Nadan Meen Curry / Fish Curry without Coconut

Ingredients

750 gm King Fish
4 medium gamboogi / Kudampuli
2 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
a large pinch of fenugreek seeds

7-8 curry leaves
10 pearl onions, chopped
6 or 7 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 inch ginger, chopped
3 or 4 green chillies, slit open

2 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder
11/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder

salt to taste
a twig of curry leaves
1 tsp coconut oil
1 cup warm water
water as required

Preparation

1. Clean and cut the fish into medium size pieces and keep aside.

2. Soak the kudampuli in 1 cup of warm water and keep aside.

3. Heat oil in earthen pot(manchatti). Add mustard seeds to this. Once it splutters, add fenugreek seeds and fry them in medium heat until they turn light red in color.

4. Now add the curry leaves, chopped pearl onions,garlic ginger and green chillies to this and saute until the raw smell goes.

5. Take the kashmiri chilli powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder in a bowl. Adding 4 or 5 tbsp of water make a smooth paste and add this to the manchatti and fry until the oil separates.

6. Now add the kudampuli along with water and salt to this and bring to boil. If you need more gravy ,you can add more water at this stage.

7. Add the fish pieced to this and cook in medium heat till the fish is well cooked.

8. Add 1 tsp coconut oil and a twig of curry leaves to this and mix gently. The fish curry is ready.

Mutta Pola - A Malabar Snack

Ingredients

4 eggs
1.5 tbsp all purpose flour
20 tsp sugar (5 tsp sugar per egg)
a large pinch of cardamom powder

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven at 250 degree Fahrenheit temperature for 10 minutes.

2. Beat the eggs, sugar and cardamom powder until it becomes light, fluffy and double in quantity. It may take a while.

3. Once you get the right consistency, add maida little by little and mix it slowly . Do not over mix.

4. Butter a nonstick pan. Pour the prepared batter into the pan and cover it with a lid.

5. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the cake is completely cooked. You can see whether it is cooked by inserting fork in the cake. (Instead of the nonstick pan, you can use a baking tray also. Cover it with an aluminium foil then)

6. Once the cake is completely cooled down, you can cut it into required shapes.

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Unnakkaya - An Authentic Malabar Snack

Ingredients

3 riped plantains / Nenthrappazham (It should not be over riped)
1/2 cup grated coconut
2 tbsp chopped cashew nuts
2 tbsp raisins
4 or 5  cardamom, powdered
5 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp ghee or butter
coconut oil to deep fry

Preparation

1. Steam the plantains until they are well cooked and turn soft. Instead of steaming, you can  cook the plantains with water also.

2. Peel the plantains and remove the black seeds inside.

3. Grind it into a smooth paste without adding water and keep aside(Consistency should be same as that of chappathi dough. If the paste is a little loose refrigerate for a while or add some rice powder to it and mix well).

4. To make the stuffing, heat the ghee or butter in a pan. Fry the cashews and raisins until they turn brown.

5. To this add the grated coconut, sugar and cardamom powder and saute for another 3 to 4 minutes in medium flame. Turn off the heat and let it cool.

6. To prepare the unnakkaya, grease your hands with some ghee and make lemon size ball with the banana dough.Flatten it in on ur palm and put 1 tbsp of filling in the center.  Close all the ends carefully with two hands and roll it to make the shape as shown in the picture.

7. Heat oil in kadai in medium flame. Fry the prepared unnakkaya until they turn golden brown in color and drain them on a kitchen towel( While frying, turn them occasionally so that all the sides are uniformly fried).

Serve warm with tea!!

