The Pink Café

There are different methods my mom uses to make Appams or Paal Appams and everything has turned out best. There is a latest invention from her to get rid of yeast or soda. And now when I was drafting the post I called her to get the right ingredients, and to my surprise it doesn't have even coconut in it. So a calorie less version of Appams, no longer Paal appams as there is no milk in it, but was so good that my people ignored my bread and went with the Appam and stew. As soon as I saw her making appams I told her, "This time I am going to post your recipe Amma", and she was like, "don't put my name in facebook". She feels shy about what others think. She likes to be behind the screens always and doesn't like publicity at all. So different from me isn't it :D So when the appams were made, I was cooking duck stew in the nearby stove, and I couldn't contain my excitement to see the beautiful Appams, and I named it Sundari Appams, meaning Gorg...

My Christmas 2017 was based on traditional dishes of Kerala. You would be very familiar with the name Pidiyum Kozhiyum, which is of course one of the favorites at my home. This time I thought, let me make some difference in usual culture and thought to accompany Pidi with Tharavu mappas, which is Duck curry in coconut milk. Duck is my favorite too, and Duck items would be in my Christmas spread always. I started the day with Duck stew, which is another authentic dish of Kerala. Of course again, coconut milk, coz as Mallus we just go on lavish with Coconut milk :D This recipe is common in Christian families and a breakfast item. I being a Hindu has explored these things after my marriage, where I had a big kitchen for experimenting my things. Indeed to say, that was my experimentation lab which has gained me confidence to cook and take my passion along the way, and of course my audience has changed now, their count is more and the youngsters are ready to try out all new researches. ...

This is yet another traditional Kerala recipe, in which fish is roasted in plantain leaves. There is a two step process in cooking fish, first by shallow frying and then roasted inside a plantain leaf covered with masalas. So my experience with pollichathu was with Karimeen alone until this time, my favorite fish, which is called Pearl spot in English. All these while I haven't tried any other fish for this recipe. So let me tell you the story of how Ayala came into picture :D This happened on one fine day, my mom in law was telling me that the women who brings fish has brought lots of Mackerel and many other fishes and convinced her to buy a lot of them. So she was in a confusion on what will we do with all these, as weekend was almost going to finish and everyone of us moving to different places. And the same curry or fry would be boring and won't be appreciated by the men's league at home :D Then I went for helping her with the fish dilemma, she was having and...