Zucchini Thoran (Kerala Style Zucchini stir fry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 

Day 25: Z for Zucchini Thoran

It is the last and final day of this month's mega marathon and time sure flew right by. For letter Z, I knew I had to make something with Zucchini, but it took me a while to finalize on what to make.

After discussing with Rajani about the possible zucchini dishes to make, I finally made this zucchini thoran from Kitchen Mishmash. Thoran is a very simple and basic Kerala dry curry that can be made with just about any fresh vegetable. I make cabbage thoran quite often, so I tried making zucchini thoran this time.

Yam Fry (Kerala Chena Mezhukkupuratty)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 

Day 25: Y for Yam fry
Today's letter was probably the easiest to decide. Y for Yam curry, that's it -- I didn't even bother to look for more options. I love yam and always have a few frozen packets in the freezer.

There are quite a few different versions of yam fry online. Some were deep fried while some recipes needed marination, some had onion while some didn't. I settled on Maria's recipe with onion and garlic.

Xmas Fruit Cake (Kerala Christmas Fruit Cake)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 
Day 24: X for Xmas Fruit Cake

So here we are at probably the most difficult letter of all, X. There are very few dishes or veggies that start with the letter X, so this must have been a tough letter for everyone except for those cooking from Spanish or Chinese cuisines. I was initially planning to go with an adjective or a verb but finally ended up making this Kerala Style X mas Cake.

I was thinking of doing a post like xplore Malabar cuisine, xperience Kerala sadya or something on those lines. I even asked Rajani for her input and she said try a sadya meal by making dishes over couple of days. I was tempted but the amount of work involved seemed too tedious and with the husband traveling, it was way too much food for just me. It is one of my dream meal to make in my lifetime.

Wheat Payasam (Kerala Style)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 
Day 23: W for Wheat Payasam

I went straight to Rajani's blog for today's letter. She did an A-Z Kerala Sadya recipes for one of the previous mega marathons and I knew she will have the perfect dish with the letter W. Rajani didn't disappoint me, this Wheat payasam, Kerala style with coconut milk was so decadent and delicious.

This payasam is made with cracked wheat or broken wheat, sweetened with jaggery and simmered in coconut milk. I used fine bulgur wheat and it worked just perfect for this recipe.

Vellarikka Curry (Kerala style Cucumber Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 
Day 22: V for Vellarikka Curry

There were quite a few options for the letter V in Malayalam. Raw banana (vazhakai), eggplant (vazhuthananga), okra (vendakai) and garlic (velluthulli). I finally ended up picking Vellarikka or cucumber.

This Kerala cucumber curry is a simple side dish made with ground coconut and yogurt sauce. With all these coconut based Kerala dishes I probably ate more coconut in a week than I normally would in a month. I'm not complaining though, it's just that we don't use this much coconut in our everyday cooking. On another note, adding coconut to diet has many health benefits like improving heart health, improves digestion, quick energy boost and so on.

Ulli Theeyal (Kerala Onion Masala Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 

Day 21: U for Ulli Theeyal

We are starting the final week of 'Journey through the Cuisines' mega marathon and I'm visiting beautiful Kerala -- God's own country this week. My plan for the marathon was to pick a state from each corner of the country -- so I started from the west with Bengali cuisine, then moved north to Rajasthan and then east to Gujarat. Finally this week I'm in deep south in Kerala.

Initially I wanted to do Tamil cuisine and even made 2 dishes, but somehow I wasn't happy with my choice of dishes, so I changed it to Kerala at the very last minute.

Palak Methi Nu Muthiya (Gujarati Steamed Spinach Dumplings)

Here's a recipe for steamed Palak-Methi muthiyas. These are great as an evening snack or stirred into curries. Muthiyas are first steamed and then shallow-fried until crispy on the outside.

