Oct10

Spinach with Coconut Powder

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I like to have frozen spinach in my freezer for a very quick dish. This one is very simple and has a nice taste to it because of its coconut flavor with a hint of turmeric.

Ingredients:

-bag of frozen spinach
-2 tsp of coconut powder
-1 tsp of turmeric
-1 cup of water
-1/2 tsp of salt
-1 tsp of oil
-small onion diced
-clove of garlic diced
-small amount of mustard seeds

On the Kitchen Stove:

1. Add oil, mustard seed, onions, and pieces of garlic to a pan. Fry the onions until golden brown
2. Add your spinach, turmeric, and salt. Cover and keep it on low heat for 10 minutes.
3. Add coconut powder and water. Mix well. Keep it on low heat for additional 5 minutes.

Its a real simple and quick dish to have with rice. Enjoy.

Sep4

Beet Root Dry Curry

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For the longest time, I had a hard time cooking pieces of beet root and making a curry out of it. I just couldn’t get it right and every dish came out tasting so-so. Then I moved to grated beet root which was very simple and tasted good. However, I couldn’t forget the beet root curries I had growing up.

Finally after seeing my parents cook this dry beet root curry I found a great recipe that was worth following. Its all about heat (low heat) and taking your time with it.

Ingredients:

-2 tbsp oil
-1 large onion diced
-small green pepper
-2.5 cups of beet root (cut into small pieces)
-1 tsp salt
-2 tbsp cumin powder
-1 tbsp turmeric

On the Kitchen Stove:

1. In a pan with oil add onion and green pepper.
2. When the onions turn golden brown, add beet root. Cover and keep it on very low heat for 15 minutes.
3. At this step the beet root pieces will not be too soft. Add salt, cumin powder, and turmeric. Mix well. Cover again on low heat for 10 more minutes
4. Beet Root may try to stick to the pan so every few minutes mix everything together. You can turn off the heat when the pieces are nice and soft.

This is a really great and an easy recipe to add to your meal.

Aug26

Sri Lankan Fish Cutlets

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I have always loved fish cutlets as far as I can remember. They are great by themselves with a little hot sauce because I like it spicy or with rice and curry. For a long time I thought they were really tough to make so I never even bothered trying especially in my small apartment. I only started making curries a year ago so making fish cutlets seemed like something I needed far more expertise in.

But after seeing a few pictures of them online I became a kid once again and really wanted to have a few (or the entire batch). I found a rather easy recipe and decided to go for it.

While I did have a recipe, I should have read it a little bit more carefully because some did come out a little burned (reducing heat can fix that) or not completely coated with the bread crumbs. See, I am not too big on frying any vegetables and making a curry so I haven’t got too comfortable with deep frying…yet.

I am still posting my not so perfect fish cutlets because its a big achievement for me.

Ingredients:

-Can of pink salmon (I like the Bumble Bee wild Alaskan)
-one large onion chopped
-3-4 green peppers
-3-4 garlic minced
-1/2 tsp mustard seed
-1/2 tsp fennel seed
-1/2 tsp cumin seed
-2 tsp oil (for the mixture)
-oil for deep frying
-two medium potatoes (boiled and mashed)
-1/2 tsp turmeric
-1 tsp curry powder
-1 lime
-Bread crumbs (I used whole wheat bread crumbs)
-2 large eggs
-salt

On the Kitchen Stove

1. Boil potatoes-peel skin and mashed.
2. Add 2 tsp oil, mustard, fennel, and cumin seed in a large pan
3. Once mustard seed begins popping, add onions, garlic, and green peppers
4. When onions are golden brown add salmon, turmeric powder, curry powder, salt, and lime.

5. Add potatoes into the salmon mixture. I mashed the potatoes and salmon mixture when they were both in the large pan to get the same consistency.

6. Taste the mixture to see if its exactly what you want and let it cool.

Breading:

Once the mixture is cool, take a small amount, roll it into a ball, and as Ramona from Curry and Comfort said they should be about golf size. I used egg whites along with whole wheat bread crumbs to bread the cutlets.

Deep fry the cutlets. In total I made about 22 cutlets and they were gone……..fast!

I am sure there were a few tricks I missed in the preparation of cutlets but regardless, these were great. I also liked surprising my husband with them.

