Prawn drumstick gravy

My husband told me after visiting his friend's house that he ate drumstick prawn gravy in his house and his mother had prepared it wonderfully. I tried couple of times earlier, I felt this time this came out really well.

Ingredients
Prawns - 1/4 kg
Drumstick - 2
Onion -2
Tomatoes - 2
Green chillies-2
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder- 2 to 3 tsp
Turmeric powder -1/2 tsp
Jeera powder -1/2 tsp
Coconut - small cut pieces one handful
Cooking oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Curry leaves
Coriander leavers
Cinnamon - one small stick
Cloves -2
Saunf- 1/tsp


Procedure
Grind coconut, chilli powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, turmeric powder  to a smooth paste. Keep the oil in a kadai.  Add clove, cinnamon and saunf.  Then add finely chopped onions and saute till golden brown. Add the green chillies and curry leaves. Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute till raw smell goes. Add the tomatoes till cook till soft. Then add the cut drumstick pieces , add water.

 Cook covered for 10 minutes. After this, add the ground Masala, salt and cook covered for 10  minutes. Add the cleaned deveined prawns and cook for 10 minutes or till oil separates on top

Enjoy with rice , chappathi etc..

Ennai kathirikkai

My mother used to make wonderful dishes with Brinjal. This is one of them. I checked other recipes, but none of them had similar ingredients like my mom'said, hence I thought I should post this.
Ingredients
Small white brinjal-200 gms
Medium sized onion -1
Garlic pods- 5 to 6
Pepper- 1 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - one pinch
Mustard and Urad dhal, curry leaves for seasoning
Gingelly oil- 2 tbsp

Preparation
Take the Brinjal. Wash them, remove the stalk and slit them into 2 or 4 pieces. Don't cut them into pieces but keep it as a whole ( this is applicable if they are the small ones)
Since I had bigger ones, I cut them into them. But retaining the brinjal as a whole with slits is the beauty of the dish. Soak them in water, otherwise it will become black.

Grind onion, pepper and garlic into a smooth paste and keep aside. Keep oil in a pan, add Mustard and Urad dhal and let it splutter.  Add the curry leaves and the brinjal. Add salt and turmeric powder, saute, cook covered in medium flame till the brinjal is half cooked. Then add the ground Masala and chilli powder, mix well.  Cook covered in slow flame with frequent mixing to ensure that it does not get burnt. Add more oil if needed. Cook for around 10 to 15 minutes till the raw smell goes.

Serve hot with rasam or curd rice 

Sweet Banana paniyaram

This recipe is a mix of my mother's and mother in law versions of paniyaram. Both are experts and I took the best part of the recipe out of theirs and integrated them and made this.
Ingredients
Sooji/ rava- 1/2 cup
All purpose Flour- 1/4 cup
Sugar- little less than 1/4 cup
Egg-1
Ripe Banana- medium size 1
Vannila essence- 2 to 3 drops
Cardamom- 2 to 3 pods crushed
Cooking soda- one pinch
Cooking Oil for frying in paniyaram pan

Procedure
Beat the egg in a  bowl . Add the rava and mix thoroughly. Then add the maida, sugar, cooking soda, essence, crushed Cardamom and mix thoroughly. Mash the banana nicely and mix with flour mixture. Allow it to rest for 15 minutes.

Heat the paniyaram pan and fill 1/4 of the each hole with cooking oil . Once the oil is hot , pour the mixture till the hole gets filled. Cook in medium flame .. once bubbles start appearing in the paniyarams, turn them. Cook in slow heat for 5 minutes. Use a fork or paniyaram kambi to check whether it is cooked. If the paniyaram is cooked, when we poke and take the fork, the flour will not be stuck to it. Take it out.

Pour the next batch . Serve this as snack or breakfast and enjoy...

Sura meen cutlet

I am presenting this  recipe which is my mother in law's with minor modifications.
Ingredients
Sura meen ( shark fish)-250 gas
Potatoes- 250 gms
Onion- 3 to 4 medium sized
Green chillies- 4 to 5
Finely chopped Coriander leaves
Soya sauce- 1 tsp
Ginger- a small piece finely chopped
Garlic- 7 to 8 pods finely chopped
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Chillie powder- 1 tsp
Pepper powder- 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Egg-1
Bread crumbs or rusk powder
Oil - for shallow frying

Procedure
Steam the shark / Sura meen in idli vessel or in case of pressure cooker, cook for 5 minutes with out putting the weight. There will be excess water left over with the flesh after steaming.  Remove the excess water and take only the flesh . Allow it to cool. Once cool,mash it with hands or spoon into smaller pieces.
Boil the potatoes , peel the skin and mash it. Mix both the steamed Sura meen and potatoes together.

