The essence of life is in keeping things simple. How many of you agree to this? With time becoming of essence with every passing day, I can’t but agree to this. There were times when I used to sit for hours deciding what to cook but now that phase has passed. I cook with what is in the fridge and what will help me put dinner on the table in the minimum possible time. I just need to ensure that my folks eat, and it is just simple food, nothing elaborate. Even though I have had that thought before too, it is becoming more of a necessity now. I am a very lazy mother to say the least, and most of the time I have never cooked breakfast. But the next working year, which starts next week, my girls are going to see a change in their timings which…
Thari Choru/ Thari Biriyani ~ Malabar Semolina Biriyani
Hangover is for real, isn’t it? We had a long weekend last week for the Milad-un-Nabi plus Martyr’s Day plus National Day, all clubbed together with the weekend, and once that finished, then the next sadness is that it will take a while to get another long weekend like that. We as human beings are never satisfied with our condition, right? 😀 So without cribbing too much, I guess I get straight onto the recipe for today. Have you ever heard of a dish called “Thari Biriyani”? A biriyani with no rice at all, it is basically a jazzed up version of an upma! I am on a lot of food groups on FB where I can’t promote my blog as such but still stay on since it is a source of constant learning of so many new dishes, traditional and otherwise, that my saved drafts are overflowing…
Kozhi Vattichathu ~ Malabar Roast Chicken
I don’t know if I would call my weekend “relaxed”, but in a way, it was. After a long day on Thursday, I just wanted to be at home but the girls were adamant they wanted to go to the book fair which is happening at the Sharjah Expo Center. Very hesitantly, I braved the traffic of an hour to be at the fair and we had a good walk. I had already warned the girls that I wouldn’t be buying anything that day, so it was more of a walking and browsing session! Hehe… Friday was a very normal day, very much at home. Yesterday morning, we again headed to the book fair. This time, the girls had a program to attend so I took Humi along with me for company. We walked around, picked up a few books and spent some good time chatting. For the first…
Thenga Aracha Meen Curry ~ Malabar Fish Gravy with Fresh Coconut Paste
The recipe I am going to share today is a fish curry which uses ground fresh coconut, and therefore called “Thenga Aracha” or “Pacha Thenga Aracha Meen Curry”. This is easily HD’s favorite fish curry – hands down! Normally he doesn’t tell much about my cooking. If it’s a flop, he keeps quiet and if it turns out decent, he says it tastes good. He would always ask me, “Why don’t you make fish curry like how ammayi (his aunt) makes it?” When I go to his place (he’s from Payyoli, which is close to Vadakara, better know for PT Usha!), they don’t allow me into the kitchen. I know it sounds funny and strange, but it’s true, Alhamdulillah. His aunt and my sister-in-laws tell me to watch over the kids. So it gets difficult for me to see how they are making food. Finally, I learned this curry…
Jeeraka Kozhi/ Jeera Kozhi ~ Malabar Cumin Chicken
The tenth of the month, so no prizes for guessing – time for the Muslim Food Bloggers Challenge post! This month, the theme was pretty interesting – to pick up a recipe bookmarked or pinned from a Muslimah blogger and recreate it in our own kitchen! It was a tough call for me. I have bookmarks all over the place, and ever since the challenge has started, it has been only increasing. However, a little bit of deep thought and all of a sudden I knew what I should be posting! This Jeeraka Chicken caught my attention as soon as I saw it here. Fathima’s was one blog I followed initially when the cooking bug hit me. I loved her blog for the simple recipes especially the Malabar ones, and the warm clicks. She even did a guest post for me during that time. Unfortunately, the doctor seems…
Kozhi Nirachathu ~ Malabar Stuffed and Fried Whole Chicken | My Guest Post for Working Mummy’s Recipes
Yeleena had asked me for a guest post almost two months back. The only request she had was she wanted something that was “naadan” (local) and a non-vegetarian savory dish. At the time her message came, I was still on my vegetarian diet. So I told her I would try to cook for her once I would be able to make a proper non-vegetarian meal for my family, which she readily agreed. Once back, I procrastinated till the time I was reminded that her post was still pending. Moreover my parents would be arriving in no time, making it difficult for me to cook up something new and click. Normally, when they are around, even though they don’t mind waiting till I finish clicking but I feel really odd. Therefore I tend to cook dishes that I have not cooked for them before but is already there on the…
