Ramadan Day 7

The sweet version of french toast is a quick breakfast and the spicy one is a quick snack! My sweet version goes for WYF : Breakfast Event and my spicy version goes for the Ramadan event

Sweet French Toast

5 slices of white bread

2 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/4 tsp cardamom powder

2 tbsp sugar (add more or less as per your taste)

a pinch of sugar

oil for shallow frying

-Cut bread into half diagonally.

- Beat eggs, sugar, milk, cardamom powder and salt .

- Dip the bread into the egg mix and shallow fry.

Spicy French Toast

5 slices of white bread

2 large eggs

1 medium sizes onion

2-3 green chillies (Use less or more according to your taste)

salt to taste.

-Cut bread into half diagonally.

- Grind onions and green chillies to a fine paste without adding water

- Beat eggs and add the onion-chilli paste and salt to it and mix well.

- Dip the bread into the egg mix and shallow fry.

Ramadan Day 6

Samosas are the most famous snack in Malabar. These are not large samosas like the veggie ones, Malabar meat samosas are small, petite kind of samosas. They look really cute and you’ll need to et atleast 5-6 to fill your tummy.

Samosas are nicked as Triangle Chicken by my daughter! For her even when i make cutlets i make in triangle shape otherwise she wont eat them! And they should be perfect for her!

I make the meat mix and freeze them in small bags. Just take one bag at a time and thaw. Meat samosas can be made of chicken or beef or mutton. I havn’t tried mutton samosas till today but one of my friend was raving about it.

Its easy to prepare and very tasty to eat!

THe recipe for the meat mix

Boneless Chicken or beef – 1 lb

red chili pwdr – 1 tbsp or add more or less according to your taste

turmeric pwdr – 1/2 tsp

oil – 3-4 tbsps

onions – 3 medium sized finely chopped

ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp

corriander pwdr – 1.5 tbsp

curry leaves,corriander leaves, mint leaves – a small bunch chopped finely.

How to proceed :

Cook chicken, red chilli powder, turmeric and salt.

Shred the cooked chicken and set aside.

Heat oil in a pan and add onions. When the onions are brown add ginger garlic paste and green chillies to it. Fry for another 3-4 mts and ad the shredded chicken, corriander powder and chopped leaves to it.

FOr the wrapper:

All purpose flour is usually used in Malabar but i use wheat flour

salt to taste

knead just like you make the Roti Aata. Divide the aata into small lemon size balls.

Roll the balls into a roti. It should be thin and not so big. Because we are going to make petite samosas not big ones. Cut into 4 pieces. Take a piece and fold the rounded edge into a cone. Fill in the meat mixture. Close the samosa with the pointed edge.

Deep fry in oil and enjoy!!

My Samosas are going for the Ramadan Event!

Ramadan Day 5

I’m smiling as i type this because i was nicked as ‘Bonda’ during my childhood days! I used to be angry when my cousins call me that but now when i think back i cant help laughing because i really was fat and round! the gol gol type LOL! and i loved potatoes and i still do.

Potato is the Raja (king)of all veggies. I havent come across someone who doesn’t like potatoes. Fry ir or bake it or steam it of add to your stew it tastes so good.

Here is my simple recipe for bonda:

For the potato mixture–

1/2 tsp mustard and cumin seeds

3-4 tbsps of oil

4 large potatoes boiled and mashed

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

3 green chillies finely chopped

salt to taste

a handful of corriander leaves chopped finely.

Heat oil in a kadai and add the mustard and cumin seeds and let it splutter. Add onions and fry till onions are light brown. Add ginger-garlic paste to it and fry for 2-3 mts. Add green chillies and salt and  mix well. Add the mashed potatoes mix well and then chopped corriander leaves at the end and set aside till it cools. Make lemon size balls after cooling.

For the batter–

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp ajwain

salt to taste

water to mix the batter

Mix everything to form a thick batter.

**The batter should not be watery otherwise i wont stick to the bondas. In my picture my batter was a bit of watery so it did not stick to the batter.

*** Variations of the batter

> 1/2 cup plain flour and rice flour (According to me this one is the best)

> 1 cup rice flour

> 1 cup besan flour

Dip the potato balls in the batter and deep fry.

My bondas go for the Ramadan Event hosted by Lubna

This is one of the very very famous dishes in kerala. and one of the most popular break fast item too. im blogging this for Srivalli’s Rice Mela she really gives a reason to cook and blog! You rock girl!!!

