Fish Fry with Onions

Ingredients

1.5 lb Fish (Preferably Pomfret or Pompano), cut into small pieces
2 or 3 large onions, sliced
coconut oil to shallow fry the fish
a twig of curry leaves

To Marinate

3 tbsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2 tbsp ginger paste
1 1/2 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp rice powder
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
a twig of curry leaves
salt to taste

* The marinade mentioned above will be a little more than that is needed to marinate the fish. Because it will be used along with onions for frying.

Preparation

1. Grind all the ingredients mentioned in the to marinate section into a thick smooth paste.

2. Marinate the fish pieces for minimum 1 hour. (Marinate over night for better taste).

3. In a pan, heat coconut oil and shallow fry the fish until they turn brown in color. Keep the fried fish aside.

4. In the same oil, add the sliced onions and saute well. Once they become transparent, add the left over marinade to this, mix well and saute the onions until they turn brown in color.

5. At this stage, add curry leaves and fried fish to the fried onions and mix well without breaking the fish pieces.

Pappadam Curry

Ingredients

5 pappadam

enough oil to fry the pappadam (Preferably coconut oil)

1 big gooseberry size tamarind

1 small gooseberry size jaggery

1 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1 pinch turmeric powder

1 tsp sambar powder

1/2 tsp bengal gram (channa dal)

1/2 tsp sambar dal (toor dal)

1/4 tsp black gram(urad dal)

a twig of curry leaves

salt to taste

water enough to extract the tamarind juice

Preparation

1. Fry the pappadam in oil and keep aside.

2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a kadai. Add the mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add the curry leaves, fenugreek seeds, channa dal, toor dal and urad dal and saute for 30 seconds.

3. Now reduce the flame to sim and add the red chillly powder, turmeric powder , sambar powder and powdered jaggery to this and mix well for another 30 seconds.

4. Extract the tamarind juice in  medium  consistency and add this to the mix. 

5. Once it starts boiling , turn off the heat.

6. Crush the fried pappadam into medium size pieces and add in the curry.

7. Adjust the salt accordingly after tasting as the pappadam will be salty.

Pomegranate Milk Shake

Ingredients

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
2 cups ice chilled milk
2 tbsp or more sugar according to your taste
1 tbsp honey

Preparation

In a blender, combine all the ingredients and blend them well and the pomegranate milk shake is ready !!

* I boiled the milk first and then refrigerated it.
* I have always noticed that when you take out the pomegranate seeds from the fruit, fingers and nails become brown in color because of the juice from the fruit. To avoid it, cut the fruit into two halves. Take a pan filled with water. Dip the halves in water and remove the seeds keeping them under water. Once you separated the seeds from the fruit, drain the water. You will get the seeds out from the fruit without messing your hands :))

Bread Pizza

Yet another great dish all the way from my friend Soumya's kitchen. Kids are going to love this..

Ingredients

For Pizza

12 bread slices

2 eggs
1 cup milk
ghee/butter as rquired

For Toppings

1 chicken breast, cut into small cubes
1 onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 capsicum, de-seeded and chopped
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp red chilli sauce
salt, to taste
a pinch of sugar
Oil, as required
shredded mozzarella cheese, as required

To Marinate the chicken

1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp curd
salt, to taste

Preparation

1. Marinate the chicken with the ingredients mentioned and keep aside for 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Heat oil in kadai and fry the marinated chicken cubes till they turn light brown in color. Allow the fried chicken to cool down so that you can shred the fried chicken using your hand.

3. Mean time, heat oil in a pan to saute the chopped onions. Once the onion becomes brown in color, add the chopped tomato. When it becomes soft add the chopped capsicum and saute for 5 minutes.
(You can put the flame on sim and shred the chicken at this stage)

4. To this, add the shredded chicken,soy sauce and the chilli sauce. Now you can add sugar to this and salt as required. If you want your pizza to be a little spicy, you can add chilli powder also. Mix everything well and allow to cook for 5 minutes. The topping is ready.
(If you feel the topping is too dry, you can add 1 or 2 tbsp of water and cook.)

