Simple and Delicious !

I had posted a ghee rice / neichor recipe before which is the normal method of cooking rice with water in a 1 : 2 proportion. This is the method we usually follow at home, which is the easiest way of cooking rice. I have seen my Thalassery neighbour always cooked ghee rice using the frying method. She fried rice in an immense amount of ghee, before cooking it in hot water. If she makes Biryani, she prepared ghee rice first using the same method and then mixed it with biriyani masala. (See the procedure here) The amount of water used is lesser in this method since we cooked rice once in ghee. I don't know this method is followed in any other place.
Two of my readers had the same doubts, why their ghee rice turns yellow or the rice is so sticky after cooked. A poor quality rice, the excess amount of water, the color and less amount of ghee etc may affect the outcome.



Ingredients
Basmati rice 2 cups
ghee 3 Tbsp
onion 1
cashews and raisins as desired
fennel seeds 1/4 tsp
cardomam 2
cloves 2
cinnamon 1 " piece
water 3 cups(for 1 cup rice 1 1/2 cup water)



How to prepare
Wash and soak rice for half hour in water. Drain it and keep aside.
Boil water with salt and keep it hot.
Heat ghee.Roast cashews and raisins and take out and keep aside. Add fennel seeds and other spices with chopped onion.
When the onion is transparent, add washed and drained rice.Roast rice until it slightly changes color. Add the previously boiled hot salty water into it.
Boil , reduce heat. When the water absorbs and holes appear on top,keep the lid closed and switch off fire. Keep it covered for half hour.
When you serve, slowly separate the rice with a fork or a big spoon without pressing it much.
Garnish with the roasted cashews and raisins.
If your rice is not roasted properly, the amount of water wouldn't be enough for cooking rice completely. If so, add 1/2 cup or more hot water into it and cook for few seconds too. So keep extra hot water aside when you cook.
Keep the lid closed in the whole process. You can open the pan in-between and just stir the rice until you switch off fire.



Ghee rice is usually served with parippu / dal curry, kachambar and thairu / raita..See the dal perparation here.

See neichor with kachambar here.

Pidi / Kunji pathiri are small rice balls that steamed and cooked in the tasty meat, fish or vegetable curry. This is really a delightful dish to take as dinner or evening snack. Pidi has an important role in Malabar cooking since it is their one of the main dishes served for the guests. People from Malabar are well known for their hospitality(ie.salkkaaram). I had few neighbors from Kannur (Cannanore) and Thalassery (Tellichery) side. Every evening , they would bring some delicious snacks for us. I started expecting them knocking my door every day, after a few days I joined with them .. :D
Some times (most of the days) , they shared whatever they cooked for lunch and dinner too, and made me even to think stop cooking.. :) If it is Ramadan month, they prepared various dishes for each day, and dished out to all the neighbors! I felt bad some times, since a person hailing from Central Kerala, our dishes are totally different from theirs, and with a baby (my D was only 1 year old at that time) I couldn't reciprocate the same way they do. But it was also a boon for me, I could learn a little of their cooking methods..
When you make Pidis, make it smaller than this. I have made it little bigger than the original pidis, since I couldn't spend much time for preparing this...


Pidi in mutton gravy..

Kozhippidi/Kunji pathiri Ingredients
Chicken 1/2 kg boneless
onions 3
tomato 2
green chillies 2
garlic paste 1 tsp
ginger paste 1 tsp
garammasla 1 tsp
pepper powder 1 tsp
chilli powder 1 tsp
coriander powder 2 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
coriander leaves few
coconut milk 1 cup thick
shallots / chuvannulli 5
coconutoil
salt

For making pidi
rice powder 2 cups
water 1 cup
small onions 4
cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
fennel seed 1/2 tsp
salt



Method
Make a paste of small onions , cumin seeds and fennel seeds together.
Boil water. Add salt. Pour this to the rice powder and mix well . Add the above paste and knead it to make a dough.
Apply little oil on palms, make small balls from this and press to make like very small pathiris. Steam them for 5 minutes using an Idli vessel or some thing like that.
Keep aside.
Clean and cut chicken into small pieces. Mix it with chopped onion,tomato,green chilly crushed and all the powders and salt. Add little water enough to cook. When it is half cooked add coconut milk and the prepared pidis to it. Cook on a low flame until the chicken is cooked and the gravy is thick. The pidis should be covered with the masalas.Mix with chopped coriander leaves.
Heat coconut oil, roast chopped small onion and pour this to the preparation.

