Kerala

Egg and Veggie Kothu Paratha

Kothu means minced and paratha as you all know is Indian flaky bread, Kothu Paratha is a street food available in the southern parts of India and is usually made with chicken and lamb. I have tried making it here with eggs and vegetables, but you could make it ony with vegetables too. I usually use leftover chapatis or parathas to make this dish, I think flour tortillas would also work. I also used cooked asparagus in this again any leftover vegetables can be use in this dish. This is such a balanced dish as it has all the food groups and can be served for breakfast, packed for lunch or even eaten for dinner.

Eggs - 2 beaten
Parathas/Leftover Chapatis/ Kerala Parottas broken into small pieces - 3 or 4 cooked
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - a few
Onion- 1/2 chopped
Green Chilli- 1 minced
Ginger and garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Cabbage 1/2 cup chopped
Carrot 1 chopped
Green Pepper 1/2
Asparagus 1/4 cup cooked
Salt to taste
Chilli pwd 1/4 tsp
Soy Sauce 2 tsp
Oil 2 tbsp


Heat 1 tsp oil, add the beaten eggs and scramble the eggs.
Remove the eggs, add the rest of the oil.
Add mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves.
Add onion and green chillies, once the mustard seeds splutters.
Add the ginger /garlic paste, cabbage, carrot and capsicum.
Add salt and a little chilli pwd, once cooked add the asparagus.
Add soy sauce, and the parathas.
Stir well, add salt only if needed. Once everything is well combined, remove from heat.
Add lime juice and cilantro leaves and serve.

If it is too dry add a little water, I like mine a little dry, traditionally some curry or veg kurma is added to make it less dry.

Nadan Egg Curry

This is a great dish to serve at dinner and goes well with a variety of breads. I used ground coconut in this dish but the traditionally coconut milk is used. In Kerala this might be even served for breakfast.
Hardboiled eggs - 4
Coconut Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves 3 or 4
Onion - 1 chopped fine
Green chillies - 1 chopped fine
Ginger and garlic paste- 1 tbsp
Tomato -1 medium sized chopped fine
chilli pwd - 1/2 tsp
coriander pwd - 1 tbsp
turmeric- 1/4 tsp
pepper a pinch
garam masala - 1/4 tsp
coconut about 2 tbsp ground to a paste or 1/2 cup coconut milk
salt to taste

Heat oil, add mustard seeds and curry leaves.
Once it splutters add onion, saute well.
Add ginger garlic paste and tomato.
Add the chilli pwd, coriander pwd, turmeric pwd, pepper, garam masala and salt and 2 tbsp water, fry well
Adding water keeps the masala from burning.
Once everything is well cooked add the coconut milk or ground coconut(this is what I used)and eggs, cook on low heat.
Serve with rice, appams or parathas.

Honey Bunches of Oats Chivda/Cornflakes Chivda/ Mixture

I was craving something salty and sweet, and ventured to make chivda, this is a very popular snack in India, usually eaten with chai in the late afternoon. It can be also served as an appetizer and can be customized by adding whatever nuts or dried fruits one likes. I have seen people make it with cornflakes which is such a healthier version then deep frying it. I had Honey Bunches of Oats with almonds, which is my favorite cereal, but the powdered bottom of the bag part is something that I usually throw away, but I experimented by making chivda and it actually turned out pretty good.The best part was this cereal already had almonds so I didn't bother to put any peanuts but the traditional chivda has peanuts in it.



Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cup of Honey bunches of Oats or Cornflakes
a handful of cranraisins
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp hing(asafoetida)
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 green chillies chopped
4 to 5 curry leaves
1/2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

Method:

Heat oil, add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
Once they pop, add hing and turmeric, immediately add the green chillies and curry leaves.
Add the chilli powder, stir.
Add the carnraisins and the cereal.
Stir well on low heat until everything is well coated.
Cool and store in an airtight container for a few days.
Note: add more green chillies and red chilli pwd if you like it spicy, I did add more spice later as it wasn't spicy enough. Citric acid powder about 1/4 tsp can also be added to give it a hint of sourness.

Kung Pao Vegetables

I have been MIA for quite sometime, too much going on in my life.
For dinner I made the Kung Pao vegetables today, it comes together so quickly I decided I had to post it.

I chopped a ton of vegetables, a big bowl full, you could take approximately 2 cups, I used zuchinni, carrots, celery, mushroom, green pepper, 1 green chilli/jalapeno and onion.
For the Sauce, I mixed 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp white vinegar, 1 tbsp chilli sauce or Siracha, 1 tsp of ketchup, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp cornflour with about 1/2 cup water.( Add store bought kung pao sauce if available, even a little hoisin sauce works well with the above mixture but both are optional as I have made it with just the sauce ingredients and it tastes great)

Heat 2 tbsp sesame oil, add dried red chillies about 4 or 5 broken into two, once it gets a little fried, add 1 tsp each minced garlic and ginger.
Stir, then add all the vegetables,salt and peeper and cook on high heat until almost cooked.
Add the sauce mixture, stir well once the sauce thickens which will happen quickly, add 2 tbsp roasted peanuts and 1 chopped spring onion.

Serve with rice, yummy!!!

Besan Ladoo (ChickPeas Flour Balls)

Sorry to all the ladies from the Ashram for saying that I had this recipe on the blog, for some reason I thought I had posted it. Anyways here's the recipe for besan ladoos, I know we had a blast making them and eating them for our party at the yoga ashram. Jami this recipe is especially for you!!!

3 cups besan(chickpea flour)
1 cup ghee
2 cups sugar ( I used powdered)
1/4 cup almonds chopped finely
1/4 tsp cardamom pwd
1/4 cup pistachios ground into a powder for decoration


Method:

Roast the besan and ghee on a low medium heat foe about 10 to 15 minutes till golden and until you can smell the nice aroma of roasted besan.
Remove from heat and cool for just a few minutes you do not want it to cool to room temperature.
Add the sugar and almonds and cardamom.
Mix well and make small balls.
Dip only the top of the ladoo into pistachio pwd to decorate.
Enjoy!!! Will add pics later.