Smothered potatoes with shrimp and sausages

Apple dumplings

Blueberry hand pies and mini pies

Fish and chips & fish sandwich

Fried cod with greek yogurt tartar sauce

Strawberry shortcake - traditional and northern American

strawberries and whipped cream filled scones and sponge cakes

Southern potato - sausage hash

Frogmore stew

comfort food from the South.

Granola Ellunda -- Rolled oats- sesame seeds balls

Sweet sesame seed balls were a childhood favorite back home. Last week, there was some leftover coconut-jaggery filling which begged to be used. Heated some ghee and pan seared the rolled oats and the sesame seeds -- can use black and white or both -- and mixed it with the melted jaggery-coconut filling And this was the result. Granola balls! Delicious!

Okra/lady's finger bonanza

The summer of 2016 was okra/lady's finger/vendakka time for us. The five or six plants that I grew from seeds bought from the Kitasawa company produced so much!
 This is what I did with them.

 Our basic mezhukkupuratti

Punjabi mode:

Kerala Kichadi:

A stirfry with home grown tomatoes:

Another Punjabi dish:

Pakodas:

Kerala Pachadi:

Kerala Theeyal:

Gumbo:

Asha's beef-potato-cabbage-sausage casserole

beef-potato-cabbage-sausage casserole

When the cold season strikes, these days, I somehow look to warm comfort foods with an Eastern European slant. This casserole is based on the cabbage-sausage-potato recipes that originate from that part of our world. The sausage that I used is one of the uncooked kinds, my favorite, the brat. You may reduce the amount of garlic and red pepper according to your preference, of course. By the way, this is not a healthy version, just plain delicious. :)

Ground beef - 1 lb.
Johnsonville original bratwurst -3

1 Savoy cabbage - shredded
6-8 medium sized Yukon Gold potatoes - sliced thin
Onion, diced small- 1 large
Garlic, crushed - 1 large  bulb
Vegeta seasoning (optional) - 1/2- 1 tsp
garlic powder - a good sprinkling in the meat and the veggies later
dried sage- 1tsp
dried marjoram - 1 tsp
crushed red pepper flakes - 4 tsp
ground black pepper- 1- 2 tsp
white vinegar - 2 tsp
salt
Olive oil, and/or butter - 2 or 3 tbsp

Draw a sharp knife down the middle of the sausage, lengthwise. Peel off the skin so as to remove the meat.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet or other large vessel. Saute half of the onion and garlic till almost brown.
Add the spices - 1 tsp of the black pepper, or more, if you like-  and herbs.Stir for a minute. Add the beef and the sausage meat. Brown the meat for a few minutes, Add the vinegar. Stir. Remove from heat.

Now add a little more olive oil or a little piece of butter to the same skillet or pot, and saute the rest of the onion and garlic till almost brown.  Add 1 tsp of black pepper. Or crushed red pepper if you like. Or both. No set rules. Fry for a minute. Add the potatoes and cabbage. Stir well so that the veggies are coated well with the spicy oil. Add enough salt to taste, Remove from heat. You do not need to cook the veggies.

Butter a large baking pan or Dutch oven. Place a layer of the cabbage-potato mixture in the pan.

beef-potato-cabbage-sausage casserole

Next add  layer of the browned beef-sausage mixture. Repeat layers ending with potato-cabbage mix at the top. Cover pan with aluminum foil.

 Bake at 375° for 40 minutes to an hour, till the top is browned a little.

PS: Browning the meat before baking is optional. Alternately, you can saute all of the onion-garlic at once. Divide into two. Mix one half with the meat, and the other with the veggies. Then do the layering, cover, and bake.

For the meat part, make it with just beef or just sausage, or more sausage, cooked or otherwise.

