Malabar (Kannur) Fish Curry - Tangy and tasty!

Here’s a treat - one of my favourite recipes ever. For culture and cuisine as rich as Malabar, and most of their recipes requiring intense labour and complicated, there also prevail some simple everyday recipes that are really easy to make, yet tasting different in its own way. The style of cuisine and can tell you a great deal about the history of people of the area. Even within the same cuisine, a dish will taste different when they are prepared by different cooks and households. I so believe the difference lies in their attitude towards food they prepare. For me, I prepare sweets and desserts with so much of passion, love and attention and they come out good every time I make them. On the other hand, I make spicy food mostly for survival and I had faced disastrous results many a time. This is what exactly happened with this fish curry of my mom. I have been trying to recreate my mom’s fish curry ever since I started cooking and it never even reached anywhere closer to hers and got worser and worser. Annoyed at this persistent failure, I stopped trying her recipe, went on with few other recipes on net and stuck to them. That is when I decided, I have to watch her cooking and weigh the ingredients, and yes, I did that.

Last time, when I went to visit my family back in Abu dhabi, I also took my digital kitchen scale along, so that I could get the accurate measurement of my mom’s recipes. I was tired of trying her recipes with the approximate measurements she handed over to me long back and me struggling to perfect it. There was no other choice than standing by her side and weighing each and every ingredient she added to her dishes, that includes spices as well. And one such recipe that I jotted down is this awesome fish curry. It’s very simple and really tasty if you get some fresh fish in hand. I mostly use frozen fish as it is difficult to get hold of fresh fish always.

In this curry my mom uses raw mango, gamboges or even tamarind as souring agent. It is purely personal choice. As tamarind causes acidity for my dad, she prefers gamboge and raw mango. Gamboge is soaked in hot water to soften it and release its juice while cooking. Back home, my mother in law uses fresh gamboge in her cooking. She picks them fresh from the plant that grows in our kitchen garden. They are pale green and spherical in shape that resembles pumpkin but just the size of a British lime. They turn yellow when ripe and falls off the tree. They are either used fresh but most of them are cleaned, cut into sections and dried for longer shelf life. They are black once dried and are mostly used in fish and prawn curries. Also known as Malabar Tamarind. This curry is my mom’s version and you can find the same curry with slight variation through out Kannur.

This post goes to Kerala Kitchen a wonderful hub of Kerala Cuisine founded by Rose of Magpies recipes. This month event is hosted by Sarah of Spoonful of Delight.

On another note, Biny Anoop has shared a wonder award for Innovative Blogger and to tell you Biny, I am so touched. Thank you for all the kind words and appreciation.

Malabar Style (Kannur) Fish Curry

Cooking Time:30 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

275g – 350g Any cleaned fish like King fish, sardines, mackerel, salmon etc

1 medium size, ½ a cup, 90g onions, finely chopped

150g, 2 small ones or 1 large, slightly more than ¾ cup tomatoes, finely chopped

5-15g, 3 small sections of Gamboge (Kudampuli); depending on the sourness of the fruit.

3 large Garlic cloves finely chopped

2-4 green chillies

2-3 twig curry leaves

1 ½ - 2 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon Fennel seeds (Sunf, perumjeerakam)

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

10g, 2-2 ½ heaped teaspoon mild chilli powder

3 level teaspoon Coriander powder

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

2-3 Tablespoons coconut oil.

½ cup hot water to soak gamboges*

1 ½ cup rice water (Fresh Kanji Vellam) **

Preparations:

1.Wash and soak the gamboge in ½ a cup of hot water for 10-15 minutes to soften them.

2. In an earthen pot (Man-chatti) or a non-stick pan, heat coconut oil. Add fenugreek seeds and just as they start to change colour, add fennel seeds and let them leave aroma, about 10 seconds. (Keep the heat low-medium and do not let the fenugreek or fennel seeds charred as it will impart a bitter taste to the curry).

3. Add garlic and stir for few seconds until they are soft and starts to take colour. At this point, add chopped onion, slit green chillies, chopped tomatoes, curry leaves and salt. Cover and cook for around 7-10 minutes stirring occasionally to avoid the mixture sticking to the pot.

4. Once the tomatoes and onions go soft and mushy, add spices. Stir well.

5. Add gamboge along with the soaked water and rice water. Cover and bring to rolling boil. Boil for 2-3 minutes.

6. Lower the heat and add fish pieces. Cover and cook on low flame for about 10-15 minutes until fish is cooked through. Check for seasoning and adjust salt. Serve hot with rice or any rice pancakes like pathiri, Nool Puttu (String Hoppers), ottil pollichathu, porotta etc.

Notes:

*Gamboge is used as a souring agent for the curry and it can be substituted with a gooseberry size tamarind which is soaked in hot water, pressed and drained. Use the strained water and discard the residue. It can also be substituted by raw mango (50g-75g, 5 or 6 pieces) depending on the sourness of the mango. If using mango, add it along with other vegetables while sautéing.

** Rice water (Kanji vellam) is the water obtained after cooking rice. It is mainly used to thicken the gravy. If you don’t have them, you can substitute rice water by mixing 1-2 teaspoon of rice to the water and add them to the curry.

If the gamboges are of good quality little will go along way. But if they are less tart, you might need to add more.

Beef Ularthiyathu and a Set of Awards!

I am a core fan of beef meat even though I don’t prepare many dishes with it. Back home, we normally have very few dishes with beef like Aana pathal with beef gravy, Beef porichathu to go with Malabar pathiri (a famous rice roti from Malabar region) which is a unique and popular combination, irachi ada or beef samosas and a simple beef curry. My favourite has always been the beef porichathu or the beef fry, the recipe of which I will post as I prepare it. Here is a simple yet an interesting recipe for beef; does not belong to Malabar, but quite a common preparation found in the central and southern part of Kerala. The curry is strongly flavoured with the spices and is much different from the Malabar recipes. The recipe is quite similar to my Mutton ularthiyathu recipe, but I played around by shuffling a bit with the ingredients.

