Thengai Paal Meen Kuzhambhu / Fish Curry with Coconut milk

I have never been a big fan of seafood, except for crab. Thats the main reason that you don't see that much seafood related dishes in the blog. However I have started cooking fish these days for the sake of pappu. Amma generally makes fish curry with coconut and thats how I know fish. But my MIL makes a version wherein she never uses coconut. Its just lots of tamarind and loads of pearl onions. I took a liking to that curry right from day one and I make it occasionally at home.

This is a hybrid version of my MILs fish curry. I had some coconut milk on hand which I added in the end, allowed the curry to come to a boil and viola I got a tasty curry with a very mild flavor of coconut. The coconut masks the overpowering taste of the tamarind and gives a not-too-much creaminess and sweetness to the curry. On the whole it sure is a winner to me.

~*What U Need*~ Fish - 250 gms Shallots/Pearl onions - 12 Tomato - 1 medium Garlic pods - 4 Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Red Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp Coriander powder - 1.5 tsp Fish curry powder/sambar powder - 1 tsp(optional) Thick Coconut milk - 1/2 cup Salt - as required Gingelly Oil - 3 tbsp Tamarind - 1 lemon sized ball soaked in 1/4 cup water Salt - to season To grind to a fine paste: Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp Peppercorns - 1/2 tsp Red Chili powder - 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp Shallots - 5 Garlic - 3 To season: Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp Mustard seeds+Urud Dal - 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp Curry leaves - 1 sprig How I Made it: Marinate the fish with salt, turmeric powder for 30 mins. In a kadai, add oil and when hot add the 'To Season' ingredients and fry well. Add chopped garlic pods and saute them for a minute. Add the chopped shallots and fry till golden brown. Add the spice powders and fry for 5 mins. Add the ground paste and fry till the raw smell goes off. Then add tomato and saute till the oil oozes out. Now pour the tamarind extract and bring to a boil. In low flame keep boiling till the oil separates and the curry reaches the desired consistency. Add a sprig of curry leaves and the fish pieces. Cook for few mins and then add the thick coconut milk. Cook for 1-2 mins and remove from flame.

Serve hot with white rice!!!

So thats it Folks...
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Kale Sambar

As a home maker, not only me but everyone of us are on the look out for healthy wholesome foods for our family. Two such healthy foods that I have included in our daily diet are broccoli and kale. I generally make kale chips sprinkled with chilli powder and we enjoy it with our tea. And at times I saute them with some garlic powder and salt to have them in my salads but other than that I don't know other ways to cook kale. I know that they make excellent detox smoothies but I have never ventured in that area yet. The thought of using kale to make Indian sambar was not something that I had planned. It all happened when I had only kale in my pantry to cook that night's dinner. Piping hot kale sambar with dosas made for a very healthy and satisfying dinner.

~*What U Need*~ Kale - 1/2 bunch Small onions - 1/2 cup, sliced Tomatoes - 1/2 cup, chopped Green chilli - 1 Tamarind - lemon sized ball soaked in water Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Sambar powder - 1 tsp To temper: Ghee - 2 tsp Oil - 1 tsp Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Curry leaves - 1 sprig Small onions - 2 tbsp, sliced To pressure cook: Toor dhal - 1/2 cup Water - 1 cup Garlic cloves - 2 Hing powder - a pinch Salt How I Made it: Pressure cook the toor dhal with all the other ingredients under "pressure cook" for 5-6 whistles. Allow to cool and release the pressure. Mash with the back of a spoon. In a kadai, add the chopped kale, small onions, tomatoes and green chilli. Add water to immerse it and set it on medium flame. Allow to boil and cook till tender. Add the tamarind water and cook for 2-3 mins. Add the cooked dhal mixture to this and mix well. Add the sambar powder and mix well. Bring it to a boil and season with salt. Heat oil and ghee in a saucepan and temper with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the fenugreek seeds and fry till brown. Add in the sliced onions and saute till brown. Add the tempering to the sambar and mix well.

