Kadala curry

November 29, 2013February 19, 2014 | Rekha Vengalil

You need –

Black/brown chickpeas – 3/4 cup
shallots – sliced, 1/2 cup
Tomato – 1 large
Mince garlic – 2 teaspoons
Minced ginger – 2 teaspoons
Green chili – 1 slit
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Chili powder – 1 teaspoon
Meat masala – 2 teaspoons
Turmeric powder –1/4 teaspoon
Garam masala – 1/4 teaspoon
Dried red chili – 2
Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
Coconut milk – 2 tablespoon
Whole spices
- Star anise –1
- Green cardamom – 2

For dry roasting –
- Freshly grated coconut – 1/3 cup (packed)
- Whole black pepper –1 teaspoon
- Coriander seeds – 1.5 tablespoons

How to–

Wash the chickpeas in several changes of water and then soak overnight or for at least 8 hours. Pressure cook the peas with enough water till done. Set aside.

Heat a frying pan and dry roast all the ingredients under “For dry roasting” till brown but do not burn them. In a blender, blend the roasted coconut with just enough water to make a fine paste. Set aside.

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and add the mustard seeds, red chili, curry leaves and whole spices. once the seeds have crackled and the spices are fragrant; add the onion, ginger, garlic, green chili and fry till the onions are translucent and the raw smell of ginger garlic is gone.

Now add the Chili powder, Meat masala, Turmeric powder and cook till the oil start to separate. Add the tomatoes, salt and cook till mushy. Add the coconut paste and cook briefly.

Add the cooked peas along with 1.5 cups of chickpeas stock or water. Cook till the gravy has reduced to the constancy as required.

Add the coconut milk, garam masala and stir well. Turn off the heat and serve hot with Puttu, Roti or steamed rice.

Cranberry, raisin and walnut loaf

November 5, 2013February 21, 2014 | Rekha Vengalil

Hope you had a wonderful Diwali with lots of fun and great food. Yes! We did too.

Ah! Now it’s time for thanksgiving and Christmas. My little one is so excited and has already made her Christmas shopping list. This Christmas I have promised her that we will do lots of baking together. The two of us are so looking forward to it.

I have started off with my baking for the season. And if it’s Christmas it must be cranberries. This soft loaf with the crunchy walnuts, tangy bits of cranberries, the sweetness of raisins is scrumptious and so ideal to get baking for the season.

Recipe source – Simply recipes

You need –

All purpose flour -2 cups
Caster sugar – 3/4 cup
baking powder – 1.5 teaspoons
baking soda – 1/2 teaspoon
salt 1/2 teaspoon
walnuts – 3/4 cup, coarsely chopped
dried cranberries – 3/4 cup, roughly chopped
Raisins – 1/4 cup
orange juice – 3/4 cup
butter – 1/4 cup, melted
Egg – 1, beaten

How to –

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan.

In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the walnuts, cranberries, raisins to flour mixture and mix well to coat. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, Add the melted butter, egg and orange juice. Beat will till well combined. Now slowly add the flour-cranberry mixtures to the wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon till everything is just blend.

Spoon the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or till the toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the loaf.

Cool the loaf for 10 minutes in pan and then on a wire rack.

Storing – Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator once cooled completely.

Nectarine & Apple Jam – A guest post

October 14, 2013February 22, 2014 | Rekha Vengalil

I have been quiet about inviting my blogger friends and co-bloggers for guest posting. Now, after a long gap I have a guest over to share a lovely recipe with us.

She was the first one who dropped a comment on my blog and my first blogger friend. Though I met her here in the blog world, it feels like we have known each other for ages. A friend I dot on for every little thing be it about blogging, photography or where to download new fronts from. She has been always there to help.

It’s my pleasure to introduce you to Meena from elephants and the coconut trees, a blog featuring some mouth watering recipes with very crispy & creative photography. I truly admire her style and the way she plates her dishes. Her food stories that are woven around her childhood/growing up years sure takes you through the memory lanes.

All her recipes get me drooling, yet here’s a few of my favorites from her blog that came quickly to my mind. Do Visit her blog for great recipes.

Coconut chutney powder
Milk fudge
Fish pickle
Raspberry and Chia seed pudding
Nadan konju theeyal
Spicy chicken varuval (oh! this is really delicious and I make it quite often)
Mango icecream

Meena, I can’t thank you enough for doing the guest post and so excited about sharing this wonderful recipe and so so beautiful pictures with my dear readers.

Now, over to Meena…

Hello lovely people,

This is Meena, the hand behind the blog elephants and the coconut trees . I am from Kerala, India currently living in California with my techie husband and tween. I am a big time foodie and enjoy most cuisines barring a few meats.

My cooking is the reminiscent of the comfort food I grew up eating and some that are newly acquired .The blog becomes my food memoir in the making where like minded people come , we laugh and we literally converse which I think is the best part of having a blog. Never thought I would make so many friends virtually.

