Anchovy fish fry

If you are a great fan of sea food and belong to Chennai, then you won't need an introduction to this crispy starter, the deep fried anchovies (Nethili meen varuval). In Chennai (Madras), India the restaurants like Madurai Appu, Ponnusamy,Velu military hotel,Pandyas, Anjappar (the list goes on....)are known for their exotic non-veg menus. So don't miss a plate of these crispy anchovies if you get a chance.

I have seen some restaurants serving the full anchovy (with head , tail and small fins too) removing the tract. Believe me this kind will taste great. But I have to remove most of the parts because of my Xav:) He hates fish head and I love it ...weird huh:)So if you are like me, then use the whole fish.

Mostly I prefer non vegetarian buffets while visiting my favorite Indian restaurants. The power of the Indian starters like tandoori chicken , kebab, fish fry will be such that one cannot get satisfied with a single selection of starter:)
I know many of you are like me and so here is an attractive dish to satisfy our palates:)

Anchovy fish deep fried.

Ingredients:
Anchovy fish (nethili meen)- 1 lb
(1 kg will approximately yield 80 big size anchovies)
Salt - to taste (1 1/2 tsp)
Red chilly powder - 1 tbsp
cumin powder - 1tsp
coriander powder - 1tbsp
lemon juice / vinegar - 2 tbsp
rice flour - 2 tbsp (for crispiness)
Red food color - 1/10 tsp (optional)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil to deep fry - 200 ml

How to clean anchovy fish?
Wash and clean the anchovies to remove any sand or impurities. Rinse it in large amount of water thrice to remove the sand, if bought fresh.

Then remove or retain the head as per taste. (If you are frying them, then the head will taste great). Cut and remove the tail. Slit gently in the boneless side to remove the (greenish) digestive tract.

Again rinse once. Apply 1 tsp turmeric powder and keep aside.

The anchovies are ready for cooking now.

Method:
Add all the powders, salt, food color, lemon juice and mix well.
Mix this with the cleaned anchovies and marinate for an hour.
We can fry them immediately also.

Heat oil in a pan.
Deep fry the fishes in small batches till crispy.
Anchovy fish fry is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as starter or side dish with rasam / sambar / fish curry in rice.

Kothu keerai

Kothu keerai / poriyal - Finely chopped greens stir fried with shredded coconut.
Click to see the photos of various amaranth....I like this site very much:)

Amaranth is a leafy green used just like spinach in Indian cooking.In this recipe I have used red spinach which resembles more like an Indian amaranth (thandu keerai / thandankeerai)

Why the name 'Kothu keerai' instead of poriyal or thovaran?
It is the name mom used to say. There is one more common recipe called 'keerai kadanchathu or keerai masiyal' (mashed version) with these greens.I love the way she minced those thandankeerai (amaranth) or the arakeerai. she used to chop them finely by placing the leaves over a broad stone called ammi (stone mortar) using a sharp knife. May be she could have longed for a larger cutting board, I guess:)she would chop them so finely with great care and I believe that the cutting style itself renders more taste to the keerai. Anyways I am not that great at artistic chopping. still tried my best to create it the original way so that my brothers may recollect mom's cuisine through this.

Here is a snap to enjoy the fresh looking Red spinach.

Red spinach leaves cleaned and ready to cook.

Keerai poriyal with lot of freshly grated coconut.

Ingredients:
Thandan keerai (amaranth)/ red spinach - 1 bunch
Shallot / red onion (chopped) - 1/2 cup
garlic - 5 cloves
shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
mustard - 1/2 tsp
oil / ghee - 1 tbsp
cumin - 1/2 tsp
green chilly / dry red chilly - 2

Method:
Pluck the leaves and young stem alone. (We can use the matured stem in making sambar, so save them in fridge).

Wash and clean the greens in large amounts of water multiple times to remove all the dirt / sand. Chop it finely.

