Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Herb flavored Green beans and Beetroot Stir Fry. {Black and White Wednesday # 88 }

This week for Black and White Wednesday event I am submitting image of Green beans and Beetroot stir fry. This  Kerala style Thoran  gets refreshing  twist from use of  fresh sage and Greek Oregano herb. Generally fresh grated coconut it used but I additionally garnished  this stir fry  with  generous quantity of fresh coconut shavings.

Sreevalli from Ammaji Recipes is hosting Black and White Wednesday Event #88. Susan, author of TheWell Seasoned Cook is a founder of this event. Now Cinzia of  Cindystarblog is a new admin for Susan's Black and White Wednesday Event. For all guidelines  and an index of  all future event hosting blogs please check Cinzia's  post here. Participants can join Flickr group created for B&W event. Next event (BWW #89, 26th June-2013) will be hosted by Lynne  of  CafeLynnylu


Herb flavored Green beans and Beetroot Thoran.


Black and White Wednesday
 Event #88, 19th June-2013

11 comments:

sm said...

interesting dish

Usha said...

sm, Thanks..seasoning subzi with International Herbs made good refreshing change.

Anonymous said...

What rice do malayalees eat with this, is it matta?
I've tried pavizham matta but it seemed like too much starch for me. Maybe I didn't wash it well so all the powder that might remain on the rice wasn't removed so the starch came in that way?

Do malayalees ever eat matta unpolished, totally red as cooked rice?



Anonymous said...

What brand matta you recommend?

Usha said...

Anonymous, It will be nice if you introduce yourself. Do you know me?

If you felt too much start in rice means you did not cook with lot of water, you have to drain out all excess water so that starch drains away and yields kanji.

I don't think all Keralites eat traditional matta rice every day...I cook parboiled rice from sams club or costco, no particular brand...sometimes I do cook unpolished matta rice.

Radha said...

It would help if you taught how to cook matta the right way. I am scared of draining water for fear of losing nutrients.

How should the texture be? I cooked it where it tasted like chewy firm pasta. Or should it be soft like pongal?

You are from gourmet India. I use to be a member.

Radha said...

It would help if there is a checkbox that says inform on follow up comments.

Usha said...

Radha, I use basic blogger template for my blog which has no provision for commentators to receiving follow up comments. This feature is available in wordpress blogs.

Texture of rightly cooked matta rice is soft swollen rice grain. It is not chewy and not like pongal and to get this texture you have to drain cooked rice stock. You can drink it up or use it in cooking, so it is not wasted.

As far as cooking matta rice, cook rice in a big size stock pot with plenty of water for 2+ hours or until each rice grain is perfectly tender and cooked to your satisfaction. Drain rice stock, let rice stand in covered pot for some time before serving. You need to develop a taste for matta rice to really enjoy eating it with curries.

Do tell more about you..Do you have any blog or which food related websites you frequent?

Radha said...

The ratio of rice to water confuses me. Some say for jeeraga samba its 1 to 3 or 1 to 2.5 but it took 1 to 4 for me to get it cooked and added one more portion of water for pongal style rice. I even soaked it for 15 min but still needed more water when cooking. I like moist creamy rice because it stays moist and doesnt dry out in fridge.

for matta some say 1 to 3 or 1 to 4 some even say 1 to 6 or 1 to 8 or 1 to 12. I did 1 to 4 and it tasted like pasta. Maybe in usa the rice is older more dry hence you need more water.

Radha said...

What is the ratio of rice to water?
You say cook for 2 hours so does that mean never set stove dial on high then turn it down to low but keep it on low and let it come to boil only when dial is set low?

Was matta cooked with all the red thavidu on or only polished white?

I assume it was cooked in a brass pot?

I don't have a blog. I have many favorites. One is mahanandhi. There we had big matta rice discussion do check it out. Sigh I cooked it wrong.

http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2006/10/30/rosematta-rice-and-dal/

It would help if you taught in detail how to make plain rice like matta, samba or jeeraka sala which I assume is jeeraga samba. It sounds silly but I dont know how to cook a good plain rice well. Im interested in heirloom indian rices.

Radha said...

If you are from kerala this is an interesting blog. Most blogs I follow are on rural tamil cooking.

http://parayilat.blogspot.com/2008/06/kerala-kitchen-some-implements-of-past.html?m=0