Kakka irachi / erachi ularthiyathu - Kerala Clams Roast

Hope all in US had a scrumptious Thanksgiving dinner , enjoyed and indulged in the mad shopping frenzy of Black Friday and relaxed on the weekend ! We had a blissful thanksgiving ... Oh boy , I am a happy successful host ...

The only thing that worries me after this long weekend is the guilt of eating too much , feeling heavy and total crap! I am trying to reset the button with meditation.....Thank god , the lent starts within days , wink ...

 

.......She was there everyday except Sundays , with a wide mouthed aluminium vessel balanced on her hip covered with a thin polythene sheet , and underneath a reserved "kutti" of clams. She brought the smell of oceans with her...

She was in her late 70's , with a heavy body in traditional "chatta and lunki", salt and pepper hair , and tobacco stained teeth...We called her " Kakka Erachi Ammachi .

I never knew her name , didn't bother to ask anyone , until one day my mom mentioned to me about the clams lady's death. I came to know then , her name was "Kunjorotha".

Kunjorotha ... somehow I couldn't fit her into that name ... how could I know a person for so long and not know her name!

She took the first bus from her rural kuttanadan village - famous for freshly caught clams -with a silver colored big " charuvam " full of the same , travelled to changanacherry everyday in the wee hours of the morning , to earn a livelihood.

Our house or I should say our long verandah in the back of our house was her last stop , where she would stay put for a light nap for a while , ate hot food my mom gave her , before she took the afternoon bus back home. On saturdays and off school days she used to tell us stories, old happy stories and sometimes sad , weeping and wiping her tears on the "lunki"..Thus I knew her grandfather " Kachan" and her husband " Thomman" used to work in the paddy fields owned by mom's family in Kuttanad.

Whenever I make some kakka erachi here -which I started to do recently- it reminds me of her laughter and tears , her old stories , and my mom's generosity. I know my mom wasn't just paying her for the clams she brought everyday for us , but for her dinner too, though she never told us. Unknowingly mom was instilling in us some virtues ....

..how food is so tangled in memories ....and how those memories are snuggled somewhere in the cloudy corner of my mind, waiting to be collected by me!

Recipe for Thenga kothu itta Kakka Erachi Ularthiyathu - Kerala style Roasted Clams with Coconut

Serves - 4

Total cooking time - 30 minutes.

Ingredients:-

Clams / Kakka erachi ( cleaned) - 1/2 kg

Vinegar or juice of fresh lemon - 1 to 1.5 tea spoon

Salt 

Bowl 1 - to crush

Garlic - 6-7 cloves

Ginger - an inch piece ( i use a thumb sized piece )
Green chili - 3-4
Fennel seeds - two pinches
Black Peppercorns  - 1/2 tea spoon

Shallots or onion chopped - 1 cup ( use pearl onions n shallots)
Curry leaves - a handful
Coconut cuts ( thenga kothu ) - 1/4 to 1/2 cup
( You can add a tomato too , if you want it to be tangy)
Red chili flakes - 1 tea spoon
Red chili powder - 1 tea spoon
Coriander powder - 1/4 to 1/2 tea spoon( optional)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tea spoon
Garam masala - 1/2 tea spoon( home made)
Whole black pepper - 1/2 tea spoon
Oil - 2 tablespoon + 1 tablespoon

Method :-

Clean and rinse clams well. Bring to boil 3 cups of water , and  add clams to it . Let it stand on a medium flame for 3 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water and drain again and keep aside.
Add Vinegar or lime juice and salt and keep aside while we make the masala.
Lightly crush all the ingredients in Bowl 1 in a coffee grinder , food processor or small jar of your mixie.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan and add chopped shallots and curry leaves. Saute till it is soft for like 6-7 minutes.
Add coconut cuts and fry for a couple of minutes.
Add the crushed mix and saute till the raw smell disappears and it turns to brown.
(Add tomato if you are using it now and saute till the oil separates )
Add red chili flakes , chili powder , turmeric and (coriander if using) and combine well, fry for a minute or two..sprinkle a table spoon of water if needed.
Add the clams , mix well , and cook covered on a medium flame for 10-12 minutes.( add a 1/4 cup water if needed)
Crush the black peppercorns.
Uncover the pan, add garam masala , crushed black peppercorns , some more curry leaves  and saute .
Drizzle a tablespoon of oil , saute till it turns dry and brown.
Serve warm.

