Chettinad Pepper Chicken **Taste and Create**

I am paired with Ranji this month for Taste and Create.

Her blog has an array of food and it was difficult to choose..I must have browsed through her space atleast 10 times :). I love her collection of chicken recipes and my obvious choice was this.

Chettinad is a place I love to visit for its art, architecture and food..The sprawling mansions and its magnificent temples are a sight to behold.

Chettinad cusine is known for its spiciness or rather the pungent factor. Pepper is widely used in their cuisine along with most other spices and this chicken recipe that I chose is an apt example of the cuisine.


I followed her recipe exactly but used chicken pieces with bones and even added green chillies for that extra zing!!!

A Potato Stir Fry the Indo-Chinese way!

Let me ramble before I come to the food I want to post today!

I am a paranoid parent (according to a several many). I get paranoid the couple of hours she is away at school...I could call it overprotection. I definitely do not want to overshadow my daughter's growth...I realize that I cannot get danger entirely out of her life..I need to realize that I need to let her experience and let her deal with pain, danger and fear. Ultimately I am glad that there are several parents like me and have begun to realize that this is not called being paraoid..it is just a natural instinct.


Coming back to the subject of food...this is what I made for a fav cuisine of mine..indo-chinese..I kind of like the indianess in Chinese fare. What I meant is spiciness in Chinese food.

What you need are

Potatoes-2 cut as for french fries
Green Chillies-7 to 8 chopped
Ginger-garlic paste-2 tsp each
Tomato sauce-2 tbsp
Soya sauce-2 tbsp
Chilli Sauce-2 tbsp
Cornflour-5 tbsp
Salt and pepper=to taste
Oil for frying

Slice the potatoes and fry them in oil and set aside. To the same oil, add the green chillies, ginger and garlic and saute until the raw smell decides to leave. Mix in the potatoes carefully without breaking them. Add in the sauces and cornflour and the salt and pepper to suit you palate. Cover and cook until the require consistency is reached.

A perfect, simple, not mushy and a defintely a keeper!!

This is my entry to the AWED Event.

Kerala Masala Prawns

Prawns are a top priority in my weekly menu..I make it twice a week no matter what. The simple and valid reason being all three of us love it .

Prawns are the most easiest to cook up except for the cleaning and the deveining involved.. Thankfully, the man who brings seafood home, cleans and deveins it for me. The only thing that I need to do is to give it a good rinse and it is all set for cooking!

The Kerala Prawn curry recipe that i present below is again from the recipes handed down to me by my mother.

Prawn- 1 Kg (cleaned, de-veined)
Onions- 2 (sliced)
Tomatoes-2 (chopped finely)
Ginger paste-1 1/2 tsp
Garlic Paste- 2 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder- 2 tsps
Turmeric Powder- 1 tsp
Curry Leaves- 1 sprig
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Oil preferably coconut oil
Salt as per the taste

Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When they crackle, saute the onions, followed by the garlic and ginger and fry until they are mixed in well together. Now add the chilli powder and the turmeric powder and add in the chopped tomatoes as well... When you see the oil separating from this mixture, add a little water and salt. When the water boils, add in the prawns and stir well ensuring that the masala coats the prawns well. Add the curry leaves and cook no more than 3 minutes.

The tangy and spicy masala with the flavour of the coconut oil and the curry leaves make this an ideal accompaniment for both chapathis as well as rice...



My only weakness being the temptation to pick out prawns and eat them before the entire thing reaches the dining table....Don't many of you do it as well???? How could you not with the above tempting bowl before you...

Mathanga/Yellow Pumpkin Curry

Almost all parts of the pumpkin can be used for cooking. And because it is loaded with vitamins and other nutrients..it is a healthy vegetable. What I made is a Mathanga/Pumpkin curry as it was made at my maternal home. It is served with rice.


What you need are

Yellow Pumpkin-500 g (cubed into small pieces)
Turmeric Powder-1 tsp
Salt to taste

Boil the above until the pumpkin turns soft and mash them well.

For Grinding

Coconut-3 tbsp
Cumin seeds-2 tsp
Shallots- 1
Green Chillies-3 to 4

Grind the above to a paste and finally add the green chillies and run the blender just once for the green chillies to remain as shreds.

Mix this paste with the mashed pumpkin and simmer for a few minutes until they are blended in well.

For Seasoning

Coconut-1 tbsp
Coconut oil Preferably
Mustard -1 tsp
Dry Red Whole Chillies- 2 or 3
Curry Leaves- 1 Sprig
Shallots- 4 Sliced

To the oil add the coconut first and fry until it turns a light brown and set aside. To the same oil, add the seasoning ingred. and when done mix the fried coconut into it and pour the entire seasoning into the mashed pumpkin. Enjoy the sizzle!



