One of my favorite chicken dishes…

I’m so glad it’s Friday. Isn’t Fridays always magical? It’s been a very hectic days lately, finally I am done writing my research report and I’ve submitted to my committee members.. Looking forward to defend my work next week and it certainly calls for heck a lot of preparations. Even though it’s frustrating at times, I am absolutely enjoying every bit of it as I’ve learned to embrace every opportunity that comes along.

Yesterday, we celebrated one of my friends birthday at the Sushi restaurant. We, a bunch of sushi freaks ate like crazy and went into an amazing sushi coma. It is in deed a lot of fun with friends who share the same level of craziness and weirdness.

Well, talking about this recipe, this is one of my favorite chicken dishes that I tend to make often. I do a few things to make it both healthy and delicious. Instead of deep frying the chicken, I first cook the marinated chicken till it has cooked well. Then, I add a few tablespoons of oil and stir fry till the chicken gets browned. This way chicken gets the fried taste even without deep frying it. While cooking the onions, I cook till it starts to caramelize , then add tomatoes and tomato paste which makes this dish flavorful, healthy and delicious.

Tomato Chicken

Ingredients

For marination:

• Chicken, boneless or bone-in- 1 lb
• Chilly powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala- 1 tsp
• Ground Pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice- 2 tbsp
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Salt- to taste

For stir frying chicken:

• Coconut oil or vegetable oil, for stir frying chicken- 3 tbsp

For cooking:

• Coconut oil or vegetable oil- 1 tbsp
• Red onions or white onions, cut thin lengthwise- 3 large
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Curry leaves- 2 sprig
• Tomato, chopped- 2 no’s
• Tomato paste- 4 tbsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

1. Marinate the chicken with the above mentioned ‘for marination ingredients’, keep aside for 15 to 30 minutes.
2. Cook the chicken in a pan covered with its lid without adding water.
3. While cooking water will ooze out of the chicken, cook till all the water has dried off and chicken has turned tender.
4. Drizzle 3 tbsp of oil over the chicken and stir fry till it gets browned on the sides. Keep aside.
5. Place a large pan over medium heat, add oil, add onion, curry leaves and little salt, cook till onions start to turn caramelized.
6. Add ginger-garlic paste and combine well, cook for a minute.
7. Add tomatoes, cook till it gets mashed up.
8. Now, add the fried chicken and combine well.
9. Add tomato paste, combine well.
10. Cook for 3-4 minutes.
11. Have a taste and add more salt if needed.
12. Towards the end drizzle lemon juice over the cooked chicken, combine well and cook for a couple more minutes.
13. Remove from the heat and serve hot with rice or rotis.

Tips:

• If you prefer you could deep fry the chicken.
• Adjust spice leve according to your needs.
• This is more of a dry dish without any gravy.

Finally, I made the best tasting salmon totally my way…

One fish that I cannot handle much is salmon, on the other hand my husband loves it a lot. In fact, most North Americans love this fish and is a popular fish in American/European cuisine. I’ve had salmon at many restaurants, none of them seemed to impress my taste buds. For me, when it comes to fish dishes, I like it extra spicy and flavorful. May be because I grew up in Kerala and the fish dishes there are amazingly delicious and I expect the same when I’ve fish at other restaurants. However, I adore Cajun style fish dishes especially gumbos and jambalayas as it’s very flavorful and I can feel the taste of the fish.

