Bhindi Fry (Okra/Lady's finger Fry)

When I was a kid, I hated my vegetables like all other kids do. I'd always tried to get away from the veggies my mom used to pack for lunch. It was like eating something which isn't meant for human beings ;). I never ever thought I'll have to come across a person who loves the veggies and without them will not survive. Yes! That's my hubby.. He doesn't care if I haven't cooked any curry for rice. Instead he needs a large portion of poriyal/veg side dish for his rice/roti.
I started liking subzi /vegetables after going to the beautiful city "Surat" in Gujarat. I have been there for almost 5 years and I hope that changed our palate. I can proudly say Surat food changed my perspective on food. The way they cook their food and feed the guests with lots of passion is  never forgottable and will always remain with us.
My passion towards food and cooking is all started from there. And now it's never ending journey..
From wide vegetarian dishes served in Gujarat, we love our Bhindi ki subzi (Okra/Lady's finger). Lady's finger is unique in taste and texture. I have posted Bhindi fry recipe with Gujarati touch, which I usually prepare to accompany roti (Indian wheat bread) 

Sunday Breakfast 3

Hi friends!!
This Sunday was very beautiful. After so many days being cloudy, we got to see our bright sun. Anyways we had no plans to go out since we'd been BBQ partying the whole evening of Saturday.
I remember when we were staying in North China, our friends would invite us for a get-together event. We'd be around 7-8 people from different countries. Collection of breads, sausages, sauces, cheese were the dinner themes. We loved the slices of brown bread layered with cheese and sausages of our taste topped with mustard sauce. Yummy!!
After we moved to Guangzhou, We missed all of that.. Our friend Martin is from Germany. Few days back he went to Germany for holidays.We requested him to bring us German brown bread. We were excited when Martin brought us the bread. But we had no sausages or cheese with us. So I made some mashed potato salad and fried egg to go with the bread. And some fresh pineapple juice We loved the potato salad.. I added pickled gherkins and olive to it for extra kick..

Vishu 2012!!

I took a while to post our "Vishu" feast since I thought to post the menu recipes at first. Our menu had few of traditional dishes. It's been always difficult to plan whole meal for two persons. So I selected few main dishes to serve along with rice. For those who haven't read my past posts about "Vishu" here goes a brief description 

"Vishu" is the New year in accordance with Malayalam Calender. It falls on the next day of Tamil New year. The most important event in Vishu is the "Vishukkani" meaning "the first thing seen on the day of Vishu after waking up". Vishukkani consists of arrangement of various fruits, mirror, konna poo (Yellow flower), raw rice and urli in the pooja room of the house.

Another famous ritual is "VishuKaineettam" where elder people gift money to the young people.

This year I prepared Aviyal, Olan, Cabbage Thoran, Brinjal Sambar with rice and Ada prathaman served as dessert. It was almost like being in hometown. 

Ada Pradhaman

Here goes one of the mouth-watering dessert from Kerala "Ada pradhaman".  Ada pradhaman is cooked with Ada, Coconut milk and jaggery, in  the form of a thick liquid. Ada is the flakes of cooked rice. In olden days, Ada was made at home and used to make pradhaman. Nowadays we find readymade ada in almost every stores. I have used readymade ada from the brand "Nirapara". Pradhaman is similar to Payasam or Kheer but with more variety in terms of ingredients and the way it is made.

Olan

One another Side dish from Kerala. Very simple to cook yet tasty. Olan recipe has very few ingredients and less time taking dish to prepare. During any festivals in Kerala you can find "Aviyal" , Olan, Kalan, Thoran etc.. served as side dish for steamed brown rice. And most of the recipes including dessert will have coconut as an ingredient. I prepared this recipe for "Vishu".

"Vishu" is the New year in accordance with Malayalam Calender. It falls on the next day of Tamil New year. The most important event in Vishu is the "Vishukkani" meaning "the first thing seen on the day of Vishu after waking up". Vishukkani consists of arrangement of various fruits, mirror, konna poo (Yellow flower), raw rice and urli in the pooja room of the house.

Another famous ritual is "VishuKaineettam" where elder people gift money to the young people. We used to wait the whole year to get the gifts from our elder members from family ;).

 Olan is prepared with Ash gourd and coconut milk. In some places it is prepared with Ash gourd and black eyed bean as well. Here I have posted Olan recipe which uses only Ash gourd and coconut milk.

Aviyal

One of my favourite side dish is Aviyal which is from my motherland Kerala. I used to be very proud whenever I'd to say I am from Kerala. Mostly the reasons behind feeling that way are it's been my birthplace, as it got the title "God's own country"and undoubtedly the cuisine.

My family migrated from Kerala to Tamil nadu even before my birth. So I can say that the relationship between me and Kerala is just my birth and the summer vacation we have at our Grannies home during schooling.

