Olan

Ingredients:

Ash gourd - 2 cups, cubed
Red beans - 1 cup - soaked overnight and cooked with salt
Coconut milk - 1 cup (preferably fresh, not canned)
Green chillies - 3 - 4, slit in half
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Method:

Cook red beans with some salt and keep aside.
Cook ash gourd with very small amount of water and salt, covered on medium heat.
Once half cooked, add the red beans and cook uncovered until almost all water has evaporated.
Add coconut milk, leaves and cumin powder. Continue heating until it just starts to boil. Stop the heat and take it off the stove.
Heat coconut oil and splutter mustard seeds.
Add the oil into the olan. Serve with rice.

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Zero-oil Tomato Sambar

I've made this sambar a few times now. Its a one pot meal that requires no effort except for prepping the veggies. When in a hurry, I only use tomatoes and make a tomato sambar. You can add additional veggies to this recipe.
Veggies that go well in this sambar are spinach, carrots, beans,  snake gourd (padavalanga), drumsticks, ivy gourd (tindora/kovakka),sweet potatoes, potatoes, taro (cheppankezhangu/chembu/arbi), bell pepper, green peas.

Ingredients:

Lentils – 1 cup (use toor dal/masoor dal/moong dal/ or a mixture of these)
Tomatoes – 3, chopped
Onions – 1, chopped
Green chillies – 3, chopped fine
Ginger – 1″ thick, minced
Garlic – 4 cloves, minced
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Sambar powder – 3 tbsp.
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida – 1 tsp
Water – 2 cups
Additional veggies are optional – eg. carrots, beans, snake gourd (padavalanga), drumsticks (moringa oleifera), ivy gourd (tindora/kovakka), sweet potatoes, potatoes, taro (cheppankezhangu/chembu/arbi), bell pepper, green peas.
Salt to taste
Cilantro – a handful, chopped

Method:

Add all ingredients into a pressure cooker and cook for 2 to 3 whistles. After it’s cooked, sprinkle the cilantro over the top – do not forget this step because it lends the tomato sambar that signature flavor. It’s that simple!

You can have it with brown rice, and a side of other veggie dishes. Or on its own like soup.

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Egg and Vegetable Stew (with variations for chicken, beef or lamb)

This stew is a traditional Syrian Christian curry served for breakfast with Appam (lacy rice pancakes). I like to have it any time of the day with toasted bread, if there's no ready batter for appams. It's very rustic and hearty, like the filling of a pot pie. (Maybe I will try it in a pot pie someday).

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

Eggs - 4 large
Onion - 1 medium size, chopped
Ginger - 1 inch, minced
Green chillies - 3 or as per your spice level
Chopped Vegetables - 2 cups (preferably potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, french beans, green peas)
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cinnamon sticks - 1 large broken to small pieces
Cloves - 4-6
Green cardamom pods - 4
Bay leaf - 1
Curry leaves - 1 sprig (optional)
Black pepper corns - 6-8
White pepper powder - 2 tsp (optional)
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Red chilli powder - a pinch (optional)
Coriander powder - 1 tsp (optional)
Garam masala - a pinch (optional)
Coconut milk - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Oil (vegetable/canola) - 2 tbsp (For authenticity, use coconut oil - its an acquired taste)

Method:

Hard boil the eggs and keep aside to cool. Meanwhile chop all the vegetables and store in a mixing bowl.
In a large pot, heat 2 tbsp of oil. Add mustards seeds and let is splutter. Add the whole spices - cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, bay leaf, peppercorns. Once their aroma starts to exude, add the chopped onions, ginger, green chillies and curry leaves. Saute until the onions are translucent. Then add the powdered spices - turmeric, white pepper, black pepper, red chilli powder, coriander powder. Mix for a minute. Then add the chopped vegetables and enough water to just cover the vegetables. Cover and cook until the vegetables are cooked through. Meanwhile peel the cooled eggs and halve them, if desired. Once vegetables are cooked, reduce the heat, and pour coconut milk. Let it cook and reduce until you get the desired consistency of gravy. Finally sprinkle garam masala and add the hardboiled eggs. Serve with appams, chappathis or toasted slices of bread.

