Homemade Chettinad Fish Masala Powder | Fish Masala Recipe

Chettinad Fish Masala Powder is spice powder used to make fish fry or fish curry specially in Chettinad style or even we can use this spice powder for any fish fry or curry recipe. Made with fresh ingredients this fish masala powder works bring great magic to any fish recipe and using home made fresh masala is always better I think that's why you can see lot of spice powder that I have posted so far.

Raw Banana Chips | Kele ka Chips | Vazhakkai Chips | Navratri Vrat Recipes

Homemade Raw Banana Chips, Kachche Kele Ke Chips, Vazhakkai chips also known as Kerala Banana Chips is super easy chips to make at home, easier than potato chips and it's very quick too. Kela chips is also good for Navratri fasting or vrat as raw banana is allowed in fasting so it's great option for snack. Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee or serve as a side dish with bisi bela bath, sambar sadam, puliyogare etc too it's works wonderfully.

Mixed Millets Flour (Powder) | Sathu Maavu Recipe | Energy Mix Powder | Millets Recipes

Mixed Millets Flour, multi millets powder, healthy mix powder, millets energy powder or sathu maavu whatever we call it this is one amazing recipe with different types of millets to make one energy mix powder or sathu maavu as it's mostly known as. This is very easy recipe just take millets of choice and grind to make powder or flour.

Homemade Almond Milk | How to make Almond Milk

Homemade Almond Milk or how to make almond milk from scratch is easy way to make almond milk at home with step by step pictures and it's also less expensive compare to buying it. Making almond milk is very easy and similar to making coconut milk. This almond milk can be made with peeled almonds or unpeeled almonds too it's our choice. Normally I don't peel almonds and just blend blanched almonds but this time I peel the almonds, so you can do either way you prefer.

Masala Urad Dal Wadi | Badi | Vadi | Wadiyan | Masala Badi Recipe

Masala Urad Dal Wadi or badi as we call it is also known as wadiyan, vadiyal, vadiyalu. Wadi is summer essential in most of the North Indian house and prepared with different dals, spices with basic concept of grinding dal, spices and sun drying remains same over generations now. Once wadiyan is done it's a bliss for year along to make aloo badi sabzi or add vadi with any curry it makes the curry extra delicious.

Homemade Masala Tea (Chai) Powder Recipe

Chai Masala or Masala Tea Powder is essential part of my pantry, chai or Indian tea is common beverage for us and we start our daily routine with a cup of masala, ginger, cardamom or ginger-cardamom chai/tea. I never make plain tea that's just not me and it's same habit in my parents and in-laws place too normally I make fresh ginger tea or some time I use ginger powder, if not this masala tea powder. The ease with masala tea powder is if we don't have fresh ginger at home then it comes very handy to have masala chai (tea) instead, make once and it will last for a long time.

Homemade Roasted Coriander Seeds (Dhaniya) Powder Recipe

Homemade Roasted Coriander Seeds Powder or Dhaniya powder is easy home made recipe to make fragrant coriander powder in no time.  Normally coriander seeds are not roasted before making powder which makes shelf life less and also the aroma we get by roasting it gets missing. If you make to have your own home made spice powder then this coriander seeds powder you will love too it's easy same like cumin powder or fennel powder.

How to Cut up a Pineapple | Anannasa | DIY Recipes

How to cut up a pineapple is what we going to learn today. I know most of you already know how to cut a pineapple but there are people whom doesn't know this easy trick or think cutting up a pineapple is huge and messy tasks.  It's quite easy and almost in no time we can cut up a pineapple to relish the fruit as it is or use for any of our favorite recipe.

Homemade Roasted Fennel (Saunf) Powder Recipe | How to make Fennel Powder

Homemade roasted fennel powder recipe is easy spice powder recipe which we can do in jiffy to have fresh, flavorful and aromatic fennel powder. Like I mentioned in roasted cumin powder recipe some times store brought spice powder gets spoiled very soon or get worms fast so I prefer homemade spice powder any day than buying these easy things. Everyone have their own favorite spice in kitchen like mustard seeds, cumin seeds etc for me personally must have spice is cumin and fennel seeds.

