Koottu

I've made this with raw papaya, chow chow (choyote squash) and a couple of other veggies and it turns out amazing. The first two are my absolute favourites, but I'll happily take any koottu I can get. This recipe is adapted from a bunch of different recipes. This one uses toor dal, since it is my current fave, but I've also made it with chana dal and simple pink masoor.

Ingredients

• Tur daal 1 cup
• Choyote squash 2 medium to big
• Water 2.5 cups
• Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp

For the coconut paste

• Dessicated coconut or fresh/frozen grated coconut 1/2 cup
• Green chillies 2
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp

For the tadka / tempering

• Oil 2 -4 Tbsp  
• Mustard seeds, black 1 tsp
• White urad dal 1tsp
• curry leaves 10-15 
• Dried red chillies (optional)

Method

1. Wash and soak the daal for either 30 minutes at room temp or 15 minutes with hot water
2. Add water, chopped veggies and turmeric powder to a pressure cooker and cook for about 5 whistles
3. Grind the ingredients for the paste into a smooth paste.
4. After the pressure releases, add the paste to the cooked daal+veggie
5. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and the urad daal. When the daal turns light golden and the mustard begins to sputter, add the curry leaves and then turn off the heat and add the red chillies. 
6. Add to the daal+ veggies while still hot. Let the daal boil for a few minutes for the flavours to incorporate.
7. Eat with hot rice or chapati if you're a weirdo like martin. 

Coconut curry (with chicken, pork or fish)

This recipe is adapted from here. I originally made it with chicken but have tried it with pork shoulder and it tastes like it would be amazing with fish as well. I've kept the heat to a minimum by deseeding the dried kashmiri chillis and the result has been a mild and very flavourful curry.

Ingredients

• Chicken 2 kg (or pork, about 1.3-1.5 kg)
• Dried Kashmiri chillies 4-5 
• Peppercorns 16-20 
• Coriander seeds 4 Tbsp
• Fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp
• Tamarind, (if dried soak in hot water) 2 Tbsp
• Dessiccated coconut 1 cup
• Oil 3 tbsp
• Red onions chopped 4-5 
• Ginger garlic paste 1 tb
• Turmeric
• Green chilly 2 (totally optional)
• Curry leaves (if dried, add 3 times as much) 20 leaves
• Salt
• Coconut milk 1/2 cup

Method

1. Dry roast the red chillies, peppercorns, coriander seeds and fenugreek seeds in a pan. Add them to a grinder jar with the dessicated coconut and add the tamarind water to make a smooth paste. If you don't have ginger-garlic paste, add fresh ginger and garlic at this step.
2. If you are using pork as your protein, cut the pork into 2" pieces and then add to a pressure cooker with salt, pepper, a dash of vinegar and turmeric. Add 2-3 table spoons of water and pressure cook the pork until half done. I used fläskkarré and pressure cooked for 15 minutes after the first whistle. Skip this step if you're using chicken. 
3. Heat oil in a pan and add the curry leaves (And green chillies, if you're using them) and then the chopped onions. Once the onions are well cooked, add turmeric and then the masala paste. 
4. Cook the paste until oil separates and then add the protein on medium heat. Add salt (I add a tsp for every kg, to begin and then adjust to taste at the end).
5.  Leave the dish alone for about 10 minutes and then stir occasionally about every 5 minutes, for a total of 20-25 minutes.
6. Adjust the final consistency with coconut milk, adding more if you want it runnier and less if you want it more dry. Cook with coconut milk for about 5 minutes on low. 
7. Very good with rice and with roti. 

Kerala pork curry

This is more of a Kerala inspired pork curry recipe than an actual one. We had a bunch of left over dosa batter and a piece of karré that needed using and et voila. I googled around and matched recipes with the ingredients that I had. Since I was basically making up the recipe I chose not to grind the spices but the pressure cooker was unavoidable else this would have been a 3-4 hour long cook time as opposed to the one hour in toto that this was.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg karré (or boston butt or picnicbog or pork shoulder etc)
• 3.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 250g shallots sliced, not too finely
• 2 large onions sliced, not too finely
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 large or 4 small potatoes, chopped
• 1.5 tsp mustard seeds
• 0.5 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 0.5 tsp coriander seeds
• 0.5-1 tsp fennel seeds
• 0.5-1 tsp peppercorns
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• 3-4 green chillis, chopped
• 3.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 Tbps coriander powder
• 2-3 Tbsps meat masala powder (I used goan mutton masala)
• Salt