Ingredients:

500g Beef cut into required size, small or big as preferred.

For marinade:

1 ½ Tbsp lightly roasted coriander powder

½ Tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1 tbsp minced ginger

5 large flakes of garlic, grated (1 heaped Tbsp)

¼ tsp turmeric powder

Salt – as required

To roast and grind:

1 – 1 ½ tsp fennel seeds

3 cloves

3 cardamoms

2 small pieces of cinnamon sticks of 1 inch length

1 tsp pepper corns

Others:

1 ½ cup sliced shallots (1 used ¾ cup onion and ¾ cup shallots)

1 large tomato

¼ - 1/3 cup sliced coconut (Thengkkothu)

3 twig curry leaves

3 Tbsp coconut oil (Vegetable oil may be substituted)

Salt-as required

Preparation:

1.Wash the beef well, marinate with ground coriander, Kashmiri Chilli powder, turmeric powder, ginger, garlic and salt for half an hour.

2. Heat a pressure cooker, add this marinated beef and cook on low- medium heat making sure not to burn the meat. When it is well cooked, turn off the heat. If there is lot of liquid released from the meat, turn the heat up and boil off the excess water until the meat is smothered in thick gravy.

3. In another sauce pan/frying pan, heat oil. Add sliced shallots, little salt and sliced coconut and sauté on medium heat until onions starts turning golden colour. (It may take around 15-20 minutes on medium heat, but it may vary on the pan and medium of heat used).

4. At this stage, add the gravy smothered meat, tomato,2 twigs of curry leaves and powdered spices leaving ½ teaspoon behind for the final sprinkling and mix well. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes on low flame until it gets really thick. Keep sautéing until the curry is quite dry and starts taking a light blackish/dark brown colour.

5. Sprinkle the rest of spices and 1 twig of curry leaves and mix well.

This curry tastes better the next day, so you may prepare it ahead of time if you are preparing for any parties. Garnish with chopped coriander and sliced coconut. Can be served as a side dish for rice, chappathi, porotta, pathiris etc.

This post also comes with a set of awards from two of my fellow bloggers. Food lovers had shared this sunshine award. Thanks you dear.Another set of award including sunshine award is shared by Ayesha of lifetoday. Thanks u Ayesha.

The award also comes with a bunch of questions to write about yourself. I have done that part sometime back and yoou can see that here.

 

I would like to pass on these awards to the following fabulous bloggers:

 

Sarah of Vazhayila

Gulmohar of Collaborative curry

Divya Kudua of Divyascookbook

Maria of Mariasmenu

Pavithra of dishes from my kitchen

Nithya of 4thsensecooking.

Tina of  Kaipunyam

Parita of Paritasworld

Sailaja of Sailaja kitchen.

Queen Of Puddings

Hi all,

Here’s another recipe for a yummy treat- tested, tasted and loved. It was during one of our new home hunt that we visited my friend ‘P’s place. When we went there she told me she has some guests arriving next day and she was planning to make Biriyani and for the dessert ‘Queen of Puddings’. I have come across this recipe in couple of my recipe books and dint appeal me when I skimmed through them. But my friend ‘P’ told me that the pudding tasted so yummy and it is a crowd pleaser. She has prepared it for many of her guests and all had liked it and had even taken the recipe from her. So I thought I would dust up the recipe from the drafts and give it a shot. I had called her up few times to get the recipe, but couldn’t get her through. So after referring the nets and books, I finally ended up in the recipe mentioned here. Well the recipe is almost like hers, but I have added the lemon rind in the milk which I noticed on some recipes.

I thought the dessert was quite a light one, using less butter. The amount of sugar can be adjusted per your taste and the one given here is as per my family’s requirement. The dessert has three layers with the softly whipped light snowy meringue on the top that very well complimented with the sweet and slightly chewy stewed pineapple underneath and the soft bread pudding base. The addition of lemon rind in the bread pudding gave the dessert a burst of zesty and citrusy aroma. The flavours - vanilla, lemon and pineapple were all very well distributed and the dessert was full of flavour!


Well, I guess the classic version of the Queen of puddings is made of Strawberry Jam or Raspberry Jam in the middle layer instead of the stewed pineapple. I dint have Jam in hand, so substituted with the pineapple. If you are using jam instead of Pineapple, Warm few tablespoon of Jam in a saucepan until it becomes soft and spreadable and spread it on top of the bread pudding base, as thick as you like it to be. You may also use drained cherries from the can for a much sophisticated look. You may also try stewing berries like strawberries, raspberries etc with little sugar until soft and spoon them over the bread. These are just suggestions. We very much liked the pineapple version and I guess I would be sticking to this recipe rather than using jam. You may also try using your own versions of fruits, but I guess tropical fruits or summer berry fruits should work with the best for this recipe.



Queen of Puddings
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup (125 gm) finely chopped bread (tightly packed)
2 cups (500mls) milk, whole or semi skimmed
½ tsp vanilla essence
1 lemon’s rind
2 Tbs butter
3 large eggs separated
1*520gm can Pineapple chunks finely chopped (1 1/2 cups), (320g drained weight)
4 Tbs + 4 Tbs + 4Tbs finely granulated sugar (Grind sugar if it has larger crystals)
4 Tbs pineapple juice from the can OR water if using fresh pineapple

Preparation:


1. Chop the bread into very small pieces, tip them into a bowl and keep aside.

2. Add milk, butter and grated lemon rind into a sauce pan and bring to simmering point until the butter completely melts, but don’t boil.

3. Mix in vanilla and add it the chopped bread pieces. Let it stand for 20-30 minutes or until the bread has really soaked up in milk, has become soft and plumb. Mash the bread using a fork or just whisk for 2 minutes with a balloon whisk just to mash the bread.