Easy Homemade Coconut Milk | How to make Coconut Milk

Coconut or coconut milk is not something that I use very often in my cooking and thus I stock coconut with me very rare and same goes with coconut milk too.  As coconut milk is more included in South Indian food like payasam, stews, and most of the Kerala cuisine calls for Coconut milk than in North India, we hardly use coconut milk in any of the North Indian Cuisine.

Lemon Pickle | Nimboo Ka Achar | No-Oil Lemon Pickle Recipe | Onam Sadya Recipes

I am a big pickle fan and off all the pickles I really like lemon pickle a lot when I didn't even start to cook I used to make lemon pickle how crazy that can be !! But then I stopped making it for some unknown reason though I still love lemon pickle or nimboo ka achar after all it's so difficult to say no to this tangy, spicy and tongue tickling pickle, I wouldn't say who can say no to this pickle cause personally I know few you do say no to lemon pickle.

Pappula Podi | Putnala Podi | Pottukadalai Podi Recipe

Pappulu, putnala, puttukadalai, dalia or bhuna chana dal with other so many names whatever we may call it it's one of essential ingredient in South Indian Cooking though we don't much focus, in North India we get warm roasted gram or bhuna chana as a snack or sometime make it as chat and relish it as such we don't it in recipes much. Split roasted gram comes from black gram dal after a long process of soaking and roasting the dal to remove the husk and crispy.

Urad Dal Badi | Wadi | Wadiyan | Sun Dried Lentil Dumpling Recipe

Wadi, wadiyan, vadiyal, vadiyalu or badi as we call it it's all same just with different names.  We call vada as bada and wadi as badi both are made of urad dal.  Wadi or Badi is nothing but soaked lentil grind to slight coarse paste and some time with spices then sun dried.  Wadi/badi pair along with any other vegetable makes a delicious curry we just have to fry wadi/badi in oil and use it like any other veggie.  The texture is more like meat though the taste is not exactly like meat and it's also high source of protein.  Vegan and gluten-free these badi/wadi are treat to eat and it's a great resource to have when we don't have much veggie in hand.  The popular combination is of badi/wadiya and potato.

Homemade Maharastrian Malvani Masala Recipe

Malvani masala comes from Malvan a town in the Sindhudurg district on the west coast of Maharashtra but being on coastal area in konkon malvani cuisine is infused from Konkani, Maharastrian and Goan cuisines and that's the reason most of the Malvani cuisine used coconut, coconut milk, tamarind, mango, kokam etc.  Malvani masala is like garam masala made in Malvan region and mostly used in non-vegetarian recipes but also used in vegetarian recipes too.  

Homemade Rasam Powder Recipe

Rasam is something that I make very rare as I have to make only for myself but since I like rasam a lot I do try to make it once in a while to satisfy my craving.  Like I mentioned in my sambar powder post, rasam powder too is not something that is used my parents place.  I started using rasam powder couple of years back only after a friend passed me some rasam powder to try and from that time I never miss rasam powder any more.

How to Make Roasted Cumin Powder | Homemade Jeera Powder

Roasted Cumin Powder recipe? Seriously?  You must be thinking isn't it.  I wanted to post cumin powder recipe for years now but it just wasn't happening.  To post how to make cumin powder at home was stuck me multiple times but I really wanted to do it was during talking with one of my friend.  She was having this huge bottle of store brought cumin powder and she asked me I can want some since the bottle is huge she can't finish it soon, I told her why would I need this I make my own cumin powder when I need and she was like what we can make cumin powder at home?

At my sister place my bro-in-law purchased lot of spice powder all in this huge bottle from very popular brand as my friend purchased and when I was cooking once at their place and open the cumin powder bottle, the power had small insects in the brand new bottle can you believe that?  I had to throw the bottle away!

So this post is dedicated to those people whom still doesn't know how to make cumin powder, it's way too simple, easy and hardly take any time.  You can do even 1 tbsp of cumin powder or any quantity of your choice, I normally do in small batch so I can always have fresh cumin powder as nothing beats fresh roasted cumin powder it's just too fragrant and I love that smell.  And I always roast cumin before I powder it, if you purchase you cumin powder it's not always roasted that's why the color of powder is not dark brown.    So do not wait any longer go ahead and make your own batch of cumin/jeera powder and use in your recipes.

