Gray squash poriyal

This is one vegetable I had a lot of confusion in buying. I don't know the Tamil translation for this vegetable, as I have never seen this before:) So when I saw this for the first time in an Asian market, I was not sure of the taste. But bought it one day to trial run. Surprisingly this tasted just like our Ridge gourd. Recording this Indianised gray squash recipe for you all.

Gray squash in a pack.

Ingredients:

Gray squash - 3
Onion - 1/2 cup (chopped)
green chilli - 2 (slit)
curry leaf - 1 sprig
Shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tsp
mustard seed - 1/2 tsp
cumin seed - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

Peel and chop the squash. keep aside.
Heat oil in a wok.
Add mustard seeds and let them pop.
Immediately add chopped onion, curry leaf, green chilly and stir well til the onion gets semi cooked.
Now add the chopped squash along with 1/2 cup water and cook it tightly covered till the squash gets soft.
Add salt to taste.
Then add the cumin and shredded coconut and stir to loose all the moisture.
Take off heat.
Gray squash stir fry is ready!

Serving suggestions:

The above said quantity can be served for 3 people.
Serve as side dish with roti or sambar rice, rasam or any spicy puli kulambu.

Fish cutlet

I tasted this cutlet for the first time in my friend Gnanam's house (school days). At that time cutlets were served only in restaurants in my home town and newer recipes were rare. Only the young girls would try newer recipes from the cook-books, while the elders sticking with their own tradition. Gnanam's elder sister Clara akka is the one I admire a lot for her cooking, dedication and religious activities. May be she is the one kindled my passion for Jesus, though we have not talked much on that Subject. We all have some role models in life in each and every thing we do, may be our dressing style or way of talking etc, I should say I learned much from her.... Her recipes are the best for me till now. Then I prepared this cutlet at home to impress my mom. So it became our family's  favorite from then on. After marriage I rarely cook fish because of hubby's taste buds:)

Fish cutlet served with lemon wedge. The picture didn't do justice here :)

Fishes suitable for cutlet:

Fish -1/4 kg
Shark (sura meen), king fish (vanjiram/seela meen), sword fish (vazhai meen),
Any fish with good flesh like salmon, red snapper(sankara / romeo), Tuna fish fresh or canned.
I generally prefer shark for this cutlet.

Cooking the fish:

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a vessel. Add turmeric powder 1/2 tsp (to reduce fishy smell), salt - 1 tsp. Then add the washed / cleaned fish pieces along with the skin and bones.
Close it with a lid and cook for 5 minutes.
After it gets cool, peel off the skin and remove the bones.
Mash the fish with your hand or masher without any lumps.

Other ingredients:

Potato (boiled) - 2 (100 gm)
onion - 1
green chillies - 2
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
fennel - 1 tsp
curry leaf, cilantro, mint leaf (together) - finely chopped 2 tbsp
red chilly powder - 1 tsp
garam masal powder - 1 tsp
lime juice from 1/8 fruit
salt to taste
bread crumbs - 1 cup
egg - 1
oil - to shallow fry

Method:

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok. Add the fennel, finely chopped onion, green chilly, leaves and fry till they wilt. Then add the ginger garlic paste and stir well.
Now add the mashed fish, chilly powder, garam masal powder, salt and fry till moisture is gone.
Now mash the cooked potatoes and add, again stir well.
Sprinkle the lemon juice and switch off.

Frying the cutlet:

Heat some oil to shallow fry the cutlet in a broad based wok.
Pour the egg to a broad dish. Add salt and beat well.
In another plate spread the bread crumbs.
Now take a lemon size ball from the prepared fish mixture. Flatten it to get a oval or circular shape with 3/4 inch thickness.
Dip that in beaten egg, then dip it in bread crumbs.
Bring it to a perfect shape. Shallow fry it both sides. Drain oil and serve hot.
Fish cutlet is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Serve as evening snack or along with rice as side dish.
Mostly this fish cutlet goes well with tomato sauce.

Tips:

Making the cutlets with canned fish is much easy.
Bread crumbs can be prepared at home using few bread slices. Just leave them in a hot oven for a few minutes and powder it.
Left over sura puttu can be made into this cutlet the next day.
2 tins of Tuna fish (water based) and 2 small potatoes will yield 10 or 11 cutlets.

