Tastebud Kindlers

This is my mumma special yummiest fish curry,,, Do give it a try! Ingredients Fish (Black bass) - 3/4 kg Coconut oil - 1 large heaped tbsp. (Initially, Will need to add more later on) Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Uluva or Fenugreek - 2 pinch Onion - 1 small Ginger -  3 to 4 inch piece Garlic - 1/2 pod Green chilli - 8 Red Chilli powder - 1 heaped tsp Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 1/2 to 3/4th tsp Kashmiri chilli powder - 2 and 1/2 heaped tsp Puli or tamarind - 4 avg sized Coconut milk - 1/2 a can Curry leaves - 1 sprig Salt to taste - about 4 tsp Procedure Rub and clean puli and immerse in water Heat coconut oil and burst fenugreek and mustard seeds Saute on medium heat (flame 6) very finely sliced onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies. Add oil if needed Lower the flame and add ingredients 9 to 12 and fry till oil is released from it.    Add puli and water, adjust salt and add curry leaves (1/2 a sprig), coconut milk dilut...

My mom recently visited me and she taught me how to prepare the perfect batter for Kerala Appams. Ingredients Pachari or Sona Masoori Rice - 3 cups soaked for atleast 4 hours Cooked brown rice - 3 large serving spoon Shredded coconut - 3 large serving spoons Water (room temp)  Instant yeast - 1 unheaped tsp Sugar - 4 heaped tbsp. Salt  Procedure  In a mixer, mix ingredients 1 to 3 in water at par level  Move the mixed ingredients to a steel vessel (better than glass containers as steel can conduct heat better) and add sugar and yeast and mix well. (Hand can be used to mix as it helps fermentation more)  Once the batter has fermented (can take few hours to 2 days depending on the quality of yeast and the temperature of the room), add salt and mix well. Pour a spoonful of batter into a hot appachatti or frying pan. Cover and cook for a couple minutes on medium heat. Serve hot from the stove. Tips Aval or rice flakes soaked in water f...

Here I am again with yet another recipe from my mom-in-law. This time it is an authentic and specially prepared fish curry from Trivandrum. It is ideal if made with the head portions of fish alone. The recipe is as below :- Ingredients Seer fish - 3 pounds Shallots - 5 large or 15 normal sized Green chilli - 5 large Ginger - 2 inch piece Garlic - 3/4 th of a pod Pepper powder - 6 unheaped tsp. Coriander powder - 4 heaped tsp. Chilli powder - 2 unheaped tsp. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp. Curry leaves - 2 sprigs  Kudam puli - 5 Tamarind extract (Valanpuli) - 2 tbsp. Salt Procedure Heat oil and saute ingredients 6,7,8 and 9 till the raw smell is gone. In a vessel or manchatti, heat oil, add curry leaves, and saute well ingredients 2, 3, 4 and 5 and salt. Do not make it golden brown. Proceed to Step 3 as the shallots color fade. Add the masala from Step 1 to the above and mix well for a couple minutes Add ingredients 11 and 12 and mix well.  Add arou...

Yet another recipe which I borrowed from my mom-in-law, who invented this after reverse engineering a dish we all fell in love with, at a buffet lunch. Ingredients Chicken (cut into small pieces) - 2 kg Onion (medium) - 5 Green chillies - 15 Ginger - 3 inch Coconut Oil - 5 tbsp. Vinegar - 2tbsp. Curry leaves Salt to taste Masala paste  Coconut milk - 2 tins (13.5 ounce) (Separate 1/2 a tin for first thick coconut milk and rest for second thick coconut milk) Masala Paste Saunf - 2 tbsp. Cardamom - 15 to 20  Cinnamon - 10  (2 inch long pieces) Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp. Red Chilli powder - 2 heaped tsp. Coriander powder - 5 to 7 heaped tsp. Whole pepper corns - 1 tsp. Procedure Take ingredients 2 to 8 in a vessel and knead well. Add chicken and continue kneading Prepare the masala paste - Coarsely grind the masala ingredients 1 to 3. To this add masala ingredients 4 to 7, sprinkle some water and mix well in a mixer. Add the prepar...

