The Kerala Kitchen Best Dish Award May 2012

               

I was so happy and excited when I came to know my Malabar Chicken Biriyani  have won the Best Dish Award in the The Kerala Kitchen contest held at Jehanne's wonderful space The Cooking Doctor. It is such an honor, I was really surprised and thrilled when I came to know about it. She is also sending 'Le Creuset Volcanic Stoneware soup bowl' to the winners which looks so cool and pretty. Thanks a lot Jehanne dear, that is so sweet of you.

Check out for the other winners of May at her space The Cooking Doctor. Also she has compiled all the recipes into an e-book which is just awesome. The e-book contains all the entries of the event for the month, which includes Best Dish, Best Picture and the top contribution list as well. 

Cabbage Thoran with Green Peas n Carrot/Cabbage Stir Fry with Green Peas n carrot(Sabzi) and an Award

Cabbage thoran is Keralite's favorite side dish, very simple and elegant sabzi that holds a very important place even in 'Kerala Sadya'. This is one of my family favorite side dish that goes well with boiled Rice and can be served with Roti as well. Most of the time I add carrot and green peas along with cabbage to make it a veggie pack side dish and the color combo of three is just great. So sharing with my readers the simple and humble Cabbage thoran with Green Peas and Carrot. Enjoy!!!

Ingredients:-

1. Cabbage - 1/2 lbs
2. Carrot chopped - 1 
3. Green peas - 1/2 cup
4. Onion chopped - 1
5. Green chilly - 3
6. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
7. Dry red chilly - 2
8. Urad dal- 1 tsp
9. Curry leaves a sprig
10. Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
11. Salt as needed
12. Coconut oil or any oil of your choice - 2 tbsp
13. Grated coconut - 2 tbsp

Preparation Method:-

• Chop the cabbage into fine strips, wash them well in a colander and let the water drain completely. 
• Heat up a kadai/frying pan, pour oil, crackle mustard seeds. Add urad dal, few curry leaves, dry red chilly, green peas, chopped carrots, salt and stir fry for two-three minutes. 
• Add the turmeric powder and stir to mix. Add chopped cabbage, stir fry for a minute. 
• Cover and cook in medium heat for another two-three minutes, check for the salt and switch off the stove.
• Add grated coconut and stir well to mix and move to a serving plate.
• Serve warm with Rice/Roti

Sending this to The Kerala Kitchen Event hosted by Kaveri @ Palakkad Chamayal

I'm really thankful to Julie @ Erivum Puliyum for honoring me with this Happy Blogger Award. Julie is a very enthusiastic and active blogger who comes up with very innovative recipes and always encourages the fellow bloggers with her comments and suggestions. I'm really happy to have her on my small space and happier to follow her space to check on her culinary skills, so friends check out her space @ Erivum Puliyum to find some great recipes and ideas :)

Now let me pass this award to these wonderful fellow bloggers :)

1. Manju's Eating Delights
2. Mayeeka
3. Kurryleaves
4. My Favorite Foods
5. Good Food
6. Cook With Fun
7. Ruchi
8. Kitchen Corner - Try it
9. Spicy Treats
10. Torview

Lemon Rice and Awards

Lemon Rice is one of the most comforting one pot meal, I mostly make this for my hubby's lunchbox. This can be made quick when you are in a jiffy and whenever you have any trip this is really wonderful rice to carry since it doesn't need a lot of labour to make them and they stay fresh for a very long time. This can be made with any left over rice as well and the rice gets a wonderful makeover. I made it with leftover parboiled Rice. So Enjoy having this ezee Lemon Rice served with Raita/Lemon pickle or just as it is :)

Ingredients: -

1. Cooked Rice - 2 cups
2. Lemon Juice extracted from 2 or 3 fresh Lemon
3. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
4. Urad dal - 1 tsp
5. Chana dal -  1tbsp
6. Cashews - 1/4 cup
7. Peanut - 1/4 cup
8. Dry Red chilly - 2 broken into halves
9. Shallots chopped - 1/2 cup(or 1/2 onion finely chopped)
10. Green chilly - 3 slit into halves(optional, I prefer adding green chilly but I didn't use it here since I didn't have them)
11. Curry leaves a sprig 
12. Oil - 2 tbsp
13. Salt to taste

Preparation Method:-

• Heat up a wide pan, pour oil, add mustard seeds. When they start to crackle add urad dal, chana dal, cashews, peanut, dry red chillies and curry leaves and saute for a minute in medium heat till they start becoming light brown.
• Add the shallots and green chilies and saute till onion turn light brown. Add the lemon juice and salt, add boiled rice when the lemon juice starts to boil from edges. 
• Saute well till to mix everything and till the raw smell of lemon juices vanishes. Check for salt and adjust accordingly. Switch off the stove and move to a serving dish and garnish with coriander leaves if desired . Serve warm with Raita and pickle of your choice.

