Laced Rice Crepes/Appam

When I saw my friend posted an Appam making video of Cooking with Thas on FB I know I have to try it out. Ingredients are relatively easy. All I have to do and just blend it together and let it ferment overnight. Since I don’t have the appam making pan I just used my non-stick pan cooking it. Well, as you can see it is rather flat but taste wise it is pretty good. I remember eating it at one of the Indian restaurant and it has a sourish taste to it. I guess I have to try out another recipe that uses yeast since this recipe doesn’t.

So what is Appam? Appam is a very popular and traditional breakfast of State of Kerala. The Appam or Palappam is also a specialty in Sri Lanka where it is known as the Appa. Appams are soft and spongy in the center and has a lacy border. It is very good for health as it does not require much oil and it is gluten free too. It can be served with the potato/chicken stew, any type of curries curry.

Salmon Fish Curry

I have 2 pieces of salmon fish in the freezer for quite some time and I don’t think fresh enough to grill it so I decided to used it to cook curry with whatever vegetable I had in my fridge. So for this curry dish I added some cabbage, carrots, brussels sprouts and potato. This is a very simple version of fish curry like how my mom used to make.

Kerala Style Fried Chicken

There are many Indian Restaurant around where we live so I hardly cook any Indian food at home. If we want Indian food we just go to the restaurant. I was looking through my cookbooks the other day and came across a Best Ever Indian Cookbook that I bought a long time ago and totally forgotten about it. While flipping through the pages many of the recipes attract my attention. The first is this particular dish. Since I plan to cook nasi lemak for dinner so I thought this dish will goes well with it. The recipe said to deep fry it but I just shallow fried them. The chicken is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside and with great spices flavor. No regret trying it out.

Chicken Varuval

Have you try taking pictures on a gloomy day? I choose the wrong day to cook this dish but I already marinate the chicken the night before so I have no choice but cook it. I took over 50 shots of this dish but only a handful turns out decent. The rest, dark, blur, out of focus and etc.

Anyway, this is a must order dish for me if I eat at the Nasi Kandar or Indian Rice stall in Malaysia. I just love the taste of this flavorful dish. I’ve been cooking this dish so many times, and each time I tweak the recipe and came up with this. Finally I think I nail the taste of it. I hope you try this out, as I am pretty sure you are going to like it too.

Pandan Briyani Rice/Nasi Briyani Pandan

Since yesterday was Saint Patrick's Day let me serve you some green rice. Carlos is not a fan of plain white rice so if I cook rice for our dinner I always flavor it with some spices. Instead of using the regular long grain rice I used Basmati rice as I prefer less starchy rice. This rice is great to go with any type of curry. I added a few drops of green coloring to it and Carlos said the rice looks kind of funky ha ha... oh well, he always think the green color food I made like Kueh Ketayap , Pandan Chiffon Cake , Pandan Kaya Cake , Kueh Bakar and etc are funky. Anyway, I adapted this rice recipe from my friend Shereen’s Briyani Rice with some minor change.

Ingredients:

500 gram Basmati rice
2 tbsp butter
2 ¾ cups water
¼ evaporated milk
1 tsp salt

Green Onion and Cilantro Flat Bread

I like this type of flat bread with curry. Normally I just get the readymade ones from Trader Joe’s but this time I try making it myself. I started looking up for some recipes online and there were so many versions out there. Some add ghee to it, others add milk and some added chick pea flour to it which I don’t have in my pantry. So I came up with the simple version of flat bread. I think I roll them too thin so it resemble more like tortilla than flat bread ha ha…nevertheless, it taste pretty good especially the crispy edges and dipping it into curry. If you like the thicker version you can always check out the Paratha Bread here .

Fish Curry/Kari Ikan

I only buy a few types of fish here. It is usually tuna, salmon, tilapia fillet and Dover fillet. The reason is because Carlos will only eat this few type of fish and nothing else. Don’t give him fish with head and tail or else he will freaks out. Back home if I cook this type of curry I will usually use ikan kembong or any whole fish but here I will have to make do with tilapia fillets. This is something that he will eat.

Ingredients:

3 pieces of fish fillet – cut into 2” square
3 tomatoes – quarter
10 okras – remove the tips
1 cup of pineapple – cubes
3 tbsp of fish curry powder
1 sprig curry leaves
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
2 tbsp tamarind paste/pulp + 1 ½ cup of water
Sugar and salt to taste

Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken Recipe (Murg Makhani) the best known Indian foods all over the world. Butter chicken is usually served with naan, roti, parathas, ghee rice, or steamed rice and its gravy can be made as mild or spicy as you like. Butter Chicken comes in many variations; some contain cashews while others contain many different spices such as turmeric and cumin. For this dish all the ingredients should be easy to find; most spices are readily available in major supermarkets. Ghee is a common ingredient in Indian cooking. If you can find it you can always replace it with butter or olive oil. This dish is great to eat it with rice, roti canai or spring onion paratha.