Method

1. Cut the pork into 1" ish chunks and marinate with about two teaspoons of salt, one teaspoon of turmeric, 1.5 tsp of ginger garlic paste and the vinegar and the soy sauce. Mix well and leave at room temperature for a bit or in the fridge if longer than an hour.
2. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pressure cooker and add the marinated pork. No need to fry the pieces. Add two cups of water and pressure cook the meat. (For this amount and this type of meat I pressure cooked for 20 minutes after the first whistle on medium heat)
3. In a pan heat up oil and add a teaspoon and a half of mustard seeds followed by half a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds, half a teaspoon of coriander seeds, 3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds and about 20 peppercorns. 
4. Now add a handful of curry leaves. Since I was using frozen curry leaves, this is a total guesstimate. 
5. Now add the onions and a dash of salt and fry until golden brown.
6. Add the chopped green chillis and ginger garlic paste when the onions are light brown and cook until the raw smell disappears and the onions and golden brown.
7. Next, add the masala powders and cook for a few minutes, then the potatoes and then the tomatoes and the tomato paste, stirring and cooking for a few minutes after each addition.
8. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes on a medium-low heat until the tomatoes and squishy and the masala is beginning to look cohesive
9. Add the pork along with the water and cook for 15 minutes on medium heat to thicken and reduce the liquid if need be. If the meat doesn't feel tender enough, cook covered for longer or pressure cook the meat again for a few more whistles
10. Mash a few pieces of the potato to thicken the gravy and cook a few more minutes
11. Serve with dosa or idli or appams or rice or roti. It's all good. 

Karnataka-style slow cooker pork curry

This recipe is inspired by this recipe. I wanted a genuine, spicy indian pork curry that I could make in the slow cooker. This recipe worked really well! I've made it twice now, once with picnic bog and once with Karre and the karre worked much better. These are both swedish cuts of pork. If you're in the states, boston butt or any pork shoulder cut with adequate fat that works in the slow cooker should work. My variation uses only one pan for the initial step.

Ingredients:

Spice Blend:

• 3 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 3 teaspoons coriander seeds (or two teaspoons coriander powder)
• 6 cloves
• 2" cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 20 black peppercorns
• 2tsp brown mustard seeds

Curry: 

• 2" peeled and roughly chopped root ginger
• 10 garlic cloves
• 2 tomatoes, quartered
• cooking oil
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• 4 onions, finely chopped
• 3 green chillies, stalks removed, pierced with a knife
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 dried red chillis
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder, (optional)
• 1-1.5kg pork shoulder, cut into cubes, with some fat
• 0.5 cup vinegar (I've used both apple cider and white, no real preference)
• 1 can coconut milk

Method:

1. Cut the pork into large chunks and salt and pepper the meat.
2. Fry the pork chunks for about 6-7 minutes on each side on medium heat
3. Turn off the heat. In the remaining hot oil, add all the spices under spice blend. After about 5 minutes, scrape the spices into the spice blender and blend. Add vinegar to make the spice blend liquid.
4. Turn the heat back on. Add mustard seeds to the hot oil and when it sputters, add dried red chillis and then the curry leaves. Fry for a few minutes
5. Add the onions and fry until well browned. 
6. Now add in the kashmiri red chilli powder and fry for a minute or two and then add in the spice mix. 
7. In the spice blender throw in the ginger, tomatoes, garlic and red chillis and blend
8. Toss the blended mix into the curry as well
9. Fry this on medium-high heat until the mix begins to thicken and release oil
10. Add this masala and the pork pieces to the slow cooker 
11. Cook on high for 3-4 hours. Test at 2 hours for doneness. 
12. When done, add the can of coconut milk and let the curry cook in the slow cooker without a lid for about 30 minutes.

Tamarind and Tuna curry

I made this because I did not want to go and buy groceries. I had canned tuna and wanted curry. Google presented me with this perfect recipe which I altered to suit my ingredients. The recipe is redolent of laksa and I've already made it twice because the sour-sweetness of the tamarind perfectly complements the strong tuna flavors. It pairs perfectly with rice.

Ingredients

• 2 Cans Tuna (160g each, in water)
• 3 Onions, sliced
• 4 cloves of Garlic, sliced
• 1Tbsp Ginger, chopped
• 1 tsp Red chilly powder 
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 tsp Fenugreek seeds
• 1" square of Tamarind(Kudampuli), soaked in boiling water
• Salt to taste
• oil
• 1 tsp Mustard seeds
• Curry leaves

Method

1. Soak Kudampuli and keep it aside for 10 minutes
2. Heat 2tbsp oil in a pan and add mustard seeds
3. When the mustard seeds start to splutter add ginger and then turn off or turn down the heat. Add the garlic and curry leaves and after they are cooked, add the fenugreek seeds very briefly, max 30s.
4. Saute it till they are soft. I add salt at this stage to make the onion cook faster.
5. Add the chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder to the pan and fry on a low heat for a minute or two till it smells less raw. 
6. Add the soaked Kudampuli and water. Bring it to boil.
7. Add the drained canned Tuna and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes and then leave covered with no heat for ~10minutes.
8. Serve with rice. 

