Chilly chicken (dry)

Ingredients:

1. Chicken- 1 lb(~1/2 Kg) (boneless and skinless)
2. Ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp
3. Corn flour- 2 tsp
4. All purpose flour- 2 tsp
5. Chilly powder- 1 tsp
6. Yogurt- 2 tsp
7. Egg-1
8. Vinegar- 1 tsp
9. Black pepper powder-1/2 tsp
   
10. Ginger- 2 inch piece (finely chopped)
    
11. Garlic- 4-5 cloves (finely chopped)
    
12. Green chilly- 3-5, sliced
13. Onion- 1 large, diced
    
14. Bell pepper(Capsicum)- 1 large, diced
    
15. Tomato ketchup- 3 tbsp
16. Chilly sauce- 1 tsp
17. Soy sauce-3 tbsp
18. Vinegar- 1 tsp
    
19. Oil for frying
20. Cilantro for garnishing
21. Salt
    

Method:

1. Clean the chicken and cut into 1 inch pieces, wipe off any water.
2. Mix the ingredients 2-9, salt and apply this to the chicken pieces, mix well and marinate for at least 30 min in refrigerator.
3. Finely chop ginger and garlic. Dice the onion and bell peppers to 1 inch squares.
   
4. Heat oil in a pan and fry the chicken pieces. Transfer the fried chicken. (keep any leftover batter from the marination to add at the final step)
   
5. Heat some more oil in the same pan and fry finely chopped garlic, ginger and sliced green chillies for 3 min
6. Add onion and saute until they became transparent. Now add bell peppers and saute for 5 more min.
   
7. Add all the sauces, vinegar, salt and fry for 5 min. Finally add fried chicken pieces and add any leftover batter from the marination along with some water.
8. Fry for some more time until it becomes dry, garnish with cilantro and serve hot with fried rice.

If you want to make gravy: Dissolve 1 tsp of corn flour in water and add it to the preparation.

Breadsticks

Ingredients:

1. Bread slices-2
2. All purpose flour-3 tsp
3. Corn flour-3 tsp
4. Egg-1
5. Soy sauce-1 tsp
6. Tomato ketchup-3 tsp
7. Potato flakes-3 tsp
8. Water
9. Ginger garlic paste-1/2 tsp
10. Black pepper powder-1/2 tsp
11. Parsley flakes-1 tsp
12. Salt
13. Bread crumbs
14. Oil for frying
    

Method:

1. Dissolve potato flakes in hot water and add corn flour, all purpose flour, parsley flakes, ginger garlic paste, pepper powder, ketchup, egg,soy sauce and salt to make the batter.
   
2. Cut each bread lengthwise into 5-6 pieces
   
3. Coat the bread pieces with the batter. Carefully transfer the pieces from the batter using a long knife or spatula to avoid breaking.
4. Coat with bread crumbs.
5. Fry the bread pieces in oil until it became light brown. Serve hot with ketchup

Banana pancake (Pazham appam)

Preparation time:20min
Ingredients for 6 pancakes:

1. ripe bananas-2
2. rice flour-1/2 cup
3. all purpose flour-1/2 cup
4. milk-1 cup
5. cardamom (crushed)-1
6. coconut slices (small slices)-2tsp
7. vanilla extract-1tsp
8. sugar-3 tsp
9. raisins
10. butter (melted)-3 tsp
11. salt -a pinch

Method:

1. Cut bananas into 3-4 pieces and beat with milk, vanilla extract and sugar in a blender.
2. Pour banana milk mixture into flour and mix well with a spoon. Add cardamom, coconut slices, salt and mix again.
3. Heat half spoon of melted butter in a griddle, pour 1/6 of the batter, spread into desired size and sprinkle raisins. Cook each side for 2-3 min.
   

Serve hot with pancake syrup or honey.

Meen pollichathu (Roasted Fish)

'Meen pollichathu' is an indigenous dish to kerala. Usually its done with karimeen (pearlspot) in plantain leaf. I tried this recipe with tilapia fillets using the ingredients I normally use for prawns masala. It came out very delicious and I thought I should share this.
There are 3 main steps in this recipe:
preparation of fish, preparation of gravy and finally roasting of the parcels made with the fish and gravy.

Ingredients
For marination:

1. Tilapia fillets-3
2. Ginger garlic paste-1tsp
3. Chilly powder-1 tsp
4. Pepper powder-1/2 tsp
5. Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
6. Lemon juice-1tsp
7. Salt to taste

For gravy:

1. Onion-2 chopped
2. Tomato-1 chopped
3. Ginger- 2 inch piece
4. Garlic- 3 big cloves
5. Green chilly-3
6. Chilly powder- 2tsp
7. Coriander powder-1 tsp
8. Fennel powder-1 tsp
9. Cumin powder-1/4 tsp
10. Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
11. Pepper powder-1/2 tsp
12. Coconut milk-1/2cup
13. Lemon juice-1.5 tsp
    
14. Curry leaves
15. Salt
16. Oil
17. Foil

Method
Step 1: Preparing fish

1. Clean fish and wipe off any water.
   
2. Make a paste of chilly powder, ginger garlic paste, pepper powder and turmeric powder in lemon juice and apply this all over the fish. Marinate for at least 30 min.
3. Heat oil in a pan and fry the fillets for 5 min each side. After frying keep the fillets aside.

