Monday, March 21, 2011

Egg Roast


Egg roast/ Mutta roast is one among the favorite accompaniments for breakfast dishes in Kerala. This dish is very popular in thattukada's (street shops) as well. I love to have it along with bread. This dish is super easy to prepare and you will be out in couple of minutes from the kitchen. Each households in Kerala have their 
own recipes for egg roast. This is one dish which can be prepared in many ways. By adding coconut milk you will get a thick gravy . I have seen some people shallow fry the hard boiled eggs. Like I said each one has their own way of making it. I am penning down my way of doing it.

Recipe Source : My Own



Ingredients :

Eggs - 6 (Hard Boil for 10 minutes)

To Crackle:

Mustard Seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp

To Fry :

Onions - 2
Green Chillies - 4
Ginger - Garlic Paste - 1/2 tsp
Tomatoes - 2

Powders :

Corriander Powder - 2 Tbs
Chilli Powder - 1/2 Tbs
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - To Taste

Method :

Heat oil. Crackle the items. Add the onion mix and fry. When light brown add the powders and roast. Then add the ginger garlic paste and roast. Add the tomatoes and fry till oil separates. Add salt and little water and mix well.  Add the eggs. Mix gently and set down.

I am sending this to The Kerala Kitchen  hosted by Magpie



Friday, March 18, 2011

Bread Upma


An easy peacy breakfast for you and the best way of utilising bread before they stale. I am a huge fan of bread. I have mentioned about it in my earlier posts. I am not saying about it all over again. The Indian store near our apartment have all the basic stuffs. It is a bliss that we get canned coconut milk and shredded coconut over there. Our traditional kerala snacks like achappom, murukku everything is available. But I have found that both bread and milk they provide will be almost close to expiry. During several trips of Indian grocery store this has happened and we have even told the manager about it and of no use. Here you will get milk in one big can and it will take us atleast one week to finish it. Both of us are not active coffee drinkers. The bread craving inside me compelled me to have a sandwich for dinner and not with a second thought I put the bread packet into my shopping cart. When I came home I made the sandwich and next day morning the bread packet is looking at me and saying "you can use me fast or else you can throw me away". Then I got down myself to make one of my favorite breakfast item.

Recipe Source : My Mom



Ingredients :

Bread - 8 slices
Onion - 1
Green Chillies - 4
Dry chilli Bits - 4
Carrot Grated - 1
Salt - To Taste
Milk - Little (To sprinkle on the bread cubes) 

To Crackle : 

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp

Method :

Cut the bread into cubes and sprinkle enough milk on the bread cubes. Add a little salt also. Mix gently with hand or toss and keep for 10 minutes. Heat Oil. Crackle the items. Add the onion mix and fry. When the green chillies turn color add the bread pieces and mix. Add little more oil as required and fry the bread pieces. 

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Margarita Grilled Chicken


Grill, Grill, Grill !!!! That's my motto these days. I am putting the grill to maximum use. Oiless cooking. Sounds so great. This can be served as an appetizer. But we ate it as main course along with bread. I have been thinking of grilling chicken mixing with wine or some other alcohol for a long time. Mixing it with alcohol, sounds interesting, right?? Chicken which gives you a kick. Marinate the chicken breasts overnight in margarita mix. This is a delicious and easy recipe. First I tried to grill one chicken piece because I was little skeptical about being the taste so bland without any masala. And boy I was right. It was very bland to my taste. Then, I added our Indian masala's to it. The effect was an alcoholic spicy chicken. It was too good. Remember, no oil in it !!!

Recipe : My Own



Ingredients : 

skinless & Boneless chicken breast - 4 pieces
1 cup bottled margarita mix
pepper Powder - 1 tsp
Chilli Powder - 2 tsp ( Both depend upon your spice levels)
Salt - To Taste

Directions :

Pour the margarita mix into a large resealable plastic bag. Add the chicken breasts, and press out as much of the air as possible before sealing. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Preheat the grill. Lightly oil the grill grate. Remove chicken from marinade, and discard the marinade. Apply all the powders and keep it aside for 2 hours. Grill chicken 4 minutes per side, or until juices run clear.

PS: I didn't marinate the masala for 2 hours because I decided to put in the masala in the last minute. Marination will add the flavor. I used George Foreman Grill.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Award Time

Priya of  Now Serving has given this One Fine Desert Award for participating in her event Best Western Desert. Priya, Thanks so much for passing on the award.




I am also thankful to fellow blogger Ambreen of Simply Sweet 'N Savory passing this wonderful award to me. Thanks for the support and encouragement !!!



The rules of this award are:

1. Accept the award. Post it in your blog with the name of the blogger who has given you this award with a link to his/her blog.
2. Pass it on to 15 other blogger friends…. to keep the ball rolling.
3. Let the nominated blogger know about their award [leave a comment in their most recent post].


