Fish Curry in Coconut Milk - Ernakulam area

We used this blog to get a basic recipe  and it turned out pretty good. Simple looking recopies like this are a challenge to make while in the U.S., so we are writing it down for the details later. This curry is very close to fish molly ..except that chilly is substituted for black pepper. Also, the ingredient we seldom get right here is vinegar . It makes a big difference back home where all natural coconut vinegar is used not the synthetic substitutes.

We used white sea bass - something that's available in Ranch or Asian markets.  Fish should be very clean for coconut milk based curries so scale them around the fins, apply lot of salt and wash it under the running water  to avoid a 'fishy' feedback later.

Silver Swan Coconut Vinegar and Kara Coconut milk in Tetra Pack was used . 1/2 Cup of the coconut milk was  diluted two ways for the light and thick milk . Added a 1/4 a cup more water than specified to make it thinner .  We also garnished with fried shallots and curry leaves in coconut oil , at the end .
 

Chicken Biriyani

This is traditional Kerala dum style biriyani

Ingredients:

 

1. For preparing the rice:

     a. Basmati rice or         - 750 gm

         Kaima rice  

     b. cinnamon sticks       - 2 pieces

     c. cloves                     - 6

     d. cardamom crushed   - 8

         with skin on     

 

2. Chicken cut in pieces                            - 1 kg

 

3. For marinating the chicken

     a. cinnamon  sticks                            - 2 pieces

     b. cloves                                           - 9

     c. cardamom                                     - 6

     d. nutmeg                                         - 1 cm piece

     e. aniseed                                         - 4 flowers

     f. Sah Jeera or കരിം ജീരകം      - 1/2 tsp

     g. fennel seed                                   -1/2 tsp               

 

4. Ghee                                                - 1/2 cup

5. Yellow Onion cut in thin slices            - 1 Cup

 

6. For making the chicken masala

    a. Shallots chopped                         - 1/2 cup

    b. garlic                                          - 12

    c. Ginger                                         - 1 inch piece

    d. green chilly                                  - 10

        (I use hot Serrano peppers)

    e. grated coconut                            - 4 table spoon

    f. Mint leaves                                  - 1/2 cup

 

7. Turmeric powder                             - 1 tsp

8. a. Curd ( I use nice sour curd)          - 3/4 cup

    b. lemon juice                                  - 1 tsp

    c. sugar                                           - 1 pinch

    d. cuscus ground                              - 2 tsp

 

9. Salt                        

10. For garnish:

      red onion                             - 1 cup

      cashew                                - 1/2 cup

      raisins                                 - 1/2 cup

 

11. Tomato                              - 1

      Corriander leaves               - 1 cup

 

12. Saffron                                  - 1/2 tsp

       Milk                                     - 1/4 cup

       Pineapple essence                 - 1 tsp

       Rose water                           - 2 tsp

       almond coarsely powdered    - 1/2 cup

13. Wheat or all purpose flour for sealing the dum - enough to cover the sides of the pan used for dum purpose.                       

 

Steps:

 

For making chicken masala:

1. Warm the spices in group 3 and crush them. Marinate the chicken with the crushed spices.

2.  First we need to fry all the garnish ingredients from group 10. In hot ghee, fry cashew till brown and remove to a bowl with tissue. In same ghee, fry raisin, remove them to the bowl and then sauté the red onion till dark brown and crispy. Remove the fried onions to the bowl.

3. now, in the same vessel which the group 10 was fried, add the yellow onions and sauté them till transparent.

4. grind the ingredients from group 6 and add them to pan with yellow onions. Sauté till the fresh smell is gone. I sauté till the oil from masala separates and can be seen clearly. I Malayalam we say എണ്ണ തെളിയുക. 

5. add turmeric power

6. add the marinated chicken pieces and sauté for some time.

7. grind ingredients in group 8 and add to the pan

8. add salt

9. cover the pan, let the chicken cook in very low flame.

10. once chicken is cooked, add chopped ingredients from group 11 and cover the pan.

