Beef roast

A beef roast was long overdue. The reason for delay being the time it took  me to get motivated enough to hunt for a place that sold good beef. And then, of course, the necessity to cook something that cannot be substituted with anything other than beef :D :D

Though I like beef roast and other forms of beef, am not very particular about it. The point is am not crazy enough about beef to take the time to go purchase it like I would do for vegetables and fish.

There are some really good stuffs to be made with beef and when I decided to make this beef roast for a few friends, it was just the excuse I needed :D :D

What I used

1. Beef: ½ kg
2. Diced shallots (10), ginger (1.5 inch), Garlic (6 cloves)
3. Roasted cloves (6) cardamom (6) and pepper corn (1 teaspoon), perumjeerakam - fennel seeds (1 teaspoon)
4. Salt to taste
5. Garam masala: 2 teaspoons
6. Meat masala: 2 tablespoons
7. Cinnamon powder: 1 teaspoon

In a mixer, grind all ingredients from points 2-4 and make a coarse paste. Then, in a pressure cooker, add the cleaned beef cut into small cubes along with the ground paste made above with the mentioned spice powders and cook till 4 whistles. The beef cooks in its own stock, so no need to add water unless you need gravy.

For the second phase, following ingredients are needed:

1. Coconut oil: 1/2 cup
2. Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
3. Curry leaves: 10 leaves
4. Grated onion (1), carrot (1), Capsicum (1)
5. Corriander leaves: a fistful
6. Salt and pepper: to taste

How I made it

1. In hot pan, splutter the mustard seeds and curry leaves in hot oil and sauté the vegetables with some salt and pepper. Capsicum, carrot and coriander are optional. I used it as I find adding vegetables reduces the heaviness of consuming beef.
2. Once the vegetables are half done, add the cooked beef with its stock and mix everything well. Adjust the masalas and salt as per need at this point and cook on medium flame till the stock reduces and the beef is dry. You can decide how dry you want and adjust accordingly. I cooked the beef with pan open to speed up the process of reduction. Once the stock is reduced or fully absorbed, turn off the fame and let it rest. You can see that the beef would have become a bit drier after resting.
   PS: for really crispy beef roast, continue the roasting till the beef turns black with occasional stirring. It might take 2 hours or so for it to turn this hard and black. It would be totally worth it and I must warn you it is very unhealthy but so god damn tasty that you should try it occasionally. Human body can handle the bad stuff once in a while ;D

A lot of alcoholic beverage fans find in beef roast the perfection of combination that renders their brand irresistible. While for the others, beef roast is a must have with appam, rice, chappathi, porotta, idiappam, you name it and beef goes with it all.

My personal combo is red rice, pulissery, achinga payar mezhukkupuratti and beef roast with some lime pickle.

That, my friends, is my perfect lunch!

Dates and peanut laddoo

The chances of some scintillating events unfolding by chance ... is what happened the day I made dates laddoos :D :D

It was my last week at my job of 8 years and as my farewell to the Firm that gifted me some noteworthy memories, it was my tribute to my friends and colleagues with some me-made culinary art. I prefer DIY gifts these days coz of the personal touch :D. Crossed fingers and a pounding heart loomed over my ecstatic halo of excited anxiety, I was gonna make them in a larger proportion.

As I stepped into the supermarket hoping for inspiration from the arrays decked with packets of possible ingredients, my eyes fell on the shelf with dates and then that MOMENT ensued :D :D My big moment that led to what I have shared below.

Some days feel like they are meant to have been in a certain way. It makes me wonder if there is indeed a pre-destiny. Over the years, I have replaced the blind religious belief handed down over generations to one that believes that we make our own destiny, or at least that our decisions play a vital role in shaping our castles of dreams. The Universe is full of surprises and I have concluded that there are more than "YESes" and "NOs". :D :D

As surprising as was the making of these little rounds of joy, I got some amazing pics during the photoshoot that I was proud of to show off.

I was way over the moon!

What I used

1. Deseeded dates: 500 grams
2. Toasted non-salted peanuts: ½ cup (optional)
3. Ghee: 1 tablespoon
4. Jaggery: ¼ cup
5. Ginger: 2 inches
6. Cardamom: 8 pods
7. Pepper powder: 3/4 teaspoon
8. Water: 3 tablespoons
9. Toasted sesame seeds and almonds for garnish (optional)

How I made it

1. Grind the dates and peanuts separately in a mixer. I did not powder the peanuts to retain some crunch in the laddoo. In a hot pan, heat half the ghee and cook the dates for a few minutes stirring continuously. To this add the peanuts and mix well and take it off stove.
   PS: you can add other dry fruits instead of peanuts. If no cruch needed, just use deseeded dates
2. In a separate pan, boil the jaggery with some water, ginger, cardamom and pepper powder till it becomes viscous. Strain most of this juice into the dates and peanut mix and mix well. To the rest of the reduced jaggery, add the almonds that will be used for garnish.
3. Once the mix cools down, grease you hands and a plate with some ghee and make laddoos of the desired shape and size. Jaggery coated almonds can be used as garnish. Also toasted sesame seeds can be used as topping.

