Kurisappam or Pesaha Appam #coronatime

This is being posted really late but I don't want to wait another year when I may or may not get a chance to make it again. Easter came and went rather quietly this year but I am grateful to have had the chance, time and mindset to watch all the masses and observe some dear customs like making this 'appam' for the first time. I really liked the services streamed from SS Peter & Paul Church Portaloise Ireland. Maybe because they were a web presence before Covid19 the service was catered to online viewers with clarity of sound and a prayerful ambience. I did find Pope's extraordinary blessing Urbi  Et Orbi quite moving too.

Kids were quite surprised when I talked about this tradition since they never had a chance to see it before. To be honest, as a kid this tradition felt more like part of a religious ritual that took place at home rather than a food event. That happened on the actual Easter day with crisp and soft flat appams and my mom's special chicken curry. This was more of a solemn occasion when my grandfather would cut the appam with the cross (kurisu) after prayers and distribute it to everyone around the table. A small piece of turmeric which we called the 'treasure' was hidden in the appam at the time of cooking and whoever found it in their slice was considered to have received a lot of luck for the coming year. I didn't do that this year though. The focus was just on making the 'appam' at least this once. Hoping for a chance next year to make this again.

The meal with this 'appam' is to commemorate Christ's last supper and the 'appam' represents the unleavened passover bread. There was a drink called 'paal' or milk which was made out of coconut milk to represent wine which I didn't do this time. Memories of my sister and me came calling. We started off the day by singing the 'puthen pana' about the 'unleavened bread a,k,a puliyathappam' which then was picked up next morning on Good Friday about Mother Mary's sorrow on her son's fate. This was almost continuous during the day with others joining in as needed. Along with the 'kurisappam' which is steamed separately, there were appams of the same genre steamed in banana leaves for general consumption.

My oldest sister had sent a recipe that was most similar to what we had at home and I also referred an old cookbook as well as many food vlogs out there. It's been so long that I am not sure if I really got the authentic taste but it came out better than expected. Planning to try this recipe from Mia's kitchen next year since that batter texture looks more familiar.

In The Mix
roasted rice powder - 1 cup
urad dal - 1/4 cup (fried for 2-3 min and soaked for 2 hours)
grated coconut - 1 cup
shallots - 2
garlic - 1 cloves
cumin seeds - 1 tsp
water - as needed for grinding

How To Do

Add water to rice powder and combine well together. Grind urad dal and add to the rice mix. Grind coconut, shallots, cumin and garlic and add to the prepared mix. Try to add as little water as possible. This is where I may have gone wrong a bit since the consistency was not as familiar. It should be coarse and thick. Check salt as needed. Set aside for 30 minutes. Do not let it rise because after all, this is unleavened bread.

Pour batter into a greased steel pan/plate with straight sides. I used olive oil to grease but may use coconut oil next time. Place a cross on top of the batter using two strips of the palm leaf from palm Sunday.

Boil water in a larger pan with a steamer insert at the bottom. Idli steamer is good if the pan can fit inside. Once the water starts boiling, place the pan with batter into it, cover and steam for about 15-20 minutes. Appam is done once a fork or toothpick comes out clean.

I had made some 'kozhukkatta' too to make up for not doing that on palm Sunday the previous weekend as demanded by tradition.

Easy Banana Bonda #coronatime

I like to call it the banana nut bread of Kerala. Even the kids decided to give it a try when I called it by this name and liked it too! A perennial presence inside the glass cabinets of local tea shops in Kerala, this snack was my favorite over the equally good looking 'neyyappam'. Of course bonda cannot compete with the ever popular and crowd pleasing parippu vada or pazham pori. But every snack deserves its day and that day has finally arrived. And what unprecedented and trying days these are!

No matter who you talk to, where you look, the problems are the same. The entire world is on its knees because of a tiny organism.  Economies have ground to a halt and people are prisoners in their own homes. I pray that this shall soon pass from us.

On the good side of this global pandemic is the fact that all four of us are under the same roof again after my son leaving for college. Kids are schooling from home now and parents are working from home. Cooking for a full house with minimized options for buying out when also working full time is quite the challenge. I am sure this is not just my problem. I was like fish out for water the first 2-3 weeks. But now we have found our rhythm and I also find that one can be quite creative with minimum resources. And old habits shed easily in face of challenges. I no longer have any issues with bread kept in the fridge and small leftover pieces of ginger are plastic wrapped and saved for another time instead of just dumping it etc.

