Mussels and Potato curry - കല്ലുമ്മക്കായ ഉരുളക്കിഴങ്ങ് കറി

Here is the next recipe from my mother-in-law’s kitchen. It is said to be mouth-wateringly delicious by Aysha. As I didn't get a chance to have this dish, I don’t have any idea. However, you can have a try and see the results. I know getting mussels is gonna be one of the toughest tasks in places other than Kerala. Whoever gets a chance to buy this yummy seafood with shells, don’t miss it. Lots of other recipes with mussels (കല്ലുമ്മക്കായ) are on its way. So have a look at the recipe and do try without fail, okay?

Ingredients:

Mussels – Whole - 25-30 no. s
Potato – 2 medium sized – peeled and cut into medium sizes
Ginger –finger sized piece – peeled and mashed
Onion – ½ - chopped
Green chillies – 2 no. s – sliced
Tomato – 1 big – chopped
Red chilli powder – 1 Tb sp
Roasted coriander powder – 3 Tb sp
Coconut grated – 1 ½ cups
Shallots – 4 no. s
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Water – as needed
Salt – as needed
Oil – as needed
Fenugreek seeds – 8-10 seeds
Curry leaves – 1 sprig

How to:

1.       Clean the exterior of the whole mussel shells and keep it in a big aluminum vessel and heat it for 5-7 minutes in full flame. Turn upside down once or twice in between. Water will come out of the shells and it’ll slowly open. Switch off the flame and keep it aside for cooling down.

2.       Now take the cooled down and boiled mussels. Take off the shells and separate the flush. Don’t wash the flushy part, but remove messy parts like hair or so. Keep the water came from the shells separate after sieving out any solid parts.

3.       In a small bowl, put chopped onion, green chillies, cut potatoes, mashed ginger and the water which came out of mussels shell. Close the bowl and keep it aside for some time.

4.       Cook the above mixture (step 3) in a pressure cooker until potatoes are cooked properly. Switch off the flame and open the cooker.  Add the mussels flush, chilli powder, chopped tomatoes, coriander powder, salt (use lesser salt than usual as mussels itself will have some salty taste) and boil for 2-3 minutes in medium flame.

5.       Meanwhile grind the grated coconut, turmeric powder and 2 shallots in a mixer with ½ cup of water. Once the above mixture has been boiled, pour this coconut mixture to it and cook for 3 minutes in low flame. Switch off the stove and keep the curry aside.

6.       In a non-stick pan, pour oil. On heating add fenugreek seeds. Once it has completed sputtering, add remaining chopped shallots and sauté for a while it turns brown. Now add the curry leaves and pour this to the curry which has been kept ready.

This curry goes well with Kerala boiled rice with some spicy side dish like Mango side-dish Calicut style - കോഴിക്കോടൻ കടു മാങ്ങ 

Read more »

Mango side-dish Calicut style - കോഴിക്കോടൻ കടു മാങ്ങ

 While giving permission to Aysha to go home last week, I’d kept a condition. If only she is sure that she can come back with few recipes with photographs, her permission is granted. Else she’ll have to face me. Poor girl…!! Got frightened I think. She came back with few of her mom’s kitchen delicacies, though I had to wait again for another week to get the recipe in written form. So first we are rolling out the simple and easy recipe of a mango dish so called “Kadu Manga” (കടു മാങ്ങ). Don’t get this name confused with the “kadumanga pickle”. It’s different, of course! This particular dish can be made with green mango, ripening one or even with a ripe mango.

Ingredients:

Green mango -1 (cut into medium sized pieces)

Fenugreek – 6-7 seeds

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Coconut oil – 1-2 Tb sp

Onion – ½ chopped

Green chilly – 2 no.s sliced

Tomato – 1 medium sized chopped

Garlic – 4 cloves mashed

Red chilly powder – 1 ½ Tb sp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Water – 1 cup

Salt – as needed

Sugar – 1 Tb sp (optional)

How to:

1.       In an earthen pot, pour coconut oil and on heating put the fenugreek seeds. Once it has fully sputtered, put mustard seeds and allow it to sputter completely.

