Ripe Mango Curry

Finally learned to make the amazing ripe mango curry my dear friend Meera used to make for me decades ago! Lip-smacking delicious, and so easy to make. Maanga Pulisheri as it is known in Kerala. I wrote about it in this story. This is her recipe. Super-simple and goes great with rice and pickle!

Ingredients

• Small ripe sweet mangoes, 4. If the very small variety, take more.
• Half litre curd, preferably sour. Packet curd is also fine. 
• Nearly half a coconut, grated. Should come up to half of the small mixie jar
• Dry red chillies, 5-6
• Curry leaves, one big stalk
• 1 spoon raw rice, or half spoon rice powder

Method

1. Cut the mangoes into two pieces, with skin, don't throw away the seed with the pulp on it. 
2. Boil the mango pieces with the seeds, with turmeric - and a little jaggery if you want the curry sweeter. I don't add it. NO SALT. Salt will curdle the curd that you add later. Just enough water to cover the mangoes. Close and cook until mangoes become really soft.
3. Grind the grated coconut + 5-6 dry red chillies + half spoon rice power/1 spoon uncooked rice. Make this a smooth paste. You can use puttu podi for rice powder. This is to thicken the curry. Transfer to a vessel.
4. Shake the curd in a glass jar so it breaks well.
5. Add to coconut mix and mix well.
6. Now add to the cooked mango and bring to boil. Once the bubbles start forming at the sides, switch off.
7. Now add salt.
8. Season with red chilly, mustard, curry leaf in oil. 

Simple Chicken Curry

The basic recipe. Preferably use a non-stick pan to cook this, so the masala does not stick to the pan. Makes a huge difference.

Ingredients

• Chicken - 1 kilo
• Ginger garlic paste, 2 tablespoons
• Curd - 2 tablespoons
• Onions - 3. Chop into fine pieces.
• Tomatoes - 2 big ones. Chop into small pieces.
• Clove, Cinnamon, bay leaf: a few pieces
• Red chilly powder: 1 teaspoon
• Pepper - a few corns
• Some coriander leaves

 Procedure

1. Marinate chicken in some ginger garlic paste, some curd, and a teaspoon of salt. Either for a few hours or overnight in the fridge, not freezer. The curd tenderizes the chicken.
2. Fry the chopped onion in a non-stick pan until brown. Sprinkle some salt if you want it to brown faster.
3. Add some pieces of clove, 2 sticks of cinnamon, and a couple of bay leaves if you have. Stir for a minute until you can feel the smell of spices coming out, they should not burn.
4. Add the red chilly powder and few crushed pepper corns. Pepper corns is according to your taste, you can add more later after you have checked the taste. Stir for a few seconds - don't leave chilly powder in too long, it will burn.
5. Add the marinated chicken and stir and cook until the water is gone and the chicken starts to brown. The masala would have coated the chicken well now. You can get the smell of the ginger garlic paste frying. The chicken will be half-cooked at the end of this.
6. Add the chopped tomato now and stir and cook. The tomato gives the gravy to the dish. Once the tomato is cooked nicely check salt and add more if needed. Add more pepper at this stage if you want it hotter.
7. Add a little water if you want more gravy, but not too much.
8. To check if chicken has cooked, use a fork and take out a piece and taste - it will be white inside and breaks easily.
9. Switch off and add the chopped coriander leaves and mix well.

 

Fish Cakes

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/fish-cakes/

Easy Chicken Biryani

https://www.sinamontales.com/easy-chicken-biryani-recipe/

Brinjal and Groundnuts Stir Fry

From here:

https://www.archanaskitchen.com/andhra-style-vankaya-verusenga-stir-fry-recipe-brinjal-and-peanut-stir-fry-recipe

Rajasthani Chilly with Besan and Groundnuts

1. Heat the oil, add rai, heeng, ground coriander seeds, turmeric, red chills powder and add chillies.
2. Sauté for a few minutes add salt and a little besan let it cook with the lid.
3. After 5-10 minutes add roasted ground peanuts and aamchur, once it becomes a little dry and oil seems to separate it’s ready.

