Oven Roasted Peanuts | Varutha Kadala | Roasted Peanuts

My family and my extended family, we all like to munch on salted roasted peanuts.. Even the kids and toddlers too follow the trend :) Everyone loves to munch some good salted "kadala" or "kappalandi" or  "nilakadala" or "verkadalai" whatever name you call it ! I remember in my childhood days my mom and dad used to try to re-create the kappalandikaran's way of roasting peanuts by adding sand in the kadai and then heating them to an optimum temperature and then trying to roast the peanuts in them.. If I ask them about that, they will still reminisce them with more failure stories than success ones ; The idea was to re-create the perfectly roasted peanuts that we get from the road side vendors, but it's quite a feat to achieve at home without damaging your utensils. And in those days it was cheaper to buy the roasted peanuts from them than try to recreate at home...

But nowadays it is so costly to buy from them, have you noticed? You just get three fistfuls for 10 bucks. And every time you want to munch on peanuts you can't go searching for the kappalandi chetan right :D So I learnt to roast these peanuts very gracefully in a microwave from my Mil.. It's very easy and fuss free and you do not leave behind a spotted dirty looking kadai.. Cool right? And now the different microwave brands work differently.. Some heat up fast while some are slower, so take baby steps first and know your microwave lest you are left with bad looking burnt peanuts !

Soaking Time : 60 minutes

Cooking Time : 10-15 minutes

I Used:

Peanuts	-	As Needed
Salt	-	As Needed

The Way:

1. Soak peanuts in salt water for 30-60 minutes. The water should be salty when you taste it. Hence taste and add salt accordingly. If salt is not sufficient, the roasted peanuts will not taste great

2. Once soaked. spread the peanuts on the microwave tray. Set your oven to microwave mode and power to max (in my case 900 W) and timer to 3 minutes

3. After 3 minutes, open the oven and quickly stir the peanuts with a spatula. This is to ensure that they get roasted evenly

4. Then again keep in 900 W for another 2 minutes. Again open and stir with a spatula. I continued like this for a total of 11 minutes and the peanuts were roasted. In my mil's microwave she keeps for 5 minutes twice or thrice till done. That oven doesn't heat too fast and hence she is able to keep for a longer time. So know your oven and test with smaller time during the first time. Then you will get the hang of it and can improvise 

5. And watch out for the burnt smell. If you get them, immediately switch off the oven and open the door and allow it to cool. And from next time keep for a lower time :)

Hope my tips are helpful and you could roast some good peanuts :) Let me know your comments and thoughts in the comments section !

Cheers,
Chitz

Fish Currywali | Meen Curry | Meen Kuzhambu | Microwave Fish Curry

Fish cooked in tamarind pulp and curd

'I am running out of recipes. I don't know what to cook today'. There goes my usual ranting to my mom. I don't like to repeat the dishes quite often. So I always feel I am out of ideas when I decide on what to cook. That's when mom told me what they had for lunch that day. It was this new but old fish curry. New but old coz mom used to make it regularly some years back and then stopped, but now has revived back on the menu as she is on a health plan and cutting low on tamarind (Curd gets her the tangy flavour she needs) !!

Actually she got this recipe from a microwave recipe book. But neither she nor I did this on microwave :-P (But if somebody else is interested to cook on microwave, do go ahead :-) ) So now I am happy that I have yet another new recipe and here it goes for you guys..

Recipe Source : Ma's Cookbook

I took:

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 30 minutes

I Used:    

Fish	-	250 gm
Onion	-	100 gm or 1 medium
Tomato	-	100 gm or 1 medium
Ginger-Garlic paste	-	2 tsp
Tamarind	-	Small Lemon sized
Curd	-	150 gm
Mustard	-	1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds	-	1 tsp
Turmeric powder	-	¼ tsp
Red Chilly powder	-	3 tsp
Coriander powder	-	4 tsp
Cumin seed powder	-	1 tsp
Curry leaves	-	1 sprig
Coriander leaves	-	2 sprig
Oil	-	As needed
Salt	-	As needed

The Way:

Prep part

1. Grind the onion and tomatoes separately in a mixer and keep aside
2. Soak the tamarind in water and extract the pulp
3. Beat the curd and keep aside

Cooking part

1. Heat oil. Add mustard, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves.
2. When the mustard begins to splutter, add the onion paste followed by the ginger-garlic paste and saute well until the raw smell goes. Add the tomato paste and fry well.
3. Now add turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder and cumin seed powder and saute.
4. Add the tamarind pulp. When it comes to a slow boil, add the cleaned fish pieces and cook in medium flame for 10 mins or until the fish is half done. Add water as required.
5. Add the beaten curd and coriander leaves and cook on low flame until the fish is well done :-)

Treat it with rice or dosas :-)

Note:

Adjust the tamarind and curd to suit your taste buds. Add a green chilly in the end if you want to adjust the taste.

Cheers,

Chitz