Nadan Crab Curry|Kerala Style Crab Curry

Kappa(Tapioca) vevichath and 'nalla nadan' kottayam style meen(fish) curry is a match made in heaven. After every few weeks I get a craving for kappa vevichath, So two days ago, I made a crab curry instead of fish curry to have with kappa which turned out to be really good. This dish is spicy, tangy and the sweetness of the crab meat makes this dish take everything to another level of goodness.

There are few things to be noted:-

1. I used lightly flavored chicken stock in the curry but you can use  plain water. In my opinion chicken stock and seafood is a great combination.
2. You can adjust the spiciness of the curry by adding more or less chilli powder and pepper powder.
3.  You know the crab is cooked when the legs turn orange,

When I buy crabs I ask the 'fish fella' to cut and clean them for me, When I reach home, I check for any yellow substance in the cavity and remove them. Twist off the legs. Clean the crab under running water and with a kitchen scissor(or the back of  knife) give each legs and the fingers a crack for the masalas to infuse into the crab.

Ingredients

750g crab washed and cleaned

1 onion sliced

10 shallots sliced

1 heaped  tbsp ginger chopped

4 cloves of whole garlic

1 or 2 green chillies sliced(optional)

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1  1/2 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder

2 tsp pepper powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp meat masala

1 sprig of curry leaves

A handful of chopped coriander leaves

Tamarind pulp of 1 lemon sized ball soaked in 1 cup of water squeezed and drained

1 cup chicken stock or half of a chicken stock cube 

1/2 tsp sugar

salt

2 tbsp oil(use coconut oil for authentic taste)

Method

Heat oil in a pan

Add onions,shallots,ginger,garlic,green chillies,turmeric powder and a little salt and saute till it turns slightly brown.( This is gonna take a while)

Add chilli powder, coriander powder, pepper powder and meat masala saute for 10 seconds or till raw smell has gone.

Add 1 cup of chicken stock and allow it to boil.

Add curry leaves, tamarind juice, coriander leaves, salt and sugar and once again let it boil for couple of minutes. Check for salt and add salt if required.

Add the crab, mix well,cover the vessel with a lid and cook the crab for 8 -10 minutes. 

And when you open the lid, through the miracle of time, there you have it, finger licking good crab curry

 This is best served hot with ghee rice and kappa vevichath.

Happy Cooking!

Oven-Roasted Tomatoes

 Oven-roasted tomatoes have an intense fresh flavor and I think this is the perfect way to preserve tomatoes. They are excellent in sandwiches, salads and pasta.Give it a try!

  

It’s up to you if you want to cut out the stems before roasting or not.Also, you can use garlic, herbs(thyme,basil,oregano or rosemary) or both to flavor the tomatoes.

Ingredients

2 large tomatoes, halved crosswise

2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

4 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Cracked black pepper and coarse salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius. Line the baking tray with a parchment paper or aluminium foil. Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise and spread them in a single layer, cut-side up.

 Place the slices of garlic on the tomatoes, drizzle extra virgin olive oil and evenly sprinkle salt and pepper. The other way of doing this is tossing the tomatoes in a bowl with olive oil, garlic and seasonings.

Pop the tray in the the oven and let the tomatoes roast for around 2 hours. The tomatoes are done when they are shrunken, moist and chewy 

Remove the tray from the oven and let it cool before storing

You can keep this in the refrigerator in a covered container for 1 week and freeze up to 6 months. Give it a try!

Happy Cooking!

Garlic Knots

If you know how to make pizza dough or if you can get good store brought pizza dough, I would say garlic knots are one of the easiest party treats- crusty outside and light within.Whenever you are making these make a big batch because these finish like hot buns. My husband and I liked these a lot when we made these last weekend along with the schezwan chicken wings. 

When I made these I used olive oil and butter. But you can, of course use what's there in your kitchen. The traditional recipe calls for parsley but my husband and I like the flavor and smell of cilantro more. In fact you can use any herb of your choice . As long as you have pizza dough, garlic, olive oil or butter you are good to go. If you are using unsalted butter add a dash of salt in the last step. The pizza dough I use has herbs and pepper in it so I didn't have to add anything extra.