Serve hot!

An ideal accompaniment for plain white rice!

An awaited appreciation from the little one!

It is in two days that my toddler's school closes for vacation.. She is awaiting her move to a bigger school by June and already proclaims to be in that school. I wonder why I get emotional on her leaving this school..could be due to the lovely teachers, the lovely ambience..,cheerful attenders...and their wonderful activities..et al. My DH just brushes me off saying I am too stupid to get all emotional about this!

Anyways getting my post back on track, I have approximately 350 hand-written recipes catering just to Chicken...Yes..You heard it right..that is a huge collection....and the one I am posting is a scribbled scrap that I found among the many...

It is for a kerala chilli chicken...I twisted the original a wee bit using the ingredients that were available. Whatever the ingredients,it was enjoyed by the three of us..especially the little one who couldn't stop telling her grandparents that finally she liked the chicken that her mother made :D




What you need are

500 g of chicken pieces
2 dsp Oil
1 1/2 tsp Soya sauce
1 1/2 tsp Chilli sauce
1 1/2 tsp Tomato sauce
2 tsp each of Ginger and Garlic paste
2 tsp Pepper Powder
Ajinomotto- a pinch (optional)
7 Chopped Green Chillies
2 Onions- chopped
2 sprigs of Curry Leaves
Water-3/4 cup
Salt -to taste

Fry the chicken until it turns a light brown Add in the suaces and stir them in well. Follow this by adding the ginger, garlic and the ajinomotto.Allow this to cook for a few minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and stir them in well and cover and cook until done.

Serve with chapathis!

Comfort food at its best!

Comfort food because Sambar for me is one among the many comfort foods..and at its best..because this time, it turned out tasting real good…




Sambar is something that I can have anytime of the day..and I cherish hot dosas with sambar to anything else..I have made sambar countless number of times..but this is the only time it tasted good…Have no clue as to why though..


The taste of a Sambar depends on the amount and the spices that are added.. There are many varieties of Sambar and each household has its own version.

Here is my version (note passed on from the mother)
For the Sambar
Toor dal/Yellow Lentils-1/2 cup
Vegetables cut into small pieces( I used carrots, beans,potato and Drumsticks)
Shallots-5 to 8 (reserve two for the seasoning at the final stage)
Green Chillies-2 to 3 sliced lengthwise
Garlic-1 clove
Tomato-1 (chopped)

Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
Coriander powder-2 tsp
Chilli powder-1tsp



For Seasoning
Mustard-1 tsp
Fenugreek-powdered, a pinch
Coriander and Curry leaves
Dried Red chillies

Into a pressure cooker, add the lentils,vegetables, tomato,shallots, green chillies, all the spice powders salt and cook.

In a pan, to the oil add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add in shallots,fenugreek powder and the leaves.Pour this mixture over the pressure cooked dal and stir in.

It is the leaves that enhance the flavour!

Fish Vevichathu/RCI-Cuisine of Kerala

Kerala is a land that is situated in the SW corner of the Indian Country.

Kerala has been christened “God’s own Country” and is a very fertile land.
The cuisine of Kerala varies across the myriad communities. Family celebrations is when there are innumerable varieties of food. Varieties of fish,beef, pork, game meat, duck, chicken, mutton, turkey and so on. In addition to this, there are several vegetarian dishes and dishes made of yogurt, fries, snacks and so on.

A specialty of the Keralites is Meen Vevichathu aka Fish curry .This curry tastes best after a day or two of preparation. This curry is mostly prepared in a Man Chatti (earthen or mud vessel). Cocnut oil is ideal for cooking this fishy curry. Cocum is also used and it adds to the flavour.

This recipe is from the book given to me by my mother on the day I got married!! It is a hand-written book which is neatly categorized into fish, meat, rice, breads and desserts..A book that i cherish a lot ...




Fish -preferably Seer Fish-1/2 kg

For Grinding
Chilli Powder-1 1/2 tbsp
Turmeric Powder-1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Powder-1/4tsp
Garlic-1 tsp
Ginger-1/4tsp
Shallots-2 or 3 ( avoid substituting onions for shallots)

Cocum-2 pieces cut into smaller pieces
Coconut Oil -2 tbsp
Curry leaves-2 sprigs

Grind the above-mentioned ingredients for grinding, adding enough water.

Soak the cocum pieces in water to clean it.

In an earthen pot, add the oil, and add the ground paste when the oil is hot. Saute until the oil begins to leave the mixture and only at this stage add 1 cup of water. When the water starts to boil, add the cleaned fish (skinned and debonned cubes)and add salt and the cleaned cocum to it. Cover and cook until the fish is done. The aroma at this stage is something that is way too good.. Simmer and add the curry leaves. Switch off the flame when the gravy is thick. Drip 1 tsp of coconut oil
for extra flavour.

