Kallumakkaya Biriyani/Mussels Biriyani ~ Another Malabar Delicacy

Ingredients:-

To Marinate:-

1. Kallumakkaya/Mussels Big - 2lbs(before shells removed)
2. Turmeric powder - ½tsp
3. Chilly powder - 1 tsp
4. Salt - ¾ tsp(adjuslt to taste)
5. Fennel seeds crushed/coarse ground in a mortar - ¼ tsp

For Stir Fry:-

1. Onion very thinly sliced - 3 Cup(4 Med Size)
2. Ginger and Garlic chopped fine/Crushed together in a mortar - 1 tbsp each
3. Green Chilly Chopped fine - 8
4. Tomato sliced fine - 1½ to 2Cup (2 Med)
5. Salt - ½ tsp(to taste)
6. Turmeric powder -  ½ tsp
7. Garam Masala - 1½
8. Curry leaves two sprigs or more
9. Coriander Leaves chopped - 2 tbsp + to garnish

To Garnish(optional- I didn't do it this time):-

1. Cashews a handful
2. Raisins a handful
3. Deep fried Onion - 1(~ ½ cup)
4. Chopped coriander leaves ~ 2tbsp

Preparation Method:-

• Wash the mussels two-three times to remove all the dirt stick on the shell. Place them in a wide vessel/Pot with water to cover the mussels and bring to boil with lid on.
• You will see the shell open and mussel leave the shell from one side and form shape instead of sticking on both sides of the shell.
• Take off the stove and drain off water. Let it cool 
  

  

  Mussels cleaning Process in Pics

• Separate the flesh from the shell and discard the shell. Remove the black color dirt inside the mussel meat. Remove byssus(a strong group of filament like hair) inside the mussels as well.
• Pour water in a bowl and put mussel meat in it. Rinse gently to remove any sand/dirt in the meat once or twice.
• Marinate with Salt, turmeric, chilly powder and crushed fennel seeds. Set aside for 30 minutes.
• Heat a tsp oil in a pan, place the mussels and shallow fry on both sides till they are light brown. Move them to a bowl and set aside.
• Pour oil in the same pan, add curry leaves, minced ginger and garlic and saute till raw smell goes away for a minute or two.
• Add Green chilies, sliced onions, salt  and saute very well in medium heat till they turn translucent. 
• Add tomatoes and saute till they start releasing water content. Break the tomatoes as you saute and let everything blend together well.
• Add turmeric powder, coriander leaves and saute well to mix. Add the shallow fried Mussles/Kallumakkaya and saute well to combine. 
• Cover and let it cook for three-five minutes stirring occasionally.
• Add garam masala and more curry leaves, saute well, cover and let cook for another two-three minutes. Check for salt and adjust. Switch off the stove and set aside till you prepare rice. 

For Ghee Rice:-

1. Jeera Rice/Basmathi Rice - 3 Cups
2. Water - 5 ½ Cups 
3. Cinnamon Stick - 2 inch size broken into halves
4. Green Cardamom Pods - 4
5. Cloves  - 6
6. Bay leaves 2(optional)
7. Whole Pepper corns ~ 7 nos(optional, I like to add them though normal recipes do not call for it)
8. Curry leaves a sprig
9. Ghee ~ 1 tbsp
10. Freshly squeezed Lime Juice ~ 1tbsp(optional)
11. Salt to taste ~ 2 tsp(check and adjust accordingly)
12. Garam Masala - ½ tsp

Making Ghee Rice:-

• Wash rice three to four times in water till you get a clear water, drain the rice fully and set aside. 
• Heat up a wide vessel, add ghee, saute the cashews till light brown and set aside. Add the raisins and saute till they pop up, take out and set aside. 
• Now add cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, cloves, pepper corns and saute well till you start getting a nice aroma of spices. 
• Pour water to it, add salt, squeezed lime juice, few curry leaves and bring to boil. Add rice, stir gently with a spatula till the bottom of the pan just to remove any sticky rice from the bottom. Simmer the heat to medium, cover with an air-tight lid and let it cook until almost done.  
• Open the lid once the water is absorbed(rice should not be fully cooked, but will continue to cook during the dum process) and take off the stove.
• Let it cool for couple of minutes, say around 10-15 minutes, if you try to flip or toss the rice when it is very hot it will tend to break and stick. 
• Stir gently with a spatula when the high steam subsides, move to two-three platters so that they don't form lumps and don't stick together. This way you will get a very nice non-lumpy, non-sticky rice. Proceed for the final stage of layering and dumming :-)

 Dumming the Biriyani in low heat:

• Heat up a thick bottom pan, add 2 tsp oil(or ghee), simmer the heat to medium. 
• Spread some rice on the bottom of the vessel, top it with mussels masala gravy, topped with fried cashews, raisins, fried onions, coriander leaves and sprinkle a pinch of garam masala powder

                                               

• Repeat the process with remaining rice, masala, fried cashews, raisins, onions and garama masala.
• Cover it with an air tight lid or place a kitchen towel flatten on top of the vessel and cover to seal tight with the lid. Cook in low heat until you see steam releasing from the sides of the vessel. 
• Move to a serving plate, garnish with  more raisins, cashews and fried onion. Serve warm with pappads, pickles and chutney.

