audacity to claim copying contents is not copyright violation. The subcontractor (WebDunia) for Yahoo! India claims all was done on ‘good faith’. Contents were removed from Yahoo’s domain silently. If this was done on good faith and there was no copyright violation? Isn’t this a shame? Imagine if it was between two corporations instead of corporate vs blog? It would have been any lawyers’ dream.

Blogs are common man’s voice and oh yeah! Any corporate can swallow us. Here we are Yahoo! Come swallow us! Bulldoze us and eradicate us! Chew on our blogs and be content. Oops “content”, does that ring a bell Yahoo!?

Today March 5th we are protesting against this injustice by Yahoo! and Yahoo! India.

Hundreds of blogs have joined us against this blatant corruption and injustice by this conglomerate.

Here is a round up of the participating blogs. How to protest

2. Kaippalli writes on his blog,
Lets stop yahoo from making our creations into other peoples bastards. Stop the Bastardification of our content.

3. Devaragam writes,
Yahoo has to respond in the capacity of the entity responsible for the content of their website. Any other justification attempt will not hold water.

4. Nalan writes,
Apparently Yahoo, the giant, has a neck that has been drained of morality to the extent that has it handicapped from bending to tender an apology to a crime that it has committed.

5. Padippura sketches,
6. Jai and Bee writes,
You’re (Yahoo) a grinch. A really unsporting one. We knew it. You and your desi subcontractors all drank milk from a can.

7. RP writes,
Dear Yahoo, the stolen food appeared on your table, and so many of us have seen it before you removed it. Admit it!

8. Linda writes,
In solidarity with blogger friends, I ask you to please take a moment and read about one large corporation’s unethical infringement upon the rights of one individual.

9. Sailu writes,
I hate to give the unpleasant subject of plagiarism space in my blog. I’ve been a victim of it. Hopefully Yahoo! will have the integrity to respect the work of others as it expects others to respect its work and apologize. What happened to basic courtesy, decency and respect for other people’s efforts and work?

10. Alif sketches,
11. Jyothi writes,
In this context, 'content-theft' committed by Yahoo!India , (or Web-dunia, as the former complaines) is a severe mistake. It must be stongly condemned . Please don't steal away our dreams!

12. Sajith writes,
what Yahoo! did is simple theft, copying content from blogs without permission and claiming that its their property!. Shame Shame Yahoo!

13. Manisha writes,
They - Yahoo! - need to acknowledge intellectual property and copyrights of those whose contents they plagiarized. This holds for every other company seeking to launch a portal in India and the world over.

14. Rags writes,
I for one believe in open sourcing of information, free usage of information by anybody, but when someone(especially a corporation who are the torch-bearers of the concept of copyright violations) crosses a certain line by lifting content from an independent person, saying the original work is theirs, without crediting the content creator, then it should be dealt with seriously, which is exactly what's happening now.

15. Kannooran says, BOYCOT YAHOO INDIA!!!

16. Krish says, Yahoo!India (Malayalam), please do not lift contents from Malayalam blogs without prior consent.

17. Bindu writes,
I don’t want blogs to be an easy prey for any thieves to steal from them. (translated)

18. Nirmala writes,
Plagiarism : copying, illegal use, breach of copyright, bootlegging.
Example: Yahoos malayalam portal

19. Swarthan writes,(with audio)
This is parody of the famous Yahoo! yodle. I'm posting this in protest of Yahoo!'s plagiarism. The above yodle simply means, "Shame Shame, Puppy Shame." You don't deserve more, dear Yahoo!

20. Meenakshi writes, Yahoo, you are already due!

21. Dreamer writes,
Yahoo and webdunia has been the bullies of the school, who does not really bother to understand (or atleast pretend to) the depth of the water which they stand on.

22. Sakshi sketches,

23. Radheyan writes, I am keeping the black background sans a letter(Also to tell nothing here for yahoo to steal)

24. Wakkari writes,
Those web pages are protected under copyright law by Yahoo!, not by their content providers. It is not the responsibility of the concerned bloggers to know the various contract details of Yahoo! India.