Ingredients for Homemade Roasted Cumin (Jeera) Powder

[Shelf Life 2 Months, Yields - 1/4 Cup Powder, Total Time - 10 minutes]

Cumin Seeds/Jeera/Jeerakam - 1/4 Cup [or as needed]

Method:

1. Heat a pan or wok and add cumin seeds, roast in medium flame until light dark brown and fragrant.
~ One cumin seeds start to be fragrant you have to keep a close eye and keep stirring otherwise cumin seeds will be burnt quickly.  If you over roast them it will be very dark brown color and bitter in taste.

2. Allowed roasted cumin to cool and grind in a spice blender or mixer until fine powder or keep it little coarse the way you like.  Allow to cool powder again and store in air tight container.

Our cumin powder is ready use as required.

Other Homemade Masala & Powders

• Kitchen King Masala
• Dabeli Masala
• Punjabi Chole Masala Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Ginger Powder
• Sambar Powder
• Bisi Bela Bath Masala
• Vangi Bath Masala

Have a nice day ~~

How To Make Yogurt | Curd | Dahi | Homemade Curd

I started to prepare home made curd after coming to Singapore since my sister and bil eat curd daily, I also learnt how to set curd properly from my bro-in-law, curd he sets are just too perfect.  So after my few trial and error I began to set curd properly which would be pass my bil standards.

In my parents or In-laws place curd is not set every day in fact in my in-laws place they don't set curd they buy mahi (buttermilk) if required to make any recipe.  When I visit my in-law place I will set curd and I have become popular one, setting up the perfect curd/dahi.  My in-laws love curd made by me when they are here that whenever I go back I have this duty.

Setting a liter or two liters of curd is different story but when you have to do this in huge amount say 12 to 15 liter then it's all together different game.  Last year I did this massive cooking for various function, one of which was to make curd from 15 liters milk and next for 12 liters, when I first heard it I was like how am suppose to do that and how will I know how much starter curd to use but I did manage and made just so perfect curd that when it went to the Halwai (cater) he asked from where the curd was purchased and aftermath it's big story let's not go, it will be more like I am going ga-ga over myself !

If you haven't started making your own curd/yogurt then you should try it as it's  fresh, healthy and of course economical.

Ingredients for Homemade Curd (Yogurt - Dahi)

Milk - 500 ml
Curd - 1 tbsp (as starter/jamun)

Method

1. Bring milk to good boil and set aside to cool.  Milk should be cool up to lukewarm temperature not hot or completely cold.  If you let the milk gets cold completely then the curd will not be set properly.  If the milk gets cold then heat again for 30 seconds in microwave or 1 minute in gas stove.

~ You can set curd in the same vessel you boiled milk or transfer milk to another bowl.

2. Add 1 tbsp of curd in milk and stir well to mix for around 1-2 minutes.  This is important step, starter curd to be mixed properly.

3. Cover the bowl and keep aside over night or for 6-8 hours in warm places for curd to set or around 12 hours in cold places.  Number of hours to set curd depends on your weather conditions and temperature.   Some times it takes around 24 hours to set curd too.

Our Curd/Yogurt/Dahi is ready, always keep in refrigerator if not curd will become sour.

~~ Note

• You can heat microwave for 30 seconds and then keep bowl in microwave for curd to set.
• Never disturb the curd while it's setting so no peak-a-boo please.
• If the curd is not set after 8 hours or over night keep it aside without disturbing, it will be set, the duration may vary so check in every few hours. 
• Few of possible cause for curd not to set properly
• Milk was cold or hot while mixing curd (starter/jamun)
• The curd you used for setting was not good or spoiled
• You used little curd as starter
• Weather conditions/temperature
• In winter keep milk little hotter than lukewarm while mixing starter curd.  You can also keep milk in microwave/oven with light on for warmth.
• If your starter curd is very sour then you new batch of curd will be sour too.  In this case you use 1-2 tsp of sour curd to set. 
• I normally test milk temperature with my clean finger. 
• If you are setting curd for first time try with small batch.  
• Some people use green/red chilli to set curd along with curd(starter) or even without.  I personally never tried that.

Here is how most of the North Indian like to eat curd with sugar :) 

Have a nice day ~~

Punjabi Chole Masala Powder Recipe

As I mentioned in my kitchen king masala post I love badshah brand for masala over any other brand and this punjabi chole masala is inspired from same too.  My sister gave me a packet of Badshah Punjabi Chole Masala which I really liked it and decide to make on my own with the ingredients mention in the packet.  Since I make garam masala and other masala my proportions always works.  

