Pepper 'n Spice

Pilaf or pulao is a rice dish usually cooked with basmati rice. This is because it needs rice grains to remain separate from each other and not be sticky. Moreover, basmati rice when cooked is light and fluffy. Pulao is fragrant because of the spices like cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves that are added. I came across this recipe when browsing through a Malayalam fortnightly magazine called Vanitha. Vanitha means woman in Malayalam. The magazine was founded by Mrs. K. M. Mathew, a distant relative of my mother.  The components... 1. Basmati rice - 1 cup Water - 2 cups Lemon - a squeeze 2. Green chili - 2 Garlic cloves - 3 Ginger - 1/2 inch Cumin seeds - 1 tsp Cloves - 2 Cinnamon - 2 Coriander powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp Water - a splash 3. Beans - 150g Carrot - 1 Green bell pepper - 1 Green peas, frozen - 1/4 cup Corn, frozen - 1/4 cup Water - 1/4 cup 4. Olive oil, extra virgin - 2 tsp The tactic... Wash and clean the rice well and souse it in water for half an hour. Drain ...

 A twist to the regular coffee cake  with the addition of a tablespoon of flavored smoky cinnamon coffee powder. It turned out swell! Baked after a special request from my daughter. The lamp is a Brylle/Jacobsen design. It is a self assembly piece from Ikea. The Scandinavian design is simple, yet functional.

Paratha is very oft eaten as a breakfast item in North India. It is cooked with butter or ghee. The word paratha is a combination of parat and atta, which means cooked wheat dough. Atta is the Hindi word for wheat flour. This flatbread can be stuffed with vegetables like potato, carrot, cauliflower, cabbage or radish. The building blocks of Mom's bewitching paratha... Cabbage - 1/2 cup Ginger - 1/2 inch Green chili - 1 Onion - 1 Salt - a bit Wheat flour - 1 cup Water - a splash Rice bran oil - for cooking the paratha The course of action...  Cut cabbage and onion into very small pieces. Mince ginger and chili. Merge cabbage, onion, ginger, chili and salt. Combine wheat flour, water and salt. Knead to prepare chapati dough. Make 2 balls out of this and roll both to make 2 separate thin round doughs. Spread the merged cabbage mix on top of one of the flat dough. Cover with the second one and press with your fingers to join the edges.  Heat up a tawa and lightly spread oil. When ...

A traditional Kerala sweetmeat always available in the local thattukadas. It is protein packed, stuffed with a filling of green gram, coconut and jaggery. A crunchy, hot sukhiyan is excellent with your evening tea or coffee. Elements of Mom's enchanting sweet dish... Green gram (mung beans) - 1 cup (soaked overnight) Coconut, grated - 1 cup Jaggery, powdered - 3/4 cup Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp Water - 1/4 cup All-purpose flour - 1/2 cup Rice powder - 1 tsp Salt - a smidgeon Rice bran oil - for frying The mechanism... Cook the mung beans with water and a bit of salt. Drain excess water and set aside to cool. Heat up a kadai and melt jaggery with 1/4 cup of water. When it melts completely, strain to remove any impurities like stones. Boil jaggery again and add coconut. Mix and stir until the water evaporates. Cast in cooked mung beans and cardamom powder. Intermingle. Let it cool. Make small balls and keep aside. Mix flour, rice powder, salt and a splash of water to make a dosa like ...

Kondattam is vegetable that has been marinated and sun dried. This can be done for long beans, bitter gourd, chilies and ivy gourd. It can be preserved in jars and taken as a side dish when needed with rice and rice porridge (kanji). Bitter gourd or pavakka kondattam that my daughter loves is prepared oil free in a quick manner by microwaving to suck up all the water in the vegetable. The additives of Mom's captivating kondattam... Bitter gourd - 1 large Chickpea flour (besan) - 2 Tbsp Rice powder - 1 tsp Chili powder - 1 tsp Salt - a tad Water - a splash The course of action... Wash bitter gourd and deseed it. Chop into thin round slices. Make a paste of chickpea flour, chili powder, rice powder and salt with a splash of water. Marinate the bitter gourd slices with this melange. Set aside for 20 minutes. Microwave the slices for 10 minutes, flipping sides in between. Wallow in the crispy and crunchy kondattam.

