Its december, its christmas!

Christmas 2008 - our first christmas together. We ofcourse made it memorable by putting up star, x'mas wreath, decorations..also we invited few of our friends home for dinner. Its not just the x'mas day but the whole week we celebrated. We had a santa from Chicago who brought us French Martini. We went for a movie together, my first movie out in bangalore. Thanks to Santhosh, Chaithanya, Chetan - Deepthi, Bijunu, Senthil and Gowtham for visiting us during x'mas time and making our first x'mas together a delightful one.

A wheeler on x'mas night!

24th December 2008, we were on our way back home after vigil night holy mass. I saw a young boy doing wheeling [isn't it that called so?] on his bike. I was seeing something like that for the first time and i couldn't believe my eyes. I really got scared that he might fall down but he was good at it. A week later i read in newspaper, the tragedy happened to a teenager who was chased by police for doing wheeling on public road. He by chance ran into the army premises and was shot dead by guards. I feel sorry for him and wonder is he the same guy i saw on road the x'mas night!?

Beef Curry!

Here goes the tips for making a delicious beef gravy / stew.

Cut beef into small pieces by removing fat. Wash it thoroughly and cook it in a pressure cooker with nicely chopped ginger, garlic, onion, curry leaves and salt. [cook for 45 mins].


Make a paste of powders - chilli, corriander, turmeric, garam masala - in a small bowl with little water. Fry sliced onion and curry leaves in a kadai till golden brown. Add the masala paste into it. Stir well till brown. Add nicely chopped tomatoes to it, again stir well till brown. Add already cooked beef in the cooker to it. Add coconut milk (which is lighter in consistency).Check the salt and turn the flame off when it starts boiling. Add the thick coconut milk/cream. Stir well and serve it hot.

This dish will be best with rice, chappathi, 'palappam'(kerala cuisine), 'puttu'(kerala cuisine), and even with noodles.


Preparing coconut milk:

Add little water to the scraped coconut flesh and either simmer it or grind it in a mixer slightly. Then squeeze it through a cloth, and the thick liquid collected is coconut milk or coconut cream. This process may be repeated once or twice to produce lighter coconut milk, as different consistencies are required for different recipes.

Palappam

Beef fry! (Kerala style)

Beef fry is popular in every nook and corner of Kerala, no thattu kada would ever miss this dish in their "today's menu" board.
Preparation: Please view the above recipe for pressure cooking the meat. Then pour some oil in a kadai and fry chopped onions and curry leaves till brown. Add corriander powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder, (if needed, garam masala too) to this. Stir well. Add cooked beef and stir well till it turns dark brown. Sprinkle some pepper flakes/powder if you like it little spicy. Beef fry is ready! This tastes really great with kerala parotta and thats one of my favourites!