Marinate:

1 ½ pound of diced chicken (thigh or breast)
1 clove garlic – finely chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
1tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp chili powder (or to taste)
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garam masala

Roti Canai/Paratha Bread - Step by Step

One of the things I miss most here in the USA is the Mamak stalls. We like to go there for breakfast or for teh tarik (pull tea) in the evening. My friends and I can just sit there and talk till the wee hours in the morning. Sometimes I do miss that simplicity in life. Roti canai or roti paratha is a flat bread that is flip over and over until they become transparently thin before they fold them with lots of air bubble and ghee inside that when they pan fry it, it becomes light and crispy on the outside and slightly chewy and springy on the inside.

I might look easy to make but they are not. Each time I try to flip it, the dough will stick together and I get the oil all over the kitchen. I gave up and end up stretching the dough will my fingers. The roti canai came out ok. Not as thin and crispy as I wanted it to. I hope I will do a better job the next time I make this again. From now on please don’t take the Mamak roti canai for granted. It involves more hard work than you think ;)

Spring Onions Paratha Bread

This is an easy but most important quick flat bread to make. I’ve tried out a few versions but I like this the best. The texture was great, a bit chewy just the way I like it.

I sprinkle some spring onions to it but you can actually put any type of fillings like mashed potatoes, steam cauliflowers, spinach to it. Brush it with some butter or oil and pan fried the paratha till golden brown and savored it with your favorite curries.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I cooked this simple Chicken Tikka Masala to go with my Garlic and Cilantro Naan Bread. Normally this dish is cook with Chicken Tikka (baked chicken pieces that have been marinated in yogurt and spices) but I just used fresh chicken pieces in mine.

Garlic and Cilantro Naan Bread

Naan bread is one of Carlos favorite things to eat at an Indian restaurant. I think he like the chewy, perfectly blistered flat bread to be eaten with curries. Normal Naan bread in cooked in a tandoor oven but since we don’t have it, we just baked it in the oven. Naan also can be filled with potatoes or other type of fillings but we like ours with loads of garlic and herbs. I served these Naan with Chicken Tika Masala. I will post the recipe here later.

Chicken Varuval with Potatoes

Whenever I think of eating something flavorful and spicy I will make this dish. This is a dish that I will cook over and over again so much so that even Carlos is eating it now. He actually finished over half a plate of it that day. I have another recipe of Chicken Varuval here but this time I did some slight changes to it and also added some potatoes to the dish. Although the list of ingredients might looks like a lot but it does not take a long of time to make this. For this dish you can adjust the level of spiciness to your liking.

Ingredients:

3 pieces chicken breast – cut into bite size pieces
1 stick cinnamon
2 cardamom pods
3 medium size potatoes
2 green chilies - sliced
1 medium size onions – sliced thinly
A small bunch curry leaves
1 tsp black pepper
Salt and sugar to taste

Grind into paste:

5 cloves garlic
2” ginger
4 shallots
½ tsp salt

Make into a paste with a bit of water

3 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp chili powder (more or less depend on how spicy you like)
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder

1. Clean and cut the chicken, marinate it with the blended paste for half an hour. In the meantime peel and cut potatoes into bite size pieces and pan fried it until soft and set it aside.
2. Heat up about 4 tbsp of oil in a non- pan, add in cinnamon stick and cardamon pods. Stir fry until fragrant and add in the chicken, and spread it evenly into a layer and let it pan fried until lightly brown on one side and turn it over and do the same to the other side.
3. Once the chicken is evenly brown, move the chicken to the side of the frying pan and add in the curry paste. Continue the stir the paste until fragrant. Add in the onions, curry leaves and chili. Mix everything together and well coated with the paste. Add in about ½ cup of water and stir until well combined. Add in a bit of salt and sugar.
4. Add in the potatoes, stir, and lower down the heat and cover. Let it simmer until everything is cooked and water evaporated. Add in black pepper, Stir well and check seasoning.
5. Dish out and serve with warm rice.

Beef Briyani Rice/Nasi Briyani Daging

Carlos and I love Indian food but I hardly cook any at home. I always wanted to learn how to cook it but when I see the long list of ingredients that needed just to prepare this dish I decided not to. When I saw Aunty Lily posted this dish using Shah Brand ready mix I was so happy. Finally I found an easy way to make briyani rice. I went to the Indian Grocery store the very next day and bought a few boxes of it. I always trust Aunty Lily taste and when she said it is good, that means must be really good. I follow her recipe but instead of using chicken I used beef and I did drizzle a bit of saffron water on top of the rice just to give it a bit of color. And I also cook the rice on top of the stove as my rice cooker always switch to keep-warm mode half through cooking and burn at the bottom if I cook any savory rice in it.

