Kaara Chutney

This is another hotel style recipe. 

The recipe I got from bloghopping one day. Thanks to Cook N Dine

Onion: 1 chopped

Tomato: 1 medium chopped

Dry Red Chillies: 6

Urad Dal: 1 tbsp

Bengal gram dal: 1 tbsp

Salt: as needed

In a pan, heat a tsp of oil and saute all these items till it changes colour and tomatoes are mashed up.

Let it cool and grind to a paste adding little water.

Transfer to a serving dish.

 

To temper

Oil: 2 tsp

Mustard Seeds; 1/2 tsp

Urud Dal: 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves: 1 sprig

Heat oil and splutter the items under temper and pour over the chutney.

Serve warm with idly. Dosa.

Mint Coriander Chutney/ Pudina Sandwich

Mint/Pudina Leaves: 1 bunch

Coriander Leaves: 1 bunch and a half

Coconut grated: 3/4 cup

Ginger: 1/2 inch

Green Chillies: 2-3 (adjust according to your tolerance level.... I add 3)

Salt: as needed

Wash the leaves properly under running water.

Take the leaves off the pudina bunch. Discard the stem.

Now put the coriander leaves, pudina leaves, grated coconut, salt, ginger, green chillies in the mixie and blend them till you get a paste.

Spread butter generously on bread slices.

Now spread the mint coriander chutney.

Cover with bread slices.

Serve as an evening snack with coffee.

Pavakka Achar (Bitter Gourd Pickle)

Bitter Gourd: 3 kg

Ginger Garlic Paste: 100 gms

Ginger: 1.5 inch sliced

Garlic: 2 pods sliced

Mustard: 1 tbsp

Curry leaves: a few sprigs

Chilly Powder: 10 level tbsp

Turmeric Powder: 1 tsp

Fenugreek Powder: 1 tsp

Asafoetida: 1 tsp

Vinegar: 1 cup

Salt and oil: as needed.

Wash the bittergourd properly and cut in chunks and immerse in salt water.

Slice it into thin strips.

Keep all the other ingredients ready

Fry the bittergourd in oil till brown and slightly crisp

In the same oil, splutter mustard, curry leaves and fry the garlic and ginger.

Add the ginger garlic paste to this and let the raw smell go.

Add the chilly Powder, turmeric Powder, Asafoetida and fenugreek powder and give everything a toss.

Add the fried bitter gourd, salt and the vinegar.

Take off fire

Store it in sterilized bottles

Beef Pickle

To Pressure Cook:

Beef: 2 kg

Chilly Powder: 2 tbsp

Turmeric Powder: 1/2 tsp

Salt: as required

Pressure cook on high till the first whistle.
 No need to add water, but if you are unsure, just add 1/2 cup of water. I don't add water at all
After the first whistle, lower the heat and let it get cooked for 20 minutes.
Drain well

Heat a cup of gingelly oil in a kadai.

Fry the cooked beef in it

Keep aside

For the Pickle:

Ginger: 2 inch sliced thin

Garlic; a handful juliennes

Curry leaves: a few sprigs

Kashmiri Chilly Powder: 2.5 tbsp or according to your tolerance level

Salt: as required

Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp

Vinegar: 1 cup

Heat a tbsp oil and saute the garlic, ginger, curry leaves.

Add the chilly powder and turmeric powder and saute for a few seconds

Now add the fried beef to it and mix everything properly.

You can add the remaining oil from frying the beef.

Add the vinegar too and take off fire.

Do a taste test and adjust the salt.

Once cool, store in airtight containers and keep in fridge.

Mango Avakaya (Andhra Pickle)

This is another recipe from my Mom in Law's collection. Really really tasty, well, which pickle isnt? and that too when it is with mango...oolala...

Mango: 6 big cut in to pieces(8-10 pieces per mango)
Salt: 200 gms
Mustard Powder: 200 gms (dry roast and grind the mustard)
Turmeric Powder: 2 tbsp
Red chilly Powder: 200 gms
Gingelly Oil: 1/2 litre
Garlic cloves: 100 gms
Fenugreek Powder: 2 tbsp
Fenugreek Seed; 1 tbsp

Keep the peeled garlic and 1/4 litre oil aside.
 Mix the rest of the ingredients together.
Put the mango mixture in a glass jar and add the 1/4 litre oil on top.
Close the jar tightly and keep it aside for 3 days.
After 3 days, add the peeled garlic cloves, mix well and again close the jar.
Serve with rice or rotis.

