Dried Shrimp and Squash curry

As much as I love fresh/frozen shrimp, I always keep dried shrimp handy in my pantry to give that extra kick to simple vegetarian dishes - be it green beans thoran with a bit of dried shrimp thrown in or something that needs a bit more effort like this dish - It has 2 ingredients I love - shrimp and coconut. I am happy!

Ingredients:

A handful of dried shrimp cleaned

1/2 c coconut

red chillies 2

turmeric powder 1/2 tsp

curry leaves

Jeera - 1 tbsp

pearl onions - 5

green chillies - 4

ginger - 1/2 inch slice

Tomatoes - 1

Onions - 1 small

Any type of squash - 1 (I used bottle gourd)

coconut oil - 2 tbsp (optional)

Grind together coconut, green chillies and jeera seeds to a fine paste. Boil dried shrimp with water and turmeric powder. In a vessel fry the thinly sliced onions in a little oil. Then fry the tomatoes alongside. Add sliced suqsh to it and cook till squash is  almost cooked. Now add the shrimp and the water used to cook it. Add the coconut paste also. Cook for a few more minutes till the ingredients have mixed well and flavors blended well. Temper pearl onions in a bit of coconut oil and add it at the end for enhanced flavor. Enjoy!

Turkey Chilaquiles - As tasty as leftover turkey gets

Sweet, spicy and tangy cranberry chutney

I love the tartness of cranberries, sweet tartness of oranges and the spiciness of ginger. Combine them altogether and voila! You have a culinary masterpiece that keeps well in your refrigerator and be your best buddy and can go with anything - rice, sandwich, crackers. Why, I even use it with my oatmeal sometimes...So versatile! And u don't have to wait for Thanksgiving to do this. With canned cranberries you can have this all year round.

Ingredients:
1 can whole berries - cranberries
1 orange - take the zest
1 cup orange juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 inch fresh ginger
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (if u like urs with a kick)
1 large shallot finely minced
Salt to taste

Combine the above in a thick bottomed vessel, let the ingredients come together and simmer for a while till it gets to the consistency of chutney. Bottle up the rest and Enjoy!

New look and Thxgiving memories

Changed my blog templates as I was in the mood today. I hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were blessed to give Thanks! I love this holiday as it is so meaningful!

Thanksgiving is over but I still am left with leftovers some of which freeze well...I am planning to post some recipes from my Thanksgiving meal and some recipes for leftovers as well..A small glimpse of my modest Thanksgiving table. I shared it with a friend and his 2 kids. My only attempt so far with turkey was a disaster(1998) and from then onwards either I am somebody's guest for Thxgiving or serving cornish hens. This time I opted for roaster chicken breasts which turned out to be better than cornish hens as they are meaty! My menu included Masala roaster chicken breasts, lemon rice, cranberry-ginger-orange chutney,mashed potatoes, boiled sweet potatoes, gravy, mushroom zuchini stir fry, radish pachadi, blueberry pie and persimmon cinnamon drink!

Masala roasted chicken breasts

Lemon rice

Simple but yummy! This probably is the meal u had on picnics back home in India, on train journeys and even for school lunch. There is something about lemon rice/tamarind rice with potato chips that appeals to me anytime!

Turkey quesadillas - Yetannuder leftover dish

Yet another delish way of eating leftover turkey!

Ingredients:

Leftover turkey - 1 cup

Red/Yellow peppers - 1/2 each

Onions - 1.5 cups thinly sliced lengthwise

Black olives - 10

Chipotle chillies in adobo - small can

Cilantro leaves - a handful

shredded monterey jack cheese (or any cheese of ur liking)

salt

1 jalapeno diced(if u like urs hot like I do)

 

In a saucepan, fry onions, add red/yellow peppers, turkey, salt and chillies in adobo along with the sauce and cook till all flavors have blended well. Then spread shredded monterey jack cheese generously. Finish off with cilantro leaves. Now butter one side of tortilla and spread the tortilla in a grill pan or griddle woth butter side down. Spread the turkey mixture on the tortilla. Butter another tortilla and place butterd side up to cover the mixture. After the lower side has browned and the cheese half melted,  flip the tortilla over. Its a bit tricky of its a big size tortilla as I found out. So use small tortillas that are easy to handle. And use 2 spatulas to do the flipping. When the other side has browned and the cheese fully melted, remove and serve after garnishing with cilantro.

Tender green asparagus!

Carrot and Beans thoran

Kappa, ulli neeru and Fish head curry - Yum Yum Yum

Chicken drumstick fry

Shrimp, Prawns and et al

I love crustaceans! I don't like crabby behavior but I sure do love to eat' em.

