The Kerala Kitchen July 2011 is open for entries!

The Kerala Kitchen June 2011 event round up is up! Click here to check out all the awesome entries we received.  Apologies for my chronic procrastination :( Do submit your entries to take part this month as we continue to celebrate Kerala cuisine here at Magpie's Recipes. Look forward to seeing all your delicious dishes! Do check out the Kerala Kitchen blog and rules ( they are pretty simple!) if you are participating for the first time. 

From Aug to Dec 2011 Ria and I would like to invite you to be hosts since we will both be travelling. If you are interested, do indicate which month you would like to host and either leave a comment with your email id or mail me at magpiemails AT gmail DOT com

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The Kerala Kitchen on your blog!

Update: Only one more slot is available to host year, so hurry!

Calling for hosts for our monthly cooking club featuring Kerala cuisine The Kerala Kitchen in the coming months! Ria will be travelling and I too plan on making a trip to India towards the end of the year, and we would love to have you host the event in the coming months from August to December 2011.
As host you would basically post an event announcement on your blog calling for entries to that month's event. Participants will email you their entries by the end of the month and you will need to post a round up on your blog by the beginning of the next month.
If you are interested and quite sure that you will be able to host, then do send me a mail to magpiemails AT gmail DOT com or leave a comment here with your email id so that I can get in touch and mail you the details.

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Easy Baked Chicken and The Kerala Kitchen June 2011 Event Announcement

Last month the amazingly sweet Sarah of Spoonful of Delight hosted the Kerala Kitchen while I was busy packing, shifting houses, unpacking and rescuing a little monkey who loves to dive headfirst into cardboard boxes. Head on over to her wonderful site here to check out the awesome collection of Kerala inspired dishes we received from our awesome members. Now that I am all settled into my new home and new kitchen, I am happy to be hosting again! Sarah had a neat idea to make it even easier for you to submit entries, with a simple form that you can see at the end of this post, so no need to fuss with emails. Thanks for that, and for being such a wonderful person Sarah! 

Last week was another good friend, awesome blogger and my co host of Kerala Kitchen Ria's birthday and I celebrated with Chocolate Oreo cake. Today I am posting her grandmother's recipe for a delicious tender and juicy baked chicken which is also super easy to make. It earned her mom the Pachakarani ( Queen of cooking) title at a cookery competition so you can be certain this is a surefire hit! 

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KK Challenge: Whole Wheat Chatti Pathiri- Savory layered crepes with chicken masala filling

This is my new favourite fancy party dish, the one that will wow my guests and have them think I am some sort of culinary Goddess. This is my new favourite, "Look T! see what I made for lunch!" dish. I may even make it for breakfast, infact this might be the biggest motivation to get up in the morning!


Chatti Pathiri also called Chatti pathal is commonly made by the Malabar Muslim community in Kerala during Ramadan at Iftar, the period where Muslims break their fast, and also at wedding and special occasions. It can be made with sweet filling as a sweet dish and also made with savory meat filling, it is also called Atti Pathal. (As from Shab's Cuisine) 


What it is- layers and layers of soft, spongy crepes with a spicy masala / or sweet cardamom scented coconut and raisin filled in between them. Malayli's Lasagna is definitely the best description for it! 

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Kerala Kitchen for the month of March is now open!

Kerala Kitchen warmly welcomes you to another month of cooking, Kerala style! So grab those uralis and get cooking, making sure you mail in our Kerala inspired  (either by the cuisine or common Kerala ingredients and flavors) delicacies to me by the 30th of March 2011 to magpiemails AT gmail DOT com with the subject line Kerala Kitchen, and with your name, link to the post as well as a picture ( preferably a thumbnail, no wider than 300 pixels) 

• Make sure to add a link to this post as well as the main event page of  Kerala Kitchen to the posts you are submitting! 
• You can submit older posts too- simply add a link to this post as well as the main event page Kerala Kitchen and mail me the links to your posts. Due to popular demand, you no longer need to re-post older posts
• For more info and guidelines and for the event logos check out the main event page here
• CHALLENGE RECIPE: Also this month, in addition to any Kerala inspired dishes you are cooking,  I thought I would invite you to join me in a challenge, and try out something that not many may have tried before, making the Malabar Chatti Pathiri from Riascollection. I urge you all, in case you haven't already, to go to her beautiful blog and check out the awesome recipe and stunning pics here 

When I first saw this layered and filled "Malyali Lasagna" as she calls it, on her blog, I immediately fell in love with it, but was somewhat intimidated to try it. So why not try it out together this month? We can share tips and maybe even come up with inspired versions of this awesome dish! I am excited by a common challenge that we can all tackle together this month. Would welcome suggestions for challenging and unique dishes (inspired by Kerala of course) for us all to try together in the future. Do leave your thoughts and comments on this.

Updated: Since a few people asked for suggestions to make a veggie version of this, Ria suggests replacing the chicken with cooked veggies like peas, carrots, potato, mushroom etc. and also chopped paneer and soy nuggets.