Serve with ghee soaked rice!!!

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Pulikachal | Puliyodarai /Puliyogare /Tamarind Rice Mix | How to make Tamarind Rice or Pulisaadham

Fond memories are associated with Puliyodarai for me. Picnics with cousins, school tour to amusement parks, ngo outings to tribal villages and so on... Whenever I tell amma that I will be going out for a day long outing, she generally makes me some puliyodarai or thayir saadam with a simple potato roast to take along. And after all that fun, laughter and some body pain, sitting together for a hearty lunch with your favorite food duo peeking out of your tiffin box ~ ah how I want to re-visit my childhood days.

I still remember the days when I traveled to my native village for our school holidays. My aunt makes puliyodarai, wrap it up in individual parcels in banana leaves {if not, its finally ends up in sibling war} and then uncle takes us with him to tend the goats in the greenlands. We play all day long while he takes care of the goats and when its time for lunch, we run to the good ol' neem tree's shade, sweating like anything and even that simple tamarind rice seemed like biryani for us...

Its been a long time since I made, rather say had tamarind rice and in fact I had no intention of making this. During my pregnancy I was advised to take as little amount of tamarind that I could and thats been continuing till date. This infact was made by my MIL for my sister-in-law. She's in her second trimster and still doesn't step into the kitchen and so MIL made some homemade thokkus for her. Again doctor's advise and so she left the pack of tamarind preserve and I grabbed it. It comes so much in handy on lazy days and am so asking her to make another batch.

~*What U Need*~ Tamarind/Puli - 1 lemon sized ball Turmeric - 1/4 tsp Hing or Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp Jaggery - 1 small marble sized piece Curry leaves - 1 sprig Peanuts - 1 handful To Temper: Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp Red chillies - 5-6 Urad dhal - 4 tbsp Channa Dhal - 3 tbsp Hing or Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp Curry leaves - 2 sprig Sesame oil - 5 tbsp To Roast and grind: Channa dhal - 2 tbsp Red chillies - 4 Fenugreek seeds/vendhayam - 3/4 tsp Urad dal - 1 tsp Peppercorns - 1 tsp

How I Made it:
Soak tamarind in half cup warm water for half an hour and extract juice. Set aside. Roast all ingredients give under 'to roast' to golden brown and powder it, set aside. In a kadai, heat oil and temper with the given ingredients. Then add tamarind extract, turmeric, salt, curry leaves and hing. Add enough water, the mixture be of rasam consistency. Boil for 15-20 mins, till it reduces to half. Add the jaggery and the ground masala powder. Boil till you get a thick paste and the oil separates. Roast the peanuts in more oil and add this to tamarind mixture. Remove from flame. Cool down and store in a clean container.

To make puliyodarai, cook desired amount of rice. In a kadai, add 2 tsps of sesame oil. Add the desired amount of pulikachal and fry for few seconds. Add the cooked rice and mix gently till the rice grains are evenly coated. Add salt if only needed.

** My Notes:
** The pulikaichal can be stored for 20-30 days in the fridge. But always use a clean dry spoon.
** Sesame oil is the best to use when making tamarind rice but if you want u can use vegetable oil too.
** If you are carrying the rice for a train journey or a long day trip, then cool the rice completely before mixing.

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Egg Pav + 2 chaat chutneys

Bombay street foods are just awesome... You can never have enough of them... my favorite being Vada Pav. The yummy potato stuffing in between the soft breads together with the tangy and spicy chutneys can never go wrong. But times are there when I feel too lazy to grab a potato, boil it, mash it, dip it and fry it. That is when I come up with other substitutes for the vada in the vada pav and that is when I made this egg pav. It was easy to make and fulfilled the craving with a twist.
I haven't posted the recipes for dates tamarind chutney and garlic coconut chutney and so the recipe follows here.

