Oyster Mushroom Curry....

Oyster Mushroom has been a regular at my mom's place during my growing years. Most of the population at home - ( btw 12 of us from two families - how else can i refer!!) converted to vegetarians at one stage. So this was the only thing that resembled and tasted like meat for the converts. I was always loyal to my chicken and fish. So this mushroom would take many forms and tastes and would be prepared only on Sundays as special treats for them. What a pity!!. All said and done it sure tasted good.

Its been a while since i made this at home. Honestly it had gone out of my memory until i saw the call for 'Cooking with seeds - Fennel' event hosted by Priya's easy and tasty recipes. I use fennel in almost everything i make , so i was wondering about something different and interesting. So here it is...


Oyster Mushroom Curry :

Oyster mushrooms 250 gms

Onion - 2 small ones

Tomato - 1

Garlic - 5 finely chopped

Fennel Seeds - 1 Tbsp

Curry Leaves - few

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Coconut milk - 1/4 cup

Oil as required

salt to taste

Method :

1. Heat the oil and add the fennel seeds Curry leaves and wait for few seconds.

2. Now add the onions and curry leaves and fry till the onions begins to brown slightly.

3. Add the coriander powder, Chilli powder , salt and a dash of turmeric powder cook for about two Min's.

4. Now add the chopped tomato and continue to cook for few Mins

5. Add the coconut milk and reduce heat. Cook for five to seven mins till the oil begins to float on top of the curry.

6. Now add the mushroom and cook it covered till done.

7. Garnish with coriander leaves

Tastes good with rice and can be served with rotis as well.

Enjoy!.

coorg chicken curry....

Pandemonium - pan -duh - mo-ne-um : wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; tumult or chaos

That is what my household is right now.noisy, chaotic and people hammering and drilling all the time. We just shifted to a new house. Now that explains my sudden missing in action doesn't it. Anyway with 90 percent of work being complete there is still no semblance of returning to normal life.


House in Coorg...

Midst of all this we managed to sneak a trip to Coorg which is near Mysore in Karnataka . Coorg is famous for many things -' Coffee','pepper' 'Rain 'and 'Pork curry'. Now calling it 'rain' in Coorg is an understatement because it is hardly mild and it is always a downpour. It is most of the time wet or chill...This time of the year is great to visit . P and I visit coorg once in three months but this is our first time with the boys.

What fascinated the boys most was the fire place in the house .... They were thrilled to bits and loved the idea of burning fire inside the house. As far as P and me , we enjoyed our pork curry and kadubu which is a steamed rice cakes.



Coorg cuisine is an interesting mix of kerela and karnataka. Predominantly meat eaters, they also have interesting vegetables like Bamboo shoot, wild mushrooms and wild mango curry.

We had a very interesting chicken curry in a friends house and she was nice enough to share it with me.

Let me warn u before hand - This is a dynamite... Chilly hot!!!!.. but heavenly and goes well with rotis and rice.

1. Marinate one kilo of chicken in lime juice, and salt and leave it over night.
2.Heat 2 tbsp oil and add 1 tbsp cumin, 1 1/2 tbsp pepper, 6 to 7 cashew nuts, 1 inch ginger,8 cloves garlic, 10 shallots and fry for few mints.
3. Then add 3 tbsp of red chili powder and 1 heaped tbsp of coriander powder and fry for few more mins...




Now turn off the heat and let it cool...Grind this mixture into a fine paste. This is the base for the chicken Curry.



Heat oil and add 2 chopped onion and few curry leaves. Then add the chicken and fry it for a while. Add a heaped tsp of turmeric powder and 1 finely chopped tomatoes. Continue to cook the chicken. Now add in the ground paste and salt and cook on high flame for a few mins...

Cook the chicken on a slow flame now and fix yourself a nice cool lemonade and relax...

After about 20 mins .. check on your chicken. The gravy should have reduced to a consistency.

Now you may garnish with lemon wedges and coriander leaves and enjoy it with steaming rice!!!

Crab curry...

This morning i decided to catch up with my backlog and took refuge in my room and was trying to make progress with my work. Just when i was settling i heard Prahlad my second twin run up the stairs screeching at his best all excited and calling out for me.... sounds familiar doesn't it..
I wanted to find out what it was all about. But before i could ask him he had me by my hands and walked me down the steps to the gate... Then i knew the reason for his excitement. I saw the 'meenkaran' the fish seller standing with his bounty of catch in a basket ......

There are no markets here where i can go to buy fishes . My supply is only from this weekly visitor. He is the most looked forward visitor especially for Nandan & Prahlad . He brings a good variety of fresh water fish as there is no coast nearby. Sometimes it is soles, catfish,trouts and sardines , mackerels and many more whose names, i am not familiar with.. Most often they are alive and jumping... But today it was special .. he brought fresh water crabs... they looked gorgeous with round black spots and they were just the right size to make a good spicy crab curry.

So off goes work and in comes the crab...

This is a typical chettinad red coloured crab gravy. It is very spicy and tastes terrific with hot rice. I generally dont like to serve anything else when i make crab. It is just rice with crab and some vegetables and buttermilk.. iam all set to devour it.

Ingredients :

Crab 1 kg
Onion 3 big
Tomatoes 3
Ginger & garlic paste 2 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tbsp
Chilli powder 2 tsp
Cumin powder 1 tsp
Cloves -2
Cinnamon - 3 sticks
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Aniseeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Grind to paste:

Coconut 3 tbsp
Aniseeds 1 tsp
Poppy seeds 1 tsp

Method:

1.Clean the crab and cut them into two halves...
2. Heat oil in a broad dish and add cinnamon, cloves, curry leaves , cumin and aniseeds and wait till it crackles.
3. Now add the onion and fry till it turns pink. Followed it up with tomatoes.. and fry for a while.
4. Now mix up all the powders with little bit of water and make a paste.
5. Add this to the onion and tomato and cook well till the oil begins to seperate from the gravy
6. Now add the crabs and mix it well...
7. It will generaly start oozing out water ..
8. Let it cook in its own water and season it with salt.
9. Remove it from fire when done and garnish with coriander.

Enjoy it with steaming hot rice....

egg curry...

Agreed, egg curry is one of the commonly done dish at most homes... but the versatility of this dish is quite amazing... I have had egg curries in many houses and each one is different and better than the other...

The simplicity of the process, minimal and at home ingredients and the quickness with which one can make this is what attracts me to this simple recipe. The consistency can be varied depending on what you are going to serve it with... It tastes good with roties also with rice.

Ingredients:
7 boiled eggs

3 onions

3 chopped chillies
1tsp chili powder

1tbsp coriander powder

1tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1tsp fenugreek seeds

1tsp mustard seeds

3 sprigs of curry leaves

1tsp cumin

1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste

100 ml tamarind juice

3 tbsp of oil

Method:
1. Heat oil in a broad dish and add mustard, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and let it crackle.

2. Now add finely cut onions and green chillies and fry till brown.
3. Add ginger garlic paste

4. mix all the powders with little water and make a paste...

5. Add this paste to the onion mix and cook till the raw smell goes

6. Add tamarind juice and 2 cups of hot water and give it a stir..

7. When it begins to boil add salt and a dash of sugar and let it simmer for a while

8. Make mild slits on the boiled eggs and add it to the curry and cook till it gets to gravy consistency
9. Add a tbsp or two of thick coconut milk for a creamier curry.