 Going out for groceries is akin to hunting for food where masks and sanitizer sprays are your weapons. The triumph you feel on scoring a carton of eggs or a gallon of milk before the hoarders find them is unparalleled. So also is that great feeling when at the dot of 12.00PM you are able to click into a grocery delivery slot at Amazon before it disappears in front of your eyes. Then comes the de-sanitizing regimen developed more for our peace of mind than anything else. Once the delivery person leaves the stuff at the door step, we wear gloves and bring it all inside the garage. Non-perishables are left in the garage where they stay until 24 hours for paper packaged items like snack boxes and 3 days for plastic covered items like bread and bagels. Milk, chicken and other packed perishables are sanitized with wipes and washed in cold water and dried before putting them in the fridge. Fresh vegetables are dropped contact free into a clean bag or container before refrigerating. Eggs go through their own special regimen where each gets sanitized, washed, dried and kept in clean used cartons. Peel-able fruits like oranges and bananas are just allowed to stay in a specific area in the garage for a while before bringing them in. Some bananas end up with those dreaded black spots all over with no one vying to consume them. These were used to make banana nut bread which is a favorite breakfast/snack around here.

With youtube vloggers picking up the slack during this global shutdown there is no dearth of good food vlogs. It is this vlog by Rani of salt & pepper that provided the inspiration and recipe for this bonda a.k.a undam pori. It seems very close to unniyappam which is better shaped I think.  So it was that the 2 over ripe bananas with no takers in the kitchen got transformed into these yummy snacks. I made some minor recipe changes based on what was available in the house.

In The Mix

over ripe bananas - 2 or 3
all purpose flour - 1 cup plus 1 or 2 tbsp

jaggery/sarkara or dark brown sugar - enough to make about 1 cup syrup
water - 1/4 cup
cardamom - 3
cumin - a pinch
ginger - 1/4" or less
salt - a pinch
grated coconut/coconut flakes or powder - 1-2 tbsp

option 1 rising agent

rapid rise yeast - 1 tsp
warm water - 2 or 3 tsp
sugar - 1/4 tsp

option 2 rising agent

baking soda - 1 tsp

oil -  1/2 cup or as needed

How To Do

Crush jaggery to 1/2" sized pieces for easy dissolving, add to 1/4 cup water and set on medium heat to make a syrup.

Crush cardamom, cumin and ginger and add in and stir all together. Once liquified, reduce a bit, drain and set aside to cool.

Add yeast and sugar to warm water and mix well together if using this option. No need for it to rise. 

Peel the bananas and mash all together and add the syrup. Now add in all purpose flour and mix together for a bit thicker than banana nut bread like consistency. Add in the yeast mix or baking soda. Add or reduce flour as needed.  Add a pinch of salt and coconut flakes and gently fold all together. The best feature of this recipe is that it can be made right away.

Heat oil in a pan on medium high heat. Take some batter in a spoon shape/fold it in with another spoon and gently drop into the oil once it is hot. There should be enough oil to cover more than half of the batter ball. Turn over once when sides brown and set aside to drain on paper towels. Yum😋

Lamb Biriyani with Raita: Instapot

My Instapot is a 3qt size so as to co-exist peacefully with the rest of the kitchen gadgets that reside on the countertop to make our everyday lives a bit easier. This has not stopped it from being the modern akshayapatra of our household. There is nothing it cannot do on its own! This week it was time for some lamb biriyani. I started off thinking I can use the same recipe used in the chicken biriyani version of last week. How naive was I! Lamb is a whole different animal both literally and figuratively. It has a different cooking time so to match that with the cooking time for rice, a marinate step is essential. Reading a few recipe blogs helped me to decide on a course of action most comfortable for me.