Everytime when we visit Kerala I'd always have these jobs to do, jumping into the lake, walking by the sides of deep Canal (even if I feel nervous), collecting the fallen mangoes, having our meal served in banana leafs 3 times a day ;).. 

Picking the mangoes was always my routine job. We had 4 mango trees of different kind. Since we always go in summer which is the mango season, we would grab a basket half of our size and go to each tree, collect the mangoes and of course one in hand to bite.  

The good thing about their food is they grow vegetables at their garden. And most of the days they cook with their garden vegetables. Hardly few times I see them buying from markets.

So Aviyal is a side dish for rice, prepared with many vegetables whatever available at your garden cooked with Kerala's identity "Coconut" and a touch of sourness from curd.

Only recipe you need not worry about unavailability of any vegetables I mentioned in here.. But you definitely require coconut and curd. I got this recipe from my mom. Hope you guys find it easy to cook. Traditionally, vegetables like Yam, Drumstick, Raw Banana, Raw Mangoes Carrot, Ash gourd, Pumpkin, Bitter gourd, Cucumber, Green beans and Cow beans are used. Here I don't get Yam, Drumstick, Raw banana. So it's all upto you to add or omit any vegetable.

Sambar

Sambar is very common side dish for rice in South India. Every home prepare sambar everyday for rice, idli, dosa etc.. It's a mixture of split pea and vegetables. Throughtout the south the sambar has been cooked in different way and the recipe varies widely region to region. I know to cook sambar in three different ways, one from Kerala which i got it from my mom, the second one a Tamil nadu style and the third one is easy & fast sambar cooked in pressure cooker. This recipe is from Tamilnadu. I will post the other ways of preparing sambar later. I have used brinjal in this recipe.

Jalebi

Usually I don't have sweet tooth.. Hence I don't show interest or spend much time on preparing sweets at home. Only you can find me holding sugar packet when there is festival..That was a day I planned to make Jalebi for Pongal 2012. My first time experience, so had to see loads of cooking videos. Finally I made up my mind with one recipe which combined all tips and tricks of few online recipes.

Jalebi looks yummy at stores but trust me its very hard to prepare at home. When I started mixing the batter I was so confident that I would get a wow from my hubby. Then when I started squeezing the batter which was filled in zip lock cover into the oil I ended up getting a strange shape of Jalebi. For a second I thought ohhh!! This is it. I'll give up..

Then told myself not to worry about the shape and proceeded immersing that first Jalebi  into hot sugar syrup, waited 5 mins. Had a bite to check the taste. Hmmm That was really a finger-licking thing!!

So I decided to continue the rest of the batter to make Jalebi inspite of whatever shape I get. But I did adjusted the heat since I read somewhere in internet that the oil should be in medium heat. If it is too hot the Jalebi will disintegrate at the starting itself. If it is too low then the batter wont puff up.

I admire only two Jalebis out of 12 Jalebis I made. That has been captured by my camera. Since its trial and error recipe I will post the full details of  the recipe after I try one more time.

Mutton Korma

Mouth watering Mutton Korma!!

Yes! Mutton Korma is one of the South delicacy. It's a rich Mutton gravy usually made with coconut and spices. Goes great with Paratha, Dosa or Chapathi. Same recipe can also be adapted for making Chicken Korma. What I have understood about korma is, in North India usually Korma is based on Yogurt and Nuts and in South the gravy is based on Coconut. Both the Korma's are different when u taste. Here i have posted south Indian Korma. Cook & relish.

Sunday Breakfast 2

BF Combo 2 is here and ofcourse prepared by my hubby. This combo doesn't have too many things to cook. This time he got boiled egg, "Banana Oat Muffin" which was prepared by me a day back, Cereals in which he added walnuts, raisins, banana, dried blueberry & almond, papaya milk and peeled orange. You can find the banana oat muffins in here "Banana Oat Muffin". The papaya milk has been made by mashing the papaya and adding milk and sugar. Simple yet yummy.

Sunday Breakfast 1

Hello Friends!
Here I am with some of our sunday breakfast combos most often prepared by my sweetheart :). He does have passion and creativity to bring up his own breakfast ideas. Balanced and very delicious!! In this combo he has boiled the corns, toasted the sandwich, scrambled the eggs and blended the cantaloupe.. I will write the recipe of the sandwich and scrambled eggs.

Potato Sandwich

Servings:  2

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

Level: Moderate

Ingredients:

1) Wheat Bread	4 Slices
2) Potato	100 gm
3) Coriander leaves	A bunch
4) Green chilli	2 nos
5) Lemon juice	1 Tbsp
6) Cheese slice	2 nos
7) Tomato ketchup	2 Tbsp (Optional)
8) Chat masala	½ Tsp
9) Salt	As req

Method:

1)      Boil the potatoes in cooker or in a pan.