Ingredients

400g - 500g pizza dough

6 cloves of garlic

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp of salted butter

3 tbsp of chopped parsley/cilantro/herb of your choice

Method

Place the ball of dough on a floured surface,roll it out with a rolling pin and cut them into strips.Cut the longer strips into half if want equal sized garlic knots(..mine turned out fine without doing that)

Form them into knots.

 Place them on the baking sheet and brush the knots with olive oil

Loosely cover them with a cloth and let them rise for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 220 degree Celsius.

Bake the knots for 20 - 25 minutes or until nicely browned , meanwhile make the oil.

In a saucepan mix garlic, parsley or cilantro(herb of your choice), olive oil and butter. Heat it till warm.

When the knots are out of the oven, immediately pour the garlic

 oil over, toss together until the garlic knots are well coated in the garlic oil. These are best when served warm.

Happy Cooking!

Schezwan Chicken Wings

My husband is a "chicken wings specialist". Honestly, he makes the best chicken wings in the whole wide world in my opinion. This is my husband's recipe and this is different because the main ingredient is baking powder(of course, apart from  the chicken wings) which gives a unique texture to the wings. Interesting? But wait till you try this! :)

Ingredients

500 gms chicken wings(with skin)
1 tbsp chili flakes
1 tbsp pepper powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup schezwan sauce
Juice of 1 lemon
Chopped cilantro and lemon wedges for garnishing

Method
Clean and wash the chicken wings and pat dry.
Mix chilli flakes, pepper powder, salt and baking powder and coat the chicken wings.



Arrange this on a pan and keep this on the middle rack of a preheated oven

Bake this for 50 to 60 minutes at 220 degree celsius flipping the chicken wings every  20 minutes

Meanwhile, mix the schezwan sauce with lemon juice. 

As soon as the chicken wings is out of the oven, pour the schezwan sauce over the steaming hot chicken and mix well with a tong or two spoons

Garnish with chopped cilantro and have it while its hot! Don't forget to squeeze the lemon on the chicken wings:)

        

Happy Cooking!

Homemade Caramel Sauce

It's so easy and delicious. Stir a tablespoon or two caramel sauce into hot coffee, drizzle some on top of your pancakes, muffins or ice cream,use as a dip for  fruits or drizzle over pies and cheesecakes. Its divine. There are two methods of making caramel sauce- wet and dry. In wet method, you melt the sugar with water in it. While in dry method you caramelize the sugar in the pan first and add the wet ingredients,

Some people are scared of making caramel sauce since it involves melting sugar. But you don't need to be if you are doing it right.

First of all, you don't need any fancy equipment. If you have a good old deep saucepan and a long wooden spoon you are all set. Its best to use a light colored pan(like steel or ceramic) but if you are like me it doesn't matter which pan you use. Secondly, caramel sauce is very forgiving when it comes to the ingredients. You can make a beautiful caramel sauce with white, brown sugar or with  both, with 10g butter or 100g butter, little or more cream, no vanilla or no salt at all. It all depends on what you want. If you are using white sugar and brown sugar, caramelize the white sugar first and add the brown sugar along with butter and cream. If you use very little fat or no fat at all, your caramel sauce will be brittle or hard.

According to Dan Leopard's article on The Guardian,  dark caramel goes well with light fruits like apple and oranges, golden caramel goes well with dark fruits like figs and medium colored caramel goes well with medium flavors like milk chocolate. But there are no set rules to this.

If you toast some nuts and add to this  it becomes praline or add a little sea salt to this and it becomes salted caramel sauce.

Lastly, by no means you should let your skin touch the sugar or the caramel sauce when its hot. The boiling point of sugar is so high that you don't wanna mess with this.

