Author: Christine

Rice & Pasta Recipes

Healthy Red Fried Rice (using brown rice)

ChristineLeave a comment
My husband is the kind that feels weirdly uncomfortable if he hasn’t eaten anything from out. So I make it a point to “try” and make our home-cooked meals as healthy as possible. On a regular basis, all I do is limit the amount of oil. But today, I made fried-rice, using brown rice. I added beets to make it look red and tempting.

Ingredients:
Serves: 4

Brown Rice – 2 cup
Oil – 4 tbsp
Chopped Onions – 0.5 cup
Ginger-garlic paste – 1 heaped tsp
Meat masala – 1 tbsp
Beetroot – 2 medium-sized
Capsicum – 1
Broccoli – 1 cup

Step 1: Boil the rice until cooked. Strain and keep aside.

Step 2: Chop all your veggies into tiny pieces.

Step 3: In a large vessel, heat some oil. Now saute the onions until translucent.

Step 4: Add in the mixed veggies along with the ginger-garlic paste and meat masala.

Step 5: Once the veggies soften, add in the rice, little by little, and mix well.

Bombay Mutton Biryani
Rice & Pasta Recipes

Bombay Mutton Biryani

ChristineLeave a comment

Weekend Special! Every Saturday in Saudi (which is like Sunday elsewhere) Mom makes it a point to come up with something special. Today she decided to make some “Bombay Mutton Biryani”, and luckily, I got to watch while chopping up the onions and stuff.

Her key ingredient is this Bombay Biryani Masala by Mehran.You could follow the exact instructions on the back of this packet, or follow my Mom’s instructions.

Ingredients:
Serves: 4 

Basmati Rice – 2 cups
Mutton – 750 gm
Water – 1 cup
Ghee-1/2 cup
Oil – 1/2 cup
Chopped Onions – 4 cups
Raisins & Cashews – 1+1 handful
Garlic – 1
Ginger – 1
Tomato – 2
Yoghurt – 5 tbsp
Coriander leaves – 1 cup
Mint leaves – a handful
Bombay Biryani Masala by Mehran – 1 pack
Salt – to taste

Step 1: In a pressure cooker, add the chopped mutton with 1 cup water and salt to taste. Cook for about half an hour on medium flame. Remove the mutton pieces. You could make Mutton Broth-Soup using the broth.

Step 2:  In a non-stick vessel, add the oil and ghee mixture, and saute the onions until golden brown. Once done, remove the onions and stir-fry the cashews and raisins. Remove from oil and keep aside.

Step 3: Into this same vessel, add in the crushed ginger-garlic and saute until fragrant. Add the chopped tomatoes afterward. Cook until done.

Step 4: Add in 5 tbsp yoghurt, half-of-the-fried-onion-mixture, coriander and mint leaves, bombay biryani masala and the cooked mutton. Add salt to taste. Mix well & let it cook for another 4-5 minutes.

Step 5: Half-cook the basmati rice. Add this half-cooked rice over the mutton mixture. Cover and cook until the rice is completely done.

Step 6: Spread the fried onions, raisins and cashews on top. Serve hot.

For the Raita:

Onion – 1
Cucumber – 1
Mint & Coriander leaves – a handful
Yoghurt – 1 cup
Buttermilk – 0.5 cup
Salt – to taste

Chop the onion, cucumber and leaves into tiny pieces. Grab a bowl and mix all the ingredients together.

You’ll have to dig-deep for the mutton! 😀

Mains - Veg & Non-Veg

Chicken Dry Roast

ChristineLeave a comment
Who wouldn’t love their regular chicken curry to taste a little different?

Presenting… Chicken Dry Roast with a dash of pepper.

Ingredients:
Serves: 4
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Chicken – 0.5 kg
Chopped onions – 0.5 cup
Oil – 3-4 tbsp
Ginger-garlic paste – 0.5 tsp
Garlic paste – 1 tsp
Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Tomato paste – 3 tbsp
Chicken masala – 4 tbsp
Water – 1/4 cup (optional)
Lemon squeeze – 1 tsp
Vinegar – a few drops
Pepper powder – 1.5 tbsp
Salt – to taste

Step 1: Heat some oil in a non-stick pan. Saute the onions until translucent.

Step 2: Add in the ginger-garlic paste, garlic paste, chilli powder and tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes.

Step 3: Stir in the chicken pieces along with the chicken masala, pepper and water. Mix well. After about 5 minutes, add in the lemon squeeze, vinegar, pepper and salt. Cook until done.

Drinks

Sambaram (Spiced Buttermilk)

ChristineLeave a comment
Sambaram is a refreshing drink served in most parts of Kerala after a meal, as it is known for aiding digestion. This spiced buttermilk is so aromatic and flavorful, it’ll keep you asking for more.

Ingredients:
Serves: 2

Laban/Buttermilk – 1.5 cup
Water – 0.5 cup
(or Yoghurt – 1 cup; Water – 1 cup)
Grated Ginger – 1 tbsp
Green chillies – 2 (chopped)
Curry leaves – 6-8
Salt – to taste

Step 1: Blend all the ingredients.

Step 2: Strain.

Step 3: Serve cold.

Desserts & Sweets · Drinks

Falooda

ChristineLeave a comment
When you’ve got holidays, you don’t want to go through all the trouble of making something time consuming, but you want to treat yourself AND you hope its easy. Try Falooda.

Ingredients:
Serves: 4

Vermicelli – 0.5 cup
Basil Seeds – 4 tbsp
Milk – 1.5 cup
Rose water – 1 tbsp
Pink food coloring – 1-2 pinch
Condensed milk/Sugar – according to taste
Vanilla ice cream – 1 cup
Nuts and Mint leaves – to garnish

Step 1: Boil the vermicelli and basil seeds separately. Strain them and keep aside in different bowls.

