Olan

Olan is a typical Kerala dish served in any Kerala sadhya. This is a less spicy dish so everyone including children can enjoy it. The main ingredients are black-eyed bean, Pumpkin or ash gourd and coconut Milk. This is served with rice.

Ingredients

Black eyed beans - 1/4 cup

Pumpkin  - 1 cup

Green chillies - 4 nos.

Coconut milk (thick) - 1/2 cup

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Coconut oil - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Sundal with Green Channa

Ingredients:

Green Channa or Brown Channa  -  1 cup
Mustard seeds – ¼  tsp
Urad dal -  1 tsp
Curry leaves – 3  sprigs
Asafetida -  a pinch
Red chillies  - 2nos                                                                                                                              Green chillies -  2 nos.
Salt - to taste
Coconut grated fresh-  2 tbsp
Oil -  1 ½ tbsp

* Green channa was looking good like the above, when I boiled  the out come was like the picture below:

Kerala Banana Chips

Kerala banana chips is one of the crisp items served  in any Kerala Sadhya. Without this a traditional sadhya remains incomplete. Not much of a hardship to get this yummy chips made at home.

Ingredients :

Raw Banana nenthran kaya : 2 nos
Turmeric powder : ¼
Salt water : ½  tsp in ¼  cup water (saline water)
Coconut oil for frying

 

Kozkattas - 1

Kozkattas  the yummy golf size balls stuffed with coconut and jaggery with the flavor of cardamom inside is a absolute treat your tongue.  Ganesh chathurthi takes me back to my  childhood days, there used to be ganesha kept in every nook and corner of the colony where I lived and in the evenings would  go and visit all the ganesha and during the visarjan time oh its fun, we girls would make a team and go to the temple and see the visarjan and return home with loads of explanations to tell my mom how each Ganesha looked like.

We normally don’t celebrate at my mom’s place Ganesh chathurthi, but by the time its afternoon we would get so many  goodies from different houses in and around  - thanks to my lovely neighbours.  We would get  so many types of kozkattas. Some are round shape, tiny coconut shaped and some like logs and they were stuffed with different fillings too.  I loved the coconut shaped ones as they looked so cute.

Ginger in curd OR Inji Thayir

The three main ingredients in this recipe 'Inji,' the good old, ginger and 'thayir,' which is nothing but curd & ofcourse the spice from green chillie or bird eye chilli.  One of the dish  to be served  in any Kerala traditional sadhya. This is served on the left, lower tip of the plantain leaf.

No cooking and very simple and real tongue tickler J

Kootu Curry

This is one of the best classic Kerala dish to serve in for Sadhya. Kootu means  a combination of vegetable and lentil mixed and prepared, you can make this with  brown channa dal or chick peas and combination of vegetables like ash gourd, raw plantain, elephant yam.  Fresh ground coconut and spices make this dish yummy. As usual  its prepared in many varieties as you go to different parts of Kerala. I feel for sadhya I like to prepare this dish with brown channa dal and with elephant yam and that too I make it as  a dry preparation and we all at home love this way.

Ingredients :

Elephant Yam -  1 ½ cup cubed *
Black Chickpeas /Kadala : ¼  cup
Turmeric powder :  a pinch
Red chilly powder : ¼ or ½   tsp (keep your spice level)
Jaggery : 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Ela Ada (A sweet delicacy wrapped and steamed in banana leaf)

Ela Ada is a steamed delicacy,  popular in Kerala. Ela  refers to plantain leaf and ada refers to the steamed flat rice cake filled with a mixture of grated coconut sweetened with jaggery and flavored with cardamom.

Mushroom Masala

Ingredients

Mushrooms - 2 cups (sliced)

Coriander seeds/powder - 2 tbsp 

One piece of whole garam masala (Cardamom, Cinnamon Stick small, Cloves)

Dry red chillies/powder – 3 Nos

Onions medium finely chopped - 1 No
Garlic and ginger paste - 1 tbsp
Tomato small -  1 No
Turmeric powder  ¼  tsp
Curd – ¼  cup
Oil
Salt 

Pav Bhaji Masala

Ingredients:

Mixed vegetables  diced small – (Potatoes 1 cup,Cauliflower – 1/4 cup, Frozen Green  Peas – 2tbsp,  Carrots – ¼ cup)                                                                             Salt – to your taste level                                                                                Turmeric  – ¼ tsp                                                                                                        Water – 2 cups                                                                                                       Oil – 1 Tbsp                                                                                                       Butter – 1 Tbsp (I used oil)                                                                                         Cumin Seeds – ½ tsp                                                                                              Hing (Asofoetida) – pinch                                                                                         Red Chili Powder – ¼ tsp (to taste)                                                                        Onion – 1 medium, finely chopped                                                                              Ginger and Garlic – 2 tsp minced                                                                         Tomato – 1 medium chopped                                                                                       Pav Bhaji Masala – 2 tsp (to taste)                                                                            Lemon Juice – ½ tsp (to taste)                                                                              Coriander leaves – 5 sprigs, chopped (for garnishing)

Ribon Pakoda

Ingredients

Rice flour – 1 cup

Gram flour  - 2 cups

Red Chilli powder – 2 tbsp  (or to your spice level)

Kashmiri chilli powder – 1 tbsp

Hing – ¼ tsp

Oil for deep frying

Butter – 1 tbsp

Oil – 2 tbsp (Heat the oil and pour on the flour and then kneed the batter, this makes the ribbon pakoda, crunchy)

Salt to taste

Curry leaves – 8 sprigs (fried in oil and put into the dabba of the ribbon pakoda for fragrance and this is  optional but I do it)

You can add red food colour if you want  but I have added as I like it nice red colour

Chicken lolipop

For Marinating 

Skiness - Chicken lollipops- 12 nos
Black  pepper powder -  1  tsp
Corn starch - 4 tbsp
Soy sauce -  4 tsp
Lime juice – ½  tsp
Maida flour -  4 tbsp
Garlic paste -  1 tsp
Red chilly sauce  - 2  tsp
Cooking oil for  deep fry
Eggs Yolk -  2 egg n beat it with a fork well and keep aside                                                                          Salt to taste
Red food colour – a pinch

Rice Idiyappam and potato stew

Ingredients

Idiyappam Rice flour - 2 cups

Water - 3 cups (approx)

Grated coconut ( garnishing )

Salt to taste

A dash of oil

Method

·         First boil water by adding salt.

Beetroot Pachadi

Ingredients

Beetroot -  1 no medium size, peeled and grated

Dry red chilli -  3 no

Turmeric powder – ¼  tsp

Grated coconut – ¼  cup

Ginger 1 a very small piece

Green chillies - 4 nos

Mustard seeds  - ¼ tsp for grinding and  ½ tsp for seasoning

Salt to taste 

Curry leaves few sprigs

Thick curd – ¾  cup  (you can use this as per your sour requirement)

Oil  - 1 tbsp

Compote made with fresh strawberry

A compote is any fruit which is cooked in sugar syrup.  The syrup may be seasoned with vanilla, lemon or orange zest, cinnamon.

Keep in mind we are not adding any preservatives  and hence shelf life is less. Its very healthier version of the jam.  Use any seasonal fruit. You can using this for cake toppings, tarts, inside the cupcakes or even like a jam. I am sure the kids or the eleders will love this.

What did I do with this compote? I used half of this and stuffed into the strawberry cup cake and  some on the strawberry cake. When we ate the cup cake, the first bite was plain and as we reached a bit down the cup cake  we got the compote that I had stuffed in. It was yummy and tasted really nice J. Will be posting soon the recipes for the cup cake and strawberry cake.

Ragi Idiyappam

Very healthy and steamed, ideal for a good breakfast or dinner. Simple and easy to make too

Ingredients

Idiyappam rice flour - ½  cup

Ragi or finger millet flour – ¾ cup

Water ~ 1 ½ cup (approx)

Grated coconut ( For garnishing )

Salt to taste

A dash of oil

Pineapple Pachadi

A sweet and sour dish with mild flavour of the chillie and mustard is absolutely divine. This is one the the dish served in most of the Kerala sadhya, loved by all as the flavour of the pineapple is so good in this recipe.

Ingredients

Pineapple – one small pineapple
Grated coconut – 4 tbsp
Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp
Chilly powder – ½  tsp
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Salt -  to taste
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Dry red chillies- 3 nos
Cooking/Coconut oil - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves – 2 sprigs                                                                                                                      Fenugreek – ¼ tsp                                                                                                                                  Sugar – about 2 tbsp – if you feel the pineapple is sour then you may need to add sugar
Thick curd (not sour) - 1 glass

Couscous Salad with Vegetables

Ingredients:

Couscous – 1 cup
Salt –  to taste
Boiling water – 1  ½  cups
Olive oil – 1 Tbsp (optional) but I don’t like to add in this salad
Carrots – ½ chopped to triangles                                                                                                                Green spring onions – 3 stalks finely chopped
Bell pepper any colour – ¼   chopped in triangles or any way you like
Cucumber –  1 medium peeled and chopped to triangle
Cilantro – 5  sprigs chopped
Tomatoes – 2 medium sliced or handful of cherry tomatoes sliced in half
Green chilies – to taste, finely chopped * to your taste
Raisins  – handful
Chopped walnuts – handful
Black pepper – to taste
Lemon/lime juice – to taste **
Notes:
Cut all the vegetables to same shapes and add more nuts lif you are giving this for kids.