4. Pre- heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

5. Meanwhile add 4 Tbs of sugar to egg yolks and lightly beat for couple of minutes until pale. Add this to the bread mixture and mix well.

6. Pour this bread mixture in a 1.3 litre oven proof dish or any pie dish. Place this dish in another large vessel or tray or baking dish and fill the larger vessel halfway with hot water (Bain Marie/water bath). Wearing oven mitts, place the whole tray in the middle rack of the oven. Bake the pudding till it sets in the center and stops wobbling, for about 20-30 minutes. (Mine took 26 minutes)

7. While the pudding is in the oven, add the chopped pineapple in a saucepan along with 4 Tbs of sugar and the pineapple juice or water and cook till pineapple is soft and there is no moisture left. Mash it fork roughly and let it cool. Spread this over the baked bread pudding evenly.

8. For preparing the meringue (pronounced as ‘meraang’), in a squeaky clean bowl (make sure it is free of grease), Add the egg whites and using an electric whisk (egg beater), whip until it holds stiff peaks. Add little sugar at a time (1 Tbs at a time and total of 4 Tbsp), and continue beating until the mixture is stiff and glossy as you see in the picture.

9. Spoon the mixture on top of the pineapple and spread it evenly. If you want to form spikes as in picture, slightly depress the back of spoon into the meringue and lift it. It should form low peaks. Don’t lift it too high or the peaks will burn before the rest gets cooked. You may also pipe out the meringue using piping bag to get an even better pattern.

10. Put it back in the oven (No Bain Marie this time) and bake till the top turns slightly golden. I baked it in 180 Degrees here and took me around 15 minutes in my oven. You may reduce it to 150 or 160 degrees and cook for longer.

11. Bring it room temperature and serve it warm or serve it chilled.

Notes:
1.While using lemons rind, make sure you don’t use the white pith underneath the skin which is very bitter. You may substitute orange rind for lemon.

2.If you find it difficult to place the whole tray of pudding and water, you may place the larger tray in the oven, place the smaller one in, then pour the hot water.

This post also comes with 'Beautiful Blogger Award' from my dear friend faiza (http://www.faizaali.blogspot.com/). Thank you faiza for the award. I would like to share this beautiful award with all my beautiful friends.

Meringue

Kozhi Nirachathu (Stuffed Chicken with Gravy)

An advance New year wishes from my side to all of you. May the coming year bring all sort of happiness and comfort to all of you.

Kozhi Nirachathu is one of the Malabar specialities; I don’t think it is popular but is definitely a heart winner. I didn’t have a clue about this recipe until I came across shaheen’s blog. I then enquired about it to my mom who then told me that she have heard about it and one of my aunts used to make it long back. These days stuffed chicken is not commonly made may be due to the tremendous labour that goes into making it and in a household where there are many members, you definitely need more than a chicken to feed all. Well, I never got to eat them even while I was in Kerala and only had them when I made them myself.

Even though Kozhi nirachathu/ stuffed chicken is not popularly seen around, many other luxurious stuffed items are commonly made in Malabar region for any occasion like Eid, Iftar, parties, for the just married groom and when important guests pay a visit. These stuffed foods include stuffed plantains of different types commonly known as ‘Unnakkaya’ or ‘Kaayada’ and pazham nirachathu, stuffed pancakes that take different forms and shapes like meen pathiri, chatty pathiri, atti pathal, Chemmeen ada, kadalapparippu ada to name a few...... I still have bizarre memories of a whole stuffed goat during one of my post wedding parties, with goat lying on its back and all four legs up in the air!!!

Well, coming back to Kozhi nirachathu/stuffed chicken, I recently prepared this it for dinner and we had it with Porotta and salad. It was finger-licking delicious! The recipe was an amazing one and I closely followed the recipe and instruction given at shaheen’s blog. I had noticed that recipe long time when I was blog hopping but I felt it was too complicated and time consuming at that time. And I guess it still is!!! I was just waiting for the perfect mood to make it because I knew it needs quite a lot of patience...The taste was too good and we just couldn’t stop admiring the dish. It was yummy and I surely would make it again, but only if there is someone to help me with my kid or share a part of toil!

Coming to the preparation part, tying the hands and legs sounded quite simple, but it took me sometime to tie the leg and I couldn’t manage to tie the hands. At a point of time, where I almost lost my patience, I also thought of using safety pin instead of tying them up! It also took a long time to finish cooking as managing the large bird was quite a hurdle plus so many other stuffs in between- my son’s feeding, washing up and a bit of time to run behind him and chase him when he tries to distract me playing naughty.....So my advice would be, try this dish when you have plenty of time in hand, a bit of patience and there is no one to bother you in the process!


Kozhi Nirachathu(Stuffed Chicken with Gravy)
Ingredients:
1400g (3 Lb) Chicken, skinned

Marinade:
3 Tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 Tbsp Lime juice
1 tsp salt or as required
3-4 tbsp water

Ingredients for Egg stuffing:
2-3 tsp vegetable oil/coconut oil/olive oil
1 or 2 Eggs
3 medium size (325g) onions sliced thinly (3 cups)
2-4 slit green chillies
1 twig curry leaves
½ Tbsp ginger, minced
½ Tbsp garlic, minced
¼ cup (28g) cashews (Optional)
1 Tbsp raisins (optional)
½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder/paprika
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
Little salt to taste

Ingredients for the gravy:
4 medium size (385g) onions, sliced and then chopped into small pieces (2 ¾ cup)
2 twig curry leaves
3 large tomatoes (240g) chopped (1 ½ cups)
3/4 - 1 Tbsp freshly minced ginger
3/4 - 1 Tbsp freshly minced garlic
2-4 green chillies split lengthwise
1 ½ tsp fennel seeds powdered (1/2 heaped tablespoon)
2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder/paprika
½ tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp garam masala powder
A handful of coriander leaves, chopped

Others:
4 Tbsp oil
Salt as required
¼ cup water (Add it only if your grvay is quite dry and to add moisture)

Preparation:




1.Clean the chicken well and make shallow incision on the thick part of chicken. Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients under marinade. Cover with a cling film and place it in the refrigerator for a minimum of two hours or overnight. (I usually marinate it overnight to let the marinade penetrate through.)

