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.

Pazham nirachathu / Banana stuffed with a sweet mixture of coconut,egg and sugar is another Malabar dish, usually served during iftar (nombu thurakkal / breaking time of Ramadan fasting) or for guests. Preparing this dish was a challenge for me all the time. Making slits on the banana (4 or 2 ) without cutting the ends , stuffing them and deep frying the whole banana in oil was little bit difficult. I always ended up, making only 1 or 2 slits(it is enough ) and shallow fried.. :)



Pazham nirachathu / Stuffed bananas Ingredients
Bananas ripe 2
egg 1
cashew nuts few
raisins few
coconut grated 1 Tbsp
sugar 1 Tbsp
maida 2 Tbsps
cardomam powder 1 pinch optional
water

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.