Plantain Fry

Here is a simple plantain fry recipe that goes very well with any rice.

Preparation Time: 30 min (excluding marination)

Ingredients:
Raw Green Plantain - 3
Tomato -1 medium size
Rice Flour - 2 tablespoon
Sambhar powder - 1 1/2 tablespoon
Salt - to taste

Preparation:
1. Peel the skin off the plantain and cut it into round shapes of 1/2 inch thickness.
2. Cook the cut pieces in boiling water with little salt in medium flame until the plantain is cooked completely and becomes soft. It takes around 20 minutes. You can take a piece and try to break it with your fingers.If it breaks easily, remove the pieces from water and transfer it to a dry bowl.
3. Add rice flour, sambhar powder, salt and squeeze the tomato to the cooked plaintain and mix it thoroughly without breaking the pieces.
4. Let the mixture aside for 30 minutes until to allow the spices mix with the plantain.
5. Now heat a thick bottomed deep fry pan and add oil to fry. When the oil is hot, add 4- 5 pieces (based on the volume of your pan) and fry them. Turn sides when it turns golden brown.

Crunchy, hot and spicy plantain fry is ready to eat. If you have extra pieces left, you can refrigerate overnight and fry it the next day.

Puli inji (Tangy Ginger sauce)

Puli Inji is a must serve in any festive occassion in Kerala. It is made as combination of the ingredients with variety of flavors and has a tangy, sweety taste. This dish always reminds me of my grandfather who loves very simple food. I remember the way he loves to have puli inji with Idlies and curd rice and I am a diehard fan of this dish prepared by my grandma .

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
1. Ginger finely chopped - 1 cup
2. Green chillies - 3 finely chopped
3. Tamarind juice - 2 cups extracted from lemon sized tamarind
4. Jaggery - 1 cup
5. Salt - a pinch
6. Turmeric powder - a pinch
7. Oil - 1/2 tablespoon
8. Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
9. Curry leaves - 7-8 finely chopped
10. Urud dhal - 1 teaspoon

Preparation:
1. Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan and when hot add mustard seeds and when it splutters add urud dhal.
2. When urud dhal turns golden brown, add chopped gingers, green chillies, curry leaves, turmeric powder, salt and fry for 3- 4 minutes until you get a strong aroma of ginger.
3. Now add the tamarind juice and bring it to boil for next 5 minutes until the raw smell goes off.
4. Add the jaggery and cook in medium low flame as the sauce thickens. Stir at regular intervals for another 5 minutes.

Tangy and yummy puli inji is ready to eat. 

Spinach Chicken Curry

I cook chicken very rarely as we prefer to be vegetarian. This time we wanted to eat chicken but I was bored of the same kind of preparation and thought to try something different. Then I remembered I had got Spinach also from the grocery that day, so just wanted to try a green chicken with lot of spices. I wanted to make it a very simple dinner to enjoy the taste of chicken and this curry came out so yummy, and along with the simple rasam, it was heaven.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes (Excluding the marination time)

Ingredients:
Chicken - 1.25 pounds
Curd - 3 tablespoon
Onion - 2 medium sized

G

reen chillies - 4 split vertically

Oil - 5 -6 tablespoon

For Paste:
Spinach leaves - 15
Pepper - 1 teaspoon
red chilly powder - 2 tablespoon
coriander powder - 2 tablespoon
cumin seeds - 1 tablespoon
Garam masala powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tablespoon

For Powder
Curry leaves - 6-7
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tablespoon
Cumin seeds - 1 tablespoon
pepper - 1/2 tablespoon

Preparation:

1. Cut chicken into medium cubes and wash it thoroughly and drain the water completely and puncture randomly with fork to help the marination get into the chicken as it soaks.
2. Make a fine paste with the ingredients mentioned to grind.
3. Marinate the chicken with the ground paste and curd for minimum 30 minutes.
4. Cut onions finely into thin pieces length wise.
5. Heat oil in a pan and add onions and fry until it turns transparent, add the green chillies and fry for another one minute.
6. Now add the marinated chicken and sprinkle handful of water and stir well .
7. Cook the chicken in medium flame for next 15-20 minutes and stir occasionally to cook evenly.
8. Meanwhile dry fry and make a coarse paste of the ingredients given for powder.
9. Sprinkle the powder over the chicken and mix well and cook for another 5 minutes.

Garnish with coriander leaves. Yummy yummy Spinach Chicken Curry is ready to heat. You can serve it hot with Rotis/Rice

Dhal Rasam

This is another simplest variety of rasam(our version of soup with lentils) made just with dhal water. This preparation doesnt require boiling of the ingredients.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
Toor dhal water - 200 ml (made from 1/2 cup of toor dhal)
Tomato - 1 medium sized
Tamarind - Small gooseberry size
Rasam powder (equal amounts of pepper and cumin seeds ground to coarse powder)  - 1 tablespoon 
Salt - to taste
Curry leaves - 3 
Coriander leaves - 3 -4 strings finely chopped
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Red chillies - 2 

Preparation:
1. In a bowl, smash the tomatoes and tamarind with your hands.
2. Add salt, rasam powder, curry leaves and coriander leaves and cover the bowl with a lid and keep aside.
3. Boil toor dhal in a pressure cooker with a pinch of turmeric powder.
4. When the pressure releases, drain the hot dhal water into the mixture prepared and close the lid.
5. Now heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a small pan and when hot, add mustard seeds. When it crackles, add red chillies and a pinch of asafoetida and transfer this to the rasam and stir it well.

Hot and simple rasam is ready to serve. You can drink this as a soup or have it with rice.

Simple Potato Roast

Here is a very simple, yet tasty and inviting recipe with potatoes. If you are brought up in a typical tamil family, you should have been used to eating the potato fry/roast in one or the other form on all auspicious/festival days of the year. This is the simplest form of the potato fry that I was brought up with. One thing I like about this dish is, you dont deep fry the potatoes and cook them with very little oil. This dish gets crispiness on its outside with the rice flour and tomato used and remains so soft inside. Tomatoes gives little tangy flavor to the dish and it goes along with the spiceness of the chilly powder.

Preparation Time:  45 minutes

Ingredients:
Potato - 2 medium sized
Tomato - 1 medium sized
Rice Flour - 3 table spoons
Sambhar powder (you can use the ready made powder you get in Indian groceries) - 2 tablespoon
Salt - to taste
Oil - 5 tablespoons

Preparation:
1. Boil potatoes with skin, cool it, peel the skin and dice into small cubes.
2. Add sambhar powder, rice flour and salt to the potatoes.
3. Now smash the tomato with your hands over the potato and mix the ingredients well and blend it nicely.
4. Keep it aside for minimum 15 minutes. If you have larger amount, you can refrigerate for a day and roast and serve hot.
5. Take a deep pan and add oil. When the oil is hot, add the potatoes to the oil and roast it in medium flame for next 10 minutes.
6. As the potato turns golden brown, gently stir potatoes to turn sides and roast evenly.


Spicy and roasty potatoes are ready to eat. This can be eaten separtely as a starter or goes well with rotis and rice. This is a divine combination with curd rice.