Of food tales and writing
Teenu Terrence
Kochi-based Teenu Terrence is never short of words when it comes to food. Her page ‘letsstalkfood’ is a combination of both her love for food and writing. Her blog throws light on some interesting food entrepreneurs and the concepts they have introduced. After her studies, Teenu got placed in a reputed media company in Chennai. After three years, she returned to Kochi and joined a company here.
“However, I took a long break from work after my son was born.” But, Teenu’s love for learning about food and writing led her to start a food blog. “I loved understanding the nuances of food and knowing about various chefs and different cuisines. So I combined all these interests into writing,” she says. Teenu has been writing about food for the past six years and her main purpose is to explore new food movements and the people who create them.
Sharing her food tales, Teenu says, “I like to write about the food from my childhood memories and recipes of my mother and grandmother. I am a Latin Catholic brought up near Fort Kochi. And I love all dishes from my community. My favourite is my mother’s fish curry and fish fry along with rice. They feel heavenly.” “However, my favourite is pan-Asian cuisine. Whenever I travel to Singapore, I hit the food markets there to relish the delicacies,” she says. Some food writers she adores include Nigella Lawson and Anthony Bourdain whose works form part of her collections in her personal library. Teenu, who recently started vlogging, feels that a lot of food pop-ups are coming in, and “that’s brilliant”.
“Travelling, experiencing authentic cuisine, reading about food and finally cooking it yourself is something I love to do,” concludes Teenu.
—Steni Simon
For the love of Kerala cuisine
Priya Kolassery
Cooking was always a passion for Priya Kolassery, a Thiruvananthapuram-based home chef who is in her 40s. A postgraduate in law and diploma holder in business management, Priya turned to her full-time passion by preparing homemade delicacies through her home cooking venture Kolamas Kitchen about six years ago. Priya loves cooking bygone tastes of Kerala, especially Travancore recipes, apart from baking western snacks and Indian savouries. “We become happy when we get the right taste and flavours in the food, no matter at what age. So I aim to contribute such tasty dishes to the foodies and fill their hearts and stomach. Though I love eating nadan Malayali food, I love exploring pan-Asian and north Indian cuisines too,” says Priya who is also a television anchor.
Though she serves all types of foodies in the city, the older generation has embraced her. “It is very difficult to satisfy the children and the elders. Many elderly people in the city live alone and hesitate to cook for themselves. So for them, I always ensure they get the taste of ‘mambazha pulisheri’, odachu curry etc. Her food has also won praise from Education Minister V S Sivankutty after tasting the grilled red chilli and shallot chutney with steamed tapioca.
—Arya U R
Maestro of Mappila food
Abida Rasheed, home chef
Abida Rasheed, one of Kerala’s best-known home chefs, has been propagating the story of Mappila cuisine, or Moplah cuisine, for over two decades now. “More than a home chef, I would rather like to define myself as a born chef,” quips the 61-year-old. Abida’s tryst with cooking began when she was just nine. Since then the myriad flavours of the kitchen became her companion.
“My food exploration began out of curiosity. My grandmother was an excellent cook, I used to observe her. Somewhere, the process, the aroma made the child in me fall in love with the whole process,” says Abida. However, it was post-marriage that Abida found a passion for the art of cooking. “My husband, Mohamad Rasheed, is a foodie. The kitchen became a space where I started experimenting to cater to his palette,” says Abida.
Gradually, she took her recipes to publications and several magazines. The Mappila recipes had several takers. The popularity was so high that even people from other states came down to her house and learnt the recipe. Pathiris, Unnakaya, biriyani, irachi pathiri and goat head curry liven up her table. “When Muslim merchants from Arab countries began settling in the region, their marriage into the local families gave rise to the word Mappila (son-in-law).
The families followed the matriarchy system then. So the boy is treated as a guest. Hospitality is important in our culture like all merchant communities. So in the quest to treat the Mappila well, our cuisine saw much creativity,” says Abida. Abida forayed into the professional kitchen in 2004 with Taj Malabar Resort in Kochi. Now she is running her own line of food products ‘Abida Rasheed’.
—Mahima Anna Jacob
Experiments with food stylings
Chinkie Joe
“I love to see my plate filled with different dishes,” shares Chinkie Joe, a food photographer and stylist based in Kochi. What started as a hobby about three years back has now turned into a passion for this food enthusiast. Chinkie says, “My journey with food started during the pandemic when everyone was stuck inside their homes. I started experimenting and making food, particularly the nadan varieties. It was an instant click and I got a lot of appreciation, which prompted me to post the photos and videos on my personal Instagram page. Simultaneously, I started exploring food photography.”
Food styling was something Chinkie always loved. Soon she started posting her experiments on her Instagram page ‘hungry joe’. “Many food companies approached me to do their styling. Before I start the process, there are many challenges. I need to know the dish and form a plan on how it should be placed. This is the most challenging part when it comes to food styling,” shares Chinkie, who currently works as a business consultant at a company in Infopark.
Though Chinkie has tried cooking various dishes, she says, “I am yet to crack the Kerala style nadan fish curry recipe of my mother.” Strictly against using any artificial colours or items while styling or capturing food, Chinkie always makes it a point to use locally available, natural ingredients in her experiments. She says, “I don’t get satisfaction in my work when I use artificial items.” Chinkie is now focusing more on her recipe videos. However, her dream is to start a restaurant specialising in Kerala cuisine.