Tameta Muthiya nu Shaak (Gujarati Tomato Curry with Steamed Dumplings)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 20: T for Tameta Muthiya nu Shaak

Recipe from Tarla Dalal.com:
Can't believe we are at the end of the 3rd week in our 'Journey through the cuisines' mega marathon. Here's the last of the Gujarati dishes in the series and it's yet another easy to make, simple everyday tomato curry with muthiyas.

I made Palak-Methi muthiyas -- steamed this time to add to the tomato shaak. Even the fried muthiyas would work just as good in this recipe. I made a similar Gujarati tomato curry with sev for one of the previous BMs.

Potato Curry leaf Curry (Aloo Karivepaku Podi Kura)

It is quite frustrating when you can't find that one ingredient (or that one thing) you are looking for -- in my case it's curry leaves. They have been MIA from most Indian groceries in NJ for more than 1 month now. With the mega marathon cooking in full swing, I needed curry leaves for some of the dishes and they were no where to be found. I am thinking of growing curry leaf plant this year in my container garden.

Well, I made today's dish couple of months ago after watching a Telugu cooking show. This was the last of the curry leaves I bought couple of months ago. A spice powder is made with the curry leaves which is then used to flavor the potatoes.

Sambhariyu Shaak (Gujarati Stuffed Mixed Vegetable Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 19: S for Sambhariya Shaak

Today's Gujarati dish is yet another traditional vegetable dish. Here the veggies are stuffed with a spicy coconut filling and then pressure cooked until cooked to perfection. Another amazing recipe from Tarla Dalal.com.

All of my recipes for this week are from Tarla Dala's site. It has been a great resource and I love watching her videos as well. She makes even a hard recipe sound very easy to make.

Rotlis (Gujarati Rotis)

Rotlis are nothing but Gujarati paper thin phulkas. Being from the south, I knew only about phulka (puffed up roti), chapathi (pan fried roti) while growing up. But after coming to the US, I came to know about rotli, bhakri, thepla and so on, thanks to my North Indian friends.

The first time I had rotlis were at one of my Gujarati friend's cousins house while in Graduate school. The lovely couple invited us over for dinner and bhabhi (my friend's SIL) made a huge spread of delicious Gujarati dishes. But all I can remember from that day were her super soft freshly made rotlis. She even used to send a pack of rotlis with our friend for all of us. So whenever I think of rotlis, I think of bhabhi and her amazing hospitality.

Rasawala Chana (Gujarati Saucy Chickpea Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 18: R for Rasawala Chana with Rotlis

Today's Gujarati dish is a simple, protein packed curry made with black chana or chickpeas. Rasawala means saucy and in this dish black chickpeas are cooked in a tangy and sweet sauce.

The only time taking part of this dish is the soaking and boiling the chana. The actual cooking time takes about 15 minutes. Served with rotis or even rice, this is a delicious and comforting dish. I made rotlis to serve with this chana.

Quick Pan Handvo (Gujarati Instant Handvo)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 17: Q for Quick Pan Handvo

Q was one of the tough letters to find a dish in Gujarati cuisine (I guess it's difficult in many cuisines). I was almost tempted to make 'Qesar Shrikhand' but it seemed a little odd, so I finally ended up making Quick Pan Handvo instead.

Handvo is a popular Gujarati snack. It is a baked spicy lentil cake made with a fermented batter of rice, lentils and spices. It is crispy on the outside and soft inside. It has been on my to-make list for quite a long time. I was hoping to try the traditional version for this mega marathon, but Oondhiyu dictated the letter selection, so Handvo has to wait for now.

Piyush (Gujarati Yogurt Drink)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 
Day 16: P for Piyush
Today I have a creamy and delicious dessert perfect for the summer. It is Gujarati version of lassi and is made with Shrikhand. Initially I had a savory dish planned for P, but then I saw this Piyush recipe on Tarla Dalal.com and since I already had Kesar Shrikhand in the fridge, I made it right away. Also with the sweltering summer heat in India, this is a perfect cooling drink.

