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.

rohu in tamarind paste

fish is my all time favourate. i learned to cook fish by seeing my mom cooking it in her kitchen. she cooks excellent fish curry. now i'm staying miles away from my home town, but the taste of my mom's recipe still lingers on my mouth. here in shillong sea fish is a rare sight. but rohu (fresh water fish) is abundant here. so i cook rohu in kerala style.

rohu-1kg sliced

onion-1 large finely chopped

green chillies-6 nos finely chopped

ginger-1tbs finely chopped

garlic-1 pod finely chopped

curry leaves- few

tamarind pulp/paste-3 tbs

coconut oil- 3tbs

methi seeds- 4-5 nos

tomatoes- 3 small finley chopped

chilly pdr-3 tsp

turmeric pdr- 2tsp

salt- as per taste

marinade the fish slices with salt and turmeric.

in a pan heat oil and put methi seeds andallow it to splutter.

add half the onion and fry till crispy.

then add rest of the onion, chilly, garlic,ginger and curry leaves and fry for 2-3 mins on high flame.

add tomatoes and close the lid and cook till the oil seperates.

add chilly pdr and saute for few secs.

add tamarind paste and 2-3 tbs water and boil the gravy.

add fish pieces and 1/4 cup of water and close the lid and cook the fish till tender.

serve hot with steamed rice.

masala brinjal

i was checking my old dairy in which i have jotted some recipes. i came across the bagare baingan recipe and i wanted to make it for dinner.but unfortunately some ingredients were not there. so i cooked it in my own style and named it brinjal masala as it has both masala and brinjals. if you are not satisfied with the name of this recipe you can call it eggplant delight or aubergine surprise etc etc...

brinjals-500gms

poppy seeds- 2tbs

onion seeds- 1tsp

white sesame seeds-1tsp

jeera- 1 tsp

roasted jeera powder- 2tsp

salt- as per taste

tomato- 3nos

onion sliced-1large

garlic ginger paste- 2 tsp

chilly pdr-1tsp

turmeric pdr-1tsp

tamarind pulp-1tbs

coconut, grated- 3tbs

oil-1 cup

dried curry leaves- few

fresh coriander leaves-1 tsp

almonds-5 nos

water- 1 cup

i used the purple thin long brinjals for this curry. i cut each brinjal into 4 long stripes. in a pan dry roast poppy seeds, onion seeds, sesame seeds, coconut, jeera and jeera pdr and keep aside. in a kadai fry onions in 1 tbs oil.in a mixer add the dry roasted spices, fried onions ,tomatoes,dried curry leaves and almonds and grind into a fine paste. dont add water to this mix when you grind. pour the remaining oil in the kadai and add the ground mix and garlic ginger paste and fry for few mins. add salt, chilly and turmeric pdr and cook on low flame till the oil seperates. add water and bring to boil.add brinjal and cook for 5 mins. then add tamarind pulp and simmer for few more mins. garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

easy pudding

me and anil always search for "sweets" after heavy meals. one day we couldn't find anything in our kitchen cupboard. but i didn't gave up. i made a 'pudding' in 2-3 mins!!!!!. it's all cheating. no cooking required in this pudding.

ingredients

brown bread-3 slices

marie biscuits-2 nos

brittania cream crackers- 2 nos

nirulas choclate fudge-2 tbs

amul mithai mate- 1/2 tin

glaced cherries- 100gms

grind together the biscuits and bread in a mixie. transfer it to a bowl. add the remaining ingredients and mix well. serve chilled.

remyaskitchen: mixed parantha

remyaskitchen: mixed parantha

mixed parantha

i made this parantha today for breakfast and my hubby loved it. his appreciation made me share the recipe with you. actually i planned to make aloo parantha. but i found methi and pudina also lying in my fridge and i wanted to use it immediately before it loses its freshness. and all these ingredients made my paranthas some thing more than aloo parantha.

ingredients

1 large onion finely chopped

few green chillies finely chopped

salt as per taste

boiled and mashed potatoes-3 large nos

one big bunch methi leaves finely chopped

one small bunch pudina finely chopped

one teaspoon ajwain

one teaspoon saunf

one tbs oil for frying veg

oil /ghee for frying paranthas

heat one tbs of oil in a kadai and add chopped onions, chillies, methi and pudina and stir fry till the leaves are dry. transfer this mix on to a plate and add mashed potatoes, salt , ajwain & saunf and mix well.

for the paranthas

atta-2 teacup

salt-as per taste

water-to knead the atta

take a small portion of the veg mix and place it on the middle of rolled out dough and seal it.again roll it out and cook it on a tawa with oil or ghee till both sides are done.

pineapple surprise cake

i baked this cake to surprise my kids who relishes cakes. though it's name is pineapple surprise there is no pineapple in it!!!. i jut baked a vanilla sponge cake in a pineapple shaped mould and coated it with butter icing flavoured with lemon essence.

ingredients for the sponge cake

flour-1 1/2 cup

sugar- 1 cup

vanilla essence-few drops

eggs- 3 nos

butter-100 gms

i baked this cake in preheated oven for 25 mins at 200 degree C.

for the icing i used 100 gms of sifted icing sugar and 100 gms