Badshah brand always use more spices then any other brand if you refer to the ingredients pack you can see and that's once reason there masala is always flavorful   Like any other recipe if you don't have a spice or two you can skip that though it's best to use all mentioned spices but don't let that one or two ingredients stop you from trying this.  One can use this chole masala as garam masala, it works great with almost everything and I do use this as garam masala too.

Ingredients for Punjabi Chole Masala Powder

{Shelf Life 3-4 months}

Cumin Seeds/Jeera  - 2 tbsp

Caraway Seeds/ Shah-Jeera - 1 tbsp

Dry Red Chilli/Sukhi Lal Mirch - 5

Turmeric/Haldi - 1 pieces {or Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp}

Coriander Seeds/Dhaniya - 1 tbsp

Black Peppercorns/Kali Mirch - 1/2 tbsp

Cloves/Laung - 10

White Sesame Seeds/Safed Til - 1 tbsp

Green Cardamom/Hari Elachi - 10

Black Caardamom/Badi (Mooti) Elachi - 4

Dry Ginger/Saunth/Sukku - 2 pieces {I used  Ginger Powder - 1/2 tbsp}

Dry Mango Powder/Amchur - 1 tbsp

Cinnamon/Dalchini - 5 sticks 1" each

Bay Leaf/Tejpatta - 2

Star Anise/Chakri Phool - 1

Nutmeg/Jaiphal - a small pieces or 1/2 tsp grated/powder

Rock Salt/Kala Namak - 1/2 tbsp [Not listed in picture]

Method:

1. Dry roast all ingredients one by one (except any powder form spice) and allow to cool.

~ Keep a lid handy when roasting sesame seeds as it will starts to pop. Don't have to roast powder like mango/ginger/turmeric/rock salt etc

2. Cool all the ingredients and grind into smooth powder using mixer/coffee/spice grinder.  Sieve powder masala, cool and store in air tight container.

Our flavorful punjabi chole masala is ready.

My other Homemade Masala & Powders

• Kitchen King Masala
• Dabeli Masala
• Garlic Powder
• Ginger Powder
• Sambar Powder
• Bisi Bela Bath Masala
• Vangi Bath Masala

Have a nice day ~~

Homemade Sambar Powder Recipe | Easy Sambar Powder

Sambar Powder Recipe - Sambar Powder or Podi as it's called in Tamil doesn't go hand-hand with me given the fact that I hardly make sambar, same goes for my mom she hardly use to make sambar, rasam etc so having sambar powder is out of question but when we (me & my sister) use to go to flour mills for grinding wheat or channa dal, I used to see Tamil aunties bringing sambar powder ingredients for grinding. At first I didn't knew it's sambar powder they will  grind coriander seeds, red chilli, curry leaves plus other ingredients together I used to wonder why they do that, we give red chilli and coriander seeds for grinding separately not to mention we never add curry leaves in that I still remember I used to find that very amusing so I will go near the machine to inspect all the ingredients (not that I knew all the spices those days) used in that particular masala.

So you can understand my mom never used sambar powder whenever she made sambar and I followed same thing once I started cooking.  Sambar powder in sambar was introduced to me by my sister though I never really understand why she used sambar powder.  Is chilli, coriander and turmeric powders are not good enough, silly me !

But then slowly I started to understand why sambar powder is after all used in sambar and started to make myself in small batches, my journey towards a humble and flavorful powder :) So this recipe of sambar recipe is from a friend whom follows her mother recipe, I tried it once and from then I am hooked to that as it's very flavorful.  Sambar powder has many version from different Southern Indian States and this version is from Tamil Nadu, so if you didn't so far tried sambar powder then it's high time you should try now.

