Neyyada is more or less like Chattipathi but the only difference is in Chattipathiri the thin pancakes are made first and then layered with eggs. But in Neyyada each layer is steamed and when it is done the next layer is poured on top and cooked. Here goes another malabar recipe we make during Iftaar.

oil 3 tbsp

Maida/all purpose flour – 1 cup

eggs 8

sugar to taste

cardamom 1/4-1/2 tsp

cashew nuts and raisins – 1/4 cup fried in oil

• Mix maida with water,salt and sugar as per your taste. The mix should not be watery or thich.

• Beat eggs with a fork add sugar, a pinch of salt, cardamom powder.

• In a non stick sauce pan or stew pan pour a ladle of the maida mix. When it is cooked pour another layer of egg mix and add cashew nuts,raisins and little oil on top. Like this each layer should be cooked before pouring the next layer.
• Make sure that the flame is low and keep a flame tamer or heat diffuser or this type (i have the first type)  under the pan so that the heat is evenly distributed and wont get burned. I use it for all my egg palaharams!

Alternatively u can also steam layer by layer in a vessal on your stove top thats how we used to do in India but i think the non stick way is much more easier.

This post goes to Ayeesha’s Event Please do visit her blog for more yummy Iftaar recipes!

Now a days it takes forever for me to cook and i think i dont have to mention it takes more than that to click and post here. But a giveaway made me greedy and i clicked and posted as soon as it was ready! This recipe is from Shaheen’s blog a different type of Malabari chicken varatiyath she calls it Ulli Kozhi. i make it very differently so i thought why not give a try her style and it was very very yummy. There are a lot of recipes – veg and non veg in her blog to try out. I made some mild changes in the recipe.. mainly just reduced the oil.

here goes the recipe.

Chicken -1 kg cut in pieces

Onion- 3 cups thinly sliced

Tomatoes – 3 cut into small pieces

Juice of 1 lime
Potato – 1 large cubed

Salt to taste

Grind together:

Red chili powder- 2 1/2 tsp
Turmeric- ½ tsp
Ginger- ½ inch piece
Garlic- 4 cloves
Cinnamon- 1 inch piece
Cardamom -3
Pepper -1 tbsp
Oil -1/4 cup more or less (i used coconut oil recommended by the recipe owner)
Curry leaves- A handful
Coriander leaves – A Handful

Preparation:

• Marinate the chicken with ½ teaspoon chill powder, turmeric, salt , lemon juice for 1/2 hr.

• Heat oil, add the onion and fry them on medium heat till golden brown and crisp. Make sure they don’t burn.
• Remove the onions and keep aside.
• In the same oil  fry the tomatoes till softkeep aside.
• Then add the ground masala and fry on low heat until the oil runs clear.
• Now add the marinated chicken, potatoes, fried tomatoes, onions to the masala ,mix well and let the water come out of the chicken. If there is not enough wateradd a little bit. But not too much.
• Cover and cook on low heat. The chicken should get cooked in about 15 minutes on low heat, but keep checking and stirring.

This goes well with appam, rotis, rice. I’m going to have this with Ghee Rice.

This recipe goes to Priya’s event Healing Foods-Onion, a event started by Siri and  Padma‘s Cooking with Seeds-Pepper, started by Priya

Biriyanis are very famous in my home town. And loved by all! this one has been in my draft for a long long time. finally i decided to publish it! You can also check my Malabar Chicken Biriyani and Malabar Beef/Mutton biriyani.  Some part of it i have copied and pasted oh yes im very lazy to type all this again!!

For the Marinade:

Marinate the 1 lb or 1/2 kg of any big like Tengirri, batang, (these are chinese names im not sure about the english names!) Pomfret  with 1 heaped tsp of red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp turneric, 1/2 tsp fennel pwdr, 1tsp ginger garlic paste, 1/2 tsp chilli paste, 1/4 garam masala, corriander,mint,curry leaves ans salt to taste grinded into paste leave for an hour or two.  Shallow fry the fish in a large non stick .

For the Masala:

onions – 4 large

ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

tomatoes – 2 large chopped

corriander powder 2 tsp

garam masala – 1/2 tsp

finely chop 4 large onions. When the onions are well cooked add 1 tsp ginger garlic paste. Mix well after 3 -4 mts add2 large tomatoes. When the tomatoes are well cooked add 2 tsp corriander pwdr, 1/2 tsp garam masala and mix well add salt to taste. Add the fried fish to the masala and cook for few mts.  Make sure it does’nt get burned.

For the Rice:

rice – 7 cups (basmati or kola/kaima that u get in kerala)
ghee and dalda – as required
water – 10 cups

Meanwhile in another vessel heat 2 tbsp of ghee or dalda and add cashewnuts and raisin and fry then till brown. Add one at a time not together. After frying keep them in a seperate plate.

