Thanks to all those who participated in the AFAM poll. Sorry dear Lychee haters, but the clear winner is this tropical beauty also known as Litchi. Well, the season is almost over; but sure you can find some canned ones or some Lychee Puree or some Lychee Drink. A variety of Lychee products are available at your local Asian markets.

Think you can’t do much with Lychees? Check out this page: http://www.lycheesonline.com/recipes.cfm , there are about one hundred recipes here, from sweet to savory, from appetizers to main dishes, from desserts to drinks along with some salads and soups and more. There is something for everyone!

© Erick Nguyen - Fotolia.com

A Fruit A Month event started by Maheswari of Beyond the Usual. Thanks Maheswari for giving me the opportunity to host this event.

So, ready to get cookin’? Here is how you participate in AFAM:

1. Prepare a dish with Lychees, Lychee Puree, Lychee Juice or any other Lychee product and post the recipe on your blog in the month of August.

2. Add a link back to this event announcement, and feel free to use this logo:

3. Please send me an e-mail to MailLiveToEat@gmail.com with the following info.

  • Subject Line: AFAM
  • Your name
  • Your blog name
  • A picture of the dish if you have one.

 Or you can just leave a comment in this post with this info, I will come and get the picture.

4. Non bloggers can e-mail me the recipe and the picture and I will include it in the round up.

5. Deadline is August 25th and the round up will be posted before the end of August.

Looking forward to all the delicious entrees.

To get the ball rolling, here is a super simple recipe.

Caramelized Lychees

Ingredients

  • 12 Lychees (Fresh or canned)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • a few spoons of Orange Marmalade

Method

Peel and remove the pit from the Lychees. (I just couldn’t remove the pits from fresh Lychees without tearing the fruits, so I gave up and used canned ones. )

Stuff some orange marmalade inside the lychees where the pit used to be.

In a heavy sauce pan, add sugar and water and bring to a boil on high heat and cook till the sugar dissolves completely.

Pour 1/3rd of the sugar syrup into a small bowl and keep aside.

Add the prepared lychees to the remaining sugar syrup in the pan and stir gently and cook till the sugar is caramelized and turns into deep brown color.

Add the rest of the sugar syrup and stir gently to combine and remove from the stove.

Serve over ice cream.

Recipe adapted from http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_25594,00.html

These were delicious. We had ours with pineapple-coconut ice cream.

Check out my other Lychee recipes:

some more from the net

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43 Comments

A daiquiri [daiki’ɾi] by definition is a mixed drink made with rum and lime juice. This Cuban drink was invented in 1905 and is known as Earnest Hemingway’s favorite drink (Remember what his second favorite drink was?). These days the term daiquiri is being used for a variety of frozen mixed drinks with or without lime juice and rum. Since I have both rum and lime juice in this drink,  guess I can call it a daiquiri without getting the cocktail police all riled up.

 

Ginger- Star Anise Infusion

Ingredients

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 star anise
  • 1 tbsp grated ginger
  • zest of 1 lime

Method

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring occasionally. Cook till the sugar completely dissolves. 

Switch off the stove, cover and let it stand till it completely cools down.

Pass through a fine mesh sieve to strain.  

This can be made ahead and kept in the refrigerator in a covered container for weeks.

Frozen Daiquiri

Ingredients

  • 4 cups watermelon pieces
  • 2 cups pineapple pieces
  • 2 cups ice
  • 2 cups rum
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • ~1/2 cup ginger-star anise infusion (recipe above)

Method

Place the watermelon pieces and pineapple pieces in a plastic container and freeze for at least three hours till completely frozen.

Place the frozen fruits along with the rest of the ingredients in a blender, and process on high speed until the ingredients are combined well.

Adjust the amount of infusion according to your taste.

This goes to Jay and Bee of Jugalbandi for A Fruit A Month (AFAM) event, July’s fruit is Watermelon. AFAM is the brainchild of Maheswari of Beyond the Usual.

