Kinnathappam – A pick from my mom’s best recipes

Being my first post after a break due to my dear Mom’s demise, i thought of publishing a dish that i learnt from my late mom.  Lot of memories about mom lingers on my mind while writing her recipe for “Kinnathappam“…….

Kinnathappam is our famous traditional sweet and it’s a must on Eid and all other occasions in our house. It’s again a tamil / mallu duo cuisine… Kinnathappam, which can be translated to english as ‘kinnam’ which means ‘plate’ and ‘appam’ means ‘cake’. This traditional dessert still exist even after the advent of other fancy desserts and this has to be made with utmost care and attention to achieve the perfect taste and look.

While making this, I felt my mom’s presence all the time and was missing her a lot.. Her tasty kinnathappam cannot beat anyone’s how much ever the effort is…and may her triumph as the queen of our house remain forever and may her soul rest in peace………

Ingredients:

• Raw Rice – 1cup, soaked in water for 3-4 hrs (You may also use a combination of Idli Rice and Raw Rice)
• Egg-1 or 2
• Sugar- 1/2cup – 1 cups( depends on your taste)
• Coconut milk, from fresh grated coconut -1 3/4 cups
• Cumins seeds – lil
• Cardamom whole – 2
• Ghee- 1-2 tbsp

Preparation:

• Soak 1 cup of rice in water overnight.
• Strain the soaked rice and grind it very smooth.
• Beat egg well and gradually mix in sugar and beat well.
• Add in the coconut milk and beat well.
• Finally add the grinded batter to the egg mixture and beat it.
• Strain this batter through a muslin cloth or a strainer with tiny holes. This would help to remove any coarse particles in the batter.
• Add Cardamom powder and cumin seeds to the batter.
• The batter constituency should not be too thick or too watery; it should have in between constituency.
• If you feel that the batter is thick, use more of the thin coconut milk or water to thin it down.
• Grease the stainless steel or cake pan with ghee.
• Pour the batter on to a stainless steel plate which usually comes with the steamer or a cake pan would work.
• Steam cook it for 15-20 minutes in medium heat, until a fork inserted into it comes out clean.

This can be served either cold or warm.

This is my entry for

Elay Appam

Presenting an interesting dish from our traditional Mallu / Kaniyakumari duo cuisine..  Elay appam …  a fine delicacy providing a pleasingly light suggestion of sweet… The core of this snack is prepared by combining coconut with jaggery and other aromatic spices. This mixture is then filled into flour breads and steamed. It’s a much adored food item of the region. The Elay Appam in the pics below was made by my SIL.

Ingredients

• Roasted Rice Flour-1 cup
• Moong Dal – 1 cup (slightly roasted)
• Grated coconut-1/2 cup
• Cardamom – 3 (ground to powder)
• Sugar or jaggery – depends on level of sweetness you need
• Banana-1 (optional)
• Salt – to taste
• Oil or ghee -1 tbsp
• Banana leaves

Method

Heat water. When it boils, lower the flame and add the oil, salt and the rice flour and mix to a fine paste without forming lumps. Remove from fire and divide into 8 or 10 portions. Make balls and keep aside.

Boil moong dal in water with a ratio of 1:2 (sometimes 1:2.5) and keep aside.

Mix the coconut, jaggery, cardomam powder and Mix in the cooked moong dal and Divide this into the same number of portions as the number of rice flour balls.

On a piece of plantain leaf, place the prepared rice ball. Flatten it with the palm as thin as you can. Now place one portion of the coconut mixture in the centre of it and spread.

Jaggery mixture on the pressed flour

Fold it and press only ends, along the edge of the folded appam.

Steamed Elayappam inside the banana leaf

Repeat till all the mixture and rice balls are used up. Steam these appams in a steam cooker for 20 mts.

Note:
Smear a little oil on your fingers as you spread the dough on the leaf.

Theeyal – Another traditional dish

Theeyal is a our traditional dish and it is very delicious with rice.  This name comes because it’s a ‘burnt dish’ featuring burnt coconut and is usually dark brown in color. It gets its color from browning of coconut and also from another ingredients. This recipe can be made with vegetables like drumstick, snake gourd, egg plant or pumpkin. It can be simply made by using only the baby onions too.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Baby onions
• 5 Curry leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon Mustard seeds
• 2 tablespoons Tamarind paste
• 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
• 1 Pinch Asafoetida
• 1/2 cup Grated coconut
• 7 Red chillies
• 1 tablespoon Coriander seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon Cumin seeds
• 7 Black peppercorns
• 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric powder
• 3 tablespoons Oil
• Salt

Method:

* Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a small pan and saute coconut till it is light brown.
* Add 5 red chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns and fry till it emits an aroma.
* Add the turmeric powder. Stir-fry for 2-3 seconds.
* Keep aside to cool. Grind into a coarse powder.
* Heat 2 tbsp. oil and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and remaining red chillies.
* When the seeds start spluttering, add asafoetida and onions.
* Saute for 5 minutes on a medium flame. Add any vegetables that you like (Optional).
* Add the ground masala powder and cook till all the veggies are cooked.
* Add water, tamarind extract, salt and sugar and bring to a boil.
* Simmer for 5-7 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Fish Curry with Coconut

This is one of our traditional way of cooking fish with grinded raw coconut and it’s often called “Pachai Thengai Curry”. Since Kaniyakumari district is located in the border of kerala (South India), you will find that most of their cooking style is similar to kerala cuisine….