Mango Ice cream

This is my hubby's most favorite ice cream. He always grabs a pack of this flavor whenever we visit a nearby Asian grocery shop. On seeing that, I wanted to make it at home to get the true Indian flavored Mango ice cream. while browsing, I got this recipe from the video, hosted by Hetal and Anuja. Thanks dearies. You have given me a very handy recipe admired by all our friends and family.
From then on, our Fridays can't be complete without this yummy bowl of ice cream on hand:)

There are only three ingredients here, which makes our job easy. We may need just 5 minutes to prepare this one by using readymade pulp. But the ice cream made from fresh mangoes are worth trying too, during the mango season.
Last summer I tried it using fresh mangoes and it was successful. But I would like to recommend mango pulp in can, as we cannot be sure of the quality of fresh mangoes in some places. Sour mangoes won't give the expected taste or color. So its safer to use the canned ones.

Alphonso mango varieties are the best. Here is the picture of another variety (don't know the name) of mangoes I used.

The mangoes I got from an Indian grocery store.

Those three ingredients.....

Very natural mango ice cream garnished with blueberry, mango slice and mint leaf.

When the mango season was over,  I started using canned mango pulp.

Mango ice cream before freezing. Look at the gorgeous color I got by the canned version.

Inviting cup of Home made mango ice cream served.

Ingredients:

Mango Pulp - 30 oz can (4 cups of puree)
(or) 1 kg of fresh mango
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 14 oz can (400 gm)
Whipped Topping - 8 oz  (225 gm)
Fresh Mango - cubed (optional)

Method:

Take a mixing bowl and add the mango Pulp (or freshly pureed mangoes) and Condensed milk . Mix well.
Then add the finely chopped mango pieces .(optional).
Now put the whipped topping and mix gently.
Transfer them to a freezer-safe container.
Cover and freeze for 3-4 hours.

Creamy rich mango ice cream is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Serve as dessert.
Serves nearly 15 people.
Before scooping, keep the ice cream in room temperature for 2 minutes to facilitate smooth handling.

A book sale and Dijon chicken

Book sale:
We cherish some sales as remarkable and incredibly fantastic. One among them is the book exhibition. I am not a great fan of novels, but love to read on various culture, cuisines , arts etc. I have a good collection of folk tales and comics in our house in India but never thought of experiencing one here till I saw a pamphlet on the side-walk.

Various books we bought from the sale. That is the brown bag I mentioned here.

Some months ago, we went to a book sale conducted by the public library of Piscataway, NJ. They called it as the 'brown bag sale'. I hope this is common in many parts of the country. The sale was on some marked books aimed at removing the clutter, it seems. They sold big brown paper bag for $5 and people were allowed to fill the bag with the books they wish. It was much beneficial for both the ends and I could see happy faces all over the hall. That was like cherry picking for the book worms and thrillers were sold the best. I was surprised at their cook book collection as well as the arts side. While hubby was browsing the mystery novels, I gathered some nice books on cooking, quilting etc. Look at the treasure I got:)

Wow! what a catch for $5.

Dijon Chicken:
Then I tried a simple recipe, Dijon chicken from the book 'Hooray for chicken', by Family Living magazine. All the ingredients are very common except the dijon mustard. So I bought it from Shoprite and prepared this dish along with pasta. It was a big hit.
If you cannot get dijon mustard, please see the guidelines to make one. I prefer wine-less dijon mustard, so look for the ingredients before buying, if you have any preference. (Vinegar is substituted for wine in  my pack).

Dijon chicken served with pasta.

Ingredients:

chicken boneless / breast - 1 lb
Dijon mustard - 3 tbsp
(its a sauce available in supermarkets)
butter - 5 tbsp
garlic powder - 1 tbsp
onion - 1 (crushed)
salt - to taste
black / white pepper powder - 2 tbsp

Method:

wash and clean the chicken breasts (approximately 4).
I cut it into 3 inch size pieces. But the original version calls for using the whole big pieces.
Mix Dijon mustard sauce, butter, salt, pepper, onion, garlic.
Add to chicken and marinate for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 deg.
Grease a baking pan.
Place the chicken pieces separately in a baking pan and bake for 1 hour.
Broil to get the red color.
Garnish with parsley. (I didn't have parsley, so I left it).

Serving suggestions:

Generally they use big pieces of chicken for this recipe, but I chopped mine for more marinated effect.
Makes a good side dish for pasta.

Pumpkin corn soup

The colorful autumn season and pumpkin are inseparable. To welcome this season I am publishing a post lying on my draft for a long time. This pumpkin soup is a pureed version of soup with sweet corn to munch on. I personally love this soup very much during cold weather, when we get pumpkin in abundance.

I coined this recipe after tasting it in a friend's home. I was much attracted to this colorful soup topped with a chunk of sweet corn. Its purely inspired by Archana's mom's lovely pumpkin soup.
Thanks Nalini Aunty!

