the Kerala Kitchen March 2011 Roundup

First of all let me thank you awesome ladies for bringing over all these wonderful dishes to our virtual pot-luck last month. We have an incredible line up as you can see, our table is  so wonderfully laden! I want to try all your dishes and so wish you'll could somehow attach a piece of the real thing along with your gorgeous pictures! 


Welcome to all the awesome new members who have joined us and a huge thank you to those who are joining us this again this month. Thank you for the lovely comments about our new blog!We also have our very own facebook page (www.facebook.com/TheKeralaKitchen) as well as twitter page (www.twitter.com/keralakitchens) so that we can stay connected!

Here is the round up for March 2011

1.Divya Kudua of Easycooking  sent in this delicious Ulli Sambhar, perfect to mop up dosas with!

2. I am also so very thrilled that she tried out a recipe from my blog to make this gorgeous Vegetable Ishtoo/Vegetable Stew in coconut milk! Thank you so much Divya, as a blogger you should know how great it feels to have someone ( especially a blogger you have been following for a long time!) try out one of your recipes and like it!

3. Priya Sreeram of Eq-myblog  sent in the tangy relish Puli Inji

4. She also sent in this Urlakazhangu Ishtuu/Potato Stew

5. Here is Anita of Slyceofmylyfe with Pathiri and tomato curry

6. She also sent in one of my favourite snacks Aval Kazhachathu- a flattened rice (similar to poha) based sweet or snack

7. And here is Sadhana of  SensibleVeg with Ragi Puttu & Kadala Curry ( a steamed ragi breakfast dish served with garbanso bean curry)

8. Sarah  of Spoonful of delight tweaked her dish with an added surprise- melty gooey cheese! Here is her Vegetable cutlets with cheese

9. Ria of Ria's collection with Kozhi Achar perfect for making ahead for those days when one is too busy/lazy to cook- though I doubt Ria ever has that problem ;)

10. She also sent in this lovely Puttu (steamed powdered rice) and Kannur Fish curry.

11. Sneha of Inspirational Art Of Cooking.with some Date Pickle. All these delicious pickles remind me of my hostel days, when we used to survive on our mom's care packages of pickles! We used to just spread them even on bread or rotis for a dinner alternative to bland cafeteria food!

12. She also sent in some crispy Poories and masala. (deep fried goodness with a potato side dish) 

13. And some delectable Chemeen Biriyani/ Prawn Biriyani ( a fragrant rice dish)

14. She also sent in some spicy Egg roast, a quick and easy delicious dish that I always make when I'm pressed for time and serve with Appams, Puttu, or just rice or bread.

I must add that I had the good fortune of meeting Sneha at a bakesale we participated in together. She is such a lovely sweet girl and I am so happy she is one of our members and brings us such tasty treats month after month! 

15. Here is Zareena of My Experiments with food with some Sukhiyan / Green gram dal fritters, a treat I have never tried and so am very excited to discover!

16. She also sent in this Kurrukku Kaalan / Vegetable in thick curd gravy 

17. She also brought over some delicious Kozhi kuttan / Kerala style Chicken in roasted spice gravy

18. Here is the incredibly talented Nashi of Plateful ( winner of January's best dish as well as top contributor for the last two months with the most number of entries) with  some gorgeous and no doubt delicious dishes, starting with Meen Moilee  / Fish cooked in coconut milk

19. Chicken 65/ Spicy fried Chicken 

20. Cabbage Upperi / Stir-fried cabbage

21. Some crispy Tuna Cutlets

22. Inji Puli/Ginger Tamarind sauce

23. Avial/Mixedvegetables with coconut 

24. Neychoru with kachumber and ulli surka/ Ghee rice Wow Nashi! Thank you for all these beauties!

25. Najila of Foodie Corner sent in a Malabar style sweet dish called Kayypola made with rice flour, and plantains that I have never even heard of before! I am learning so much from you all! That's what I love most about this event, apart from getting to meet all you wonderful and talented women!

26. Anzz of Anzzcafe sent in this Chettinad style Chicken Fry filled with the fire of roasted chillies, fennel, curryleaves..

27.Vidhya of Vidhya's good eats sent in this Kadachakka-varutharacha-curry ( Bread fruit curry) 

28. She also sent in one of my favourite Trichur style sweet made of rice flour Kinnathappam!

29. Maria of Maria's Menu who is launching her much awaited cook book soon! sent in this delicious Manga Chammanthi/Mango Chutney Most of us who have ever searched for Kerala recipes, must have gone to her wonderful site, and I am so glad she has joined our little kitchen!

30. Sonali of the unique blog Only fish recipes which is indeed a treasure trove for fish lovers like me,sent in this delicious Alleppey Fish Curry

31. She also sent in this wonderful Crab fry with step by step instructions on how to clean the crab and cook it.

32. She also sent in a lovely garlic Traditional kerala style Fish curry 

33. Usha of My Spicy Kitchen sent it a Spicy kerala chicken fry

34. Vimitha of My culinary trial room sent in Spiced Buttermilk 

35. Shabs of Shab's cuisine  sent me this wonderful Kallummakaya Nirachatu/ Stuffed Mussels Thank you so much for posting this recipe especially for us Shabs!