Okra, customarily called ladies finger is a long green vegetable with a number of white, round seeds. When it is sliced, a gooey slime emerges out. But once they are prepared as a stir fry, this stickiness disappears. The innards of Mom's beguiling dish... Ladies finger - 200g Turmeric powder - a smidgeon Chili powder - 1/4 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp Vegetable oil - 3 tsp The formula.. Wash the ladies finger well and pat them on a dry cloth. Discard the top stem and the bottom tip. Cut them into small, round pieces.  Marinate them with turmeric powder, chili powder and salt. Set aside for 15 minutes.  Heat up a flat bottomed saucepan and dribble oil. When the oil warms up, cast in the ladies finger. Stir in between. When they are cooked unreservedly and crispy, take away from heat and plate them. Whoop it up with chapati.

Black chickpeas or kadala is widely available in India. Boiled and tempered kadala is prepared as sundal and given as an offering or prasadam to deities during the Navarathri festival.  The unembellished dish made here is almost effortless. Try it :-) The fixings include.. Black chickpeas (kadala) - 1 cup (soaked overnight) Coconut oil - 2 tsp Cumin seeds - a smidgeon Onion - 2 Garlic - 4 cloves Ginger - 1/2 inch Green chili - 1 Salt - 1/4 tsp The strategy... Soak chickpeas overnight, changing water at least three times. Pressure cook with water and a tad of salt. Strain chickpeas and set aside for later. Heat up a saucepan and mizzle oil. Cast in cumin seeds, chopped onion, minced garlic, ginger and chili. Stir until onion becomes soft. Throw in cooked chickpeas. Add salt. Intermingle. Savor alongside rice or roti.

Prepared and recipe written by kiddo. Ingredients.. Olive oil - 1/2 tsp Onion - 1/2 Salt - a pinch Pepper - a pinch Egg - 1 Chop the onion. Crack an egg into a bowl. Add salt and pepper. Mix this well. Heat pan and add oil into it. Add onion into the pan and saute for some time. Pour the egg into the pan and wait for a few minutes. Now flip. Wait for the underside to cook. Serve on a plate. Enjoy!

There are yellow, white and red beetroots. It is the red ones that are widely available. Beets are used in salad, fresh or steamed. They can also be pickled. The compound that gives it its deep red color is betanin. Hence it can be used as a natural coloring agent. I add grated beets in cakes to attain a pink hue. I was inspired to prepare this cutlet after eating a vegetable beetroot burger from our local cafe, French Toast.  The additives are... Beetroot - 2 Potato - 2 Moth bean (boiled) - 1/2 cup Green peas, frozen - 1/4 cup Olive oil, extra virgin - 2 tsp + additional for pan frying Carom seeds - a tad Onion - 1 Green chili - 2 Ginger - 1/2 inch Garlic - 3 cloves Kashmiri chili powder - 1/4 tsp Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp Garam masala - 1/2 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp Water - 1/4 cup Organic brown egg - 1 Bread - 2 slices The procedure... Pressure cook potatoes with a smidgeon of salt. Allow to cool. Peel and mash with the back of a fork.  Chop onion into thin slices. Slit green chi...

Walnut looks like a mini brain. And so its a coincidence that it helps improve brain health. This nut with a strong nutty flavor is added as crumble topping for salad, pasta, cakes, cereals and oatmeal, finely ground for dips and sauce, and chopped and added while baking cakes, muffins and bread. The integrants are... All-purpose flour -  2 cups + additional for dusting Rolled oats flour - 1 cup Potato water - 1 & 1/4 cup Sugar - 2 Tbsp and 1 tsp Olive oil - 3 Tbsp Salt - 1 & 1/2 tsp Yeast - 1 & 1/2 tsp Modus operandi.. Here, instead of milk, we use potato water. Take a medium size potato. Peel. Grate. In a vessel, add grated potato and 2 and 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil. Simmer until water reduces to half (1 and 1/4 cup).  Take 1/4 cup lukewarm potato water, add 1 tsp sugar and yeast. Mix well. Set aside to rise, 10 minutes. Combine flour, sugar. Add oil and remaining potato water to risen yeast mixture. Add wet ingredients to flour mix, adding little by little, m...

