Crab Curry

Crab curry is one of the tasty coastal dishes of Kerala. This is one of my favourite dishes.

During my summer hols visits to grandma's house was always a treat. My grandmother lived on the banks of Ashtamudi lake and I waited for the bus to arrive at the bus stop, my eyes wanted to see the lake, the sun set, the coconut palms standing on the banks of this lake and the birds passing over this lake. It is a view that no man on this earth can give us.

The midday meal always consisted of fish in some form or the other. I am not fond of fish but the way grandma prepared it made me relish it. Fish pachcurry, fish fry, fish red curry and crab curry were my favourites. Here is the recipe for crab curry.

Ingredients:

1. 500 gms crabs
2. 1/2 coconut
3. 200 gms onions
4. 100 gms green mangoes cubed (If mangoes are not in season, fish tamarind may be used)
5. 4 cloves of garlic
6. 8 green chillies
7. 1 inch ginger
8. 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
9. 2 sprigs curry leaves
10. 50 ml. oil
11. 1/4 tsp. mustard
12. salt as required

Method:

• Clean crabs and cut into required pieces.
• Grind coconut, garlic, green chilles, turmeric powder and ginger together.
• Heat oil and splutter the mustard seeds. Add chopped onions and curry leaves and fry.
• Add the coconut masala and fry for 3 minutes more.
• Add the crab pieces and cubed mangoes and mix.
• Add sufficient water and salt to cook the crab curry and cook over slow fire.
• A tasty dish is ready.

Butter Chicken

Yesterday, while going through my cooking options, struck upon the idea of cooking butter chicken. Butter chicken originates from the Indian state of Punjab. It is also called Murg Makhani in hindi. The butter chicken came out very tasty and is easy to cook, so thought of sharing it with you.

Ingredients:

1. 600 gms chicken breasts cut into small pieces
2. 2 tablespoon butter
3. 2 pieces cinnamon about 1 inch each.
4. 4 green cardamoms
5. 3 cloves
6. 8 to 10 peppercorns
7. 2 parts of 1 star anise
8. 1 tsp. kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves, available in most of the Indian stores)
9. 100 gms sliced or crushed almonds
10. 1/2 can crushed tomatoes
11. 2 cm ginger grated
12. 4 cloves of garlic grated
13. 2 medium onion cut into fine pieces
14. 1/2 cup yogurt
15. 1 tblsp. lemon juice
16. 1 teaspoon garam masala or chicken masala
17. 1 teaspoon chilli powder
18. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
19. some sprigs of coriander leaves for garnish
20. salt as per requirement

Method:

• Marinate the chicken pieces with lemon juice, turmeric powder, chillipowder, kasuri methi and salt for 45 minutes or more.
• Roast the whole spices of peppercorns, star anise, cumin, cardamom and cinnamon.
• Grind these spices into powder and then add the almonds and chicken masala and grind it further. Make this into a fine paste adding water and keep it aside.
• In a heavy bottomed pan, add the butter and then the onions, ginger and garlic and saute these for sometime until it is lightly brown and cooked. Add the chicken pieces to it and lightly fry it. (You can also add a bit of yogurt to the marination and then roast the chicken in an oven for a better effect than pan frying it).
• When the chicken is done, add the crushed tomatoes and stir it for a further 2 minutes. Now add the almond and spice paste, mix and let it cook until the chicken it is done. (Please uncover it and mix it in between as the almond paste can stick to the bottom, if needed add a little water from time to time.)
• Lastly add the yogurt and adjust salt according to your taste. Cook it for 2 or 3 minutes only as the yogurt can give out water if cooked for longer time.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Happy Onam

Wishing each one of my blog readers a "Happy Onam 2008".

Fruit Trifle

During my stay in the U.K., trifle is a dessert which fascinated me a lot. Trifle is an English dessert made with cake, custard, fruits, jelly and cream. All these items are gathered in a glass bowl, as this shows of those lovely colours and makes anybody's mouth water. Trifle can be made with various ingredients and in various ways. Here is my version of trifle. I am using all ready made items to make it easier. You can bake the cake yourself, or make the custard at home.

Ingredients:

1. 200 gms plain sponge cake
2. 800 gms fruit cocktail (500 gms fruit drained)
3. 1 packet of strawberry jelly (You may use different jelly depending on the fruits you use)
4. 500 ml. custard
5. 1 cup whipping cream
6. 1 tblsp. icing sugar

Method:

• Prepare the jelly according to the instructions and let it set before you start making the trifle.
• Cut the cake into 1 inch slices and layer the bottom of the glass bowl with it.
• Drain the syrup out of fruit cocktail and drizzle some of the syrup onto the sliced cake pieces, to soak it a bit.
• Now put half of the fruits on top of the cake layer.
• Pour some custard on top of the fruit layer.
• The next layer should be the jelly.
• You can again layer the items in the similar way or stop it wherever you please.
• Lastly add the whipped cream.
• Refrigerate it for atleast 5 hours and serve cold.

* Whipped cream . In a mixing bowl, beat the cream until it slightly thickens.
Add icing sugar and continue to whip until it forms firm peaks. Whipping cream can also be used to layer in between the ingredients. But always finish off with the whipping cream on top.

Onam Recipes

As Onam is fast approaching, I thought of contributing some recipes specifically for onam on my site. As many of these ingredients as such is not available in Cape Town, I am not posting it on this site and have posted it to my other site http://vanitharecipes.blogspot.com. These recipes are taken from old vanitha magazine, translated and then posted. More recipes will be posted in due course of time.