asha's seafood stew

a hearty stew, me hearties! a reminder of my pirate days. ya, right!

asha's seafood stew

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. shrimp
1/4 lb. scallops
1 skinless fillet of salmon, diced
1 small can crabmeat
1 med. onion, chopped
3 stalks of green onion, chopped, keep aside a tbsp or so for garnish.
3 celery stalks, chopped
6 green chilies, slit (according to your taste - this here will be hot)
6-7 cloves of garlic, crushed ( again, acc. to your taste)
1 small piece of ginger, crushed
1/4 tsp turmeric (optional)
3 leek stems, chopped
3 roma tomatoes, chopped
3 small Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1-2 tbsp clam juice
1 tbsp vinegar
1 can coconut milk
Olive oil
Salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes

Method:

Pan sear all the seafood (except the crabmeat),  sprinkled with some salt and black pepper, a pinch of turmeric,  in a little olive oil, for three minutes.  Set aside. Drain the crabmeat. Set aside.

Heat 2-3 tbsps of olive oil. Saute the onion and garlic in it, till they wilt. Add the ginger, leek,  the green chilies, and green onion.  Stir well, cook for a couple of minutes. Add the crushed red pepper. Saute for a minute. Add the tomatoes. Stir for two or three minutes. Add the clam juice. Add the wine. When it boils, add the coconut milk . If it is too thick, add about half a cup of water. Let it come to a boil. Add  the vinegar now. Add  the carrots and potatoes. Cook till tender. Add the seared seafood, and the crabmeat. When the stew comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with green onions.

To make it easier,  microwave the potatoes and carrots separately.

Serve on its own. Or with rice. Or roti.

seafood stew with rice

seafood stew with rice and spinach mezhukkupuratti

roast turkey aftermath

Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without the roast turkey. But then there are the leftovers. And so naturally, to soups, and paté.

turkey paté with rye bread

Easy paté

Sauté 2 cups of the cooked turkey meat with a half cup of chopped onion, and 2 tsp of chopped garlic, in 2 tbsp of olive oil. At this point, I add either chopped green chili peppers or crushed red pepper flakes. That is optional. Grind this spiced meat in the food processor along with a cup (or more -- to your taste) of cream cheese or sour cream. A tbsp or two of coarse- grained mustard may be added too, if you like. Add a 1/4 cup of chopped tomatoes, any color bell peppers, a tbsp of chives or spring onion, and fried bacon bits, if you happen to have some,  to this and mix well. You may add cheese too, if you like.

Now serve as a dip, spread, in rolls etc.

turkey paté pinwheels

Above is the same paté rolled in grilled and buttered tortillas, and garnished with jalapenos.

For info on the bread, please go to "my gallery".

panzanella

I like this Italian salad for the obvious reason that it is addictively delicious. And that we can use up leftover breads. Especially when there is a little more than usual, after a frenzied bread-baking period.
And I can pretend that I am eating healthy as there are  some vegetables in here --( compare it to bread pudding! another item that I like ). The other day we had to do a lot of work in the yard, including some big time tree pruning. By the time it was done, we really appreciated the crunch and chewiness of this salad. Along with a glass of wine, it tasted like heaven!

I am not going to do the ingredients list for this one. hehe

Let's  go straight to the making. This is what  I did -- dont know if it's the right way, but it worked fr me.

400° F oven. Halve a baguette lengthwise or cut long thick strips of a boule on a baking sheet. Toast in oven for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile heat two or three tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Medium heat. Add a few crushed - 4 or 5 - cloves of garlic. Let'em sweat in there. (serves them right! ). Now is the time to prepare the veggies you want to add. I had some yellow cherry tomatoes -- about 2 cups, an orange bell pepper, a few diced  red tomatoes, and some arugula. Of course, a sliced red onion should be there. And chopped fresh basil. . Put all these except the arugula in a large mixing bowl. Add a little salt and freshly ground pepper. Check the garlic. Add crushed red pepper flakes to the oil, if you like. I did. You may take out the garlic chunks now, if you prefer. Pour in the hot  garlic oil into the mixing bowl with the veggies. . Toss well. Get the toasted bread out of the oven, and tear  to bite sized pieces. Add that to the bowl. Toss . Add the arugula. Toss. A round of olive oil, if you like. Sprinkle goat cheese on top. Garnish with more basil. Enjoy with a glass of wine. :)

PS: You may add other veggies to this salad, grilled or pan-seared for a minute or two. Zucchini, butternut squash, green beans, mushrooms and asparagus -- all will add spice and substance to the experience. and what if we added various meats or fish? wow.

