Watermelon Rind - Dal Curry

Ingredients

11/2 cup Watermelon rind,cut into medium cubes
1 cup toor dal, washed throughly
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
water as required

For grinding

1/4 cup grated coconut
6 pearl onions
1/4 fennel seeds
4 or 5 curry leaves
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
2 green chillies
water as required

For seasoning

11/2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3 dry red chillies
5 or 6 pearl onions, thinly sliced
a twig of curry leaves


How to clean and cut the watermelon rind?

Cut the watermelon into two halves and scoop out the entire red flesh. Peel off the thick green skin and cut the rind into medium size cubes. 

Preparation

1. Pressure cook toor dal along with water melon rind, turmeric powder and salt.

2. Meanwhile, grind all the ingredients mentioned in the "for grinding" section to a thick smooth paste.

3. Add the coconut paste to the cooked dal and allow it to boil once in low flame and turn off the heat (After adding coconut paste, if the curry is too thick, you can add some water. Also, adjust the salt).

4. Now heat oil in a kadai. Add the mustard seeds. Once they splutter add the dry red chilliies, curry leaves and sliced pearl onions and saute until onions turn light brown in color and pour this to the curry.

Trivandrum Style Beetroot Thoran / Beetroot Stir Fry

Ingredients (Serves 3-4 people)

1 large beetroot, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp urad dal
2 dry red chillies
a twig of curry leaves
2 tbsp water
salt to taste

To grind

1/2 cup grated coconut
1/4 tbsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
4 or 5 shallots
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
3 or 4 curry leaves

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds to the oil. Once it splutters add urad dal, dry red chillies and curry leaves.

2. Once the urad dal turns light brown in color, add the chopped beetroot along with salt. Add 2 tbsp water and mix well. Cover the kadai with a lid and cook in low flame. Stir  occasionally.

3. When the beetroot is half cooked, add chopped onion with this and again cover the pan with lid and cook in low flame.

4. In the mean time take all the ingredients mentioned in the "to grind" section in a blender and grind to a coarse mixture without adding water.

5. Once the beetroot and onion is soft, add this ground mixture to it and mix well. Again close the kadai with lid and cook in low flame for 5 minutes or until the beetroot is completely cooked, stirring  occasionally.

6. Now remove the lid and stir fry 5 more minute stirring continuously.

7. Turn off the heat and serve warm as a side dish.

Pressure Cooker Mutton Biriyani

Ingredients

For the Rice & Masala

3 cups of basmati rice
2 large onions, sliced
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
3 green chillies, cut lengthwise
1/4 tsp ginger paste
1/4 tsp garlic paste
a little less than 1/4 cup of chopped mint leaves
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
4 cardamoms
4 cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves, hand crushed
2 tsp biriyani Masala ( I used the *homemade biriyani masala)
2 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
water as required
2 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
1 tbsp oil

To pressure cook the Mutton

2 lb mutton, cut into medium size pieces

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tbsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp cumin seeds(optional)
water just enough to cover the mutton
salt to taste


* To make the home made biriyani masala

 6 cloves
 5 cinnamon sticks
 6 bay leaves
 1/4 tsp fennel seeds

1.  Dry roast all the ingredients in low heat until they turn a little crispy. Be careful not to burn the spices.

2.  Grind in a blender to fine powder.

If you make some extra biriyani masala, you can store it in an airtight container. It will stay good for 2 months.

Preparation

1. Wash the rice well. Drain the rice in a strainer and keep aside. Allow it to air dry.

2. In a pressure cooker, add mutton along with ginger paste, garlic paste, turmeric powder, cumin seeds , salt and water just enough to cover the mutton. Pressure cook the mutton in medium flame until it is completely cooked. (For me it needed 6 whistles). Allow it to cool.

3. Mean time, heat the ghee and oil in a kadai. To this add cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom and bay leaves and saute for 2 minutes in medium flame.

