Chena Erissery (Yam and Cowpeas in rich Coconut Sauce)

My sister and family were here for couple of weeks last month and it was the more memorable, more entertaining time we had in the UK. I realized, having a family around is quite a different feeling. I was a bit apprehensive before her arrival as she told me she is was going to test my cooking skills as I never cook when I am back home apart from trying out some fancy stuff which almost always were screwed up. If you are used to cooking at a place, it makes it difficult when you cook in a different country, with different ingredients and even different pots and pans. It takes a while to get the hang of new place and the cooking.

Since she mentioned she was going to test my cooking skills,  I didn’t cook anything that she cooks and dished out something completely new, as I know she is very good at whatever little she prepares. Smart, huh? But I tell you, whenever someone visits, I get panicked and pay that extra care, that bit extra finishing touch, but sometimes giving that little extra something ends up ruining the whole dish. I need to be calm, which I can’t especially when they tell me they are going to test my cooking skills! It works me up only when I cook up the the savoury stuff; I think  it happens because the savoury bit is not my cuppa!

Those two weeks passed away quicker than ever, good times don’t last forever do they? How I wish. I was drawn back, the house felt empty all of a sudden and it took me more than a week to come out of that distress and get back to my routine after they left.

I know my blogging has become sluggish. I don’t have any other excuse to make apart from the fact that I am lazy. Lazy to type, lazy to shoot and lazy to clean up the mess afterwards. The several weeks of no fancy cooking and photographing left me calm with clean house, less stress, less washing up and more time for myself which doesn’t happen when I blog. So I thought to sit back, relax and do occasional blogging with the recipes that have been sitting in my drafts for ages.  

Anyways, these days I am more into savoury cooking, have been trying many traditional Kerala dishes and alike. There are many Kerala authentic dishes that I need to learn yet, as those were not what I have grown up eating with. Last year I happened to eat a proper Kerala Sadya here and was smitten by the taste of simple vegetarian food. I was determined to learn more Traditional Kerala cuisine with the help of books, blogs, friends etc. One of the curries that I loved that day was the Erisseri. I could literally slather my rice with erisseri and pappad and indulge. I have prepared Pumpkin Erisseri several times doing bits of changes everytime and we love it, but never got a chance to shoot a picture. But here is the same recipe, but with ‘chena’ or yam which is great too.  Just substitute with pumpkin for pumkin Erisseri.

 
Chena Erisseri
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Coking time: 20-30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:

½ cup, 125 g cow peas (‘vanpayar’)

2 ½ cups, 400g, cleaned yam diced into 2” pieces

2 ½ cups hot water

For grinding:

¾ cup fo freshly grated coconut, or frozen **

2 cloves of garlic

2 green chilly

¼ tsp peppercorns

¼ tsp cumin seeds

¼ - ½ tsp turmeric powder

¼ cup of water

For tempering:

1-2 tbsp coconut oil

¾ tsp mustard seeds

2 dried red chillies

2 twigs curry leaves

3 shallots

¼ cup grated coconut

Preparations:

1. Soak the cowpeas in hot water for about 2 hours or overnight and pressure cook them with sufficient water until cooked through, but not mashed.

2. Throw in diced yam and cook till done. (Do not pressure cook after adding yam, as yam cooks in no time).

3. While the yam is cooking, grind the coconut along with other ingredients coarsely. Add it to the cooked yam and cow peas.

4. Cook it on simmer until it is heated through thoroughly, but not boil.

5. For the tadka: Heat oil in a small karahi or pan. Splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves, red chillies and chopped shallots. Once the shallots go soft, add coconut and fry till browned, on low heat, stirring in between to ensure it is not burnt. Add it to the curry above and stir through.

Notes

1.If using frozen coconut, thaw it down or grind in hot water.

Walnut Cake with Milk Chocolate Icing for 5th Blog Anniversary

It’s spring, the trees started showcasing their new sprouts, the daffodils in my backyard is in full bloom and we are so looking forward to some sunshine, some warmth and comfort when it started snowing heavy again throughout this week!! And it is bitter cold with wintry winds. Is winter not yet over?? It was quite warm with lots of sunshine couple of weeks back and I thought the winter gloom is over. But with the snow this week, it feels like winter is forever!

It’s again another year again, and Shab’s cuisine is an year older than last year. The blog turned 5 on March 11. March is the busiest of months for me as both the husbands and kid’s birthday falls on the same month, just a week apart. Lot of thoughts goes into planning each day to make it special and memorable, and lot of arrangements to be made. The blog was started between the two birthdays, so posting something or even planning something on that day is just of question, atleast for me. I am planning to do a giveaway soon, something edible, some thing that you will definitely be looking forward to, but I will have to plan it for another date, later in April or May after the hectic schedule. Can you guess what that is going to be? Stay tuned for that.

Have I mentioned about my new year resolution on cutting down on my baking? I have been doing good so far with minimal baking unlike usual.  But I will have to break all my rules when it comes to March. It is a celebratory month where my oven sees lot of baked goodies. Everything was working down a treat until I borrowed this amazing chocolate recipe book from the local library. I have been flipping that book ever since I borrowed it. Pages over pages of chocolaty goodness made me full, but this simple recipe had caught my attention enough to try. I had to bake it, it is just the occasion that I had to wait for.

