"Hiraeth" and a Homely Chicken Curry

My Instagram page says that I discovered the word “Hiraeth” 23 weeks ago. After almost 20yrs of searching for a word I did not even know existed, I finally feel a strange relief, a satisfaction... the kind of satisfaction that comes not from getting a  void filled, but from just knowing that that void is real.

Hiraeth… When the home you grew up in becomes a palace in your memories, when childhood escapades take on the epic feel of fairy tales, when the daily grind of that distant past seems imbued with a golden glow… That is my kind of Hiraeth, a homesickness that no home can ease.

If you, like me, love to live in your past, then this word might just be for you. Try it on for size. Say it in your head first. Then taste it on your tongue. Take that H from a long-held sigh, roll that R with a mild sense of impatience, and then, end it on the deep, warm sound of TH. The cozy way the word “hearth” ends. Hiraeth.  

And when the memories flood your eyes and nose and mind (because my memories sure have a fragrance)… Just reach for those familiar childhood ingredients and cook something new. Old-as-time earthy ingredients each of which remind you of home, made into a dish that brings alive the flavour of sunshine and cycles, bougainvilleas and bees, stone floors and steel plates, jasmine strands and juicy pickles…

That’s what I did. Bay leaves for that sweet, earthy fragrance of childhood, curry leaves and coconut for all mom’s Sunday Special meals, poppy seeds or “posto” that flavour my East Indian upbringing… And the new – some Goan chicken masala, vinegar and soy to add the sourness of adulthood.

THROW-EVERYTHING-IN CHICKEN CURRY

Ingredients:

Chicken on the bone – 1 kg

Shallots – ½ cup peeled

Bay leaves – 2

Cardamom whole – 2

Cloves whole – 3 to 4

Curry leaves – 10 to 12

Green chillies – 5 to 6 (As per your spice threshold)

Shredded fresh coconut – 2 tbsp (Or use dried coconut pieces)

Garlic cloves – 5

Poppy seeds – 1 tbsp

Vinegar – 1 tsp

Soy sauce – 1 tsp

Goan Chicken Roast Masala (optional – I used it just because I had it) – 2 tsp

Salt – as per taste

Oil/Ghee – 1 tbsp

Wash and clean the chicken and set aside. You can also marinate it in some lemon juice, turmeric and ginger-garlic paste, but it’s not really necessary.

In a small pan, dry roast the garlic cloves and poppy seeds. Keep turning the cloves till they are evenly and lightly browned on all sides, and the poppy seeds start to splutter. Now add the shredded coconut and toss till the whole mixture is lightly toasted. Transfer into a mixer jar and add the shallots. Blitz into a coarse paste.

In a non-stick pan or vessel, heat the oil/ghee. Add the cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves and green chillies. When the spices start to pop, add the curry leaves and stir. Now add the shallot-garlic-coconut-poppy seed paste and cook for 5-10 minutes till the onions are cooked and stop smelling raw. Sprinkle in a teaspoon of salt.

Add the chicken into the pan and mix well till its coated with the entire masala. Now sprinkle the Goan masala or any garam masala of your choice. You can also choose to skip this step, or just go with regular cumin/coriander powder.

Cover the pan and let it cook for 15-20min on low heat or till the chicken is cooked through. Add the vinegar and soy sauce, check seasoning and mix well. Turn off heat and the throw-everything-in chicken curry is ready.

The way I like it:

If the masala is sticking to the vessel, then add a little water, but don’t thin it out too much. It should have a robust, thick gravy – like a cross between an traditional curry and a pan-roasted chicken fry. Tastes great with both rotis and rice. This recipe is neither fully South-Indian nor East Indian nor Goan. It’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Just like all of us…

Now tell me, what would your Hiraeth-inspired dish be? What ingredients make you feel nostalgic?

Raw Mango Chicken Curry

Last year on my many trips to Chennai, a colleague and I went to Fisherman's Cove at the Taj Vivanta, Mahabalipuram for dinner. It was a lovely evening, the restaurant was right on the beach, and the food was fresh and delicious. Sitting by the sea, enjoying the balmy breeze and the interesting cocktails, we had one of our best meals in Chennai. And that's saying something because I love the food of that city - from Ponnusamy, to Zaras, to Benjarong! Chennai has some of the most diverse and amazing restaurants I have ever been to.

