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Now where should I start, hhmm.. am clueless. It was exactly like this 3 years back, when I started this small space of mine called MariasMenu. Yes, MariasMenu is celebrating its 3rd birthday this month!! I never thought this space would come this far, I’ve never worked in a place for 3 years, so this is something great for me. At least I can now say that I’ve one hobby that lasted/lasts for sometime :)

If you’re interested in history, please read on or else jump straight to the recipe, wait…there is something for you at the end. As I’ve said before I was clueless when I started this. I didn’t even know what a blog was. I was told by my computer guru (read my husband Jose), its an online diary and you can write your recipes there instead of a book. I thought ok, not bad. So I started writing recipes in this diary. That’s how it all started. I am very much embarrassed to say this ….when I started the blog I didn’t even know there were other food blogs!! (how was I supposed to know that others were also writing recipes like this!!)

Didn’t I tell you before, I was stuck at the Charles Babbage era of computers? It took me sometime to get used to this “blogging” thing :). If you check the earliest recipes, you can see that there are no pictures and the reason…how many of you put pictures in your recipe diary?? I don’t. So after the “blogging” thing got into my head, pictures started appearing here :). For that I’d like to thank my in laws, because they are the ones who gave me the idea of putting snaps here. Btw, have I told you, that before if somebody used to ask me to take photo I used to flee and now because of blogging I at least know how to switch on & off a camera ;)

Blogging has helped me in many ways and I don’t have any regrets. This introduced me to many people from different parts of the world, helped me to understand different types of cuisines, encouraged me to read more about cooking, try out new recipes regularly etc etc; All this happened primarily because of my  husband, Jose. Thank you my dearest :). How can I repay you, hhmm may be I will let you do a guest post here ;). I would also like to thank my family (who don’t believe in my cooking skills yet and think that I’ve cut and paste all these snaps from somewhere else…just my luck!), thank all my friends, including my blogging friends who take time to leave sweet comments here and encourage me to continue with this.

If you’ve noticed I’ve started posting more regularly from last year onwards. For that am ever grateful to my dearest cousin sis Ammu. After she started cooking, she used to give constant feedback about the recipes, how I write them, about the snaps etc; Her feedback was a great motivation for me, thank you my dearest sis :). Another person I would like to thank is another cousin sis of mine, am sure most of you know her, yes you guessed it right, its Annita :). I think the existence of my blog was known to the world, only after she linked to me. Dear Annita, thank you for your support and encouragement.

Ok, please dont feel bad, I havent forgotten you, how can I??. After all, you are the ultimate motivator for me. If you weren’t interested in turning the pages of my online diary, MariasMenu, again n again, I wouldn’t have written  for the past 3 years. I would have stopped it long back. Thanks a ton for all your comments and sharing your happiness with me. Please do continue to drop in here and share your thoughts, comments, suggestions and happiness.

Here’s something for you: As part of our b’day celebration, we decided to give away a surprise gift. You dont have to do any cooking or take snaps, just answer a simple question. The winner will get a small gift coupon from Amazon.com

The question is: How many dishes in MariasMenu has the word “Malabar” in its title?

You can give your answers through the comment form. The last day for giving the answer is July 6th. General comments will be published, but your comments with the answer for this question will be published only after July 6th & the winner will be announced in the next post. If more than one person gets the correct answer, the winner will be decided by a lucky draw.

Update: Please try to post your answers through the comment form itself instead of sending it as a mail.

Btw, one more thing before I go to the recipe. I wanted to bake a cake for this occasion and I also wanted to send that to Ria dear’s Celebration event. I did bake one, but it was a disaster :(. So I decided to go for a Kerala style b’day celebration. Ria dear, sorry for not making it this time :(.

Ok, thank you for your time and patience, here is the recipe, finally!!

1. Ada – 1/2 cup/75 gms
2. Jaggery – 250 gms
3. Ghee – 2-3 tsp
4. Medium thick coconut milk – 1 3/4 cups
   Thick coconut milk – 1  1/4cup
5. Tiny coconut slices – 1-2 tbsp
   Cashew nut – a handful
   Cardamom – 2-3, crushed

Cook the ada in 2-3 cups of water, till it becomes soft. Strain the ada and wash it in cold water to remove the stickiness. Add 3 tbsp of water to the jaggery & melt it. Strain the melted jaggery. In a deep bottom pan, combine melted jaggery, cooked ada & 2 tsp of ghee. Cook on low – medium heat till the mixture becomes thick and start separating from the pan. Add medium thick coconut milk. Cook on medium -low heat and stir in between. When the coconut milk reduce to half the quantity, add thick coconut milk and stir well. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Kindly note that the payasam will thicken itself later on, so after adding thick coconut milk, do not keep it for a long time. Add crushed cardamoms, just before removing from the gas.

Heat 1 tsp of ghee in a pan & fry the coconut slices & cashew nuts. Add it to the payasam. Serve hot.

Check out Ada Pradhaman made by Rachel based on the above recipe.

Note: I’ve posted this originally as Palada Pradhaman. I changed it to Ada Pradhaman, since some readers pointed out that palada pradhaman is made with milk and the one I made with jaggery is just Ada Pradhaman.

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!

Onashamsakal !! Happy Onam to you all !!