Piyush is nothing but jazzed up version of shrikhand. It is mixed with more yogurt (or buttermilk) and thinned out with milk, then flavored with spices. This was one of the easiest and one of the yummiest yogurt based desserts I've ever made. Since I was the only having this at home, I thoroughly enjoyed making and drinking this creamy and rich Piyush.

Methi Muthiya (Gujarati Fried Dumplings)

There are 2 ways of making Muthiyas -- steamed and shallow fried or deep fried. I have tried the steamed version with this Lauki Muthiyas. But for the Oondhiyu meal I followed Tarla Dalal's recipe for deep fried Methi muthiyas.

Kesar Shrikhand

I would never have imagined myself eating a savory dish with a sweet side. So when we were served Shrikhand with Pooris and Oondhiyu at our Gujarati friend's house, I was almost reluctant to take the plunge. But I took their word for it and tried it anyway. It was a really good combo, not at all like what I was imagining it to be.

So when I planned this Oondhiyu meal, I had to make the Shrikhand too to make it more like the traditional Gujarati way of serving the dish. Good thing is that it takes just a few minutes to make Shrikhand if you are using Greek yogurt, but if you are using regular yogurt, then make sure to place the yogurt in a cheese cloth for a few hours to remove as much excess liquid from it as possible.

Oondhiyu (Undhiyu) (Gujarati Mixed Vegetable dish)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 15: O for Oondhiyu
We are starting third week of our mega marathon 'Journey through the cuisines' and my choice for this week is 'Gujarati cuisine'. The main reason for picking Gujarat is to cook today's dish. I wanted to try this delicious mixed vegetable dish called Undhiyu or Oondhiyu for the mega marathon and initially I was thinking of doing Gujarati cuisine for the last week (so U would have been Undhiyu), but I couldn't find dishes for most of the other letters, so it became Oondhiyu instead.

This was actually the very first dish I cooked for the marathon. Few months ago, I ate Undhiyu for the very first time at one of our Gujju friends and it was absolutely amazing. Since then I had it in my mind and when I sat down to make my list for the marathon, this was the first one on there.

Nimki or Namkeen (Rajasthani Namak Para)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 14: N for Nimki
We are already at the end of Week 2 in our Journey through the cuisines and the last Rajasthani dish I made are these crispy, crunchy and very addictive Nimki aka Namkeen or Namak Para. Letter N was one of the tough letters to find a dish for. After a lot of googling and not finding any Rajasthani dishes, I ended up picking this dish that is quite commonly made across all the states.

My mom used to make them quite frequently while we were little and we used to call them 'chips' or 'namkeen'. After I started blogging, I learnt their other name, Namak Para and now with this BM, I learnt yet another name, Nimki.

Easy Granola (with Almonds)

Here's an easy peasy recipe to make Granola. I say easy because it requires a very few pantry ingredients that are mixed together and then baked off until golden. Recipe is from a cookbook that I recently bought, Clean Slate.

This cookbook emphasizes on eating clean, whole and unprocessed foods. Original recipe for this was made with rolled barley flakes and rolled spelt flakes. I went shopping looking for these ingredients but I couldn't find them, so I made the granola with them and with just rolled oats.

Makai Ki Subzi (Rajasthani Corn Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 13: M for Makai Ki Subzi

Today's dish is a very simple to make Rajasthani Makai aka corn curry. Corn is one of the extensively cultivated crops in Rajasthan. Corn is one of their staple foods and is used in various forms from flour to grits to whole corn.

My first pick for the letter M was Malai Mirch. Gayathri made this for one of the previous BM and I bookmarked to try it. It has very few ingredients and is very quick and easy to make. But my husband is not a big fan of creamy milk based dishes and the calories in the dish scared me to try the dish just for myself.

Lehsun Chutney (Rajasthani Spicy Garlic Chutney)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 12: L for Lehsun Chutney

We are already in the middle of the week with Rajasthani cuisine. Today's dish is a super spicy and delicious Garlic chutney made in the Rajasthani style. It is a great condiment to serve with rotis or to use as a spread for sandwiches.