Puttu is made of parboiled rice flour. It is first washed and dried and then grinded to make flour. Well actually thats the procedure in kerala.. but since im in Singapore i go for the ready madeputtu flour which is much more easier!! LOL!

Brown channa curry or chicken curry or stews goes well with puttu. today morning i made brown channa curry to go with it.

For the puttu you’ll need

3 cups rice flour
1 cup water
1-2 cups of scraped coconut
salt to taste

Take the flour in a large bowl and add salt to it. Add the water slowly to it to make the puttudough. The puttu dough is very loose and should not be any lumps in it. If u find any lumps break it and keep on mixing it.

• If you are using roasted flour you might need more water. so add water accordingly.

Now boil water in the puttu kutti (puttu maker). u can see that there are 2 parts of the puttukutti. Boil water in the below one.

Mean while in the kutti (the upper part of the puttu maker) Add 1 tbsp of coconut. On top of that add 3 tbsp of flour. Again coconut and flour. repeat this till the kutti is full.

But be sure that the top and bottom of the puttu kutti should be filled with coconut layer. Now fix the kutti on top of the puttu maker. And boil it till the steam comes out from the top.

Puttu can also be eaten with bananas and sugar…

Now here goes the brown channa curry or kadala curry

1 medium sized onion thinly sliced
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 cups brown channa
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 medium sized tomato cut into small pieces
1 1/2 tbsp coriander pwdr
1/2 tbsp red chilli pwdr (if u want to make it more spicy u can add more.)
1/4 tbsp haldi pwdr
1 spring curry leaves
salt to taste
oil for sauting
4 cups of water

heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add mustard seeds to it. when they splutter add onions and curry leaves to it. When the onions are brownish add ginger garlic paste to it and saute for another 1 mt. After that add tomatoes to it. When the tomatoes are soft add the masalas to it. Once oilseparates form the mixture add the brown channa and water to it and presurre cook for 20-25mts.

And now its ready to serve with puttu!

This entry also goes to WYF:Breakfast Event

this is a very very easy break fast i make if im late!! i think this takes hardly 15 mts to make! wellnext time i make this im going to track down my time! LOL!!!

this is how i make it

1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tbsp finely chopped ginger
2 tbsp chopped onions
11/2 cups rava/sooji/semolina
11/2 cups water

Roast the sooji till its light brown. Don’t get it overly roasted or else the upma wont taste the same! Keep it aside. In a kadai all the mustard seeds, when it splutters add the ginger, when its brown add the chopped onions. When the onions are transparent add the water. Bring it to a boil then add the sooji little by little and keep on stirring it. Close the lid and let it cook for 3-4 mts.

You breakfast is ready! This is my entry for the Express breakfast hosted by The Singing Chef.

Reposting this for this recipe for WYF – Breakfast Event

Ramadan Day 4

Have i ever mentioned that i cant pass a day in Ramadan without Tarikanhi?? It really gives me the strength to move on to the next day! It is nutritious as well as it has semolina and milk in it.

We usually have it after our Tarawih namas when we were in Calicut.  I remember i used to drink 2-3 glasses of it right after the prayers!

This recipe is dedicated to my grandma. Because she tried her best to make me drink it when i was little. But i was a stubborn child and would never drink it. But she proved to be really my “Naani” LOL! One day during Ramadan she put lots of nuts and ghee in this and told me its Payasam! the greedy me grabbed the glass and finished it off in a gulp! From that day onwards i and Tarikanhi have been inseperable during Ramadan!

The moral of the story : You never know how it tastes until you try!

1 glass milk

1 tbsp semolina

2 elaichi or 1/4 tsp elaichi or cardamom pwdr

a pinch of salt

sugar to taste

cashews and raisins for garnishing

1/2 tsp ghee

Boil milk, semolina, elaichi together. Keep on stirring while its boiling or else it will get burned.  Turn of the stove as soon as soon it boils. And add sugar and salt to it.

Heat ghee and add the cashews and raisins fry for some time and add to the milk.

Serve Hot!

** If you want a porridge drink let the milk boil for some more time.

Ths entry goes to Lubna’s Ramadan Event and Sanghi’s FIL Milk Event.

Ramadan Day 3

Day 3 i kept on thinking what should i cook because as my daughter was not fasting i didnt get any input form her! i just hate to think and think what to cook. At last i ended up on the banana as usual and some bread pakoras along with Malabar chicken curry and pathiris.