This time the steps were from spicecravings where I also picked up an easy way to sauté/caramelize the onions for this recipe. Essentially I followed what I did for the chicken biriyani for flavors etc and followed most of the steps from spicecravings for the actual cooking. Results were outstanding! I don't know if I'll want to eat out for biriyani anymore when I have my own personal biriyani pot😊

In the Mix

lamb - 1.25 to 1.5 lbs cut into medium sized pieces. 
(beef can also be substituted for lamb)

basmati rice - 2.5 cups

water - 2.25 cups

mint leaves - 1/2 cup chopped

cilantro leaves - 1/2 cup chopped

ghee - 1.5tbsp

olive oil - 4-5 tbsp

for garnish and cooking

cashew nuts - optional

raisins - 1/4 cup

1/2 big onion

shallots - 6

addon -1

cloves - 6

cardamoms - 5

black pepper corns - 1.5 tsp
garlic - 8 pods
ginger - 1.25" thin piece


addon -2
kalajeera - 1.5 tsp (or shahjeera)
cinnamon stick - 3/4 crushed
bay leaf -1
bombay biryani masala - 2 tbsp
salt to taste

addon-3
green chillies - 5 sliced

addon-4

garam masala - 1.5 tsp

turmeric - 1/2 tsp

paprika/kashmiri chili -3-4 tsp

How To Do

Cut the lamb to medium sized pieces, wash and set aside. I had about 50:50 ratio of bone-in to boneless pieces. 

In a pestle, crush all items from addon-1 in that order. Cloves, cardamom, pepper, ginger, garlic. Transfer to a bowl, add the meat pieces along with all items from addon-2. Kalajeera, cinnamon stick, bayleaf, biriyani masala and mix well together. Add salt to taste and marinate overnight in fridge or at least 1-2 hours for better results.  Before cooking, take the meat out and  keep at room temp for at least 30 minutes.

Soak the rice for 20-30 minutes, drain and set aside.

Turn on oven to 425 degrees and wait for it to reach temperature. Mix the onions and shallots with salt, 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tbsp ghee and spread on a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes stirring in between making sure the onions don't get burnt. Reserve half of the onions for cooking and keep the rest to be used later for garnish.

Turn on the sauté function of the instapot, add 1 tbsp of ghee and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the raisins until they swell up, then the cashew nuts if using and keep with the onions set aside for garnishing.

Add 1-2 tbsp more of olive oil to the instapot pan and sauté the green chili from addon-3. sauté for 1-2 minutes, then mix in the reserved onions, add salt as needed and sauté for another 1-2 minutes. Check and make sure that the sauté function is still on while this is going on.

Now add the meat mix and sauté well on both sides for 4-5 minutes. Always check the bottom of the pan and scrape with a wooden spoon to make sure that there is no sticking to the bottom while sautéing. Now add items from addon-4 garam masala, paprika, turmeric and mix well together for 2-3 minutes. Check salt.

Spread rice on top, add water and check salt for taste. Do not mix but make sure the meat stays below the water level. Sprinkle mint and cilantro leaves on top. Close the lid and pressure cook on high for 7 minutes. Pressure release at normal for 10 minutes and release any remaining pressure manually. 

Now mix lamb and rice together into a serving dish, garnish with raisins and onions and enjoy endlessly with papads and raita.

All I can say is that the magic pot is here to stay.

Raita

I realized that I have not posted how to make raita anywhere. 

Need the following:

   big red inion - 1 sliced this

   carrot - 1 small diced to small pieces

   tomato - 1 medium diced to small pieces

   1-2 green chillies - sliced to thin disks

   cilantro - 1 tbsp chopped

   salt to taste

   vinegar to taste

   yogurt - enough to mix up the above

Take the onion in a bowl, generously pour vinegar and salt and mix/squeeze all well together. Wash/drain with cold water. Now check salt and vinegar and add both just enough to taste. To this add carrot, tomato, cilantro and green chilies and mix well together. Add in enough yogurt to cover all, check salt again  and enjoy with biriyani of any kind. 

Chicken Biriyani Instapot Edition

Like the air-fryer, instapot is another invention of the decade that has impacted how my kitchen activities evolved. Biriyani while highly palatable, had always evoked the image of a labor intensive dish in my food prep plans and so it never made it into a regular menu item. That is, until Mr. Instapot took a foothold on the crowded kitchen counter.

It was an uninspiring Monday of a lazy  3-day weekend and I was walking around musing on dinner ideas for the coming week. Too lazy to go to the grocery store and equally lazy to wash dishes. That is when the idea that has struck many a harried mother the world over occurred to me too. Make something with whatever is in the kitchen. Being an engineer by profession, I'd say laying out and executing a project plan is way easier than coming up with a dish plan on a whim. Not a natural cook by any means, I found that food videos and blogs inspire the latent cook in me. So watching and reading is what I did.