Heat oil / ghee in a wok. Add the mustard seeds and let it splutter.
Chop the onion, garlic, chillies, curry leaf (optional) finely and add to the wok.
Stir till onion turns soft.

Add the finely chopped greens and stir fry for some time. Sprinkle a handful of water and cook covered for 3-5 minutes.
Open the lid. Let all the moisture dries up.

Add salt, cumin and fry a bit. After the poriyal looks very loose without any moisture, switch off.
Then put the freshly shredded coconut.

Kothu keerai is ready!

Serving suggestions:
The perfect combination can be with sambar rice or curd rice.

Gobi channa masala

Gobi is the Hindi word for cauliflower and channa stands for chick peas.

Its my habit to include some protein in all the meals. So while making a simple cauliflower kuruma, I added the kondai kadalai (chick peas) and it turned out awesome.

Here goes a healthy side dish for chapathi.



Ingredients:
Chick peas / white channa - 1 cup
cauliflower (chopped) - 1 cup/200 gm
tomato - 2
Red onion - 1 (medium size)
green chillies - 4
coriander leaves - a handful.
mint leaves - few
curd - 1/2 cup
red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
turmeric powder - a pich
MTR channa masala powder - 1 tsp (optional)
(We can use any garam masala too)
salt - to taste
olive oil - 1 tbsp
bay leaf - 1
cinnamon - 1 inch

Method:
Soak channa dal overnight and cook it to tender in a pressure cooker for 5 whistles.
After getting the first whistle ,I reduce the flame to the minimum and heat the cooker for another 10 minutes to cook this dal.

(But in this curry I used 1 cup cooked channa from can).

Grind ginger and garlic together.

Chop and cook the tomatoes. saute the onion in 1 tsp oil and let them cool.
Grind cooked tomato, curd and onion together. keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan. Fry some cinnamon and bay leaf.

Add the green chillies, cilantro and mint leaves. Then put the ginger garlic paste and saute till raw smell goes. Then add all the powders mentioned above along with the ground masala and cook till oil starts showing up.

Next add the chopped cauliflower , salt and cook covered.

After the cauliflower gets cooked put the cooked channa and stir well.

Gobi channa is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Garnish with minced cilantro, freshly chopped onion and a few drops of lemon juice on top.
Goes well with parathas ,poori , roti and naan .
Makes 3-4 cups of gravy.

cabbage soup

Here is a healthy cabbage soup for the days which need a lighter meal. As usual I didn't add any cream but sauteed the cabbage in little butter and blended the vegetable in milk. The croutons are home made. I just cubed some bread slices, buttered them and placed in a hot oven to make the croutons.



Ingredients:
Cabbage - 2 cups (chopped)
black pepper - 1 tsp
green chilly - 1
onion - 1
garlic - 3 cloves
cumin - 1/2 tsp
tomato - 1
Tomato sauce - 1 tbsp (optional)
olive oil / butter - 1 tbsp
milk - 1/4 cup or cream - 2 tbsp
crouton / sliced bread - 1 cup

Method:
Heat olive oil in a wok.
Put the garlic, cumin, pepper and fry till garlic welts.
Add the chopped onion , chilly and cabbage. Stir fry till cabbage gets half cooked.
Now put the chopped tomato and cook everything for 3 minutes (till the cabbage looses the raw flavor).
Let it cool completely. Grind it to a fine paste and bring it to boil.
Add salt to taste. Mix some tomato sauce to enhance the taste.
Fry some croutons in butter .
Add cream along with fried croutons before serving.

Cabbage soup is ready!

Kuzha puttu

Puttu - A breakfast item common in Kerala and Southern TamilNadu.Generally rice flour is steamed with shredded cocount and served with sugar / banana / spicy kadalai curry.

Kuzha puttu - A puttu resembling a pipe.

There are many ways to steam this puttu. We can use a simple cloth over hot steam or idly making plates or this special tool 'puttu kudam' for steaming the flour.
The most authentic and tasty variety of puttu is made by using the red rice flour (rose matta arisi or sivappu samba rice).