There are some other methods too for making this.The methods varies for different regions. A fried of mine suggested to make like we do for pathiris.(See the procedure for making pathiris here) So in that way we should add rice powder to boiling water with the other ingredients. Make dough like we do for pathiris and make small pidis as I described before. This method is much better since the flour is already cooked in the boiled water, so you can add the pidis directly to the curry with out steaming them. Boil them for a while with curry.

Some makes this by grinding rice, especially people from Kannur District. I really appreciate their enthusiasm for making good , wondrously tasted dishes, but for me everything seemed little lengthy. I hate standing in the kitchen for long, and finishes cooking soon with the already available ingredients only.. :) So if you are interested to follow the proper Malabar recipe for making pidis I will try to mail it for you, Insha Allah..

Update-Vegetarians can use potato and cauliflower instead of chicken.

This is the most easiest break fast dish for me. Mom makes it with different types of curries.
Vegetable, meat, fish, egg - curries and chutney / chammanthi, all are great with this dish. If you like to have a sweet dish, take this with coconut milk and sugar.
Pola / പോള means a very thin sheet. These dosas are very thin and hence the name.


Rice powder pancakes

Ingredients and Method
rice powder roasted 1 cup
egg optional
water
salt


Coconut dosa

Mix everything together. Add enough water to make the batter. Make a buttermilk like thin batter. If you use egg, mix it very well in the batter(I haven't used egg for making dosas in the above picture.) After you prepared three or four dosas, the batter will be thick, so add little water and salt again.Repeat the procedure till finish making it.

Heat a frying pan or a griddle /ദോശക്കല്ല്‌. Dip the part of a tissue or a cloth in little oil or ghee. Wipe the surface of the pan with it. Then pour the batter over this. No need to rotate like other dosas, since the batter is very thin, will spread itself. Cover with a lid. No need to flip over this. When it is cooked , we can take the dosa easily from the griddle.

You can make coconut dosa by adding two or three tablespoons of fresh grated coconut too.


Coconut dosa with fish curry

How to prepare Rice flour / Arippodi
Since a few of you have doubts about what kind of rice flour that we should use for making this dosas, I add a little more information regarding that.
Actually, the rice here is raw rice / pachari. Here, I get it from the shops which is labelled as white rice.For making rice powder at home, wash and soak rice in water for half an hour then drain.Let the water go wholly but before it is completely dried up, powder them using the grinder.
Then dry roast this powder. We do this just to increase the shelf life of the rice flour, since it has water content in it. So after roasting you can keep it long in tightly closed tins. (Still I use the rice flour which I brought from home in August). Don't roast for long , until it changes color. Roast by stirring continuously till you feel the powder is not wet.
After that sieve it. You can use this powder for making dosa / pola or pathiri. For making puttu, no need to sieve powder. For puttu , it is better to use some coarse powder.
If you get ready made rice flour, no need to roast it. They might have done it already. More over, the roasted powder can reduce the cooking time also.(Since it is already cooked). Thats why while making pathiris we wouldn't cook the powder too much in the boiled water.

Ingredients
Bananas (ripe) 3 medium
Coconut grated 3 table spoons
Cashew nuts few
Raisins few
Ghee 2 tsp
Cardamom powder ¼ tsp
Sugar 1 table spoon
Oil for frying

How to prepare
Cook banana in little water or steam cook it. Let it cool. Peel, remove black seeds. Mash it very well .

Heat ghee, fry cashew nuts and raisins. Add coconut, cardamom powder and sugar. Stir for a while. Remove from fire.

Apply little oil on palms. Take a little from the mashed banana and make a ball. Press between palms. Put 2 teaspoons of the above ghee fried preparation in this.(It depends on the amount of banana you take). Close it by joining edges. Roll in the shape of unnakkai with hands. Deep fry in oil. You can fry them after you shaped all the unnaikkais. Don’t choose over ripe bananas for this.

Tharikkanji is also known as Rava paayasam. Some call it as "Thari". Mom would make it everyday till Ramadan ends up. Adding more rava will make this thick. If you find it too thick add little more fresh milk or coconut milk and heat. You can prepare this without adding sugar also.

Ingredients
rava ¼ cup
coconut milk thick 1 cup
coconut milk thin 2 cup
sugar 2 tablespoon or as desired
ghee 2 tsp
cardamom 2
raisins few
cashewnuts few
chopped small onions 2 optional

How to prepare
Dry roast rawa for a while. Mix with thin coconut milk and bring to boil. Add sugar and crushed cardamoms. Stir well .When it turns thick add thick coconut milk. When it begins to boil , remove from fire. Heat ghee, roast raisins and cashew nuts and pour into the kanji. You can use chopped small onions too for seasoning. Take care while cooking rava, don't cook for a long time.

second method
For this chop 2 small onions. Don't add sugar in the tharikkanji. Instead add enough salt. For seasoning, heat ghee, fry small onions and pour this over the kanji.

