Vattayappam (വട്ടയപ്പം)

Vattayappam (വട്ടയപ്പം)

It has been a while since I posted something here. Let me come back from my break with a delicious snack item, which is also an all time favorite of mine. Vattayappam is Kerala's own fermented steamed rice cake. It is a healthy traditional tea time snack. During Easter season, the christian families of Kerala prepare vattayappam along with kallappam.

In Malayalam,  'vatta' means round shaped. So vattayappam derived it's name from it's shape. It is basically rice and coconut grinded together and fermented with yeast to make it super soft and fluffy. It is a sweet snack, easy to make and doesn't take much time to prepare.

I like to make it not very sweet, but on the other hand place nuts, cherries or raisins on the top for decoration and enhanced taste. You cannot stop eating the vattayappam because the light flavor of cardamon along with the sweet and mellow rice cake melting in your mouth, the thinking brain has to surrender to the taste buds.

 

Ingredients:
Soaked raw white rice (known as pachari): 1 1/2 cups.
Freshly grated coconut:  1 1/2 cups
Cooked Rice: A handful (heaped)
Instant Yeast: 1/2 tsp.
Salt: 1/2 tsp.
Sugar: 2-3 tbsp.
Cardamon seeds: 4 to 5
Cumin seeds (jeera): A pinch
Water: As needed.
Oil to grease, preferably coconut oil.

Method of preparation:

Soak raw white rice (pachari) for about 2 hours. Use a mixer or blender to grind the rice. Add 1 cup coconut, cooked rice, and instant yeast before grinding it. Use just enough water to cover the ingredients. Be careful not to add excess water, the batter should be thick, almost as thick as the idli batter. Add the 3 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of salt. after grinding for 2 minutes approximately, add 1/2 cup coconut and cardamon seeds. Also add a pinch of cumin seeds (jeera). Grind them again for a minute. Note that you don't have to add water this time. Do not want the coconut to grind too fine either. Pour the batter into a steel or glass bowl. Keep it untouched for 2 hours. See if it has risen because of fermentation.


Now take a round cake  pan, grease it with a few drops of coconut oil. Pour batter, about 3/4 full. Place it into the hot steamer. Keep the steamer open until the steam starts to come. Close the steamer and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes. After that open the steamer and decorate the top of vattayappam with nuts, raisins or cherries as you may like. etc. Again close the steamer and continue cooking. (The reason why I do not decorate the vattayappam at the beginning is that they will go inside the  batter. So it is a good idea to wait for the vattayappam to be half cooked to do the decoration). Once it is well cooked, switch off the steamer and take the pan out. You can even insert a tooth pick to see if it is well cooked.When they are nicely cooked, the sides do come off a bit.

Cut the vattayappam with a knife. If you invert the pan, while it is still warm, invert the pan, to get the pieces out. Try it and enjoy the delicious vattayappam!!

Dry curry with sardine fish

Dry curry with sardine fish (മത്തി  തേങ്ങാ  പീര )

This item is usually known as മത്തി പീര when prepared with sardine fish or മീൻ പീര when prepared with other types of fish. A typical Kerala dish that is easy to cook and a very nice combination with rice. For this preparation, you will need any small fish such as anchovies  (Natholi  or  Chooda) or small sardines.

Fishes are are a good source of calcium. Since this preparation uses small fishes such as sardines or anchovies, we don't even need to remove the bones. So that is more calcium rich.

Fish peera is always combination of coconut, Malabar tamarind (kudampuli or Garcinia Cambodia) and fish. In some places, people also uses dry fish to prepare the same dish. Common dry fishes used for peera preparation are dry shark, mathi (dry sardines)  and ayila (mackerel). This preparation goes well with tapioca (kappa puzhukku) or rice. Some  times we can use raw mango or bilimbi (irumban puli) instead of kudampuli.