This morning I shopped at the Asian supermarket, needless to say this store always amazes me. All kinds of ingredients under the sun is found in this store from veggies to fish. I wonder how they get all those veggies which are common in my hometown and they are kept very fresh. This time I came across pandan leaves which is known as Biryanikaitha or Ramba leaves in Kerala. This leaf is mostly used for its flavor and is added while making biryani. This is a tropical plant and so widely used in South Indian and Asian cooking. This pant is always seen in my mom’s and grand mom’s veggie garden, in fact most houses in Kerala have this pant. It’s quite easy to grow and it grows like a weed. Here in North America, whenever I see any ingredients that I grew up seeing or having, I get so excited and it brings back a lot of good food memories. So when I saw pandan leaves at the store, it put a huge smile on my face and of course I grabbed it right away. If you are wondering what’s pandan leaves, here is a picture of it:

It’s been a while since I made any exciting fish dishes, so I bought a few variety of fish. Usually I never go near to Salmon, but this time I was determined enough to make myself like salmon. I grabbed a couple of salmon steaks. After reaching home, I started to make lunch. Salmon was my pick, I first thought of baking it then went with pan frying it. I wanted to make it very flavorful so I marinated the salmon with some spices and pan fried it in coconut oil. Coconut oil enhances the flavor of any dish, especially fish dishes. In Kerala cooking, coconut oil is one unavoidable ingredient, almost all dishes are cooked using this oil. To enhance the flavor more, I added pandan leaves and curry leaves to the oil while pan frying the fish.

Finally, yes finally I made salmon in the most delicious way possible. This pan fried salmon beats all the other salmon dishes that I’ve tried before. My husband agreed with this too. I served this with tapioca and coconut stir fry and for dipping I made a spicy and tangy sauce. In Kerala, “Fish and Tapioca” or “Meen and Kappa” is one dish which makes all the non-veggies go wild. I admire Kerala style fish cooking, none of the other cuisine can possibly beat it!

Pan Fried Salmon in Coconut Oil

Ingredients:

• Salmon- 2 large steaks

For marination:

• Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Chilly powder- 2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Garam Masala- 1 tsp
• Ground Cumin- 1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp

For Pan frying:

• Coconut Oil- 3-4 tbsp
• Pandan leaves, chopped- 2 handful
• Curry leaves- 3 sprigs

Preparation:

1. Marinate the salmon steaks with the above mentioned “for marination ingredients” and keep aside for 30 minutes or longer the better.
2. Heat a non-stick fry pan over medium heat, add coconut oil.
3. Add pandan leaves and curry leaves to the oil.
4. Place the salmon over the oil and cook till the bottom side turn light golden in color.
5. Gently flip it over and let the other side cook till golden in color too.
6. Flip again and cook till both sides get browned.
7. If there is not much oil, add little more to prevent the fish from sticking to the pan.
8. Transfer to a paper towel, let it absorb the oil.
9. Serve in a plate topped with the fried pandan and curry leaves over it.
10. This goes really really well with tapioca in ground coconut. This time I made stir fried tapioca along with coconut and also made an easy spicy and tangy sauce for dipping it. I’ll post the recipe soon.

Tips:

• Please try to use coconut oil for better taste, however you could use olive oil or vegetable oil too.
• Add curry leaves and pandan leaves for a nice aroma.

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.

There are literally hundreds of snacks that are just dear to Kerala. In most of the homes (well in the olden days I must say) different types of snacks were made from scratch and are stored for a long time, so that it can be served to guests and to hosts in the evening along with a cup of hot tea. Nowadays, we don’t make an effort to make traditional snacks at home as we can easily grab them from any nearby Indian stores.

When it comes to making and storing snacks, grandma’s dedication and expertise are unbeatable. My grandma used to prepare many varieties of snacks ahead of time when she gets the news of our arrival. And our holidays were spent mostly by munching and crunching delicious snacks.

Ariyunda is a snack that has been favorited by almost all Keralities. Ariyunda is the malayalam word for Rice balls (Ari=Rice and Unda=ball). It’s such a simple and easy snack which can be prepared in just a matter of minutes using the ingredients that are always seen in the pantry. In fact the recipe calls only for 3 main ingredients: ground red rice, grated jaggery and grated coconut. One specialty about this rice balls is that you need to use Red rice or Rosematta rice, to me red rice is the most delicious among rice. Red rice imparts an earthy and rustic flavor to this snack.

