Erisheri

Erisheri or Ethakka Erisheri is probably the most popular dish of Kerala. Ethakka means plantain. It just tastes great with anything. It is usually taken with rice and a curry. It goes well with porridge (kanjhi) too. Once again mom's special recipe is coming here. Need to admit that my mom is an awesome cook :)

Preparation and cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

• Ethakka/ Plantain - 2
• Grated coconut - 1/2 coconut
• Pearl onions - 5-6
• Red chilly - 1
• Garlic cloves - 2
• Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1 spoon
• Pepper seeds - 1 small spoon
• Turmeric powder
• Curry leaves
• Salt
• Coconut oil (This will be best option for authentic taste. If it is not available, use any other edible oil)

Preparation:

• Cut plantain into small pieces (make round pieces and then cut it into 4) and cook in a pressure cooker with salt added. Take 3 whistles and wait for it to cool down.

• Take a frying pan and fry 4 spoons of grated coconut till it turns golden brown and keep aside.

• Grind red chilly, turmeric powder, garlic cloves, cumin seeds, pepper seeds and pearl onions to make a raw paste and keep aside.
• Grind rest of the coconut and curry leaves lightly and keep aside.

• Take a cooking pan, heat it and add 2 spoons of coconut oil.
• Add mustard seeds and wait till it crackles. 
• Add urad dal/ black gram/ uzhunnu parippu. Add some curry leaves and mix well.
• Add the boiled plaintain to this and stir well. In case there is more water then drain it out. Little bit of water is okay. Cook for 2 mins.

• Add the ground coconut mix and stir well.
• Add the ground red chilly-pearl onion mix and stir well.
• Cook for 3 mins.
• Add salt to taste.
• Add the sauteed coconut now and stir well.
• The curry should become thick. So cook it closed for 3-4 mins in medium flame.

• Turn off the flame once it is thick. Let it remain closed for 5 mins.
• Garnish with more curry leaves.

Try this yummylicious Kerala dish with boiled rice to enjoy the authentic taste completely. 

Maida Maavu Thoran

This is one dish which I have always tasted in weddings (South Indian) and I always pestered my mom to prepare. It is made out of Maida maavu/ Maida (All purpose flour). I must say that I loved munching this dry curry or rather koottan (as in Malayalam) for my wedding lunch as well :) This recipe comes straight out of my mom's kitchen.

Preparation and cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

• Maida/ All purpose flour - 1 cup
• Onion - 1
• Pearl onions - 6-7
• Red chilly -1
• Grated coconut
• Turmeric powder
• Salt
• Edible oil
• Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1/2 spoon
• Fennel seeds/ Sweet cumin/ Perum jeerakam/ Saunf  - 1/2 spoon
• Garlic clove - 1

For seasoning:

• Curry leaves
• Mustard seeds
• Black gram/ Urad dal/ Uzhunnu parippu

Preparation:

• Grind red chill, turmeric powder, garlic clove, grated coconut, cumin seeds (jeera) and fennel seeds (saunf) lightly. Do not grind it fine. Keep the mix aside.

• Take a medium sized bowl and mix Maida (all purpose flour) and half spoon salt with 1/2 glass of water. We need to prepare dosas out of this. So the batter should neither be too watery nor very thick. 

• Take a dosa making pan and heat it. Apply little bit of edible oil and make dosas out of the batter.

• Let the dosas cool down for 2-3 mins.
• Chop the onions (both pearl onions and big onion). 
• Cut the maida dosas into small pieces.

• Take a cooking pan, heat it and add edible oil.
• Add mustard seeds, black gram and curry leaves. 
• Add chopped onions and saute till onions turn medium brown.

• Add the cut dosa pieces and saute for 2 mins.
• Add the ground mix to this and salt. Mix well.
• Cook for 3-4 mins in medium flame and turn off.

• Maida maavu thoran is ready to serve. Garnish with more curry leaves (optional).

This dish tastes amazing. So do try it and let me know how it went. Team it up with rice and dal.

Bharwan Karela/ Stuffed Bitter Guard

Bharwan Karela or Stuffed Bitter Guard is a popular Punjabi recipe. I got curious about this recipe after watching the movie 'The Lunchbox' and searched online on this. I found that this recipe can definitely make the most hated vegetable: bitter guard/ karela, taste really good. So I gave it a try. It requires some patience even though the ingredients are quite simple and steps are easy. So give this a try when you can set aside 1-1.5hrs. The sabzi (dry curry) tastes very good with rotis/ phulkas. I think it will taste good with rice too (and a gravy).

Ingredients:

• Karela/ Bitter guards - 2 
• Onions - 2 big
• Ginger-garlic paste (or crushed)
• Edible oil
• Spices
• Red chilly powder - 2 spoon
• Dry mango powder/ Aamchoor powder - 1 spoon
• Turmeric powder - 1 small spoon
• Coriander powder - 1 spoon
• Salt

Note: This sabzi will be better if prepared using small karelas/ bitter guards, but here I have used the regular long ones.

Preparation:

• Mix all the spices in a plate and keep aside.

• Wash the bitter guards/ karelas well and scrap off the outer thick peel.
• If you are using long karelas, then it is better to cut them half and then make a vertical slit. If you are using the small karelas, slit them open. Be careful not to cut them into 2 pieces. The base should stay well as we need to stuff it later.
• Remove all the seeds from the karela using a spoon.

