This is my mom’s speciality rice and is quite popular in my family. In South India, coconut rice is very common and there are several ways of making it. I have always loved the way my mom and grandma makes it. We use rosematta rice or red rice to make coconut rice. I personally feel that coconut rice tastes delicious when red rice is used. White rice can be used to make this, but I have to tell you that once you have tasted coconut rice made with red rice you can never be happy with how white coconut rice tastes.

Coconut rice along with chicken or mutton curry tastes absolutely delicious. It can also be served along with Lentil or Parippu curry, papad and pickle. The thought itself is enough to make my mouth water In North America, Rosematta rice is available in some Indian stores, I am so glad that the Indian store near to my place carry this. In fact, I grew up having this rice and so I always prefer red rice over white rice.

It’s very easy to make this rice, however you have to be careful about a few things. If you add too much of coconut milk while cooking rice, the rice will be over cooked. On the other hand, if you add less coconut milk, the bottom of the rice will get burned. So, it’s very important that you add the right amount of coconut milk to cook the rice.

Coconut Rice

Ingredients

• Rosematta rice or red rice, washed- 1 cup
• Cinnamon- 2 inch stick, broken
• Onion, chopped thin and long- 1
• Curry leaves- 2 sprigs
• Fenugreek seeds(optional)- 1 tsp
• Coconut milk- 1 can, 400 ml
• Water- 1/4 cup
• Coconut oil- 3 tbsp
• Ghee- 1 tbsp
• Salt- to taste

To Grind:

• Ginger, chopped- 1 inch slice
• Garlic, chopped- 2 large cloves
• Green chillies- 2 0r 3

Preparation:

• Wash the rice taken in a sieve under running water, keep aside.
• Grind ginger, garlic and chillies in a blender to a coarse paste.
• Place a pressure cooker over medium heat, add coconut oil and ghee.
• Add cinnamon and fenugreek seeds to the oil, saute for a second.
• Add onion, curry leaves and salt, saute for a minute.
• Now, add the ground mixture and saute till the raw smell goes away.
• Pour coconut milk and water.
• Let it come to a boil and add the rice to it.
• Cover the pressure cooker and place the whistle on it.
• Let it cook till 1 whistle.
• As soon as you get the 1st whistle, remove the cooker from the stove and let the pressure subside.
• Open the lid and combine the rice using a spatula or fork.
• Serve hot along with chicken/mutton curry or lentil curry, papad and pickle.

Tips:

• If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you could cook this rice in a saucepan.
• In pressure cooker the rice will cook very fast, but it will take more time to cook in a saucepan.
• If cooking in a saucepan, after you cook the rice with coconut milk for 20 minutes or so, check whether the rice has cooked, if the liquid has dried up, add more coconut milk to it and cook accordingly.
• You can make this with white rice too, but it wouldn’t taste that tasty as with red rice.

Vishu is a celebration of Kerala, which represents the Malayalam New year. On Vishu day it is a custom to set up the “Vishukani” which in Malayalam means “the first thing to see after waking up on Vishu day”. Vishukani consists of ritual arrangements of auspicious things, and the people who celebrate this festival see those things first after they wake up. It is a belief that seeing those things first would bring prosperity and happiness all year round.

There will be family gatherings and a grant feast “Sadya” will be often served. They wind up the day by bursting crackers and there will be fireworks as part of the celebration. Last night, while I was thinking of Vishu celebration in Kerala, my mind went behind Sadya and I got a sudden craving for Ada payasam or pradhaman. Ada payasam or pradhaman is a popular Kerala dessert, made during special occasions and celebrations. It is made using rice flakes, jaggery, coconut and coconut milk.

I didn’t have Ada(rice flakes). I had rice pasta and so decided to use this as a substitute for Ada to make the payasam. It came out pretty delicious. Since it was an instant decision I was out of cashew nuts so had to skip garnishing the payasam with it.

If you have Ada which is available in Indian stores do make with it, else use Rice pasta fettuccine after breaking it to 2 inch pieces.

