Idli

Idlis are a staple breakfast at any south Indian home, and very rightly said by a fellow blogger an excellent baby food too and a healthy breakfast for all ages . I was expecting and when in my 2nd trimester we were travelling for my husband's work related trip, and being new to this country (US) I was just getting used to the spice less options of food.
One Saturday early morning I guess it was about 6am in the morning, and I woke up hungry and with a strong craving for Idlis and hot piping sambar, with all the hormone surge during my pregnancy I badly missed home food, so to satisfy my craving I woke my sleepy hubby and started demanding for Idli and sambar, and wasn't ready to settle for anything less, blame it all on my pregnancy,my sweet hubby who was half asleep, tried after a long day at work dazed, and then promised me to get it as soon as the close by Indian restaurant opens in the morning, and he sure did !!
They tasted good ,nothing like mom's idli's but enough to satisfy my craving.

Now it is a routine at my home every Sunday morning for breakfast it is Idli for sure, and my hubby prefers that too as he does not have to run to Indian restaurants any more:), my 3 yrs son too loves them and he has named them "the white ones".

To make idlis what u need:

Idli rice : 1 cup
Urad dal : 1/2 cup
Salt : to taste
yeast: 1 pinch
Soak the rice and urad for 6-8 hours, then grind it in a mixer (I use the Indian one I got from back home). Over the last few years, I went through several trial and errors to make soft dosas and idlis in this cold country. Quite a few attempts were disasters with idlis as hard as rock, but at other times it turned out to be great.
I tried a little trick , after the batter is mixed into a paste , take a pinch of yeast in warm water
and add to the batter just like u would do for making appams but only the quantity is less as compared . Try this and it will result in soft Idilis.
Cover this batter and leave it over night, next morning add salt, if the batter is to make dosas
make it thin and for idlis keep the consistency thick.
pour into the idli vessel spray with a pam or dab a little oil before pouring the batter prevents from sticking. Cover the Idli vessel and after 10-15 mins hot steaming idlis ready.
Serve with hot piping Sambar and Mint Chutney.

Avial

My dad is an excellent storyteller who is good at making up stories at the very instance, and growing up I was a picky eater so to get me to eat he would make up a story around each dish which made it interesting.
There is this story that he would tell me about how avial was born, long time ago a set of cooks were preparing food for a wedding as the wedding was of a brahmin family there had all the vegetarian recipes ready, but towards the end the head cook ended up with a little of every vegetable left , so he decided to try a new recipe asked his fellow cooks to cut up all the leftover vegetables lengthwise and boil them, then made a mixture of coconut , ginger, jeera pwd and mixed with the boiled vegetables, to end it up gave a garnish of sputtering mustards in hot oil with curry leaves.
After the dish was done he asked it to be served along with the remaining dishes and to every one's surprise that was the dish that sold like hot cakes!
Hence AVIAL was born, true or not I sure enjoyed eating avial and reminds of this story every time I make Avial.
It is like a medley of vegetables which includes most of the vegetables like tomato, potato, drumstick, onions, beans , yellow pumpkin, carrots, ash gourd etc. I have seen the Americanised avial too with a little addition of bell peppers and celery too.

My recipe is more towards the tradition version. for this recipe
what u need:

potatoes- 2
onion-1
tomato-2
beans-5-6
carrots-1
ash gourd-1/2 cup
drumsticks-3-4 peices
white pumpkin-1/2 cup
snake gourd-1/2 cup
green chillies-2-3
turmeric owd-1/2 teaspoon
salt to taste
yogurt- 1 tablespoon
u can add or delete vegetables as Per your likes & dislikes
I sometimes add payar (the long strings), tindora (kovakaya), arvi ( kirala), also raw mango if available.

for the paste:
coconut-1/4 cup
ginger-1 tablespoon
jeera pwd-1 teaspoon
green chilles- 3-4
garlic-2-3

for tempering:
oil- 1 tablespoon
curry leaves-4-5
red dried chillies-2-3





Cut all the vegetables length wise, put in a large pot add salt , turmeric pwd, and 1/2 cup water
cover the pot and let it cook till the veges are boiled and cooked do not over cook it or the avial gets too mushy.


