Dry Fish Curry

Fish is abundant in India. It is a staple diet of the people of Keral which is a state to the southern part of India. This is a state that is rich in greenery and has a high litracy rate. Here fish is preserved in different ways, by salt curing, sun dried are a few of the techniques used by its inhabitants to preserve their catch.
Kerala fish curry is truly exceptional with taste and the method of preperation. The recipe and the method that i am going to show here is not time consuming and also has a levage to alternations to the process.

Ingredients:

Dry fish 1#
Coconut 1/2 ea
Kodam puli (gamboge) 4ea
Greend chilli cut 5ea
Turmeric 1tsp
Coriender powder 3tsp
Chilli powder 3tsp
Potato (dice or matchstick pieces) 1ea
Coconut Oil or veg oil 5tsp
Salt tt

Method:

1. Wash the dry fish and keep aside
2. Boil the kodam puli in 1/2 cup water to extact the juices for about 5 mintues.
3. In a pan add the dry fish, coconut,coriender powder, chillipowder, green chilli and tumeric and the kodampuli with the juices, potato and salt (if it is salted fish please avoid salt)with the oil.
4. Close with a lid and let cook on low heat for about 15 minutes.

You must be wondering, why do i have to put everything together and cook, but trust me on this it is a experience that you are going to enjoy.
There can be a few variations done to the process. If you are unsure of what kodam puli is, it can be substituted with un-ripe mango. Another variation can be adding plantain jardiniere (finger cut) that can be added instead of the potato or also along with the potato in equal proportion.

A sweet treat, called, Pooran poli or Holige& Obbattu in Kannada

I must admit my wife is a expert in making holige. I can tell this proudly as, i have seen her mother, aunts and relative, asking for tips on making holige. It is a dessert that is savored by every state in India. Towards the north of India it is known as Pooran poli and towards the south Holige or Obbattu.

The Ingredients are:

Channa dal 1 cup
Jaggery 1 cup
Cardamom 1 tsp
Maida 1.5 cups
Coconut grated 1/2 ea
Turmeric pinch
Oil 1 tsp
Salt a pinch

Method:

1. Maida flour, salt and turmeric needs to be mixed with water to make a dough
2. Add oil to the dough and knead well.
3. Let rest for 1 hour, cover with a parchment paper.
4. Cook the channa dal and cardamom with 1/2 cup water (just about 3/4th doneness)
5. Mash the Jaggery.
6. In a bowl put the jaggery and melt it 3/4th.
7. Add the channa dal to the jaggery mixture.
8. Add the grated coconut mix it thoroughly and let bind.
9. Blend the mixture in a blender.
10. Prepare small balls of the dough that has been resting. (flatten it with your hands)
11. Place the mixture of jaggery, coconut, dal (double the amount as that of the dough), in the centre of the flattened dough.
12. Wrap the dough over this mixture and flatten it.
13. On low heat place the flattened dough on a non-stick pan.
14. Cook on each side until you see even golden color.

This is going to be a treat for you and for your family.

A feast with snowcrab.

This is the final product once cooked

The crab with the seasoning on a doubleboiler

The shell is soft so you can cut a slit for the seasoning to penetrate

Crab once cut in a perforated pan

Cutting into large pieces

The crab legs before being cut

Corn before marination and grilling

(Follow the procedure from bottom top as i had problems uploading the photos)

A recipe which is easy and worth the treat for your taste buds.

This is a simple recipe that is followed by my sister-in-law, which was a treat for the whole family. I am going to share with you the secrets of this recipe.

Alaskan Snowcrab 2#

Celery powder 2tsp

Salt tt

Celery seed 1tsp

Mustard powder 1tsp

Red pepper 3tsp

Black pepper 2tsp

Bay leaf 1ea

Cloves 1ea

Allspice 5ea

Pimento powder 2tsp

Ginger powder 1tsp

Cardamom powder 1tsp

Paprika powder 2tsp

The reason that i posted this is naturally being a weekend, the treat will surely be special. The corn was just marinated with salt, pepper & Lime juice. Once it was marniated it is grilled. The meat was this wonderful crabmeat which was to be had by scooping out the meat from the shell. If it is snowcrab it does not need any explanation, it is just filled with meat.

The method for cooking the crab was:

1.Just prinkle the ingredients on the crab which is placed on a perforated container.

2. Place the perforated container on a double boilder with 3 cups water.

3. Cook it for about 10 minutes.

I am sure this is going to be a easy task for your weekend special.

