Inji (Ginger) Curry

At first, I wish you all a very Happy Vishu.

Inji (ginger) curry is famous for its taste. It is an inevitable item for kerala style sadya on special occasions like Onam and Vishu. Ginger helps in digestion and has many other medicinal qualities. Here is the recipe of Inji curry.

Inji (ginger) Curry

           Ginger  -150 gms
           Gingely oil   -   3 tbsp
           Rice flour   -  1 tsp
           Mustard seeds   -  1/4 tsp
           Fenugreek seeds    -  1/4 tsp
           Red chilly    -    2-3 nos
           Green chilly   -   3-4 finely chopped
           Turmeric powder   -   1/4 tsp
           Chilly powder   -   1-1.5 tbsp
           Fenugreek powder  -  1/4 tsp
           Asafoetida  -  1/4 tsp
           Tamarind pulp  -   of a lemon size ball
           Jaggery grated  -  1-1.5 tbsp
           Salt  -  to taste

Clean and wash ginger. Finely chop it. (You may slice the ginger and use the 'incher' of your mixer grinder for this purpose). In gingely oil, fry the ginger till golden brown and keep aside. Add the rice flour when  frying is halfway done. It will ease the frying process and will give thickness to the gravy at the final stage. 

Splutter mustard and fenugreek seeds  in the left over oil. Add curry leaves,  red chillies and green chillies. When it is fried, simmer the flame. Add  turmeric powder, chilly powder, fenugreek powder and  asafoetida (kaayam/hing). Fry for few seconds. Then add the tamarind pulp and salt. Add half cup water. Let it boil and add  the fried ginger. Stir for few seconds. Boil for few minutes.  Add grated jaggery and boil for few mins. Check the taste and adjust salt, tamarind and jaggery if needed. Sprinkle a pinch of asafoetida over the curry. Turn off the flame.  


Let it cool and store it in air tight glass container. You may keep this in fridge atleast for a month, if you won't finish it before that. Tasty and good for health.

See you next time...

Jisha

Fish Pickle with Gravy

Last week, we bought shark fish from the supermarket. It was fresh and I prepared pickle with it. Here is the finger licking recipe for that.

Ingradients
Step 1
Fish     - 1/2 kg (cut into small cubes)

Marinate the fish using Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp, Salt- to taste,  Chilly powder- 1 tbsp, Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp and  Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp. Keep aside for 20 minutes. Fry the fish in any vegetable oil.

Ingradients

Step 2
Ginger                 - 100 gms
Garilc                  - 100 gms
Green chilly         - 4
Curry leaves        - 2-3 springs (randomly chopped)
Take half of the ginger-garlic and finely chop. In gingely oil,  fry it with green chilly and curry leaves. When it is golden brown, transfer it into a plate.

Fried items for the pickle

Step 3

Take half of the ginger and garlic kept aside and grind it to a fine paste. In the remaining gingley oil, fry this paste till oil separates. Add chilly powder - 2-3 tbsp, fenugreek powder - 1/2 tsp. Fry for few seconds, add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of vinegar. Bring to boil. Add the fried items and enough salt into this mix. Simmer for few seconds and remove from the fire.

Fish pickle is ready...!

Note: According to your taste, you may change the quantity of chilly powder and vinegar. You may add 1/4-1/2 cup of boiled water to adjust the thickness of the gravy before removing the pickle from the fire. Store it in air tight container. The pickle tastes good after 2-3 days.

Grape Squash

Surely, you  are going to be an addict of this grape squash recipe. It is good for health. Especially for kids. 

Ingradients :

      Seedless black grapes   - 1kg

      Sugar                            - 1kg

      Citric acid                     - 1 tsp

Preparation: 

Cook covered. After boiling, keep the flame on simmer for 10 more minutes.

Prepare sugar syrup. In a vessel take sugar, add water till the heaped sugar level. Keep the flame on low. Stir in between. When sugar syrup boils, makes sure that the sugar is well dissolved. Let it boil for 1 more minute or till it reaches slight thicker consistency. 

Allow it to cool. Grape squash is ready. 

Transfer it to air tight bottles and refrigerate. 

You may add few ice cubes while serving. 

It is also very tasty when we use  soda instead of water. 