Sometimes i just wonder how people back in calicutat  dads and moms home used to cook so many things during Ramadan. All day they would be reading the Quran and by 3 pm everyone will be in this kitchen making something or the other. Well those are the joys of a joint family! Every time i go there its a totally different world and i find it very difficult to come out of it especially when we have lots of same age cousins and have a lot to catch up!

This is yet another Malabar speciality. During Ramadan there will be at least one banana snack item everyday. And I’m just used to having it here also so cant pass a day without a banana! Thank god we get the same banana here is Singapore other wise i would have been lost during Ramadan!

When i made this yesterday my hubby as usual was saying wow! i haven’t seen this since last Ramadan! (he says this when ever he sees any Malabar snack item!)

For this recipe you’ll need

2 ripe kerala bananas cut in small cubes

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

10 cashew nuts crushed

sugar to taste (i used around 3 tbsps)

2 tsp oil

Heat oil in a non stick sauce pan and add the bananas. Fry it till brown.

Beat eggs, milk, sugar, cashew nuts  together and pour in to the banana.

Mix well and close the sauce pan.

Make sure the bottom doesnt get burned. I use a very thin metal plate to keep on top of the stove and keep the pan on it so that the things inside wont get burned.

Cook for around 10mts open and see whether its done. Serve hot!

Ramadan Day 2

Day 1 was very eventful as our daughter fasted for the first time. masha allah! She had her lunch at 1pm played for some time and then took a nap. After waking up form her nap straight away went to the kitchen to drink some juice!! But then when she was reminded that shes fasting she just played for some time watched some TV and hubby kept her engaged till magrib. Masha allah im so proud that she kept away from food and all the sweet temptations!

Unnakaya or Vayakkada is one of the very famous snack in Malabar. My hubby and daughter loves this so i make this atleast once a month. Today when i asked my daughter what she wants for Iftaar she said samosa and vayakkada again!

For Vayakkada youll need kerala banana not so ripe and not so raw just in between. It should not be soft or hard when you press it. Boil it in a closed pan till the skin comes apart.

After its cooked run it in a food processor to mash and make it like a roti dough. Alternatively you can also mash it when its hot with a heavy spoon.

Make lemon sized balls and set aside.

For the filling scramble 2 eggs and add sugar to taste and some crushed cashew nuts and raisins.

Flatten the banana balls, fill in 1/2 a tsp of the egg mixture in it and close it and make it in to ball again.

Smoothen the top and bottom of the ball in to a cone with ur palm.

Deep fry the vayakkada. This snack can be served any time breakfast or after lunch or teatime!

Vayakkada goes to Lubna’s Ramadan Event!

Ramadan Day 1

Badaam Milk is very refreshing during Iftaar. Those who have gastric problems and heart burn due to fasting can try this to reduce it. Its very easy to prepare and you can make the mix in large amounts  and refrigerate it and use it when ever you need.

A handful for badaam or Almond socked in water and peel the skin.

3-4 elaichi or cardamom seeds

Grind both in a dry mixer. Sieve it till its clear and no grains and refrigerate.

Blend 2 cups of milk, sugar to taste and the badaam mix. Chill and serve.

This post goes to Lubna’s Ramadan Event.

Another joyous Ramadan is here. I’m still in the hangover from my India trip and im thanking Allah that Ramadan is here now i have no excuse to stay away from the kitchen!

My over joyed hubby was commenting yesterday now i will get to see all the ‘once a year foods’ a.k.a. the recipes i make only during ramadan! Ofcourse he always forget about those recipes when i make during the other months!

All my Ramadan posts go to Lubna’s Kitchen  Flavours Ramadan Event

Kids and Ramadan

This Ramadan is very special for us because we are going to make our daughter fast for the first time Yes with lots of goodies promised! We decided to make her fast after her lunch, 1pm onwards till magrib. So that she can enjoy Iftaar  with us.

Day 1

Today we got up at 5:15 am for sehri. usually my sehri si simple gheerice or neychor with chicken or any non veg curry. this time i changes it with plain rice, sambar, fish fry, papadam, achar and bindi fry.

For Iftaar today is my daughters favorite chicken badam milk shake, samosa, unnakaya or vayakkada, chicken curry and triangle pathiri.

Check out my upcoming posts for the recipes.