NAADAN KOZHI PIRALEN

I've been busy as a bee for the past couple weeks with all the get togethers that we've been hosting. Now that we are done with all of it, I feel like I have all the time in the World! So naturally,my first thing to do would be to come here and take a sneak peak as to what's going on. I actually had taken these photographs a few week ago to share them here but got the time for it just this morning. Once I am done with this post, I need to start packing for our upcoming vacation that we have been planning for almost a year now. Minneapolis is so cold right now so I am happily looking forward to that warm destination!

This is a life-saver of a curry. I've made this countless number of  times in the past and it turns out perfect each time. This recipe is from a cookbook 'Suriani Pachakam' by Mrs. Bava Lukose. I love this cookbook because whatever I've made from it over the last few years have been delicious! Bava aunty and I have exchanged many emails and even know many common people in between. Amma has met her twice or thrice already...I wonder when I will get to meet her finally!

It's such a quick curry to put together and goes with pretty much with everything that you can think of! I mean, chicken curry is something I like to pair with most things. Whenever a chicken curry is made at ours, it kind of gets over the same day unless I portion out some and keep it aside before it's served. Usually, that happens over a weekend when there's a movie being played on the TV and a glass of wine in hand. We rarely watch TV shows nor movies on a regular basis, it's just a weekend thing for us. I somehow don't get the time to sit in front of it to catch up on all the latest stuff, not even Food Network these days. I am also not willing to compromise on my sleep either! :-)

NAADAN KOZHI PIRALEN
Serves 5-6

Ingredients:
1 kilograms chicken, cut into medium pieces
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup sliced onions
1 tablespoon vinegar
3 sprigs curry leaves
Salt

2 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon Kashmiri Red Chili Powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed powder
8 green cardamoms
4 cloves
1/4 cup sliced pearl onions
2 tablespoons garlic
1 tablespoon ginger

Method: Grind together all the ingredients from coriander through ginger to a smooth paste.
Heat oil in a large pan on medium high heat and sauté the onions until soft. Add the ground paste and sauté well for 2-3 minutes. Add the chicken, curry leaves, vinegar and salt. Mix well and add 1 cup water. Cover and cook until the chicken is fully cooked and the gravy is thick. Serve hot!

The last time I made this curry, I served it alongside Chapatis. We enjoy that combination a lot and it reminded me of an incident when I was a 5 year old. I clearly remember Amma had served me something to eat for breakfast, which I now think was Dosa & Chammanthi and I refused to eat it. She tried to convince me but since I didn't budge, she told me that I will not be given anything else to eat for breakfast until I eat a bite of that. I remember crying my eyes out and that's when Mamma came home. I ran to her to complain that Amma didn't give me anything to eat. I was so excited when Mamma asked Amma to feed me something else.

Then Amma served me a plate of Chapati and Beef curry with potatoes in it. I fell in love and I am still in love with Chapathi and any non vegetarian curry! That combination is amazing!

EASY RED CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

This dish has to be the easiest one I've made in the recent times. I mean,all you need to do is layer up some incredibly yummy stuff and bake it! If you do not have the time to poach chicken like me, you can use store bought cooked chicken. It's not going to alter the taste at all! This is a perfect make ahead dish which you can bake at the last minute and it's even a perfect weeknight meal. Also people, I have some gooooood news to share with you guys! We've been upto something for the last one month and finally it's official!

We are moving to a new home! It's super busy at our home right now since we are moving to another city plus we also celebrated Ian's birthday in between the move. I will be posting pictures from it as soon as we are done with setting up our internet stuff at our newest home. I think it's going to take a while.I cannot tell you how exhausted I am as I type this post. I am dead tired. Even my bones are tired from all the packing,cleaning and more packing! Unpacking is a whole new chapter that I will have to deal with.

So without much further talk, I am going to share this recipe with you right away!Just make sure you get hold of Simply Organic Red Enchilada Simmer Sauce  with authentic notes of ancho chili and cocoa for the best results! I used it and I can vouch for it's taste and quality. The team at Simply Organic sent me a box full of incredible ready to use sauces and I honestly cannot wait to use it. I mean, when I am scrambling to unpack and set up our brand new not-even-a-day-old home with a 10 month old in tow...these sauces are a blessing in disguise.