Kerala yellow split pea & snake gourd stirfry---parippu-padavalanga thoran

A simple Kerala meal has three main dishes to accompany rice. One dish with a sauce that can be mixed with the rice, called chaarukoottan. This could be a lentil-based vegetable stew-like dish, a yogurt-based dish with sauce, a broth-like vegetable dish, a coconut milk based dish, or a fish or meat or egg dish with sauce. The second accompaniment to rice is a dry or semi-dry dish -- this could be a vegetable stirfry called thoran or a mezhukkupuratti, or meat stirfry, or a lentil, or egg. The third side would be a varavu -- a fried something. Again, this could be a fried fresh or dried, salted fish, a fried vegetable or fried meat. Salads like pachadi, kichadi are other sides. Pappadams, pickles, relishes and kondaattams and yogurt are always there, as sides that enhance the whole meal.

This recipe here is a tasty accompaniment to rice and sambar or rasam, or rice and any meat or fish stews. Basically, it is a lentil-vegetable stirfry. It is a "thoran" because it has coconut in it. A really simple meal would be if we had this with rice and yogurt and a hot or tangy pickle.

Ingredients:

yellow split pea - 1/2 cup
snake gourd, cut in small pieces- 2 cups approx.
onion, cut in half and sliced, - 1/2 cup
garlic, crushed - 4 cloves
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
crushed red pepper - 1-2 tsp
coconut, grated - 1/2 - 3/4 cup
mustard - 1/2 tsp
dried red chili, broken into 2 pieces- 2
curry leaves
salt
oil - 3 tbsp

Soak the yellow split pea in water for a few hours. Cook with a pinch of turmeric till tender, not mushy.

Prepare the snake gourds. Cut into pieces, and cook in a little water, till tender but firm.










Heat oil in a wok or skillet. Pop the mustard seeds. Add onion and garlic and curry leaves.Add the dried red chili peppers, and the crushed red pepper. Saute for a few minutes till onion is wilted and garlic is a light brown. Add the grated coconut. Stir well. Medium heat. Saute for a few minutes. Add the cooked lentil and snake gourd. Stir well. Add enough salt. Mix well till everything is incorporated.

Serve with rice along with a chaarukoottaan., or by itself, with yogurt, and a pickle, if you like.


A note about the rice -- all the above dishes go best with Kerala matta rice.

matta

However, the parboiled rice that we use here does the job all right too.

Shortbread thumbprint cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
11/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

raspberry jam for filling

350°F oven.

Whip butter till fluffy. Stir in sugar + cornstarch + flour.
Beat well -- 3-4 minutes on high.
Make 1" inch balls out of dough. Place each ball 1" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Make small indentation with thumb in the center of each dough ball. Chill for 20 minutes at this point -- optional.
Fill each indentation with a scant 1/4 tsp jam.
Bake for 10 -12 minutes, till the edges begin to turn a very light golden brown.

Transfer cookies to cooling rack.

adapted from allrecipes.com

The stew in the movie "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"



This scene from one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies is a very sad one. It upsets me to see this dangerous intrusion. But for a while now, I've been focused on the food on that table. Now, whenever I see this scene I get real hungry. At such times, anything won't do. I want that same stew in those same bowls, on that rugged table, with the same chunks of rustic bread. I had to make that stew.

Off I went to googleland and of course there is a page where people discuss this. The movie was made in Spain, the director was Italian. A writer on that page points out that the director kept yelling to Lee Van Cleef to "eat the minestrone", so it could be minestrone. I learn from a Spanish person on that site that the stew would definitely be Andalucian -- specifically of the Almeria and Granada provinces, where the movie was made.  The food must have been catered from local sources.

According to the Andalucian recipe  the main ingredient would usually be rabbit or chicken, with some veggies including potatoes, broad beans, leeks, and cabbage, and also dried beans. He also suggests  that the stew would have turmeric, cumin, and crushed black  pepper. There is a recipe there too, which is very similar to some of the stews and soups (so-called curries) that we make back home, the only difference being in the use of stock. We mostly use coconut milk, water or lentils cooked to a paste and diluted. Then I read more about the cuisine of the Andalucian regions. Apparently it had a rich Arabian flavor -- so saffron was used too.