—Steni Simon
Baking up a storm
Liza Vijay Karikkassery
For Liza Vijay Karikkassery baking isn’t an alien concept. Her childhood days were mostly about her mother baking up a storm in the kitchen and jotting down her special recipes in her recipe book. “That recipe book is what I have my eyes on,” laughs Liza. “Baking has always been a passion of mine. Terms like temperature and oven are what I’ve heard growing up. My first successful baking attempt was in the 10th grade, recreating a birthday cake that my mother used to make for me,” says Liza.
The baker in her has been tickling the taste buds of many with her classic sweet treats including, Liza’s honey cake, blueberry cheesecake, coffee rolls, and cake cheesecake through her venture Just Yum Yum since 2019. “Though I had the support of my family, it was because of some wonderful women in my life that I could continue what I love. The decision to get into the baking happened during a potluck game at a gathering. What I wrote down was that I’d bake a cake, and I did. It was liked by many. After which, Mallika, a friend of mine, insisted that I should bake another one.
There was no turning back after that. My sisters- in-law encouraged me with the baking tool, these women’s support was commendable,” says Liza, who won second runners-up in ‘Best Home Baker Kochi 2021’ The 33-year-old is known for her Honey cake made with eight layers of honey-based cookie and cream. The dishes that stay close to her heart, Liza says, are coffee rolls and chocolate cake with butter icing. “They are extremely nostalgic. No birthdays are complete without these two items. For my brother and I, it has many memories and nothing gives me more joy than getting a whiff of the sweet treats,” says Liza.
—Mahima Anna Jacob
Picks for the weekend
Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream
Liza Vijay Karikkassery
Ingredients for buttercream
Unsalted butter: 1 cup at room temperature
Vanilla essence: 1/2 tbsp
Fine salt: 1 pinch
Powdered sugar: 3.5 cups
Milk/cream: 2 tbsp
Chocolate cake
All-purpose flour: 1cup
Sugar: 1 cup
Unsweetened cocoa powder: 1/4 cup
Baking powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Baking soda: 3/4 teaspoon
Espresso powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Sour cream: 1/2cup
Butter: 1/4cup
Egg: 1
Boiling water: 1/2 cup
Vanilla: 1 teaspoon
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Prepare an 8-inch cake pan.
Whisk butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs. Whisk dry ingredients. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder. Mix wet ingredients. Add sour cream and vanilla to the flour mixture and mix. Carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Method
Beat unsalted butter on medium speed for 30 seconds until smooth with a hand mixer. Mix in vanilla essence and salt. Slowly add powdered sugar while mixing. Halfway through, add 3 cups of cream or milk. Mix until the ingredients are fully incorporated and the desired consistency is reached. If it is too thick, add additional cream. If the frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar (1 cup at a time). Beat till smooth. If you plan to colour the buttercream, add in the gel food colouring once the frosting is fully mixed and beat on low.
Mutton Biriyani
Abida Rasheed
Ingredients
Mutton: 1 kg
Onion 5 cups
Green chilli 70 gm
Garlic 70 gm
Ginger 70 gm
Curd 1/2 lt
Lime 1 large
Coriander leaves 1 cup chopped
Ghee 1tbsp
Oil 2 tbsp
Salt
Abida Raseeds Garam masala 1/2 tsp
Rice 4 glasses
Water 8 glasses
Onion sliced 1/2
Cardamom 3 cinnamon 2 ‘
Cloves 4
Method of preparation
1.Add two cup of oil to deep fry onion. While heating the oil, add 3-4 tbsp ghee. When hot add 2 and a half cup finely sliced onion. Saute well until it turns golden. Once done spread out the fried onions in a separate plate. Into the same oil, fry cashew nuts and kismiss
2.Cooking meat and masala formation
Heat the vessel. Pour the oil which was used for frying the onion. Pour just a littl amount of oil to to grease the vessel. Add finely sliced onion when the oil is hot. Saute till it is translucent in colour. Now add mutton. Saute until the meat colour turns white, make sure the onion doesn’t get fried. Add rock salt. Now add crushed green chilli , ginger , garlic. Add sour curd. You can add tomato if you like. To this mixture sprinkle the first batch of fried onions. Keep aside some to garnish in the end. Now add 1/2 teaspoon Abida Rasheed (AR) garam masala to the mutton mixture. (available on amazon and flipkart) Mix well. Let the mutton cook for 10-15 minutes
3.Cooking rice
Smaller the grain, the better Take the oil and ghee which was used to fry the onion in the initial stage. This oil has a particular flavour. When the vessel is hot add the flavoured oil.
Add half sliced onion. Make sure the onion is translucent in colour, this is to retain the whiteness of rice. To this add cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves.
Add rice to the oil-ghee mixture. Roast the rice. When the grains stay separate that means the rice is in its correct form. Now add water. Cook it for 4-5 minutes. Stir continuously in full flame to make it crispy. Add required amount of rock salt. Now add water in a proportion of 1:2 (rice-1, water-2 ). Cover with a heavy lid. In 10 minutes, steam will start to come. Then switch off the flame. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile the masala which is pre-cooked. Heat it till the water is gone. Add handful of coriander leaves. Add lemon juice. Add 1/2 teaspoon AR Garam masala.
Dum
Add rice to the masala. On the first layer of rice, add a pinch of garam masala powder. Add fried kismis, cashew, some coriander leaves. You can also add rose water with saffron. Cover with foil, so that the steam does not escape. Remove the dum and foil. Serve hot.