Kathi Roll

Anita shrimp curry

Went on Saturday night to our friend Anita&Subodh's place for a get together with other Charlotte friends.  Two dishes that I absolutely loved - the shrimp curry (pictured above) and a cold spinach/yogurt salad.

The shrimp curry was a south indian flavoured spicy hot curry with a strong smoked paprika flavour. Was very surprising - kept me guessing for a while, as it tasted like really good barbe-cue chips that you can't put down.  Was unique in that I had not had smoky paprika in indian food - went very well with roti's and rice.

To go with this spicy  barbe-cue curry was a cold spinach and yogurt salad. Something that I would normally abhore!  Again the flavours were amazing and made me want go get a third serving.

If only I hadn't had three Stella's, the spinakopita's, the gree-pea crostini's, and the crab dip with crackers!  Will have to get the recipe from Anita or just make another trip :)

Kebab roll

Kebab roll at restaurant Kashmir, corner of 8th ave and 39th street
for 3.99 not bad wish the Naan was fresh :(

Only in carrboro

Dosa is a thin, crispy crepe made from fermented rice flour, a specialty in the south of India.  Typically, a dosa is stuffed with curried mashed potatoes but people in Carrboro are creative.  They had eggplant and chicken in addition to the traditional potato filling.  Will have to taste one soon.

Dinka laddu (Indian candy truffles)

Dinka - what a weird ingredient... I couldn't find a wikipedia entry called 'dinka' but I did find something that i believe is dinka: Wikipedia entry
My mom made this laddu and I've attempted to capture her process below.   Dinka is only used in sweets in India but upon seeing it and tasting it I can definitely see huge potential for this ingredient in savoury dishes.

The below recipe should yield 15 or so small truffles or laddus

Indegredients:
1 pack of Edible Gum (Dinka) (100gm)
1/3 cup almonds
1/3 cup walnuts
8 dry dates (kharik)
1/3rd cup dry coconut
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp ghee
1 tbsp brown sugar (or gul - jageree)
2 tbsp honey

1) Toast all nuts and coconuts in a pan - grind in a food processor - no chunks remaining.
2) heat the ghee in a pan put some of the gum in the ghee and sautee till it puffs up (it becomes white and puffy- no longer translucent)- once it's puffy remove into a plate and put aside. Repeat this till you have puffed up all the gum granules.  Only put few crystals of gum in the heated ghee at a time.  It'll take 5-10 turns depending on size of pan...  you'll go through a few spoons of ghee.
3) put ground nut mixture with the puffs and sugar  into a food processor and grind into a paste - do in batches if necessary
4) put honey into the mixture and some ghee if necessary and form into balls (truffles) - if you don't have honey use some other binder like marmalade or jam..
5) if you want coat it with toasted coconut or something other item

Kultha che pitlah (Marathi dish which is a rou of a certain bean - horse gram)

Kulith: Wikipedia entry for Kulith
This is a regional dish from the Kokan region of Maharashtra (State where Mumbai is located) - this is the region encompassing the coast south of Bombay and north of Goa.
I believe this is a poor man's dish - a basic roue of oil and the flour of the kulith bean - you eat it with rice and it's amongst the yummiest comfort foods ever. Warning it has  a very distinctive taste.

Indegredients:
2 tbsp oil
4 cloves of garlic chopped
2 chillis (if using jalapeno or hotter deseed one of the chillis)
3 Kokum petals (again a very regional kokani indegredient): Wikipedia entry for kokum
1/2  teasp mustard seeds
1/2  teasp cumin seeds
pinch asotifeda (hing)
1/4 teasp red chilli powder
1/4 teasp turmeric
2 tbsp yogurt
4 heaping tbsp of kulith flour
for each tbsp of flour use 1/2 cup water
1 tbsp of yogurt

Process
1) Heat oil on medium heat and do a fodni of the mustard, cumin, hing, chilli powder, turmeric, garlic, chillis
(once oil is heated drop in the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing, let it sizzle once u smell stuff then add in turmeric, chili powder, garlic and chillis - take off heat so stuff doesn't burn - toss everything in oil for 2-3 min)

2) Add in kulith flour and blend into the oil - keep stirring on medium heat for 5 - 6 min. The kulith will form little balls with the oil.