AFAM Request

 It is my turn to host A Fruit A Month in August. Help me pick a fruit, caste your vote on the left sidebar.

29 Comments

Chicken Dilruba

Tuesday, July 24th, 2007

Filed Under Chicken, India - Other, Mains, Recipes | 26 Comments

I am ashamed to admit this, but when it comes to the myriad cuisines of India, I am more or less ignorant about most regional flavors other than a few. That is why I love the food event RCI - Regional Cuisines of India, brainchild of Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine. Even though I don’t participate every month, I look forward to the round up to learn more about the cuisine of the month.

This month’s RCI theme is Punjabi cuisine, another great genre that’s never been part of my cooking. I was first introduced to Punjabi cuisine at the Dhabas in Bangalore. Dhabas are small roadside shacks, traditionally built as a late night eatery for interstate truckers. Food is cooked in a small shed, and the restaurant seating consists of wooden benches and cots laid out under the open sky, with a background of Punjabi music blaring through the loudspeakers. Dhabas are supposedly truck stops, but you would find more software engineers than truckers in these dhabas in Bangalore.  We used to frequent the dhabas after midnight - the oily, spicy, heavy dhaba food would just soak up all the alcohol from the bloodstream after a long night at the pub.  Oh those were the days…

When my dear friend Richa of As Dear As Salt announced that she is hosting RCI-Punjab, I knew I will participate for sure, but  had no idea what I’d cook though. So I went on a quest, and stumbled on a dish called Chicken Dilruba. The name made me smile, but I didn’t know what it is supposed to look like or taste like! Almost all the recipes I found were the exact same, so I have no idea where it originally came from. Here is the first place that I found this recipe.   http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/punjab/cuisine-of-punjab-chicken-Dilruba.html 

The recipe called for Punjabi Garam Masala, which I found here: http://www.indiacurry.com/spice/punjabigarammasala.htm

I made my own variations to the recipe, and the end product looked like this, with a little more gravy. Not sure if this is what it is supposed to look like, but it sure tasted great!

 Here is my take on the recipe

Punjabi Garam Masala

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp Cardamom seeds
  • 1 tbsp broken pieces of Cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp cloves
  • a pinch of ground nutmeg
  • 3/4 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tbsp black peppercorns

Method

Coarsely grind the above ingredients in a dry spice grinder or coffee grinder, or pound in a mortar and pestle

Chicken Dilruba

Ingredients

  • 2.5 lbs medium chicken pieces skin removed
  • 1 cup plain yogurt
  • To Grind
    • 1.5 cups cut onion pieces
    • 2 tbsp fresh chopped ginger pieces
  • 1.5 tbsp Punjabi Garam Masala (Recipe above)
  • 1 cup milk
  • To Powder
    • 1/4 cup cashew nuts 
    • 1/4 cup almonds
  • 2 tbsp chopped Serrano peppers
  • 1 tbsp red chilli powder (substitute ground cayenne)
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 4 tbsp oil
  • Salt to taste
  • A few strands of saffron
  • 2-3 tbsp milk
  • To garnish
    • 1 tbsp Fresh cilantro
    • 1 tsp cashews/almonds

Method

Grind the onions and ginger in a food processor to form a smooth paste.

Powder the almonds and cashew nuts and stir into the cup of milk and keep aside.

Soak the saffron strands in 2-3 tbsps milk and keep aside.

Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the onion-ginger paste till all the water is gone, and the mixture starts to brown.

Add the chicken pieces and yogurt and mix well. Cook on medium high until all the liquid is gone and the chicken pieces starts to brown.

Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, chopped pepper, salt and garam masala and stir well to combine. Fry for a minute and add the powdered nuts and milk mixture.

Cook over medium heat until the chicken pieces are tender and the sauce is thickened.

Add the soaked saffron along with the milk, and cook for 2-3 minutes more.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and nuts.

Serve hot with chapattis or rice.

This goes to dear Richa for RCI-Punjab.