Ingredients:

1) Sardine(Mathi)     1 kg (cleaned and cut in to 2 or 3 pieces)

2) Coconut                 1 cup, grated

    Green chilly           7 no chopped well

    Small onion            8 no,cut in to 4 pieces

    Turmeric powder   1 tsp

    Salt                         as desired

    Ginger                    cut in to small pieces

    Curry leaves          1 spring

    Malabar tamarind(kudam puli)     3 or 4 pieces as needed

3) Coconut oil    2 tbsp

Method of Preparation:

Clean the sardines and cut them into 2 or 3 pieces. Mix the sardine pieces with items under (2). Take all the items in to one clay pot. Add little water and cook it well. When it is well cooked, pour 1 table spoon of coconut oil in to the cooked dish. (Instead of using all the items as is, you can moderately grind them before mixing with the fish)

Spinach (cheera) Papad

Spinach (ചീര) Papad

Today let me introduce another easy to make evening snack. It is called spinach papad (ചീര പപട്). This is also very healthy and tasty one. Everyone likes it, especially the children. It is also a crispy item, we can prepare it as a evening snacks.

This is the spinach that I am using today:

And this is how the prepared papad looks like:

Ingredients:
Spinach (cheera) leaves   As needed;
Maida                               3 tbsp;
Egg                                   one;
Salt                                   as needed;
Sugar                                as needed;
Coconut oil                       as needed;

Method of preparation:
Break an egg in to a bowl and with an egg beater, make it in to a foam. To this add maida, salt and sugar. Mix it to make the mixture in to a thick paste. Dip the spinach leaves in this mixture and deep fry in the oil.

Bitter gourd with Dry Shark (പാവയ്ക്കയും സ്രാവ് മീനും)

Bitter gourd with Dry Shark (പാവയ്ക്കയും സ്രാവ് മീനും)

Last time I provided the Malayalam version of this recipe. Let me translate it in to English today :-)

Ingredients

1) Bitter gourd          1 cup, chopped well

2) Dry Fish (shark)   1/2 cup,cut in to thin and small pieces.

3) Coconut                1/2 cup,grated well.
   Small onion           10 no,cut in to 4 pieces.
   Ginger                   1 small piece,chopped well.
   Green chilly          6 no,chopped well.
   Curry leaves         1 spring.
   Salt                       Desired quantity (Note: If you haven't removed salt from the dry fish, be very careful while adding the salt. You will need very little salt)

4) Mustard               2 tsp.
5) Coconut Oil         2 tbsp.

Method of preparation
Take all the items listed under 1, 2, 3 (bitter gourd, dry shark fish pieces, coconut, etc.) in a dish and mix it well. If you would like to fry the curry leaves and ginger pieces in oil, you can keep them separate.

Heat some oil in a kadai and sprinkle some mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start sputtering, add the above mixture. Add a little water. It would be better if you can add very little or no water, but still able to cook without it getting burnt. You will need turn the flame into low once it is half cooked so that the dish will not be burnt.

Papad Bonda (പപ്പട ബോണ്ട)

Papad bonda (പപ്പട ബോണ്ട)

Today let us see how to make Papad Bonda. This is an easy to make snack item. Most people usually have papad in their homes, so they can try this one without any issues. Some people likes to fry the papads in oil, others like to roast it directly which is oil free. In today's recipe, we will make a snacks item out of papad.

Ingredients:
Potatoes                 3 no.s
Green chilly          3 (chopped well)
Onion                    2 (chopped well)
Ginger                   A small piece
Salt                        As needed
Turmeric powder   ''
Coconut oil            ''

Method of preparation:
Keep the soft papad (typically called Kerala papad) socked in water for  2 minutes. This will make the papad very soft. Take it out, and fill it with the masala, fold it properly and deep fry it in oil.

Filling preparation (masala)
We can prepare the masala to be filled within the papd using veg or non-veg items. Here I am going to use potatoes to prepare the veg filling.

1) Boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker.
2) Take a pan, add some coconut oil. Fry the onions in the coconut oil until they turn transparent and soft. Add ginger and turmeric powder to this.
3) Peel the potatoes and smash them well. Add the smashed potatoes into the above mixture.

Fill this mixture into the papad and fold the sides together to make it into a cone shape. Deep fry it. The masala papad is ready !!

Bitter gourd with dry shark

പാവയ്ക്ക  ഉണക്ക മീൻ (സ്രാവ് )  തോരൻ

See the English version here.

