(Green) Peppercorn Chicken Masala

I always used to wonder, how much ever variation you do with your chicken gravy, it never turns out to be like the one you get in a typical Kerala restaurant. I don't even get the colour matched with the restaurant chicken. My chicken & the gravy would be either brown or red. And then I started asking the chefs of some of the restaurants I visited, about the secret ingredient. All the chefs had the same answer. "We add peppercorns". Then I started using peppers in my chicken. The taste improved but something was missing. But the real secret ingredient was finally revealed when I was browsing through some Kerala Chicken Recipes in Youtube.

I saw a cookery programme called "Taste of Kerala" & started viewing all the episodes. The host was very funny & I saw these videos just to see him talk. To my surprise, the dishes what he showed in the programme was mind blowing. And his show cleared all my doubts. "Green" Peppercorns is what you need to make your chicken that "Restaurant" like. The chefs said pepper but didn't reveal the colour of it. Hmm....Smarties!!

I tried the recipe at home & my whole house was smelling of coconut oil, curry leaves & crushed green peppercorns & I felt that am back home again. The taste was just amazing! My mouth watered when I was preparing this dish. It was that good. You too try it & you will know what am trying to say!! ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken (washed, cut in bite size chunks) bone or boneless
• 3-4 medium onion (finely chopped)
• 2 inch ginger (crushed in pestle & mortar)
• 6-7 cloves of garlic (crushed in pestle & mortar)
• 30 gm green peppercorns (pacha kurumulagu)
• 3 medium green tomatoes (if you don't get green, then can use red tomatoes)
• 3 tbsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 10 curry leaves
• 3 tbsp coconut oil (can use vegetable oil as well but you won't get the typical Kerala taste)
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Take a kadai or a deep based pan & heat the coconut oil. Add the finely chopped onion to it & saute well for 3-4 minutes.
2. Meanwhile blend the green peppercorns to a coarse paste. You can even crush them in a pestle & mortar.
3. Add the crushed ginger-garlic to the onions. Saute for 30 seconds. Now add in the coarsely blended green peppercorns to it & mix well. Add in the curry leaves too at this stage.
4. After 2 minutes, add the coriander powder & turmeric powder & salt to it. Mix well. Then add the green tomatoes. Saute well for another 2 minutes.
5. The masala for the chicken is now ready. You can now add the chicken pieces to eat. Add 1 cup of water or a required amount to help the chicken cook with the masala. Close the lid.
6. The chicken will take about 15-20 minutes to cook in a medium heat. Open the lid now & cook the chicken again till all the water in the gravy is evaporated & the masala is well coated over the chicken. Add in the garam masala at this stage. Saute the chicken for another 2-3 minutes & then switch off the gas.

Mathan Erissery (Yellow Pumpkin Curry)

Its been 4 years now since I left India & I have always made it a point to try to follow all the rituals & customs of my Native which will not make me miss India & also follow the traditions. Luckily, if you are a Malayalee, then no much customs are there to follow except for FOOD ;) There are 2 main festivals (Onam & Vishu) & 2 star birthdays (Arun's & Mine) which come in a year where I try to make the traditional Feast or a Sadya. I have made almost all the Sadya vattams, here at my home except for "Erissery". The reason is not because, I don't like it...it's because I never got good Yellow Pumpkins. All I used to get was those culinary Halloween Pumpkins which was not at all fit for cooking!! ;(

Back home in India, I never used to even touch Erissery, because I was so fed up of eating it Day after Day. But when I came here & was aloof of all the tasty Veggie dishes of Kerala, the eagerness to make Erissery at Home & have it with hot white rice & Poppadams grew each day. After shifting to Northampton, I came across an Indian Grocery Store where finally I found the perfect Yellow Pumpkin. Never I dreamt of saying this, but I was so elated seeing that big Yellow Guy smiling back at me....It was as if the Pumpkin was saying to me..."You under estimated me Madam...You can run behind those Big fat KFC Chickens & Fish & Chips, but you need to come back to me one fine day!!" And that was the day! The very next day I made Erissery for lunch wih Carrot & Beans Upperi!! It was a Sober Lunch for me after 4 years....Sigh!!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 Kg Yellow Pumpkin (Mathan / Kadhu)
• 1/2 cup grated coconut
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 3 green chillies
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp grated coconut (for tempering)
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds (for tempering)
• 1 big dry red chilli (for tempering)
• 1 sprig of curry leaves
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Peel & cut the pumpkin into 1 inch cubes. Take a big sauce pan & cook the pumpkin with salt, turmeric powder & enough water to fully soak the pumpkin in the pan. The pumpkin gets cooked within 10 minutes after the water boils.
2. Grind half cup coconut, cumin seeds & the green chillies to a fine wet paste. Keep aside.
3. Simmer the heat & add in the wet paste to the boiled pumpkin. Cook for another 8-10 minutes on low heat.
4. While it cooks, Take a small frying pan & pour in the coconut oil. When it gets hot, add the grated coconut (which was kept for tempering), dry red chillies (broken into two) & mustard seeds. Saute well till the coconut turns into golden brown. Add in the Curry leaves now.
5. Switch off the saucepan as well as the fry pan. Pour in the fried coconut along with the oil on top of the Pumpkin gravy.Serve hot with plain White Rice. ;)

3 Ingredients / 3 Minute Microwave PEDAS

It's Celebration time all the way!! Why? Because My FB fan page has just reached 150 "Likes" & am so thrilled. Also, the festivities will start from August in India. First coming up is "Raksha Bandhan", the festival which celebrates the relationship & bond of a Brother & Sister. So I thought of coming up with an easy to make Indian Sweet Dish, "Peda". A "Peda" is a North Indian Milk Sweet mainly consisting of Khoa (thickened whole milk), sugar & other Indian flavourings like saffron & cardamom seeds. Pedas are usually made during festivities or for offerings made in the temple for deities.