Rice Pasta Payasam or Pradhaman

Ingredients:

• Rice pasta fettuccine, broken to 2 inch pieces or use Ada- 30 no’s
• Jaggery, melted using little water- 1/2 cup or according to how sweet you want
• Coconut grated- 1/4 cup
• Whole Cardamom, smashed- 2 no’s
• Dry ginger, smashed- 1 inch slice or use 1/4 tsp ground dry ginger
• Coconut milk- 1 can or 400 mL
• Cashew nuts, roasted in ghee- 1/4 cup
• Ghee- 4 tbsp

Preparation:

• Cook rice pasta or Ada in boiling water till it turns tender, drain the water and keep the pasta aside.
• Melt 1 large cube of jaggery in 3-4 tbsp water, strain the syrup,we’ll be using 1/2 cup of it. 
• Heat a saucepan, add 3 tbsp ghee and roast the grated coconut till it turns golden brown in color.
• Add the melted jaggery to it and give it a stir.
• Add the smashed cardamom and dry ginger to it.
• Put the cooked rice pasta or ada to the mixture, combine well.
• Pour coconut milk to the mixture and let it cook for a few minutes.
• Let the payasam come to a boil, when it starts to bubble remove from the heat.
• It should have not so watery nor so thick constituency. When the payasam cools down it gets thicker constituency.
• Roast cashew nuts in 1 tbsp ghee.
• Garnish the payasam with roasted cashew nuts.
• Serve warm, tastes delicious when chilled.

Tips:

• Adjust the amount of jaggery according to your sweet level.
• You could also garnish the payasam with coconut slices roasted in ghee.

When it comes to comfort food nothing can beat this Rice-Mung bean in coconut milk…

Cold viruses fell in love with me and have been dancing in my nasal cavity for the last couple of days. Today, I woke up totally sick and exhausted. I didn’t have any appetite but at the same time I felt really hungry. When sick nothing can comfort me like a bowl of hot rice-mung bean in coconut milk. So I made this today and had this for both lunch and dinner. A bowl of this hot soup with my favorite pickle provided me with the warmth and energy to get out of the blanket. I had loved this soup since my childhood and used to request my mom to make this during non-sick days too. The cooked rice and mung bean along with the coconut milk made this soup rich and highly nutritious.

For making this soup, I highly recommend using Rosematta rice or kerala Matta rice which is the famous rice in Kerala. It is available in some of the Indian stores. I’ve had this soup made with other rice, but this particular rice gave the soup an unbelievably great taste.

This is known as Kanji in Kerala, which is made in most of the houses at least once in a while.

Rice-Mung Bean Coconut milk Soup

Ingredients:

• Rosematta or kerala Matta Rice- 1 cup
• Mung Bean- 1/2 cup
• Water- 3 cups
• Salt- to taste
• Coconut milk, thick- 1 1/2 cups
• Water, to thin down the soup- 1/2 cup

Preparation:

• Wash the rice and mung bean in water.
• In a pressure cooker, cook rice and mung bean along with 3 cups water and salt.

• After rice and mung bean have cooked,using the wooden spoon slightly smash the cooked rice and bean.
• Add coconut milk to these and combine well.
• Add 1/2 cup or enough water to thin down the soup.

• Heat the coconut milk-rice-bean soup for a few minutes, but don’t boil it.
• Taste it and add more salt if needed.
• Serve hot in a soup bowl and enjoy with pickle.

Tips:

• You could adjust the constituency of this soup according to your desire by adding more coconut milk and water.

King Fish – my favorite fish and Corn Chowder – my favorite soup. When they merged together, I had two of my favorites to dig in from one plate.

Deadline for February Royal Foodie Joust is just around the corner. I first thought of skipping this contest as I had won the January contest and the ingredients for this month were chosen by me: Fish, Coconut milk, Nutmeg. But, last night I happened to make dinner with these ingredients and the dish came out pretty delicious. Hence, I felt I should submit the recipe for the joust as there is no restriction that the previous winner shouldn’t participate. So, here I am trying my luck yet another time.