• Marinate the karela with salt and keep it aside for 30 mins.
• Meanwhile julienne the onions. Take a deep frying pan and heat.
• Add edible oil and saute half of the julienned onions in high flame till they turn dark brown.
• Add the ginger garlic paste (or crushed) and saute.
• Add half of the spice mix (not full) and saute for 1 min and turn off the flame. This is our stuffing.

• After 30 mins of wait, you can see that a lot of water is coming out of the karelas.

• Wash the karelas in running water thoroughly. Squeeze out all water from them. All the bitterness will go off now. Make sure that the karelas are dry now.

• Carefully stuff the karelas with the stuffing prepared earlier. Now tie them tight very carefully with a thread so that the stuffing remains intact.

• Heat the deep frying pan once again and pour edible oil.
• Deep fry the tied karelas till they turn brown.

• Heat another pan and pour 3 spoons of edible oil. Saute the julienned onions left and add the rest of the spices. Saute for 2-3 mins.
• Add the deep fried and tied karelas and mix well.
• Cook it with a closed lid for 5 mins.
• The dish is ready to be served. Before serving, remove the threads.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Bharwan karela which took a lot of your patience is ready now. Once you taste this veggie hot with some hot rotis/ phulkas, you will feel that all your effort was worth it!

Herbal coffee: Chukku Kaapi (Dry ginger black coffee)

It is winter and everyone is falling ill: having on-off feverish feeling, cough, cold etc. I have been suffering a lot because of the cold weather. My mom gave me this herbal recipe which to a great extend helped me in beating the winter illness. So I thought of sharing it with everyone. It is home made and hence it is safe and also very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• Betel leaf/ Pan leaf/ Vettila - 1
• Cumin seeds/ Jeera seeds - 1 spoon
• Pepper seeds - 1 spoon
• Dry ginger/ Chai wali adrak/ Chukku - 1 piece
• Organic jaggery/ Palm sugar/ Karupatti - 1 small lump chopped
• Coffee powder - a pinch

Preparation:

• Grind all the spices - dry ginger(chukku), pepper seeds, cumin seeds and keep aside.

• Take a pan and boil 2 glasses of water. Once water starts to boil, tear the betel leaf randomly and add it. Let it boil for 1 min.

• Add the ground spices and palm sugar (karupatti) and stir well. Let it boil for 1 min.

• Add a small spoon full of coffee powder. Switch off the flame and close it with a lid.

• Let it remain closed for 5mins. After that, drain the coffee using a filter into a cup.
• Drink hot!

Since dry ginger is good for digestion the one side effect I found was that it increased my appetite. I started to feel hungry very soon. So be prepared to munch something good :)

Please let me know if you felt this was helpful.

Tomato coriander chutney

Here is a chutney which you can make when you are in a real hurry. It just takes 10 mins and tastes very good with idli/ dosa.

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes - 3
• Pearl onions - 7-8
• Red chilies - 3
• Garlic cloves - 4
• Tamarind
• Coriander leaves - a small bunch
• Salt 

For seasoning/ tadka:

• Edible oil
• Mustard seeds
• Curry leaves
• Black gram/ Urad dal

Preparation:

• Grind chopped tomatoes, chopped coriander leaves, pearl onions, garlic cloves, tamarind and red chilies in a mixer grinder to make a paste.

• Transfer it to a cooking pan, add salt to taste and cook for 3 mins in medium flame.
• For seasoning/ tadka, take a small frying pan, heat it and pour 1 spoon edible oil. Add mustard seeds and wait them to crackle. Add urad dal/ black gram and curry leaves.
• Pour the above tadka to the cooked chutney. 

Tomato-coriander chutney is ready to be tasted with idli or dosa. Super quick one!

To make yummy idlis or idli/ dosa batter refer ->
http://she-simple-healthy-elegant.blogspot.in/2013/12/how-to-make-idli-dosa-batter-at-home.html
http://she-simple-healthy-elegant.blogspot.in/2013/12/soft-tasty-idlis-and-sambar.html

Paal Kova/ Milk Sweet

Paal Kova is the South Indian Dhoodh Peda (Milk Sweet) which will melt in your mouth and super fast to prepare. Let's quickly see how to make this yummilicious sweet. The hero of this sweet is condensed milk. Paal means milk and kova is sweet.

Preparation and cooking time: 10 mins

This sweet is traditionally made out of pure milk and is condensed manually. But it can be time consuming. So I have gone for a shortcut by using condensed milk directly.

Ingredients:

• Condensed milk - 1 can 
• Curd/ Yoghurt - 3 spoons
• Butter - 1 spoon
• Finely Crushed Cardamom - 3-4

Preparation:

• Take a microwave safe bowl and transfer the condensed milk (like Milkmaid, Amul Mithai) and yoghurt and mix well.

• Cook it in microwave for 2 mins and take out. Mix well. It would be in a fluid state at this time.

• After mixing very well, keep it in microwave for 1 min and take out. 
• Add ghee and crushed cardamom and mix well.

• We need to get the mix solid. Depending upon the microwave, we need to repeat it twice or thrice.
• Take out the solid parts from the sides and mix well and keep it in microwave for 1 more min.
• By now my mix had become sold and I did not keep it in microwave again.

• Transfer it to a vessel and wait for it to cool down for 5-10 mins. The sweet is ready to eat.

The preparation and ingredients are so simple that you can make this sweet anytime. Kids and adults will enjoy this at anytime. Try it out today!