I had chicken legs at home and rice and the instapot too. I liked Vahchef's idea of a flavorful chicken biriyani in a cooker and myheartbeet's instapot steps were well laid out and precise. Decided to combine both with a bit of overlap in flavors and steps and voi-la born the biriyani that hitherto will be a constant go to product, er dish in my humble kitchen.

In the Mix

chicken legs - 6 

basmati rice - 2 cups

water - 2 cups

mint leaves - 1/2 cup chopped

cilantro leaves - 1/2 cup chopped

ghee - 1tbsp

olive oil - 3 tbsp

for garnish

cashewnuts - optional

raisins

2 shallots

addon -1

cloves - 4

cardamoms - 3

black pepper corns - 1 tsp
garlic - 5 pods
ginger - 3/4" thin piece


addon -2
kalajeera - 1 tsp (or shahjeera)
cinnamon stick - 1/2 crushed
bay leaf -2
biryani masala - 1 heaped tbsp
salt to taste

addon-3
green chillies - 5 sliced

shallots - 6 sliced thin

addon-4

garam masala - 1 heaped tsp

turmeric - 1/4 tsp

paprika/kashmiri chili -2 to 3 tsp

How To Do

Soak the rice for 20-30 minutes, drain and set aside.

Halve each of the chicken legs, wash and set aside.

In a pestle, crush all items from addon-1 in that order. Cloves, cardamom, pepper, ginger, garlic.

Transfer to a bowl, add the meat pieces along with all items from addon-2.

Kalajeera, cinnamon stick, bayleaf, biriyani masala and mix well. Add salt to taste and set aside for 30 minutes.

Turn on the saute function of the instapot, add 1 tbsp of ghee and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the raisins until they swell up, then the cashew nuts and set aside. Saute 2 sliced shallots for 4-5 minutes and set aside all for garnishing later.

Add the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil to the instapot pan and add the shallots and green chili from addon-3. Add salt as needed and saute for 6-7 minutes. Check and make sure to select the saute default timer does not get turned off.

Now add the meat mix and saute well on both sides. 6-7 minutes. 

Add items from addon-4 garam, masala, paprika, turmeric and mix well together for 2-3 minutes. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pot so the BURNT won't show up later on. Deglaze with bit of water if needed. Check salt.

Spread rice on top. Add water. Do not mix together. Sprinkle mint and cilantro leaves on top. Close the lid and pressure cook on high for 7 minutes. Pressure release at normal for 10-12 minutes and release any remaining pressure manually. 

Garnish with raisins/cashews and onions, remove to a serving dish and enjoy unashamedly with papads and raita.

Unfortunately picture taking couldn't be done before the dish did its disappearing act. So that will have to wait until it gets made again which can't be that far off going by the glowing reviews.

Thanksgiving Dinner

My son loves Thanksgiving Dinner at home since it means he can have leftovers forever. My daughter is all for it too since this means her meals are more American than Indian.  So regardless of where we dine on thanksgiving day, we always have a turkey dinner at home the next day. Nearby family like H's cousin and family or my nephew may join us sometimes. This year too was not different. After a great time with friends, we regrouped to have our own little TG dinner on Friday. Dinner table was populated with the usual suspects from my tried and tested thanksgiving recipes with some timely adjustments geared towards making the process less complex.

Since dark meat is unpopular at home, I went for a simple turkey breast this time instead of the whole bird.  This was great on many fronts. There was no heavy lifting required to place the turkey in and out of the brine or for cleaning before and after the brine.  As my body is not getting any younger, it appreciated this change the most.  I also realized that any store bought brine mix will do just fine as the main character is salt anyways. On the carving side, H appreciated not having to wrestle with the bird on the cutting board and he carved away like a pro. All in all a win-win with all white meat for the kiddos, easy carving for H and less weight lifting for yours truly.