Though our entire meal at Fisherman's Cove was good, this one dish really stood out. I forget what exactly it was called, but it was a Chicken curry made with raw mangoes. The sauce was an earthy red in colour, thin and silky in consistency, sour but without being mouth-puckeringly so, extremely spicy yet creamy, and absolutely delicious.

Achieving Fugue-state with Keema Biryani

The other day I had a true Manic Monday. It was the revenge of the household goods and the end result was that I was glued to my phone all day, kept on hold by various customer service numbers in quick succession. I was late to work, crabby, irritable and stressed. Suddenly all those little things that needed looking into and kept being pushed under the carpet, came right out and danced in front of my eyes. Sorting out inane stuff like getting a new water purifier fixed, getting the car serviced, renewing the insurance, etc all seemed insurmountable! I was convinced that I would never get around to doing these jobs in time and they would come back and bite us in the @$$...

By the time I was on my way home from work, again glued to my cell phone, waiting for yet another customer service agent to respond to my complaint, I was in a fugue state. That’s what happens to me sometimes, when I have worried myself into a state of stress that is beyond normal (and usually totally unnecessary). So as I stared out of my car window, phone to ear, and mind completely fugue-d out, all I could think of was Biryani! Yes, don’t ask me why :/ But since you ask anyway, that too happens to me when I’m stressed out... Food thoughts kicking in to stop me from getting suicidal :D

Discover QVENDO and rediscover HOT!

We are the “online” generation. Really. From teenagers who say “OMG” instead of “Oh My God” to paying bills via internet banking, from FB chats and gtalk instead of writing letters and making phone calls, to browsing catalogues online instead of walking to your nearest mall – we do every single thing online! The internet is our very own Magic Wand; one wave and we enter the fairy tale land of our dreams…

Take this blog even… instead of the old fashioned way of maintaining recipe diaries with clippings and hand-written recipes, we now have food blogs that are all about storing measures and ingredients online for posterity. But no, I have nothing against this internet age.  In fact, I too have discovered the joys of shopping online recently and must admit that it is quite addictive! Designer brands, cool accessories, great discounts and the ease of sitting at home and having stuff delivered at your doorstep. No more trudging for hours in a mall and soaking your tired, aching feet in hot water after! :D  What’s not to like??!

So when I saw this contest on Indiblogger about QVENDO, the luxury private shopping club website, I had to participate. The contest is about what you would buy on QVENDO if you had Rs. 50,000/- So here is my wish list:

1.    This absolutely amazing red and white candy-striped Armani Jeans dress that is totally drool-worthy! Because its feminine, eye-catching and would suit just about any figure…  And I love red. Its my favorite color right after black!  Qvendo price Rs.12,900/-

2.      

Chicken in a Lemon Cream Sauce

This is a recipe that I can claim as completely my own :) There is this amazing Lemon Chicken dish that is served as a starter at the Urban Tadka restaurant and all its branches in Mumbai. It just has a hint of lemony sauce and is midway between a dry dish and a gravy one. Its hot and sour and totally lip-smacking!

So when my friend G asked for a new chicken recipe for a party she was throwing at her place, we decided to try and recreate the Lemon Chicken. I had no idea where to start and even after trawling the food-blog world, couldn't come up with a satisfactory recipe. That's when I decided to just make it up keeping in mind the flavours I had tasted at the restaurant.

Super Spicy Andhra Chicken Fry!

All readers be forewarned... This tastes as fiery as it looks! :D

Sid had been pestering me for quite some time to make a traditional, spicy Andhra chicken fry. And I had no clue how to go about it. Having spent my childhood in Orissa, and being a Telugu Brahmin by birth, south-Indian non vegetarian dishes are something I know very little about. But I remembered the taste of Nellore Chicken fry sampled at a friend's wedding and then there was Google to help with the rest ;)

I made this dish twice in a span of 10 days and each time it turned out amazingly good. The first time, me and Sid had practically smoke coming out of our ears and nose, but just couldn't stop eating! The second time around I made the chicken for my dad-in-law, so went light on the pepper and chillies. He loved it so much that after the chicken fry was all gobbled up, he added some rice to the vessel to wipe up all the remaining masala, and literally polished it off! But frankly, without the heat of the pepper and chillies, its just not the same...

