Kappa Biriyani with Pork Recipe/ Ellum Kappem/ Tapioca and Pork Biriyani / Yucca root and Pork/ Cassava and Pork/ കപ്പ ബിരിയാണി/ എല്ലും ക പ്പേം

Kappa Biriyani (Ellum Kappem) is a popular Kerala breakfast that is usually prepared with tapioca and beef bones/ beef meat/ or both. Instead of beef, this recipe uses pork neck bones. The taste is exactly same as the biriyani with beef. The overall cooking method is to cook the meat/bones and tapioca separately and mix both of them together with a spicy coconut gravy.

If you prefer beef bones, just modify the recipe by switching pork with beef.  

Ingredients:
Pork neck bones-3 lb

#1: for cooking tapioca
Tapioca-3 lb
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Salt

#2: for cooking pork
Onion- 3 medium sized, sliced
Chilly powder-1 tsp
Coriander powder- 3 tsp
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Garam masala powder- 1 tsp
Meat masala-3 tsp
Ginger, finely chopped- 2 tsp
Garlic, finely chopped, 2 tsp
Curry leaves-2 sprigs
Whole garam masala, crushed (cardamon-3, cloves-5, cinnamon stick-1")
Salt

#3: for biriyani
Grated coconut- 1 cup
Green chilly-3 to 5
Shallots/small onion-4
Curry leaves-2 sprigs
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Meat masala-12 tsp
Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder-1/2 tsp
Whole spices (cardamom-2, cloves-2, cinnamon stick-1")
Salt

Step 1: Cut pork bones into medium size pieces. Marinate it with ingredients #2 for 30 min and cook in a pressure cooker (No need to add water while cooking pork). Once it is cooked, boil off excess water from the gravy. For the biriyani, a gravy of medium thickness is required. The gravy shouldn't be too watery or loose.

Step 2: Clean tapioca and chop into medium size cubes. While chopping, remove its vein. Add plenty of water so that all pieces are immersed in water. Cook the tapioca in water with a few pinches of turmeric powder until the tapioca is soft. Be sure not to overcook tapioca. It should be firm otherwise it is gonna mash up at the end. Once cooked, add salt, and drain water.

cooked tapioca

Step 3: In a pan, slightly warm up meat masala, garam masala, and coriander powder from ingredients #3 and crush/grind (using a blender or mortar and pestle) with the rest of the ingredients #3. Transfer the crushed coconut mixture into a bowl. You can wash the blender/mortar with 1/2 cup of water and transfer into the same bowl.

Step 4: Transfer the cooked tapioca into a large saucepan. Spread the cooked pork from step 1 over the it. Next, spread over the crushed coconut mixture along with the wash. Cover the sauce pan and steam for 5-10 min. Then, open the lid, hold the two handles of saucepan and try to toss the entire contents. Next, to mix the contents, stir using the backside of a long wooden spoon in a circular motion. Do not overly mash up the tapioca.  

Serve hot!!

Ela Ada/ Ila Ada/ Wheat Ada/ Steamed Wheat flour Parcels in Banana Leaves/ ഇല അട

Ingredients (to make three medium size ada):

Wheat flour-1 cup
Water
Salt
Grated coconut-1/2 cup
Scraped jaggery-1/2 cup
Crushed Cardamom-1
Banana Leaf
Steamer

Method (Follow steps 1-4):

Step1: Sprinkle the required amount of salt in wheat flour and make a dough by adding small portions of water. The consistency of the dough should be less tight than a chapati dough.

Step 2:Combine grated coconut, scraped jaggery, and crushed cardamom in a bowl.



Step 3: Clean the banana leaf with water and wipe off with a paper towel. Wet your hands with water and also sprinkle some water on the leaf. Take one third of the dough and spread it on the banana leaf to a round or oval shape using your fingers. Place and evenly spread one third of the coconut-jaggery mixture over one half of the flattened dough. Fold the leaf in half (so that the ada will have a semicircle/semi-oval shape )







Step 4: Steam for 20-30 min. Serve hot.



Ela ada is usually served a breakfast or a snack item.

Goat Curry

  

Ingredients:

Goat - 1/2 Kg
Onion-3, thinly sliced
Oil-2 tbsp
Mustard seeds-1 tsp
Curry leaves-1  sprig
Tomato-2, cubed

#1
Chilly powder- 1 tsp
Pepper powder- 1 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Salt

#2
Ginger-2" piece
Garlic-8-10 nos
Shallots-3-5 nos
Curry leaves-1 sprig

#3
Chilly powder- 1 tsp
Coriander powder- 3 tsp
Garam masala powder- 1 tsp
Meat masala powder- 2 tsp
Fennel powder- 1tsp
Pepper powder- 1 tsp
Salt


#4
Green chilly-5 nos
Curry leaves- 1 sprig
Cardamom-3
Cloves-3
Cinnamon-1" piece

Method:

1) Cut goat into medium size pieces and marinate with ingredients #1 at least for an hour.



2) Heat oil in a large sauce pan and splutter mustard seeds and curry leaves.

3) Saute sliced onions until they become transparent and golden brown.

4) Meanwhile, crush ingredients #2 and add it into the sauteed onions. Stir until the raw smell of ginger-garlic is gone.
















5)  Combine ingredients #3 in a bowl and add the powders into the above sauteed onions followed by cubed tomatoes. You may use the tip of the spoon to break up/mash the tomatoes. Saute all of them until it becomes a thick gravy and you will see the oil separates from the gravy.

6) Stir in the marinated goat into the above cooked gravy and coat the meat with gravy. Transfer everything into a pressure cooker.

7) Crush the ingredients #4 and spread it over the mutton-gravy mix. You may add 1/2 cup of water. Pressure cook for 3 whistles or the until the goat is done. Boil off excess water if you prefer thick gravy.