Happy Cooking !

Sarah

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Unakkameen Podichathu/ Chammanthy - Crushed Salted 'N' Dried Fish

What are you thankful for this year?

On the Sunday before thanksgiving , I have this habit of jotting down all those things that I am thankful to God almighty , for the past year. I go through each blessing again n again , living those moments one more time , telling him , how grateful I am . I know perfectly , whatever I achieve its 5 % me and 95 % the One above .. How about you guys?

Nothing new for  here , as I am so busy planning and preparing for the Thanksgiving Dinner I am hosting this Thursday . 

Just to keep this space alive , I thought I will repost this 2 year old recipe with a new dress , I stitched for it a couple of weeks back . I am not gonna blah , blah you on my love for Salted dried fish , as I have talked about it many times on all these posts on Unakkameen / Dry Fish.

So straight to the recipe :)

Recipe for Dried Fish chutney without coconut ( Unakkameen Podichathu)
Serves - 4
Total cooking time - 4-6 hours for soaking +  30 minutes cooking

Ingredients:-
Unakkameen / Dried Salted Fish - 250 gm
Red chili powder - 3/4 to 1 tea spoon
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tea spoon
Shallots - 2-3
Garlic - 1 clove
Red chili - 8-9 or  1 or 2 tea spoon of crushed chili flakes( adjust per ur tolerance..this is really spicy)
Curry Leaves - 3-4
Method:-
Soak Unakkameen / Salted fish in water for 4-6 hours or overnight. Add a sheet of teared newspaper along with it. This absorbs the salt.Then cut it into medium pieces
( Note :- A reader send me a mail , opening my eyes to the ill effects of keeping newspapers with fish , I am not gonna do the same  again . Keeping the salted fish a lil longer than usual , i suppose is always better than doing something which can affect your health. Thanks Usha :-) )
Pat dry the fish well and marinate it with chili and turmeric powder and keep aside for 15 minutes.
Heat one or two tablespoons of oil in a pan and fry the fish pieces, until they start to turn reddish brown. Drain on paper towels.
In a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder , or small jar of mixie , add shallots , garlic , chili and curry leaves , and fried fish and crush it. Use the pulse action and pulse it for 3-4 times or until it is crushed.
Good day
Sarah 

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Squash Blossoms (Thoran) Stir Fry with Coconut

Hope you all are doing good . No soliloquy , no laments or celebration in this post ! I am just spring cleaning my space . 

I have definitely lost my blogging mojo, with a zillion other things taking away my time and thought will clear out some from drafts until I get back the time and motivation for the new ! 

Squash blossoms is one of those things that I buy from farmers market , every week ; which means I was making this thoran/stir fry at least once a week for the past couple of months . It reminds me a lot of the  Pumpkin blossoms (Mathan poovu ) back home and they are more or less same. N's aunt sent us a lot of tender Pumpkin leaves ( Mathan Ila) recently from their dying garden, so we were having a lot of these leaves and flowers this season :). Feeling right at home , though away from home !

Recipe for farm fresh stir fried Squash Blossoms(Thoran) with Coconut and green chili

Serves - 4
Total Cooking time - 15 minutes
Ingredients:-
Squash Blossoms - 1/2 lb
Green chili or fresh cayenne  chopped - 1 or 2
Ginger minced - 1/2  tea spoon(optional)
Salt to taste
Curry leaves - 2-3
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tea spoon
Cumin - a pinch
Bowl 1
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Shallots - 2
Turmeric - a pinch
Method:-
Clean and finely chop Squash blossoms .
Lightly crush all the ingredients in Bowl 1.
Combine that with salt , chopped squash blossoms , green chili and ginger.
Heat oil in a pan and mustard seeds .When they pop , add cumin , curry leaves fry for a couple of seconds and add the mix.
Saute for 5-7 minutes , on a medium flame, till it is done and dry.
Sprinkle a couple of tea spoons of water in between , to prevent it from sticking to the bottom
Serve warm with rice,  pulissery and fish fry.