Varutharacha Meen Curry ~ Malabar Fish Curry with Roasted Coconut
If you are from Malabar, then you definitely need to know your fish curry well. Making the mulakittathu – the red fish curry, which I have already shared two versions here and here, is literally a cake walk but getting the varutharachathu right is a little difficult task. “Varutharachathu” literally means “roasted and ground”. The base of such curries is a roasted-till-brown coconut along with some spices, and ground till smooth. I already have a few varutharacha curries on the blog: Varutharacha Erachi Curry Varutharacha Urulakizhangu Curry Varutharacha Kozhi Curry I have always felt that getting the consistency right for the fish curry is important. As for the meat curries, you can add water and dilute it, but for fish, the flavor itself goes off, especially since we add turmeric. The next is the challenge of making limited amount, since I serve folks who have pigeon stomachs. 😕…
Kunjipathil/ Kakkarotti/ Erachi Pidi ~ Rice Dumplings in Meat Stew
I feel it’s been long since I have done a totally Malabar style recipe post on the blog. So let me break the delay now… 🙂 Kakkarotti, also called as Kunji Pathil (literally translates as small disks) or Erachi Pidi (literally translates as meat and dumpling) is nothing but dumplings made with rice flours, dunked into a spicy meat stew. It is a little bit of work, like many traditional Malabar recipes are, but the end result is so delicious that you will see your family literally licking the plates that it is served in! The cooking is involved into two stages – one, making the pathil or dumplings and the second making the thick meat stew and finally you mix all of them up, simmer and then temper them to make a complete meal. The ingredient list may look long and the process cumbersome but if you plan out…
Malabar Chemmeen Roast ~ Malabar Prawns Stir Fry
The feeling of wanting to go on leave has never been so high in many years. Even though it is hot here during summers, I am fine with the weather, however this year has been the height. With summers coming late, only by early June, we thought it should be fine but it has been really unbearable. The humidity is at its sticky best, the air is thick with dust and standing in the kitchen or moving out in the mornings is a literal nightmare. While I hear that it is heavily raining back home with some respite here and there, I can’t but wait to go back and have my lazy days. However, past experience has shown that the rains tend to run away by the time I reach home. 😕 Today’s call to D only aggravated my fears of seeing minimal rains. But still, as long as…
Koonthal Porichathu ~ Squid Fry
Even though I love fish, the folks at home are not very fond of it. This includes the kids. It’s not they don’t eat, but fish alone as a meal does not satisfied them in any way. With the goodness of fish, this should be a meal I should be trying to be including at least once a week, but most of the time, that doesn’t happen. 🙁 Especially with me on a vegan diet, the cooking of fish has literally gone to zero. I am somehow surprised that none of my umma’s genes have gone to the kids. Umma and my sister are fish crazy. Umma seems to have mellowed down with age but my sister would eat fish morning, afternoon and evening. After moving to US, due to the lack of fresh fish, she has limited her eating but once she comes home, she fills herself with…
Aatunthala Curry ~ Goat Head Curry
Even though we are not used to any “exotic” kind of foods except chicken liver or giblets occasionally, this is one thing I used to eat when I was small. D would sometimes bring aatunthala (goat head) when he finds a good one in the near butcher shop and umma would make this simple yet super tasty soup like curry with it. My sister would not touch even a bit, and that would only make me happy. Just like how this recipe phased out till I forced umma to make it for the blog, this one also had gone into oblivion. Since I am wary of buying from butchers, I normally don’t prepare it. I always believe that it is better for the men to get things like these for us to cook, since the men on the other side will be wary of giving bad stuff to them!…
Kaada Roast ~ Malabar Quail Roast
So how has the start to the year been for all of you? Alhamdulillah, it was good. We had a little trip to the Khorfakkan beach where HD and the kids enjoyed some time at the beach and we were home on time. Saturday was for relaxing at home. But then the first working day of the year started off with such a nasty headache that I had to skip work. It was that bad… That day, it was a nice rainy day too. It is strange that the winter just refuses to come in this part of the world. Even on the New Year day, it was so warm! Hope that the rain brings in the winter… hopefully… Off to the recipe for the day… I first had quails at umma’s cousin’s house. They look like prematured chicken, don’t they? They are just so tiny to hold…
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