Note: You can make different variations of this stew. Leave the eggs out and it becomes a vegetable stew. Add cubed chicken pieces instead of the vegetables and it becomes a chicken stew. For beef or lamb stew, cook the meat separately with a small amount of water or even pressure cook it, before adding it to the stew.
If you don't have coconut milk, use regular milk.

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Stir-fry noodles

This recipe is very similar to my Pancit Bihon recipe. The main difference is that I use rice noodle in the Pancit recipe. In this one, I use either Udon noodles or Ramen (Maggi noodles is also Ramen).

Ingredients:

Noodles: 2 packets
Bacon - 4 strips
Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped fine
Ginger - 1 inch piece, chopped fine
Onion - 1 chopped (optional)
Assorted vegetables (choice of grated carrots, sliced french beans, corn kernels, green peas, sliced bell pepper, bean sprouts)
Green onions (spring onion/scallion) - 2 stalks, chopped
Sambal oelek - 1 tbsp
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Noodle flavor sachet (your choice of flavor)- 2
Black pepper powder - 1/2 tp (optional)

Method:

Cook noodles, drain and keep aside.
Heat a wide pan, cook 4 bacon strips till crisp. (no need to use oil as bacon has fat). Take bacon out on a plate, keep aside. In the same pan with bacon fat, fry onions, garlic and ginger. Once onions soften, add the vegetables. Cover and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes. Add green onions, soy sauce and mix. Then add sambal. Add in the noodles, noodle flavor, black pepper and mix until well combined. Serve hot with spicy ketchup or siracha sauce, if desired.

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Egg Fried Rice

This is my favorite recipe for egg fried rice. Usually it contains only rice, egg and soy sauce. But I like it with thinly cut vegetables too. More like a combination of vegetable and egg fried rice.

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Eggs - 2
French beans - 10 nos.
Carrot - 1 large
Green Peas - 1/4 cup
Corn kernels - 1/4 cup (optional)
Green onion (spring onion) - 1 stalk
Ginger - 1 inch, minced
Garlic - 2 cloves, minced
Soy Sauce - 2 tbsp
Sambal Olek - 1 tbsp (optional)
Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

Cook rice first. Fried rice works best with refrigerated rice, so if you have rice leftover from your last dinner, you can use that. Basically, the rice needs to be cooled down before frying it. So if you're cooking it now, drain it and let it cool down for a bit (let all the steam come out). Then stick it into the freezer for around 10 or 15 minutes. Meanwhile, chop beans finely, cube carrots finely and chop green onions too (including the white part and keep it separate).
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large skillet or wok. The pan you're going to use needs to be wide so that you can work the stir fry properly, or else it will get sticky. Now add the white part of the green onions first and let it soften by stir-frying for a couple of minutes. Then add minced ginger and garlic, fry for 3 minutes. Then add the green beans and carrots. Stir fry for about 5 minutes. Then add green peas and fry for 5 more minutes. Stir often so that the vegetables don't brown. Move the vegetables to a corner of the pan. Break 2 eggs on the other side. Scramble it by mixing constantly. Then combine with the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper/ Finally add the rice and mix well. Pour in soy sauce and sambal (if using). Garnish with chopped green onions and serve with your favorite Chinese side.

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Sambar - South Indian Vegetable Stew

During my childhood, sambar was such a staple in my house, that I used to hate it! Can't believe I love it so much when I started preparing it on my own. So easy to prepare and you really don't need anything else when you have it with rice. Goes very well with idlis too. (I hated idlis too, but I still brought an idli thattu (idli maker) all the way from Pathanamthitta to New Jersey, so I better well make some!)

Credit: I followed Vazhayila's recipe to the T. Came out just like the way my mom used to make it.