That was when the neighbour called us girls over for a coffee morning. I then bought all the stuffs and baked it just before it hit the midnight, so that I could try and taste it before I took it over to her house the very next morning. Icing was done in a hurry in the middle of the morning rush, and getting the son ready to school and then shooting had to be done soon after dropping son off to school. I was so pressed for time, as I had to get ready before the ladies met together over the coffee table that morning.

The cake was well received by the ladies and went down well. It is a basic butter based recipe, it is a breeze to make and has lovely texture with a lot of crunch from the nuts. The walnuts impart lots of flavour to the cake and the simple chocolate icing works well with the cake. I think apart from chocolate icing, cream cheese frosting or coffee icing would work well with the cake as well. I am sure making this cake again, but I would try tweaking it by adding coffee to the batter and doing a different icing, but  I have to await another chance to bake again.

Walnut Cake with Milk Chocolate Icing

Preparation time: 30 mins

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

180g soft unsalted butter

½ cup, 100g caster sugar

2 eggs

1 cup, 150g plain flour

2 ½ tbsp, 25 g corn flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

60g walnut finely chopped

¼ cup, 60 ml milk

Icing:

125g milk chocolate

20g butter

40g walnut to garnish

Preparation:

1. Grease and flour an 7 ½ - 8 inch deep pan or line with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180 ˚C/ 170 ˚C fan oven. In a bowl, sift together the plain flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt.

2. In another bowl cream butter and sugar using an electric whisk until creamy and pale.

3. Add eggs, one by one until well incorporated.

4. Add in the flour mix in 2-3 parts, and fold it gently mixing milk in between.

5. Gradually add in the chopped walnuts and fold again.

6. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until golden for about 35 minutes or a tooth pick poked in the centre comes out clean. Let it cool completely before turning out.

Make the icing when the cake is completely cooled.

1.Melt the butter with coarsely chopped chocolate over simmering water or in the microwave and continue stirring, off the heat, until lukewarm.

2. Place the cake on the rack and pour the warm chocolate mixture over it and spread it using a palette knife. I just iced the top, but you can ice the sides too and decorate with chopped walnuts.

Restaurant Style Chicken 65

It looks like it’s been a while that I posted some recipes here. I have plenty of recipes pending in my drafts, I am not sure when I am going to be done with all those. I am caught up with loads of stuff for the past couple of weeks and I am going to be busy for the coming weeks as well. So, I am hoping my posts are going to sporadic, until unless I prioritize blogging over several other things like I used to do before. 

 

Back home, Chicken 65 is one of the most popular starters in an Indian restaurant menu. They are not seen in the menus here somehow, but these are the ones we always order for the starters, if they are available. The Indian restaurants here have very different menus as that to India, something that not only taste different, but looks quite different as well. I have to agree to the fact that, Indian food in Indian restaurants back home tastes so much better than the ones in here.

There are many stories about the origin of this recipe, I am not certain with any of them though. I read that, it uses chicken that is 65 days old. Some says it is the 65^th recipe on some restaurant menu. Whatever the story is, all I can tell you is, this is a great, simple and easy chicken recipe with great depth of flavour.

I always believed that we can never recreate the restaurant-like food at home and this recipe proved me wrong. I was quite surprised at its outcome, as it tasted as good as the ones we get in the restaurants if not better. It is not only scrumptious, but equally easy and quick to prepare. The outcome is always juicy, tangy and spicy chunks of meat slathered in goodness! I have already prepared it several times, many a times it being the starters for the party and I got rave reviews for it. I usually prepare it with chicken breast, as it is easy for the little ones to eat, but they are more tasty and tender with meat on bone.

Restaurant Style Chicken 65

Serves about 12-15 as starters

Recipe adapted from Shashirecipes

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 mins

 

 Ingredients:

 2 lb, 900g chicken breast, or legs cut into small bite size portions, about 2 inches

 Marinade:

1 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp black pepper powder

1 Tbsp coriander powder

1 Tbsp Red chilli powder*

½ tsp cumin powder

½ Tbsp Paprika**

¼ tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp corn flour

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp lemon juice

few drops of red colour

salt to taste

Others:

½ of a large onion finely chopped, ½ cup

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger

1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

2-4 green chillies

1 tsp pepper powder

2 strands of curry leaves finely chopped

2 tbsp coriander leaves chopped

Vegetable oil to deep fry

Preparations:

1. Marinate the chicken piece with all the ingredients listed under marinade until the chicken is evently coated and leave it in the fridge for couple of hours or overnight in the refrigerator for the marinade to seep in the meat.

2. Heat oil in a kadai or a large frying pan and pour enough oil to deep fry the chicken. Oil should not be heated to smoking high heat, but retained at a medium heat to cook the chicken pieces.

