Recipe: Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk

I have been so utterly busy the last few days but the good news is that packing is almost done. Just a few bits here and there which can be dumped into a bin bag the day we leave…which is this friday 😀 I am not so much sad as excited about the move. New place, new people and making a home out of a house sounds very exciting. All this meant, I could only turn a few pages of my book 😦

Last sunday, we not only did most of our packing but also managed to prepare Chicken Biriyani and Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk 😀

S is a ‘pro’ when it comes to cooking Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk. It is one of our favourtie dishes. Goes very well with Plain Rice, Biriyani, Pulao Rice or even Chapathis or Parathas.

Ingredients:

1. Oil – 6-7 Tbsp
2. Onions (finely chopped) – 3
3. Tomatoes (finely chopped) – 2
4. Chicken – 1/2 Kg (Clean thoroughly with turmeric powder and water)
5. Canned Coconut Milk – 1
6. Ginger+Garlic Paste – 1 Tbsp
7. Cloves – 3
8. Cinnamon Stick – 3 half a inch pieces
9. Cardamom (Elaichi) – 3 (split open)
10. Green Chillies – 5 (Split longitudinally)
11. Curry Leaves – 6
12. Cumin Seeds – 1 Tsp
13. Mustard Seeds – 1 Tsp
14. Turmeric Powder – A pinch
15. Salt – According to taste
16. Coriander – To Garnish

Method

Add oil to a pan or a wok and let it heat.

Later add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Now add cumin seeds and fry. Add curry leaves and green chillies and fry.

Now add onions and mix them on medium flame until they turn golden brown in colour. Then add chopped tomatoes and mix well.

Once tomatoes turn soft, add a pinch of turmeric powder and ginger+garlic paste and mix well. Leave on simmer for atleast 5 minutes mixing it in between

Now add chicken pieces and mix well. Leave it on medium flame for atleast 10 mins mixing frequently in between.

Then add coconut milk and mix thoroughly. Close with a lid and leave for 10 mins mixing inbetween.

By now, you will see alot of water retention. Remove lid and let the curry cook on medium flame. (Do not add any water to the dish).

Approx after 20-30 minutes, water oozed out of the meat should have reduced leaving the curry nice and creamy. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rice or chapathis

This time, I took some pictures 😀

Njoy!!

Recipe: Chapala Pulusu (Fish Curry)

Let me first start this post with some beautiful roses I got from a special someone 😀

{Click on the roses for larger version}

My Chapala Pulusu (Fish Curry) recipe was long over due. I am a great lover of my mom’s (and aunt’s) fish curry. It’s finger lickin’ good. Till date, I have prepared this dish only twice but it was totally awesome 😀

Back home, we usually prepare fish curry with local find…like Korameenu (not sure what it’s called in english…some say it is the Red Snapper. Any ideas?) and sometimes a Bochha. Since we don’t get any of these in the UK…we had to settle with Salmon.

Recipe Source: Ma

Preparation Time: 30-45 mins

Ingridients:

1. A Wok
2. Salmon (or any fish you desire) – 6 medium sized pcs, approx 3-4 inches each (If you are the one who likes to clean their own fish…you can but whole fish too)
3. Oil – 6-7 Tbsp
4. Yoghurt – 2 Tbsp
5. Onions – 3 (finely chopped)
6. Tomatoes – 2 (finely chopped)
7. Tamarind Juice – 35 ml (Take lemon sized tamarind ball and immerse it in 35 ml of warm water)
8. Green Chillies – 4 (Cut longitudinally)
9. Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 Tsp
10. Cumin Seeds – 1 Tsp
11. Mustard Seeds – 1 Tsp
12. Turmeric Powder- A Pinch
13. Asafoetida – A Pinch
14. Chili Powder – 1 Tsp
15. Salt – According to taste
16. Curry Leaves – 6-8 Leaves
17. Coriander Leaves – Handful for Garnishing

Method:

First, wash pieces of fish thoroughly and marinate them for 10 mins in yoghurt, Salt (1 Tsp) and Turmeric Powder (a pinch). Later, wash and drain

Then add pinch of turmeric, chili powder, ginger garlic paste to the pieces and mix well. Leave aside for 20 mins

In the meantime, chop onions, tomatoes and chillies

Add oil into wok and let it heat. Add cumin and mustard seeds. Once mustards start to splutter, add chillies and curry leaves

Now add onions and allows them to turn golden brown in colour and then add asafoetida and mix well

Add tomatoes, turmeric powder, chili powder and mix well

When tomatoes turn soft, add tamarind juice and salt. Make gravy into a thick consistency. Do not dilute it with the tamarind juice. Remember…you are not making sambar 😀

Leave it to boil. Later add your fish pieces and leave on simmer for 10-13 mins.

Garnish with coriander and it’s ready to serve.

I do not have a picture to put up 😦 but it should look like this…

Pic Courtesy of http://www.torchofindia.com/images/

Please note that this is an ‘Andhra Dish’ so could be extremely ‘hot’ for some. Reduce the number of green chillies and it should be fine.

Enjoy!!!!

PS: New pics put up in my photoblog. Do take a look and let me know what you think 🙂 Cheers

Tomato Rasam

Recipe for Tomato Rasam

Quite a few number of cooks prepare tomato rasam with toor dal….but I don’t. This recipe for tomato rasam has been passed onto me by my mom. It’s easy to prepare and very yummy…also a very good remedy if you have flu or throat infection. 