2. Make the egg stuffing:

a.Boil eggs, peel and keep aside. Heat oil in a saucepan and sauté the cashews until golden and sauté the raisins until it puffs up. Remove from the pan and keep them aside along with the eggs. In the same pan, add the sliced onions, curry leaves, green chillies, ginger and garlic and sauté till onion turns brown. Add all the spice powders (turmeric powder, coriander powder and chilli powder) and sauté till it leaves aroma. Add raisins and cashews if using and mix well. Add eggs and mix well.

3. Stuff the chicken with this mixture taking care not to over stuff it. Insert the eggs first and then the onion masala. Tie the legs together with a twine and hands too.

4.Make the gravy and brief-fry the chicken:

a. Heat 4 Tbsp of oil in a large frying pan or wok and shallow fry the chicken in medium heat briefly just for few minutes until all side are lightly browned. It may take 10-15 minutes for the whole chicken. Remove the chicken and drain on a kitchen towel. In the same pan, add the sliced onions, curry leaves, green chillies, ginger and garlic and sauté till onion turns brown. Add tomatoes and sauté on medium heat till they start to breakdown. Add the spice powders (turmeric powder, coriander powder, fennel powder and chilli powder) and sauté till it forms a mass and tomatoes are pulpy. Add little water if the mixture is dry. Add coriander leaves and sprinkle garam masala. Mix well and cook for a couple of minutes more.

5. Final cooking:

a.Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Spread half of the gravy masala on to a baking tray/pyrex dish and place the half fried chicken on the masala. Spread rest of masala on the chicken. Cover the entire dish with foil. Place it in the centre rack of oven and bake for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for further 10 minutes.

OR

b. After the gravy masala is prepared, place the brief-fried chicken on the masala, cover with a lid and cook it on medium flame until done. Make sure you flip the chicken on all sides to ensure thorough cooking.

Malabar Meen Biriyani - Malabar Style Fish Biriyani (Fish and Rice Casserole)

Hi pals,
I am flying to India this Friday for a short holiday of three weeks. I am quite excited about it because I really wanted a change and this would be a perfect one...But I just wish if my family were there too...Then it would have been the best holiday ever!!..This time my B’Day will be in India too. I don’t remember being in India on my B’Day. So looking forward to it... Before leaving, I will share with you all one of my favourite recipes i.e. Malabar Fish biriyani. As I have told before I am a lover of prawn and fish biriyani and prepare them whenever I get a chance to. This is prepared in Malabar style with lots of sautéed onions, ginger, garlic and tomatoes with a touch of spice and spicy fried fish. The outcome is a slight tangy fish masala that pairs well with the ghee rice making a wonderfully aromatic and rich Fish Biriyani. The recipe is very similar to the Chemmeen Biriyani I posted before and tastes yum!


These days I am finding it quite difficult to blog, since my little one wants me full time with him. So I am fully engaged and no time to spare at all. We play a lot and do colouring, reading his animal books and rolling his tiny cars with him...Um, I am no so keen on doing colouring and playing with cars and all but I am forced to!!!......Today I just grabbed the ‘Henna’ or ‘Mehendi’ cone that was lying in the fridge since Eid and started applying it on his tiny hand...(Well, I dirtied up his hand)....he was quite patient with it and was curious and happy too....because I was drawing his favourite items like: ball, moon, ‘caach’(cars), ‘Faathaafy’ (Butter-fly), ‘shun’ (sun) and ‘tarsh’ (stars).. Now I think he also dreams about dogs and cats because in sleep he sometimes says dog, cat etc....Well, he just started talking since one month and these are few of his vocabularies and the way he pronounce them. Then I applied henna on one of his little feet also. I applied it quite well, but dint have much luck with it....he rubbed his foot on the carpet and messed it up.....


Ingredients:
For Fish masala:
600 gm (4 Large pieces) King fish.

To marinate the Fish:
1 Tbsp Kashmiri Chilly powder
2 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp lime juice
½ - ¾ tsp salt (Check and adjust)
10 tbs vegetable oil for frying fish and making masala.

For the gravy:
3 medium-large onions crushed in processor(3 cups, 500 gm)
2 1/2 medium size tomatoes chopped (1 1/3 cup, 300 gm)
12 cloves of garlic, crushed (3 tbs)
5 green Chillies, chopped fine (adjust to your taste)
4" piece ginger, crushed (60gm, 4 tbs)
1 tsp pepper powder
1 tbs lime juice
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves (loosely packed)
6-8 mint leaves,chopped
2-4 Tbsp water (I added 4)
½ tsp fennel seed powder
1 tsp salt, or as reqd
1 tsp garam masala.

For the Ghee rice:
3 cups Basmati rice
4 1/2 cups boiling water
salt-as required - (I used 3/4 Tbs salt)
3 tbs Clarified butter/ghee
4 tbs vegetable oil
1 large onion sliced
2 Tbs raisins,washed
1 bay leaf
5 cardamom
7 cloves
4 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
1/2 Tbs cumin seeds
3/4 tsp extra garam masala to sprinkle while layering rice

For Garnishing:
4 Tbs Almonds blanced,peeled and roasted (I din’t get time to blanch and peel, that’s y u see the skin on) or cashew nuts
1 large onion sliced
2-3 Tbsp raisins
½ tsp turmeric powder + little water/ few strands of saffron soaked in water/little yellow or orange food colour.



