A new twist to Mint Rice...

I had decided on Mint rice yesterday. But had to slightly change the recipe on my partner's insistence. He wanted me to add chickpeas to it. It turned out pretty tasty by the way.

This measure feeds 6-7 people.


Ingredients:

(A)

1: Basmati Rice:                                                                    -   4 cups

2: Water                                                                               -8 cups(1:2 being the proportion of
                                                                                                          rice to water)

3: Onion                                                                                 -1 medium(thinly sliced)

4: Potato                                                                                -1, sliced to cubes

5: Chickpeas/ channa                                                            - 1 1/2 cups half-cooked

6: Mint                                                                                   - a sprig(garnish)

7: Cilantro/coriander leaves                                                     -2 sprigs(garnish)

8: Salt                                                                                   - as required

9: Ghee                                                                                 -3-4 spoons

(B)

For grinding to a Masala:

1: Mint:                                                                                -2 cups

2: Coriander/cilantro                                                            -1 cup

3: Green Chilly                                                                      -8-10 numbers(depending on the
                                                                                               degree of heat you like in the dish)

4: Black Pepper                                                                    -1/4 spoon

5: Cumin seeds                                                                      -1/4 spoon

6: Fennel seeds                                                                      -1/4 spoon

7: Cashew/ Almonds                                                              -10 numbers

8: Coconut(shredded)                                                            -2 spoons


9: Ginger                                                                               - 1 small piece( an inch )

10: Garlic:                                                                                -4 pieces


11: Cinnamon                                                                          - 1-2 pieces

12: Cloves                                                                             - 4 no.s

                                                             The masala, ground...

Method:

First, wash the Basmati rice and let it soak in water for 15-20 minutes. In a blender, grind to a fine paste, all the ingredients needed for the masala listed in the B category.

Heat a deep pan of at least 5-6 quarts (deep enough) and add the ghee. As the ghee is hot, add a piece of the cinnamon and 2 cloves into it and let them splutter. Then add the thinly sliced onion into the ghee and fry it to a slightly golden brown. To this, add the cubed potatoes and some salt and let it cook for 4-5 minutes.

 Then, add the ground masala into the potato/onion mixture. To this, mix in the 8 cups of water and check the mixture for salt. You got to add salt, keeping in mind that you need enough salt for the rice mixture when it is all cooked and ready. So add the required amount of salt to the water and let it boil.

As the greenish (because of the mint) water boils, drain the soaked rice and add it into the boiling mixture. Also, add the chick-peas in now. Check the rice mixture for salt and leave the heat to a medium. Let the rice soak up the water.The rice would only be half-cooked by then. As all the water is absorbed, turn off the heat and heat up the oven to 350 degree F.Cover the pan with a sheet of aluminium foil and place it in the oven and let the rice cook enough .You might need to leave the pan in the oven for at least 25-35 minutes . Take out the rice and garnish it with coriander/cilantro and mint and enjoy your biriyani .

Sides:

I used Raita ( plain yoghurt with cut onions, mixed in with salt) and fried fish as sides to this dish

                                                                   Raita

                                                       Fried fish ( Chicken curry/ fry would be a good side too)

Now enjoy your Mint Rice with a twist/ chick pea Biriyani..

Puff pastry with kheema filling....

Today, we had been expecting some guests for tea. As it turned out, they couldn't make it. I was left with the filling for the evening snack that I'd meant to make. Anyway, at my daughter's insistence, I made a batch of puffs with chicken and veggie filling. See if you like it.