Neeru Dosa

Last week, I soaked raw rice to make batter for Appam. But I didn't have enough quantity of grated coconut. So I kept the soaked rice in fridge and prepared Neeru Dosa in the next morning. As the name indicates, it's batter is of little  watery consistency. It is a tasty variety of 'Dosa'.

Neeru Dosa with tomato chutney

Ingradients

   Soaked raw rice - 1 cup
   Cooked rice - 2 tbsp
   Coconut - 3 tbsp
   Onion sliced - 1/2 of a medium one.
   Salt - to taste

Grind the ingradients well using enough water. Keep the consistency little watery. Pour the batter into a vessel. Add few drops of cooking oil and one sliced onion into the batter.  Heat a pan. Keep on medium flame. Grease the pan lightly with oil. Pour one ladle of batter in the pan (this includes the sliced onions). Don't spread the batter with the ladle. Instead, rotate the pan holding the handle so that the batter spreads uniformly to make a round shape. 

Neeru Dosa in the pan

When preparing dosa, after spreading the batter on the pan, I usually cover the pan with a lid and removes it just before turning it. When one side is done, turn it and cook for few more seconds. (I use gingelly oil for this preparation. Before turning the dosa, I sprinkle very few drops of gingelly oil on the dosa.)  Serve it hot with tomato/coconut chutney. 

Happy cooking....

Paneer Masala

I just  love this recipe. Goes well with Chappathi / Poraotta / Naan and plain rice. 


Ingradients

Paneer (Amul) -12-15 pcs 

Keep it outside from freezer  for sometime. 

Wash in fresh water and boil for 3-5 mins and drain it.(or u may defrost and fry the paneer till light golden colour in oil).

Vegetable Oil - 2tbsp

Onion - 3 

Tomato -1 big

Garlic - 3-4 pods(china)

Ginger - 1.5 inch pc

Grind onions, tomato, garlic& ginger together and keep aside. 

Kashmiri chilly -1/2 tsp

Turmeric pdr - 1/4tsp

Coriander pdr -1/4 tsp

Garam masala -1/2 tsp

Cashew nuts - 8-10  (wash&soak cashew in hotwater for 10-20 minutes and grind)

Kasuri methi 2-3 pinches

Preparation method 

Heat oil in a pan. Put the gound onion paste into it. Simmer - till oil separate. No need to stir continuously. Better simmer and cover with a lid. Stir occassionaly. When it is almost dry, add masala powders. Fry again by stirring well. Add drained or fried paneer pieces &  mix well gently. Add enough water for the gravy. Add cashew paste.  Adjust the gravy thickness by adding water. Gravy must be thick. Springle kasuri methi over the gravy and turn off the stove. Remove from stove.

Server hot with chappathi or Naan.

Easy Appam Recipe

Ingredients

Raw rice(Pacchari) - 1 glass
Grated coconut - 1 - 1 1/2 handful
Cooked rice - 2 tbsp
Salt - 3/4 - 1 tsp
Sugar - 3 tsp
Yeast - 1/4 tsp

Preparation Method

Soak the rice for atleast  4 hours. Grind it with other ingredients. The consistency should be of that of DOSA.
Keep aside for fermenting. It will take 6 - 8 hrs to ferment.
Pour mix into a pre-heated Appa chatti and turn the chatti in a cirular motion so that the appams will make perfect round shape. Close the lid.
After the appam is done, transfer it into serving plate and repeat the process for other appams.

Vegetable Macroni Recipe

One of my favourite dishes. Try this for lunch/dinner or during tea time...

Ingradients


Macroni(cooked) - 200 gm
Vegetable oil
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
Onion(chopped) - 1/2 cup
Green chilly(chopped) - 1 no
Vegetables(chopped) - 1 cup
(Carrot, Beans, Tomato and Green peas)
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Tomato sauce - 1 tbsp
Soya sauce - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves(chopped) - 2 tbsp

Preparation Method 

• Heat oil in a pan.
• Fry onions and green chilly. 
• Add ginger-garlic paste. 
• Add chopped vegetables and green peas and fry for few minutes. 
• Add salt, garam masala and stir well. 
• Add 1/2 cup of water. 
• Reduce the flame and cook for 5 mins.
• Add cooked macroni to this and mix well. 
• Close the lid for 3 - 4 mins. 
• Add tomato and soya sauce. Mix well. 
• Garnish with coriander leaves  & Serve hot.