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.

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Mixed Vegetable Curry in Coconut milk gravy

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: No Tomato Gravies
Dish: Mixed Vegetable Curry in Coconut milk gravy

After yesterday's yogurt based curry, today I have a coconut milk based curry that is creamy and delicious. Coconut milk is a great vegan alternate and is much healthier than using heavy cream.

This recipe is from Mallika Bhadrinath's 100 gravy recipes cookbook. Along with coconut milk, a freshly ground spice paste gives this dish creaminess and a nice spicy kick.

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Baked Oatmeal with Coconut Milk

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Coming to today's recipe, keeping with this week's theme of 'Cooking with Coconut', I made this baked oatmeal with coconut milk and blueberries from Vegetarian Times magazine.

This baked oatmeal is so comforting and delicious. It has a crunchy granola like crust with a coconut flavored interior. I absolutely loved how this one turned out. Even my husband who is not an oatmeal fan said he can eat this almost everyday for breakfast :-)

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Thai Coconut Lime Dressing (and a Salad) Vegan recipe

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: Cook with Coconut

Dish: Thai Coconut Lime Dressing

Today's dish uses coconut milk in a very interesting way, in a salad dressing. I bookmarked this recipe from Food52 a while back and made it for this week's 'Cook with coconut' theme because who doesn't like creamy coconut dressing with Thai flavors and served with colorful veggies. I sure do :-)

This recipe could not be simpler, mix all the ingredients for the dressing, chop all the ingredients for the salad, cook rice and assemble. Original recipe used fish sauce in the dressing and I subbed it with low-sodium tamari (soy sauce would work well too). I'm sure fish sauce is much more flavorful than just soy sauce, so if you can your hands on some vegan or vegetarian fish sauce, by all means use that. This dressing is great for salads or as a dipping sauce for spring rolls or lettuce cups.

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Pavakkai Pitlai (Bittergourd Coconut Curry)

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Meal Ideas

Dish: Bittergourd Pitlai

My theme for this week's Blogging marathon is probably one of my favorite. It is 'Meal Ideas', Valli wants us to showcase a complete meal even if that means sharing just one recipe. Coming up with a plan for a meal is quite an exercise for the brain which is why most of us try to delegate the task to the family by asking, 'what do you want to eat today?' I am one of those people who will ask this question and then reject almost everything that is being requested, only on very rare occasions a suggestion is actually cooked. But I don't fail to ask the question ;-)

Coming from south India, most of our meals revolve around rice, so for the next 3 days, I'm going to share some interesting meal ideas with rice as one of the component.

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Vegan Eggnog with Almond Milk

I've heard a lot about Eggnog but never tried it myself. The thought of drinking raw egg didn't really appeal to me. Last year I made this Mango Eggnog and it was quite a hit even with the kids.

This year I was tempted to try a vegan eggnog recipe when I saw this on Food52. It  is made with soaked cashews and full fat coconut milk to make it thick and the spices give the required oomph and deliciousness. I looked for more vegan eggnog recipes and found another recipe from Tasty Yummies, this one is made with cashew milk, soaked raw cashews and coconut milk.

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Thai Zucchini Curry with Red Curry paste

Blogging Marathon# 58: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Bookmarked Dishes

Dish: Thai Zucchini Curry with Red Curry paste
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Hope you have yummy food and lots of fun with your loved ones. We are going to a Thanksgiving party hosted by a dear friend, so we will definitely be having lots of yummy food and fun today.
I am thankful for a lot of things - big thanks to god for this life, thanks to my family and friends for always being there in both happiness and sadness, thanks to the blogging marathon group for keeping me inspired and motivated to keep cooking and blogging.

I am also thankful that I had this curry recipe in the drafts for today's post, otherwise I would have been scrambling to get this post done :-) I made this Thai Red Curry with Summer squash from Food52 couple of months ago. It came in handy today since I had bookmarked and tried it then.

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Indian Style Tomato Soup

This tomato soup is the perfect accompaniment to grilled cheese sandwich. It is also great to serve warm with crusty bread on a chilly day.

I added Indian flavors to the soup along with some coconut milk to make it thick and tasty. Substitute ginger with garlic, omit the cumin seeds and red chili powder. Use cream or half-n-half instead of coconut milk and make a American style thick tomato soup.

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Malaysian Curry Sauce

Roti Canai is usually served with a creamy curry sauce. The one served in our nearby Penang restaurant is made with chicken, so I've never tasted it myself. While surfing for Malaysian curry sauces, I found this one with potato and like I said before in my previous post, anything with potato is welcome in my house.

This curry sauce is made with generous quantity of coconut cream. But I subbed it with regular coconut milk and the sauce was still creamy and delicious. It tasted great with roti canai and even with some plain rice. I also added some green peas to add some protein to the dish.

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Rajgira-Red Poha Kheer (Vegan recipe)

Today is second friday in Sravan masam when 'Varalakshmi Vratam' is performed. I did my pooja too today, thanks to my mom for her help :-)

This kheer or payasam recipe is from a Telugu cooking show, it is very healthy with no refined ingredients. This kheer is made with rajgira or amaranth grains, red poha and jaggery.

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Tres Leche Cake (Vegan Recipe)

I have a rich, decadent and indulgent dessert today, Tres Leche cake or 3 milk cake. I made as a part of Mexican lunch I had with some of my blog buddies last weekend.

My husband is not a big fan of desserts like these, but I love them a lot. Since I can't make them for myself, I'm always looking for opportunities to make them. So when I decided on the Mexican theme for our blogger's lunch, I knew this Latin American dessert would be a great addition.

