Ghee Rice (Neychor)

This is an easy Malabar festive food that’s made especially when guests come home with quick notice or even for a variety when there are parties at home. The trick in making this ghee rice lays mainly on the water and fire adjustment. Once these both are done properly, the rice should come out perfect. The rice is very fragrant with the whole garam masala and the clarified butter really boosts up the flavour of this dish.

This was one of the dishes that used to make in the budding stage of my cooking. And the first recipe in my old recipe book that I lost long ago. I remember the first time I made this, the rice came out caky I don’t remember why it happened so, may be I added too much of water. You could literally cut the ghee rice into slices. I prepared this for my husband (SEK) during the first visit to UK and I was still a student. SEK used to ask me frequently to learn at least few recipes from my mom as she is an excellent cook. I never bothered to. All I thought was I would write the recipe down, and follow as such and anything any everything will come out perfect. I never even cooked once before that first visit to SEK. First time when I landed here I took the recipe book to kitchen, started making ghee rice as that was the easiest at that time. I added onions with exact measure given by my mom and started to sauté it in low flame. After around 15 minutes, I started wondering how long the onions will take to get cooked because I remember my mom finishing the dish itself by half an hour! And I dint know how they will look once they are cooked. I waited for some more time and confused what to do, called my husband and asked him “Are the onions getting cooked or are they already cooked?” .SEK was surprised and he told me that was why I asked you to try it out from there before coming.

I had visited him quite few times during my studies before settling with him completely. And I think it s almost the same story every time I visit him. Apart from the ghee rice, I also had one signature curry at that time. Either it was chicken, mutton or prawns; it all had the same masala (Chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric) and the same taste. And another funny incident I still remember is that; at that time where SEK was under my brutal culinary experiments, one day I had prepared the chicken curry and the next day I made prawns. SEK asked me did u put prawns in yesterday’s chicken curry, as both taste exactly the same. :) It was only when I started living with him (July 2007) I started to take a bit of interest in cooking…A discovery of different ingredients and cuisines from across the world…..Cooking is not that simple… Ghee rice (Neychor)

Serves 8

Ingredients:
4 cups Basmati rice
8 cups water
1 cup onion sliced (1 medium size onion)
1 tsp cumin seeds
6 cardamom pods
6-8 cloves
6-8 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves
½ cup clarified butter (Ghee)
salt to taste

Preparation
1. Wash rice and strain of all the water by placing the rice in colander.
2. Boil water in the kettle or a large cooking vessel.
3. In a large pan, set the heat on to high and ghee. When the ghee gets hot add onions and sauté until the onions just starts turning pink. At this stage add cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon and cumin seeds and sauté for a minute until the aroma of the spices starts coming out. At this stage add boiling water and salt to this.
4. Tip in the rice slowly and cook on high heat by keeping the lid open. At this stage you can see that rice lies in the bottom of the vessel and water is on top.
5. When you see that the rice has come on top and water has gone below, reduce the flame to low, and cook it covered until all the rice is cooked eventually. In between you can toss the bottom part of rice and bring to top so that the rice gets cooked evenly.

Serve hot with chicken curry/mutton curry, raita , pappadam and pickle. And whenever there is neychor at home, chicken fry is always there.

Notes:
1. Never wait until the onions get brown or golden as this will change the colour of rice completely.
2.Always ccok in hig flame until u see all the rice has come on top and water has gone down but still the rice is not cooked. At this stage lower the flame and cook until done.
3. You can also add 4-6 curry leaves along with the boiling water for extra taste and aroma.

4. For smaller quantity, just use half the amount of ingredients.

Orange Cake

After the great success of my lemon cake I thought I will give another go with the orange cake again. Yes, I have been trying to bake orange cake for sometime now. In fact I tried baking the orange cake twice before and it was an absolute failure and pledged that I would never try them again. I followed the same procedure and same recipe twice also exactly. I don’t really know where it went wrong as I did what was exactly shown. The name of the cake was ‘Delicate orange cake’. But when I baked it, it came out so hard that if somebody would get a hit with it, they might see million stars. I baked it after watching a cookery show on TV and was quite sad when it turned out bad for the second time and threw out the whole stuff. But again I think, cooking is all about trial and error. Keep trying and finally you will do it right. And the feeling when you get it right is very soothing.

Few days back again, I saw another orange cake being baked on the tv cookery show. I felt very tempted again. Few days after watching that show I baked the orange cake by mixing few recipes and finally the orange cake hit the goal. This is the first time that it came out good, Gosh. I was very pleased with the outcome. Orange cake is a very good alternative to plain cake with a light zesty smell and orange flavour. The cake is very light and soft and so I think it will be delicious even without the syrup and it will last for few days in the refrigerator. It tastes best at room temperature rather than warm. This cake was quite huge than expected since it gets good volume by whisking the eggs and sugar.

Orange cake
Serves 12- 14

Ingredients
250 gm plain flour
300 gm granulatedSugar
200 gm unsalted butter
2 tbs orange zest
4 large eggs
2 level tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
200 mls freshly squeezed orange juice+ 2 tbs sugar
2 tbsful icing sugar

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Butter and flour the sides of a 9” cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

2.Melt the butter gently in a saucepan and set aside.

