Baby Talk

Before I got married, I used to wonder why a couple would want a baby. Why would anyone want to put up with the sleepless nights, the forever running nose, the smelly diapers, the screaming and the wailing? The agony list is just getting started here, and its length, and the magnitude of problems, are directly proportional to the age of the kid. It is one thing to see someone else's child and exclaim "How sweet!!!", and a totally different matter to have one of your own. Maybe the decision is a result of the pressure applied by the remainder of the family. In my place, and I think in all parts of the state, a newly married couple would frequently be asked, "Vishesham valadum aayo?" (Any good news?). As time goes by, this question becomes, "Ithu vare vishesham onnum aayile? Sho, athu entha?" (No good news yet? But why not?). Initially, the response to these prying questions is a shy smile, but as months fly by, the coyness gets replaced by poorly suppressed irritation. Finally, when the extended family starts research on good doctors in the locality, and parents start frequenting places of worship, the troubled couple come up with the good news. At last....phew.

After I became a mom, I realised that whatever reason anyone has for wanting a child, it can be assured that the little fellow is going to turn your world topsy turvy. From the moment you set eyes on your child, he (or she) enchants you, the toothless smile warms you somewhere deep within, the little coos and giggles make you wonder at the tiny miracle that god has sent you. And mothers are luckier than anyone else, because the bonding begins even before the baby arrives. Maybe that is why everyone gets concerned when there is a delay, because they do not want you to miss out on all the fun and love that a baby brings along.

The teddy bears are for all the little angels in my family, especially the latest addition, my little niece S.A.M, and her proud brother, J.I.M.

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Chicken Biriyani - My father's masterpiece dish

 Biriyani is essentially an assembly of long grained basmati rice flavoured with spices, and curried meat, sea food or vegetables. This rich dish is savored all over India though the spices, condiments and the method of preparation vary from region to region.

When I was in Hyderabad, my friends and I visited the Paradise restaurant to eat the very popular Hyderabadi biriyani, which is a must have for everyone visiting the city. We ended up talking, or rather, bragging about the biriyani from our own states. The bengali claimed that their biriyani was the best of all, with its subtle masala and distinctive addition of potato, while the keralite asserted that the biriyani back home, with liberal amounts of ghee and cashew, and sometimes egg, was unbeatable. Ofcourse it was difficult to argue with the hyderabadi, who said that marinated raw meat and rice were cooked together, along with saffron to add to the flavour and aroma of the Hyderabadi biriyani. And I thought it would be childish to say, "You are all wrong folks. My dad makes the yummiest biriyani of all", so I kept quiet. Forgive my seeming lack of modesty, but I have not had a biriyani more delicious than the one my father makes. His biriyani is popular among our family and friends, and he makes it for most of our get togethers. 

I used his recipe to make biriyani at home, and it was an instant hit. So when my folks visited me recently, I decided to make it for them. And to my pleasure, they seemed to like it. A compliment from the master himself is definitely something I am going to cherish.

But making a biriyani is very time consuming, and there are a lot of things that could go wrong. So do attempt one only when you have sufficient time and energy on your hands.

Recipe:
Ingredients:

For Garnish and Layering

1 cup ghee for frying, 4 tbsp ghee
1 cup raisins
1 cup cashew nuts
4-5 onions chopped into thin, long slices

For Chicken Curry

A.
1.2 kg chicken cut into medium sized pieces and cleaned

B.
400 grms onion
10 cloves garlic
1 inch piece ginger
12 green chilies

C.
1 tsp pepper corns
6 cardamoms
6 cloves
2 one inch pieces of cinnamon
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tsp shajeera
A pinch nutmeg powder

D.
1½ tsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp turmeric powder

E.
½ cup mint leaves chopped
½ cup coriander leaves chopped
A few curry leaves
1 cup curd
Salt to taste

For Rice

4 cups long grained Basmati rice
12 cups water
¼ tsp pepper corns
4 cardamoms
4 cloves
2 one inch pieces of cinnamon
1 tbsp mint leaves
1 tbsp coriander leaves
4 tbsp ghee
Salt to taste

Method:

Garnishing

Heat ghee in a vessel large enough to hold the chicken. Fry the cashew nuts and raisins in the ghee, and keep aside. Fry the onions till well browned and keep aside.

Chicken curry

Grind together all the ingredients labeled as 'B' in a grinder adding as little water as possible and keep aside.

Heat the ghee which was used to fry onions, and add  all the spices  labeled  as 'C' in the same order mentioned, and let splutter. The spices are added whole without powdering them so that the chicken gravy does not look too dark. But if you cannot stand biting into a spice, then dry roast them till aromatic, and grind them. And add them with masala powders labeled 'D'.

Add the ground onion paste (B) and saute for a few minutes. To this, add all the masala powders labeled as 'D' and saute again for a minute.

Add the chicken and mix well, so that it is well coated with the ground paste and powdered masala.

After a minute, add all ingredients labeled 'E' and mix well. Cover and cook on a low heat till the chicken is well done, and there is about a cup and half of gravy remaining.

Rice

Wash and soak rice for about 30 minutes. Drain off the water.