 ചേരുവകൾ 
1. പാവക്ക   കൊത്തിയരിഞ്ഞത്     1 കപ്പ്‌   ,
2. മീൻ    ചെറുതായി അരിഞ്ഞത്    1/ 2  കപ്പ് ,
3. തേങ്ങാ   ചിരകിയത്‌                        1/2  കപ്പ്‌ ,
കുഞ്ഞുള്ളി നാലായി മുറിച്ചത്        10,
ഇഞ്ചി  പൊടിയായി അരിഞ്ഞത്     ഒരു ചെറിയ കഷ്ണം ,
പച്ചമുളക് അരിഞ്ഞത്                         6,
ഉപ്പ്                                                               പാകത്തിന്,

4. കറിവേപ്പില                           ഒരു  തണ്ട് ,
കടുക്                                             ഒരു ചെറിയ  സ്പൂണ്‍,
വെളിച്ചെണ്ണ                                രണ്ട്  ചെറിയ സ്പൂണ്‍.

പാകം ചെയ്യുന്ന വിധം 
ഒരു പാത്രത്തിൽ  പാവക്ക, മീൻ, മൂന്നാമത്തെ ചേരുവകൾ ഇവയെല്ലാം ചേർത്ത്  കൈകൊണ്ട് നന്നായി യോജിപ്പിക്കുക .

ഒരു ചീനച്ചട്ടിയിൽ  എണ്ണ ഒഴിക്കുക, എണ്ണ ചൂടാകുന്ന സമയത്ത്‌ കടുക് ഇടുക. കടുക് പൊട്ടി കഴിയുമ്പോൾ കറി വേപ്പില  ചേർക്കുക. ഇതിലേക്ക് യോജിപ്പിച്ചു വച്ച   മിശ്രിതം ചേർത്ത് നന്നായി ഇളക്കി, ഒരു മൂടി വച്ച്  അടച്ചു വേവിക്കുക. ആവി വരുമ്പോൾ തീ കുറച്ചു വെക്കുക. ഇടയ്ക്ക് ഒന്ന് ഇളക്കി യോജിപ്പിക്കണം. വെന്ത് കഴിയുമ്പോൾ തീ നിർത്തുക .

Beef fry (ബീഫ് ഉലർത്തിയത്)

Beef fry (ബീഫ് ഉലർത്തിയത്)

For people who love non-vegetarian food, beef fry is something that is irresistible. Of the many dishes that you can make of beef, beef fry is probably the tastiest.

Ingredients:

1.   Beef - 1 kg (cut into small pieces)

2.  Onion 1 no (finely chopped)
     Garlic- 4 cloves(chopped)
     Ginger- 2 tsp(chopped)
     Curry leaves- As needed

3.  Coriander powder- 4 tsp
     Chilli powder- 2 tsp
     Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
     Meat masala powder - 2 tsp
     Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
     Cumin seeds (Jeera) powder - 1 tsp

4.  Salt- As required

5.  Curry Leaves
     Pepper powder- 1 tbsp(depend up on each one's taste)
     Mustard -As required
     Oil  - As required
     Coconut cut into small pieces (optional)



Method of preparation:

1. Take all the powders listed under (2) and mix it well. Roast this mixture in a pan lightly on the low flame, while stirring carefully. Too much of heat can cause the powder to be burnt and will spoil the taste of the dish.

2. Once the masala powder mix is roasted well, take the beef pieces cleaned and cut into small pieces, and add the roasted powder into the beef pieces. To this, add onion pieces, garlic pieces, curry leaves, ginger and salt. (Items listed under 2 and 4), mix all of them together with hands.

3. Cook all of these items together, preferably in a pressure cooker. Make sure that the beef is cooked enough. (4 whistles should be sufficient).

4.Take a heavy bottom kadai (iron kadai preferably) or a nonstick pan. Heat oil in a pan and sprinkle in mustard seeds. We can add coconut pieces cut into small thin squares also, into the frying mixture depending on your taste. When the mustard seeds start sputtering, add the curry leaves and stir well. Now add pepper powder to this, and add cooked beef. Let it simmer for some time with occasional stirring. Notice when the beef starts to turn darker in color. Keep the pan on the low flame until it turns dark. You can add a little pepper powder and fresh curry leaves for for better taste and flavor. Serve hot.

Curry leaves chicken (കറിവേപ്പില ചിക്കൻ)

Curry leaves chicken (കറിവേപ്പില ചിക്കൻ)

Curry leaves chicken is a semi-gravy item that can be served with rice, appam, paratha or chappthi. It is also tasty and goes well with all these dishes. At the same time, the Curry leaves Chicken is an easy dish made with simple ingredients but appetizing and delicious. This dish is quick to cook and does not take much time to treat your kids, family and friends.