Savour with rice (staple food of Kerala).




This is off to RCI_Cuisine Of Kerala.

Chicken Stew/ Arusuvai Friendship Chain and a Plate of Appams!

Lissie from Salt and Spice sent me a surprise ingredient! And the surprise was a pack of:



There is a lot a person can cook using coconut milk powder and the Keralite in me wanted to go with stew and only stew.. There are a lot of recipes for stew in the blog world...

This is a recipe again courtesy my family that has been handed down the generations.



Chicken stew
1 kg Chicken cut into bite sizes
4 Potatoes cubed
3 Onions sliced
7 Green Chillies slit (more for extra pungency)
2 tsp Ginger Paste
2x2" Pieces of Cinnamon
4 Cardamoms
4 Cloves
4 Shallots sliced
2 tbsp of Appam batter (ref. below) (optional. if no batter, use maida)
Salt and pepper powder to taste
A sprig of Curry Leaves
1/2 Cup Oil
6 tbsp of the Maggi Coconut Milk Powder

The coconut milk added was of a thick consistency. I mixed 6 tbsp of the powder to 2 cups of warm water. For a thinner consistency, reduce the amount of the powder and the water.

To a little oil in a pan,fry the shallots and curry leaves. Remove this from the fire and add to the coconut milk. In the remaining oil, saute the onions, spices,green chillies and ginger until they turn a golden brown.

Follow this by adding the potatoes and chicken. add in the salt and pepper and stir well. Now add the required amount of water for the chicken to cook.

Add the appam batter to the coconut milk and pour this over the chicken curry. Cook until the required thickness is arrived at on a slow flame. For tanginess add vinegar if needed.

For the Appams



Appams are traditionally made using Toddy. But since toddy is not widely available, yeast replaces it.

Soak 1/2 tsp yeast in lukewarm water and set aside. Mix 20g of rice flour in water to a medium thick consitency. To 300 g of scraped coconut, add 500 g of fine rice flour. Now mix in the rice flour paste, yeast, 150 g sugar, salt as per taste and 500 ml water.Leave to ferment preferably overnight.

Heat a griddle aka appam chatti and smear with a little oil. Ladle batter to make appams. They should be golden brown on either side when done.

Ok now go ahead and have a virtual piece of the appam, mop it in the stew and relish!

Shella of Kitchen Art gets a surprise package!

Have fun Shella.

Biriyani in no Time

Yesterday, being a Sunday, I was in no mood to cook forget even entering the kitchen..After a late breakfast, A suggested we either go out or order in lunch from any restaurant..the choice was left to me... An hour later, there was such a heavy downpour and the roads were flooded..sigh!!

Ultimately, it was destined for me to make lunch...A suggested I make biriyani...

The toil that goes into making a nice delicious biriyani is too much to handle especially on a day like this...That is when I decided on why not use a pressure cooker to make biriyani!

Apart from the usual chopping, this is a quicker way..and tastes as good too!




What you need is:
Chicken pieces-1/2 kg/or vegetables
Basmati Rice-2 Cups
Ghee-1/2 Cup
Onions-3 medium (chopped)
Tomatoes-3 (chopped)
Green Chillies-4 slit lengthwise(add more for spiciness)
Curd-1/2 Cup
Turmeric Powder-1/2tsp
Ginger/Garlic paste-4tsps

Spices
Cardamom-4
Cloves-4
Cinnamon-2" pieces
Bay Leaves-2

Leaves
Coriander (Cilantro)Leaves- 1 bunch (Chopped)
Mint Leaves-1/2 a bunch otherwise the flavour would dominate

For Grinding
Cashewnut-6 or 7 (grind to a paste)
Khus Khus (Poppy seeds)-to make 1tbsp of paste

Salt-according to taste
Water-3 cups
Fry the washed rice in 1 tbsp of ghee and leave aside. In a pressure cooker, add the remaining ghee and fry the onions till they turn a golden brown. Add the whole spices now and fry until you see the cardamoms bloat..This is when a nice aroma emanates from the cooker....Next, add in the tomatoes and fry until they turn soft and the oil begins to leave the masala..This is when you add the ginger-garlic paste..Cook this until the raw smell disappears..This is followed by the entry of the leaves, turmeric powder and the green chillies...after 2 or 3 minutes of mixing, in a separate bowl mix the ground paste into the curd and add this into the masala..Then add the chicken pieces that have been waiting to go in!!!
Mix well until the masala coats all the chicken pieces..Follow this by adding the water and salt..Stir in the rice..and pressure cook for 2 whistles.. Turn off the fire and let the rice stand in the cooker for 30-45 minutes..

Remove and serve with raita..


I enjoyed it...Try it!!