Mango Thokku Pickle

This is my hubby's favourite pickle and which I "had" never bothered to like before marriage. I always have this soft corner for kadumanga and kanni manga pickle. Well, Mom (Mil) makes thokku pickle often so I didnt have to bother much about learning how to make this. But in 2006, there was an over abundance of mangoes in Moms garden that we had a store room full of mangoes (raw, ripe, overripe).So that was the year I learnt to make jams, juice, preserves and also all kinds of mango pickle. I got a big sack for myself to take home. So after eating ripe ones and making mango shakes and making mango icecreams and making mango yoghurts and making jams, halwas, juice with the ripe ones and Kadumanga with some of the raw ones, I still had 20 big mangoes left!!! So what did I do, I called my 1st sis in law and 3rd sis in law home and we 3 made it together(well, they made it while I religiously jotted down the recipe step by step). So this recipe is from then - how we made with 20 mangoes. (O by the way it lasted me 2 years even after distributing to many friends)

Mango: 20 medium
Kashmiri Chilly Powder 200 gm
Mustard; 100 gm
Ginger Garlic: 300 gm
Fenu greek powder" 100 gm
Asafoetida: 1/2 tin
Salt; 1/4 kg
Gingelly Oil: 600 ml
Curry Leaves: a handful

Slice the mango very very thin. You can use your food processor
Heat Oil. Splutter Mustard and throw in the curry leaves.
Add ginger garlic paste and when the raw smell is gone, turn off the stove.
Allow it to cool.
Add chilly powder, fenugreek powder, salt and the thinly sliced mango
Mix everything properly and keep aside for two days.
Now its ready to be consumed. Store it in airtight containers.

Kadu Manga (Kerala Mango Pickle)

Kadumanga reminds me of Good fridays. Especially the ones spent at my mom's house at Karthigapally....beautiful memories of summer vacations spent eating mangoes after mangoes and throwing it away after the first bite... O yes, the place was full of mangoes (and the house itself was named after the mango trees- Mankiyil)

We used to go to the Marthoma church (obviously, we are marthomites and grandparents are members of that church) very religiously every Sunday and all days in between (for Vacation Bible School). My favourite memory of that church is the Good friday meal...  Kanji (Rice Gruel), payar (Green Gram Saute) and kadumanga (Mango Pickle) and Pappadam (crisps) and the spoon was made of mango leaf. Since mangoes are in season only a few months of the year, I make it in large quantities. But since, My hubby prefers Mango Thokku Pickle (the Tamil Nadu version), I usually make that now (will post the recipe soon).. so heres my favourite Kadumanga recipe

Raw Mangoes: 1 kg (cubed)

Gingelly oil : 1/4 Cup

Mustard Seeds: 1 tbsp

Curry leaves: a few sprigs

Ginger: 1 inch julienned

Garlic: 10 cloves sliced

Turmeric Powder: 1/2 tsp

Kashmiri Chilly powder: 4 tbsp

Fenu greek powder: 3/4 tsp

Asafoetida: 1/2 tsp

Salt: as required

Vinegar: 1/4 cup

Boiled water: 1/2 cup

Heat the 1/4 litre oil in a thick bottomed pan and splutter the mustard and curry leaves.

Throw in the ginger and garlic and saute till raw smell goes.

Lower the heat to medium and add the powders (chilly, turmeric)

Now add the boiled water, required salt and let it come to a boil.

Now you can add the cubed mangoes and the vinegar and turn off the stove after it boils along the edges.

Mix in the fenugreek powder and asafoetida powder.

Allow it to cool and store in bottles and preferably refrigerate it.

Goes well with Rice Gruel and Rice.

Very Tasty Fish Pickle

You might be wondering why my title reads very tasty.... everybody knows fish pickle is very tasty... well, I promise you this pickle is tastier than all other tasty recipes of fish pickle. Last month, I was chatting with a friend of mine, Aysha and she, after reading my prawns pickle recipe(where Ive mentioned Dhanya's fish pickle) told me that she still remembers Dhanya's fish pickle- so tasty!!!! I immediately wanted to make it and I mailed Dhanya to ask her for the recipe..but I guess her e-mail id changed and I searched all the networking sites for her... No she isnt registered anywhere!!! : (  But suddenly I remembered once my eldest sister-in-law made prawns pickle which was very tasty and that time I had asked her how she made it, and she told me it is a thick onion tomato based gravy.... which got me interested and asked her the whole recipe.. but till date I hadnt tried it out... but when I made it, it tasted exactly like Dhanya's fish pickle... EUREKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fish fillet: 1 kg cut into small pieces
Garlic: a handful slit lengthwise
Green Chillies: 6 slit
Ginger garlic paste : 3 tbsp
Mustard: 2 tbsp
Onion diced: 1large
Tomato chopped: 2 small
Chilly Powder: 3 tbsp +1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp+ 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek powder: 3/4 tsp
Salt: as required
Vinegar: 1/4 cup
Water: 1/2 cup
Oil: 1/2 cup

 

Make a paste of 1tbsp chilly powder, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and a tsp salt and rub it on the fish pieces.

