Kappa kadala Varuthe Arache Curry

This is one of my favourite recipe.  Once my neighbour made and introduced this recipe to me and ever since i tasted it , i am fan of it.  I just love to have it with idly. 

Ingredients

1. Tapioca - 2 medium sized
2. Bengal Gram/ Karutha Kadala (soaked overnight in water)- 1 medium cup
3. Red Chilly -2 No
4. Coconut - 1 cup
5. Turmeric- 3/4 tsp
6. Coriander Powder ( Whole Malli ) - 1 tsp
7. Onion Shallots- 12 No
8. Oil as required.

How to Cook

1. Soak the Bengal gram overnight  for at least 8 hours. Wash the Bengal gram and drain the water.
2. Pressure cook the kadala up to 4-5 whistles on medium flame. This will take around 20 – 25 minutes. And Keep it aside.
3. Heat 1 tsp of oil , add coconut, onion shallots, coriander pieces,red chilly  cut into pieces into it and saute . Go on sauteing until it turns dark brown  .After it gets cooked , keep it aside for cooling.
4. Grind the above sauteed coconut , onion shallots and red chilly into a paste with very little water.
5. Cook the tapioca and set it aside.
6. Heat  1 tsp of oil again  and saute the rest of the onion. Put the tapioca, Bengal gram, salt  required , little water  and the grinded paste to the pan and saute .  Let it cook for sometime till both tapioca and kadala are mixed properly with  the  coconut.
7. Garnish with Curry Leaves  and Serve Hot !!

Butter Naan

Ingredients

1. Maida (All purpose flour) - 250 gm
2. Low fat yogurt - 2 tbsp
3. Warm milk - 2 tbsp
4. Oil - 2 tbsp
5. Yeast - 1 tsp
6. Powdered sugar - 1 tbsp
7. Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
8. Salt - 1/2 tsp

 How to Cook

1. Dissolve yeast in Luke warm milk and cover it with a damp cloth and wait until bubbles start to appear .
2. Mix maida, baking soda ,salt and sugar.
3. Mix the curd, yeast and veg oil to the above dry mix.
4. Knead it well until you get a very soft dough.  ( Refer Picture A)
5. It will be very sticky initially but by continuous kneading and by adding very little flour it will become non sticky. Do not add more flour because naan will become hard. ( Refer Picture A)
6. Make 4 slits on the dough  as shown. ( Refer Picture A)
7. Keep the dough covered with a damp cloth for 4 hours .After 4 hours  the dough will double in volume. ( Refer Picture A-  third picture)


PICTURE A

9. Make lemon sized balls out of the dough and flatten it to get a 3" round shape. Stretch the flattened dough as shown in picture B from both sides.

NOTE  : Before making balls , apply some oil in the  hands and then make the balls as the dough would have become sticky after it got expanded. Do not make it too thin. ( Refer Picture B)
PICTURE B

10. Apply little butter on the nonstick pan .Heat an iron griddle on the stove and transfer the naan onto the griddle. ( Refer Picture C)
11. Wait until it starts to bubble on the top side. Cook the other side in flame and add butter.( Refer Picture C)


PICTURE C

TIP  : In step 11 , either  we can use Grill to cook Naan on direct flame. 
If you don't have one , cook on top of non stick pan  , but make sure you put on high flame at first  then adjust the flame to get the naan cooked.

Chicken 65 w/o coating

This recipe is easy to cook.  I got this recipe from my mother-in-law. :-) We both love this Chicken 65. The speciality of this recipe is we don't need any coatings for this, so no cornflour is added. It is just simple !!!!

Ingredients

1. Chicken- 3/4 kg
2. Chilly Powder ( Kashmiri Chilly ) -2 tsp
3. Coriander Powder -3 tsp
4. Turmeric Powder -1/2 tsp
5. Garam  Masala 1 1/4 tsp
6. Curd-1 cup
7. Ghee 3 tsp 
8. Tomato sauce -5 tsp

For Marinating chicken pieces.

1. Ginger- garlic paste -2 tsp
2. Curd- 2 tbsp out of the 1 cup
3. Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp
4. Turmeric Powder- 1/2 tsp
5. Salt as required.

How to Cook

1. Marinate the chicken pieces and keep for 2 hours.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of ghee in pan  , saute all masalas in low flame. 
3. Add  marinated chicken pieces to the pan and mix the chicken pieces with the masalas(Chilly Powder ,Coriander Powder ,Turmeric Powder,Garam  Masala, for 2 minutes)
4. Add rest of the curd to the chicken pieces and again mix such that all the masalas , curd are mixed well with the chicken pieces. Close the pan and cook the chicken (Make sure not to add water as the water from the chicken and curd will be well enough to cook the chicken )
5. After the chicken gets cooked and is soft, add tomato sauce , required  amount of salt , saute till oil becomes clear.
6. Garnish with Coriander leaves and Serve.

