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.

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Pepper Gojju (Mysore style Masala curry)

Blogging Marathon #60: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: Regional Specials

Dish: Pepper & Onion Gojju (Mysore style Masala curry)

For the second day of this week's BM, I made a lip smacking Mysore curry with peppers and onions. Highlight and the base of the dish is a delicious coconut gravy. 

This recipe is again from Vani's blog, Mysoorean. I made her Kattina dal and this pepper curry for a simple, comforting and delicious meal.

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Imam Biyildi (Turkish Stuffed Eggplant)

Blogging Marathon# 57: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Eggplant Dishes from here

Dish: Imam Biyaldi

We are back to our regular 3 days a week blogging this month. My theme for this week is 'Eggplant Dishes' and if you follow my blog you know my love for eggplant and there is no way I would miss this theme. Valli gave us a list of eggplant dishes to choose from, so for the next 3 days I will be posting 3 eggplant dishes from around the world.

The baby and the big eggplants you see in the below pictures were picked fresh from the farm and the long Japanese eggplants are from my backyard garden. All these fresh eggplants were a great inspiration to cook for this theme.

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Erra Karam Dosa

Buffet on Table: Week 2 -- Indian States

Day 7: Andhra Pradesh -- Erra Karam Dosa

I am making a dish from my home state of Andhra today. It was quite a task deciding on dishes for this week. I had big plans but things got hectic and I lost track of time. Finally I decided on making simple recipes that have been on my bookmarks for a long time.

This Erra Karam Dosa from Suma's blog is something I have been planning to make for a while now. It is a spicy and delicious variation of dosa from the Rayalaseema region in Andhra. According to Suma it is a dish that is a popular street food.

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Tostones (Fried Raw Green Plantains) with Mojo Sauce

I made these Tostones or fried green plantains for Cuban meal earlier this week. From what I've read, fried green plantains are very popular and pull together most any Latin Caribbean meal. They have different names (tostones, patacones, tajadas, mariquitas) and shapes depending on the country.
These crunchy slabs of fried plantains make a very addictive snack or appetizer when served with lightly salted or with a garlicky mojo sauce. This recipe is from Viva Vegan cookbook.

Green plantain is fried twice, smushed down just prior to the second frying to create a thinner and extra crunchy treat. There are many methods for crushing tostones for their second frying. The idea is to use a heavy, flat object to evenly apply enough pressure to the cooked plantain to flatten it, but not so much that it falls apart. There's a special Latin kitchen tool; called a tostonera that is designed just for the smashing purpose. I used my handy-dandy poori press for that and it worked great for me.

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Patnam Pakodi (City Style Onion Fritter) for Indian Cooking Challenge

For this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, Valli picked Patnam Pakodi. Patnam means City in Telugu and so this pakoda literally means 'city fritter' hence the title 'city style onion fritter' :-)

This recipe is from Padma's grandmother and it was once a popular snack in Tamil Nadu. The recipe that Padma shared used rice flour as the base along with a little bit of besan or chickpea flour. But unfortunately I ran of rice flour but had some brown rice flour in the fridge. I didn't want to take a risk with making the pakodis with that, so I googled and found a slightly different version of the same patnam pakodi using besan or chickpea flour on Vahchef site.

This recipe is very similar to onion pakora or ullipaya pakodi, the only exception being that the pakodis are shaped as balls instead of random shapes. They are golden and crispy on the outside and are soft inside. Addition of grated ginger gives a nice flavor to this snack. They are perfect with a cup of tes/ chai on a rainy afternoon like today :-)

So here's my version of patnam pakodi made with chickpea flour.

Recipe from Vah Chef & Padma.
Ingredients:
Besan/ Chickpea Flour - 2cups
Rice flour - ½cup
Baking powder - ¼tsp
Red Chili powder - 1tsp (adjust per taste)
Ghee - 1tbsp
Salt - to taste
Onion -1 large, thinly sliced
Green Chilies - 1~2, finely chopped
Ginger - 1" piece, finely grated
Curry leaves - 8~10, finely chopped
Cilantro - 3tbsp, finely chopped
Cashews - 2tbsp, soaked in water

Method:

• Soak cashews in water for 10~15 minutes. Drain and keep ready.
• In a small mixing bowl, combine the onions, green chilies, curry leaves and cilantro. Mix well and set aside for a few minutes.
• In another mixing bowl, combine besan, rice flour, baking powder and salt. Add the ghee and rub it into the flour, either by using your fingers or a fork, until the mixture becomes crumbly.
• Add the onions, soaked cashews to the besan mixture and mix well. Add water, very little at a time, until the mixture comes together into a stiff dough.
• Heat oil for deep frying.
• Meanwhile, divide the pakoda dough into small lemon size balls and roll them gently between the palms. Don't put too much pressure while rolling -- that will make the pakoda dense, so be gently when making the pakoda.
• When the oil is hot enough, slide a few pakoda and fry them on medium flame until golden on all sides.
• Remove onto a paper lined plate and serve hot with ketchup.