I was tasting this thoughout the making process that by the time it was all over and I had a full laddoo, I was so full I skipped dinner that day :D :D

This was the quickest sweet dish I had made in a while :D :D

Potato scrambled eggs

It was 9:00 am... a Sunday... a very lazy Sunday. The kind of lazy where one wakes up from bed only to go sprawl on the living room couch. Nowhere to rush to, no timeline to keep up, no commitments to follow through. Such days are WOW to wake up to knowing the day is all mine. :D 

Such lazy days are the days too when going to a store is a big NA NA and where my creativity springs up to keep me all cozy. Bill Gates was so right when he said a lazy man finds the easiest way to finish a task. So around 10:00 am, when my lazy sprawl was getting uncomfortable with the muscle fatigue of staying in a position far too long, I crawled off the bean bag and gave it a reassuring glance to say "I will be back soon dear". Then got my home-ground coffee and decided to have breakfast.

There was an onion, corriander and curry leaves, a few potatoes and that was it. A very silent and polite but obvious swear almost escaped my disappointed demeanor. What was I supposed to make with that???

Why not a Spanish omelette I thought. It had been a while since I made them. When I opened the fridge, what I saw made my heart sink. There was only 1 egg! :-( ;-( 

And my pan needed at least 3 eggs to make one on a day of ingredient drought. Then it happened like the troll where one is about to flip an omelette and ended up with scrambled eggs, with some alterations in my case. 

As I boiled the potatoes and was estimating how to lay the pan so I could still make a Spanish omelette, I suddenly got too bored making a plan and then thought how about potato scrambled eggs. And despite the skepticism, I moved ahead and had a very filling breakfast :D :D

What I used

1. Coconut oil: 3 tablespoons
2. Boiled and coarsely crushed potatoes: 1 cup
3. Chopped onion: 1
4. Salt: to taste
5. Pepper powder: 1/2 teaspoon
6. Curry leaves: few
7. Chopped corriander leaves: 1/2 cup
8.  Eggs: 2 (I used one, but 2 would be better)

How I made it

1. Heat oil in a pan, saute the onions with salt and pepper and add the curry leaves, corriander leaves and crushed potatoes 
2. Mix the contents well and add the eggs with continuous scrambling till the eggs turn crispy

I was so hungry with all the planning and change of plans that I didn't have the patience to click more pics of this dish :D :D It was all over in a jiffy for me. It was also the moment I basked in the perfection of an egg-potato marriage.

This is a light and filling breakfast for those who don't wanna go heavy.

Have this with a slice of garlic bread and it should just be fine! :D :D

Chicken samosa

Despite the severe curfew on some of our favorite pasttimes, one of the best happenings that sprung from my mom's retirement was the daily snacks she would prepare for my sis and me with the evening tea :D :D. After her retirement, it was exciting to rush home from school for the sole reason that there would be something new and tasty for lunch :D :D

A couple of months ago, I was reminded of the samosas she would make, the one foiled in pastry sheets, which isn't common in Trivandrum. I checked out a few confectioneries here to no avail.

It was time to create what I wanted! And I love that feeling where what you need isn't available and you gotta custom make it :D :D. For me, it was only a matter of reaching the heights of "wanting" to leave my comfortable premises and get the stuff. Surprisingly what led me to make these samosas wasn't my craving. It was while deciding on a menu of snacks to treat my friends and colleagues that I decided "why not some chicken samosas!" :D :D

And here they are :D :D

What I used

1. Coconut oil : ¼ cup for the filiing and enough oil for deep frying
2. Mustard seeds: ½ teaspoon
3. Diced onion: 2
4. Ginger-garlic paste: 1 teaspoon
5. Salt: to taste
6. Turmeric powder, pepper powder and garam masala: ½ teaspoon each
7. Grated carrots: ½ cup
8. Capsicum: 1
9. Chillies: as per need
10. Chicken: 250 grams
11. Pastry sheets: as per need

How I made it

1. In pan, heat oil, splutter the mustard seeds and saute the onion adding some salt. When onions soften, add the spice powders and cook till the raw smell goes. Add the carrot, capsicum and chillies adjusting the salt as needed till the veggies are almost done. Then goes in the minced chicken and cook with continuous mixing till the chicken is done. This is the filling
2. Take the elongated pastry sheet to wrap the samosa into a triangle and deep fry in hot oil till they brown on either side

These crispy triangles of joy are delicious with sweet and spicy tomato ketchup :D :D

  

Couple it with  a hot cup of cardamom tea or coffee to have an evening that makes you smile in your armchair watching that serene sun go down the horizon :D :D

Maggie chicken curry

It was funny how today morning I decided to make a chicken curry with the less than half kilo of chicken available in my freezer.