Boil 12 cups of water. Add sufficient salt to this water.

Heat ghee in a large pan, and add pepper, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and let the spices splutter. Add mint, coriander leaves and rice and saute well on a low flame for 3-4 minutes. To this, add boiling water and bring the rice to boil. Let it simmer till rice is little more than half cooked. Drain off excess water. Spread out the rice on a tray and cool under a fan, so that the rice does not stick together.

Layering

Choose a vessel large enough to hold the rice and chicken together. Grease the vessel with ghee. Spread out some rice as the first layer. Top this with some fried onions, raisins, cashew nuts and few drops of ghee. Next spread out a few pieces of chicken along with gravy. Repeat this process till everything is used up, ensuring that the top most layer is rice. You could reserve some of the fried onions, cashews and raisins for garnishing.

Baking

Cover the vessel, and seal the lid with metal paper clips. This would prevent the steam from escaping, thus baking the biriyani. Cook on low heat for about 15 -20 minutes.

If you overcook the rice accidentally, then skip the baking process. Instead, layer the rice and meat, and heat in a micro wave oven for around 8 minutes, with your dish loosely covered with its lid.

Hot biriyani is served with raita, pappadam and lemon pickle in my part of the world. Enjoy...!!!

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Kuthari Chor, loved by all malayalees

The first day before college began, a few girls chose to stay in PRV hostel, one of the many hostels meant for engineering students in Chengannur. Most of these girls befriended each other and when college authorities said that they might have to close down the college Ladies Hostel or L.H due to low occupancy, all these friends decided to move into the hostel dormitory and an adjacent room. The dormitory, not preferred by most people, was a blessing for us, because this gave us sufficient space to sit together and chat. Our frienship grew strong over the years, and continues to do so, thanks to the internet and easy means of communication. Not a single days goes by, when one of us does not drop the entire group a line, mostly resulting in chain mailing, that could go on for hours, like the good old college days. During the initial years, we talked about our jobs, new experiences away from home, a sale we went to, a delicious sandwich we ate, a new shade of lipstick one of us tried on. Gradually, the topics changed to things like married life, in laws (this is a very interesting one), house work, new recipes tried, baby diaper changing etc etc.

After one of my good friends, S, got married recently, the topics of dicussion once again focused on honeymoon :) and cooking. A few days back, she wanted to know how many cups of water was required to cook rice. This transported me back a couple of years when I had asked my mom the same question. After all, kuthari chor or brown rice is loved by all malayalees, and it is essential to cook it perfectly. And I use my mom's cooking gas saving technique, with the result I have non sticky, perfectly cooked rice every time.

Wash two cups of rice grains thoroughly in the vessel in which you intend to cook it. This is something my two year old and I enjoy doing together, with him seated on the kitchen countertop. Pour water into the vessel till it is three quarters full. Boil for a few minutes with the lid on. Then turn off the fire and clip the lid to the vessel with a few strong metal clips. You could use metal paper clips for this. This keeps the steam within the vessel, and the rice cooks in this heat, saving on your cooking gas bills. After 2 to 3 hours, the rice should be cooked. Add more water if required, boil once more for a few minutes, and drain off excess water to reduce starch content. This should be sufficient to serve four people.

I prefer to not use a pressure cooker to cook rice, unless I am really short of time, because it is difficult to monitor the extent to which rice is cooked this way. If using a pressure cooker, add 3 cups of water for every cup of rice grains. About 4 whistles should be enough, but this would vary depending on the rice you are using. Drain off excess water.

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Egg Roast Curry

My great uncle was a magistrate and one of the most educated people in his village. This endeared him to the fathers of girls of marriageable age. He was handsome too, and so the mothers and the girls thought he was a very eligible bachelor as well :). And if he ever had to visit any of these homes,  he was most often welcomed with a bowl of eggs. What better way to enter a man's heart than through his stomach. And I am not surprised at the choice of "refreshment" served, because most people seem to love eggs. What I love most about them is that they are so versatile, they can be fried, baked, scrambled, they can used in numerous recipes to serve different purposes, and they can be had at any time of the day. Maybe god's intention of creating the egg was to help the busy woman cook a quick meal.

One of my favourite egg recipes is an egg roast curry which is a regular breakfast dish at home. I have brought down the spice level, and increased the quantity of tomatoes; otherwise I am using the same recipe my mother shared with me. I call it an egg roast curry, though there is no actual roasting of egg involved, because that's what we call it at home. I just hard boil the egg and add it to a spicy gravy.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1.  4 hard boiled eggs
2.  2 onions chopped into thin, long slices
3.  3 tomatoes chopped into thin, long slices
4.  4 green chilies slit length wise
5.  3 heaped tsp red chili powder
6.  ½ tsp turmeric powder
7.  ¾ tbsp ginger finely chopped
8.  ¾ tbsp garlic finely chopped
9.  3 cardamom, 3 cloves, 1 inch cinnamon, 1 tbsp fennel seeds
10.  2 tsp pepper corns, coarsely ground
11.  3 tbsp oil
12.  salt, to taste

Method:

De shell eggs and cut into half, length wise.

