My love for Keralite food goes a long way. One reason, my folks went visited Kerala few months before I was born. Second reason, they visited Kerala again after a year and a half of my birth (with out me) and mum says that she had eaten so much of the food there that it must have been transferred into my genes. The story does not end there however. A dear friend of my mother’s hail from Kochi so that means I was subjected to cuisine ever so often as a kid. If that was not enough, when we moved to London, one of my dad’s colleague’s wife at the High Commission was a Keralite and she being such a warm and a wonderful host would often have us over dinner. She was a wonderful cook and we need no guesses about the dishes that cam out of her cuisine. So you see Keralite food has always been an integral part of my life, even before I was born. So when I cam across this recipe; I just knew I had to make it.. Though I have made slight changes from the original
Simple Quick easy and not to mention super spicy !!
Ingredients:
- Chicken on the bones (skinless) cut ito pieces -1 kg
- Curry leave-2-3 stems
- Oil for frying
- Rice flour-3 table spoon
For the Marinade:
- Turmeric powder-1 table spoon
- Chilly powder-1 table spoon
- Mint leaves – a hand ful ( I used this mint and date chutney from my mother-in-law)
- Garam masala powder- 1/2 tablespoon
- Ground Pepper corns- Be generous
- chopped onions-1/2 cup
- chopped tomatoes- 1/4th of a cup (half a tomato)
- Fresh Coriander leaves- a Handful
- salt – to taste
- Water-1/4 of a cup
How:
You start by blending/ grinding all the marinade together into a paste. Then make tiny slits on the chicken and marinate for about 2-3 hours, that is good enough.
Set a kadhai/wok on high heat with the oil and just before frying add 2 table spoons of rice flours gives it a crispy texture. Shallow fry the chicken pieces evenly on all sides, till they are golden brown in colour. Add the curry leaves, here I personally like to temper mine before adding, but go as you wish. Finally, drizzle some lime juice and your chicken is ready.
The final twist to my tale is that P spent a considerable time in Southern parts of India so his love for Keralite food knows no bounds either…
a supre easy recipe for meen moilee (kerela fish curry)-
fish fillets (with or without bones)- 1.5 kgs
Onion- 1 large (sliced fine)
Ginger- 1″ pc, julienned
2/3 green chillies- slit
curry leaves- 2/3 stems
Thick coconut milk- 1 cup
tamarind paste- 1 tsp
1 tbsp cooking oil
turmeric- 1 tsp (optional)
salt to taste
heat kadhai, add oil, allow to come to smokey point, add onions and ginger and saute till translucent. Add the curry leaves, green chillies and turmeric, a further minute of saute. Add the coconut milk (make sure u r stirring all the while when adding the coconut milk) add a cup of water and allow to come to boil. add the tamarind paste. Slide in pcs of fish gently and allow to cook fr a few minutes till fish is cooked and gravy is done,
Enjoy with steaming hot rice and some fried appalams (papads) 🙂
next on the list 😀