The Birthday Cooking Bash - Vegetable Pulao, Special Chicken Roast

Sigh.. I turned another year old last Saturday and this year I decided to 'treat' my friends differently. I cooked for them. Also gives me some stuff to post in here, since I have resolved not to let my cooking blog die a slow death with neglect.

So, here are the things I made. Sadly, I didn't get much time to take good pics, since the guests were hungry and I was busy with the cleaning, setting up the table, getting ready myself before the 'cake-cutting', etc :). Anyway, here goes.

Vegetable Pulao




What I Used:

Ingredients Set One

Basmati rice - 3 cups
Onion - 1 big
Tomato - 1 big
Carrots - 2 medium
Beans - 15

Ingredients Set Two

Bay leaves - 1
Cloves - 3
Cardamom - 2
Green chillies - 4
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tsbp
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

1. Heat oil in the pressure cooker pan, add ingredients set two and fry for two minutes.

2. Then add the ginger garlic paste and fry for another minute before adding the finely chopped vegetables in ingredients set one. Stir this mixture for 3 more minutes. Add required amount of salt.

3. After that, add the rice and fry for another minute.

4. Add 5 cups water and pressure cook till the first whistle.

5. Open as soon as steam has espaced and transfer to a wide bowl.

Serve warm.

This is my entry to this month's JFI - Rice, hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam.


Mummy's Special Chicken Roast

This is a dish that my mom used to make when I was in college and I used to love it! Tried to replicate the taste and almost succeeded.

What I Used:

Chicken, cleaned and cut into small pieces - 1 kg
Onions - 5 medium, cut into small square pieces
Tomatoes - 2
Capsicum - 1 small
Green chillies - 5
Jeera powder - 3 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 4 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1.5 tbsp
Chilly powder - 2tsp
Curry leaves - 3 strands
Oil - to fry
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

1. Crackle mustard seeds in the heated oil and add the onions. Saute till golden brown.

2. Then add the ginger garlic paste, turmeric-jeera-coriander-chilly powders, curry leaves, chillies and fry for 2-3 mins, till the raw smells have gone.

3. Next, add the tomatoes and capsicum pieces. Stir for another minute and add the chicken pieces.

4. Close the pan and wait till the chicken has cooked. Note that no water should be added at any stage. Once closed, the chicken will release water and will cook in that itself.

5. Once the pieces have cooked, open the lid and keep on fire till all the water has gone and the oil starts clearing.

Enjoy hot!

Tip: This dish is on the spicier side and sometimes when it seems a little too much so, amma adds a pinch of sugar. I follow the same method. In fact, I add a pinch of sugar to almost all the curries I make, that involve a masala paste.

We also made payasam and of course a cake! Recipes and pics to follow in the next post :)

Kovakka Mezhukkupuratti/Gerkins Stir Fried

Kovakka , or Gerkins, mezhukkupuratti is one of the staple, everyday dishes back home. I made this on the last day of my vacation back home, when I was getting absolutely bored.


What I used:

Kovakka/Gerkins - 100 gms
Onions - 1 medium
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

Cut kovakka in long slender pieces and boil in very little water with salt.

Heat oil, add mustard and saute the onions, also cut in long pieces. When it has turned golden brown, fry the ginger garlic paste in it. Then add the chilly powder and curry leaves and cook for another minute. Finally add the kovakka and stir till the pieces have turned golden. This may take up to 10 minutes. Serve hot as an accompaniment to rice.


Recipe courtesy: Mary, our maid of so many years :)

The 30-Minute Kerala Meal

Shaheen's 'Malabar Spices' is the first food blog that I came across and instantly fell in love with. I hope this entry adds atleast some value to her Summer Express Cooking Event.

This is a simple yet complete Kerala meal, which needs some preparations the previous day.


We are going to make rice, moru kachiyathu, chena (yam) thoran and fried fish.

Preparations required for each dish

For chena thoran:

Cut 250 gms chena/yam into small cubes.
Grate 1 cup coconut.

You can keep both these in the fridge overnight.

For fish fry:

Cut and clean the fish, marinate in the paste (recipe follows) and leave in the freezer.

Now let's move on the actual meal.

Here are the items again and the preparation time required.

1. Rice - 7 mins
2. Moru kachiyathu - 7 mins
3. Chena thoran - 10 mins
4. Fish fry - 8 mins

Rice

We use white rice at home, unlike the normal kuthari which is used commonly is Kerala households. Though inferior to the other variety in nutrition, white rice cooks much easier.

Moru Kachiyathu


What I Used:

Butter Milk - 2 cups
Green Chillies - 3
Ginger - 1/2" piece
Garlic - 4 cloves

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - 1 strand

How I Made It:

Heat oil and crackle some mustard seeds. Make the chillies, ginger and garlic into a coarse paste and fry for 2 minutes in the heated oil. Add curry leaves, turmeric, jeera powder and one red chilly cut into big pieces. Stir for another minute. Then add the butter milk and salt and remove from fire. Please note: heating the butter milk will split it so minimum heat should be used after it is added. The best way is to remove the pan from fire immediately after adding the butter milk.

Tip: If the butter milk is a little too sour for your taste, add some vegetable of your liking, like semi-ripe banana, cucumber or semi-ripe papaya.

Chena/Yam Thoran


What I Used:

Chena - 250gm
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Shallots - 6 nos
Jeera powder - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - one pinch
Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - one strand
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

Boil the chena till soft in a little water and salt. Grind coconut, jeera powder, 2 shallots and turmeric. Heat oil and add mustard seeds and urad dal. Then add the remaining shallots in small pieces, curry leaves, the ground coconut paste and fry a little. Finally add the boiled chena, mix well and stir till the paste has blended.

Fish Fry - Recipe posted before, here.

My entry to the Summer Express Cooking Event.