Like always, I had a recipe in mind when I started cooking. Today, the plan was to make a tomato chicken curry and I started accordingly. La la la… :D :D it was until I got the masalas mixed up and ended up making what I decided to call the Maggie chicken curry :D :D. There is a reason why I chose this name.

So when the garam masala jar and the cinnamon jar got mixed, uff!!! It was a disaster, is what I thought. But… the resulting curry tasted as if it was a chicken curry made with Maggi noodles tastemaker, only that there was no tastemaker :D :D

Cinnamon powder was the key!

Now the excitement of having saved the curry clubbed with the discovery of a possible secret of the tastemaker, this was a winner for me :D :D

What I used

1. Coconut oil: ½ cup
2. Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
3. Curry leaves: as many as you want
4. Sliced onion: 1
5. Cardamom: 4 pods
6. Cloves: 4
7. Salt: as per need
8. Diced potatoes and carrots: 1 each - optional
9. 3 tomatoes pureed with ¼ teaspoon salt and garam masala
10. Cinnamon powder: 3 teaspoons
11. Garam masala: 2 teaspoons
12. Pepper powder: 1 teaspoon
13. Chillies (kaanthari): 5 depending on how spicy the curry should be
14. Chicken: 400 grams
15. Coconut milk: ½ cup-1 cup depending on how much gravy needed

How I made it:

I made this in a mud pot coz that was the only free pot that day

1. Heat the oil, splutter the mustard seeds with the curry leaves, cloves and cardamom and saute the onions till soft
2. Required salt goes in along with the carrots, potato and chillies
3. You can skip the carrots and potato. I added it coz there was so less chicken and 3 hungry tummies to feed. So volume was a necessity ;-) So it’s not necessary to add veggies
4. Once the veggies have mingled well, in goes the cinnamon powder, garam masala and pepper powder and cook for 3 minutes
   PS: There was a panic akin to the realization that I married a cinnamon instead of garam masala (UFFF!!!!) and the whole pot smelling like cinnamon buns instead of the tomatoey chicken curry that I had so envisioned – you can completely ignore the panic part coz you already know you are making Maggie chicken
5. Then add the tomato puree and mix everything well with half a cup of water
6. When the contents start to boil, add in the chicken pieces, coconut milk and cook with the pot covered for about 40 minutes till the chicken is well-cooked

This really tasted like Maggi and like Maggi noodles, the smells fades after a while. Then it becomes really spicy. It tasted very good with rice and am sure it would be wonderful with just about anything that any chicken curry is a combo with :D :D

Fried potato wedges

Ya, okay so health well-wishers advise that fried food is bad for health. 

So just take few big bites and be done with it quickly ;D

Win-win scenario ;D

What I used

1. Potato wedges: as much as you need. I used 2 medium-sized potatoes
2. Oil for deep frying
3. Salt and pepper: 1/4 teaspoon each (optional)

How I made it

1. Fry the potato wedges in hot oil for about 10 minutes till they are soft and spread it out on tissue or blotting paper to absorb excess oil
2. While the wedges are still hot, sprinkle salt and pepper

Since potato wedges are thick, they won't be very crunchy. Take note though that they are very filling.

Perfect as an evening snack! :D :D

Spinach fried rice

The story of this fried rice began on a sunny Sunday when my friend and I had decided to go for the afternoon matinee show. 

Like most lazy Sundays when we are so lazy we even skip church, we waited till we were really hungry to decide whether to light our stove or to luncheon in the finesse of a restaurant nearby. As we pondered over this in the backdrop of a humming TV playing a god-knows-which movie and enlightening overselves with the happening of our friends' and acquaintances and everyone else's worlds on Facebook, it suddenly dawned on us that our own world was turning dizzy. 

We would have had to rush right away if we had to have lunch from outside to make it to the movie on time. On the other hand, if we cooked, there would be ample time to take our own sweet time to unfoil our agenda. It didn't take long to decide on the next course of action. 

As my eyes fell on the plush wine color of the spinach leaves (which looked like they were putting out their head-like leaves to make eye contact with me) that I had bought just the day before, the freshness tickled my senses and it took only a few seconds to decide what would be a quick lunch ;D ;D

What I used

1. Fried and cooked basmati rice: 5 cups
2. Cooking oil: 1/2 cup
3. Diced onion, carrots, capsicum: 1 cup each
4. Salt: to taste
5. Chopped spinach: 2 cups
6. Green chillies: 2
7. Pepper powder: 2 teaspoons

How I made it 

1. In a pan, heat the oil and saute the vegetables and chopped chillies with some salt till they soften. This takes about 15-20 minutes.
   PS: to save time, pre-boiled vegetables can be used as well 
2. Add the pepper powder followed by the rice and mix well gently.

This was a no-big-deal, really quick fried rice that was mind blowing with tomato ketchup :D :D

On any regular day, this would be amazing with any curry :D :D