2)      Grind together coriander leaves, green chillies, lemon juice and salt adding very little water        to make a thick chutney

3)       Brush the green chutney on one side of the bread

4)      Slice the boiled potatoes to thin round and place it over the spread chutney 5)      Sprinkle some chat masala all over the potato. 6)      Place one slice of cheese 7)      Brush one side of the second bread slice with tomato ketch up. 8)      Place the second bread slice on the potato topped bread and toast in electric oven. 9)      If you are using bread toaster, toast the bread separately and stuff later. Note: 1) You can add cucumber, onion, tomato or any other vegetables to the sandwich 2) Tomato ketchup is optional. Any other sauces like BBQ sauce, mustard sauce can also be used.

Scrambled egg:

Servings: 2

Preparation Time:3 mins

Cooking time: 5 mins

Level: Easy

Ingredients:

1)      Egg                              3 nos

2)      Milk                             75 ml

3)      Pepper powder            ½ Tsp

4)      Salt                              as req

5)      Olive oil                      1 Tbsp

Method:

1)      Whisk the egg and milk together 2)      Add the pepper powder and salt to the egg mixture. Mix well

3)      In a heavy bottom pan heat oil on medium flame. 4)      Turn the heat to low and pour in the egg mixture 5)      Wait for a min and gently break the cooked egg in the bottom and allow the egg mixture on the top to cook 6)       Do the same till all the mixture is cooked and soft

Kerala Style Sardine Curry

Recently I have been posting few multicuisine and north indian recipes. Yesterday i got a chance to cook my regional cuisine. When i was crossing the seafood section in local supermarket the name sardine (Mathi) caught my eyes. With my eyes wide opened i rushed to the shelf  and i gave a big smile to those sardines lying just in front of my eyes. Actually sardine fish is hard to find in China. Its been years i saw them and tasted them. So walked back to home thinking whether to fry them or to curry them. I had some coconut lying in the fridge so finally i decided to make the fish curry. Since its been long i cooked mathi curry i made a call to my mom and asked for her recipe. She is from kerala so the curry is. This is truly my mom's recipe.  I love her recipe as much i love her. :)

Servings:  2

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Level: Moderate

Ingredients:

1)       Sardine fish	250 gm
2)       Pearl onion	10 nos
3)       Dried red chilly	5 nos
4)       Fenugreek seeds	1 tsp
5)       Coriander seeds	1 Tbsp
6)       Coconut (grated)	½ cup
7)       Tamarind	10 gm
8)       Mustard seeds	½ Tsp
9)       Curry leaves	8-10
10)   Vegetable oil	2 Tbsp
11)   Salt	As req

Method:

1)       Heat 1 tbsp oil in a hot pan.

2)       Add 8 nos of pearl onion, 3 nos of red chilli, fenugreek seeds and coriander seeds.

3)       Toast gently for few mins .

4)       Grind the coconut to a paste

5)       Grind them by adding water to fine paste.

6)      Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of hot water for 15 mins and extract the paste. 7)      To the same pan which used for roasting pour the tamarind water and let it boil. 8)      Add turmeric powder and salt. 9)      Now add the ground masala paste and mix well. 10)  While the masala is still boiling add the cleaned fish one by one gently. 11)  Turn the heat to low and close lid. Cook for 10 mins. 12)  Now add the coconut paste and cook for another 5 mins. 13)  Transfer the curry to the serving bowl 14)   Heat remaining oil in a separate pan for tadka and add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and remaining red chilli respectively

15)  Once mustard seeds splutter fully add chopped pearl onion. Fry till golden brown. 16)  Pour the tadka onto the curry. Serve with steamed rice.

	Note: 1) This recipe can also be used for making prawn or any other fish curry. 2) Curry which is one day old tastes the best. 3) Clean the fish by removing its scales, head, tail and gills. Wash it in cold water with little salt

Spaghetti Bolognese

Spaghetti Bolognese with a glass of Red wine not only liked by "Don" ;) but a huge population in earth likes this dish. It's time taking recipe to prepare but its worth waiting. Cooking spaghetti bolognese is not so difficult but require all your attention while its been cooked. The end result definitely speaks about your passion and the care you put throughout the process. Hence its best for showing your love and care to your loved ones. An evening with candle light dinner having spaghetti bolognese and red wine on the table, fun talks with loved one is all what we need in our life :).hmmm  Sorry guys i just closed my eyes and thought of  my spaghetti evening ha ha... Impress your loved ones with this recipe. Traditionally bolognese is cooked with minced beef. Since most of the Indians don't eat beef it can be substituted with minced lamb or pork.