4. To this add the sliced onions and saute until they turn golden brown.

5. Now add the sliced tomatoes to this and saute until the tomatoes turn soft.

6. Add the chopped mint leaves and coriander leaves to this and saute until the raw smell goes.

7. To make the masala, you can add chilli powder, turmeric powder, biriyani masala and salt to this. Mix well and saute in low flame for 4-5 minutes and keep aside.

8. Now separate the pressure cooked mutton pieces from the gravy. Add them to the masala and mix well. Cook it for another 2-3 minutes in low flame. You can save the gravy for cooking the rice.

9. Rice to water ratio for cooking the rice is 1:1 1/2. Since we are cooking 3 cups of rice we need 41/2 cups of water. Measure the gravy you have saved and add required amount of water to make it 41/2 cups.

10. Transfer the masala, rice and 41/2 cups of water-gravy mix to a pressure cooker and mix well. If needed, add salt at this stage. Now Pressure cook it in low flame for 1 whistle and turn off the heat. Let the pressure go off.

The easy mutton biriyani is ready.

Note : You can cook the rice in a rice cooker also. For this transfer the masala rice and water to the rice cooker and cook it in white rice mode.

Uzhunnu Vada / Medu Vada and Coconut Chutney

Ingredients (To Make 10 nos)

1 cup black gram (urad dal)
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
1/2 medium size onion, chopped (optional)
2 tbsp chopped carrot (Optional)
5 green chillies, finely chopped
A twig of curry leaves, roughly chopped

2 pinches of baking soda

Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying
2 cups of water for soaking the black gram + a few table spoon of water for grinding if required

Preparation

1. Soak the urad dal in water for 30-40 minutes. (If you soak more than this time, it will absorb a lot of oil while frying).

2. Drain and grind the urad dal to a thick smooth batter. Avoid adding water as much as possible.  Transfer the batter to a bowl.

3. To this batter add the chopped ginger, onion, carrot,green chillies, baking soda and salt and mix well. You have to use the batter right away to make the vada.

4. Heat oil in kadai in medium flame.

5. To make vadas, wet your hand and take a medium lemon size ball of batter on your hand. Give it a round shape and make a hole in the center using your thumb.

6. Once the oil is hot enough, slide these vadas carefully to the oil as soon as you make it.

7. Fry the vadas until they turn golden brown in color on both sides.

8. Take out the vadas from oil and drain them on kitchen towel.

Serve them hot/warm with coconut chutney.

How to make coconut chutney?

Ingredients

1 tsp coconut oil

To Grind

1 cup grated coconut
4 green chillies
6 or 7 pearl onions
5 or 6 curry leaves
salt to taste
3 tbsp water

Preparation

1. Grind all the ingredients mentioned in the 'to grind' section to a smooth paste. (You can add more water if required to grind it).

2. Move the chutney to a bowl.

3. Add coconut oil to the chutney and mix well.

The coconut chutney is ready.

Masala Dosa (Indian Coffee House Style)

Ingredients

Dosa batter to make 10 dosa
ghee or oil as required

For the masala

2 medium potatoes, peeled
2 medium beetroot, peeled
1 carrot peeled
1 medium onion, sliced
4 green chillies, thinly chopped
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3 pinches of garam masala
1/2 tsp urad dal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
a few curry leaves
salt to taste
oil as required
water left after pressure cooking the vegetables

Preparation

1. Pressure cook the peeled potatoes, beetroot and carrot. Once it is cool, mash them coarsely and keep aside.

2. Heat oil in kadai. Add the urad dal and mustard seeds to this. Once it splutters, add the sliced onion, green chillies,ginger paste and curry leaves along with salt and saute well

3. Once the onions turn soft, add the turmeric powder, kashmiri chilli powder and garam masala to this. Mix and saute in low heat flame for 2 minutes.

4. Now add the mashed vegetables to this. Adjust the salt at this stage. Mix well and cook for a minutes in low flame. Turn off the heat.

If the masala is too thick, add 2 tbsp of water and mix well.