Heat oil and deep fry the fishes till crisp followed by the slit garlic and slit green chillies. keep this aside

Now in the remaining oil, splutter the mustard seeds and throw in the diced onions and saute till properly browned.

Now add the ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute and then add the tomatoes and saute till limp.

Add all the masalas and saute till oil separates.

Add the fried fish, garlic and greenchillies, water, vinegar and salt and boil for 2 minutes.

Take off fire and when it cools, store in an airtight container.

Prawns pickle

Tastes and smells can bring back old memories. Each food bring back great memories of my childhood, youth, hostel days etc... Pickles especially bring back memories of my hostel days!!! Our hostel mess in Bangalore will have a variety of pickles on the table.. Dhanya's fish pickle, Manju's prawn pickle, Aysha's prawns chammanti podi, Anita's hyderabadi tomato pickle...the list goes on. I remember once Manju brought one big bottle of prawns pickle. She reached the hostel at 7 am from Trichur- the pickle was over by 12 noon and only two people had it... Manju and me!!!! I love any kind of pickle and if it is prawns pickle....ah! It is a love affair!!!! Today I made prawns pickle after a very long time and here is my recipe before I forget the quantity of ingredients....
 Oh yes... it is absolutely delicious... really hope it lasts till Kochu comes back from office!!!!

Prawns: 800 gm (I used two 400 gm packs)
Ginger garlic paste: 2 heaped tablespoons
Kashmiri Chilly powder: 3 heaped tablespoons
Mustard seeds: 2 tablespoons
Turmeric powder:1/2 teaspoon
Fenugreek powder: 2 teaspoons
Vinegar: 1/4 to 1/2 cup.
Salt: as required
Oil- 3/4 cup.

Devein the prawns and cook it with a little vinegar,turmeric powder,salt and water(don't use too much water).
Drain and keep aside.
Now heat the 3/4 cup oil and fry the cooked prawns. Take it out from oil and keep aside.
In the same oil, splutter mustard, add ginger garlic, chilly powder, turmeric powder, fenugreek powder and mix well. (simmer while you do this or else the masala will burn or if necessary turn off the stove and turn on again for the next step)
Add half a cup of boiled water and then add the fried prawns and mix well. Add salt according to your taste and mix in the rest of the vinegar. Switch off the stove and let it cool completely before transfering to a pickle jar.

                                                       

Lime pickle

This is for my little nunu… I don’t know if you will grow up to like pickle… but ur grand mom and great grand mom used to make so much of pickles and store it for a year. Every1 in my side of ur family loves it. I used to take it to hostel too. Now, I have also started making pickles and storing them. This is one of my favourite recipes for lime pickle. I got this 2 years back after making 5 STD calls… phew!!! Okay, I will tell u what happened… sofy mummy once came to stay with ammachy and she had a bottle of lime pickle that tasted simply out of the world. I asked her for the recipe and she said her sister’s mother- in- law gave it to her. So I took her sister’s number from her but I never got her through for one whole year…it was some other house and someone else taking the call all the time. Finally I did some permutation and combinations with the number and finally one fine day I got her sister. She promised she would get the recipe from her mother in law. And later I got it from her and believe me; the smell of the pickle is enough to have a plate full of rice.

Ingredients:
Lime: 25 nos
Kanthari: 100 gms
Garlic: 50 gms
Ginger: 50 gms
Curry leaves: a bunch
Asafetida: 3 tablespoon
Fenugreek: 2 teaspoons

Method:
Add a little turmeric to a pot of water and boil the lime in it. When the lemons start to break, drain the water and when it cools, cut each lime into 4 pieces. Fry the kantahri, garlic and ginger separately and keep aside. Heat oil in a kadai, splutter mustard, and add 100 Gms chilly powder. Mix it properly with the oil for about half a minute. Now add the fried ginger, garlic, kanthari, asafoetida and fenugreek. Mix it properly and then add the lime pieces and salt. Mamma doesn’t know how much salt to put. I keep tasting to see if it is enough. If it is not, I keep on adding till am satisfied… Now add a cup of vinegar. Mix properly and boil. Tasty lime pickle for u!!!