6. Favorite Recipes

Recipe 1 - My Mother's Famous Goat Curry






Ingredients:

400g goat, preferably chump chops with bones  
100g of diced onion 1 spring of curry leaves  
1 stick of cinnamon  
2 cloves garlic  
2 thin slices ginger peeled  
1 x 10cm piece of pandanus  
1 x 10cm of lemon grass  
7 cardamom pods cracked
½ tsp full fenugreek lightly roasted  
½ tsp chilli powder 
1 tsp dark roast curry powder  
½ tsp turmeric  
1 tsp Jaffna curry powder  
2 tsp roast coriander powder 
1 tsp roast cumin powder  
2 tbsp tomato puree (instead of offal)  
Juice of ½ a lime

Preparation 

Chop the goat into 2 centimetre pieces with the bone in.

Place all the ingredients in a heavy based pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 25 minutes or until the gravy thickens and the meat is tender.

Importance

The importance of this dish is that this is what my mom makes for our family every Saturday, because of religious reasons. Since I am Hindu, we cannot eat meat on Tuesdays or Fridays. So we came to a decision to make goat curry only on Saturdays. This is my number 1 favorite recipe that I would love to learn from my mom. I've got these measurements from online, but when my mom makes it she never measures her ingredients, but it still manages to taste the best. I just have to share this recipe with you guys. My mom cooks this in almost every special occasion, whether it be a birthday party, a wedding or a baby shower you could always expect my mother to cook the best goat curry of all times. 

Recipe 2 - Tomato Rasam (The soup that cure colds)




Ingredients:
Tomato-3 med
Green chilly-2
Cumin seeds-1/4tsp
Garlic-2pods
Chilly Powder-3/4tsp
Turmeric powder-1/4tsp
Pepper powder-1/4tsp
Asafoetida powder-less than 1/4tsp
Coriander leaves-1/4cup chopped
Salt -to taste
Tamarind-lemon size
Mustard seeds-1/4tsp
Oil-2tbsp

Preparation:
Heat oil in a kadai
Splutter mustard seeds
Add chopped tomato into this and saute .
Stir well till the tomatoes are done
Now add turmeric powder and chilly powder
Saute until its raw smell goes
Make a fine paste of garlic,green chilly and cumin seeds
Add this paste to the tomato mix and saute
Saute for 2-3 minutes in low flame and add salt
Then add  coriander leaves,pepper powder to this and saute
If u want more garlic flavour u can add crushed garlic in this stage
Finally add tamarind water and 1 cup of water(Soak tamarind in 1 cup of hot water and drain)
Boil for few minutes
Check the salt
Remove from the fire ,add more coriander leaves  and close the kadai for few minutes ..
So tomato rasam is ready to serve
Serve with hot white rice

Importance:
The importance of this dish is that this is what my mom makes since we were little if we ever got a cold. The reason she says this makes our cold go away is because of all the spices that are incorporated in this dish is so powerful that it cures colds. These are also not the ingredients that my mom listed herself, but I got this online. She doesn't measure any ingredients in this as well. This is a very spicy hot dish.  

Recipe 3 - Milk Apam
 


Ingredients:
Rice Flour – 2 cups
Semolina – 2 tablespoon
Medium coconut milk – 2 cups
Thick coconut milk – 1 cup
Yeast – 1/2 teaspoon
Sugar – 1/2 teaspoonWater – 2 glass

Add 2 glasses of water to semolina & cook
Cook until it becomes loose
Keep aside to cool
Add 1/4 cup lukewarm water to 1/2 teaspoon yeast & sugar & mix well
Allow it to rise
Take 2 cups of rice flour in a bottom deep vessel
Add the cooked semolina and mix well
Add the yeast & sugar mix & mix well
Add the medium thick coconut milk little by little
Mix well

Importance

The importance of this dish is that everytime I would go back home to Jaffna, Sri Lanka. My grandparents which I wouldn't have seen for a long would make me this desert all the time. It was my grandmas favorite food. And when my mom was taking care of her for a while back she would always ask to eat this food. Now she passed away. But everytime I eat this particular food I always get memories of her making me this when I come over to her village.

Recipe 4 - Sweet Pongal Recipe

 

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1/2 cup

Moong dal/pasi paruppu - 2-3 table spoons

Jaggery - 1/2 cup

Water - 2 1/2 cups

Ghee - 3 table spoons

Salt - pinch

Cashews - 5-6

Raisin -  1-2  table spoons

Elachi - 1

Cloves - 1

Nutmeg Powder - 1 pinch

Preparation

In a pressure cooker or pan, add 1/4 tsp ghee and roast the moong dal

Add water, washed rice and salt. Pressure cook for 4 whistles. Mash it once done.

Powder jaggery and heat it with water just to immerse it and bring to boil. Let the jaggery completely dissolve and  filter it and add to the  mashed rice in the cooker.

In a separate pan, heat a tsp of ghee and roast cashews to golden and add raisins to it. Once it fluffs up, transfer it and keep aside. In the same pan, add cloves, elachi and switch off the stove. Add nutmeg powder, give a quick stir. Take out elachi and powder it, add the powdered elachi, edible camphor, cloves along with nutmeg powder to the pongal

Mix well and cook in medium flame for 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup water or milk if it gets dry while cooking. Add ghee little by little while cooking. Lastly add the fried cashews and raisins.  

Importance

The importance of this dish is that it is a sweet or desert that us Hindus eat. My mother makes us this on special religious holidays like; Diwali and Pongal.  Also my sister really likes this so every morning on her birthday we would go into her room and surprise her with this desert. Even when she graduated from elementary school we brought her this. This is so significant to my sister because it shows her how much we love and the effort we put into making her happy.

Vegetarian Kothu Roti Ingredients: 3 cups of Godhamba roti, shredded 2 carrots, julienned 1/2 cup shredded cabbage (optional) 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced 2 leeks, sliced 2 eggs 1 tsp chopped ginger 1 tsp chopped garlic 1/2 - 1 tsp of chillie powder 1/2 - 1 tsp of curry powder salt and pepper 1-2 green chillies, chopped 1 tbsp oil or butter Preparation Heat the oil in a pan under low flame Add ginger and garlic and fry till fragrant. Next add the spices, fry for minutes or so. Next add the vegetables and stir-fry for couple of minutes. Remove from the contents from the pan. Now add some oil to pan, add the beaten eggs, green peppers and the rotis and stir. Add some pepper and salt to taste. Serve hot. The importance of this dish is that I have this very favorite store that I always eat at. My brother always takes me there so we could purchase this particular dish. This was the very first time me and my brother ever spend time together. And now he has no time for me now, I eat this dish alone.