I learnt this delicious recipe from my friend's mom, Roopa aunty who is an amazing cook. This is one of my no-fail recipes that always fetches me a lot of compliments. So here goes:- Ingredients For biriyani rice Basmati rice - 3 cups Ghee - 4 to 5 tbsp. Ginger paste - 1 and 1/2 tbsp. Garlic paste - 1 and 1/2 tbsp. Boiling water - 6 cups (i.e. double qty. of rice) Salt to taste For chicken masala Chicken - 1 kg Red chilli powder - 3 unheaped tsp. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp. Onion - 2 large finely chopped Ginger - 3 inch piece Green chillies - 15 to 20 Garlic - 1 whole pod or 25 small cloves Shredded coconut - a handful Fennel seeds - 1 and 1/2 tsp. Coriander powder - 2 tsp. Garam masala - 1 and 1/2 tsp Tomato - 1 medium Salt to taste To garnish Lime juice - Juice of a 1/2 lemon Onion - 1 medium Cashew nuts - to fry and garnish Kismis - to fry and garnish Garam masala - enough to sprinkle Coriander leaves - to garnish Mint leaves - to ga...

When you have so much to do, it is hard to find time for elaborate cooking. At the same time, you would also like to have tasty food, which most often is a result of complicated or time consuming recipes. This easy chicken curry is a solution to such a problem. Ingredients To marinate Chicken cleaned and cut into medium size pieces - 2 kg Curd - 3 tbsp. Lemon juice - 1 tbsp. Ginger paste - 1 tbsp. Garlic paste - 1 tbsp. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp. Turmeric powder - 1 pinch Coriander powder - 1 tsp. Garam Masala powder - 1 tsp. Salt to taste (1 un-heaped tsp.) To sauté Onions - 3 large sliced Green chillies - 6 vertically sliced Ginger - 1 to 2 inch finely sliced Garlic - 1 whole pod crushed or finely sliced Red Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp. Coriander powder - 2 tsp. Garam Masala powder - 1.5 tsp Procedure Marinate the chicken using all the ingredients under To marinate  and refrigerate for half an hour. Cut t...

Fried Black Pompana Yesterday's dinner came out looking too good, that I couldn't resist posting it here. It was a big fresh black pompana fish fried the traditional way - the way a malayali loves it! The recipe is pretty simple for such a tasty dish. Ingredients Fresh Black Pompana Fish - 1 Ginger paste - 1 1/2  tsp. Garlic paste - 1 1/2 tsp. Kashmiri Chilli Powder - 3 to 4 tsp. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp. Black Pepper powder - 1 unheaped tsp. Juice of fresh lime - 1/2 tsp. Salt to taste Procedure Mix all the ingredients except the fish with little water to form a thick paste. Apply the paste liberally on the fish such that it is completely coated in the masala. Leave it to rest for atleast 30 min. Heat enough coconut oil in a skillet to deep fry the fish. Fry the marinated fish on medium flame and serve with hot steaming rice. Note :- The most important part is, the fish HAS to be fresh. The freshness alone brings a whole new level of flavo...

Super easy and super tasty is such  a winning combination. This is one of my favorite snacks that can be made with just 3 ingredients and almost no preparation. So here goes. Ingredients Frozen ready to cook tortilla - 1 (You can also make with frozen ready to cook chapathi) Coconut oil (Haven't tried with other oils)  Sugar - 2 to 3 tbsp. Procedure Cut up the tortilla/chapathi into your favorite shape.  Heat oil in a frying pan and add the tortilla/chapathi pieces. The tortilla/chapathi will ball up instantly.  Move the fried tortilla/chapathi balls onto a plate sprinkled with sugar. Add more sugar to your taste. Mix well and serve.