AFAM Request

 It is my turn to host A Fruit A Month in August.  I’ve shortlisted to  Lychees (In season right now),  Papaya(always a favorite) and Grapes (Boring, but common and easy).
Help me pick one, caste your vote on the left sidebar. Let democracy rule! :)

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26 Comments

Oh, another childhood favorite - Nellikka or Amla or Indian Gooseberry. We used to have fresh gooseberries with all its bitterness, just to enjoy the sweet reward at the end; a drink of water after a bite of gooseberry, and voilà, the water tastes sweet! This was something magical for us kids. Coming to think of it, I still don’t know the reason behind this phenomenon! Yes, it is still magical.

I picked up some frozen gooseberries from a local Indian store a few weeks ago and as with most of my purchases, duly forgot about it. That’s when I came across this post at Delectable Victuals, one of my favorite blogs with wonderful pictures and excellent writing by one of my favorite bloggers, Sheela. Well, my gooseberries didn’t look anything like Sheela’s picture, these were frozen and kind of yellowish in color. My mom assured me that not all gooseberries are green, and these are perfectly good, so I proceeded to make a Nellikka Pickle, loosely based on Sheela’s recipe with a lot of input from my mom.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 lb gooseberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 1 tbsp thinly sliced ginger pieces
  • 1 tbsp thinly sliced garlic pieces
  • a few curry leaves
  • 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
  • a pinch of brown sugar
  • salt to taste
  • 1 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 cup boiled water
  • 2 tbsp vinegar
  • 4-6 tbsp oil

Method

In a pan, heat oil and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds begin to splutter, add the fenugreek seeds and fry till brown.

Add curry leaves, ginger and garlic pieces and fry till the pieces are crispy.

Reduce the heat and add the spice powders and fry till brown.

Add the gooseberries, salt and sugar and saute till the gooseberries are soft.

Add the vinegar and hot water and cook a bit.

When cool, transfer to an airtight container and leave it for about seven days before transferring to the refrigerator.

My first attempt at making pickles. Only problem with making pickles is having to wait for a while before reaping the rewards - I am all about instant gratification. But this looks like it is worth the effort. 

This goes to beautiful, gorgeous, funny, magnanimous Coffee for her Monthly Blog Patrol - Preserve It event. I hope all those adjectives will make her forget that my entry is one day late. 

26 Comments

What makes a perfect couple? Together they bring out the best in each other…

He is bitter and not so smooth when it comes to looks.. She is smelly and shrinking with age… But put them together, it is a match made in heaven…

You suddenly start liking his bitterness, when it is perfectly paired with her oh so slightly salty crunchiness… Dress them up in some spices and the looks won’t matter anymore either…

Yes, they are truly made for each other… Bitter gourd and dried shrimp!

If you don’t believe me, you simply must try this dish…

Ingredients

  • Bitter gourd pieces thinly sliced - 2 cups
  • Dried shrimp - 3/4 cup
  • Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
  • Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
  • Coriander powder - 3/4 tsp
  • Black pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
  • Oil - 2 tbsp
  • Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
  • Salt to taste
  • Sliced green chilli peppers- 3
  • Thinly sliced ginger pieces - 2 tsp
  • Thinly sliced garlic pieces - 1/2 tsp
  • Thinly sliced onions - 1 cup
  • A few curry leaves
  • Fish Tamarind (Kudampuli) - 1 small piece

Method

  • Add the shrimp, fish tamarind, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, salt and 1/4 cup water to a pan and cook till soft. Discard the fish tamarind, drain the shrimp and save the gravy.
  • In a frying pan, heat the oil and splutter the mustard seeds. Add the onions, green chilli slices, ginger, garlic and curry leaves and saute till soft.
  • Add the bitter gourd pieces to the pan and fry for a minute. Add the gravy from the shrimp and cook till the bitter gourd pieces are soft and the water is almost gone.
  • Add the cooked shrimp and black pepper powder to the pan and saute till completely dry.
  • Serve hot with rice.

Still think the pair is lacking a bit of flair? May be it is a threesome that will get these two going, yep, throw a pretty young thing like coconut into the mix. Simply add some sauteed sliced young coconut pieces along with the cooked shrimp to the last step, and there you have it - an explosion of sensual flavors in your mouth!