Step 2 : Preparing gravy

1. Crush ginger, garlic and green chillies (or you can chop them)
   
2. Add some more oil into the pan where you fried fillets, splutter mustards and add crushed ginger, garlic and green chillies and curry leaves followed by chopped onions. Saute until the onions turned light brown.
3. Add all the remaining powders (ingredients 6-11)and saute until you get a nice aroma.
4. Add chopped tomato, salt and cook covered until it forms a fine paste.
5. Add coconut milk and saute until you see the oil separates from the coconut milk. The gravy should not be too loose or too thick. Divide it into 6 portions(2 portions goes with each fillet)

Step 3: Preparing fish parcels and roasting:

1. Cut foil into roughly 30cmx 20cm (enough to wrap one filletsh)
   
2. Spread one portion of the gravy on foil.
   
3. Keep the fish above the gravy and spread one more layer of gravy above fillet. Keep some onion wedges above that and add 1/2 tsp of lemon juice. Fold foil and make a parcel.
   
4. Heat 1/2 tsp of oil(or just spray some oil)in a non stick flat bottomed pan and place these parcels and cook covered in medium heat for 3-5 min each side.
5. Transfer the fillet along with its gravy to a plate and garnish with lemon, onion or tomatoes.

• You can do this with any kind of fish fillets. Make gashes if you are using thick fillets.

• Replace the chilly powder with kashmiri chilly to reduce spiciness

Gram Flour Omelette

Ingredients:

1. Egg-2
2. Besan/Chick pea flour/Gram flour/kadalamaavu- 3tsp
3. Water-6 tsp
4. Onion-1/2
5. Green chilly -2
6. Ginger-1/2 inch piece
7. Turmeric powder- a pinch
8. Curry leaves
9. Cilantro
10. Oil
11. Salt to taste
    

Method:

• Finely chop onion, green chillies and ginger

• Dissolve the flour in water and break the lumps using a spoon

• Beat eggs and add above chopped items, flour dissolved in water,turmeric powder, salt, cilantro and curry leaves. Beat the mixture using an egg beater.

• Heat 1-2 tsp of oil in a non stick pan and pour the above prepared mixture into that. Cover with a lid and cook for 5 min in medium heat. Flip and cook the other side for 5 more min. Serve hot with rice.

Spinach Egg Thoran

My mother used to prepare this thoran with the red spinach available in kerala. Here I tried the same recipe with lettuce and green spinach. It worked well.

Ingredients:

• Chopped spinach-3 cups
• Onion-1
• Egg-2
• Grated coconut- 1cup
• Green chilly-4
• Turmeric powder-2 pinch
• Black Pepper powder-1/4 tsp
• Curry leaves
• Oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Chop onions and slice green chillies
2. Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustards and add curry leaves
3. Add spinach and salt saute until almost all the water from the spinach has gone.
4. Now add the chopped onions, chillies, grated coconut, turmeric powder and cook covered for 10 min without adding any water. Stir occasionally.
5. Make some space in the middle of the pan and crack the eggs and add black pepper powder. (or you can beat the eggs separately and add into the spinach mixture). Stir continuously and fry for some more time until it is dry(add 1more tsp oil if you want) and serve hot with rice.

It is a nice recipe for kids. You can avoid green chillies if you are preparing this for kids.

Pork Fry ( Kerala style pork ularthiyathu)

Ingredients:

• Pork- 1Kg (I prefer meat with bones)
• Onion-2
• Green chilly-3
• Chopped ginger – 2 tsp
• Chopped garlic -2 tsp (or ginger garlic paste-2 tsp)
• Coconut slices-1/2 cup
• Chilly powder-2 tsp
• Coriander powder -2 tsp
• Fennel powder -1 tsp
• Black pepper powder-1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
• Garam masala-1 tsp
• Vinegar-3 tsp
• Curry leaves
• Cilantro
• Oil
  
• Salt to taste

For deep frying:

• Cardamom-4
• Cloves-5
• Cinnamon sticks-2
• Bay leaf-2
• Black pepper powder- ½ tsp

 



Method:

1. Cut the meat into small cubes, wash and drain
2. Heat oil in a large vessel and splutter mustard and add curry leaves and coconut slices. Saute until the slices turns light brown.
3. Add green chillies, ginger and garlic followed by sliced onions. Saute for 5-10min in medium heat.
4. Add chilly powder, coriander powder, fennel powder, garam masala powder, turmeric powder, pepper powder and saute for 5 more min.
5. Add pork and mix everything. Now add vinegar and pressure cook for 1-2 whistle without adding water (or cook for 30-45 min).

At this point the preparation will look like the picture shown below.


How to make it dry?

1. Grind cardamom, cinnamon and cloves using a mortar (or use a blender).
2. Transfer the cooked meat along with the liquid to a wide pan, mix the above ground spices and boil off all the water.
3. Add pepper powder and saute until it becomes dry and dark brown color ( If you want to make it spicy add more pepper powder which gives nice flavor & taste to all meat preparations)
4. Garnish with cilantro or onion slices and serve hot with rice, appam or chappathi.

Pepperoni Cheese Sandwich

preparation time: 10min max.
You need:
Bread slices-4
Pizza sauce-4 tsp
Pepperoni-8 slices
Mozzarella cheese- 1/3 cup
Chopped onion-2 tsp (optional)
Chopped bell pepper-2 tsp (optional)
Method:

• Microwave pepperoni slices for 30 sec to make crispy
• Spread one tsp of pizza sauce on one side of bread slices

• Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese (half amount) on two of the bread slices above the sauce coating
  
• Place slices of pepperoni above cheese
  
• Spread onion and bell pepper (optional)
  
• Add the remaining half of cheese and place the other bread slice
• Toast in sandwich maker for 2-3 min.

Sandwich is ready !
Quick and easy recipe for kids lunch box.