Mishmash !

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Masala Powder/Garam Masala aka The Aromatic Indian Spice Mix….

That small magic container in your mother’s kitchen cabinet……….a pinch of it spruces up that simmering bowl of spicy curried meat or a steaming pot of stewed vegetables…………..The essence that lends the authentic taste…………the aroma that awakens your senses and makes you float in the clouds of spice heaven……….a secret of many kitchens but a mystery to some!!

Here’s the delightful spice mix from my mother’s kitchen …..the aroma and taste of her kitchen that defined ‘my’ reference point for ‘authentic’ !

Grind …….

1/8 cup fennel seeds/Perinjeerakam
4 flat Indian cinnamon sticks of 2 ¼ inch length/Karukapatta
3-4 cardamoms/Elakkaya
10 cloves/Grampoo
1 star anise/Thakkolam

…..to a fine powder in a coffee grinder or the smallest jar of the mixer/blender…..

Sometimes this spice mixture is used towards the end of cooking to make the dish more rich and elegant and sometimes it is also used in the preliminary stages of cooking, along with other powdered spices. Use it sparingly or as per the recipe instructions as a small amount of sprinkling goes a long way.

Here’s the list of recipes where I have used my mother’s Masala Powder/Garam Masala/Indian Spice Mix:

Store it in a small airtight container in a dry place. Do not let moisture get into the container by way of opening the jar on a simmering dish and transfer directly from it, instead use a dry teaspoon to take out the mix and add to the dish. Remember to close the lid immediately after opening as it helps to lock in the aroma as well as the strength of the essence. Similarly, it is always better to make in small quantities and store as it loses the flavour and strength when it lies around for a long time.

Well….that’s it…go and spice up your dishes with the magic wand of sprinkles :)

Luv
Shn

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Kerala Mutton Curry…

Let me start with a request. After reading this post, some of you might think that I am touting my own horns here. Well, I cannot blame you if you conclude that way but honestly that is definitely not my intention here. As most of the things come under the category of “accidental” in my life, this one also is not an exception. I am just chronicling a magical moment in my personal-chef life!

Well, some of my regular readers are aware of a particular situation in my life that I don’t compete with my mother in law to reproduce the magic from her kitchen, but I have tried to bring home the taste of the food cooked by some ‘lungi’ clad guy working in a small scale restaurant at the capital city of Kerala, as CJJ always fancies the food he tasted from restaurants like Chinnus, Ambalapattu and many others in that small junction at Kersavadasapuram. That said, I should also mention that I was trying to recreate a taste I haven’t experienced in my lifetime but my husband has. I was competing with a Pachakakkaran/local chef whose food I have never tasted in my life. But over the course of time, I realized that I was shooting in the darkness and slowly got over that ‘mysterious standard’ I was always aiming at.

Life moved on……from blunders to some edible stuff, from average to good. But one day I guess my lucky stars slightly changed their jogging route and that day at lunch time, I heard the most unbelievable words from him, “mm…mm….ohhhh…ethu Ambalapatte beef curry polundu” meaning “it tastes like the beef curry at Ambalapattu”!!!!!!! Well, what I served was Mutton curry (!!) but what I heard at that moment was more than I could ever imagine. It was a bolt from the blue……I sat there in total disbelief…..I couldn’t take my eyes off of him……..I know I should have noted the time and date to mark the historical moment in my culinary adventures but I just couldn’t, not for 1-2 minutes but it took almost a week for me to verify the restaurant name again.!

I hesitated to cook Mutton curry for more than a month after that…as I was doubtful if I would be able to recreate the same magic again and pressure was building on me whenever he opened the freezer and saw the meat packets. Finally, I gained some guts and rolled up my sleeves and made it again……and he relished……. and has now begun to admit that mutton is tastier than beef which was his weakness till then.

My friends, please don’t think that this is some exotic dish that I whipped up from nowhere, using some mysterious spices. It is either because perhaps CJJ has begun to forget the taste from his bachelor days and his palate is getting used to my cooking or because some minor changes I made here and there was enough to tickle his taste memories and resembled something like the dish he always fancied. I don’t know!!!! I used my mother’s homemade masala powder to my Mutton Fry recipe, made some additions and deductions here and there and voila, I got my magical Mutton curry! With the food blogger sword hanging on my head all the time, I was wise enough to scribble the measurements the first time I cooked and here is how I made it. Btw, this is my magical Mutton curry, it may or may not be your magical one :)

Ingredients: (Approx.)

