Kappa

Not a very elegant looking dish, but kappa and meen curry (casava and fish curry) is a fab combination and is one of my favourites.

This is the recipe for Kappa/ Casava

Ingredients:

1-2 medium sized Tapioca (a.k.a Casava/ Kappa)

Set1-
1/2 cup Grated coconut
1 tsp Jeera
4 green chillies
4 garlic pods
few curry leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt

Set 2-
Mustard seeds
1 onion, sliced
curry leaves
2 dried red chillies
Coconut oil

Method:
1. Peel the tapioca and cut into roughly inch sized pieces.
2. Cook tapioca with water and salt. Drain well and keep aside
3. Grind set 1 ingredients with little water to form coarse paste
4. Arrange paste on top of kappa addding little water
5. Splutter mustard seeds and then all the other ingredients in set 2 and add to vessel
6. Close with lid and cook for 5 mins
7. Open and stir well

Kappa is ready to serve. This goes best with red chilli fish curry.

Red Fish curry (Kottayam style)

Ingredients:
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Fenugreek seeds (uluva)
2 Red dry chilli (vattal mulakku)
4 green chillies
Few Curry leaves
1 Onion, chopped
4-5 garlic pods, sliced
1/4 inch ginger, thinly sliced
2 small pieces Kodamn puli (fish tamarind), soaked in warm water
2 tbsp Chilli powder
1/4 tbsp Coriander powder
1/4 tbsp Turmeric powder
1 kg Fish (King fish or some fleshy fish)
coconut oil

Method:
1. In a mud/ earthern pot (mann-chatti) heat some coconut oil. Splutter the mustard seeds. Add the fenugreek seeds to it. Stir lightly.
2. Slit green chillies and add to pot. Add the dried red chillies.
3. Add onions, ginger and garlic. Stir well. Add curry leaves.
4. When the onions start to brown, add chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder.
5. Stir well till the raw smell of the powders go away and the mixture is blended well with the oil.
6. Add the pulli (tamarind) and the water used for soaking it.
7. Add more water if required for the gravy. Add salt as required.
8. Bring to boil.
9. When the gravy starts to boil, lower the heat slightly and add the fish pieces to it.
10. Cover and cook for around 15- 20 minutes or till the fish is cooked. Ensure you swirl the pot once in every 5-10 minutes so that gravy moves around and mixes well with the fish. Do not use a spoon as the fish will flake as it begins to cook.

The fish curry is now ready to serve. However, the taste intensifies the longer it stands after removing from the flame.

This is a spicy dish and goes well with kappa. It is also had with rice. I love the meen curry, moru kaachi (buttermilk curry) and thoran (coconut infused side dish) combination :)

Rava Dosa

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Rava (Sooji)
1/2 cup Rice flour
1/4 cup Plain flour
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Fennel seeds
1/2 tbsp Ginger paste
1/4 tsp Asofetida (Hing)
1 tsp Pepper powder
5-10 Whole peppercorns
1-2 Green chillies, thinly sliced
1 Onion, chopped
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients except onions in a bowl
2. Add enough water to get a very runny consistency
3. Heat a flat pan and put some onions on top. When the pan is really hot, sprinkle the batter onto the pan. Do not make the dosa thick. Put some oil/ ghee on top and spread it evenly with a flat spatula.
4. Cook over medium high flame. When the dosa become crispy (golder brown), turn it over and cook again for a minute or so.
5. Your Rava Dosa is ready to eat.

Tastes great with chutney.