3) heat up the water in a kettle and slowly add 1/2 cup at a time and blend in the kulith so the balls of flour dissolve into the water.

4) Reduce heat to medium-low,  After you have a homogeneous mixture with no lumps then add the yogurt and the kokum petals

5) Simmer for 10 min on medium-low heat and serve over rice.  Add salt to taste over the rice or in your bowl - Am told that the salt acts as a de-emulsifier and it might take apart our nice consistent soupy pitlah.

Dodka (Ridge Gourd) bhaji (vegetable)

Dodka or (Ridge Gourd)  is a vegetable that is commonly found in India and can be bought at most Indian grocery stores.  To the left is a picture of the  Ridge Gourd.  Make sure when you get it not to get the 'Bitter Gourd' or Karela - similar shape but yuck!


Ingredients:
1 Dodka
Fodni:
1/2 teasp mustard seeds
1/2 teasp cumin
Pinch of Hinga (Asotefida)
Pinch of turmeric
1/2 a chili or whole medium Jalepeno deeseded
Other things:
1 teasp crushed peanuts
2 teasp dry grated coconut (or fresh)
1 teasp brown sugar
1/2 teasp sesame seeds  (roasted if available)
Few leaves of fresh corriander
Salt to taste (2-3 pinches)

Procedure:
1) Peel the dodka so that all skin is taken off - can use this skin to make a yummy chutney with similar ingredients (don't throw away the peel)
2) Cube the dodka
3) heat in pan some ghee on medium-low heat  - till ghee is hot (throw in a mustard seed if it sizzles then ghee is ready)
4) Crush in a mortar the chillis/Jalepenos with the cumin - paste 1.
5) Throw mustard seeds into ghee - let them sizzle for a sec, throw in the hinga - once you start smelling the spices throw in the paste 1 from step above - after a minute throw in the turmeric. - this oil concoction is called a fodni.
6) After a min throw in the cubed dodka - increase heat to medium
7) After 5 min throw in all "other indegredients" - sautee for < 5 min and you are done!

Enjoy with Roti/Chapati.  A vege ready to eat in 10 min.

Goa fish curry

I also in the past few months made the Goa Fish curry from Cameilla Punjabi's book pg 140 and it turned out to be awesome!  It tasted just like any restaurant fish curry I had in India. I'll be cooking it again in the next 2 weeks while my parents are visiting.  Shall post my modified version of the recipe.  Last time I made it I put the fish in the curry per the recipe and I didn't care for this - as an end product you get an awesome curry but the fish is a boiled pieces of overcooked fish.. Instead this time I am thinking I'll take some small trimmings of fish and add it to the curry for flavor; but take fish filles and pan fry them separately.  This way I can cook the fish perfectly and while serving I can have the rice with curry topped with a piece of pan fried/broiled fish ...yum.

Parsee Red Chicken Curry

This is a recipe I made using Cameilla Punjabi's book - pg 124.  My main beef with the recipe is the cooking time for onion is wayyy off and since I can't get Kashmiri chili's my gravy instead of looking red looks like a grey/brown slurry.  This gravy is very potent and has a pungent indian spice smell.  Taste is good - but below that of the cashew gravy recipe.  While this recipe might not be as tasty as the cashew gravy recipe it's quite a bit faster to cook so worth it on a weekend when u need to make a tasty chicken curry.

