Beef Mappas (Christmas/Easter Dishes)

Beef Mappas is a very tempting and traditional curry prepared in Kerala during Christmas and Easter day. This is a spicy curry prepared in coconut milk, a stew like curry and tastes delicious any time of the day. This curry is served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At home, we prefer this curry best to be served with Appam for breakfast. You can prepare this curry with chicken and mutton too. Enjoy your food with love :)

Ingredients:

Beef - 1/2 kg (cut to cube pieces)

Onions - 2 medium

Ginger -  small piece

Garlic - 5 pods

Green chilli - 4 nos

Tomato - 1 medium

Curry leaves - 1 string

Cardamom - 4 nos (crushed)

Cloves - 3 nos

Cinnamon - 1 stick

Thick coconut milk - 1/2 cup

Thin coconut milk - 1 cup

Water - 1 cup

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Red chillie powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Jeera powder - 3/4 tsp

Black pepper powder - 3 tbsp

Coconut oil - 3 tsp

Vinegar - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Preparation:

- Heat oil in a cooker, add cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and saute for a minute.

- Add the green chilli, ginger, garlic and fry for a minute.

- Add onions, tomatoes and saute well till onions turn translucent.  

- Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, black pepper powder and fry well till raw smell goes.

- Now toss the cut and cleaned beef, salt and mix well.

- Pour thin coconut milk, water and mix well. Cook for 8-10 whistle. Open cooker, add thick coconut milk, vinegar and let cook on low flame for another 5 minutes.

- Serve hot with Appam or Rice.

Beef Burger

This is a classic Beef Burger prepared by my hubby (Alex). This is his recipe and credit goes to him alone. Burger tastes yummy and will want to try out every weekend. Try this recipe and let me  know your comments. Happy cooking and eating ):

Ingredients:
Beef mince - 500gms
Egg - 1 nos
Bread crumbs - 1/2 cup
Black pepper powder - 1 tbsp
Onion - 1 big (scrape the onions with a scaper)
Parsley - one hand full or corriender leaves half hand full
Salt - to taste

Preparation:

Lightly wisk the eggs. Scrape the onions with a scraper. Don't scrape it too small, or it will turn watery. Add the scraped onions, wisked egg, pepper and salt to the beef mince. You can add a handful of parsley, or if not available you can add half a handful of coriander leaves. Since coriander leaves are pungent and strong in flavour, half a hand full will do. Mix all these ingredients well. Your mixture will be slightly watery, so add bread crumbs to even it out.

Now roll it into medium size balls in the palm of your hands and flaten the top and bottom to shape it into burger patties. Make the patties of a same size so that they will cook evenly. Now freeze them in the fridge for at least an hour. You can store them as patties for later use too. Once you patties are frozen and firm. You can heat a flat base pan and lightly oil it. You don't need more oil as the fat from the burger will ooze out. Once you pan is hot, place the patties and please don't thaw it around. It will come off once the fat releases from the patties. You can grill them for 5 mins on each side. Touch the center if the burger and you should get a bit of a bounce back. Your burger is cooked. Please dont press the bugger while cooking with spatula as it will release all the juices and your burger will be dry.

Once they are cooked, let them rest on a plate for 2 to 3 minutes before assembling.

Cut a bun and toast it in and out. You can add any dressing you like egs. lettuces, onions, tomatoes, cheese and even egg. It's left to you.

I like my burgers plain and simple. So I have just added a bit of mayo, dill and lemon sauce on one cheek of the bun and a chilly tomato sauce on the other.  

Now enjoy your burger.

Andhra Chicken Fry (My Style)

Andhra Chicken Fry is also known as Chicken Vepudu or Kodi Vepudu which is a very common dish prepared in Andhra homes. This dish is prepared in different styles and tastes great. This is a very tasty and flavorful side dish served with rice, rotis or chapathis. This is a fry dish in my version and tastes delicious and cannot stop to ask more. Do try this recipe and enjoy :)

Ingredients:

For marination and cooking:

Chicken - 500 gms (with bone or boneless)

Turmeric powder - ½ tsp

Kashmiri chilli powder - 2 tbsp

Corriender powder - 2 tsp

Jeera Powder - ½ tsp

Ginger paste - 1 tsp

Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Black pepper powder - 1 tsp

Vinegar - 1 tsp

Fresh corriender leaf - ½ cup

Salt - to taste

Oil - for cooking the marinated chicken

For cooking :

Onions - 2 large (sliced)

Green chillies - 6 nos (slit into half)

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Dry red chillies - 6 nos

Black pepper powder - 1 tbsp

Curry leaves - 12 - strings

Oil - 4 tbsp ( 2 tbsp for frying + 2 tbsp for cooking)

Preparation:

- Marinate chicken with turmeric, kashmiri chilli, corriender, jeera powder, pepper powder, ginger garlic paste, fresh corriender, vinegar and salt  for at least 30 minutes.

- In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil and fry the sliced onions till golden brown in color and keep aside to cool. Once cooled crush the onions and keep aside.

- In another pan or kadai, heat 2 tbsp of oil, add the marinated chicken and let cook with lid on till chicken is cooked, tender and dry. Once done keep aside.

- Heat 2 tbsp of oil in the onion fried pan, splutter mustard seeds, dry red chillies, curry leaves, green chillies and fry for a minute. Now add the cooked chicken, black pepper powder, fried and crushed onions and fry well till all the masala is well coated with the chicken for 3 minutes.

- Once done garnish with curry leaves and serve with Chapatis, Rotis and also as a side dish with Rice.

Note:

- This is a very spicy fry dish. Adjust salt and spice as per taste.

- No water is added to the chicken for cooking. The chicken is cooked in oil with lid on.