Sending this to Let's Cook # 11 ~ Rice event hosted by Radhika @ Tickling Palates and Cooking with Leftovers hosted by Veena @ Veg Junction

   

Now coming to awards, I have been honored with a couple of awards again with some of my wonderful blogger friends. Thanks a lot to one and all who passed this awards to me. I was confused whether to post some of those awards since I have already posted couple of them before, but then I decided to post it as I wanted to pass it over to few of my new blogger buddies. So here goes the list of awards and friends please grab it and pass it over to your favorite blogger friends :)

1. I was honored with 'Liebster' award again by Faseela at Good Food Ends with Good Talk and Ann at Anzzcafe . They both are extra talented people who own a wonderful space with lot of great recipes, please visit their space and encourage them with your valuable comments. Thanks a lot Faseela and Ann once again for this cute award. 

'Liebster' means favourite or dearest in German. Rules for accepting the award: 
- Thank the person who gave the award and link back to their blog.
- Copy and paste the award to your blog.
- Reveal the 5 blogs you have chosen to award and let them know by commenting on their blog.
- Hope they pass it forward by accepting and awarding it to bloggers they would like to honour

I would like to share this award with my blogger friends, I really wanted to pass it over to many more but since I am suppose to pass it over to five of them I felt hard to choose five here.

1.Pushpa of Taste as you Cook 
2. Anita of Recipe with Pictures
3. Nisha at Nisha's Kitchen
4. Sangeeta at Sangeeta's Kitchen
5.Shilpa Kiran of Cook With Fun

I'm extremely happy to receive this 'Fabulous Award' from Teena of Teenz' Yummy Delight. She posses a  wonderful blog with very innovative and fabulous recipes. Check out her space and discover some of her wonderful recipes as well and leave your valuable comments as well.

Let me pass it over to the following wonderful blogger friends.

• Priya Soshy at These are a few of my favorite things
• Faseela at Good Food Ends with Good Talk
• Uma at My Kitchen Experiments
• Sidra Ajmad at My Passion For Cooking
• Sangeetha at Spicy Treats
• Ganga Sreekanth at My Favorite Foods
• Sravani at Srav's Culinary Concepts
• Radhika at Tickling Palates
• Anzz at Anzzcafe
• Puja at US Masala
• Suja at Kitchen Corner - Try It

I was once again honored with the following wonderful awards and I'm really grateful to Nalini at Nalini's Kitchen for passing on these awards to me. Thanks once again dear Nalini for this award, she owns a fabulous blog with great pictures and step wise instructions. I admire her for her passion towards cooking, friends please visit her space and explore her culinary talent. 

             

Now Let me pass it on to these blogger friends.

• Lekshmi Manjush of Lekshmi's Adukkala
• Christy Gerald at My Kitchen Flavors - Bon Appetit!
• Ash at Indulge-Ash Corner
• Kavi at Edible Entertainment
• Sobha Shyam at Good Food
• Shanthi at Shanthi Krishnakumar's Cook Book
• Padhu at Padhuskitchen
• Kaveri at Palakkad Chamayal
• Ramya at Ramya's Recipe
• Santosh Bangar at Santosh's Kitchen

Julie Christmas Delicacy Event was a great success with almost 243 entries for the event and I'm really happy to be a part of it by sending in few of my entries. I'm extremely happy for her success and wish her many more success for her future. Julie is a really talented lady who own's her wonderful blog 'Erivum Puiyum' with great innovative ideas and recipe. So friends why wait check out her blog as well and do not forget to leave  your valuable comments at her space as well. 

This is my Proud Participant Award and Thank You Note from Julie @ Erivum Puliyum

Neychoru/Ghee Rice and an Inspirational Award

Ghee Rice or Neychoru as we call it, is a specialty rice in the Kannur/Malabar region. Neychoru is made by sauteing rice in ghee and aromatic whole spices and cooking them till soft. This is made richer by adding ghee fried cashews, raisins and garnishing with fried onions.