Good Day!

Sarah

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Stir Fried Soba Noodles With Chicken and Ginger

It started as a dreamy snow , touching the red leaves  with its powdery white. It was a magnificent sight, and a rarity in my part of the world. 

I was as excited as the leaves you see in the pictures here , to be touched by the gentle flakes.

Later, it poured down in a kind of frenzy ; inches by inches it rose , the colors and the earth sunk deep in its frozen blanket .

I have been reading a lot about buckwheat lately , but it took me sometime to really get into it. Initially I was fascinated by the fact that its a seed and not a grain.

Its gluten free , low in calorie and high in nutrition , which got me all the more attracted to it.

But honestly I was a bit apprehensive about the taste ; a healthy alternative not always turn out to be a delicious treat right.

My rule of thumb when trying something new is to incorporate it into one of your favorite recipe , know it and then play with it. So I went with the buckwheat noodles aka Soba noodles , made a stir fry following my usual casual recipe for fried rice , which I normally use for making noodles too.

Then I realized, soba noodles has a taste ; a nutty taste to it unlike the other noodles I have tried , so you don't really have to dress it up with so much sauce.

After 2-3 attempts, I got my mix right and this has been my favorite recipe for making Soba noodles ever since.

Recipe for Stir fried Soba noodles with Chicken and Ginger
Serves - 2

Total cooking time - 20 minute for preparation + less than 30 minutes cooking time

( This recipe is developed particularly for Soba / buckwheat noodles and may not work well with other noodles unless you dress it up with some more sauces of your choice)

Ingredients:-
To cook noodles
Soba Noodles - 8 oz pack
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 tea spoon
Water

Chicken - 2 breast or boneless thigh pieces ( Use mushrooms to make it veggie , see notes for options)

Bowl 1
Crushed black pepper - 1/2 tea spoon
Soy sauce - 1 tea spoon
Garlic and ginger powder - a large pinch ( optional)

To stir fry
Oil - 2- 3 tablespoons
Shallots sliced - 2-3
Garlic thinly sliced - 2 cloves
Ginger thinly sliced - an inch piece( I add a 2 inch piece)
Green chili sliced - 1
Bell pepper - 1 ( I used half of a red and half of a green )
Carrot chopped - 1
Black pepper corns - 1/2 to 1 tea spoon
Vinegar - 1 tea spoon ( i used Red Wine vinegar)
Soy Sauce - 1 to 1.5 tea spoon( add more if you want more)

Salt to taste ( be careful since soy is already salty!)

Hot sauce -- for serving

Method:-
Cook Noodles according to package directions ( I always add salt and oil to boiling water ).Drain and set side
There are 2 ways to cook chicken
Clean and cut the Chicken into small strips .Combine all the ingredients in Bowl 1 , add chicken and keep aside for 10-20 minutes.
Heat 1 or 2 spoons of oil in a Wok or any wide mouthed non stick pan . Add chicken pieces and stir fry till they are well cooked and start to turn golden brown . It will take around 10  minutes.( keep the flame medium and its done when you think its cooked)
Or Marinate the chicken pieces( big pieces) with all the ingredients in Bowl 1. Heat 1-2 spoons of oil in a pan and shallow fry on both sides ( 6 -8 minutes each ) or until it is no longer pink and cooked. Then chop it into small pieces.
When the chicken pieces are done , add sliced shallots , ginger , garlic , bell pepper , and carrot and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.
Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of water and cook covered for a couple of minutes( 2-3)
Uncover , add Vinegar , mix well .Crush black peppercorns in a mortar and pestle
Add noodles , soy sauce and black peppercorns and combine well and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, or until everything is mixed and well heated through.
Add mint or cilantro or any herbs you like and serve warm with a dash of hot sauce !

Notes:-

• Chicken will be a bit hard like the fried in this recipe and not soft ...
• If you have left over meat ,chop or shred it in small pieces and use that 
• Rotisserie chicken works awesome with this recipe too
• Substitute Mushrooms for chicken to make it a veggie treat
• You can use peas , corns , french beans or any vegetable of your choice , just cook it before or adjust the cooking time in this.
• Add whatever sauce you like in it , but only in small quantities.

Have a great day!

Sarah ✍

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