Kerala Chicken Stew

Kerala is a state in the Southern part of India known for their beautiful cities and aromatic cuisine with coconut. My introduction to Kerala's cuisine and culture was through my Uncle who was born and brought up in Kerala. My aunt used to make Syrian beef and Kola puttu often because of his influence. But my real experience in tasting authentic Kerala cuisine was when we visited my uncle's family in Allepey, Kerala. His mom and sister were amazing people and wonderful cooks. It was then I first tasted chicken and beef stews, Pariappu biriyani, beef stuffed parotha and lots more. 

Honestly I had forgotten about the stew until today. Luckily I remembered it when I was wondering what I could do different with chicken rather than the usual curries. Chicken stew is real simple and tasty, hope you enjoy making it. I have made slight changes to the traditional recipe, usually it is very thin (watery), I just made it a bit thicker and added a bit more flavour by adding ginger garlic paste and coriander powder.

Ingredients:

• Oil - 3 Tblspn
• Cinnamon stick - 1
• Cloves - 5 or 6
• Bay leaves - 2 (Fresh or dried)
• Cardamom - 3
• Whole pepper corns - 1 tspn
• Chicken -  1/2 kg or desired amount
• Onion - 2, chopped
• Green Chillies -  6 or more, slit
• Ginger Garlic paste -  1 tblspn
• Potato - 1 Large or 2 medium ones, chopped into big chunks
• Carrots - 2 or 3, chopped in semi-circles
• Coriander powder - 1 tspn
• Pepper powder - 1 tspn
• Salt - 2 tspn or more
• Curry leaves - 2 strands
• Coconut Oil - 1 tspn
• Thin Coconut milk - 1 1/2 cups (just milk, use canned or squeeze out the coconut and use milk alone mixed with a little water)
• Think Coconut milk - 1/2 cup
• All purpose flour - 1 tblspn
• Water - as required 

Steps:

• Heat oil in a pan, when hot, add the whole spices. Then add the onions and green chillies and sauté well. Add salt.
• When onion slightly change colour, add the ginger garlic paste.
• Then add the coriander powder and sauté well.
• Next add the chicken and stir well. Then add the potatoes and carrots.
  
• Add the thin coconut milk and 1 stand of curry leaves and let it boil. When the broth starts to boil, lower heat, cover and cook till the the chicken and veggies are done, maybe 10 to 12 mins.(Your kitchen will be filled with wonderful aroma from the boiling coconut milk :))
• Add this point, add more salt if needed and add the pepper powder. 
• Once the chicken and veggies are cooked, dissolve the all purpose flour in 1/4 cup of water and add to the stew. Let it boil well. Add more water if the stew is too thick.
• Now add the thick coconut milk, stir and bring to a boil for a min or 2. Turn off heat add the coconut oil and one strand of curry leaves. Let it rest for a couple of mins before you serve.

Mango Salad

I love mangoes, I think most Indians do, after all India does have the best mangoes :) Here in Canada we get mangoes from California and Mexico, don't get me wrong, they are good, but they cannot compete with Indian mangoes when it comes to taste. If you have not tasted Indian mangoes you've missed something great, even the skin of Indian mangoes taste great.

I found some green Mexican mangoes the other day at the supermarket, they taste like half ripe Kili mooku (parrot- beak) mango, but have bitter skin. I remembered eating a salad made of mangoes long time ago and decided to make it. The mango salad is very refreshing and light. 

Ingredients:

• Mango - 1, thinly sliced. (Any variety of mango, that is firm and not too sweet will work) 
• Carrot - 1, medium size, thinly sliced
• Red Onion - 1/2, thinly sliced
• Red pepper (Capsicum) -1/2, thinly sliced. You can use green pepper if you cant find red.
• Coriander Leaves -  Handful, finely chopped.