*Next time, I would add pepper to the salmon/potato mixture to make it more spicy

Aug18

Spicy Ramen Noodle Soup with Eggs

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I am sure everyone has had ramen noodle soup atleast once. sometimes all I can manage to make for a meal is ramen noodle soup-those are the days when you are just over your head and only want to spend tops 10 minutes in the kitchen. I have found a great recipe that is a sure hit everytime I make it. Its very very simple and SPICY!


With these additional three ingredients; eggs, pizza chili, and cilantro you can make your ramen noodle soup stand out. Since it’ll taste so good you may not feel so guilty you just had ramen soup for dinner.


Ingredients:

-Shrimp flavored ramen noodle soup
-two large eggs
-1 1/2 tsp of pizza chili
-handful of cilantro
-2 cups of water

On the Stove:

1. Cook Ramen noodle per instructions on package.
2. On low heat, add pizza chili and eggs to the pan.
3. Bring to boil.
4. Garnish with Cilantro

Great on a rainy day! Do you have a favorite Ramen Noodle soup recipe?

Aug14

Tin Fish Curry

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For a very quick dish I like to always have a can of Pink Salmon and can of tomato sauce (no salt added) in my pantry. With just these two main ingredients and your usual spices you can make a great dish for the night to enjoy.

Ingredients

-1 can of pink salmon
-1 can of tomato sauce (no salt added)
-1 tsp oil
-3-4 garlic chopped
-1 medium onion chopped
-1/2 tsp mustard seed
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 fennel seed
-1 green chille minced
-1 tsp curry powder
-1 tsp yellow powder

1. Combine salmon and tomato sauce together. Let it sit for a few minutes while you prepare on the stove.

On the Kitchen Stove

2. In oil, add mustard seed, fennel, garlic, onion, Chile.
3. When the onions have turned golden brown add in salmon that has been combined with tomato sauce.

4. Mix everything together. On low heat cover and let it sit for 5 minutes
5. Add curry powder, yellow powder, and salt. Mix well.
6. Let it sit on the stove on low heat for 10-15 mins. The tomato sauce should combine with the fish well.

Enjoy with rice or make a sandwich.

Aug1

Dry Lotus Root Curry

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I have always liked my parent’s lotus root curry. It has a crunchy bite to it which makes it stand out among the other curries

Ingredients

-1 1/2 cups of lotus root (cut into medium pieces)
-medium onion, sliced
-3-4 garlic chopped
-1 medium green pepper
-1/2 tsp mustard seed
-1/4 fennel seed
-1/2 tsp fenugreek seed
-1/2 tsp yellow powder
-1/2 tsp cumin powder
-1/2 tsp coriander powder
-1/2 tsp fennel powder
-1 1/2 cup of water
-salt to taste

On the Kitchen Stove

1. You can buy packets of lotus root in the frozen section of any indian store. Wash and cut into medium size pieces.

2. Heat oil and add mustard, fennel, and fenugreek seed.
3. Once the mustard seeds pop add onions, garlic, and green pepper.
4. When the onions turn brown add lotus root, mix it well with the oil, let it stand in the onion mixture for few minutes, and add water.
5. Add yellow powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, and fennel powder\
6. On low heat, cover, and cook for 15 mins
7. Add salt to taste

This goes great with string hoppers or rice.

Jun29

Simple Salmon Curry

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I keep a lot of frozen packages of salmon in the freezer because I love having salmon whenever possible. I am very much a chicken/fish/seafood type of girl. Whenever I feel like I must have salmon I’ll take a few frozen fillets and let it thaw for a few hours.

Cut the fillets into small pieces. Add 1 tsp of curry powder (I use Niru curry (chilli) powder), 1 tsp of turmeric, and 1/2 tsp of salt

Add a little bit of water so to be sure all these pieces are coated with the spices and they stick to the pieces

Cut one medium size onion length wise and handful of garlic also in large pieces

Add mustard seed, coriander seed, and cumin seed to a pan with oil. Wait a minute or two

Add the onions and garlic

Mix the onions and garlic well and place the salmon pieces into the pan. Again, Mix everything together. Add about 1/2 cup of water and cover the pan. Leave the pan covered, on low heat, for 20 mins. Add curry leaves. You can add water as much as you like in this process depending on how dry or not you want it.

Serve with warm rice!