Love spending time photographing food , a learning process and a challenge I happily take up. I click until I am pleased .Sometimes a post can wait for months to get the right set of pictures .I am self taught and not an expert in food photography but I judge my work I should say very harshly.If it is not appealing to me then the blog does not see it. I think that pushes me a lot. I am very passionate about the blog and love to write what is in my heart and not go by dates,deadlines or keep up with Joneses:).Perhaps that is the reason so many of us are having a blog, nothing dictates right!

Coming to the recipe, I have never made jam till this year nor did it ever strike me to make at home until my daughter repeated asked for a bottled one every time we were in store I was reluctant as I knew jam would be the main meal and bread would be name sake :)).. So just decided to make some without preservatives,dyes or additives. This is my third attempt of jam making u see here :). I totally understand why women in the West brag about the homemade jams and preserves I mean it tastes awesome when compared to store bought ones.

My ancestral home in India has big backyards and large farm lands so every year summer vacation was spent eating jack fruits, mangoes and tamarind. Can you imagine the state of the stomach !:))) Tamarind pods would leave the mouth so sore that finally even water burns :)). It was beyond our capacity to finish all this in raw state so only those went for preserves and pickles.We were also sent a large chunk of those in every form possible :))

At home mango,guava,banana, rose apple, mulberry etc were eaten only fresh.There was no excess… come on! what are friends for, to share the produce right !! More over my folks never approved of bread and jam as a satisfying breakfast. Bakery bread used to be served only with stews.Indians by large go for a savory breakfast, their preference of fiery spice could be the reason behind the wide variety of pickles available there than jams.

How about some bread, butter and homemade jam!! Ya !there is a glass of milk in the background but you will need a torch to see that lol..

Apple is used here to get the jelly like end product as it contains high amounts of pectin..Use just ripe fruits for best results.

Ingredients:

White nectarine-5

Apple -1(any kind)

Sugar- 3/4 – 1 cup

Lime juice- 1/2 of 1

Method

Wash and wipe the fruits . Discard seed need not remove the peel as it becomes soft and not visible in the jam.Slice nectarines into bigger pieces and chop the apples as nectarines cook faster than apple.
In a heavy bottom pan combine all the ingredients and cook on a low to medium flame till the juices from the fruits come out then reduce flame and allow it to thicken by stirring often.If u stir for too long then the jam will lose its thickness and become watery. See all the water!all that came from the fruit!So don’t be tempted to add even a drop of water.

3. Do not mash the fruit too much as the elasticity of pectin is lost and tends to become watery.

4. A good rule of thumb is when you separate the jam with the spatula it should part in the middle and form a path (see bottom pic)then the jam is ready.

5. Pour the jam into a clean dry jar while it is still hot and let it cool then put the lid and enjoy for breakfast or like my daughter does scoop whenever she wants some 🙂

Note:

Any fruit that you like could be used to make jam.
As the jam cools down it will thicken a bit more.
It tastes best when made in small quantities.
Since no sealing and canning is done store the jam in the fridge after 2 days for up to 3 weeks.
Make the jam on slow flame only .Don’t hurry up:)

Thank you Meena for a wonderful recipe and I can’t wait to make this 🙂 Here’s wishing you all the very best and stay blessed always.

Dear friends/readers, hope you liked the post and recipe what Meena has shared. We are looking forward to hearing from you and thank you for your time.

See you soon with a new recipe.Till then…

Take care

Oats and walnut muffins

October 9, 2013October 21, 2016 | Rekha Vengalil

I have to say, I am not an oats fan (oh yes I like them in my breakfast smoothies); but when I baked my Apples slices with crumbled topping, I quite liked it. And so here’s another oats recipe.

These light and fluffy muffins are so easy and quick to whip up. They are so perfect for your breakfast. Serve freshly baked while still warm and yes don’t forget to butter them.

You need –

Almond Milk – 1 cup (You can use fresh milk too)
Instant cooking oats – 1 cup
All-purpose flour – 1 cup
Caster Sugar – 1/4 cup
baking soda – 1 teaspoon
Egg – 1
Vegetable oil -1/4 cup
Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
Ground cinnamon – 1/2 teaspoon
Vanilla extract – 1/2 teaspoon
Chopped walnuts – 1/3 cup

How to –

Preheat oven to 220°c. Grease the muffin tins or line 12 paper muffin liners . Sift the flour, cinnamon, sugar, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In a bowl, combine milk and oats. Let it soak for 10 minutes.

In a another bowl, beat together egg, vanilla essence and oil for a minute or till well combined. Add the oat-milk mixture and mix well.

Stir flour mixture and chopped walnuts into wet ingredients and mix till everything is well combined. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups until cups are 2/3 full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Peanut chutney

September 30, 2013February 24, 2014 | Rekha Vengalil

It’s always a pleasure meeting people and then many leading into a beautiful friendship. Well blogging has just been that for me. I have had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people and many have gone to be my good friends today. Yes one of them is Jehanne, the owner of the beautiful blog – “The Cooking Doctor”. After all our comments on each others blog, chats, calls and finally we met up (yes we did plan to meet up before but somehow we had to postpone). Many of you know her by now and I don’t think I have to add more but yes she is such pleasant and wonderful person to talk too. Undeniably I treasure such moments and friendships.

Over to the recipe; this condiment is for all the peanut lovers out there and comes from my mom’s kitchen. It’s perfect to go with your idili or dosa. I even love it with my rice.