Her procedure doesn't call for any apple. But I add tart apples for a more sharp taste. So it is optional to add apples here.

Ingredients:

Sweet pumpkin - 1 cup (chopped)
(1 long piece is enough)
Any tart apple - 1/2 cup
Sweet corn - 1/4 cup
Sweet corn cob (boiled and sliced) - 1 or 2
onion - 1/2
black pepper - 1 tsp
cumin - 1 tsp
green chillies - 1
butter - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste

Method:

Heat butter in a wok. Saute the sliced onion till it wilts. Take out and add the pumpkin, apple, chilly and saute in the remaining grease. Let it cook a little.

Let cool and puree them in a blener with salt, pepper, cumin, chilly and sauteed onion. Transfer it to the wok and add a cup of water to get a thick soup consistency.
Add the corn kernel and cook well.
Switch off after raw smell vanishes.

Separately cook the corn cob and slice it to 3 inch pieces. Add them to the soup.

Serve the soup in a bowl topped with a piece of corn cob.

Pumpkin corn soup is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Makes 3 servings.
Adding apples is not a must.

Malai kofta curry

'Malai kofta' means 'Indian cottage cheese balls (paneer) served with a rich creamy non spicy gravy'.

Some time ago I prepared this malai kofta curry with the help of Sanjeev kapoor's and Vah chef's recipes. I used Sanjeev kapoor's version as it involved lesser vegetables but followed vahchef's instructions. His videos made me understand the difficulties in keeping the koftas in shape while frying (yeah, that's a big challenge here!). Click here to see the Vahchef's video. Thanks to the two great chefs, I have learned to make a famous Indian gravy.

Malai kofta dough prepared.

Ingredients:

For kofta:

Paneer (shredded) - 1 cup (100 gm)
(I made it at home by using 4 cups of 2 % milk).
Potato (3 numbers,boiled, peeled and mashed) - 2 cups (200 gm)
green chillies -4
All purpose flour - 1/4 to 1/2 cup
cashew - 4
raisin - 20
salt -to taste
oil (to deep fry) - 1 cup

Pressure cook the potatoes, peel and mash them.
Mix the crumbled paneer, finely chopped green chillies, broken cashew, raisin, salt and mix well.
Add all purpose flour (maida) little by little to get a thick but soft dough.
Knead well and keep aside.

Koftas before frying.

Now keep 1/2 cup of all purpose flour in a separate dish.
Take a small (strawberry size to lemon size) ball of dough. Make a spherical shape and dip it in maida flour. Then carefully pat to get a bullet shape.
Keep aside.

Koftas are fried now . I made a big batch and froze 2/3 of the above for further use.

Heat a wok with 1 cup oil and deep fry the cheese koftas carefully in low fire. They may tend to break if the dough is not proper. Otherwise we will get the exact shape.

( Keep in mind how the cheese on pizza melts with temperature. Likewise paneer is nothing but a kind of Indian cheese and hence it will also tend to disintegrate while frying.  So flip very carefully. Fry only one and check for the consistency. If needed add more all purpose flour to get a very thick dough, like the chapathi dough. Moreover the whole frying process should be done in very low flame).

Fry all the paneer koftas and let them cool. While hot,  they will be soft and can be easily broken. So wait till they cool.

After cooling we can freeze the koftas and use whenever required.

Malai kofta curry with a dollop of cream.

For curry:

onion - 1 cup (chopped)
almond, cashew - 5 each
tomato - 2
cilantro , mint - handful,each.
garam masal powder - 1 tsp
red chilly powder - 1 tsp
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
milk - 1/2 cup
butter - 1 tbsp
whipped cream - 2 tbsp

Method:

Microwave or cook the onion, tomato, cilantro, mint with 1/4 cup water, let cool and grind along with cashews, almonds to a fine paste.

Heat 1 tbsp butter in a wok. Put the bay leaf followed by the ginger garlic paste. Then add the puree and saute till raw smell vanishes.

Add masala powder, red chilly powder, milk, salt and bring it to a boil.

Check the taste and keep aside.

Before serving reheat the gravy and drop the prepared koftas. Top with the whipped cream.
Serve carefully without disturbing the koftas.

Serving suggestions:

Serve as side dish with any Indian bread like naan or roti.
Makes 25 small size koftas.

Tips:

Generally people add koftas to the curry just before serving, to avoid broken ones.
 I found that the koftas if prepared carefully stays in shape for 4 to 5 hours in the gravy, just like restaurant ones . But microwaving the whole dish may make the koftas crack, so if needed heat in stove top without stirring.
Do not defreeze them in microwave. Just leave them in room temperature or drop in hot gravy.

