Our first Indian meal at home in ages
May 12, 2007
VJ and I have been wanting to make Chicken Biriyani in the clay pot since we bought it a week back. I haven’t been cooking Indian food for the last few months so I thought I do a bit of Indian cooking today. In fact, we even had a South Indian breakfast after I went through the pantry trying to get organised.One friend has said to me once that organisation is happiness (or something along that line…”sorry if i got it wrong”), so off I went and bought a whole heap of Lock N Lock Containers to organise the pantry and fridge. I first got a Lock N Lock container from my mum and I used it in the fridge to keep my vegetables and I swear they last a lot longer, especially herbs. These containers are completely air tight and liquid tight so you can use these containers for soups and not be worried about it leaking especially if you were bringing soup for lunch to work.
Anyways, back to my Indian breakfast. I am not a good breakfast person but i found a pack of Uppama Mix in the pantry and remembered Vijay’s mum telling me to get it when we were in an Indian grocery shop in Melbourne. Uppama is apparently this semolina mix and its got some curry leaves, mustard seeds and chillis in it.
You just have to boil water and add the mix into it which leads something pasty and floury which i didn’t like as much. Made a coconut chutney to go with it which was fantastic. Picture of the meal below.
The one on the left is the uppama the one on the left is coconut chutney. The recipe for it is:
- a handful of grated coconut (dried ) or fresh even better but i only had dried ones
- a green chilli ( i used red today cause i didn’t have green)
- pinch of salt
blend the above with water till it becomes a paste (not too watery but not to pasty)
Then in a frying pan add oil wait till it is hot and add a tsp of mustard seeds (black) and some channa dhal ( u get it in asian groceries or even health food shops) if not just use yellow split peas.
Then add what is in the frying pan into to coconut mixture. Mix and enjoy. You can eat coconut chutney as a dip with crackers.