3. Using a hand-held electric beater, whisk together the eggs, grated orange zest and sugar for a few minutes until light and slightly fluffy. Stir in the melted butter and sift in the flour and baking powder and salt. Fold it all together gently.

4. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 50 minutes or until golden or when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
5. Remove the cake from the tin and place it on a cake stand or separate dish.

6. Prick the cake all over throughout the bottom using a skewer. Stir in the 2 tbs of sugar in the orange juice and Pour it all over the cake while still hot.

7. Let the cake cool down completely. Sift icing sugar on top generously and serve in slices with tea or coffee.

TIPS and notes:
1. While adding flour to cake batter never over mix as this will result in heavy cake and like bread rather than spongy and light cake.
2. Use the correct measures.
3. Use the right oven temperature. Don’t use high temperature to bake cake as outer part will get brown quickly and inside will remain uncooked.
4. Instead of sprinkling the Icing sugar on top, u can also use orange icing to spread on top.
Use freshly squeezed orange juice for pouring on top. Don’t use store bought orange juice as the taste is very different. Don’t Use the blender for juicing orange as it turns out bitter after sometime. Recipe Source : Rachel Allen:Bake.

Pumpkin Curry (kumbalanga curry)

Pumpkin curry is a simple and delicious side combination when there is ‘meen mulaku chaar’ or spicy red fish curry and plain rice. Since it is Halloween time here pumpkins are readily available everywhere. Get a large pumpkin, peel off the skin and scoop out the seeds inside. Cut them into chunks and divide them into several freezer bags and pop them into freezer for later use. They really keep well in the freezer.

Pumpkin Curry (Kumbalanga curry)

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
½ kilo pumpkin (Kumbalam)
1 cup Grated coconut
3 large cloves of garlic
1 cup+1 ½ cup water
2 green chillies
1 tsp Red chilli powder(or depending upon taste)
½ tsp turmeric powder
salt- as required

For tempering:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 twig of curry leaves
3 tbs Coconut oil

Preparation:
1. Peel the skin off the pumpkins and scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Cut them into medium sized chunks and cook it covered along with salt, 1 ½ cup water, green chillies and garlic.
2. Grind coconut to smooth paste with 1 cup of water, red chilli powder and turmeric.
3. when the pumpkins are completely cooked and soft, mash it with the potato masher. There should be no lumps.
4. Add the ground coconut and just cook it for 2 more minutes or until the raw smell of chilli powder has disappeared. Don't cook for long as the coconut will start to curdle.

For tempering:
Add oil in a kadai or pan. When it is smoking hot, add mustard seeds. When they start to splutter, Add curry leaves and let them splutter too. Add this to the pumpkin and mix well.
Serve hot with plain boiled rice.

Bread Roll

Here is a delicious snack using the Meat Masala. I had this snack for the first time from my freind Hanan's place around few years back . This was something new to me at that time. It's a great tea-time snack if you have the filling already made ahead and is normally served warm with ketchup as dip. The cheese and the masala filled inside really works magic I feel. The crunchy crust outside and the Meat Masala along with touch of melting cheese inside is just divine.........

Bread-roll
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:
10 slices of bread (dont use sweet bread)
Cream cheese (of your choice) – as reqd.
2-3 Large egg whites
Bread crumbs - As required.
Meat Masala – As required.
Vegetable oil - to deep fry the bread rolls.

Preparation:
1. Lightly beat the egg whites and keep aside.
2. Cut the crust of the bread and flatten the bread using a rolling pin until almost flat.
3. Spread a thin layer of cheese on all four edges and inside if you prefer. This should be done only to one side of the bread.
4. Place a tablespoon of Meat Masala in the centre and fold the bread slice into half with Meat Masala inside and press the edges tightly to seal the stuffing in.
5. Just dip the bread roll in egg whites and roll it over the bread crumbs until the bread is evenly coated with crumbs.
6. Repeat the same process with other slices.
7. Deep fry in oil until golden brown.
8. Drain the excess oil in kitchen towel and serve warm.

Notes:
If you want a better looking bread roll you can cut the bread with cookie cutter or even cups/glasses/lid of any jar into round shapes or any other shapes and then flatten it using the rolling pin. If you are doing it this way, you need 2 slices of bread to make a bread roll. That is; take 2 slices of bread, cut into your desired shapes, roll it and flatten it. Then spread cheese on one side of one bread slice, keep the Meat Masala in, and cover with the other slice and press the edges well to seal the stuffing in. then follow the same steps from 5. This one will look real good to make it for the guests.

Tip:
While making bread roll this way, there will be quite lot of bread leftover after cutting the crust. You can just grind them to bread-crumbs and freeze them for later use.