Meanwhile grind all the paste ingredients, add the the cooked veges, and mix simmer for 5-7 mins.
temper the dish with sputtering mustard's seeds with curry leaves and red dried chillies.
once the avial cools down add the yogurt and mix, this gives a thick consistency and a sour tinge this is optional.
Serve with rotis or rice.

Beans thoran

Thoran is a dish made of finely chopped veges blended with coconut , usually the most common thorans are cabbage, carrot, payar,beans,ulli,potato...the list is endless.

My mom would make this pretty often as it goes well with any other side dish veg or non veg.

for beans thoran u need

beans fine chopped(i use the french cut frozen beans)

makes the job a lot easier.

onion: 1/2 chopped

coconut: 1/4 th cup

ginger: 1 teaspoon finely chopped

green chillies: 2-3 chopped

curry leaves: 4-5

jeera pwd: 1 teaspoon

turmeric: 1/2 teaspoon

oil: 1 teaspoon

mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon

salt to taste

heat up a pan with oil, add mustard seeds after they pop add the chopped onions, chillies,ginger and curry leaves.

Cook for 3-4 mins then add the chopped beans ,turmeric, jeera pwd and salt mix well.

Cover the pan and let it cook for 5-7 mins on medium heat.

then add grated coconut to the pan and cook for other 5-10 mins.

U don't need to add any water as this cooks in its own moisture.

Serve with rotis or steaming rice.

Ulli Pacchadi

Pachadi is usual recipe on the long list of onam sandya dishes.It can be made with any variety of veges cucumbers, mango, lime, squash and also beet root.
This is a simple recipe from my mom in law's recipe collection,
this dish is very easy and quick to make.
all u need is

small red shallots kunj ulli: 4-5 chopped fine
ginger: 1 teaspoon chopped
green chillies: 1-2 chopped
curry leaves: 4-5
mustard seeds:little pwded
curd: 1/2 cup

oil: 1 teaspoon
salt to taste


Heat a pan add oil, and put mustard seeds when they start to pop add the chopped onions, ginger, green chillies and curry leaves.

saute till the onion is soft and cooked about 5-7 mins.

also add some crushed mustard seeds they give a different flavour to the pachadi.

Put off the heat and after it is cooled off add to the yogurt and salt to taste.

serve hot with steaming rice and sambar.

Karemeen fry

Although we would visit kerala once in 2 years, each visit reminded me of great food we would have. It usually would be 2 month summer vacation visiting grandparents , uncles , aunts and a lot of cousins, and our routine was of visiting some relative every other day.

Mallus are very hospitable people and love to make a table full of recipes to welcome guests, so did my relatives.

Along with all the other delicacies karemeen fry was a must, growing up we didn't have chance to have a lot of karemeen so whenever we were in kerala Karemeen was always on top of the list.

Now settling here in US, although being so far from home , by the advance in overseas export karemeen is so easily accessible :) best part all cleaned ready to go.

I still remember when my hubby had come to see me for the first time, bride-hunting and was asked if I know to cook, my mom smartly replied she sure does only doesn't like to clean fish!!

In response my father in law replied 'oh don't worry in US u will get fish all cleaned up' :)

so here is my recipe.

what u need:

karemeen ; 4-6

turmeric: 1 teaspoon

chilly pwd: 1 teaspoonb

black pepper pwd: 1 teaspoon

lemon juice: 1 tablespoon

oil: 2 tablespoons

salt to taste

mix all the pwd elements to a thick paste , make cuts on the fish and apply the paste to the fish.

marinate for 1 hr.

Heat a pan with 2 tablespoons of oil, fry the fish well each side ,till crispy and done.

Serve with hot rice.

