Italian Bean and Pasta Soup

I made this soup to go with garlic bread for dinner last night and we loved it so much that I thought I would share with you all. The soup was light and quite filling. And do you want to know where I got the recipe from? The wrap of willow Butter!!Yeah, I have the habit of collecting the recipes from anywhere and everywhere. I always take the grocery booklets from the groceries everytime because they contain many recipes and I thought they were nice. Now my collection has become so big, and I really dont know what to do! My husband sometimes comment that I'm like a mouse bringing all the mess and waste to home......Aaaah....but I am sure there are many ladies out there like me, crazy about collecting recipes, and keep flipping them over again and again and still never get bored of it, isn't it?!!!

Ingredients:
1 tbs butter
2 medium carrots thinly sliced (1 cup)
1 medium onion sliced thin (1/2 cup)
2 large cloves garlic,chopped
1/2 large tomato (1/3 cup)
1 tsp tomato puree
400 can Red Kidney Beans drained and washed (1 1/3 cup)
3/4 cup frozen green peas
2 chicken Stock cube (I used Maggi)
1500 mls water
75 gms pasta shapes, I used fusilli (1 cup)
salt and pepper to season (I dint add salt, since stock cube is quite salty)

Preparation:
1. Heat a sauce pan, melt butter and add onions, garlic and carrots. Stir and cook gently for about 5 minutes and add tomato and tomato puree and saute until tomato is soft.
2. Add beans, peas and stock cube and boiled water and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Add the pasta shapes and cook for another 7 minutes or until the pasta is cooked. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Kalathappam/ kalthappam (Unsweetened)

Kalathappam is a rice cake and is one of the famous speciality of Muslim cuisines in Kerala. There are two kinds of Kalthappam. One is sweet version which uses sugar or jaggery to sweeten, and the other one is unsweetened one which is normally eaten with curries. It is commonly made in Malabar regions (Im not sure about other regions of Kerala,sorry) as an evening snack (sweet one) or for dinner or breakfast with any spicy curries. I was googling for the recipe of kalthappam without sugar and I found none!!! The other day I soaked some rice to make Neypathal or neypathiri which are fried rice pan cakes which requires quite lot of time and effort. And since my little one was sick, I prepared this kalthapam which just takes few minutes to prepare. We just have to pour the whole batter in the sauce pan and cook them. The cooking time may differ depending on the saucepan and the heat used. Anyways, here is a tasty recipe for the Kalthappam(unsweetened one), that would make an easy dinner or breakfast.


Ingredients:
2 cups long grain rice (pachari)
1 cup Cooked rice (same rice as above)
2 cups water
1/2 tbs salt
1 tsp Fennel seeds (perumjeerakam)
1/2 cup freshly grated coconut
1 large onion, cut in chunks
2 tbs thinly sliced and chopped onion
1/2 medium size onion chopped
4 tbs oil

Preparation:
1. Soak rice for about 4-6 hours.
2. Grind it along with cooked rice, fennel seeds and 1 large onion by adding 2 cups of water into a smooth grainless batter.You might need to do this in two batches.
3. Add salt,coconut,1/2 chopped onion and mix well using a spatula until well combined.
4. Heat a medium size saucepan (I used a nonstick sauce pan of 9" Diameter, you can use one with 10" as well) to a medium low heat. Add oil and add in the 2 tbs chopped onion. When the onions starts turning golden, add the batter prepared earlier to this slowly. You can see all the oil and onions has moved to the top.
5.COVER and cook the kalthappam until the batter is set completely. It will take about 45 minutes-1 hour depending on the heat and the kind of saucepan used. Let it cool slightly. Flip the kalthappam over. For that, place any plate on top of the dish and holding the plate firmly, tip the kalthappam on it. Slide it back into the saucepan with the upper white part of the kalthappam to go facing down and the lower golden part facing up. Cook for another 10-15 minutes until you get a golden and crispy coating . This flipping is just done to get a golden crispy layer all over the kalthappam. You don't have to flip it over,if you dont want the crispy layer. It will be cooked if the batter is set completely.
This can be had along with or Malabar fish curry, Chemmeen Muringavaal curry, Malabar chicken curry etc for dinner or even with sugar. Some times we have it for brunch along with the above said curries or sugar.

Notes:

The addition of chopped onions and coconut is really optional. It really enhances the taste, But you dont have to add, if you dont like them.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

This recipe was sent to me by one of my relatives and it just tempted me so much especially becaue it was just a 3 minutes dessert!!!A 3 minute cake!!Can you imagine? In the beginning I had a doubt if it would come out good mainly I have never made a cake that contains plain flour and has no baking powder or baking soda in it. But since the dessert had small amount of ingredients, I just went ahead and tried the next moment I got this recipe and it was so yummy. Guys, I couldnt just believe it. I forwarded the recipe to all my friends. And now Im sharing with this recipe with my readers here. And what most tempted me was the quote that was written at the end of the mail- " And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night! Let me know who got tempted like me, went ahead and made it....This is an ideal sweet to serve to guests who come home with late notice, or even as snack!