Here is a shrimp recipe I do quite often as its quick and easy and deeelicious!

Set 1:
Prawns/Shrimps (I use large ones, medium is too small and extra large is too big)
Dry garam masala - cloves, cardamom, cinnamon 2 each
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 4 or 5

Saute all ingredients in Set 1 with the exception of Prawns till the raw smell goes away. Don't let garlic burn though.

Set 2:
Red onions - 1 OR
Shallots - 8
Tomato - 1 thinly sliced or tomato puree or paste or sun dried tomato(each of them gives diff flavor)
shredded coconut - 1/2 cup (optional)
Green chillies slit - 5 or 6 (adjust per taste. I love more of these than chilli powder)

Now add all ingredients in set 2 and continue to saute.

Set 3:
chilli powder - 1 tbsp
coriander powder - 1/2 tbsp
Black pepper powder - 1 tbsp
garam masala - 1 tbsp

Add the prawns now to the mixture and also the ingredients in Set 3 and saute till prawns turn pink. U can add a little water if mixture is too dry but don't add too much as it will not be good. This has to finally be a semi-dry dish and remember that prawns ooze out a bit of liquid too.

Leave covered till prawns are cooked. Adjust salt. In a small pan add 2 tbsp coconut oil, about 5-6 sliced shallots and curry leaves, saute and add to the prawns. U can skip this step if u are not used to coconut oil, but it sure makes the dish tastier. Don't forget to sprinkle coriander leaves. Enjoy.

Yummy Crab Roast

I started this blog with the idea of sharing my enthusiasm about weight loss and food.. My principle - To eat well and exercise well. I don't believe in depriving myself of all the yummy foods God has provided us with...Just like this one...I've always eaten crabs in seafood festivals(I wait every year for these festivals soon after Spring arrives), Red Lobster and Maryland trips...Never cooked it at home until last year...




First attempt - I got over confident and got live blue crabs 6 of them from the Chinese supermarket and successfully got them home. Then came the ordeal. I tried holding onto one with a towel and whack it with a cleaver. The crab got smarter and it clawed me..I tried shaking it off, but found that another crab was clawing onto this one and another to that one and here i was trying to shake off 3 crabs...What a nightmare! I screamed against all my claim that I don't scream under any circumstance! A friend finally helped cut them up...I made crab coconut curry and it turned out okay....Recipe will be posted sometime soon. Above are pics of the blue crab I was talking about. I still have the bite mark on my right wrist.



And then I read a few blogs about home cooked crab meat (the bigger crab legs this time, from the the freezer) was encouraged by them and tried this one. It was a smash hit. I made it for my mom who is visiting and tried it a second time as she loved it too.

I know some people are mindful of the fact that eating a lot of crab is not good for cholesterol...so I took the advice of the blog and added a lot of black pepper...I made my own twist to the recipe as i always do...

Ingredients:
Set 1:
Snow crab or Dungeness Crab legs Frozen ( 1 to 1.5 lbs)
1 large red onion sliced thinly
1 tomato thinly sliced
turmeric powder - 1 tsp
chilli powder - 1 tsp
black pepper powder - 2 tsp
green chillies - 5 or 6
minced garlic - 3 pods
minced ginger - 2 tsp
salt

Boil the crab with the other ingredients in Set 1 and once it comes to a boil, simmer it.

Set 2:
shredded coconut - 1 cup
shallots - 2 or 3
perunjeeragam - 1 tbsp
black pepper - 1 tbsp
red chillies - 3 -4 nos
coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
curry leaves - 3 or 4

Now roast the ingredients in Set 2 and then grind them well together.

Add the ground paste to the crab and increase the heat and let it all come to a boil. Add 1 tbsp garam masala powder to perk up the spices. Simmer to necessary consistency/thickness.

Set 3:
coconut oil - 2 tbsp
sliced shallots - 7 to 8 nos
mustard seeds
curry leaves - 5-6

In a small frying pan, take some coconut oil and fry ingredients in Set 3 and once the aroma comes out add to crab mixture..Adjust for salt and add coriander leaves as garnish. Tasty crab ready. You can eat it right away as we all did!

I will definitely suggest getting king crab legs or dungeness crab legs instead of the small live ones as you don't have to struggle with them and the meat is also in abundance in the former types. I slightly break 'em up with the cleaver and sometimes pull out out some meat out of the shell so all spices marry well with the meat.Here is a picture of the entire meal - served with another favorite of mine - Asparagus!

Fiery chicken wings - Indian style

Eating healthy...

