Palm Sunday Kozhukkatta

There was this Sunday at church where we kids could play, play with smooth cream and green leaves, curl it up into shapes, making crosses, or just folding it until the brown creases show through and pretend they were work of art – all the while parents wouldn’t mind as long as we didn’t destroy the leaves or start a sword fight or trying to hold the thinner ends and try to fish or make them unholy by making them touch ground. It was this special day when you make kozhukkattas the previous night, it was not for the kozhukkattas but for the making and rolling and the filling and the smacking by our moms for dropping them on the ground that we waited for this special day. It is called Palm Sunday where Catholics celebrate the remembrance of arrival of Christ on a donkey into Jerusalem where the people waved and welcomed him with palm leaves singing Hosana (hence the name Hosana Sunday in Malayalam).

Certain areas in Kerala like Trichur make kozhukkata, others make pachoru (sweetened rice), and some others make avalnurukku, -- basically something sweet for this special day.

Today, Palm Sunday is the start of the Holy Week, a week full of ceremonies before Easter. It was surprising to me that Good Friday was not a Holiday in U.S, probably because you couldn’t wish Happy Good Friday and sell some stuff, like a Good Friday Fairy or something at McDonalds like a Good Friday Burger. Good Friday, though the name is suggestive of something good happening is not ‘good’ but a sad Friday since that’s the day Christ was crucified, and please don’t wish anyone Happy Good Friday since my friends have done that to me.

This recipe is for kozhukkatta. It is steamed rice dumplings filled with sweet coconut

Rice Flour used for making Appams – 1 cup (i.e. roasted and powdered rice flour)
Water – 2 cups
Ghee – 1 tsp
Salt

Mix the below list of ingredients with hand thoroughly and keep aside.
Cardamom powder – ½ tsp
Cumin – 1 tsp
Freshly grated coconut – 1 cup
1/2 cup jaggery

Bring water to a boil and take off from heat, add salt and ghee. Now slowly add rice flour ¼ cup at a time and make it to a smooth ball. Knead it well. You should be able to make small balls and it should stick. Divide dough to equal portions and make small balls. The important thing is to have a medium sized ball, since the filling will make it bigger and when you steam them, it won’t cook well.

Keep aside ½ cup of freshly squeezed coconut milk to stick the ends of the dough balls and to fill any holes that form. You can either make small balls and flatten them out and fill them with the coconut mixture or you can make a big depression inside the ball and fill it up. Dip your fingers in the coconut milk occasionally so that it is easier to handle the dough. Make sure the dough is lighter when you fill them with coconut mixture.

Steam them in idli cookers for 10 or 15 minutes. Serve with coconut milk as a dipping sauce. Refrigerate the leftovers for no more than one day.

Please dont wish me Happy Palm Sunday too, for there are some ceremonies and traditions where you just dont have to wish :-)

A brave woman’s journey

This is the first time I am making crabs in my life. I was (still a little) dead scared of these creatures. First of all, they look so scary and second you need to buy them fresh, oh my god! But I have eaten them so many times, once I ate so much, chewing even on the shells, I got a stomach ache. I just love to eat them.

But then to prepare, eeeewwwww! I don’t like the feeling of being scared. So, I put on my Brave Woman cap and decided to go and buy them. First I thought, I would go alone, I could get someone at the store to help me in getting those live ones into a bag, but then the thought of driving back with the creatures still alive in my car didn’t seem a good idea.

So, I got the help of my dear husband, who was teasing me all the way and even after eating. Grrrrrr! Now that will go down as a story in our family get together. He hasn’t finished teasing me on how I run when I see live fishes on the hook when he goes fishing. Hmph!!!

So what?? Big deal!! At least I prepared it. *sticking out my tongue*

Crab season typically starts when the weather turns colder. I bought blue crabs. I have no idea how to select a good one, but I think the best way is to choose a one that has all the legs and is huge and is alive and kicking. The live ones crawl to the bottom, so it is good to place the bucket in a slanting position to get the ones at the bottom. (Psst, all these I was watching other smarties do at the store :P)

Now pick them up, inspect and drop into your bag. And if you are like me, occasionally scream and jump when someone is doing that for you and get the entire store laughing at you. Very Funny! It is said, the crabs like these voice massages!

Bring them home, get the largest pot that would fit them all and keep water for boiling and add ½ tsp of turmeric powder and one whole lime squeezed. When the water is boiling, drop them all one by one holding each with a lengthyyy tongs. The blue crabs will turn orange and immediately immerse them in cold water. This will make the crab meat firmer for our curry.

Now is the cleaning process, you would really need to watch this live. If I can, next time I will put up a video of someone else cleaning! hehehe.