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons plain flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 medium egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) (I used Chocolate cut into chunks)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Preparation:
1. Rub cold butter inside the Mug completely to prevent the cake from sticking to the mug. Add dry ingredients to a dish, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
2. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Pour it in the mug prepared earlier.
3. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. (Since my Microwave was 700W, I cooked it for 4 minutes).
4. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! (It really did rise about 3 inches on top of the mug, And I though it would spill all over the microwave, but it dint, So go ahead,Dont be alarmed ).
5.Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. Serve with vanilla ice cream, whip cream, toffee sauce, caramel or simply icing sugar.
6. I used icing sugar for garnishing. For that, use 3 tbs icing sugar mixed with few drops of water/milk to make a paste of dropping consistency. Drizzle it all over. Serve warm.

Isn't that So simple?

Update: One of my friends tried this cake and she told me it wasn't sweet enough. Please Increase the amount of sugar as per taste. As I had it with Icing sugar drizzled, I dint realise that.

Chemmeen Muringavaal Curry (King Prawns and Drumsticks in Thick Coconut Gravy)

Chemmeen Muringavaal Curry (King Prawns and Drumstick in thick coconut gravy) is my mother's signature Dish. I don't think I had it from anywhere else before. It's my dad's, husband's and his friends' favorite curry. My mom makes excellent food in a very simple way, and yet they turn out too good . But She doesnt do as much as experiments as I do and doesnt dare to cook from magazines or books too much. This is one of the curries that my husband's friends ask my mom to prepare when they visit us. My husband always used to ask me to learn from her when I was living with my parents, I just felt so lazy to cook and so dint learn many of her recipes. I learnt my basic cooking by making distant phone calls to my mom and writing down the recipes and through enormous experiments done in my kitchen, until I got the desired result. My Husband is my greatest inspiration and critic. When anything goes wrong, he tells on spot and I try to correct it and make it perfect. If he wasnt there to critisize, I would have still been struggling to find where my mistakes are! Anyways, this curry can be made for lunch along with rice or for dinner along with neypathal (Fried rice pancake) which I will post the recipe soon, Thengapathal,Ottil pollichathu,marichedutha Appam,poori,chappathi etc.

Ingredients:
225 gm (shelled) Large King prawns (23 pieces)
2 large Drumsticks peeled and cut into 2" length (15 pieces)
1 cup chopped tomatoes (3 small ones)
2 cups chopped onion (2 medium)
Green chilli – 2 nos (slit lengthwise)(Optional)
1 tbs Kashmiri Chilli Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
3/4 cup Freshly Grated Coconut or dessicated coconut
1tsp Fennel seeds (perumjeerakam)
Salt – as reqd
1 cup + 1 1/2 cup Water
1 tsp Mustard seeds
3 twigs Curry leaves
3 tbs Coconut oil

Preparation:

1. Keep a medium sized sauce pan on medium heat and add 1 tbs of oil.
2. Add onions, tomatoes, green chilli and salt and close the lid and cook for about 10 minutes or until onions turns translucent and cooked and tomatoes go soft.
3. At this point, add chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and prawns and stir well. Keep simmering on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes until the prawns and well coated in spices.
4. Add the Drumsticks and add enough water to cover it (I added 1 1/2 cups of water). Cover and cook until the prawns and drumsticks are cooked well for about 25 minutes.
5. Meanwhile grind the fennel seeds along with coconut and 1 cup of water. Keep them aside.
6. When prawns and drumsticks are cooked well, and the gravy is thick, add the ground coconut and boil for a minute.Turn off the heat and temper.

For tempering :
Heat another pan and add 2 tablespoon of oil. When the pan is smoking hot, add mustard seeds and cover with a lid. As soon as they finished spluttering, add curry leaves and let them splutter for a few seconds. Add this tempered oil to the curry made earlier. Serve hot with plain rice, thengapathal, ottil pollichathu,chappathi, poori, battura,fried Rice pancakes (Neypathal) etc...

Notes:
1. You can do the tempering in the beginning also.For that, Add oil,splutter mustards,curryleaves, then add onions and tomatoes and follow the rest as usual.
2. I normally skip the green chillies because the green chillies I get here are so spicy and it makes the curry very fiery.

Thenga Pathal (Rice pancakes with coconut)

Thengapathal or thengapathiri is very similar to Ottil pollichathu, but the difference is we add generous amount of freshly grated coconut in them. We dont mix the coconut in the batter; what we do is, pour a ladleful of batter in the hot pan, scatter the coconut and then pour some of the batter to cover up the coconut. This is one of the dishes that is very regular at home. It's so delicious and goes with almost every curries, like the malabar fish curry,Prawn and okra curry, malabar chicken curry etc....Well, I have it with sugar!.....But I think its very best combination is my mom's signature dish, Chemmeen Muringavaal curry (Prawn and drumstick in thick coconut curry). This can be had for breakfast or for dinner as well. I dont know if this dish is made in other places of Kannur, may be they make in different style. My mom in law, makes it in a different way. She mixes coconut along with the regular pathiri dough and make pathiris out of it, rather than making a batter. My husband had this kind of thengapathal for the first time when I prepared them and I made it to go with his favorite curry, Chemmeen Muringavaal and he absolutely loved it. Whenever I tell him it's thengapathal for dinner he just goes hmmmm with his eyes rolling..:).......