When I started researching for Journey through the Cuisines, the first step was to decide the 4 states I wanted to cook from. Then find the dishes in alphabetical order and the final step was to look for recipes from authentic sources. So I tried to cook from recipes that were posted by bloggers from respective states. Hence most of my Bengali dishes were from Bengali bloggers Sandeepa and Soma. I also tried to stick to the recipe as much as possible without many substitutions except for may be adjusting the ingredient quantities.

Khoba Roti (Rajasthani Moti Roti)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 11: K for Khoba Roti
Today's Rajasthani dish showcases the artistic side of the desert state. Rajasthan is famous for all its handicrafts and colorful fabrics. This Khoba roti looks like a work of art and the good thing about it is that the technique is not too hard to do.

I saw this roti for the very first time on Valli's blog for one of the previous BMs. It looked so appealing and sounded so interesting that it went into my to-make list. It took all this time (actually 2 years) for me make these. Khoba means deep indentation in Rajasthani, hence the name for the roti.

Sabich (Israeli Vegetarian Sandwich) for #Food of the World

We are visiting the beautiful Middle Eastern country of Israel for this month's Food of the World event. Israeli cuisine includes local dishes by native Israelis and the Jewish dishes brought in by the Jews from the Diaspora. One of the most popular Israeli dish, Shashuka (eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce) was my fist pick for today, but then I saw this mouth watering Sabich sandwich on Serious Eats and it looked too good to pass up.

Sabich is an Israeli street food. It is supposed to be influenced from Iraqi Jewish immigrants. The Israelis took a traditional Iraqi breakfast spread of fried eggplants, boiled eggs etc and put it in a pita and made into a trendy delicacy.

Buttery Garlic Pull apart Bread for #BreadBakers

It's time for another edition of Bread Bakers and this month's host is lovely Karen from Karen's Kitchen Stories. She chose 'Garlic' to be the theme in celebration of National Garlic day, that is celebrated on the 19th April.

Pull apart bread has been on my to-make list for quite sometime and when I saw this buttery herb bread on King Arthur flour, I knew I had to bake it for this month's Bread Bakers. I wasn't disappointed with my choice.

Jaipuri Vegetable Pulao

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 10: J for Jaipuri Pulao
Today I have a easy to make, colorful and delicious rice dish. Being a south Indian, I am attracted to rice dishes like a magnet and so J is for Jaipuri Pulao it is. This is a great dish to make on a busy weeknight or to serve at a fancy party.

Recipe is from this You Tube video by Ruchi Bharani. Cooked basmati is tossed with colorful veggies and a freshly ground spice paste. So once you have the spice paste ready, the recipe comes together in no time.

Rajasthani Mawa Malpua

Malpuas are one of the popular dessert in the North Indian states. There are quite a few different ways of making malpuas. These Rajasthani malpuas have mawa/ khoya in them and that makes them even more rich and delicious.

Malpuas are nothing but pancakes that are dipped in sugar syrup. They taste absolutely amazing when served with the instant rabri and they are sure to be an awesome treat for any sweet lover.

Instant Rabdi with Malpua (Rajasthani Rabri Malpua)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 
Day 9: I for Instant Rabri with Rajasthani Mawa Malpua
We are starting a new week in a new state today. After all the yummy Bengali dishes from last week I am going on a culinary journey through the desert state of Rajasthan. Again I have a sweet dish to start the week -- Instant Rabdi (Rabri) with Mawa Malpua.

