Food

Chicken pepper stew.

In a pot heat oil to which you add three cardamoms, one stick cinnamon, five cloves and two bay leaves. I then added about fifteen raisins and one large sliced onions( you could add even two). Fry this till the onions become a bit translucent. I then added three green chilies which I chopped up and also one large tomato. Add one teaspoon pepper powder which has been coarsely crushed and half a teaspoon of turmeric powder.

TIP: depending on how spicy you want your pepper stew increase or decrease the pepper powder but make sure it’s coarse when you crush it.

After all of this has been well stirred add in half a kilo of chicken and water ( should cover the chicken in the pot by a thumbnail). Bring the mixture to a boil and then drop heat to simmer and continue to cook the chicken for ten minutes on slow fire. Finally, add a total of half a kilo or more of sturdy vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, white pumpkin, potatoes or peas. Continue to cook for ten minutes. Thicken the gravy with a tablespoon of maida to which you added cold water( make a runny paste) . Add this paste to the gravy while stirring quickly or you will get a lump of maida in your gravy. Add a bit of chopped corriander.

You can have this for breakfast with appams or dosas or even bread and for lunch with rice

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Food

This morning’s breakfast consisted of potatoes cauliflower capsicum. I cook this for breakfast and as a vegetable for lunch.

In hot oil crackle some mustard seeds about half a teaspoon. Wait till your oil is smoking hot to crackle the mustard or you will end up with a bitterish taste. I then add a sprig of curry leaves, two large onions which I chopped, one green chilli, two chopped tomatoes. Stir this for a while and add 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste. To this I added some left over green masala, about a tablespoon. If you don’t have it that’s ok just make sure you add two green chillies instead of one.

Now add 1 teaspoon chilli powder, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, half teaspoon cumin powder, half teaspoon Haldi powder. Add a little water so that the masala does not burn. Now add four medium chopped potatoes, half a cauliflower and cook this with a little salt and water. I don’t peel the potatoes but I wash the skin thoroughly. Remember the nutrients are below the skin. I pressure cook this mixture for four whistles. I then squish half of the cooked potatoes to form a thick gravy. Finally I added the capsicum and cooked a little longer. Garnish with fresh corriander

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Food

Karela Bhaji with Dal and Gawar and potato bhaji

Karela Bhaji

With a peeler take off some amount of the external skin of the Kerala bhaji. Make sure you don’t take off too much. Now slit the karela lengthwise and deseed the vegetable. If you don’t want the dish to be too bitter add some salt to the cut vegetable and leave it in a colander. The vegetable will now start dripping water and after 10 minutes you can squeeze some more water out of the vegetable with your hand.

In a pan heat oil to smoking point and add the karela stirring constantly on high heat for two to three minutes minutes. If you don’t cook this on high heat the bhaji will start sweating and you will be left with a pool of gravy which you don’t want.

Now lower the heat and add to approximately four large Karela a, 1 teaspoon chilli powder, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, quarter teaspoon Haldi powder and half a teaspoon Jeera powder. At this point add 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste. Stir all this constantly on a medium flame. You might have to add a little more oil to the pan.

Do not add salt the dish unless you have tasted it becuase you have already slated the vegetable earlier. Depending upon how crisp you want this vegetable you can continue cooking it on low fire for a longer period of time but stirring constantly.

Just before serving squeeze some lime on the Kerala Bhaji

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Food

Fish curry

Half a coconut
Nine red Kashmiri chillies
One onion
Five cloves garlic
One ball( lime sized) tamarind
One teaspoon jeera seeds
Two teaspoons corriander seeds
Quarter teaspoon poppy seeds
Ten pepper corns

1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder

Fish – whatever you have

Method
Dry all dry items first and then add the wet items with one glass of water. Grind this to a smooth paste.

In a pot add some oil and fry the masala for about three minutes on low fire. Then add about two cups of water. Go slow with the water and make sure you have a nice thick and juicy gravy and not some runny thing. At this stage add salt to taste.

I then added the fish and allowed this to cook for five minutes on a low flame. Add two green chillies and turn off the gas. Cover and let it rest.

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