In North America, Red rice or Rosematta rice is available in most of the Indian stores.

Ariyunda or Red Rice Balls

Ingredients:

• Red rice or Rosematta rice (Chemba rice)- 1 cup
• Grated Jaggery- 3/4 cup (adjust the sweetness to your needs)
• Grated Coconut- 1/3 cup
• Whole Cardamom- 2 no’s
• Water- 3 tbsp

Preparation:

• In a skillet, roast the red rice over medium heat till it starts to give out the roasted smell about 5-7 minutes. Don’t over roast or burn the rice.
• In a blender or a coffee grinder, grind the roasted rice to a fine powder without any grains.
• In a blender, pulse the grated jaggery, grated coconut and cardamom, this is just to combine them together.
• Don’t grind them into a paste.
• In a large bowl, using your hands combine the ground rice,  jaggery, coconut and cardamom together. Crush any jaggery lumps in the mixture using your hands.
• Add water to the mixture and combine well so that you could make small balls out of it.
• Make small balls out of it and keep aside.
• Rice balls would turn little harder as it sits for a while.
• You could even add nuts, raisins, dates, sesame seeds etc to the ground mixture.
• You could store the rice balls in an air tight container, it stays for a couple of weeks.

Tips:

• You could adjust the sweetness to your needs.
• If you want you can add cashew nuts, raisins, dates etc.

Happy Easter…

While thinking about Easter dishes, I saw Appam and Beef Stew lined in front of me. In Kerala, these are the two main dishes served for breakfast on Easter day. Appam has been the top favorite breakfast dish of almost all Keralites. Those who have had stew might know that it tastes delicious with appam. Appam and Stew is definitely one of the faithful couples in the Kerala food world.

Appam, which can be referred as “Kerala’s Laced Rice pancake” is made by grinding rice, fresh coconut along with coconut milk. The batter is then poured on a pan used for making appam, which then forms a soft pancake with crispy ends and hence the name lace.

In Kerala, stew is a mildly spicy, creamy dish made using potatoes and coconut milk along with other simple spices. It’s such a flexible dish that you could add any kind of meat to it, beef, chicken or mutton (Goat). When vegetarians are seen enjoying potato stew along with appam, on the other side non-vegetarians will be seen enjoying meat stew with appam. At the end of the meal, everyone would be seen equally happy and satisfied, licking their fingers…

Beef Stew:

Ingredients:

To pressure cook:

• Beef, diced- 1 pound
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 1 1/2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Green chilly, chopped- 2
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Water- 1/4 cup

For Making Stew:

• Coconut oil or vegetable oil- 2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
• Small onions or shallots, chopped- 10 no’s
• Garlic, chopped- 4 cloves
• Ginger, chopped- 2 inch slice
• Green chilly, chopped- 1
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Potatoes, cubed- 3 no’s
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp or according to your spice level
• Salt- to taste
• Coconut milk- 3/4 cup

Preparation:

• Add the above mentioned ingredients “to pressure cook” in a pressure cooker and cook till 3-4 whistles.
• When the pressure subsides, open the cooker, beef should be cooked well. If not pressure cook for 1 more whistle.
• After the beef has cooked well, reserve the water from the cooked beef.
• Heat a large pan over medium heat, add oil, splutter mustard seeds.
• Add garlic and ginger chopped into the oil, saute till it starts to turn golden in color.
• Add green chilly, small onions, curry leaves and little salt, saute for a few minutes.
• Add the potatoes and pour the water from the cooked beef over the potatoes, cook covered till potatoes are just cooked.
• Don’t over cook or mash the potatoes.
• Now, add the cooked beef to the cooked potatoes.
• Add garam masala, fennel powder, ground pepper and salt if needed.
• Combine well and add coconut milk to the mixture.
• Stir the mixture without mashing the potatoes.
• Let the coconut milk come to a boil and simmer for a minute to thicken.
• If the stew is too thick you could add little water to thin it down.
• Remove from the heat and serve in a bowl.