Ingredients:

1: Puff pastry ( Pepperidge -farm or any grocery brand)               -    1 packet ( 1 packet is of 6 sheets)

2:  Minced chicken or ground chicken
(you could use ground Turkey too)                                                   - 1 small packet or 1 pound

3:  Mixed veggies   (carrots, beans, bell pepper,
      potato, onion, tomato )                                                            - all diced, altogether 1 cup

4. Ginger garlic paste or crushed ginger and garlic                           -1 tsp each

5. Chilly powder                                                                            -1 tbsp

6. Fennel powder & Cumin powder                                                - 1tsp each

7 .Turmeric powder                                                                       -1 tsp

8: Chicken Masala/ Meat Masala                                                   -1tsp

9: Coriander leaves/Cilantro                                                          -For garnishing

10: Curry leaves, a sprig                                                                  - For garnish

11: Salt                                                                                          - for taste

12: Oil                                                                                             -Any cooking oil

Method:

First, you need to make the filling for the puffs. Heat the oil in a pan and add the ginger garlic paste/ crushed ginger & garlic and stir it to lose its raw smell. Into it, add the curry leaves and the vegetables, also, add some salt and the turmeric powder and stir the vegetables in medium heat for 5 minutes. .Add the ground chicken into this mixture and stir well periodically so no lumps form. Add the chicken/meat masala, fennel, and Cumin powders. Check for salt and now you can close the pan and cook for a while. Break down the clustering if any does form. The chicken has to be well cooked until all the water is absorbed and the oil clears out. Mix in the cilantro and some more curry leaves. The kheema is ready, just let it cool awhile.

Meanwhile, get the puff pastry out of the freezer and let it thaw. Also, preheat the oven to 350-400 F. Break the sheets out and cut them each into 2 or three square/rectangle pieces, depending on the size you require your puffs to be.  Into these small square/rectangle sheets, take a small scoop of the kheema and place it in the middle and seal up the ends of the square. The ends will be easy to join as the pastry is quite sticky. Arrange these little, filled-in puffs, into cookie sheets or pans lined with aluminum foil. You can grease the cookie sheet or the aluminum foil put over the baking pan so that it's easy to pick up the done puffs later.

Put them in the oven and let it cook until the puffs start turning golden brown. This might take 12-16 minutes of baking. Turn off the oven and let them cool down and enjoy your puffs.

Raagi (finger millet) and Methi leaves (fenugreek) Adai/Ada

Raagi Ada is something I became familiar with while in my mother-in-law's kitchen. She makes this often, as it helps regulate sugar and has so many health benefits, she is told me. It is rich in calcium and has the ability to strengthen and cool our body. Now I, sometimes make this very South-Indian food as a snack @ home in the evenings. I have come to appreciate its taste and hope you will do too.

                                    I used dried Methi leaves, fresh would be definitely better, add fresh if you got em...

 Ingredients:

1: Raagi flour (കൂവരവ് )                                                     -1 and a 1/2cups 

2: Onion                                                                                    - 1/2 of a medium onion diced

3: Dry or fresh Methi leaves
    ( fenugreek/ vendhayam/ ഉലുവ ഇല  )                               -3-4 tbsp

 To fry:-

4: Curry leaves                                                                          - 1 sprig

5: Dry red chilly                                                                         - 3 no.s( broken to small pieces)

6: Channa Dhaal ( കടല പരിപ്പ്)                                         - 2tbsp

7: Uraad Dhaal   ( ഉഴുന്ന്  പരിപ്പ് )                                    - 2 tbs

8:Mustard                                                                                 - 1tsp

9: Oil :                                                                                       - 2 tbsp

Method of preparation:

In a pan, heat the oil and let the mustard seeds splutter, then add the Channa and Urad dhaals along with the curry leaves and the dry pieces of red chilly. To this, add the diced onions and stir to let it brown a bit. Turn the heat off and add this mixture into a mixing bowl. Mix the Raagi flour and the Methi leaves into the fried onion/dhaal mixture. Add salt according to your taste and knead the dough into the consistency of chappathis or rotis/soft flat breads. Then roll the flour into lemon sized balls.

Heat up a Tava or a flat pan and add a little oil and flatten the Raagi balls with first between your palm and fingers, and then with your fingers onto the pan. Turn it over and cook both sides and continue to cook well over a medium to low heat. You can sprinkle a little olive oil/ any cooking oil over the top to keep it from getting too dry, while on heat. Enjoy this as it is, you don't really need any sides with it, but you can use chutneys if you like to. This is a really great, healthy snack.