Paneer masala

This is one of my favourites among North Indian cuisine, and a usual order at any Indian restaurant. Paneer is a protein rich food, and can be made at home,
but most of the time I end up buying it from the Indian store although not home made but equally good.

here goes my recipe

what u need:

paneer : 250 gms
onion : 1 chopped grind into paste
ginger: 1 teaspoon
garlic : 1 teaspoon
tomato: 1 chopped or tomato paste: 1 tablespoon
garam masala: 1 teaspoon
turmeric: 1/2 teaspoon
chilly pwd:1/2 teaspoon
jeera : 1 teaspoon


half and half: 1/3rd cup or cream also can be used.
salt and oil as needed
cilantro to garnish

In a pan add oil u can use butter also , if needed
add jeera after 1-2 mins add the onion paste if u r using red onions the dish will a little to the sweeter side, once the onion is almost translucent add the ginger garlic in paste form.
cook f0r 5-7 mind till oil separates out.

To this add turmeric , chilly pwd, garam masala and mix well.


Again a little trick if u need the fiery red color and not the spice,


add tomato paste instead of raw tomato, it gives a good red color without increasing the heat of the dish,


or else u can just puree tomatoes in a blender and add to the pan.
cook for 5-7 mins till the tomatoes are totally cooked, meanwhile make a flat griddle hot add some oil again u can use butter if needed, cut paneer into cubes size and shallow fry them on the griddle, turning each side every few mins.




add the paneer cubes in to the pan and mix carefully.

cook for another 2-3 mins till the spices blend into the paneer cubes.
Add the half and half , usually I would just use whole milk also .
cover the dish and let it simmer few mins then put it off.
Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot with rotis or naan

Entering this interactive world of blogging.

For the last few weeks I have been an anonymous reader of most blogs; amusing and teaching me a lot about cooking and cultures that ripple through India as a heartbeat.
At this point I don't know what new I have to offer , I do have one thing in common with all the foodies..LOVE TO COOK and try out new dishes too, but the cuisine that I just can't get enough of is "namade naadan kerala cuisine".

My cooking has always been inspired by two very strong ladies, my mom and my mom in law both of who were working ladies and excellent cooks, to finish it up a little of this and that of my own tricks!!

Let me start with our patent weekend breakfast; idli, dosa , or appam

When growing up I always remember my mom being a working lady who was busy all week but come Sunday morning, we would be waking up to the aroma of piping hot dosas with chamanthi and a smiling face which made every day seem like a special day.

DOSA

What you need

___________

Idli rice : 1 cup

Urad dal : 1/2 cup

Salt : to taste

yeast: 1 pinch

Soak the rice and urad for 6-8 hours, then grind it in a mixer (I use the Indian one I got from back home). Over the last few years, I went through several trial and errors to make soft dosas and idlis in this cold country. Quite a few attempts were disasters with idlis as hard as rock, but at other times it turned out to be great.

I tried a little trick , after the batter is mixed into a paste , take a pinch of yeast in warm water

and add to the batter just like u would do for making appams but only the quantity is less as compared .

Cover this batter and leave it over night, next morning add salt, if the batter is to make dosas

make it thin and for idlis keep the consistency thick.

Make a griddle hot and pour the batter to make fresh piping hot delicious dosas.

Coconut is the most widely used element in kerala cuisine, needless to say that it is usually a prominent member in each dish, but the best part is that it adds a different flavour to each

be it an avial , or theeyal, or chamanthi.

Now there are a lot of ways of making the coconut chutney that goes so well with idlis or dosas, here is my version.

what u need:

grated coconut : 1/2 cup

ginger: 1 inch

red dried chillies: 2-3 add more if u like it hot!

curry leaves : 4-5

shallots: one chopped

mustard seeds: 1/2 teaspoon

salt to taste

grind the coconut with ginger and red chillies to a fine paste add water if needed.make a kadai hot add oil, and mustard seeds when they start to pop add the curry leaves and chopped shallots.

cook for few minutes till translucent,add the coconut mix, and mix keep the flame low or else the chutney with curdle.

cook for 1-2 mins then add salt.

serve with hot dosas or idilis.