NOTES FROM A MALLU KITCHEN

Another cookery class over..and it's been a long time since I blogged. This recipe is a very easy one which I normally make when it's very hot and I'm too lazy to make a complicated dessert. You could make the jelly early (it keeps for at least a week in the refrigerator )and just whip up the sauce about ten minutes before serving..

Tender Coconut Jelly with Coconut cream sauce

Ingredients:

Tender coconut water 2 1/2 cups
China grass 1 packet(10gms)
Sugar 6 tbsp

Coconut grated 3 cups
water 1 1/2 cup
Condensed milk 1/2 tin(200gm)

Method:

1. Tear up china grass into thin strips. Soak the china grass in tendercoconut water for about ten minutes.

2. Add sugar to this, stir well, and heat .

3. Boil till the china grass is fully melted.

4. Now pour this into a shallow pie dish and leave to set in the refrigerator.

5. Blend together the coconut, water and condensed milk. Strain .

6. Add vanilla essence to this thick cream and chill.

7. The tender coconut jelly will have set within 20 minutes. Chop into small pieces .

8. Serve the jelly pieces with the cream sauce poured liberally on top.

9. Serve chilled.

Forgive me..it's been ramadan..I've been busy with a hundred and one jobs that need doing..I don't know where the time flies...I just can't resist....simply must bore you people with an account of my typical ramadan day.

@3 AM..
At the unearthly hour of 3am in the night(when it's the best part of snuggling deep into your quilt and your dreams are at their most exciting point...TTTRRRRIIINNGTG....TRRIINNNGGG...the alarm rips through the chill night..but I snuggle deeper into my quilt..(who wants to wake up at that time??)N (my hubby) gives me a shove ..Resh..wake up..it's time to get Suhoor (a predawn meal we have during ramadan) for us..."mmm..yess..just five more minutes..then I'll get up" N keeps poking and prodding me till 3.30am when I finally give up and roll out of bed and into the kitchen..all bleary eyed.
Getting the food ready( this meal varies from house to house..for us, suhoor means steamed bananas and steamed rice cake-puttumpazhampuzhungiyathum-in local speak..along with hot tea) for the kids and hubby takes about ten to twenty minutes only..then begins the process of waking up the rest of my family(including hubby dearest, who promptly turned over to sleep the minute i left the bed..MEN!!) who are equally adept at clinging onto their precious sleep .Finally by 4 am, all are sitting around the table having their foodand trudging back to bed after the morning namaz(prayers)..while I am clearing the table and washing up, which gets done by around 5.15.
Now comes the hard part...the kids have to get up by 6 am if they have to be ready for the schoolbus (which comes around by 6.45am)..so if i go to bed now..it's a sure bet that I won't be able to wake up on time ...so that means 45 minutes of sitting around in the dark, twiddling my thumbs..while I would much rather be sleeping(sigh!)
So i sit at the computer and surf the web till 6am.
@6AM
Wake the kids up, poke and prod them..cajole them into uniforms, walk them to the busstop..and back home by 7 am.
@7AM
Wide awake now..No point in going to bed..so, I start cleaning the house,putting it back in order .
@8AM
I walk into the kitchen and start preparing food for Iftaar -the evening meal, which is when we break our fast. Samosa, Unnakka, Dateballs, meatballs, kababs, pies..anything goes..Pathiri(thin soft rotis made from rice flour ) and Mutton Kurma are my husband's and kids' favorite dish..this is mandatory for everyday of Ramadan.
@1.30PM
Work in the kitchen finally gets over ..and I have a quick bath, pray and run around doing other chores(like picking up the laundry and drycleaning, buying vegetables and groceries, etc,etc etc...)
@3.45PM
The kids come home and it's bedlam for the next twenty minutes!
A long list of complaints ..fights..tears..playground stories..an assignment ..a project has to be done...umma..listen...all three want to talk at once..and I am in a hurry to get them out of sweaty uniforms and socks..Make them wash up..and change ..then checking their bags and books for homework and stuff...playing with them in the garden..till the arabic tutor comes
@5PM
Prayers ( in relative peace) since the kids are studying with their arabic tutor, then into the kitchen again for last minute adjustments to food.
@6PM
The kids are back from the tutor and racing to play outside..and I am racing against the clock now. Have to get them ready for going to the mosque with their dad by 6.20pm.
My husband started this new routine this year..of going to the nearby mosque to break their fast with some water and dates , offer prayers there, and then come home for a propermeal. It's been a good idea..the boys have been really enjoying doing grownup things, and learning how to do things in the proper traditional way
@6.30PM
They are all back home , by which time I have also broken my fast with water and dates and offered evening namaz(prayer) So we all sit around the dining table, eating the meal I have prepared.
@7PM
Like storm clouds gathering, I can feel a headache creeping up ..By the time I finish clearing the table and cleaning up..I'm all tired and drained..All I want to do is curl up in a corner and sleep which is exactly what I do for the next one hour.
@ 8pm
Wake up again, do namaz(prayers) ,put the kids to bed, and get a drink for N and myself..put my feet up and chat for ten fifteen minutes..by whichtime I'm nodding off again..(and so does N !!) ..So, by around
@9PM
we both wearily drag our tired bodies into bed and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
till it starts again....

PATHIRI
Ingredients

2 cups Rice powder(Roasted)
3 cups water
salt -as required

Method

1. Boil the water. Add salt .

2. Add the flour to the boiling water and stir well in a simmering flame.

3. Cover the dough and keep it to cool.

4. Once it has partially cooled knead the dough thoroughly, wetting your hands freuently with a little water. Make sure that no lumps are formed inside.

