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Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Goan Vegetable Curry (Step by Step Pics)

Goan vegetable curry is a simple veg curry that pairs well with parathas, naan or jeera rice or ghee rice. I love Goan dishes for two reasons-one they are mostly similar to Kerala recipes and most of them have coconut flavor in them which I know would suit my families taste buds. The second reason is that I love Goan Cuisine to some extent and so have tried few of the Goan dishes listed below. This was tried during the lent time before Easter and I made it with jeera rice which was a lovely combo. 

The curry is spicy depending on the type of chillies used and also has the sweet nutty flavour of the coconut. You can always increase the use of spices as per tolerance. The ground paste adds the thickness to the gravy and so is a veg kuruma style curry too. The usage of tamarind can be replaced with tomatoes or dry mango pieces if you wish. The use of any kind of vegetables is good for this curry, but I had some mushroom, baby corn, capsicum and so used it. Do give this a try if you are a hard core veggie or if you love to taste a veg curry sometime.

MORE GOAN RECIPES-


Preparation time ~ 15 minutes
Cooking time~ 30 minutes
Author ~ Julie
Serves ~ 4-5
Ingredients
mixed veg 4 cups (I used baby corn- 1/2 cup, carrot -1cup , beans cut -1 cup, green peas - 1/2 cup, mushroom -1/2 cup, capsicum -1/2 cup)
onion 1 sliced
green chilli 2
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
coconut oil 1 tbsp
salt to taste

for paste
grated coconut 1/2 cup
black pepper corn 1 tbsp
kashmiri chilli dry 3
coriander seeds 1 tbsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
garlic cloves 3
onion 1/2 sliced or a small one
tamarind, a little piece(amla size)

Watch on YouTube -




Method
  • Wash and chop the veggie in about 1 ' piece, keep aside.
  • Grind the ingredients listed under the 'paste' and grind to a smooth paste by adding little water.
  • Heat oil in  a heavy bottomed pan and add sliced onions followed by green chillies and curry leaves. Saute the onion to slightly translucent.
  • Add turmeric powder to this and saute. Then add the chopped vegetables.


  • To this, add the ground paste and half cup of water to the mixer jar cleaning it up. Pour this to the pan, add 1/2 cup more water and simmer the mix to a boil. Cook until the vegetables are nicely cooked, it may take 5-7 minutes. Add salt as needed.
  • When the gravy looks thick enough switch off flame. Increase the amount of water or decrease the amount of water as per the desired thickness of gravy.
  • Switch off flame, adjust salt if needed. The oil can be seen floating on top of the gravy once cooked and is nicely thickened. Garnish with coriander leaves(optional) and is ready to serve with parathas, jeera rice or naan.
NOTES
* Increase or decrease the usage of green chilli as per tolerance.
* The mixed veggies can be as per your choice or availability. 
* I have adapted the recipe from here.

RELATED POSTS
* Tomato Side curry



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Friday, May 14, 2021

Double Chocolate Biscotti (Step by Step Pics)

The other day I was longing to have some biscottis to be dipped in hot piping chai(tea). Biscottis are Italian dry type cookie, the name biscotti means twice baked or cooked as the baking is done twice. These are similar to Indian style rusk. Kids love anything chocolaty and so I thought to give these a double chocolate biscotti a try. But believe me, I got more addicted to these crisp baked chocolaty ones than the kids. Its crisp and the chocolate in the biscotti adds soft bits along with crunchy bites of dry chopped nuts. These can be dipped in melted white chocolate at one end to add more chocolaty feel and elegant look. However without any fancy decorations too, these are addictive.


When baking biscottis, its always a double bake which otherwise is easy to do. The logs are shaped and baked first and then the logs are cut using serrated knife in biscotti shapes and baked again to get crisp bites. The Indian milk tea rusk was one which I loved making sometime back in the same directions, here is the link to the one. The dough consistency and preparaton is quite simpler compared t other bake items. The logs must be placed or separated with a gap so that there is enough space for the logs to expand. Though the time taken to bake is a bit longer than baking cake or othe stuff as we need to wait couple of minutes after the first bake to get the second bake tray ready by slicing the log. Do give these a try if you love the chocolaty flavor with crunchy bites of chopped nuts and chocolae chips.




