Now, this is a very healthy and nutritious dish…

Last week, while grocery shopping I piled up more green veggies on my cart than anything else. Kale, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard etc were my healthy picks. Every time I look at these greens, one dish that rolls in to my mind is Kerala style Thoran or veggie stir fry with coconut. While getting ready to make a dish with kale, part of my mind was constantly hit with the idea of making thoran. Well, the other part of mine which loves to try variety took a totally different route.

I did follow some of the thoran preparation style. First cooked the kale with coconut and spices, then for a twist I added egg and rice to it. It was a complete dish with greens, eggs and rice. This can be eaten just as it is along with yogurt or pickle or if you insist on having a non-veg along with it, you could serve this as a side dish.

You could try this recipe without adding the rice, here is the picture of Kale scrambled eggs:

Kale Egg Rice

Ingredients:

• Oil- 2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds- 1 1/2 tsp
• Urad Dal- 1 tbsp
• Chana dal- 1/2 tbsp
• Whole red dry chilly- 2 no’s
• Curry leaves- 2 sprigs
• Onions, chopped- 2 small (or use small onions chopped- 15 no’s)
• Kale, rinsed and chopped- 1 bunch
• Coconut, grated- 3/4 cup
• Chilly powder- 3/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Eggs- 2 ( you could also use just egg whites)
• Cooked white or basmati rice- 2 cups
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

1. Have cooked basmati or white rice ready.
2. Place a wok over medium heat, add oil and let it turn hot.
3. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter.
4. Add chana dal, saute till it gets light golden in color.
5. Add urad dal, saute.
6. Add whole red dry chillies and curry leaves, saute.
7. Let the urad dal and chana dal turn light brown in color.
8. Add onions and litte salt, saute till onions turn slight translucent.
9. Add rinsed and chopped kale to the onions.
10. Cover the wok with a lid, cook till kale turns tender.
11. If it gets too dry add little water to it.
12. Add grated coconut and stir fry till coconut gets cooked, for about 3 minutes.
13. Add chilly powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder to it, combine everything well.
14. Pile up the cooked kale to one side of the wok.
15. Now, add beaten eggs or egg whites to the wok.
16. Scramble the eggs and combine with the cooked kale.
17. Taste and add salt if needed.
18. Add cooked rice and combine well.
19. Cook for a couple of minutes and remove from the heat.
20. Transfer to a bowl, serve hot with yogurt, pickle etc.

Tips:

• If you don’t want to combine with the rice, you can skip this step and make the kale scrambled eggs.
• I’ve also tried this recipe with broccoli (chop broccoli into small florets), spinach or any other green leafs.

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.

First, let’s talk a bit about King fish as it is quite unheard of in North America. King fish is a sea fish that is found in the Indian ocean and is very popular in Southern India. I personally think that it is the most tastiest fish. It is an expensive fish and is often served in many fine dining restaurants in India. So where do you buy this fish? You can find king fish in some of the Indian stores (call ahead to check – sometimes they can get it for you even if they don’t carry) and in Asian supermarkets. I prefer buying king fish from the Asian supermarkets as they have it fresh.

I grew up eating biryani, chicken/mutton biryani being often made by my mom. Once in a while, when she gets hold of fresh king fish, she would surprise us with king fish biryani. I prefer it as it’s light, healthy and I can go for a few rounds without getting the dizzy feeling.

I love fish fry and so while starting to make any fish dish my first thought would be to “fry it”. I always wish if I could find a way to fry the fish without using oil and still get the same taste. Grilling does help to some extent, but it just cannot replace frying. Good thing about this biryani is that I fried the fish first and then made the fish masala with it. So, I get to taste the fried fish along with the biryani.

If you haven’t yet tasted fish biryani, it’s big time you make this biryani and you’ll be surprised on how your taste buds go crazy.