Ingredients:

Split Red Lentils (Split Masoor Dal) or Split pea lentils (Toor Dal) - 1 cup

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Salt to taste

Water - 1 1/2 cup

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Onion chopped - 1

Green chili - 2-3

Vegetables chopped - 2 cup (any veg of your choice, i prefer carrot, potato, ashgourd (padavalanga), drumstick (moringa oleifera), ivy gourd (tindora/kovakka), french beans)

Tomato - 1 or 2, chopped

Tamarind pulp - 1/2 tablespoon

Sambar powder - 2 table spoon (storebought or homemade)

Asafoetida (Hing) - a large pinch

Salt to taste

For Tempering:

Oil

Curry leaves

Mustard seeds

Dried red chili  - 2

Method:

Wash and drain lentils. Add lentils with salt and pressure cook with just enough water for 3 to 4 whistles. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can use a regular saucepan and cook the dal until its soft.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large dutch oven and saute onion and green chilies for a couple of minutes.

Add diced vegetables and saute for 2-3 minutes, followed by tomato.

Dissolve tamarind pulp in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of warm water and mix with Sambar powder.

Add this along with cooked lentils to the pot, with just enough water. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat to medium-low, cover and let simmer for 20 mins.

Uncover when cooled, simmer again for a couple of minutes, add a pinch or two of asafoetida and chopped cilantro (optional).

Tempering:-Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When it starts to splutter add red chilies and curry leaves. Pour it over the sambar. Serve hot (or some people like it cold too) with Idlis, Dosa or Rice.

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Achinga Payar Thoran - Yard long beans stir-fry with coconut

 

Ingredients:

Achinga payaru/Pacha Payaru/ Yard long beans - 1 bunch
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Shallots - 3 or 4 or half of a small onion, chopped
Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
Green chili chopped - 2
Dried red chili - 2
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Salt

Method:

Clean and chop the beans finely in very small circles.
Heat oil in a pan and add Mustard seeds.When they pop up add dried red chilies and curry leaves.
Add shallots/onions, garlic and green chilies.
After 5 minutes, add chopped beans and salt and mix well.
Sprinkle 3 table spoons of water , keep everything to the centre and cook it covered for 4-5 minutes or till it is dry and the beans are cooked.
Add coconut mixture and toss well. Saute for a couple of minutes or till it is dry and done.
Serve warm with rice.

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Chena Vanpayar Erissery - Cow peas and Elephant Yam in a spiced coconut gravy

Credit: Edible Garden
Note: You can also make another version with Pumpkin instead of Elephant yam which is also quite popular.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cubed elephant yam / chena
• 1 cup cow peas / vanpayar - preferable soaked for at least 2-4 hours
• Salt to taste

Grate together:

• 1/2 cup grated coconut (frozen will work but not dessicated)
• 1 tsp minced fresh garlic
• 1/4 tsp pepper powder
• A large pinch of turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp chilli powder

For tempering:

• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 dry red chillies, torn into small pieces
• A few curry leaves
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (I used normal vegetable oil)

Method:

1. Wash the vanpayar and sift out any stones that may be there. Transfer to a pan with 3 cups water and cook on a low fire until semi-soft. This will take about 20 mins or so. Add the yam to the vanpayar and cook until both turn soft and almost mushy.
2. Once the vanpayar and yam are cooked, add the grated coconut mixture and mix well, cooking on low flame until well combined and the coconut loses its raw smell - about 3-4 mins. Add salt. Mix again. Remove from fire.
3. Heat oil for tempering and add all the ingredients mentioned in the list. When the mustard seeds pop and the red chillies glisten, remove from fire and dunk into the cooked mixture. Mix well and serve hot with rice and moru curry.

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Kothavarangai Poriyal - Cluster beans stir-fry

I'm not exactly familiar with cluster beans mostly because it wasnt cooked in my home. Don't know about its use in kerala but it seems to be a regular side dish in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. I bought these last weekend for a change in variety of beans as I only bought french beans. Apparently I liked this particular dish whenever I ordered meals in the popular Andhra restaurant Nandhini. I decided to give this recipe a try at home and it was definitely good!