I didn't make stuffing this time which made the labor of love that much more enjoyable. Conveniently lifted off some leftovers from the friends place. Thought I'll make a list of TG items that I constantly go to for easy reference. Molu or Kannan, I hope you guys are reading this 😍

1. Brine
Store bought brine mix yielded almost similar results to the one made from scratch.

2. Turkey or Turkey breast
Whole turkey is mostly done per Alton Brown's instructions.

Turkey breast:
Used a boneless breast from WholeFoods weighing about 6lbs. Yielded more than enough with leftovers. Brined the same way as the whole turkey. Washed and rinsed and tucked with some fresh herbs like oregano and rosemary after rubbing with canola oil and the rub that came with the brine mix. First cooked at 500 for 25 min for skin color and then cooked covered with foil on top at 350 till inner temp reached 160F. This step took about an hour and a half of additional time. Added a few tbsp of water to the pan before the start of 500C and 350C steps to keep things moist. Keep covered in foil and let rest for 10-15 min before carving.

3. Gravy
Only caveat of having a turkey breast instead of whole turkey was the lack of drippings for a full fledged gravy. Still came out decent with Alton Brown's sure fire recipe that I follow almost to the letter.

4. Stuffing
I didn't make this stuffing this year but I have yet to find a stuffing that is better than this recipe we found on a Williams & Sonoma flyer many years back.

5. Mashed potato
 This mashed potato adapted from PW's has stayed true and delicious every time.

6. Cranberry Sauce
Made from scratch with organic cranberries. Simple and tasty.

7. Corn bread - Marie Callender's organic cornbread mix came out as good as ever.

8. Beans and Asparagus - Toss a bunch of each with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Air fry in 2 to 3 batches for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Done!

9. Hawaiian bread rolls are the favored dinner roll around here.

10. Pie and ice cream make for an ideal dessert on the thanksgiving table. But I think I am the only one who likes to eat the traditional pumpkin pie we can get from Trader Joe's or Boston Market. Hagendaz ice cream on the other hand had a few more takers.

Enjoy!

Air Fryer Banana Fry

I caught 2018 on the tail with the roasted potatoes and so want to be in a bit earlier this year. Culinary habits are quite dynamic in my neck of the woods and the Air Fryer occupies an exalted seat nowadays. Almost everything can be heated in it at 390C for one or two minutes and get awesome results. Even frozen porottas seem to get a new life with its magic touch!

Philips originally adapted the technology to introduce a consumer appliance for heating up french fries but this particular akshayapatra can turn quite a few tricks for the initiated. Latest to this series is that tasty snack which can sail a ship in one's mouth. പഴം പൊരി aka banana fry.😋 Shall we?

In The mix

Ripe banana - 1 (Plantains are the right variety for this)
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

How To Do

Preheat the air fryer at 390C for 3 minutes. Peel and cut the bananas into quarters. You'll get 4 pieces. Slather nicely with coconut oil and place in the air fryer basket. Close and cook for 5 minutes on each side. Wait a few minutes to cool and enjoy this delightful snack. You can sprinkle confectioner's sugar, coconut flakes, honey etc to dress it up but I love it just like this.

Like flowers in spring,  fall leaves paint the world in a myriad of colors.  I leave you with a glimpse of what is around me.

Oven Roasted Potatoes

2018 has been a very busy year but that is not an excuse not to do at least one post! For the life of me I cannot find a picture to go with this roasted potatoes recipe but I am posting anyways. HAunt had sent us an air fryer and I now use that more than the oven. To cook this in the air fryer, use an air fryer basket and bake at 390F (~200C) following the same steps.

Roasted red potatoes are always popular around here. I thought I had a post on this somewhere among the thanksgiving posts but couldn't find it when I was looking for it recently. So this is a must to add it here. As all other oven recipes, this is also easy but not as fast as I'd like it to be. We'll solve  that problem at a later time. Now it it time to record this tried and tested recipe.

In The Mix

Small red or white potatoes - 1 1/2 lbs
Olive oil - 1/8 cup
Kosher salt - 3/4 tsp
Freshly ground black pepper - 1/2 tsp
Garlic cloves, minced - 3 /1 tbsp
Fresh rosemary leaves, minced - 2 tbsp

How To Do

Preheat the oven to 400F. I like using the small toaster oven for this.

Cut the potatoes in half or quarter so all sizes are even. Combine all the above ingredients in a bowl and toss the potatoes until well coated. Place the potatoes in a single layer to a foil lined cookie sheet. Roast for about an hour. Flip every 20 minutes using a spatula for even cooking. Keep an eye during the last 5-10 minutes to avoid over browning.

Let sit for 5-10 minutes and enjoy as a snack or with some form of meat protein to balance out this delicious carb.