Serve warm with  rolls, and a salad, for health, and for color. :).

buttery rolls

Nazrani armadillo eggs

So this is my first "fusion" recipe on this blog, even though this is not the first in my kitchen. My family has had to be at the receiving end of such experiments, many times. The experiments range from pretty simple and obvious to the not-so-common, and so far, my family, let's say, are still among the living. :)

Anyway. the bigger item in the picture above is the armadillo egg. The smaller one is regular jalapeno poppers --a variety of  recipes for which are on the internet. I will post  links to some at the end of this. We are focusing on the armadillo eggs here. On Guy Fieri's Triple D, -- ya, again -- I saw this Texas eatery serving huge armadillo eggs which had brisket meat as an ingredient. They used pickled jalapenos, and did not use any cheese, if I remember right. Since we like things hot, fresh jalapenos is the way to go. In a recipe for poppers, Isaw sausage meat being used to cover up the jalapenos, with no breading, and they were baked. That sounded great too, btw. will post links. oh, there are a million versions out there -- grilled, bacon -wrapped, all sorts of add ons in the fillings..... . this is my version.

Here's the recipe for my Maltex or Nazrani armadillo egg:

I used beef for stir fry. You can get away with ground beef.

Ingredients:

6 jalapenos, fresh
4 tbsp cream cheese
about a cup grated cheddar


1/2 lb beef -- stew meat, ground beef, stir fry meat -- doesn't matter
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp Kerala meat masala ( I use my mother's mix - garam masala is ok in a pinch, but there is a difference in taste -- if using "curry powder", it will be a completely different thing)
1/2 tsp red chili powder ( reduce to your preference)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper, ground
1/2 cup boiled potatoes (optional) I had some handy, so I used it.
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup bread crumbs
salt

1 egg, beaten
oil to fry


Prepare the meat -- cut into pieces if in strips, clean. In a pot that goes on the stovetop, mix the beef with the cumin, meat masala, chili powder, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, . Pour enough water to cover the top of the meat. Now bring it to a boil. Lower heat and cover and cook. The meat should be tender when done.

While the meat is cooking, you can cook the potato, either in the microwave, or on the stove, if using potato.
Otherwise, start on the jalapenos. Cut each into half, lengthwise. Remove all the seeds. Be careful not to handle it too intimately or too rakishly-- will get burned. :)
Anyway, now fill each pepper cavity with cream cheese. Put some cheddar on top. Press lightly so that they all hang in there together. At this point, you can dredge these peppers in buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, bread crumbs, in that order. And you'll get jalapeno poppers. well, you could've  added some paprika, cumin etc, even onion, to the cream cheese before , But we are not talking of poppers here, are we?

So while that meat is getting cooked,  we can get ready the assembly line. The bowls of all purpose flour, buttermilk, breadcrumbs in a row.

Once the meat is cooked, put that in the food processor and process. If you have the potatoes, you may add it now and process some more.

Otherwise, wait for it to cool a little, add 2 tbsps of the beaten egg and mix well. You may add the remaining egg to the bowl of buttermilk.
The next steps are a bit messy. But they are worth it.

Cover the filled jalapeno half with the meat mixture. Carefully dredge in the flour.
Now into the buttermilk. Let it rest for a while. You can deal with the rest of the peppers at this time.
Now roll the buttermilk-dipped peppers in bread crumbs. The first two steps can be repeated once more before the bread crumb step. That will make everything hold together better. The second method, where we do it twice is better, but I get lazy sometimes.

Now deep fry in oil.
 Serve warm.

recipes i would try:

for armadillo eggs: http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2011/02/armadillo-eggs-recipe-jalapeno.html



for jalapeno poppers: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-ever-jalapeno-poppers/

oven-fried chicken

oven-fried chicken

The food network channel is one of the channels that I watch while on the treadmill. yep -- ironic.
And most of the time it will be either 'chopped" or Guy Fieri's DDD. well, the other day I saw oven-fried chicken being made, and I wanted to make it. Some time spent on google, I got some ideas.
And here is the result. It turned out to be delicious.



 1 small chicken -- 3 to 3 1/2 lbs.
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 quarts cold water


1 egg
3 tbsp milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. cayenne
1/2- 1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1- 1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter, unsalted


Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water. Immerse the whole chicken in this and chill for an hour. You can skip this brining, if you prefer not to. But I think this makes the chicken tastier and juicier.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Now rinse the chicken, dry well with paper towels, and cut it up into 8 pieces. Put it back in the fridge, while making the dredging mixes.
Beat the egg in the milk. Set aside.
In another bowl, or ziploc bag, mix the flour, spices and salt.

Add butter to a large shallow baking pan and place it in the preheated oven.