Use the big less hot chillies.

From here.  

Bitter Gourd Stir Fry Karnataka Style

This was amazing! A friend made it for us.

https://hebbarskitchen.com/bitter-gourd-stir-fry-recipe-hagalkayi-palya-karela-stir-fry-recipe/

Easy Chicken Biriyani!

A colleague makes this very tasty chicken biriyani, her mother-in-law's recipe. She says this works well for mutton and vegetable biriyani too. The rice is cooked with the chicken, so it blends very well. Tried it out, it works! And the best thing is, all you need is one vessel, everything is done in that! I used a small cooker.
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Recipe from Sharmila

If you use Jeera rice, then add water in the ratio 1:1/2)

Ingredients: 

1. Cinnamon (pattai) 2 to 3 sticks
2. Cloves (Lavangam/Krambu) 5 to 6
3. Cardamom (Yelakkai) 2
4. Bay Leaf (Punnai ilai) 2
5. Cashewnuts 8
6. Big onions – 2 cut long and thin pieces
7. Tomato -2 cut into pieces
8. Green chilies – 5 (I used less, 3 big ones)
9. Ginger garlic paste 3 tea spoons
10. Coriander leaves little - remove stems and wash
11. Mint leaves one small bunch – remove stems and wash
12. Little turmeric powder
13. garam masala powder one tea spoon
14. Little Chilli powder to taste
15. Salt to taste
16. Oil and Ghee
17. ½ kg chicken
18. ½ kg basmati rice

 Method: 

1. Keep the cooker or thick bottomed vessel on stove and add oil. 
2. Once the oil is heated, add Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom, Bay Leaf, Cashewnuts and Big onions.
3. Sauté well.
4. To that, add Green chilies, tomato, Ginger garlic paste, Little turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala
5. Saute well.
6. Now wash the chicken and add to the mixture. Let it cook for 10 minutes.
7. Add water (1:2 portions - 1 glass basmati rice, 2 glasses water) and salt to taste.
8. Close the cooker and allow one or 2 whistles, for the chicken to cook.
9. In the mean time wash and soak the rice.
10. When the gas is released from the cooker, add rice to the mixture and mix it well.
11. Close the cooker with a plate. Note that the flame  must be kept high.
12. The briyani is ready for Dum, once you find that there is no more water in the cooker. (Keep an eye here, don't forget about it, the bottom will burn!)

Dum:

1. Remove the plate from the cooker, and close the cooker and put weight.
2. Keep the dosa tava, or any thick pan (in high flame) on the stove and place the cooker on the tava. 
3. Leave for 5 to 10 minutes and then remove the cooker form the stove.
4. Once the gas is released, remove the cooker and put ghee to the briyani and mix it without breaking the rice.
5. Fry the mint leaves in ghee and add, for flavour. Also add chopped coriander leaves. Mix well.
6. Serve hot.

Easiest Fish Curry Ever!

Easiest fish curry ever! And so tasty, with the sharp flavors of tamarind and curry leaves. Got it from here. Don't go by the picture, it's a lot tastier than it looks :)

 Ingredients 

• 5-6 pieces of fish (like seer, pomfret etc that can be cut into slices. Prawn may also be a good idea.)
• 1 tbl spn coriander seeds
• 1 tea spn cumin seeds
• 2 tea spns chilli powder
• A pinch turmeric
• 1 tea spn ginger (a thick piece)
• 1 tea spn garlic (a few pods, I used more garlic than ginger)
• 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract
• Oil
• 10-12 curry leaves
• Salt

Method:

1. Roast cumin seeds and coriander seeds. Cool, and grind. I am assuming that if you don't have the time, you could just use some good quality coriander and jeera powder!
2. Make a paste of ginger, garlic, tamarind, turmeric, the coriander-jeera you just ground, chilli powder, salt, with very little water.
3. Heat a little oil and fry the paste till the raw smell goes off. Now add 1/4 cup water, and add fish pieces. Add the curry leaves cut into two. Cover and cook till done. Taste gravy in between to see if you want to make it tangier with more tamarind. You can either make it slightly-gravy-ish, or cook until dry.

