Green Mutton Curry with Potatoes

This recipe is my mother's own creation and has been tried and tested for about 43 years now. It was always on our family menu at least once in a fortnight and whenever we had guests for lunch or dinner. This recipe has gone far and wide through relatives and friends. I'm posting it so that many others can also relish this our favourite dish!

Serves 3 to 4

Ingredients

• 500 grams mutton (I always use goat meat shoulder)
• 2 potatoes, unpeeled
• 2 medium onion, diced
• 1 big bunch coriander, cleaned and roots removed (Use stems if tender)
• 8 to 10 green chilli peppers (More or less as per the spice tolerance)
• 1/2 coconut, ground to a fine paste
• Curry leaves for seasoning
• 3 cloves 
• 1 cinnamon piece, about 2 inches
• 4 tsp. oil or as required
• Salt to taste
• 2 cups water for pressure cooking. 

Preparation

• Heat 1 tsp oil in a small pan and saute the green chilli peppers and the coriander together till coriander turns a bright green, about 2 to 3 minutes. Switch off, cool and grind in a mixer to a thick, fine paste.
• Pressure cook mutton and potatoes with salt and water. Switch off and set aside mutton. Peel the potatoes and dice them. Set aside.
• Heat the rest of the oil in a sauce pan. Add cloves and cinnamon and when it splutters, add curry leaves and onion. Saute till the onion is tender. 
• Add the green chilli - coriander paste and saute till the raw smell goes.
• Add the mutton stock, stir and allow to boil for a minute. Add the mutton and diced potatoes. Stir and allow to boil for 2 minutes. 
• Finally add the coconut paste. Stir, allow to boil for another 2 to 3 minutes and switch off.
• Serve hot with rice.

Cajun Jambalaya

I happened to watch TLC at the tail end of the recipe for Cajun Jambalaya. It looked very delicious so I searched the internet and found quite a number of recipes for Cajun Jambalaya. I finally decided to go with the recipe of Emeril Laggase on foodnetwork.com. Special lunch for New Year's Day 2016

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 16 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped
• 4 ounces chicken, diced
• 1 tablespoon Creole seasoning, recipe below
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped green pepper (capsicum)
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce (I used Tobasco sauce)
• 3/4 cup rice
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 5 ounces sausage, sliced
• Salt and pepper

Creole seasoning:

• 2 1/2 tablespoons chilli powder
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (You could used 1 more tbsp of chilli powder instead)
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Store in a container in the refrigerator.

Preparation

• In a bowl combine shrimp, chicken and Creole seasoning well. 
• In a large saucepan heat oil over high heat with onion, pepper and celery, 3 minutes. Add garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, Worcestershire and hot sauces. Stir in rice and slowly add chicken stock. Reduce heat to medium and cook until rice absorbs liquid and becomes tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. 
• When rice is just tender add shrimp and chicken mixture and sausage. Cook until meat is done, about 10 minutes more. 
• Season to taste with salt, pepper and Creole seasoning and serve hot.

Shrimp Cargot

I was browsing through the internet for shrimp appetizers when I found this quick, simple and straightforward recipe on allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 20 large shrimp, pealed and deveined (about 50/kilo count)
• 20 large mushrooms, stems removed
• 4 tbsp shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 165 degrees.
• Heat butter & garlic in a skillet in medium heat until butter begins to bubble. Stir in the shrimp & cook until they turn pink, about 3 minutes. 
• Place one shrimp into each mushroom cap & place into a small baking dish. Spoon the garlic butter into the mushroom caps and top each with mozzarella cheese.
• bake in the preheated oven until mushrooms are tender & the cheese is golden & bubbly about 20 to 25 minutes.

New Orleans Seafood Creole Gumbo with Okra

This recipe is from TLC. I was looking for something new after a long absence from the kitchen after Christmas 2014 when I found this on TLC. It turned out pretty well for a TLC recipe.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 350 grams shrimp, pealed and deveined
• 1 can crab meat or about 150 grams fresh crab meat
• Cayenne pepper to taste (can use chilli powder)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 250 grams okra, (Lady's finger) chopped
• 3 tbsp tomato paste (pureed and thickened)
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 cup chopped green onion (white part)
• 1/2 cup green onion (green part)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 1/2 cups shrimp broth
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper (capsicum)

Preparation

• Heat oil in a pan, add okra and saute for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the onions & saute for about 5 minutes. Add green pepper and celery and saute for 10 minutes.
• Add tomato paste & garlic and saute for 5 minutes.
• Add shrimp broth & seasoning (cayenne pepper, salt and pepper). Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. 
• Add shrimp and simmer for 15 minutes to reduce liquid. Add crab meat while simmering. 
• Add green onion to the soup and switch off. Serve hot with rice.