Curry leaves are commonly known as kadi pathra or kariveppila. It is one of the main culinary essences added to various dishes right from making a delicious snack, appetizer, breakfast or a sumptuous meal for lunch or dinner. Its aroma and flavors are unique and cannot be substituted with any other herb. Do you know that instead of throwing away the curry leaves from your curry, if you eat them they are a rich source of vitamins ?

 

Ingredients

Chicken                       1 kg (curry pieces),

Curry leaves                4 springs,
Onion (big)                  5, chopped well,
Ginger garlic paste       2 Tablespoons,
Tomato                         3 (cut in to small pieces),
Chilli (dry, vattal mulaku)    6 (crushed one or pieces),
Coconut milk(thick)     1 cup,
Pepper powder              2 Tablespoons,
Garam masala               1 Tablespoons,
Chicken Masala            1 Tablespoons,
Turmeric powder          As needed,
Salt                                 ,,
Coconut oil                    ,,

Method of preparation

Take a kadai and put some oil in it. Fry the curry leaves in this oil and shift the leaves in to a bowl. To  this oil add onion pieces, saute the onions and fry till light golden brown. To this add ginger garlic paste, saute well, until it turns into light brown. Add chilly pieces, pepper powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and chicken masala into this and mix well. Crush the fried curry leaves add them into the mixture. Also add tomato pieces and stir well. Add chicken pieces to this mixture. Pour coconut milk into this and mix well. Keep the kadai on the flame covered with a lid, until the chicken is cooked well. After that reduce the flame and keep it on the flame till the gravy become thick. Serve hot.

Side dish with breadfruit (കടച്ചക്ക തോരൻ)

Side dish with breadfruit (കടച്ചക്ക തോരൻ)

If you are wondering what is breadfruit, refer to this page on Wikipedia. It is our own 'kadachakka' as you see in the picture below. It is a rich source of carbohydrates and proteins, in addition to the many vitamins, which makes it a very healthy item in our menu.

Image credit: Hans Hillewaert, reproduced under the Creative Commons license.

Today let me tell you how to prepare a dry side dish with the bread fruit.

Ingredients:

1) Breadfruit             250 grams


2) Garam Masala      1 tsp
   Coriander powder  1 tbsp
   Chilly powder        ½ tbsp
   Coconut pieces      cut in to small pieces
   Salt                         as required
   Turmeric powder   ½ tsp

3) Coconut oil    1½ tbsp

4) Mustard seeds  1 tsp
    Small onion      6 nos. chopped into small pieces
    Curry leaves     1 spring
    Pepper powder  as required





Method of preparation
First take the breadfruit and peel the hard skin off. Wash well with water and cut into small pieces. Refer to the picture below for the size and shape of the pieces. In a clay clay pot, (by the way, it is better to use a clay pot to prepare this dish) put the breadfruit pieces and add items under 2. For better taste you can roast the powders a bit. Add a little water to cook the breadfruit pieces. Wait until the pieces are cooked well.

Heat oil in a pan and sprinkle the mustard seeds.When they start sputtering add curry leaves, small onion pieces and pepper powder. Stir it well. Add this onto the cooked breadfruit pieces and stir well.

Chakka ada (evening snack with jack fruit)

Chakka ada (ചക്ക അട)

Today I will describe a delicious evening snack that you can make out of the jack fruit. It is called 'chakka ada'. Traditionally the ada is made using banana leaves, as seen in the picture below. The banana leaves add a taste of it's own to the ada. This item is a combination of rice flour with jack fruit. You can prepare the same dish from jack fruit jam (or chakka varattiyahtu) if you have that available with you.

 

The picture below shows chakka varattiyathu.

Ingredients:

Chakka varattiyathu     1 cup (or fresh jack fruit made into a fine paste 1 cup)
Roasted fine rice flour  1 cup
Coconut                        1 cup, grated
Cardamom powder       1 tsp
Cumin seeds powder    1 tsp
Salt                               as needed
Melted jaggery             as needed
Ginger powder             1 tsp

 

Method of preparation

Make a fine paste out of the flesh part of the jack fruit, if you are using fresh fruit. Or else start with the jack fruit jam, warm it a little bit by if you have kept it in the fridge. Add jaggeri syrup and make it loose. Add rice flour to this and mix well. Add coconut and all the other ingredients. Mix well to make a fine smooth dough, make sure that there are no lumps in the mixture. You can add water if necessary, but the dough should not be very loose. The rule of the thumb is that, it should be think enough to hold itself when made into balls.

