Vendakka Pachadi/Okra Pachadi

Okra/Vendakka shallow fried and added to a thick mixture of yogurt-coconut gravy. Such a soothing curry or side dish that can be served with steamed rice/Biriyanis/any flavorful rice. Have it once and I'm sure your taste buds will never forget the taste of this pachadi.

Most of you might be familiar with Vendakka Pachadi but I never knew Okra can be used for making pachadi until Onam '11. I got to taste this curry for the first time for an 'Ona Sadya' organised by  the Kerala Cultural Society for the Association Onam Festivals and Cultural programs. I was then having it very slowly relishing the bites of fried okra and not so sour yogurt coconut gravy. But I was a bit confused about whether the pachadi has coconut-yogurt mixture or just the yogurt. Ina couple of days when I planned to make it at home I sent a message through fb to my big bro and as usual he called me immediately and cleared all my doubts.(As for readers my brother is a professional chef who had worked in different parts of the world. I admire the way he does things passionately and does wonders with anything available in the kitchens and that too by the time we think of making something, he would have just made it and walked out )
So here I'm sharing with all of you this yummy Okra/Vendakka Pachadi. Enjoy!!!

       

Ingredients:-

1. Okra/Vendakka/Lady's Finger - 12 med sized
2. Thick Yogurt/Curd - 3/4 cup
3. Grated Coconut - 3/4 cup
4. Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1 tsp
5. Green chilly - 4
6. Curry leaves a sprig
7. Coconut oil - 2 tsp(u can use oil of your choice)
8. Mustard seeds -1tsp
9. Urad dal - 1 tsp(optional, I luv to add them in pachadi)
10. Whole red chillies(I did not use it since I ran out of it) - 2
11. Salt to taste

Preparation Method:-

• Wash and pat dry the okra. Cut them into thin slices and set aside.
• Grind together coconut, cumin, green chillies, and few curry leaves. 
• Move the ground paste to a medium size bowl, add the yogurt and salt. Mix well with a spoon, add some water if needed to get to a thick but pouring consistency. Set aside
• Heat up a wok/Kadai/Pan in medium heat, add oil, mustard seeds and stir for few seconds.
• When mustard starts to crackle add urad dal, curry leaves and whole red chillies and stir for a minute.
• Add the okra and salt. Stir fry till okra become golden brown. Be careful not to get them to dark brown and burn, you will have to keep stirring it till they turn there color from light green to golden color .
• Take it off the flame and add it to the coconut-yogurt mix. Stir well and check for the salt and taste. Add more salt if desired.                     
• Serve with steamed rice or any rice of your choice

                                           

Note:- As per the original recipe okra is deep fried and pachadi taste better that way may be, I was just being health cautious and shallow fried them.                             

Masala Dosa and Wishes Of Kerala Piravi Dinam

Kerala Piravi marks the birth of my dear state 'Kerala'. Kerala state was officially created on 1 Nov 1956 and therefore November 1 is known as 'Kerala Piravi Dinam' - The Day Kerala was Born. So today I wish all the Keralites around the world a great 'Kerala Piravi Day'. Even though there are some dark shades and wrinkles on the cheeks of this 55 year old beautiful lady, She still looks so pretty with the wonderfull greenery you will ever see. The exotic wildilife, pure waterfalls, beautiful plantations and paddy fields, hill stations, backwaters, wonderful Ayurveda, enchanting art forms, colorful festivals and above all the Kerala Cuisine makes it so special and unique. I just love each and every moment I spent in my homeland and is still eagerly waiting for my next trip to Kerala.

So dearies on Kerala Piravi Day I'm posting the all time favorite dish of Keralites-'Masala Dosa' which is the one of most popular dish in India as well. The origin of Masala dosa/Dosa is still on debate but you can find refridgerated set of dosa batter in all the South Indian homes. Masala dosa is a fermented crepe made from rice and urad dal batter stuffed with cooked spiced potatoes and is a very common breakfast dish and street food as well.

When I came to USA I didn't have much south Indian friends around but yea still was really lucky to have a whole bunch of North Indian friends. For any parties and gathering they just wanted to have dosa-sambhar/masala dosa and Uzhunnu Vada(Urad dal vada) which made my parties much easier. Of course I happened to learn a lot of North Indian cooking from them as well. Thats when I understood how popular our simple and humble dosa/masala dosas are. Everytime they meet me they ask me the rice-dal ratio for making it and try hard to get them perfect. So friends let me post the recipe for the all famous Masala dosa, Enjoy!!!!

Ingredients and dosa batter preparation Method:-

Raw Rice/Basmathi Rice - 2 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Cooked Parboiled Rice - 1 cup
salt to taste
water as needed

Wash and clean the rice and urad dal and soak it for 7-8 hours. Grind everything in a mixer to a smooth batter. Batter should not be too thick or runny, it should be of smooth pouring consistency. Add salt and stir well, set aside for the batter to ferment for atleast 8-10 hrs or overnight.