5. Remove the crust of the bread and cut the bread into required shape. (I cut the bread in  triangle  shape so that it will be easy to arrange it in a round pan for cooking).

6.Now beat the eggs and milk very well.

7. Coat a non stick flat pan with a little ghee or butter and heat the pan in low flame.

8. Dip each bread slice in the egg-milk mixture and place it on the pan. Now spread the toppings on the bread slices. Allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

9. Now add the shredded cheese on top of it and cover the pan with a lid and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

The yummy pizza is ready!!

Mutta Aviyal / Egg in Coconut Sauce

Ingredients

4 hard boiled eggs, cut lengthwise into halves
1 1/2 cups grated coconut
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
5 pearl onions
a twig of curry leaves
salt to to taste
water as required
coconut oil to drizzle

Preparation

1. In a mixer, add the grated  coconut, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, curry leaves, pearl onion and enough water to make a smooth paste and transfer this to a mud pot/bottom thick pan.

2. Add salt and 1/2  cup water to the ground mix and turn on the flame.

3. After 2 or 3 minutes, add the hard boiled egg halves to this. Do not mix after adding the eggs as it may break the egg pieces.

4. Cook in low flame till the gravy gets thick  consistency. (It should not be too dry)

5. Turn off the flame and drizzle coconut oil over the curry.


* This goes well with rice and rasam.

Simple Mulak Curry / Green chilli curry

It is an easy recipe and if you love the fragrance of fresh chillies, this one is for you.

Ingredients

4 banana peppers

1 green chilli

1 small gooseberry size tamarind (it can vary depending on the  sourness of the tamarind. The tamarind I used was very sour) 

4 or 5 pinches of asafoetida

3 or 3 1/2 cups of water

2 dry red chillies

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 twig curry leaves

3 tbsp coconut oil

salt to taste

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a pan or kadai. Saute the banana peppers and green chilli . Once they are soft and light brown in color, strain them and keep aside.

2. Soak the tamarind in 3 to 31/2 cups of water and extract the pulp.

3. To this add the fried peppers and chilli, asafoetida and salt to taste. Mash the peppers gently with hand and mix well.At this stage, you can add more water if you need.

4.Splutter mustard seeds in the same oil that was used to fry the peppers, then add the dry red chillies and curry leaves. Once the red chillies change its color, switch off the flame.

5. Now pour the banana pepper tamarind juice mix to this. Heat  this mix in low flame for 2 minutes.

It goes well with rice.

Nagercoil style meen kuzhambu / Nagercoil style fish curry

This is a special recipe from my friend Soumya and she was sweet enough to even come home and prepare it for this blog :)

Ingredients

1 lb Tilapia or any other white fish, cut into medium size cubes

salt to taste

3 to 31/2 cups water + 1/2 cup water

Lemon size tamarind ball

1 or 2 green chilies, slit length wise

For grinding :

1 1/2 cups grated coconut

1 tbsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp whole black pepper

4 or 5 pearl onions

2 big pieces of dry ginger

water enough to grind 

For seasoning:

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 twig of curry leaves

2 dry red chillies

Preparation

1. Wash the cut fish cubes well and keep aside.

2. Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup water for 10 to 15 minutes and extract the tamarind juice.

3. In a mixer, add all the ingredients mentioned for grinding and adding enough water grind them to smooth paste.

4. Transfer this smooth paste to a mud pot or a bottom thick vessel. Add the tamarind juice ,3 to 31/2 cups of  water and salt to this smooth paste and mix well. 

5. Add the fish cubes and the green chilies to this mix and allow the fish to cook in medium flame. It may take 15 to 20 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish. (Do not cover the pot with lid)

6. For seasoning, heat oil in a frying pan and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the dry red chilies and curry leaves and saute for 20 seconds . Pour this over the prepared  fish curry.

* It tastes better the next day and goes well with rice.