Quiche Lorraine

I prepared this tart after watching the video of Rachel Allen:Bake on UKTVFOOD. I have never made anything similar to this one before and thought of giving it a go. I took the Recipe and its contents from UTVFOOD website. You can also watch the video there. The show is amazing since she present it so well that even a beginner can follow. She makes it so easy and even the complicated stuffs looks so simple and delicious. The tart turned out perfect, it was mild and creamy and kids will love it. It is normally served as lunch or dinner. Quiche Lorraine has a crispy shortcrust base baked and then filled with creamy filling.

Quiche Lorraine

Serves: 6
Prep: 25 min, plus 30 minutes chilling Cook: 1 hr 15 min

Ingredients:
For the shortcrust pastry

200g plain flour, sifted

100g butter, chilled and cubed

a pinch of salt

1 medium egg, beaten

For the filling
1 tbsp olive oil

175g chicken breast, cut into strips

100g onions, peeled and chopped

4 eggs (2 whole, 2 yolks)

250ml double cream

1 tbsp chopped Parsley

1 tbsp chopped Chives

50g Cheddar cheese grated

50g Gruyere Cheese, grated

Preparation:

watch video here.

For the shortcrust pastry:

1. Put the flour, butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor and process briefly.

2. Add half the beaten egg and continue to process. (You might add a little more egg, but not too much as the mixture should be just moist enough to come together.) If making the pastry by hand, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Then, using your hands, add just enough egg to bring it together.

3. With your hands, flatten out the ball of dough until it is about 2cm thick, then wrap it in cling film or place it in a plastic bag and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or, if you are pushed for time, in the freezer for 10–15 minutes, before using.

4. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. 5. Line a 19cm high-sided tart tin with the shortcrust pastry and cover the base with baking parchment. Fill the tin with baking beans and bake blind for 15-20 minutes until the edge of the pastry is firm and is just starting to turn golden. . Remove the beans and parchment for the last five minutes until golden

For the filling:

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the chicken strips for 5-6 minutes. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Sweat the onions gently in the same oil for a further ten minutes, or until softened. Keep them aside.

2. Meanwhile, whisk the two whole eggs and two egg yolks in a medium-sized bowl together with the cream, herbs, cheeses, chicken strips and onions. Mix well and season with salt and black pepper.

3. Pour the filling into the pastry base and return to the oven to bake for 30–40 minutes, the top turn golden brown or until the centre has set. Serve warm with a green salad.

Alisa

Alisa is one of the most served dishes during the Muslim weddings in Kerala. Apart from weddings, it is also one of the favourite dishes served before lunch or dinner as a starter. During weddings, Alisa is made in huge steel pots and then served just before the main course that is normally a Mutton Biriyani or Chicken Biriyani along with fried chicken, salads, curd with vegetables, pickles etc. Alisa is served by scattering fried onions, fried raisins and fried cashews all fried in clarified butter or ghee. This brings that extra taste to this dish and is very important. Omitting this part doesn’t bring the full flavour of Alisa. Since this dish has very less oil, it is suitable for diet conscious mates as well. As alisa is quite filling, we used to make it at home for dinner mainly.

The important thing to be noted while making alisa is getting the right wheat. In Arabic it is called ‘Hab Hareez’. I don’t really know what this specific wheat is called in English, but, the wheat that is used for making alisa is skinless or the bran has been cleaned off. It is neither pearl barley nor boiled wheat. Because I tried these and cooked for very very long time and still they dint get cooked. Finally I had to grind it and then cook the ground wheat! I wonder what they are actually used for! Maybe for feeding pigeons or something. Lols!

Ingredients:
1 cup Skinless wheat
1 medium Onion
4 large cloves of garlic
500 mls hot water
¾ tsp Salt
A good piece of Chicken (1 leg piece+1 thigh piece)
4 Cloves
3 Cardamoms
1” Cinnamon sticks

For garnishing:
2-4 tbsful Ghee
½ medium Onion
1 tbs Raisins
8-10 Cashews
Sugar As required

Preparation:
1. Soak wheat for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight.
2. Set the flame onto medium and pressure cook wheat along with chicken, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, garlic and water for a minimum of 1 hour to 1 ½ hour or until the wheat is completely cooked. At this stage all wheat grain will be soft to touch and puffed up.
3. Add salt and stir well. Take out any chicken bones and beat well with the hand mixer (while hot) for about 10-15 minutes until all the cooked wheat is ground and the mixture looks grainy and thick. Don’t make it like puree. You can also use food processor for grinding the mixture. But if using a food processor, take care alisa is not too hot for the processor and it requires less time.
4. In another pan, add ghee, when it is hot, add rains. When they starts to puff up remove, drain in towel and keep aside. Don’t keep raisins for long because they can turn bitter.
5. In the same oil, fry cashews until golden. Take it out and keep them aside too.
6. Again in the same ghee, fry onions until golden. Turn the flame off; add the fried cashew and rains in the ghee.
7. Take 1-2 ladleful of alisa and spread it on a plate and spread little bit of ghee with back of your spoon and sprinkle raisins and cashews.
8. Sprinkle sugar on top and serve warm. Dive in!

It is normally served with sugar, but you can have it with curry as well. Never tried so far.