Work has been pretty hectic lately, with our code complete date coming up in less than a month! That is my excuse for being MIA from the food blogging community.  I will be coming by to check out all the delicious posts I’ve missed, and hopefully will get to participate in some of my favorite blog evens too…

29 Comments

Date and Pecan Pudding

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

Filed Under Dates, Desserts, Misc, Nuts, Recipes | 44 Comments

A couple of months ago I picked up some (read, a lot) dates just because it was on sale! Normally this is okay, our fridge is usually empty save for a bunch of fruits, some dried out vegetables and some take-out food containers, usually way past the expiration dates. So cleaning out the fridge used to be pretty much about throwing stuff out. But these days it is a different story. The real-estate inside the refrigerator is prime- the crispers are full of veggies, the meat/seafood tray is always packed, the doors are filled with different types of pickles, juices, water bottles etc. And the rest of the fridge is occupied with left overs, different varieties none more than two days old. It is a lived-in kitchen now, with all the mom’s cooking that’s been going on. So these dates which I planted in the fridge, just because that is the only place where I could find stuff a month ago, were taking up some coveted real estate. We have been trying to eat as much as we could, but the last two cups had to come out this Sunday after another farmer’s market run. I had to get rid of these, and the only way I could think of was to make a dessert out of it.

So here is a simple date pudding recipe, the simplest it can get. No, this is not even closely related to the traditional Date Pudding- the Sticky Date Pudding. This is totally my own experiment that turned out great, and I couldn’t think of another name for it!

 

Ingredients

(Makes about 6 servings)

  • 2 cups pitted dates (Medjool, other varieties should work too)
  • 1 cup pecans (whole or pieces)
  • 4 cups non-fat milk
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • a pinch cardamom powder
  • 3 tbsp orange juice
  • 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin powder

Method

  • Sprinkle gelatin over 3 tbsp orange juice and let it stand for a few minutes without stirring. This will soften the gelatin.
  • In a large saucepan, mix the milk, sugar, dates and pecans and bring to a boil. Cook on medium-low heat for about 30 minutes till the dates and pecans are soft. Add the cardamom powder and stir well.
  • Remove from heat, and use a hand blender to process the ingredients till smooth. 
  • Add the softened gelatin and mix well till the gelatin is completely absorbed.
  • Transfer to pudding cups and chill for at least three hours till set.
  • Garnish with chopped dates and nuts.

Isn’t that simple? With non-fat milk and just 2 tbsp sugar, it is a relatively guilt free dessert too. There is a lot of fiber in this as well, this was purely by accident though. I didn’t bother to skin the dates beforehand (I am not even sure if I could, since it will be a pretty cumbersome process to sit and skin all these dates!). I was hoping I would just strain the mixture afterwards, but of course Science got in the way and that didn’t work out quite the way I expected. But that was no big deal, it had a rustic texture due to the ground date skins, but still smooth enough and quite pudding-y.

44 Comments

Regular readers here will know that I am not a big vegetable fan. But now with my parents in town, every meal must accompany a veg dish, normally in the form of thorans (a stir fry with coconut and basic seasonings) or mezhukku purattis (a simple stir fry with seasonings).  My mom goes nuts with all the new leaves and veggies she finds in the Asian grocery stores here. I never get time to click though, but this purple cabbage thoran caught my attention, just because of the color of the dish. I normally ignore these in the veggie isle, so it is the first time that I have seen these cooked.

Here is some info I found on the web on purple cabbages.

  • Red and purple cabbages take longer to mature, so these types are generally not as tender as green or white varieties.
  • When cooking with red or purple cabbage, be aware that the compound (anthocyanin) that gives the cabbage that beautiful color will also turn it blue when it is cooked along with any alkaline substance. Since tap water is often full of alkaline minerals such as lime, be sure to add about 1 teaspoon of acidic agent, such as lemon juice, vinegar, or wine, to the pot when using tap water. If your red cabbage begins to take on that blue tinge in any recipe, the addition of the acidic agent will usually bring back the original color.
    (source: http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/cabbagevariety.htm)
  • Purple cabbage can be used to make a pH indicator!!!

