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…
Thakkali Chutney ~ Malabar Tomato Relish
Somehow I am hating my night pictures, but I have no option. I still click at night if the dish turns out to be really good, but whatever said and done, it sometimes just doesn’t help. This Thakkali Chutney aka Tomato Dip is something we love to have along with any flatbread for a simple dinner. I admit tomatoes are really pricey now and even for the price we pay, we get such lousy tomatoes. But still, once in a while, it is OK to “indulge” in tomatoes! 😉 Rasha hates tomatoes and pulls out even the skin that she sees in her curries, so this chutney is the best way to make her eat her tomatoes without really bothering about it. Even then she says, “Ummi, this is tasting tomatoes!” =D Hehe… This chutney goes well along with dosas, which I normally make with leftover idli batter…
Parippu Thalichathu ~ Malabar Lentil Curry
I was wondering it would not be proper for me if I don’t feature a Malabar recipe in the theme “Lentils and Sides” for the Blogging Marathon #81. Let me make it clear that we don’t make lentil very often. At least not in my house… 🙂 The only way I know of umma making lentils is in this brinjal curry and mostly as side for ghee rice. So you can understand my excitement when I saw this recipe in the book “Malabar Cuisine” (you can read the review here). This lentil curry is so easy to make plus we have not given up on the coconut here as well. 😉 Somehow, most of our gravies have to have coconut used up in some form or the other. I was really not sure how the curry would turn out but we all loved it with our rice. The…
Kollu Rasam ~ Horsegram Soup
I love horse-gram or “muthira” as we call it and I have already shared how umma has taught me to make it. It was by chance I discovered that this super lentil can be made into rasam as well! So, for the theme of “Lentil Sides” of this week’s Blogging Marathon #81, I decided to share this delicious soup that I adapted from here. My favorite rasam is how umma makes it, and this one comes a close second. Somehow, I always tell that blogging has helped me widen my horizon to try new foods and get more creative, as well as experimental. Since we always have horse-gram in our pantry, I thought why not make this rasam and I am glad I did! This is a little bit of work, but so flavorful that I finished the remaining just as is! Rasam usually acts as a…
Dal Tadka ~ Tempered Lentil Stew
After a little break, it is good to come to the participating in the Blogging Marathon, in its edition #81. Last month, the group had done a mega marathon over the theme “Protein Based Dishes” and there were some amazing recipes that came up in the process. I am still happy to keep going with doing two BM themes per month, since I find it much easier to manage and keep blogging at peace. 🙂 For this week, the theme I have chosen is “Lentil Sides”. Lentils are a major source of proteins as far as vegetarians are concerned, and otherwise a source of some comfort food for many! A simple meal of lentils and rice can give you a feeling that no lavish meal can provide! I am sure many will agree to this. 🙂 One of the most prepared lentil curries in India is called “Dal…
Tiffin Sambar
If you are a reader of my blog, you will know about my fixation with making sambar from scratch. I absolutely loathe store bought sambar powders. Each powder tastes different and somehow most of it don’t appeal to my taste. I hope I can discover a good enough home made sambar powder recipe that will help me fix up sambar as easily as can be done with store bought. Hehe… You can find two absolutely flavorful sambar recipes on the blog, Malabar style Varutharacha Sambar and Arachuvitta Vengaaya Sambar. Here is one more adding to the list… I saw this recipe on one of my blogger bestie Meena’s blog. I kept wondering why it is called “tiffin sambar”. I then discovered that it is called so since this sambar is specifically served with tiffin items, like idlis, dosas, ven pongal, etc. The sambar is slightly more watered down…
White Bean Hummus
I love hummus a lot, even if there are no sides to go with it. Hummus is just perfect to dip and eat your chips, your cucumber and carrot sticks, or even better, just like that! There are times when I run out of dried chickpeas since I forget I had used up all what I had to make a box of hummus. 😀 If you are thinking, “Why can’t she use canned chickpeas?”, then my answer is, I simply don’t like it. It tastes no way close to cooked dried chickpeas. It may be just my thought… During these times, the “innovated” hummus comes into play, like this one with green peas. Here is another one for you using white beans or cannelloni beans. These beans look just like rajma, but white in color. I picked up a small pack since it interested me. The first thing…