Challas or Sarlas - Kerala Onion Salad for Biryani, Parotta, Cutlet

Challas or Sarlas is a very Kerala thing and I wouldn't be surprised if many people outside have never heard of it. Challas is basically thinly sliced red onion that's soaked in vinegar, salted, spiced, and served commonly with Kerala biryani, cutlets, parotta, fried rice, etc. It has a wonderful tangy-sweet flavour from the vinegar and onions and I am sure is a Keralised version of some anglican dish introduced by foreign visitors many years ago.

I have made challas a few times but never thought of sharing the recipe, mainly because it's so ridiculously simple. So this is not much a recipe-sharing exercise but more of me introducing something possibly new to you all :) There are a few different variations to Challas across Kerala but this is how we Kottayam folks make it. It's a variation of raita in a way, but curd is not added to this onion salad.

Challas with Egg Biryani

Try some challas the next time you make biryani and you'll fid how addictive it really is. The onions turn very soft and the pink-purple gets distributed through the salad making it look really pretty. The challas in my pictures above hasn't soaked for too long so it still holds its colours well but in time, it gets softer and pinker overall. A cucumber tomato raita is another excellent accompaniment to Biryani.

CHALLAS OR SARLAS RECIPE


A Kerala-style onion salad popularly served with biryani and cutlets.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 1 cup

Ingredients:
- 1 cup red or purple onions, sliced thin
- 1 green chili, chopped
- 2 tsp vinegar
- 1/3 tsp salt (adjust to taste)

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients together and set aside for 30 mins. The onions will let out water during this time. Squeeze out the water and place in another bowl. Add more salt if required.

Serve challas with biryani or cutlet for optimum taste! Be sure to hand out some mint afterwards, because true to their nature, the onions will cause some bad breath ;)

Variations: Add 2 tbsp of grated carrot and/or 1/4 tsp of grated ginger to the challas for a different flavour.

Fruit Custard Recipe | Fruit Salad with Custard | Step by Step Recipe

This delicious custard fruit salad recipe is another gem from K. Athamma who invariably makes it for dessert at all our family get-togethers. It may seem easy to just chop up some fruits, make a salad with it, and add some custard sauce to it but she has a definitive process she follows to make this fruit custard recipe. This fruit salad uses an eggless custard recipe made using vanilla custard powder and while you can choose pretty much whatever fruits you want to make the fruit salad, there are a few that she highly recommends - mostly tropical fruits that are available easily in India.

I have always noticed that Athamma's fruit salad has an underlying flavour of not just the fruits but something else that's sweet and cooked. So when I called her to ask how she makes her fruit custard, I realised there is more to this recipe than I imagined. She cooks dates and pineapple in some sugar syrup before adding it to the salad giving the entire fruit salad a very lovely flavour. I strongly recommend you to try this same process and be amazed.

I have used a mix of fruits which I could find easily at the time but please note that if you omit certain ingredients, the fruit custard will taste less than great and we all know no one wants to eat a fruit salad with custard sauce that tastes anything but great!

Other Easy Dessert Recipes:
Apple Crumble with Custard Sauce
China Grass Pudding
Banana Hazelnut Pudding
Vanilla Panna Cotta with Blueberry Coulis

Fruit Custard Recipe

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 6
Recipe Source: Kumari Athamma

Ingredients:
1 apple
1 orange
1 cup of cubed, ripe pineapple
5-6 dates
1/2 cup of cubed, ripe mangoes (if in season)
1 small banana
1/4 cup of glazed cherries
1/4 cup of chopped cashew nuts
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar

For Custard Sauce:
2 cups of milk
3 tbsp of vanilla custard powder
3 tbsp of sugar

How to Make Fruit Custard:

• Add the custard powder to 1/4 cup milk, mix well, and set aside.
• Bring the rest of the milk to boil and add sugar. Slowly add the custard mixture and continue to cook    until thick - about 5-7 mins.
• Remove from fire, cool completely, and refrigerate.
• Cook the 1/4 cup water + 2tbsp sugar for about 3-4 mins until the syrup thickens a bit. It doesn't need to be one-string, etc.
• Remove from fire. Chop the pineapple into small cubes and shred the dates into small pieces. Add these to the hot syrup, mix well, cool completely, and refrigerate.
• An hour before you need to serve the fruit custard, cut the other fruits into small pieces, cube the cherries, chop the nuts and add to the pineapple-date mixture. Mix well and refrigerate until you need to serve.
• To serve: add 1/2 cup of the fruit salad to a bowl and top off with 1/2 cup custard sauce.

Step by Step Pictures to Make Fruit Salad with Custard:

To Make the Custard Sauce

Mix the custard powder with 1/4 cup milk and whisk until smooth

Bring the milk and sugar to boil

Add the custard mix slowly to the boiling milk

Keep stirring until the custard starts to thicken. This will take about 5-7 mins

Remove, transfer to a bowl, cool completely, and refrigerate

To Make the Fruit Salad

Round up your fruits

Make a slightly thick syrup with water and sugar

Add finely chopped pineapple and dates to this syrup

Mix well, cool completely, and refrigerate

An hour before serving, chop the rest of the fruits and add to the pineapple-date mixture

Mix well and refrigerate until serving time

To Serve

Add required amount of the fruit salad to a bowl. Top off with desired amount of custard. Serve chilled.

Notes:

- Add and subtract fruits according to your preference but I highly recommend the banana, cherries, and cashew nuts
- If you prefer to make the custard sauce thicker, add more custard powder. We prefer a light, more watery custard with more focus on the fruits
- Here's a custard sauce using eggs if you want to make custard sauce without custard powder

Cucumber Tomato Raita Recipe | Indian Raita Recipes

Learn how to make Cucumber Tomato Raita. Raita is a sort of Indian salad using yogurt as the base and vegetables of choice with some mild spices added to enhance the flavour.

In almost 6 years of food blogging, I have not shared a single Raita Recipe. That really is quite unbelievable because I make different types of raita almost every weekend. It's a quick dish to put together and raita compliments both rice and roti based meals beautifully.

While the basis of every Raita Recipe is the same, there are so many different ways you can make an Indian-style Raita. I follow a very basic Raita Recipe with a couple of vegetables thrown in along with some spices to jazz it up a bit. The result is a deliciously simple Raita that compliments both rice and roti / chapati equally. Add a Raita to your menu when you are entertaining. It's an easy way to add more flavour, variety and an extra dish to your meal with minimum effort.

Cucumber Tomato Raita Recipe | Indian Raita Recipes

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:
1 cup of plain unsweetened yogurt or curd (make curd at home)
1 small young cucumber
1 small tomato
1 green chilli
1/2 tsp of roasted and powdered cumin seeds
1/4 tsp of chaat masala (I use Everest brand)
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of minced fresh cilantro / coriander leaves

How to Make Cucumber Tomato Raita:

1. Chop the tomato and cucumber into small cubes. Deseed the tomatoes if you have the patience. Add 1/2 cup water to the curd and mix well.

2. Add salt and beat well to incorporate.

3. Throw in the chopped vegetables, green chillies, and the chaat masala. Mix well to combine. Garnish with the chopped coriander and cumin seeds. Serve immediately.

It's best to "assemble" the raita just before you are going to serve it. What I normall do is to chop and mix all the vegetables and refrigerate it without adding salt. Then later, when it's time to serve, I just throw the raita together and take it out pretending like I just made the entire thing! Try it, it works like a charm and you have fresh tasting Raita each time.

Note: I use the thin, small, Japanese cucumber for Raita. It's very widely available in Singapore and tastes delicious in salads and Raita.
You can use Greek Yogurt for a thicker consistency for the raita. Adjust water : curd ratio according to your preference.