Last few months have been no-chicken days at my home. I got many requests for chicken recipes, but both my husband and I absolutely didn’t want to eat chicken. So these days I cook it only when we invite someone for lunch/dinner. Now the problem with that is, it is very difficult to take pictures when I am cooking some elaborate meal for guests and all that I want to do after cooking is, just sit down and take a deep breath. Taking pictures on these days definitely looks like a big chore to me. But since these are the only times when I cook chicken, I have no choice and most of the time, the pictures come out blur as the above picture.
Anyway, after that rant, let me come to this dish at hand. This is supposed to be Chicken stew from Kerala. I have adapted this recipe from theindian . The main thing that attracted my attention to this dish was the vegetables used in this dish. It has a coconutty taste to it because of the coconut milk used in it. The whole spices give a very good aroma to the dish. Both our guest and we enjoyed it a lot.
Ingredients: 7-8 chicken pieces 1 tea spn fresh ginger-garlic sliced into thin pieces 1 and 1/2 cups coconut milk 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 6-7 curry leaves 1″ cinnamon 1 cardamom 1 bay leaf 1/2 cup chopped onions 1/4 cup chopped potatoes 1/4 cup chopped carrots 2-3 green chilies 1/2 tea spn garam masala Ghee Salt
Method: Heat ghee , add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves, cinnamon, cardamom and bay leaf. Fry for a min and add onions, ginger, garlic. Fry till they turn slightly brownish. Add marinated chicken pieces and fry for 1-2mins. Add potatoes, carrots, coconut milk, green chilies, salt. Cover and cook for about 12-15mins till the chicken and vegetables are tender. Now sprinkle the garam masala and mix well. Serve hot with rice or rotis .
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 40mins
This dish was in my draft for a very long time. I thought it is the best time to post it since Ganesh Chaturthi is just 3 days away. These pictures were taken at my native by my brother when aayi prepared these.
When we were kids, my aayi would prepare these delicious treats in a big batch and we would munch on these for many days. The aroma that comes out of this when the peanuts are roasted, then mixed with sugar and cardamom is just amazing. Aayi would make these and spread on a board and then Pappa would cut them in neat pieces. They would give us the shapeless pieces from the sides – the diamond/square shaped ones were saved in air tight containers to be eaten later. My brother and I always loved to eat these when they were still warm, Yummm :).
Ingredients: 1 cup peanuts 1 cup sugar 3 tea spns ghee 1/2 tea spn cardamom powder
Method: Roast the peanuts on a medium flame. Remove the skin and make a coarse powder. Heat ghee , add sugar. Heat on a medium/low flame, mixing it continuously. When all sugar melts down, immediately add the peanut powder. Remove from heat and mix well. Grease a plate/cutting board with ghee , pour this mixture on top, roll into a big round. Cut them immediately.
Preparation time : 15mins
PS: The sugar should not be heated for long. Once it melts down, immediately the peanut powder should be added. Mixture should not be allowed to cool before spreading. If it cools a bit, it cannot be spread and once it reaches this point, you cannot bring it to normal again.
Updated: These can also be made with jaggery. When jaggery is used, do not use ghee , the whole process takes more time since jaggery needs to be heated till it has the right consistency. After heating the jaggery, put a drop of it in a bowl of water. If the drop sits like a solid drop in water, then you have the right consistency. Other steps are same as above. At my home, sugar version is more popular. When we want to make with jaggery, we use molasses(the black colored liquid jaggery), if the solid version that is available here is used, heat it with little water to avoid any burning.
I am sending this to Lakshmi’s Ganesh festival event