Believe me! I wasn't one who read the labels on cartons to see fat content or carb content until recently. I was perfectly happy eating a big bowl of sweetened cereal with whole milk and not feel an ounce guilty about it. I gradually put on weight which took me into the overweight category in BMI. That sent out the alarm because I never thought I'd be in that category. So now came the effort to bring down the weight and once I started reading articles about diets, glycemic index, carbs etc, I realized what a blunder I have been doing all these years. Well, its better to be late than never isnt it?

These days I do look out for low sugar/no sugar, low carb/no carb alternatives and also look for sugar, fat and cholestrol content in labels. I don't want to be too obsessive about it because I prefer to indulge once in a while, but it helps to watch what you eat.

Nagercoil, Thailand, Korea - Sounds weird?

Don't be puzzled as to how Nagercoil, Thailand and Korea can co-exist in a header together. Well, that's just a glimpse of my culinary interests that I hope to share with you and have a discussion.

I love to eat. Sorry. Take it back. I live to eat. It would be true if I said that I spend more than 50% of my internet time on recipes. Earlier it used to be recipe websites. But Blogs have opened it up much more that these days I go mostly to blogs (I plan to add links to my most frequently visited blogs soon) to plan my everyday dinner. Or just to drool. I love cooking pretty much any type of cuisine ..or atleast I try...I frequent the cookbook section in the library as well. There's nothing like a page-by-page treat of the world cuisines at your fingertips..

Over the years I've had my phases with different cuisines...Though I can safely say that topping the list would be Thai and Korean. I don't think I have refused to eat either of these citing mood. I am ALWAYS in the mood. Soon to come some of my favorite Korean and Thai recipes.

I come from Nagercoil which is in TamilNadu India. Bordering Kerala and TamilNadu, we enjoy a unique cuisine (and a unique accent as well!). There are influences of both Kerala and TamilNadu cuisine in ours. Being a coastal town I grew up eating a lot of fish and the love affair still continues. I intend to share some recipes specific to Nagercoil as well.

Stay tuned..

My cup of mystery!

I am a BIG Agatha Christie fan! Having run out of Christie books, I even pick up books that have won Agatha awards...Nothing gives me more pleasure than winding up with a Christie book on a rainy afternoon with a nice cuppa! My idea of a perfect afternoon. I am planning to add to this post my favorite Agatha Christie books/plays and why. Is it just me or other fans read the same mystery several times over and still be enchanted by it?

I love flowers....

And everything that goes with it....even if it means wearing a cap under the scorching sun and start puttering about in the soil, and waiting eagerly to see the first shoots. Nothing excites me more than when a plant considered dead comes back alive. I guess I got my gardening genes from my dad who proudly owns a beautiful garden back in India. When he says he's grown pretty much every vegetable, I'd say he's very close. He even tried grapes to a successful extent!

I am an avid fan of English gardens. I associate flowers with beautiful smells and nothing comes close to English gardens when it comes to sweet smelling flowers. And of course the weather helps.I watch British TV for the gardens (and of course the quaint villages and their vicars and the afternoon teas!)

In due course I also plan to publish pictures of my modest patio-top garden and spoils over the years. Ciao!

My South Beach Diet journey and Indian food

About 15 years back I used to think that I am blessed for life with a slim body and I dont have to worry about picking the right cut or right fit and that most dresses fit me well. And so it was for a few more years. Much to the admonishment of my friends, I used to down bowls of ice-cream(didn't have much of a sweet tooth then - so not many sweets) and would worry about how to put on a little more weight. I come from the Southern part of India where beauty gravitates towards a chubbier you. And then came the crisis. I put on a lot of weight as a result of some tablets I had to take for a few weeks. Unfortunately what came, stayed. But I was still below my 30s and so without much effort, a bit of exercise, I lost most of it.

And then the 30s hit. Its been uphill even though in terms of the quality of life is said to be downhill. Recently a friend suggested South Beach Diet and I reluctantly started on it. I'm a firm believer in Providence! Some may call it co-incidence and others may call it pure luck. But, it so happened that I came across a blog I often visit for recipes and read about this blogger's experience with South Beach Diet and that clinched it for me. Today I am completing 2 weeks of South Beach Diet(Phase 1) and I can't wait to spread the good word!

Travelling is a passion!

I love to travel. Period. Over the years, I've been to a few countries and every trip has its own merits! I am always on the lookout for good travel deals because a trip well planned and well executed always adds that extra satisfaction. It will be a while but I plan to add trip details and places I loved during those trips here to share. I welcome comments and tips because I'd love to hear from you of your experiences as well