You need –

Peanuts – 1/2 cup (skin removed)
Fresh grated coconut – 1/3 cup
green chili- 1
Small piece ginger
Tamarind – 1/2 teaspoon
salt to taste
Dried chili – 1 or as per taste
Curry leaves – 5-6

For tempering

Oil – 2 teaspoon (I use coconut oil)
Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
dried chili – 2
curry leaves – 5-6

How to –

In a pan dry roast the peanuts till slightly golden. Remove and set aside. In the same pan add the grated coconut, 5 curry leaves, dried chili, tamarind and fry till the coconut start to just brown. Turn off the heat; put the peanuts, coconut into the blender and with just enough water blend till a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a small sauce pan, add the mustard seeds. Once they start to pop add the dried chili and curry leaves.Turn off the heat and add this to the chutney and stir well.

Serve immediately with dosa or idili.

Sakkarai Pongal

August 17, 2013April 25, 2014 | Rekha Vengalil

A famous South Indian delicacy and yet another favorite of mine. Made during the harvest festival in the State of Tamilnadu, South of India. Traditionally made with newly harvested rice and cooked with milk. This is also served in most temples during the auspicious days /festivals.

You need –

Raw white rice – 1/2 cup
Yellow moong dal – 1 tablespoon
Jaggery/palm sugar – grated, 1 cup
cardamon powder – 1/4 teaspoon
Cashew nuts – 10-12 nos
Raisins – 10-12 nos
Ghee/ clarified butter – 2 tablespoon

How to –

Slightly dry roast the rice and dal together in pan making sure not to brown the rice and dal. Add 1 & 1/2 cups of water and pressure cook till the rice and dal cooked through and mushy.

In a sauce pan, melt the jaggery with 2 tablespoon water, and bring to a boil. Now add the cardamom powder. Add this mixture to the rice and stir well.

Heat the ghee in a small frying pan and fry the cashew nuts and raisins. Add fried nuts with the ghee to the rice and mix well.On a low flame continue to cook for a couple of minutes stirring continuously till everything is well combined.

Serve hot.

Rava Dosa

August 6, 2013April 25, 2014 | Rekha Vengalil

You need –

For the batter

Semolina/Rava – 1/2 cup
Rice flour – 1/2 cup
All purpose flour – 1/4 cup
Yogurt – 1/4 cup (beaten)
Onion – 1 medium ,minced or finely chopped
Green chili – 1, chopped
Ginger – finely chopped, 1 tablespoon
coriander leaves – chopped, 2 tablespoon
Curry leaves – 1 twig, chopped
cumin seeds – 1/4 teaspoon
water – as required for mixing
salt as required

Oil/ghee for drizzling

How to –

In a bowl mix the above ingredients under “for the batter” with enough water and set aside for an hour.

Heat the dosa griddle. Take I ladle of batter and spread into a circular motion (If you are not using a non-stick pan then add a teaspoon of oil and then spread the batter), Drizzle oil/ghee along the edges of the dosa, cover and cook till the base begins to brown.

Uncover and flip the dosa over and cook briefly for a couple of seconds. Flip it back and fold it into half and remove the dosa from the pan.

Into a serving plate and serve hot with your favorite chutney.

Rosemary Focaccia

August 5, 2013October 18, 2016 | Rekha Vengalil

Focaccia is my favorite bread. With that generous dip into the olive oil is sure an indulgence for me. Every time we are at an Italian restaurant this is something I look forward to start off with and lucky some of the restaurant that we are regular at kind of know this is my weakness and they never fail to give a few slices more 🙂

This is one of the easiest bread I have made, yes of course make sure your yeast is active else it can be a complete disaster and be prepared to knead the dough for almost 10 minutes. Ah! I have toned hands!

You need –

White bread flour – 500 grams
Salt – 1 1/2 teaspoons
Instant yeast – 2 1/2 teaspoons
Olive oil – 2 tablespoons plus extra for drizzling
Lukewarm water – 300 mls
Rosemary – 2 tablespoons
Fine sea salt

How to –

In a large bowl, put the flour, yeast and salt. Mix well. Now stir in the oil, water and knead to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough to a slightly oiled surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. Put the dough back into the same bowl (lightly oiled), cover with a tea towel and let it sit to rise double in size in a warm place. Approximately about an hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 200 C. Line two large baking sheets with grease proof paper. Turn the dough to a flour surface and cut into half. Flatten each portion on the baking sheet. cover and leave to rise again for an hour.

Gently press your finger into the dough to make deep holes all over and leave for a further 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle each loaves with rosemary and sea salt. Drizzle some olive oil and bake for 25 minutes or till pale golden. Remove from the oven and drizzle some more olive oil.

Serve hot or warm.

Note –

If you are not sure if your yeast is still active, them prefer you do a proof test. Take half of the lukewarm water ( please make sure the water is not hot. Otherwise your yeast will die). Stir in the yeast along with a pinch of sugar and set aside for 10 minutes. If the form and bubbles foam on top in 10 minutes then your yeast is still active. Add this to the dough with remaining water as per the recipe.