Chicken Biryani - Tamil Nadu Style

Chicken Biryani - a dish that is so "supreme" that it has so many forms and versions - not just within India but across Asia - if not the world. I understand that there are about 15 different Biryani types available in India. Given it's Persian origin, it is also called by many other names in the middle east. One that I have enjoyed myself is a Kabsa. As with all the different varieties not all may be enjoyed by all. I remember during one of my visits in Muscat where a biryani meant a cup of flavoured rice and a deep fried chicken leg on the side. Now that was simple!! I still remember the very first Biryani attempt made about 13 years ago in Portland. Since then there has been many stories around it. One including one of our neighbours coming in to rescue while attempting Hyderabadi Dum Biryani. So here's my first version that is most familiar to me - Tamil Nadu style. Before I go too far - this was prepared by Uma including the photo credits. 

What goes in

1. Onion
2. Cardamom
3. Ginger
4. Garlic
5. Cinnamon
6. Clove
7. Bay Leaves
8. Aniseed
9. Green Chillies
10. Fennel Seeds
11. Tomato
12. Vegetable Oil
13. Ghee /Butter
14. Mint
15. Coriander Leaves
16. Biryani Masala (optional)
17. Chicken
18. Basmati Rice (Washed)
19. Turmeric Powder

The Method

1. Blend, onion, garlic, ginger, cinnamon and clove to a paste.
2. In a pressure pan / cooker melt ghee/butter and oil. When hot, sautee bay leaves, aniseed, green chillies and fennel seeds for few minutes.
3. Add mint and coriander and sautee for few minutes.
4. Add the blended mix from step 1 and sautee until oil separates.
5. Add tomato and sautee for few minutes.
6. Add chicken with a pinch of turmeric powder, Biryani masala, salt and sautee until chicken is half cooked.
7. Add basmati rice, mix well and pour water (1.5 cup water : 1 cup of rice).
8. Pressure cook for 2 whistles.

Chicken Biryani Ready!!

Happy Cooking!!

C

Chettinad Pepper Chicken Curry - Milagu Kozhi Kozhambu

So I had this sinus bothering me for the last few weeks travelling between winter and tropical weather back and forth almost every week. Decided to get it treated with some pepper chicken. It was a good treatment even while I was cooking. Just the aroma made the difference. Talking about pepper chicken curry, still the best in my opinion is from Parasakthi in Salem. Hopefully someday I will be able cook up something close to that. This was yet another attempt. The best parts of cooking a curry is roasting the masala. As I have mentioned in an earlier post each spice needs to be dry roasted separately to get the best effect. Of course it takes a little bit of time and patience - but worth every bit of it.

What goes in:

Dry Masala (starting from top left in the pic )

1. Star aniseed
2. Coriander seeds
3. Cloves
4. Fennel
5. Black Pepper
6. Poppy seeds (Khus Khus)
7. Cinnamon sticks
8. Cumin

"Wet Masala"

1. Onions
2. Garlic
3. Ginger
4. Tomato

Other Stuff

1. Chicken
2. Grated coconut
3. Gingelly oil
4. Turmeric
5. Salt
6. Black Pepper Powder
7. Mustard seeds

The Method

1) Blend the ingredients of the wet masala.
2) Roast the dry masala ingredients one by one and let it cool down.

3) Heat a sauce pan and once hot add few table spoons of gingelly oil.

4) Add mustard seeds once the oil is hot.

5) Add the blended wet masala paste, a teaspoon of salt and saute for a few minutes until the oil separates.
6) While the paste is being sauteed powder the dry masala.
7) Once the paste is sauteed enough add the chicken pieces, pinch of turmeric and saute until the chicken is mixed well with the paste.
8) Add the powdered masala, grated coconut, curry leaves and let it to cook for about 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked enough. Add required amount of water for the level of consistency needed.
9) Add some black pepper powder if you are not able to get the distinct peppery taste.
10) Garnish with coriander leaves.

Muzhagu Kozhi Kozhambu Ready!! Goes well with steamed rice or parotta.

Happy Cooking!!

C

Gai Pad Krapow - Chilli Basil Chicken

Basil - a leaf limited to religious and maybe medicinal purposes in Indian lifestyle add so much flavour to a dish especially Thai and Italian. One of my favourite Thai dishes - stir fried Chilli Basil Chicken came to fruition today at Chetty's kitchen. All necessary ingredients fell into place today and there was no reason not to try. There's something about the Thai birds eye red chilli. It simply couldn't be replaced by any other type of chilli and the flavour just doesn't happen. No wonder these 2 ingredients Basil & Chilli make a dish by itself.

