I am actually not so fond of challenges ending. Especially if I enjoy participating in them, I feel a tinge of sadness. I felt it when we had to end the MFB challenges. I felt it when Sarah had ended her old challenge. I was pretty excited when she started the Fantastical Food Fighting Challenge, but unfortunately due to priorities, she has decided to give this challenge a break. I am sure it is not with a happy mind, but when life gives us some exciting challenges, we definitely need to balance out to ensure that life doesn’t get too hectic and unmanageable. Wishing Sarah all the very best for her upcoming endeavor… Since this one is the last, I wanted to make sure I participate in it. Oh, I forgot to mention the theme! Since February is the month of love for obvious reasons, the theme she…
Chemmeen Choru – Malabar Prawn Rice
Here is the final recipe for this week’s theme of “Rice Dishes” under the Blogging Marathon #109, after the Pulao and the Egg Biriyani. Malabar has its fair share of one pot rice, just like the pulaos of the North. That is where our Erachi Choru, Kozhi Choru and Meen Choru all belong to. However, considering Malabaris have a little soft corner to prawns, being a delicious shell fish so rarely available, there should be a “chor” which will use only prawns. 😉 I have already stated before that I have a prawn allergy and hence I don’t cook it much, especially if I need to handle it. If it comes shelled, then I may give it a try. There are already few delicious prawn recipes – like this roast and this Thalassery style biriyani – that I make, but I don’t eat, yet the family loves it…
Simple Egg Biriyani | Mutta Biriyani
After the Simple Pulao, here is the second recipe that is going to be a part of the theme “Rice Dishes” for the Blogging Marathon #109. I love posts which have stories, don’t you? 😀 OK, so egg biriyani was one of the first biriyanis I tried when the cooking bug had hit me. I have always mentioned that I never cooked prior to marriage, and even after marriage, it was an adjustment of sorts. HD was quite cooperative and he would cook curries most of the time, which we would simply mop up with store bought khuboos or bread. Once I had Rasha and moved in to stay with my parents, umma was the caretaker for the kitchen and my work didn’t allow me to get involved into the kitchen. Or should I say that it made me so lazy that I would shy away from cooking. Hehe……
Pulao made in Mutton Bone Stock
Time for participating in the two weeks of Blogging Marathon! If there is something I do not want to miss, then it is the interesting themes that Valli comes up with every month to leave us a little bamboozled with choices! Hehe… This month, it is BM #109 and the theme I have selected for these three days for this week is “Rice Dishes”. As Indians, rice is a very important part of our carb eating habits and not even a house doesn’t have their huge stock of rice. Having said that, I do not have a rice loving population in my house. On any given day, we would prefer the chapathi, poori or porotta over the rice. Having grown up in a home where rice is our staple for lunch, there are times when I really want to put up a full platter. My girls are not very…
Tadka Dal Khichdi ~ Spiced Lentil and Rice Mash
This month, again I am back at participating in the A to Z challenge hosted by Vidya and Jolly. The letter for the month is “L” and I was tempted to go simple. My initial idea was to use limes, which are in abundance now, and make a limeade or maybe even bake a cake. However, I ditched the idea. I don’t know why but I just did. Sometimes, you have no explanations to sudden cancellations to the initial plans, isn’it it? It was when I was reminded of this kichdi which has become my staple almost every weekday as dinner. It features a lot of lentils, but I was doubtful if it would be acceptable. A couple of messages to Vidya and she confirmed it is OK, provided I place the emphasis on the lentils. It was a “yay” moment, since I was sharing it a lot on…
Eggless Banana Cake
Is it just me, or did you generally feel that January finished in a blink? I mean, it became 2020 just yesterday, isn’t it? It did take me sometime to accept the fact that time is in fact running a bit too fast to my liking and it feels overwhelming to get through the days in this quick fashion. When there is too much negative news just floating in the air, I feel like shutting myself down from that noise and concentrating on what will give my mind some peace of mind. On a brighter note, our home has become better with the gracing of B’s family. His little one is 8 month old and she fills the house with giggles and screams. The girls don’t want to go to school and if they do, they want to come back home and not study at all. HD doesn’t…
Gajar Halwa Trifle | Fusion Trifle
It is the season of carrots now. When it gets cold, the market gets flooded with the orange Australian carrots and the red Pakistani carrots. There is nothing like eating a warm plate of gajar ka halwa when the weather is at its chilled best, isn’t it? Everybody I am seeing around are making heaps and storing in their fridge, to take out little, heat it and enjoy it in this weather. However, knowing me, I am refraining from doing that, since I can end up eating a big batch in one sitting and then regret doing it. This phenomenon is called “binge eating” and I suffer from it. 😀 As I have been a bit more active on my Instagram handle, I have decided to participate in story hops or challenges that may come up while collaborating with other fellow bloggers. Yesterday, I participated in an interesting…
Restaurant Style Chilli Chicken
