Cooking a Spicy Tale
Tuesday, June 20, 2006 Exotic Dinner

Though 'technically' we are vegetarians, The Mr and I eat most non-veg food except beef and pork. Our favorite is ofcourse, seafood and when our local grocery store had a lobster sale yday, we HAD to buy it and come home :D





Now I have never eaten lobster, much less cook it. And the fact that it is alive till you drop it in the pan added no sense of comfort. After putting the lobster in the freezer for 30 mins to make it sleep(most humane way of cooking it), we searched the web and found a simple recipe.

The corn was very sweet and kind of complemented the salty taste of lobster meat.

Well, to tell you the truth, I still can't fathom why the crowd here goes ballistic when it is a lobster dinner. Yeah, it was good but I wouldn't call it great. It's too much work for too little, if you ask me. Anyway, the fun was in the experiment plus, that's one item off the "Should try once" list :p

Posted by The Cookie :: 12:50 PM :: 5 comments

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Sunday, June 18, 2006 Move me to tears

Spicy Egg Korma

The first time I made this after our marriage, The Mr shed many a tears due to its spicy nature. The measurements I give here are my standards. If you are like The Mr, please to use discretion before following recipe to the final dot :p And this is a gravy dish.

Eggs, 4
Grated coconut, 1/4 cup *
Pepper, 1/2 tsp *
Red chillies, 8 *
Jeera, 1/2 tsp *
Onion, big, chopped, 1 (else 2)
Tomatoes, chopped, 2
Tamarind , size of smallest lemon
Salt

  • Dry sautee the STARS till the aroma makes you cough :p Grind them to a fine powder/paste.
  • Heat 1 tbsp oil in a kadai. When hot, season with mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves.
  • Sautee the onions till they are golden brown and soft. (Use Gif's tip and sprinkle some salt on them while sauteeing)
  • Add the ground masala and sautee till it is fried. Add the tomatoes.
  • Sautee for a few more minutes, till the tomatoes are soft and cooked and the oil separates.
  • Pour in the tamarind water. Add salt and bring to a boil. And if you feel the gravy is too watery, use the old trick of adding corn starch.
  • Once the gravy starts to boil, break open the 4 eggs directly onto the gravy. Reduce heat, cover the dish and simmer till the egg is cooked. Don't stir the gravy as it might break the eggs.
  • When the eggs are cooked(Err, am bad at this. Guess it should be done in 10 mins or so?), remove from stove and serve with either rotis or rice.
  • Btw, make sure you make some raita too to tide over the heat :)

Source: Soma akka, the first grand-daughter of the clan.


Posted by The Cookie :: 10:24 PM :: 1 comments

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Poricha Kuzhambu

This is another famous recipe from Tirunelveli, produced here for Shankari. The delay is coz I had to cook it and check if the recipe I took down over the phone was correct :) This is an extremely tasty and easy kuzhmabu made with NO Tamarind.


Moong dal (cooked), 1/4 cup
Drumstick Leaves , 1 bunch (optional)
Drumsticks, 2
Garlic cloves, 2
Turmeric powder
Salt


First Mix :
Pepper, 3 (the idea is to use it sparingly so the kuzhambu doesn't have a pepper flavour :p)
Jeera , 1/4 tsp
Red chillies, 4
Coriander seeds, 1/4 tsp

Second Mix:
Coconut grated, 2 tbsp
Jeera, 1/2 tsp

  • Heat 1 tsp of oil in a kadai and fry all the ingredients of the first mix. Grind it into a fine paste along with the garlic cloves.
  • Grind the coconut and jeera together and keep aside.
  • Half boil the drumstick and drumstick leaves (Chances of finding drumstick leaves in USA is nil, so you can add either peas or brinjal. Or stick to just drumsticks).
  • Mix the first paste with 2 cups(tumblers) of water. Add salt and turmeric to it.
  • Heat 1 tsp of oil in the kadai, add the mustard seeds,urad dal & curry leaves for seasoning. Once they sputter add the water(paste mixed) and boil with the vegetables.
  • When the first bubbles appear, add the coconut-jeera paste and simmer it for few minutes.
  • Once the raw smell disappears add the cooked moong dal, simmer for 2 more minutes and take off stove.

I love this kuzhambu and it's special flavour comes mainly from the drumsticks/leaves, so don't miss them!

Source: Amma


Posted by The Cookie :: 9:09 PM :: 4 comments

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Tuesday, June 13, 2006 Quirky Sambhar

The following recipe must be part of every household but I am writing them here coz this is my version (which could be the same as yours) plus I am a narcissist :p There, I have said it! The Mr peeped in and said that i should credit this recipe to him. So there :)

Broccoli Sambhar

Broccoli Florets - 10
Toor dal - 1/3 cup(hehehe I always eyeball and never measure)
Tamarind, size of small lemon
Sambhar powder
Turmeric powder
Asafoetida
Methi seeds
Urad dal & mustard seeds, for seasoning
Vadagam, optional but tastes great if you use it :)
Salt

  • Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a kadai and when hot add the methi seeds.
  • Drop the broccoli florets into the kadai, sautee for 1 min, add a little water and let the broccoli cook. Maybe 2 mins.
  • The following steps are what you do for normal sambhar.
  • Add the tamarind extract, sambhar powder, turmeric powder, salt and simmer it.
  • When the sambhar is boiling add the cooked toor dal and asafoetida.
  • Fry your seasoning in a small pan and add to the sambhar. I luuuurve the sizzzzzzling sound it makes :) Take off stove and serve hot.

Of course if you have someone like The Mr who gets into the kitchen on weekends to cook you a meal, be prepared for your toor dal to exchange places with channa dal. Well, I wasn't and I ended up making the above sambhar with 'kadalai paruppu'. It still tastes awesome :D

The Mr, as always, wasted no time in making fun of this slight slip on The Chief Chef's part and decided to make dinner just to prove a point. He made a scrumptious spicy egg korma which had just one ingredient misplaced. More proof, God is woman *wink*

"Honey, why does my korma taste sweet?"

"Did you use salt or sugar?"

"Aaaaaargh! Why do you have them both adjacent to each other in similar jars?"

"Coz I am The Chief Chef and I know which one has the magic ingredient. Muhahahaha!"


Posted by The Cookie :: 9:19 PM :: 5 comments

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Monday, June 12, 2006 UlluthamParuppu Sadham

As requested by Shankari, our new visitor and a fellow Nellaiite, here is another one of my favourite recipe.

For the rice:

Black Urad dal -- 1/2 cup (Urad dal with its skin still on)
Rice -- 1/2 cup
Garlic cloves -- 6/8
Grated Coconut-- 1/4 cup
Salt


For the chutney:

Black sesame seeds --1/4 cup
Red chillies -- 4*(use accord to your limit)
Coconut pieces -- 5
Salt

  • Wash rice and dal together, add the garlic cloves and salt and cook it in your pressure cooker.
  • Once the rice is done, add the grated coconut, mis well and set aside.
  • In a hot kadai, dry sautee the chillies, sesame seeds and coconut till the aroma fills your entire kitchen. Take care not to burn them.
  • Grind them all together with salt. Chutney ready!

Now for the first round, take the rice in your plate, drizzle 1 tsp of gingelly oil(Idhayam Nallennai :p), add the chutney, mix it well and eat with whatever side dish you cooked that day and some koozh vathal/appalam.

Normally we don't cook plain rice along with this. One just adds curd to the ullutham paruppu sadham and eats :) And yeah without the garlic, it doesn't really taste that good.

Source: The Pillai household :p


Posted by The Cookie :: 10:09 PM :: 6 comments

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