King fish Biryani

For marinating the fish:

Ingredients:

• King fish, steak- 2 pounds
• Chilly powder- 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 2 pinches
• Fennel powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Ground Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tsp
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Salt- to taste

For frying fish:

• Oil- enough for frying

For making King fish masala:

• Oil used for frying fish- 3 tbsp
• Onion, large cut thin long- 4 no’s
• Salt- little
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Tomato, chopped- 1 large
• Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Yogurt (not sour)- 4 tbsp

To grind:

• Garlic, chopped- 5 cloves
• Ginger, chopped- 2 inch slice
• Small onions- 7 no’s
• Green chillies- 4 no’s
• Cardamom- 3 no’s
• Cloves- 2 no’s
• Cinnamon- 1 inch slice

For making rice:

• Basmati rice- 2 cups
• Ground Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Ghee- 2 tbsp
• Water- 3 1/2 cups
• Salt- as needed

Other ingredients for garnishing:

• Fried onions- 1 Onion, cut thin and long and fried in oil till golden brown.
• Cilantro, chopped

Preparation:

• Wash the king fish steaks under running water, if you want you could cut the steak into medium sized pieces.
• Marinate the king fish with the above mentioned ingredients for marination, keep aside for 15 minutes.
• Shallow fry the fish in enough oil till it starts to turn golden in color. Avoid over frying the fish, Keep aside on a paper towel.
• Place a large pan over medium heat, add 3 tbsp of oil used for frying fish.
• Add onions along with curry leaves and little salt, cook covered till it turns tender.
• Grind garlic, ginger, small onions, green chillies, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon together into a coarse paste.
• When the onions turn tender, add the above ground paste, saute for a few minutes.
• Onion should turn really tender and well cooked.
• Add chopped tomato and cook till it gets mashed.
• Add chilly powder and fennel powder to it, combine well.
• Add the fried fish to it and gently combine everything.
• Now, add yogurt, combine well and cook covered for 5 minutes.
• Remove the lid and let all the water in the masala dries up.
• Remove from the heat and keep aside covered.

Making Rice:

• Wash the rice taken in a large sieve under running water.
• Combine rice, garam masala, ghee, salt and water.
• Cook in a rice cooker till the rice is well done.

How to layer the rice and fish masala:

• In a large pan, spread half of the fish masala as the first layer.
• Top it with half of the rice as the second layer.
• Sprinkle chopped cilantro and fried onions.
• Again repeat layering with fish masala, rice, finally top it with cilantro and fried onions.
• Close the pan tightly with aluminum foil and then with its lid.
• Place the pan on low flame and cook for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and keep aside covered.
• While serving, combine the rice and fish masala together, serve on a plate along with raita and pickle.

Tips:

• Adjust the spice level according to your needs, if you like it spicy increase the amount of chilly powder or green chillies accordingly.
• This biryani, in fact all biryanis taste better when it sits for sometime, it would taste even more better the next day.

Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables. I love how it gets mushy and tender when cooked. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with grilling eggplants. So this time I wanted to try something different and I made eggplant rice. To make it little more flavorful I added toasted sesame seeds. Eggplant rice tasted delicious and I enjoyed the bite of crunchy toasted sesame seeds from the rice. You could have this with raita or pickle.

Eggplant Rice

Ingredients:

For cooking Rice:

• Basmati Rice- 1 cup
• Water- 1 1/4 cups
• Salt- little

For making Eggplant

• Oil- 1 tbsp
• Dry red whole chilly- 2
• Mustard seeds- 1tsp
• Onion, chopped-1
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 1tbsp
• Tomato, chopped-1
• Eggplant, diced- 3-4 cups or (3 Japanese eggplant or 1 American eggplant)
• Red chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
• Coriander powder- 2 tsp
• Roasted Sesame seeds- 1/4 cup
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handfuls
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Toast the sesame seeds in a pan till it turns light golden in color and keep aside.

• Cook the basmati rice in a rice cooker along with water and little salt.
• Dice the eggplant and put it in a bowl filled with cold water to prevent the eggplant from getting brown in color.
• Heat a wide non-stick cooking pan over medium heat, add the oil.
• When the oil gets hot, add dry red whole chilly and mustard seeds, let mustard seeds splutter.
• Add the chopped onions, salt and saute till it turns tender.
• Add the ginger-garlic paste, saute for a minute.
• Add tomatoes and eggplant.
• Cover the pan with its lid and let the vegetables get cooked.
• Let the eggplants turn tender.
• Add the chilly powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder.
• Combine with the veggies and let cook for few minutes.

• Add the chopped cilantro.
• Add the cooked basmati rice to the cooked eggplant, combine well.

• Sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds over the eggplant rice and give it a stir.
• Serve the rice along with Raita or Pickles.

Tips:

• Adding sesame seeds is just optional.