Kale and Channa Thoran/Poriyal

This is a recipe that is very common in our home . I mostly make this for my family  to add lots of greens to our diet.This Kale recipe is very simple and easy to make. Kale belongs to the cabbage family.

Ingredients:

1: Kale (Can be the green or the red variety)                                 - 1 Bunch

2: Channa ( Chick pea , the black or white variety)                        -  1 cup, cooked (canned will do too)

3: Onion                                                                                       -1/2 of an onion ,diced

4: Garlic                                                                                        -5 cloves,crushed or sliced thin

5: Turmeric powder                                                                       -  1 tsp    

6: Chilly powder                                                                            -11/2 tsp

7: Salt                                                                                            - as required

8: Olive Oil                                                                                    -2 tbsps

9: Mustard and                                                                               - 1 tsp

10 : Red chilly                                                                                -2 no.s(cut to pieces)

Method :

 Rinse the Kale and set it aside for the water to drain. Then cut the kale to medium size pieces. Put the pan on medium heat and add the Olive oil. As it heats up add mustard seeds and let it splutter, then add the pieces of dry red Chillies to it. Into it add the pieces of garlic , move it around a bit with a spatula to get it slightly browned and to get the raw smell out, then add the onions and the kale into the pan with the turmeric & chilly powders and the required salt .Keep the pan covered just for 2 minutes , then uncover it and mix in the cooked Channa or chickpeas. Mix it all well and let the water evaporate . As the kale becomes soft and looks ready, turn off the heat. Remember not to overcook the kale or you will lose the green color of the kale.This is a good side with your rice and also can be used as a snack.

Dry Anchovy/Unakka Netholi/Netholi karuvaadu curry

I had bought a packet of dry anchovy from the local Chinese market a few weeks' backs. I had this intense desire to try and cook the dry fish curry like the way my mom always did. Again, this the result of my yearning for her cooking I guess. Even if I make a visit back home nowadays, my mom is too weak because of her ailing and her advanced years to make all that she would like for me and my kids. So I mostly rely on my sister's -in-law for a chance at tasting some of the old luxuries I had enjoyed in my younger days, which I have since lost.

Anyways, today after a very tiring day, having spent the whole day outside, wandering around at the Dogwood Arts festival @ downtown Knoxville and mostly eating the hotdogs, the BBQ ribs and so on, and having not cooked an Indian meal in probably 24 hours, I started salivating for some rice and curry. It's then that I saw the packet of dry fish tucked in a corner. I had originally meant to make a sambhar, some rice and some kale mixed with black channa as a side. Seeing the brinjal( eggplant ), gave my husband the idea of why not a Karuvaadu (dry fish) curry? I begged him to do his mom's recipe. No way, he said. So I ended up doing this, my mom's recipe.

                                                   Mixed and ready to be cooked
Ingredients:

1: A Packet of dry medium-sized anchovies or 250 gm

2: Shredded Coconut         -      1 cup or one-half shredded

3: Dry red chilies -     8 no.s

4: Cumin seeds                   -     1 tbsp

5: Curry leaves                   -     2 sprigs

6: Turmeric powder            -     1 tsp

7: Tamarind ( Vaalan Puli,
    the long variety)              - rolled into the size of a small lemon

8: Shallots( small red onion) -     3 numbers

9: Brinjal(eggplant)               -    3 small ones, sliced into cubes or cut laterally

10: Plantain (green, raw)        -    1/2 part, cubed

11:Salt                                   -    as required

12: Oil ( favorably coconut oil)- 11/2 tbsp for garnishing with curry leaves in the end

                                            Cooked Dry Netholi/Karuvaadu Curry
Procedure:

Grind all the ingredients from 2 to 8 into a fine paste and leave aside. Remember to leave a sprig of curry leaves for later garnishing. Clean and wash the anchovies/dry Netholi, so it is free of any sand or dirt.  Preferably in an earthen pot, (I used a steel vessel to cook), mix the ground paste adding enough water and the anchovies with the brinjal/eggplant and the plantain and check for salt. Mix it all well and cook it closed on the stove top for 20-25 minutes on medium heat. Once the vegetables and fish is all cooked, turn off the heat and garnish with coconut oil and curry leaves. This goes well with rice. Hope you enjoy it, we did tonight!

