Chettinad Crab Masala - Nandu Chettinad Curry (step-wise pics updated)

Most of us will avoid cooking crab cos of the nature and look it has. Even I felt the same and I don’t want to try it. TH wants me to cook for him atleast once. So I tried it and trust me it came out really very well. It took me half an hour for making the dish and nearly an hour to eat it.  If you really have patience try it once and definitely it will make u to cook again. 

I looked at the internet for “how to clean crab” and asked recipe from amma. This is a perfect chettinad masala with all the spiciness.  We enjoyed with plain steamed rice and rasam. 

Potato kuruma - Potato korma

Potato kuruma - Potato korma

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time : 15-20 mins 

Ingredients

1 onion (finely chopped)

1 tomato (finely chopped)

1tsp chilli powder

1tsp coriander powder

1/2tsp turmeric powder

1-2 potatoes

½ cup green peas (frozen or fresh)

Salt (to taste)

Oil

1 bayleaf

¼ cup thick coconut paste

To make paste

1 clove

1 cinnamon

1 onion

1tsp ginger-garlic paste

2-3 green chillies

Handful of mint leaves

Bread Masala Omelette - Fast Food Style Bread Omelette

Bread Masala Omelette - Fast Food Style Bread Omelette

I usually make bread omelettes for most of my breakfast and even for dinner. I generally prefer doing different types of omelettes keeping mind dat we shud not get bored of eating the same for all weekdays’ breakfast.  Eggs with onion-tomato gravy or just with chopped onions make a prefect combo for omelettes.

When I was watching a tv show, they showed how do the fast food people make bread omelette. It looks like bread and the omelettes are merged together in the center. So I wanted to try it in my kitchen and here it is…

Rasmalai

Rasmalai 

OMG !!! wat is this ??? I made rasmalai  i can’t believe. Oh yeah…. This is my very own favourite Indian dessert which I have never compromised. When ever i go to parry’s corner (not the one in France, this is paari-munai in Chennai )  I neva missed to go to Agarwal Bhavan.  Oooohhh   I would say they have the yummmmiest rasamalai in the world. I always make appa to buy it home for me since he worked near to the place. So mostly I used to have it twice a month. He he  how nice!!!

The worst part for me after coming to US, I miss those yummy yummy foods of India.  So finally I made my mind to make it on my own for holi and also for the event going on in my apt. I searched through the internet and found the recipe. and here it is …..

Vavval Meen Kuzhambu Recipe | Tamilnadu Style Fish Curry Recipe

I love Meen kuzhambhu the most. When it is served with hot steamed rice and with the side of Fish Fry, ah!!! I will be satisfied for the entire day. Amma used to make fish for almost all the Sunday, since I and appa are crazy fish lovers. Appa always need kuzhambu(gravy) and I prefer fried fish. So, not to disappoint both of us, amma makes both the method on the same day. She makes Kuzhambu in a clay pot (Manchatti) which gives an extra-ordinary flavor to the kuzhambhu. As everyone used to tell meen kuzhambu tastes better the next day. This is because of the flavor of the fish getting soaked in the tamarind gravy for the entire day. The same thing is applicable even for biryani. Amma always makes the kuzhambu using sesame oil ( nalla ennai) which is obviously good for health rather compared with other oil stuffs and it also enhances the flavor more. The main tactics to get the kuzhambu perfect is cooking the fish. Fish needs just 4-5 mins for cooking perfectly. So never ever cook it more than the time.

Buy fresh fish for making kuzhambu. When I was in Minnesota, there was no shop to provide good and fresh fish. But here in California I found a Chinese market to provide live, fresh and good fish. Am so lucky in that way!!! This time I bought Pomfret/pomapano, in tamil we call Vavval. Since TH loves fish with no bones, we bought this. As like amma’s method I made Meen kuzhambu with little of Fish and the rest I made Vavval Fish Fry. Check therecipe here.  

