Marias Menu » traditional kerala dish

Vegetable Stew

Maria — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:30:47 +0000

After tasting this stew, Simi, my Punjabi friend exclaimed, “this is a revelation to me, a Kerala curry without mustard and not red in colour. This is like a Thai curry!! ” It seems she had tried Kerala food from some restaurants in Mumbai and it all looked and tasted the same with a fiery red colour and mustards floating around. It has happened to me also at times. I’ve gone through some cookery books which supposedly have authentic Kerala recipes and it is anything but a Kerala recipe. Anyways coming back to the stew, she was very much impressed with it that she got the recipe from me immediately and made it the very next day :)

This is a very simple dish, but I like it because of its subtle flavor and of course I love the thick & creamy coconut milk :). This goes very well with appam, but I like it best with puttu, if you havent tried that combo yet, I strongly recommend you give it a try.

Here is the recipe:

Carrot – 1 (cubed)
Potato – 1 (cubed)
Green Peas – 1/4 -1/2 cup
Onion – 1, sliced finely
Green chilly – 4-5
Ginger & garlic – 1 tbsp each, crushed
Whole black pepper – 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon – 1 piece
Cloves – 3
Cardamom – 3
Thin coconut milk – 1 1/2 cup
Thick coconut milk – 1/2 – 3/4 cup
Curry leaves
Salt
Coconut oil

Heat oil in a deep bottom pan & splutter the crushed spices. Add the onion, ginger & garlic, curry leaves & green chilly and saute for a few minutes till the onion becomes soft/transparent. Dont make the onions brown. Add the cubed vegetables & combine well. Add thin coconut milk & salt, bring to boil, reduce heat; simmer and cook till vegetables are tender, it will take 10 mins approx. Add thick coconut milk and cook for 5 more minutes & remove from fire. Garnish with curry leaves fried in coconut oil or ghee.

Serve hot with appam, puttu, roti etc;

Notes: If you want to make the gravy very thick, add 1 tbsp of cashew paste. To make cashew paste, soak cashews (around6,7) in hot water for 5-10 mins. Grind it into a smooth paste. Mix the cashew paste with thick coconut milk & add to the curry. It increases the taste and also gives a thick gravy.

Recipe adapted from Kitchens of Kerala by Nimmy Paul

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Kozhukatta

Maria — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:41:12 +0000

I was all set to post the recipe for Pesaha/Indri appam and Pesaha paal. Then I got a comment from one of my readers, Emie Peters, asking whether anyone knows the recipe for kozhukatta (Easter special). You might be wondering how kozhukatta (steamed rice dumpling with coconut & jaggery filling) is related to Easter, right? It goes like this. Back home, we make kozhukatta either on the eve or morning of Palm Sunday. I dont know why kozhukatta is made and how it is related to Palm Sunday, but its like a custom. If any of you know why kozhukatta is made during Palm Sunday, please do share your thoughts here. We usually say Osana Perunnal or Kuruthola Perunnal for Palm Sunday and since we make kozhukatta, its also known as kozhukatta perunal :)

Though I make kozhukatta at times, I don’t make it particularly on Palm Sunday. My kozhukattas usually come from the leftover dough of Idiyappam. But after reading Emie’s comment I was all nostalgic about the Easter back home and decided to make kozhukatta :)

Here is the recipe for kozhukatta:

Rice flour – 125 gm ( approx 1 cup)
Jaggery – 100 gms
Coconut – 3/4 cup
Ghee – 1/2 tsp (optional)
Crushed cardamom – 1-2
Water – 1 cup (refer notes)
Salt

For the filling

Melt the jaggery with 1/4 cup of water and strain it. Add the coconut to the filtered jaggery & mix well. Add ghee and cook till the liquid is dried up. Add crushed cardamom and remove from fire. Keep it aside.

For the dough

Boil one cup of water with salt. Add the boiled water to the rice flour little by little and mix it with a wooden spatula/spoon. Keep it aside for 5 minutes or till it is warm enough to handle. Knead the dough and make it into a soft ball. The consistency of the dough should be same as that of Idiyappam doughand also the dough should not be sticky.

Make medium size balls out of the dough. Take one ball at a time and place it in your palm. Press it with the other hand and make it thin. Start folding it inwards in such a way that you get a cup shape (please refer the pic given below). Place 1-2 tsp of the filling, cover it and roll it back into a ball. Repeat the process with the rest of the dough and filling.

Steam the kozhukattas in appachembu/steamer for 9-10 minutes on medium flame. Keep it covered for 1 more minute. Serve warm.

Notes: I use the appam/idiyappam podi to make kozhukatta. I use Nirapara brand. The qty of water required for kneading the dough depends on the appam podi. Hence it can vary between 1 – 1 1/2 cup. You’ve the right consistency when the dough is not sticking to your hand. You will get around 8 medium size kozhukattas with the above quantity. You can also add chopped nuts & raisins to the filling, if you wish.

Recipe source: Vanitha Magazine

Vanpayar Olathiyathu

Maria — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:30:30 +0000

Kanji & payar is a welcome change from our usual chappathi for dinner. Hot kanji sprinkled with salt & grated coconut, along with a little bit overcooked payar ( I like my payar to be a bit pasty with kanji) is a taste that I find hard to trade for any fancy dish.

