Recipes that nourish !
Pachadi is the name (in Kerala) for any side dish curry that is made using yoghurt and a vegetable like green mango, ash gourd, carrots or beet root. It is really an accompaniment to the main course, which is usually rice and some other vegetable curry. Growing up, ‘kumbalanga(ash gourd)’ and green mango pachadi was […]
Just like the eskimos supposedly have more than 100 names for ‘snow’, I am pretty sure that the ‘Kochi-ites'(Kochi is a coastal town in Kerala) have about the same number of names for shrimp! 🙂 And then they also know how to cook it in 100 different ways! Shrimp Curries, shrimp sautés , shrimp pickles, […]
A Happy Vishu to all Malayalees who celebrate this festival.! This auspicious day is considered as a symbol of hope, luck and prosperity. Vishu is celebrated in Kerala as the New Year. People celebrate the occasion by makinga ‘Vishu kani’, which is a special colorful setting made for Lord Krishna using vegetables,rice and jewelry. Special dishes like payasam (lentil […]
Green(Raw) Mangoes are a delight! As kids I remember me and my sisters begging my mom to save us a few pieces while she was slicing the green mangoes to use in fish/shrimp curry or to make a green mango chutney. We would relish the tart mango slices dusted with salt on top!. Thinking about […]
Today I wanted to post a simple recipe for Plantain fritters (called Pazham Pori in Malayalam, the local language of Kerala) made in the Keralan way! A perfect accompaniment to your late afternoon tea ! Oh yes, late afternoon tea as you can imagine is very common in Kerala with these local tea stalls (called chaaya […]
Coconuts grow in abundance in Kerala and hence coconut milk , grated coconut and coconut oil are widely used in Kerala cuisine. One vegetable dish that uses coconut milk and no red chilli powder and is therefore white in color is ‘vegetable stew’. The stew usually is made out of vegetables like potatoes , carrots and […]
Chicken Biryani is a labor of love …you have to take your time to assemble this beautiful, aromatic combination of fragrant basmati rice with delicately spiced and perfectly cooked chicken pieces. Today I am posting this recipe for my very dear friend, Amanda who simply loves this chicken biryani that I make. In this recipe, […]
Chutney is a mixture obtained by grinding various ingredients and spices and is usually something that is very hot, spicy and tangy. These are meant to be consumed in moderation – just a slight dip that lends a kick to the main meal. Chutneys can elevate the main dish to great levels and it can […]
Kerala is quite a tiny state in southern India yet it is amazing that there is so much diversity in foods even within this minuscule state. I got to know this when I got married. Even though my husband’s family also hails from Kerala, some of the dishes that I grew up with were things he […]
Fish and shrimp cooked in various forms is what I ate on a regular basis growing up in Mumbai. But when we visited Kochi, a coastal town in Kerala on our annual vacations, seafood is what we ate for practically every meal! And nothing like the ‘Kari meenu'(Pearl Spot fish) curry cooked out of fresh […]
Some days we crave for something very simple yet something that is very comforting – I am sure you will agree! For me one of those comfort foods is this curry – something that transports me back in time where I am just enjoying a simple afternoon lunch with plain rice, kumbalanga curry, some plain […]
Sambhaar is a spicy and tangy curry (soup) made of lentils and vegetables. This is a curry that is typical ‘South Indian’ cuisine and each of the four southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have their slightly different versions of sambhaar. Sambhaar is eaten with rice but most commonly […]