Sambar Podi (Tamilnadu style)

Sambar and Indian cuisine are inseparable. Sambar is a dhal based curry prepared with certain vegetables and poured over rice. The flavor and color of a typical sambar relies on the sambar podi (podi means powder). So it is a must to prepare a good quality sambar. In India the masala powders are normally ground in a dry mill. The house lady has to make several batches of the dry ingredients and pack them to the mill through some housemaid.

After marriage, I lost the interest to prepare the masala powders at home because of several reasons.  First I could not make our modern maid to carry all the containers to a grinding mill as we do in our parent's house and I too shied to carry them all along that streets:) Then our need was so small to imagine. So I started buying Sakthi masala powders in the beginning and somehow it became a habit of me. But recently I was forced to prepare this authentic sambar powder due to a misplaced shopping list and hence I prepared it in a small quantity (see below) for that month. It turned out much easier and I couldn't control my joy on tasting my mom's sambar after a very very long time. The flavor of the sambar powder not only filled our house but also our hearts too:) Nowadays home made sambar podi has totally replaced that convenient sachets in my house.

Here is that authentic sambar powder recipe.

Freshly prepared Sambar powder.

Ingredients:

coriander seed - 2 cup
dry red chilly - 2 cup
(or chilly powder - 3/4 cup)
cumin - 1/4 cup
black pepper - 1/4 cup
fenugreek (methi / venthayam) - 1 tbsp
mustard - 1 tbsp
turmeric - 1 tsp
asafoetida - 1 tsp
channa dhal - 3 tbsp
urad dhal - 3 tbsp

Method:

The red chilly I have mentioned here is for basic need only. Mostly I prepare my sambar podi without red chillies and add the red chilly powder while making sambar. By this we can avoid the hastle of powdering red chillies and also we can alter the chillies according to need every day.
Heat a wok and dry roast all the above separately (except turmeric, chilly and asafoetida powders). Dry roast the dry chilly in  batches at last , to avoid sneezing. Take out and keep them together in a broad plate (or muram , a very broad winnowing tool / basket).
After they cool completely, grind them to a fine powder. Then spread the powder in a broad paper and keep in room temperature to loose the heat generated during grinding, otherwise the powder may turn black. Store it in an air tight container.

How to use this powder?

Makes nearly 2 cups of powder. This powder can be used in making all kinds of sambar, vatha kulambu, idly sambar, poriyal etc. It will be enough for 2 adults for 2 months. If stored in freezer / fridge, this podi remains very fresh and fragrant.

To make sambar with 1/2 cup toor dhal, use 1.5 tbsp home made sambar powder.

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சாம்பார் பொடி செய்ய தேவையான பொருள்:
கொத்தமல்லி விதை  - 2 கப்
காய்ந்த மிளகாய் - 2 கப்
(அல்லது மிளகாய் பொடி  - 3/4 கப்)
சீரகம்  - 1/4 கப்
மிளகு  - 1/4 கப்
வெந்தயம்  - 1 மேசைக்கரண்டி
கடுகு  - 1 மேசைக்கரண்டி 
மஞ்சள் தூள்  - 1 தேக்கரண்டி
பெருங்காயத்தூள்  - 1 தேக்கரண்டி
கடலை பருப்பு - 3 மேசைக்கரண்டி
உளுந்தம்பருப்பு - 3 மேசைக்கரண்டி

மேலே கொடுத்த அனைத்து பொருட்களையும் தனி தனியே வாணலியில் வாசம் வரும் வரை வறுத்து , ஒன்றாக சேர்த்து அரைக்கவும். காய்ந்த மிளகாய் உபயோகிக்காமல் மிளகாய் தூள் உபயோகிப்பது , நம் சுவாசத்துக்கு நல்லது. கார நெடி பிடிக்காதவர்கள் மிளகாயை வறுத்து  அரைப்பதை தவிர்த்து, மிளகாய் தூளை லேசாக சூடாக்கி , சாம்பார் பொடியில் சேர்த்தால் மிகவும் சுவையாகவும், செய்முறை  எளிதாகவும் இருக்கும். 

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சாம்பார் செய்முறை:
1/2 கப் துவரம்பருப்புக்கு 1 1/2  தேக்கரண்டி சாம்பார் பொடி  சேர்த்தால் போதும் .
பருப்பு வெந்த பின் , காய்கறிகளை வேகவைத்து , இந்த சாம்பார் பொடி  சேர்த்து பருப்புடன் சேர்த்து கொதிக்க வைக்க வேண்டும்.
நெய் சேர்த்து தாளித்தால்  , சாம்பார் ரெடி.