2.       To this, add chopped onion, green chilly, tomato, red chili powder, turmeric powder, mashed garlic, water and salt. Allow it to boil in full flame for about 3-5 minutes.

3.       Once the gravy gets thicker, switch of the flame and keep it closed with a lid for 5 minutes. Now check the taste and if the mango taste is too sour, add sugar (it’s optional. Add sugar only if you like sweetness with sour taste).

Do try this easy side dish which will go well with Kerala meals and ghee rice. You’ll let us know the feedback for sure, right?

Read more »

KARIMEEN CURRY ( Pearl Spot Curry )

The situation is awful and the expectation of our fans is towering . I'm too lazy and too busy to cook anything in my kitchen and Aysha doesn't have a stage to perform.  She's been provided food by her house owner.  We are left with no clue how to respond to the queries! Coincidentally Susan Abraham made her appearance with a recipe of the most wanted and the most delicious Karimeen Curry (Pearl Spot) We've ever had in our lifetime. I've to use this occasion to comment on her skill not only on cooking varieties of innovative dishes but also on her typical way of serving. She decorates her small four-seated dining table in such a simple yet beautiful way; that guests will be too much tempted  to click the snap rather than touching the dishes...!!

Ingredients:

Karimeen/pearl spot – Whole -2 no. s

Fenugreek seeds-1/4 tsp

Curry leaves- 1 sprig or more

Ginger-chopped- 1" piece

Garlic-chopped- 2 large cloves

Green chilies-sliced-2 no. s

Shallots sliced- 10 no. s

Onion -sliced- 2 medium sized

Kashmiri chili powder-2 to 3 tsp

Coriander powder- 1 Tbsp

Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp

Black pepper powder-1/2 tsp

Water-1/8 cup + more as required

Kokum/fish tamarind/kudampuli-2 small pieces

Thin coconut milk-1 cups

Thick coconut milk-1/2 cup

Salt- to taste

For marination:

 Kashmiri chili powder- 1 tsp

Black pepper powder-1/2 tsp

Coriander powder- 1 tsp

Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp

Water -as required

Salt-to taste

How to:

1. Marinate fish with the ingredients listed under 'for marination'.Keep aside for about 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the fish until 3/4 th done, turning once in between. Transfer it onto a kitchen towel.

3. In the same pan ( add more oil if required) add fenugreek seeds, sauté for a few seconds. Add curry leaves, ginger and garlic, sauté till raw smell leaves.

4. Now add green chilies, shallots and onion. Sauté till onion turns golden brown. Next add kashmiri chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, black pepper powder and 1/8 cup water. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring well in between. Cook until it the masala turns mushy.( you can transfer this masala to clay pot/manchatti or continue cooking in the same pan).

5. Next add thin coconut milk, about 1/4 cup water ,salt and kokum pieces. Bring it to a boil and add the fish. Cook for about 4 to 5 minutes. Add thick coconut milk, gently swirl the pan and bring it to just under a boil.

6. Add more curry leaves ,if desired. 

Serve the Karimeen Curry with rice, preferable Kerala matta rice. I guarantee you that the taste is gonna stick on to your taste buds for life time. Have a try and let us know.

Read more »

Mutton Roast (ആട്ടിറച്ചി വരട്ടിയത്) – Malabar Edition

I love the way she cooks Mutton(Goat Meat)  in her traditional Malabar style and badly wanted to post the recipe here in the blog for our fans. But after my last health checkup, mutton moved into the ‘banned food products’ list! What to do?! But somehow I could convince that this mutton is only for our Aakrantham|ആക്രാന്തം page lovers, and I won’t eat more than 2 pieces from it. Believing my words, she compromised to cook and take the photo. This might be my last mutton curry until my cholesterol level reduces to a normal value. And you know what? once I got the recipe and the photos, I changed my word. Of course it was delicious and I had more than enough of this mutton curry. To add spice to her anger, I made palak (Spinach) mutton myself by taking a portion out of this curry. And the best part is; she can’t have palak dishes as her stomach is sensitive to such leaves and I had to finish this palak mutton also. Wait for the Palak mutton recipe!!