*I like  it spicy so made it with more chillies
**I added more of lime as I love this salad to be more limy J

Brown Channa – Vada

Ingredients

Channa soaked  - 1 cup *

Toor dal – ¼  cup

Dry red chillies - 4 nos

Onion – 1 medium size finely chopped

Green chillies finely chopped – 3 nos.

Curry leaves chopped- 2 sprig **

Ginger – 1 inch (Crushed)

Asafetida powder  - a pinch

Coriander leaves – 2 sprigs**

Fennel seeds – a pinch

Oil  to deep fry

Besan Flour – 3 tbsp (Optional)

Salt to your taste

** Crush and break it with your hand to enhance the flavor out. Use more of the stem part of the

     coriander leaves as this gives more flavor to the vada.                        

*   When you grind the channa dal please ensure all the dal is broken and that not even one remains

     whole. The reason being, if one of the channa remains whole it might splutter when you put in oil and

     its dangerous.

Drums of Heaven

I have had the best of the Chinese starter -‘Drums Of Heaven (DoH)’  guess  where - ‘Rice Bowl’ Chinese restaurant in Bangalore, Brigade road and the drums of heaven he used to give would be  amazing,  just melt in the mouth like. The batter coated in the chicken drums would be so crisp and soft and would taste fantastic with chillie and tomato sauce.  Now rice bowl has moved to Lavelle road but never get those yummy drums of heaven. He makes so thick and the batter coated is too much.

I have had many times and cannot forget the yummy Doh and here’s the recipe!! It’s a perfect starter when served hot.

To make the best crunchy and yummy DoH  the oil should be hot and the batter mix should be very cold to get the proper starter. 

Cabbage Thoran

Ingredients:

Cabbage – 1 very medium size or 500gms chopped fine                                                                               Fresh grates coconut – about 4 tbsp                                                                                                          Green chillies – 4 or 5 depending on your spice level                                                                                     Cumin – a pinch                                                                                                                                  Turmeric – ¼  tsp                                                                                                                                      Curry leaves – 2 sprigs                                                                                                                                                       Urud dal – 1 tsp                                                                                                                                        Mustard – ½  tsp                                                                                                                                       Salt to taste                                                                                                                                       Coconut/cooking oil – 2 tbsp

Prawn Tempura

My daughter’s favorite. She never eats any other seafood as much as this prawn and when it comes to Tempura I  have to stop her from eating is the state. She just loves it like anything J.

We got to taste this starter at the Spice Island, Renaissance Hotel in Dubai. The chef  used to make this  at one of the Japanese live food station,  after several visits I got hang of the way they made.  Infact I tried to make my own way but have  made a twist to the recipe, as the tempura at the hotels are very bland and we love it to be little spicy hence  I have made a small variation to suit our taste.

Tomatina (Tomato Drink)

Makes : 2 glasses

Ingredients:

Fresh and nice juicy medium sized red tomatoes  – 4 nos.                                                                          Ice cubes – about 4 pcs                                                                                                                             Ginger – ½ inch                                                                                                                                       Sugar – for your taste level                                                                                                                      One Lime juice                                                                                                                                            Water - 1 glass                                                                                                                                             A dash of  brown sugar for decorating the edges of the glass

Bhakri with Nachini

 

Yields : 8  bhakris

Ingredients:

1 ¾  cups red millet flour  + extra flour for dabbing
1 cups water +  ½  cup in a cup for dabbing

No salt is added as the dough will not get incorporated well

Grilled & Baked Chicken Wings

Ingredients:-

Chicken wings – 500 gms

Ingredients  1  (Marination)

Kashmiri red chili powder – ½  tbsp

Ground Coriander -  ¼ tbsp

Ground Cumin – ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – small pinch

Garam Masala -  ½ tsp

Onion chopped - 1 very small

Garlic chopped - 3 cloves 

Ginger chopped - a small piece

Yogurt  ¼  cup

Salt to taste

Ingredients 2

Soy Sauce - 1 tbsp

Juice of  half ½ lime 

Olive oil /cooking oil - 1 table spoon