Kerala Fish Fry

When I saw that this month's JFI by Saffron Trail is on Chillies, the first thing that came to my mind was the spicy fried fish that my mom invariably prepares when we visit home. This is her preparation and I am merely posting the recipe with the picture. Since its exremely difficult to get good fresh fish in Hyderabad, I am left with no options.



What I Used:

Any medium sized fish - 4 pieces

For the paste:
Chilly powder - 1tsp
Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Turmeric powder - one pinch
Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

Grind the ingredients for the paste, adding a little water. Marinate the fish pieces in the paste for 4 hours. Deep fry in coconut oil till the pieces turn dark. Serve hot.

My entry for JFI For August hosted by Saffron Trail.
Recipe courtesy: my mom :)

Rich Dark Chocolate Cake

I am a self-confessed chocolate addict. I still remember feeling angry that people only seemed to give away fruit cakes during xmas cuz I was not too fond of them. But without fail, Omana Aunty, (Mrs. Omana Paul is a well-known caterer in Kottayam) our neighbour, used to send one chocolate cake. Rich, dark and absolutely yummy. This is her recipe and my mom makes it whenever she gets the chance and is in the mood.

What I Used:
Maida - 300 gms
Powdered sugar - 450 gms (Please measure after powdering)
Butter - 290 gms
Milk powder - 20 gms
Curd - 8 oz
Cocoa powder - 70 gms
Eggs - 5 big
Salt - 1 pinch (if using unsalted butter)
Soda bi carb - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

How I Made It:

Sieve soda + maida + cocoa powder + milk powder + salt six times. This is to make sure that the ingredients have blended completely.

Beat the curd well to remove any lumps.

Beat sugar and butter, keep adding one egg at a ttime and keep mixing well. When this batter has blended well, add the vanilla essence.

Alternately add the curd, and the powder mixture to the butter and sugar mixture. Do not beat at this stage. Slowly blend the ingredients and keep mixing well.

Once the batter has blended well, grease a tray and bake in 350 degrees heat. It should take 35-40 minutes to be completely done. We use the conventional oven at home. Please check after 25 minutes if you use a different one.


Optional Butter Icing:

Mix 30gm butter and 80gm castor sugar and spread over the cake.

This is my entry for Anupama's Fun In the Sun Event, showcasing picnic recipes.

Tip* - Sometimes we found that the deep colour is missing in our cakes than the ones sent by Omana Aunty. So we started experimenting to find out her secret ingredient that seemed to enhance the colour in her cakes. We zeroed in on one teaspoon coffee powder. So if you feel that your chocolate cake lacks colour, try this tip :)

Another tip is to mix the chocolate powder in boiling water before adding to the batter.

Recipe courtesy : Mrs. Omana Paul

Disclaimer: The pictures in this post are of a boxed chocolate cake I made. But the recipe given makes a cake that looks almost exactly like that.

More About Me and Edible Garden

Born on a very lazy summer evening, this blog is now my passion. I am from Kerala and lived there for the first 23 years of my life. Relocated to Hyderabad to join my first job. Somewhere on the way, my interest in food sprang up. Though from Kerala, we are originally Reddiars and this means we have deep roots in Andhra and Tamil Nadu. The interesting part is, of course, our cooking. Its a wonderful mix of Telugu, Tamil and Kerala cooking. Now, that's got to be interesting, right?

Right now I am based in Singapore where I live with my husband and work in a great place. This site receives an average of 1000 2500 3500 5000 6000 pageviews a day and its steadily growing. Its a pleasure to see my efforts being appreciated and inspiring others around me

Then comes photography. This is an area I had rarely thought about, but it goes hand-in-hand with food blogs. Now, photography comes a close second to my cooking interests. I recently started a new series on Food Photography for Beginners. Check it out in case you are looking for pointers.

I am available for writing jobs both relating to food and otherwise. Please contact me at naagu.v@gmail.com.

Here are some FAQs from readers.

But why another blog for cooking?

-Blogging has been a passion for a while now and even as a kid, I used to keep diaries. It was never a day-to-day log, but more of a special occasions and thoughts kinda journal. That soon became online and then when the interest for cooking kicked in, the answer was to start blogging that too.

What sort of stuff do you cook, normally?

I am all for spending as little time in the kitchen and yet coming up with stuff that looks like you spent more than 15 minutes on it. I also try to make dishes as healthy as possible but that doesn't mean I don't deep fry or indulge once in a while ;) I am a Malayali at heart so there are mostly Kerala Recipes in here and almost all are really simple and can be made in an hour or less.

How did you choose the name Edible Garden? Is this a vegetarian blog?

The name just occurred to me one fine day (that's how most things happen to me) and it stuck till I made it the name of my blog. It was called 'For The Cook In Me' for a long time till I changed the name in July '08. This is NOT a vegetarian blog so please don't get misled by the title, like some people have. I have labelled my recipes so you can choose to browse through only those recipes that you actually want to see.

What camera do you use?

From the day I started to the end of Dember '08 I have been clicking all the pictures with my good 'ol Nikon L10 which is a 5 megapixel basic point and shoot camera. I now use a Canon SX10 IS which is a slightly higher end point and shoot camera. I did consider upgrading to a DSLR but can't really afford it and the overhead now. Maybe in a couple of years, when I get better at this, I might.


And I finally took the plunge. I got a Nikon D90 with two lenses - an 18-105mm kit lens and a 50mm 1.8D prime lens. Pictures starting from this post are taken with the new camera. 

Where do you learn how to take/edit pictures?

There are tons of websites out there and talk about techniques of food and macro photography, aperture, focal length and all the other jargon that is still mostly greek to me. If you have a good eye, some basic artistic sense and a camera you can take decent pictures. I visit a lot of food blogs and most have awesome pictures. I draw inspiration from them but at the end of the day you come back to your dish, your plates, your table and your camera and it all boils down to what you do with them.

Again, you can check out my series on Food Photography for Beginners to learn about photography tips and techniques that you may find useful.

What if I am looking for something specific and don't find it here?

- You are free to request a recipe that you don't see in here. I would love to hear from you. Other comments and feedback is also welcome. You can leave a comment at the end of this post.

I like your recipes and your pictures and would like to feature it on my site/blog/magazine/newspaper/talkshow. May I?

- I would really appreciate it if you could contact me first so that I have a better understanding of how you are going to represent my work. Email me at naagu.v@gmail.com




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