Mango Salsa:



This is my first snap I ever took of my food. It is more than a year old. Finally I felt really bad for not posting it so long.

Ripe Mango - 1
Tomato - 1
Red Onion - 1
Green chilli - 1/2
Cucumber - 1/2
Cilantro
Lemon juice - 1/2 lemon
Salt

Finely chop mango, tomato, red onion, cucumber, green chilli. Add lemon juice, salt and garnish with cilantro. Serve with tortilla chips.

Coconut Milk Pulav:



This is one of my favourite dish and it is the best match for any spicy chicken curry.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 1 cup
Coconut Milk - 1 cup
Onions - 1 - cut into thin long slices
Green chillies - 3
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tspn
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon - 1 stick
Bay leaf - 1
Salt
Carrots, Peas, Beans - chopped - 1/2 cup (Optional)
Mint, cilantro - chopped - 2 tbspns

Procedure:

Wash the rice and soak it in water for 10 minutes. Heat a pressure pan, add 2 tbspns of oil and 1 tbspn butter. Once it is hot, add cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf. Add sliced onions, chillies, ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell goes. Add mint, cilantro leaves and fry for few more minutes. Add veggies (if using) and fry. Mix 1 cup coconut milk with 3/4th cup of water and add it to the pan. Add salt and let it come to a boil. Now add the rice and stir and close the lid. Close the lid and pressure cook for 10 minutes on medium flame and for 5 minutes on low flame.

You could cook this in a rice cooker too.

Fish Curry/ Chapala Pulusu/ Meen Kozhumbu:

The older the wine, the better it tastes. Same could be told about fish curry. It tastes heavenly the next day than the day it is made. That's why I always make sure I make this atleast 12 hours before serving. All the flavors seep into the fish well.


Ingredients:
Fish - 1 (I used one big trout - cleaned and cut into 5 or 6 pieces)
Tamarind paste - 2 tbspns
Onion - 1/2
Salt
Curry leaves
Oil - 3 or 4 tbspn
Sesame Oil - 1 tbspn (optional)

Grind :
Onion - 1/2
Tomato - 1
Chilli powder - 1 tbpn
Dhaniya powder - 1 1/2 tbspn
Coconut - fresh - little
Garlic
Pepper - 5
Cumin - 1/2 tspn


Method:

Heat a pan, add your usual cooking oil. When the oil is heated up, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds. Then add chopped onions and fry for 4 mins. Add the masala paste and fry till the oil comes out. This may take some time. Meanwhile, mix the tamarind paste in 2 cups of water. (Alternately, you could soak lemon sized tamarind in water and extract the juice.) Now add the tamarind water, add turmeric and salt. Let it come to a boil and
let it thicken. Now add the fish pieces and very gently try to move around and accomodate all the pieces so that they all get soaked in the curry. Close the lid and let it cook for 6 to 7 minutes. Check if the fish is cooked and take it off the fire. Let the curry rest well before serving. Enjoy it with rice.

After a long break....

I 'm back from a wonderful 2-month trip to India. Finally I'm settled and up and about cooking and snapping pictures of my dishes and my garden too.

As soon as I came back, it was time for harvesting my veggies. I planted 6 potato bulbs in March and I harvested them after I came back. Boy, I kept digging out potataoes like crazy. There were so many, in all sizes and the final result was approx 5 pounds of potatoes.
I happily distributed them among our friends. I have enormous number of chillies and I keep plucking them fresh whenever I need. I have lots of tomatoes growing too. They haven't ripened yet.

My first post after my long break is dedicated to my garden. It is potato fry made with home-grown potatoes. It is a simple and well known recipe.

Potato fry:


Ingredients:
Potatoes - 4 or 5 - cubed and boiled
Onion (big) - 1/2 - chopped into thin long slices
Chilli powder - 1 tbspn
Salt
Turmeric - a pinch
Curry leaves


Method:

Heat a frying pan, add 3 tbspns of oil and once it heats up, do the usual tadka - add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, channa dal. Add curry leaves and onions and fry till light golden brown. Add turmeric, chilli powder and salt and mix well. Add potatoes and mix it gently. After 5 minutes stir it once with care, so that the potatoes don't get mashed. And do this couple of more time at 5 minute intervals till the potatoes are fried to your taste. Enjoy!!!