Spicy Baby Back Ribs

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Filed Under Good with Drinks, India - Kerala, Pork | 25 Comments

In my last post, I didn’t mean to convey that I hate cooking. I just meant that it is the outcome that I enjoy more than the process. When it comes to cooking, the benefits outweigh the effort normally. That is the reason I cook certain dishes and would never even attempt certain others. I know I will never be able to bake a cake as tasty or as beautiful as our neighborhood baker. Even if I do it will […]

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I can’t believe I still haven’t blogged about one of the most famous non-vegetarian preparations from Kerala, the good old beef fry! Succulent beef pieces cooked in freshly ground spices and sauteed dry with onions and coconut slices, this is one of those famous Thattukada dishes.
Thattukada is Kerala’s version of a fast food joint. While the beef fry is not fast food, the fact that time works in favor of the flavors in this dish and it actually tastes better […]

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I know, I made this big announcement about eating healthier this year… Well, we are still sticking to it for the most part, especially during the weekdays. But over the last weekend, I slipped… I was in Uwajimaya (our local Asian grocery store), and I was looking for some lean chicken, when I saw this packet of pork belly sitting there. If you are familiar with different cuts of pork, you will know that most cuts you get here […]

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Let me come out and say it, I am the worst packer in the world! Packing light is not a concept I am familiar with. Normally for each day of the vacation, I pack 2-3 outfits - An outfit for the day time activities, a dress for the fancy dinner, and a backup just in case I don’t feel like wearing outfit #1. Then I throw in a few extra ones at the end, in case my size goes up […]

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I am one of those people who love the bone better than the meat. I actually eat the entire bone, especially soft bones like chicken.  With tougher bones like lamb/goat, I can chew on a piece of bone for hours on end, and have been compared to a dog on many occasions. Siv loves bones too, but he knows how much I love those, so he always leaves his bones for me to work on, isn’t that romantic?  When we eat at fancy […]

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I know, I have way too many chicken recipes! I haven’t even published half of my different chicken dishes here. Most of my Indian chicken recipes call for very similar set of ingredients, but the ratio of ingredients, and the cooking method itself finally make these all unique dishes with their own unique identity. That is the beauty of Indian cooking I guess!
This chicken dish is special, because the chicken is first cooked in a gravy which is thickened down, […]

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Yep, my Kerala recipes are still coming. I want to blog these mainly for my own future reference. All these dishes are completely mom-made, just writing these down will save me some dollars in phone bills in the future.
I had written about another pork dish a while ago, which needed a cut with a little fat on it, preferably pork belly. But for this dish, you could use a lean cut of the meat. This recipe works very well for beef […]

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This is the first critically acclaimed dish that I’ve ever cooked. Long time ago, when I was still an amateur cook (ahem… you start a food blog, and immediately you are known as an expert, in my circle at least ) I used to make this dish for all my parties, just because this was the only dish I knew how to cook in bulk!
The best compliment I got on this recipe was when someone asked me a long […]

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I first had these at a local Mexican restaurant years ago, and it was love at first bite. From then on, whenever I am at a Mexican restaurant, I order these without fail if they have it on the menu; most places do. These spicy little things go so well with ice cold margaritas.
These also make a regular appearance in all my barbecue parties, being a no-fail recipe. There is no way you can go wrong with a recipe so simple! […]

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One of my favorite fish preparations from back home is Karimeen Pollichathu- Karimeen (Pearl Spot, a type of fish found in the back waters of Kerala) along with spices wrapped in Banana leaves and baked to perfection. The best authentic form of Karimeen Pollichathu is available at the Toddy Shops in central Kerala. Yes, my parents used to take us to Toddy shops, but not the kind that you are thinking of (if you have ever heard about the streetside kallu shaapu in Kerala) ! No, […]

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Chettinad cuisine is originated in the southern parts of Tamil Nadu state comprising of Madurai, Tirunelveli and Karaikudi regions. This cuisine is well known for its hot and spicy, aromatic non vegetarian dishes like Chicken Chettinad, Pepper Chicken, Fish Varuval etc. Chettinad cuisine is so different from the traditional healthy vegetarian cuisine of the Tamil Brahmins, but when I think of Tamil cuisine, the first word that comes to my mind is Chettinad - just my type of dishes! 
When I mentioned to […]

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Grilling lamb chops is very easy; make a nice marinade, marinate the meat for a few hours, fire up the grill, place the marinated chops, cook one side, turn once, cook the other side, let it rest for a while and delicious lamb chops are ready to serve!  Making an Indian style lamb chops is much more work, since the whole cooking process is done stovetop, and there are several steps to the process. But the end result is so different from […]

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Chicken Lollypop is one dish that I miss greatly from the Indo-Chinese restaurants back in India. I’ve been to a bunch of Indo-chinese restaurants around here in US and Canada, but none of them served this wonderful dish!!! Recently I went to a Latin-Asian fusion restaurant and ordered Chicken Lollypops and was very disappointed, when it turned out to be a totally different dish.
So this Friday night, when we wanted to chill at home instead of eating out, […]

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I have been reading a whole lot of food blogs this evening… Wow, there are some great pictures and great recipes out there, and there is the big network of food bloggers I had no idea existed… Just reading these bogs are great motivation to cook… I haven’t cooked since Sunday night, but I did remember to take pictures of the chicken dish I made for the Potluck on Sunday.I never really follow a recipe to the word, I don’t […]

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We bought a lot of fresh goat from the Indian halal meat store on Friday, I was supposed to make goat curry for a potluck on Saturday, but my friend’s son got sick and the potluck got cancelled. So we decided to just make some goat dish and have cocktails and lay low at home watching a pay-per-view movie friday night, since we have about 5 lbs of fresh goat meat to burn through over the weekend; I hate freezing […]

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