So here's my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1 kg

Onions - 3 large

Green chillies - 4

Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp

Turmeric - 1 tsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves/Kari patta - 10

Oil - 2 tbsp

For the masala:

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Dried Red chillies - 3-4

Peppercorns - 1 tsp

Cloves - 3
Star Anise - 1

Cardamoms/Elaichi - 2

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1 tsp

Coriander seeds/Dhania - 1 tsp

Wash the chicken pieces thoroughly and marinate them in turmeric, salt 2 tbsp lemon juice for half an hour.

Chop the onions into thin slices and slit the green chillies. In a kadhai or heavy bottom non-stick vessel heat heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil and fry the onions, chillies and curry leaves. Once the onions turn translucent, add the ginger-garlic paste and continue to fry.

Meanwhile, dry roast all the ingredients for the masala and grind them into a fine paste with some salt and water. Add this paste to the kadhai, mix well and continue to cook till it turns into a thick, brown, oniony masala.

Now take the marinated chicken and start cooking it in another pan. No need to add any oil or cover it and cook. Jus roast the pieces on both sides for about 10min till they are half-cooked and release some fat. Transfer this to the vessel in which the onion masala is browning. Mix well to ensure all the chicken pieces are coated with the masala. Add a dash of water, cover and cook for another 10min.

Now remove cover and cook on high flame to allow all the additional water to evaporate. The chicken should now go from a gravy-like consistency to a fry with thick gravy. Adjust salt and pepper, stir well and serve hot with rice and rasam, or rotis. Do make sure you have tissues close at hand! :D

I'm dashing this off to the Chicken Recipe Event hosted by Sameena of My Culinary Creations.

A Hyderabadi Delight

Sid’s all-time favorite dish is Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani. And no, no other Biryani anywhere on earth can match up to the authentic Hyderabad flavours served only in that city and accompanied by the unique Mirchi ka Saalan. That is one combination that I have never managed to find anywhere else. Not even in Mumbai which boasts of quite a few Hyderabadi joints. Usually the Biryani here is heavy on saffron, has strange dry fruits added, and the owners have no clue what ”Saalan” is.

Every time we would go to Hyd to my in-laws place, we would pick up family packs of Hyderabad House Biryani which Sid would promptly polish off all by himself! Yeah, his sharing. Caring nature definitely doesn’t extend to sharing his biryani! Now that Sid is away in Chandigarh on work for a month, he has been missing home cooked food a lot. He might be Punjabi, but it seems his love for authentic Punju food does have a threshold!

Anyway, last Sunday his work partner and my good friend G came down from Chandigarh for a couple of days and I decided to make some of his favorite Biryani and send it through her. So this is my version of Hyderabadi Biryani sans the overdose of saffron and coriander. And for anyone who has eaten in Hyderabad, I assure you this comes quite close to the Chicken Biryani served at the ever-popular Hyderabad House and Paradise.

Ingredients:
Chicken – 4 large pieces
Basmati Rice (long grained) – 2 cups
Onions – sliced - 3 large
Bay leaves – 3
Ghee (Clarified Butter) – 3 tbsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Saffron (Kesar) – ¼ tsp
Coconut milk – ½ cup
Red food colouring (optional) – 1 pinch

Dry roast and grind the following spices:
Cinnamon – 1 inch stick
Cloves – 4 to 5
Star Anise - 2
Cardamom - 3
Peppercorns – 1 tsp
Mace - 1

For the marinade:
Ginger garlic paste – 1 ½ tsp
Curd – 3 tbsp
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Red Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 1 tsp
Dry Roasted and ground spice powder – 1 tsp
Coconut milk – 2 tbsp

In a small pan heat all the spices for the dry roast till they start giving out their inimitable spicy smell. Grind them into a fine powder. Wash and clean the chicken pieces and make diagonal slits in the flesh for the marinade to seep in. Now add all the marinade ingredients including the dry roasted and powdered spice mix and rub them into the chicken pieces well. Refrigerate overnight or for 6-8 hours at least.

In 2 tbsp of ghee, fry the sliced onions until brown with some salt and a bay leaf. Set aside.
Transfer the marinated chicken into a large heavy bottomed non-stick pan with ½ tbsp of ghee, cover and let it cook for 10-12min till jus about done. Turn over the pieces after 5min. Take off the flame while the chicken is still underdone.

