Payar mezhukkupuratti ( Long Beans stir fry)

Ingredients:

Long Beans- ½ kg

Whole crushed pepper( fresh)- 1 tbsp

Crushed red chilli-1/2 tbsp

Crushed Garlic-3 pods

Oil- As required

Curry leaves- 1 sprig

Instructions:

Add oil to the pan and add curry leaves once the oil is hot.

Crush the garlic,dried red chilli and whole pepper in a food processor and add to the oil.

Sauté the ingredients, till the raw smell is gone.

Add cut beans, cover and cook till the beans are done.

Tuna Cutlets

Canned tuna -1/2 kg

Onion-1 big

Cooked potato-2 medium

Grated ginger-1 tbsp

Curry leaves- a few

Garam masala – 1 tsp or to taste

Pepper powder- 1 tsp or to taste

Vinegar-1/4 tsp

Salt – to taste

Oil – 2 tbsp

Bread slices- 4

AP Flour-1 tablespoon

Egg white – 1

Oil- for frying

Add the oil to the skillet and add finely chopped onion when the oil is hot. Add ginger and curry leaves and cook till the onions turn translucent and nice aroma emits. Adding a bit of salt at this stage helps the onions cook faster.

Add drained tuna to the onion mix and keep sauteing till all the moisture is absorbed. Add salt vinegar and pepper and chopped coriander leaves to the mixture. Keep stirring till the mixture is completely dry. Take care that it does not brown.

Let the mixture cool completely. Meanwhile mash the cooked cooled potatoes.

Once the mixture is completely cool add the mashed potatoes little by little till the mixture binds together and is tight. Do a taste check and add more masala and pepper if desired. Make patties or cutlets of desired shape.

In a food processor add the bread slices and AP flour and give a whiz. Beat the egg white. Dip the cutlets in egg white and coat in the bread crumbs. 

Heat the oil for frying and deep fry the cutlets. Enjoy with tomato sauce.

Cook’s Note:

If you are using pressure cooker for cooking potato, take the potatoes out immediately once the pressure is down. If you let the potatoes remain in water, it absorbs moisture resulting in soggy cutlets.

Too much potato affects the taste and texture of cutlets. Do not be tempted to add entire potatoes just because you hate wasting it.

Deep frying works best. Shallow fried cutlets tends to absorb more oil and disintegrate while frying.

Tres leches Easter Cake

For the sponge:

AP flour – 1 cup minus 1 tbsp

Corn flour- 1 tbsp

Granulated sugar- 1 cup divided

Salt – ¼ tsp

Baking powder-1 ½ tsp

Eggs – 5 separated

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Whole milk- 1/3 cup

Three milk Mixture:

1 can evaporated milk (12 ounce)
1 can sweetened condensed milk(14 ounce)
1/4 cup heavy cream

For Frosting Cake:

2 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp  sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Coat two 9 inch pans with butter and dust it with AP flour.

Sift together the dry ingredients  except for sugar and keep aside.

Beat the egg yolks with ¾ cup sugar till it is pale yellow. Add the whole milk,vanilla  and beat for one more minute. Add the dry ingredients in batches and fold gently using spatula.

Take another clean bowl and whisk and beat the egg whites till soft peaks form. Add the remaining ¼ cup sugar and beat till the egg whites reach the stiff stage and almost triples in volume.

In three batches gently fold the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture. The first addition is to lighten the yolk mixture. Make sure that everything is folded very gently so that the mixture does not deflate.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the skewer inserted comes out clean.Turn to the cooling rack and let the cake cool or let it cool in the cake pan if you are planning to frost the cake in the pan itself.

Transfer the cake to the serving plate  and pierce the whole cake with a skewer.Mix all the three milk and drizzle the milk all over the cake. You can use the entire milk if you like milk oozing out in every bite else use all but 1 cup of milk,which you can discard.I let it sit in the refrigerator so that it absorbs all the milk and keep drizzling the milk in intervals so that the cake is completely moist.

To frost the cake beat 2 cups of chilled heavy cream in a chilled container until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and beat till stiff. Decorate the cake as desired and enjoy it.