Indegredients:
1 1/2 lb chicken breast cubed into small pieces
2 tomatoes (small) finely chopped - I don't see why you can't use 1/2 a can of crushed tomatoes

5 dried Red chilis (recipe calls for 10 Kashmiri chilis - I just had standard dried red chilis which are hotter but don't have any color)
1 8oz can of coconut milk
Spice Mix:
  1/2 teasp cumin seeds
  1 teasp corriander seeds
  1 teasp sesame seeds
  4 cloves
  8 peppercorns
  1in cinamon stick
  3 cardamon

1 in ginger - chopped into pieces
4 cloves garlic-
1 large onion - coarsely chopped

1 teasp red wine vinegar (recipe calls for apple vinegar)
1/2 teasp store bought garam masala

1) Roast spice mix in pan over low-medium heat for 5 min  (heat up pan on low-medium and toss in spices - never have any oil or anything in pan. it should be a dry hot pan)
2) Soak the red chilis in bowl of luke warm water - 15 min
3) Put roasted spice mix, chilis, ginger, garlic, onion into a blender and make into paste - add water if necessary to make into paste.
4) Heat pan over medium heat - add oil to coat bottom of pan. Once oil is hot add blended paste from step 3.  Let cook for 20 min - want onion to cook.
5) Add chicken tomato and cook for another 10 min
6) Add chicken and let cook for 10 min
7) Add coconut milk and let it cook for 10 min
8) Add the red wine vinegar and stir in the garam masala - cook 5 min
9) at this point recipe suggests if too spicy add in a bit of cubed boiled potato or add 1/4th cup of water - I didn't do either - and yes it was spicy!

My curry's color was not red it was a brown/grey slurry.  So don't worry if 'Red Chicken Curry' is not red it still taste good.

Enjoy over rice or a chapati.

Biriyani for Work

Decided to treat my team at work by making Biriyani - initially I was hoping to lookup a good recipe but didn't find anything that blew me away so ended up getting the Shan Masala prepackaged masala packet and followed it's recipe (on back of the package).  One addition to it was adding some roasted potatoes. 

A quandry I had was do I add lots of the chicken curry/masala to the rice and make a nice moist biriyani? this is not how I've seen it in restaurants it's usually nice dry separate grains with a layer of masala underneath.
I decided to stick to this notion and unfortunately it turned into a dry biriyani....  lesson learned fo next time.

Bombay Biriyani Masala

Potato-Beet Sliders and Fish Amritsari

(By Avani)Now, that I have got some time on my hands, decided to look up recipes for Beets.  Keep hearing about how nutritious it is but dont have too many fond "beet" memories from child hood.  Came across this potato-beet kebobs and loved the idea.  Here is my version, althought I decided to make little veggie burgers and present them as sliders.

Potato-Beet Sliders with Coriander Tzatziki Sauce

Mix mashed boiled potatoes, grated raw beets, finely chopped jalapenos, ginger-garlic paste, scallions and slightly crushed almonds.  Season with salt, red chilli powder, cumin powder, garam masala, lemon juice.  Make it into small patties and pan fry. 
Had some left over tzatziki sauce, spiced it up with some coriander chutney and half-and-half to make a cheese substitute for the sliders.

Fish Amritsari

Marinate finger size pieces of any slightly hardy white fish (I used tilapia) with red chilli powder, lemon juice, crushed fennel seeds, garlic and a lot of lemon juice.  Set it aside for 20 minutes.  Mix an egg, half-and-half and a sprinkle some gram flour to bring it all together.  Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the fish pieces, serve with some tomato based dipping sauce.

Kokni Cauliflower & Kerala Chicken Masala

What's this Sunday nights cuisine? More from another blog 'live to eat'.
Last time I made 'Chicken Curry With Tamarind' and I found the curry a bit too weak for chicken but found it very much like the curry that my mom makes using Cauliflower - so today I made the curry and used Cauliflower!  Turned out good - but I had decided to improvise and make it a bit 'Maharashtrian' by adding a bit of sugar - turns out my hand was a bit too liberal...  Not bad but could have done with less sugar.

Offcourse I have to eat meat during the week - since the Tamrind curry turned out decent I am trying out another curry from the same blog: 'Kerala Chicken Masala' - will see how it turns out - the recipe is pretty straight forward....

(few hrs later)
Kerala chicken is fire! Awesome tasty but holy fire!
will post pic and recipe later - didn't deviate too much from the original recipe linked above - substituted actual tomatoes with tomato sauce, and instead of two cups of water used 1 cup of water. I like my gravies to have a bit of a body not to watery.