This recipe is a simple process of the same "time consuming" Pedas where the Milk is kept on the heat for hours to make khoa & then goes to the next process. This is the first time for me as well & I have taken this recipe from "showmethecurry.com" the cookery website of Hetal & Anuja. And I must say, it came out very well for the first time. One of our good friends, who is English had asked for an easy to cook Indian Sweet with less ingredients and time. What better recipe than this one!! Just a Microwave, a Bowl & 3 ingredients is all you need! Voila, you are ready to serve a delicious treat.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups instant whole milk powder (Nestle Nido or Everyday)
• 1 can / 397 g of condensed milk (Nestle Carnation or Milkmaid)
• 150 g of unsalted butter
• some dry fruits (Almonds, Raisins & Cashews)
• coloured sugar (optional)

Method:

1. Take a Microwavable glass bowl & throw in the butter. Melt the butter in the Microwave for 1 minute and no more.
2. Now add the Milk Powder & the condensed milk to the melted butter & mix well with a spoon or spatula.
3. After you have mixed all the three ingredients together, put the bowl back into the Microwave & cook for 1 minute.
4. Take the bowl after a minute & stir well again.
5. Put the bowl again in the Microwave & cook for another minute. Take it out & Mix well.
6. Put it back again and cook for the final one minute. Take the bowl out & mix well with the spoon. By now the mixture would have become a solid enough to make rolls out of it.
7. Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes. Meanwhile take a flat plate & grease it with a little butter or oil.
8. Take a spoonful of the mixture and make a round ball out of it & slightly flatten it. Place it on the greased plate. Repeat the process till the entire mixture gets over.
9. Now you can make your own decoration with the dry fruits or coloured sugar. Place one almond on a flattened Peda & press it slightly. You can also put a raisin or a cashew likewise. Or you can even spread some coloured sugar on a small plate & press the peda over it. This will be very colourful & the kids will love it.
10. Easy Microwavable Pedas are ready. Let the Celebrations begin!!! ;)

The 4P's .....Tagliatelle(Pasta) with Peas, Prawns & Pancetta

My love towards Pasta continues & today I have brought to you the "4P's" for your Friday Supper. It is the Pasta, Peas, Prawns & Pancetta day, this "Fit & Fabulous Friday". And Co-incidentally, My Zumba DVD kit has also arrived and am super excited about it. Just praying to God to give me strong Will power to Survive on Salads , Walks & Zumba workout. I need to remove these lumps of FAT from my body by hook or crook. Its High Time!!

This time I have used Tagliatelle Pasta, the thick flat noodle shaped like Pad Thai. Combined with pink Prawns & Pancetta, with some Green Peas, this dish will never go wrong. This is a Super Easy supper in which you have veggie, sea food & meat combined together to give that yummy flavour yet very healthy. So let's finish cooking quickly in just 20 minutes.!!

Ingredients:

• 200 gm tagliatelle (or any other shape of pasta)
• 15-20 tiger prawns
• 65 gm pancetta cubes
• 1 cup fresh / frozen peas
• 2 big cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• grated parmesan cheese
• salt & pepper to season

Method:

1. Cook the Pasta as the per the instructions on the packet. Also add the peas along with the boiling pasta. Drain the water & keep both the pasta & peas aside.
2. When the Pasta is getting cooked, heat a non stick fry pan & put in the pancetta cubes & prawns together to fry. No oil should be used here as the pancetta will release oil by itself. If the prawns are frozen, make sure it is fully thawed before putting it in the pan or else it will release water. Fry both the prawns & Pancetta until they become light golden.
3. Remove them from the heat & soak the excess oil with a kitchen towel.
4. Heat a separate saucepan & pour in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Keep the heat very low. Throw in the chopped garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
5. Switch off the heat & throw in the Pasta, Prawns & the Pancetta. Season with required salt & a generous amount of pepper. Mix well with a pair of tongs.
6. Drizzle another tbsp of olive oil & top it off with grated Parmesan cheese while serving it hot.

This recipe is linked to http://ameessavorydish.blogspot.com/2011/08/fit-and-fabulous-fridays.html.

Mashed Potatoes

For the past one week, I was not interested in doing anything. No cooking, No blogging, No nothing. Mood swings in a lady can be better understood only by another lady, so am not going into detail. My mind and body went into stealth mode. Am slowly coming out of it. That is why I didn't explore any of my fellow bloggers recipes too, hence I apologize for not visiting your blogs & giving my valued comments .;)

I am just putting up a basic version of Mashed potatoes, which I had made a couple of months ago, to have it with my Caribbean Chicken. Mostly every one knows how to make this simple Mash but this recipe is for those who are new to cooking and would want to know the basic recipes. Mashed Potatoes can be a great accompaniment with a good Roast Chicken. Its a delightful experience on its own. Ok, Am going back to my Stealth mode again.....Hope to be back pretty soon!!.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 big floury potatoes (preferably maris piper)
• 125 ml milk
• 25 g butter
• salt & pepper to season

Method:

1. Peel & cut large potatoes into even chunks & put them in a pan with plenty of salted water.
2. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat & simmer until tender for about 10 minutes. Drain well.
3. Pour milk in a saucepan & bring to the boil. Pour onto the potatoes with the butter & season with salt & pepper.
4. Mash the potatoes until smooth.