Add water to the ghee. When the water boils add salt and rice to it. Make sure that the water is salty enough for the rice (by tasting it) and there is sufficent ghee (insert a spoon in the water and touch and see wthether it oily. (If its not oily u can add more ghee to it).

Close the vessel and cook till all the water drains away. When the water drains it will be more that 3/4th cooked.

In the fish vessel add 1/2 tbsp of ghee  the center and all the for sides. After that add rice on top of it.

Evenly spread the rice and add a pinch of turmeric pwder, garam masala pwdr, the fried raisin and cashew nuts and lil bit of ghee. Like this make 3 layes of rice. And now cook again till the steam comes up. This will take another 15-20 mts, or may be faster. Always cook in a very low flame.  Please note that the fish will be on the bottom of the vessel and the 3 layers of rice will be on top of it. ie, one layer of fish and 3 layers of rice.

When the steam comes up turn off the stove and let it cool for 15 mts. After that open up and seperate the rice. Dont sepeate all the rice from the fish there should be lil rice in the fish mix.

Now its ready to eat!!! Serve hot with green chutney, raita, pickel!!!

This is one chicken curry my hubby will eat if  i cook everyday! He loves the creamy texture of the curry (i dont use cream at all at home because he thinks i’ll gain 2 lbs immediately!!) So when ever we eat out something creamy curry i wonder how to get this texture without adding the cream!! Finally i doubles the onions, finely sliced and mixed it well in low fire non stick skillet without burning the ingredients.

But be careful while choosing the onions. Some onions have a sweet taste. When i cook when ever i get the red ones and which make me cry as soon as i peel them are sweet. I dont chop onions at all im thankful to have a Braun food procesor which is a real time saver and i have to put less effort in chopping and kneading! LOL!

Coming back to onions, i find that if you those kind of onions which are reddish and makes u cry, 2 cups of it will surely make your curry sweet. If you have found the difference in onions it would be good if you avoid them in this recipe.  Also 1 large onion is equivalent to 1 cup of onions finely chopped.

650 grms chicken (may be a little more or less)

2 cups finely chopped onions

2 sprigs curry leaves

2 tbsps ginger garlic paste

1 cup ripe tomatoes finely chopped

1 tsp lemon/lime juice

4-5 tbsp coriander pwdr

1-2 tbsp freshly ground pepper (add more or less according to ur taste)

salt to taste

a bunch of coriander and mint leaves chopped finely.

oil for frying

Heat oil in a skillet and add onions and curry leaves.. once it starts to brown add ginger garlic paste and mix till it is blended with onions. Add tomatoes and let it get well mixed with onions.  Add rest of the ingredients and chk the spices. Fry for few mts before adding the chicken. . you may adjust the spices at this stage.

Add the chicken to ti and mix well. dont add any water till the chicken is half done. If you want more gravy add water accordingly only after the chicken is half done. Not before that. I added 1 cup of water to it.

Ramadan day 8

Whole Cardamons, cloves, pepper – 4 each

A small piece of Cinnamon stick

A bay leaf

1 tsp heaped ginger garlic paste

3 medium onions

3 heaped tsp coriander pwdr

1 heaped tsp chili pwdr

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp fennel pwdr

1.3 kg chicken

2 large potatoes

4 tbsp oil

salt to taste

Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add the whole spices. When they begin to release the flavour add the ginger garlic paste. When they turn brown add the onions. When the onions are brown add the powdered spices. Mix for 2-3 mts and add the chicken  and potatoes and leave the cooker open for 5 mts. Keep mixing the chicken till the masala coats the chicken pieces. Add coriander leaves, water and cover and cook till the chicken is done.

This curry will have a very strong  flavour of the spices. Another post goes for the Ramadan Event

Rawrice – 2cups

coconut – 1 cup

shallots – 3-4

fennel seeds – 1 tbsp

cooked rice – 1/2 cup

Soak the raw rice for 3-4 hrs. And grind all the rest of ingredients finely. The mix should be watery. But not so running. Pour into a nonstick cookware and close it. These pancakes cook really quickly. I make them a bit thick so that i have to make only 4-5 of them!!

Accompany them with chicken or any other non veg curry.. yummmm..

2 Kerala banana cut into thin slices

1 cup maida -plain flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp kalongi – karinjeerakam

1/4 tsp salt

water for mixing

oil for frying

Cut the banana into thin slices. Mix the rest of the ingredients into a thick paste. Dip the banana slices into the maida mixture and deep fry.

Another post which goes for the Ramadan Event.

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