Kozhi Nirachath /Spicy Egg Stuffed Roast Chicken

Ingredients

1 medium size whole chicken, cleaned and skinned

For marinating the chicken

2 tbs red chilli powder
1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp oil
salt to taste
water as required

For stuffing

2 boiled eggs
1 medium size onion, thinly sliced
3 green chillies, finely chopped
2 large garlic pods, skinned
1/2 inch ginger, finely chopped
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
a twig of curry leaves
a handful of coriander leaves, chopped
salt to taste
1 tbsp coconut oil

For shallow frying the chicken

1/4 cup coconut oil


For Baking the chicken

1 medium onion, sliced

For the gravy

1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 tomato, sliced
4 green chillies, chopped
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp ginger , chopped
1 tsp garlic , chopped
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
a twig of curry leaves
1 tbsp coconut oil remaining after frying the chicken

Preparation

For marinating the chicken

1. Clean the whole chicken  thoroughly with water and lemon juice and pat dry.

2. Make a smooth paste with all the ingredients specified in the "for marinating the chicken" section.

3. Apply this paste all over the chicken both inside and outside and refrigerate it overnight or at least 4 hrs.


For Stuffing

1. Boil the eggs and keep aside.

2. Heat oil in a pan or kadai. Add the sliced onion along with the chopped green chillies, garlic cloves ,chopped ginger and curry leaves. Saute until the onions are light brown in color.

3. Now add chilli powder, kashmiri chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder , garam masala and salt. Mix everything together and fry for 3 to 4 minutes.

4. Add the boiled eggs to this masala and fry for another 2 minutes.

5. Finally add the chopped coriander leaves to this, mix well and turn off the heat. Allow the masala to cool down.

6. Stuff this masala inside the chicken.
First put the eggs inside, then the masala.Using kitchen twine tie the chicken legs first and then the wings. (Do not stuff heavily ).

For shallow frying the chicken

1. Heat oil in a large pan. Place the stuffed chicken carefully in the pan and fry until all the four sides are light brown in color. (You need to turn the chicken carefully as needed and no need to fry fully).

2. Drain the chicken and keep it aside.

For baking the chicken (Initial Stage)

1. Preheat the oven in 350 F.

2. Make a bed using sliced onion in the baking dish and place the chicken on that facing the breast side down.

3. Drizzle some oil (used for frying the chicken) on the chicken

4. Cover the baking dish with an aluminium foil and bake it for 40 minutes.

Meantime you need to prepare the gravy, which has to be poured on the half baked chicken.

For the gravy

1. Heat oil in a pan . Add the sliced onion to this and saute for a minutes.

2. Add chopped ginger, garlic ,green chillies  and curry leaves to this and saute for another 2 minutes.

3. Then add the sliced tomato.

4. Once the tomato is soft, add chilli powder, kashmiri chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and garam masala along with salt and fry for 3 minutes in medium flame.

5. Grind the fennel seeds to fine powder and add it to this gravy and mix well. Fry for another 2 minutes and turn off the heat.

For baking the chicken (Final Stage)

1. Once the initial baking is done, take the chicken out carefully and pour the prepared gravy all over the chicken.

2. Bake the chicken uncovered for another 40 minutes in 400F 

and that is it. The egg stuffed chicken is ready. (Take off the kitchen twine before serving)

Mutta Maala and Pinjanathappam

Mutta Mala and Pinjanathappam are authentic malabar dishes. Its all about eggs and sugar. Mutta maala is prepared from egg yolk and it ll be like yellow thin noodles. Pinjanathappam is steamed egg white. If you have a sweet tooth, this is perfect as an evening snack or even as a dessert.

Ingredients (Serves 3 or 4 )

For Mutta Maala

10 eggs,  for the egg yolk
1 cup sugar
2 cups water

For Pinjanathappam

10 eggs, for the egg white
5 cardamom pods, powdered
Left over syrup from mutta maala

Preparation

For Muttamala 

* Keep the flame in medium.

1. Separate the egg yolk and egg white to two separate dry bowls. Keep the egg white aside for the pinjanathappam.
(Make sure not even a single drop of white is mixed with the yolk. If a someyolk is mixed with white, that is fine)

2. Beat the egg yolk until you get a thick yellow mixture and keep aside.

3. Boil the water and sugar in wide and bottom thick pan.

4. Add very little egg white to the sugar syrup to remove impurities if any. You will be able to see the scums coming up. With a spoon you can remove that.

5. You need to boil the sugar syrup until you get one string consistency. Mean time, we can make something through which we need to pour the egg yolk in the sugar syrup.