Place each ball on a piece of banana leaf and flatten it with the fingers to spread it as thin as you can on the banana leaf, fold the banana leaf over and press the ends along the edges to secure the filling. Cook the ada on steam well.

Chakka puzhukku (Raw jack fruit dish)

Chakka Puzhukku (ചക്ക പുഴുക്ക്)

Let me start on lighter note today... Have you seen  an episode of M80 Moosa titled 'chakka viplavam' (or jack fruit revolution) ? If not, watch it here. It is a funny anecdote of a woman trying to reintroduce the jack fruit into the daily menu of a modern family.

On a serious note, have you ever wondered what alternate food items other than rice kept the previous generations going ? If you ask anybody from Kerala, you will get two items, that is jack fruit and tapioca. You can prepare main dishes with both these items. In today's post, let me describe how to make a main dish with jack fruit, traditionally known as 'chakka puzhukku' or raw jack fruit with coconut and spices.

What is special about this dish is that, you can use this as a main dish or even a side dish with rice. On the downside, it will take a lot of effort to get the raw jack fruit cleaned and ready for preparation.

Ingredients

1) Raw jack fruit                    Half of a medium sized jack fruit
2) Coconut                               1 cup
    Green chilly                          3 no
    Small onion                          4 no
    Garlic                                    2 no
    Cumin seeds                         one pinch
    Turmeric powder                   as needed
    Salt                                            ,,

Method of Preparation (chakka keenthi vevichathu)

Clean the jack fruit and get only the edible part. You need to get the  fleshy part, remove the seeds and slice into small thin pieces. If you have never done with it, do not try it alone, it can become messy. Also if you do not cut it properly (against the length of the flesh versus along the length) you will not get the right results. In this preparation you will have to slice it along the length of the fleshy part. Put the sliced pieces in to one vessel with  little water add keep it on the flame. When steam comes, mix the contents well so that the bottom portion contents come up. To this add ingredients listed under (2) after moderately grinding all of them together. Keep it on the low flame for some more time. The aroma will tell you when it is ready. After that switch off the flame, mix all the contents together with a wooden spoon until the items under 2 are uniformly mixed.

Note:chakka arinju vevichathu
Chakka puzhukku can be made in  another way as well. In that case do not add any turmeric powder or chilly and use more amount of coconut and water than above dish. Even cutting the fleshy part is in a different style, where it is cut into round shape against the length. The method of preparation is the same. But you serve it along with a coconut chutney or nadan chicken curry.

Puliyinchi

Puliyinchi (പുളിയിഞ്ചി)

 In Malayalam 'puli' means tamarind and 'inchi' means ginger. So as you would have guessed, 'puliyinchi' is a combination of tamarind and ginger with some jaggiri added in order to counter the spiciness of ginger. It is used as pickle and the taste is so good with a combination of hot chillies, spicy ginger, sour tamarind and sweet jaggiri.

Ingredients:

1)Ginger                 250 gram (peel off the skin and cut in to small pieces);
Small Onion           200 gram (cut in to small pieces);
Green chilly           6 nos (cut in to small pieces);

2)Red chillies (dry)  4 nos, cut in to small pieces;
Mustard                    1 tsp;
Curry leaves             1 spring;
Coconut oil               2 tbsp;

3)Chilli powder        1 tsp;
Turmeric powder     as needed;

4)Tamarind            One ball of egg size;

5)Jaggiri (molten paste)      As needed;

6)Salt                As needed;

Method of preparation:
Heat some oil in a clay pot, and add mustard. When they start sputtering add curry leaves and dry red chillies (vattal mulaku) pieces, stir well. To this add items under 1 (ginger, small onion and green chillies) and salt, continue stirring till its color turns brown. Add items under 3 (chilli powder and turmeric powder) to this mixture, stir well. Mix tamarind water and salt with this and stir well. In the end, add jaggiri mixture (item number 5). Allow the preparation to cool.