biriyani is my all time favourates. this recipe was given to me by a hyderabadi friend. friends this is awesome. you should try this. and lots of thanx to mrs raju who gave me this authentic recipe!!!!

ingredients

rice- 1 kg

chicken- 1 kg

salt- as per taste

juice of 4 lemon

pudina and coriander leaves chopped- 3 bunches each

green chillies chopped- 50 gms

turmeric pdr- 1/4th tsp

chilly pdr- 1 tsp

garam masala- 1tbs

curd- 250 gms

garlic- ginger paste- 2tbs

onion sliced- 3 nos

oil- for deep frying

marinade the chicken pieces for 30 min with all the ingredients except rice and onions.

deep fry the onion slices in oil till brown and crispy.

par cook the rice with salt and drain the water.

in a big kadai, place the chicken pieces and top it with rice. but should not mix both. top it with fried onions. make a pit on the rice with a spoon and pour the oil in which the onions were fried. close the lid of kadai and cook in low- medium flame for 20 mins. if the chicken is tender it takes 20 mins to cook. when the chicken is done you can add yellow food color if you want. slowly mix the rice and chicken and serve hot.

idichakka thoran

raw jackfruit-1 small one peeled, diced, boiled with salt and turmeric and mashed without draining water. (use very little water for boiing. you need to pressure cook the jackfruit)

coconut grated- 1 cup

green chillies- 5-6 nos

garlic- 5-6 nos

onion-1 small

for garnishing- mustard seeds, curry leaves and dried red chillies

coconut oil- 2 tbs

grind together coconut, chillies, onion and garlic without adding water. grind coarsely.

heat oil in a kadai and add the seasoning ingredients one by one.

then add boiled and mashed jackfruit and coconut mix and salt.

mix well. cover the lid and cook on low flame for 5 mins.

then cook till the water content dries up with the lid open on a medium flame.

vendakka pachadi

bhindi- 1/2 kg- finely sliced

coconut grated- 1 cup

sour curd- 3/4 kg

salt- as per taste

coconut oil-5 tbs

green chillies- 6-7 nos

mustard seeds- 1 tsp

red chillies- 1 or 2 broken into two pieces

curry leaves- few

fry the ladies finger in oil till crispy.

grind together coconut, curd and green chillies to a fine paste.

pour the curd mix and salt to the fried ladies finger and bring it to a boil.

in a pan heat some coconut oil. add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. then add red chillies and curry leaves and season this in the prepared veg.

ishtu

potatoes- 1/2 kg, boiled, peeled and diced

green chillies-4-5 nos slit

ginger chopped- 1 tsp

curry leaves- few

coconut milk- extracted from 1 large coconut.( in this recipe you require the first and second milk of the coconut. if you are using the coconut milk powder you need 1 cup of thick milk and 1/2 cup of thin milk.)

coconut oil -1 tbs

onion-1 large sliced

salt- as per taste

pour the thin milk or second milk of coconut to thepotato pieces along with ginger,onions,and chillies. cook on high flame till the coconut milk dries up. add salt and thick coconut milk and bring it to boil. turn off the stove and season it with curry leaves and coconut oil.=[-9o

payasam

unakkalari ( small grained rice)-250 gms

coconut milk- extracted from 7 large coconuts. you require both the thick and thin milk.

jaggery- 1 kg

cashew nuts, kismis, badam-50 gms each

ghee- 2 tbs

cardomom pdr- 10-12 nos

coconut pieces-1/2 cup( chopped into very small pieces)

boil rice with water.

melt jaggery in 1/2 lt water and seive it. pour this to boiled rice and cook on high flame. continue cooking it till the jaggery syrup reduce to half.

grate coconut and extract three milks from it.

add third milk or thin milk of coconut to the rice jaggery mix.

(extract the milk from these coconut by adding luke warm water and blending it in a mixer and seive it. this thick milk is the first milk. put the coconut sediments back to the mixer, again add luke warm water and blend and seive it. this time you get a thin milk and this is called the second milk. like this you have to extract a 3rd milk also from the sediment)

cook till the 3rd milk is reduced to 1/4 th.

then add the second milk and cook till its reduced to 1/2.

finally add the first milk or the thick milk and just bring it to boil and turn off the stove.

heat ghee in a pan and fry the coconut pieces, and dry fruits seperately.

add this to the payasam along with cardamom pdr and stir well.

serve hot or chilled.

my vishu sadhya

i celebrated our new year 2010(vishu) at shillong. celebrating your traditional festival far away from your home is a difficult task. but i wanted to celebrate vishu with sadhya and vishukani as my children will come to know about our festivals, culture and tradition. there will be some flaws in your preparation due to the unavailability of various things. but still we managed to make vishu a grand success. but we really missed everybody out there in our home town- the bond and unity and of course the fire crackers. the vishukani we made was without the kanikonna and kanivellari, the most important thing in the vishukani. these things are not available in northeast. the preparation of sadhya was also challenging. the avial was without yam. i could'nt make pineapple pachadi too because april and may are the only two months in which pineapple is not available in shillong. finally our sadhya had mango pulissery, ishtu, vendakka pachadi, idichakka thoran, avial and unakkalari payasam. i brought the rice for payasam from kerala. after working in kitchen for continuous 3-4 hrs the sadhya will be obviously tasty- it has to be.

choclate beer cake

i came across this recipe from a lifestyle magazine (i dont remember which magazine! may be 'women's era') from our college library. i jotted it immediately on my copy, but i baked this cake yesterday (8 yrs after jotting it down). my kids love cake. they love to cut it by blowing a candle and singing birthday song rather than eating it!!!.so every time i bake a cake ,i have to put some icing and decoration on it as my children wont compromise on a 'b'day' cake without icing and of course glaced cherries. the original recipe was a plain beer cake, but i did some elaboration to satisfy my" crazy "kids.

ingredients for the cake

flour-4 tbs

coaco pdr-4 tbs

sugar-8tbs

eggs-4 nos

oil/butter-6 tbs

baking powder-1 tsp

beer-1/2 cup

sift together for 4-5 times, the flour,baking pdr & coaco.

beat eggs for 10 mins.

beat sugar & oil/butter till fluffy. add beaten eggs and mix well.

fold in the dry ingredients.

pour the beer. mix well.

pour the batter to an 8'' greased cake tin.

pre heat oven at 170 degrees.

bake the cake for 25 mins.

cool the cake in a wire rack.

this cake is a little bitter in taste with the tinge of beer .

i made a little modifications to the recipe. after cooling the cake in room temp. i cut it into two layers. in a pan heat 1 tbs white butter and add 3tsp of coaco and stir for few secs. turn off the flame and add 1/4 tin of condensed milk. spread this 'icing' on one layer of the cake while it still hot and top it with the second layer of the cake. i coated the top layer of the cake with ready made choclate fudge sauce. i took 4-5 tsp of the sauce and heated in the microwave for 20 secs.then i coated the top layer with it and placed few glaced cherries on it. serve chilled. it's yummy.