Note:- 

1. You can dum biriyani in the conventional oven the same way by layering rice and masala. Use a microwaveable tray and cover it airtight using the proper airtight lid or the heavy duty silver foil sheet.

2. If you look at the recipe, I've used very less chilly powder instead have added lot of green chilies where the spice comes in. If you want them more spicy you can add chilly powder or increase the amount of green chilies as this recipes is a medium spicy one.

Fish Biriyani With Tilapia Fish Fillet

I have not been consistent in blogging these days and have almost lost touch with many of my dear blogger buddies and wonderful readers lately. Blame it on me, even if I have excuses like not getting much time to post while managing work and household together, believe me I have missed all the fun being here and had been trying real hard to find some time to blog. It is not the laziness that kept me away from here but three pair of starving eyes which gives me a wierd look when they see my intention to click pictures when they are are waiting eagerly for having something from the the time they are back from school/office just dont let my motherly instict to click any pictures. The sun light is not helping me in anyway as well, by the time I leave office it is already dark. But yes, since I've moved to a new job which is pretty much close to where we live and I have started commuting daily rather than travelling over the weekends, I am getting sometime to cook and click pictures which I am really happy about. I hope I will be active with blogging from now and will definitely make time to hop onto all my blogger buddies post. I request all my wonderful readers and blogger friends to please stay connected and give me the same support and encouragement which you guys gave me before.

Coming onto today's recipe, its the again one of the most family favorite - Fish Biriyani. I have already posted a Fish Biriyani, but the procedure for making this Fish Masala is a lot different which gives this biriyani a very unique taste. I've used Tilapia Fish fillet for making this biriyani, but you can use fish of your choice but try to use fish with less bone and more meat. So make it home today and Enjoy with family and friends!!!

Ingredients Used:-

For making Rice:-

1. Basmathi Rice or Kaima(Jeera) Rice - 4 Cups
2. Water - 7 Cups
3. Salt - 1 tsp(to taste)
4. Cinnamon sticks - 2
5. Cloves - 8
6. Cardamom pods - 4
7. Bay Leaves - 2
8. Whole Black Pepper - few(10 counts)
9. Ghee - 2 tsp(can add more ghee if desired)

For making Fish Masala:-

1. Tilpia Fish Fillet - 6
2. Turmeric powder - ¾ tsp + ½ tsp
3. Chilly powder - 1 tsp + ½ tsp
4. Salt -1 tsp(or more)
5. Fennel Crushed - ½ tsp
6. Coriander powder - 1 tsp
7. Garam Masala - 1 tsp
8. Coconut oil/Oil - 3 tbsp
9. Onion Finely sliced - 3
10. Tomato finely sliced - 3
11. Green chilly - 8
12. Ginger-Garlic crushed - 2 tbsp
13. Curry leaves few sprigs
14. Coriander leaves chopped - 3 tbsp
15. Water - ½ cup to 1 cup(as required)

To Grind: -

1. Cashews - ¼ cup
2. Grated Coconut - 3 tbsp

For Garnishing:-

1. Raisins few ghee roated
2. Cashews few ghee roasted
3. Onion sliced very thin and deep fried till light brown. 
4. Can use some saffron milk( I did not use)

How I made It:-

Fish Masala:-

1. Clean and cut tilapia into small bite size pieces. Wash once or twice. 
2. Make a marinade with ¾ tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp chilly powder, crushed fennel and salt. Marinate the fish and set aside for an hour.
3. Heat up a skillet/tawa, pour 1 tbsp oil, shallow fry the fish pieces on both side and keep aside.
4. Grind the 'To Grind' ingredients to a smooth paste and set aside.
5. Pour 2tbsp of oil in manchatti/earthern ware(or any non-stick pan), add crushed ginger-garlic, curry leaves and saute for a minute or two.
6. Add onion, green chilly, salt and saute well in medium heat till the onion turns transkucent.
7. Add tomato and saute well till the tomato is fully cooked mashed up.
8. Add ½ tsp turmeric powder,½ tsp chilly powder, coriander powder and garam masala and saute well to mix.
9. Add the ground paste and mix well. Add water to get required consistency, stir well and let it boil.
10. Simmer the heat to medium and add fried fish pieces. Mix well with masala and let it boil for another ten minutes. Add coriander leaves and take off the stove.