To Pressure cook:

Around ½ to ¾ kg fresh mutton (goat meat) with bones, cubed and washed
4tbsp coriander powder
2 ½ tsp chilly powder
¼ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp freshly crushed black pepper
2 to 4 Indian green chillies, slit opened lengthwise
2 tbsp ginger minced
2 tbsp garlic minced
½ cup big onion, thinly sliced (around one small size big onion)
Salt to taste
1 cup water

To Sauté:

¾ cup big onions, thinly sliced
¾ cup small read pearl onions, thinly sliced
2 Indian green chillies, slit opened lengthwise
2 tsp Homemade Masala Powder/Garam Masala
2 -3 sprigs of curry leaves
Salt to taste
3 tbsp coconut oil

Directions:

Marinate the cubed pieces of meat with everything listed under “pressure cook”, except water for about 15-20 minutes and then pour water and pressure cook until meat is cooked well.
In a large sauce pot, heat the coconut oil and sauté thinly sliced small onions, big onions and green chillies , in low flame, until it starts to turn transparent. Tear off half of the curry leaves and add to this. Now, add the pressure cooked meat, along with gravy produced and stir well; cook covered, in medium heat and bring to a boil. Now add the homemade masala powder (keep a pinch or two aside for the final sprinkling) and stir well with the curried meat. Reduce heat and let it cook till the gravy starts to thicken a bit. Now do a taste-test and adjust the salt. Just two minutes before turning off the heat, add some more curry leaves and sprinkle a pinch or two of masala powder, kept aside earlier which leaves the dish with a wonderful aroma of fresh curry leaves and spices. Turn off the stove when the gravy is thick enough. Let it rest for 30-40 minutes before serving as it takes time for all the spices and masala to come together.
Serve warm with rice or Palappam (Laced pancakes), chappathi or porotta (Indian flat breads). This dish attains its real flavour after a couple of hours from cooking and tastes the best, the next day!!

I will post the Masala powder/Garam Masala recipe within 2-3 days…so if someone is planning to try this dish, please wait till I post the spice mix recipe.

Luv
Shn

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Kanjivellam………Energy Drink, Home Remedy, Hair Care & Much More…..

Food evokes memories ………the smell wafting though the air and flavours lingering on the palate is powerful enough to glide us through the long forgotten days of childhood and in my case, sometimes even a mere mention of a particular food, takes me back to those days that has begun to fade away from my little brain. That is exactly what happened when Mathew wrote “uppu itta kanjivellam is a favourite drink of mine..:-)”, as part of his comment for my post on Kanji Pidi.

While reading that comment, I did not have the slightest clue that I would end up writing a post on Kanjivellam which is nothing but the rice stock you get while cooking rice. When I read that comment, my first reaction was “ewww…” as I always associated it with those days when I was down with fever and vomiting……. I remember my mother giving me a glass of the same and asking me to take small gulps every now and then, after a series of my throwing up into that red plastic bucket, kept near the cot!! I remember my father massaging my hands and legs and me swallowing it like some poison as it was unbelievably bland and my requests for flavoring it with some ghee or pickle was denied ruthlessly because of high temperature and stomach upset!! Kanjivellam flavored with a dash of salt was our indigenous home remedy to cure stomach upsets, prevent dehydration of the body and regain physical strength.

Though I got absorbed in my daily routine, at the back of my mind this thread linking back to my memory lane, was going on in a loop. As the habit goes, knowingly or unknowingly I started plowing through my memory fields which opened up a deluge of images that came flashing back to my mind. I saw our maid, Omakutti Chechi, asking my mother for that hot kanjivellam, just drained from the Kanjikalam, rice cooker before she left for my uncle’s house….it was a sort of energy drink for her. It was the same case with the worker Chothi, whom my father appointed every year to clean up our yard after the monsoons……..a hot bowl of Kanjivellam fetched him energy to dig the yard with a shovel for a couple of hours.