Step 2: Blend the milk, condensed milk or sugar, rose water and pink food color.

Step 3: Add the vermicelli and basil seeds into the rose milk. Pour this mixture into glasses and serve with ice cream.

Garnish with nuts and mint leaves.

Note:

  • The rose water and food color can be substituted with Roohafza.

Rice & Pasta Recipes

Egg Fried Rice

ChristineLeave a comment
When I’m not in a mood to just make plain rice,  I make my hubby’s favorite “Fried Rice”. Its so simple, it hardly takes 10 minutes, once the rice is cooked.

Ingredients:
Serves: 4

Basmati Rice – 2 cups
Oil – 3 tbsp
Mixed Veggies – 2 cups
Ginger-Garlic Paste – 0.5 tsp
Chopped Spring Onion -1 cup
Egg – 2
Soy Sauce – 0.5 cup (or as required)

Step 1: Wash and rinse 2 cups of basmati rice. Cook until done, and strain.

Step 2: In a large vessel, heat some oil. Add in the mixed veggies along with the ginger-garlic paste. Once the veggies soften, add the spring onion too.

Step 3: Break 2 eggs into the pan and stir it around until cooked.

Step 4: Add in the rice and soy sauce in small quantities and mix well. Adjust the soy sauce according to the color and taste you are aiming for.

Desserts & Sweets

Rose-milk Jelly

Christine1 Comment
Rose milk is a treat loved by all. Why not make jelly out of it?

China grass or agar-agar is basically a settling agent, that can be used to give a jelly-like texture to anything you like.

Add some china grass into the rose-milk that you prepared, leave it to set in the fridge, and get set to hog.

Ingredients:

China Grass/Agar-Agar – 10 gm
Milk – 500 ml
Condensed milk – Half of a can (200 gm)
Rose water – 2 tsp
Pink food color – a pinch

Step 1: Cut the agar agar strips and drop them into a pan. Pour water until the strips are well immersed. Let them boil on low flame until the strips melt and are completely dissolved.

Step 2: In a  blender, mix all the remaining ingredients along with the agar-agar solution.

Step 3: Pour this into a tray and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours, or until set. Cut into pieces and serve.

Mains - Veg & Non-Veg

Prawn and Egg Curry

ChristineLeave a comment
Some fried prawns and chopped boiled eggs tossed into a basic tomato-onion gravy? Is it that simple? Oh yes, it really is!
Ingredients:
 
Oil – 3 tbsp
Prawns – 1 cup
Fish Masala – 1 tsp + 1 tsp
Boiled eggs – 3
Ginger-Garlic paste – 0.5 tsp
Tomatoes – 2
Chopped Onions – 1 cup
Pepper – 0.5 tsp
Coriander leaves – to garnish
Salt to taste 
Step 1: Coat the prawns with 1 tsp fish masala and some salt, and fry until cooked, in a pan with minimal oil. Remove the prawns and store.
Step 2: Blend the tomatoes, onions and ginger-garlic along with 1 tsp fish masala into a fine paste.
Step 3: In the same pan, pour this blended paste. Stir and cook until almost brown. 
Step 4: Chop the boiled eggs and add it into this mixture. Cook for another minute or two. Sprinkle some pepper if you like it spicy. Add salt to taste.
Step 5: Now mix in the prawns and serve. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Mains - Veg & Non-Veg

Kerala Moru Curry

Christine2 Comments
Moru Curry. Something that you can always find for lunch at my parent’s place. 
When I was a child, I always looked forward to reaching home after school to savor the “moru”. 
It has always had an important place on the dining table of most “Keral-ites”, and always will. 

Ingredients:

Buttermilk (Laban) – 1 litre
Ginger-Garlic Paste – 0.5 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Green chillies – 3
Salt – as per taste
Jeera powder – 0.5 tsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 0.5 tsp
Curry leaves – 6-8

Step 1: In a pan, heat some oil. Drop the mustard seeds and curry leaves and watch them splutter for a minute or two.

Step 2:  Blend the buttermilk along with the ginger-garlic paste, chopped green chillies, turmeric, salt and jeera. Pour this mixture into the pan and keep stirring on low flame for about 5 minutes, until it’s done.

Note:

  • Stir continuously to prevent curdling.

 

Desserts & Sweets

Rich and Creamy Fruit Salad

Christine1 Comment

“When life gives you fruits, make fruit-salad”.

When I go grocery shopping, I pick up plenty of fruits thinking I should incorporate a lot of it in my diet as they are healthy and nutritious and blah blah blah. By the end of the week, I realize I’ve hardly eaten any of it. When I have a lot of fruits in hand, and I’m not in a mood to eat them just as they are, fruit salad is my go-to option.

Mom-in-law’s super-awesome rich and creamy “Fruit Salad” recipe, that never goes wrong. I mean, seriously! Just look at it! Can it get any better? I don’t think so!

Ingredients:

Apple – 2
Banana – 1
Plum – 2
Grapes – 1 handful
Pear – 1
Cherries – 1 handful
Dates – 3-4
Condensed milk – 1 can
Fresh Cream / Ice-cream – 0.5 cup
Cream Cheese – 2-3 tbsp (optional)
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

Step 1: Wash, peel, de-seed and chop all your fruits into tiny pieces. Put these into a bowl.

Step 2: Add in the cream, ice cream/custard, cheese and mix.

Step 3: Pour condensed milk and adjust the sweetness to your taste.

Note:

  • Personally, I like to refrigerate before serving, for at least an hour, as I feel it tastes better that way.
  • Add in any proportion of fruits or cream, as it doesn’t matter.