Ingredients

For cooking mutton
Mutton – 1 kgPepper – 2 Tb spoon
Coriander powder – 2 Tb spoon
Garam masala – ¼ teaspoon
Green chilli – 2 no.s
Curry leaves – 1 stem
Ginger – 1 thumb sized piece
Garlic – 6 cloves
Corriander & pudina leaves – 2 stems each
Salt - to taste

For gravy
Oil – 1 Tb spoon
Shallots – peeled and chopped - 200 g
Tomato – cut into small pieces - 1 big size
Coriander powder – 1 Tbspoon
Pepper powder – 1 Tb spoon
Green chilli – sliced – 2 no.s
Turmeric powder – ½ teaspoon


How to:

1.       Wash and drain the water well from the mutton pieces.  In a dry grinder jar, put pepper corns, coriander powder, garam masala, green chillies, curry leaves, ginger, garlic cloves, coriander and pudina leaves. Grind all these together. In a pressure cooker, mix the dried mutton pieces well with the above mixture using hand. Add salt too. Pour ¼ cup of water and pressure cook.  Number of whistles can be decided based on the nature of mutton. (You may keep the mutton pieces mixed with 2-3 table spoons of vinegar for 10-15 minutes before washing so that the typical mutton smell will be washed away. I used to cook till 8 pressure cooker whistles. It varies depends on nature and type of mutton)

2.       In a non-stick pan, pour oil and on heating add the peeled and chopped shallots. Sauté till the shallots turn translucent. Add the sliced green chillies and sauté well. Add the tomatoes and sauté for few minutes. Put coriander powder, pepper powder and turmeric powder and sauté well. Once the mixture turns soft and like a paste, open the pressure cooker and add the mutton along with the liquid part into this pan. (if you are too lazy to peel off the shallots, you may use Onions, make sure you sauté it well so that it can blend well in the gravy).

3.       In low flame, keep the pan closed for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, the excess water in the gravy should be drained off. Make sure that thick gravy is formed. If needed, add few coriander/pudina leaves and switch off the flame. Serve with ghee rice/pathiri/any kind of rotis after 30 minutes.

Read more »

Easy Fish Curry (Paal Meen Curry/പാല്‍ മീന്‍ കറി) Adapted from Srilankan style

During my forced bachelor-life in Doha, I used to buy my dinner from one of the Srilankan restaurants, mostly ‘idiyappam and palmeen curry’ (ഇടിയപ്പവും പാല്‍ മീന്‍ കറിയും). Hearing the dish name daily from me, my wife thought that ‘palmeen’ is a kind of fish available here (to be frank, I too thought in the same lines, till I found a different variety of fish in the curry) and she asked me once “can’t you try some other fish?” which made me laugh out loudly! On that day I decided to take her to the restaurant and make her eat this favorite dish of mine, once she reaches Doha. Recently we’d been to the place and she tasted this wonderful Srilankan curry. And out of the idea sprout from her taste buds on having the palmeen curry, she tried to make it at home in her own style. As I’m a person who loves to eat less spicy and light colored curries with breakfast items, this became a grand success, adding one more feather to our cooking experiments. I trust this will help you too and you will love its flavor!!

Ingredients:
Fish* – 6 pieces
Coconut milk – 1 ½ cups OR coconut powder – 5 Tb spoon
Green chilli – 1
Tomato – ½
Curry leaves – 12 no. s
Ginger – a small piece
Shallot – 6 cloves
Turmeric powder – ¼ tspoon
Fenugreek – 6 seeds
Oil – 1 Tbspoon
Salt – as needed

 How to:

1. In a mixer jar, take coconut milk (or the coconut powder with 1 ½ cup of water). Put Green chilly, chopped tomato, few curry leaves, ginger, turmeric powder, salt, and 3 cloves shallot. Grind well. (if you like more sour taste in your curry, add tamarind juice or more tomatoes)

2. Pour the above mixture to an earthen pot or a nonstick pan and leave to boil. Once boiled well, put the washed fish pieces and keep the stove in low flame. Cook for 2-3 minutes and switch off.3. In another pan, heat oil and add the fenugreek seeds to spatter. Add the remaining shallots after chopping and sauté till it changes colour. Add the remaining curry leaves and sauté for few seconds. Pour this on top of the above curry.