Here is the recipe adapted from Aunty Lily’s with some minor changes

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs beef – I used tenderloins for quick cooking
1 1/3 lb basmati rice - soaked for 30 minutes and drained
1 tbsp tamarind pulp - soaked in 1 cup water for 30 minutes, Then press and sieve the juice. (I omit this and used water instead)
2 medium onion - sliced(about 1/2 lb)
2 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp chopped garlic
4 tbsp oil
1 packet 'Shan' Chicken Biryani
A few strain of saffron – soak in a bit of warm water


For Garnish:

Some raisins
Fried shallots
Toasted cashew nuts (I replace it with pine nuts)
Cilantro

1. Marinate beef pieces with ginger, garlic and 2 tbsp of Shan Chicken Biryani mix for 1 hour. In the meantime mix the rest of the briyani mix with a bit of water to make into a paste.
2. Heat oil and brown the marinated beef pieces. Remove and set aside. Sweat the chopped onions, and then add in browned chicken pieces. Add in the paste and continue to stir-fry until the meat is well coated with the paste. Add in the tamarind juice (I just add 2 cups of water) bring it up to boil, turn down the heat and continue to cook and stir until the meat is tender and sauce thickened. Set aside.
3. Bring a pot of water to boil, add in 3/4 tsp of salt and add in the rice. Boil until the rice is three-quarter tender. Remove and drain the liquid.
4. To assemble the briyani, spread half of the cook meat at the bottom of a pot or your rice cooker and spread half of the rice on top of the meat.
5. Spread another layer of meat on top of the rice and follows by the rest of the rice. Drizzle the saffron water on top of the rice and top it with some raisins. Cover the pot and cook the rice on top of the stove on low flame for another 15 minutes. If you are using the rice cooking, press the cook function and cook until the cook function pop up.
6. Mix and fluff up the rice slightly before serving. Garnish with some raisins, fried shallots and cashew nuts.


Note: You might need more water if you are using a tough cut of meat

Vegetable Curry

I cooked this vegetarian dish for my family Doctor. She told me she tried this curry at a recently open Indian & Malay Kitchen here in Exton but it was too bad they closed down the Malay kitchen not long after that. Since she like it so much I told her I will cook some for her and brought it to her on Tuesday. She told me it taste even better than the one she had at the restaurant :)

Ingredients for the curry paste

10 dried red chilies - soak in hot water
4 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
1" of turmeric
1" of galangal
1" of ginger
2 stalk of lemongrass
3 tbsp of curry powder

Blend all the above ingredients with a bit of water and set aside.

Vegetables: (or add your own ingredients)

1 cup of french beans - cut to 1" length
2 zucchini - cut to 1" length
4 potatoes - quartered
2 carrots - cut to 1" length
1 piece of Tempe - slice thinly and pan fried until brown
2 pieces of fried tofu - cut to cubes

2 cups of coconut milk
2 kafir lime leaves
1 tsp of sugar
salt to taste

1) Heat up some oil and add in curry paste. Stir fry for 1 min or until fragrant.
2) Add coconut milk, kafir lime leaves and stir. Add in the vegetables that required longer time to cook like carrots and potatoes. Stir well and bring to a simmering boil. Turn down heat to medium, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Add in seasoning.
3) Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir well and cover, allowing to cook for another 5 minutes or until all vegetables are cook.
4) Check seasoning again and serve warm rice.

Note : You can add vegetables like eggplants, asparagus, cabbage, long beans, cauliflower or peppers to this dish. If curry is too dry add more coconut milk or water to it.

Vadai

One of my favorite Indian snack. I first learn to make this yummy treats when I was in Home Science class. It is pretty simple to make Vadai. Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients

200g dhall (lentils)
a bit of water
1/4 tsp cumin
1 green chili-finely sliced
1 red chili - finely sliced
1 tsp of turmeric powder
1 sprig curry leaves, finely chopped
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp rice flour

1. Wash and soak dhall overnight. Drain well, then put into a blender. Add water and process until dhall is coarsely blended.
2. Combined all the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Heat oil for deep-frying.
3. Wet your hands and take a spoonful of dhall mixture, place the mixture on the palm of your hand. Make into a round then flatten slightly.
4. Drop into the hot oil. repeat until all the dough is used up. Fry until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.

Note : Vadai is best eaten hot.