Finely chop the onions, chillies, Coriander leaves, ginger and garlic.

Pour 2tsp oil in a Kadai and put the onions. Saute till golden brown. Then add the green chillies, ginger, garlic, Coriander leaves and cook in slow flame for 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the Sura meen and potato mixture,

 Soya sauce and salt. Mix everything thoroughly and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes.  Allow it to cool. 

Roll into small balls and then flatten it into circle shape. Dip in egg beaten with salt and pepper. Then roll it in rusk powder. 

Shallow fry in oil with frequent tossing.  

Serve it hot with sauce.

Seer fish/Vanjiram fish egg fry

I am very fond of fish egg fry. When we were children, the man who came our house in his cycle with variety of fishes routinely, used to give fish eggs free and my  mom used to fry them and give them hot hot to us. We were strict nonvegetarians, non veg was part of most of our meals and my mom is an excellent cook. After shifting to Chennai, I got fish eggs couple of times, but today I was fortunate to get huge Vanjiram fish eggs. But I had to give a huge price similar to the fish rates.
Ingredients
Fish eggs
Turmeric powder
Chilli powder
Jeera powder
Pepper powder
Ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
I am not mentioning the measures, based on the size and quantities of fish eggs you get, you may decide accordingly.  You may take similar measures as if you take for fish fry.
Procedure
The eggs will have thin layer of membranes. Carefully remove the top layer .

This step should be done carefully, otherwise, the eggs will become fragmented. Wash them carefully and gently. You may use turmeric powder during washing.  Cut them into pieces. Take all the Masala ingredients and make a smooth paste. Smear it on the egg pieces and marinate for half an hour.

Shallow fry in slow frame with frequent turning till it becomes nice brown and crispy on the out side.

Serve it hot hot and enjoy...

Easy Carrot Halwa

Having a sweet tongue, I enjoy sweets. Once my chinna mamiyaar Mrs. Thangalakshmi sent me carrot Halwa. She also shared with me the recipe which is my Sister in law Anandhi's. Thanks to them. I don't whether today what I am sharing with you is the exact recipe, but it had come out well . This is a very easy recipe, each bachelors can try when they feel like having a sweet at a much lesser cost.

Ingredients
Carrot- 250gms
Milk- 2-3  tbsp
Milkmaid-75 ml
Ghee- 3 tsp
Preparation time: 15 minutes

Preparation
Scrape the Carrot.  Keep it a microwave bowl .Add the milk. Keep it in the microwave for 5 minutes.  Then add the milk maid. Mix it well. According to your taste, you may increase or decrease the quantity of milk maid. There is no need to add sugar.. keep it again in the microwave for 2 minutes.

Add 2 tsp Ghee to bowl after taking it out of the microwave. Mix it well. According to your taste you may add more Ghee.  Keep it in the microwave for 5 minutes. If you find it little bit watery, keep for another couple of minutes. Take it out of MW. Fry some cashews in the remaining Ghee , garnish.

Serve it hot with ice-cream 

Tomato (thakaali Chutney)

This is the recipe of Aachi, the nanny, who take care of us when we were children. She died when I was in 12th std and I learnt this from my mom. A hot favourite of my family members and friends, I thought this will be a good recipe to share and this goes very well with idli or dosa.
Ingredients ( for 2 persons)
Onions - 3
Tomatoes-2
Red chillies -5
Garlic - 3 to 4 Cloves
Tamarid- a very small ball, less than the size of small gooseberry
Urad dhal- 1 tsp
Channa dhal ( kadalai paruppu)-1 tsp
Asafoetida powder- two three pinches
Mustard- 1/2 tsp
Gingelly oil- 1 tab spoon
Salt to taste
Procedure
Pour oil in a Kadai.  Once the oil becomes hot, add Mustard, Urad dhal and channa dhal one by one. Saute till it becomes light brown. See that the dhals are not over cooked. Add the asafoetida powder, garlic and the red chillies .Add the chopped onion. Cook till it becomes golden  brown .Add the tomatoes. Cook till it becomes soft and soggy .  Cooking the onion and tomatoes nicely is the secret of this  recipe.

 Add the tamarind in between and cook for one or two minutes. You may innovate by adding curry leaves or if you want to increase the quantity then you can add few coconut pieces. Add salt to taste

Remove from the stove. Grind it in the mixie after it cools down. Serve with idli or dosa. Don't forget to add few drops of Gingelly oil over the chutney when you serve to enjoy the ultimate taste.