What to eat this weekend?

Option 1: http://blog.sigsiv.com/2008/07/a-chicken-curry-with-tamarind.html
Option 2: http://blog.sigsiv.com/2009/08/tamil-style-chicken-biryani.html

Chicken Chettinad

Review of end product: a bit too sweet - should have reduced the amount of onion, perhaps use smaller onions.  Have never eaten Chicken Chettinad so I don't have a reference point but the end product of this recipe is yummy - not as yummy as the west indian chicken curry made few weeks back - but still a good curry recipe that I'd definitely use again and would not mind serving guests.

Got recipe from http://solaiachiskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/03/chettinad-chicken-authentic-chettinad.html
Mods to the recipe:
1) I didn't have mint leaves
2) Figured out that Biringi leaves means bay leaves.
3) Used about 6 curry leaves
4) Didn't have kuzhambu milagai thool - used Priya Sambar Masala - 1 teasp
5) Instead of using 2 tomatoes I used 1/2 cup tomato sauce
6) Instead of using garlic - I used 12 pods of frozen garlic paste (Dorot) - 6 pods for her 10 garlic cloves, and 4 pods of Ginger - for her 1/2 in ginger.

Saute tomato paste:

End Product:

Recipe: (from Solai's blog - wanted it in mine with my small modifications for safe keeping :)

Ingredients
Chicken-1.3 lb
1 big onions
1/2 cup tomato paste
Garlic 10 pods (or 12 dorot pods of frozen garlic)
To grind No1
Ginger ½ inch piece (or 4 pods frozen dorot ginger
1 onion
Garlic-10 pods
Green chillies-2
Chili powder-1 table spoons
Coriander powder-2 table spoons

To grind No2
Coconut grated-5 table spoons (frozen - thaw and measure)
Cashew nut-10
Fennel seeds-1 teaspoon
To season
Cinnamon-2 pieces or 1/2 teasp of powder
Fennel seeds-1 teaspoon
Clove-2
Cardamom-2
Bay leaf - 3
Mint leaf (didn't have any)
Curry leaf (6 small ones)

To marinate
1 teaspoon kuzhambu milagai thool - Didn't have any used Priya Sambar masala
Salt-1 teaspoon
2 Tbsp Sour cream
Ginger garlic paste-1 teaspoon - used ginger powder & garlic powder


Procedure
(all on 5 heat - just below medium)
Mince all onions and  garlic put aside for sauteeing and for grind 1.
Heat oil in large pan. Season the oil with the items given in ‘to season’
Add 1 chopped onion and saute - 15 min - till onion starts to brown.
When the onions turn transparent add the garlic (10 cloves mashed or 6 pods - thawed), sauté for 2 min
Add tomato paste. Sauté till the whole thing gets creamy. - cooked for 10 min - add very little water if needed.
Add the grinded paste of items given in No 1. Sauté it for a while - 10-15 min - want to cook the onion in grind1.
Put masala to side of pan add chicken - let it sit for 2-3 min till bottom is brown then combine with masala
Reduce stove to 4 - cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
Once chicken is cooked increase heat to 5.
Once the curry gets thick add the masala grinded with the items given in No2 and mix nicely
Cook for another 10 minutes.
Add a bit of water if needed as you are cooking so you don't burn the masala as its cooking.
Once you start seeing oil remove from heat - you are done!

Last Weekend's batch cooking: Chicken Tikka masala

Here's the pic - will post recipe later.
Indegredients:
1) 1 large cubed chicken breast (the one I get is around 2lb)
2) can of small round potatoes - not necessary - I added these as my wife then gets a vegetarian option in the dish
3) 1/2 cup sour cream
4) Pack of 'Shan' Tandoori masala - from indian store - I make my own masala too but I like this one for color
5) paste from: 2 de-seeded chilis - I use jalapenos, 3 large garlic cloves, 1/2 tbsp ginger
6) 1 1/2 teasp chili powder
7) Garam masala - I make my own by using 5-6 cloves, 2 bay leaves, corriander seeds, cumin seeds, 2 teasp cinamon powder, 1/4 teasp nutmeg, 1 large brown cardamon or 1 teasp cardamon powder - I roast all these in a pan till corriander seeds are browned then i powder them in a mortar.
8) 1 14 Ounce can tomato sauce
9) 1 large yellow onion - finely diced - very finely
10) oil & ghee
11) sugar & salt

