Tender jackfruit thoran (Idichakka thoran)

                              Jack fruit is a very large fruit from trees native to South western India and Srilanka. In kerala, there are mainly two varieties of jack fruit-"Varikka", which has slightly hard inner flesh when ripe and "Koozha" , which has very soft and dissolving inner flesh when ripe.

                     The skin of the tender jack fruit must be peeled and discarded first. then the whole fruit chopped.

Ingredients.

1 tender jack fruit

3 or 4 small onions chopped

3 green chilli chopped

3 dried red chillies(each cut into 3 or 4 pieces)

3 garlic pods

1 teaspoon chopped ginger

1 cup grated coconut

1 teaspoon coconut oil

2 sprigs curry leaves

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Salt to taste

Method

•     Peel the skin of unripe jackfruit.
• Wash properly
• Transfer the chopped jackfruit to a pressure cooker. Pour 1 glass of water and add enough salt. Close the lid. Keep it over the flame. Switch off the stove after one whistle. Keep the cooker aside till the all the pressure released(keep it for 5 to 10 minutes)
• Keep the cooked jackfruit to cool. Drain excess water.
• Take a small amount of  cooked jackfruit in a  grinding jar of  mixi. Just one spin is enough to grind the jackfuit. continue with the remaining jackfruit.

•            
• Tranfer it to another vessel.
• Now take onion, green chilli, ginger , garlic and grated coconut in grinding jar and spin once in the mixi. Do not make a fine paste.
• Keep a frying pan over a low flame. add coconut oil.
• When the oil becomes hot put mustard seeds. Let it pop in the oil.
• Now add red chilli and curry leaves and stir it.
• Now  add  coconut -chilli -garlic mixture we have prepared, to the oil and stir well for 1 minute, It is to remove the raw taste of chilli and garlic.
• Add jackfruit to the oil and stir well for  2 to 3 minutes.

Read More

Boiled rice upma(Choru upma)

                                                                  When my brother was a small boy ,everyday he demanded different types of snacks after returning from school. My mother may not get enough  time everyday to prepare different snacks or some days there may not be enough things to prepare snacks. during such occasions she used to prepare boiled rice upma because there will be already boiled rice which she had prepared for lunch.Boiled rice upma is a very tasty dish, very easy to prepare and needs less ingredients. It can be had as breakfast,for lunch or for  dinner, when there are no enough side dishes or curry. It can also be had with evening tea.

Ingredients

1 cup boiled rice

1 onion or 2 small onions

1 sprig curry leaf

1 papad

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Salt to taste

2 dried red chilli

1 teaspoon coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon ghee(optional)

Method

         Keep a pan over low flame. Pour coconut oil into it. When oil becomes hot, put mustard seeds into it. let it pop in the oil. Cut the papad into 4 or 5 pieces with your hands and put them in the oil. Stir well and allow them to fry. Put red chilli into the pan after cutting it into small pieces and stir well. Add curry leaves and salt. Now add boiled rice and stir well for 2 or 3 minutes. Add ghee and mix well with the rice upma. Switch off the flame. Remove the boiled rice upma to another vessel. Serve hot. If want , you can serve it with coconut dry chutney or pickle or vegetable stir fry or anything you have at home  like chutney powder fish, papad etc.

Read More

Tapioca fry

               

 

                                 This tapioca fry is not the tapioca chips that we usually buy from market. In order to prepare this tapioca fry, we should first boil the tapioca after cutting it into cylindrical pieces.  Then it has to be cut into fine pieces and dried in the sun for 4 to 5 days till it is dried properly. Since all  the water content present in tapioca gets evaporated, it can be stored for months. Usually we dry tapioca during summer season.

Ingredients

1. 1 tapioca.
2. Salt as required.
3. Water required to boil tapioca.
4. Coconut oil required to fry tapioca.

Method

• Peel tapioca and wash thoroughly in plenty of water 2 or 3 times.
• Cut it into 3 or 4 cylindrical pieces.

•  Take water in a vessel and place it on the stove.
• When eater starts boiling put the pieces into it.
• Add required salt.
• When tapioca has cooked properly(Do not overcook), drain water from the vessel.
• Transfer the tapioca to a flat vessel.
• Let it cool.
• When cooled, cut each piece into two, vertically.
• Slice it into fine pieces.

• Spread these pieces on a cotton cloth or plastic sheet and keep it in the sun for 4 to 5 days till all the water has evaporated completely.
• Keep a  pan over the low flame.
• Pour coconut oil required to fry tapioca.(Take only the required amount of tapioca pieces)
• When oil becomes hot, put tapioca pieces into the oil.
• Stir gently.
• Fry till  golden brown color comes. Do not over fry.
• Transfer them to another vessel.
• When cooled , store in air tight container.

Note:   Fry only the required quantity of dried tapioca and keep the remaining for future use.

Read More

Idli Vada

Ingredients

1 cup rice

1/2 cup urad dal

Salt as required

Water as required

5 teaspoons Chana dal

Finely chopped onion(1 big)

Finely chopped ginger(11/2 teaspoons

2 sprigs of curry leaves

Coconut oil

Method

Soak rice and urad dal for 3 to 4 hours. Wash them properly. Prepare a thick  idli batter. Keep the batter in a bowl for 3 hours. Keep a pan over a low flame. Pour 2 teaspoons of coconut oil. add Chana dal to it and stir it till it become golden brown. now Add onion, ginger and curry leaves and stir again for 3 minutes. Transfer it to the idli batter. Add required salt and mix well. Take oil in a pan required to  fry the vada. Keep the pan over the flame. When oil becomes hot pour one spoonful idli batter to the oil(Just enough to prepare one dosa).  Fry it as you fry vada. Let both the sides become golden brown colour. Repeat the same with the remaining batter. transfer it to a plate. Serve hot. You can serve it with coconut chutney, mint chutney or curd.

