In India, we were frequent visitors to Nandini restaurant . This is the place where we became huge fans of Andhra food. We loved the normal vegetarian thali , which according to us, was a comfort food. The other thing we absolutely loved there was their chicken dishes. Since hubby is not a great fan of chicken with bones, we would always pick up some boneless dish. After a while, our staple chicken order was for an extremely flavorful pepper chicken. It used to be very hot and would have a strong curry leaves flavor to it.
Now after two years in US, I have forgotten how it is supposed to look, but the taste still lingers on my tongue. Every time I buy chicken, hubby’s request comes for this dish. So this time, I thought of recreating this dish. Since I wanted a strong pepper and curry leaves flavor to it, I kept it very simple. It came out to be absolutely delicious. Try this at least once to know what I mean.If you have Kashmiri red chili powder in hand, use it for a bright color. Increase the amount of heat if you can tolerate more. It tastes great when savored with lemon juice sprinkled on it.
Ingredients: 1/4 kg boneless chicken A pinch turmeric 1 tbl spn thick yogurt 1 tea spn ginger paste 1 tea spn garlic paste 1/2 tea spn chili powder 1 tea spn pepper powder Oil 15-20 curry leaves Salt
Method: Apply ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, 1/2 tea spn pepper powder, salt, yogurt to chicken and leave it aside for about 2-3hrs. Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is steaming hot, add the marinated chicken. Cook for 5-6mins from both sides (do not add any extra water). When the chicken is almost half done, add 1/2 tea spn pepper powder, curry leaves (cut into two), cover and cook till chicken is completely done.Serve hot with lemon wedges.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 15mins
Sometimes I wonder, how little I knew about Konkani cuisine before I started this blog. The directions to new recipes come from different requests I get here. Batate vaagu is one such dish that I learnt recently, even though I had heard about it before.
Most of the Konkani dishes are known for their very bright red color and spicy taste. Now, few of you may wonder that you never saw the color in my pictures. Yes, I have reduced the heat a lot in my cooking and also the chilies available here (even though I use Byadagi chilies which are popular for their bright color) just make the dish spicy but don’t give that color.
Anyway, batate (potato) vaagu is a bright red colored dish. It is supposed to be quite spicy, may be thats the reason for the name – vaagu also means tiger, fierce like tiger (Okay, I know thats a PJ). There are more than one ways to make this dish. Here is what I tried yesterday. I served this as a side dish with rice and some dal .
Ingredients: 2 cups boiled, peeled, chopped potatoes 1/2 cup tomato 6-7 red chilies 1 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut 1 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 4-5 curry leaves Oil Salt
Increase the number of chilies if your taste buds can tolerate it.
Method: Heat a little oil, fry coriander seeds and red chilies. Grind with coconut. Heat oil, add mustard. When they start popping, add curry leaves. Fry for a minute. Add ground paste, tomato and about 1/2 cup water. Cook till tomatoes softens a bit. Add potatoes, salt. Cook for another 5mins. The consistency should be like a thick curry, I made it bit more thicker just to get a concentrated flavor. Serve as a side dish with rice or chapathi .
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 20mins