*Note: We used Cobia fish (മോത). I guess any kind of fishes can be used for this.
 Have a try with the fish in your freezer and let us know! 

Read more »

Fish Stew - മീന്‍ ഇസ്റ്റു

While in LuLu for this month’s grocery purchase, we noticed that lots of fresh Indian Mackerel (അയല ) are there in fresh fish section. As we were dying to eat Mackerel fry (അയല പൊരിച്ചത്), remembering an old Malayalam hit song "Ayala porichathundu karimeen varuthathundu….", we couldn’t hold back from buying it. And of course, the very next day, my wife fried the fish for lunch. But to be frank, we were desperate that the fish fry wasn't up to the expectation. The fish seemed to be not as tasty as we get in our hometown. It was then she suggested about making Fish stew for next day’s breakfast as it’s one of those breakfast combinations (നേരിയ പത്തിരിയും മീന്‍ ഇസ്റ്റും)  which she cherishes out of her mom’s kitchen. I too thought; okay! let me have a try..!!
No doubt, the dish and the combination was one if it’s kind – super delicious and how can I hide its recipe from my cookery fans? Here it’s for you….

Ingredients:
Ayala – Small sized – 6 No.s – washed and cut into pieces
Fenugreek – 8 seeds
Onion (medium sized) – ½
Green Chilli (sliced) – 20-25 no.s
Ginger, garlic paste – 2 tsp
Corriander, mint & curry leaves – chopped – 1 handful
Tamarind juice – ½ cup
Grated coconut – 1 ½
Salt – to taste
Fennel seeds – ½ tsp
Shallots – 3 no.s

For garnishing - വറവിടല്‍, താളിക്കല്‍)).)) :
Coconut oil – 1 Tbspoon
Curry leaves – 1 stem
Shallots chopped – 4 no.s

How to:

1.       Put one grated coconut into a mixer jar, pour water just enough to dip the coconut and mix well. Squeeze this mixture to take thick coconut milk.

2.       Take the remaining half coconut along with fennel seeds and shallots and grind well with ¼ cup of water.

3.       Mix fenugreek, Onion, green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, coriander, mint and curry leaves, tamarind juice and salt well with hand and add ¼ cup of water in a pressure cooker. Pressure-cook this mixture for 2 whistles.

4.       Open the pressure cooker and put the cut fish into it and boil for 3 minutes in low flame. Add the grinded coconut mixture as in step 2 and heat for two minutes (in low flame).

5.       Add the coconut milk as in step one and heat for another 3 minutes in low flame.

6.       Heat 1 Tablespoon of coconut oil in a pan and sauté chopped shallots till it turns brown and add curry leaves to it. Pour this on top of the gravy to garnish it.

Note:  depending on the piquancy of the green chillies, the count can be increased or decreased.

The fish stew can be prepared with other Indian fishes like Pomfret (ആവോലി ), King fish (അയകോര , നെയ്മീന്‍ ) or sardine (ചാള , മത്തി ).

Read more »

Mushroom in hot pepper gravy

It’s Thursday night and  I was called up by Anu to prepare something different in his home. Only after reaching there I came to know that Anil Hameed is on strict vegetarian diet as instructed from his Gym trainer. Though we compelled him a lot to have the special chicken curry with Kubboos, he was so particular about his diet...!! Finally I’d to experiment on the mushrooms, which I found in their refrigerator. The Mushroom in spicy gravy came out very well and all of them appreciated me for it. I’m posting it here for you...

