Chettinad Garlic Chutney - Poondu Puli Kulambu

 Garlic season is here and the market is brimming with beautiful, fresh, fragrant garlic.  This chutney is bursting with flavours out of this world - and needs a simple rice or roti to go with it. Today I have paired it with yogurt rice as it is a hot day here in Melbourne.  Finally we have Summer at our doorstep after all the rain.

This chutney is called Poondu Puli Kulambu - which means garlic tamarind gravy.  This was introduced to me by my friend Manikumari who I went to University with. She stayed at home and attended school while I was in the hostel and eating boring hostel food.  So whenever she invited me over for a meal, I would never say no. There was an amazing cook in her house who would whip up delicacies to feed us starving students from University!

This gravy celebrates the cuisine of Chettinad - or Chettinadu and it is very unique and full of flavour.  Though most of us are familiar with the Chicken Chettinad, there are several other dishes which are rarely available in restaurants but are equally if not more flavoursome.  In this dish, we bring out the nutty, buttery flavours of garlic and marry it with the tangy tamarind and other staple spices.

Fish Pickle - Meen Achar

 The year was 1993, the place - Adelaide. I was newly married, in a brand new place, 8000 kms away from home. I had no friends and I knew no one. I was armed with a few deadly recipes, though; and the fish pickle was one of them. My recipe said "seer fish" which is the local Indian name - and they had nothing like that in Central Market. Until a friend told me that in Australia they called it Spanish Mackerel!  My joy knew no bounds - and soon, presents for people was a bottle of home made fish pickle. My Aussie friends loved it - apparently it is best had with a glass of Chardonnay.  So that is my story about the fish pickle and its elevated status. Back home it is a humble staple - always present as an accompaniment in the meat safe ready to spice up any meal at any given time!  I haven't made it in  along time - and last week fresh Spanish Mackerel was going at $22.00 a kilo - which is cheaper than usual, so here we go!  Happy pickling!

Stuffed Pumpkin Flowers

 Oh my God! Where do I start? I feel so full - after eating this dish.  Honestly, I did not expect it to be so moreish. But the crisp outer cover, the juicy ham and salty feta inside, the crunch of the stem - it was all worth it - so what if I gained a few pounds in the process?! 

Remember the other day I plucked a bunch of pumpkin flowers from the garden?  Well, that's what I am talking about.  They are finally cooked and I am ready to share my recipe.

I spent last two days researching recipes and this recipe is a combination of the few that I listened to on you tube. I experimented with  couple of flowers and understood why the chef in one of the videos wanted to wilt the flower before stuffing it.

Without further ado, let us get on to this delicious recipe!  The only downside is that you need to be patient as the filling of the flowers is a fiddly task. But all will be forgotten when you dig into them!

Rasa Vadai - Lentil Fritters in Tomato Soup

 The person who introduced me to this dish is my beautiful grandmother Ella. She must have been a great foodie in her days.  All I know is that she was a fabulous cook!  Every time she made rasam, she would make these lentil fritters and they would be dunked into the rasam and served with rice.

Rasam is a thin vegetarian soup that is more like a broth, tangy and hot and perfect for having as an appetizing drink or with some rice as a meal.  You might be familiar with mulligatawny soup which translates to pepper water or, in other words, rasam. The British gave it that fancy name and it is now popular all over the world.

Anyway, back to my grandmother Ella. She would fry up these crisp lentil fritters and leave them in the rasam to soak and it made a healthy and delicious meal.  It is much later that I came to know that this dish is a speciality of the little town where my parents are from.  Therefore, I have to include it in my list of recipes!  

Pazham Pori - Plantain Fritters

 What is it about greasy food wrapped in paper and watching the sunsets? I grew up with it, my children grew up with it - and it will probably continue for generations.  Except it is different sorts of greasy foods.  My sort of greasy food is a deep fried plantain fritter served with a cup of hot chai - and watching the sun disappearing into the deep blue waters of the Arabian sea.  

We never used to be able to get the plantains in Melbourne. Those days whenever I visited my home town I would devour them in all forms with much enthusiasm. The last two years I have been able to source them fairly regularly from my local Indian grocer. I wonder if I will have the same enthusiasm for them when I visit the next time.

This recipe is my athai (aunty) Vimala's recipe. She made the most amazing plantain fritters when I visited her in Nagercoil last time. The plantains were from her mother's back yard, organic and vine ripened. Needless to say, it is the most delicious fritter I've had in a very long time.