EASY RED CHICKEN ENCHILADAS
Serves 6

Ingredients:
2 pouches Simply Organic Red Enchilada Simmer Sauce
1 small tin chopped green chilies
2 cups poached chicken or store bought cooked chicken
1 large red onion
1 large can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
3 tablespoons oil
8 regular size flour tortillas

Method: In a large pan, heat the oil on medium high heat and saute the onions till soft and translucent. Add the green chilies and chicken and saute for 2-3 minutes. Take it off the heat and let it cool. In a 9 X 13 inch baking pan, spread about 1/2 cup of the Simply Organic Red Enchilada Simmer Sauce.Take one tortilla, spread 2 tablespoons of the Simply Organic Red Enchilada Simmer Sauce and top it with some chicken mixture,beans and cheese. Roll it up and place it in the baking dish seam side down. Repeat with the remaining tortillas. Pour the remaining Simply Organic Red Enchilada Simmer Sauce over it and cover the top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 350F / 180C till the cheese melts and the top is golden. Serve hot!

Honestly, I am about to crash as I type this post. There's a whole lot of clothes to be packed up before we sleep tonight. Movers will be here tomorrow. Who would have thought we have so much clothes in our cupboards? Who would have thought we have SO much kitchen stuff? I did. Yep...I was dreading the kitchen packing actually! With all my collection of crockery and cookware...hmm. Anyway, it's all a thing of the past now.

So, bye for a while till we get our internet stuff sorted out. Until then, if you get sometime,give this dish a try! :-)

This post is sponsored by Simply Organic but all opinions are my own.

INDIAN EGG CURRY / NADAN MOTTA CURRY

Some of you may have noticed that I call eggs 'Motta' instead of 'Mutta' in my mother tongue,Malayalam. We always called 'Motta' a 'Motta' at home. Initially, I was unaware of it until my school friends made fun of me whenever I said so. Anyway, I still continue calling it the same. It really doesn't matter as long whatever you make out of it turns out good!

I love pairing a motta curry with Chapathi. I can eat many many chapathi's in such instances. I am a Chapathi lover, if you didn't know that already. I can eat it 3 times a day. I also absolutely love making Chapathis at home, especially the kneading part. I equally love the portioning of the dough, rolling it out , smearing some oil, folding the dough, rolling it out into squares/ triangles/ circles depending on my mood and fancy and finally cooking it and seeing it puff up on my precious round cast iron skillet. See, I even enjoy typing out the whole Chapathi making process. I simply love it! Oh, and if you want to see that precious round cast iron skillet of mine, you can, in my 5 Minute 2 Ingredient Pizza photographs!

Now, getting on to the Motta part of the curry. This is made with hard boiled eggs. I feel the need to stress of the word 'hard' boiled eggs. It doesn't mean, the eggs are boiled until the yolks end up being rubbery, hard & chewy. I hate such eggs and always makes me want to throw up. There's a way you can make perfect hard boiled eggs.It's super simple. If you follow the steps correctly, you will always have the perfectly cooked eggs.

This curry of mine,is way too different from what Amma makes.I always fail at replicating her's here, in my kitchen. So I have to be satisfied with this version of mine, which is really good, in it's own way. One thing I hate about Motta curries when I eat out is that most people slice their onions lengthwise and don't saute it long enough that they maintain their shape and don't melt into the sauce. I like the onions and tomatoes to be diced so that they can blend into the sauce but still maintain a crunch of it's own. Yes, I'm a bit weird! Also, if you want a South Indian touch to this curry, you can garnish it with curry leaves. Or else, garnish it with cilantro!