Onam is celebrated by Keralites irrespective of their religion, culture etc; Onam brings very fond memories to all malayalees and it’s same with me.

If you want to experience the spirit of Onam, you should visit the DH (Darbar Hall) Road in Cochin during Onam. The entire road is filled with the sound of street vendors competing with each other, the aroma of freshly fried banana chips, the fragrance of flowers, the laughter of families enjoying their Onam shopping and what not. You just have to stand at the entrance of the road and the crowd will push you to your destination :-)

My Onam memories would be incomplete if I didn’t mention my visits with friends, to the Onam fair. We had a tuition class at a tutorial just in front of the DH Road and we used to skip it frequently. Come Onam and we were regular students. We’d be just waiting for the class to get over, so that we could go and hang out at the fair and payasam melas. Am sure every Malayali will have their own share of ‘sweet’ memories like these.

Now back to our topic, the star attraction of the Onasadaya, payasam. I guess you can divide payasam lovers broadly into two categories – those who love pal payasam (milk and sugar based) and those who love sharkkara payasam (jaggery & coconut milk based). I fall in the latter.

Though I’ve made a full fledged Onasadaya only once after my wedding, I never compromised on payasams. Since my husband and myself fall into two different categories, I make both pal payasam and parippu payasam. Semiya payasam is his favorite and I should say its the simplest of all.

If you don’t have much time to spare in the kitchen and still want to grab the festive mood of Onam, you can go for this easy and delicious treat :-)

Other payasam’s in this blog:

Here is the recipe:

1. Vermicelli/semiya – 200gm
2. Milk – 2 ltrs
3. Condensed milk – 1 tin
   Sugar – 5tbsp
4. Cashew nuts & raisins – 1/2 cup each
5. Cardamom – 2 big, crushed
6. Ghee/clarified butter – 2 1/2 tbsp

Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a bottom heavy pan and roast the semiya till golden brown. Add milk to it and cook on low flame till semiya is fully done. Keep stirring in between. Add condensed milk and sugar and stir, till it is well combined with milk. Add crushed cardamom and remove from fire.

Heat 1/2 tbsp ghee in a pan and fry the cashew nuts, when it becomes golden brown, add raisins. Add the fried cashews and raisins to payasam. Serve hot or chilled.

Note: Since one tin condensed milk is used, this payasam is rich and has a creamy texture.If you prefer less creamier payasam substitute condensed milk with 2 cups sugar.

Adjust the quantity of sugar and condensed milk to suit your taste. The quantity prescribed above gives a medium-high sweetened payasam.

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I was waiting to make this payasam for quite sometime but i couldn’t find red rice here in Bahrain. So this time when i went to India “Paysam rice” was topping my shopping list :). I had tried making pal payasam before in a pressure cooker, for the first onam after our wedding. The taste was good, but the effort was not worth it ( i had a hard time cleaning the cooker as well as the kitchen).

This time i just blindly followed the long method mentioned in Archana’s Spicyana, except for the quantity. I had only 1 litre milk and i was soooo determined to make the payasam today, come what may, i just took the half of what she has mentioned. Here goes the quantity that i used.

1. Milk – 4 cups
   Water – 3 cups
2. Rice – 2/3 cups (i used the red rice)
3. Sugar – 1 cup
4. Cardamom – 2,3 pods crushed
   Cashewnuts – 10 (toasted in ghee)

You can see the method here. This quantity is sufficient for 4, 5 people. Thanks Archana for this beautiful and simple recipe.

You can see other payasam recipes here.

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The favourite desert of the keralites. You cant stop with just 1 serving.

1. Cherupayar Parippu – 200gm
2. Jaggery -400gm
3. Thick coconut milk – 1 1/2 cups
4. Medium thick coconut milk – 4 cups
5. Light coconut milk – 4 cups
6. Ghee – 3 tablespoon
7. Cashenut & Coconut pieces – 50 gm each

Fry the parippu without oil for 5-6 minutes. Wash it well & cook with boiled water. Melt the jaggery by adding 1 cup water. Add the melted jaggery to well cooked parippu & stir well. Add 2 tablespoon ghee to this & mix well. Add light coconut milk & when it starts boiling add medium thick coconut milk. When this mix evaporates and becomes half add the thick coconut milk. Stir well for 5 minutes & remove from gas.

Fry the cashewnuts & coconut pieces in rest of the ghee & add to payasam. Serve hot.

Parippu payasam made by Ammu, based on the above recipe. Thank you so much dear :)

Source:Vanitha

Also check:

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1. Pineapple chopped – 1
2. Sago – 100 gram
3. Milk – 1/2 litre
4. Condensed milk – 1cup
5. Sugar – 2-3 desert spoon ( optional )

Cook the chopped pineapple with a little sugar & refrigerate. Heat the sago ( dont fry it ). Wash the sago & cook it with enough water ( 1-2cups ). Cook the sago till it becomes transparent. Wash it 2-3 times with normal water to remove the starch. Mix the milk & condensed milk & boil it. Add sago to this when it boils. When it becomes thick add sugar & stir. Take it off from the stove.When it cools add the cooked pineapple to this mixture. Refrigerate & serve.

Please note: Check the sweetness before adding sugar since condensed milk is already added.

Source: My aunty, Tesschechy

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!