To make masala dosa

1. Heat the non-stick dosa tawa in medium flame. Once it is hot, pour a ladle full of dosa batter on the tawa and spread it evenly in a circular motion from inside out.

2. Add a little ghee around the edges of the dosa.

3. Once the dosa is dry and edges turn light brown in color, put 2 tbsp of masala in the center and spread it.

4. Now fold both sides of the dosa to the mixture.

5. Remove from the heat and indian coffee house style masala dosa is ready to be served

Fresh Fig - Banana Milkshake

Ingredients (Serves 1-2)

5 fresh figs, stem removed and sliced

Half a banana, peeled and sliced

3/4 cup milk, chilled

sugar or honey as required

1/4 tsp vanilla essence or 2 cardamom pods  powdered 

Preparation

1.  Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until they are smooth. Serve chilled.

Kerala Style Chicken Fry / Kozhi Porichath

Ingredients

1 lb skinless chicken, cut into small pieces, washed and drained
2 inch ginger, ground into coarse paste
12 garlic cloves, ground into coarse paste
a twig of curry leaves, hand-crushed
Coconut oil to deep fry the chicken

To marinate

2 tbsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder
2 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp garam masala
11/2 tsp pepper powder
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp yogurt
salt to taste
water as required to make a smooth paste

Preparation

1. Mix all the ingredients mentioned in the to marinate section to make a smooth thick paste.

2. Marinate the chicken pieces with this paste and keep it refrigerated at least for 3 hours (Keep refrigerated overnight for best results).

3. Take out the chicken from refrigerator before frying.  Add the freshly ground garlic, ginger and crushed curry leaves to the chicken and mix well. Keep outside for 15 minutes.

4. Heat the coconut oil in a kadai. Add the chicken pieces in batches and deep fry the them in medium heat . Turn the pieces in between and fry them until all the sides turn golden brown in color.

5. Drain the fried chicken pieces in a kitchen towel.

It goes well with rice or indian bread.

Nadan Kozhi Curry/Chicken Curry

Ingredients

1.5 lb skinless chicken with bones cut into small pieces, washed and drained
3 medium onion, chopped
4 green chillies, slit open
12 garlic cloves, finely chopped
11/2 inch ginger, finely chopped
41/2 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder
4 tbsp coriander powder
21/2 tbsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp vinegar
2 cups of coconut milk
1/2 cup of water
2 tbsp coconut oil
a twig of curry leaves
salt to taste

Preparation

1. Heat oil in kadai. Add the chopped onions, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and green chillies to it and saute until the onions turn golden brown in color.

2. Add kashmiri chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala to this and saute continuously in low heat for 10 minutes.

3. Add the chicken pieces, salt and vinegar to this and mix  thoroughly. Now cover it with a lid and cook in medium heat until the chicken is cooked well.

4. Now add coconut milk along with water to this and cook in low flame for 10 minutes. Adjust the salt if required.

5. Turn off the heat and that is it. The chicken curry is ready to be served.

Phirni - Rice Pudding

Ingredients

500 ml milk
1/4 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup sugar, powdered
5 cardamom pods
1 tsp rose water
1 cup water to soak the rice

To garnish

5 almonds, sliced
5 pistachios, sliced

Preparation

1. Soak the rice in water for 2-3 hours. Drain it and let it dry completely.

2. Grind the rice to coarse powder (consistency of semolina) and keep aside.

3. Boil the milk in a bottom thick pan in low heat. Stir the milk continuously to avoid forming the cream.

4. Once the milk starts to boil, remove the cardamom pods from it and slowly  add  rice powder and sugar to it stirring  continuously to avoid forming lumps.

5. Keep stirring until the rice is cooked completely and the milk is thickened up. It will take around 20-25 minutes.

6. Turn off the heat . Add rose water to it , mix well and let it cool in room temperature.

7. Divide the pudding among dessert bowls, garnish with almonds and pistachios.

8. Chill them in the refrigerator for  at least  2 hrs and take them out about 10 minutes before serving.