I normally do not need any specific reason for making this. But of course if I have any plans to make Mutton/Goat Curry I will not give a second thought of what should I make for lunch. It will be mostly Neychoru/Ghee rice as Mutton curry and Ghee Rice are really a wonderful combo. Ghee Rice do not need any extra effort for cooking as they take only the normal basmathi rice's cooking time. So Enjoy making Neychoru/Ghee Rice :)

Ingredients:-

Bamathi Rice/Jeerakashala Rice - 2 cups

Ghee - 2tbsp

Green Cardamom -3 pods

Cloves - 4

Cinnamon Stick 2 inch size - 2 

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

Black pepper corns - 10 

Salt to taste

Water - 4 cups

Onions - 1

Cashews, Raisins a handful(more/less as per your preference)

Oil to deep fry the 1 onion(1/2 cup)

Preparation Method:-

• Heat up a pan and pour the oil. When the oil is hot enough deep fry the onions till golden brown and set aside.
• Wash the rice and soak them in water for 20 minutes. Drain off the water fully and set aside. 
• Pour four cups of water into a pot/vessel and get to boil. Set aside
• Meanwhile heat up a  thick bottom vessel, add ghee and saute the cashews and raisins and take them out when they turn golden brown.
• Add cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, peppercorns, fennel seeds to the same ghee and stir for a minute or two till the nice aroma of whole spices starts to spread :)
• Add the rice to it and fry for two-three minutes so that rice absorbs the aroma of spices and ghee.
• Add the boiled hot water and salt to it. Stir till the bottom of the pan with a spatula or spoon and cover and let it boil.
• When the water and rice starts to boil reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook.
• Switch off the stove when the water is fully absorbed and rice is cooked to soft.
• Leave it uncovered for ten minutes and let it release the heat a little bit so that the rice grains do not break when you stir.
• Now stir the rice gently or move them to two or three platters so that the rice do not stick to each other.
• Garnish the Neychoru/ Ghee Rice with ghee fried cashews, raisins and fried onions. Serve warm with Raita and any Non-Veg/Veg curry of your choice. Enjoy!!!

I am really happy that I was honored with an Inspirational Blog Award by Christy Gerald of My Kitchen Flavors - Bon Appetit!. Thank you so much Christy for this award and will surely try to Inspire my fellow bloggers more by appreciating them on their great work. After all that is all what I can do to inspire them more on their excellent creativity :)

The inspirational blogger award is got a very lovely thought of answering 8 questions regarding you as a person along with this sweet award. So the questions seems to be the following one's and My answers are marked in Red and bold under each questions. I'm feeling so weird answering some 'questions and answers' after so long time :)

1.What makes you laugh,smile or giggle?

I do not need to hear any big jokes, to be frank I laugh on all the silly things happening around. Maybe any silly movie jokes, my kids pranks, my hubby mischief's, I even laugh when I slip and fall every year in the rock ice/snow even if my bump hurts terribly bad ;) ha ha ha.. 

2.What are your dreams for your future?

I do not dream high and take life as it comes. I believe in the thought 'Man proposes God Disposes'. So why to regret by dreaming something and they fail? 

But of course will always pray to God to keep my family and all around the world in good health and mental peace. 

3.If you are going to a cruise,where would it be and why?

I would love to explore Hawaii and/or Alaska as I have heard it is a great destination for family and kids. Waiting for my little girl to turn at-least three :)

4.How would you spend your vacation and with whom?

Like most of the 'Pravasi'/Bird of Passage my vacation idea is always the India trip with my parent/in-laws and my whole big family. Eating In/Out, cooking less, eating a lot of ethnic/non-ethnic dishes cooked by anyone not me ;) and trying to reach out all the nostalgic places of my childhood.

5.If given a life,what life would you choose ? Your life now or your past?

I do not believe in life as such past, present, future. Life is beautiful at times, sad sometimes, freaky, challenging and many more. I would not like to 'dwell in the past' but cherish all those good moments lived/still living as a sibling, daughter, wife, mother and friend. 

6.Is there something that you wished before when you were young but you didn't get it?

One???? there are many so 'pass' :)

7.Have you been in a situation where you might have given up but you still choose to move on?

Yes, many maybe and I have learned 'you never know what life has kept for you next'. Good/bad it is life, just move on :)

8. Is there someone in your life who has been your source of strength and inspiration?

My parents, siblings and husband is my strength and always have been supportive.  

Now let me pass it on to my fellow bloggers who have always inspired me with their great innovative recipes, wonderful pictures and inspiring comments on my posts :) So grab it friends feel proud for the award and pass it on to your favorite blogger friends..