Fish Cake

Recipe tweaked from: http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.in/2010/04/fish-cake-and-fish-balls-noodle-soup.html

Ingredients

• 500 grams king fish (seer fish) (or any fish of choice)
• Sesame oil for pan frying
• Vegetables of choice 

Preparation

• Remove flesh from king fish slices.
• Scrape flesh from skin and discard skin.
• Place all the fish meat on a chopping board and chop for 10 minutes.
• The fish will become slightly sticky as you chop. Add salt and pepper to taste and continue to chop for another 10 minutes. The fish meat will now become a fish paste.
• Wet your hands slightly with water and roll the fish paste into flat elongate size.
• Steam for 10 minutes in boiling water, drain and pan fry in hot sesame oil.
• Allow to cool and cut into thin slices.
• Serve with raw vegetables of choice!

Appam & Vivikkam (Sweet Rice Cakes)

This is another traditional breakfast dish from Tirunelveli handed down to my mother from my dad's family. My mother still makes them and sends them over to me. I tried it for the first time and it turned out quite well! 

Makes about 12 to 15 appams (அப்பம்) or vivikka (விவிக்கா)  

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw rice
• 1/2 cup sour yogurt 
• 3 bananas (Poovan variety)
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup sugar (You can add more or less to taste)
• Cashews and raisins, roasted in oil
• Oil for frying

Preparation

• Wash and soak rice in water for an hour. Drain it completely and dry on a clean cloth under a fan for 2 or 3 hours till completely dry.
• Put it in a mixer and grind it to a fine powder. Using a sieve separate the coarse granular flour (semolina texture) about 1/4 cup. Set the fine powder aside.
• Heat about 3/4 cup water in a sauce pan and add the coarse granular flour in it with a pinch of salt. keep stirring till it forms a paste. Remove from heat. Allow to cool.
• Once it is cool, add the yogurt into it and mix well. 
• Now add the fine powder little by little and mix well to make a ball of dough.
• Allow it to ferment at least for 18 to 20 hours. 
• Mash bananas and sugar and add it to the fermented batter. Add the roasted cashews and raisins and mix well.

Appam

Appams

• Heat a non stick pan. Add a tsp. of oil. Take a little batter and drop it into the heated oil. Spread it and allow to cook. (It must cook well otherwise it can tear when flipping it over). Now flip it over and allow to cook on the other side. 
• Remove from heat and serve hot.

Vivikkam

Vivikka

• Grease idli plates, pour batter into them, steam for 5 to 7 minutes or till done.
• Serve hot.

Mallidha (Sweet Sticky Rice Cakes topped with Grated Coconut and Sugar)

This is a traditional dish from Tirunelveli district, handed down to my mother from my dad's aunt. Made from white sticky rice (vellai puttarisi), it used to be a favourite breakfast dish when we were kids. After many years, I tried it and it turned out great!

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sticky rice
• 1 cup grated coconut
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste

Preparation

• Wash and drain sticky rice well. Spread it on a clean cloth to dry under a fan. After it has completely dried, (about 2 to 3 hours) grind it into fine powder. Using a sieve, separate the coarse granular flour and grind it again into fine powder. 
• Boil about 1 1/2 cups water and add it to the powder with a little salt to make a ball of dough.
• Divide into 5 equal portions and shape each portion with hand into a patty of about 7 to 8 cm in diameter and about 1 cm thick.
• Boil water in a sauce pan and drop each patty into it. When it is cooked it will come up to the top. Take it out with a spatula, set on a plate and drop the next patty into the boiling water. Continue till all the patties are cooked.
• Mix grated coconut with sugar and spread on the top of each cake. Stack them one over the other, 3 or 5 in a stack as much as you can eat.