First break off all the legs, discard the tiniest legs at the end that has no flesh. Then with a knife, take off the orange outer shell by just poking at the bottom and pulling it apart. Clean out everything that doesn’t look right. I think some of it is good, but if you are not sure, except for the large chunks of meat, clean it out thoroughly. Below is the picture of the cleaned crab. If you want, you can cut through the middle and make these into two.

Below is a wonderful recipe for Crab in spiced and fried coconut paste.

This is for 8 blue crabs.
Grated Coconut – 2 cups.
Shallots – ½ cup

Heat 2 tsp of oil, Saute grated coconut until it turns brown in very low heat. Add shallots, 2 sprigs of curry leaves, 7 crushed garlic pods with the skin, 4 tsp of freshly grounded meat masala powder, 1 tsp of chili powder, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder.

Grind to a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a flat open pan, splutter mustard seeds, and add 2 fresh sprigs of curry leaves. Sauté 1 diced onion until brown, add 1 tablespoon diced ginger, 2 tomatoes chopped and add enough salt. Add some hot water to this paste and cook for 5 minutes until it comes to a boil. Add the crabs and the legs. Mix them thoroughly so that the paste covers the crabs, close and cook for some 10 minutes in medium heat.

Serve with rice or bread. You would really need to know the art of eating to eat a crab.

Kuzhalappam

Hey, wont it be great to have an event for Snacks with holes!

Kuzhalappam or Kozhalappam might be a distant cousin of those donuts and those uzhunnu vadas, if the hole is vital part of the dna of snacks. I am sure they come up with these holes just to fancy the kids, for the kids to get excited, wear it round their fingers like a giant diamond ring, and then munch on them. Oh what a wonderful life it would be if we could be kids again.

It is easier to make and stays longer makes it a Christmas time favorite of mine, since I can prepare it well ahead. The crunchy crunchiness and all those crumbs on the floor and around your mouth, oh what a way to welcome wintry Christmas.

Take 2 cups of white rice flour, mix ¼ cup of fresh shredded coconut. This will make the rice flour get some of the wetness of the shredded coconut. Now grind together 2 shallots, a pinch of cumin seeds, 2 pods of garlic, a single whole pepper. I had all the tendency to add a curry leaf, but I resisted it. Try it if you want.

Heat a flat saucepan or a uruli, heat the rice mixture in very low heat to dry the powder slightly, Add salt and the ground mixture and slowly add thick coconut milk in teaspoons so that it get wet slowly. When you feel the consistency is good enough to make soft balls, take from heat.

Now knead the dough thoroughly for some 20 minutes. If you have a Kitchen Aid (HAHA! SHOW OFF) use it now in low speed for some 8 minutes! :)

When the dough is almost ready, add 1 tsp of sesame seeds to this mix. I added white, but black sesame is preferred.

Make small balls, flatten them out in your hand to very thin, but manageable.

You can either roll some wax paper on a stick or can use the stem of a banana leaf to roll them out as shown in the pictures.

The thing you have to make sure is the rolls are very thin, so that the insides also gets fried properly.

Heat coconut oil and add them. Fry them till golden brown.

I was trying different levels of crispiness while frying, that’s why you see two different colors. I liked the lighter one better.

You can store them airtight for two or three weeks. Those little binoculars you can eat. Yummy!

Sausage Stuffed Egg Rolls

Christmas and New Year Party Time! Easy appetizers!

Buy some sausages, dice them up, sauté them in oil, add some pepper, add some shredded vegetables. Wrap them in pre-made egg roll sheets. I tried to bake some of them, it didn’t come out good, so switched to deep frying them.

Let them pictures speak.

Brinjal Mezhukkupuratti

Many don’t like Brinjal due to its gooey texture after cooking. But at home, since my mom was very strict on us eating all kind of vegetables she could lay her hands on, we never got time to complain about texture. I was told by someone Brinjal didn’t have any nutrients and even plucked out some Brinjal plants. I was wrong. It has a stash of nutrients and those violet colors are good for you.

Mezhukkupuratti is malayalam for stir fry.

I cut brinjal in small rounds one inch thick. Dont cut them too thin, for they will squish too soon. You can cut them in one inch thick elongated pieces too.

For 3 cups of brinjal, dice ½ cup shallots, 1 pod of garlic, 4 green chilies.

Heat 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a skillet, splutter 1 tsp of mustard seeds, add two split red chilies, 1 sprig of curry leaves. Then add the garlic, green chilies and onion in that order.

Now add the cut brinjal and some salt and sauté them well in the oil and lower the heat to a minimum. Sweat the vegetables by covering it and then stir them occasionally.

When they are soft, take them off from heat.

Serve as an accompaniment to rice.