Eid is just around the corner and I wanted to share this special biryani of Kashmir…

Eid celebration is literally incomplete without biryani. Biryani has always been the main attraction of Eid in my family. When I was with my mom, on almost all Eid I used to wake up to the aroma of Biryani. Now, this is the one thing that I miss terribly: waking up to the pleasant seducing aroma of biryani.

On Eid I usually end up making my mom’s special biryani. However, for this Eid I decided to try something different and my search finally ended when I got the biryani recipe all the way from Kashmir. Kashmir, one of the beautiful states in India which has earned the sobriquet of being the “paradise on earth”.

I came across this recipe on a cooking channel, I noted down the recipe and tweaked quite a bit. This recipe was in deed a different one compared to my usual biryani recipe. In Kashmiri biryani, they add fruits, nuts and milk to make it rich and divine. I was truly blown away by the taste of this biryani, it had a very mild flavor yet scrumptious.

Happy Eid to all my readers!

Kashmiri Biryani

Ingredients

Cooking Chicken:

• Chicken, bone in or use legs- 12 pieces
• Chilly powder- 1tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste

Other Ingredients:

• Oil- 1/4 cup
• Onion, thinly sliced- 4
• Whole Cloves- 3
• Cardamom- 3
• Cinnamon stick- 2 inch
• Whole black pepper- 8 no’s
• Ginger- Garlic paste- 1 tbsp
• Fennel seeds- 2 tbsp
• Coriander seeds- 3 tbsp
• Yogurt, not sour- 3/4 cup
• Milk- 1/4 cup
• Apple, red delicious chopped- 1/2 cup 0r 1/2 apple
• Raisins- 2 tbsp
• Water- 1 1/2 cups ( we’ve already added 1 cup yogurt+milk combined)
• Basmati Rice, washed- 1 3/4 cups
• Salt- to taste

For final cooking:

• Yogurt, not sour- 1/4 cup
• Milk-5 tbsp
• Saffron- few strands

Garnishing:

• Fried onions in oil- 1/2 cup
• Roasted almonds in ghee- 1o no’s
• Roasted cashew nuts in ghee- 10 no’s
• Roasted raisins in ghee- 7 no’s

Preparation:

• Wash the chicken thoroughly and add chilly powder, turmeric powder, fennel powder and salt to it.

This stuffed, baked banana peppers was one of the main attractions from my kitchen that happened last weekend. I usually make banana pepper fritters which is a common evening snack in India. While buying banana peppers, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it besides frying it. And this time I absolutely didn’t want to fry it, wanted to make something different with it.

Stuff the banana peppers was the first thing that hit my mind, and the second thing that came to my mind was bake ‘em. In no time I was seen having fun stuffing and baking the banana peppers. For making the stuffing, I literally threw whatever was found in my refrigerator and pantry into a huge pot and the outcome was unbelievably delish!

I loved the taste of the stuffing so much that I couldn’t resist eating it while stuffing the peppers. Since I had only three peppers to stuff, the leftover stuffing was served as a side dish. The stuffed peppers was then allowed to bake in the oven. I couldn’t wait till the peppers came out charred perfectly out of the oven. As soon as I took the baked peppers out of the oven, just looking at it I had the feeling that it’s going to taste awesome. And the stuffed, baked banana peppers didn’t let me down.

Stuffed Baked Banana Peppers

Ingredients:

• Banana peppers- 3 or more

For making  the stuffing:

• Olive oil- 1 tbsp
• Onion, chopped-1
• Red beans, canned- 1 can
• Yellow Corn- 1/2 can
• Cooked Rice, I used Basmati rice- 2 cups
• Chicken loaf, deli fresh, cooked (optional), chopped- 2-3 slices
• Cumin powder- 1 tsp
• Tomato Ketchup- 4 tbsp
• Green onion, chopped- 3 tbsp
• Cheddar cheese grated- 1 cup
• Salt- if needed (taste and add accordingly)

Preparation:

• Place a wide sauce pan over medium heat, add olive oil.
• Add chopped onions, saute for few minutes.
• Drain the canned red beans and yellow corn and rinse it with water.
• Add the beans and corn to the onions, let it cook for few minutes.
• Now, add the cooked rice and combine everything well.

• Add the chopped deli fresh chicken loaves and cook for few minutes.

• Add the cumin powder, tomato ketchup, green onion and give it a good stir.
• Taste it and add salt if needed.
• Finally spread the grated cheddar cheese over it and remove the pan from the stove.