The perfect fritter has crispy outside skin and a soft, warm and sweet plantain inside.

Home made Gulab Jamun

 The last time I made gulab jamuns several years ago they came out so hard that I had to re-christen them "Rock Jamuns". The only saving grace that day was the fact that I made the sugar syrup with a dash of brandy so the adults were quite pleased with the overall effect.

Today is my husband's birthday and I made biriyani.  To finish off the meal, rather than have cake we decided to make Gulab Jamuns.  My daughter was tasked with making them as she has a knack for making desserts and I must say they have come out really good!

This recipe is from Taste.com.au and since the jamuns turned out soft and nice we have decided to incorporate this in the blog for us so we can use it again.

 

Puli Inji - 3 - Ginger Tamarind Chutney

 We celebrated Onam 2021 in lockdown in Melbourne. Most of the recipes are already published ones.  But this time I made a different version of the ginger tamarind chutney. This recipe is dedicated to my friend and passionate cook Paru.  The last time she saw my recipe for the ginger tamarind chutney, she was far from impressed, telling me that I was taking a shot cut and not doing it the right way. I like that she wanted me to stick to one way - because I am like that too.  I like to keep traditional recipes traditional.  However, the way I was taught by the women who made it all their lives was to leave the ginger pieces without blitzing them.  Now that I have made it this way, I think this will make an interesting condiment for all sorts of meats and sandwich fillings.  It also helps that it is smoother and therefore easier to spread. Thank you Paru for our friendship that has withstood time, distance and opinions! Love you for being honest and for being you.

The taste is the same - it is more the texture that makes the difference this time. I added the dry red chilli just for artistic purposes. 

Pani Puri

 I am unable to translate Pani Puri to English - they are little puffed up breads (Puri) that you make a hole in and stuff with fillings of your choice, add the thin sauce (Pani) - and pop into your mouth.

When you stand on the street popping these into your mouth - with the juices running down your arm in the hot and humid weather it is a joy that is hard to convey. You have to experience it for yourself!  The fusion of flavours and textures, the salt, sugar, sourness of the tamarind, the heat of the chilli, crispiness of the puri and the ice cold pani is just heaven in your mouth.  

As you keep popping them one after the other - the only stress is how quickly can I finish the one in my mouth so I can have the one in my bowl because the vendor has the next one ready to go....Phew! pressure!!!! 

Since being in isolation we haven't been out to have this in Melbourne.  I decided to make it myself. Thank you Hebbar's Kitchen (https://hebbarskitchen.com/) for making this possible.

I would buy the puris from the Indian store as they are locally made and just the right size for popping into your mouth.  I did do it the hard way - and since I did not have a cookie cutter that size I used the lid of a vegemite jar to cut out the puris and they are a little too big.

Loukoumades - Greek Doughnuts

Sam visited us the other day and we decided we would try making Loukoumades.  I settled on the SBS food recipe as it sounded like it was easy and a beginner like me would be able to manage it quite easily.  Making the dough was the easy part. Getting the dough into the hot oil in little balls was definitely hard! I was using a tablespoon as suggested in the recipe and the dough balls were too big.

Sam then found a video of someone using their fingers to drop the balls of dough into the hot oil - and that worked perfectly for me!    

This recipe can feed a huge crowd of a dozen people.  But because I wasted a lot of dough trying to get the technique right, I didn't get that many good looking Loukoumades.

It was definitely worth the try - they are soft light pillows of golden dough dusted with cinnamon, a few strands of saffron, some icing sugar and drizzled with warm honey. Mmmmm!!!!

Traditional Inji Puli 2- Ginger Tamarind Relish

Onam is the harvest festival of Kerala and is celebrated by all the people regardless of religion, caste or social standing. 

Every year, for as long as I lived in Kollam, my neighbours would serve up the most amazing dishes for Onam.  They would prepare a proper "sadya" (feast) and invite us over for lunch.  This post is dedicated to my Puthenpura family and especially to Aunty Anantham, Usha chechi, Rema chechi and Shobha chechi.  This is a special recipe from Aunty Anantham - before I left for Australia I took my diary over to her house and wrote down the recipe so I could make it by myself.

I met Aunty Anantham earlier this year and though she is very old now, she still remembers me.  Happy Onam to all of you and may your year be blessed!