Shabs recommends using a Simmer Plate in case you have problems with the bottoms burning ( haha that sentence just made me laugh!) This gadget is useful in even heat distribution and protecting your pans and food from burning during prolonged cooking- like when making dum biriyani. Or you can just keep an aluminium or steel plate or flat lid ( without a knob) under the saucepan. Or just make sure you use a heavy bottom saucepan and very gentle heat.

As usual badges will be awarded to:

• Top Dish
• Best Pic
• Top Contributor : Most number of entries
• Member: All participants will get Kerala Kitchen member badges

So get your game on!

The round up for the March Kerala Kitchen should be up by the 1st of  April (will try not to play any pranks :) The round up for last month will be posted soon on a brand new blog for Kerala Kitchen that we are working on, so watch out for it soon! 

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The first ever Kerala Kitchen roundup!

Thank you to all you wonderful people who sent in their amazing dishes to the first ever Kerala Kitchen, our monthly blogging event featuring dishes inspired by Kerala, that was created as a way to celebrate Kerala and connect with others who shared a similar passion for Kerala cuisine and ingredients.

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Healthy Spinach Chicken Curry or Chicken Cheera for your New Year Resolutions!

This January you may have seen many new, earnest faces at your Gym. You would  have had to wait patiently to use your favourite elliptical machine. But come February, by when the achy muscles have worn the motivation off the gym will be nice and empty again. Notice I used "you". Unfortunately I am one of those slackers- who are all pumped up in January, after a month of excess and holiday excuses. Or in my case a year of "Hey I just had  a baby ok?" excuses. Now that the baby has turned one, I have run out of excuses :(
I'm hoping this year will be different and that my New Year resolutions for healthier living sticks.

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Chicken Curry in a hurry for Kerala Kitchen

There are those days when you imagine yourself to be the next Julia Child and whip up delicious and elaborate meals with a smile on your face. Then there are those days-when all you want to do at the end of a long and tiring day where everything went wrong, is to eat a hearty dinner and curl up in bed. Those days when cooking, especially a curry with all that frying of onions and masalas, and all the clean up after seems insurmountable.

On those days I call for greasy take out make Pal Pizinja Kozhi Curry ( Chicken curry in coconut milk) an everyday Syrian Christian Chicken Curry that my mom made very often, and now I do too.

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UPDATED: Introducing my cooking group- KERALA KITCHEN

UPDATE: Kerala Kitchen round up for January 2011, the very first has been posted here

Check the Kerala Kitchen main page for the host and event details for this month

Welcome to Kerala Kitchen - a cooking club for those who are in love with  Kerala!  I started this group with fellow mallu and talented blogger Ria of Ria's collection as a way to meet  foodies who share a similar passion for cooking. 

This is a food blogging event where we will meet every month to share the dishes we have cooked that are inspired by the flavors of Kerala. Be it by the cuisine itself, that features dishes as varied and delectable as those of the Onam Sadhya to the Malabar parotta or Syrian Christian "ishtoo" or inspired by the flavours of unmistakably Kerala ingredients like the blazing heat of aromatic spices, the sweetness of jaggery and creamy coconut milk, the tang of tamarind or the myriad tastes, smells, textures and sights that remind you of this little state proudly called "God's own country".


Edited to add: To introduce some friendly food blogging competition, Kerala Kitchen will be giving badges for the foll categories:

• Top Dish
• Best Pic
• Top Contributor : The one with the most number of entries
• Member: All participants will get Kerala Kitchen member badges

So get your game on!

To be a part of this month's Kerala Kitchen and the very first meet, all you have to do is:

• Cook a dish that is inspired by Kerala. Be it savory or sweet, a traditional Malayali dish like Idiyappam or Kappa and Meen curry, or your unique take on it, even a dish that features a flavour or ingredient that reminds you of Kerala but may not be typical Malayali fare (like coconut macaroons maybe?) and post it on your blog anytime before or on the 30th Jan 2011

If you are looking for ideas check out Ria's Malabar Chatti pathiri- the inspiration behind this event! Ria's Konju varuthatu, My mother-in-law's recipe for Noolappam, My mom's Stew in coconut milk or "ishtoo", and my grand aunt's Mango pudding  


Some of the typical ingredients : Coconut, bananas and plantains, tapioca/ yucca, mango, jackfruit, lentils, cashews, pepper, cardamom, cloves, tamarind, rice and rice flour, ginger, curry leaves, jaggery, buttermilk... 

• Email me your entry to magpiemails@gmail.com with your name, a photograph of your dish and a link to your post before or on 30th Jan 2011. If you don't have a blog, simply email me your entry and photograph if you want me to include it.

• You can also include posts you made earlier by simply re-posting them anytime between today and the 30th Jan 2011 

• In your post please include  a link to my post or the following : 

         http://magpiesrecipes.blogspot.com/p/keralakitchen.html

• See you all at the round up on the 1st Feb 2011 which will be posted on www.magpiesrecipes.blogspot.com

• Feel free to add  these cute badges with a link to http://magpiesrecipes.blogspot.com/p/keralakitchen.html to your blog post or sidebar and spread the word that you are a proud member of Kerala Kitchen!

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