Recipe : Hyderabadi Sheer Kurma - Vermicelli Pudding

A low-sugar, but slow cooked bowl of sheer khurma for that festive feeling. (Today is Ayudha pooja at home in Mangalore and Navami at the in-laws in Kanpur) It’s a Persian influenced - Hyderabadi vermicelli pudding.

Sheer Kurma is similar, yet different from the sevai ki kheer of North India and the vermicelli payasam of South India.

I used raisins instead of the traditional dates, but I got the “right” type of vermicelli from an Indian store in Brick Lane. These are much longer strands than the regular vermicelli.

Recipe :

Quickly fry a handful of raisins and cashewnuts or almonds in some ghee.

Roast the vermicelli in the same ghee.

Turn your flame to medium.

Add warm milk and slow cook until the milk thickens and the vermicelli is soft.

(Start with 2 measures of milk for 1 measure of vermicelli and keep adding milk)

Keep adding milk, so that the consistency isn’t sticky.

You want a smooth pudding consistency.

Add sugar to taste

And keep stirring gently, so that the milk and sugar caramelise together.

I left it a little more liquidy overnight, so it could absorb some more. But this is optional.

Garnish with powdered cardamom seeds or a few more roasted nuts.

A hint of rose water or saffron is also a lovely option for a different taste.

Served hot for breakfast or as a dessert.

To make it vegan, use coconut milk instead of regular milk.

It’s a simple recipe, but requires patience, constant monitoring and stirring.

I also don’t like having anything else going on the cooking top when making milk based sweet stuff, because I feel their delicate nature absorbs the other smells of food being cooked. But that’s me.

Recipe : Salmon Soy Wasabi

Another low carb meal that is quick to prepare.

I added a hint of honey to the marinade for a bit of sweetness and a sticky glaze, , but you can drop the honey for a keto dish.

Ingredients:

4 salmon fillets (about 400 gms - skin on or off - your choice)

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp soya sauce

1 tsp grated ginger

1-2 tsp wasabi paste (wasabi paste and fresh root differ in spiciness - taste and adjust)

1/2 tsp honey (optional)

2 tbsp sesame seeds

1 tsp oil

Method:

In a large bowl, combine the lemon juice, soya sauce, ginger, wasabi and honey.

Marinate your cleaned and dried salmon in this mix for about 15-30 minutes.

Kim's tip : Don't marinate delicate fish fillets for too long in an acidic marinade, you may just end up with hash in your pan when the fish starts flaking apart.

Heat a pan with the oil.

Scatter the sesame seeds in a plate.

Roll the marinated salmon in the sesame seeds and pan fry lightly on both sides for a couple of minutes until the fish is done to your liking.

Remove the fish from the pan to a plate.

Put any leftover marinade and sesame seeds into the pan and thicken, then pour over the fish.

This was a no carb meal, so I served it with stuffed peppers and a salad, but you can serve it with any simple rice, fried rice or noodles.

Recipe : Haalu Menasina Saaru - Milk and Black Pepper Soup

I was craving some nice spicy home cooked soul food after returning from holiday.

Goan sausage chilli fry, egg masala, broccoli and bottle gourd with split Bengal gram and haalu menasina saaru (milk and black pepper soup - a Kannadiga Brahmin recipe)

Given the black pepper in it, this rasam / soup is great during winters and the monsoon season and is used to treat seasonal coughs and colds.

Dry roast

1 tsp - 1tbsp Black pepper,
2 tbsp dhal - I used channa, you can use channa & urad 50-50 and
2 tbsp grated coconut.

Cool & grind these ingredients in a dry grinder.

Fry this ground mixture in 1 tbsp ghee.

Add some water (from washing the grinder)

When it bubbles, add 1 cup room temperature or warm milk on medium to low flame.

Let it come to a boil and thicken a bit.

Keep stirring, so it doesn’t burn.

Season with ghee - methi, hing, jeera, whole red chilli, curry leaves

Before serving, garnish with fresh coriander.

We have it as soup, rasam, dunking dip for rotis, or poured over hot rice.

The final picture is my plate of rice with the milk soup and eggs.

Recipe : Wak Serjak - Pork Stew from Tripura - North East India

My red meat of choice is pork. I grew up eating pork on Sundays. My grandmother was an amazing cook and made the most delicious pork dishes. Manglorean style pork is heavy though and very conducive to Sunday afternoon naps. So not really dishes for mid-week. and we keep our dinners light as far as possible.

So it was a fantastic revelation for me, when we lived in Guwahati in 2011, to discover a multitude of pork dishes that were super tasty and yet very easy to prepare (no heavy grinding of masalas) and super light on the tummy. As light as eating chicken.

A lot of pork dishes in Assam, are cooked with local herbs which are difficult to find outside of the state. My friend Sanjukta is a great resource for local recipes and her blog is an excellent starting point.

When I lived in Guwahati, there weren't too many local food bloggers, so the first book that I bought for help with local cuisine was Hoihnu Hazel's collaboration with Penguin. This recipe is from that book.

I'm happy to say that in the decade since then, North East Indian food is slowly working itself into public consciousness due to the enterprising passion and commitment of a few foodies like Gitika Saikia in Mumbai and  Sneha Saikia in Delhi.

Wak Serjak in its thinnest form is like a soup, you can however let it simmer for awhile so it gets thicker. And in the Manglorean/Goan fashion of maturing pork, keep reheating leftovers (if you have any) daily, until it becomes a nice thick mass. Its super-delicious at every stage.

Ingredients:
2 kg pork (I like a good balance of meat and fat and bones - here I buy pork belly and ribs seperately to add to the mix)
2 tsp oil
4 tbsp ginger paste
6-8 green chillies chopped
4 medium onions chopped
6 medium tomatoes chopped
salt to taste

Method:
Wash and drain pork. Cut into bite sized pieces.

Heat oil in a deep pot and add ginger, green chillies, onions and tomatoes, fry till golden brown.

Add pork and stir-fry for awhile until pork is cooked. I tend to cook the fat and bones first so the fat breaks down, before adding the meat.

Add salt and 4 cups water. Then cover and leave to simmer for awhile (use less water if you want a thicker gravy.

Adjust salt and fresh chillies to taste.

Serve hot with cooked rice.

Optional garnish - freshly shopped corriander leaves for a fresh herby taste.


Note:
Optional - since the tomatoes here in the UK, don't have any tartness, I added the juice of one lemon - to taste.

I found Bergamot lemons in the market last week and as an Earl Grey aficionado, I had to bring them home. In the North East of India, the tomatoes are tart enough that you don’t need to add any thing citric. But here I added the juice of a whole bergamot to 2 kilos of meat.

The essential fragrance of the bergamot was lost in the cooking, so it tasted like any other lemon in the mix.