Ingredients:
Mushroom – 200 g
Corn flour – 2 Tb spoon
Soya sauce – 1 teaspoon
Pepper powder – 2 tea spoon
Vegetable taste cube – ½
Onion – 1
Tomato – 1
Capsicum – ½
Milk – ½ cup
Salt – to taste
Oil – as needed

How to:
1.       Mix Corn flour, soya sauce, 1 tea spoon pepper powder and salt well with washed and cut mushroom and keep it aside for 15 minutes
2.       Deep fry the mushroom in oil and keep the fried mushrooms separate.
3.       In a pan, add 1 Tb spoon of oil and add onion to it and sauté till softened. Add tomato and capsicum to this and stir softly.
4.       Add 1 tea spoon pepper powder, salt and the vegetable taste cube into this and sauté well.  To this pour milk and leave to boil for around 5 minutes in medium flame.

5.       Add the fried mushroom into the above gravy and mix well. Leave the dish to boil for another 5-10 minutes in low flame.

Read more »

Fish Curry in Coconut Milk

It was a surprise to see Megha’s message in Facebook after a long time. The summary of the message read like this: ‘I’ve gone through many of your cookery blogs and I feel those to be appealing. Today I’ve bought a kilo of Snapper fish. Do you have any special recipe to suggest for the same? I’m fed up of the usual way of Fish curry making. Awaiting your response...’ I was happy to suggest her new recipe idea on a condition that she should send me photos of the dish after preparing. Here is my reply to her.

Ingredients:
Fish – 1 kg
Coconut milk – 2 cups (non-sweetened)
Tomato -3
Ginger - small piece
Garlic – 1 clove
Curry leaves - 2 twigs
Gambooge (Kudampuli) - ½ pieces
Fennel seeds - 1 pinch
Shallot – 4 cloves
Turmeric powder - ½ tea spoon
Chilli powder - 3 Tb spoon
Green chilli - 3 no. s
Mustard seeds – 2 tea spoon
Oil – as needed
Salt – to taste



How to:
1.       Marinate washed and cut fish with 1 Tb spoon of chilli powder, ¼ tea spoon of turmeric powder and salt.

2.       In 2 cups of coconut milk, add fennel seeds, 2 shallots, one tomato cut into small pieces, garlic, ginger, turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt and mix these well in a blender.

3.       In a cooking vessel, pour the above mixture and add 2 tomatoes which is cut into medium sizes, sliced green chillies, 1 stem of curry leaves and gambooge and boil the same.

4.       Put the marinated fish into the boiling gravy and lower the flame into medium and boil for 5 minutes. Close the dish with a lid and switch off the stove.

5.       In a pan, add 3-4 teaspoon of coconut oil and put mustard seeds to it. While the mustard seeds sputter, add remaining shallots which is cut into small pieces and while it’s fried to light brown color, add a stem of curry leaves into this. Pour the same to the above fish gravy and keep the vessel closed for 10 minutes without stirring.

Within an hour I got next message from Megha and was happy to see that her fish curry came out well. She forwarded me the snaps and with her permission I’m posting this recipe here.

Read more »

Mathi Mulakittathu (Sardine in hot chilly Gravy)

Mathi mulakittathum Kappa Puzhungiyathum (Sardine in hot chilly Gravy and Boiled Cassava/Tapioca)..  What to say about this? It’s one of the combinations which give a nostalgic feel and really hard to resist the temptation even by just hearing it’s name. And thanks to our new cook that he chose ‘kappa and mathi’ as  dinner menu. I know to many of my readers, this recipe won’t be a news, but to those minority who doesn’t what this luscious dish is all about, please have a try....
The Best combination of this dish is here - Kappa Puzhungiyathu (Boiled Cassava/Tapioca)


Ingredients:

Sardines – 8-10 no’s

Red chilli powder – 1 Tb spoon

Sliced Onion – 1 no. Big

Green chilli – sliced 2 no.s

Tomato – 1 no. Cut into pieces

Cut green leaves – 1 generous pinch

Mashed ginger and garlic – ½ Tb spoon

Thick tamarind juice – ¼ cup

Salt – to taste

Turmeric powder – ½ teaspoon

Fenugreek – 6-8 seeds

Oil – 2 Tb spoon

How to:

1.       Pour oil in a pan and on heating put fenugreek seeds, on spattering, add onion, green chillies, green leaves, ginger and garlic and sauté till softened. Add tomato to this mixture and fry for 2 minutes. Put chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt and mix well. Add tamarind juice (squeezed in water with hands) to this and add ½ cup of water to this. If more piquant gravy is needed ¼ spoon of ground pepper can also be added. Leave this mixture to boil for 5-10 minutes in medium flame.

2.       Clean and cut the sardines. It’s better to put 3 to 4 horizontal lines on both surfaces of the fish with knife so that the fish fully absorbs the spicy taste of the gravy. Put the sardines gently into the above gravy and leave it to cook for 2 minutes in high flame. Take care to stir the mixture very gently. Lower the flame and leave the gravy to be thickened keeping the vessel closed for 5 minutes.

Now enjoy the supremacy of Kerala’s unique taste – particularly the ‘toddy shop’ special dish. Sluurrrpppp.....!!! I bet, it’s mouth-watering.

Read more »

Crab Roast

It was a nice sunny day with clear sky and I felt my Camera is tapping me to get some nice stills captured. And it was right at that moment when I reached Corniche, the fishermen were coming back with their filled boats and it was really hard for me to resist from buying the fresh crabs which were still alive. Next task was to find a lab to experiment my innovations on those crabs. Not sooner, gave a call to a friend to know if their kitchen is free for that night and we all had a fantastic dinner there with spicy Crab Roast.  I just remember the moment I finished cooking and within next few minutes the bowl in which crab was served seemed to be literally empty.  Now you can imagine how scrummy it would have been, right?

Ingredients:
Crab – ½ kg
Green chilli – 2 no’s sliced
Chilli powder – 4 Tb spoon
Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
Ginger paste – 1 teaspoon
Garlic paste – ½ teaspoon
Green leaves – (coriander, mint and curry leaves) – cut into small pieces – 1 Tb spoon
Garam masala – 2-3 pinch
Onion – 2 no’s big
Tomato – 2 no’s medium sized cut into medium sized pieces
Coconut oil – For frying
Oil- 2 Tb spoon
Salt – to taste

Optional
Pepper powder – ½ tea spoon
Tomato sauce – 1 tea spoon
Milk – ½ cup

How to:
 1.       Mix 3 Tb spoon of red chilli powder, ½ tea spoon of turmeric powder, a pinch of garam masala and salt with a little water and marinate the cleaned and washed crabs with this mixture and keep it for 15-20 minutes.

2.       Deep fry these marinated crabs in coconut oil, drain the oil using a kitchen tissue and keep it aside.

3.       In a pan, pour 2 Tb spoon of oil and while heated, put onion, green chillies, green leaves, ginger and garlic pastes and fry till softened. To this, add cut tomatoes and sauté for few minutes. Add 2 pinches of garam masala, 1 Tb spoon red chilli powder, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder and salt to taste. Mix these well and fry till it turns light brown colour. (As per the taste needs, you may add a little pepper powder and 1 teaspoon of tomato sauce to this.)

4.       Mix the fried crabs to the above mixture and mix well and keep the vessel closed with a lid, keeping it in low flames for five minutes.
(If a side dish with gravy is intended, add half a cup of milk to this and mix well before keeping the vessel closed in low flames).

Read more »

Chicken Stew - Malabar Traditional

That’s fabulous! To hear from Jasna that her trial on chilli chicken was impressive. Now I’m really in a trap. I don’t think she’ll release me so soon from the post of her ‘cooking Guru’. The dedication series to Entry level cooks continues....

This time I’m here with an easy chicken curry recipe as she is more interested now in curries. Let’s try chicken stew? There is not much difference from Traditional Beef stew. Please follow the trailing instructions.   

Ingredients

Chicken (with bone) – ½ kg

Potato (peeled and cut into medium size) – 2 small sized

Green chilli (sliced) – 10-15 no.