Heat oil in a pan. Add cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and fennel seeds in this order and let them splutter for a few seconds. Saute onions till they have become tender and then add ginger, garlic and green chilies and continue sauteing for a few more minutes.

Reduce heat and add chili powder and turmeric powder. Fry for a few seconds till the onions are coated well with the spice powders.

Add the tomatoes and cook till they are very soft and mushy. Add salt and pepper and mix well.

You could add the eggs after taking them off the fire. Or else add them to the gravy and heat for some time, mixing everything together, taking care that the eggs do not crumble.

Egg roast goes well with idiyappam (rice hoppers) and even bread and makes a very satisfying breakfast.

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Crave Chinese? Try Saucy Chinese Paneer !!!

I have heard that authentic Chinese food tastes quite different from what we get from Chinese restaurants in India. But I am not about to complain, because I love Indo-Chinese cuisine. And last week, a craving for Chinese food hit me, but since no one wanted to go out, I decided to try something at home. I browsed through a few recipes and found that most Chinese dishes with an Indian touch have soya sauce, chili sauce, tomato sauce and MSG!!! And luckily, I had all of these in my kitchen, and I found some paneer in my refrigerator, so saucy (Chinese) paneer it was going to be.

Ingredients:
200 grm paneer cubed
2 onions, cubed
1 capsicum cubed
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 tbsp chopped garlic
3 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp green chili sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp sugar
1 cube chicken/vegetable stock cube, powdered
½ tsp MSG (optional, for the restaurant flavour)
1 ½ tbsp cornflour
1 cup water
Salt to taste
2 tbsp oil
Spring onions, to garnish

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and add sugar. Once the sugar has browned, fry ginger and garlic till aromatic. Toss in onions, and sauté till they are tender. Add chili powder and fry for a few seconds on low heat. Add all the sauces, chicken/vegetable stock, MSG (if using) and salt and mix well. All sauces and tastemakers contain salt, so be careful about the amount of salt you use. Add paneer and fry for a few seconds. Mix the cornflour in water, so that there are no lumps and add this to the pan and mix everything together. Boil for a couple of minutes and finally toss in the capsicum. Heat well till the capsicum, sprinkle over spring onions and serve with hot rice.

You can increase the amount of chili powder, or use green chilies if you want more fire in your dish. You can substitute paneer with tofu if you like it.

Enjoy!

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Uppumavu - Kottayam Style

Like all newly married women, I was eager to impress my husband with my culinary skills. He did not seem very confident that I possessed any such skill, and I do not blame him, because he knew I went to the kitchen only when I caught a whiff of something delicious cooking and wanted to satisfy the subsequent hunger pangs.


Cooking did look simple when my mother did it, considering she did not spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but successfully produced yummy meals. Reassured by the ease with which my mom cooked, and armed with “Kerala Cookery “ by Mrs K.M Mathew, I set off to make my first ever breakfast of uppumavu and steamed plantains. I followed the recipe to the letter, hoping to end up with the delicious sweet dish that my mom made, but the end result resembled a disastrous porridge. I was familiar with this genre of uppumavu, having stayed as a paying guest in ernakulam for a couple of months. But I disliked it wholeheartedly, and anyway, it was supposed to be eaten with chutney, not steamed plantain!!! And worse still, my husband had never even seen “porridgy” uppumavu before, and remarked that it looked slightly different…He sportingly ate some, but I could not muster up the courage to do the same and it sadly ended up in the trash can.

What followed was a discussion with mom on phone, on my way to office. And it was concluded that I had added twice the amount of water than was required. My only consolation was that a lot of people would have enjoyed the uppumavu I made, though I was not one among them.

Below is the recipe of the uppumavu as my mom makes it.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup rava
2. 2 tbsp ghee(clarified butter)/butter
3. 1 tsp mustard seeds
4. 1 small onion finely chopped
5. 1 tsp ginger finely chopped
6. 2 green chillies chopped
7. 1 cup water
8. A few curry leaves
9. Salt to taste

Method

Heat a tablespoon of ghee/butter in a wok. Add rava and fry till you start getting the aroma of the fried rava. Keep this rava aside.

Heat the remaining ghee/butter in the same wok. Add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the chopped onion and sauté. When onion changes colour, sauté chopped ginger, green chillies and curry leaves as well . Add water and let it boil. Add salt and mix well. While the water is bubbling, add the rava slowly, mixing all the time, so that no lumps are formed.

 Enjoy with steamed plantain, sugar and ghee.

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Steamed Plantain

Plantains are so common in Kerala that we have found numerous ways to cook it, both in its raw and ripe states. Fritters, pancakes, bondas, chips and the list goes on. Plantains are loaded with nutrients, and I think the healthiest version would be to simply steam it. Cut off the top and bottom ends of the plantain, and make two slits into it, one along the entire length of the plantain and another in the middle in a perpendicular direction. And steam the plantains for around 20 minutes till it is completely cooked. A well ripened plantain would cook faster, so time accordingly.


And unlike most health foods, this one is quite delicious, something that both adults and kids would enjoy as a snack or for breakfast.

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