For Making Ghee Rice:-

1. Heat up a thick bottom pan, pour ghee. Add cardamom, cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaves and saute for a minute.
2. Pour water, salt and whole pepper. Let it boil.
3. Add rice, with a saptula stir well till the bottom of the pan. Simmer the heat to medium, cover with a air tight lid and let it cook till the water is absorbed. 
4. Take it out of the stove and give it a gentle stir. Let it cool down for a while say let the steaming heat subside.
5. Move to two-three platters so that rice do not stick to each other and will be nice and fluffy.

Dumming the Biriyani and Final Process:-

1. Heat a wide vessel, keep in low heat, pour 2 tsp of oil, spread half the rice on the bottom of the vessel, top it with fish masala gravy, top with fried cashews, raisins, fried onions, coriander leaves and few drops of saffron milk.
2. Repeat the process with remaing rice, masala, fried cashews, raisins, onions and saffron milk. Cover with an air tight lid and cook in low heat till steam starts to release from the sides of the pan.
3. Take them out to individual serving plate, garnish with more raisins, cashews and fried onion. Serve warm with pappads, pickles, chutney and Raita.

Malabar Style Prawns Biriyani ~ Malabar Chemmeen Biriyani

Summer Time!!!! Kids are having Summer vacation and I'm having hard time running behind them :-) I've let my son play and have fun this summer without putting him for any summer camps and study classes. These days he comes to me saying 'Amma enikku pa(di)kkanam' meaning Amma I want to study. He is learning to write Malayalam little by little these days though he makes a lot of mistakes, I love the excitement in his face, joy in his eyes and the 'hurray' scream when he get the letters right. His little sister is really happy to have her 'Ettan'(big Bro) around whole day to play, fight, act and have fun. I'm sometimes amazed to watch the little one learning things so fast from her big bro.

Though kids love to enjoy summer outside, the sun is so very hot here which don't let us stay out for long at daytime. We wait till eve to go out for any outdoor activities. To keep kids engaged in some physical activities we took membership in YMCA, elder one is enrolled for swimming classes while my little one get to play in the play area for more than an hour. As usual I'm doing my Chauffeur job taking them in and out everywhere :-)  We took a beak from all these and had a nice weekend last week in Edison, NJ with my little sister and BIL. It was fun, especially for kids, they were well pampered by Elemma/Chachi and Elayachan/Chachu. It was totally an unplanned trip just for two days but it ended up being so good, relaxed a bit, went for a small beach trip, ate out, watched a reasonably good action movie 'Singham' online and reached back home by yesterday evening. 

I feel terribly bad sing my empty space without much posts these days, I'm getting hardly anytime to reach out to my fellow blogger's space as well. I know many of my blogger friends have passed on many awards to me as well, thanks dear friends, I will definitely try to post them asap. Today's recipe is yet another Malabar delicacy, the delicious Malabar Chemmeen/Prawns biriyani. As I have mentioned before, we prefer fish over meat, seafood like Prawns and Crab being the favorite. When ever we have unexpected or sudden guest I make this Prawns Biriyani or my Prawns Masala or this Prawns Roast as I know, no matter what Prawns will never go wrong in the making even if I'm in hurry. Prawns are really a great rescuer as they get cooked so fast and tastes just fantastic. I use homemade Garam Masala which my MIL made, which do not have fennel seeds. So I add some crushed fennel seeds and this fennel powder add an extra aroma for the prawns. So here comes the Malabar Chemmeen(Prawn/Shrimp) Biriyani, do definitely give it a try and Enjoy this Malabar delicacy :-)

Ingredients:- 

To Marinate Prawns:-

1. Big Prawns(or Shrimp) - 1lbs( ~ 500 gms)
2. Turmeric powder ~ ¾ tsp
3. Chilly powder - 1 tsp
4. Pepper powder ~  ½ tsp
5. Salt to taste (~ ¾ tsp)

For shrimp Masala:-

1. Onion Very Finely Sliced - 4 Med(~ 3½ cups)
2. Tomato - 2 Big(~ 2 Cups)
3. Ginger - Garlic paste, crushed or finely chopped ~ 2 tbsp each
4. Green Chilies crushed or finely chopped - 5
5. Turmeric powder -  ½ tsp
6. Fennel seeds crushed and coarse ground to powder ~ ¾ tsp
7. Garam Masala - 1 ½ tsp
8. Fresh Lime Juice ~ 1 tbsp
9. Curry leaves a sprig or more
10. Chopped coriander leaves/Cilantro ~ ¼ cups
11. Chopped mint leaves ~ 2 tbsp 
12. Oil ~ 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp(to shallow fry + to saute and make Shrimp Masala)
13. Salt to taste