Palak Paneer

This is one of my hubby's favourite recipe.  The master of this recipe is my mom !! She taught me this and i too love this recipe. 

Ingredients 

1. Palak - 2 bunch
2. Paneer -15 rectangular pieces
3. Tomato - 1 ( to make puree)
4. Butter -1tbsp
5. Cumin Powder(Jeera )- 1/2 tsp
6. Green Chilly - 2 No  ( ordinary size)
7. Onion medium sized -2 No
8. Turmeric Powder-1/2 tsp
9. Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
10. Chilly Powder-1/2 tsp
11. Ginger- Garlic Paste-1 tsp
12. Salt - as required
13. Oil -2 tsp

How To Cook

1. Soak palak without the stem in hot water for half an hour.
2. Grind  palak leaves and keep it aside.
3. Fry the paneer pieces in 1 tbsp of butter till it turn light brown.
4. Heat 2 tsp of oil  to the pan , add ginger-garlic paste , onion and saute for sometime. Add  garam masala , chilly powder , turmeric powder to the onion and saute until the raw smell of masalas leave.
5. Grind the tomato with cumin seeds and add the paste to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes.
6. Add the palak paste to this and cook for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup  of water and cook for 15 mins in low flame.
7. Add required amount of salt.
8. Add the paneer pieces to the gravy and cook until the gravy starts getting thicker. Remove from flame.
9. Serve Hot with rotis or naan.

Spring Onion Thoran

Ingredients 

1. Spring Onion ( with  the stem and clean ) - 2 bunch
2. Onion Shallots cut into small pieces - 1/4 cup
3. Oil- 1 tbsp
4. Green chilly  -2 No
5. Turmeric Powder-1/2 tsp
6. Mustard seeds- little

How to Cook

1. For cleaning the spring onion, cut the edge of the stem and soak in turmeric water for half an hour  . After half an hour drain the water and keep it ready aside for cooking.
2. Splutter mustard seeds in a non-stick pan and add  onion pieces and saute for a while in oil.
3. Add onion leaves with stem  chopped into small pieces , with green chilly and turmeric powder and then cook in low flame for sometime.( please donot close the pan and cook )
4. When the leaves are half cooked , add grated coconut , required salt . Again  cook. Saute for sometime till the water  is dried up.Serve hot with rice.

Onion Sambar

Ingredients

1. Split gram(Thuvara parippu) - 1/2 cup
2. Green chillies - 4 Nos
3. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
4. Shallots(Kunjulli) - 1 cup
5. Sambar powder - 2 tbsp
6. Tamarind(Puli) - lime sized ball
7. Coconut(grated) - 1/2 cup
8. Shallots(Kunjulli) - 1 tbsp(thinly sliced)
9. Dry red chillies - 2 nos
10. Curry leaves - Few
11. Cumin seeds(Jeerakam) - 1/2 tsp
12. Fenugreek seeds(Uluva) - 1/2 tsp
13. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
14. Coriander leaves - Few
15. Ghee - 2 tsp
16. Oil - As reqd
17. Salt - As required.

 How to Cook

1. Cook the dal in enough water in a pressure cooker. Mash the dal and keep aside.
2. Dry saute cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds in a pan. Add grated coconut and saute till golden in color.
3. Grind the coconut mixture to a fine paste. Keep this aside.
4. Soak the tamarind in 2 cups of water and sieve to gather the extract.Keep this aside.
5. Take a pan and pour ghee. Heat ghee and fry shallots, green chillies and curry leaves. Keep this aside.
6. Add turmeric powder and required salt to the tamarind water and boil.
7. Add the ghee fried shallots, green chillies, curry leaves and sambar powder to the tamarind mixture and boil.
8. Add cooked dal, grinded paste and required water. Boil the curry. Garnish with coriander leaves and remove from fire.
9. Take a pan and pour oil. Splutter mustard seeds and pour into the sambar.
10. Serve this hot with rice or dosa.

Cauliflower Manchurian/Gobi manchurian

This recipie is a gift for me from my mom. I just love her making this for me.  Many of my friends are a fan of this recipie . I tried to make this by myself. It was good.  But Nothing can be compared with what mom make !!!!!!!   :-)

                       

        

Ingredients 

1. Cauliflower  - Medium size
2. Capsicum -  2 Nos
3. Big Onion cut lengthwise - 4 Nos
4. Ginger- Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
5. Garam Masala - 3/4 tsp
6. Turmeric Powder 1 tsp
7. Oil - For Deep Frying ( as required) and for Cooking - 1 tbsp or 2 tbsp
8. Soya Sauce- 3 tbsp
9. Tomato Sauce - 7 tbsp
10. Coriander Leaves for Garnishing.