Preparation time: 20- 30 mins ( for cleaning the fish)

Cooking time: 20-30mins

Methi Pulao|Fenugreek leaves pulao

Methi Pulao|Fenugreek leaves pulao

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10minutes

Ingredients

1 Cup Basmathi rice

1 Onion

2 tomatoes

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

Mint leaves fistful

¼ cup methi leaves (I used frozen methi leaves)

Veggies of ur choice (mushrooms, paneer, green peas are of good choice)

1tsp Chilli powder

1tsp Corainder powder/dhaniya powder

Salt (to taste)

Oil

Coriander leaves/cilantro (for garnishing)

To temper

1 bayleaf

1 clove

1-2 cinnamon

Potato Rice Recipe

Potato Rice Recipe

This is not a post for people who are very particular about dieting. I have never seen a person hating potatoes and am one among them. I always have a love towards potatoes especially when it is fried Yummm yummm...

This recipe has a short story. Yes!!! When I was in my college days, one of my fren used to bring this for her lunch and no doubt on dat day we used to exchange the boxes. One day I cald up her mom asking for the recipe and wrote it to my mom and started pestering her to make for me atleast a week. Now I wanted to share that recipe in my blog and I wanna thank gayathri’s amma for this recipe. 

Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake Recipe

Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake Recipe 

Ingredients 

1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of plain yogurt (I used fat-free)
1 cup of sugar
½ tsp baking soda
1 ¼ tsp of baking powder
½ cup of neutral oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Bread Upma Recipe

Bread Upma Recipe

On a snowy day with chill breezy temperature I would like to have something very hot and crispy. Today I found leisure time to concentrate on my breakfast. I had some bread slices and some veggies at home. Instead of doing a usual bread sandwich or toast I made bread upma. You must have already known about this recipe, but still I wanted to blog this up. 

I have used red colored capsicum which gives a beautiful taste and color. You can also try this with different colors of capsicum. As like fried rice half cooked veggies will enhance the taste. I personally feel this to be a nutritious breakfast since it has most veggies. 

Vazhakkai-Pepper Fry | RawBanana Fry

Vazhakkai-Pepper Fry | RawBanana Fry

Yippee I finally got some nice and soft raw bananas in US!!!  You must be wondering why I have started the post with this joy. Yes, it is very rare to see a good, nice and soft vazhakkai in our Indian stores. Fortunately or unfortunately I found a good vazhakkai recently. So I bought home.

When we were in Chennai we used to get vazhakkai from periamma from her village.  She used to give fresh vazhakkai from her field which is really very soft. I love it when amma makes vazhkkai fry or poriyal or podimas. As soon as I bought, I called up amma for the recipe. And here it is….. 

3 Step Biryani | Instant Biryani | Veg Biryani

3 Step Biryani | Instant Biryani | Veg Biryani

Believe it or not!!! yes its instant biryani… No need to go for instant ready-to-eat recipes. Just in 3 steps the biryani is ready. We already knew about chicken, mutton, fish, prawns and oh yeah some vegetable biryanis. This biryani is kinda basic and simple recipe which u can alter accordingly or leave as such to taste on its own.

Amma used to make this recipe in weekends… I used to call this as biryani and my appa cal it as thengai sadham. So its  ur wish to name either of it or name it in ur own style.

Capsicum-Mint Chutney

Capsicum-Mint Chutney

For most of the South-Indian recipes chutneys will be the major side dish. We always used to have coconut, ginger, coriander and mint chutneys. This will be kinda boring …. Isn’t it??? To make it much interesting I have used capsicum in chutneys and it came out really well. 

As we all know capsicums are very rich in calcium and iron. So in this way we can make a healthy yet delicious side dish.

Kadai Paneer

Kadai Paneer

Ingredients

1 cup Paneer cubes

2 onions

1 tomato

1 Capsicum/ bell pepper

2 green chillies

1tsp ginger

2tsp Chilli powder

1tsp Coriander powder/dhaniya powder

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp Garam masala

Pinch of Kasoori methi

1tsp Coriander seeds/Dhaniya

1tsp Cumin seeds/seeragam/jeera

Salt

Oil

Mutton chops | Lamb Chops

Mutton chops | Lamb Chops

After coming to US I have been searching for lamb in every other shop and finally got it yesterday.  Am not very much crazy about mutton but still I wanted to give it a try. Definitely the source for this recipe is from amma.  She used to make this with the bones but I made it boneless since I don’t find lamb with bones here.  Still the taste is equally good. 

We had it with sambhar as a side-dish but it can be mixed with rice. Gravy goes really very well with chapathis and dosas.