The name Kaipathiri is because this roti is prepared by hand(Kai).

Ingredients
Rice powder 1 glass
Water 1 glass
Small onion 3 chopped
Coconut grated ½ cup
Cumin seeds ½ tsp
Salt



How to prepare
Boil water with salt, coconut, chopped small onions and cumin seeds. When boils, reduce the flame, slowly put the rice powder into this and stir. Stir well for few seconds. Remove from fire, pour the contents into a saucer. Make dough by kneading it well.

Make balls of big size. Take a banana leaf and place the ball on it. Press with palm(with all fingers) then turn. Repeat this till the pathiri gets enough size. Then place it on a hot griddle / tawa and cook them turning occasionally. Unlike nice pathiris , this might have brown spots and marks, this is thick and tastes good even without curries. When one pathiri is done, soon dip it in coconut milk and transfer into another plate.

See the instructions for making pathiri.

Read about the origin of the word" pathiri".

Jeerakakkanji or Cumin flavoured rice soup/gruel is one of the specialities of Ramadan dishes. On fasting days of Ramadan, Muslims of Kerala take this as their dinner. This is usually taken with some upperi or fish curry.

Ingredients
Cracked rice or podi ari 1 cup
Coconut grated 1 cup
Small onions 5
Cumin seeds / jeera (nalla jeerakam) 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tsp
Salt

For seasoning
Small onions 4
Pure ghee 2 tsp

There are many types of Pathiris, in Muslim Cuisine. Neipathiri, meen pathiri, erachi pathiri, Kaipathiri, kattipathiri , poricha pathiri etc. And this thin pathiri is the most easiest among them. The method of preparation is different for the Muslims in the Thalasseri, Kannur region of Kerala.

Ingredients for making pathiri
Rice powder roasted 1 glass
Water 1 glass
Salt

Rice powder for Pathiri

Boil water. Add enough salt.Slowly add rice powder, stirring continuously.

Dust the board using the same rice powder used for making pathiri dough.

Cut the edges using a round cutter or a lid.You can make it without cutting also. Again use the remaining parts ( that is the parts we got after cutting ) for making dough and pathiris in the end.Just knead it and make dough with wet hands.

Place tawa/griddle/non stick pan on a medium flame. Low flame and extra high flame will not make pathiris good. When the tawa is hot, place the pathiri on it. You can see the steam passes through it within few seconds. Note, it takes only few seconds. Don’t wait for long. Soon turn the pathiri. This time wait a little long, till the ends of pathiri is little crispy or cooked. But be careful, the pathiri shouldn’t be brown.

Less spicy Chicken Curry

Ingredients
Chicken ½ kg
Tomatoes 2 small
Onions 3 medium
Green chilly 1 or 2
Turmeric powder ¼ tea spoon
Coriander powder 4 tea spoons
Pepper corns 1 teaspoon
Garlic cloves 7
Ginger 1 inch piece
Curry leaves few
Coconut milk 1cup thick
Garam masala 1 tea spoon
Small onions 5
Coconut oil 1 table spoon

How to prepare
Wash and clean chicken.

Curries for Pathiri
Fish Curry
Chicken Curry
Mutton Curry
Egg Curry
Green Peas Curry

Read here more about pathiri.

Ghee rice with chicken roast, salad and Kachambar




Ingredients

Basmati rice - 1 cup

Onion(medium) - 1 no

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Cinnamon(Karugapatta) - 1/2" piece

Cloves(Grambu) - 1 no

Cardamom(Elakka) - 1 no

Fennel seeds(Perinjeerakam) - A pinch

Water - 2 cups
Salt - As reqd

How to prepare

1)Soak rice in water for 30 mins.

2)Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed vessel.

3)Add fennel seeds.

4)After a few seconds, add onion and stir, till, it turns transparent.

5)Add cinnamon, cloves and cardamom and stir.

6)Add 2 cups of water.:- For 1 cup of rice, add 2 cups of water.

7)Add enough salt and mix well.

8)Allow it to boil.

9)Add washed rice and let it boil.

10)Cover and cook on a low flame.

11)When there is no water, remove and keep the lid closed, until rice is cooked well.:- Serve with parippu (dal) curry , chicken or mutton curry, pickle and curd.

Kozhi varutharacha curry/ chicken curry in fried coconut gravy with potatoes is the curry usually prepares with Neichor.

How to make Kachambar
Kachambar - Chop 1 medium size onion, tomato and green chilly. Add 1/2 tea spoon chilly powder and 1 table spoon vinegar into it. Add 2 table spoons of water and enough salt. Mix well.