25. Parajithan writes,
First, Yahoo! ‘surprised’ us with a reckless act of plagiarism. And, inevitably, forced us to question them, as well. A sincere apology, a few words, could have healed the wound and gained Yahoo! its credibility back.

26. Anita writes,
Dear Yahoo!you owe an apology to Suryagayatri, rather than tactfully removing the contents and blaming it on your sub contracters, i don’t think this is much to ask for.

27. Shaheen writes,
But to see Yahoo! do it is akin to supporting plagiarism and not promoting creativism. With all respect, it is undermining the good faith Yahoo! has developed over the years and it hurts.

28. Indosungod writes,
Yahoo used to be a company I admired from it days as a start up till a fews days ago,NOT ANYMORE, after their stand on the issue at hand and certainly not after I read some pretty offensive comments made by whom I suspect are their minions. It makes them look guilty as hell.

29. Sandeepa writes,
It would not do Yahoo much good if they rise up one morning to see an exact replica of their portal with their Logo, Design and Content stolen, right ? And that's why they have lawyers drawing up statements

30. Mullappoo sketches,31. Achinthya ( a non blogger) says,
Shameless theft - give it a highsounding euphemism namely plagiarism,be it done by a high profile glittering star like Yahoo or a nindescript blogger, be it that of a spicy sambar recipe or a well-intentioned, well-researched article on the ill-effects of pesticide - will always be theft. That too of the cheapest kind. A small sound - yet I hope to add mine to the clamour for justice.

32. Indira writes,
Not only Surya Gayathri, we as a food bloggers community do not think she has been treated fairly by Yahoo. So today is protest day against Yahoo and other stealers

33. Kithcen Fairy writes,
We are joining our hands against the shameless act -"Copying contents from others" .

34. Anjali writes,
We really feel let down that our loved Yahoo has choosen to lift content and tried to pass if off as their own.

35. Arundhathi writes,
I have been shocked by Yahoo! India's lack of respect for proprietal information. Fellow Bloggers have been attacked by Yahoo! where the big corporation has actually lifted content off their blogs, and posted it on the portal without any credit to the source. Incredible!

36. A.Yunus writes,
Yahoo! You are a Thief! A well renowned and shameless thief! I am ashamed to have wondered at your ability and technology at times. Iam ashamed to see that you use the power, fame an technology to steal!

37. Sul sketches,
38. Saptavarnam writes,
It needs a real great heart, courage to accept the responsibility of a mistake and Yahoo! India lacks all these. Passing the blame to their content provider WebDunia itself is some silly sort of childish excuse.

39. Umesh writes,
As a person who blogs in the Malayalam language, I protest the plagiarism and copyright violation Yahoo! and Yahoo! India did in preparing their Yahoo! Malayalam page. They prepared their pages by copying articles from Malayalam blogs without asking the permission from the authors. This is unfortunate and condemnable.

40. Advocate Sakeena, says
So far as the action of Yahoo or webdunia is against the common interest of bloggers, I also join and express my protest against those inceidents happened to the blogs of Su and others.

41. Venu sketches couple of cartoons (Malayalam)

42. Thulasi

43. Shaniyan

44. Revathi writes about a similar incident and how an Indian magazine apologized, HEY YOU YAHOO !! THIS IS ALL THAT TAKES TO RISE TO THE OCCASSION AND ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY. APOLOGIZING AND GIVING DUE CREDITS. REST YOUR CORPORATE BRAIN AND LEND THE ISSUE A HEART !!!

45. MKeralam writes,
Trying to fool the Malayalam language users certainly does not spell a fair business practice on the part of Yahoo. It is not by trampling on the rights of individuals and small publications that a giant corporation like Yahoo! India should flex its muscle. Where are its work ethics and philosophy on customer care and relations

46. Siddartha sketches,
47. Priyamvada writes,
Since Yahoo! expect others should respect their copy right, we, bloggers have every right to demand same from you. Yahoo! Stop blaming your subcontractor

48. Santhosh writes,
I protest against Yahoo’s unethical business practices in what is arguably one of the largest of its markets and demand an apology for violating bloggers’ copyrights.

49. Alappuzhakkaran writes,
We are protesting against Yahoo...! what are they doing??? stealing?? that too petty theft from the poor bloggers... ?

