Chettinadu Pepper Chicken

Ask your kid what they think about you.You will get innocent answers.You might have heard the proverb " a friend in need is a friend indeed". But I don't believe it. Most of the time you may get flattering from them.Yeah, they are not dare to tell about your real behaviour, even if they don't like it.If they tell the truth, your friendship may break there at the moment.You may think she / he has hurt your feelings.May be some of you have such good friends other than this kind. Let me tell the truth, me too adjusting many sitting silently.Some times I would ask my kids (and H) what do they find bad in my conduct? I have learnt that is the way to correct my faults.Since kids are with us always, they notice our "outside" deportment and can easily tell about it.(People may have an inside & outside behaviours, at least we can change one).Kids below 10 and above 6 will be able to do it, I think these souls may start lying after ten, as they think saying good thing will make us happy.. :)
When my girl was 4 or 5 she used to play "Ashwamedham" which she learned from the show that was anchored by Mr.G.S.Pradeep, a famous Kairali TV artist. She thought about a lady, who was alive and from our family but I couldn't find out who was it from her answers. I just asked for a clue and she said "that lady is very useful to us, it is difficult for us to live without that lady in the house"! I felt like hearing the lessons in the primary school "Cow is a very useful animal, it gives us milk..." :) Yeah, it was about her mother and all mothers in the world! :) She might have changed her opinion when she grew (now 11) and sometimes says "ma, your character is very bad..." My strictness might have provoked her.. ;)
Don't think am deviating from the food talks. Talking too much about food (or other things) is really boring.(am not talkative, thats why I think so.. :) )So I stop here, and let's see the "chettinadu pepper chicken"...



Ingredients
Chicken pieces 1/2 kg
small onions 4
curry leaves 2 stalks
coriander leaves 2 Tbsp
coriander powder 1 tsp
pepper powder 3 tsp
turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
fennel seeds 2 pinches
cardamom 1 crushed
cinnamon sticks 1/4 " size 2 no.
cloves 3
salt
oil or ghee

Grind together,
Coconut grated 3/4 cup
pepper corns 2 Tbsp
garlic cloves 6 small
ginger 1/4 " piece



How to prepare
Heat little oil, put cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and fennel seeds.
After few seconds, add chicken with all powders and ground paste.
Cook this with enough water and salt.
When the chicken is done, reduce water on a low flame.
Heat a frying pan, pour little oil or ghee.
Saute chopped small onions, curry leaves.
When small onions are brown add the cooked chicken.
Stir slowly until the water evaporates completely and chicken is brown and dry.
Mix with coriander leaves, remove from fire.

This is the recipe of Mrs. Ammu Mathew, Vanitha. Small onions are my addition , so you can avoid it.Adding more pepper powder will give a nice dark color.

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Chettinadu Egg Roast

Would you use home made masala powders for cooking? I always prefer making powders like garam masala, pepper powder etc at home. For other powders like coriander, chilly and turmeric, we mostly buy whole spices from the market, clean, dry in sun and send them to the mill. It would last long, so we shouldn’t be worried for at least six months.
Yesterday, I made some chicken curry using a different garam masala powder, the taste was unusual as one of my readers said – She used sajeera instead of jeera and felt a “strange” taste – I didn’t feel like it is a chicken curry , there was no smell of cinnamon and clove. Any way I decided not to use any other powder if I don’t have the one I usually make. Better I should use the whole spices instead.

This Chettinadu Egg Roast is one I found from an old magazine clipping, which is a nice thick curry goes well with chappathi.



Ingredients
Eggs 3 hard boiled
chopped onions 3
chopped tomatoes 2
garlic cloves 4 small
ginger 1/2 " piece
green chillies 1 or 2
fennel seeds 1/4 tsp
coriander powder 1 Tbsp
chilly powder 1 tsp or as desired
turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
pepper powder 2 tsp
garam masala powder 1/4 tsp
curry leaves few
coriander leaves chopped few
coconut grated 3/4 cup
salt
oil



How to prepare
De shell eggs. Cut into halves.
Blend coconut very well in enough water to get thick solution.
Grind garlic, ginger,green chillies and fennel seeds together.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, saute onion until transparent.Then saute with the ground paste.
After 2 minutes, put tomatoes,curry leaves and all the powder except pepper powder.Add salt.
Stirr until the mixture is thick and tomatoes are cooked well.
Add blended coconut solution, pepper powder and coriander leaves.
When it boils put egg pieces, continue cooking for a while.
When the mixture becomes thick, check salt and remove from fire.
This is a spicy preparation.If you like to get to a nice red color, use kashmiri chilli powder.Reduce spices according to your taste.

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Chettinadu Chicken Curry

Ingredients and Method
chicken 1 kg
onion 4
tomato 4
red chilly powder 4 teaspoons
coriander powder 3 teaspoons
turmeric powder 1 teaspoons
garam masala powder 1 teaspoon
garlic cloves 7
ginger 1 inch piece
curry leaves few
coriander leaves chopped few
oil 4 tb spoon
salt

For grinding,
red chillies 2
fennel seeds 1 teaspoon
poppy seeds 2 teaspoons
bengal gram / pottukadala 1 table spoon
coconut grated 1 handful
oil 1 teaspoon

In oil fry red chillies, fennel seeds, poppy seeds, Bengal gram / pottu kadala and coconut to a golden brown color and then grind to a fine paste.



Grind garlic and ginger to a fine paste.

Heat oil. When the oil becomes hot add chopped onion and fry for a few minutes until it changes into a light brown colour.

Then add tomatoes which are finely chopped with ginger paste, garlic paste, turmeric powder, coriander powder, chilli powder and fry well until the tomatoes are changed into a fine paste and the oil floats on the surface.

Add the pieces of chicken ,ground paste and enough salt with 1 cup of water.

Cook on medium fire until the chicken is well cooked.

Garnish with coriander leaves and curry leaves.This is a very thick gravy.

I followed the Chettinaadu Chicken Curry recipe of Mrs. Mano Saminathan. Since the amount of chilli is high in the original recipe, I changed it to Kashmiri chilli powder, following Mrs.Mano's suggestions. Mrs. Mano Saminathan is an expert in cooking various dishes and has an experience of forty years in this field. She hails from the famous Thanjavur City of Tamil Nadu. Mrs. Mano , lives in Sharjah with her family, runs the South Indian restuarant "Saffire".

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