Stuffing the peppers:

• Cut the top part of the banana peppers.
• Remove the seeds from the peppers and stuff the peppers with the stuffing.

• Push the stuffing inside the peppers with a wooden spoon.
• Level the stuffing at the opening of the pepper.

Baking the stuffed peppers:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Place the stuffed peppers on a baking sheet or pan lined with aluminum foil which is sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
• Pop it into the oven and let it bake for 20 minutes or until the peppers have become charred.

• Take the baked peppers out of the oven and let it cool down slightly.
• You could serve this as an appetizer or as an entree along with other sides of your choice.
• You could also serve any leftover stuffing along with the baked peppers.

Tips:

• Make sure you don’t over stuff the peppers as some of the stuffing would come out of the peppers while baking.
• Vegans: you could make this without the chicken.

If you are in south India and if you haven’t tried Dosa, you sure is missing the most popular veggie delight. I don’t think anyone can ever miss this as this is seen on the menu of almost all South Indian restaurants. They even have a separate menu for dosas and when you go through it, you would get pretty confused on which one to pick. Some of the common varieties are Plain dosa, Rocket dosa, Masala dosa, Butter dosa, Paper dosa, Onion dosa, Open dosa, Mysore masala dosa etc. I could go on and on…

I still remember the first time I had Rocket dosa, when I was 8 years old at my favorite Arul Jyothi restaurant in Trivandrum, kerala. When the waiter heard my order, he actually stared at me for a while. I felt quite weird about his staring. But, when the rocket dosa was placed in front of me, first thing that came out of my mouth was: Oh My God! I literally looked around embarrassed and almost everyone in that restaurant stared at me astonishingly. Just as the name rocket, that dosa was around 5 feet long, not to forget this was ordered by an 8 year old. While ordering it, I had no idea how it would look and never thought it would be this huge. My parents started to laugh seeing my embarrassed expression on my face. Soon I overcame my embarrassment and started to dig in. I couldn’t even eat half of that dosa, let alone finishing it. It’s been several years yet the taste of that dosa still lingers in my mouth, it was crispy, thin like a paper, crunchy and absolutely delicious.

What is Dosa?

Dosa is a crepe made from rice and black lentils. This is the popular breakfast served in most of the houses in south India.

Dosa is made rather small in houses. But in restaurants they make it huge and paper thin with different stuffings inside it. I am still unsure about how they make super crispy and super thin in restaurants. It seems it’s a secret known just to them. I need to bribe a South Indian chef to reveal this secret of making crispy dosas

Hot dosas with chutney or sambar along with filtered coffee, Gosh! even the mere thought of it makes my mouth flood like crazy.

I don’t make this quite often, hence on the days I make dosa, I devour it until my stomach can hold any further. My favorite way of having dosa is with Tomato chutney, which my aunt used to make often.

Tomato Chutney:

• Recipe courtesy-My dear Aunt

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes, chopped – 4 nos
• Small onion, chopped – 10 nos
• Garlic, minced – 1tsp
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Chilly powder – 3/4 tsp
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – 2 tsp
• Tamarind, fresh- 1 inch slice soaked in 1 1/2 tbsp water

For seasoning:

• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
• Dry Red whole chilly – 2
• Curry leaves – 4 – 5 nos
• Oil – 1 tbsp

Preparation:

• Heat oil on a wide pan, add onion and saute till tender.
• Add the tomatoes, cumin seeds, garlic, chilly powder, salt and saute until the tomatoes get mashed up.

• Remove from the flame and let cool down slightly.
• Grind this to a smooth paste and pour it into a bowl.

• Soak tamarind in 1 1/2 tbsp warm water.
• In the same pan, heat 1tsp oil, splutter mustard seeds, add dry red whole chilly and curry leaves to it.
• Pour the ground tomato paste to the seasoning, add the tamarind juice to it and let the chutney come to a slight boil.
• Taste it and add more salt if needed.
• You could even sprinkle chopped cilantro over it.

Dosa:

Ingredients:

• Raw Rice, ponni rice or sonamassori rice- 2 cups
• Black lentil or Urad dal- 1cup
• Chana dal- 1/4 cup
• Fenugreek seeds- 2 tsp
• Water- enough to make the batter
• Ghee

Making the Dosa batter:

• Wash the rice, lentil and chana dal well.
• Soak rice, lentil, chana dal and fenugreek seeds in water for about 6 hours or overnight.
• Drain all the water from the rice and lentils and grind it to a smooth paste by adding little water to it.

