Don’t you think sometimes you need a full vegetarian meal? And that too with almost all all all the veggies in it?? LOL!! I felt like that few months back! Yes this is from a draft long long back. I still remember i was craving for all the veggie curries I’m not good at cooking kerala veggies. I opened my cook book after a long time and started searching for these recipes. I hardly take a look at the books now becase i find everything in GOOGLE now! LOL! but i think if u need anything authentic tried and tested and tasted you have to open those books which you have treasured or passed from ur mom or aunt or grandmaa… the list goes on! So here goes the recipes.

Avial is a vegetables with coconut and yogurt. I add all my favorite vegetables to it like potatoes, raw bananas, carrots, yam… yumm yumm!!

Carrot – 1 medium size
Potato – 1 medium size
Elephant Yam -1 cup
Raw Bananas – 1 large
long Beans- 1 cup

• All veggies cut in 2 inch long pieces.

Coconut-1 cup
Green chillies-2 nos
Cumin seeds-1 tsp

• Grind into a fine paste

Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
Curry leaves 1-2 springs
Coconut oil for tadka
Sour curds-1 cup
Salt to taste

• Cook the vegetables in a skillet with little water.
• Add turmeric and salt to it.
• When the veggies are soft add the coconut mixture to it.
• After a boil add the beaten curd to it and turn off the stove.
• Heat coconut oil in a separate tadka pan and add mustard seeds and curry leaves to it.
• Serve with rice

Olan is beans mixed with winter melons in coconut milk. I love beans and winter melons but not really a fan of coconut milk. I had to buy it because this recipe is incomplete without it!

Small red beans – 1 cup soaked overnight
Winter melon -1 cup

• Pressure cook the beans till its half done and then add the melon and salt and cook again till soft.

Coconut milk- to taste around 1/2 cup.
Curry leaves 1 spring
Coconut Oil for tadka

• Add coconut milk to the cooked beans and melon and let it boil for few minutes.
• In a tadka pan add coconut oil and mustard and curry leaves and add the the beans.

Spinach is the only veggie my kids will eat everyday! So i try ot make it often and in the simplest way! I make Cabbage also in the same way.

Heat coconut oil in a skillet. Add mustard seeds. When they splutter add chopped spinach/cabbage to it. Add salt to taste and mix well. Wait till the veggies are done. Usually these veggies are cooked within 5 minutes if u chop them finely.

Okra Curry is one of the easiest curry for me.. why?? because one can cut the okras into half and and still it will be soft after a boil! Also i roast gring a large packet of coconut and freeze it so its easy for me to add the coconut also. Please note that the roasted-grinded coconut doesnt not really freeze and become hard in the freezer. It will be still like a powder if you dry grind them.

10-12 okras cut in to any size
1 small onion chopped finely
1 small tomato optional
a lemon size tamarine ball soaked in 1 cup of water
2-3 tsps of coriander pwdr
1 tsp of red chilli pwdr
coconut oil for frying onions
salt to taste

coconut 1/2 cup
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
fennel seeds 1/2 tsp
curry leaves 1 sppring
turmeric pwdr 1/4 tsp
shallot 1-2

• roast all till dark brown and dry grind.

In a skillet add coconut oil and fry onions. If you are using tomatoes add them after the onions turn brown. Add chopped okras and fry then for 2-3 mts. Add the tamarine water and spices to it.  Cover and cook till the okras are soft. Add the grinded coconut to it and adjust the spices if u need more. And bring to a boil. Turn off immidietly after boiling.

• You don’t have to add all the coconut to it. Adjust according to how thick you want the curry. Freeze the un used coconut if any.

Enjoy the kerala meal with kuruva rice!

Im overjoyed to receive this award from Malar Gandhi.

And im passing this to Srivalli, Faiza Ali, Pajusha, Yasmeen, Lubna, Lissie.

After Ramadan its back to normal life. We all miss the fasting, waking up for sehri, the iftaari… Eid was on Sunday in Singapore ans the next 2 days we had lot of gettogethers and lots of friends visiting us..  So only today everything turned to normal. Another thing is we started with Extra Virgin Olive oil for cooking. Im still looking out for whether its compatible with Indian cooking.. so far no taste difference and i’m loving it!

i wanted to cook something very simple today so this came up in my mind..  a very simple recipe which will go well with roti and rice.

3-4 large potatoes peeled and cut and boiled. But should not be soft and mushy.

1 tsp jeera / cmin seeds

1 medium size onion chopped finely

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp red chili pwder

1/2 tsp turmeric pwdr

1/2 coriander pwdr

1/2 tsp roasted cumin pwdr

salt to taste

olive oil fr frying

Heat oil in a heavy bottom vessel. Add jeera and onions together. When the onions are brown add the ginger garlic paste. Keep on stirring and add red chilli pwdr and turmeric pwdr and mix well. After this add potatoes, coriander, cumin pwders and salt and mix well.

Close and cook for another few mts.

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

“Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in stock or hot/boiling water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth”.  source Wikipedia

When im lazy to cook or eat something solid food soups come to the rescue! One of the soups which i make during dinner time is this one.

It is easy to prepare and and very healthy as it as chicken breast, carrots, celery, potatoes, spinach and a lot of spices to spice it up!

So for this soup you will need

200-300 grams of chicken breast

1 medium size potato

1/2 of a spinach bunch

1 small carrot

1 celery stalk

Cut everything in to small pieces and boil together for 2 hours. Blend it with a hand blender into a fine paste or as per you like. Garnish with black pepper, marjoram,basil,oregano,crushed red pepper and salt!

This soup is really filling and you can also change the choice of veggies, u can add corn, green peas, tomatoes, or any other veggie.

Now a days im just in a mood to make different types of pulavs because my devar is here and he loves pulavs.. any type!!

So this saturday i was in a loss what ti make.. so i just put the veggies my son loves and made a twist in the normal pulav and then came out the 3 ‘p’ pulav! LOL!!!

here goes the recipe..

2 cups basmati rice washed and socked for 20 mts
11/2 tbsp ghee
1 heaped tsp ginger garlic paste
5 cardomons
5 cloves
1/2 inch cinammon stick
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp jeera
1 medium onion
1 medium potato sliced
3/4th cup paneer cut into small pieces
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 handful of corriander and mint leaves
1 green chilli

Heat the ghee in a non-stick kadai and add the ginger garlic paste till its brown. then add the spices and onions.

When the onions are tranculent add the potatos and the paneer till slightly brown.

make a paste of the corriander and mint leaves and green chillli. DO add more green chillis if u want it spicy.

add the paste to the potatos and fry for 2 mts.

Add water and salt to it. When the water boils add basmati rice to it.

Close and le tit cook in low fire for 15 mts.

mix well before serving!

this entry goes for the Rice Mela hosted by Srivalli.