Simple Cabbage Salad

This is a very simple simple cabbage salad. But dont worry..its open to any kind of modifications!!
This is very frequent visitor to our dinner table. My mom says the secret to make the perfect salad is to cut the cabbage very very thin. Well, mine doesnt come too thin..
I do not have an exact measurEment.so just eyeball everything to the amount of cabbage you take.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

• Thinly sliced cabbage
• Olive oil
• lemon juice
• freshly ground Pepper or use thinly sliced green chillie
• Salt

TO MAKE

• Put everything in a bowl and toss it around till everything gets coated well.

You can even add thinly sliced onion, olives,capers, any thing of your choice.

Kerala Crab Roast

Let me confess...the only thing I know about crab is how to eat it..Have no idea about how to clean them nor cook them.The first time I experimented with Crabs (4 years back), I just cleaned the whole thing on the surface and put it in boiling water along with ginger,garlic and chilly..and just ate it..It was awful!! After that my hubby swore he wont by crabs at home. But then last week I asked him to get me some live blue crabs and since I am preg now he doesnt say no to anything ( he he, better take all  advantage). so I decided to try my luck once again! Last year on our trip to florida, a friend of mine had shown me how to clean and cut crab. So I set of on my adventure with some vague memory of how to torture the crab to death. It was my hubby who helped to kill the live crabs.My poor hubby whose seafood is limited to shrimps and fishes , kept telling me that the only reason I am doing this is coz I love you!Ha ha ha..but he said the end result was mouthwatering!

I didnt know if it was the right way to clean the crab but I did it and I should say none of us got sick and the crab roast did come out perfect. Here is a link that I found that shows how to cut and clean a crab

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzUY7Z4t5Ps

I did detach all the claws and legs too... This is a little spicy u can reduce the spice according to ur taste..If u like the taste of pepper u can add that more else go with green chillies!

INGREDIENTS:

• 
  
  Blue Crab - 5( dont know how much they weighed)
• Chilly powder - 1/2 tbsp
• 
  
  Coriander Powder - 1tbsp
• 
  
  Garlic pods(big) - 6  finely chopped
• Ginger - 11/2 inch long finely chopped
• Large Onion – 11/2   ( thinly sliced)
• Pepper powder - 4tsp ( or just use green chillies)
• Garam masala - 2 pinch
• Tomato - 2 finley chopped
• Curry leaves - a handful
• Green chillies - 3
• Salt to taste
• Oil as needed.

METHOD:
I did the cooking in 2 parts. Firstly I cooked the crab and then I added this to the masala roast. This recipe is the result of combining 2 recipes one from my mother and the other from my dear Primna chechi.

• Cut and clean the crab well and keep aside.You can crack the crabs shell with the back of the knife so that the flavor gets into the meat, just one or two stikes.
• Grind together the Garlic, Ginger,green chillie and a few curry leaves.
• In a non stick pot over a medium flame add the cleaned crab and the ginger garlic paste and a pinch of turmeric and mix well. cover with a lid and let the crab cook till it turns to a red color.
• Give a few stir in between so that everything gets coated well and are cooked uniformly.
• Remove from flame when done.
• In another pan, add some oil and add the sliced onions and suate till very soft.
• Add the chillie powder, corriander powder, pepper powder, salt and garam masala.Mix.
• Add the cooked crab to this.
• Add a little water(1/4 cup) to the pan in which the crab was cooked and por this water into the onion masala( make sure u get al the ginger and garlic from the other pan).
• Add the chopped tomato and the curry leaves and cover and cook on a low flame till the tomato becomes very soft.
• Check for salt.
•  Serve hot!!

Blue Crab

  

Masala Mushroom

INGREDIENTS:

• Mushroom - 250 gm (approx)
• Onion 1 finely chopped.
• tomato puree 3 heaped table spoon
• Green chillie 2 sliced
• Curry leaves a few
• Garam masala 1/2 tsp
• Ginger 1 inch finely grated.
• Mustard seeds. 1 tsp
• Red chillie powder 1 tsp ( or depending on ur taste)
• Corriander powder - 1.5 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil as needed.

Method:

• Clean and cut the mushrooms in to medium pieces and keep aside
• In a pan,  pour someoil and spluttter the mustard seeds. Add the green chillie and the currry leaves.
• Add the onions and suate till its translucent
• Add the tomato puree and saute till the raw smell goes.
• Add the red chillie powder, corriander powder and salt.Mix well.
• Add the mushrooms and suate till all the masla gets coated on the musrooms (3-4 minutes)
• Add the garam masala nd just enough water ( abt half a cup)
• cook on  low flame till the mushrooms are tender and the gravy is thick.
• add the finely grated ginger and cook for 2-3 more minutes.
• Check for salt and serve it hot with chapathi's.