Appam or Kerala’s Laced Pancake

Ingredients:

• Rice flour- 1 1/2 cups
• Grated coconut- 1/2 cup
• Cooked Rice (Matta rice or Kerala red rice) or Ponni rice- 1/2 cup
• Coconut milk, thick- 1 cup
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Instant Yeast- 3/4 tsp
• Water- enough to thin down the batter

Preparation:

• In a blender, grind rice flour, grated coconut, cooked rice and coconut milk together to a smooth batter.
• If the mixture is too thick, add some water while grinding.
• When the batter forms a smooth paste, add salt and yeast to it and grind it for a few seconds.
• Pour the batter to a large bowl, rinse the blender cup using water and pour the water over the batter.
• If the batter is too thick, add some more water or thin coconut milk to it.
• Make sure the batter is not too watery.
• Keep aside the batter for 5-6 hours or over night for fermentation to take place.
• The batter will rise to double the original amount, so use a really large bowl to hold the batter.
• After 5-6 hours, the batter will be ready to make appams.
• If the batter is too thick add some water to thin it down.
• Heat a pan for making appam over medium heat.
• Make sure the pan is not too hot. If the pan is too hot, the batter will splutter when you pour onto the pan.
• Grease the pan with little oil to avoid the appam from sticking to the pan.
• Pour a large spoonful of batter onto the pan.
• Rotate the pan so that the batter spreads evenly onto the pan and forms a thin layer.
• Cover with the lid and cook for a few minutes till the ends of the appam turns crispy/golden brown in color and the middle of the apppam is soft and cooked well.
• Before making the next one, wipe off any crispy appam particles found sticking onto the pan using a paper towel.

Tips:

• You could make the stew with chicken or mutton as well, vegetarians can use potatoes along with carrot/peas/beans etc.
• For making appam batter, I prefer using cooked red rice rather than ponni or white rice.

I love anything that is deep fried in oil, but I don’t dare to make it and to have it all the time. So, to get the fried taste without adding much oil, I stir fry the meat till it turns brown in little oil. Especially with beef I do this. This time, I first cooked the beef with all the spices, then caramelized the onions and added the beef to it. Stir fried the beef till it got browned. To make it more flavorful, I added a seasoning of mustard seeds, dry red chilly, small onions and curry leaves fried in coconut oil. This seasoning is used commonly in almost all Kerala dishes. Also, I used coconut oil, the beef tasted great and the aroma of this dish was just fantastic!

Beef Roast

Ingredients:

• Beef (stew cut) cubed- 1 pound

For marination:

• Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Chilly powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala-  1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tsp
• Vinegar-  1 tbsp
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Salt- to taste
• Water- 3/4 cup

For Roasting:

• Onions, cut thin long- 3 no’s
• Coconut oil or vegetable oil- 3 tbsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful

For seasoning:

• Coconut oil- 1 tbsp
• Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
• Whole red  chilly- 3 no’s
• Small onion, chopped small- 3 no’s
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig

Preparation:

• Cut the beef into cubes and wash thoroughly under running water.
• To get rid off any blood present in the beef, put 1/4 tsp of  turmeric powder in it and wash it a few times.
• Marinate the beef with the above mentioned ingredients for marination except water, keep aside for 10 minutes.
• Put the marinated beef in a pressur cooker, add water and cook over medium heat till 3 whistles.
• When the pressure subsides, open the cooker, beef won’t have turned tender.
• Cook the beef, uncovered for some more time over medium high heat, till it gets well cooked.
• Don’t cook the beef till all the water dries off, we need some water (1/4 cup) from the cooked beef.
• Keep aside the cooked beef along with the water.
• Heat a large pan over medium heat, add 1 tbsp coconut oil.
• Add onions, saute till tender.
• Pour the water from the cooked beef and let the onion cook well.
• Stir fry till the onions start to get caramelized or browned. At this point there shouldn’t be any water present in the onion.
• Now, add the cooked beef to the onions and stir fry for some more time.
• Sprinkle ground pepper to the beef and combine well.
• Add the remaining 2 tbsp oil to the beef and stir fry till the beef starts to get brown.
• The mixture will stick to the bottom of the pan, using a spatula scrap it and keep stirring.
• Add the chopped cilantro and combine well.
• Remove from the heat and keep aside covered.
• Heat a small pan over medium heat, add coconut oil.
• When the oil gets hot, add mustard seeds, let it splutter.
• Add whole red chilly, curry leaves, saute and add small onions.
• Stir fry till the onions till it turns brown in color.
• Remove from the heat and pour the seasoning over the roasted beef.
• Keep the beef covered for some more time so that the aroma from the seasoning will get into the beef.
• Serve with chapati, naan, rice or any rotis.

Tips:

• You should stir fry till the onions turn caramelized and also stir fry the beef till it turns brown. By doing so we will get the fried taste.
• Try to use coconut oil, beef will taste great.

It looks and feels like a lace with an incredibly soft texture…

Palaada or Rice crepe is very famous in Kerala cuisine. It is prepared often in my parent’s house and a must served dish during special occasions. Not just adults, even the kids love it, as it has a really soft texture. When the adults enjoy palaada along with chicken or mutton curry, kids will be seen enjoying it with milk and sugar.

The authentic way fo making palaada involves the soaking of rice overnight which is followed by grinding it along with eggs and coconut milk. However, I’ve found that even by using rice flour, it’s possible to get a soft texture. So why not choose the easier way? Palaada is usually graded by looking and feeling the texture of it, the softer the better.

For making thin and soft palaada, you should make sure that the batter has the right constituency. The batter should have a thinner and watery constituency. Also, while cooking it, the pan should be very hot, otherwise it wouldn’t come out good. If you follow these two rules, you will end up making perfect palaadas.

Palaada or Rice Crepe

Ingredients:

• Rice flour, without any grains- 1 cup
• Egg, large- 1
• Coconut milk, thick- 1 cup
• Water- 1/2 cup
• Salt- little

Preparation:

• Sieve the rice flour to get rid of any grains present in it.
• In a blender, grind the rice flour, egg and coconut milk into a smooth paste.
• Pour the batter into a large bowl.
• Rinse the blender with 1/2 cup water and pour it into the batter.
• If the batter is still thick you could add little more water.
• Place a non-stick pan over medium high heat.
• Grease the pan with cooking spray.
• When the pan gets hot, pour a ladle of batter on it.
• Immediately, swirl the pan so that the batter spreads throughout the pan.
• In less than a minute, the crepes will get cooked and the sides of the crepe will get crispy.
• Fold the crepe and then into a triangular shape.
• You could also fold it into lengthwise.
• If you notice that the crepe is thick, you could add little water to the batter so that you can make thin ones.
• Serve hot along with chicken or mutton (Goat) curry.

Tips:

• The batter constituency will change depending on the thickness of coconut milk you are using.
• The ratio for rice: egg is 1:1.
• To thin down the batter, add enough water.
• Make sure the pan is very hot.

Last night, I craved for a sea food dinner. Well, I wasn’t surprised when I couldn’t find any fish in my freezer, so I went fishing shopping despite the blizzard. I met a lot of fishes in the sea food isle that I hadn’t tried yet, among them was Pollock. Just to try out a new fish, Pollock became my catch of the day.

I bought a bag of Pollock fillets and rushed home to make it my dinner. When it comes to fish, I love Indian way of cooking it especially Kerala style: Spicy and flavorful. I literally cannot think of poaching or baking fish with just ground pepper and salt. I need more flavors to it and every bite of it should make me go “mmm…”

On the other hand, my husband is not a huge fan of spicy food. The milder the food the happier he gets and he likes fish to be served not in a curry format. So keeping this in my mind and incorporating Kerala flavors I was successful enough to impress both of ours taste buds.

