I am just feeling really blank as I open this post and sit to type something. This Ramadan has been so different, that it had been initially difficult to digest but we took it in and accepted the change. Earlier this week, Lubna had bumped up her guest post on the blog, and as I read through it, I had gone back to some of the earlier posts like this Masala Aleesa I had done for her blog during one of the Ramadans. How much is Ramadan a celebration here, but had gone really sobre this time, thanks to one virus. There are a lot of matters to ponder on this. It just took a miniscule matter, that is not visible to the eye, to topple everything that we had called “normal”. We are slowly but surely adjusting to the new normal. Having said that, there are still…
Kadala Parippu Pola | Kadalakka Pola ~ Malabar Chickpea Lentil Egg Cake
Everyone has this habit of making some sort of snacks during Iftar time. In our home, we try not to do it frequently. This year, since my brother’s family is with us, both of us try to experiment something or the other, but in limited quantities, so that there is something to eat for chai time, but not too much to be really heavy. Hehe… But we are always looking to make dishes that are not very time consuming and can be made in no time. So from today, I am scheduling three back-to-back easy snacks that you can make for your family for Iftar time, without spending too much time in the kitchen. I guess that does sound appealing… 🙂 Malabar has its own big share of interesting snacks. Even though I am not aware of majority of it, I have tried to cover all that I…
Falafel {using Chickpeas}
While deciding on the recipes to try for this week’s chosen theme for the Blogging Marathon #110 of “Middle Eastern”, Falafel was surely on top of the list. I don’t know if you would find it a shocker but back home in Kotakkal, a little shop called Salsabeel sells such amazing Falafel sandwiches that sell like hot cakes! In December when I had gone home, we were on the way back after the doctor’s appointment for the TMJ, and D suggested we stop over to eat something. I am sure we all do that on long drives – at least one stop for a cup of chai and some munching. I was in this outlet for the first time so I let him do the ordering for me. We were served with hot falafel sandwiches, that were so mouthful and delightful – I am typing with this with…
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…
Masala Pattani Kadala | Spiced Green Peas
Usually, I start to like posts with something that is happening in life, like maybe the weather, or some interesting happening. I don’t know why these days, life is a haze. It becomes morning, then it is the usual rush to work. Once work is done, then I go for my workouts and then reach home just in time to make something for dinner. Days just seem to be moving in super speed, from weeks to months. Before we even know, 2019 will come to an end, in fact it is almost close to. I did give a sigh when I noticed the date today. It hasn’t been a kind year, to say the least but Alhamdulillah for everything. We have survived through it and InShaAllah we will surely go ahead with His grace… 🙂 But something interesting has been happening and that is – finally winters are…
Crispy Dosa | Dosa using Poha/ Aval
I always use my idli batter to make my dosas. I make idlis the first day, and then after two days, I add little water to make it slightly thinner, and get the dosas rolling. Everybody does that, isn’t it? It was by accident that I discovered that poha or aval or flattened rice flakes makes a very good replacement when you run out of urad dal. Poha is something that is always available in our home, as it makes a super quick snack or breakfast, either in this way or this. So using it in dosa batter was something I really wanted to try. My girls totally loved how crisp these dosas stayed, even after cooling down. I have a pretty warm kitchen, so my batter ferments well. But getting crisp dosas has been a challenge for me, but not after trying this recipe. The poha…
Double Bean Sriracha Hummus
I had joined a challenge called “Recipe Swap” sometime back and participated in one challenge. But then, it just fizzled down and didn’t take off. In November, Mir took over the reins of the group and decided to kick-start the challenge. I decided to participate this month and thankfully there was enough time to cook the dish before my parents landed. Hehe… I was assigned Ali’s blog “Fix Me a Little Lunch“. She is a US based food blogger, and as mentioned in her blog, she tries to cook and eat food cooked from organic sources and at home. As is my nature, my first instance was to try a sweet recipe. So I hovered around a few like the Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake, the very intriguing Star Anise Pannacotta and these Mini Strawberry Chocolate Galette. But then I had already baked way too much sweet last month…
Emirati Lamb White Bean Stew
Aren’t there times when you buy ingredients that you have never cooked with just because a recipe looked so tempting to you? That is how I first picked up white beans. The pack lay in my pantry for quite some time before I used part of it to make the hummus and this delicious filling Greek soup (yum!) The rest of the pack went into this delicious stew that I am sharing with you today. I can’t vouch how much authentic this recipe is. I have adapted the recipe from “A Taste of Arabia” which I have already reviewed in my Majboos post. I have already mentioned in my review that the book doesn’t have any Arabic names for the dish. Usually, I try to search on Google for a name, however while trying to search a name for this one, I couldn’t land on any. In fact,…
Kozhi Musuman | Whole Chicken in Chana Dal Sauce