Nutrition

This recipe makes 3 big servings of 293 kcal each. Of which 11g carbs, 15g fat and 29g protein. 

Kerala Egg Roast / Egg curry / Mutta Curry

This stuff is awesome and super easy. It pairs beautifully with neer dosa, paratha, porotta, appam as well as plain white rice. The basic recipe is from here. I don't make the neer dosa in the same way (I use rice flour) so I usually only follow the recipe for the mutta curry. The ginger in this is amazing and I usually add more than the original recipe recommends.

Ingredients

• 5 boiled eggs
• 4 Onion (sliced)
• 2-3 Tomatoes, chopped
• 1 largish piece of Ginger (1-2"), finely chopped
• 2-3 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• 0.5 tsp Garam masala
• Handful of Curry leaves
• 0.5 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1tsp Kashmiri chilli powder or paprika, basically red colour but no spice
• 0.5 tsp Chilli Powder
• 2 small Green chillis
• Water
• Salt
• 2 green cardamoms
• 1" piece of cinnamon
• 2 cloves

Method

1. Hard boil the eggs, cool and shell. Make 3 gashes in each egg and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in deep bottomed pan and add the cinnamon,cardamom and cloves and saute for one minute. Turn off or turn down the heat and add the ginger and saute for a minute and then the garlic for another minute. The garlic should not brown at all. 
3. Add the curry leaves and the green chillis. Then add the onions and salt and cook on medium heat till the onions are translucent and beginning to brown. 
4. Now add all the powers and saute for a couple of minutes until they smell less raw. 
5. Then add sliced tomato pieces and mix well. Cover the pan for a couple of minutes and cook on high. Then uncover and cook on medium. Do this until oil separates from the masala, stirring occasionally. 
6. Now add the eggs and mix well, then add 1.5 cups of hot water and cook the curry for about 15 minutes on medium heat.

All done!

South Indian Style Biryani with tamarind and curry leaves

I'm not sure who originally wrote this recipe. A quick search of the interwebz suggests it was first posted in 2010 to about.com by Petrina Verma Sarkar. I found the recipe on facebook when a friend liked it on Ambika Pillai's facebook page. I was intrigued because it has tamarind and curry patta, which is weird in a biryani. I didn't use lamb because IMHO the biryani gets really heavy and since I am now allergic to chicken we ended up using pork. It was quite delicious!

I also deviated from the original recipe by using the pressure cooker to make the curry because the original version takes more than an hour and ain't nobody got time for that.

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork meat (We used a picnic ham chopped into 2" by 2" pieces)
• 2 tbsps garlic paste 
• 2 tbsps ginger paste 
• 3 tbsps sunflower/ canola/ vegetable cooking oil 
• 2 large red onions, chopped fine and I onion sliced finely
• 30-40 curry leaves 
• 2 green chillies (optional) 
• 2 tbsps coriander powder 
• 1 tbsp cumin powder 
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 
• 1 tbsp garam masala 
• 1 tsp salt (this is how much I use, you can add salt to suit your taste) 
• 1 cup hot water 
• 50 g ball of tamarind 
• 700 gms Basmati rice 
• 1 tsp salt