1. Anzz @ AnzzCafe

2. Uma @ My Kitchen Experiments

3. Faseela @ Good Food Ends With Good Talk

4. Sonali Pradhan @ Only Fish recipes

5. Sobha Shyam @ Good Food

6. Teena @ Teenz Yummy Delights 

7. Nalini Suresh @ Nalini's Kitchen

8. Kurryleaves @ Kurryleaves

9. Ramya @ Ramya's Recipe

10. Vineetha @ Ruchi

11. Hemalatha @ Hema's Kitchen

Check out their wonderful space and encourage them as well :)

Sending this to Sinful Delights hosted by Vardhini @ Zesty Palette

Semiya/Vermicelli - Sabudana Kheer and Awards

 From November end to Mid Jan marks the most important days for our lives not just because of the thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. We love this season for the reason that it holds a lot of celebration for our family. Starting from my daughter's birthday on 28th Nov follows by son's birthday on 14th Dec, Christmas and New Year Celebration, continues with my birthday on Jan 2nd and our Wedding Anniversary :) And yaa, the blog Anniversary comes somewhere in between Dec-Jan and I do not really remember the date ;) So I guess I should take it as on Jan 20 since that day marks the first blog post :)

We had a great birthday party for the kids last weekend. Clubbing both birthdays together was lots of fun for the 'bacha parties' here. I did a lot of cooking with  fifty friends for the party, we had a great time with family and friends :)

I didn't want to bake for my my son's 'real birthday' as we already have leftover birthday cake. But Still I just wanted to make something sweet for him and made this Vermicelli-Sabudana Kheer as he is really fond of Kheer/Payasam. This is my family favorite Kheer as well and sabudana just looks great with vermicelli and really adds taste and a nice texture to this Kheer/Payasam. Try this out friends as the results are amazing, Enjoy :)

Ingredients:-

Semiya/Vermicelli - 1 cup
Sabudana/Sago - 1/2 cup
Sugar -1 cup(you can add/reduce according to ur taste)
Cardamom - 2 pods(Coarse ground)
Cashews, Raisins a handful
Milk - 3 cups
Nestle Carnation Milk - 1 tin
Ghee/Butter - 2 tbsp
Water - 2 cups

Preparation Method:-

• Wash and soak the Sabudana/Sago for an hour.
• Heat up a wide and thick bottom pan, add the ghee and roast the cashews and raisins for a minute and set aside.
• In another pot pour the milk and get it to boil on medium heat stirring in between. Switch off the flame and set aside.
• Meanwhile add the vermicelli/Semiya to the same pan in the left over ghee of cashews-raisins and dry roast it till they are golden brown(If you are buying roasted Semiya please opt out of roasting them, just add to the ghee and fry for 2-3 mins so that vermicelli absorbs the aroma of ghee)
• Add the boiled milk and a cup of water to the Semiya and stir well. Cover and let it cook on medium heat keep stirring in between.
• In another pan add the Sabudana/Sago and a cup of water and cook it till they look smooth and give a translucent texture.
• Add this to the Semiya/Vermicelli-Milk mixture and stir well and let it boil for a minute or two. 
• Add the sugar ans stir well and let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Pour the carnation milk at the end and stir well to mix and cook for another 5-6 minutes.
• Sprinkle the cardamom powder and stir well and mix and switch off the flame. Garnish with Cashews and Raisins.
• Serve hot or chill, I prefer to have it chilled though :) Enjoy!!!!!

Sending this to Jingle All The Way hosted by Kavi @ Edible Entertainment

Also sending this to Sinful Delights hosted by Vardhini @ Zesty Palette

I am really honored and thankful to Julie of Erivum Puliyum for considering me for the awards below. It really means a lot and encouraged me to blog more. Julie is a wonderful blogger who is very regular in blogging and comes out with very innovative recipes. Check her space @ Erivum Puliyum .

    

I would like to pass it on to the following bloggers and friends pass it on to your best blogger friends. Let hte awards keep going..

1) Irene @ Curry Masala

2) Shilpikiran @ Cook with Fun

3) Amina Khaleel @ Amina Creations

4) Santosh Bangar @ Santosh's Kitchen

5) Khusi @ A Girl's Diary

6) Anzz @ Anzz Cafe

Blog Event Awards

Received an 'Award Of Participation' award from Ramya of Ramyasrecipe for participating in ABC Series : A for Apple Event.

Thanks a lot Ramya for this cute little award.