Meat Pulav

Ingredients:

• Good Quality Rice – 1 Cup (with fine grains and fragrance : Basumathi or Jeera Sanna)
• Meat pieces (any kind except pork) – 1 ½ cups
• Cloves – 6
• Cinnamon – 2” stick
• Cardamom – 6 pods
• Onions – 5
• Garlic – 5 Cloves
• Green Chilles – 4
• Poppy seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Ginger – 1 Piece (about 2 inches long)
• Coriander leaves – 5 Sprigs
• Ghee – ½ cup
• Coconut -1
• Turmeric Powder – ½ teaspoon
• Salt – To taste
• Chilli Powder – ½ teaspoon

Method:
Mix meat with salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder. Cook it partially for a while and keep aside. Fry chopped onions, garlic, cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom in ghee. Grind the remaining ingredients to a fine paste. When the fried onion turns brown add the washed rice and stir twice. Then add the meat and ground masala, mix well. Cover the vessel with banana leaf and place a lid on top of it. It would be better if a few burning embers of coal are kept on the lid. Once the rice and meat are cooked the pulav is ready.

Lime Rice

Method:
This is also prepared as the Tamarind Rice. Instead of the Tamarind juice, extract juice from limes and add.

Coconut Rice

Method:
This is also prepared as the Tamarind Rice. Instead of Tamarind juice, grind and extract the milk of coconut and add. To obtain milk of coconut, grate the coconut and blend in mixer with sufficient water. Drain in cheese cloth to obtain coconut milk.

Tamarind Rice

Ingredients:

• Rice – 1 cup
• Tamarind – 1 lime size (juice to be extracted by soaking in hot water)
• Salt – ¼ Teaspoon (or to taste)
• Red Chillies – 4
• Mustard Seeds – 1 Teaspoon
• Fenugreek Seeds – ½ Teaspoon
• Bengal Gram Dal – 1 Teaspoon
• Black Gram Dal – ½ Teaspoon
• Curry leaves – 15
• Coconut – ½ (cut into small pieces)
• Vegetable Oil – ½ cup
• Peanuts – ¼ cup
• Water – 1 ¾ cup

Method:
Fry all the ingredients in oil except rice, tamarind and water. Then add rice, tamarind juice and salt. Stir for a while. Add water and cook for ½ an hour. After it boils, reduce the flame. The Tamarind Rice is now ready.

Chekke Kuru Curry (Jack Fruit Seed Curry)

Ingredients:

• Jack Fruit seeds – 1 cup (Boiled and skin removed)
• Salt – 1 teaspoon
• Chilli powder – 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder – ¼ teaspoon
• Modhull (Madhuli or lime) – half
• Curry leaves – 5
• Mustard seeds – ¼ teaspoon
• Coconut – ¼
• Oil – for seasoning
• Onion – 1
• Garlic – 1 clove

Method:
Crush jack fruit seeds and powder it to a rough consistency (not fine powder). Add salt, chilli and turmeric powder to it. Season with mustard seeds, chopped onion and crushed garlic and two broken red chillies in oil. When this is cooked, add the crushed jack fruit seeds and stir well. Add water as required for gravy. Grind coconut finely. When the water boils, add the coconut paste. After some time add the juice of “Modhuli” and allow it to boil.

Kemb (Colcosia) Curry

Ingredients:

• Kemb Stem – 4 (Take the stems before flowering . Once it flowers, it irritates the throat).
• Hot chillies – 10
• Sprouted Horse Gram – ½ cup (Optional)
• Onion – 2
• Garlic – 5 cloves
• Limes – 2
• Cumin seeds – 2 teaspoons
• Mustard seeds – 2 teaspoons
• Red Chillies – 2
• Curry leaves – 6

Method:
Remove the string from the “Kemb” steam and cut it into small pieces. Cook the sprouted Horse gram and “Kemb” well. Grind onion, garlic, cumin seeds and chillies. Add this to the cooked mixture and boil well. In a pan, season mustard, garlic, onion, red chillies and curry leaves in 4 teaspoons of oil, and put it in the curry. Keep it covered for 3 minutes and then remove from fire. Remember to add lime juice after the curry is cooked.