Well, it tasted pretty much the same as regular green cabbage to me! But the color sure made it special.

Ingredients

  • Oil - 1 tbsp
  • Mustard seeds -  1/8 tsp
  • Rice - 1tsp
  • Urad dal - 1 tsp
  • Dry red chilies - 2
  • Thinly sliced shallots - 1 tbsp
  • Curry leaves
  • Purple cabbage shredded - 3 cups
  • Thinly sliced onions - 1 cup
  • Green chilli peppers (small variety) - 4
  • Ginger thinly sliced pieces 1 tsp
  • Shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
  • Salt to taste

Method

Heat oil in a frying pan and add the mustard seeds. When the seeds splutter add rice and daal and fry till brown. Add dry red chilies, shallots and curry leaves and fry for a minute or so.

Add the cabbage, onions, ginger pieces, green chilies, coconut and salt and mix well.

Cover and cook on medium low heat till soft. No need to add water, there will be enough water from the cabbage.

Uncover and cook on medium high heat and stir fry till completely dry.  

32 Comments

We are back from our marathon sight seeing trip. Now I really need a vacation!  It was scorching hot in San Diego and Disneyland, but that felt like North Pole after we got to Las Vegas - 115 degrees! Wow, it was unbearable, even for my parents. Who knew that coming from India, heat is ever going to be a problem!! It really felt like a furnace, we had to get up at 3:00 am to drive to Grand Canyon. In Vegas, we spent the whole time inside casinos, not that I am complaining really :). Anyway the first breath of cool air when we got out of the flight in Seattle was like a piece of paradise. I am never ever cribbing about the Seattle weather again!

Thanks for all your lovely comments and the clever guesses for my last post. Two anonymous readers got it right. It was Beef Jerky and the recipe is from My Treasure My Pleasure. Thanks Annita for the delicious tip! So if you are the anonymous reader who got it right, come forth and claim your prize! Well, there really is no prize other than a pat on the back… :)

With that, I am getting into the recipe of the day. Yes, it is another fish curry recipe, courtesy of my mom. What can I say, we mallus eat a lot of fish. This is the more traditional red fish curry from Kerala, it is called mulaku charu which translates to chilli gravy :). This is one spicy hot curry, and the regular version my mom makes really burns your tongue. She reduced the spice level a notch or two to adjust for our weakened taste buds.  

 

Ingredients

  • Trout Filets - 2 lb
  • Red chilli powder  - 2.5 tbsp
  • Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
  • Onions thinly sliced - 1/2 tbsp
  • Ginger thinly sliced pieces - 1 tsp
  • Garlic thinly sliced pieces - 1/2 tsp
  • Salt - to taste
  • Fish tamarind (Kudampuli) - 4-5 pieces or to taste
  • Oil - 1.5 tsp
  • For the seasoning
    • Oil - 1 tsp
    • Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
    • Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
    • Shallots thinly sliced - 1 tsp
    • Curry leaves - a few

Method

Cut the fish filets to pieces of desired size.

Soak the fish tamarind in a cup of water and keep aside.

Heat oil in a deep pan, and fry the onions till translucent. Add ginger and garlic and saute till soft.

Mix the red chilli powder and turmeric powder with a few drops of water to make a paste. Add the spice paste to the pan and fry on low heat till the oil separates.

Add salt and the soaked fish tamarind pieces along with the water + one more cup of water and bring to a boil.

Add fish pieces and cook on medium heat till the fish is cooked. Increase the heat and reduce the gravy if needed.

Heat oil in a small frying pan and add the fenugreek seeds and fry till brown. Now add the mustard seeds and when the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the shallots and curry leaves and fry till brown. Pour this over the prepared fish curry.

Serve with rice.

This curry tastes best the next day.

19 Comments