Korean Onion Bread (Yang PaBbang)

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Korean Onion Bread from Varada's Kitchen
The second bread that I really wanted to bake right away was Varada's 'Korean Onion Bread'. It looked so colorful and interesting with the onion, pepper and cheese filling and topping. I remember seeing something similar in the local Korean bakery, which was another reason for me try it at home.
I made it for my Mother's day lunch and the entire loaf was gone by the end of the day. It looked and tasted delicious with the cheesy center and topping.

Original recipe had ham in it and Varada used red peppers instead. I think that was a brilliant idea because red pepper gave the bread a beautiful color and makes it taste hearty & yummy!!

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Egypt - Koshari (Vegetarian Rice, Lentil & Vermicelli Dish)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: E for Egypt

Dish: Koshari (Vegetarian Rice & Lentil Dish)

We are going to the northeast corner of Africa to Egypt today. Except for an ex-colleague, I don't know many people who have visited Egypt. But it is probably one of the countries that will be on my bucket list. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any modern country, arising in the 10th millennium BC as one of the world's first nation states. Egypt's rich cultural heritage is an integral part of its national identity, having endured and often assimilated various foreign influences, including Greek, Persian, Roman and so on. Egyptian Pyramids reflect this legacy and remain a significant focus of archaeological study and popular interest all over the world.

Egyptian Cuisine is mostly based on foods that grow out of the ground, which is good news to vegetarians. Meat has been very expensive for most Egyptians throughout the history, so a great number of vegetarian dishes have been developed. It is interesting to know that the Archaeological excavations in Egypt revealed that workers on the Great Pyramids of Giza were paid in bread, beer and onions, a customary diet as peasants in the Egyptian country side.

There is a whole list of amazing vegetarian dishes in Egyptian cuisine and I picked Koshari -- a mixture of rice, lentils and macaroni/ noodles for today. Some people consider it to be the national dish of Egypt. I wanted to make this dish from one of the cookbooks 'Cooking Light way to cook vegetarian' long time back. It's not until recently I got a chance to try it out.

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Carrot-Onion Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 41: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: BM Pair (Sujatha Ram)
Dish: Carrot-Onion Chutney

For the last week of marathon, we are cooking from our fellow marathoner. I got paired with Sujatha Ram who blogs at Indian Veg Kitchen. Sujatha is a relatively new blogger, but has quite a few authentic and delicious vegetarian dishes. I have many of her traditional desserts bookmarked and wanted to make at least one for this week, but with my husband travelling, I didn't want to eat the calories all by myself.

So for the first day, I made this Carrot chutney based on Sujatha's carrot-small onion chutney. I wanted to make something different to go along with the masala idlis and this carrot chutney sounded perfect to me. Also my son doesn't eat carrot and I wanted him to try this. He didn't know that it had carrot and ate it without complaint. Even my husband and sister didn't know that it was carrot chutney and liked it a lot.

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Greek Panzanella (Bread Salad)

Blogging Marathon# 41: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Picnic Hamper Dishes
Dish: Greek Panzanella (Bread Salad)

We are starting our 2nd week of blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Picnic Hamper dishes'. Warm weather is finally here, which means its time for picnics, camping, beaches and all things related to the outdoors.

One of our dear friends organizes a picnic every year and that is one picnic all of us look forward to. There is always so much food and it is a great time to hang out in the sun and chat with friends. This year we had a Mother's day picnic in May and here are some pictures of the food and the beautiful views.

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Pondicherry -- Pori Kuzhambu or Pathiya Kuzhambu

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 22
State: Pondicherry
Dish: Pori Kuzhambu or Pathiya Kuzhambu

Today, we are going south to Puducherry, formerly known as Pondicherry, is a Union territory in India. The French acquired Pondicherry in 1674 and held control, with occasional interruption from the Britsih and Dutch, until 1954, when it was incorporated into the Indian Union along with the rest of India.
I have a long association with Pondicherry, not directly but indirectly. I went to Aurobindo school in Hyderabad which was founded based on the principles and teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Pondicherry was the residence of Sri Aurobindo and Aurobindo ashram located there. My dad would never let me go with my school friends to Pondicherry on the yearly school excursions. But he took us all there when we went on our tour of south India.
Today's Dish: I initially wanted to make a French inspired recipe from Pondicherry and even narrowed down to a stuffed peppers with a fancy French name called Poivrons Farcis, but had to change it to this simple eggplant based rasam kind of dish. I was browsing through Cham's blog Spice Club, knowing fully well that she is the native of Pondicherry. When I found this simple rasam like dish, I made this the same dau for a simple lunch.