For Dough   ( For Step 2)

1. All Purpose Flour ( Maida) - 1 Cup
2. Corn flour- 2 tbsp
3. Ginger- Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
4. Turmeric Powder - 1/2  tsp
5. Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
6. Salt - ( TIP  :  Make sure you add  a little more than required in the dough so that it sticks well on the cauliflower florets )

How to Cook

1. Wash the florets  well .Put the cauliflower florets  in luke warm water mixed with turmeric water and salt for half an hour so that it gets cleaned properly.
2. Prepare the dough by kneading the mixture with little water .Make sure not to form lumps .
3. Mix the cauliflower florets in the prepared dough and keep aside for half an hour.
4. Deep fry  each cauliflower floret  .Make sure it doesn't turn brown and keep it aside. 
5. Heat Oil in the pan , add ginger -garlic paste and saute onions till they become light brown in colour.
6. Add Capsicum and saute for 5 mins .
7. Add 1 tbsp of soya sauce, garam masala and saute well till the capsicum gets cooked well.
8. Add the cauliflower florets , 2 tbsp soya sauce and tomato sauce (  7 tbsp or more as per your taste)
9. Saute the mixture for sometime .
10. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Pepper Chicken

Ingredients 

1. Chicken pieces - 500 g
2. Oil - 3 to 4 tbsp
3. Onion-5 No
4. Tomato - 3 No
5. Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
6. Coriander Powder-1 tsp
7. Turmeric Powder-1/2 tsp
8. Ginger Garlic Paste -1 tbsp
9. Pepper Powder- 1 tsp
10. Garam Masala- 1tsp
11. Salt as required
12. Ghee- 4 tbsp / Oil -5 tbsp
13. Curry Leaves

How To Cook

1. Heat oil in pan and saute onion and tomato well.
2. When onion turn brown colour, add chicken  and some water , and cook the chicken by covering the pan. Make sure to add only little water since water enough for the chicken to get cooked will come from the chicken itself.
3. After the chicken gets cooked in soft form ,add  chilly powder, coriander  powder,turmeric powder,ginger-garlic paste,pepper powder, garam- masala and simmer the flame and let it cook for some time.
4. Go on sauteing until the chicken becomes dry  and it becomes a little brownish . Add adequate salt and pepper powder. Saute again.
5. Garnish with curry leaves.

Rice Ada

Ela Ada is a traditional kerala dish. Ela in malayalam means leaf and the leaf used in making this Ada is banana leaves. Before using banana leaves to make ada, the banana leaves has to be mildly wilted. This can be done by holding the banana leaf on top of a low flame for a few seconds, Then cut the leaf to small rectangular pieces.

Ingredients

1. Rice Flour -  2 cups
2. Aval (Poha ) - 1 1/2 cup 
3. Jaggery ( sharkkara )-200gm
4. Coconut Grated-1 1/2 cup
5. Banana Leaf - as required.
6. Cardamon - 2 or 3
7. Water - as required
8. Salt- a pinch.

How to Cook

1.  Take the flour into a bowl and add salt ,boiled water enough to make a smooth dough with a spoon first.When the dough cools , still lightly warm , knead the dough thoroughly with hand . Make lemon sized balls  with the dough.
2. Boil Jaggery with 1/4 cup of water in a pan. After it gets dissolved, filter it to remove the dust particles. Again boil to get a thick syrup.Add coconut , aval,cardamon powder with the thick jaggery syrup to get a thick mixture. We have to use this as fillings for the ada
3. On a small piece of banana leaf cut in the form of rectangular shape, place the rice  dough ball , press  and spread out the dough .  Dipping the hand in water while doing it will make it easier to spread the dough. Pour the fillings on top of the spread dough.
4. Fold the leaf in the middle and press the leaf so that the filling is spread evenly.
5. Press all sides as well so that filling doest move out.Place the banana wraps in steaming vessel for 15 to 20 minutes , till it gets fully cooked.
6. Take the steamed ada out of the banana leaf and serve hot.

TIP  : As fillings we can use coconut and salt alone as well for those who don't like it sweet.

Let the Culinary experiments begin

Our Principle: You can always get the best out of whatever you do, when you enjoy doing it !!
Our Vision: Try and add as many food delicacies as possible to our little collection here to help our readers add spice to their life.

Yeah I really love what I do !!  Cooking is one of my favourite pass time.  I love being creative with my food & I love cooking for my Husband !!! And he loves my home cooked food !!!

We love sweets, chocolate puddings, traditional recipes...The list goes on... We don’t prefer hotel food now a day. We always wanted to try out the dishes we love in our own ways.  I like to explore a lot through various cooking styles and Cooking has really become one of my favourite spare-time recreational pursuit, ever since I started taking up it seriously.. But , i would like to add , most of the dishes in my blog are my moms signature dishes.I got this taste for cooking from my mom who is great in this . I get a lot of ideas from my sister too. I selet the recipies i feel good from the net,cookery books, cookery shows, other food blogs  etc  and try it out in my own ways ....
I dedicate this blog to all those out there who want to enjoy life, by being creative in their own ways and those who like to enjoy the little niceties of life with their family.