 Prepared and recipe written by kiddo. Ingredients... Egg - 1 Salt - a pinch Pepper - a pinch Olive oil - 1 tsp Method... Heat pan. Put oil on it. Break an egg onto the pan. Add pepper and salt. Now, with wooden spatula, separate the bulls eye into pieces. Start breaking it all up. Wait until you feel it has all got cooked. Now enjoy your scrambled egg! :-)

Prepared and recipe written by kiddo, with a lot of love. Happy Valentine's day. Ingredients to make bulls eye... Olive oil - 1/2 tsp Egg - 1 Salt - a pinch Pepper - a pinch Things you need.. Pan Pan cover Wooden spatula Method... Heat pan. Add oil. Let the oil warm up. Break an egg into it. Now add salt and pepper. Wait for 2 to 3 minutes. Now flip the egg and cover with a lid ... wait for 3 to 4 minutes. Viola! Your crispy bullseye is ready!

 Cabbage is eaten either raw as in salads or cooked. Coleslaw or cabbage salad is shredded raw cabbage with a salad dressing like vinaigrette or mayonnaise. It is usually served as a side dish to fried chicken or as a sandwich filler. Cabbage is also pickled to make sauerkraut or kimchi. Sauerkraut or sour cabbage is thinly cut cabbage that has been fermented by lactic acid bacteria.  Here we are cooking cabbage along with carrot in a traditional Keralite style with coconut. Cabbage and coconut stir fry is an usual accompaniment in sadyas. The additives of Mom's delish stir fry... Cabbage - 200g Carrot - 1 For the grind, Coconut, grated - 1/2 cup Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder - a tad Chili powder - 1/4 tsp Shallots - 3 Salt - 1/4 tsp For the tempering, Vegetable oil - 2 tsp Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp Curry leaf - a sprig Raw rice - 1/4 tsp The modus operandi... Peel carrot. Chop carrot and cabbage into small pieces. Add in the melange of coconut, cumin seeds, turmeric pow...

 Moth beans or Turkish gram is a small, oblong shaped bean which is brown in color. It is protein packed as 100g of raw moth beans contain 23g of protein. This bean is native to India as it can grow in arid and hot climate. It is called matki in Hindi and is used to prepare lentil soup (dal) in North India. The preparation here is oil free and cooked in the South Indian style of payar thorans.  The drawing is by the 'kiddo in the house' to show me how she wanted her hair to be styled. You can notice the myriad tiny braids on the girl's forehead! Though I attempted, it was mom who made her wish come true :-) The components of the stir fry.. Moth beans - 1 cup (soaked overnight) Water - for cooking the beans Coconut, grated - 1/2 cup Curry leaf - a few Green chili - 1 Shallots - 6 Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp The routine... Soak moth beans overnight, changing the water at least thrice. Strain the beans. Pressure cook in water with a bit of salt. Drain excess water and...

Like India's garam masala, the Chinese have Wu Xiang Fen which consists of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, pepper and fennel seeds. This five-spice powder includes the five flavors; sweet, salty, bitter, sour and pungent. Soy sauce used in Chinese noodles is made from fermented soybeans and wheat.          The additives...   Veg hakka noodles - 200g Water - for boiling noodles and for cooking beans Olive oil - 4 tsp Garlic - 5 cloves Spring onion - 2 or 3 stalks with leaves Salt - 1/4 tsp Freshly crushed peppercorn - 1/2 tsp Dark soy sauce - 1 and 1/2 tsp Red chili sauce - 1 tsp Beans - 50g Green bell pepper - 1 Carrot - 2 Cabbage - 100g         The method... Boil water. Add dried hakka noodles into it along with a drop of oil. The oil is added to prevent the noodle strands from sticking to each other. Add a pinch of salt too into the boiling water. When the noodles is just about cooked and swollen, turn off the heat. Drain water. Wash und...