I used the store bought ready made red rice flour (double roasted). Instead we can roast the ordinary white rice also.Some people prepare the flour from scratch by soaking and dry grinding the rice.

Puttu maker in box along with the ingredients.
Recently I bought this puttu maker from an Indian store. Love it very much:)

Puttu kuzhal and puttu kudam with ingredients .
Puttu maker consists of 2 main parts: The puttu kuzhal (to fill the processed rice flour) and kudam (to fill water and generate steam).


Puttu served. The white coconut is the frozen shredded coconut and the darker one is what I got from fresh coconut:)

Ingredients:
(For 2 kuzha puttu)
Red rice flour - 1 cup
(If not readymade, roast it till we get a pleasant smell and the grains look very flowy)
salt - 1/4 tsp
Shredded coconut - 1/2 + 1/2 cup
(Coconut should be almost equal to that of rice flour.We can reduce it too, but we can't get the real taste.)

Method:
Fill the puttu kudam (the broader vessel) with water to its 3/4 th. Close the top with the given lid that has the nozzle.
Start heating it.

In the same time bring to boil 1/4 cup water along with the salt.

Place the roasted rice flour in a mixing bowl.
Slowly sprinkle the boiling water and mix well without any lumps.
The consistency should be such that we should be able to make a solid with the flour, but the solid should be breakable in to flour when touched gently.
Totally we should get a wet flour but not any lumpy.

Now mix 1/2 cup shredded coconut to it and mix well.

Take the puttu kuzhal. Fill the bottom with 2 tsp shredded coconut. Then put the prepared flour and fill half way very loosely. Again spread 2 tsp coconut and fill the pipe with prepared rice flour.

Now check if the steam starts hushing out of the puttu kudam.

Close the puttu kuzhal and fit it over the nozzle.Make some holes in the filled flour using the stick given.

Heat till we see steam out of the top of puttu maker.
Then continue heating for 5 minutes and switch off.

Carefully take out and serve immediately.

Kuzha puttu is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot with sugar and banana.
Other combination are channa masala (kadalai curry), green gram chundal etc.

Note:
Try to serve the puttu immediately otherwise it may turn hard. Reheating in microwave helps a bit.

Vazhaikai (plantain) curry

Vazhakai / valai kai means unripe banana / plantain. It is a practice of South Indians to make some spicy hot curry using unripe banana or potato along with the lesser spicy sambar and rice. Nevertheless to say this simple curry can brighten up an ordinary meal.

Unripe banana cubed with skin:


Vazhaikai curry:


Ingredients:
Unripe plantain - 2
onion (chopped) - 1/2 cup
tomato - 2
oil - 2 tbsp
fennel - 1/2 tsp
cilantro - a handful
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
turmeric - 1/8 tsp
chilly powder - 1 tsp
coriander powder - 2 tsp
garam masal powder - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - a gooseberry size

Method:
Wash and clean the banana. Scrub and remove the outer skin mildly. We can remove the skin completely but I prefer to keep the skin on.
Cut it into small cubes.

Extract tamarind juice using 1 cup water.
Cook the plantain in 1/2 tsp salt, 2 cup water , tamarind extract, turmeric powder.
Turn off heat when it is almost (90%) cooked. Drain the excess water.

Heat oil in a wok.Let the fennel get red.
Then fry onion to golden brown. Now add ginger garlic paste and fry till raw smell vanishes.Add the chopped tomato and fry till oil oozes.

Now add the cooked plantain , all the powders, salt to taste and cook till the masala smell turns good. Put off fire.

Garnish with chopped cilantro.
Valai kai masala curry is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as side dish with any rice.

Repost for Nithu's Fruit event

I am re-posting the following recipes for Nithu Balas's "Think Beyond the Usual - Fruits" event.

Pineapple rasam:


Apple Rasam:



Kashmiri pulao:


Happy hosting Nithu!