I mentioned I had guests in my last post. They left for home on Saturday and reached safely, Alhamdulillah. One amongst them was HD’s uncle, who had taken care of him when his parents passed away young. He owns a successful restaurant in an outskirt in Salalah, which is well known for its rotisserie chicken. He loves to cook once in a while, and when we are back home, he would get into the kitchen to fry fresh fish that he would get and come or make this delicious chilli chicken of his. The first time I tasted it was when he came on visit a couple of years ago. He asked HD to get one rotisserie chicken and asked me to slice the onions and tomatoes for him. The speed at which he made this dish was amazing, despite being an unknown kitchen for him. We mopped it…
Lahm Machboos | Majboos ~ Emirati Mutton Rice
I guess it is time to get back to reality after basking in some glory after the Chocolate Mousse Cake. Hehe… This week has been quite busy with guests from HD’s home. My whole schedule has gone for a toss, but for that matter, from November end, nothing has been as per schedule. It is just being twisted and tweaked as per how circumstances are coming and falling in place. But InShaAllah, after they leave on Saturday, I should be able to come back into my routine of everything, especially my workouts, that I am struggling to come back to. I always feel that I eat better the time I workout and vice-versa. I really don’t understand my thought process, when most of the time, it is the way around for many people! So let’s see how it goes… The climate has been kind. It is kind of cozy…
Chocolate Mousse Cake
I can’t believe I am stuck for words when I am completing 7 years of blogging. 7 years! Wow! I think I should give myself a pat on my back. When life has been in general difficult yet worth fighting for, I have still kept my wits to continue cooking, clicking and blogging. I guess that just shows how much I love this little baby of mine, despite sometimes feeling that it hasn’t been fair to me. But having said that, I always believe in whatever is meant for us will come our way, come what may, so I guess I am happy with the little that is coming my way. 🙂 The last two years has marked a known push from my side to reduce my blogging in every way. I have gone from posting almost every day to posting twice or thrice a week. I feel…
Meen Thengapaalil Vevichathu ~ Alapuzha Fish Curry with Coconut Milk
Even though I have a huge cookbook collection, I have literally stopped going through it, or even flipping through it. I have gone through these bouts of addictive behavior, where I would hoard stuff, and then all of a sudden, just stop. Once upon a time, I used to hoard bags, and then I gave off all mine and retained just what I like. Then I would hoard watches. Even in those, I gave off those I got bored off and continue to use some that I really love. There was a time I wouldn’t come home without buying a new pair of sandals or shoes. I have outgrown that stage. When I started blogging, my focus went onto props. I have props hidden in every corner of the house, that I do not know where to start cleaning and disposing from. It was during the same time I…
Mutta Omelet ~ Malabar Spicy Egg Omelette | Kerala Masala Omelette
It feels like it has been ages since I participated in the Fantastical Food Fight which is hosted by Sarah. When this month’s theme was declared, I had to be a part of it. It seems the month of January is “National Omelet Month” in the USA and therefore the theme has to be related to it – omelettes! Now, how easy can that be! When eggs are a staple of your breakfast day in and day out, thanks for it being a powerhouse of good protein and fat, then making something for this theme is a very easy task, isn’t it? 🙂 If there is one food that makes HD happy at any time, then it is a sunny side up or an omelette. He would really love our style of omelette with onion, tomatoes and loads of bite, however I, being a lazy-head, always resort to…
Honey Kiwi Walnut Salad
I literally feel like I finished an assignment right before the deadline. Hehe… Before that, a quick look into the scenes out here. We have had an awesomely wet weekend, with heavy rains, that caused total water clogging in most of the parts of the city. On Friday, we took a drive towards the outskirts and seriously enjoyed the rains. However, on Saturday, it caused a lot of trouble, but that comes with the enjoyment, isn’t it? The girls had their madrassa closed yesterday, and have their schools off today, so they are pretty excited about what the rains have offered them. 🙂 The rains are expected to be on and off for this whole week. Thankfully, slowly it is feeling like winter, and I hope this chill stays well till March or April. It’s been long since I have participated in the AtoZ Recipe Challenge hosted by…
Erachi Cutlet | Malabar Meat Patties
There are some recipes that you really don’t want to change the way you make it. It is all about being in the comfort zone, isn’t it? I learned to make cutlets from umma, and I have been making them that way for a long time now. It’s just not me, even my sister sticks to that recipe, because it is what works and is so much loved. Umma would make such huge batches every Eid and it would literally disappear in seconds. My girls love it a lot and they are devoured as soon as one batch gets out of the hot oil. We have seen others snort because the onion, ginger and chilli are added raw into the chicken and potato, but at the end of it, there would be no complaints and the plate would come back empty. All the cutlet recipes already on the blog…
Kheema Toasties | Minced Meat Sandwich
Are you among those who love to go on picnics? I do love to go for them, but unfortunately HD isn’t very keen on it. I feel his disinterest actually makes me feel jittery if we need to plan a picnic, because my head goes blank regarding the snacks to carry. I don’t have a head that functions immediately when a plan is thrown at me. I suffer from inertia, and then slowly it gets into the mould. I guess it has got worse with age. Hehe… I always feel I need to bake some cake and cookies, make some sandwiches, fill a flask with some hot chai and some hot chocolate, and just move out for a quiet time. But then the lazy me wouldn’t want to bake and take the extra effort to make all and pack, so I would still prefer the prelude of being on…