Grilled Chicken ~ Mediterranean Style

We did grill more frequently this year than the past years. But, somehow I kept pushing away or postponing the publishing of posts. But finally, as the boys are catching up on a movie, here I go drafting this post, to let go. 

If you are looking for easy grilling recipe, both in marination as well as cooking, then this is one keeper. Very basic ingredients are needed for its marination. Plus, its healthy too. Include these grilled chicken in your wraps or as sides - they are superb either way. 

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.

Kerala Fish Fry

Fish fry is one of the best thing to go with rice and moru kachiyathu and a stir fry. The only thing I hate about it is the smell that keeps lingering in the whole house after its done, making our clothes and bags also smell of it. Otherwise it is just super addictive.

At any point of the day, I would choose to go for fish fry rather than fish curry and so would Jacob and Jordan . They are so easy to fall in love with. Its so hard to drag my kido home after school or after play in the park. But bribing him to have fish fry for lunch/dinner after we get back home, would instantly turn him into a sweetheart who would listen to his mama :D. It is just so addictive and yum to have it with some rice and moru kachiyathu. If you do have a stir fry also to go with it, it can turn into a feast.

Tuna Thoran

I have been meaning to try this recipe for a long time. I had got the canned tuna and had been sitting in my store for so long. But since the expiry of these canned tuna is long I kept on procrastinating. Every time I procrastinate, it makes me think of one of our professors back in college. Every time someone would delay in submission of assignments or projects he would be like "What were you doing? Sitting on it and hatching eggs?" :P It used to be so hilarious but that atmosphere wouldn't be the right one to just laugh our lungs out right, because the professor might have been actually scolding someone. Anyways, this recipe has been pending for so long that I finally thought of trying it. And guess what, I always have canned tuna fish handy these days, in case I might want some non-veg side to prepare in just matter of minutes.

This recipe is from Nisha's blog. The very look of the picture on her blog made me tempt and wanted to try it. It is a slightly tweaked version of how my family likes it. Trust me you got to try it to enjoy what you have been missing.

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.

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. 

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.

Mutton stew / Lamb stew

The memories of X'mas and Easter from my childhood days include of having Appam and stew as breakfast on X'mas /Easter morning. I still remember coming back home after the midnight mass and having it as a midnight snack before going to bed to catch up on 2-3 hours of sleep. It used to taste heavenly, esp. if we have given up non-veg during lent.

When we made it, we just couldn't stop ourselves from having it even after we had it stomach full. Such was the level of craving we had for this mutton stew. Even now when I am writing it down, I can feel my mouth about to overflow.

Baked Chicken Thighs / Chicken Kebab / Tandoori Chicken

While we were in Bangalore, Saturday was assigned as the week's grocery shopping day. And by the time we would be done shopping, it would be almost time for lunch. So we would have our lunch from a restaurant near by. The must order included Tandoori chicken. Well we used to get tempted by the chicken going round and round on the grill kept just outside the restaurant that we could never forget to order it. We both used to love it.

Even now, when we go to Indian restaurants, Jacob is a happy soul if he gets to have those yumm tandoori chicken. I somehow don't like the amount of colour they add to bring in that amazing look. Otherwise, I am all in for it. 

Meen Pollichathu ~ Kerala style Baked Fish

One thing I miss the most here in the US, is a ventilated kitchen. Whatever you cook, the smell just remains within the house. If its some baked goodies, its ok because they leave the smell of the essence. But what if it is fish? Fishy smell is not really pleasant, isn't it? So we have almost given up frying fish, but the malayali in me can't resist it when I see the fish lined at the Indian/Asian stores here. So we indulge in these occasionally.

I remember having meen pollichathu long back, made by my mom's cousin, when we had come down to Kerala during our vacation. Those were delicious. I wanted to try it for so long.