Method

1. Put the meat, garlic and ginger pastes in a large bowl and mix well to coat the meat with the pastes. Keep aside for 20 minutes. 
2. While the meat is marinating, heat (on medium temperature) the cooking oil (3 tbsps) in a large, deep pot/ pan. 
3. Add the finely chopped onions and fry till translucent. Add the curry leaves and green chillies fry for 1 minute. 
4. Now add the powdered spices - coriander, cumin, turmeric, and garam masala powders. Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir often to prevent burning. 
5. Add the marinated meat now. Stir well and often and cook till the meat is browned. Add 1 1/2 cups of hot water, stir, cover, simmer heat and cook till meat is tender. Keep checking for this stage as you do not want the meat overcooked and soft. Instead, at this stage, I added in the tamarind, below and then added 2 cups of water and pressure cooked the meat for 25-30 minutes. I saved some of the tamarind and added it after the meat was cooked. I just wasn't sure the tamarind flavor would withstand the pressure cooking.
6. While the meat is cooking, make the tamarind puree: Put the tamarind in a plastic or glass bowl and pour 1/2 cup of hot water over it. Allow to stand for 5-10 minutes. Now strain the tamarind and water mixture through a sieve (do not use a very fine sieve) into a bowl to get tamarind puree. Add this to the curry when you feel the meat is almost done. Stir well. 
7. Once the meat is cooked, keep it aside and prepare the rice. Put the rice in a sieve and wash under running water till the water runs clear. 
8. Now put it into a large deep cooking pot (preferably one with handles). Add enough water to fully cover the rice - at least 4" over the surface of the rice. Add 1 tsp of salt to taste. Set the rice up to boil. Cook till almost done. To determine when it has reached that stage, remove a few grains from the pot and press between your thumb and forefinger. The rice should mostly mash but will have a firm whitish core. Turn off the fire.
9.  Strain through a colander and keep aside. 
10. Heat 3 tbsps of oil in a pan and fry 2 of the onions till caramalized - golden brown. Drain and keep aside on paper towels for later use. Grease a deep dish or pot (which has a nicely fitting cover). We used a dutch oven. 
11. Now evenly layer the cooked rice, meat (and its gravy) in the dish/ pot, to form at least 2 sets of layers (rice-meat-rice-meat-rice). 
12. Garnish with the previously caramalized onions. Cover the dish tightly. If your dish does not have a cover use 2 layers of aluminium foil (shiny side of both layers pointing down towards the rice) and secure on to dish with baking string. We just popped on the dutch oven lid. Since I use a Handi (a deep pot with a nicely fitting lid) which has a flat rim, I seal it by making a firm dough with flour and water and pressing this over the joint of the Handi's rim and cover. 
13. Now put the dish/ pot in a pre-heated oven set at 350 F/ 180 C/ Gas mark 4 for 20 minutes. We did 30-35 minutes since our curry was more liquid than hers probably was. Only open when you are ready to eat. The way to serve Biryani is to gently dig in with a spoon so you get through the layers.
14.  I serve my Biryani with Raita and Kachumbar salad.

Mangalorean Fish Curry

aka Masli Kadi

This recipe is from a gorgeous cooking blog "Tiffin Box" written by (after making and eating this fish curry) what I imagine is a godess in the kitchen. Holy shit, this was good. 

I, as usual, made some changes and these are the only changes to the original recipe. The original recipe mentions a lot of different fish, we used fresh herring, this is quite close in flavor to the other fish originally used in this recipe, sardines and mackrel.

Ingredients 

For the curry paste:

• 2 tbsp coriander seeds (I used 2.5)
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds (I used 1.5)
• 1/2 tsp whole peppercorns (I used 3/4 ish)
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (I used 1/2 ish)
• 4 long red mild dried chillies (I used 6)
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 roughly chopped onion
• 2 flakes peeled garlic (I used 4)
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• About 50g coconut cream (use the hard packed version, if possible) otherwise, 75 ml liquid coconut cream (We did not have coconut cream, just coconut milk, and I used about a third of the can (400ml can) to grind everything up using the coffee grinder on our food processor.)

For the curry:

• Er...original recipe skipped the fish, we used herring, about half a kilo
• 1/2 onion diced (I used 1.5)
• 1/2 inch piece of ginger, chopped finely (I used 1")
• 2 flakes of garlic, chopped finely (I used garlic paste, 1.5tsp)
• 1 green chilly, slit lengthwise
• Salt to taste (or 1 and 1/2 tsp)

To season:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used 4 tbsp)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 sprigs curry leaves (about 10 in total)

Recipe

1. For the curry paste, toast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, fenugreek seeds and red chillies for about a minute and a half on a hot pan. Put into a blender with the turmeric, onion, garlic, tamarind and coconut milk and blend to a paste.
2. In a pan, add some oil and add the ginger, chilli, garlic paste and onion (about 1 minute between each addition). Pour the ground curry paste into the pan, stir and add more water if required to get a smooth curry. I added the rest of the can of coconut milk and about a cup and a half of water. Season. Let the curry simmer for about 25 minutes. The colour changed and the curry became a browner color than the original yellow. Taste and adjust the seasoning, by adding more salt and/or tamarind paste. I added, all told, about a teaspoon and a half of salt, a dash of red-wine vinegar and about a heaped teaspoon of tamarind paste. 
3. Put the fish into the curry and poach until just cooked (about 6 minutes on a low poach).
4. Temper the curry now. In a small pan, heat the oil, and pop in the mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, put in the curry leaves, stir for about 30 seconds and pour the whole lot into the curry and stir gently.