 Ingredients

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup cream

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp butter

A pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla essence 

Method 

Add sugar in a saucepan. Start with an even layer

Let it melt on a low heat. Do not stir with a a
 spoon, only SWIRL the pan. But if you are concerned if the sugar will get burnt (which is not likely to happen if you are doing this step on low heat) with the wooden spoon push the sugar at the edge to the center. The sugar clumps when you do this. So make sure that the sugar has completely melted before you go to the next step.

 After the sugar has melted (PAY ATTENTION) the color changes fast at this point. Stir well. Some say golden is divine, some say amber gold and the other say reddish brown but no one says black or burnt.

FYI --> If you are scared of hot molten sugar put your mittens on. Now turn the heat to medium high.

Add the brown sugar, butter and cream. Be very careful because it will sizzle and splutter. 

Add vanilla essence and salt.

Put off the heat and keep stirring and you end up getting this smooth and beautiful caramel sauce. 

 Allow it to cool

The difference between caramel sauce and toffee sauce is that toffee sauce is only cooked to the point that the sugar in it melts, at which point it becomes usable. Caramel sauce is cooked well beyond the melting stage, through all the various candy phases until the sugar molecules themselves start to break into pieces. It’s those pieces that give caramel its rich flavors and amber-brown color. Toffee sauce wouldn't have much of a color if it wasn't for the fact that it’s made with brown sugar

 To store, keep refrigerated in an air-tight container. To warm, place in the microwave for 30 seconds to heat through.

Happy Cooking!

Prawn Curry|Prawn in a Spicy Coconut Sauce

 For a while I have been wanting to make a prawn curry by Madhur Jaffrey. Madhur Jaffrey is known as the "actress who could cook". As per what I read she introduced Indian cooking to the western world. Its not because this is a recipe by her that I wanted to make this..No offense to Madhur Jaffrey. But I wanted to make this because this is what she shared with Julia Child on Cooking with the Master Chefs. She called it the 'southern Indian shrimp in a spicy coconut sauce'. Fancy huh. If Julia was impressed with this recipe, I told myself, I can impress my husband too.

Honestly, this is the best prawn curry I have made. It has the spiciness,'tanginess' yet the flavors are subtle because of the coconut milk. You should give this a try,The original recipe calls for coriander seeds. I substituted it with the coriander powder from my pantry,  I also made slight changes with the addition of some coriander leaves. This is my version of the recipe.

Ingredients

Half a kilo prawns peeled

I medium sized onion

Half red bell pepper(capsicum)

5 cloves of garlic

1/2 inch ginger

2 tbsp kashmiri chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp coriander powder

2 tsp pepper powder

2 tbsp canola oil/any refined vegetable oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

A pinch of fenugreek seed

10 curry leaves

2 green chilies

Salt

1/4 tsp sugar

1 cup thick coconut milk(I used canned coconut milk)

1 tbsp tamarind dissolved in 1/3rd cup hot water and strained

Method

Chop the onion, bell pepper, ginger and garlic roughly and blend this to a smooth paste.You can add 2 tbsp of water if required. Add the chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and pepper powder and blend again. You should get a paste like below.

Heat oil in a pan. Splutter the mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds.

Add the the curry leaves and sliced green chilies. (If you don't want the heat but only the flavor, remove the seeds from the chilies). To this add the bell paper paste and saute till the oil separates or its slightly brown. This should take about 7 minutes on medium heat,

Add 1 cup of water, coconut milk, tamarind pulp,sugar and salt.

Give this a boil and strain this. Do not use a fine sieve because we want some body to the curry,

Heat the sauce again and check for salt. Add a handful of chopped coriander leaves and prawns.

 Cook for 5 minutes and you have a beautiful prawn curry in front of you. Serve it hot with rice!

HAPPY COOKING!

Pound Cake French Toast Recipe

In my opinion, Pound Cake French Toast is The King of all French Toasts.. You can't beat that, can you? This is so easy yet so impressive(if you have already made pound cake at home). You serve it with a sauce, cream, syrup, fresh fruit or a fine dusting of sugar it JUST doesn't matter. 