The curry can be served with rice, porotta, chapathi or appam

Goat curry served with kerala porotta

Pazham Kumbil Appam/പഴം കുമ്പിൾ അപ്പം/ Steamed Banana Dumblings

Ingredients:

Ripe bananas- 6
Jaggery-3-4 medium size pieces (you can substitute with 1 cup of regular sugar or brown sugar)
Clarified butter/ghee- 1 tsp
Cardamom-2, crushed
Cumin seeds/ Jeera, crushed- 1/4 teaspoon
Dried ginger/ chukku, powdered- 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
Coconut, shredded-1/2-1 cup
Roasted Rice flour- 1-1.5 cup
Bay leaves/ Vazhana ila/ Parchment paper (for wrapping)
Salt- a pinch

Method:
1. Mash up the bananas. You can use a potato masher or just hands to mash them up into a fine paste (or it is also perfectly fine to leave a few chunks).

2. Scrape jaggery 

3. Select a wide and deep non-stick sauce pan and a long stemmed wooden spoon. Melt 1 tsp of ghee in the pan and combine the mashed banana, scraped jaggery, crushed cardamom, cumin, salt, and shredded coconut. Continuously stir the mixture in medium heat. You will see the consistency of the mixture changes while you stir. Sir until the mixture has become medium to thick consistency (around 10-15 min).Then, allow it to cool.  

4. Add rice flour to the banana mixture little by little and mix well until it reaches the right consistency of a smooth dough.

5.  Make a cone out of leaves and fill it it with the above dough using a spoon. If you don't have leaves, cut a sheet of parchment paper into several rectangles. Take a piece of parchment paper and make a cone. Leave one end of the paper to stick out so that it can be used to cover the top of the cone. Fill the cone with1-2 spoons of the dough. Push the dough to lower end of the cone using the back side of the spoon. Then, cover the top of the cone with paper that is sticking out from the cone.

6. Boil water in a steamer and steam for 20-30 min (To check whether it has cooked, insert a toothpick.If it is cooked, the toothpick will come out clean).

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Alternate method: Pazham Kubmil Appam from Banana Preserves
You can also prepare pazham kumbil appam starting from banana preserve. Please see my previous post on Banana Preserves. Take one cup of the banana preserve and mix it with shredded coconut and rice flour to make a smooth dough. Then follow the steps 4 and 5 to make delicious banana kumbil appam. 

Cucumber Pickle

Ingredients:
Cucumbers in brine ~ 200g
Garlic, minced-1-2 tsp
Ginger, minced-1-2 tsp
Green chilly, sliced-3
Kashmiri red chilly powder-2 tsp
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds, crushed- 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida- a small pinch
Gingelly oil/ any veg. oil-1 tbsp
Curry leaves-2 sprigs
Vinegar-1 tbsp

Method:
For making cucumber pickle in Kerala style, I used pickled cucumbers (in salt water/brine). Method of preparation is exactly same as my previous post on Olive Pickle.

Picture from www.Walmart.com

Drain cucumbers. You can save the salt water that cucumbers were soaked in.
Heat oil in a cooking pan and splutter mustards. Add curry leaves, green chillies, ginger, and garlic. Saute until they are slightly brown. Reduce heat, add chilly powder, turmeric powder and crushed fenugreek.Stir for a couple of minutes and add vinegar. Bring it to boil and add cucumbers. Adjust the consistency of the pickle by adding more water or the salt water that cucumbers were soaked in. Add salt if needed. Mix well, turn off the flame, cool and keep it in an air-tight jar.

Fried Shredded Pork /Pork varuthu idichathu /പന്നി വറുത്ത് ഇടിച്ചത്

 

Ingredients:
Pork -1 lb

#1
Chilly powder-1 tsp
Coriander powder-1tsp
Garam masala-1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Salt

#2
Shallots-10-12
(crushed or onion-1,sliced)
Dry red chilly-4
Garlic-2
Curry leaves-a handful
Black pepper powder-1/2 tsp
Lemon juice-1/2 tsp


Method:

Clean and cut pork into thin flat pieces. Marinate it with ingredients #1 for one hour. Heat a wide frying pan and fry pork until both sides are brown (no need to add oil since the meat usually has lots of fat, but, if it is required, use oil spray).

Pound the fried pork pieces with a hammer (or something heavy) and pull apart the meat to shred.

Spay oil in a pan and saute dry red chillies for 3 min to make them warm and crispy. Crush roasted red chillies together with garlic and curry leaves. If you are using shallots, you can crush them too.

Heat oil in a pan and add this crushed mix and crushed shallots (or sliced onion). Saute until the onions are slightly brown. Add shredded pork and mix well. Stir fry until they are brown and crispy. Season with black pepper powder and lemon juice. Serve with rice.

Bitter gourd-Beans Stir Fry/ pavakka-beans thoran/പാവയ്ക്കാ ബീൻസ് തോരൻ

Ingredients:
Bitter gourd- 1 small
Onion-1 medium
Green chilly-2 or 3

Grated coconut-1 cup
Turmeric powder-a small pinch
Salt


Oil-1 tbsp
Curry leaves-1 sprigs
Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp

Method:
Finely chop bitter guard, beans, green chilly, and onion (to chop bitter gourd, green chilly, and onion, I used S-blade in the food processor. For chopping beans, the top slice disc and the bottom S-blades are used)
Add oil into a pan, splutter mustards and add curry leaves. Stir in the chopped bitter gourd beans, green chillies and onion. Add grated coconut, salt, and turmeric. Cook covered for 10 minutes then open the lid and saute until it is completely dry. Serve with rice.