I am passing this to my fellow bloggers:


1. Jaisy James of entepachakashala
2. Priti of Indian Khana
3. Ramya of Hot From My Oven
4. Hasna Jabeer of Kachuss Delight
5. Divya of Easy Cooking
6. Suma Rowjee of Cakes And More
7. Tina of Kaipunyam.com
8. Pavithra of Dishes From My Kitchen
9. Nithya of 4th Sense Cooking
10. Vidhya of Sugar N Spice 
11. Rose of Magpie Recipes
12. Aliena of What's Cooking
13. Dhivya Karthik of Chef in you
14. Prerna Singh of Indian Simmer
15. Soma Rathore of eCurry



Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Paneer & Sweet Corn Curry


I am here again with our all time favorite Paneer. I am trying out all posibble combinations with paneer. Whenever I go to a north Indian restaurant i will order paneer butter masala. You can see the recipe here. It is one dish I love to cook often. Anybody tried adding sweet corn to paneer?? Yes, my mom had done it. As usual I was even more happy to try out yet another dish of hers. After I started blogging always I try recipes from internet and other blogs and have kept aside my mom's cook book. Yesterday I thought to prepare one from it. I knew it will never go wrong. After all it's my mom's recipe. When I was in high school, My class teacher used to put my names for elocution and recitation. They will give the subject for elocution so that students can prepare on it. If I am preparing by myself then I won't be having the confidence but if my mom prepares it, then I am sure that I will win. She writes so well. I can't stop counting her talents. She is good at cooking, gardening, writing and what else... Whoever visited my humble home will definitely agree with the gardening part!!! Let's come to the recipe now. Otherwise I will keep on writing about her.



Ingredients:

Paneer - I cup cubed
Sweet corn kernels - 1 cup (Boil & Drain)

Grind : Half a handful of broken nuts in 2 Tbs warm milk for 20-30 minutes. Then grind along with 3 cloves garlic ans a very small piece ginger.

To Crackle: 

cinnamon - 2 pieces
cardamom - 2 pieces
Jeera - 1/4 tsp

To Fry : Onions 1 ( Here onions are very big, use 2 onions if they are small)

Powders: 

Chilli Powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Tomatoes - 2
Curd - 1/4 cup
Cream - 1 1/2 Tbs
Sugar -  1/2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp
Salt - To taste

Method :

Heat oil. Crackle the items. Add the onions and fry till brown. Add the powders and roast lightly. Add the cashew paste and the tomatoes and fry.  Add rest of the ingredients except paneer and corn and simmer till oil seperates. Add the paneer and corn and mix well. Enjoy !!!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Date Pickle


Anybody in the mood for sweet, tangy, spicy pickle??? Well, both of us are very much in the mood. I have never tried my hands at making pickle. I never knew it's so simple and easy process. I love spicy food and I don't have to mention how much I am fond of pickles. When I was in hostel my roomie and myself used to survive on mom's homemade pickle. It used to get emptied very fast. All of us in my office will also be waiting for the spicy goodness. Whenever I go home I will be getting demands from my colleagues to bring packets of it. I remember stocking up her fish pickle in my hostel room and whenever the food is bad, pickle becomes our Saviour.

I usually don't like to do much of cooking during weekends. Saturdays are resting day for me and I won't be in a mood to cook anything on sunday after church. Lunch will be from church on all sundays and by the time we reach home it will be almost evening. This weekend was little different. 'A' was preparing for a certification course and I was having all the time in the world. Both of us don't like to eat dates in the raw form. But recently when we visited one of our relative they had yummy date pickle and I forgot to ask them about the recipe. I started searching relentlessly on the net. Finally I got some recipe to hang on. Now I am sure this one will top my list of favorite pickles !!!



Here goes the recipe:

Seedless Dates – 500 gms

Ginger-garlic paste – 4 tbsp

Chilli powder – 5 tbsp

Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp

Salt – 5 tsp

Sugar – 3 tbsp

Vinegar – 1/2 cup

Water – 1/2 cup

Oil – 5 tbsp


Method :

Cut each date into 4 pieces.  Heat oil in a pan and add the ginger-garlic paste. Fry on a low flame till the aroma comes out. Add chilli powder and turmeric powder. Stir and add vinegar, water, sugar and salt. When it starts boiling, add the chopped Dates. Simmer till the gravy is thick and it coats well on the Dates. Put off the fire. Cool and transfer it to a glass jar. This pickle can be served immediately. Store in the refrigerator. It has a long shelf life. Enjoy!


I am sending this to Kerala Kitchen contest hosted by Magpie Recipes 


The details about the group can be seen here.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Paneer Jhalfrezi


Jhalfrezi is an anglicized version of dry or gravy-less curry. This recipe can be prepared in jiffy when you have very less time in hand. Paneer and capsicum are our all time favorite. So I thought of making paneer jhalfrezi. It goes well with paratha, roti or pulao. Couple of days back I got an invitation for Bay Area Food Bloggers Meet. It will be fun to meet people who share same interest. I am looking forward to meet everyone. I will update about the meet in my next post.



Recipe Source  : My Mom


Ingredients:

Paneer - 200 gms
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Corriander Powder - 3/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Onions - 2
Capsicum - 1
Tomato - 1
Lemon Juice - 1 Tbs
Jeera - 1 tsp

Method:

Heat 2 Tbs oil. Crackle jeera. Add the capsicum and onions and when transluscent, add the powders and roast. Then the ginger- garlic paste and roast. Add the tomatoes and fry. Then add the paneer and lemon juice and cook for 2-5 minutes.