Potato Stew

Potato Stew is so easy to make. It goes well with Poori, Chappathi or Appam, and even rice.

Ingredients:
Potatoes - 4 medium sized, chopped to 1' cubes
Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped
Green chilli - 5 nos
Coconut milk - 1 1/2 cups
Oil -2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Salt - to taste

Appam

I have seen people making Appam from the scratch back home. However, the next best thing is to get Palappam powder (Double Horse or Nirapara brand). It is available at Indian stores. Make sure you buy the instant Palappam Mix. These does not need yeast or do not need to be mixed the previous day. Double Horse mix needs to be made one hour before making it. All you need is sugar, salt & water. (Milk is optional). If mixed well, the Appam comes out to be really good.





Ingredients:
Easy Palappam Powder - 1 packet
Sugar - 4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp or to taste
Water - 5-6 glasses (Use 1/2 glass Milk if preferred)

Mix all the ingredients well. Add additional water if necessary. The batter should not be thick. Keep the mix for an hour. Use the batter to create yummy appams.

Appam & Potato Stew - Breakfast 3/22/08

We had Appam and Potato Stew for breakfast today. Both are so easy to make and everyone enjoy eating it.



Ingredients Used - Easy Palappam Powder, Coconut milk (or powder), Potato, Onions, Green Chilli, Salt, Oil & Curry Leaves

Sunday Morning Breakfast

Puttu & Egg Curry

Puttu is a favorite among malayalees. Most of the time, Puttu is served with Kadala Curry. For making kadala curry, you need to soak it before hand. Since we did not do it, we decided to go for Egg Curry.





Of course, you need a puttu kudam (picture shown below). For this breakfast, we used, readily available puttu podi (Fried rice powder). For the curry we used Coconut milk powder along with Egg masala. All of these ingredients are available in most Malayalee stores or in other indian stores.

Puttu

It is relatively easy to make puttu. The hard part is to get the rice powder mixed with the right amount of water, so that the puttu will come out well cooked.



Ingredients:

Puttu Podi (Fried rice powder) - 4 cups
Hot Water - 1.5 cups
Grated coconut - 3 cups
Salt to taste

Preparation
1. Spread half of the water to the rice powder. Add a pinch of salt and mix well. Slowly add the rest of the water, and mix again. Make sure that the powder is soft,yet not too soft. If you add too much water, the puttu may not come out right. So it is necessary to add the water little by little and mix.
2. Add 1 cup of grated coconut to the rice powder and mix well. The rest of the coconut will be used while making the puttu.
3. You need to have a puttu kudam to make puttu. Mine can be used with a regular pressure cooker. Fill water in the pressure cooker, remove the weight, and fix the puttu thattu on it. To make the filling, first take some coconut and fill it in the bottom. Add puttu podi, then add another layer of coconut, in the middle. Complete the layer with a thin layer of coconut. Do not fill it tightly. You need to allow the steam to go thru the powder & coconut.
4. Once the steam comes out thru the top, slowly take it out of the pressure cooker. Slowly push the cooked puttu from the bottom with a spoon or a stick. Serve hot with curry.

Egg Curry

Ingredients:
1. 4 Eggs, fully cooked
2. 1 onion, chopped
3. 2-3 green chilly, sliced
4. Red Chilly powder - 1 tsp
5. Egg Masala powder- 1 tsp
6. Coriander powder -2 tsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1.4 tsp or a pinch
8. Coconut Milk (thin) - 1.5 cup
9. Curry leaves - 3-4 leaves
10 Oil - 2-3 tbsp
9. Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in skillet. Add the chopped onions and let it fry. Mix it, so that it may not get burned. Add the sliced green chilly & curry leaves.
2. When the onions turn golden yellow, add coriander powder, chilly powder, turmeric and egg masala. Mix all of them well. Add a little bit water, so that they get mixed well. Add salt.
3. Add the coconut milk and mix them well.
4. Make four slits on the sides of the fully boiled eggs. Add them to the mixture and mix well. Heat it for a minute.
5. Turn off the heat, transfer the contents and serve it hot.

What's for lunch? Jan 26th, 2008

Menu for lunch
Potato Masala Fry
Green Papaya Curry
Rice
Tender Mango pickle & Yogurt

Green Papaya Curry (Pachadi)

This dish did not turn out to be as good as I would have hoped. I guess, we need to have some more trial on this.

Potato Masala Fry

My husband makes this potato fry, which is the favorite for my kids. Here is the recipe. Measurements are approximate, use your judgment. We love spicy food, so most of our cooking turns out to be very spicy.


Ingredients:

6 medium sized potatoes, cut to about 1/2" cubes
1.5 cup chopped onions
2 tbsp oil
7-8 green chilly, sliced sideways (French-cut)
1 sprig curry leaves
2 ts coriander powder
1 teaspoon red chilly powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt (to taste)
coriander leaves (optional)

1. Heat oil in a skillet.
2. Add onions and green chilly. Allow the onions to cook and turn golden. Add the curry leaves. Mix them if necessary.
3. Add coriander powder, turmeric powder and chilly powder to the onions and mix well.
4. Add the cut potatoes and salt. Mix them thoroughly with the onions, so that the mixture gets evenly distributed on the potatoes.
5. Lower the heat to medium. Cover the skillet and let it cook. If required mix once in a while to make sure that the potatoes does not get burnt.
6. When the potatoes are ready, take out and garnish with coriander leaves.
7. Serve hot with rice.

Why?

I am not a great cook, not even a good one. While at school and college, I escaped from helping out my mom with her cooking, by giving excuses that I have to study. By the time I got married, I never had cooked anything by myself. So you can imagine, how it was, living in a state away from home, and trying to cook something for your husband. I was practically in tears! Luckily for me, my husband, knew more about cooking than I did. So the journey started without much trouble... Even these days his dishes are much tastier. I thought I would document some of our creations here. Someday if my kids wanted to make their favorite dishes that their mom & dad made, here it is..

Most of the recipes will not have measurements that would be accurate. Use your own judgment. Drop a note on any comments that you may have.