Dressing:

• Lemon juice from half a lemon
• Ginger - 1/4 inch, finely grated
• Hot sauce/Chilli sauce - 1/2 tsp or more
• Salt - 1/4 Tsp
• Sugar - 3/4 tsp

Steps:

• Mix all the sliced veggies and mangoes together.
• Mix together the ingredients of the dressing.
• Combine the dressing and the salad well using your fingers. 
• Refrigerate for a while, it will bring out the flavours really well. Then serve.

Kadalai Paruppu (Channa Dal) Chutney

Kadalai Paruppu chutney is my all time favourite chutney. I think my mom first made this when I was in grade 5, from then on if my mom made this chutney I never missed breakfast. I have even taken idly and kadalai paruppu chutney for lunch to school. That's how much I like it :)

Ingredients:

To cook:

• Red onion - 1 sliced (Small red onion a.k.a pearl onions are actually great for this)
• Tomato - 1 Roughly chopped
• Kadalai Paruppu (Channa Dal) -  about 3 handful heaps (Sorry, I'm not used to measuring these, I just eye ball them)
• Ginger - 1/2 inch, sliced
• Dry Red Chillies - 3 or more as per taste
• Curry leaves - 1 or 2 strands (optional)
• Tamarind - 1/2 inch strip
• Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 1 tblspn
• Salt - 1Tsp

For seasoning:

• Oil - 1/2 Tblspn
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Ulundhu (Urad dal) - 1/2 tsp
• Dry red chillies- 2
• Curry leaves- 1 strand

Steps:

• Heat oil in a wok/pan, when hot lower heat to medium and add all the ingredients one by one, to cook.  
• Saute now and then to keep them from sticking to the bottom. (Add more oil if too dry).
• Cook till the tomatoes are nicely cooked. Turn off heat and cool a while.
• In a blender /mixer grinder, grind the cooked mixture to a paste by adding water slowly as needed. Grind to desired consistency.
• Transfer contents to a serving bowl, taste and add more salt if needed.
• Now season it. In the same pan, heat oil and when hot add the mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the rest of the ingredients. Turn off heat and add the hot oil mixture to the ground chutney. It will sizzle.
• Mix and serve with hot idlies or dosai.

Aloo Paratha - Potato stuffed Chapathi (Roti)

Aloo Paratha comes to your rescue when you really don't have the time or the mood to be chopping up veggies to make a curry for your Chapathi/Roti. Just some plain yoghurt (curd), raitha or pickle is enough to go with it to make a yummy meal. 

Here's what you will need

• Oil - As required 

For the Dough:

• Whole wheat flour - 1 cup, extra for dusting
• Warm Water- 1/2 to 3/4th cup
• Salt - a pinch

Potato Filling:

• Potatoes : 2 large one, or 3 small ones
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Coriander leaves  -  Handful, finely chopped
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Chaat masala -  1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
• Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp or more (or use chopped green chilis)

Steps:

• Cut potatoes into big chunks, and place in a microwave safe dish and fill it 3/4th with water and microwave for 7 - 10 mins. Or you can pressure cook the potatoes. We want to mash them, not make it runny.
• Mean while, combine the flour with salt and add half the water and start kneading, gradually add more water as required. The dough must form a ball without sticking to your fingers. You can add more flour if you feel the dough is too sticky. 
• Lightly apply some oil on the dough and let it rest while you prepare the filling.
• Remove the peel from the cooked potatoes and mash it. Add rest of the ingredients in the potato filling list and mix really well.

Stuffing the Paratha:

Step 1: Dust your rolling surface and pin with flour.  Make a small ball of dough, slightly smaller than your fist. Roll it out slightly. Place a same sized ball of filling in the middle of the dough. (You can press the potato filling and compress it as much)

Step 2:  Bring all the edges of the dough to the top and pinch it to close.

Step 3: Take a few drops of oil in your palm and cup the filled dough ball between your palms, do not roll it between your palms, but gently cup them to make it smooth. Do the same with the remaining dough and filling. 