Kanji & vanpayar (rose moong dal or red cow peas) is a new combo to me. Back home we usually have kanji with cherupayar (green moong dal). But last time when we went to India, my mother in law made vanpayar with kanji. Thats the first time I had that combo, I usually have vanpayar with rice and kachimoru . Anyways I fell in love with mummy’s new combo and there are two main reasons for that: vanpayar is supposedly easier on tummy compared to cherupayar and this preparation doesnt have coconut, so its healthy without any compromise on the taste, isnt that great?? The secret of its taste is in the ground masala, I just love it when I fry this masala in coconut oil, try it and you will know what am talking about :)

One more thing before going to the recipe…though I’ve written “olathiyathu” in title, am not sure whether it is olathiyathu. Since coconut is not added, it’s not a thoran and I haven’t heard anybody saying vanpayar mezhukkuperatti, so I just wrote olathiyathu. Please do share your thoughts on the same…

Here is mummy’s recipe for vanpayar:

Vanpayar (red dal) – 1 cup
Small onion – 5-7
Garlic – 2-3
Black pepper – 1/4 – 1/2 tsp
Red chili – 2-3
Curry leaves
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Salt
Mustard – 1/4 tsp
Coconut oil

Wash and clean the vanpayar. Pressure cook vanpayar in 2 – 2 1/2 cups water ( I cook it in high flame for 4-5 whistles and keep it closed for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, open the cooker and drain the water completely). Grind together number 2 ingredients (It will be great, if you can crush it using mortar & pestle). Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard. Add ground masala, turmeric powder and curry leaves & fry it for 1-2 minutes. Add cooked payar & salt. Mix everything well. Add around 1/4 cup (or less) of water & combine. Cook till the water is dried. Serve hot with kanji or rice.

Notes: As you can see in the picture, I like payar to be mashed and soft. If you dont want it to be pasty, adjust the cooking time accordingly and also adjust the quantity of water that you add to the cooked payar.

Kachimoru/Moru kachiyathu

Maria — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:35:05 +0000

This is a very simple dish which falls under the everyday Kerala cooking category. At our home, kachimoru (seasoned buttermilk) is an indispensable side dish with rice. Choru (rice) and kachimoru is my comfort food. I was amazed once how this simple dish has such magical effect on people. One of my cousins used to visit us on Fridays, he was a bachelor at that time. I used to make rice and curries for him, usually. So once when he visited me I thought I should make something different from the usual stuff and made fried rice and chicken. When he came home, I told him that I made something different for him that day apart from the usual choru n curry. With a disappointed look on his face, he told me that he was hoping that I would make choru n kachimoru!! Lessons learnt: never underestimate the power of simple dishes (or simple things for that matter) :)

Though its a simple dish, I should say it took me sometime to master this dish. Initially, when I made this it curdled almost every time :(. I was not sure what went wrong (I didnt know about the magical power of google search that time :) ). Anyways an aunty helped me out and after that there was no looking back :)

Here is the recipe:

Buttermilk – 1/2 ltr/ 500 ml ( room temperature)
Small onion – 4-5
Ginger – 2 tsp, chopped
Green chili – 3-4
Red chili – 2
Turmeric powder – 1/4 – 1/2 tsp
Mustard – 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek – a pinch
Curry leaves
Salt
Oil

Heat oil in a pan & splutter mustard & fenugreek seeds. Add red chili, small onion, ginger, green chili, curry leaves. Fry it for 1-2 minutes. Add turmeric powder & salt. Mix well. Add buttermilk and stir. Stir continuously until the steam comes through the spatula. Dont let it boil. It will take around 5-7 minutes. After removing from gas, stir for a few more minutes.

Notes: It can be refrigerated for 3-4 days. It’s important that the buttermilk should be at room temperature, otherwise it may curdle. I use low fat buttermilk. If you are using full fat buttermilk, you can add around 1/4 cup water also.

Please see Annita’s Kachimoru here.

Parippu Chaaru (Curry)

Maria — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:59:41 +0000

I should stick to my new year resolution at least for a week right ;) ? This parippu (dal) curry is a typical Kerala dish. It’s one of the main dishes of Onasadhya as well. We call it “parippu chaaru” at home. If there is parippu chaaru, ghee and pappad, it’s almost like a mini sadya for me. I just love the smell of ghee drizzled over parippu, it increases my appetite beyond limits. Usually I don’t eat much rice, but with this I wouldn’t even mind a 2nd or 3rd helping :) Actually back home if parippu chaaru is made for lunch, extra rice will be made, since everybody tends to have more servings of rice with this. (see am not the only guilty person here ;) )

I’m happy to send this dish for FIC- Yellow, hosted by Sunshinemom. Food in colours is a unique event started by Sunshinemom of TongueTicklers. This event celebrates food with a different colour each month. This month’s colour is Yellow and here goes my yellow beauty :)

Cheruparippu (moong dal) – 100 gm (approximately 1 cup)
Grated coconut – half of one coconut
Jeera – 1/2 tsp
Green chilli – 2-3
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Ghee/coconut oil – 2-3 tsp
Water – 1/2 ltr
Small onion – 3-4
Mustard seeds – a pinch
Red chilli – 2
Curry leaves
Salt

Grind together number 2 ingredients. Roast the moong dal in a heavy bottomed pan (without oil). Boil half a litre water and add the roasted dal to this. Cook till the dal is done. Mash it well or you can just run it in a food processor or blender for a few seconds. Add ground paste, salt and 1/2 – 1 cup water to the mashed dal and let it boil. Remove from heat.

Heat oil/ghee in another pan and splutter mustard seeds. Add small onion, curry leaves and red chilli. Fry till small onion becomes golden brown. Pour over cooked dal. Serve with rice and pappad, wait… don’t start eating… drizzle some ghee on the curry, now you are ready to eat :)

Notes: I recommend using ghee for this recipe.

Source: Vanitha