50. Raghavan PK says,
This is blatant plagiarism.You own an unconditional apology to bloggers for this misdeed which is certainly unethical by any standard.

51. Saramgi writes,
Dear friends, it's time to protest against Yahoo's shameless act of stealing matters and pictures from various blogs without the permission of the blog owners. Yahoo should apologize to all the bloggers whose contents are being copied and published without their approval.

52. Hari sketches and writes a comprehensive article on the story so far. Story is in Malayalam.
53. Sumitha says,
Dear Yahoo,copying and pasting the content from someones blog and claiming it as yours was so simple right?If only you had done something more simpler and that is acknowledging that person for her efforts.

54. Archana writes,
It is a shame that Yahoo-India failed to practice the proper etiquette of web publishing. If they are looking for solutions, start with a proper apology, try crediting the source for the content, and let Webdunia take some time off to refresh (or learn) their ABCs on copyright protection laws.

55. Mandira writes,
This is plagiarism, passing off someone's ideas and content as your known. Not only is this ethically wrong, this is illegal as well. As a blogger, I find it terrible, hurtful and offensive that my content (that I may have spent a day cooking, writing, and taking pictures) is in another publication without any acknowledgement.

56. Shilpa writes,
This was just a blog, but what if the same thing is done by giants like Yahoo!? what would they do if we copied their content? Would they keep quiet? Is it okay for them if we say one of my friend gave me this content, so this is not my responsibility?

57. Musical writes, These bloggers are ever willing to exchange and share their work, so why not give them due credit for their pictures and recipes, or request them for participating officially.....and don't give me this piece, as to how daal recipe would be more or less the same! Please, daal recipe may be more or less the same-but the language, presentation, little suggestions and pictures ARE NOT!

58. Trupti writes,
Support the rights of all the bloggers who share a glimpse of their families, their lives, their traditions with all of you. Protest against Yahoo's unethical ways and join us.

59. Arzoon says,
If you are that lazy that you can not bring yourself to ask somebody for permission, then you should be held accountable for the act.
A blog is an expression of an individual's thoughts. And it should be protected.
So, just join me in this protest. STOP PLAGIARISM.
Be an original. Stand out on your own...

60. GotCopy Blog writes,
Yahoo! has chosen to place itself outside the domain of any liability and asks those whose rights were violated to follow up with Webdunia. The material appeared on Yahoo!'s property. Yahoo! needs to acknowledge their mistake and tell us, the blogging world, that they will not lift content without our prior permission on the zillion other regional and language portals they will be spawning for the Indian audience.

61. Jyothsna writes,
It was unimaginable that a corporate giant like Yahoo! would resort to plagiarism!! It was appalling to hear about Yahoo! India lifting content from a blog without any attribution, credit or back link to the rightful owner!!

62. Sangeetha writes,
We take a lot of time and effort to work on our blog(s) and it pains me to see a certain section of people take such a casual attitude to our hard work. It just takes a moment to ask permission or give credit where it is due. Is that so difficult ?

63. Nupur writes,
But you know what hurts? When someone else, often a big corporation with pots of money, steals your words and photographs and uses them for their own commercial purposes. A small-time stand-alone blogger gets no recognition, no compensation, nothing.

64. Madhuli writes,
‘Nahi Chalega, Nahi Chalega PLAGIARISM nahi chalega’. It cannot happen, it canonot happen, plagiarism cannot happen - *translated from hindi)

65. Dhanya writes,
Yes I have heard the voice against Internet plagiarism. Exactly what I have heard may vary, depending on what I have read, or been listening to, and so been filtering the information or opinions that we all may encounter. But everyone is worried about it – And for good reason, I am with it!

66. Kunjans writes,
I strongly believe Yahoo should atleast admit there mistakes. They bother so much about protecting their on content (Please read yahoo's copyright notice if u have not). How can such an entity just keep quite when they are accused of a theft.

67. Maneka Nirmal writes,
Art heist - Yahoo guilty as charged !! So what makes it ok for someone to take your recipe, publish it to the world and call it their own – NOTHING !!! And what do you call someone who is blatant enough to take your recipe and then change some lines to call it their own – A THIEF!!! And what do you call someone who would partner with this thief for making a profit – A CORPORATE THIEF!!!

