Easy Chicken Curry ~ Amma's Recipe ~ Guest post for The Big SweetTooth

I really like the concept of guest posts that is happening in blogosphere. Particularly I don't fail to read the guest post series happening at Rafeeda's place. Hope all blogger friends would know her. I like her inspirational quotes that she shares both in FB and in her posts. I really admire her; she is a working mom with two cute and lovely kids. Inspite of her busy life, she manages the blog too.. She has loads of chicken recipes; I've bookmarked a few; but yet to try.

My Mom is a non vegetarian. But since we didn't show much interests in non veg food since child hood, she stopped cooking it except when guests arrive. She needs to prepare a platter of non veg and veg items with sambar, avial and other stuff  so as to satisfy both the guests and us. So she make this curry simple yet tasty and makes the side dish hot and spicy. Side dish would be mostly hot chicken fry or boiled egg fry. She uses only pearl onions and less of garam masala but heard guests say it is the tastiest curry that they have ever had and vanishes soon during lunch itself. 

When Rafeeda invited me to write a guest post, I accepted immediately. When I was thinking what to prepare, I thought of this amma's simple chicken curry recipe. Hope you like this Rafeeda. 

Check out the recipe in her space here.

Quick Pasta

Pasta is something that I prepare for breakfast. I've never been able to shoot it until today. This is easy to prepare and I would suggest adding more chopped coriander leaves/parsley; the more the tastier. It add lovely flavor and taste to the recipe. 

Ingredients:

Pasta 1 cup (I used 100% Durum wheat)
Bell Peppers 4 tbsp (all 3 colors mixed)
Finely chopped Vegetables 3 tbsp (Carrot and Beans)
Finely chopped Garlic 1 tbsp
Finely chopped coriander leaves 3 tbsp
Tomato Ketchup 4 tbsp
Chilli Sauce 1 tbsp
Olive Oil 2 tbsp

Preparation:

Chop Garlic, Bell Peppers, Vegetables and Coriander Leaves into very fine pieces. Steam or cook the chopped vegetables.

Method:

Boil water in a pan with salt and 2-3 drops of olive oil. Add Pasta and cook till done. Go by the instructions of the pack. 

When it is boiling, heat oil in a pan. Add chopped Garlic and chopped Bell Peppers. Fry for a minute and then add the cooked Vegetables and Coriander Leaves. Add a pinch of Salt, Ketchup, Chilli sauce and give it a mix. Switch off the flame.

When pasta is done, strain and reserve 2-3 tbsp of that water.

Now add strained pasta to the pan. Add the reserved water and fry for few more minutes until done.

Serve hot.

Serves: 1

Notes:

Increase other ingredients more if need to serve for more. Increase chilli sauce according to your taste and preference. 

Pavakkai Pitlai / Bitter Gourd Pitlai / Bitter Melon Pitlai with Sambar Powder

Pavakkai Pitlai is a spicy Indian curry with little variations from regular sambar. This Pitlai is not something common in every household. I heard about this recipe through some of my friends and ofcourse through blogosphere. 

I've made what all I can do to reduce the bitterness of the bittergourd. And finally, when I was eating it, I was very happy as its bitterness is almost gone. Now I can proudly say I can handle this vegetable well and good. Having made this for few times recently, thought why not have I tried this earlier. 

Those who are following my posts, (of course, I post very few ) would know that I cook bitter gourd at least once a week. And this recipe is going to be in my weekly plan at least for few months to come. 

Something that I really like about this recipe is there is no tomato added. I somehow, have the feeling nowadays why are we using tomatoes in almost all recipes. When I don't include tomatoes in a recipe (like Puli kuzhambu), it gives me a traditional feeling as tamilians (not sure about all other states) cooked curries only with tamarind and not with tomatoes; they got themselves included in our diet since just few decades.

Source: Vahchef

Ingredients:

Bittergourd (Long) 1
Toor Dhal (Thuvaram paruppu) 1/2 cup
Channa (Kondai Kadalai) 1/4 cup
Sambar Powder 2 1/2 tbsp
Grated Coconut 1-2 tbsp
Grated Jaggery 1-2 tsp
Lemon sized tamarind - two (one for soaking; one for cooking)

To temper:

Mustard Seeds 1/2 tsp
Urad Dhal 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves few
Chopped Pearl Onions 1/2 cup
Asafoetida a generous pinch
Turmeric Powder 1/4 tsp
Dried Red Chillies 2

Preparation:

Soak channa in water over night. Soak Toor Dhal in water for atleast half an hour. (Not necessary, if your toor dhal cooks faster.)

Cut bitter gourd into small pieces. Soak in tamarind water for atleast one hour.  

Meanwhile cook channa for 3-4 whistles in pressure cooker and keep it aside. Cook Toor Dhal for 2-3 whistles in pressure cooker and keep it aside. 

Chop onions. Grate Coconut and Jaggery. Grind grated coconut with little water to form a paste. Keep it aside.

Rinse the chopped bitter gourd with the water extracted from the same tamarind 2-3 times well.

Method:

Soak another lemon sized tamarind in water for at least 15 minutes. Extract the pulp using two cups of water.

Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add Mustard seeds. When they complete popping up, add Urad Dhal, Asafoetida, Turmeric Powder, chopped onions, slit dried red chillies and curry leaves. Fry till the onions turn translucent.

Now add the chopped and rinsed bitter gourd slices. Add little salt and fry for atleast 5 minutes. (This helps to remove bitterness). Add the tamarind pulp extracted using two cups of water. Allow boiling until it is cooked.

Now add the cooked toor dhal, channa, sambar powder, grated jaggery, salt and water. Mix well and when it is almost done, add the coconut paste and allow boiling until everything combines well to reach the desired consistency.

Serves: 3
Serve with any stir fry.

Notes:

Do not cook bitter gourd along with other dhals. Cook it separately or as mentioned above.

Once cooked, add all the other dhals. Rinsing the bitter gourd with tamarind water 2-3 times and cooking with the tamarind pulp extracted helps to remove the bitterness.

This is off to South Indian cooking event at The Big Sweet Tooth.

Sweet Potato Cutlet

I am proud to be a part of Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge where we share recipes prepared with secret ingredients suggested by paired bloggers. Its really fun and interesting. My pair for this month is Nupur from 

Uk Rasoi. She has suggested two ingredients; Sweet Potato and Spring Onions. I've been craving to taste a cutlet since few days; so made cutlet out of Sweet Potato and other veggies. It turned out awesome.

Ingredients:

Sweet potato 2 long
Beans 5
Carrot half
Chilli Powder 1 1/2 tsp
Coriander 1/2 tsp
Cumin Powder 1/2 tsp
Aamchoor powder a pinch
Chopped Coriander leaves
Salt
oil for deep fry
Bread Crumbs
3-4 tblsp All Purpose Flour / Maida

Method:

Pressure cook Sweet Potatoes. Peel the skin and mash it.

Chop carrot and beans into a very fine pieces. Cook the vegetables in a steamer or Idli cooker. Make sure there is no moisture in the vegetables. If yes, squeeze it using a kitchen towel. Avoid cooking the vegetables along with water directly in a pressure cooking or a pan.

Add little water to Maida and mix to form a smooth paste. Make sure there is no lumps. 

In a large bowl, add the mashed sweet potatoes, cooked veggies, all the powders and salt. Pinch a ball size from the mixture. Gently flatten, dip it in the Maida-Mix and roll over the bread crumbs. Transfer it to a paper towel. Follow the same for the rest of the mixture. 

Serve with chutney or tomato ketchup. 

Notes:

You can use Peas and cashews. If using potatoes, decrease the chilli powder according to your taste.