3. Once the oil is hot, add few chicken pieces in the kadai and let them cook for about 3-4 minutes undisturbed until the bubbles starts to come down. Using a slotted spoon, flip the chicken pieces over and cook for 3-4 more minutes. At a medium heat it just takes about 7-8 minutes to cook each batch, but check the doneness by taking out couple of pieces. Make sure it is cooked through and you don’t see any pink in the middle. Over cooking them can make it hard and chewy, so make sure you cook it for sufficient time to keep it juicy and moist. Once done, drain them in a kitchen towel to remove excess oil.

4. For the tadka, in another oan, add 2 tbsp of oil and throw in chopped onions. Once they trun golden, add in the ginger garlic, curry  leaves and green chilli and sauté for 2-3 minutes until the raw smell fades.

5. Add in pepper powder and coriander leaves and sauté for few seconds and then add the chicken pieces and mix well. Serve hot with rice, chappathis or naans or as starters.

Kerala Chicken Stew - Two Recipes

Chicken stew is one of the curries that I prepare ever since I started my cooking expedition. It has evolved much since then, as I improved much in cooking, and learned to balance the flavours and spices. I make two versions of it now, one being the easy, low fat version without using nuts and other one slightly richer version using ground nuts and thick coconut milk. The gravy is usually white, as no powdered spices are used apart from little garam masala. Curry gets most of its flavour from the whole spices that flavour the oil, along with onion, ginger and garlic. Even though the curry looks plain and white, it is very aromatic and full of flavour.

I usually use maggi coconut milk powder to make coconut milk, but if you could extract fresh milk from coconut it would be even better. You may use fresh, frozen or even desiccated coconut to extract the milk. I tend to be lazy when it comes to grinding coconut and squeezing all that glorious white milk off it, leaving behind extra pots and pans to wash. So almost always use Maggi coconut powder. You can also used canned coconut milk by diluting it with water to thin it out. I never use canned coconut milk in my cooking as I feel it has got a strong synthetic aftertaste.

This curry is usually served at home along with appam, ghee rice, pathiri, chappathis or even bread.

Kerala Chicken Stew

Preparation time:10-20 minutes

Cooking time:30-40 minutes

Recipe 1:

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken

1 large potato,300g, peeled and cut into 2 “ pieces

2 large onions, finely chopped, 2 ½ cups

1 ½ tbsp grated ginger

1 ½ tbsp grated garlic

3 twigs of curry leaves

1 large tomato, 175g, cut into long strips

2 tbsp coconut oil/vegetable oil

5 cardamom

5 cloves

2 -3 2” piece of cinnamon sticks

1 tsp pepper corns slightly crushed or use it as whole

3 bay leaves

4-5 green chillies slit lengthwise

1/3 cup cashewnuts soaked in ½ cup thick coconut milk

½-1 cup thin coconut milk

½ tsp garam masala powder

1-2 tsp lemon juice

Preparation:

1.Wash chicken well and place It in a colander to drain of all the excess water.

2. In a wide non stick pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil. When hot add cardamom, pepper corns, cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon and cook for few seconds until it leaves aroma. (Heat is kept to medium as high heat burns the spices).

3. Add the chopped onion and salt and sauté until it starts turning golden. Add the chopped ginger and garlic and cook till the raw smell fades.

4. Add tomatoes, 2 twigs of curry leaves and sauté until tomatoes are pulpy.

5. Add chicken pieces and mix well and cook for 5-6 minutes.

6. Pour in the coconut milk, stir, and cook it covered on low heat until the chicken is half done, for about 10 minutes.

7. Add in the potatoes and cook till the chicken is tender and potato is cooked.

8. Add in cashew paste, remaining curry leaves, lemon juice, green chillies and garam masala. Gently heat to simmering point and take off the heat. Serve it along with ghee rice, appam etc.

Recipe2:

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken

2 large onions,sliced thin, 3 cups

2 tbsp grated ginger

2 ½ - 3tbsp grated garlic (10 cloves)

3 twigs of curry leaves

1 large tomato, 175g, cut into long strips

2 tbsp coconut oil/vegetable oil

5 cardamom

6 cloves

3 2” piece of cinnamon sticks

2 tsp pepper corns slightly crushed

4-5 green chillies slit lengthwise

11/2 - 2 cup thin coconut milk

½ tsp garam masala powder

2 twig curry leaves

Preparation:

1. Wash chicken well and place It in a colander to drain of all the excess water.

2. In a wide non stick pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil. When hot add cardamom, pepper corns, cloves, and cinnamon and cook for few seconds until it leaves aroma. (Heat is kept to medium as high heat burns the spices).

3. Add the chopped onion and salt and sauté until it starts turning golden. Add the chopped ginger and garlic and cook till the raw smell fades.

4. Add tomatoes and sauté until tomatoes are pulpy.

5. Add chicken pieces and mix well and cook for 5-6 minutes.

6. Pour in the coconut milk, stir, and cook it covered on low heat until the chicken is fully cooked, for about 20 minutes minutes. Towards the end of cooking, add curry leaves, green chillies and garam masala. Gently heat to simmering point and take off the heat. Serve it along with ghee rice, appam etc.