Credit: http://www.rakskitchen.net/2009/04/cluster-beans-poriyal.html

Ingredients:

Cluster Beans,Chopped 1 1/2 cup
Moong dal/Paasi paruppu 2-3 tblsp
Sambhar powder/red chilli powder 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/8 tsp
Coconut gratings 1/4 cup
Onion 1 no.
Salt As needed

To Temper:
Mustard 1 tsp
Urad dal/ulutham paruppu 1 tsp
Curry leaves  A sprig
Oil 1 tsp

Method:

1.Remove the head and tail of cluster beans,wash them and chop them finely as shown in the picture.
2.Boil the cluster beans in water,along with moong dhal,turmeric,salt,sambhar/red chilli powder.
3.Cook till done,moong dal should be just done,not too soft....by that time moong dhal gets cooked,cluster beans too should have got cooked just right.
4.Drain the water and keep aside.
5.Heat kadai and temper with the tempering items,followed by onion and fry till onion turns transparent.
6.Add the cooked cluster beans,moong dal and fry for two minutes in medium flame till moisture gets absorbed. .
7.Add the grated coconut and stir well for a minute.
8.Transfer to the serving dish! Serve as accompaniment for rice.

This tastes great when mixed with ghee and hot rice. Thats how I ate it in Nandhini too. Add a fried pappad and you're good to go.

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Chicken Spring Rolls

These are an all-time favourite starter for me. I dream of these lovely juicy crispy rolls that we used to order from the famous Gulf Royal Chinese Restaurant in Riyadh. The chicken spring rolls with that sweet and light tomato sauce was something to die for!! So I've been having this craving for quite some while now, and I've been disappointed by all the spring rolls I've had from India so far.. maybe I have not been trying them at the right place, but they're usually very small, thin and dry without any of the goodness that the Chinese ones in Riyadh had. I've done a bit of googling to find the ultimate recipe. Instead I've found more than one good recipe and kind of tried to use all the ideas I liked in them. So these were my inspirations to my final product:

1. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-spring-rolls-recipe/index.html
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickenandvegetables_89282
3. http://food.sify.com/nonvegrecipes/ingredient/Chicken_Spring_Rolls-131329

My Recipe:

Ingredients:

For the filling:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon grated ginger
2 carrots, julienned
5-10 French beans, julienned
1/2 or 1 cup very finely chopped cabbage
2 large spring onions, finely sliced lengthways
1 - big capsicum (very finely sliced)
2 ounces rice stick noodles, blanched and chopped
1/2 cup shredded cooked chicken breast
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce (I used mushroom soy)
2 tablespoons chopped coriander

Wrappers:
1 package frozen spring roll wrappers, thawed
1 egg, beaten
Vegetable oil, for frying

Method:

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wok. Add minced garlic and grated ginger first. Before it turns brown add the cabbage, carrots, french beans, spring onions and capsicum. Toss till the cabbage starts to wilt (is just limp). Add the noodles and chicken; continue to cook until heated through. Sprinkle pepper. Stir in the hsoy and oyster sauces, toss to coat the mixture. The filling should be moist but not wet. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Toss in the chopped coriander.
Lay a spring roll wrapper on a flat surface on an angle so it looks like a diamond. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the filling near the bottom corner of the wrapper and fold up to enclose the filling. Fold in the 2 sides. Paint the top seam of the wrapper with beaten egg. Continue rolling up to form a tight cylinder.

Pour about 1-inch of oil in a skillet and heat to 350 degrees F. Fry the spring rolls for 2 minutes, turning to cook all sides. Drain on paper towels before serving. Serve with spring roll sauce. I used the readymade one but you can make your own too. Below recipe is from: http://www.thaifood.food-recipe-cooking.com/spring-roll-01-th-nv.htm

I havent tried it out yet, but hope to try next time I make spring rolls.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 fresh red chilli
1 tablespoon tapioca powder

Procedure: First of all take the chilli and grind it well. It should disintegrate into very small pieces and not be ground to a smooth paste, now keep the ground chilli aside. Next, take an empty cup and put two tablespoons of water in it, add the tapioca powder to this water and mix it well.
Add 1/4 cup water to a pan and then add the sugar, ground chilli, salt and vinegar, mix all the ingredients well. Now put the pan on a low flame and allow the mixture to boil. As the mixture starts boiling add the tapioca water into the mixture and stir well. Allow the mixture to boil for around 30 seconds more, then turn off the flame. Your dipping sauce is now ready and should be allowed to cool to room temperature.