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Haryana -- Bajre ki Roti & Paneer Do Pyaza

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 9
State: Haryana
Dish: Bajre ki Roti & Paneer Do Pyaza

Haryana is a state in North India. It came into existence on 1 November 1966 as a newly created state carved out of Punjab state on the basis of language. Haryana is a leading contributor to the country's production of foodgrain and milk. Agriculture is the leading occupation for the residents of the state.

Cuisine: Haryana's cuisine is very similar to that of Punjab, since it was a part of Punjab. With the availability of milk in abundance, milk products like paneer and ghee are used extensively in cooking. Wheat, jowar (millet) are also widely used.
Staple Food: Wheat, Jowar, Barley, Gram etc.
Specialties: Kadhi, Besan masala roti, Bathua raita, Methi gajar, lassi.

Today's Dish(es): I made rotis with bajra flour. I have seen roti recipes using just bajra flour and some times potato, but I have limited skill making rotis without gluten, so I picked this recipe on Sanjeev Kapoor's site with wheat flour. To serve with the rotis, I made a paneer curry with 2 onions -- paneer do pyaza. Onions are added at 2 different times during the cooking, which makes the curry so delicious and also gives a nice texture to the curry.

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Alugadda Vepudu (Spicy Potato Fry)

I wanted to keep the theme for this month's Cooking from Cookbook Challenge same as the theme for the on-going month long marathon, which means I will be posting some Indian dishes from cookbooks every weekend.

For the first week, I'm cooking from 'The India Cookbook' by Pushpesh Pant. This is a HUGE book with around 1000 recipes from all over India. I remember borrowing this book from the library couple of years back, but returned it without cooking anything from it because I was literally overwhelmed with the number of dishes in the book and couldn't decide what to make before I had to return the book.

This time I borrowed it again, hoping that it would help for the A-Z Indian states marathon. I couldn't find many recipes from the states I was looking for, but ended up bookmarking other dishes that I wanted to make for CCChallenge. Unfortunately I sat on the book for too long not doing anything with it that I had to return it to the library yesterday. I was able to make only 1 dish from it. I went ahead and requested it again, so at least I can make the dishes that I bookmarked.
I was inspired to make a thali after looking at the amazing thalis on Rajani's and Manjula's blogs. I have a very very simple Andhra thali and is nowhere close to comparison to either of their thalis. Here's what I made for the thali:

• Paalakura Pappu -- Spinach dal
• Vankaya Ulli kaaram -- Eggplant in Onion gravy
• Alugadda Vepudu -- Spicy Potato fry
• Pappu Chaaru 
• Avakaya
• Perugu -- Yogurt
• Pista burfi & murukkus -- storebought

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Instant Vada (using Urad dal flour)

Ugadhi (Telugu New Year) is right around the corner (March 31, 2014) and I wanted to post some quick and easy dishes to make for the festival. If you are like me who forget to soak urad dal but still dream of making idlis/ dosas or vadas, then this post is right for you!! These vadas use urad dal flour instead of whole urad and they can be made in about 2~3hours which includes a brief resting period.

Apart from the forgetfulness, another reason for making these vadas using urad flour is that most of the American blenders are not powerful enough to grind the lentils without adding copious amounts of water. Adding water is OK for most of the recipes, but for vadas the batter needs to be very thick and smooth with little or no water added during grinding. So that's where the flour comes in very handy.

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Refrigerator Soup

Blogging Marathon# 38: Week 1/ Day 1 
Theme: Soup or Salad with Sides 
Dish: Refrigerator Soup with Zucchini Tortilla/ Omelette 

It's time for another blogging marathon, BM# 38 and my theme for this week is 'Soup or Salad with Sides'. Valli wants us to pair soups or salads with a side dish. So for the first day I made a very simple soup. 'Very simple' is the key word here, you might actually feel cheated when you read the recipe, it is THAT simple.
March is already here, but winter with bitter cold decided to stick around for a little too long this year in our neck of woods. This season's 13th storm is on its way as I type this post -- but thankfully it's only going to 1~2" of snow instead of the 8~12" as predicted.

With that weather report, you know why I have a soup recipe today. That too a super simple one. I was watching the Rachael Ray show the other day and saw Jacques Pepin make his refrigerator soup. It sounded so comforting and perfect to eat in this weather, so I made it the very next day with whatever veggies I had in the fridge.