Pineapple Praline cake

6 years of togetherness. There have been ups and downs and yet we sailed through it all. A sweet cake to celebrate  laughter, tears, fights, love that has brought us closer.

For the sponge:

AP flour – 1 cup minus 1 tbsp

Corn flour- 1 tbsp

Granulated sugar- 1 cup divided

Salt – ¼ tsp

Baking powder-1 ½ tsp

Eggs – 5 separated

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Whole milk- 1/3 cup

Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Coat two 9 inch pans with butter and dust it with AP flour.

Sift together the dry ingredients  except for sugar and keep aside.

Beat the egg yolks with ¾ cup sugar till it is pale yellow. Add the whole milk,vanilla and beat for one more minute. Add the dry ingredients in batches and fold gently using spatula.

Take another clean bowl and whisk and beat the egg whites till soft peaks form. Add the remaining ¼ cup sugar and beat till the egg whites reach the stiff stage and almost triples in volume.

In three batches gently fold the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture. The first addition is to lighten the yolk mixture. Make sure that everything is folded very gently so that the mixture does not deflate.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the skewer inserted comes out clean.

Turn on to cooling rack and let it cool completely.

For the praline:

Chopped almonds- ½ cup

Granulated sugar- 1/3 cup

Heat a pan and add sugar. Let the sugar melt and start to boil and reduce the heat and let the mixture turn golden yellow. Do not stir the mixture at this point. Take it off the heat, add the nuts, stir everything nicely and pout it to oiled aluminum foil or buttered parchment paper. Let it finish cooling and break them into small pieces using food processor or mortar and pestle.

For the filling and Frosting:

Whipping cream- 2 cups

Crushed pineapple- 1 tin (560 grams)

Vanilla essence- 1 ½ tsp

Powdered sugar- 2 or 3 tbsp

Chill the bowl and beater in freezer for 10 minutes. Beat the cream till soft peaks form. 

Add the sugar and vanilla essence and beat till stiff peaks form.

Drain the pineapple and reserve the juice.

Keep a cake on the cake board and brush it completely with pineapple syrup. You can cut the cake into two if you want more layers. Put some cream on the cake and add crushed pineapple. Keep doing it till the last layer.

Once the layering is complete frost the cake completely with whipped cream. Dipping the spatula in hot water and drying from time to time helps in getting a smooth frosting. Using a spatula or clean hands,  press the praline to the sides of the cake. Decorate and enjoy the cake.

Note:

Wipe all the utensils and beaters with vinegar to remove traces of oil and grease.

If you are using the same beater to beat both egg whites and yolk,beat egg white first since yolk contains fat content.

Kozhikode Thenga aracha meen curry

Kozhikode meen curry. It used to be the staple during every Saturday evening when I would return famished from the school. This delicacy was prepared by K mom’s helper and my sister’s caretaker. It was the only food mom asked her to prepare since she could never adapt herself to mom’s fiery red fish curry. I used to enjoy her Kozhikode meen curry so much that I never had to eat dinner on Saturdays. Well K and me always had a love hate relationship, not because she hated me but she loved my kid sister too much, whom she was taking care of. Anything new that was my kid sister’s irrespective of whether my mom and dad said otherwise .. “athente kuttide aanu”, meaning “ That is my Kid’s” was her usual remark . Still I used to hang around her because she was a treasure chest of juicy gossips and stories which mom never exposed us to. There are certain things mom’s have no control over ;)  I had been searching for her recipe for a long time and have tried variations. This was the closest recipe I could find. 

Slightly Adapted from Malluspice

Ingredients:

For Gravy:

Fish - 1/2 Kg

Shallots/kunjulli-  4 big sliced

Ginger garlic paste – 2 table spoon

Turmeric- 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder-1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds-1 tsp
Coriander powder- 1 tsp
Grated Coconut– 1 cup
Tamarind extract- 2 tsp or as extracted from a lime (small) sized ball.
Salt-1/2 tsp or to taste

Curry Leaves-1 sprig

Tomato -1  (optional)

For Tempering:

Coconut oil-1 tbs

Mustard- ½ tsp

Curry leaves- 1 sprig

Shallots-2 sliced

Instructions:

Grind the coconut to a smooth paste. Pour  it into a pan or claypot. Add all the ingredients listed under gravy to the coconut mixture and mash up everything nicely with your hand.