Pork Curry

Ingredients:

• Pork – 1 kg
• Water – 6 cups
• Red Chilly Powder – 6 teaspoons
• Turmeric Powder – 4 teaspoons
• Kacham Puli – 5 teaspoons (Kacham Puli is a vinegar extracted from a wild fruit). Concentrated Tamarind juice could be used instead).
• Cumin Seeds – 2 teaspoons
• Garlic – 2 cloves
• Raw Coriander Seed powder – 5 teaspoons
• Small Onions – 10
• Curry leaves – 10
• Ginger – 2 inches
• Green Chillies – 4
• Cloves – 8
• Cinnamon – 5 pieces
• Salt – to taste

Method:
Wash pork well twice. Drain out all the water by pressing the pork pieces. Rub salt, chilly and turmeric powder on it and keep for 10 minutes (The longer it is marinated the better). Cook on a low flame until all the water dries. Keep stirring or tossing, so that the pork does not get stuck to the bottom of the vessel. When all the water dries up, fat will start oozing out of the pork. At that time add a little water and keep the vessel covered. Finely chop and pound green chillies, onions, roasted cumin seeds, garlic, ginger and curry leaves. Add this when the water boils. To the boiling curry, add cloves and cinnamon and stir well. Keep it covered. Fry the raw coriander powder on a pan until it becomes coal black. Add it to the curry when all the water has dried up. When the pork is cooked, add puli juice. Stir well, dry well and remove.

“Khus Khus” (Poppy Seed) Payasa

Ingredients:

• Jeera Sanna (good variety) Rice – 1 cup
• Poppy Seeds – 1 ½ cups
• Sugar – 2 cups
• Coconuts – 2 grated
• Milk – 2 cups
• Ghee – ¼ cup
• Cardamom – 1 pod
• Raisins – 10
• Cashew nuts – 10

Method:
Soak rice and poppy seeds separately in water for three hours. Then grind both with grated coconut to a fine paste. Add a little more water when grinding. Strain the finely ground paste and remove the juice. Cook the juice with milk and ghee. Add raisins and cashewnuts fried in ghee, stirring well all the time.

Karjikai (sweet puffs)

Ingredients:

• Maida (all purpose flour) – 1 cup
• Daida (Crisco / Margarine) – 2 teaspoons
• Salt – to taste
• Gingelly (Sesame) – ½ cup
• Grated coconut – 1 cup
• Sugar – ½ cup
• Cardamom powder – from 1 pod

Method:
Mix salt and daida with maida. Sprinkle a little water to the mixture and knead well for 10 minutes. Divide into lime size balls. Roll each ball into a betel leaf size disc (about 2” diameter). Roast the gingelly. Roast the grated coconut on a flat pan until it is absolutely dry. Mix the coconut, gingelly, sugar and cardamom powder. On each rolled disc place about one teaspoon full of the coconut mixture and fold it into half moon shape to make karjikai. Press the curved edges and twist to keep the mixture in. (Moulds to make karjikai shapes are available in shops). Fry the kargikai in deep oil till they turn golden brown in colour.

ThambuttuChiroti

Ingredients:

•  Chiroti Rava (fine semolina) – 1 cup
• Maida – 3 cups
• Ghee – ¼ cup
• Sugar (powdered) – 3 cups
• Salt – a pinch

Method:
Soak Chiroti Rava in water (just enough to cover it), for one hour. Then sprinkle a little water, and knead the rava with maida, salt and two teaspoons of ghee. Knead well. Divide the dough into lime size balls and roll into thin discs with a rolling pin. After four discs are rolled out, apply ghee on top of each disc and place the 4 discs on e on top of another. Roll all the four discs together (like you would roll a bedding). With a sharp knife cut the roll into ½ inch width pieces to make 10-12 pieces. With the cut side facing up roll again rubbing a little ghee on the rolling pin. Each chiroti should be the size of a small betel leaf (about 2 inches in diameter). Fry the chiroti in oil. Then, sprinkle the sugar powder on both sides, cool and store carefully so that the chirotis do not break.