When the meats out and the veggies in....is when I get the grumpy looks from people at home. But sometimes you really can't help it, it's a forced effort....my son happily eats his veggies, while the rest of the household eats grumpily...this is an easy recipe I fished out from the book "Essential Thai - everday dishes for you to enjoy". Easy to cook up, with familiar flavors and worth the effort....
Ingredients:
Galangal - 1 inch sliced
Garlic cloves - 2 chopped
Vegetable Stock cube - 1
Carrots- 4 peeled and cut into cubes
Pumpkin - 220gms peeled, de-seeded and cut into cubes
Thai Yellow paste - 3tbs
Shallots - 5 chopped finely
Coconut milk - 400ml
Fresh/ dried basil
Good Friday is the victory over man's failure to death and sin; while Jesus exchanged sin and death for redemption and grace.
Rice Gruel is the typical Keralite lunch on Good Friday accompanied with greem gram, spiced buttermilk, pappad and pickle....
Greem Gram Thoran
Ingredients:
Green Gram - 1cup
Coconut Gratings - 1/4cup
Button onioins - 5sliced
Garlic - 2 cloves crushed
Cumin powder - 1/2tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4tsp
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds - 1/4tsp
Curry leaves - 2sprigs
Dried Red chillies - 2 broken
Cook the greem gram in 2 cups of water until it becomes soft and the pan juice dries up (If additional water is required add water inermittently to cook the dal). Grind the coconut gratings, cumin powder, garlic, a couple of button onions to a coarse paste and place into the cooked gram. Cover and cook until the masala is cooked through. Temper the mustard seeds, curry leaves and button onions to a golden colour. Fry the red chilli and turn the tempering into the cooked dal. Stir well and serve.
Spiced Buttermilk
Ingredients:
Yogurt - 1cup
Water - 1cup
Green chilli- 2 thinly sliced
Button onions - 2 thinly sliced
Ginger - 1/4tsp
Few curry leaves
Salt to taste
Blitz yogurt in a bowl until smooth, add water and rest of the ingredients and stir well. Chill until serving time.
Mango Chutney
Ingredients:
Raw mango - 1 whole peeled, de-seeded and cut into smal pieces
Coconut gratings - 1cup
Button onions - 4
Green chilly - 2
Cumin powder - 1/4tsp
Salt to taste
Grind all the ingredients to a paste adding water little by little. Serve immediately with the kanji.
Ahmedabad, known as 'The Manchester of the East' is a city full of gastronomical surprises. This is one such recipe, authentic to the Gujurathis, a side dish to be rightfully accompanied with hot- puffed puris.
Splutter the mustard seeds, add in the onion seeds and sesame seeds and fry for a minute. Then add in the cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaf, and cardamom pods and let the spices release the fragrant aroma. Tip in ginger garlic paste and saute for 2 minutes, then add the powders- coriander, jeera, turmeric, chilli and salt and saute till the fat separation happens. The chopped tomato and asafoetida comes in next, cook till the tomatoes turns soft and is well blended into the masala. Add in the diced potatoes and pumpkins also add in the sugar, coat the vegetables well with the masala. Add in about quarter cup of water, cover and cook till the potatoes and pumpkins are tender and the masala turns semi dry. Serve hot with chopped coriander leaves.
Puri
Ingredients
Atta - 1cup
Maida - 1/4cup
Salt to taste
Warm water
Into a food processor, add in the powders and salt. Using warm water process till a dough is formed and comes off the sides of the bowl. Roll into thin puris onto a floured board. Deep fry into hot oil till puffed and golden brown. Using a slotted spoon lift each puri and drain out any excess oil.
Noodles is one thing everyone especially my toddler gets excited for or looks forward to. I mean if I could make noodles everyday for the father and son....I've got one happy family.
Crispy Vegetables in Garlic Sauce
Garlic Sauce Ingredients:
Tomato Ketchup - 1/2 cup
Tomato paste - 4 tbs
Onion - 1 small finely chopped
Garlic - 1 1/2 tbs finely chopped
Ginger - 1tbs finely chopped
Chilly paste - 2tbs (red chillies without the seeds soaked in vinegar and ground)
Oil - 2tbs
Sugar - 1tsp
Salt to taste
Heat oil and saute the onion till pink. Add in the ginger and garlic and fry till lightly browned. Tip in the chilly paste, and tomato paste sugar and salt and saute for about 2 minutes. Then add in the ketchup and bring to a gentle simmer. If the sauce gets too thick you could spoon in some warm water to loosen the consistency. Simmer for about 2 minutes and take off the flame.
Crispy Vegetables Ingredients:
Boiled Vegetables - 2 cups (cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms and baby corn cut into bite sized pieces)
Plain Flour - 50gms
Egg - 1
Corn Flour - 25gms
Salt
Baking Powder - 1/4tsp
Water
Beat in the egg, add the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt to make a batter. Dip each on vegetable into the batter and deep fry till golden brown. Drain on absorbent towels and keep aside.
Vegetable Noodles
Ingredients
Noodles - 1 family pack of Tom Ramen noodles
Duck Eggs - 2 whipped separately
Yellow Bell pepper - 1/4cup julienned
Red Bell pepper - 1/4cup julienned
Green Bell pepper - 1/4cup julienned
Carrots - 100gms julienned
Beans - 100gms diagonally cut
Ginger - 1 inch sliced and julienned
Garlic - 3 pods sliced and julienned
Soya sauce - 2tbs
Tobasco Sauce - couple of dabs from the bottle
Sugar - 1tsp
Red Wine Vinegar - a spritz
Into a big pot of boiling water, add in some salt and a 1tbs of oil, and cook the noodles for about 10 minutes. Once the noodles is cooked, strain and run some cold water over it, drain and keep aside.
Heat a wok and lightly coat with vegetable oil. Once the wok is hot, tip in the ginger, garlic and sugar, saute till the aroma is released. Tip in the carrots and beans and saute till almost cooked. Tip in the peppers, and saute for a minute. Pour in soya sauce, a couple of dabs of tobasco, a generous spritz of red wine vinegar and fry till all the vegetables are well coated with the sauces. In the meantime, whip the duck eggs one by one and fry separately to make two plain omelets without seasoning. Cut the omelets into thin strips. Add it into the combined vegetables to get it lightly coated with all the sauces yet retain colour. Check in on the seasoning of the vegetables.
Onto a plate, bed a spoon of noodles topped with the vegetables. Just before serving, put the fried crispy vegetables into the garlic sauce and serve.
Tip: If the fried vegetables are put into the garlic sauce much before serving, the dish would turn out to be soggy and would lose its crunchiness.
Kalan is a preparation usually made for Onam or other festive occasions. My mum made this almost every other day because her kids simply loved it. It's even better if a fish curry were to accompany with the rice.
Combine the sliced up banana, 1/2tsp of turmeric powder,a bit of salt and water into a non-stick pan till the banana is pan coated. In another pan cook the sour curds with the rest of the turmeric powder. Cook on low heat continuously stirring to avoid curdling the mixture. Remove pan from fire and continue stirring till the mixture is slightly cooled. Wet grind the masala of coconut, garlic, 2 shallots, fennel powder and green chillies. For the tempering splutter mustard seeds, curry leaves, sliced shallots and red chillies till brown.Once the tempering is ready add the fenugreek seeks. Keep the yoghurt mixture back onto the stove and add the ground masala till the mixture is combined well. Add the salt and the cooked plaintains and stir well. Add the tempering to the dish.And its ready to be served with rice.
