Yam Fry

 

Yam or suran fry is a great accompaniment for lunch, also it can be a good snack for tea/coffee.

It is very simple to prepare.

Ingredients

2 cups skinned, washed and yam sliced into small thin pieces

Oil for frying

Salt to taste

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

Instruction

-          Heat the oil till it smokes.

-          Slide in the sliced yam pieces, reduce the flame to medium. Keep stirring and let the yam pieces cook and become brownish in color.

-          Drain and put on tissue paper.

-          Sprinkle salt and red chilli powder and mix well .

-          Serve hot

Yam fry served with sago khichdi and salad.

Bature

 

During our post-graduation days in Lucknow, we used to frequent “Mirchu’s shop” on the way to college to have chole bature for breakfast (and on some days ‘bun makhan’). Whenever I make bature at home, it is always compared to ‘Mirchu’s bature’. And I am glad that over the years I have gained expertise that my husband compliments ‘Your batures are better than Mirchu’s’.

Ingredients

4 cups of refined flour

¾ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

1 ½ tbsps sugar powder

1 ½ cups curd beaten

Water as needed

Oil for frying

Instruction

-          Beat the curd with salt and powdered sugar.

-          Sieve the refined flour with baking soda.

-          Pour the curd into the refined flour and start kneading. Slowly add water if needed.

-          Take care the dough is stiff, it is going loosen as we keep it to ferment.

-          After kneading nicely, keep in a large enough vessel that will give space for the dough to rise, and cover it with a plastic wrap or wet cloth.

-          Leave it overnight for fermentation, it will become almost double.

-          Heat oil for frying. Divide the dough into 12 balls.

-          Press each ball with pressure between the palms and flatten them lightly

-          Roll each ball and deep fry.

-          Serve with chole, finely cut onions and lemon.

Boiled Seasoned Tapioca

 Tapioca has always been one of those humble items that quietly reminds me of home. Soft, comforting, and deeply satisfying, it carries the rustic charm of Kerala’s countryside—where fresh tapioca roots are pulled from the earth and transformed into simple, soulful meals. Whether served with fish curry or enjoyed as a warm, buttery stir-fry with coconut chammanthi, tapioca is more than just food; it is nourishment in its purest form. Its gentle flavor, quick energy, and easy digestibility make it a favourite across generations. This recipe celebrates tapioca in its most traditional, wholesome form—simple, hearty, and full of old-world goodness.

Ingredients

3 tapioca roots

1 liter of water to boil tapioca

Salt to taste

 ½ cup grated coconut to garnish in the end

To temper

2 tbsps coconut oil

½ tsp mustard seeds

3 red chillies broken into two

2 tbsps finely cut onion

A few curry leaves

Instruction

-          Peeling the two skins of tapioca is important - the thin outer brown skin and the pink thick inner skin. Watch this video carefully.  

       

I     If you see black color or black lines on the white tapioca, it has to be discarded.

-          Tapioca contains some natural toxins, which has to be removed by proper boiling in a lot of water and discarding that water after the tapioca is cooked soft.

-          After peeling and cutting into large pieces, they are washed at least thrice and put into the pressure cooker with water to which salt is added.

-          Depending on the freshness of tapioca, it may take 4 minutes to 8 minutes of pressure cooking.

-          Let the cooker cool and remove the cooked pieces, discard the water.

-          In a thick bottomed vessel, heat coconut oil, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the broken chillies, cut onion, and curry leaves.

-          When the onions brown, toss in the cooked tapioca pieces and mix well.

-          Garnish with grated coconut. Serve with pickle, onion green chilli chutney or dry coconut chutney.

To  my great surprise and satisfaction, I found that breadfruit also can be cooked in large chunks and seasoned, and it tasted like tapioca:

-                                                                                                        Breadfruit with coconut chutney

 

Raw Banana Pulissery

One day when my husband brought home raw bananas, suddenly I remembered that in childhood I have had raw banana pulissery. It is easy to prepare and tasty with boiled rice.

Ingredients

1 raw banana

2 ½ cups curd

½ cup water

½  tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

To season:

1 tbsp coconut oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

¼ tsp cumin seeds

¼ tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tsp finely cut onion

1 tsp ginger, garlic cut fine

1 green chilli cut into three

A few curry leaves

Instruction

-          Peel the raw banana, cut into cubes, Put them in boiling water with a pinch of turmeric powder and salt for five minutes. Drain and keep aside

-          Beat the curd nicely, add water, turmeric powder, salt and mix well.