                                                  Kale & Channa Thoran/Poriyal

Gothambu Puttu/Rice puttu

I love my mother's cooking like most everyone does. The sad part is that I started appreciating her cooking quite late. This I'd say was mostly because, when I was young, food, especially the regular home-cooked meal was only my second or sometimes even my third choice as I was then so much in favor of snacks and hotel food. Being in the boarding and hostel later helped me come to value how precious my mom's cooking was. I never got any of her talents but in my small way, I do what I can and want to share what I make in my kitchen on a daily basis.

This recipe is one of my favorites. I like any kind of Puttu. The various ones I have had a chance to savor in my mom's kitchen are the rice flour puttu, (Ari Puttu), wheat flour puttu (Gothambu puttu) and the tapioca flour puttu. The last being quite rare nowadays I suppose.

Gothambu Puttu/Wheat Puttu

Ingredients:

 Whole Wheat flour
or Rice flour                                         - 1-2 cups

 Fresh, ( or frozen, which is thawed),
Grated Coconut                                    -1 cup

 Salt                                                     - To taste

Warm Water                                        - As needed to mix the flour( mostly just to sprinkle on)

Preparation:

1. Put the wheat flour in a bowl and add the required amount of salt to it and mix well.

2.  Sprinkle the water a little at a time and try mixing the flour and getting it all moist. Take care not to add                          

     too much water at a time as the flour can easily lump up.  As its wheat, it has a tendency to

     lump up even with only the required amount of water.

3.  Break down the flour to a Uppuma consistency.

4. You use a Puttukutti or a cheratta cooker( two special contraptions for making Puttu, which has a hole to let the steam pass through for cooking), but if you do not have it handy, you can always use the top half of a coconut shell, which is like a cup with three eyes in them. Now, you need to know that Puttu is also known steamed rice cake /wheat cake, so the holes in the top part of the coconut shell are quite significant in letting the steam in, to cook the flour.

                                                    Cheratta Puttukumaker( coconut shell shaped puttu maker)

5. Into the Puttukutti or the coconut shell, you put a spoon-full of grated coconut first and stack some flour on top and then again add a little coconut over it and then flour on top of that. Continue this process of stacking one over the other until the cup/ puttukutti is full.

                                                 The puttumaker over the pressure cooker

6. Have a quarter of a pressure cooker filled with water steaming on the stove. As steam starts escaping from the spout, put your cup/puttukutti full of the raw flour on top of the opening and close it with a lid for the coconut shell and its own lid for the Puttukutti.

7. You will know the puttu is ready to be taken away and a  fresh one to be re-loaded, when steam
    vigorously escapes from the top of the lid. Remove the cooked puttu onto a plate and fill the puttukutti/coconut shell and repeat the process of cooking again.

The best combinations for the Puttu are:
1-Banana & Sugar
2-Kadala curry( black/white channa)
3- Pappad & Payar ( cooked green gram )
4-Any Fish/ Meat/Chicken curry

Puttu is a daily, traditional breakfast of the state of Kerala in India. It always has the ability to pull you back to the thoughts of home, with a feeling of nostalgia for what once it all was back home. Now-a-days, we use the refined flour we get from grocery stores, but its even more tastier if we can soak the rice for a few hours, grind it, sieve it and then lightly fry it and let it cool down, before making puttu. For wheat,  if you are back home, you wash the fresh whole wheat and dry it in the sun and then grind it to a flour and use it for making puttu. The degree of taste is many times higher for the extra effort, I got to say.