What goes in: 

1) Thinly sliced Chicken breast meat
2) Thai Red Chillies
3) Holy Basil Leaves
4) Onions
5) Garlic
6) Fish Sauce
7) Dark Soy Sauce
8) Sugar
9) Corn flour water (optional)

The Method

1) Heat a wok with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil - any oil for that matter.

2) When hot toss in the chicken and toss it around until the pinkness goes away.

3) Mix in the garlic, chillies, few tablespoons of fish sauce, 1 table spoon of soya sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar and fry for about a minute.

4) Toss in the onions and toss for a few minutes until the onions become slightly translucent.

5) Add in the basil leaves and toss for a minute.

6) If you need a extra sauce (or volume), add more water and corn flour water. You may need to add more fish sauce / salt as necessary.

Serve it hot with jasmine rice. 

Voila - Gai Pad Krapow Ready!!

Enjoy Cooking!!

C

Fajita Quesadilla

When it comes to Tex-Mex food, one of our most favourite has been Fajitas and Quesadilla (yes pronounced "kesa diya" and not "dilla"). Fajitas are technically lean strips of meat served with strips of carmelized onions and capsicums. Fajitas are normally served with soft tacos which we have to fill with a variety of condiments.  Quesadilla is folded corn tortilla filled with cheese any stuffing of your choice. For the sake of veggie (but not vegan) friends here's a version that you may enjoy with a combination of Fajita and Quesadilla.

Ingredients

1) Tortilla Base - make sure you have a big enough size to be able to fill and fold.

2) Onions - Sliced in strips

3) Capsicum -  Sliced in strips (Bell Pepper if you are from the Yankee world)

4) Mushrooms - Sliced - just to make it veggie. Can be replaced by thin strips of any meat.

5) Cheese - I used Mozzarella and a Mexican Cheddar that we recently got from Muswellbrook. You can use any combination of cheese. Of course adding Mozzarella gives the ooey gooey effect that might work well with kids.

6) Jalapeno - Mexican chilli pepper for the extra kick.

7) You can use an optional Fajita seasoning if you can get one in your parts of the world.

Method

1) Saute the veggies on a grill or tava until the onions are carmelized and the veggies are charred slightly to get the smoky taste. You can use oil but very sparingly. Essentially you need some grilled veggies - not a sabzi.

2) Place the veggies on one half of the tortilla base and top it up with the cheese. If you are going to be grating cheese it's better if you do it at this stage. Pre-grated cheese becomes a little messier while spreading it at this time.The amount you want to fill could be a little bit of trial and error. 

Fajita Quesadilla 

3) Place the stuffed tortilla in a grill / sandwich press or a tawa. The easy part with the sandwich press is you don't have to flip it over. If you use a tawa or a grill flip it over after a few minutes. One alternate is to wrap this with aluminium foil so that it stays put as you flip it over.

Kids Version - Cheese only

Adios Amigos!!

Happy Cooking

C

Masala Egg Puff

Masala Egg Puff - one of those quintessential bakery snack from Tamil Nadu. The economic snack that filled many a student's hunger pang - oh well we can go on and on about the egg puff. Yet again one of those snacks that you don't easily get outside of Tamil Nadu (may extend to Kerala). After a few attempts of making mixed vegetable and panneer puffs (post about it another time), gave it a shot to try the highschool / uni time favourite snack. Of course it is best accompanied with tomato sauce and masala tea to wash it down.

What goes in:

1) Boiled Eggs (1 egg makes 2 puffs + 1 egg white for brushing later)
2) Frozen Pastry sheets - I wish I could this from scratch as well - maybe another time
3) Onions - Thinly sliced
4) Tomatoes - Thinly sliced
5) Ginger Garlic Paste
6) Turmeric powder
7) Garam masala - Any masala mix would do
8) Oil - to saute




The method:

1) Thaw the frozen pastry sheets for about 10 minutes. Cut it into rectangular pieces before it thaws else it becomes a slightly sticky affair.

2) Saute the onions, tomatoes, turmeric paste and ginger-garlic paste for a few minutes.

3) Add garam masala and salt (to taste) and saute until the tomatoes get mashed up well.You can add some red chilli powder if you want to kick it up a notch.

4) Once done, mix the boiled eggs along with this masala - careful not to break the eggs. Got to toss them in carefully.

5) Place the individual pastry sheets on a tray covered with baking sheet. While you are at this step - preheat the oven at about 220 Deg.

5) Place one egg half - yolk down on each piece of pastry sheet and add the onion/tomato mix on top.

6) Wrap them up as good as you can. This is where it will be some trial and error to cut the right shape and size of the pastry sheet.



7) Brush egg whites on to the top of the pastry sheet.