Pan Fried Pollock

Ingredients:

• Pollock fillets- 5 no’s
• Oil- for pan frying fish

For marination:

• Chilly powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Ground Pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 2 pinches
• Fennel Powder- 1 tsp
• Cumin Powder- 1/4 tsp
• Vinegar- 3 tbsp
• Salt-  to taste

For Cooking Veggies:

• Small Onion, chopped- 10 no’s
• Ginger, minced- 1 tsp
• Banana Pepper, de-seeded, cut round- 1
• Raw Green mango, cut long- 1
• Tomato, diced- 1
• Green pepper, diced- 1
• Broccoli florets- 1 cup
• Curry Leaves- 1 sprig (optional)
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Fennel Powder- 1 tsp
• Chilly powder- 1/4 tsp
• Cumin Powder- 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

• In a small bowl, combine the above mentioned ingredients for marinating the fish.
• Spread the paste over each pollock fillet and keep aside for 10 minutes.
• Heat a non-stick pan, add enough oil for pan frying the fish. (Don’t add to much oil)
• Place the marinated fish and shallow fry it till both the sides turn golden brown. Avoid deep frying it. Keep aside.
• In the same pan used for frying the fish, add the small onions in the remaining oil ( if there is too much oil left, drain some).
• Add salt, minced ginger and curry leaves to the onions, saute for a minute.
• Add all the other veggies: banana pepper, green pepper, mango, tomato and broccoli to the pan.
• Cover the pan with its lid and let the veggies turn tender, don’t over cook the veggies.
• When the veggies turn tender, add: chilly powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and fennel powder.
• If the mixture is too dry, add some water to the veggies.
• Combine everything well and stir fry the veggies for a few minutes. Don’t cook till the gravy dries up.
• Serve the veggies on a plate making it as a bed and place the pan fried pollock over it. Pour some gravy over the fish.

Tips:

• You could try this recipe with any kind of fish fillets.
• If you want it more spicy, add more chilly powder or ground pepper according to your taste.

Tips:

• You could try this with chicken or beef.

Nowadays weekends are all about playing with my niece via video chat. It’s a great feeling to watch her grow up so fast and she has turned into a great entertainer. Every weekend I am amazed to see how she plays new tricks to entertain me. As usual, I had a video chat with my sister and niece this morning, as they signed off I felt some kind of emptiness within. I just wished I could catch the next flight and visit my niece. And I was seen curled up on the couch homesick and nostalgic…

Oh ya, I get this kind of feeling quite often. On such days, I try my best to cheer myself up usually by making the foods that I had enjoyed with my family. Foods that are filled with memories, laughs, comfort and full of life. When I cook such food, I get the feeling that my family has gathered together in my house. So this evening I decided to make a fried snack that could bring back those beautiful memories of my family and hometown.

Uzhunnu vada or Urad dal vada is one of the Kerala’s fried snack specialities. In Kerala, it’s quite a common thing to see people gathered together in the evening and enjoying a cup of tea along with snacks. Uzhunnu vada has been a popular evening snack and it’s still everyone’s favorite.

Urad dal or black gram is first soaked in water and then it’s ground into a coarse paste along with other ingredients. The batter is made into a ball shape and a hole is made in the middle, it’s then deep fried in the oil. Traditional way of making the batter includes the  grinding of urad dal in a stone grinder or stone mortar and pestle. At my grand parents house there was a huge stone grinder and my grandma used to grind the urad dal in that. I used to stand beside her and watch her grinding it with so much enthusiasm and also had tried grinding in it. Believe me, it’s hard to do if you are not used to grinding in it, the stone pestle is really heavy and after a few rounds of grinding in it you’ll feel exhausted. And needless to say grinding in it is a great work out for your hands, you’ll get the well defined biceps

However, nowadays motor grinder has replaced this heavy olden grinder. So in most of the houses, urad dal is ground in grinder or blender.