So here is how we do it.(pssttt....this recipe is for one person)

Ingredients :-

2 slices of pound cake

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp butter

 Fruit of your choice

Confectionery sugar/maple syrup/caramel sauce/whipped cream/ice cream (optional)

Method

In a bowl, crack an egg open and add milk and sugar, Beat well for a minute. Heat a pan and let the butter melt(medium heat).

 While the butter is melting, slice the 2 pieces of pound cake and soak each slices of pound cake in the egg mixture making sure they are well coated, 

Place the pound cake slices on the hot pan(Ahhh..that sizzling sound..party on the pan). Toast each side for 1 minute or till golden brown.

Serve it fruits and maple syrup/caramel sauce/whipped cream/ice cream.

If you are dusting it with powdered sugar make sure the french toast has cooled down a bit.

Click here for the pound cake recipe and Grilled Pound Cake with Nectarines and Ice-cream

Happy Cooking!

Grilled Pound Cake with Nectarines and Ice-cream

 If you have pound cake at home and you wanna make a really really special breakfast try this goodness- Grilled Pound Cake! Serve it with fresh fruits and ice-cream or cream and kick start your day feeling special. 

When you grill the pound cake you get a beautiful scrumptious crust which is my favorite part. You can find the pound cake recipe on my blog(Click here for recipe) .Here is how you make Grilled Pound Cake

Ingredients

2 slices of pound cake

2 tsp unsalted butter

Fresh fruit of your choice(I used nectarines)

2 scoops ice cream of your choice

Confectionery sugar for dusting

Method

Heat the butter on the grilling pan. When the pan is really hot, place the cake on the pan and grill uncovered for 1 minute on each side(on high flame). To achieve the crosshatch marks on the pound cake slice, get the first grill mark done at 45 degrees, then rotate 90 degrees and grill again, flip and repeat. This leaves impressive diamond grids on your pound cake.

Serve with some sliced fresh fruits and ice-cream. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Click here for the Pound Cake recipe and Grilled Pound Cake with Nectarines and Ice-cream recipe

HAPPY COOKING!

Pound Cake Recipe

Pound cakes brings me back sweet memories of home. This cake is called the pound cake because the traditional recipe contains one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, one pound of eggs, and one pound of flour. It is usually baked in a loaf pan or a Bundt mold

. I made today's recipe with a different proportion and also used sour cream. While I served this pound cake dusted with powdered sugar, you can also coat with an icing. Toast a slice of pound cake or make a trifle.And the real treat is when you make pound cake french toast(wink wink:)

Click here for my Grilled Pound Cake recipe and Pound cake French Toast Recipe

I love pound cakes more than any other cake. If you give me pound cakes for every meal 365 days, YES, I will still survive. Couple of days back I made this cake and this is the recipe.

Ingredients

Butter 200 g (1 cup)

Sugar 250g ( 1 and 1/4 cup)

Eggs 5

Plain Flour 300g (3 cups)

Baking Soda 1/2 tsp 

Salt 1/2 tsp

Sour Cream 1 cup

Vanilla essence 2 tsp

Foster Clark(Mandarin Flavor) or Tang 2 tsp(optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 degree Celsius

Butter the pan. If you are not using a non stick pan line the pan with parchment paper

Mix sour cream with Foster Clark powder in a bowl. Keep aside

 In a different bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Keep aside.

Cream the butter. Add sugar and beat till light and fluffy. This will take about 7 minutes.

 Add the eggs one by one beating well after each addition. Add vanilla essence. 

Add 1/3rd of the flour mixture. Incorporate this into the cake batter on low speed and add 1/2 cup of the sour cream. After mixing well, add the half of the reamaining flour, mix well and add the rest of the sour cream. Add the last portion of the flour till incorporated. 

Pour the batter into the pan. Bake this for 45 mins on 190 degree Celsius.

After 45 minutes insert a tooth pick into d cake. If the tooth pick comes out clean, that means you cake is DONE. otherwise bake the cake for some more time.

Invert the cake onto a greased wire rack. The cake can be served plain with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

I will be making my mothers recipe soon which is the ultimate pound cake!

Recipe adapted from tasteofhome.com

Happy Cooking!