Process
1) I take the sour cream add equal amt of water and whisk together add 2 teasp of shan pack masala and set aside
2) 1 teasp garam masala to the tomato sauce in the can and set aside
3) To the chicken add some oil, thrown on some garam masala, shan masala, and marinate for 1/2 hr
4) Get potatoes out of can - rinse couple of times, then put them in a vege or chicken broth for 1/2 an hr - remove from broth and put same marinate as the chicken and set aside
5) While everything is marinating start sauteeing the onion till it's starting to brown
6) After onion is browned put it to side of pan add oil to center - after oil heats up add 1/2 the ginger, garlic, chili paste. When it smells add he chili powder and 1/2 the garam masala - let it brown in the hot oil and add the tomato sauce.
7) cover and cook for 20 min - adding some water or stock to the pan if needed
8) uncover blend with the onions which were off to the side of the pan - let cook for 5 more min
9) While the Tomatoe sauce was cooking in another pan add ghee and oil and sautee the chicken cubes - don't cook completely as they'll go in the gravy and cook through - just brown them and take them off heat.
10) Do same with potatoes
11) After step 8 tomatoes and onions have cooked - make space in center of pan add oil - let it heat add rest of garam masala, and ginger garlic chili paste - let it heat and brown the masala and add the chicken - stir everything together
12) slowly add potatoes
13) let everything simmer for 5 min with covered lid
14) Remove lid - add sour cream mixture - stir and cover lid and let cook for another 15-20 min - the oil will start to come to the top.
15) add 5 teasp of sugar and stir in, add 4 teasp salt - stir and cover and simmer for 5 min.
16) Taste great on day 1 but on day 3 it's fantastic!
17) Get some Naan from Trader joes and enjoy - you won't order Chicken Tikka Masala in a restaurant again!..

* You can substitute paneer for the potatoes.

Last weekend's batch cooking - Pav Bhaji

Did some batch cooking last weekend - made enough food for more than the week and avoided cooking through the whole week. Infact will be eating it today too - so enough food for 7 days.
Made two things
1) Pav Bhaji
2) Ammazing Chicken Tikka Masala

1) Pav Bhaji
What is Pav Bhaji? Literally translated - bread vegetable, it's a vegetable stew which you eat with bread. It's amazing street food that you get in Bombay and the rest of india. A sweaty guy sits over a large pan with this vegetable stew in the middle of the pan, it bubbles and he adds some water and a slab of butter to keep it cooking. When you give your order he slathers butter on the pan and lays on top this ammazing salty/yeasty slab of bread (slab of bread rolls).mmmm. Whenever I've had pav bhaji which is home made it's never hit the mark - always a bit on the sweeter side without the kick of the one I had in Mumbai... So my aim recreate the Pav Bhaji!
1) Start by acquiring the right bread - Go to Teeter and get an 'Italian Round/Italian Boule' - Perfect bread to slice and toast on butter in a pan.... almost nails the taste of the bread in India.
2) Next for the Bhaji - NO ONIONS! yes you can put some raw ones on top this is the tradition, but don't sautee onions and build the stew on top - I think this is what all home chef's do and it gives the bhaji a sweet flavor.