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Persimmon and Nuts Salad

Blogging Marathon# 36: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Online Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Persimmon Salad

This year's winter has been brutal till now. Snow is something that is expected this time of the year, but the freezing temperatures have been really the killer. Arctic blast & polar vortex are the terms that are widely being used not just by the meteorologists but by everyone dealing with this harsh weather. Even with all that going on, life still moves on.
Coming back to today's recipe, this is probably the simplest dish ever. I had some persimmons in the fridge and after enjoying some as is, I wanted to do something else with it. I saw the recipe for persimmon salad in Vegetarian times magazine, but I didn't have the ingredients on hand. But the idea of making the salad stuck with me and google search led me to this recipe on LA times.

There is not much of a recipe for this dish, but the salad was so colorful that I couldn't stop clicking. So here are some shots of the dish.

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Cabbage-Pudina Pulao (Cabbage Mint Pilaf)

Can't believe there's only 10 days left for Christmas. But the weather here has been sending quite a few signals that it is almost winter and holiday season is just around the corner. We had 2 snow storms this week and the temperatures are below freezing. Can't wait for winter to end even before it started :-)
After that brief weather report, here's what's cooking in my house. I made this quick and easy (almost) 1 pot dish for one of our meals last week. Recipe is from a Telugu cooking show. I already have 2 cabbage rice recipes on the blog, but this one has whole garam masala spices and ground masala that gives a nice flavor to the dish.

In the original recipe, rice was cooked with the veggies in the pot making it a 1-pot dish, but I cooked the rice separately and added it to the veggies at the end. All in all it is a tasty variation to regular pulaos and can be prepared in short amount of time.

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Sweet Corn Uggani (Borugula/ Maramarala Upma)

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: Cooking with Corn
Dish: Sweet Corn Uggani

It's time to start yet another edition of Blogging Marathon. My theme for the first week is 'Cooking with Corn'. Corn was rarely used in cooking while I was growing up. We used to enjoy grilled corn on the cob during rainy season, but my mom hardly ever used it to cook anything.  Though sweet corn soup was famous in those days, but we ate it only at restaurants once in a while.
Nowadays corn, especially sweet corn, is being used very widely in Indian dishes. I use corn quite a lot in my cooking and make corn pulao, corn gravy curry for rotis. I keep a bag of frozen corn in the freezer and also buy fresh when I see some good quality ones in the grocery store.

So for the first day I made a snack that is made with sweet corn and murmure or puffed rice. Uggani is a famous snack in Rayalaseema region in Andhra Pradesh. Typically it is lightly cooked, but today I have a no-cook version that is equally delicious. This is a quick and easy dish that is great to be served as an evening snack.

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Rava Dosa with Onion Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 34: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Instant Idlis/ Dosas
Dish: Instant Rava Dosa with Brown Rice flour

For Day 2 of BM# 34, I have instant Rava dosa. I love Rava dosa and order it once in a while when we are at an Indian restaurant. There is a fast food place here in New Jersey that serves amazing rava dosa. But  I don't usually make them at home because of all the refined flour/ rawa used. 

So today to make our beloved rava dosa (just a tiny little bit) healthier (and not feel too much guilty), I added brown rice flour in place of white flour. There is no discernible difference in either the taste or the texture of the dosas, so I'm happy to report that rava dosas will be made with brown rice flour here on out in my house.

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Mango Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Favorite Celebrity Chef Recipes
Dish: Mango Chutney
We are starting 2nd week of blogging marathon# 33 today and my theme for this week is 'Favorite Celebrity Chef Recipes'. For the first day, I have Alton Brown's Mango chutney that I actually made couple of months ago in the middle of summer. Saved it in the drafts and totally forgot about it.
Alton Brown is one of my favorite chef / cook on Food Network. I love to watch Good Eats show where he explains the science of cooking in a way that is easily understandable to everyone. He's very knowledgeable and very funny.
My husband and I love mangoes (husband LOVES them way more than me) and we make sure to buy ripe mangoes when in season. We bought a pack of 6 from Costco and the first one we tasted was so sour that both was us were very disappointed. Since it was almost impossible to eat them raw I wanted to turn them into a yummy chutney. I had bookmarked this recipe from Alton Brown quite sometime back and after a quick trip to the grocery store made this spicy-sweet mango chutney.

I bought mango chutney for this recipe and a small jar costs a fortune. I've used that chutney in salads, sandwiches, also great with naans and even quesadillas. So instead of buying a small jar, I now have 2 jars full of my home made mango chutney.

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