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Cuisine – South Indian 

Ingridients:

1. Water – 6 cups
2. Tamarind – Lemon sized ball
3. Rasam Powder – 1  1/2 tsp
4. Tomatoes – 3
5. Turmeric Powder – A pinch
6. Salt to taste
7. Coriander for garnishing

Ingridients for Seasoning/talimpu/popu/tadka/thiragamatha:

1. Oil – 1 tbsp 
2. Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
3. Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
4. Curry Leaves – 6
5. Dry Red Chillies – 3
6. Garlic pod – 1 (Peeled & Smashed)
7. Asefotida – A Pinch

Preparation:

Chop tomatoes into small pieces (but not really small) and them to 6 cups of water. Also add tamarind and a pinch of turmeric and bring the mixture to boil

Once the tomatoes become soft and the upper layer starts to peel, add rasam powder and let it boil

In the mean time, prepare the tadka. Add mustard seeds to 1 tbsp of oil and let them splutter. Later add mustard seeds, dry red chillies and curry leave and let them fry on medium flame.

Later add garlic which has been peeled and smashed. 

Finish off by adding a pinch of asefotida.

Add this tadka to the boiling tomato and tamarind solutiong and let it boil.

Add salt according to your taste and switch off.

Tomato Rasam is ready to be served either with rice or can also be taken by itself.

Jeera Rice

Recipe for Jeera Rice

Preparation Time – 30 mins

Cuisine – Indian 

Ingridients & Quantity:

1. Rice – 2 Cups
2. Water – 4 cups
3. Onions – 1 large sized
4. Cumin Seeds – 1 tbsp
5. Pepper Corns – 6 pieces
6. Cloves – 4
7. Cinnamon Stick – 4 small pieces
8. Ground pepper – A pinch
9. Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
10. salt – To taste
11. Coriander for garnishing

Preparation:

To a pot, add 4 tbsp of oil and heat. Then add 1 tbsp of cumin seeds and let them splutter. Later add cloves and cinnamon stick pieces and fry

To this, add chopped onions and fry until they reach golden brown in colour. Later add 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste and ground pepper and mix.

Add rice and appropriate amount of water and mix well. Now add salt according to your taste and let it cook on medium flame for 10 mins. Keep checking in between to see if the water you’ve added is enough. So as to not burn the rice, cook it on low flame after the 10 mins. Wait till all the water has been absorbed and switch off.

Nice ‘n Easy Jeera rice is ready to be served!! You can serve it with Chicken Curry and Rasam…other recipes blooged by ‘yours truly’ 😀

 

Chicken Curry (Kodi Koora)

Sorry about the delay in posting these recipes. I had a lovely time preparing the dishes and gobbling them too 😉 Infact, I never liked cooking until I chance stumbled upon a few interesting blogs like Sailu’s Food and Talimpu (to name a few) which are also listed on my blogroll. So I thought..why not try? It’s all about enjoying what you do….it’s about ‘re-aligning’ your mind which says ‘I don’t like it’. Instead, ‘tune’ your brain to make it say ‘yes…I like it actually, I enjoy it’ and everything will be fine 🙂

So here goes…

Chicken Curry Recipe

This chicken curry is easy to prepare and does not require alot of chopping or grinding. My mom sent me home-made garam masala from India which makes it doubly-easy. There are many who prepare masalas at home just before cooking but I prefer storing my masalas in order to have less pots to wash up at the end 😉  

Preparation Time – upto 45 mins

Cuisine – Indian

Ingredients & Quantity for Curry:

1. Chicken – 1 Kg (Washed and Cleaned) 
2. Oil – 5 tbsp
3. Onions – 2 large sized ones
4. Tomatoes – 3 
5. Green Chillies -4
6. Ginger Garlic Paste-1 tbsp
7. Cloves – 4
8. Cinnamon Stick – 1 small piece
9. Curry Leaves – 5-6
10. Dry Red Chillies – 4
11. Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
12. Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
13. Coriander for garnishing

Ingridients for Garam Masala Powder:

For people who are not as lazy as I am….Ingridients and Preparation method of Garam Masala can be found here. The only ingridient I would delete from the list is fennel seeds (saunf). But at the end of the day, it’s how you like your curry. I don’t like my curries to be sweet.

Preparation:

First, wash and clean chicken thoroughly. Add turmeric powder and leave it in a dish for a while.

In the meantime, chop onions lengthwise into thin pieces. Also slit four chillies length wise. Chop tomatoes into small pieces

Add oil to a pan and add mustard seeds. Once they start spluttering, add cumin seeds, curry leaves, cinnamon stick, cloves and dry red chillies

Once fried, add the chopped onion and leave. Keep stirring so that they do not burn. Once they have reached golden brown in colour, add green chillies and tomatoes and mix well

Cover the pan and let it cook in medium flame & stir in between

Once the onions and tomatoes mix well to become a paste, add 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste and mix well

Now add your chicken pieces and mix. You may add a pinch of chilli powder now for colour and taste and mix

Leave chicken to cook under medium flame with mixing in between. You will not have to add any water as the water from the chicken should be enough to cook

After about 10 mins, add garam masala powder and mix

After 15 mins, check if chicken has cooked by tasting a piece. At this stage, add salt to taste and leave for 10 mins. Please make sure that you stir chicken in between while leaving it to cook.

Then switch off and garnish with coriander leaves.

Chicken Curry is ready to be served (Enthoo ruchigaramaina Kodi Koora thayaar!!) 😀

Jeera Rice and Tomato Rasam recipes will follow….