Preparation:
First prepare the Fish masala:
1. Wash the fish, drain and marinate them in kashmiri Chilli powder, Coriander powder turmeric powder, lemon and salt for half an hour.

2. Heat a large non-stick saucepan to high, and add the oil. When hot, shallow fry the fish briefly on both sides, turning once or twice. Drain them in the kitchen towel.

3. In the same oil add the chopped onion, ginger, garlic and chillies along with salt and cook until the onions have become soft for about 10 - 15 minutes.

4. Add in the chopped tomatoes and pepper powder. Reduce the heat to medium and cover and cook until the tomatoes become soft and you get a thick gravy.

5. At this point of time, add the chopped mint leaves, chopped coriander leaves, garam masala, fennel powder and lime juice. Reduce the flame to low, stir well, cover and cook for another 4 -5 minutes.Add 2-4 Tbs of water and stir well.

6. You can break the fish into 2–3 pieces if they are really big (I did, since it is easy to manage). Add in the half fried fish and cook on very low flame for about 15-20 minutes so that the flavour of the fish diffuse in the gravy and the gravy is thick.

For preparing the Ghee Rice and the garnish:
1.Wash rice several times and soak the rice in normal tap water while you prepare the fish masala, for about ½ -1 hour.

2. Boil water in the kettle or a large cooking vessel.

3. Heat a large pan to high heat and add ghee and oil. Sauté the onions to be garnished until golden and take them out. In the same oil, sauté the cashews or peeled almonds until golden and keep them along with onions. In the same manner sauté raisins until it puffs up. Keep them with the fried onions and nuts.

4. For preparing the ghee rice, In the same oil, add onions and sauté until the onions turns soft. At this stage add cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon, raisins and cumin seeds and sauté for a couple of minutes until the aroma of the spices starts coming out.

5. Reduce the heat to medium and add drained rice. Sauté for about 3-4 mnutes until the rice is well coated with the oil and the spices. Add the boiling water and salt to this. When the water starts bubbling, reduce the heat to low, cover the saucepan with a very tight lid to prevent the steam from escaping. If you don’t have a tight lid, first cover the saucepan with few sheets of newspaper/foil and then cover tightly with a lid. It will hold all the steam in. Cook for about 20 minutes or until done. Cooking time may differ depending on the rice you use. In between you may toss the bottom part of rice and bring to top once or twice, so that the rice gets cooked evenly. Then do the layering.

For layering the biryani and final cooking:
1. Divide the rice in 3 parts and masala in two parts.

2. Take a large heavy based vessel and rub it with oil or ghee. Layer the bottom of the vessel with the first part of the rice. Sprinkle a 1/4 tsp of garam masala all over and scatter one half of fish masala over the rice. Tip in the second part of rice and sprinkle a good pinch of garam masala (1/4 tsp) all over again. Scatter the second half of fish masala over the rice and then tip in the third part of rice and sprinkle a good pinch of garam masala (1/4 tsp) all over again. Now you can sprinkle yellow or orange food colouring in streaks if you like to have few yellow grains. I used ½ tsp of turmeric powder mixed in little water. You may use saffron soaked in water as well.

3. Cover the entire vessel with foil (to ensure that full steam stays in), then close the lid tightly. Place a weight (you can also use any vessel filled with water for this) over this vessels and cook on hob top for about 20-30 minutes at very low heat. This is to infuse the flavour of the biryani masala into the rice and this process of cooking is called ‘Dum’.

4. You can also do the layering in an ovenproof vessel and place it in a preheated oven at a very low temperature for about 20-30 minutes for the final cooking. I never tried this, but my friends do it this way.Just before serving, garnish with fried onions, cashews and raisins. Enjoy with Cucumber Raita, tomato and onion salad, thenga chammanthi, pickle and pappadams!



The sequence I followed:
1. I washed the rice and soaked it.
2. Started the masala preparation by peeling the onions, ginger and garlic. Chopped them all in processor to make the work easier. And prepared the masala. Kept them aside.
3. Prepared the garnish
4. Prepared the rice.
5. Did the layering.
6. Garnished while serving.

Check out other rice recipes here:

Chemmeen Biriyani
Aromatic Rice Pulao
Chilli Garlic Fried Rice
Fried Rice
Thalassery Mutton Dum Biryani
Ghee Rice (Neychor)

Awards and Meme:
My friend Saju has shared an award with me. Thanks you for sharing this award and the meme. I really enjoyed doing the meme.



This award goes with a fun meme which has to be passed on to 6 of your favourite blogs and which has to be answered with only one word (Oops, I saw this rule after writing the meme....Damn..I don’t have time to re-write..Sorry....).

Here is the meme part:

1. Where is your cell phone: Next to me..
2. Your hair: Black
3. Your mother: Caring.
4. Your father: kind.
5. Your favorite food: biriyani
6. Your dream last night: none
7. Your favorite drink: Hot-chocolate.
8. Your dream/goal: Secret ;)
9. What room are you in: Living room
10. Your hobby: Blogging.
11. Your fear: Darkness, reptiles, dogs, heavy lighting and thunder, sometimes strangers etc...the list goes on..
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years: UAE .
13. Where were you last night: Home.
14. Something you aren’t: Hypocrite.
15. Muffins: chocolate chip Muffins.
16. Wish list item: Coco perfume By Chanel, but my husband hates the smell of it!!
17. Where did you grow up: Kerala/ UAE
18. Last thing you did: Had a glass of juice.
19. What are you wearing: A long Skirt and a T-shirt.
20. Your TV: Plasma.
21. Your pets: Would prefer if someone takes care of me...:)..No pets.
22. Your friends: Hubby, Mom, sisters, school and college friends.
23. Your life: Going with the wind.
24. Your mood: Happy.
25. Missing someone: My family in UAE.
26. Vehicle: It’s a car.
27. Something you’re not wearing: Jewellery.
28. Your favorite store: Marks and Spencer, Tesco.
29. Your favorite color: Keeps changing
30. When was the last time you laughed: Sometime today....don’t remember
31. Last time you cried: Yesterday....My son really hurt his hand (pulled his elbow) and I couldn’t bear it.
32. Your best friend: My Mom.
33. One place that I go over and over: Kitchen....
34. One person who emails me regularly: There are many actually...
35. Favorite place to eat: Home sweet home.