I had previously published a recipe for the same dish - that recipe is the cheat's version - this is how the recipe is made traditionally.

Fried Okra (Ladies Finger) - 2 ways

Last October my husband and I decided to go pescatarian. We were really good with our diets until - you guessed it, until COVID happened.  We haven't been to the market to get fresh fish  in ages. The only fish in supermarkets, salmon and flake I get bored of after a while. So we have every now and again indulged in a slice of chicken or meat.  We have been able to get fresh vegetables from our local grocer on a regular basis and the only complaint I have is that some vegetables cannot be frozen - or I do not like them frozen, at all.  Okra is one of those.  I like them fresh and when I get them then it is okra for a few meals till I run out of them.  Today we are going to fry okras - two ways.  The spices are the same, the method is the same. The only question is - do you want your fingers to get messy or not?

Sam's Nutella Money Bags

What do you do when you are stuck in the house and it has been drizzly and miserable all day? You get some chocolate on your plate, of course!  We had some left over poori dough so Sam had this idea of making tiny pooris and smearing Nutella on them - and this then led to the next obvious iteration - Nutella stuffed dumplings.

Deep fried, chocolatey, with a sprinkling of icing sugar and nuts - you cant go wrong with this snack!

Netholi Varuthathu - Fried White Bait

I saw some fresh tiny whitebait that were so little you cannot really clean them.  Brought them home and washed them several times with water and rock salt. Usually the white bait I get is much bigger and it takes a while to clean them.  But since these were so little, the cleaning was quite easy.

Today I have just shallow fried them and served it for dinner with rice and dal.  They would go just on their own with a drink of cold beer too.

Chinese Eggplant with Garlic and Chilli

Eggplants are so versatile - they are a favourite at home because of all the things you can turn them into!

Tonight I made this eggplant dish to go with Chinese Fried Rice.  If you love eggplant, then this is a must try dish.

Gobi Manchurian - Cauliflower Manchurian

Tell me who wouldn't want to eat that?!  It is Indian Chinese - yes, folks, there is such a thing as Indian Chinese...and it is a favorite type of blended cuisine that is a universal favorite among Indians.  This is vegetarian, but you can make this with fish, chicken, prawns - the basic recipe is the same. You just substitute the cauliflower for the fish or meat and adjust the cooking time accordingly.

Ulundu vadai - White Lentil Fritters

Lentils form a very essential part of the South Indian Cuisine.  So many varieties of food are made with lentils.  A lot of the common breakfast items and snacks are made of lentils - idli, dosa, vada, ada dosa, sambar, are the few that come into mind straight away.  

For the many vegetarians in South India lentils provide them with the necessary proteins while keeping them full. And it is cheap to buy and freely available.  Today we are going to make white lentil vadai - or ulundu vadai as it is popularly known.

It can be had with pongal for breakfast or on its own as a snack.  It is the hash brown equivalent of a McDonalds breakfast.  Crisp on the outside and soft and spongy on the inside, it is a very satisfying snack to have with coconut chutney.

Pooris and Potato Curry - Indian puffed bread with potato curry

"I don't like pooris" said no Indian kid ever! My husband and I were the same and so are my children.  What I also know is that my baby girl came back from school one day and said that her friends made fun of her lunch but she ate it all anyway.  It was years later that I found out though she ate the pooris, she was really traumatized by the experience and wrote about her experience in an article which came to my attention.  In her article she calls the potato curry a florescent yellow curry - and so this is what I think of it as in my mind as well!

But fluorescent or not, she still loves them and  will eat them in the blink of an eye if I made them.  So without further ado, let us see how to make this curry!

Deep Fried Sardines - Chala Varuthathu

Deep fried sardines are a treat - and I am yet to see a Malayali who will say no to it!  I like my sardines fresh from the market, I clean them myself and I like to keep the head and tail intact - and remove just the gills and the guts.  Then I like to crunch them up one by one.....ha ha!!!!  Seriously, they are lovely with a glass of white wine or a beer.

Sardines are a very rich source of omega 3 and in Kollam, where I am from, during the sardine season they are everywhere, fresh and almost jumping out of the fisher woman's basket.  

Rajam's Beef Cutlets

This was something my mother learnt to make in Kerala after her wedding.  She made them so well that everyone referred to them as the bench mark for cutlets. Being a Virgo, my amma had to have everything the right shape, same size and same consistency.  I have never been able to copy her exacting standards.