Meanwhile, wash 2 cups of Basmati rice, add 6 cups of water, 1 tsp salt and 2 bay leaves and cook in an open vessel. Keep stirring the rice so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the vessel. When the rice is parboiled (partially cooked), switch off the flame and drain. Take out 2 tbsp of the partially cooked rice and mix in the saffron with milk/water. You can also use red food colouring along with the saffron. Keep this yellow/orange-coloured rice aside.

Now transfer the half-cooked chicken pieces onto a plate and in the same deep-bottomed pan start layering the biryani. Begin with half the parboiled rice at the bottom, then 2 pieces of chicken, then sprinkle half of the coloured rice, and then some of the fried onions. Then layer again with the remaining parboiled rice, followed by another 2 pieces of chicken, remaining coloured rice and top with all the fried onions. Now drizzle 1 ½ tbsp of ghee along the sides and pour the coconut milk on top. Cover the pan with a well-fitting lid and seal it on all sides by covering it with aata (dough) or a wet cloth and cook on a low flame for 15-20min. Keep shaking the pan every 5 min and make sure you keep moving it so that the flame is not centered in just one area. The idea is for the biryani to get cooked evenly on all sides. So every 5 min, change the position of the pan and give it a good toss without displacing the aata/wet cloth.

By now you should be able to smell the typical biryani fragrance wafting out. Turn off the flame and keep the pan covered. Garnish with a sprig of coriander and serve hot with some Raita or Mirchi ka Saalan.

And yes, Sid called me the next day raving about the biryani and claiming it was outstanding :) So I think the hours I spent sweating it out in the kitchen were kind of worth it!

Easy Thai Red Curry with Chicken

Last month my childhood friend SM and her husband went to Thailand on a week-long trip and got me, among other goodies, 2 packets of authentic Thai Red & Green Curry paste. Now SM is someone I have been pestering for really long to start her own blog. And she did. But oh, there are no posts yet! And i doubt if there ever will be... She has been trying very hard to convince me that I should just take her recipes, also take the pictures she clicks of her food, and post them on my blog! Yes, she is a little crazy :D Did I mention she has invisible friends and an endless repository of the worst jokes ever? But on the flip side, she bakes amazing stuff and provides me with my daily dose of mindless conversation, randomness, and gossip. So all is forgiven, and I graciously accept her gifts of Thai Red Curry paste and suchlike.

So on Sunday, when G&A came down for dinner, I decided it was time to take the aforementioned Red Curry paste out of the freezer. I know it’s the easy way out and doesn’t call much for a recipe really, but am sure there are many other lazy souls like me and fellow blogger Tejal who would still prefer the lazy version of Thai Red Curry. So here goes!

Ingredients:

Thai Red Curry Paste – 4 tbsp
Boneless Chicken cubes – 250 gms
Button Mushrooms – chopped – ½ cup
Baby corn – sliced lengthwise – ½ cup
Broccoli – I small head
Red & Yellow Peppers – cubed – ¼ cup

Coconut milk – 200 ml
Olive Oil – 2 tbsp
Cinnamon – 1 stick
Salt
Sugar
Soy Sauce.
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tsp
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp

Wash and marinate the boneless chicken pieces in 2 tbsp of the Red Curry paste, a little coconut milk, salt, ginger garlic paste and lemon juice. Set aside for half an hour. In a large frying pan or wok, toss all the chopped vegetables in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Sprinkle some salt and cover for 2 min. Remove from flame while the vegetables are still crunchy. In a heavy bottomed non-stick pan, pour in some olive oil and add the cinnamon and 2 tbsp of the remaining Red Thai Curry paste. Transfer the marinated chicken into the pan, cover and cook for 10min. When the chicken is almost done, add the stir-fried vegetables, coconut milk, soy sauce and a little water. Cover and cook for another 5-8min. Adjust seasoning adding salt or sugar if required. I personally didn’t have to add anything additional at all. A lot of the recipes i saw online had cornflour added to the gravy. But I thought the consistency was just fine and I could do without the extra flour in my system.