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Tropical Smoothie with Hemp Seeds

Weather is slowly taking a beautiful turn in our neck of woods. I was looking through my last year photos and noticed that the trees were already in full bloom by this time, now we only have tiny buds on trees. But at least it is getting warm and I have no complaints.
I have a summery smoothie today with pineapple, mango and banana. I added some coconut milk to the smoothie and it reminded me of pina colada a little bit.

But the secret ingredient in the smoothie is "Hemp Seeds'. I read about these seeds in Vegetarian times magazine a while back and when I saw them in Trader Joes, I couldn't stop myself from buying them. I started adding them to my morning cereal, they don't have any distinct taste -- so blend well in just about anything.

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Thai Vegetable Red Curry (Vegan Recipe)

Today's dish is a spicy, creamy & slightly sweet Thai red curry made with vegetables. I always have Thai curry pastes, both red and green, in the refrigerator to make quick curries, rice or even noodles. Make sure to check the ingredients on the store bought Thai curry pastes because some might have fish sauce or other seafood related ingredients in them. Even better, use the recipe for the curry paste at the end of the post for your very own homemade version.

This recipe is adapted from 'Buddha's Table: Thai feasting Vegetarian Style' cookbook. I used the veggies listed in the recipe, but any vegetable can be added to this curry. Potato, mushroom, zucchini, baby corn, carrots are all good in here. It is great when served with some steamed jasmine rice.

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Vegetarian Thai Massaman Curry

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: 1 Cuisine -- 3 Dishes

Dish: Thai Massamun Curry

After the refreshing first course of yesterday's Green Papaya Salad, I have a spicy, sweet and tangy Thai Massamun curry today. This curry is very aromatic and flavorful and uses a variety of Indian herbs and spices. I thought the curry tasted a lot of tangy, sweet South Indian pulusu.

If you have the curry paste already prepared and ready to go, then this dish does not take long to make. This curry is also very versatile and can be customized to ones likes and dislikes. I added some tofu puffs that I had in the freezer to amp up the protein, but regular tofu or soy chunks can also be used instead.

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Kerala Vegetable Biryani (Vegetarian Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Biryani of different Styles

Dish: Kerala Vegetable Biryani

The theme for this week's blogging marathon is one of my favorite. My love for biryanis has made me try quite a few different varieties already. So when Valli had Biryani of different styles as one of the themes for this month's marathon, I knew this was my chance to try 3 more delicious biryanis and add them to my repertoire.

This Kerala Vegetable Biryani from Veg Recipes of India has been on my to-make list for quite a while now. This is a layered rice dish with basmati rice and spicy vegetable curry cooked in coconut milk.

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Suafa'i -- Samaon Banana Tapioca pudding (with Chocolate) for #Food of the World

This month we are going to Samoa the beautiful island country in the South Pacific ocean for #Food of the World event. I have tried these delicious fluffy and coconut milk soaked Pani popos and this super simple banana pudding, Poi from Samoa.
Today's recipe is a Samoan banana-tapioca soup called Suafa'i. Overripe bananas are cooked down along with coconut milk and tapioca. It is supposed to be a soup but I cooked it down to a pudding consistency. This dish is not really photogenic, so I added some chocolate chips to make it a little appetizing in the photos :-) Skip the chocolate if you want a more traditional Samoan dessert.

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Sri Lankan Vegetable Curry

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes from A-Z International Marathon

Dishes: Sri Lankan Vegetable Curry with Coconut Rice

This is the last week of this month's Blogging Marathon and my theme for this week is 'Bookmarked Recipes from A-Z International Marathon'. It is quite a big challenge to narrow down just 3 dishes from the mega marathon -- I had a ton of them bookmarked during the research and then a ton more from my fellow marathoners.

Some of the mega marathoners did elaborate meals for each country and initially I was tempted to do a complete meal for this week. But reality set in and I realized it would be impossible for me to cook all those dishes, so I decided on simple dishes for this week.

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Kobbari Paramannam (Coconut Rice Pudding -- Vegan recipe)

Happy Dasara to All. 
Here's a simple and slightly different Parvannam/ paramannam to offer to god during this festival season. Traditionally paravannam is made using dairy milk, but this is made with coconut milk. To enhance the coconut flavor, grated coconut is also added.

I saw this dish being made on a Telugu cooking show and wanted to try it during the Navratri season. It uses jaggery instead of sugar making this a refined food free dish that is perfect for this festival season.

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Coconut Rice with Fresh Pigeon Peas

I wanted to make coconut rice for the third day of navrathri, but I wanted it to be simple and be a complete meal because I was lazy to make a side dish. The coconut rice recipe I already had on the blog has some prior preparations needed which I was in no mood to do. I asked my mom for a quick recipe and she gave me this easy recipe to make.

I added some protein to the rice itself in the form of fresh pigeon peas and peanuts. It turned out to be a simple, filling and healthy meal. I love dishes that are simple and with not too many conflicting flavors. This coconut rice fits the bill because it is packed with coconut flavor in the form of coconut milk, grated coconut and coconut oil (use coconut oil, only if you like strong coconut flavor). 

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Western Samoa -- Poi (Banana Puddling)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: W for Western Samoa

Dish: Poi (Banana Pudding)
We are moving on to Western Samoa today. There are not too many countries starting with W and so I picked one from this list and cooked from it, not realizing until I started typing the post that is the former name for Samoa. Oh well, it is what it is now and I'm going with it!!!!!!
Western Samoa/ Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. To be honest, I had no clue where these islands where till today and WIKI has given me lot of geographic knowledge about the country. It is fascinating to read about a new country, that too about a country that I just made a dish from. So if you want to know where and what Samoan islands are, please refer to this link.

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