Letter 'I' seemed a little difficult to find recipes for and after looking around the internet, I decided to make 'Imarti', a cousin of jalebi aka jhangri (in the Southern states). It is quite commonly made all over the country and technically cannot be associated with Rajasthan, but I took the plunge and finalized it for 'I'. I watched a few videos and I was confident that I had it all figured out. I set out an afternoon making the Imarti, but unfortunately (sob.. sob..) my imarti were epic failure. They were not juicy and sweet -- instead they were rubbery and sugar crusted :-(

Hakka Noodles (Indo-Chinese Noodles with Vegetables)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 8: H for Hakka Noodles
Can't believe we are the end of Week 1 in our Journey through Cuisines and final Bengali dish I present to you is in fact a fusion Indo-Chinese dish that has it's origins in Calcutta/ Kolkatta, the capital city of West Bengal. H for Hakka Noodles was my first and final choice for the letter. Soma @ Ecurry has a lovely post for Hakka noodles where she talks about the Chinese businesses in Calcutta and the amazing Indo-Chinese cuisine that was developed there years ago.

Calcutta (or more recently Kolkatta) is known to be the first place where Chinese migrated in the late 18th and 19th centuries. They brought along their Chinese seasoning and cooking techniques that were adapted to Indian tastes which developed into the popular Indo-Chinese cuisine that we all enjoy today.

Curry flavored Roasted Mixed Nuts

Roasted nuts are my husband's favorite go-to snack. He is the snacker in the house, grabs a handful every time he walks into the kitchen. I don't like snacking, I'm more of a 'eat a full meal and wait for the next meal' kind of a gal. Even when I snack, it has to be in a proper bowl, I don't do handfuls, I only have bowlfuls :-)

Anyway, my husband has been asking me to make roasted nuts for a long time and I finally made him these curry flavored roasted mixed nuts. Recipe courtesy Ellie Kreiger's Food Network show.

Ghugni (Bengali Street food with Dried Peas)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 7: G for Ghugni
Today I have a very popular street food from Bengal, called Ghugni. It is also quite popular in Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa too. I've made the Jharkhand version for one of the earlier mega marathons. There it is served with dhuska or a lentil based flatbread.

Bengali version is almost similar to that of Jharkhand except it's made with white peas instead of black chickpeas. Read Sandeepa's post to learn more about Ghugni and how it is an integral part of Bengali food. It is like Chole to the North Indians.

Fulkopi Posto (Bengali Cauliflower curry with poppy seeds)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 6: F for Fulkopi Posto (Bengali Cauliflower curry with poppy seeds)
Here's another different way of cooking with veggies, the Bengali way. First up was a simple mixed vegetables flavored with just panch phoron, then it was okra in a spicy yogurt sauce and today it is cauliflower cooked in creamy poppy seed gravy.

Letter F was one of the tough letters to find a dish. Initially I wanted to make 'Fuchka', a Bengali variation of our beloved pani puri. But then after looking at couple of recipes, I wasn't sure if it was puchka, phuchka or fuchka. With so much ambiguity, I left it at that (but I still have a pack of store-bought puris waiting to be used). Then I thought of making Fuluri, a lentil based bajji but I wasn't in a mood to deep fry, so finally chose a simpler and easier to make dish.

Ugadhi Special Recipes

Make these festival special dishes for Ugadhi.

Bengali Mishti Pulao with Vegetables

I made this Bengali Mishti pulao to go with the Enchor Kofta curry. Typically this pulao is made using Gobindo bhog rice which is an aromatic short grain rice, very popular in Bengali households. I've never seen it in Indian stores here, so I used regular basmati rice. Soma says good quality jasmine rice can also be used instead.

Rice is rinsed, drained and dried for at least 30 minutes before making the dish. It is then sauteed with whole spices until aromatic and then cooked till tender. Care is taken to make sure each rice grain is separate and the dish doesn't end up becoming mushy.

Enchor Kofta (Bengali Jackfruit Kofta Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 5: Enchor Kofta (Bengali Jackfruit Kofta Curry)
I should first say a big thanks to Sandeepa of Bongmom Cookbook for all her amazing Bengali recipes. It was a breeze picking my dishes for letters A~H because of her blog. I already made Aam Doi, Charchari and Doi Dharosh from her blog. Today's dish Enchor Kofta or jacfruit kofta curry recipe is also from her blog.