Serve with hot, fragrant steamed rice. I pressure cooked 2 cups of rice with some salt, star anise, cinnamon and javitri (mace). It made for a great accompaniment with the Thai Red Curry.

PS - SM, this is a public apology for not cooking for you till now! This weekend, hopefully :)

Quick and Easy Chicken Fried Rice

Last night, I called a couple of friends over for dinner. And by the end of it, I had small quantities of rice, mushroom, baby corn and chicken leftover. It was too little to be made into a side-dish. So I thought of some quick chicken fried rice that I could pack for my lunch. It took me just 15min to make this as my chicken pieces were already precooked. And it proved to be a delicious and filling lunch at work today :)

Chicken-Mushroom-Baby Corn Fried Rice

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken – chopped into bite sized pieces – 100gms
Baby corn – cut lengthwise – ½ cup
Mushrooms – chopped – ½ cup
Cooked rice – 2 -3 cups
Vinegar – 1 tsp
Soy sauce – ½ tsp
Salt
Pepper

For the chicken marinade:
Lemon juice
Garam masala
Chilli sauce
Red Chilli powder
Salt
Pepper

Combine the chicken with all the marinade ingredients and set aside for half an hour. In a wok or kadhai stir fry the mushrooms and baby corn in a little oil. Add the vinegar, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Mix well and cover for 5-8min. Take off flame when the mushrooms and the baby corn turn soft.

In a separate heavy bottom pan, cook the marinated chicken pieces in 1 tbsp of oil. Cover and let it simmer for 10min. When the chicken is done, add the mushroom-baby corn stir fry to it. Now add the cooked rice, vinegar, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Mix well, adjust seasoning and serve hot by itself or with a gravy side dish.

Thunder Thighs!

Tandoori Chicken - Microwave Recipe

Yesterday we went grocery shopping to stock up for the coming month. And I picked up a packet of 6 skinless chicken thigh pieces. Sid is very fussy about his meat. He does not eat red meat except for the occasional mutton curry or biryani (which has to be well cooked and home-made, by the way), hates sea food, and likes his chicken well-done. Oh, and did I mention that he is that rare species that hates chicken leg pieces? Yes, he is a breast man out-n-out!

So I bought the chicken thighs with some trepidation. But they were well-cut and looked fresh, so I decided chicken it would be for dinner! Once at home, Sid claimed he wasn’t hungry enough for a full fledged meal of chicken curry and rotis. So after much searching in many files, I finally found the user manual of my microwave and decided to attempt grilled/tandoori chicken. I must admit that I have had the microwave for more than a year now, but have never really used it for anything except re-heating food! Yes yes, I know… a real waste. But better late than never!

So Tandoori chicken it was, and for the masala, I just went with instinct and marinated the chicken pieces. 5min later I checked online just to be sure, and realized I hadn’t added yoghurt/curd! So in that went. It took about 1hour marination time and 40min cooking time in all, and the result was lip-smacking I must admit! Though I have a feeling I over-cooked the chicken a bit and it could have been more moist than it turned out to be.

For the Tandoori Masala:
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder – 1 heaped tbsp
Coriander Powder - 1 heaped tbsp
Cumin Powder - 1 heaped tbsp
Cinnamon Powder – 1 tsp
Powdered cloves – 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 heaped tbsp
Salt – 1 tbsp
Lemon juice
Yoghurt – 2-3 tbsp
Red food colouring - 2 pinches

Chicken pieces – 3

Wash and clean the chicken pieces and make 3-4 diagonal slits in each piece with a sharp knife. Mix all the ingredients of the Tandoori masala into a thick paste and rub the pieces well with the masala, making sure it goes into the slits. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Transfer the marinated pieces of chicken into a microwave safe dish. If your microwave has “Grilled Chicken Pieces” in the Easy Cook or Express Cook options, then just set that option and punch in the weight of the chicken. In my case, 3 pieces of chicken came to approximately 400gms.

If you don’t have this option available, then set it on Grill or Power/Grill Combination 2 for around 20min. After 10min, turn the pieces over and resume the grilling.

After 20min, the chicken will be done. Now to give it the charred, tandoori effect, transfer the pieces onto the grill provided with your Microwave (Pic below), and grill for about 3-4min.

Sprinkle some Chaat Masala on top and serve hot with some raw onions and a wedge of lemon, or some mint chutney.