68. Kay writes,
This is outrageous! They didn't apologize... they didn't say that this will not happen again.. nothing! Shame on Yahoo! And those of you who say that we should take it up with Webdunia, either you don't get it or you just don't care.

69. Biryanikutty writes,
Yahoo School Of Plagiarism - Happy news for those 'wanna be great author, but no ink in my pen guys/gals'. IT giant Yahoo has started an online free demonstration on how to do it effectively. According to Yahoo, it is as simple as Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V as long as the keyboard you use, has got these 3 keys on it.

70. Prapra writes,
Yahoo!, its time for you to rise and 'shine' (if they can). We dont[sic] want you to be the role model for the world ahead. Its time..... not for you in this case of copyrights infringement, but for any corporate or individual, big and small to keep their emotions and ego aside and acknowledge their opposition.

71. Chandrika writes,
It is sad and shameful that a corporate giant like Yahoo India which ought to set a good example, is stooping down so low. Webdunia and Yahoo India could take a leaf or two from the book of publishing etiquette.

71. Vini writes,
Plagiarism is indeed a very annoying plague that eats away at creativity.Yahoo,you being the big corporation here,why don't you set an example by apologising?You will only gain more respect from us if you do that.


Above List PLUS the following list too...


Other Bloggers(Most are in Malayalam) joining the protest which follows roughly the wiki format:

1. ChandraShekaran Nair in Malayalam and Hindi blogs
2. Sisu
3. Pothuval
4. Kevin Siji
5. Shaanwaaz
6. Shiju
7. Balu
8. Kiranz
9. Thusharam
10. Appol Shari
11. Sugatharaj Paleri
12. Salini
13. Reshma
14. Sankuchithan
15. Moonstruck
16. Idangal
17. Visaala Manaskan
18. Navaneeth
19. Panikkan
20. Thamanu
21. Siji
22. Aravind
23. Viji Pinarayi
24. Bijoy Mohan
25. Leo Paul
26. Pathali
27. Gayathri's
28. Mridul
29. Shajudeen
30. Peelikkutty
31. Ittimalu
32. Lapuda
33. Remesh
34. Aravind Ghosh
35. Prathibhaasam
36. Lizabeth
37. Sandoz
38. Tharavadi
39. Vallyammaayi
40. Ageesh Parameshwaran
41. Vichaaram
42. Prasad
43. Satheesh
44. Rajeev
45. Panikkar
46. Ithirivettam
47. Chechiyamma
48. Kareem Mash
49. Nandan
50. Santhosh Balakrishnan
51. Cibu
52. Vishwaprabha
53. Kannoos
54. Chethana
55. Charukesi
56. Uncle
57. Satheesh(singapore)
58. Kaithamullu
59. Sreejith K
60. Mani
61. Sunil
62. VishnuPrasad
63. Evooran
63. Durvirodhi (Hindi)
64. Kisan (Hindi)
65. Gini
66. Poonaji
68. Saha
69. Drishyan
70. James Bright
71. Usha
72. Snehithan
73. Kochu Guptan
74. Patteri

A salute to blogger Suryagaythri for standing up for her rights!

Thank you all my dear bloggers for participating in this protest. We need to be heard. Yes!

Chikoo

Chikoos are in season again. Yay!

If there is a fruit I could grow in each and every inch in my yard, it would be a sapota or as I call it chikoo tree. I am not sure whether it is scarce in India, but I have never had enough of it.

It is a fruit from Mexico, popularized by Spanish and then by me :-)Excerpt
A rich source of digestible sugar, the chikoo is rich in protein, fibre and minerals like phosphorus, calcium and iron. Isn’t it funny to know the 'chewing' part of the chewing gum comes from the stem of this tree?

I remember going to a friend’s house, and they serving me with plate full of chikoos. There were some six medium sized ripe fruits. I couldn’t resist and by the time they said, ‘have’, I finished all of them without even thinking it is someone else’s house. Oh, I am still embarrassed about it.

My husband hates it which makes me more than happy since I don’t have to share this with anyone. I have never tried to convert him to a chikoo fan, specifically due to this :-)

A ripe fruit is soft to touch. You just need to part into two, by pressing your fingers on the fruit and slowly opening it up. Scoop out the flesh with your mouth. Mmmmm.