 

For making the rice:

1. wash and soak the rice in water for about 30 mins

2. In a large stockpot boil lots of water and add salt. 

3. once the water boils crush the spices from group 1, and add them to boiling water

4. add the rice and let it cook till you see 2 rings on a grain. when to squeeze a grain between index and thump finger, it should split to 3 pieces.

5. drain the rice.

 

For making the yellow color milk for garnish:

 

1. Boil the milk and saffron from group 12 together. Once the milk becomes nice yellow color, drain the mail into a glass

2. add pineapple essence, rose water and almond powder

 

Now we are ready to assemble the biryani and Dum it.

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree

2. Add the chicken masala in and oven safe pan at the bottom spread it evenly to make a nice layer

3. add rice on top of the chicken masala and spread it evenly

4. use a spoon to drizzle the yellow color milk all over the rice

5. spread the fried onions, cashews and raisins over the rice.

6. close the pan and seal the edges with wheat or all purpose flour dough.

7. Bake for 1 hour. In a steel bowl or some metal bowl, pour water and keep it on top of the pan. this is to ensure than the biriyani would not get dry and would remain soft and fluffy.

8. Break the dum and enjoy delicious biriyani :). We use boild egg, pappadam, raita and lemon pickle to accompany the biriyani :).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

     

 

Basic Yellow cake - two 8" pans

1 cup               butter

1 1/2 cups        sugar
4                     eggs
3/4 cup            milk
1 1/2 t             vanilla extract
2 cups              cake flour
                      (2 cup minus 4 tablespoon all purpose flour + 2 Tbsp corn startch)
2 t                   baking powder
a pinch            salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together
4. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pans. 
5. Bake for 25-30 mins

This was enough for cake for the cinderella pan :)

Ragi Dosa - To be patended :)

                                     

Uzhunnu or urud dal - 1 Cup
Rice  (I use sona masoori) - 1 cup
Ragi powder - 2 cups
Flax seed (Available at whole foods or Sprouts) - 1/2 cup
Uluva or Mehti seed - 1 pinch
Salt - 1 tsp

Soak all of the above ingredients in the morning and grind them by evening to a smooth paste. Store in a container and leave it in the conventional oven with the light on. By next day morning, it would have got fermented. Keep longer if you want it more sour. Enjoy delicious Dosas.

We are going to have a patent on this dosa ;)

Tropical Fruit Salad

Recipe Courtsey: Vinaya Thomas

We have done only slight changes to the recipe like adding Pear and adding fruit flavoured coconut jelly along with the normal one.  Every time we served this fruit Salad, it was all appreciation and query on the recipe :)

 

Serving size: 20.
 

Ingredients

 

1. Canned Fruits: 

• Jack fruit - 2
• Rambutan - 1
• Mixed tropical fruit - 1
• Pineapple - 1 small can or freash one 1/2 cup.
• Palm seed - 1
• Toddy palm seed - 1
• coconut jelly - 2
• Lychee - 1

2. Freash fruits:

• Mango - 2
• Pear - preferred yellow colored crisp ones - 1
• grapes - 1/2 cup
• apple  - 1

3. Sour Cream : one 8 oz can
4. Condensed Milk: 2 table spoons
5. Cashew nuts: 1 hand full

Where to find the ingreadients:

You can get all the canned fruits from 99 Ranch store or Shun Fat Market around Irvine or most of the asian stores. Sour Cream is available from Ralphs or Albertsons or any general grocery stores at the dairy section. Condensed milk is available at Ralphs at the baking section or 99 Ranch store. I usually use the Nestle brand.

 

Preparation:

Remove the canned fruits from the sugar syrups and cut them neatly in square pieces.

Peel all the freash fruits and cut them also in square pieces. Cut the grapes in half.

Add sour cream to the fruits till the desired consistency is achieved.

Add condensed milk.

Crush the cashew nuts and add it to the mixture.

Enjoy delicous fruit salad :).

 

Tips:

 Save the jackfruit syrup.  Add to the fruit salad, if its not sweet enough.