Bring the mixture to a boil and slide the fish gently to the mixture. Let it boil for another two more minutes.

Reduce the heat and let the curry simmer. Cut the tomatoes in round and place it on the curry. Take the pan by the side and give the curry a swirl so that gravy coats the tomato. Please take care not burn your hands. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes. Keep it aside

Pour coconut oil in another pan. Once the oil is hot add mustard, shallots. Stir till the shallots achieve a charred brown color. Add curry leaves, switch off and add it to the curry. Keep the lid closed for some time for the flavors to marry.

Easy 10 minutes Banana Fudge / Halwa

No blabbering today. Minu wanted the recipe immediately since she had to rescue some invalid black bananas,yelling to be saved from Dustbin. I saved mine just a few hours ago. Here comes the SOS recipe.

Recipe Courtesy: Trickntreat  blog

Ingredients:

1  cup   corn flour
1/4  cup  rice flour
1/2  cup   brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups mashed banana
3/4  cup  milk
2 tablespoon melted butter

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 330 degree Fahrenheit and butter a 8*8 inch square pan

Dump the dry ingredients together.

Blend banana,melted butter and milk together and add to the dry ingredients and blend on low for a minute till the batter is smooth.

Pour in the pan and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. The fudge is ready when the skewer inserted comes out clean.

Leave in the hot oven for another 10 minutes. Cool it ,slice it, enjoy it and post me a comment on it.

Vazhuthanaga / Egg plant Theeyal

People always ask me. Which is better US or INDIA?? Irrespective of whether I am in India or here, the question is bound to be asked and I am obliged to answer it. The answer is I haven’t thought about it at all. The nomadic in me never really had any special attachments to any places I have grown up. Anyway I had arrived in US with the preconceived Hollywood notion of US and apprehensive of what lay in front of us. It was just few days after our arrival, handicapped without car, with loads of vegetables in our hands and a wailing toddler in another, staring into the downpour wondering when it will stop. It was then that a hand touched my shoulder asking whether I would like a drive in the car. Yes, we had no other option but she had, didn’t she?? Yet, she had chosen the option to help. I have also experienced collective stares in the church while lil chef threw tantrums out of nowhere, and sympathetic smiles at the same time from different aisles. It was no different when I was Back in India. We have experienced housebreak in US and haggler cheating me under my nose in Commercial Street in Bangalore. Looking back I never come with an image of Bangalore without at least one of our friends cropping up, or of Nashville without them. It is not actually the place I remember when I look back, it is the people. So the answer is I haven’t thought about it and don’t think I am ever obliged to answer that question.

Over to the Recipe

Ingredients:

To roast and Grind:

Coconut, Grated - 1 cup

Coriander powder -  1 tbsp.

Kashmiri chilli powder - 3 or 4 

Shallots, Sliced - A scant 1/4 cup

Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2 tsp.

To cook the vegetable:

Egg Plant/Vazhuthanaga, Sliced - 1 and a 1/2 to 2 cups

Turmeric Powder - A pinch

Salt- to taste

Water - Just enough to cook the vegetable

Tamarind-one lemon ball size or to taste

Green chilli slit-3

To Temper:

Mustard- 1/2 tsp

Coconut oil-1 tsp

Shallots- 2

Curry leaves- 1 sprig

Whole red chilli- 1 or 2

Soak the tamarind and squeeze out the extract. Take a pan; add the vegetables, tamarind extract, green chilies, water, salt, turmeric to cook the vegetables on medium heat till it is half cooked.

Roast the coconut, shallots on a medium to low flame taking care not burn it. Add the rest of the ingredients and roast till the coconut is dark brown color and roasted well. Keep aside to cool.

Grind the mixture and add to the veggies and cook till the veggies are fully cooked and you attain the desired gravy thickness.

Heat the pan, add oil. Add the mustard .Once it splutters add the rest of the ingredients and temper till the shallots attain a golden brown color. Add it to the gravy and close the lid for the flavors to combine.