My Food Journey

Mezhukkupuratti, or Stir fry is a typical Kerala Style Stir-Fry and often made with vegetables like Raw Banana, Yam or any other vegetables. This raw banana sir fry is very flavorful side dish which goes very well with rice. Let's see how its done. Quick video below for easy reference Ingredients: Raw banana – 3 medium sized banana/plantain Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp Salt as needed Shallots – 5-6 (optional) Garlic – 5-6 cloves peeled Dried red chilli - 3-4 (or as per spice level) Kashmiri Red Chilli powder – 1-2 (optional -for colour) Coconut oil/ vegetable oil – 2 tsp Mustard seeds – 1 tsp Curry leaves – a sprig Method : Peel the skin of raw banana and cut it lengthwise and keep it in water (to avoid changing colour/ discolouration) Now, take a sauce pan/ pan and add the cut raw banana, to it add just enough water to cover the raw banana, add turmeric powder, salt needed.  Cook the raw banana until soft but not mushy. Take care not to over cook the banana.  Once cooked, stra...

Ela Ada or Ada always evokes nostalgic memories. Ela ada or elayappam as some call it is a very healthy and popular recipe from Kerala usually served as an evening snack with tea. It is basically a steamed sweet delicacy made with rice flour dough and a Jaggery- coconut filling. It is a heavenly yet healthy mixture, which has the sweetness of coconut and melted jaggery and sealed within a layer of steamed rice flour dough. Ela ada can be made using wheat and rice flour and the fillings can vary. Though coconut and jaggery remain the most popular filling, it can be replaced by jackfruit and jaggery too, called chakka varatti. I have also had simple coconut & sugar versions.  As mentioned before, some dishes just brings in lots of childhood memories and Ela ada is a personal fav. Let's see how to make this super tasty and healthy snack. Step wise pictures given below.  Ingredients : Rice flour - 1 cup Water -1 1/2 cup / 1.5 cup (for dough)  Salt to taste Cumin 1/4 t...

Home-Made Nuts powder is something which I have been making since Jeremy was a 9 month old. Initially to introduce nuts, I used to powder each nut separately (one day each) and mix with every food. As he grew older I realized he hates whole nuts especially Almonds and Pistachios. Cashews are still ok with him provided they are salted ones. But still he wasn't consuming much. Thats when I decided to continue making the essential and important nut powder. He hates the fact that nuts or chunky powder has been added and just rejects the whole meal even though its tasty and likes it. But this fine nut powder is a winner and I add it up in almost everything on a daily basis.  So this nut powder is perfect for fussy kid like mine or if you just wanna introduce nuts to your kids diet, this is a good solution. Its pretty simple and fuss free.   The powder is suitable for babies over 8 months, but before you feed this to your baby, make sure that baby has already tried the powdered vers...

This is the recipe for Tomato Pappu, Andhra’s version of tomato dal. This tomato dal or Tomato Pappu is a comfort food from Andhra Pradesh (State in South India) that has more than one type and makes for a perfect accompaniment with steaming hot rice with ghee. Dal is called Pappu in Telugu language & there are many variations of this dal. Emil (My husband) is a big fan of Andhra Cuisine and always loved it. He keeps telling me to make dishes inspired from the Andhra Cuisine. While reading about the dish and after speaking to few Telugu friends, I got to know that there's more than one type of pappu, like the spinach with dal & tomatoes. And also they are cooked slightly different in each household as well.  While usually most homes use tamarind for this dal along with tomatoes, I made a simpler version of this and avoided the tamarind. Instead I have used more tomatoes along with shallots.  The basic recipe was shared to us by my husband's colleague, and I also have a...