  

I made the mistake of not pre-grinding the coriander-jeera first - it doesn't grind well when you add it to the wet ingredients - that's why the masala looks a bit chunky!

Palak/Methi Chapathis

A great way to get that green stuff in! And it doesn't taste as bad as it looks, it's quite nice!

Ingredients

1. A bunch of palak leaves - soak in salt water for a a while and clean well.
2. Atta (wheat flour), 2 cups
3. Jeera powder (Cummin), 2-3 teaspoons, to taste
4. Salt
5. Crushed garlic and green chilly (if you want)

Procedure

1. Grind palak in mixie well.
2. Add it to atta, then add jeera powder and salt, and some crushed garlic and green chilly. Add additional water if needed (add water in mixie and pour that water in here - conserve, conserve!) and mix into a soft dough.
3. Roll out chapathis!

My friend Rekha does it this way: "Take methi leaves fresh, take equal quantity of palak leaves, few strands of corriander leaves, wash and grind them into a fine paste in the mixer. Add this to the wheat flour with jeera , salt and green chillies. Make chapatis and have with plain curds. My son loves these chapatis."

You can have this with your regular vegetables/dal - or just chutney/chuney powder and curd. It does not have a very strong taste, so it is an easy chapathi substitute.

Orange Peel/Bittergourd Gojju

From my friend Roopa, her mother's recipe. I chased her for this for years, and finally made it with the bittergourd! Was nice, a good way of getting that bittergourd in. And it was pretty easy to make too.

 Ingredients

1. Orange Peels (washed & cut hapazardly either by hand or knife)
2. Oil (small ladle)
3. 2 green chillies
4. Mustard seeds
5. Hing
6. Tamarind Juice 2 small cups
7. Rasam Powder 4 to 5 Tbspns
8. Jaggery (almost 1 block)
9. Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, green chillies & hing.
2. Once the mustard seeds split, add the orange peel and fry well on low flame (almost for half an hour).
3. Once the orange peel changes colour to saffron, add tamarind juice, salt, rasam powder and jiggery and mix thoroughly and let the whole preparation boil extremely well (all on low flame).
4. When the gojju is done, it will start separating itself from the pan – that’s your hint that it’s done.
5. Switch off the gas and let it cool. It can be stored in the refrigerator for close to 2 weeks.

Similar method for Bittergourd (haagalkai) gojju.

Indonesian Green Beans Curry

I have not tried this recipe as yet, but posting it without delay because I think it will make someone or other happy :)  I am told it is very simple and very tasty. The recipe is Indonesian, and it was translated from Dutch to English for me by a Dutch friend of a friend - I have met her just once. Thanks so much, Rixt!

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 kg green beans,
2. 2 onions
3. 1 garlic clove
4. 1 small can (70 grams) of tomato puree
5. 1 can (400ml) coconut milk and
6. 3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
7. 2 table spoons peanut butter

Preparation:

1. Wash and cut the ends of the beans and cut in half. Cut onions in small chunks, as well as the garlic.
2. Fry onions in some oil untill transparent and tender. Add garlic.
3. Add tomato puree and soy sauce. Cook for 1 minute.
4. Stir in coconut milk. Add the beans together with 2 tbspoons of peanut butter.
5. Stir and cook slowly for 10 minutes or until beans are soft but still chunky.

The dish is not spicy at all, so I recommend to add some green chilly to the onion and the garlic, or serve with chilli flakes.

It's not part of the recipe, but I will roast some shaved almonds and shredded coconut and sprinkle that over the dish as a garnish, just before serving.

This goes very well with rice.