After incorporating all these details, I had to make something that I know the folks around here will eat. So I chose beef as the meat. I couldn't get any broad bean/ fava bean -- so I used lima beans. And of course I made it hot. With the rustic bread I made, the stew was a success. I am glad to say that it was devoured as hungrily and enjoyed as deliciously, as by some of the characters in the movie.

rustic Spanish stew from the movie "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

beef for stew -- 2 lb
black pepper, ground -- 1 tsp
paprika - 1/2 tsp
onions, chopped -- 1/2 cup
garlic, 6 cloves, crushed
leeks, 2 stems chopped
green onion, cut at an angle, in 1'' pieces
green chili pepper -- 4 (optional)
crushed red pepper flakes - 1-2 tsp ( as per your preference)
turmeric - 1 tsp
saffron - a pinch or two
cumin - 1 tsp
Yukon gold potatoes, peeled whole - 4
half a napa cabbage, shredded roughly
1- 2 cups lima beans, cooked ( I used a packet of frozen lima)
beef stock -- 3 cups ( I use knorr's)
Olive oil
salt, as needed

Method:

Clean meat. Add the black pepper and paprika to the meat and mix well.
Heat some olive oil -- 1 or 2 tbsps -- in a cast iron pot or any other stew pot, and brown the meat. This step is optional.
Remove the meat from the pot. Add a tablespoon ( or as needed) of olive oil.
Saute the onions, garlic, green chili, and leeks in the oil, till they wilt. Medium heat. Add the turmeric, cumin and crushed red pepper flakes to this. Stir well. Now add the meat. Pour in the stock. Bring it to a boil.
Add the potatoes. Reduce heat. . Let it simmer. Add the saffron. Cover and cook for 20 to 30 minutes. Check the potatoes with a fork. Now add the green onions, and the cooked lima beans. Add the roughly shredded napa cabbage. Give the stew a good stir. With a fork, split the potatoes, for that rustic look. Add more water, and bring to boil, in order to get the consistency you prefer.

Serve with rustic bread.

Kerala meat masala

Row 1 from L -cinnamon, poppy seed
Row 2 from L -star anise, fennel seeds, cloves
Row 3 from L -cardamom, ground nutmeg, black peppercorns

Kerala/ Malabar has been the land of spices from ancient times, as early as King Solomon's times. And Malayalis obviously use a lot of spices in their food.

Like I keep saying, the masala mix varies according to the family, the region, the community, the state etc. etc. Google it, and you'll get many entries. But for the Malayali, the most common basic meat masala mix is the same, more or less.




Here I am going to share my mom's basic mix (picture above). We can always add to this, the other usual culprits  -- turmeric, coriander, red and green chili, cumin, asafoetida, fenugreek, mustard, poppy seed, ginger, garlic, bay leaves, curry leaves etc. according to the recipe. Not all recipes need all the spices.

The basic meat masala mix is somewhat like the Chinese five-spice, except that we have about 8 spices in the mix. I have the Malayalam words for each too :

cloves -- karayampu or grampu
cinnamon -- karukapatta
fennel -- perumjeerakam
black pepper-- kurumulaku
star anise-- thakkolam
cardamom -- aelakka
nutmeg+mace -- jaathikka + jaathipathri
poppy seed-- kashakasha

Now, the proportions  -- for one or two ( or 3 -- I am not trying to be difficult, but will make sure next time) tablespoons of masala mix: 8-10 cloves, 3-4 1" flat cinnamon pieces, 1 tsp of fennel seeds, 1 tsp of black peppercorns, 3 star anise, 6 cardamoms, 1/8 tsp of nutmeg, 1 tsp poppy seed, a pinch of mace. ( normally we use 1-2 tsps of the mix for a 2 lb. meat dish.)


Sometimes fennel is omitted, at other times, poppy seeds. So it's kind of personal, you see? Back home, we buy spices in bulk from a wholesale spice store, and get them ground and mixed by the shopkeeper. That's an easy way for  moms to send it with their children who live far away. But when you have the time, the spices are dry roasted and ground and packed in airtight bags. Refrigerating the mix is recommended in such cases, when you have larger quantities. The ideal way is to dry roast and grind your spices right when you are making your dishes -- which is what most households do back home. I do that when I feel like going that extra mile. But for nutmeg, I use the ground version, which is not ideal, they say.- :)