At this juncture of my thoughts, I shared what was going on in my head with CJJ and I saw his face lit up with a smile at the mere mention of “uppitta kanjivellam” aka salted rice stock and he added how the field workers in their estate knocked at the back door of their kitchen asking, “Chechee…..kurachu kanji vellam kitto…?“ meaning, “Ma’m …can we get some rice stock? " !!!! That’s when it struck me how this humble ordinary homely drink is woven into the lives of a Malayalee …..and I knew it was time for me to bring Kanjivellam into the limelight :)

Kanjivellam is not just an energy drink or a simple home remedy, it turns out to be our traditional alternative to modern shampoos. Yes, it was also used for hair care!!! I remember, in my early childhood, before I gained the courage to buy that blue bottle of Clinic Plus Shampoo, our hair wash on weekends included ceremonious soaking of a crushed and dried variety of herb called, ‘enja’ in Kanjivellam and later mixed with another leafy herb called, ‘vellilathaali’ as an organic alternative to shampoo. My maternal grandmother soaked ‘Pappadam’, Kerala wafers in ‘Kanjivellam’ to wash her hair.....it was used to make the hair more stronger and shinier... So I would call this as Kerala’s ‘organic shampoo’ :)

This is again Kerala’s indigenous yet clever discovery for wrinkle –free cotton ‘Mundu’ before spray starch and powdered starch made its entry into the market. Washed clothes got a quick drench in Kanjivellam diluted with water and then hung on ropes to sun-dry and later ironed to get wrinkle free clothes and a crisp finish!

This might sound strange to some but if you go to a small town or village in Kerala, you will see men using Kanjivellam for mixing ‘Pinnakku’, a type of cattle food to feed cows…..I remember my uncle doing the same before milking the cow every morning when I was there to collect cow's milk, just up from slumber, with puffy eyes and hair standing in the air like that of Fido-Dido of 7Up!! You might also come across people using one-day-old ‘Kanjivellam’ as a plant food for Plantain or banana trees!

So that was ‘Kanjivellam’ playing the role of organic energy drink, home remedy, hair care, laundry starch, cattle food and plant food! :)

If you find this whole post silly, blame it on Mathew…he is the one who fired up my dead memory cells :) On a serious note, Thanks pal…..you did help me recollect some of the images I haven’t thought about in almost a decade!

Moral of the story – be careful while leaving comments in this blog, consequences can be as dangerous as this post :)

Luv
Shn

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Neichoru – Fragrant ghee rice….

The simplest festive dish where the divine ghee along with an exotic set of Indian spices dress up the fragrant basmati rice with caramelized onions and ghee fried golden raisins and nuts into a beautiful dish………

Ingredients: Serves 3 Adults

For Rice:

2 cups Basmati Rice
4 ¼ cups Water
1 small size golden yellow big onion, thinly sliced
4 cardamom pods
6 cloves
5-7 small ½ inch long cinnamon sticks
1 bay leaf
2 whole mace/javinthri
4 tbsp Ghee/clarified butter
Salt to taste

For garnish:

1 small size, golden yellow big onion thinly sliced
¼ cup golden raisins
¼ cup halved cashew nuts
A pinch of sugar
3 tbsp ghee (clarified butter) + more ghee/oil for frying onions

Directions:

Wash and drain the rice on a paper towel. When it is medium dry, heat 4 tbsp ghee in a large pan and splutter cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mace and bay leaf; add thinly sliced onion to this and sauté till it turns golden and edges begin to brown. At this stage add rice stir continuously for 2minutes in very low heat.
Cook Rice: Microwave Method: Pour the fried rice along with onions and spices into a microwave safe bowl and add 4 ¼ cups of water, flavour with salt and pop it in the microwave and cook for 23-25 minutes or until rice is done. Stove-top Method: Boil water in a heavy bottom cooking vessel, and when it comes to boil, add all the ingredients and bring it to a boil again and then reduce the flame and cook covered in low-medium heat, until rice is fully cooked and water is absorbed.
While rice is cooking, heat 3 tbsp ghee and fry the raisins, stirring continuously until they turn plump or look like golden grapes and keep them aside; fry the cashew nuts in the same oil, till they turn golden in colour and keep it aside. Add more ghee or oil to the same pan and start frying thinly sliced onion; when they turn translucent, add a pinch of sugar to speed up the process (also adds a nice taste) and fry until they reach a caramel or brown color.
Once rice is done, using a fork, gently separate/fluff the rice, so as not to get sticky and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then add ghee fried raisins, nuts and caramelized onion to the rice, keeping a handful of all these three ingredients for garnishing later and gently mix well. Garnish with rest of the fried onions, nuts and raisins.
Serve hot with Mutton curry, Raitha- (Coarsely chopped onions and cucumber mixed in yogurt with a dash of salt and pepper), Pappadam and date pickles. That’s a tasty divine family!