Process for making Pav Bhaji (credit for the recipe and the not using onions goes to: http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2005/04/bombay-street-food-pav-bhaji.html) I had to modify the recipe to use my own veges
Indgredients:
1/2 bag frozen cauliflower (thawed in microwave)
1/4 bag frozen peas (thawed in microwave with the cauliflower)
- after above two are thawed mash em together
1/2 liter vege stock (made at home prior week by boiling asparagus stems, left over onion bits, some carrot tops, the middle flesh/seeds of green peppers, 1 bay leaf) - No salt, no sugar, no pepper... (wife made stock)
4 Anahiem peppers (they were on sale) - cut very finely into little itty bitty pieces
4 medium sized white potatoes (not red, not idaho) - boil and mash
1/2 small cabbage - finely shred on mandolin
16 ounces Formanos crushed tomatoes (was almost a sauce - wasn't chunky)
2 tbsp ginger paste
2 tbsp garlic, chili (jalepeno) mince paste
1 teasp cilantro paste
1 tbsp butter & oil as needed
1 teasp turmeric
2 teasp chili powder
MDH Pav Bhaji masala (gotten at indian store) lots of this
Salt
Process:
Heat up butter till it bubbles in a large sautee pan (something with some depth), I mix some oil into the butter. Once hot add turmeric, and chili powder, lit it sit for a few sec after you smell it add 1/2 tbsp ginger paste 1 tbsp garlic&chili mince. Let it smell up - after it is incorporated into butter/oil and starts to smell add in cabbage. Cover and let cook for 10 min - or till cabbage is all wilted and doesn't smell too much like cabbage. It should shrink significantly.
Shove cabbage to edge of large pan and pour in some oil let it heat up add some more ginger, garlic, chili paste - after it smells add Anaheim peppers, stir everything after 5 min and add Cauliflower & pea mush, let it cook for 5 min and incorporate it into the cabbage. You might need to add some vege stock to keep it from not sticking to bottom.
Move aside everything after letting it cook for 5-10 min and repeat with oil and ginger, garlic, chili and add in cilantro paste too. This time add in 1/3 of the potato let it cook for a min and stir everything together, keep mixing and adding in slowly the rest of the potato.
Sprinkly MDH pav bhaji masala on top of everything (cover entire surface - if you want it very hot and spicy) - mustve been 1 1/2 tbsp masala I used. - stir and let it cook for 5 min
Make small area in middle - oil, left over ginger, garlic, chili - heat up and add in tomato paste - let it simmer for few min and stir everything together. Add some more vege stock - cover and let it cook for 15 min. - Keep stirring and adding stock as necessary every 5 min to keep from burning (I had heat just above medium).
By now 40 min has gone by - everything should be mushy - kind of like a brunswick stew (for those of you who've been to a southern Barbecue place). If you haven't see pic.
You're done!

Dosa night

Dosa plans for last night didn't pan out and got pushed to today. Got some dosa batter from the indian store. Wife made dosa's along with some awesome potato bhaji, and sambar.
Don't the the recipe for either - but the whole meal was quite good.

Dosa's were the perfect balance of soft and crispy. There was just a bit of parmesan cheese sprinkled on the top dosa - a twist to the usual.

Secret to laying out the dosa: heat the pan, set to (6) medium heat. Sprinkle some water on pan then with a dowel put some of the batter on the pan and spread it around with the bottom of the dowel, sprinkle some oil on top and cover. Wait 30 sec and flip over.

West Indian Coconut Chicken Curry

Yum!

Per prior post I decided to do Emril's West Indian Coconut Chicken Curry - holy heat! I used Emri's recipe with my own method and proportion modifications....
My modifications to Emril's recipe: 1) I scaled down the proportions for almost all spices by half - cept the cloves. Also instead of using two scotch bonnets I used 2 jalepenos (1 de-seeded). 2) I didn't simmer the whole thing for 1 1/2 hr - why? I was using cubed chicken breast - am thinking I'd have gotten rubber chicken in 1 1/2 hr... 3) Instead of cooking the chicken first and then tossing in the onions, I did the standard Indian thing - let the onions sweat added the ginger, garlic, and spice powder.. let it smell up the whole house then tossed in the chicken and browned it. After the chicken was browned I added the rest of the spice powder, coconut milk, brown sugar and 1/4 cup of chicken stock (istead of 1).

