Moong bean with raw plantain

This is a thick curry , which usually plays the side role on our lunch plates back home, with a thinner fish, dal or yougurt based curry as the lead star. Nothing fancy about this wholesome curry, be it in the ingredients or in the cooking. I think 'rustic' would be an apt word to describe it.

One raw plantain, cubed
1/4 cup moon beans , soaked for half an hour
Shredded coconut, 2 T
2 green chillies
Jeera , 1/4 tsp
Garlic , 1 clove
salt

Put the plantains and moong beans in a pressure cooker and pour enough water just to cover them(soaking the dal is not necessary, but it makes the dal a whole lot softer). Pressure cook on medium to high heat until two whistles and then cook on low heat for 15 minutes. Grind coconut, chillies, jeera and garlic coarsely, and add to the cooked dal and plantain with enough salt, and bring it to a boil. There, your very rustic plantain-dal curry is ready.

If you are a fish-fanatic like me, you can add some small fishto this curry. Back home, my mom usually adds cuttle fish or sardines, and it simply lifts up the curry to another level. Clean up the fish and place it on top of the plantain-dal in the cooker and cook as explained above. After cooking, carefully take out the fish and remove the flesh from the bones , discard the bones and mash up the fish into the mixture nicely. I used canned sardines this time to cut off the picking fish part. All you have to do is to mash the canned sardines with a fork and add to the cooked curry .

Easy-dinner : foil-wrapped baked salmon and penne with vegetables

These days I am on the look for simple and healthy recipes that doesn't need a lot of watching over the pot. This baked salmon and pasta dinner meets all the requirements and tastes wonderful too.

Wash and pat dry the salmon fillets. Mix together fresh parsley or rosemary or any herb you fancy(fresh herbs give the best results), minced garlic, a little lime or lemon juice, a pinch of freshly crushed black pepper, salt and rub it on the salmon fillets. Add a dab of butter on each fillet and wrap each fillet in foil. Place then on a baking dish and bake in apre-heated oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. This way the fish remains flavorful and very tender. Time saver tip : line the baking dish with foil so that juices running out of the wraps will not mess up your dish. I usually marinate the fish fillets in the morning, cover them in foil and leave them in the fridge.

Pasta :

One cup penne pasta

1 zucchini, sliced

1 cup white mushrooms, sliced

1 large tomato, diced and crushed

1 clove garlic, minced

1 spring onion, chopped

a pinch of crushed dry chilli

a little parsley, chopped

Olive oil , 1 tablespoon

Cook and drain the pasta. Meanwhile heat the oil in a large pan, add minced garlic and dry chilli flakes, throw in the mushrooms and spring onion and leave it until the mushrooms are fairly done. Now add the tomato and salt and simmer for three to four minutes. In goes the zucchini and parsley, and when the zucchini is done -this should take just two or three minutes- add the drained pasta and mix well and serve hot.

Fiery Tales : Moluttathu with kappa

Thankfully, recreating the tastes of home doesn't always mean hours spent in the kitchen chopping, slicing, stirring and watching over the pot. This fish curry, endearingly called Moluttathu or Moliyar ( molaku meaning chilly) around Malabar region is so easy to make and such a tease for your tongue that it is a daily fare in most of the homes around the region. A yellow coconut based curry, a red moluttathu, two or three sides of colorful vegetables, our lunches back home always have been colorful.This curry can be made with a wide variety of fish, but smaller fish like sardine, mackeral, silver belly fish are more commonly used.

Ingredients :

Half an onion , sliced
One tomato, sliced
An inch piece of ginger, crushed
One or two cloves of garlic, crushed

One green chilli, slit length wise

Two teaspoons chilli powder

Half teaspoon turmeric powder

A pinch of powdered fennel seeds

Salt

fish of your choice

juice of a lemon sized piece of tamarind

Simply put together all these, except the fish and the tamarind juice in a sauce pan or pot , mix it up nicely with your hand giving it a squeeze or two, pour the tamarind juice and bring it to a boil. Add the fish pieces, reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Make a tadka of fenugreek seeds, one or two small red onions sliced and curry leaves, and pour it over the curry. That's it, no grinding, no sauteing, no stirring. Enjoy the curry with a rice-dal combination, or with kappa.

Today we had mullan moluttathu and kappa for lunch. Mullan (silver belly fish)being a small bony fish, you actually spend more time picking up the delicate flesh from the bones and eating the dish than cooking the curry; perfect for a day when you don't want to spend too much of your time and energy in the kitchen and yet want a nostalgia inducing meal.

Mullan or Silver belly fish


A fiery fish curry and kappa, my entry for RCI: cuisine of kerala event.

Yucca root with Fish Curry (kappa -meen varattiyathu)

Yucca root is called kappa or kollikizhangu in Malayalam. This vegetable is widely grown in Kerala; being inexpensive and an excellent source of dietary fiber and carbohydrates it is a boon to the poor. Kappa and sardine curry is one of the most popular dishes of Kerala, from a poor man’s hut to a five star hotel, this combo has won hearts always.





The very first meal I shared with my other half was a kappa and sardine curry from a small roadside eatery at Waynad, on our first date. The scenery was mesmerizing; mist covered blue hills in the distance, meandering streams, refreshing greenery- the perfect setting to fall in love. And we did, both of us fell head over heels in love with kappa and sardine curry. Today we tried yucca root with a whiting fish curry, and learnt that yucca root can never disappoint you when paired with any fiery fish curry. Here's my entry to Meenakshi's 'from my rasoi-february' event.




Yucca root
When life’s steely edge gash you,
You can Lean on me .




Kappa (for two)

Yucca root: about 2 lb ,remove the hard skin and cut into small pieces
mustard seeds : 1/4 t
Scraped coconut: 1 T
Dry red chilies: 3/4
Curry leaf: 4/5
A little turmeric powder and salt
Oil : 1 t

Take the cut yucca in a pot, fill enough water to cover the yucca, add turmeric and salt and let boil, until the pieces are thoroughly cooked, and can be easily pierced by a fork.
In another pan, season oil with mustard seeds, dry read chilies, and curry leaves. Add this to the yucca along with the coconut, and mix well.

Fish Curry / Meen varattiyathu

This recipe is very similar to the chemmen varattiyathu.

Any fish : 1 ilb
Tamarind paste : ½ cup
Chili powder : 4 t
Turmeric powder : ½ t
Fenugreek : ¼ t
Onion, sliced : 1 quarter
Green chili : 1
Ginger –garlic paste : 1 t
Curry leaf : 4-5
Water : 1 cup
Oil : 4 T

Heat oil, fry the fenugreek for a couple of minutes.

Add onion, ginger, and garlic and sauté until transparent. Add green chilies, curry leaf, and masala powders and let fry until the raw smell is gone.

Pour tamarind paste, and water. Bring to a boil. Add the fish pieces, and salt. Cover and cook until the fish is well done, and the curry is fairly thick.Serve hot with cooked yucca.