On a different note, last week I had to deal with a handful of content theft issues ……..I would like to thank some of my readers and blogger buddies, especially Meeta, Silverine,Maria, Nikhil, Mathew, Pooja, Liz & Rashmi for bringing it to my attention as well as helping me with guidance and tips. Though in most cases helplessness has chained me down, I just wanted to let you all know that I am truly honored and moved by the care and support you show for this little space and the person behind it and it has only boosted up my spirits to keep this page more active!!

Thanks!
Shn

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Kanji-Pidi – Rice-flour dumplings cooked in gruel.....Re-creating the forgotten taste from my father’s childhood!

“Hi S…..I am trying to rewind back to my childhood days, a very lengthy period of around fifty eight years back…..I am sure that it will be a very tough mental exercise, especially at this stage when the memory area of my brain has been partly dried…..I am trying to make it wet.

I still remember the year 1949- 50……. I was admitted to the 1st standard of Boys High School Cranganore …..that was the name given by the Portuguese to Kodungallore. As usual classes started on the 1st of June. Heavy rain….. fully damaged village roads ….. extreme cold climate….. newly stitched shirt and trouser that got wet in the rains……. an old umbrella which was supposed to be black, but it was almost white, as it was manufactured even before I was born! ………strange faces, a very strict class teacher always carrying a “Chooral” in his hands……..somehow managed the first day with a mid-day break for lunch at your Achichan’s Vaidyasaala (grandpa’s clinic).

After school, with hunger pangs at its peak, we walked half an hour from school, thinking of the food item that will be served by your Ammumma. On reaching home, I rushed to the kitchen……it was just getting ready. I saw steam coming out of the Iddli-chembu …..the very smell of it doubled my hunger…….I jumped onto the Adappinpottam (kitchen counter) and sat there waiting with a hungry looking face. Your Ammumma could read my face……She opened the Iddli-chembu…..WHOWOHH…… hot steam coming out with a fresh smell of mixed rice powder and thengapeera (grated coconut)…… really irresistible fragrance and that was nothing other than the great ‘naadan’ KANJIPPIDI, a slightly salty snow white oval shape cakes with your Ammumma's fingerprints clearly visible on the surface ………it was usually cooked with kanji but sometimes was steam cooked like this too…… you know, it was really delicious and it was the monsoon season, most suitable period to have such a steaming dish served right from the cooking dish. I don’t know how she prepared it…..rice powder, salt, thengapeera etc made the trick, I think. This was one of the main items served by Ammumma during those evenings when we returned from school…… anybody can make this but Ammumma’s touch was really fantastic…..hmm…….for a short period my brain got delighted recollecting that monsoon day and those steamed cakes”

These are few lines my father wrote to me recollecting a mundane day from his childhood, when I asked him to share his thoughts …………as I saw him getting excited on this very simple dish his mother used to prepare, on one of my casual conversations with my parents. This humble dish still continues to excite my father’s memory and palate as it did several decades back to that young handsome slim boy with sharp features, wearing a shirt and short trouser with black oily hair combed neatly to one side….that’s how I have seen my father in those black & white family photos. After reading his mail, I could almost visualise that innocent boyish image of my father, jumping on to the kitchen counter and waiting impatiently for his mother to serve those steamed dumplings and it did bring a smile on my face :)

Kanji-Pidi is a very unassuming, down to earth and visually unappealing dish that may never satisfy today’s younger generation whose palate is used to meat patties and aerated drinks. It is essentially rice flour softly cooked with hot water first and then mixed with grated coconut and flavored with an extra pinch of salt and then thrown into the boiling rice bowl and cooked along with Kanji (gruel) to make it nutritious. Pidi can be roughly translated to a “fistful” (of rice flour and grated coconut) and since it was cooked along with Kanji (gruel), it has been called as ‘Kanji-Pidi’. This was usually cooked along with the rice for lunch and served as a mid-morning snack for young boys in my paternal family but when it was to be served as a school-time snack, my grandma resorted to the steamer, to serve her dozen kids.

Though I have tasted Pidi in my childhood and teenage days especially when my mother had some extra dough from Idiappam (String hoppers) which she prepared for breakfast and gave a makeover to the leftover dough by adding some grated coconut and then steamed in Idli-Steamer, I was quite fascinated by this method of preparation after listening to my father. So today, I made an attempt to “recreate the forgotten taste” of my father’s childhood delicacy from his mother’s unpretentious kitchen in my modern American kitchen!