-          Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, cut onion, ginger and garlic, curry leaves and cut green chilli. When they brown, remove the vessel from fire.

-          Let it cool for a couple of seconds and slowly add the prepared curd. Keep stirring and keep on low flame.

-          When frothing appears along the sides, add the boiled raw banana pieces. Keep stirring and remove from fire after a minute. Don’t let it boil, or the curd will curdle.

-          Serve with boiled rice. 

Boiled rice served with raw banana pulissery and boiled seasoned green gram.

Pongal

 

In Tiruvannamalai when we used to go for meditation retreats, we often frequented a nearby restaurant for breakfast. Along with idli vada sambar chutney, there was awesome Pongal. My husband was very friendly with the owner, who gracefully shared the recipe for the Pongal. It is made frequently at home as we all love it.

Ingredients

1 cup rice

¾ cup split, skinned green gram(mung dal)

5 cups water

Salt to taste

To season

2 tbsps ghee

1 tbsp Cashew nuts

½ tsp pepper corns

1 tbsp ginger cut into thin strips

Instruction

-          Wash and clean the rice and soak for ten minutes

-          Roast the mung dal, then wash and drain

-          In a thick bottomed vessel, take five cups water, soaked rice, washed dal, salt, and keep on high flame.

-          When it boils, reduce the flame to minimum, cover the vessel partly and let it cook for ten minutes.

-          Heat ghee, add cashew nuts, pepper corns and the ginger strips. 

       When the ginger turns brown, pour it over the Pongal and close.

-          Open, mix well and serve with pickle, papad and curd.

     - Pongal is cooked in pressure cooker too. Five times water added and 8 minutes cooking, then add the seasoning:

Banana Fritters

 

This is a very delicious snack which I used to have during every visit in Kerala because this Kerala banana was not available in Belgaum. A couple of years back a Reliance store opened nearby and to my utmost delight, they supply them. Now I can make them at home!

In Malayalam it is "Ethakkai appam" or "Pazham pori". 

Ingredients:

1 Kerala banana (for 8 fritters)

1 cup rice flour (you can use refined flour too, but rice flour makes it more crispy and is gluten free)

1 tbsp sugar

A pinch of salt

A pinch of turmeric powder (to give that tempting color)

1/3 tsp cardamom powder

¾ cup water

Oil for frying

Instruction

-          Take the rice flour, sugar, salt, turmeric powder and keep adding water little by little and mix well.

-          The consistency of the batter should be such that when you dip your finger into the batter and take it out, the batter should coat the finger in a somewhat thick (not too thick) layer

-          Add the cardamom powder and mix.

-          Peel the banana and cut horizontally into two. Each half is now longitudinally sliced into four.

-          Heat the oil, when it starts smoking, reduce the flame to medium.

-          Take a banana slice, dip into the batter, coat uniformly, and gently slide into the hot oil. Add a couple of more coated slices.

-          Turn them over and cook the other side too.

-          Drain and serve hot with tea or coffee.

Unniyappam

 

This is one of my favourite Kerala recipes. In my childhood during visits to my maternal grand mother’s house, we used to get unniyappams as prasad from the nearby temple. And for this we used to visit the temple daily 😊This is a gluten free version, no rava, no refined flour.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups (150 gms) Roasted rice flour - for 21 appams

2 tbsps rice rava

1 cup water

150 gms jaggery

3 bananas

¼ tsp cardamom powder

¼ tsp cumin seeds

¾ tsp black sesame seeds

2 tbsps thinly sliced coconut

A pinch of salt

¼ tsp baking powder

Coconut oil for frying

Instruction

-          Keep the broken pieces of jaggery with ½ cup water on medium fire. When it melts, sieve, put in a container and let it cool

-          Slice the bananas, put in a blender, run it. Then add the melted jaggery and blend. Now add the cardamom powder, cumin seeds, rice rava and just run it.

-          Add salt and black sesame seeds to the rice flour. Mix in the banana jaggery mix into this, add the baking soda and mix well. Add the remaining ½ cup water and mix well to get a thick batter like idli batter consistency. You can add more water if need be.

-          Heat the vessel to make unniyappams (appakara), fill half of each container with coconut oil or any oil that you prefer.

-          When it is smoking hot, fill half of each container with the batter. Reduce the flame to medium. When it is brown from the bottom, turn upside down and let them cook.

-          Take them out onto tissue paper, serve hot with tea or coffee.