Also vidhas has passed a ‘Giant Bear Hug’ Award. Thank you so much Vidhas.

I would like to share these awards and meme to the following great bloggers:

Sushma Mallya
Pavithra
Faiza Ali
Vrinda
Priya
Sangeetha Subhash

MeenPathiri (Steamed Rice Pancakes Filled with Rich Fish Masala)

HI friends, how are you all doing?...I have been quite busy these days with stuffs at home and house hunting for our next move and we just found it today! Jeez, we are moving again may be in October or November. This time I am going to post another authentic recipe from Malabar region of Kerala, South India.....Yes, it is my all time favourite Meen pathiri...I had this for the first time when I attended one of my husbands relative’s wedding party in Tellicherry. It was in a post-wedding party that I had these gorgeous, yummilicious meenpathiri. There were loads of different varieties of food, I can’t remember, but they were all finger-licking good!! And meen pathiri was one thing that I can’t forget.I think I just had a couple of these during that party due to my slow eating behaviour and couldn't have anything else..As I mentioned before, I am quite slow in eating and it is a pain when it comes to parties. There will be so much of food that we might need an extra stomach to stuff them in, and a slow-eater like me cant even eat peacefully. Those who attended the parties in kannur-tellicherry region would have experienced this treat for sure.

Coming to the recipe, meenpathiris are steamed pancakes filled with a spicy fish masala. The pancakes are enriched itself with freshly grated coconut, fennel and onions. The procedure is quite lengthy and time consuming, but the outcome and the taste is......my goodness, unbelievable. I am not a big fan of fish dishes, but certain fish recipes like Malabar fish biriyani and meen pathiris are an exception.....This is something that is normally made during parties or during Ramadan.

Meen Pathiri (serves 4-6)
Ingredients:
For the pathiri:(Please refer to the Neypathal dough and options given there. You can prepare the dough in any of the method mentioned there. The amount is the same)
2 cups Parboiled rice (Puzhukkalari, best is Ponni rice, Long grain rice can be substituted)
1 ½ Tbs fennel seeds (Perumjeerakam)
1 ¾ cups grated coconut
1 ½ cups water
1 cup rice flour
Salt – As reqd

For frying fish:
600 gm (4 large piece) King fish
1 Tbs Kashmiri chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp salt
2 Tbs water
6 Tbs oil

For the masala:3 Large onion (510 gm, 4 cups chopped)
5 large cloves of garlic (1 heaped Tbs, grated)
2 medium Tomatoes(150 gms, 1 cup chopped)
2 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder
3 tsp Coriander powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
1-1 ½ Tbsp Lime/lemon juice
2 twigs curry leaves, chopped
6-8 mint leaves, chopped
3 Tbs coriander leaves
4 Tbs water
½ tsp garam masala

For coconut paste:½ cup grated coconut
½ tsp fennel seeds (perumjeerakam)
2 shallots
4 Tbs (1/4 cup) water

Preparation:

1. Rub the fish with salt and lemon juice to get rid of the raw smell. Wash it thoroughly.

2. Make a thick paste of all the powders with water and marinate fish for about ½ hour -1 hour.

3. Make a smooth coconut paste by grinding the coconut, fennel, 2 shallots and water.

4. Heat a large frying pan and add oil. Fry the fish well. Remove from flame, remove the bones and break each piece into 4-6 portions. Keep them aside.

5. In the same pan, add onions and salt and sauté until it becomes soft and translucent. Add ginger, garlic and sauté for few minutes until the onion is cooked very well. Add chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder and sauté for few seconds.

6. Add in the chopped tomatoes, cover and cook till the tomatoes are soft and cooked. Add the coconut paste and ¼ cup water (less or more as required to get a very thick, not dry and not watery gravy/masala). Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes until the raw smell of the coconut goes away. Add the chopped leaves, lime/lemon juice and garam masala and stir well, cook for a minute or two. Add the fish pieces, cover and cook on very low flame until all the flavour is infused well for about 8-10 minutes

For the making pathiris and assembling:
1. Soak the rice in tap water for 3-4 hours.

2. Grind it along with minimal water until you get a coarse and grainy mixture.

3. Add coconut, fennel seeds and roughly chopped onions to this and grind for few seconds until everything is just crushed and NOT smooth.

4. Tip the whole mixture in to a large bowl, add salt and mix well.

5. Add the rice powder and mix well using hands until you get dough that can be shaped into balls.

6. Take a small portion from the rice dough, make a ball and flatten it in a sheet (I used baking paper cut into square shape, u can use banana leaf or any other sheet made from shopper bag) using the heel of your palm. Add some masala in the centre along with the fish pieces, leaving a cm from the circumference.

7. Make another pathiri in another sheet the same way, a bit bigger than the previous one and cover the masala filled pathiri, covering the masalas completely. Slowly press the edges using the fingers to seal all the fish masala in. Carefully lift the sheet/banana leaf and place it in a steamer. Steam cook for about 10-12 minutes or until the pathiri is firm. Hold all the edges of the banana leaf/baking paper and lift out the meenPathiris. (Beware steam getting into hands!)

8. Repeat the same process until all the masalas and the rice are used up.

Now comes the awards!!

Aruna of Ensamayal kuripukal has Given me few sets of Awards and has also tagged me. I have been tagged before as well, So please view them here. Thank you Aruna.

