Spicy guacamole

I never really knew there is such a fruit called avocado before moving to Bay Area. I remember seeing it in various forms while eating at Mexican restaurants before, but I thought then that it is one of those ethnic food items that you really cannot understand.

In California, you cannot escape anything Mexican and Avocados are even advertised on radio. When I made Guacamole for the first time, I didn't know that I made Guacamole! It just turned out like that and somebody ate it recognized it for me! When I started off to make my first Guacamole, I thought it might make a good dip for tortilla chips if avocado would be mixed with chopped tomatoes, cilantro and onion and seasoned the mix with salt, freshly ground black pepper and olive oil.

Over a period of last 4-5 years, I perfected the recipe and it is now an essential item in any party that I host. And people love it.

Here is my recipe of my version of guacamole which is extremely easy to make and feel free to provide your feedback.

Ingredients

Avocado - 3 large

Red onion - 1/2
Tomato - 1 medium
Cilantro - 5 stalks
Thai green chili - 2 (optional)

Extra virgin olive oil - 1 tbsp
Fresh lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Black pepper
Salt

Steps

Open avocados and scoop the meat into a large bowl. Chop onion,tomato, cilantro stalks and green chili into very small pieces and add it to the bowl, and mix everything well. You can leave the avocado meat little short of becomning paste. (The store-bought guacamole is usually in a paste form and I hate it.)

Add olive oil, lemon juice and salt to the mix and grind black pepper directly to the bowl and mix again. Taste the mix, and add more salt and/or lemon juice to balance the taste.

Serve guacamole with tortilla chips.

Tropical Fruit Salad

Though not part of home-cooking in Kerala, fruit salad is a popular dessert when it comes to a restaurant meal. Typically, a mix of icecream and cut fruits and nuts. In Bay Area, any tropical fruit is available in cans in Asian stores and this recipe makes use of that abundance.

Ingredients

1. jack fruit - 1 can
2. mixed fruits - 1 can
3. coconut jelly - 1 can
4. palm seed - 1 can
5. mangoes - 2 count
6. sweet condensed milk - 2 tsp
7. sour cream - 1/2 lbs

Steps

Cut all the friuts in to very small pieces. Add sour cream and condensed to this. Refrigerate the mix for a day before serving.

Cheera Thoran (Sauteed Indian Spinach)

Cheera is a kind of Spinach that is a very common leaf vegetable available in Kerala. It comes in many colors and tastes, and it is mainly consumed sauteed; as a side dish with Kerala meal. In the Bay Area, the green Cheera is available in Indian stores.

Ingredients
( serves 5)

1. Cheera - 1 bunch ( cut in to tiny pieces)
2. shallots - 3 count
3. green chili - 2
4. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. oil and salt as needed.

Steps

Crack mustard seeds in oil and saute shallots and green chili in it for about 3 minutes. Add the cut Cheera to that, and saute until the mix dries and cooked. Serve it hot.

Meen Pollichathu (Fish Baked in Banana Leaf Wrap)

Ingredients
(serves 8)

1. fish fillets (Tilapia or Salmon) - 2 lbs ( Cut in to pieces which are medium-thick and about 5 inches long)
2. chili powder (mild) - 3 tsp
3. turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
4. salt - to taste
5. shallots - 2 lbs
6. ginger - 2 inches
7. green chili - 2
8. curry leaves - 2 stems
9. banana leaves (fresh or frozen as available in Asian stores) - as needed

Steps

Marinate fish in chili powder, turmeric powder, and salt and keep it for 1 hour and then pan-fry.

Saute onion, ginger, green chili and curry leaves for about 10 minutes and keep it aside.

Wrap one or two pieces of fried fish in banana leaf with a tsp of sauteed onion mix. Wrap that again in aluminum foil and bake it for about 15 minutes in 350F.

Remove the aluminum foil and serve the fish warm in banana leaf. This will be an excellent appetizer or a side-dish for a typical Kerala meal with rice.

Moru Curry (Butter-milk curry)

This is basically a slightly cooked butter-milk or light yogurt in spices, mainly turmeric which gives its bright yellow color, and a vegetable, usually winter melon.

Ingredients
(serves 8)

1. yogurt - 2 lbs
2. winter melon - 1 lbs ( cut in pieces)
3. green chili - 3 count
4. turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
5. water - just enough to cook the melon.
6. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
7. dry, red chili - 4 whole
8. fenugreek (Uluva) - 1/4 tsp
9. curry leaves - 1 stem

Steps

Blend yogurt in a mixer for 1 to 2 minutes until the mix looks uniform.

Cook winter melon in water with turmeric powder and green chili. Once the water is dried up, bring the heat to low. Add the blended yogurt to this. Make sure that you stir it frequently. Add salt to taste.

Break mustard seeds in oil, and lightly brown red chili, uluva and curry leaves in the same oil and garnish curry. Serve with rice.

Payar Thoran (Boiled dry red beans sauteed)

Payar in Malayalam only means beans. But, in this dish, a dried red-beans available in Indian stores is used. Sometimes, it is called Vanpayaru in Malayalam.

