Strawberry cream cake for our 4th Anniversary!

Thrissur style Pork Varattiyathu

Ingredients :

1. Pork - 3 lbs (Choose meat with significant amount of fat)

2. Onion - 1/2 of a big onion

3. Garlic - 3 cloves(chopped)

4. Ginger - 2 inch (sliced)

5. Green chilly - 2(sliced)

6. Coriander powder - 2 tbsp (heaped)

7. Garam masala - 1 tbsp

8. Chilli powder - 1 tsp

9. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

10. Salt to taste

To Roast and grind:

1. Shredded coconut - 4 tbsp

2. Cinammon - 2 2"stick

3. Cardamom - 3

4. Cloves - 5

5. Fennel seeds - 1 tbsp

6. Pepper- 1 tsp

To fry:

1. Garlic - 4 cloves

2. Poppy seeds - 1 tsp

1. Marinate the Pork with ingredients 2 to 10 and set aside for minimum 1 hour.
2. Cover and cook the pork till the meat is done.(Do not use pressure cooker)
3. Dry roast the coconut with the spices till get becomes a dark brown  color and grind to a fine paste without using water. Use a spice grinder for this. You will get a dark brown oily paste.
4. Once the meat is cooked, put the flame on high and reduce the liquid.
5. When all the liquid has evaporated, turn down the flame and add the roast coconut- spice paste.
6. Continue cooking on low flame till the meat has browned well.
7. If you have more fat in the dish, remove some into a pan and saute the garlic and poppy seeds and pour it back to the dish. Mix well and saute again for 10 minutes.
    If there is not much fat in the dish, use coconut oil to saute the garlic and poppy seeds.

Whole wheat Banana Bread

Ingredients

1. Ripe banana - 3
2. Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
3. Sugar - 1 cup
4. Eggs - 2
5. Butter - 1 stick
6. Baking soda - 1 tsp
7. Baking powder - 1 tsp
8. Milk - 2 tbsp
9. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
10. Chopped Walnuts/pecans- 3/4 cup(optional)
11. Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
11. Salt - 1/2 tsp


1. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. In another bowl, mash the bananas with a fork with milk, cinnamon powder and vanilla essence.
4. Add this to the butter mixture.
5. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
6. Add to the wet mixture and combine well with a spatula.
7. Add the nuts. Mix well.
8. Pour the mixture into a buttered loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or till a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.