Announcing the Kerala Kitchen Event - Feb 2012




Hello Everybody,
I am glad to welcome you to the Kerala Kitchen, hosted by me for the month of February 2012.
Kerala Kitchen…. The kitchen of God’s Own Country is an event / blog space started by Rose and Ria where you can prepare and post traditional or contemporary or Kerala inspired recipes by using vegetables or non vegetarian ingredients and lure your readers with those luscious luxurious or simply healthy and tasty food that would make everybody crave for it.
The recipe could be traditional breakfast recipes like velleppam, idiyappam, puttu, stews, egg roast or kappa or a curry for lunch like fish curry, beef curries, thoran (veg stir fried with coconut) or a mezhukkutpuratti (stir fried veggie), or prawn recipes and gravies like pulissery, erissery or pachadi or aviyal, egg curry and desserts like payasam or snacks like achappam, kuzhalappam, vattayappam, neiyyappam or unniyappam or a pazhampori.

The contemporary recipe may include Kerala inspired ingredients in a recipe like coconut cake, coconut cookies, coconut & banana pancake, banana fritters, baked fish or a grilled pork, wheat payasam in a pressure cooker or colocasia curry or chips or a yam cutlet.

You may contact me if you find it difficult to choose a recipe or an ingredient to cook with.

Now the rules

It is simple. Anyone can participate in the event and post as many recipes as you wish! You are not restricted from sending your entries to any other contests.

Simply cook a dish that is inspired by Kerala. and post it on your blog anytime between the 1st and 29th of February and link it to my announcement page and to the Kerala Kitchen page.

Please send new entries or repost old entries (pls restrict reposts to just 5)

Email the following details to roshanscucina@gmail.com with the subject line Kerala Kitchen.

• Your Name
• Blog Name/URL
• Recipe Name
• Recipe URL
• Photograph

So come one every body lets celebrate the taste & tales of Kerala!

Saffron Sago Badami Kheer


I wanted to start this New Year on a sweet note and found the Vermicelli Badam Kheer at Sreevalli’s Ammaji Recipes


She had given an option of substituting the vermicelli with sago. Since vermicelli kheer / payasam is an usual version I have prepared the kheer using sago.

the recipe

Sago / Jowari – 4 tbsp, soaked for 1 – 1 ½ hours

Sugar – to taste

Cardamom - seeds from 5 cardamom, powdered

Milk – 300 ml

Almonds / Badam – 20 nos soaked in hot water, peeled and ground to paste

Saffron – 1 generous pinch

Few almonds to garnish



the method


Wash the soaked sago / jowary thrice. Cook the sago with 100 ml water. When it is almost done add the milk and almond paste and cook in medium flame. When the milk starts bubbling add the saffron strands and sugar and keep stirring for about 5 minutes. The kheer will begin to thicken slowly. Add the powdered cardamom and check sweetness. Add more sugar if need be. Turn off heat.
Serve after 5 – 10 minutes garnished with few almond slivers and saffron strands.


Fish Cutlet - - - - -lightly spiced



This is a recipe which you can prepare and freeze and fry it whenever you need. The Fish Cutlet is slightly different from the usual ones (which I came across the web) bcause I have not added garam masala. I prefer to taste the taste of fish rather than lot of masala and the addition of ginger, garlic and coriander simply enhances the flavor.

The usually egg dip to coat is replaced with a rice flour dip to get a very crunchy texture. Try it and you’ll like it.

Use these fish cutlets as a starter or simply prepare a fish burger for lunch.

…enjoy!!


the recipe
Fish keema – 500 gms
Potato – 500 gms (boiled and finely mashed)

Oil – 2 tbsp
Onion – 1 large, finely chopped
Green chilly, finely chopped – 2 (deseeded would be better)
Garlic – 8 medium cloves, finely chopped or grated
Ginger – 1/3rd inch piece, finely chopped
Corianders leaves – leaves with only tender stem – 6 sprigs
Chilly powder – ½ tsp
Pepper powder – ½ tsp
Lemon juice / Vinegar – 1 tsp
Salt to taste

ingredients to coat the cutlet

Rice flour – 2 -3 tbsp - Coarse rice flour (the one used to make puttu)
Water – ½ cup
Bread Crumbs – as much as you need
Oil to shallow fry
Salt to taste
Pepper powder – ¼ tsp

Note: I have used fish keema to prepare this recipe. If you are preparing with fresh fish, clean the fish and boil it with ¼ inch ginger, 4 garlic cloves, turmeric and salt and just adequate water to immerse the fish. Separate the flesh from the skin and bones and mash it with a fork and then follow the method below.

the method

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a heavy bottom or non-stick pan. Stir in the onions and sauté till translucent. Add the green chilly, ginger and garlic and stir for few seconds. Add the chilly, turmeric and pepper powder. Sauté for a while and add the fish keema / mashed fish. Stir well in low flame till the fish turns dry. Pour the lemon juice and sprinkle the coriander. Sauté for few seconds and turn off heat. When the fish turns warm, add the mashed potatoes and mix well, preferable using a potato masher. Knead the mix into a dough. Take a table spoon of the mix and shape it into a cutlet. I used a cutlet mould and ended up with very large ones. You can shape it according to your preference. Shape all the potato – fish mix.

Mix the rice flour with about 10 tbsp water (the mix should not be very watery), salt and pepper powder. The rice flour batter should be solid enough / liquid enough to coat the cutlet. Dip each cutlet into the rice mix and then coat it with bread crumbs and keep it ready. To avoid the bread crumbs from leaving the cutlet, place it in the freezer for half an hour and then keep it at room temperature for 10 minutes and then shallow fry in a non-stick pan.

These cutlets can be stored in the refrigerator (freezer) in an air tight container for upto a month.

Filter Coffee - - -- - - without filter



Somehow the chillness or the laziness of winter is keeping me away from the blog world. I thought I’ll jumpstart by preparing and writing about the illustrious and legendary Filter Coffee.
Well, the filter coffee is indeed a legendary drink especially if you have lived in Tamilnadu and experienced the taste of it in all those vegetarian restaurants after a nice masala dosa, poori masala or even a tasty plate of idlis.

Now that I live in Kerala once in a while we dine for Masala Dosa and the coffee is something that completes the meal. I drink filter coffee even at night.
Though I am all crazy about this coffee my efforts to own a filter has not yet been successful. May be I have not been able to convince my husband about the nostalgia that accompanies the filter coffee.

So I usually prepare the filter coffee without the filter by just placing the coffee in a tall tumbler or a slim / vertical jug overnight so that you can pour the clear coffee out the next morning leaving behing the residual coffee powder and a little bit of the liquid. This would give the same taste and you can decide how strong a coffee you need.

The decoction I prefer is medium because a very strong coffee would give me burning sesation.
Recipe inspired from Priya Sreeram’s Bon Appetite
the recipe for a medium strong filter coffee is as follows:

1 ¼ cup water
3 cup boiling hot milk
4 heaped tsp coffee powder

the method
Place the 4 tsp coffee powder in a silm jug or any vertical container. Boil the water and pour it over the coffee powder. Close the container immediately and let it stand overnight.

The next morning, carefully pour the coffee into another vessel (use a sieve if you need though it is not need because the coffee will be clear). Leave the residue with about ¼ cup coffee remaining in it.
Take out the clear coffee / decoction. Use ¼ cup decoction with ¾ cup milk. Add adequate sugar, mix and drink. I like the filter coffee in a bitter sweet taste.

the recipe goes to Radhika's Blog Hop




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