Read More

Vermicelli Pradhaman

Vermicelli Pradhaman

                                                                                                                              Everybody likes pudding (payasam or kheer). Usually when we make pudding with vermicelli, we add sugar and milkmaid for sweetness. I like pudding very much. We keralites prepare pudding with ada, banana, rice etc. adding jaggery and coconut milk instead of sugar and milk, called ‘pradhaman’. So, I thought of making pradhaman using vermicelli. It tasted nice. It is very easy to prepare.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup of broken vermicelli
2. 3 lumps of jiggery
3. 1 cup coconut milk(thin and thick milk mixed together)
4. A pinch of cumin seed powder
5. Powder of 1 cardamom
6. 2 pinches of dried ginger powder
7. 5 cashew nuts
8. 2 coconut slices
9. 3 teaspoons ghee
10. 2 cups of water

Method

• Take a pan. Pour ½ a cup of water to it. Add jiggery lumps. Keep the pan over a low flame. Stir continuously till jiggery is melted completely. Transfer the solution to another vessel through a sieve to remove impurities if any.

• Keep a pan over a low flame. Add 1 teaspoon of ghee to it. Put the broken vermicelli into the pan. Stir it continuously for 5 minutes till it attains light golden brown colour. Now pour 1 cup of water to it and stir well. When the vermicelli is cooked properly. Pour jaggery solution to it and stir well for 7 minutes. Now add coconut milk to it. Let it boil twice. Now switch off the burner and remove the pan from the stove.

• Keep a pan over the flame. Add 1 teaspoon of ghee. Split the cashew nuts and add it to the ghee. Stir gently till it becomes golden brown colour. Now transfer it to the pudding. Add 1 more teaspoon of ghee. Cut the coconut slices into small pieces and add it to the ghee. Stir gently till it becomes golden brown colour. Now transfer it to the pudding. Add cumin seed powder, cardamom powder and dried ginger powder to the pudding and stir gently. Keep the ‘pradhaman’ to cool. Now ‘vermicelli pradhaman’ is ready to serve.

• Note: It will be very tasty if you mix fried papad and banana with the pudding. Take some pradhaman in a plantain leaf. Powder the papad, squeeze the banana and mix them with the ‘pradhaman’ with your hands. ‘Taste the pradhaman with your hands, not with spoons’. Isn't it tasty?

Read More

Banana Ada

Banana Ada

Usually we make 'ada' using rice flour. Here ripe banana is  also used along with rice flour to make ada. It gives a special taste. Here I have used ripe palayankodan banana( Ponnan banana), rice flour and ragi flour to prepare ada.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup rice flour
2. 1/2 cup ragi flour
3. 2 palayankodan bananas
4. a pinch of salt
5. 2 lumps of jaggery
6. 1/2 scrapped coconut
7. 1/2 tablespoon cardamom powder
8. a pinch of cumin seed powder
9. 1 tablespoon of ghee
10. Plantain leaf

Method

• To prepare filling

Pour 1/2 glass of water in a pan.Add two lumps of jaggery to it. Keep it over the flame to prepare jaggery syrup. Stir it continuously. When When jaggery has melted completely, switch off the flame. Drain it t another pan through a sieve. add cardamom powder , cumin seed powder and coconut to it. keep the pan over the low flame . Stir it till all the the water gets evaporated . Add ghee and stir well. Switch off the flame.

• Take  rice flour and ragi flour in bowl.
• Add a pinch of salt
• Take two palayankodan banana and squeeze it with you hands.
• Mix it with the flour.
• Kneed the flour with your hands. Since we have adde banana there is no need to add water.
• Mix thoroughly and make the dough.
• Wash the plantain leaves and cut it into 4 or 6 pieces    according to the size of the ada you want to prepare.
• Place a small lump of dough on the plantain leaf.
• Spread the dough on the leaf with your hands.

• Spread 11/2 spoons of filling over it.

• Fold the leaf.

• Repeat the process with remaining dough.
• steam cook it in an idli cooker for seven to 10 minutes.
• Transfer them to a plate .

Read More

Banana bajji

Banana bajji

We know different types of “bajji”s that can be served with rice and eaten as snacks. Banana bajji is also of that kind. Here I have used ‘palayankodan’ banana because it is very soft and tasty. Raw banana should be used to make bajji.

Palayankodan banana

Ingredients

1. 1 palayankodan banana
2. ½ cup of wheat flour
3. 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
4. ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
5. 1 petal garlic
6. 1 small onion
7. Salt as required
8. ½ cup of water
9. Coconut oil required to fry banana

Method

Peel the banana. Slice the banana vertically into thin pieces as shown above.

Make a paste of galic and small onion. Add required salt , a pinch of turmeric powder and ½ teaspoon of chilli powder into paste. Add a small quantity of water and mix well. Put banana slices in the plate and using the hands apply the mixture on the banana slices.

Take another vessel and add wheat flour into it. Add required salt, ½ teaspoon of chilli powder, a pinch of turmeric powder. Make a thick paste by adding required water.

Keep a kadhai over the flame. Pour coconut oil into it.  Take each banana slice and dip it in the wheat flour paste. Apply the flour on the sides of the slices.

When the oil gets heated put the pieces of banana one by one. Stir it with a turner. Let both the side s become brown in colour.

Transfer it into another vessel. Repeat the process till all the pieces are fried.

It will be crispy when served hot.

Read More