Battered and fried egg sandwiched between spicy n tangy chutneys and a dinner roll

Dates Tamarind chutney
~*What U Need*~
Dates - 10
Tamarind - 1 tbsp
Jaggery - 3/4 tbsp
Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

How I Made it:
Pressure cook dates and tamarind with very little water for 2 whistles. Grind dates to a smooth paste. Extract thick pulp from tamarind and mix with dates mixture. Take a kadai/pan add dates tamarind paste, then add jaggery and bring it to a boil. Now add red chilli powder and roasted jeera powder and give another boil till the chutney becomes thick like sauce consistency. Switch off and store it in clean container, refrigerate until use.

Garlic Coconut Chutney
~*What U Need*~
Garlic – 5 cloves
Dessicated Coconut - 1/4 cup
Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind paste – 1 tsp
Olive Oil - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

How I Made it:
Blend everything in a blender to a coarse mixture as shown in pic. Store in air tight container. You can use this as a sidedish for idlis, dosas too.

Egg Pav
~*What U Need*~
Pav Buns - 4
Hard Boiled eggs - 2

Dates Tamarind chutney - 1 tbsp for each pav
Garlic Coconut chutney - 1 tbsp for each pav
Green chutney - 1 tbsp for each pav

For outer coating:
Gram flour - 1/4 cup
Rice flour - 1 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - to deep fry

How I Made it:
Mix all the ingredients mentioned under the outer coating section. Add little water and bring it to a consistency similar to the bajjis' outer coating. U must be able to coat the eggs with this mixture. Take the eggs, cut into half, dip it into the flour mixture and deep fry it till golden brown

How I assembled the pav:
Cut the buns into halves using a serrated knife. Take care that one end is still intact with the other bun. Apply the green chutney to one side and red chutney to the other side. Place one tbsp of garlic chutney, place the egg over this as shown.

Enjoy your egg pavs for snack. Its easy and yummy.

So thats it Folks...
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Broken wheat Khichidi with the goodness of Sambar

Broken wheat has always been my easy breezy dinner idea when it comes to lack of time. Its healthy, easy to make and you can incorporate as much veggies as you can. Rather than less time, it is tiredness that is coming over me these days and hence most of the dinners has some form of upma. He was bored, I was bored. So finally overcame my laziness, dragged myself to the kitchen and was standing by the counter, pondering on wat to make for dinner, gradually eying all the ingredients in the pantry, when the Sambar powder jar stood out of the whole lot.

Suddenly I wanted something sambar-y, but definitely not rice. So finally it was broken wheat that came to the rescue again. I made sambar saadam only that the saadam was replaced by broken wheat. The flavor of sambar stood out well and it was a healthy and satisfying dinner.

~*What U Need*~
Broken wheat - 1 cup
Toor dhal - 1/2 cup

Pearl Onions - 7-8
Tomato(small) - 1
Carrot, beans, green peas - 1 cup
Tamarind extract - 3 tbsp
Sambar Powder - 2 1/2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Green chilli - 1

Water - as needed (approx 4 cups)
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tsp

How I Made it:
Pressure cook the toor dhal with enough water(approx 2 cups) for 3-4 whistles. Heat oil in a non stick pan, add mustard seeds, urad dhal, curry leaves and allow to splutter. Add slit green chilli and fry. Add sliced pearl onions and saute till brown. Once done, add the cubed tomatoes, and fry till done. Now add in the cut veggies and fry for 3 mins.

Add water till the veggies are immersed and cook till half done. Now add the tamarind extract followed by the sambar powder and mix well.

Next goes in the toor dhal. Allow to boil well. Then add the broken wheat and mix well. Adjust water as needed. Close with lid till cooked well giving a stir occasionally. Remove from flame once the wheat has cooked properly adjusting salt to taste.

My Notes:
> Since I had cooked peas, I threw it in at the end, but when using fresh or frozen peas, add it along with other veggies.
> Add water as per required consistency. If you want it to be more runny, then add another cup of water.

Serve hot as such or with some coconut chutney!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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