5. Make small lemon sized ballsfrom the dough .

6. Dust the balls in some rice flour and roll it out using a roller pin.

7. Heat a tawa till smoking hot. Keep the pathiri on it and flip it to the other side once the pathiri starts forming bubbles, like a phulka. Press the pathiri occasionally so that it will become soft and layered.

8. Once both the sides are done, remove it from the tawa.


Tip:
After each pathiri...wipe clean the tawa with a dry cloth so that the charred flour doesn't stick to the next one.

Serve pathiris either dipped in medium hot coconut milk or with coconut milk on the side as an accompaniment

How fast the year goes by..Ramadan(the Holy arabic month of fasting) is here again...Karkitakam( the malayalam monsoon month) is almost over..it's been a year since I started this blog.

I feel like some sort of superwoman when I see the bewilderment on my nonmuslim friends' faces when they ask me how I can stand not even drinking water or eating anything from sunrise to sunset every single day for a whole month. So then I give them a small talk about Ramadan and all that it means to us Muslims..I'd like to share that with you also... Fasting is not just about starving .. it is also an abstinence from immoral behaviour, vainness, lying, backbiting, slander,foul language, immoral thoughts . It makes us realise how it feels to be hungry and thirsty..Ramadan reminds us that there are other people out there who are less fortunate than us, that Allah is telling us to help them.. This is the spirit of Ramzan.
Then, the awareness that God is always watching you..when we fast, only Allah knows if we have truly fasted or if we secretly cheated..if we have lied, or violated the rules of fasting. Ramadan is all about change and it brings about a spiritual and physical change in our lives. While we are striving to change into a better human being, who has the time to think about food and water?

Enough lecture...shall I stop before I bore you all ?
Unnakkaay is a traditional malabar muslim dish which is made with ripe bananas and roasted coconuts as filling .It is a usual snack for iftaar(breaking of the fast of ramadan at sunset).After reading the method ...you might feel discouraged by seeing the numerous steps to make it..but never fear..after doing it more than once, it becomes easy as pie! When I started making unakkays under my mother-in -law's tuturing , I was also discouraged and irritated by the effort to make this small snack. But after eating a properly made unnakkay, I just couldn't resist finding the recipe and doing it on my own..Taday, after 7-8 years ..here stands before you, an accomplished unnakkayi maker!

Enough of my rambling...let's get to the recipe!

UNNAKKAAY
Ingredients

Ripe big bananas 4
Ghee 2 tbsp
cashewnuts 1 tsp(chopped)
raisins 1 tsp
Cardamom powdered 1/2 tsp(abt 4nos.)
salt a pinch
Sugar 6-7 tbsp
Coconut grated 3/4 cup
Coconut oil to fry


Method

1. Steam cook or microwave cook the bananas in their skins for ten minutes till they are soft and tender.

2. Peel bananas and slit lengthwise. Remove the seeds, then mash well till it resembles dough. (you could either use a food processer or a masher for this)

3. Take a small lemon sized ball, flatten it, put one teaspoon filling inside, then seal it. Shape it like a small pod, using both your palms.

4. Do the same for the rest of dough.

5. Heat oil, then deep fry for a minute till it is golden in colour all around. Serve hot or lukewarm.

J2, my second son, had a dental checkup yesterday. The dentist said that his baby tooth in front had to come off , since the permanent tooth had started coming out from under that. So if we didn't remove the baby tooth, it would be growing lopsided...
So off it came, in under a minute, and since it was already wobbling a bit, J2 did'nt kick up a big fuss...my, he sure is growing up!!

He was peeved only about one thing..".Umma, that was my favorite tooth!!"
"what?you have a favorite tooth?for what reason?"
"well...I used to play with that tooth whenever i got bored..flicking it back and forth..it used to provide me with loads of entertainment....."......
Children!!
I thought I'd share a typical spicy mallu fish curry recipe today with you all...
which is also J2's favorite curry too!!

NAADAN MALLU FISH CURRY

Ingredients

Fish ( cubed)
(salmon or pomfret) 250 gms
Dried red chillies 15
Or Red chilli powder 3 tbsp
Turmeric powder 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
fenugreek seeds 1 tsp
Curry leaves a stalk
Shallots or onions
sliced thin 100 gms
Tomato chopped 1 large
Green chilly slit 2 or 3
Kodampuli 1 or 2 pieces
(kodampuli is kokam or dry mangosteen..)
Coconut oil 4-5 tbsps
ginger crushed 1 tbsp








Method

1. Take a pan (preferably earthenware, or clay) and heat.

2. Pour oil, add mustard and fenugreek seeds. When it starts spluttering, add curry leaves.

3. Add onions, green chillies,and ginger. Saute well.

4. When onions are wilted,add tomato slices, and saute again for 2 minutes.

5. Grind together the red chilly, turmeric powder and a few fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds.along with 1 tbsp water. (this step is optional..but if you do grind, it will increase the flavour of the curry and make it thicker)

6. Add the ground masala to the pan, mix well, and add the fish pieces and the kodampuli.

7. Cover, and boil till the fish is cooked, and the curry is not too watery.

8. Serve hot with rice, or puttu , or appams.

Tip:
If you pour one tsp of coconut oil onto the curry just before serving(when steaming hot) that would increase the flavour even more.