It’s been a real long time since I participated in the Sshh Cooking Challenge. Recently, to make it interesting, the challenge had started exploring state wise and started from A. Though I would have loved to be a part of it, my family isn’t very receptive to all kind of foods and also, my time is becoming really tight of late, so I decided to give the challenge a break. Mayuriji was very understanding, and I did mention that when I felt like it, I would be part of the challenge. This month, it was Goa and I was in two minds. I hadn’t signed up initially but then it happened that there was one extra participant without a partner, and without thinking two times, I jumped in. I am glad that I did! 😀 Like I mentioned, this month, we are exploring Goan cuisine. Goa needs no…
Kayi Curry ~ Malabar Sweet Plaintain Curry
In Malabar, we cook a lot with plantains, aka kaaya, kaayi, nenthrapazham… it is known by various names. There are so many ways we recycle our ripe plantains – it becomes nirachathu, a part of paal vazhakka, a combination with kooka or semiya, tossed up with eggs or with aval or just with coconut, as a part of puttu or becoming pradhaman, and how can we forget the favorite way of many Keralites – pazhampori and if it’s for the Malabar, then it’s unnakkaaya! I guess I have noted down all the ways that I have tried them into my cooking, even though there are many more ways, which InShaAllah, I will . Every Keralite will stock up their homes with ripe plantains, mainly because they are a very handy breakfast when you don’t want to cook anything and gets transformed into a snack, for unexpected guests! Such a versatile…
Watalappam ~ Sri Lankan Jaggery Egg Pudding
As soon as the “Sinhalese Cuisine” theme was declared in the Blogging Marathon #84, the first and foremost recipe I wanted to make was the Watalappam, come what may! As I was chatting with Rizna for ideas for Sri Lankan food and I mentioned this one, she told me, “But that’s not Sinhalese?” Like I mentioned in the Kukul Mass Curry recipe, influences do make recipes not 100% “Sinhalese”. When Valli assured that we can do recipes that are prepared in Sri Lanka irrespective of ethnicity, my breath fell in place. Alhamdulillah, I could make the Watalappam finally! 😉 Watalappam or Watalappan is a steamed jaggery pudding, which sounds so similar to the kinnathappam made in our place, with the only difference being that the latter doesn’t use the coconut milk. It is believed to have originated from the Malays, who came to the country during Dutch rule….
Batu Moju | Wambatu Moju ~ Sri Lankan Brinjal Relish
After the Kukul Mas Curry, the next recipe I chose to try under the “Sinhalese Cuisine” theme in the Blogging Marathon #84 was this delicious brinjal relish called Batu Moju or Wambatu Moju. I was first informed about this dish by a Sri Lankan friend, Rizna on the JorenQ FB group. From then on, I had noted it down. I am not a fan of brinjal at all, but the spicy mishmash looked like a nice side dish. She had mentioned in her post that it goes really well with a dish of rice and curry. As usual, I set my Google search on these lines. I was bombarded with so many ways of cooking it as well! It is said that the dish is of Portugese origin, as Sri Lanka was once-upon-a-time a Portugese colony around the sixteenth century! Not much has been written about the dish…
Kukul Mas Curry ~ Sri Lankan Chicken Curry
When the themes for the Blogging Marathon #84 were declared, I didn’t think twice about the second theme to choose. It had to be “Sinhalese Cuisine”. There was a little confusion when I started with it. We know Sri Lanka as a country, but a little digging indicated that Sinhalese are the largest portion of people in Sri Lanka, and they are Buddhist. Their food reigns majority in the country. There are then the Tamils and the Muslims who have slightly varied ways of cooking. Sounds similar to how it is in Kerala too! So having cleared up the confusion of what cuisine I can look for, I ended up getting so confused with what I should be trying. Somehow the first to catch my attention was their chicken curry and I had to make it. Though the curry feels so much like our style, it is different in…
Tropical Trifle – Guest post for Love To Cook
Tropical Trifle – when you hear the name, what comes to your mind? 🙂 All tropical flavors, right? Trifle is one of my favorite dessert to make when I have a lot of guests coming. It is one of the oldest recipes on the blog (which deserves an uplift, but I am waiting for a party type gathering plus some extra time to photograph!) and I was really wondering why I never made variations and posted, apart from the Black Forest Trifle in cups, and yes, the Mango Trifle as well! This trifle screams tropical – coconut in every bite along with pineapples and cherries. The whole point is that it is so easy to put together and doesn’t take too much time. Just assemble everything, push it into the fridge and let it set during the time you concentrate on the other tasks on hand. It is…
Semiya Payasam ~ Vermicelli Milk Dessert
Assalamu alalikum to all my readers in this beautiful month of September! Hope you all had a wonderful Eid-ul-Adha celebrations. If you would like to read more about this festival, then do check out this post! I already have a pressure cooker version of semiya payasam on the blog, but this one is old school – needs some time and patience, but the end result is sweet! 🙂 I am not sure if anybody hates semiya payasam. I have a couple of cousins who don’t like this payasam, and I find them to be really weird. When anybody says “payasam”, the first thing that will always come into mind is semiya payasam, as it is easy to make, with easily available ingredients and basically, no-mess. Just like how you need to be while making the sago payasam, you have to cook enough that the vermicelli looks transparent, the…
Dragon Fruit Smoothie