Vada snack

The word vada might seem confusing to some, but this is a simple snack that can be done in about 10 minutes once the urad dal or the white lentil is soaked for a minimum of 2 hours. Did i tell you this is a Indian dish, especially made in south India.

This dish can be served with a chutney which is made of coconut(the base), small onion, green chilli, ginger and saute of mustard seeds, curry leaves, dried red chilli (broken), urud dal.

The process of making this simple but tasty snack is by soaking the white lentil for about 2 hours.

Transfer the lentil to a blender with 3 small onions, 1/2 ea ginger, and blend it to a smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water.

Once the lentils have formed a fine paste, add in 2 green chilli finely chopped, and salt to taste, mix thoroughly.

Let rest for about 20 minutes.

In a cast iron pan heat about 2/3 oil or just enough to cover the mixture.

Shape vada with hand into rounds and leave a hole in the centre for even cooking.

When it turns golden brown remove from oil and pat dry of excess oil.

It is now ready to be served with the chutney(needs to prepared before making vada).

The process of making chutney is by grating fresh cocounut (can be done with dry coconut also by adding hot water), to this add onion, ginger and blend fine with minimal water.

In a saute pan add oil and once it is hot, add mustard seeds and let it crackle, add curry leaves, broken red chillis and urud dal let it cook for little while under low heat, (do not let the curry leaves to change colour). Add the blended coconut mixture to the pan and finish with salt to taste.

This would be a dish that you will always enjoy.

A legacy

I was reading a post on turulu which is a turkish interpretation of the ratatouille, and what a co-incedence this was just the moive that i watched with my nephew this afternoon (not that i have never seen this movie but just because he insisted on it). Coming back to the fact, turulu has been famous with the rest of turkey as is with the rest of france with ratatouille. Tomatoes can play different roles in turlu, depending on the proportion and form of tomatoes used. If you add relatively few tomatoes and leave them in fairly large pieces, you get a stew of diced vegetables. Use a high ratio of tomatoes, and the turlu becomes a vegetable medley in chunky tomato sauce. I can give you the recipe for turulu which i read, the exact same as the one that i had read.

EASY EGGPLANT, ZUCCHINI AND MUSHROOM TURLU
For this simple meatless version of Turkish turlu, I use canned tomatoes to save time. Mushrooms are not classic but they give the stew a terrific taste. Serve it as a vegetarian entree with pita, green salad or Israeli salad, and, if you like, with feta cheese, labaneh or yogurt.

350 gr. eggplant
225 gr. zucchini or pale-green squash (kishuim)
110 gr. large mushrooms
2 to 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3⁄4 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
1⁄2 cup water, or more if needed
1 to 11⁄2 Tbsp. tomato paste

Cut eggplant in 2-cm. cubes, and zucchini in slightly smaller cubes than the eggplant. Halve mushrooms and cut in thick slices.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy saucepan. Add onion and sauté briefly over medium-low heat, then cover and cook, stirring often, for 3 to 5 minutes or until just beginning to brown.
Add eggplant, top with 1⁄4 cup diced tomatoes, then top with zucchini, followed by remaining tomatoes and 1⁄4 cup water. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Stir once to bring top ingredients to bottom of pan. Cover and cooked over medium-low heat for 7 minutes.
Add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Mix tomato paste with 2 to 3 tablespoons water and pour over vegetables. Cover and cook for 3 more minutes or until vegetables are tender; check, and add water by tablespoons if pan becomes dry. If you like, drizzle lightly with a little more olive oil. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Makes 4 servings.

Beef shashlik

It being the weekend, there is a natural tendency to be dragged into a treckking and some good food. It happened this weekend also, there was a good family reunion (lasted for only the saturday) and there was some good food also. It started off with my aunt making great tomato rice and curd rice for the lunch. It was just mouth watering, to taste them together. What i meant by tasting them together was, I took half spoon of each and eat it together (just heavenly). Today being a sunday decided on heading to a trail which is meant for families to hike with their kids, but unfortunately there was a influx of traffic heading to the NJ shores and this prompted us to head back home for some grilling frenzy. It was to sacrifice beef to the gourmet gods. It was the same marinade as i had done the last week but this time i eliminated the tamarind date paste and added some tahini paste to the marinade (make sure it is just enough to stimulate the taste as it can overpower). My brother who is a master griller, cooked it to perfection. It was a succulant meat and vegetables (onion and bell pepper).This was a superhit with my nephews and family. It left us craving for more.
There was another surprise that my sister-in-law, treated us to. It was simple but again heavenly. She cut the pineapple into rings and my brother grilled it to perfection and she topped it with some butter pecan ice cream. This was a weekend which was a total blast.