• Pour the thick batter into a large bowl and add enough water to thin it down.

• Keep the batter aside in a warm place and allow it to ferment, which will take 6 hours or so.
• During summer the batter will ferment faster, so you could keep it on the kitchen counter top.
• During winter it takes a long time, so keep the bowl with the batter inside the oven this will speed up the fermentation.

Making Dosa:

• After the batter has fermented, take as much as batter as you want in a separate bowl and refrigerate the rest which will last for few weeks.

• Add little salt to the batter and combine well.
• Heat a non-stick pan or cast iron over medium high heat.
• Spread little ghee on the pan.
• Fill the ladle with dosa batter and gently pour the batter onto the center of the pan till the ladle is empty.

• Now begin to spread the batter in circular motion till it forms a thin round shape.

• The dosa will start to develop tiny holes at this time.
• Drizzle little ghee over the dosa and lift the pan and swirl so that the ghee will spread all over the dosa.
• When the top part looks cooked, flip it to the other side.

• The bottom part will have a golden brown color and let the both sides turn light golden brown.
• Remove from the pan and keep aside.

For making Tomato Dosa:

• Spread the prepared tomato chutney over each dosa and fold it.

• Serve this with tomato chutney on the side.

Tips:

• Serve dosa while it is hot.
• You could keep the dosa batter in the refrigerator, it will last for few weeks.
• For making crispy dosa: increase the amount of Rice.
• For making soft dosa: increase the amount of Black lentil or Urad dal.
• You could increase the size of the dosa accordingly, for making huge rounded dosa you need huge pans.
• Make dosa on a cast iron, this will give better results.

A successful sunday cooking experimentation which made my day worthy…

Whenever I get into the kitchen to whip up lunch or dinner, I feel like I am a novice in cooking. I cannot think of a single day when I actually would have entered the kitchen with the pro feeling. Initially, I was a real novice and as I got better, I was hoping that this feeling would fade way after a while. But it hasn’t yet changed a bit, I still feel the same. Honestly, this is the worst feeling ever.

So this is what happens the moment I enter the kitchen:

As a novice I enter the kitchen, I wander around cluelessly for a while. I open the pantry and refrigerator at least ten times. I even stare at certain veggies or fruits or other ingredients a few times, something triggers my brain, my hands and legs seems to co-operate together. I get into action, I witness myself involved in sauteing, stirring, flipping and frying; at this point I act and feel like a pro. Finally, a spectacular dish would jump out of the cooking pan, now comes my favorite part: plating the food I’ve made and the verdict made by my hubby and my taste buds. If they approve, the-novice-feeling vanishes at once. This repeats all over again the next day…

All of the above things happened yesterday too when I entered the kitchen to whip up lunch, it was already 3 pm so I should rather call it “cooking for linner”. And I came out with a delicious Almond chicken. I was hoping to save any leftover for next day lunch, but there wasn’t any leftover it got finished so fast. Do I have to say any more to prove how this dish tasted?

Browned Spicy Almond Chicken:

• Chicken breast, boneless, diced- 1 pound
• Black Cumin seeds- 1tsp
• Red pearl onions or small red onions, cut lengthwise- 15 no’s
• Ginger-garlic paste- 1tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Cilantro, chopped- 1/4 cup
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- 3 tbsp

To make into a coarse paste:

• Whole cardamom- 3
• Whole cloves-2
• Cinnamon stick- 2 inch
• Dry Red chilli- 3
• Ground fennel- 2 tsp
• Almonds, sliced- 1/2 cup
• Water- enough to make a paste

Preparation:

• In a blender, blend the above mentioned ingredients to make into a coarse paste with enough water, may be 3 tbsp or so and keep aside.

• Heat a wide non-stick pan over medium heat, add oil and add black cumin seeds to it and saute.
• Add chopped red pearl onions along with salt and saute till it gets slightly browned.

• Add ginger-garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes away.
• Add turmeric powder to this and saute for a minute.
• Now, add the coarse almond paste to the browned onion, also rinse the blender with little water and pour the water into the pan, saute till the oil starts to ooze out of this mixture.

• Add chicken and cover the pan with its lid and let the chicken cook in its own water.