Ingredients and Preparation of Potato Masala:-

For Potato Masala Stuffing:-

Medium Size Potatos - 4 skin peeled and cut into small squares
Big Onion  - 1 finely chopped
Green chilly - 3 finely chopped
Ginger a small piece chopped finely
Curry leaves - a sprig
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds -1 tsp
whole red chilly - 2 broken into halves
Corainder leaves finely chopped - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
salt to taste
water - 3 cups(use more/less as needed)
Oil - 2tbsp

Makig potato masala:-

Heat up a frying pan, pour oil, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds crackles add urad dal, curry leaves, red chillies, salt and stir for few secs. Add onion, green chilly, ginger and saute till onion turns  translucent. Add turmeric powder and potatos. Pour water and stir well to mix everything. Cover and cook it till potatos are soft and water is almost absorbed. Mash some potatos, stir well and chck for the salt and taste. Finally add the chopped coriander leaves and mix everything. Potato masala for the Masala dosa is ready.

Making Masala dosa:-

Heat a non-stick dosa pan or griddle, pour a big laddle of batter and spread in a circular motion to get a big round dosa. Drizzle half a spoon of ghee or oil on the egdes and middle of the dosa if desired(optional). Cook till the dosa become crisp and golden brown, do not get to dark brown. Take out a big spoon of potato masala and top it in the middle of the dosa. Fold te dosa into half and take out of the pan. Repeat the process with the rest of the batter and masala. Serve immediately with Sambhar and coconut chutney/tomato chutney.

Note:- I tried using long grain rice that we get here in US as well and found perfect for dosas/Idli.

Witches finger cookies baked for halloween-Spooky spooky

These witch finger cookies are simple cookies that I baked for this Halloween. We had a friends gathering and Halloween party over the Halloween weekend and I was suppose to make some snacks and any goodies of my choice. Since it was Halloween I wanted to give some creepy spooky effect for the dish I make and I found this recipe in Allrecipes website. After reading the recipe I knew it is a very basic simple cookie and thought of giving it a try. But must say I was a lot worried about the shape because I haven't done anything like this before and  it is just hand made and there is no cookie cutter way of making it. I decided to give it a try and planned moulding it into simple cookies if the finger cookie shape didn't work. Thankfully it came out good and I was really happy to take this for our Halloween party.

Blanched almonds act as the fingernails for this cookie and I used red food decorator writer to give the blood effect around the nails. Some almonds came off from the baked cookies, I just dipped them in jam and fixed it back on to the cookie. This helped me to keep them in-tact. So let me add this recipe for this cute scary witch finger cookies. Enjoy!!!

                                        


Ingredients:-

All purpose flour/Maida - 2 cups
Confectioner's Sugar - 3/4 cup(add or reduce according to ur taste)
Softened Butter - 1/2 cup(Not melted butter please)
Milk - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt -1/2 tsp
Whole Almonds - 1/2 cup(Soak almond in water for 15 mins and peel off the skin)
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Red food decorator writer/color gel - 1

Preparation Method:-

• Sift together flour, baking powder, salt into a wide mixing bowl. Add sugar to this and mix with clean hands or spoon to remove lumps if any in the sugar. 
• To the above dry mix add butter, egg, vanilla extract and knead well with your hands to make a smooth dough.
• Add milk little by little to the mix if it is dry till you get a smooth dough. You might need to add/reduce the quantity of the milk I mentioned.(You can do this process in a food processor as well which will make your task easier)                                 
• Cover and refrigerate the dough for 30-45 mins.
• Pre-heat the oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit. Layer a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• Take out the dough from the refrigerator and make small cherry size balls. Roll each balls lengthwise with your hands on clean kitchen counter top to look like fingers. 
• Now press one almond each at the end of the dough finger for the fingernail. Place them in the lined cookie sheet

                                           

• With a knife make three crosswise slits in the middle and two slits in the front of the dough finger.

                                 

                                 

• Press and work with your fingers on the middle and front part(place before the slits) to give a push up effect as of the real fingers(optional) 
• Bake for 20 mins or until slightly browned. Remove from the oven and let it cool down completely.
• Now with decorator writer, draw around the almond nails to give a blood effect(you can use color gel as well)
• If the almond comes out of the cookie dip them in any jam and press them back again. 
• Scary witch finger cookies are ready..

                                            
                           
Sending this to the event hosted by Sravani of Srav's Culinary Concepts "CC Festive Food"

                                       

Sooji Halwa/Rava Kesari

Today is Diwali Festive Morning, and I wish all my fellow bloggers, friends, and the visitors of this page A Very Happy Diwali !!!!!!

I'm sure, being a weekday unlike in India almost everyone will be in their full swing to finish off the Pooja, prepare something quick and ezee and send the kids to school & their best half to office. Oh yea, you are ready to run to office as well? I'm sure most of the houses have this Sooji Halwa as the 'Sweets' today, Sooji Halwa being so ezee to make and the taste everyone loves have become the most popular sweets of Indians.

So did I, just made it real quick before my hubby and son left for office and school. So all my NRI friends, have a very Happy and prosperous Diwali!!! And my dear family and friends in India, Have a safe and Pattaka Diwali. I'm sure you guys are having all the fun with real festive mood. Enjoy!!!!