I found this very delicious bitter gourd curry from my mother in law. I loved it from my first taste of it, converting me from a bitter gourd hater to lover. This curry does not taste bitter but it does have a strong flavor. Ingredients Bitter gourd (Pavakka) - 2 medium sized Garlic - 1 pod Shallots - a handful Curry leaves - a sprig Dried chillies - 5 Green chillies - 4 vertically sliced Coconut milk Cumin - 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 2 tsp. Turmeric powder - 2 pinch Chilli powder - 1 tsp. Vinegar - 1 tbsp. Salt to taste Procedure Rub 1/2 to 1 tsp. salt on thinly sliced bitter gourd and leave it to rest for 1/2 an hour. Deep fry on medium flame for about 10 min till they are slightly brown. In a mixer, mix cumin seeds and garlic. Do not make it into a paste, just pulse it. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, chilli powder and pulse again in the mixer. In a frying pan, (you may use the same after frying the bitter gourd), add some oil, burst the mu...

Ingredients Milk - 500 ml or 1 packet Custard powder - 2 heaped tbsp. Gelatin - 2 unheaped tbsp. Sugar - 5 to 6 tbsp. Fresh cream (Amul) - 180 ml Cocoa powder - 1 heaped tbsp. Coffee powder (Bru/Nescafe) - 1 tsp. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp. Procedure  Dissolve 2 unheaped tbsp. gelatin in 1/4 cup of cold water and keep it aside.  Mix 2 tbsp. custard powder in 3/4th cup of milk. Mix well  Bring rest of the milk to boil.  As the milk begins to boil, add about 5 - 6 tbsp. sugar and mix well. It might taste too sweet, but don't worry, the sugar will balance out once you add the rest of the ingredients.   Reduce to low flame and do not let the boiling milk overflow. Now slowly pour the custard mix to the boiling milk while stirring continuously. Do not dump the custard mix in one go into the boiling milk.    Stir the custard base until it gets thick (around the consistency of dosa dough). If everything so far had gone fine, it will ta...

From the very first time I had it, I am a huge fan of Nila poori masala. I had made an attempt to coax the Nila chefs to reveal the recipe but with no success. After so many failed trials to make nila style poori masala, I brought my mother-in-law, who is an excellent cook, to the restaurant to analyse the ingredients and find out how to come up with the right way to prepare this. And here is the recipe :) Ingredients Potato - 2 medium sized Onion sliced - 1 medium sized Green chillies split vertically- 4 Ginger - 1 inch Garlic - 8 cloves Bengal gram (Kadala parippu) - 1 tbsp Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp. Water - enough to immerse the potatoes Salt to taste Mustard seeds - 1 tsp. Tomato thinly sliced halves - 1/2 Carrot thinly sliced - 1/2 Curry leaves Coriander leaves (Malli ila) Procedure Add the potatoes peeled and cut into small chunks, sliced onion, split green chillies, ginger and garlic paste(whipped in mixer), bengal gram, w...

Banana Fritters or PazhamPori or Ethakkappam is an easy and favourite evening snack usually taken with steaming hot tea. As you go to Wayanad, there are numerous vendors who put up a stove on the roadside and serve steaming hot snacks. It is from one of those wayside vendor, I had the tastiest banana fritters, perfectly crunchy on the outside with a soft and melting center. I had been trying to reproduce the same ever since and finally here I am, sharing the recipe with you. Ingredients Really ripe bananas (Ethappazham) - 2 or 3 Coconut oil For the batter Wheat flour(Atta) or Plain flour(Maida) - 1/2 cup Rice flour(Aripodi) - 1 heaped tbsp. (This makes the batter crispy) Sugar - 1 or 2 tbsp (Not much sugar is required, as the bananas are very ripe) Salt - 2 pinch Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.  Water - 3/4 cup Procedure Mix wheat flour/plain flour (I personally prefer wheat flour as it is healthier than maida. Also, fritters made with both tastes more o...