Ingredients for Sambar Powder (Podi) 

Dry Red Chilli/Sukhi Lal Mirch- 250 gms [Use long dry red chilli]

Coriander Seeds/Dhaniya - 250gms
Turmeric/Haldi - 3 pieces or tumeric powder - 1/2 tbsp
Split Yellow Pigeon Peas/Toor Dal - 2 tbsp
Bengal Gram/Channa Dal - 1 tbsp
Peppercorns/Kaali Mirch - 1/2 tbsp
Cumin Seeds/Jeera - 2 tbsp
Mustard Seeds/Rai - 1 tbsp
Fenugreek Seeds/Methi - 1 tsp
Asafoetida/Hing - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves/Kari Patta - 2 sprigs [optional]

Method:

1. In a kadai (wok) dry roast all ingredients one by one until light brown or fragrant and allow to cool.
2. Grind all ingredients into fine powder in mixer/blender or coffee blender, work in batches if needed, sieve powder and remaining big pieces grind again.  If making in large quantity you can get it grind in flour mill (if you happen to have one near your place).
3. Allow to cool powdered masala and store in air tight container.  You can refrigerate sambar powder for longer shelf life.

Our sambar powder is ready, use in sambar or even in rasam, curry.  Sambar recipe you check Drumstick & Brinjal Sambar,  Carrot & Beans Sambar.

Have a nice day ~~

Homemade Ginger Garlic Paste Recipe

Ginger-Garlic paste is used regular in Indian cooking, most of the curry calls for ginger-garlic paste and ofcourse we all love this one don't we? So did you ever wonder how to make ginger-garlic paste at home? Nothing beats fresh home made ginger-garlic paste.  I never really liked store ginger-garlic paste; not only they look dull but after a while it smell weird and perhaps taste too,  I always prefer to make my own paste or I freshly mince ginger-garlic, a habit which I am hooked too but then to cut short the mincing time I prepare paste and keep in fridge to make it handy on weekdays.

Most of you may already know how to make ginger-garlic paste at home as there is no rocket science involve in this but for those few people whom still prefer to buy it this recipe is for you, try at home and then you will never look back. I learnt this from my sister she used to make this in large batch over weekend and add turmeric powder+oil.  I follow same, turmeric powder & oil helps to keep paste fresh for longer time ie it's works as preservatives and doesn't get the paste color change after a while.

Though making ginger-garlic paste at home is easy, the only difficult or time consuming task is to peel garlic and if you happen to have Indian garlic which has small pods then it's more painful.  But here what I do, I normally do the peeling while watching TV, and it helps me in doing it with my own pace without realizing that I am doing any work, just be a little mindful of knife you are using in case to peel it.  For other useful tips on how to peel garlic read below.

Ingredients for Ginger Garlic Paste

Chopped Ginger - 1 Cup
Garlic Cloves - 1 Cup
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Rinse and peel ginger, chop in pieces.
~ You can use knife or peeler to do this job.
2. Peel garlic and chop if desire. [ Check below for tips to peel garlic]

3. Grind together ginger, garlic, turmeric powder and oil into smooth paste, check with a spoon if any garlic or ginger pieces left, if yes, give a run again.

4. Use clean, dry spoon and store in clean, dry glass bottle or box and refrigerate.

Shelf Life ~3-4 Weeks

Shelf life of this ginger-garlic paste can be 3 to 4 weeks or little more but I don't like to use it for long time so I always make this to last me for a month or less, which is the quantity I mention above.   Always use a clean, dry spoon to take out paste.

Notes ~

~ Always use clean dry spoon, if not paste may change color and get spoil soon.
~ Keep the paste in fridge always, don't let the paste sit on your kitchen worktop.
~ 1:1 ratio works best for ginger-garlic paste so try to keep the same.

Tips To Peel Garlic ~
These are tried and tested tips to peel garlic, during festive in my in-law's place we do ginger-garlic paste in large quantity and peel more than 1-2 kgs of garlic at one shot.
1. Soak garlic cloves in water for 30 minutes, garlic will get peeled easily.  Pat dry well peeled garlic before using.
2. In a large plate take enough wheat flour that can cover garlic cloves and rub between palm for 3-4 minutes, lot of garlic will get peeled and other you can peel off easily.  Clean peeled garlic in kitchen towel to remove excess flour.
~ This is my MIL method but I don't do this cause it involve to apply pressure while rubbing garlic & flour plus the garlic ends are little hurtful while rubbing.
3. Take a garlic clove and press it's head (top part) or tail (bottom part) on a flat surface or floor, little skin will out you can easily peel of garlic now.
~ It's one of the most easy method, only thing is some time the garlic pod will break if applied too much of pressure.
4.  Start peeling garlic clove head with a small knife.
~ It's again the easy method which normally I follow.


Hope you find the post and the tips useful.  Have a nice day ~~