Ingredients: (Makes about 10-12 )

1 ½ cups rice flour, mildly roasted
Around 1 - 1½ cups hot boiling water or enough to make a smooth dough
¾ cup grated coconut
1 ½ tsp salt ( salt needs be a tad bit more than the usual amount)

Directions:

Add around 1½ tbsp warm water to grated coconut and crush it with a fork to invigorate the grated coconut and make the juices come together.
Mix rice flour and salt; to this add the boiling hot water, just enough to make a soft and smooth dough; use a spoon to stir well and then add the grated coconut and blend everything well. (Note: the dough should be looser than the Chappathi/roti dough but as soft as the Idiayappam/string-hoppers dough). Take a fistful of dough and shape it like the ones in the picture. When the dough comes together in your fist, gently press to emboss your finger prints on them.
You can throw these dumplings into a boiling rice bowl (the rice should be ‘almost’ cooked by now) and cook for about 10-12 minutes and then using a slotted spoon, collect each of them draining the ‘Kanjivellam’, starchy water and place it on a serving bowl. Another alternative method is to use an idli-steamer or any other steamer or in a pressure cooker without keeping the weight, filled with enough water, and steam for 10-12 minutes, or till it is fully cooked, in medium heat.
Serve warm with a cup of tea or coffee.

This may not be an exotic dish worthy to be blogged but it is special to me and I want to chronicle it here as part of saving many things close to my heart!

Luv
Shn

Sunday, September 7, 2008

It's Festival Time Again !

This morning when I got off the phone with my parents, I felt a sort of numbness……a numbness that comes out of an unsettling helplessness and painful realization that we will not be there at home with our families this year too, to be part of those celebrations around this festival time of Onam. The holiday spirit that spontaneously brings a refreshing mood amongst the family members…………utmost carefulness on the faces of the women making the shopping list and that last minute soft reminder to the men folk going to the market to buy only the freshest of the vegetables …………..the maddening crowd at those specially set up seasonal markets, Onachantha………unusually packed electronic shops lit with fluorescent lights and huge display boards with the special rates and irresistible discounts targeting the middle class………..families walking by the sidewalks carrying a handful of shopping bags from the city's best textile shops…………… the heaving flower markets selling various colours of marigold to make the ornately decorated floral carpet, Pookkalam though one cannot ignore the simplicity of Pookkalam made with 'naadan' flowers like mukkuttippovu, chemabarthippovu, chethi poovu plucked from one's own garden and backyard and sometimes from the fence too…… the phone bells ringing unremittingly with friends and relatives calling to greet each other………..a visit to 'Tharavadu', paternal/maternal houses ………..the overall rhythm of those festival days , the sound of the loved ones and the smell of the flowers and banana leaf and flavors of the feast just gets rekindled as I try to hunt for some familiar vegetables in this temporarily adopted foster home!!!!

We wish you all our readers a very homely and festive Onam……..enjoy these happy days with family and friends and ofcourse the elaborate feasts. And don't stain your Onakkodi, the new dress bought for celebration, while slurping that decadent Pradhaman/Payasam :) Well, this humble blog of mine, Mishmash! also gets its Onakkodi this year……a new template and new look :) Hope the readers of this blog finds this change pleasant!

Once again, festival greetings to all of you !

Luv
Shn

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Mathi-Nellikka Varattiyathu – A Malabar specialty with sardine and gooseberry

In my last post, I tried to paint the faces of Subaida, Umma and Bappa, some of the yarns in my childhood fabric, who belong to the Kerala Mulsim community and stirred my memories of the rich aromatic food they served, especially during the festival days of Ramzan and wedding ceremonies like Mailanchi Kalyanam and Nikah. From there I introduced you to a more prominent and distinct culinary pocket of Kerala, Malabar Coast, densely populated by Moplahs (Malabar Muslims) who crown the northern coast of our homeland with their flavorful and rich cuisine. Coming from the central part of Kerala, my experience with this cuisine practically starts with Pathiri, paper-thin flat soft rice breads and ghee flavored fried rice called Neichoru and ends with the Kozhikkodan Halwa, which we had a couple years back from the energy packed, 'Mittai Theruvu' in the historic town of Calicut. I remember my mother getting excited at those red and light-yellow colored Halwa and though I politely rejected my share initially, I developed a hidden crush for that melt-in-the-mouth sugar and ghee loaded confection from the moment it touched my palette.