Thoran and mezhukkupuratti are almost the same style of cooking vegetables, beans and roots in Kerala. The only major difference that I see is that in making a thoran, grated coconut is used as an extra ingredient, but mezhukkupuratti is typically a simpler preparation of sauteed vegetables, roots or beans in oil with some spices and shallots. Beans are socked in water overnight and boiled in water, and roots are boiled also before making either thoran or mezhukkupuratti.

Ingredients

1. red chori (a dried red beans available in Indian stores) - 2 cups ( soak in water overnight)
2. grated coconut - 4 tsp
3. shallots - 2
4. garlic -1 pod
5. cumin seeds (jeerakam) - 1/2 tsp
6. chili powder - 1/2 tsp
7. turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
8. salt to taste
9. whole, dry red chili - 4 counts
10. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
11. oil - 1 tbs

Steps

Pressure-cook soaked red beans. Wait for 3 whistles and then turn off the heater; keep it for 5 minutes.

Pulse ingredients 2 though 7 for 1 minute in a food processor. Crack mustard seeds in oil and add whole chili and curry leaves to it. Sautee it for about 30 secs. Add cooked beans and the prepared spices to it. Once the mix would be dry, turn off the heater. Serve with rice as a side-dish warm or cold.

Appam (Risen rice pan cake)

Appam might be the most famous signature Kerala food in India; may be because there is nothing similar to that elsewhere. It is a simple risen rice (traditionally using palm toddy or using yeast these days) pan cake. However, if properly made and eaten with well made chicken, mutton or duck curries, or vegetable stew it can bring heaven to your mouth. The spongy texture of this pan cake will help to absorb the gravy and that combination gives its taste that is very hard to describe.

There is no single recipe to make appam. But the basis of all recipes is to get the rice flour mix risen properly.

Ingredients

1.fine rice flour - 2 cups
2.yeast - 1 tsp
3.sugar - 1 tbs
4.coconut milk - 1 cup

Steps

Ferment yeast with sugar and about 10 ml of lukewarm water ( about 10 minutes).

Take 1 tbs of rice flour, and boil it with water until it becomes thick and keep it aside to cool.( You can use fine rava instead of rice flour to make this mix for better results.). When the mix would be cold, add rice flour and coconut milk to it. Mix well using a spatula or blend it in a mixer. Add yeast to this batter and keep it overnight to rise.

Before making appam, add water or coconut milk to the risen batter to make it to a loose consistency. Add salt to taste and make appam in greased appam chatti (specialized pan for making appam) or non-stick pan.

Mutton Curry

This meat dish is made in the traditional Kerala style of slow cooking meat in water and spices to make a thick gravy. In Kerala, goat meat, which is typically available at Muslim ethnic stores in the Bay Area, is used. Buy the meat with some bones that will improve the flavor of the curry. Lamb can also be used. When the last time I made this, I used boneless Australian lamb, and the dish was just fine.

Ingredients
(serves 8)

1. lamb/mutton - 3 lbs ( cut in small cubes)
2. mutton masala (available in Indian stores) - 4 tsp
3. onion - 3
4. ginger - a 2 inch piece
5. garlic - 1 pod
6. curry leaves - 2 stems
7. salt to taste
8. water - as needed for the gravy

Steps

Rub meat with mutton masala and salt and keep it for 1 hour outside.

Saute ingredients 3 through 6 for about 10 minutes and then add the prepared meat to it. Saute this mix for about 10 minutes and add water. Slow cook it for 1 hr. Serve it hot with appam, white bread loaves or chappathi.

Okra Mappas (Okra cooked in spiced coconut milk)

Okra (Lady's Finger/Vendakkai) is a common Kerala vegetable that is used in Sambar (a lentil soup with vegetables) and Mezhukkupuratti (any vegetable sauteed in oil).

This dish is tradionally used with chappathi (flat wheat bread), puri (deep fried wheat dough), or appam (raised rice flour pan cake) for breakfast.

Ingredients
( serves 4)

1. small okra - 12
2. coriander powder - 2 tsp
3. turmeric powder- 1/4 tp
4. chili powder - 1/2 tsp
5. onion - 1 small
6. ginger - 1 inch ( cut in pieces)
7. garlic - 5 count( cut in small pieces)
8. curry leaves - 1 stem
9. coconut milk - 50 ml.
10.water -100 ml
11.salt - to taste

Steps

Trim both ends of okras and saute for 5 minutes.

Mix 2 through 4 with 20 ml water and keep it aside for 10 minutes.

Saute ingredients number 5 through 8 in one tbs oil until the onion will be golden; about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the mixed spices to this and saute it for about 3 minutes. Add water to this mix. Once it is boiled, add sauted okra to the mix. Then add coconut milk and cook for about 5 minutes until okra is just cooked. Add salt to taste and serve it hot with appam, chappathi or puri.