Mushroom Capsicum

Ingredients:

• 450 gm Fresh Mushroom
• 1 Capsicum (medium sized)
• 2 tsp Red Chill Powder
• 2 tsp Dry Coriander Powder
• 1 medium Onion
• 1 medium Tomato
• 1 Green Chilli (cut into small pieces)
• 1 tsp Oil
• 1 tsp Cumin-Mustard Seeds
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
• Salt to taste

Steps

1. Wash mushroom and cut into two pieces.
2. Trim onions, capsicum, tomato in square pieces.
3. Pour oil in a pan and add cumin and mustard seeds to it.
4. Mix green chillies and onions.Saute till golden brown.
5. Add capsicum and then add tomato, cook till soft.
6. Then add mushroom, turmeric, red chill powder, coriander powder, salt.
7. Mix it well, cook until the mushroom became tender and then turn off the flame.

Tip: Add some garam masala in the end if you like it spicier.

http://www.indobase.com/recipes/category/capsicum-50.php

Pack a healthy lunch the Mix & Match Kichdi Way!

I take kichdi for lunch every day - and there's so many varieties of it, I haven't yet run out of combinations! If you can get your kids to eat this, you don't have to worry about them not getting enough nutrition anymore :)

Ingredients

The basic concept is this:

• Half glass rice
• Half glass broken wheat (you get this in packets in grocery shops). Or millets - you get millets so easily these days.
• One dal/Soya Chunks/Frozen peas/Frozen corn (Soya is very good if you are feeling tired - it gives instant energy)
• One Vegetable
• And/or one Green Leafy Vegetable

So it's as healthy as it can get, and it's all cooked in one go in a cooker! And you can mix and match with all the vegetables/dals you like - just see if you can sneak in some green leaves also, to complete the nutrition.

I usually have this with pickle or some chutney, so the kichdi by itself is bland - though you can always try out various kinds of seasoning to change that.

Procedure

The measurements in here should give you enough kichdi for 2 people, for a meal. So I just cook once in 2 days for my lunch box, I just vary the pickle/chutney to change the taste.

Heat a pressure cooker (the small one in which you cook directly) and add a little oil and add a seasoning of your choice. Jeera is a good option. Also Panch Phoren, described earlier in this blog.

Add a split green chilly and/or some crushed garlic, which is optional. Or add a chopped tomato and fry a bit. If you have the time, fry a chopped onion and then the green chilly and then the tomato. I normally do only the chilly and tomato.

Now add whatever chopped vegetables/green leafy vegetables you want. You can add sabbajgi (dill - those spiky needle-like leaves very high in iron), drumstick leaves/methi leaves/spinach. Just stir-fry for a few seconds.

Vegetables - carrot/potato/cauliflower are the most obvious, you could try others too.

Then add the washed rice - half a glass, or even a little less than that.
Dal - half glass. You can use Tuvar dal/Moong Dal/Soaked Green gram/any other soaked dal you like.
Or/and some frozen peas/corn, or soya chunks which you have already soaked in boiling water with salt, and drained and washed.
Half glass broken wheat

Add 3.5 glasses of water to this - this measurement leaves it just the correct consistency without making it dry or watery.

Add salt to the water and taste - add half a teaspoon and then adjust. It is very important to add the salt - this makes sure the kichdi does not get watery.

Put lid on cooker, and cook for 2 whistles.

Eat this with pickles/chutney/leftover sabji from previous night's dinner :)
Non-vegetarians can add some leftovers from their chicken/meat/prawn/fish dishes in the end, after the kichdi is cooked.

You can also crush some garlic and mix in the end - you get the full medicinal benefits of garlic if it is taken raw, so this will be almost raw, but slightly cooked because of the heat.

To make this more like a biriyani, you can use some ginger-garlic paste along with the seasoning, and add some cloves/cinnamon etc. Or of course, some ghee at the end.

Basically, the whole point is that you can mix and match, just make sure you have the basic concept in place :)