For Ghee Rice/Flavorful Rice:-

• Basmathi Rice/Jeera Rice - 3 Cups
• Water - 5 Cups
• 1 inch Cinnamon Sticks - 2 nos
• Cardamom pods - 4
• Cloves - 6
• Salt to taste (~ 1tbsp)
• Ghee ~ 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp(for layering and doing dum)
• Oil ~ 1 tbsp
• Garam Masala ~  ½ tsp(used while layering the rice)
• Curry leaves a sprig
• Onion very thinly sliced - 1 
• Cashews few (optional)
• Raisins few (optional)
• Chopped coriander leaves ~ 1 tbsp

Preparation Method:-

Making shrimp Masala:

• Peel and devein the prawns. Wash it well two-three times and drain completely. 
• Marinate prawns with 'To Marinate' ingredients ie Turmeric, Chilly powder, Pepper powder, Salt and set aside for at-least 30 minutes(or more if possible) 
• Heat up a non-stick pan or kadai, pour 1 tbsp oil, spread the prawns. Reduce the heat to medium and shallow fry the prawns slightly on both sides for around five-seven minutes. Take them out and keep aside.
• Add 1 more tbsp of oil to the same pan(in which you shallow fried prawns), add onions, ginger-garlic paste, green chilies, few curry leaves, salt and saute for a while till onion turn light brown.
• Add the chopped tomatoes and saute well till tomatoes are soft and mashed up to release the juices. 
• Add mint leaves, chopped cilantro and saute. Add turmeric powder, 1 tsp garam masala and saute well to mix.
• Add the shallow fried prawns (I kept couple of them to garnish) and saute well to mix with the gravy. Cover with a lid and let it cook for few minutes around five-seven minutes in medium heat.
• Add fresh lime juice and saute to mix. Add remaining ½ tsp garam masala, fennel powder and saute well to mix everything. Take off the stove and set aside till Ghee rice is ready.

Preparing Ghee Rice/Flavored Rice:-

• Pour 5 cups of water in a wide vessel and bring it to boil.
• Mean while wash the rice two-three times till you get clear water, drain completely and keep aside.
• Heat up a wide thick bottom pan, add 1 tbsp ghee, add cashews saute till light brown, take them out and keep aside. Add raisins, saute till they pop up, take them out and set aside.
• Add remaining 1 tbsp ghee along with 1 tbsp oil, add cinnamon sticks, cardamom and cloves and saute till you get a nice aroma. Add sliced onions and saute till translucent. 
• Add rice and saute for couple of minutes till rice absorbs the aroma of spices say for about five-seven  minutes. Pour the boiling water to the rice, add salt, curry leaves and bring it to boil. With a spatula give it a gentle stir till the bottom of the pan to make sure rice don't stick to the bottom.
• Simmer the heat to medium, cover with a tight lid and let it cook till the rice is almost cooked and the water is fully absorbed. Switch off the stove and let it sit without any stir for a while till the high steam in the rice reduces.
• Stir the rice gently and move to two-three platters to make sure rice is not sticky and remain as individual grains. Proceed for layering and Dum process.

Layering and doing Dum:-

On Stove Top:-

• Place a thick bottom vessel on the stove, drizzle ½ tbsp of ghee in the bottom of the pan, spread half the rice, sprinkle a generous pinch(¼ tsp) of Garam masala all over the rice, followed by Shrimp masala, raisins, cashews and ½ tbsp coriander leaves.
• Spread the next layer of rice, sprinkle the remaining Garam masala(¼ tsp) all over the rice followed by cashews, raisins,  ½ tbsp coriander leaves and remaining ghee. 
• Cover the vessel air-tight with a clean kitchen towel or silver foil, put on the lid tight to infuse the full flavor and cook it in low-medium heat for approx 20-30 minutes or till you see steam releasing from the sides of the vessel. Take off the stove and let it sit undisturbed for 10-15 minutes.
• Now with a sauce pan(or spatula), gently stir the entire dish to mix rice and Chemmeen/Prawns masala. 
• Scrape out a saucepan full of Shrimp Biriyani and move to the serving dish. Garnish with the set aside shallow fried Prawns and nuts. Serve warm with Onion Raita, Biriyani Chammanthi, Pickles and Pappads.

Sending this to The Kerala Kitchen Event hosted at Erivum Puliyum and linking it to EP Series ~ Basil and Cardamom started by Julie