Fish Stew - മീന്‍ ഇസ്റ്റു

While in LuLu for this month’s grocery purchase, we noticed that lots of fresh Indian Mackerel (അയല ) are there in fresh fish section. As we were dying to eat Mackerel fry (അയല പൊരിച്ചത്), remembering an old Malayalam hit song "Ayala porichathundu karimeen varuthathundu….", we couldn’t hold back from buying it. And of course, the very next day, my wife fried the fish for lunch. But to be frank, we were desperate that the fish fry wasn't up to the expectation. The fish seemed to be not as tasty as we get in our hometown. It was then she suggested about making Fish stew for next day’s breakfast as it’s one of those breakfast combinations (നേരിയ പത്തിരിയും മീന്‍ ഇസ്റ്റും)  which she cherishes out of her mom’s kitchen. I too thought; okay! let me have a try..!!
No doubt, the dish and the combination was one if it’s kind – super delicious and how can I hide its recipe from my cookery fans? Here it’s for you….

Ingredients:
Ayala – Small sized – 6 No.s – washed and cut into pieces
Fenugreek – 8 seeds
Onion (medium sized) – ½
Green Chilli (sliced) – 20-25 no.s
Ginger, garlic paste – 2 tsp
Corriander, mint & curry leaves – chopped – 1 handful
Tamarind juice – ½ cup
Grated coconut – 1 ½
Salt – to taste
Fennel seeds – ½ tsp
Shallots – 3 no.s

For garnishing - വറവിടല്‍, താളിക്കല്‍)).)) :
Coconut oil – 1 Tbspoon
Curry leaves – 1 stem
Shallots chopped – 4 no.s

How to:

1.       Put one grated coconut into a mixer jar, pour water just enough to dip the coconut and mix well. Squeeze this mixture to take thick coconut milk.

2.       Take the remaining half coconut along with fennel seeds and shallots and grind well with ¼ cup of water.

3.       Mix fenugreek, Onion, green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, coriander, mint and curry leaves, tamarind juice and salt well with hand and add ¼ cup of water in a pressure cooker. Pressure-cook this mixture for 2 whistles.

4.       Open the pressure cooker and put the cut fish into it and boil for 3 minutes in low flame. Add the grinded coconut mixture as in step 2 and heat for two minutes (in low flame).

5.       Add the coconut milk as in step one and heat for another 3 minutes in low flame.

6.       Heat 1 Tablespoon of coconut oil in a pan and sauté chopped shallots till it turns brown and add curry leaves to it. Pour this on top of the gravy to garnish it.

Note:  depending on the piquancy of the green chillies, the count can be increased or decreased.

The fish stew can be prepared with other Indian fishes like Pomfret (ആവോലി ), King fish (അയകോര , നെയ്മീന്‍ ) or sardine (ചാള , മത്തി ).

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My dad’s ‘Diesel Water’

Here’s a dietary and herbal daily drink for those who suffers from health problems like high blood pressure, cholesterol, acidity, diabetics e.t.c. because of its diesel like color, my dad used to call it ‘The Diesel water’. I trust this will help at least few of you.

Ingredients:
Water – 2 litres
Gooseberry – mashed without seed – 1 no.s
Fenugreek seeds – 2 tsp
Pudina leaves – 1 stem
Curry leaves – 3-4 stems
Garlic mashed with skin – 6 cloves
Fennel seeds – 2 tsp (Optional)

How to:
1.Heat water in a saucepan and add the ingredients gooseberry, fenugreek seeds, pudina leaves and curry leaves to the water and leave it to boil for few minutes. Fennel seeds can also be added to the boiling water if you have flatulence problems too.

2.Separate the water from the ingredients using a sieve. Dispose the solid contents and leave the water to cool down. Have this medicinal drink at least 2 glasses daily. This will surely control your Cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar from increasing and protect your stomach from any inflammatory or indigestive diseases.

Medicinal values:

• Garlic is claimed to help prevent heart disease (including atherosclerosis, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure) and cancer.
• Fennel is widely employed as a carminative, both in humans and in veterinary medicine (e.g., dogs), to treat flatulence by encouraging the expulsion of intestinal gas.
• The anti-diabetic effects of Fenugreek seeds ameliorate most metabolic symptoms associated with type-1 and type-2 diabetes by reducing serum glucose and improving glucose tolerance.
• Gooseberry seems to work by reducing total cholesterol levels, including the fatty acids called triglycerides, without affecting the “good cholesterol” called high-density lipoprotein (HDL).
• Curry Leaves are much valued as an anti-diabetic, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, anti-hypercholesterolemic etc. 
• Mint leaf is an excellent remedy for reducing symptoms related to digestion.

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Banana and Egg Roast (പഴവും മുട്ടയും ഉലര്‍ത്തിയത് )

Aysha  has the habit of eating some snacks (self- made or ready made  for the evening tea. As I’m rich in cholesterol related statistics in my health chart, I seldom show interest to such fried and baked snacks.  But still, at times the yummy looks and piercing aroma used to tempt me to taste a bit from those.  Last week’s Saturday evening it was this ‘Banana and Egg Roast’ which took my eyes from the TV screen to her snack plate. I asked her to take a snap of the dish before she eats it up fully. Many of you might already know about this dish. Yet, I’m sharing this recipe here for those who haven’t tried it out yet on her behalf. It’ll be handy for mothers as an easy and nutritious evening snack for their kids, though not for grown-ups as it might be over-nutritious for them..!!

Ingredients:

Ripe bananas – 3 no.s
Egg -1
Sugar – 2 Tb spoon
Cardamom – 2 cloves
Ghee (RKG) – 1 Tb spoon
Cashew nuts and raisins – for garnishing.

