Ethakka Tholi Thoran / Raw Banana Peel Stir Fry With Coconut

One of the most utilized plant is banana. If you have a banana tree at home, you would know how each part of it is never neglected or disgarded. Banana leaf is used to serve, banana flower can be used in making cutlets or stir fry, stem gets edible in the form of another yummy stir fry, banana itself can be either eaten raw or cooked...the most favorite being banana chips and even the banana peel can turn into a very delicious stir fry to be paired with rice. One banana tree and its multiple uses. Isn't it amazing?

Remember, couple of weeks ago I had posted the recipe for banana chips. And how I had asked to save the banana peel to make a stir fry. A bit delayed though, but still I made it a point to share the recipe for it here before Onam. If you happen to make the banana chips for onam sadya, then do not throw away the banana peel, they indeed make a very delicious thoran, that can be served for your sadya too. So here you go, the recipe for it is here.

Nadan Beef Curry ~ Kerala Beef Curry

Jacob is not very picky about food. So it gets so easy to plan a meal. But if its Kappa, he just can't think of any other side but Beef curry. So if we have Kappa vevichathu at home, then its for sure we have Beef curry also. I am slowly starting to like that combo too; but my first preference would be Kappa and Meen curry. We are yet to find out, which combo is going to be Jordan's pick. For now, he will dig into both.

Cooking the beef in a pan rather than in the pressure cooker enhances its taste, as the beef pieces tend to get soaked up in the gravy as it cooks. However, pressure cooker is easy way to cook up the beef, but only when the curry sits for a while will the beef pieces soak up the gravy and enhance its taste. I usually go by the pressure cooker way to cook it up, because that's easy. The recipe remains the same whether you cook it in the pressure cooker or a pan. So, would you like to have some beef curry to go with your Kappa /Rice/ Chapathi/ Appam etc. then here is the recipe to the Nadan Beef curry.

Butternut Squash Erissery

The one thing I am thankful for is that my family is not very particular of having just the Indian veggies for our meals. We do cook any other veggie available, the Indian way and love them. Butternut squash is just one of them. When made erissery out of them, they are just perfect to even serve it for sadya. Since Vishu is almost around the corner, I thought I should be publishing this post for you guys to try for Vishu Sadya.

If you happen to be living in a place where butternut squash is available everywhere, but pumpkins are rarely seen, other than during thanksgiving, then this is one thing you should try, to relish on something similar to what your taste buds have been used to. Here's how to make it.

Prawns Pollichathu

We don't have prawns served at our place, very often. My lil one doesn't like it. But rarely, when we make it, we try different dishes with prawns to try it ourselves. Last time, we bought it, we thought of making this Prawns Pollichathu. It tasted awesome with some steaming rice.

Have you tried Meen Pollichathu that I had posted a long time back. It is one of the popular posts on blog. We love it anytime. We wanted to create something similar with prawns and it was not disappointing either. It was a great side to go with rice and buttermilk to make our lunch so finger licking good. Here is how we made it.

Dates Payasam

Onam Sadya is incomplete without a payasam. Infact, its the highlight of an onam sadya, right? We always try to go with the Cherupayar Parippu Payasam for Onam Sadya. Ever since I was a kid, the onam sadya at home always had Cherupayar Parippu payasam for sadya. Other payasams are usually had for other occasions. If you are not so strict about having a particular payasam for onam then you could try a variety of payasams for your sadya. One such payasam is Dates payasam.

The highlight of this payasam is that no sugar goes into it. Its just the sweetness of the dates that makes this payasam yum. So if you are open to trying something new for this onam then go ahead and try it. You wouldn't be disappointed :). Also, this can be made quickly and that too it gets done with just one greasy pot :). Now that is one plus to try it for onam, when you have loads of dishes to do after the sadya.

Kaplanga Pulissery

Pulissery or Moru curry is a must for Sadya. I am not a big fan of sambar but Pulissery and Parippu curry are my favorites to pair with rice. Being married to a sambar lover, we do keep rotating all possible gravy options for our meals, so that both of us get to have their favorites.

Pulissery has different versions. Some just have the seasoned buttermilk, which is usually called Moru kachiyathu at our place and others have veggies like cucumber or papaya or okra etc. that is added along with coconut to the seasoned buttermilk and that is termed as Pulissery. Having those veggies soaked in buttermilk, to bite on is a special treat. It just pairs so well with rice.

