Pumpkin Erissery - Kerala cuisine

I know its been ages since I have blogged, some how not been updating either. Hence I thought I will blog about the food I eat and enjoy on daily basis. Pumpkin errisery ( mathan erissery ) is my family favorite. The mild sweetness of the pumpkin, the coconut flavour of the gravy and finally the crisp fried thinly sliced shallot add to the aroma and the yumminess of the whole dish. So here goes my way of making pumpkin erriserry  

Ingredients 

Pumpkin cut into cubes- 1 cup 

Moong dal ( roasted) - 1/2 cup

Grated coconut - 1/3 cup

Jeera (cumin)  - 1 tspn

Chilli powder - a pinch

Green chilli - 1 or 2 

For seasoning

Oil - 1 tbspn

Finely sliced shallots - 2 tbspns

Mustard

Dried red chillies

Curry leaves 

Method 

Wash the dal well and add the pumpkin pieces and pressure cook just until the dal gets cooked. 

Make a paste of the grated coconut, jeera, green chillies and keep aside.

Once the dal and pumpkin is cooked, add the coconut paste to it, turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt and  pour enough water just to be it in a gravy form, then keep on the stove and bring it to boil.

In a pan pour few spoons of oil, splutter mustard,  fry the shallots, curry leaves, red chillies and season the erissery.

Done :)

Serve with warm rice and enjoy! !

Gathiya ( name as suggested by a reader of my page :) )

That day my family wanted to eat something deep fried and crispy, I searched for different flours in my storage and found urad flour, rice flour and bengal gram flour. I mixed these flours and added some freshly ground spices, made a dough and deep fried in oil. My family loved it :)

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Here goes the simple recipe , all you need is

Rice flour - 1 cup

Urad flour - 1 cup

Bengal gram flour - 2 cups , more if necessary

Butter melted- 1 tbspn

Salt 

Spices - powdered cumin seeds(jeera), carom seeds(ajwain), pepper, turmeric powder, asoafetida, chilli powder

Method

Mix the flours and spices in a large bowl and pour in the melted butter and then slowly add water and knead the dough to a non sticky soft dough. Let it rest for 10 mins or a little more if are patient enough :) .. After that take the chakkali maker , select the mould and put the dough in it after smearing a little oil inside the chakkali maker and close it. Meanwhile keep the kadai on the stove and pour in oil. Once the oil is hot squeeze in the dough in the oil and then fry, strain it once cooked. Done! :) .. Let it cool and store in a airtight container 

Add more bengal gram flour if you feel the dough a little watery. 

French bread

Been long time I have baked a bread and badly wanted to try a new recipe.. Browsed through my ' Joy of cooking' book and was attracted to the french bread recipe. The recipe looked impossible for me ( I know I shudnt :(  ), so I halved the recipe and tried it. To my surprise my bread was too good to believe that the recipe is so simple. Ok so now let me stop boasting about it and get on to the recipe

Combine
4 cups of flour
2 tspns of salt
2 1/4 tspns of active dry yeast

And then make a well in the centre and pour in 
1 1/2 cups of water, at room temperature.

Stir thoroughly by hand or a dough mixer, I used dough mixer, dint mess my hands :), knead the dough until it is soft and elastic. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until the dough doubles in bulk, takes about 2 hours.

Punch down the dough and divide the dough , make two loaves and place in a baking tray and let it rise again.
Meanwhile preheat the oven at 400 degrees Celsius. Place a bowl of water in the bottom of the oven . Bake the bread in the center rack for 15 mins, then reduce the heat to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for some more time. Bake until the crust is golden brown and bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
Remove and let it cool completely on the rack.

Easy na.. bake and enjoy :)

Cocoa devil's food cake

Have mentioned in the previous post of mine about my new buy 'Joy of cooking' , I am browsing through the book every day to try out something new :). Have tried a devils cake before but thought of trying this one too. Looked simple with handy ingredients. So here it is

Ingredients and method

Whisk together 
2 cups sifted flour ( I used atta)
1 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn salt

Whisk in a separate bowl
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter milk or yogurt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tspn vanilla

Beat in a large bowl
1/2 cup of unsalted butter

Gradually add and beat  
1 cup powdered sugar

Beat in one at a time 
2 eggs

On low speed add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with butter milk mixture in 2 parts, beating until smooth. Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 30-35 min or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven, cool in the pan for sometime and then remove to the wire rack to cool
Easy , bake and enjoy! :)

Recipe courtesy : Joy of cooking

Whole wheat chocolate crepes

I am a habitual customer of  an online shopping site, checks on the deals on books every now and then and to my surprise I saw 'Joy of cooking' on an offer of 50 percent. I was happy and without thinking much ordered it through.
And this morning I was thinking of making something special for kidoos and then suddenly remembered about the long forgotten recipe of crepes :) I jumped to check in thro the book and there it is .. I made a sweet crepes which was filled with powdered chocolate. And for sure kidoos loved it. I served it with sliced banana.


Here goes the recipe
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Luke warm water - 1/2 cup
Large eggs - 4 
Butter ( melted) - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/2 tspn

Method
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk well and let stand for 30 minutes.
Pour a ladle full of batter and make thin crepes, flip it over, sprinkle with chocolate powder, roll and serve it 

Recipe courtesy : Joy of cooking