Coconut and Kerala goes hand in hand and Coconuts are used extensively in the delicious cuisine of this state. Mallus eat a lot of fish and so are the kaniyakumari dist people… this is one of our fish preparation where the spices are grounded with fresh coconut & cooked with fish and seasoned with curry leaves.  If prepared in coconut oil, it gives a nice flavor and aroma..

Ingredients:

• Raw mango – 1 (large sized, sliced into pieces)
• Green chillies – 4, medium sized, slit
• Salt as per taste
• Fish – 500 gms, cut into big pieces

Grind into a smooth paste:

• Tamarind – 1 (marble sized)
• Onion- 1 , chopped
• Chilli powder – 1-2 tsp
• Coconut – 1 cupTurmeric powder – ½ tsp

For seasoning

• Aniseeds – 1 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds
• Curry leaves
• Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Grind the ingredients mentioned under grinding into a smooth paste. Add the slit green chilies to it. In a pan, season oil with the seeds. Put in the cleaned curry leaves. Add the grounded mixture and allow it to boil for sometime. Add the fish pieces, salt and cook till it’s done….In 10 mts flat, this simple fish curry will be ready and you can serve it hot with rice. Raw mango/drumsticks can be added to this curry according to one’s preference..

Orotti

Orotti falls under our traditional recipes. It’s a variety of thick roti made using rice flour and grated coconut. Its famous in Kerala too. Orotti is almost similar to Pathiri which is a famous dish in northern part of kerala. Orotti is a filling dish for breakfast /dinner.

Ideal combination for Oratti is spicy mutton / beef / curry but it also goes well with mutta curry and paruppu. Applying freshly prepared coconut milk on Oratti before eating enhances its taste.

Ingredients :-

Rice Flour (Powdered) (Roasted puttu powder from market can be used) – 2 cups
Grated coconut – 3/4 cup
Water – 3 cups
Ghee or Oil – for greasing the pan.

Method:-

Boil water in a pan, adding required amount of salt into it. Add the coconut to the water while boiled. Once boiled, Switch off the stove and immediately put the rice flour in the boiled water slowly, stirring in between, until it is ready to make into smooth dough. Allow it to cool for a while. When it is half cooled, knead it with your hands into smooth dough. Make the dough into 4-5 equal sized balls.

Waiting to add rice powder to the boiling water

When little cooled mix the batter with hands dipped in cold water

On Griddle

Heat the griddle and apply little oil onto it. Take a ball and shape it into a roti on a roti presser and transfer it into a greased griddle. Cook for about 1 minute on high heat, and then simmer it for 3-4 minutes. Now turn the roti, and cook the other side the same way.

Ghee Rice – Neyy Choru / Bagara Khane

Ghee Rice or NeyChoru is rice fried in ghee along with aromatic spices and then cooked to perfection. It is finally seasoned with Fried onions, Cashews and Raisins.  Neyy Choru is our traditional food (from Kaniyakumari District) served on special occasions. It is usually served with spicy Chicken and Mutton gravies.

Next to Briyani, this rice has the top priority in our customs. We make this dish mostly on the weekends.  The aroma of this dish while cooking will trigger everyone’s hunger and will attract them to the table on time.

Ingredients

Biriyani rice – 2 cups
Ghee – 5 to 6 tsp
Cashew nuts – ½ cup
Clove – 4 to 5 pieces
Crushed peppercorns – 4 to 5 no.
Raisins – ¼ cup
Crushed ginger – 1 tsp
Crushed garlic – 1 tsp
Lime juice
Onions (sliced) – 2 no.
Bay leaf – 2 no.
Cardamom – 4 no.
Cinnamon – 2 sticks
Chopped coriander leaves – ¼ cup
Salt – to taste
Water – 4 cups

Ghee rice served with mutton curry and raita

Method of preparation

Wash and drain the rice and keep it aside.  Heat three teaspoons of ghee in a pan. To this, add cashew nuts and stir, till it becomes brown. Remove the cashew nuts. Repeat the procedure with raisins.

Take some more ghee and heat in a big vessel. Put cloves, followed by cinnamon, cardamom, crushed pepper, and ginger-garlic paste. Stir well. To this, add pieces of big onion and stir a bit. Now add coriander leaves and stir again. Add some split pieces of bay leaf. When everything is cooked, add water (2 cups of water for 1 cup rice) and cook till the water comes to the boiling stage. Add rice and lemon juice and Stir gently and close the vessel. Cook for five minutes or till done. You may add little saunf powder if your want.

Garnish with cashew nuts, raisins, fried onions (optional) and serve the ghee rice hot. I like it with our spicy traditional mutton curry.