Kerala Parippu Curry

Onam is fast approaching. Sadya is what comes into my mind when I speak of Onam. We don't usually get to eat food on banana leaf, otherwise. So, Onam Sadya is so looked forward to. Last year, we managed to make a mini sadya at home, for the first time, after having Jordan. We made the pookalam too. The little one was too excited that all the effort seemed, so worth. The other day when I told him that onam is in like a weeks time. He said he wants a sadya. My jaws dropped. I didn't expect him to remember last years celebrations. But he remembers every bit of it.

I remember asking my parents to take me for a sadya at the karshaka market (that is the place were we would get sadya served on banana leaf) when we came to kerala during one vacation. My Mom laughed and said, "usually kids ask for biriyani or porotta-chicken or icecream treat etc. But I asked for sadya". I guess my kido has also gone after me. He loves the whole sitting down for sadya and having the spread infront of him on banana leaf. Ohhh...I just can't wait to have sadya now.

Papaya Thoran / Papaya Stir fry with coconut

An overdose of anything would make you hate it. That is what happened to me w.r.t papaya thoran. i used to be a big fan of this thoran. I used to even like eating raw papaya. But when I moved to the hostel, it was served every other day, just because they had surplus papaya growing in their vegetable garden. I remember hating it since then.

After so many years had passed, when I started to spot the street vegetable vendors in pune, display it among the variety of vegetables, I got tempted. I got one and tried it. We licked clean the bowl. Ever since we used to buy it now and then to make it at home.

Kovakka Kichadi or Ivy Gourd in yogurt sauce

Onam Sadya has a wide list of items on the menu and one of it is Kichadi. Pavakka Kichadi and Kovakka Kichadi is equally liked by all of us. We go with making of either one of them for the sadya at home. And it is not something that appears only for onam. We make it very often esp. in summer.

My MIL always makes us some pavakka kondattam and packs it to take home after vacation. She once tried kovakka kondattam too when she had too much kovakka from her kitchen garden. We liked it too, but not as much as pavakka kondattam. So we used to fry it and make kovakka kichadi out of it. They were superb that way. And far easy rather than slicing and frying the kovakka for kichadi. So if you have kovakka kondattam in hand, try making kichadi out of it. Its an instant one but tastes so good.

Homemade Sambar Powder

While growing up, I always used to see my mother take the effect to dry the ingredients for sambar powder in the sun and then grind it to make the homemade sambar powder. It would be an effort but the end result is that delicious sambar that no other brand masalas can offer.

And the peace of mind that you get to have homemade product because you very well know what went into it and are not worried of the impurities that are present in the store bought ones. Oh, and that smell that gets filled in your home is just pure divine.

Pazha Manga curry/ Mango Curry

When it is summer, somehow to feel better and fresh from the scorching heat that leaves you dull and drained out of energy, you start thinking about good things that summer gives and it is things like Mango, Watermelon etc. This year my mind is stuck with mangoes. Well, every year it does :). May it be in the form of drinks or icecream or even curry, I just looove them.

This curry is an absolute bliss. I had a hard time finding smaller variety of mangoes with which it is usually made. But it didn't stop me or my craving from relishing it. They just make way to a happy meal. You got to try it and I am sure you would get hooked to it.

Kerala Kadala Curry

Kadala curry - one awesome side dish to go with Appam/ Idiyappam/ Puttu/ Parotta/ Chapathi or even rice. There are very rare chances of a mallu to have not had it or hate it. 

I have always loved to pair it with puttu. Every time I make it, I remember my mother making it on weekends, esp. sunday's. She would be hurriedly making it to serve it for breakfast before we head to the church. Appam, Idiappam, Puttu etc. where the speciality of the weekends unlike the weekdays when there would be school and we would hardly sit down and eat breakfast with the fear of missing the school bus. Oh and we would have the breakfast twice on sunday's. One before we head to the church and one after we are done with the mass and the catechism :). 

Prawns curry

This curry literally disappears real fast at our place. Jacob is a big fan of it . The township that I grew up in was far from the sea. So we never got to eat prawns, while living there. I am talking about those times when there were no malls. These days no matter where you live, you do have these available as frozen foods. 

I used to include different masala/ spices to make it flavourful but the result was not what I was looking for. Then one vacation, when I was home, my mom said that her sister ( my aunt), Lisamma Aunty makes superb prawns curry and we should call her up and get the recipe. When Aunty gave the recipe I was like, what! Is it all that makes the prawns curry taste. Are you sure you are not missing out on any ingredient. It's so simple and made with minimal ingredients but lip smacking good.