Dirty dirty games!

Yahoo India and Web Dunia are now playing the dirtiest of all games. Remember how a few Brits could divide us based on our cast, religion and even skin colour and could rule India for 100+ years?

The same game is unfolding right before your eyes.

First they send their 'sailors' to create a ruckus between bloggers implanting ideas like, Why should Yahoo reply or even apologize? We have removed the contents you see? They thought we all are dumb, especially being a bunch of girls. Oh, the jokes that would have gone around about us in their cubicles!

Okay, that didn’t work!

Then they send their trolls, insulting many bloggers out there who supported us, very well knowing, we are ‘Indian girls’, we cannot stomach insults and we would cow down! I haven’t read so much filth which were put as ‘comments’ in my entire life. It caused me a lot of pain and anger and tears, especially when I saw the same type of filthy comments on couple of my friends blogs too! I, one time even thought of just disappearing from it all. It was that bad. But did we cow down?

We didn’t!

Now, all that has failed and whats on their cards?

They emailed couple of people about having a ‘discussion’ at an obscure Wordpress blog about this on March 2nd, that is tomorrow. What’s the great idea behind that? Drown the March 5th Event, make bloggers fight among themselves and make this whole thing look like a circus. I am not going to even join the circus. Why should I even participate in this mockery of a discussion? First of all, I don’t like circus! :) and secondly I am not an idiot! (even tho' couple of people might disagree on that part) :)

So here we are, all ready for the Event on March 5th. Our sounds might be a little weak, a little hasty, but we will make sure we are heard!

Read about all the drama unfolding on copyrightviolations

Malayalam versions of this dirty trick on Su’s blog, Cibu’s blog, Santhosh’s blog, Vishwa's blog.

Kovakka Thoran

Kovakka, Tindora, Ivy gourd – This vegetable has many names, but the fact remains is that it doesn’t taste as good as the other vegetables. Yes, Yes, I am on an honesty trip here.

Kovakka is malayalam for Ivy gourd.

First of all, ivy gourd when cut has a light film of sap (?) which makes it a little bitter/tough to munch on, fresh. Even if you bombard it with all your spices your hands can get, kovakka doesn’t absorb the flavors and would still taste a little bland.

But why eat it then? It is so good for you, there are even claims it is good for diabetes patients. It is a good source of beta carotene as well. In Thailand, this vegetable is promoted to grow in homes to control the vitamin A deficiency.Ivy gourd is termed an invasive weed in U.S. One of our friends tried to sneak in the plant from India and the customs got him. So he acted as if he doesn’t understand English when the U.S customs officer questioned about the plant.

Customs officer being an Indian himself, told him straight to his face, “Until now, I heard you speaking good English to your wife Sir, how soon you got amnesia?” hehehehe

So, there you are, don’t sneak in the plant to U.S territory. :-) . Don’t ask me, whether I have it, then you would have to explain and define the word “is” (Courtesy: President Clinton).

Anyway, one friend gave me this wonderful recipe which will make any kovakka-haters swoon over it.

Wash the kovakka thoroughly in running water, cut off both the tips. Make two lengthwise cuts and then cut the kovakka into half making it eight pieces.

For 3 cups of cut kovakka,

Crush together, kudampuli or tamarind (1 inch size), ½ cup coconut, 6 shallots diced, 3 garlic pods diced, 4 green chilies, 1 sprig of curry leaves, ½ tsp turmeric powder and enough salt. Don’t grind it, just crush them in a pestle.

Mix this with the kovakka and add ¼ cup of water and keep in medium flame. When it is half cooked, add 2 cups of cooked small shrimps, mix it and cook again in low flame.

You can completely avoid the shrimp part if you are vegetarian, but non-vegans out there, the shrimp makes it too good :-)

When the mixture is dry, heat 2 tsp pf coconut oil, splutter ½ tsp of mustard seeds and add to this.Serve with rice.

Just do it!

This Nike ad reminded me of our spirit to fight against plagiarism.

There might be...

much chaos
many trolls
lot of dirt
many hurdles
lot of confusion
many failures

but

Just do it!