Priya of Ensamaiyal and Sarah of vazhayila has also passed on the following beautiful awards for me. Thank you ladies...

I would like to pass the above awards and tags to all my friends out there. Please feel free to accept it and post it in your blog.

Vegetable Stew

Vegetable Stew is one of the curries that I started making during my budding stage of cooking as it is one of the easiest curries anyone could make in no time. Whenever I make Appams, paalappam or vellayappam, this is the first curry that comes to my mind. It is so easy to make and tastes really good. The first time I made this curry, I had wondered how this curry could come out good when there is not even a single powdered spice in it! But I gave it a try because i have heard this is the best comination with Appams. And just to my surprise, it came out so well. It is the whole spices sautéed in oil that gives this curry the entire flavour. This is a very mild curry with no heat at all. So if you want to add some heat, add a couple of slit green chillies along with the spices.



Vegetable stew:
Ingredients:
Vegetables:
4 medium size potatoes diced (2 ½ cups, ~500 g)
1 medium carrot dices (1/2 cup, 100 g)
1 onion sliced (1 ¼ cup, 175g)
½ cup frozen green peas (70 g)
Whole spices:
4 cardamoms
5 cloves
3 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
½- ¾ tsp pepper corns
Others:
2 cups thin coconut milk (500 ml)
¾ cup thick coconut milk
2-3 Tbs oil (vegetable or coconut)
salt- as required

Preparation:
1.Heat a saucepan, add oil and add the whole spices. When the aroma comes, add the chopped vegetables and sauté for 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
2. Add the thin coconut milk, cover and cook until the vegetables are well cooked, soft and start to breakdown. Add salt and adjust taste.
3. Add thick coconut milk and just boil once until all the flavours blen well.
This goes very well with appam. It can be had wth bread as well.

Recipe adpated from Lakshmi Nair.

Notes:
1. For the coconut milk, I normally use the maggi coconut milk powder. But I have also used fresh coconut, dessicated coconut to extract coconut milk. In this recipe, for thin milk, I have used 4 tbs of coconut milk powder for 500 mls of warm water. And 4 tbs of milk mixed with 3/4 cup of warm water to give 3/4 cup coconut milk. You may reduce or add more as required.
2. I always used the vegetables that I had in hand for this curry. I have used the combination of potatoes with cauliflower, potatoes and carrots and beans and even made just using potatoes. And everything tastes equally good. So throw in the vegetables u have in hand and prepare it.

Now comes The awards. This time I received 3 awards from my fellow bloggers. Thanks alot guys for the appreciation and the inspiration you give me.

1. Parita had passed me the 360 degree Foodie award. Thank you Parita. I am honoured.









2. vidhas has also passed me the following awards. Thank you so much Vidhas.














3. Aysha has given me the following Awards along with the 360 Degree award. Thank you so much aysha.

I Would like to pass the above awards to the following amazing bloggers:

Zoyah.

Tina

En Samaiyal

Pavithra

Dil se

Amma's AdukkalaPublish Post

Aana pathal/ Kozhi Pidi (Steamed Rice Dumplings in Rich Coconut and Beef Gravy)

AanaPathal (N.B: First of all, it is not aana which means elephant, but it is pronounced as 'na' as in naanam, naanayam etc.)/ Kozhippidi is one of the exotic food hailing from the Great Malabar coast. These are small rice dumplings that are steam cooked and then added to rich gravy that are mainly meat/poultry based. I think great recipes as these are dying now since the process is quite long and takes very long time to prepare. In this era of mechanical life and metropolitan life style who would ever bother spending 3-4 hours just cooking a dinner or a lunch for the sake of eating? No way! These kind of rich dishes are mainly made for the time of Ramadan where you cook just one meal a day; and you need something that you would love to nibble on rather than a quick fix or a takeaway. After all it’s just once a day that you eat, apart from the Suhur (Pre-dawn meal). So it should be satisfying as well. I am not a great savoury person as such, but during Ramadan I always prepare something savoury that I don’t make usually and aanapathal is such a dish. I am not happy by the span of time aanapathal takes to prepare, especially with a little one who clings on to me whenever I step into kitchen. He wants to see everything that I do. So it took me more time than expected. But, to keep him busy, I just sat him on the worktop, gave him a small ball from the dough for him to play with. He was also trying to make the pidis like me, rolling the dough with hand and then pressing it using his cute little finger to make the depression.

N.B:
One of my readers just mentioned that they call these UnniPathal in thalassery. I think when we use meat in the recipe it is called irachi pidi/erachi pidi...and when we use chicken it is called kozhi Pidi where kozhi is chicken:)


I think it is important to make pidis quite small because the gravy gets coated well on the individual dumplings rather than the bigger ones. And apart from that, the smaller one looks CUTE! We used to help mom to make these dumpling and when it gets larger, she re-do them saying they won’t look good! Here, I make them slightly bigger to finish up the work faster..