8) Place the tray in the oven and bake for about 5 minutes. Keep a close watch on the oven as the pastry can get burnt very easily.






Crisp - fluffy - spicy Egg Puffs Ready!!

Happy Cooking!!

C

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie

After gaining confidence with the Muesli Bar have now started getting my hands dirtier (literally) with baking. I've done a few "projects" in the past with ready made mixes where there is not much to measure or play around. Baking with everything from scratch is a whole new ball game.
So here it comes the 2nd experiment - White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookie. Took "inspiration" from a few internet recipes each had their own twist and ended up making my own twist. The idea was to make a nice soft chewy cookie.

Ingredients (measures are for reference only - feel free to change as you choose)
1) Butter - 200 gms

2) Flour - 200 gms
3) Brown Sugar - 2 cups (in fact I did a mix of brown sugar and raw sugar as recommended in one of the recipes)
4) Macadamia nuts (diced) - 150 gms
5) White Chocolate bits - 150 gms
6) Egg -2
7) Baking Soda - 1/2 teaspoon
8) Vanilla Essence - 1 teaspoon (not in picture)

Oven Temperature - 150 deg (tried 175 deg as some website recommended - ended up making a dark chocolate chip cookie instead of white chocolate)

Method
1) Soften the butter to a texture that would be easy to blend.
2) Beat the eggs and keep it separate.
3) Mix the softened butter, sugar, vanilla essence and egg using a blender on high speed until it becomes a nice smooth creamy texture.
4)  Add the flour (most of it) and mix it in. You can use a blender I found using my hands more effective. It has it's own side effects (your fingers become very lickable ;-) ).
5) Add the white chocolate bits and macadamia nuts at the end and mix it evenly.
6) Make small 2 inch diameter balls out of this mix and lay them out in a baking tray lined with baking paper. (Tip: You will need a slightly wet palm to do this)
7) Flatten the balls a little bit. The idea is to get to a shape of a cookie without stretching it too thin.

Ensure you have sufficient space between the cookies as they expand horizontally while they bake.

As you could see I could do only 6 cookies at a time. In a way this helped me experiment a bit.

8) Place the tray in the oven with a timer for about 12 minutes.  This again is an experiment and may vary based on the type of the oven and the temperature you had set in. As always use your nose to figure out when to stop.
9) After baking take the tray out from the oven and let it cool for 5 - 10 minutes before you remove the cookie out of the tray.

Fresh - warm - chewy and soft White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie - ready.

p.s.: It took about 3 attempts to get to some "presentable" and "edible" state. It either became too dark or bent and crumbled before I could take it out of the tray.



Happy Cooking!!
C

Muesli Bar

Few weeks ago I checked back into this blog and realized it has been almost a year since I had a post. Not a good sign at all. Had to come up with something really quick to revive this. So here it is my first baking recipe. Muesli bars used to be a standard snack in my bag for a long time. Not many snacks can be as filling, healthy and tasty as this one.It somehow went out of circulation in our pantry for a while. Recently it came back alive as a snack that Nandha liked at pre-school. They actually made it at his pre-school as a cooking activity and hence came back home with it's recipe. He was quite thrilled to know that we could actually make it at home. So here we go...

Ingredients

1) Rolled Oats - 3 Cups

Ingredients

2) Flour - 1 cup (a little less if you prefer a more chewy texture)

3) Sunflower seeds - 1 cup

4) Pumpkin seeds - 1 cup

5) Sliced Almonds - 1 cup

6) Dried fruits (pick your choice of apricots, cranberries, raisins) - 1 cup

7) Desicated coconut - 1 cup

8) Butter - 150 gms

9) Brown Sugar - 1 cup

10) Honey - 1/2 cup

11) Egg -1

Process
(0) Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees.

Dry and wet ingredients together

1) Melt the butter on a low flame along with the brown sugar and honey. Once melted give it a quick boil and let it to cool down.
2) Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and create a well in the center.

Give it a good mix

3) Pour the beaten egg, and the cooled down syrup and mix it all up. (A good time to get the kids involved as needed).
4) Once mixed spread the mixture out on a tray lined with baking paper. Even the mixture out using the back of a tablespoon.

Mixture on the tray

5) Bake it in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes.




Now this could be a hit and miss with the temperature and time. After a few experiments I've now started relying on my nose to tell me when to stop the baking. Take the tray out when the smell is just perfect - usually about 20-25 minutes.

Baked Muesli Tray

6) Leave it to cool for a few minutes.
7) Cut them up into blocks of your preference in size.

Home made Muesli Bar ready!!

Some may like it crispy...some may like it chewy....play with the flour and honey as you need it.

Happy Baking!!

C