Don't forget March 5th! Visit CopyrightViolations

Radish mezhukkupuratti

If you haven't yet read about the March 5th Protest Event against Yahoo! India for plagiarizing, please do visit this link.

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Red Red Radish – But what’ that nasty odor when you cook it?
Yeah, there is no doubt radish a very healthy vegetable, but I somehow cannot stand the pungent odor. So, I peel them completely, turn them into white little balls and make mezhukkupuratti with them. I know I am losing some of its nutrients, but I would rather pop a vitamin pill than eat it and say eeewww ;-)Mezhukkupuratti is Malayalam for plain sautéed vegetables.

Peel the radish, dice them small – 3 cups
Onion diced – 1 cup

Heat 2 tsp oil, splutter ½ tsp mustard seeds, sauté 1 sprig of curry leaves and add the diced onion and sauté them until translucent.

Add the diced radish, add salt, add ½ tsp turmeric powder and add 2 tsp red chili powder.

Mix well, add ¼ cup water, cover and cook in low flame. Cook dry.

Making mezhukkupuratti with red chili is a Trichur regional specialty. South of Trichur green chilies are added to the dish.Serve with rice or roti.

Moong Bean Thoran

If you haven't yet read about the March 5th Protest Event against Yahoo! India for plagiarizing, please do visit this link.

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What is a food blog (mainly listing Kerala food) without a moong bean thoran?
Or in other words, I don’t know why I didn’t yet blog about the cherupayar thoran from Kerala.

Now I always write it as Moong, but actually it is spelled Mung Beans. ‘Mung’ is derived from Hindi word ‘mung’ says Wikipedia. That would also mean we can be sure it originated in India. Mung bean is cultivated in most places in South Asia and is very much a part of the cuisine in South Asia.

Ayurveda is very partial to mung beans.

Excerpt:
Of the most usable pulses, moong is one that has been described as the best for day-to-day use. Acharya Charaka has written that in both the green and yellow forms, it is astringent and sweet in taste, dry, light and cold in potency and has pungent post-digestive effect. It alleviates the vitiated kapha and pitta and is recommended to be served as soup during illness and convalescence. Due to its easily digestible properties moong dal is a dish of choice for people suffering from weak digestion, diarrhoea and dysentery and for those who are bed-ridden due to any prolonged illness. Sprouting makes the mung bean very nutritious adding Vitamin C to its list of nutrients. But be careful of buying the sprouted beans from shops. The link says, Commercial Mung Beans are grown with chemicals and gasses in huge 500 gallon machines. I have always wondered about that!

Whole Mung bean - 2 cups pressure cooked with 1 cup water for 15 minutes. It is ideal that the bean should retain its shape, so don’t cook it to death. (Yeah, I have done that many a times)

Heat ¼ cup oil; splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 split red chili, 1 sprig of curry leaves. Crush 4 pods of garlic with skin, ½ tsp cumin seeds, and 5 green chilies and add to this. Roast the garlic until brown. Then add 6 shallots diced and sauté. Add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder.

Add the cooked mung bean to this and ½ cup of coconut, enough salt and mix well. Cover and cook until dry.Serve with rice.

Bloggers Protest Event against Yahoo! India - March 5th 2007

Interested in joining a protest against Yahoo! India plagiarizing contents from bloggers?

Why this is dear to me? Just because we write and take pictures due to our passion for food and writing and give the content for free for others to cook and create, that doesn’t mean someone can take us for a ride and copy our content, especially a giant corporation like Yahoo!

Yahoo! has to apologize to the bloggers and not shamelessly remove the content from their servers.

This plagiarizing and violation of our (bloggers) rights has been going on forever. Not anymore! We need to be heard!

Visit this link if you are not aware yet of what happened.

As dear Revathi and Shaheen suggested, I am going to fix this protest event on March 5th 2007.

What you can do,

1. First spread the word about this protest to other bloggers. It need not be food blogs only. It doesn’t matter in what language you blog, just create the post in English in your blog.

2. Create a post on March 5th 2007 about Yahoo! plagiarizing from bloggers. A short note and link to this post. Come up with catchy slogans as your post titles :-)

3. If you do not want to write-up something, you are free to copy the text from my previous posts.

Hope we will gather enough support and make this event a major success.