Fenugreek – ¼ teaspoon

Onion (chopped) – ½ small sized

Ginger - 1 small piece

Coriander/mint/curry leaves chopped – 2 Tb spoon full

Grated coconut – 1

Curd – 1 Tb spoon

Salt to taste

Tomato – 1

How to:

1.       Put the grated coconut into a mixer jar, pour water just enough to dip the coconut and mix well. Squeeze this mixture to take thick coconut milk. The squeezed coconut milk should again be put in the mixer with more water and squeezed to take thin coconut milk. Keep both thick and thin milk separately in bowls.

2.       Put washed and cut chicken into an open vessel. Add potato, green chilli, minced ginger, coriander, fenugreek, mint and curry leaves cut into small pieces, curd and salt. Mix these ingredients well with hand and pour two cups of water. Boil it till chicken get properly cooked.

3.       Put the cut tomato into it and boil in low flame for 3 minutes. Add the thin coconut milk into this and boil for 5 minutes.

4.       Pour the thick coconut milk and mix. Simmer for 1-2 minutes. Switch off the flame.

Note:  depending on the piquancy of the green chillies, the count can be increased or decreased. And if needed, can be adjusted with a little amount of ground pepper also. Also to adjust thickness, one or teaspoon of corn flour can be mixed with some water and poured in to the curry while boiling.

Thus the easy and scrummy chicken stew is ready.

Read more »

Chilly Chicken - My Version

 Jasna called in telling that she is going to give iftar day after tomorrow for her tuition students and she wants to try some different chicken curries for the same. Being a Hotel management graduate brother I did not have any other go other than nodding my head for her request. I asked her to check my blog for the next recipe post to get some chicken curry selections.

I was thinking which chicken formula I should reveal for such entry level cooks, who is sitting idle at home after finishing off their graduation and wanna slay their time by killing the great innovative art ‘cooking’..!! Anyhow my chilli chicken recipe is here, dedicated for such entry level cooks.

Chilli chicken (without ajinomoto)

Ingredients:

Chicken – ½ kg

Soya sauce – 2 ½ Tb spoon

Chilli Sauce – 2 ½ Tb spoon

Vinegar – ½ tea spoon

Capsicum green – 1 medium sized

Onion – 3 medium sized

Corn flour – 1 Tb spoon

Salt to taste

Sugar – 1/4  teaspoon

Spring onion and coriander leaves – to garnish

Oil – for frying

How to make:

1.       Mix ½ Tb spoon chilli sauce and ½ Tb spoon soya sauce well with chicken and keep this aside for 10 minutes. Boil this chicken with a half cup of water till chicken is half-cooked and drain water if any.

2.       Cut one onion into four equal parts and peel of the layers one by one. Pour one Tb spoon oil to a pan and fry this onion and capsicum which is cut into medium sized pieces till these are softened. Make sure that this is not over-fried.

3.       Cut two onions into thin slices and wash this after cutting (so that fried onion will be crispy). Pour oil into a pan just enough to deep fry this onion. Fry till dark brown and drain the onion from oil. Crush this fried onion with hands into small pieces.

4.       Add more oil into the same pan to deep fry the chicken mixture as in step1.  Drain the chicken pieces from oil after deep frying.

5.       Mix 2 Tb spoon soya sauce and 2 Tb Spoon chilli sauce in an open vessel. Dissolve 1 Tb spoon of corn flour into half cup of water and pour it to the mixture. Add a cup of water, vinegar, salt and sugar. Leave the mixture to boil. Once a thick enough gravy is made up, add the crushed onion as in step 3 and fried chicken as in step 4. Boil the mixture for some time and lower the flame. Add the onion and capsicum as in step 2 and keep in low flame for 3 minutes.

6.       Serve the gravy hot in a bowl and garnish with thin-sliced spring onion and coriander leaves cut into small pieces.

Yummy Chinese style chilli chicken is ready to be served with batura or any other Indian bread.

Read more »