Spicy Chunky Oriental Sauce

It is for no reason why Kerala is/was called land of spices; well  more than the spices used, I am talking about our love for spicy food! Kerala cuisine brags about being one of the spiciest in India and coming from this tiny coastal land, it was imperative that I developed a taste for spicy food. Traditional Kerala cooking uses a variety of homemade masalas, most of which are hot for any non-Keralite to bear; however, we literally go by "Athidi Devo Bhawa" concept and whenever cooking for guests, we deliberately bring down the spice level. We hate bland food and people like me, love the spiciness to stay even when we are done with enjoying the food! 

Talking about this sauce - this is something I have been wanting to make for a while now, and I did make a mention of it in my Steam Shirmp & Sausage Wontons posting. So today, I finally made it and paired it with pancakes! Yes, that sounds weird but guarantees total enjoyment. 

This sauce is HOT, to be elaborate my lips were swollen after having my pancakes and the spiciness still stays (and I love that). It is chunky; use it as a spread or a dip for starters and above all, it has a hint of sweetness. I would call it an outburst of flavors!

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 2 small, chopped

Onion - 1 small, chopped

Dried red chilies - 3 (depending upon your spice tolerance level, you can reduce this to 1 or 2)

Garlic - 5 cloves, chopped

Soy sauce - 1 teaspoon

Ketchup - 1/2 tablespoon (if you want it sweet, make it 1 tablespoon)

Coriander leaves - a few springs

Salt - to taste

Olive oil - 2 tablespoon

Preparation:

1. Heat up oil in a pan and add the onion, garlic and dried chilies. Saute for a while and add the tomatoes. Add salt and cook until it turns mushy.

2. Add the sauce sauce, stir for a while, followed by ketchup and sprinkle coriander leaves. Remove from heat and let it cool.

3. Transfer the content into a blender and process for half a minute. Leave it a bit chunky. 

4. Transfer to serving bowl and enjoy as a spread or dip.

Easy Fruit Pancake

Ways to use up excess milk - Way 1

Every once in a while I face this crisis of "how to use up excess milk"! With hubby not around there is a limit to how much I alone can consume. Yesterday I spend quite a lot of time researching for easy recipes and then it clicked me - why not pancakes! No extensive cooking, no fancy ingredients and you can make it in no time. To be frank, I am not a big fan of pancake however, this time it has turned out to be a savior. 

I also had some fruits lying in the fridge - papaya and grapes; I had to use them up too. So finally, I came up with this idea of fruit pancake for today's breakfast. This recipe easily uses about a 60 ml milk (well that itself is an achievement!) 

Ingredients

Flour - 1 cup

Baking powder - 1 teaspoon

Sugar - 1 1/2 tablespoon (or as per taste)

Salt - 1 teaspoon (or as per taste)

Egg - 1, beaten

Whole milk - 60 ml

Mixed fruits - 1 bowl, cut in to bite size pieces (I used grapes and papaya)

Preparation

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl

2. Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and milk. Mix well to combine. Leave aside for 10-15 minutes.

Cooking

4. Heat a pan in medium heat. 

5. Add the freshly cut fruits into the bowl and mix well.

6. Pour a spoon full of batter in the pan. Close with a lid and check back in a minute or two.

7. Flip over when the side is browned and cook for a few seconds. Transfer to a plate.

8. Repeat with the rest of the batter. This recipe will make 4 decent size pancakes.

Serving

9. Serve hot with your regular pancake syrup and enjoy biting into fruit pieces! :-)

Mildly Spiced Potato Latkes

Jewish latkes twisted for my palate...

So, this is the best part of working for a food website - you hardly miss out any occasion :-) Yesterday when I started off my work, there was a mail in my inbox related to Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. I haven't read much about it but today I had to get the page and iptv channel ready for the occasion and hence got a chance to go through quite many traditional Hanukkah recipes. 

As I was in no mood to do elaborate cooking today, I decided to go for the easiest of recipes recommended for this occasion; also the simplest available recipe for that :-) So here is a recipe for humble potato latkes catered to my taste preference.

Ingredients

Potatoes - 2 medium, grated (not so finely, preferably in the bigger hole in your grater)

Onion - 1 medium, grated finely

Garlic - 5 cloves, finely chopped

Green chilies - 2, finely chopped

Pepper powder - 1 pinch

Egg - 1 (I used white alone)

Olive oil - 3 tablespoon

Flour - 2 tablespoons (for binding)

Salt - as per taste

Sugar - 1 teaspoon (optional)

Preparation

1. Put the grated potatoes in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes and drain it thoroughly. Keep aside in a bowl

2. Further crush garlic and chilies together in a mortar

3. In the bowl with potatoes, add in the onions, crushed mix, pepper powder, salt, sugar, flour and finally egg white and mix well (using hand) to combine.

Cooking

4. Heat up butter/oil in a wide saucepan in low heat. 

5. Make 2 inch diameter patties out of the mix by pressing the with palm. As soon as it holds shape, transfer to the frying pan. Depending on the size of the pan you can cook it in one or two batches.

6. Check after 5-6 min and flip over if the side has browned. Once the other side browns, you can transfer the latkes to a plate.

Serving

7. Serve hot with sauce (I had only ketch up so used that)