My notes: I think its very important to not have any of the filling exposed through holes in the wrappers especially at the edges. Because if oil gets into the filling and makes it very oily, its not going to be worth eating. So if its difficult to cover it all using one wrapper, add a second wrapper on it. I couldnt tell which had two wrappers and which had one as they were tightly wrapped.
I also think that if the egg coating doesnt help in sticking the wrapper's edges, a paste of cornflour and water could be used. I stuck to the beaten egg but next time I would try the cornflour paste (my mom used to seal it with cornflour paste as far as I remember).
The sauce that was served in GRCR (Gulf Royal Chinese Restaurant) was like a very dilute tomato ketchup like sauce. I have no idea how they made it but could not find any recipe on the net after 5 mins of research. If anyone who bothers to read this blog finds one, please let me know.

PS: I know I dont have all that many readers or followers for this blog. Just 3 followers, out of which one is myself :P, the other is my sis and the other one is my bf lol! But I know I get a few hits from other countries such as the US, Malaysia, UAE, Kuwait, even Germany, UK and Thailand!! Thank you all for visiting, please feel free to leave in any comments about what you think of this blog or even suggestions. Thank you again, you silent readers! I know even I dont really bother to always leave comments on the blogs from which I get inspired and use as credits here, but sometimes I do.

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Quick Stir Fry Noodles

This is my own recipe. :)
I used to make this when I lived alone. Filling, tasty and super easy. Except the time spent on cutting the vegetables.

Ingredients:

Ching's Secret Vegetable/Egg Hakka Noodles
Carrot - 1
Capsicum - 1
French Beans - 4
Mushroom Soy Sauce - 2 tablespoon
Oregano - 2 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
Sweet chilli sauce - optional
Salt to taste
Oil

Method:

Wash all vegetables and peel carrots. Cut all vegetables in julienne size. The Julienne cut for dummies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julienning & http://www.ehow.com/how_13876_julienne-vegetables.html
Boil water in a saucepan and add the noodles to it. After about 2-3 mins, the noodles will be cooked. Drain and add a few drops of oil to it and mix, to prevent them from sticking to each other.
In a kadhai (indian wok), heat some oil and add all the vegetables into it. Stir fry them for about 5 minutes. Add pepper, oregano and mushroom soy sauce to it and mix. Add a little salt to this (do not add too much as the soy sauce already contains salt). Add the noodles little by little tossing in between. If all noodles do not catch the color of soy sauce after mixing them around, you may choose to add some more soy sauce, oregano and pepper. If you have sweet chilli sauce, you can add that to this and mix. After its tossed well, you can take it off the heat and serve. If you want to add ketchup, you may do that as well. Bon appetit!

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Beans-carrot thoran

This is also another thoran from vazhayila. This one does not have the easy mixing of ingredients first in a bowl but I think you can do that like it was done for carrot thoran. Anyway I followed this one to the T.

Credit: http://www.vazhayila.com/2010/01/beans-carrot-thoran.html

view original source ! Vazhayila !: Beans-carrot thoran http://www.vazhayila.com/2010/01/beans-carrot-thoran.html#ixzz1AMF9kaUX

Ingredients:

Beans chopped - 1 cup

Carrot grated - 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 4 tsp

Small onion chopped - 1

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Green chilies chopped - 2 -3

Ginger chopped - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds 

Curry leaves 

Oil

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.When they pop up add chopped small onions, green chiles, ginger and curry leaves . Saute well till they are soft.

Add turmeric powder and mix it well. Stir in the chopped carrots and green beans and toss it well.Sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of water and simmer it covered for 7-9 minutes , until they are cooked and the raw smell disappears, stirring occassionally so that it wont stick to the bottom.Stir in the grated coconut and cook it uncovered for another 5 minutes .

Serve warm.

My note:

Thank you Sarah! My mom's name is also Sarah :)

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