Beef cutlet

Day before yesterday we celebrated our first wedding anniversary....cant imagine we had completed an year so soon...I made some chicken biriyani,beef cutlets and vegetable cutlets...This beef cutlet is my mom's special recipie which I had relished during my childhood days.My mom makes this often and takes it to her office and shares it with her colleagues....I do also remember she made during one of the mission sales day in school and I sold some 40 cutlets for 700 rupees...I started selling the cutlets for 4 rupees each and as the demand increased we increased its price up to 15 and 20 rupees... still there were students ready to pay for it.I guess that was in my 4th or 5th standard and our class stood second in mission sales collection..

Kerala style fish curry

Fish curry in kerala is cooked in earthern pots which elevates its flavour.
For that matter any dish cooked in an earthern pot has an unique taste.

I still remember the taste of fish curry made by my grandmother freshly plucked and ground spices available at home like pepper,turmeric,chillies ,curry leaves and the fish caught just few moments before making the curry from the river flowing beside our house.Makes me feel nostalgic...Waiting for my next visit to kerala.

Here goes the recipie.

Chicken Masala

Chicken cooked with home ground spices and coconut milk.This can be had with chappathis rice or used as  a masala for biriyani too.

Prawns masala

Prawns are my all time favourite.Every time I go home from college for a vaccation/holiday, I call up my mom the previous day and arrange my menu for the next day, which consists of only prawns, sometimes 3 times a day.My dad keeps dictating "too much of prawns are not good" still he gets me huge amount of prawns from the fishing harbour every time and my mom spends her time cleaning it.

Also when I return to hostel, I carry a bottle of prawns pickle with me,which would last for just 2-3 days...:-(.

This is one of the simplest recipie of prawns and you can have this solely with rice without any other gravies/curries.

Ingredients

Prawns-1 cup cooked prawns

Cook prawns with 2 split green chillies, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste and salt.

Onions-3

Tomatoes-2

Green chillies-1

Ginger garlic paste -1tbsp (ginger small piece and garlic-4 cloves)

Chilly powder-1 tsp

Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp

Pepper powder- 1/2 tsp

Few curry leaves

Salt to taste

Directions

Heat a pan, add oil, chopped onions and fry till it becomes light brown, add curry leaves,ginger garlic paste, tomatoes and saute till it is cooked.Then add chilly powder,turmeric powder,pepper powder, and saute for 2-3 minutes.

Add cooked prawns along with its stock.Mix well.Check for salt and add accordingly.

Keep frying until it becomes semi dry and is coated well in the masala.Garnish with corrainder leaves.Serve hot with rice.

Spicy Beef fry

This is a simple beef recipie.

Here is the recipie....

Ingredients

Beef- 1/2 kg  (1 full medium sized bowl of cooked meat)

[I took 1 kg of beef and cooked it in a pressure cooker with 4 spit green chiilies,1/2 tsp turmeric powder, ginger(thumb size) and 4 cloves of garlic crushed ,salt and 1/4 water]

Took half of this amount for making this dish.Also used the stock obtained.

Onions-3

Tomato-1 small

Green chillies-1

Ginger -an inch

Garlic-4 cloves

Chilly powder-1 tsp

Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp

Meat masala-1-2 tsp

Garam masala-1/2 tsp

Corriander leaves-few

Pepper powder-1/2 tsp

Curry leaves-few

salt to taste

 

 

Directions

Take oil in a pan add chopped onions and saute well for a minute

Add ground ginger garlic corriander leaves paste, curry leaves, green chillies and fry.

Add chopped tomatoes and cook until tomatoes become mushy.

Add chilly powder, meat masala, pepper powder, turmeric powder and fry for a minute.

Now add half the amount of cooked beef to this mixture and coat with this masala.

Add some amount of the beef stock (obtained while pressure cooking) to this mixture and keep stiring until all the water evaporates.Add salt as required.Before removing from fire, sprinkle garam masala,mix well and wait for few secs.

Garnish with corriander leaves and serve hot.

Noodles Crispy

This is a tasty and crispy snack recipie.Try it for yourself and enjoy.