The foodie in me always wished for a grandmother from this culinary capital who could teach me some of the traditional Moplah flavours, just like my grandma passed on her legacy to my mother and CJJ's grandma who taught me some of the traditional Kuttanadan specialties. My wishes were answered, when I was recently gifted with a copy of Malabar Muslim Cookery, authored by Ms. Ummi Abdulla. To my very limited knowledge on cookbooks available in Moplah cuisine, I think this book is considered a Bible on Malabar Muslim specialties ;( Please correct me if I am wrong). This book is a treasure house of authentic and traditional Moplah recipes that features Meen Pathiri - steamed rice pie with spiced up fish, Alisa- wheat porridge with meat, Meen kakkathilakkiyathu – Fish masala, Unnakkayi – boiled banana mashed and shaped into cotton pods and filled with sweet and egg filling, Kalthappam- sweet rice cakes, Muttamala-egg yolk garlands, Kaiveesal-egg jalebis along with a variety of Biryani and Pathiri. It has a good collection of vegetarian recipes too. Some of the names are amusing and dreamy at the same like Bariyittathu – Banana finger fries, Nulliyittathu –sweet egg fritters, Thurkkipathil- stuffed mutton pie, Athishaya pathiri- pancake with meat filling etc.

Unlike the new-era cookbooks, this book does not offer eye-catching glossy photographs of the dishes featured, which leaves a bit of vagueness especially if the reader has no idea about the recipes under discussion. Some of the recipes are illustrated through sketches That said, I must note that the recipes are presented with precise instructions which are easy to follow and the ones I have tried have come out well with a ‘home-style’ taste. This is a humble cookbook which has a very good collection of authentic recipes but this would have been a classic read, had the author laced the recipes with some family anecdotes and taste memories to get a glimpse of the Moplah lifestyle in a more cozy way!

Mathi - Nellikka Varattiyathu is a unique combination dish I tried from this book. Sardines are paired with dried gooseberries and cooked with the other five simple ingredients till dry. Since I did not have dried gooseberries, I substituted the same with frozen gooseberries and served with some gravy instead of making it a dry preparation. This dish was a pleasant change from our regular curried sardines in red gravy or fried preparations. Here’s the recipe:

Mathi –Nellikka Varattiyathu
(Recipe Source: Slightly changed from Malabar Muslim Cookery’ by Ms. Ummi Abdulla)

Ingredients:

6 medium sized Sardines/Mathi/Chaala, cleaned and washed
2-3 big Goosberries/Nellikka (Original recipe calls for 2 tbsp dried gooseberries)
1tbsp Peppercorns
6 medium sized cloves of garlic
1 tsp fenugreek
2tbsp coconut oil
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 cup water
Salt to taste

Directions:

Grind the gooseberries/Nellikka with pepper to a smooth paste. Crush the garlic. Original recipe calls for dried gooseberries, seeds of which should be removed and soaked in water for sometime before grinding it with peppercorns.
Heat oil in a, earthenware, ‘curry-chatti’ or in a pan; add fenugreek and when it turns golden brown add the crushed garlic, ground pepper-gooseberry paste and sauté for a minute, in low flame. Tear some curry leaves add 1 cup of water and salt to taste and let it simmer for a few minutes. Now add sardines and cook on low flame till the fish is done. Swirl or shake the pan occasional to prevent the fish sticking to the pan. You can stop cooking when gravy is thick or as the original recipe says, cook till the gravy is almost dry.

Check-out other Malabar recipes of Ms Abdullah I've already blogged.

On a separate note, my prayers are with all those who unfortunately come under Hurricane Gustav’s radar and especially for people of New Orleans. We were there just a month back and it was heartbreaking to visit the Katrina affected areas and the scar it left on this place and its people. I cannot imagine how it is for those people to go through such a devastation one more time when the debris from the last hurricane is still a painful reality they live with. I really wish and pray that some miracle happens and weather devil changes it path of destruction and storm loses its strength!

Luv
Shn

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Masala Powder/Garam Masala aka The Aromatic Indian Spice Mix….

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Kerala Mutton Curry…

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Kanjivellam………Energy Drink, Home Remedy, Hair Care & Much More…..

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Neichoru – Fragrant ghee rice….

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Kanji-Pidi – Rice-flour dumplings cooked in gruel.....Re-creating the forgotten taste from my father’s childhood!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

It's Festival Time Again !

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Mathi-Nellikka Varattiyathu – A Malabar specialty with sardine and gooseberry

Mishmash ! - À La Carte

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