Preparation time~ 10 minutes
Baking time ~ 45 minutes
Author ~ Julie
Serves  ~ 25 biscottis
Ingredients 
wheat flour 1 3/4 cups
sugar granulated 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp
cocoa powder 1/4 cup
baking soda 1 tsp
salt a pinch 
unsalted butter 100 gms
eggs 2
vanilla extract 1 tsp
milk 2 tbsp (if needed)
chocolate chips (white and dark) 1/2 cup
chopped almonds 1/2 cup





Method
  • Sift flour with cocoa baking soda and salt twice and keep aside. Pre heat ovn to 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.
  • Beat the butter and  powdered sugar. Then add in one egg at a time and add in the vanilla essence.
  • Add in the white and dark chocolate chips. Add in the flour mix in 3 batches and combine well.
  • Finally toss in the chopped nuts. Add milk if needed to adjust consistency.
                                          
  • Make two logs (size 2’ wide and 3/4 inch height) on a parchment paper lined tray. The dough is a bit sticky, using wet hands shape the log as evely as possible like the log in ppic on the right. Also place the logs 1' apart as it spreads on baking.
  • Place and bake in preheated oven for 35-45 mins(Mine was done in 35 mins). Cool for 10 mins and then cut in slices half inch thick and place on a tray(don't leave to cool completely else the slicing becomes difficult).

  •  Place the slices on the tray and place in oven. Bake again for 5 mins one side, flip and bake for another 5 mins. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely before storing or serving.
                                                       

NOTES
* You can add chocolate chips alone to make it more chocolaty But here I have used half of nuts and chocolate chips. If you are using chocolate chips alone then add 1 cup.
* You can try with all purpose flour(maida) too but I wished to give a healthier touch. Also the milk added may not be needed if using maida.

                       

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Thursday, May 06, 2021

Chakka Appam | Steamed Jackfruit Parcels(Step by Step Pics)

Chakka appam as the name suggests, an appam steam cooked with ripe jackfruit bulbs, rice flour, grated coconut, jaggery. This is a very filling and delicious snack that you can make for kids and elders. The color of this appam is orangish brown because of the use of jackfruit bulbs and jaggery. I have already posted chakka ela ada that uses chakka varetti to make the filling in the regular ada which is a yummy snack too. But compared to the chakka ada this one is more simpler and easier to put together as you can mix all together in a go and make the dough if you have cooked jackfruit bulbs ready in fridge. I usually do that to get things more simpler and faster, also helps preserve the jackfruit bulbs for a couple of more days than storing the ripe jackfruit as it is.There are numerous jackfruit recipes that I have tried earlier and have posted here, read more at the end of this post for more recipes. Do give this yummy chakka appam a try this season and enjoy with a cup of black coffee!!

Watch YouTube #shorts for chakka appam recipe.



Preparation time ~ 15 minutes
Cooking time ~ 20 minutes
Serves ~ 5-6 appams
Author ~ Julie
Ingredients
rice flour /ari podi (idiyappam) 1 cup
chakka / jackfruit 1.5 cups cooked
jaggery / sharkara 1 cube /1/3 cup puree
grated coconut 1/2 cup
chukku podi / dry ginger powder 1/4 tsp
salt a good pinch



Method
  • Clean the jackfruit, remove the bulbs. Chop the ripe jackfruit bulb in pieces or if its nicely ripe then avoid chopping and add this in a cooker. Add half a cup of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles or till cooked.

 
  • Melt the jaggery in 1/4 cup water and strain the impurities. Keep aside.
  • In another bowl, add the rice flour, grated coconut, cooked jackfruit along with left out water,  salt and chukku podi. Make a dough by mashing the cooked jackfruit, you may not need much water after adding the left out cooked jackfruit water along with jaggery syrup little by little. Add more water (if needed). The dough should be loose and spreadable. Its better to keep the dough loose, sticky than a smooth dough as the sticky dough yields a softer appam than making with a smooth dough.
  • Wash and clean the banana leaves, cut in small pieces. And spread spoonful of dough and spread thin(if you find it hard to spread the dough then dip your hands in cold water). Fold the spread leaf in half and keep aside.
  • Heat water in a steamer and place the prepared appams in it. Cook till the banana leaves are wilted and the appam looks cooked. Repeat the step of making appams till you finish making all appams(its better to avoid stacking the appams together and steaming only 3 or 4 at the max to cook faster). Remove from the steamer and serve warm.



NOTES
* The cooked jackfruit to rice flour should be 2:1, meaning the rice flour should be just added to bind and don't add more rice flour else cooked appam will be hard and the dough should be of loose consistency than smooth or hard dough.
* The jaggery syrup can be altered as per tastes and sweetness of ripe jackfruit.
* Chukku podi or dry ginger powder takes care of any stomach upset due to ripe jackfruit.

RELATED POSTS



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