CHEERA THORAN

Hi, if i say' Chuvanna cheera or 'chenjeera', im sure that a small percentage only will understand what i am aiming, because that is a malayalam word and 'cheera' in malayalam means Spinach. I am telling about the Red Spinach- One of the favourite leafy vegetable of Kerala. Spinach , In India especially in Kerala (malayalam) it is called Cheera , in tamil it is called Keerai . In hindi, it is Palak. It is an edibile flowering plant in the family of Amaranthaceae. Spinach is known as a rich source of iron and calcium. I am sure that now you are thinking about our favourite cartoon character, Popeye, the sailor man. Whenever he eat the spinach he become strong.......... he is eating the green one and i love the red spinach.

Today i will tell you about my two favourite dishes

Cheera Curry

Ingredients:-

Cheera (red spinach) - make it one kg
turmeric powder- a pinch

red chilly powder- 2 teaspoon

mango pieces- half mango(If mango is very very sour make it 1/4Th

5 teaspoon curd (If mango is not there)

salt- for taste

coconut grated and make a paste- half cup

1/4 cup water

curry leaves

1 teaspoon fresh coconut oil

Preparation:-

Wash cheera several times ( to wash leafy vegetables put a pinch of salt to Luke warm water, dip the vegetables in it, it will be very clear). Chop the leaves, stem(tender stems). Take a vessel, keep it on fire, add the chopped cheera, add turmeric powder, chilly powder, mangoes and salt. Add 1/4 cup water. Allow it to boil, when ingredients are almost cooked add coconut paste, put some curry leaves and one teaspoon fresh coconut oil. yes !yummy yummy cheera curry is ready, you can eat it with rice.

Cheera Thoran

Cheera- 1 kg

turmeric powder-a pinch

grated coconut 1/4 cup

garlic - 2-3 small pieces

green chilly- 4-5

salt -for taste

1 teaspoon coconut oil

1 teaspoon- mustard seeds

curry leaves

2-3 red chillies

Preparation:-

As i said earlier, wash and chop the cheera (make it small pieces). In a mixer bowl put coconut, garlic and green chillies and make it a half paste(Not soft paste) Keep a pan on fire, add oil, saute mustard seeds red chillies, and leaves, turmeric powder, salt. Cover it with a lid, Don't add water, keep fire in Sim, when leaves are almost cooked, add the coconut mix to it, blend the whole with a spoon,. keep one more minute on fire, your cheera thoran is ready

MAMBAZHA PULISSERY

Mambazha Pulissery, hmmmmm, even hearing the name of mambazham, or ripe sweet mangoes will fill my mouth with water. In Kerala 'mambazha pulissery' is a delicacy of a 60% people. Keralas Novels and fictions in the early 80s wrote about mambazha pulissery, divine love, glass bangles, girls having long plaited hair covered with jasmine flowers etc etc ......Writers were able to make a world of fantasy around the readers. Great writers of Malayalam like M.T Vasudevan Nair, KamalaDas(Madhavikkutty), Mukundan, Kovilan............their words have a magical touch.

Now to our mambazham. Mango belongs to the genus Mangifera. Family Anacardiaceae. It is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. It is very interesting to find the names of mango in other indian languages. In Hindi it is 'aam', in Tamil 'mangai' or 'mambalam' (for sweet mango), in sanskrit it is 'madhulaka', marathi it is 'amba', telugu it is mamidi kay, malayalam it is manga, and mambzham for sweet mango. In French it is Manguier, Mangue. Quite interesting is it? . Mambazha Pulissery is a very easy dish.

Ingredients:-

2-3 very sweet mangoes

red chilly powder- 3 teaspoon(it depends how hot your chilly powder)

turmeric powder- a pinch

salt- for taste

2 cup curd-not too sour, not too sweet, medium taste curd,

1 cup coconut paste (put the coconut in a mixer bowl and add some water and make it a thick paste)

1 table spoon coconut oil(or any other vegetable oil)

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

curry leaves

2-3 red chillies

1 teaspoon fenugreek ('Uluva'-in malayalam, 'methi' in hindi)

Preparation:-

Wash the mangoes, remove its skin, cut into pieces. Put a pan on fire, add pieces of mangoes, add half a cup of water, add salt, chilly powder, turmeric powder, close the pan with a lid. When mango pieces are almost looks like a paste form, add the coconut paste, curd and allow the whole mixture to boil, be careful don't allow too much boiling. Then on the other burner, put a pan, add oil, saute mustard seeds, curry leaves, chillies, uluva and mix these with the curry. Your Curry, yes your nostalgic mambazha pulissery is ready. If you add the seed of that mango( without removing the whole pulp ), you can simply chew that for a long time till your mother asked you to throw away that............ ha ha ha

CURD RICE- Thayir Saadam

Curd is very good fo cooling our body. curd is also called yogurt but i think both are different. curd is prepared by adding sour things like tamarind, lemon or vinegar buttermilk to the warm milk .But yogurt is like adding some bacteria and we can add fruits and other things also in yogurts. I used to make curd in home. In Malayalam, Curd is called 'Thayir', in Tamil also it is 'thayir' and in telugu it is 'Perugu', and in hindi it is 'dahi'. I love medium sour curd not the sweet one. and i like almost all the dishes on curd and especially the Curd Rice. It is easy to cook and tasty also. I learnt it from my Amma. She never taught me how to cook a dish like this or like that. She believes that in each and every girlchild a quick learning ability is there and they will do things their own when time came and I now know that her readings are correct. Because I only watched her in kitchen, the way she move, the fastness in her movements, the way she cleans the vessels just after cooking….a perfect style with great speed. Curd Rice preparation also I learnt from her.

If we search the origin of curd rice, I am not sure to which state it belongs. But one thing im sure that it is a true south Indian one. My Tamil friends love curdrice. And Tamil people have a variety of 'Saadams'(rices- lemon rice, mango rice, puliyoghre, thakkali rice(tomato rice…….). Now back to my curd rice.
Ingredients

Rice - 2cps
Curd - 2 cup sour curd
Milk - 3/4 cup milk
Salt - for taste
Asafoetida
powder - a pinch
Oil - 3 tsp
Mustard
seeds - 3 tspn
Uraddal - 2 tspn
Curry leaves
Red chillies - 2 numbers
Preparation
Buy good quality white rice (not the basmati rice), bcse white rice will take less time for cooking compared to brown rice. Wash the rice cook it in a cooker and take it out when cooker is cool. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, curryleaves(if you have them in your garden or in your fridge. In delhi I think it is a costly one because I bought them for 5 rupees for a twig with some 15 leaves). Add urad dal, add two red chillies. Then stop the fire. Remove the pan. Add the curd(blend the curd with a spoon and make it soft)to the cool rice, add milk and with a spoon mix rice, curd and milk and add salt also. Add the oil, mustardseeds, curryleaves and chillies to the rice. Yes your tast curd rice is ready. You can eat it with hot mango pickles or any other pickles, pappads etc………..

Art Of Cooking

If we go through the definitions for cooking in web we find many, according to me Cooking is an art, an art like painting, drawing, writing..............Cooking also requires concentration, perfection and talent. If two people are cooking same dish with same ingredients im sure it will taste different.
I’d never cooked anything until I completed my Masters degree. When I started cooking I found that Indian cooking is simple at the same time complicated. Everything is in the mixing or combination of ingredients. When I was a kid I was surprised to find that my mother used to make many mouthwatering dishes with very simple ingredients and very little masala. We use verylittle amounts of masalas in our typical traditional kerala dishes. i promise you sure my blog pachakappura will bring variety of southindian and other indian recipies to you.