Here is the recipe for that amazing prawns curry.

Beetroot Thoran / Beetroot Stir fry with coconut

Thoran is so close to heart, for a Mallu. I love stir fries too but something with coconut in it, is so heavenly. I remember being a beetroot hater as a kid. But now when I think of it, I feel so foolish of myself to have avoided a beautiful and yummy veggie for all those years. So to make it up, this veggie makes its appearance on our menu quite often, now. 

And nope, this veggie just doesn't limit to savory stuff, but they make a great ingredient in cakes and halwas too. This beetroot thoran is just one way they are being served at our place. If you would want to try it, here is the recipe.

Pavakka Kichadi

Bitter gourd and me have had issues for long and till date it has not changed but yeah resolved a bit with time. I love it fried, in the form of Kondattam. So these bitter gourd are not frequently seen in my kitchen.

But when Onam comes and you have to make a khichadi, I get these and make it this way. It has a bit of frying involved which makes it less bitter, so we get to enjoy it with the sadya. This is how I make it.

Squid roast / Kanava roast

Squid is not a frequent visitor on the menu at both Jacob's as well as my house. The times we had squid from outside, were those fried ones that we usually avoided. 

I have had squid at one of my relatives place in Bangalore. And that taste had lingered around for a while. So once when I saw squid in the market, we decided to buy it to recreate the same. Jacob was all in for the game. But the store keeper packed up a different order for us which happened to be octopus. I might be a foodie but not a bizarre  one. Sorry I consider octopus under that bizarre category. I just can't think of it to be eaten. 

Kerala Parotta

Kerala Parotta is a must to order while at a Kerala restaurant. Both of us love it. But while in US, we never got a chance to have it at any of the Indian restaurants. Its just the frozen ones that we used to get at the Indian store that we heat up and have. Thus, we thought of giving it a try at home. And guess what it came out so good.

Layered, fluffy and soft Kerala parotta made for a yummy lunch. We literally went back to those old days when we used to visit the restaurant and without giving any second thought or even drifting through the menu would blindly order it. We have tried making it couple of times, but this recipe was the best out of all.

Vazhachundu thoran / Banana flower stir fry

At my home, we have never bought Banana flower from the market. We had banana trees planted and every time it flourishes, every part of it would take the shape of a dish. Few bananas would be kept apart to ripen, while others go into making of chips, stir frys , kalan etc. There were dishes made out of the raw banana peel and also the banana stem. Oh and how can I forget the extracting of honey from underneath the banana flower petals. I used to love it. In short, maximum utilization of having a banana tree at home.

However, now when I buy banana flower from market, I always think how good were those days when we used to have those organic food from our own vegetable garden. My mom laughed at me when I proudly told her that we got hold of some banana leaf(torn and sad looking) and bought it to make Meen pollichathu. 

Ela Ada / Valsan

I am one happy soul, if I get to have something to bite on during tea time with the coffee/tea. If it is homemade then my happiness doubles. During my hostel days, when we would return from college in the evening, it would be time for tea. We would pass by the mess, to peek in and see what would be served as snack with tea. If its Puffs, Banana fritters/Ethakka Boli, Ulli bhajji / Onion fritters etc. we would rush to our room to grab our coffee mug and get back to the mess to have them. If it was plain bun, tiger biscuit etc., which were usually served on friday's then we wouldn't even bother coming down for coffee once we get to our own room, as if it was not worth the effort climbing up and down the stairs to grab it.

My mom used to make something to munch on for snacks so that we could have it during tea time. I remember having these as snacks after we got back home from our play time. And I would then sit in front of the TV to watch Small Wonders (a TV show) while I enjoyed the snack. Luckily I had some banana leaf handy, when I thought about it and I could make them to go with tea. It just melted in my mouth. I then realized, I had to crave this simple ada real bad so that I could appreciate this snack more than how I did, while I was a kid. If you manage to get some banana leaf, this is a must try. You would love it.

Varutharacha Mutton curry / Mutton in Roasted Coconut Gravy

We don't indulge in mutton often, but when we do, there is always a push towards making this varutharacha mutton curry. It tastes yumm this way.

This curry may sound to be time consuming, but it's not that big a task and it is all worth it. Last time I made this curry to mellow down the Monday blues that usually hits us by the second half of EVERY Sunday. We paired it with some Kerala/malabar Parotta and it did the trick of bringing in life to the otherwise dull and Monday-blue-attacked-Sunday night.