I pick up a dragon fruit once in a while. Not that I love the fruit, but at times when I see the pretty fruit, I feel like picking it up. A good way of eating it is with a sprinkle of salt and sugar. It really spikes up the fruit. Another way I like it is when it is made into a smoothie with coconut milk. Somehow I don’t like it with milk, the fruit literally spoils the milk! But with coconut milk, it tends to gel so well. The little seeds also give the smoothie a pretty look, just like how kiwis do. If you like dragon fruit, then here are other recipes on the blog for you: Dragon Fruit Pudding Dragon Fruit Milk Pudding Off to this simple recipe… Dragon Fruit Smoothie Save Print Prep time 2 mins Cook time 1…
Musaara Varakiyathu ~ Malabar Wheat and Bengal Gram Pudding
The Muslim Food Blogger’s Challenge is 6 months old! Alhamdulillah… it feels great to be going on. The group maybe small but we have a really enthusiastic bunch, that keeps the challenge alive. I am sure you will all agree that enthusiasm and interest is what drives everything ahead, and I thank Him for this little bunch of bloggers who make my life so easier to go on… 🙂 This month, we reverted back to trying from a blog and we chose to cook from “Shab’s Cuisine“. This blog is one of them that I started following when the cooking bug hit me around 7 years ago – yes, my cooking passion is pretty young, you see! 😉 I totally love her blog since she had some very simple recipes plus her blog was a treasure of Malabar recipes. I guess I don’t need to mention the amazing…
Vegan Biscoff Cheesecake
After the Gulab Jamun cheesecake shots, here comes the second cheesecake in the Blogging Marathon #76 under the theme, “I love, you love Cheesecakes!”. And it has to be vegan! 😉 I have been wanting to try a vegan cheesecake since very long but somehow I never liked the idea. Maybe it is just the mental thought. I have been seeing this recipe and the amount of cashews that go into them, somehow doesn’t appeal to me. However, while this theme was declared, I had already decided I would try to make one, to know the feel and texture of it. The recipe is very easy to make. The crust of the cheesecake is dates and walnuts, while the “cheesecake” portion is blend cashew cream, made up of soaked cashew nuts, coconut milk, some coconut oil and your choice of flavoring. I chose to make this with…
Vegan Strawberry Mango Smoothie
It is the end of the month and it is time for the Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge of the month. With the summers looming in this part of the world and back home already under a heat spell, it wasn’t difficult finalizing the theme for the month. The theme for the month is “Summer Coolers” and my partner for this month is Shailaja, whom I am dealing for the first time and am glad to be partnered with. 🙂 She gave me mango and ice cream as my secret ingredients. Mango is coming into season and who doesn’t get excited about this delicious fruit! I am not very fond of ice creams in my smoothies or drinks, so decided to only utilize mango for this challenge. What I did was pair it up with another seasonal fruit that are available now in the market, which is strawberries. This…
Mango Coconut Milk Pudding
Many bloggers would be aware of this awesome group of bloggers, coordinated by Srivalli, that runs the Blogging Marathon month after month. I have always been wanting to join them, but was not sure how much I could keep up with them, since I cook more on my whims rather than by following a theme. Ever since the beginning of the year, I have been looking to get back my blogging mojo and nothing better than doing a trial to see how I fare in this lovely event! The Blogging Marathon is now in its edition #74 this month. That’s quite a long time, isn’t it? 🙂 From the themes for the month, I decided to choose “Are you Pudding me?” for these three days. Pudding – something that I love, isn’t it? 🙂 And I didn’t have much difficulty finalizing what I should be sharing over the…
Vegan Papaya Blueberry Smoothie
Even though I am very well away from my vegan diet, at times, I do go back to them when I feel really bloated. 😀 I am of the belief that our body needs a little of everything to survive and pull on, so you will never see advocating one type of eating habit. Yet, when we go a bit overboard with eating, a raw vegan diet for a few days does really calm your system down. It is only based on my experience and not necessarily it works for everybody. We have to see how each of our bodies react and eat accordingly. I may brag about it but always end up being the last person to do it, though off late I am trying to really watch out what I am eating. Sharing with you today, a delicious vegan smoothie, that is one of my favorites…
Kashata ~ Coconut Peanut Sugar Candy
Time for the MENA Cooking Challenge! This month, it was Djibouti, as unheard as the Comoros Islands, which was our October assignment. Djibouti is a tiny country located in the Horn of Africa, covering an area of a little over 23,200 cubic km, sharing its borders with Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia, with one side facing the Red Sea. The inhabitants are primarily Muslims and Arabic and French are the major languages spoken, apart from Afroasiatic languages. Due to its strategic location, it is a buzzing commercial hub and is site for various military bases. Djibouti cuisine is highly influenced by foods of Somalia, Yemen, Afar and French cuisine. Meat and fish are a staple part of the food. We were given three choices to make – Wat: a gravy made of meat and vegetables, Sabayaad: a layered flat bread which looks so close to our parathas and Kashata: a…
Urulakizhangu Ozhichu Koottaan ~ Potato Coconut Milk Curry
I guess I have already mentioned on the blog that umma used to never cook with potatoes. Not because she didn’t like them, but since they are starchy and not good for her diabetes, she would hardly make them. Once when I was watching “Love Bytes by Joey” on NDTV Good Times, she was cooking up a Kerala meal and demonstrated this particular curry. As soon as I watched it, I noted down the recipe and had to make it, since it reminded me of a curry that umma used to make long back. This is one of the easiest curries that I have made. It comes together in no time and is so delicious that even when you are done with your chapathis, you would want to lick the curry. No, I am not exaggerating… 😀 The coconut milk gives an amazing flavor and yes, do not miss the…