So spread the word my dear friends and let us all do a silent protest on March 5th 2007.

Easy Tomato Rasam

I hated rasam. I tasted rasam for the first time when I went to Tamil Nadu one time and I just couldn’t understand what this dark water curry was? We ordered a thali and there it was in a small steel tumbler, some kind of brownish water. I poured it on the rice thinking it was some kind of sambar and I thought the hotel people were fooling us by giving colored water as curry.

I hated that water! First of all, I didn’t know I had to mix it only after the meal as a final lap. And it tastes delicious if you mix it with a little buttermilk. It is even better if you just drink it. All these rasam tricks, I had no clue.

Later, I took some liking to it when I knew about all those tricks.

But, how do you prepare it?

Dal water, Rasam powder, yada...yada...yada.

Oh! I am not going to take so much trouble to make a curry which is not even a curry.

So I never made rasam.

Wait, that is not the end of story. I was visiting a friend of mine in Dallas. She had unexpected guests and she made something quickly for dinner and what did she make? Rasam! No rasam powder, no dal water, nothing. But it tasted soooo good, better than any rasam I had ever had.Here is that recipe. All those rasam aficionados don’t be shocked at this version. Try it and you will love it.

5 ripe tomatoes cut into 4
2 tsp whole peppercorns
½ tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp red chili powder
6 cloves of garlic
3inch tamarind soaked in warm water for some time, squeezed and strained to get the tamarind liquid.
1 tsp sambar powder – optional

Blend all this in a mixer adding ½ cup water.

Heat 1 tsp oil, splutter mustard seeds, pour this mixture and when it starts to boil, simmer for 5 minutes. That’s it. Tomato Rasam is ready! Easy as a breeze isn’t it?A must for any rasam, I have understood is fresh coriander leaves. Garnish with coriander leaves and have it with rice.

Montha

This vessel is called montha at our place in Kerala, India. Look at the peculiar shape, which makes it easy for pouring without spilling. This shape of the vessel makes it uniquely Indian. You hold to the narrow neck of this vessel and pour. That makes it a single piece vessel without any handles.

It is also known as Kudam, but at home, we say kudam for larger vessels in this special shape. Montha is smaller size.

I do not cook in this. I use it to store curries or moru (buttermilk).

This is for Indira's India Kitchen - Utensils

Yahoo! plagiarizes contents and blames it on subcontractors

Imagine this fictional scenario,

What do you do when you find a stuff you bought from Wal-mart is no good? Return the product to Wal-mart and get your money back, right? What if Wal-mart asks you to return those contents to its Chinese sub-contractors and say they are not responsible?

That would be hilarious, isn’t it? Yes, That’s exactly what Yahoo! has done.

Remember this post about Yahoo! India plagiarizing contents from bloggers?

How did Yahoo! and Yahoo! India respond? After trying to contact them through many methods, they give a reply after one week stating this:

The Malayalam story was provided to us by Webdunia.com (the content provider) on the express representation that they are duly authorized by the author of the story to publish it. In the circumstances therefore, we do not admit of any copyright violation, as alleged by you.

Although there is no copyright violation and without prejudice to our rights, the said story has been removed from our web site, to avoid any further controversy.

Should you have any further concerns on copyright violations, please write in to copyright@webdunia.com and it will be addressed by the webdunia team.

Great! So, now we need to go behind every subcontractor Yahoo! or Yahoo! India does business with. Who are they trying to fool? Do they think we bloggers are stupid and do not understand the basics of copyrights and responsibilities?

The plagiarized content appeared on Yahoo domain, not on WebDunia.com domain.

The plagiarized content appeared on Yahoo! India (Malayalam) Portal and not on WebDunia.com Malayalam Portal

Blogs are an individual person’s voice, free of corporations and money. Cheating bloggers by plagiarizing contents should not go unanswered, especially by giant corporations like Yahoo!

Yahoo! or Yahoo! India is answerable and they need to acknowledge what they have done. They owe the bloggers an unconditional apology. We are not going to be cowed down by irresponsible corporations. If we do not protest now, incidents like these will threaten a common mans blog existence in future!