Ingredients:
2 cup Long grain rice (pachari)
1 1/2 cups cooked basmati rice
1/2 medium onion
3 cups water
250-300 g freshly grated coconut
salt as required
oil- as required

Preparation:

1.Soak rice in tap water for a minimum of 2 hours.
2.Grind it along with cooked rice,onion and water until very smooth and no grains of rice can be felt when you touch it.
3. Add enough salt and mix well. When u taste the batter, you must feel it a bit salty but again not too salty.
4. Heat a frying pan at medium high heat, add few dashes oil and pour 1 ladleful of batter (½ cups of batter) in the centre and just swirl the pan around to spread the batter all over thinly. This also can be done by pouring the batter in the centre and using the back of the ladle, spread the batter by moving the ladle over the batter in coil motion starting from the inside and gradually moving towards outside to spread the batter all around as we do in Dosa. It needs a bit of practice. I normally do the swirling way to spread the batter.
5. Sprinkle a generous amount of grated coconut on top (a handful) and pour just enough batter on top of the coconut to cover them up so that they dont fall of the batter when you flip them (around half a ladle of better).
6. COVER with a lid and cook until the batter changes colour or set. At this stage, using a spatula, flip over the thengapathal. If you find it breaking, and is difficult to flip, close the lid and wait for some more time until it sets even more and you can turn them easily. Cook the other side also in the same way until cooked. Keep turning a couple of time to ensure that it is fully cooked and you can see golden brown spots here and there. It takes around 4-6 minutes to cook one. I use 2 frying pans to cook these to finish them up soon.
7. Continue the same process with the rest of batter until all batter is used up. And store them in a hot-pot/casserole to retain the heat. Serve hot with its best combination Chemmeen muringavaal curry (Probably my next post)or even simple chicken curry or Malabar fish curry, prawn and okra curry, King prawn varattiyathu etc..

Chicken Chettinad

Chettinad Cuisine is the cuisine of Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu of south India and is one of the spiciest and most aromatic in India. This cuisine is mainly famous for using variety of spices for cooking its dishes, especially non-vegetarian. Chettinad chicken curry is one of the most famous dishes in this cuisine. Most of the chettinad dishes are eaten with rice and rice accompaniments such as idiyappam,appam, dosa etc. Due to the blend of spices used in this curry, aroma that arise while preparing this curry is just fabulous. I have made variations to this curry to suit my family's taste and tolerance to spices. So I reduced the spices to give a subtle taste and aroma of spices rather than an overpowering spicy taste and smell. Dont get intimidated with the long list of ingredients;they are spices that are sure to be available in your pantry and that you use for everyday cooking. We had it with battura and it was too good.

Here goes the recipe for chettinadu chicken curry:

Ingredients:
For grinding:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 1/2 tsp black pepper corns
2 tsp Couscous (white poppy seeds)
2 small pieces cinnamon
3 cardamom
3 cloves
5 large garlic cloves
2 inch piece ginger (30 gms)
6 tbs dessicated coconut
1 tbs oil
Other ingredients needed:
3 tbs oil
1 tbs Urad Dal
1 bay leaf
15 curry leaves
1 large onion (170 gms) chopped (1 cup firmly packed)
1 tbs Kashmiri Chilli Powder
3/4 tsp turmeric powder
2 small tomatoes chopped (almost 1 cup)
1 1/2 cup water
salt as required

Preparation:
1. Heat a Frying pan to medium-high, add 1 tbsp oil. When hot, add the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves, coconut and poppy seeds. Stir and fry briefly until lightly roasted. Put it in the grinder and grind well to powder. Add ginger and garlic to this along with 10 tbs of water and grind it to smooth paste. Set them aside.
2. Heat the remaining 3tbsp oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. When hot, add the bay leaves and urad dal. Stir and fry briefly until the urad dal turns golden, then add the curry leaves. Stir a couple of times and add the onions. Fry the onions until they turn light brown. Add the Kashmiri chilli powder and turmeric powder and just stir for few seconds.Now add the spice paste. Continue to stir and fry for about 4-6 minutes, adding a little water to prevent sticking. Add the chopped tomatoes and Stir for further 3-4 minutes or until the oil starts to leave the side of the pan.
3. Add the chicken pieces and stir until they are well coated with the masala for about 4-5 minutes. Add salt and 1 1/2 cups of water and stir well. Bring to the boil. Turn the heat to medium low, cover and simmer until the chicken is almost cooked, about 20-25 minutes.
5. If there is lot of gravy, just turn up the heat to high and keeping the lid open, boil the sauce until you get a thick sauce. Incase if the chicken is completely cooked and there is lot of sauce left in, remove the chicken using a slotted spoon and boil the sauce until it is thick. Then add the chicken pieces back in; mix well and cook for couple of minutes.
Serve hot with plain rice, chappathis, pooris, ghee rice, Battura etc. Yesterday I made this curry to go with battura and it was absolutely delicious.