The reason for choosing fish and coconut milk was solely because I had grown up having these two. While I was thinking about the ingredients to choose, these two seemed stuck to my head like a snail and couldn’t help but pick them. I chose nutmeg as this would go along with the fish well.

King fish has been my favorite fish from my childhood days, and this is the most famous fish in Kerala. This is also an expensive fish and considered as the royal fish that is found during all special occasions. If there is any extravaganza feast, you could find this fish as the main dish under seafood. I’ve felt this as the tastiest among all fish. Surprisingly, in the US  it is nearly impossible to find this fish in any restaurant menu. I still haven’t figured out the reason. Also, it is not widely available here. We could find these only in some Asian fish markets and mostly in Indian stores. If I come across this fish in any market, I never let them go from my hands. And this fish is always seen stacked in my freezer.

For last night’s dinner, King fish was my target and thought of incorporating the other 2 ingredients with it. I first, marinated the fish with salt, pepper and nutmeg and shallow fried it. For the sauce, I made corn chowder, I used coconut milk instead of cream. I loved the flavor of coconut milk in the corn chowder. I think I am going to stick in coconut milk for any recipe that calls for cream:)

When the fish was frying in the pan and the corn chowder simmering in the saucepan, I looked at both of them and thought whether they would make a great pair. I had a feeling that they would .

Verdict: when I tasted this pair, my taste buds applauded in approval.

Kingfish with Corn Chowder:

Ingredients:

For shallow frying fish:

• Kingfish- 4 steak
• Ground pepper- 3/4 tsp
• Nutmeg- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- for shallow frying

Preparation:

• Marinate the fish with the above ingredients except oil and keep aside for 15 to 30 minutes.

• Heat a nonstick pan over medium flame, add oil, when it gets hot place the fish on it.

• Shallow fry the fish flipping on both sides until it turns golden brown.

• Remove from the pan and keep aside.

Corn Chowder:

• Olive oil- 2 tsp
• Onion, minced-1
• Celery, chopped-2 ribs
• Corn, rinsed- 1 can
• Thyme- 1 sprig
• Flour- 1tbsp
• Vegetable stock- 1cup
• Coconut milk-3/4 cup
• Ground Pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Place a saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil, onion, salt, ground pepper and saute.
• Add celery and thyme, cook until the veggies turn tender.

• Add flour and combine well into the veggies
• To this add vegetable stock and stir constantly to prevent the flour turning into lumps.

• Add Corn to this and cook for few minutes.

• Finally, lower the heat and add the coconut milk, heat the milk but don’t boil it.

• Remove from the heat and keep aside.

Merging Fish and Corn Chowder:

• While plating, first place a kingfish steak, on top of the fish pour a spoonful of corn chowder.
• Enjoy this meal with dinner rolls.
• Leftover corn chowder can be transformed into next day hot soup after thinning it down with more of the coconut milk.

During Ramzan fasting season, one dish I look forward to while breaking the fast is Creamy Rice soup. There are different ways of making this. Here I am posting a quick and easy recipe, which is a really comfort soup not just for Ramzan, but for any time.

Creamy Rice Soup or Ramadan Kanji or Nombu Kanji

Ingredients:

To cook Rice:

• Rice-1 cup
• Fenugreek seeds- 1 tsp
• Garlic minced- 1 tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Water-2 cups

• In a pressure cooker, cook the rice along with the above mentioned ingredients “to cook rice”.
• In a blender, grind the grated coconut with cumin seeds and turmeric powder along with 1 cup of water, don’t make it into a smooth paste, this grinding is to get the coconut milk out of it.
• Pour the ground mixture into a strainer and pour the coconut milk to the cooked rice.
• Grind the strained coconut one more time with 1/2 cup water and strain the coconut milk to the cooked rice
• Combine well and add the coconut milk.
• Heat the mixture, but don’t over boil the soup.
• Add more salt based on your needs.
• Serve hot in a soup bowl and serve it with pickle of your choice.