Step 4: Again generously flour the surface. place a filled dough ball and flour the top again. 

Step 5: Apply flour on your rolling pin and press in the middle, then roll once on top and then bring it to the bottom. Add more flour if its sticky. Turn the rolling surface around, do not flip the flattened dough it will crack, just turn the surface and roll the other sides gently.

Step 6 :  In a hot tava/ pan, lightly apply oil and place paratha. Again lightly apply oil on top of the paratha. Flip the paratha after a min and gently press the paratha, cook both sides till its light brown.

Inside the paratha

Cranberry Banana Oat Muffin

Last year during Christmas a baking ingredients company sent a free copy of a little recipe book using their products and coupons for the same to everyone in our city . It had some really nice and simple recipes, so I saved it and after 8 months tried one today. Its called a breakfast muffin, Its health and literally has everything you eat for a breakfast in it.  I made some changes to the ingredients, like swapping white sugar for brown sugar, oil for butter, added vanilla extract and adjusted the amount of Banana added. Don't worry if you can't find cranberries, you can substitute cranberries with raisins, it will be just as yummy.

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat flour - 1 1/4 cups
• Oats -1 1/4 cups (300 mL)
• Brown sugar - 2/3 cup (Taste batter in the end and add more if you like it sweeter)
• Baking Powder -1 1/2 tsp 
• Baking Soda- 1 tsp 
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Egg - 1 
• Vanilla extract -1 tsp
• Banana - 2 mashed ( Original recipe calls for 2 cups of mashed banana, I'm sure it will be more than 2 bananas, I had only 2 at home, so added 1/4 cup of milk to add more moisture)
• Oil - 1/3 cup 
• Milk -1/4 Cup (You can avoid this and add more mashed banana)
• Dry cranberries or raisins -3/4 cup 

Steps:

• Sift the flour and combine first six dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Mix well.
• Beat egg, mashed banana, oil and vanilla extract together until smooth.
• Add banana mixture to dry ingredients. Stir, add the milk. Stir gently until well combined and moistened. 
• Stir in the cranberries or raisins.
• The batter will be thick.
• Line a muffin pan and fill it 3/4.
• Bake at 375ºF for 15-20 minutes based on your oven. You know your done when you insert a knife and it comes out clean

Home made Mediterranean Burgers

I decided to make my own burger patties after watching an Ad on TV. So I searched the Internet for recipes  and combined ideas from each and here is the result. 

Ingredients:

• Ground (minced) beef : 500 gms
• Egg -1
• Garlic cloves - 3, finely chopped
• Onion - 1/2 finely chopped
• Green chilli - 3 finely chopped. (You can remove the seeds if you don't like too much heat)
• Mint leaves - 2 strands, finely chop the leaves alone
• Bread crumbs - made from 1 slice of bread, recipe here
• Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
• Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Sun dried tomato in oil - 1 finely chopped  (optional)

Steps:

• Beat egg with salt and pepper.
• Add rest of the ingredients and combine well. Punch, squeeze and run your fingers through the mixture till the meat is smooth and combined. 
• Take a handful of the mixture, make a ball and then flatten it. Make a small depression in the middle, not too deep tough just a little with your thumb. This will make sure that the patties stay flat when its cooking.
• Keep the patties on a separate piece of parchment paper or aluminium foil. It will be easy to flip them on to the grill.
• Light the grill and when it reaches 400 F, spray oil on the grill and place the patties and close the grill.
• Cook for 10- 12 mins closed. Then flip them, close and cook again for another 10 to 12 mins.
• If you like cheese, place a slice of your favourite cheese on top and close. Turn off heat. Open after a minute. 
• Your done. Use condiments and topping of your choice.

For those without a grill, use a flat pan or a grill pan to make it on the stove top.

Condiments and topping suggestions:

• Lettuce
•  Tomato slice
• Mayonnaise
• Mustard
• Tomato ketchup
• Hot sauce