36. Bharathy of Spicy Chilly sent in this  lovely Koorka Mezhukkupuratti/ or stir fried spicy Chinese Potatoes

37. She also sent in some crunchy munchy Parippu vadas/ Lentil fritters a popular snack that I can never resist having from the railways stations in Kerala!

38. She also sent in Nadan Tharavu Roast / Kerala Duck Roast which is a favourite at my grandmother's house, though I have never tried making it. Must ask my grandma for her recipe too as I'm drooling after seeing Bharathy's!

39. She also sent in Kumbalanga Cherupayar parippu Curry / Ash gourd and Moong dal Curry

40. And one of my father's favourite dishes Kaya Mezhukkupuratti/stir-fried raw bananas

I was happily surprised to find out when I first came here, that South American's use plantains a lot in their cooking too, so they are quite easily available here! Yay!

41. Her sister Nags of Edible Garden ( talent and sweetness seems to run in the family!) sent in this fiery hot Dry Indo-Chinese style Chilli Chicken, full of green chillies and red chilli flakes.

42. Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes sent in this Chembu Moru Curry, it would be perfect to calm our tongues after that spicy chilli chicken!

43. She also sent in this easy  and delicious Chicken Fry (Kerala Style)

44. Swapna of Swapna's Cuisine sent in this Kappalangaum (Omakkaum) Payarum Thoran (Stir Fried Raw Papaya & Red Gram with Coconut) She sent in some wonderful raw papaya dishes in our first ever roundup which was the first time I had heard of cooking with Papaya! Thanks Swapna! recently I also found out that the green papaya skin is a great meat tenderizer too.

45. She also sent in Varutha Meen Podichathu ~ A side dish made out of Leftover Kerala Fried Fish seasoned with coconut and spices 

46. As well as Broccoli mappas/broccoli in creamy coconut sauce! How innovative! Great way to get the family to eat their veggies! 

47. Home of cupcakes from mypotpourriofrecipes sent in this prawn and rice dumpling dish called  Prawns Kaka Roti,

48. Last month's best dish winner Karishma sent in this Dahiwala Chicken Kerala style

Touch of Kerala: These are recipes that add a touch of Kerala to a non-traditional dish:

49. Divya Kudua of Easycooking being a true Malayali at heart loves coconut, and was so excited by all the good press it has been getting lately that she added deccicated coconut to her brownies for that Kerala touch to her awesome Brownie event that I am still recovering from! Go on, check it out! We'll wait :)

This month we also had our very first Kerala Kitchen Challenge, to try out a dish not many of us had tried before, the Malabar style Chatti Pathiri from Ria's wonderful blog 

Here are the brave members who tried this wonderful dish, which even though is a little time consuming ( but not much) was quite simple to execute. It was amazing how everyone added their own special touches to it!

50. Sarah of Spoonful of delight veganized the Chatti pathiri because she was off eggs and meat for Lent. Here is her wonderful egg-less version filled with mushrooms and brinjal and other delectable veggies.

51. Cool Lassie of Pan Gravy Kadai Curry made her version of Chatti Pathiri with Whole wheat and red millet flour as well as a roasted veggie filling. She also posted Step-by-Step pics too!

52. Zareena made a wonderful Chatti Pathiri with chicken and scrambled eggs filling

53. And here is mine made with Whole-wheat flour and chicken filling 

54. Let's end on a sweet note with Anita of Sliceofmylyfe who tried out the  sweet version of the Chatti Pathiri adapted from Shab's recipe for it with condensed milk, dried fruits and nuts- heavenly!

As you can see, this wonderful dish can be made with so many variations! An it really is not that difficult. Go on try it! If you do, leave a comment here with a link to your Chatti Pathiri and I will include your link here as well.

Now coming to the part that I dread! Choosing the winners is so much harder when you have so many wonderful contenders!

For the best dish I had to choose Shab's incredible Mussels stuffed with rice dough where she used rice powder instead of grinding parboiled rice as is traditionally done.Thank you for enlightening us on how to cook mussels as well as this wonderful preparation Shabs!

For the best pic, I chose Zareena's Kozhi kuttan / Kerala style Chicken in roasted spice gravy, presented in a lovely dish that reminds me of the vangis or canoes cut out of the bark of coconut trees.  

The top contributor with the most number of entries for the THIRD time running! is the amazingly talented Nashira, who was also the best dish winner in January. Seriously Nashi you are incredible! 

So are you all! Thank you all, dear Kerala Kitchen members for this lavish spread! Here is your member badge! We are so proud to have you as our members!

Apologies for being a little late with the roundup, things were pretty hectic with my first ever bake sale, for the Japan earthquake relief effort, a week long sweet celebration mini- event as well as being the host this month for DMBLGIT the food photography event, with some of my favourite foodies as Judges :) 

But I have to say-54 entries! wow! Our event is growing fast! I made sure to finish the round up tonight even if that meant staying up really late, so in my zombie like state if I have missed an entry, please leave a comment here and I'll add it asap.

Can't wait to see the goodies you'll are cooking up for this month's Kerala Kitchen, hosted by the awesome Ria of Ria's Collection!

Cheers,

Magpie

(My home on the net: www.magpiesrecipes.blogspot.com)