Ingredients

Cooked Noodles -1 cup (cooked with noodles masala and strained)

Ginger-1/2 an inch

Green Chillies-2

Egg-1

Corriander leaves-few

Boiled Chicken or Fried chicken shredded as 5-6 pieces (vegetarians can substitute this with potato)

Corn flour-2 tbsps

Maida-1 1/2

Salt

Water

Directions

Mix all the above ingredients and add water,not very loose but similar to batter used for frying bajjis.

Heat oil in a pan.When oil is hot, deep fry.Remove from fire and place on a paper towel.Serve hot.

Garlic Chicken

This dish is tasty and I happen to prepare this on my birthday and my husband liked it.I guess this is the Indian version, because the chinese recipie which I tasted was white in colour and tasted different.

So here is the recipie

Ingredients

Chicken -250 gm boneless

Garlic -12 cloves

Onions- 3 tbsp

Capsicum-3 tbsp

Soya sauce-1 tbsp

Chilli sauce-2 tbsp

Tomato sauce-3 tbsp

Butter  -1tbsp

Corn flour-1tbsp

Salt to taste

Directions

Cook chicken in a cooker with butter ,water and salt for 1-2 whistles.Use the remaining water which is left with cooked chicken as "chicken stock".

Add butter to a pan, chopped garlic, onions and fry till it becomes transparent and garlics have become light brown, add soya sauce, chilly sauce, tomato sauce, pepper, capsicum and chicken pieces and keep stiring till capsicums are partly cooked.

Add corn flour to the stalk and mix well add this to chicken mixture, add celery and sugar and mix well for a minute.Add salt to taste.

Remove from fire.Serve hot.

Dragon Chicken

I prepared this when I had done the garlic chicken.Since I was preparing both these recipies for the first time, wanted to have a back up, if either of this flops.However both of them turned out to be good.Both are unique in taste.

Ingredients

For marination

Chicken sliced lengthwise-1/2 kg

Ginger Garlic paste -1/2 tsp

Egg white-1

Salt as per taste

For gravy

Ginger -1tsp

Garlic -1tsp

Cashewnuts-1/4 cup

Crushed red chilly-2 tsp

Celery-1/4 cup

Tomato sauce-1 1/2 tsp

Soyasauce-1 1/2 tsp

Sugar-1/2

Salt to taste

 

 

Directions

Marinate chicken with the ingredients under marinate section and deep fry after 2 hours.

For gravy, add ginger and garlic paste to a hot pan with 1 tbsp of oil and fry for a minute,add cashewnuts and fry again, add crushed red chilly, celery, tomato sauce, soya sauce, sugar and mix well.

Add chicken to this mix and let it stay for few minutes,add salt to taste, remove from fire and serve hot.

Spinach with prawns curry

Any vegetable cooked with pinch of turmeric,green chillies, ginger,garlic and salt imparts a special flavour.

In my granny's place, in ernakulam, every vegetable is combined with prawns,mixed with crushed red chillies,ginger garlic paste,turmeric powder and freshly plucked curry leaves in an earthern pot and cooked in coconut oil.It has an unique flavour.

If you dislike any vegetable, combining with prawns, elevates the taste of the dish (provided you like prawns).Vegetables like potatoes,drumstick,country beans,pumpkin etc are used normally.

Ingredients

For cooking spinach

Spinach- 1 bunch
Ginger-1/2 inch
Garlic-2 flakes

Turmeric-1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

For cooking prawns


Prawns- handful
Ginger-1/2 inch
Garlic-4 flakes
Turmeric- 1/2 tsp
Green Chillies-2 green chillies spit into 2

Salt to taste

For making the dish

 

Chilly powder-1 tsp

Green chillies-1

Tomatoes-2

Onions-1 medium size

Salt to taste

Directions


Take a pan and cook prawns with turmeric,crushed ginger ,garlic ,green chillies and salt as required.
Add 3-5 tbspns of water and cover the pan.


Cook spinach in the same way separately with some water and with mentioned ingredients.