Let me be frank here. I wanted to make a totally new curry for this Blogging Marathon #88 – Dazzling Dal series, so that I could leave my drafts untouched. I even made cholar dal once, but it didn’t turn out well, so I skipped clicking it. Then something happened, that whole thought of wanting to cook and click a totally new dish, really puts me off these days. If you see my camera now, my clicks are so wide spread. I cook new dishes and click them only if I am really in a mood for it. Otherwise, I just leave it at that. I feel glad that my drafts are feeding my blog without me having to worry about the next dish to post. During those times, I used to wonder why am I in a hurry to cook and click, and now I clearly understand the…
Mughlai Dal Kabila | Urad Dal Tadka
After the Muringakaya Parippu Curry, here’s the second recipe under “Dazzling Dals” for the Blogging Marathon #88. I don’t have a single recipe on the blog which features urad dal as its main ingredient, so I am glad finally it is being featured! For us, urad dal is for idli batters. Period… I never knew it was used in curries till I was wondering what to have for lunch one day in the office, and our Pakistani office boy mentioned, “Aapi, mash ki daal order karoo?” (Can I order “Mash Ki Dal”?) I had no clue what it was, but since it was “daal”, I told him OK. When he got it with a roti, I was shocked to find urad dal. Mash Ki Dal is what it is called in Urdu. I was like, “Esse curry bhi banaathe hai?” (Oh, we make curry of this?), he gave…
Muringakaaya Chelli Parippu Curry ~ Malabar Drumstick Lentil Curry with Dried Shrimp
Time for the second week of the Blogging Marathon #88! After choosing “Protien Rich Ingredient” as the first theme, where I chose eggs, and featured Double Cheese Omelette, Akuri and Microwave Omelette, the second week theme that I chose was also another protien ingredient – “Dazzling Dals”. I had already done a lentil theme in one of the previous BM edition, but then lentil recipes are never enough, right? We are always looking at new ways of cooking up lentils so that people who have folks like me at home who frown at the sight of lentils will at least eat them without much fuss. 😀 The first recipe I am featuring is an example of how we Malabaris love to add a non-vegetarian twist to our vegetarian dishes. Hehe… Most of the households will have a little jar of “chelli” (ചെള്ളി) in our pantry. It is basically…
Instant Sambar
I really don’t understand why weekends wear skate boards. Or maybe something faster than that! 😕 They just come and go, with things done half and Saturday nights is for yearning and wishing I had more time. If anybody asks me what did I do over the weekend, I did nothing much but I still did something. Some shopping, sat simply at home working on the old posts on the blog, and then visited a friend of mine – I guess that does sound like a decently packed weekend! I guess I need to learn how to space out my time so that I don’t feel drained… hmm… Coming to today’s recipe… I had already mentioned how crazy my girls are for idlis. Leftover batter is usually loosened out and converted to dosas. Most of the time, my girls need it only with their favorite coconut chutney, but…
Jaisalmer Chana ~ Black Chickpeas Yogurt Curry
I have never known cooking black chickpeas rather than in this way that we make for puttu. This curry was a perfect discovery for my lazy bone. Apart from the cooking time of the chick peas, the whole curry comes through in hardly any time. Jaisalmer is a small town in the northern state of Rajasthan. I have read that Rajasthanis love using chickpea flour, known as besan, in many of their dishes they cook. It is no surprise that yogurt is added to this curry, since Rajasthan is a hot place with high temperatures – boasts of India’s largest dessert too – and yogurt is one calming, cooling food for sure. Apart from the soaking time for the black chick peas, there is hardly any cooking involved. There is no onion or tomatoes in this recipe, so you don’t need to do any chopping. The spices and…
Panchmel Dal/ Panchratna Dal ~ Mixed Lentil Gravy
At times, when I am typing my posts, I really wonder if anybody reads blogs these days. Unless and until you know the ways of getting the blog into public eye, usually it feels like a very hidden and protected section in the world wide web. The WWW is also a deep pit, so in between all the floating blogs, everybody is fighting for the same space and similar audience. It really makes me wonder why I am still blogging. The readership doesn’t improve and nobody seems to be interested in commenting too, and that includes bloggers! When I had started blogging, the blogging community used to comment on my posts and there are times when I had so many comments to respond back to, but now it is quite countable. I don’t know if it is a point to feel low on, but definitely blogging is not what…
Parippu Vevichathu ~ Malabar Lentil Fry
I actually didn’t know what to name this dish. Umma makes a thick parippu (lentil) side dish to go with Neychor, Koonthal Chor or Thenga Chor all the time. If it is one of these three for lunch on Fridays, then by default, this parippu has to be on the table. It is so ingrained into our minds, that if I go with these for lunch and this parippu is not there, then I get all sorts of questions regarding its absence from B and the girls. I haven’t seen this being prepared in HD’s side but in our side of Tirur, this dish is very common. I had already included it in the Koonthal chor post, but I wanted to give it a separate post, since it is eaten not only with it. I just named it “vevichathu”, which means “cooked” or “boiled”, but if any of…
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