Here is a picture of the traditional stone grinder:

Picture courtesy: Google Images.

Trick to make Vada soft:

While making the batter in the traditional stone grinder, the batter gets constantly beaten with the hand while pushing the batter inside the grinder, this results in the formation of air inside the batter which eventually makes the fried vada soft and fluffy. If you had eaten the vada made in the traditional way, you could understand the difference between those made in a motor grinder and in a stone grinder.

Don’t be disappointed, you could still make the soft vada using motor grinder or blender. After grinding the urad dal to a coarse paste, pour the batter into a large bowl. Using your hand, beat the batter and combine well for at least 5 minutes, this will create air inside the batter. And you will get to enjoy soft, fluffy vadas.

Uzhunnu vada is ways accompanied with Sambar or Coconut chutney. This time I made cilantro chutney for the dipping and also made ginger tea. It was heavily snowing outside and inside it was full of warmth: my husband and I enjoyed these vadas and cherished some beautiful memories.

Uzhunnu Vada or Medu VadaIngredients:

• Urad dal or Skinned Black gram – 1 cup
• Small onions, chopped small- 5 no’s
• Ginger, minced- 1 inch slice
• Curry Leaves, chopped- 1 sprig
• Whole pepper corns- 8 no’s
• Green chilly, chopped or (use 1/2 tsp chilly powder)- 2 no’s
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- enough for frying

Preparation:

• Soak the urad dal in water for at least 5 hours or overnight.

• Grind the soaked urad dal in a food processor or grinder to a coarse paste.
• Avoid adding water, if it’s hard to grind then add very little water.
• Pour the batter into a large bowl, beat and combine the batter with your hand for 5 minutes.

• Add the chopped small onions, ginger, curry leaves, green chillies and whole pepper corns into the batter and combine well.
• Keep the batter in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

• Have a plastic small ziploc bag or a plastic sheet ready.
• Grease the surface of the plastic bag with little oil. This will avoid the batter from sticking on to the surface.
• Place a handful of batter on it and make a small ball shape out of it.
• Gently put a hole using your index finger and shape up the sides to round shape.

• When the oil has heated well, gently peel off the holed batter from the plastic sheet and carefully slide it into the oil.
• Be very careful while putting the batter into the oil, don’t just throw it into the oil as the oil will splash up.
• Don’t over crowd the vadas while frying as it will deform its round shape.
• Fry the vadas flipping to both sides until it turns golden in color.

• Transfer the vadas to a paper towel.

• Serve hot with Cilantro chutney or Coconut Chammanthi.

Tips:

• If the batter is watery, add some rice flour to make it thick.

Cilantro Chutney:

Ingredients:

• Coconut- 3/4 cup
• Small onions, chopped- 3 no’s
• Ginger, chopped- 1/2 tbsp
• Green chilly ( or use 1/2 tsp chilly powder)- 1
• Cilantro- 1 handful
• Curry leaf- 1 sprig
• Water- little.
• Tamarind- small slice
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Combine all the above mentioned ingredients into a smooth paste in a blender or food processor.
• If you are using a blender, you have to use little water to grind it.
• Grind it to a thick or slightly watery paste according to your preference.

Ginger Tea: I always want my tea to be flavored either with cardamom or ginger.

Ingredients:

• Milk- 1 cup
• Fresh Ginger, grated- 1 tsp
• Sugar- 1/2 tbsp or according to your needs
• Ground Tea- 1 tbsp

Preparation:

• Heat the milk in a sauce pan over medium heat.
• Add the freshly grated ginger and sugar.
• When the milk starts to boil, add the ground tea, combine well.
• Lower the heat and let it stand for a minute so that the color of the tea will darken.
• Filter the tea using a small sieve into a cup.
• Serve when it is still hot.