Now take another pan, add oil(coconut oil preferred) add chopped onions, saute till light brown add tomatoes and cook till the oil separates add the spinach and cook for few more seconds.

Add the prawns at the end and mix well.Serve with rice.

Mutton curry

Ingredients

For cooking mutton


Mutton -1/2 kg

Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp

Green chillies-2

Garlic-4 big flakes

Ginger-1/2 inch


For the gravy


Tomatoes-2
Onion-1
Green chillies-2
Ginger-1/2 inch
Garlic- 4 flakes if big else 6
Corriander powder-1 tsp
Red chilly powder-1 tsp
Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
Cumin seed powder-1/2 tsp
Curd-1/4 cup
Corriander leaves-1/4 cup
Garam masala-1/2 tsp


Directions


Cook mutton in a pressure cooker with turmeric, crushed mixture of ginger ,garlic and green chillies and 1/4 cup water. Add salt as required.
Wait for 1 whistle and then simmer till next whistle else wait for 15 minutes and turn off.


For the gravy, grind the onion, green chillies, ginger, garlic and fry in a pan with oil till golden brown.
Add chilly powder,coriander powder,turmeric powder,cumin seed powder and fry till dark brown.
Add tomatoes and saute till oil separates also add beaten curd and then add cooked mutton and let it boil.
Add corriander leaves and garam masala at the end.

Serve hot with ghee rice or chappathis.

                                                   

Fish curry (Varthaaracha meen curry)

Ingredients

Fish –1/2 kg

Sliced Shallots – 3 or 4

Minced Ginger – 1 to 2 tbsp

Minced Garlic – 2 to 3 pods

Curry Leaves – A sprig

Fish Tamarind (Kudampuli) – 2 small pieces

Fish Masala Powder – 1 tbsp (optional)

Lemon Juice – 1 tbsp 

Oil – 2 to 3 tbsp

Mustard Seeds – 1/4 tsp

Salt – to taste

Water – as needed

Roasting

Grated Coconut – 1 cup
Fennel Seeds (Perum Jeerakam) – 1/4 tsp
Curry Leaves – A few
Shallots – 2
Garlic – 1 small pod
Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
Kashmiri Chilly Powder – 2 tbsp 
Coriander Powder – 1 tbsp
Fenugreek Powder (Uluva) – 1/4 tsp
Pepper Powder – 1/2 tsp


Directions


Clean the fish thoroughly and cut it into curry sized pieces. Soak it in water along with 1 tbsp lemon juice for 5 minutes. Wash and drain the fillets. Keep aside.

Wash and soak the fish tamarind (kudampuli) in 1 cup of warm water.

Heat a non stick pan and dry roast coconut, shallots, garlic, curry leaves and fennel seeds until the coconut turns into a nice dark brown color.

Reduce heat and add coriander, chilly, turmeric, fenugreek and pepper powders. Continue roasting for a minute or two and remove from heat. Allow it to cool and grind everything to a smooth powder.

Apply this roasted coconut-spice powder on the fish along with salt and little water. Keep the marinated fish aside for atleast 15 minutes.

Heat oil in a deep pan or earthern pot and splutter mustard seeds.

Throw in the sliced shallots, curry leaves, ginger and garlic. Saute for a few minutes until the shallots begin to brown.

Reduce heat and add 1 tbsp fish masala powder. Saute for a minute.

Add the fish tamarind along with its water. Add more water as required along with salt to taste.

Stir everything and allow it to come to a slow boil and then add the marinated fish pieces along with any remaining roasted coconut paste.

Cover and cook the fish for around 15 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally. Remove lid and continue cooking so that the gravy thickens.

Remove from stove top and keep covered. The gravy tends to thicken after a while.

Yummy Kerala Beef stew

I had always disliked the white creamy stew during my childhood because brightly colored food appealed more to me..Food to me has to be hot and spicy, but as I grew, my taste buds sensed the flavour in these white colored gravies.The spices used in this gravy gives it an unique taste.

And now I cant resist from preparing this recipie almost every 2 weeks.

Have a look at beef stew recipie.