I made this stuff only twice just because my husband is not a big fan of Rice-meat combination. Even then he liked it very much when I prepared it. You may substitute chicken or lamb with the beef. My favourite has always been beef, because that’s how my mom prepared it always. When I cooked this for the first time, the pidi did not come out good. It dint get cooked!!!And it would never get cooked as well just because I used the wrong rice for this. And we ended up having something else with the gravy. So choosing the right rice is crucial for this recipe. I had tough time getting the right rice for this kind of dish, due to my lack of knowledge in rice and you can’t believe there are so many kind of rice that looks so similar even the experts might get a bit confused. Again the dough for the Pidis (rice dumplings) are prepared in the same way I prepared Neypathal. You can see the methods I followed there and prepare this pidi as mentioned there. Anyways, if you are someone who loves tasty food, I would recommend you to try this one. Yes, It is so good.
Ingredients:
For the Pidi:2 cups long grain rice (Pachari)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup freshly grated coconut
2 tspful fennel seeds (Perumjeerakam)
1 large onion (175g), roughly chopped
3/4 Tbs salt
1/2 cup +2 tbs Rice flour

For the gravy:
800 g Beef cut in cubes (Can use chicken or mutton)
3 tsp Kashmiri Chilli powder
4 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp Garam masala powder
250 g onion, chopped
30 g (1 heaped Tbs) grated ginger
6 large cloves (2 Tbs) of grated garlic
200g (1 cup) chopped tomato
1 cup water
1-2 tbs oil

For making coconut paste:
2 tbs oil
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups Grated coconut (fresh or desiccated)
2 Tsp rice
1 tsp fennel seeds
4 cardamoms
4 cloves
2-3 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
2 cups waterPreparation:

A. For making the pidis:


1. Soak the rice in tap water for 3-4 hours.(Soak for longer time if using parboiled rice).

2. Grind it along with minimal water until you get a coarse and grainy mixture

3. Add coconut, fennel seeds and roughly chopped onions to this and grind for few seconds until everything is just crushed and NOT smooth.

4. Tip the whole mixture in to a large bowl, add salt and mix well.

5. Add the rice powder and mix well using hands until you get a dough that can be shaped into balls.


6. Now, rub your palms and fingers using oil. Take a very small portion of the dough, roll it into rounds and gently press in the middle to make a depression. The size of these pellets should be as small as coin of 1 1/2 " diameter (appx)


7. Oil the steamer and arrange these pellets directly in it in after pressing in a slanting position adjacent to each other.
8. Steam cook for 8-10 minutes until done. The soft rice dough will harden once fully cooked.


For making the coconut Paste:

1. Heat a large frying pan, add oil. Add rice, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and sauté until the aroma comes and rice puff up little. It will take just few seconds or under a minute depending on the heat and saucepan used.
2. Add fennel seeds and coconut and sauté until the coconut starts taking golden colour.
3. Grind all into a smooth paste by adding the required amount of water, I added 2 cups (480 mls).
For making the Gravy:
1. Heat a pressure cooker, add oil. When hot, Add onions and salt and sauté till it starts turning golden. Don’t brown. Add ginger and garlic and saute till raw smell fades.

2. Add the chopped tomatoes, cover and cook for few minutes until everything is well combined.Add chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder and sauté for few seconds.

3. Add beef and stir well. Add a cup of water and pressure cook till meat is cooked and oil clears from sides. Add the ground coconut mixture, curry leaves and garam masala to this and bring to boil stirring well. Cook for a couple of minutes more.

4. Add the cooked pidi into this one, stir well and cook in very low flame for 5 minutes. Take it off the flame. By this time, the gravy will be very thick coating all the pidis.

The sequence I followed:

1. I made the rice dough ready for making pidis. I then kept them aside.

2. Then I started off with the gravy.

3. When the gravy was being done, I shaped the pidis and cooked them.

4. After the pidi's were done, I sautéed the coconut and ground them and then added them to the curry.

5. Later added pidi to curry.

Notes:
1. The process is quite lengthy, but the gravy can be made a day ahead and then the pidis the next day.

2. If you are not using water while grinding, you don’t have to use the rice powder. So increase the amount of rice to 2 ½ - 3 cups.
3. As I mentioned in Neypathal, this pidis can also be made from rice powder, parboiled rice etc. The dough is exactly the same, but for aanapathal we steam the rice where as in Neypathal we fry them. If using parboiled rice, try to get PONNI rice. It works well for this. Please see how I made the dough for Neypathal . Because the dough is the same.

4. Before making the pidi, try by grinding little rice and steaming it. If it gets cooked in less than 10 minutes, then that rice should work fine for this recipe. I had to waste whole lot of the rice dough the first time I made it, because as I told you, the rice wasn't the right one.

5. You can add few greenchillies if the curry is not spicy enough. Since my Kashmiri Chilli (Melam Brand) is quite hot, I dint use any Green chillies in the gravy.

Before I go, Here comes another award from my beautiful friends Sushma Mallya and Faiza Ali has passed on to me the beautiful Honest scrap Award. Thank you sweeties.

Requirements of the award:-I must thank the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link it .
I must list 10 honest things about myself .
I must put a copy of Honest Scrap logo on my blog .
I must select atleast 7 other worthy bloggers and list their links.
I must notify the bloggers of the award and hopefully they will follow the above three requirements also.

I will try to be honest while writing honest things about me:)

1. I love little kids and babies. They are so adorable and cute! Probably they would hate me because I always squeeze them.
2. I love cooking a lot and trying out new recipes, a recently discovered obsession. I also love love anything that is food related ;crockeries, cookery shows, cookery books and foodies too!
3. I am a computer/Internet addict. I Can spend hours sitting on it and browsing.
4. I used to be an athletic/ sports person during my school days and now I am a lazy home-maker.
5. I have the worst habit of munching on something every time.
6. I am very slow at eating, which I find it very difficult especially during Parties and weddings.
7. I talk a lot, and sometimes I hate it.
8. Love sweets and chocolates. If those things don’t make me fat, I can live on them without having anything else.
9. Love to cook for the ones I love and love to please them with good, comforting food. I love it when my dad comes into the kitchen looking for sweets; he knows that if I am there at home, there would be some sweet goodies around. He loves my Gulab Jamun, Saba's Cheesecake and the biscuit caramel pudding alot. He’s got such a sweet tooth, goodness!.....Now you know where I got my sweet tooth from!
10. And for the last one, I am a Libra-Scorpio Cusp!

I would like to pass on this award to the following Honest Bloggers:

Aysha
Priya
Arabic Bites
Ann
meeso
Duchess of Tea
Kitchen Flavours
Divya Kudua
Pavithra