Duck Curry

This is a traditional Kerala recipe that I obtained from my mom. A generation back, it was a common sight to see small duck farmers tending to their small flock of birds in the paddy fields of Kerala after the harvest. The ducks would feast on the rice left-out during harvest, crustaceans and small fish abundant in such fields. The farmer would sell eggs and male ducks in the neighborhood up until all the fields in that area would be cleansed of by his birds of anything edible, before they move another place.

Such ducks will not have any fat, but its minimum amount of meat is very tasty, mainly due to how it is raised. In Bay Area, young, frozen duck from Asian countries is available. It is larger in size compared to the Kerala duck, and has large fat deposits. But, it still tastes like a duck, and so is a good replacement. Make sure that you remove most of the fat before and during cooking.

Ingredients
( serves 8 - 10)

1.Duck - 4 lbs ( skinned and cut in to small pieces and fat removed)
2. Fennel seeds ( Perumjeerakam) - 1 tbs
3. black pepper - 1 tbs
4. salt - to taste
5. turmeric powder - 1 tsp
6. coconut milk - 1 can ( 250 ml)
7. ginger - 2 inches piece ( cut in to small pieces)
8. garlic - 1 pod ( cut in to small pieces)
9. curry leaves- 2 stems.
10.onion - 2 medium size.
11. potato - 2 medium size.
12. vinegar - 1 tbs

Steps

Grind ingredients number 2 through 5 in the mixer about 5 seconds. Marinate the duck
pieces in this mix for about 1 hr.

Saute ingredients 7 through 10 for about 7 - 10 minutes in a pan. Keep it aside. In the same
pan put marinated duck. Stir it often, until the water from duck completely dries up. This process takes about 20 minutes. ( Make sure the temperature is adjusted
to medium or medium high at this time, so that it doesn't take more than 20 minutes to dry) .

Take about 100 ml of the coconut milk and mix it with about 100ml of water and
add it to duck mix. Also add the sauteed onion, ginger, garlic mix to it. Cook the duck
until the onion is dissolved in the gravy; about 20 minutes. Add the rest of the coconut milk to
this, and bring it to simmer and let it cool. After about 10 minutes add vinegar
to this.

Cut potato in to round pieces and pan fry it. Garnish duck curry with the fried potato slices and
serve with appam or white bread loaves. The garnishing is optional and it it can be skipped if you want to reduce the calories.

Our 2008 Christmas party

For the Christmas parties we host, usually there will be lots of snacks and drinks as starters and it will be concluded with a meal of traditional Malayalee entrees and a dissert. This time we tried to change it little bit. The food was served in multiple courses, which was started with the traditional cake and wine course and finished with a delicious tropical fruit salad.

These were the items and some pictures from the party. Vinaya will post the recipies of each item soon.

First course: Fruit cake and wine.

Vinaya makes her Bay Area famous fruit cake during every Christmas season. The original recipie was obtained from Liji Shaji in Memphis and she had perfected it over a period of last 10 years.

The wine was a pleasantly sweet and aromatic Moscato by Trader Joe's.

Second course: Spinach and egg-drop pasta soup and a California crab salad



Recipies for both these items were taken from the annual cookbook of "Food and Wine" magazine. The salad is just an assemblage of local produce and seafood items.



A Fume Blanc wine by Smoking Loon was well paired with this soup and salad course.

Third course: Lamb curry and bread

Australian lamb bought at Costco was slow cooked to thick but still running gravy so that bread can be soaked in to eat. Freshly baked Italian and French style breads were bought from an Asian and Trader Joe's stores. But the regular white French bread goes better with the lamb curry. Kids will love this combination and make sure that the curry is not too hot for them.

Okra (Vendakka) mappas was prepared for vegetarians.


Fourth course: Duck stew in coconut milk and appam

This is the classic Malayalee dish that entered the menus of five-star hotel restaurants in India. In Bay Area, young duck can be bought at any Asian store, and make sure that excess fat is removed before and during the cooking. The duck we get in Kerala is smaller in size and has no fat.

Vianya religiously follows her mother's classic recipe with very little spices except for a masala rub in the beginning.



Ishtoo was made for vegetarians.

For appam, Vinaya has multiple recipes and she will post them here soon. However, during cold season, it is not easy to get the appam batter fermented properly, though that process is very easy during summer time.

For the lamb curry and duck stew courses, Fume Blanc and Riesling wines were served, and they seem to have paired well. It is not good to serve big red wines for these dishes, though Pinot Noir may be ok.

Fifth course: Tilapia roast in banana leaf



This is a take on the traditional Kerala meen pollichathu recipe. Tilapia fish fillet is lightly marinated and pan seared first and later baked it with a sauteed shallots, ginger and black pepper mix wrapped in banana leaf.

Sixth course: Malayalee meal



No party is complete without little rice in the end. For par-boiled rice, moru curry , payaru thoran, and cheera thoran were made. And any left-over item from the previous courses could be used here as well.





A slightly sweet Riesling will be the best wine at this stage to wash down the spiciness accumulated on the pallets thus far, before moving onto the dissert course.

Dessert: Tropical fruit salad

This fruit salad with canned tropical fruits, condensed milk and sour cream is very easy to make and a huge hit among guests.