The taste - very pungent. It reminds me of a cross between Singapore Curry Noodles (the curry taste) and Malaysian Roti Paratha.... the curry is very strong. Istead of eating it with Roti I've made some coconut rice (recipe below)


Recipe for Rice:
2 wati rice - rinse thoroughly
1 wati thin home made coconut milk
1 tbsp butter
1/2 wati chicken stock
3/4th wati water
Salt, and fresh ground pepper.
Yum.

Coconut & Chicken what to make?

I need to finish the coconut milk I made last weekend along with the ground coconut. So what chicken dish to make? In searching through food network I encountered two interesting recipies
1) Tyler Florence - Spicy Chicken Coconut curry: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/spicy-chicken-coconut-curry-recipe/index.html
This seems too traditional indian and I am wanting to try a different flavor.
2) Emril's West Indian Curried Chicken: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/west-indian-curried-chicken-roti-recipe/index.html
hmm sounds very interesting - I'll try this. Instead of the roti I am going to try and make coconut rice like the one they serve with Hinanise Chicken rice at Merlion...
More to come after the cooking.

Lazy Saturday South Indian Chicken

On a lazy Saturday, I decided to try cooking something different from the usual chicken. I usually cook chicken using a few standard recipe's - Chinese (soy, oyster sauces), Thai (pre-canned paste), Indian (Tikka masala). A co-worker who is South Indian gave me some chicken to try last week - it was delicious! When I asked him for the recipe - he didn't quite have one. Completely understandable - I often concoct stuff and don't follow any recipe. Searched Google for 'South Indian Chicken' and found a recipe that looked decent on epicurous.com - I made some adjustments and gave it a try.

Left is a picture of the chicken while it was still being cooked. The spice mixture used in this dish was excellent with a flavour profile quite different from the usual north Indian Garam Masala flavour.

The final product turned out to be very flavourful BUT quite mild - a bit on the sweet side due to the onions. Note to self - add quite a bit more Cayenne pepper/chili powder and a few little chilli's next time. Below is the recipie I followed (adjusted from the epicurous.com recipe)

Spice Powder: (makes 3 tbsp)
Roast in a thick bottom pan the following - don't let burn. Soon as you smell stuff and the coriander seeds turn brown take it off the heat.
1tbsp Coriander seeds
1tbsp fennel seeds (very nice flavour)
1 teasp cumin seeds
6 cloves (should have added more as dish didn't have enough heat)
2 cardamon pods (forgot these completely - doesn't seem to have mattered)
1/2 teasp ground cinamon
1/2 teasp peppercorns (should have added more)
2 teasp turmeric (recipe called for 1/2 tbsp..)
1 teasp chili powder

Coconut milk
I decided that the canned one is wayyy too creamy so using the epicurious.com recipe I made the milk - turned out to be pretty good.
1 cup shredded frozen wet coconut - added to this 1 1/2 cup of boiling water. Let it sit for a while then put in a blender and let it sit for 1 hr and then strained it.

Curry
1 1/2 clove garlic
1 inch ginger
1 Jalapeno (shouldn't have deseeded)
take above three make a paste (or mix together in a chopper/food processor)
2 medium white onions finely chopped
3 cilantro stems with leaves finely chopped
1/2 breast chicken - cut into cubes
1 chicken thigh - cut into cubes
Marinate chicken in 1/2 tbsp of spice powder, oil, salt for 1 hr.
1 teasp black mustard seeds
2 tbsp above spice powder
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 teasp tamarind paste concentrate dissolved in 1 teasp water
Salt to taste

(all done on medium heat)
Hit a bit of oil (coat the pan) - once heated brown the onions well. Once onions are browned put them to the side of pan so they don't get heat. Heat some more oil and add black mustard seeds - once these start to pop add the spice powder - let oil change colour and let the aroma fill the air (mix into oil and stir for 15-20 sec). Add ginger/garlic/chili paste - saute for 15 sec. Add chicken and let cook. Add chopped cilantro. At this point I should have added some whole peppercorns... after the chicken was almost cooked I added the tamarind water. Let chicken cook some more (15 min total since adding chicken). I added coconut milk - covered pan and let cook for 5 more min.

Smells AMAZING! Taste good - need to adjust heat by adding more pepper, cloves and chili powder