Get the chicken and start the dredging. Dip each piece first in the egg mixture, then in the flour mixture, till well-coated.
Arrange the pieces, skin side down, in the heated baking pan. The pieces should not be crowded.
Bake for 30 minutes. Flip the pieces. Bake for 15 minutes more.

If not browned enough, place under the broiler for 5 minutes.

Apple Pie

Fall is apple, cinnamon, and golden, flaky, buttery pastry. Nothing is a delightful and homely mix of all those flavors as a golden slice of apple pie. Served a la mode or just by itself, apple pie rocks! One of the mainstays of americana, apple pie  is sure to please most of us. Like other old dishes, there are as many variations in the secondary ingredients and method, as there are families. Betty Neels has dished out many an apple pie and apple tart in her books. This recipe, a combination of a few recipes I have come across in my search, is one I like, and  uses partially cooked filling, a pre-baked bottom crust.

apple pie

You will need a deep 9", preferably glass or ceramic pie pan.

For the pie
Ingredients

1. 1 recipe pastry for a 9" double crust pie -- recipe follows after this

2. filling ingredients :
    1/2 cup unsalted butter
      1 tsp ground cinnamon
    1/8 tsp salt
    3/4 cup sugar, + 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
    3 lb apples -- 6 -8 apples medium to large-- mix of Fuji, Red Delicious and Granny Smith or any other type -- peeled, cored and sliced -- 1/4" thick
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice

(I like my apple pie sweet rather than tart, so I use just one Granny Smith. I have used Gala too, at other times)



Melt butter. Toss apples in it till glazed. Reduce heat, cover and cook for about 5 minutes, till apples are partially cooked.
Stir in the lemon juice, cinnamon, salt, sugars, and cornstarch.
Raise heat and bring to a boil. Cook apples on high heat until juices become thick.
Transfer the filling  to a baking sheet. Let it cool.

Pour the filling into the pre-baked bottom crust(instructions below) in a pie pan. Cover with the second crust. Crimp the edge.
Cut slits into the top crust. Or make a lattice crust.
Brush with milk, or egg wash and sprinkle sugar on top.

Place in the lower third rack of the preheated oven - 350 F.
Bake for 1 hour or more ( or less, depending on the oven-- just watch for the bubbling and the browning) until the crust is a golden brown, and the filling bubbles.

 If the top crust starts to brown faster, cover it loosely with foil. It is a good idea to cover the edges with strips of foil right at the start.

PS: Once the pie is out of the oven, place it on a wire rack, and let it set -- for at least 3 hours. Do not cut into it right away. Patience pays! :)

For the pie crusts:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chilled butter or shortening -- I use butter, because I like the taste better
6 tbsp ice water

Combine the flour and salt using a whisk. Cut the butter into the  flour mixture until coarse crumbs form.
Add water slowly and combine everything using a fork or your fingers until it holds together. if it needs more ice water, add 1 tsp to 1 tbsp more, drop by drop. It shouldn't be smooth.

Divide into two halves. Form two disks. Wrap each in plastic wrap. Chill for at least half an hour.
Place each disk on floured surface, and roll out evenly into two 12" " circles. Using the rolling pin, lift one crust and line the pan. Prick with fork all over. Line with parchment or aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or beans. Be sure to cover the edges. Pre-bake the crust at 425 F oven for 12 minutes. Remove parchment and weights and bake for 4 -5 minutes more. Cool.  Pour in the cooled filling. Now place the other rolled pastry on top of filling. Cut vents on top using a sharp knife, to let steam escape. I have made the pie without prebaking the bottom crust, and that came out fine too. Brush a little egg white on the bottom crust before pouring in the filling.

Bake as said before.

Note: Readymade pie crusts in pans are available. But they are smaller, even though it says 9". Frozen crusts are available, and are all right, but not as good as homemade.

Of course there are plenty of sites on the internet that gives you good recipes for apple pie. Just google it, experiment, have fun with it. This one is tailored for my taste and ease of making -- like I said it is a combination of methods. You might find something better suited for you. The fun is in the search too ,and the web is a treasure trove :)

Serve warm pie with vanilla ice cream on top for true comfort food experience. :)



mixed fruit tartlets