Ingredients:-

Rava/Semolina - 1 cup
Water - 2 1/2 cups(u can use 1 cup milk + 1 1/2 cup water, milk and nuts add richness and more taste to the halwa)
sugar- 1/2 cup(you can add or reduce according to the sweetness you need)
Ghee- 2 tbsp
Raisins, Cashews- 2 tbsp(optional, i haven't used it. I just garnished the halwa with sliced almonds)
Saffron- a pinch(optional)
cardamom powder -1/4 tsp

Food color - 1/2 tsp(optional, I used orange color)

Preparation Method:-

Add ghee to a thick bottom pan and fry the nuts in a med flame for 1 min. 

Add the Sooji/Rava to this and fry in low- med flame with out burning till it gives a nice aroma.

Add sugar, stir till Sooji/Rava and sugar mix well.

Mean while in another pan bring the water to boil by adding saffron and cardamom powder. Switch off the flame and set aside.(add the food color to the water if you are adding it)

Now pour the warm water slowly and stirring continuously, be careful since the Sooji will start spluttering when you add hot water to it. Keep your stove in medium heat when you do this process.

Switch of the stove when the water is almost absorbed. You do not have to wait till it is fully dry because halwa will become bit more thick even after taking off the flame.

Move to serving dish and cut into desired shapes. Garnish with sliced almonds or any nuts of your choice. Enjoy!!!!!

This goes to My Diwali My Way hosted by Khusi @ A Girl's Diary 

&

Food Palate Series Finale Rainbow Colors hosted by TorView

                                                             

Irachi Pathiri - Meat stuffed Roti

Irachi Pathiri is a very popular food snack in Malabar region and is a very important Ramadan dish. Me and my sister was a die-hard fan of this dish when we were kids. Achan(dad) used to get this for us from one of the Thalaserry bakery or 'Thattukada'(Street food stall). Having this spicy meat filled rotis with a hot cup of 'Chai'/Tea gives you a different experience which I really cannot put together in words, the spice and the hot is just a wonderful combination. I used to have slight wet eyes sometimes when I have it. The only complaint we had was we used to get very less bites of meat, onion always tried to outsmart the meat. I'm sure bakers were more interested in making money by putting less meat and more onion along with customer satisfaction. Guess what I hope now a days onion being costlier than meat they might be adding more meat and less onion for making this dish ;)

It was in my teen when I realized that these are just deep fried rotis stuffed with meat masala. Don't really remember when we started making this at home but these were made only over the weekends then. After coming to US I hardly made it once or twice, if you observe my menu I will have very less deep fried dishes. So this was made couple of days back when my sister who is in India for a vacation told me that she is having 'Chicken Pathiri' and I couldn't stop myself making it. I did not made it very spicy considering my two little ones, but still it simply tasted great. So friends lets go through the process of making this awesome Chicken masala stuffed Irachi Pathiri. Enjoy!!!!!

Ingredients used :-

For Chicken Masala Filling:

Chicken breast - 2 halves(if u can get minced chicken that's better)
Onion - 2 finely chopped
Garlic minced - 3 pods (a tbsp)
Ginger minced - 1 tbsp
Green Chilly - 2 finely chopped
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp
Curry leaves a sprig
Oil for deep frying + 2 tbsp for making masala
salt to taste

For Roti's:

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Salt - 2 tsp
Water as needed to knead the dough

Preparation Method:-

• Knead the dough by adding water and salt as of for Chappathi/Puri. Cover and set aside till Chicken masala is done.
• Wash and clean the chicken. Cut it into very small bite size pieces. Marinate with salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder and pepper. Set aside for 15-20 mins.
• Cook the chicken in medium heat until soft without adding any water. Shred the chicken with your fingers if you feel they are bigger bites
• Now heat up a frying pan, add 2 tbsp oil and saute onion, ginger, garlic, green chillies, curry leaves, salt and saute till onion turns translucent.
• Add the chicken and saute well for a while, add garam masala and stir to mix everything evenly.
• Cover and cook for another 5-7 mins in medium heat. Switch off the flame and let it cool.
• Make small lemon size balls out of the dough and roll into small round rotis of puri size.
• Top up with a tbsp of chicken masala, now place another roti on top of the masala and seal the edges by pressing with your fingers or folding a small portion of the edges of the bottom roti towards top and closing it. Repeat the process with rest of the rotis and masala.

                                                     

• Heat a wok or kadai, pour oil for deep frying and wait till the oil is hot enough. Add each pathiri in the oil and fry on both sides. Take out and place oin an absorbent paper and press to remove excess oil if any. Repeat the process with rest of the pathiris.

                                     

• Serve warm with a hot cup of Chai/Tea. Enjoy!!!!!

Note:-
1. Seal the edges properly, otherwise oil will go inside the stuffing and Pathiri will become very oily.
2. You can use mutton(lamb), beef or any meat of your choice to make the filling. I personally like mutton masala and feel thats the best for making Irachi Pathiri.