Mutton Biryani

Recipe#13

Ingredients:

1. Basmati rice - 3 cups
2. Water - 12 cups
3. Salt to taste
4. Ghee - 1/2 cup
5. Onion sliced - 1/4 cup
6. Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup
7. Raisins - 1/4 cup
8. Mutton Kurma - 1 recipe

Method:

1. Boil water with salt
2. Add washed rice and cook till almost done
3. Switch off the stove and remove the extra water from rice
4. Heat ghee in a pan and fry onion  cashews and raisins and keep aside
5. Layer rice, mutton kurma and above fried items, close it with lid/aluminium foil and bake for 40 minutes at 350F Deg heat.

Mutton Kurma

Recipe#12 Mutton Kurma from Mrs.K.M.Mathews cookbook. A rich tasty Mutton Kurma which is sure to please your family and friends for any occasion.

Ingredients:

1. Mutton, cut into medium size pieces - 1 Kg
2. Hot water - 1 cup
3. Cinnamon - 2 inch piece
4. Cloves - 1 tsp
5. Cardamom - 1 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Oil - 1/2 cup
8. Onion sliced - 3 medium
9. Ghee/Clarified butter - 1 cup
10. Garlic paste - 2 tbs
11. Ginger paste - 2 tbs
12. Coriander powder - 1 tsp
13. Chilli powder - 1 tsp
14. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
15. Aniseed - 2 tsp
16. Tomatoes, chopped - 2 medium
17. Curd - 1 cup
18. Coriander leaves, chopped - 1 cup
19. Green chilli, slit - 4
20. Cashewnuts - 1/4 cup
21. Coconut shredded - 1/2 cup
22. Lime juice - to taste

Method:

1. Trim the excess fat from mutton pieces and wash well
2. Cook mutton with ingredients from 2 to 6 in a pressure cooker. It took me 3-4 whistles to cook young mutton
3. The stock must be reduced to 1 cup.Remove from heat and keep aside. 
4. Heat oil in a pan and fry onion till golden brown and keep it aside
5. Grind ingredients from 12 to 15
6. Heat ghee in a pan and fry Ginger garlic paste till the raw smell goes
7. Then add ground masala to it and fry for a minute
8. Add tomatoes and cook it till tomatoes can be mashed
9. Add whisked curd, green chillis, fried onion, coriander leaves and mix well
10. Add cooked mutton with the stock
11. Mix well and allow to cook for 10 minutes
12. Grind soaked cashew nuts and coconut to a smooth paste
13. Add it to the curry and mix well.
14. Add lime juice and salt to taste and remove from flame

Note:

• I reduced the amount of ghee to 1/4 cup instead of 1 cup and used the left over oil from fried onion. Still it is a very oily Kurma :) But it tastes yummy

Serve hot with porotta,  chapathis or ghee rice

Spinach cutlet

This is an interesting spinach cutlet with coconut chutney stuffing from Mrs.K.M.Mathews cook book.

Recipe#11

Ingredients:

1. Spinach, chopped - 2 cups
2. Potato, boiled and mashed - 1/2 cup
3. Oil - 2 tbs + for frying
4. Onion, chopped - 1/4 cup
5. Green Chilli, chopped - 1 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Coconut, shredded - 1/2 cup
8. Green chilli - 1
9. Shallot - 1
10. Ginger, chopped - 1/2 tsp
11. Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
12. Besan/Chickpea flour - 3 tbs
13. Bread crumbs - 1 cup

Method:

1. Heat 2 tbs oil in a pan
2. Saute onion and chopped green chilli in it
3. Add spinach and saute it
4. Add mashed potato and salt 
5. Mix it well and keep aside
6. Grind coconut, green chilli, ginger, shallot, tamarind and salt to make coarse mixture
7. Make balls out of spinach-potato mixture
8. Flatten it using your palm
9. Place a tsp of coconut chutney in the center
10. Fold the cutlet from three sides to close the filling completely and form a triangle shape
11. Make a thick batter of besan with water
12. Dip the cutlet in besan batter and then in bread crumbs to get uniform coating
13. Fry it in hot oil, 3-4 minutes on each side.

Serve the cutlet warm!

Khus Khus Payasam / Poppy seeds pudding

Wishing a very Happy Onam to all my readers..
Here goes my special recipe for this Onam... Khus khus payasam.. Give it a try and you are sure to enjoy the outcome!

Ingredients:

1. Poppy seeds/Khus khus - 3 tbs
2. Basmati/Soon masoori rice - 3 tbs
3. Cashew nuts - 3 tbs + 1 tbs
4. Cardamom - 2
5. Milk - 1.25 ltr
6. Sugar - 1 cup
7. Saffron - 1/4 tsp
8. Ghee - 1 tbs
9. Raisins - 1 tbs

Method:

1. Dry roast poppy seeds, rice and cardamom in medium heat.
2. Before the poppy seeds color change take the mixture off from stove and grind it along with cashew nuts(mixture need not be very fine)
3. In a thick bottomed pan, mix the above mixture and half of the milk
4. Heat the pan and cook the mixture in medium flame
5. When the mixture starts to boil, add rest of the milk and saffron to it
6. Stir the payasm in between so that it doesn't get burned at the bottom and sides
7. As payasam starts to thicken, stir it in every 1-2 minutes
8. When payasam reaches required consistency, switch off the flame and stir it continuously for some time, about 5 minutes
9. Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashew nuts and then raisins in it and add it to payasam.

Note:

• It took me around 45-50 minutes to cook payasam and reach the thick payasam consisitency
• Never leave payasam unattended

Lemon Semiya Sadam

Recipe#10 in Mrs.K.M.Mathews recipe series..

Ingredients:

1. Vermicelli/Semiya, very thin variety - 3 cups
2. Lime/Lemon juice - 1 tbs
3. Kayam/Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
4. Sugar - 1/4 tsp
5. Salt to taste
6. Oil - 3 tbs
7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
9. Dry red chilli, cut - 2
10. Cashew nuts, chopped - 2 tbs
11. Raisins - 1 tbs
12. Green chilli, chopped - 1 tsp
13. Onion, chopped - 1/4 cup
14. Carrot, chopped - 1/4 cup
15. Cabbage chopped - 1/4 cup
16. Butter - 1/2 tsp
17. Coriander leaves, chopped - 1/4 cup

Method:

1. Roast semiya in a pan taking care not to change its color to brown
2. Cook semiya in hot water with salt 
3. Drain the semiya and add lime juice, asafoetida, sugar and salt to it and mix it.Take care not to mash the semiya
4. Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds
5. Add turmeric powder, dry red chilli, cashew nuts, raisins, onion and green chilli and saute it
6. Add carrot and cabbage and stir fry it
7. Add salt as per your taste
8. Add semiya to the above before the fresh color changes for carrot and cabbage
9. Mix all well and add butter to it
10. Top it with coriander leaves and switch off the flame

Note:

Cooked basmati rice can be used instead of semiya