INDIAN EGG CURRY

My own recipe

Ingredients:
4 hard boiled eggs (recipe at the end)
1/3 cup oil
2 large onions, diced
2 medium tomatoes,diced
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cup water
1 cup thick coconut milk OR heavy cream OR whole milk
Salt to taste
1 sprig curry leaves  OR a handful chopped cilantro
Method: Heat oil in a large pan,with sides.Once the oil is hot, add the diced onions along with a pinch of salt and saute until they turn soft. Add the tomatoes and continue cooking,mushing it up occasioanlly until all the water from tomatoes have evaporated. Add the spices and cook for 2 minutes,stirring.Add water and cook until it reduces a bit.Add coconut milk/heavy cream/whole milk and let it heat through completely. Adjust seasoning.Add the boiled & sliced eggs into it. Garnish with curry leaves/cilantro and serve hot!
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How to boil eggs perfectly, everytime: Take a saucepan with tall sides and fill three quarters of it with room temperature water/ tap water. Drop in the eggs carefully.Keep the saucepan on the stove and turn on the heat. Bring it to a rolling boil and turn down the heat to medium.Set the timer for 12 minutes. Turn off the stove and take the saucepan off it. Pour out the hot water and refill the saucepan with cold tap water and let the eggs sit in it for 5 mins. Peel the eggs and use as desired.
If you don't pour out the hot water immediately after the eggs are boiled and let it sit in there for a long time, the yolks will turn greenish-gray.

Jobin wanted me to make the egg curry in a different way but when I set out to make this, I warned him that I might deviate from that route and go the way it forms in my head.And that's exactly what happened. The curry was finger licking good.It had the richness of the coconut milk, mostly because I use the tinned coconut milk.If you like your curry to be on the thin side, add more liquid as you please. I mean, any curry recipe should act as a base for you and you can always modify it to your liking! I didn't share this with Ian Vaava as I didn't want to set his mouth on fire :-) He is too tiny to handle this amount of heat!
 

CAULIFLOWER RICE PIZZA

That's the same expression I had on my face when I read about this Pizza.Yup, this pizza has Cauliflower. By the way, it's not the pizza topping that's made using Cauliflower.It's the pizza crust that has the veggie a lot of people hate. Please don't include me in the Cauli-hater gang,I adore Cauliflower. It's one veggie you will always find in our veggie tray. My most favourite way of eating it is in the form of a Gobi Manchurian. I'm afraid now that this Pizza has taken over it. Yes, this is to die-for! ;-)

There's absolutely no trace of flour in this pizza base. It's made using grated/food processed Cauliflower which is cooked without a trace of water and then blended along with a few wonderful things and then baked into this very good pizza crust. Isn't it such a great way to reduce the intake of refined flour, when you have such a great option? It's a great way to include veggies too, in your diet.

Do you need a pizza under 30 mins from scratch? Here's your answer! The great Cauli Rice Pizza. Cauli Rice, now what's that? You need to make that first inorder to make this wonderful pizza base.It's very simple. Buy some cauliflower, clean it, grate it, cook it, squeeze out the water and that's it. That's the Cauli-Rice for you.Thank you,Megan!You've given me a chance to love Cauliflower, once again.

CAULIFLOWER RICE PIZZA
Makes one 8 inch pizza

Ingredients:
1 medium head cauliflower
1 egg
1/3 c grated mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Pizza sauce of your choice
Pizza toppings of your choice

Method: Preheat the oven to 450F. Prepare a baking stone/ baking sheet for baking the pizza.
Clean the cauliflower and separate them into florets. Discard the hard stem. Dry the florets completely. You can either grate the florets or run through a food processor/blender and process it until fine and rice like. Transfer this to a microwave safe bowl,cling wrap it tightly and cook for 7 mins.Let it cool. Transfer the cooked veggie onto a tea towel and squeeze out as much water as you can. There will be lots! It should be as dry as possible. Or else, the crust will be soft.
Add the egg,cheese, oregano, salt and black pepper to it. Stir well and spread it out thin with your fingers onto the baking surface and bake for 15-18 minutes or until crisp and golden with some brown spots here and there.Top with your favourite stuff and broil until the cheese melts.
Slice and devour!

We absolutely loved this pizza. You really need to try it to see what I am talking about. The crust is unbelievably good.It holds up so well when cut and lifted. It bends and folds like a regular pizza crust. If you share this with someone who doesn't know what went into it, they will never know. It's that good. I hope you get the point ;-)
 From the time the crust was baking,our Little Man was restless. These days I've noticed that he wakes up from his deepest sleep if he smells something good. It could be a Meen Vevichathu or a Pork Vindaloo or anything that smells good (yeah! even a noodle soup!). Noises like a working blender or my standmixer doesn't seem to bother him.But a good aroma, oh yeah! So,yes, I allowed him to lick the pizza sauce off my fingers. And of course, he wanted more. Nothing new ;-)