I've had a few mishaps making koftas in the past, so I'm usually wary about trying any new recipe. But Sandeepa's recipe looked doable, I took the plunge and made them following her recipe. The koftas were probably the best I've ever made.

Doi Dharosh (Bengali Okra in Yogurt gravy)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine 
Day 4: D for Doi Dharosh (Bengali Okra in Yogurt gravy)
D for Dharosh or Dhyarosh in Bengali has 2 meanings, one is our beloved okra/ bhindi/ ladies finger and the other not-so-nice meaning is someone who's lazy and clumsy. But I am only talking about D for Okra/ bhindi today.

Doi in bengali means yogurt and in this dish okra is cooked in a spicy yogurt sauce. I was planning to make it when my husband was traveling, so I don't have to make him eat a yogurt based dish. But alas I had to make it when he was around and I made sure that he had something else to eat. I didn't tell him that this dish had yogurt in it and was surprised that he served himself a second serving. I kept quiet and didn't tell him about the secret ingredient :-)

Charchari (Bengali Mixed Vegetable Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 3: C for Charchari (Bengali Mixed Vegetable Curry)

I'm going to continue on with my journey through Bengali cuisine for our 'Journey through the cuisines' month long mega blogging marathon. It's Day 3 and we are cooking with the letter C. I chose to make a very simple, everyday Bengali dish called Charchari aka Chorchori aka Chochchori.

It is an easy to make mixed vegetable dish and from the different recipes I found online, each family has it's own way of making this humble dish. Each version had a slightly different veggie used and some used mustard paste while some didn't. I followed Sandeepa's recipe to make my Charchari, except for the addition of mustard paste which I omitted.

Begun-er-Tok (Bengali Sweet & Sour Eggplant)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 2: B for Begun-er-Tok (Bengali Sweet & Sour Eggplant)
Letter B in Bengali cuisine gave me a ton of recipes to try. B is for Begun or eggplant in Bengali and there were way too many recipes to choose from like begun bhaja, begun posto, doodh begun, doi begun, begun basanti and so on. In the end I decided to make this lesser known eggplant dish, Begun-er Tok from Soma's blog.

This is a traditional Bengali dish which is sweet, spicy and tangy, all at the same time. This way of cooking eggplant is very new to me which is why I decided to make it instead of the other more popular Bengali begun recipes.

Chai Spiced Pound Cake

Using different spice mixes in baking gives the baked goods different taste and feel. So by changing the spices used in a base recipe, you can make recipes appropriate for any season. For example use pumpkin pie spice in this pound cake and you have a perfect fall cake. Or use just one spice that you really like, may be cinnamon and cardamom for another tasty twist to the basic pound cake.

This Chai spiced pound cake recipe is from King Arthur flour catalog. The cake is perfectly tender and mimics the flavor of a cup of chai. I can never understood what 'Chai-Tea' means. It is on almost all of the bakery, coffee-shop and juice bar menus. I want to tell them that Chai and tea are synonymous and it makes no sense saying tea-tea. Well I guess it's gourmet or fancy way of saying tea.

Aam Doi (Bengali Mango-Yogurt Dessert)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 1: A for Aam Doi - Bengali Mango-Yogurt Dessert
It's April 1st and it's time to start another edition of Mega marathon which means that the blogging marathon group is going to blog everyday (well almost, except for Sundays) in April. Our theme this time around is 'Journey through the Cuisines'. We will be posting recipes in alphabetical order from the cuisine/s we picked.

I am going to post recipes from 4 states (1 state/ week) and the first state is 'West Bengal'. Bengali cuisine is so vast and elaborate. I think of Bengalis as true foodies because food is part of their culture and their identity. Here's a lovely post by Ishitaunplugged about Bengali's passion for food.