What happened to good business practices and good will?

See more links regarding this news:
- Digital Inspiration

- DesiPundit

- Global Voice

- WebPro News

- Aloo Techie

- WatBlog.com

Thank you all for your valuable support and if you would like to join this campaign, create a post about this on your blog and join us. (Thank you mallugirl for the idea)

Humor: I am launching another portal, copying contents from Yahoo! India's portal and blame it on my 10 year old little brother. Recipes don't have copyrights you see, according to 'yahoo'!

Note: A new blog by Malayalam Bloggers Community for this cause.

Snake gourd barges

I think it is a very Indian tradition to have a cup of chai(tea) and a snack before sunset. Especially you reach home famished from work or school and evening snack is a must.

Usually at home, we open a chips packet for evening snack. I feel a little guilty about it and I am always in search of quick healthy snacks.

I am fascinated by snake gourd and I do think, if there is a vegetable on earth perfect for stuffing, it is this, it is this, it is this! The round and lengthy shape surely screams, “Stuff me!”

If there is a stuffing that never fails, it is potato, potato, potato!

So, I thought of making potato-laden snake gourd barges.

Choose a young snake gourd, cut of both tips, scrape lightly, wash and clean.Cut into equal portions of 6 or more inches. Cut open into two parts and remove the seeds from the middle. Brush outside and inside with a mixture of 1 tsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp chili powder and 1 tsp salt.
For 10 barges,
Dice potato into small pieces – 1 cup
Onion – ½ cup
Olive oil – 1 table spoon
Balsamic vinegar – 2 tsp
Chili Powder – 3 tsp
Salt – as needed.

Mix everything and stuff the barges.

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake on the top rack for twenty minutes or until done.Serve with cream or sauce.

Olan

I have been really busy this whole week, and have been eating only rice and pickle. So, couldn’t post which I wanted to very badly.

Now, when a friend gave me the recipe of Olan (a must dish in Onam Sadya), I thought she was kidding. How can an exquisite dish have a recipe so simple? I had never tasted Olan before and have never even seen it during my childhood years. Only later when I moved out of home, I got introduced to this wonderful dish.

It is a simple recipe yet so royal, which reminds me of the traditional Kerala Kasavu Sarees. Plain cream colored sarees with a small zari border, they look so simple yet when you wear it, it looks royal. Somehow Olan reminds of this.

You can make Olan using Ash gourd, young green Pumpkin.

I am not sure one can make it using young green Papaya. Anyway I tried it and it tastes the same as you cook it with Ashgourd. I normally make it with Ashgroud, but this time I made it with young papaya.

Papaya needs to be peeled, the seeds removed and cleaned, then cut into small pieces.
Papaya – 4 cups.
Red moong beans – 1 cup (pressure cooked, should not lose its shape)

Now, cook papaya with 6 green chilies split, 1 sprig of curry leaves, and ½ tsp of cumin powder in 2 cups of water. Simmer and let the water evaporate completely.

When done and the papaya turns soft, add 2 cups of fresh coconut milk and the cooked red moong beans. Cook for another 5 or 6 minutes with open lid. Olan shoud not be watery.

Take from stove and add 2 tsp of coconut oil and mix. (Yes, if you ask me coconut oil is a must.) That’s it.
Serve with rice. The Royal Olan is ready!

Now, for some updates. We all know about Yahoo India stealing contents from individual blogs. Concerned parties send an email to Yahoo (U.S) office and those emails were forwarded to Yahoo India. No reply yet! But the funny thing is those contents were removed from the site silently. That means they are sure they committed the violation.

However, I do think they ought to put an apology on Yahoo site. A silent removal is not accepted. Since, the main thing is we all cannot always go behind each and every person and it is a big headache. This time, Yahoo has done it and if they put an apology it will be a lesson to future violators.

What you can do? Please do send emails from your company address, especially if you have a good company name like Microsoft, Intel, Google etc. For this matter to be taken urgently and to get noticed since your company email id gives the complaints validity.

Please do send emails to Mary Osako (mosako@yahoo-inc.com), Linda Du (lindadu@yahoo-inc.com). You can get more email address from here


Thank you again all for the support.