• When the chicken has cooked well, remove the lid and stir fry till the chicken gets browned and all the water evaporates.

• Add chopped cilantro, ground pepper and salt, stir fry for some more time.

• This is a dry dish so there won’t be any gravy, however this dry dish will not disappoint you.
• Adjust the spice level by increasing or reducing the amount of ground pepper accordingly.
• Serve with Plain Basmati rice and Raita.

Almond chicken stir fried with Basmati Rice:

• Transfer the chicken to a separate dish.
• In the same pan used for cooking chicken (without washing it, as it has all the yummy flavors from the chicken buried in it) combine the chicken and rice depending upon how much you need and stir fry it for 2 minutes.

• Serve this with Raita.

Tips:

• Make sure to brown the chicken after cooking it, this enhances the taste of the chicken.
• You could also increase the amount of almonds for more nutty flavor according to your wish.

Tired and exhausted? I am going to show you the cheapest and the healthiest instant-energy-boost drink that you can make at home…

Had I not been down with the flu I wouldn’t have remembered this drink, which my mom used to make me drink when I was growing up. In Kerala, India where I grew up, a day without rice for lunch is seldom seen.

The hot water from the cooked rice with a hint of salt is often shared with everyone in the house. A glass of this water provides with the needed instant energy to be active for the rest of the day.

In Kerala, cooked rice water has been the energy booster for almost all people, from the white-collar executive to the blue-collar construction worker. I am surprised to see it still is given much importance as in the olden days. This reminds me of the proverb “Old is gold”.

When I told my mom about the flu, she recommended a few things that would help me to recover fast. First, she told me to drink lots of water and as energy drink cooked rice water. Secondly, she told me to inhale steam, which helps to reduce the nasal congestion. Thirdly, she asked me to take good rest.

For the first two days, I totally ignored all of the above. I then realized I was getting weaker and weaker. On the third day, I managed to enter the kitchen slowly, took the rice from the pantry and cooked it in a pressure cooker, drained the water from it. Added salt to the piping hot rice water and sipped it gently. After I emptied the glass, I started to sweat and found my body regaining its lost momentum. I kept the cooked rice water in a flask and sipped it frequently. End of that day, I felt much better and energized.

The benefits of cooked rice water doesn’t stop just with the energy drink, it has lot more to offer:

• Cooked rice water with an extra hint of salt offers an instant remedy for Diarrhea.
• Rice water in treatment of infantile gastroenteritis: Read this
• Cooked rice water and beauty:  It provides shiny hair and a clear facial skin. Wash the hair with cold rice water and rinse it with water. Wash your face with cold rice water, helps in improving the facial skin.
• In Kerala, rice water has been used for starching white clothes. White clothes are usually soaked in rice water diluted with water for few minutes and washed, after drying it, the white clothes will turn wrinkle free and firm just like newly bought.

I feel happy for being able to share these facts with my dear readers. Flu is just a reason; the energy drink I used to drink still gets a special corner in my heart.

Cooked-Rice Water

Ingredients:

• Rosematta rice ( Kerala Matta Rice) or Ponni Rice, washed- 1 cup
• Water- 4 cups
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Place the rice on a sieve and wash under running water.
• In a pressure cooker, add the rice and water along with the salt.
• Cook the rice until it is well done.

• After the pressure of the cooker has subsided, open the lid and drain the rice through a sieve, collecting the water in a bowl.
• Add salt if required and serve in a glass.
• For an extra kick, drink this water with pickle or any spicy side dish.

If you are using rice-cooker:

• If you are cooking rice in a rice-cooker, cook the rice until done.
• While cooking in a rice-cooker, the water added is absorbed completely by the cooked rice.
• In this scenario, take enough rice in a bowl, add hot water to it, salt and mash the rice with your hand or wooden spoon.
• The water from the mashed rice should be strained through a sieve and serve in a glass.
• You could also have the water along with the mashed rice, which is highly nutritional.

Tips:

• I prefer Rosematta Rice to Ponni Rice as the water from the cooked rosematta rice is higly nutritional and flavorful.
• Rosematta Rice is the popular rice in Kerala, which is pinkish in color, it’s available in some Indian stores. Ponni rice is available in almost all Indian stores.
• Add enough water while cooking the rice, otherwise the cooked rice will absorb all the water.
• You could also flavor your cooked rice water with Rasam or pickle for a spicy kick.

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.