Murg Makhni

BUTTER CHICKEN

French cuisine has a large following that keeps it's secrets alive. Indian cuisine on the other hand is a combination of spices and essence of the ingredients that go into the preperation that makes it stand out among the rest of the gourmet experience.
I wanted to make a dish that i was so fascinated with it's taste that i had tried several times to get deep and understand the flavors that makes the difference. Finally yesterday my pallet could not resist the crave for this wonderful dish, and finally i decided to go ahead and do what my sensable pallet wanted.

• Cut the chicken into bite size pieces
• Apply ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, coriender powder and salt
• Heat a pan with 3 TB of oil and sear these chicken pieces
• Remove them set aside.
• In the same pan add cumin seeds, onions and ginger garlic paste and add little water just to release the fond.
• Put corriender powder, blanced almonds, red chilli powder, fenugreek powder.
• Once it is a little done, add diced tomatos.
• Cook until the tomatos are done.
• Puree this mixture to a fine paste.
• Now in the pan add butter with the juices from the chicken.
• Add the puree to the pan, then add the chicken to the sauce.
• Add salt and add little tomato ketchup to get the tangyness.
• Once it comes to a boil add cream.
• Finally add garam masala (Already posted)
• Let it simmer for another 5 minutes

This is surely going to be a great experience. Enjoy!

Hot spices

GARAM MASALA

Garam Masala means hot (Garam) spice (Masala) is not an spice in itself. It is a powder used throughout India and the rest of the world.

It solely depends on the region and personal tastes that people make this powder. It is unique to various cultures and this has a huge demand in the world market.

The basic ingredients are:

30 green cardamom pods

15 cloves

5 black cardamom pods

4 pieces cinnamon

5 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp coriander seeds (shown here in powder form)

1 tbsp fennel seeds (optional)

1 tsp black peppercorns

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (optional)

Preparation

Place all these spices in a hallow bottom pan or skillet and heat over a very low heat, stirring constantly. As soon as the aroma from the spices begins, remove the pan from the heat (make sure not to over brown them). This step is to release the aromatic oils from the spices.
Working with only a small quantity at a time, put the spices in an electric blender to grind it to a fine powder. Remove the cardamom pod skins. Allow to cool.
Store the Garam Masala in an air-tight container. As long as the container is tightly closed after each use, it should last for a long time.

Summer farewell

Summer is on us, Oh! no don't think i realised it too late. It is just that when it get hard on you that is when you try to get remedies out of books, internet, friends and other means to cool yourself down.
This is a typical smoothie, but the exception is that you may not find in any Mc Donald or KFC outlets. It is a simple drink but has a smooth and cooling effect on you and your family once you have tried it.

Recipe:

Watermelon - 1/4 ea
Kiwi - 4 ea
Ginger - 1ea
Fresh Mint - 15 leaves
Lemon Juice - 1ea
Crushed Ice - 1 cup


All you have to do is blend all this together and if you have a pallet that is craving for tanginess, and health concious it's good to have the drink without sugar as is mentioned in the recipe, but if like it sweet add 2 sugar cubes per glass. (It would be great if done fresh)
It can be garnished with either mint leaves, Lime wedge, watermelon chunks, Orange zest, Orange segment. (
Another great aspect about this drink is that, it is a great combination if you would like to try some alcholic beverage with this like vodka, gin etc.

Fusion my way

It is not very hard for a person to understand what are the basics of cooking. But the taste that carries the senses is something which can be found only in people who have truly understood the tastes of the masses. This is the reason that we have certain restaurants that have gone fusion cooking. This is an intersting subject to me and many others like me. There are restaurants in the city (New York) and other places like california that have restaurants that open for few hours for lunch and dinner but make a good business out of it. The reason why i wrote this topic was that i realised that i would not like to eat my food just with one accompliment but have a mixture of two or more dishes and to form one more eloberate taste that can tickle my senses.
The simple aspect of adding some tamarind and date paste gave the gobi manchurian and also the beef shashlik that i had prepared this weekend to taste something different to the people who indulged in this ritual of eating good food.
There are many spices in Indian cooking that can help bring out a different taste. There are dried spices like dried mango which can give a dish tanginess, it also depends on the amount that is being added to the dish to bring out a unique flavor. There is a recent trend of using duck fat to enhance the flavor of certain Indian dishes as beef and pork is considered religious to certain religious groups, this is again to enhance the experience and to tease the pallet. The gourmet world is heading to new sphere of taste perception that it has bought about personal chefs who cater to a elite few.