How to:
1.       Peel off and cut bananas into small triangular pieces. Heat ghee in a non-stick pan and add this banana pieces to it. Sauté till the outer side turns light brown adjusting the flame.

2.       Mix egg, sugar and cardamom well in a bowl and pour this mixture to the above roasted bananas. Mix continuously well with a wooden thin spoon so that egg is scrambled well.

3.       Serve it hot garnishing with cashew nuts and raisins. (nuts and raisins too can be roasted with egg & banana, depending on your taste preferences.)

Now give the Banana and Egg Roast to your little ones with a cup of Horlicks or Boost..!! Let them enjoy...

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Chicken Lollipop

It was while going through the menu in the Lifestyle Restaurant at Barwa Village, that my wife mentioned about her friend Vinjusha’s love for Chicken lollipop and how they used to find new restaurants in their office premises to have better chicken lollipops. Hearing this, I told her about my expertise in making this delicious starter dish, though she did not take it seriously as I used to blabber such 'self praising lies’ now and then.

But to mine and her astonishment, my chicken lollipop proved out to be really yummy, in looks and taste.  Let me share the recipe and snaps here for you too. Have a try and let us know the comments.

Ingredients:

Chicken wings – ½ kg

Oil – for frying

For marinating:

Ingredients:

Courn Flour – 3 tsp

Chilli powder – 1 ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Vinegar – 1 tsp

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Salt – as needed

Water – as needed

For batter:

Ingredients:

Maida – 3 Table spoon

Courn flour – 2 Table spoon

Red food color – 1 ½ tsp

Chilli powder – 2 tsp

Corriander – 1 tsp

Soya sauce – 1 ½ tsp

Celery – 1 tsp

Vinegar – 2 tsp

Ginger garlic paste – ½ tsp each

Salt as needed

Water as needed

 How to:
1.       The video below shows how to make lollipops out of chicken wings. You may (or may not) peel off the skin from the chicken wings as you like it. Cut the chicken wings at the centre separating the smaller and bigger bone. Wipe off the flesh towards the ball-shaped end on the bigger bone, which makes a lollipop. Also wipe off the flesh from the smaller bone towards the bigger bone side. Your Lollipops are now ready for marinating.

2.       Mix the ingredients for marinating and spread on the fleshy side of the chicken. Keep it aside for half an hour.


3.       Prepare the batter with a thicker consistency. Now dip each of the lollipop pieces fully in the batter and deep fry in the hot oil.

4.       Serve the dish hot by covering the stick side of the lollipop with a piece of foil paper, garnishing with chopped onion/carrot along with pudina/tomato/mayo sauce.

This so called Chicken lollipops (Drums of Heaven) can be served as a starter for  any of the Indian/Chinese/ Continental Main courses

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Arabic Chicken Rice - Customised Version

Recently I’ve got a query from one of my blog readers asking why I’m not giving any recipes for Main dishes like Rices/Rotis/Pathiris e.t.c. It was actually an eye opener for me in fact. A lot of yummy rice recipes passed through my mind in fraction of a second. Amongst those, I prepared the one I love the most, a customized version of Arabian chicken rice/Majboos. I believe the below formula of mine will help you...

 

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice – 2 cups

Chopped Onion – ½ medium sized

Tomato -2 (1 tomato as whole and one tomato chopped)

Cloves – 3-4 no.s

Cinnamon – 2 pieces

Cardamom – 3-4 no.s

Pepper – 10-12 no.s

Green chilli – 2 no.s

Oil – for frying

Chicken with skin – ½ Kg (Preferably 4 Chicken legs without cutting into pieces)

Salt - to taste

Turmeric powder – ½ tea spoon

Saffron essence – 1 teaspoon or Saffron -1 pinch

 

For Frying chicken (optional)

 

Chilli powder – 2 Tb spoon

Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon

Curd – 1 Tb spoon

Ginger & garlic paste – ½ teaspoon

Salt – to taste

 

How to:

1.       Wash the rice and soak in water for 30 minutes.

2.       In the rice cooking vessel, add oil. On heating, put chopped tomatoes, onion and sliced green chillies. Sauté for few minutes and mix the spices – cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Crush pepper with a grinding stone using hand and add to the mixture. Add turmeric powder, salt and saffron/saffron essence and sauté for two minutes.

3.       Put the washed and drained skinned chicken leg pieces into the above mixture and mix well. Pour 3 cups of water and leave it to boil. Put the whole tomato too into the mix. Let the chicken boil for about 15-20 minutes in high flame. Make sure that chicken flesh should not start to get separated from bones.

4.       Take off the chicken pieces and whole tomato from the boiling water and keep it aside. Confirm that remaining water is enough to cook 2 cups of rice (as per the quantity of water you use to cook Basmati rice). Add the washed and drained rice to the boiling water and leave it to get cooked. Switch of the flame once the rice gets properly cooked and water is drained.

5.       The Chicken should be grilled until its skin turns brown. If you would like chicken to be spicier, you can spread the paste made by mixing red chilli powder, turmeric powder, curd, ginger garlic paste and salt before grilling chicken. This chicken can be deep fried in oil too.

6.       While serving, you can garnish the rice with Grilled chicken pieces and boiled full tomato on top along with some fried nuts and raisins.

 

For Tomato gravy:-

 

Ingredients:

Tomato – 3-4 big sized

Garlic – 10-15 cloves

Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon

Salt – to taste

 

How to:

1.       Cut the tomatoes and put into a mixer jar add 1/2 cup of water and make tomato juice.

2.       Pour the tomato juice into a cooking vessel and add red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt and leave it to boil for 5 minutes.

Slice the peeled garlic cloves into long pieces an put this into the boiling tomato gravy and boil for another 5 minutes. 

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