The traditional way to pour the egg yolk is by making a small hole at the centre of a coconut shell and covering this hole with a finger, fill the egg yolk in the shell. Remove the finger and pour the yolk in the sugar syrup. It will fall like yellow threads. Now , where to get the coconut shell and how to make the hole?

So I used a thin plastic cup (use and throw type) instead of the coconut shell and made a very small hole at the bottom of it. Filled the yolk in the cup and pour the yolk in the sugar syrup in a circular motion.

6. Pour the egg yolk completely until the cup is empty. By then the yolk in the syrup will be cooked. Now reduce the flame and sprinkle a little cold water into the syrup.Take out the egg strings (mutta maala ) from the syrup without breaking them.  Use all the egg yolks this way.
(If the sugar syrup is getting thicker, add a little water to get back the one string consitency)

7. Spread the muttamala on a plate.

Now wait till pinjanathappam is ready!!

For Pinjanathappam

1. Let the left over sugar syrup from mutta maala cool down .

2. Beat the egg white well.

3. Add the sugar syrup and cardamom powder to the egg white. Beat till it is frothy.

4. Heat water in a pressure cooker. Grease a wide vessel and pour the beaten egg white in that. Now, steam it in pressure cooker till it is firm.

4. Allow it to cool down and remove from the vessel. Cut into desired shapes.

5. Serve it with muttamala.

* The pinjanathappam will be white in color. When I prepared it, one egg yolk got completely mixed with the egg white by accident. That is the secret of  this light yellow color for the pinjanathappam. Bear with me !!

Arikkadukka / Stuffed Mussels

Hi All

Welcome to Enchanting Flavors. This blog has been made to showcase the exotic and rustic flavors of India. 

Lets start our journey with one of the famous dishes from the Malabar region of Kerala , the god's own country - Arikkadukka which is Stuffed Mussels.

Being from the south part of Kerala, I never heard about this amazing dish till I got a couple of friends from the Malabar side. When they used to talk about this dish, I used to wonder can Mussels be so tasty. The day I tasted  it,  I instantly fell in love with this dish.

Arikkadukka / Stuffed Mussels

Preparation Time : 1 hr

Ingredients (to make 15 arikkadukka )

15 medium size mussels with shell, cleaned

For making the dough

1 cup coarsely ground and roasted rice powder (I used ready made puttu podi)
1/2  cup grated coconut
10 pearl onions
6 green chillies (The green chillies I used were pretty hot. You can adjust the nos based on your taste level)
1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1 1/2  - 2 cups boiling water

For Sautéing 

1 medium sized Onion chopped

For Dipping and Frying

1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1 clove garllic minced

Salt as required
2 or 3 curry leaves crushed to get a good smell

3 or 4 tbsp water

Coconut oil enough to deep fry the 15 stuffed mussels (in 2 or 3 batches is also fine) 

Preparations

1. Clean the outer and inner part of the mussels well with water . Slit each mussel half way down and remove the black pith in the center . Drain the water and keep them aside

2. Grind the grated coconut, pearl onions, green chillies, kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric powderm cumin seeds and fennel seeds into a smooth paste.

3. Saute the chopped onions till its brown in color and keep it aside.

4. In a large vessel, mix the rice powder and salt. To this add the ground coconut paste and the sauted onions. Slowly add boiling water to this and mix it well to get a smooth dough.

5. Stuff each mussel neatly with this dough and steam them for 20 to 25 min. Once it is done, take off the steamer and place to cool .

6. Now, slowly break open the shell and remove the cooked stuffing carefully from the shell . Do take care not to break it or part the mussel from the dough. If the mussel sticks to the shell, you can remove it with a knife and can be kept with the cooked stuffing.

7. Mix the kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric powder, minced garllic, salt and curry leaves in a little water and make a thin batter.

8. Heat oil in a kadai. Dip each dumpling in the chilli batter ,add to the oil and fry till crispy and golden brown in color.

9. Remove and drain the excess oil and serve hot with evening tea.