Pudina (Mint) rice

Ingredients:

1 cup Rice

½ cup green peas (optional)

2 ½ cups of water

Salt to taste

To grind:

1 cup mint leaves

1 green chilli

½ inch piece of ginger

5,6  garlic flakes

½ cup grated coconut

To season:

2 tbsps oil

1 bay leaf

½ tsp cumin seeds

3 cloves

3 cardamoms

1 mace

1 small piece cinnamon

To garnish:

1 tbsp cashew nuts roasted in 1 tsp ghee

Instruction:

·         Soak the rice for 15 minutes. Add the water and salt and put it on medium heat.

·         Grind the coconut, mint leaves, green chilli, ginger and garlic.

·         Heat the oil in a pan, add bay leaf, cumin seeds, clove, mace, cardamom, cinnamon, and  sauté

·         Add the ground masala, roast lightly, add the green peas. Stir for a second, now put this into the rice.

·         When it boils, reduce the flame and cook for ten minutes. Remove from fire and let it sit for at least ten minutes for the flavours to be absorbed well and the rice to become fluffy. Garnish with roasted cashews before serving.

·         Serve with roasted papad, pickle and raita

Pudina rice with tender jackfruit 'Do pyaza', poached egg and garlic chutney.

Broken wheat Upma

Ingredients:

1 cup broken wheat, soaked for about ½ hour

3 ½ cups water

Salt to taste

2 tbsps oil

½ tsp mustard seeds

½ tsp udad dal

½ tsp chana dal

1 onion cut fine

2 green chillies broken

A few curry leaves

2 tomatoes cut fine

1 carrot chopped into small pieces

¼ cup shelled peas

2 tbsps grated coconut to garnish

Instruction:

-         -  Heat oil in the pressure cooker, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the udad dal, chana dal, stir, and add cut onion, green chillies and curry leaves. Sauté them on medium flame.

-          - Add the cut tomatoes, after a minute, add the cut carrots and peas and mix well.

-          - Now add the soaked drained broken wheat and salt. Mix them well and add the water.

-          - Pressure cook for 3 minutes, cool and open.

-         -  Serve with a teaspoon of ghee poured over it and garnished with grated coconut.

Brinjal masala, Karnataka style

This is an awesome Karnataka preparation that I learned from a friend. It is great with jowar rotis, but goes well with steamed rice too.

Ingredients:

6 small brinjals

2 onions cut fine

4 tomatoes cut fine

A bunch of coriander leaves cut fine

2 tbsps groundnut chutney

1 tbsp green chutney

2 tbsps oil

Salt to taste

2 ½ tsps sugar

2 ½ cups water

Instructions:

-          Wash the brinjals and slit them twice. Add half of the cut onion, tomatoes and coriander leaves, groundnut chutney (made by grinding roasted ground nuts, salt, garlic and red chilli powder), salt, sugar and mix well. Set aside for ten minutes.

-          Take the other half of the cut onion, tomatoes and coriander leaves and start frying them in oil on medium flame. When it becomes mushy, put the brinjals, mix everything well, add water and let it cook for about seven minutes, then simmer for two minutes and remove from fire. It is ready to be served.

Gluten free shakarpara

For those who are gluten sensitive, shakarpara can be prepared with rice flour. Since it doesn’t have the holding property like the refined flour, we can’t spread the dough into round, cut into squares and fry. I took small portions of the dough, pressed and rolled it nicely between the palms to make into a small round, then pressed it to flatten. When about ten of them were prepared, they were fried together and drained.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups rice flour

½ cup ghee

½ cup milk

¾ cup sugar, powdered

½ tsp cardamom powder

A pinch of salt

Oil for frying

Instruction:

- Lightly roast the rice flour for about 5 minutes on low fire and keep aside to cool after adding the salt and cardamom powder.

- Warm the milk, add the sugar powder, let is dissolve and then add the ghee. Stir for a few seconds and remove from fire.

- Add a ladleful of rice flour; mix it into the milk sugar ghee mix. Keep adding ladlefuls of rice flour and when all the rice flour is mixed in, knead into a smooth dough and keep aside covered with cling film for ten minutes.

- Heat the oil. Take small portions of the dough, roll into a ball between the palms, then flatten it and deep fry on medium heat.

- Drain when they turn golden brown in color.

- Cool and store in air tight container, enjoy with tea or coffee.

Shallots thoran

Shallots are rich in minerals, vitamins and trace elements. They also contain phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, manganese, iron and copper. Shallots are also an excellent source of selenium, a trace element that protects cells against aging and contributes to healthy skin and hair. Combined with vitamin E, also found in shallots, selenium contributes to the formation of antibodies that defend the body against microbes and viruses.

Shallots are used in Kerala on a daily basis. It is used to season all our vegetable preparations and in Sambar. Shallots thoran is a delicacy I relish so much. It was not very frequently prepared as it takes a lot of time to peel so many of these small sized onions.

Ingredients:

2 cups peeled and sliced shallots

Salt to taste

To grind:

¾ cup grated coconut

4 flakes of garlic

¼  tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp cumin seeds

To season:

1 tbsp oil

½ tsp mustard seeds

2 red chillies broken to pieces

A few curry leaves

Instruction:

-Grind all the ingredients together and keep aside.

- Heart oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, when they splutter, add broken chilli pieces, curry leaves and the cut shallots in that order.

- Stir on high flame for a minute, reduce the flame, add salt, cover and let it cook ( about 4 minutes). Open in between to check it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan and if needed, add some water.

- When the shallots are cooked, add the ground coconut and cover. After a minute, remove from fire and stir well.

- This tastes awesome with steamed rice and dal.

Small green peas chutney

The small green pea is a seasonal vegetable. It is very good to be added to salads, sautéed with garlic and salt for breakfast, or made into a delectable chutney.

Ingredients:

2 cups shelled green peas

1 green chilli

½ tsp cumin seeds

A pinch of salt

1 ½ tsps sugar

Juice of ½ lemon

Instruction:

-          Put all the ingredients into a mortar and  grind to a rough consistency.

-          Serve with steamed rice or rotis

Shakarpara

These mildly sweet fried crisps are very good to munch on, also a great accompaniment for tea/ coffee.

Ingredients:

3 cups of Refined flour (I take half wheat flour and half refined flour)

¾ cup sugar powdered

5 cardamoms

½ cup milk

½ cup ghee

A pinch of salt

Oil for frying

Instruction:

-          Powder the sugar with cardamom seeds

-          Take the flour in a vessel and add salt

-          Warm the milk, add sugar powder and mix well.

-          Lower the flame, add the ghee slowly, stir for a minute and remove from fire.

-          Slowly add the milk sugar ghee mix to the flour, stirring it into the flour with the back of a large spoon.

-          Now knead into a soft dough, cover with a wet cloth and leave for 45 minutes.

-          Heat the oil in a karahi. Take a small portion of the dough, knead well between the palms and roll out to a round. Cut into small squares and deep fry on medium flame.

-          Drain, cool and store