Happy Diwali !!!!

I WISH EVERYONE HAPPY AND A PROSPEROUS DIWALI !!!!

Rava Kesari

Kaju Katli

Gulab Jamun

Rava Ladoo

Rava Kesari

Rawa kesari has been a favourite for me since I tried it for the first time in Chennai way long ago!!! So this dish automatically turned out to be my selection for this Diwali. I have considerably reduced the content of sugar here. But if you like your sweets real sweet, then you better dump in more sugar.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Semolina/Rava
• ¼ cup + 3 tbsp.
• 2 cups of water
• ¾ cup sugar
• A pinch of food colouring
• 3-4 cardamom pods crushed
• 6-7 cashewnut broken
• 3-5 sultanas

In a pan add water and boil it.

Grease a plate with a little bit of ghee and keep it aside. I used my cookie sheet.

In another non-stick pan, add ghee and add semolina and fry on a low flame until slightly browned. Add boiling water and mix well and cook until the rava is properly cooked through. This will take around 3-4 minutes.

Add sugar, crushed cardamom pods and food colouring and mix. The mixture will loosen a little bit. But after a while you will notice that it won’t stick to the pan. Remove from flame.

In another pan, add 3 tbsp. ghee and fry cashew nuts and sultanas. Transfer this to the mixture and mix well.

Spread the mixture to the greased plate. Let sit for about 10-15 minutes. Cut into your desired shape.

Thattukada Chicken

This next dish is actually that of a Chicken 65, however when my hubby carried out the guinea pig test, the first thing that popped up in his mind was the thattukada (small eateries along the streets). Hence the name – Thattukada Chicken!! My earlier attempts of this recipe were done minus the rice flour. Rice flour tends to give this dish more crispiness. Stick with boneless cubes of chicken if you want to gobble them up with less interference.

Ingredients

Marination

• 500 gms chicken (cut into small pieces)
• 1 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
• 1 tsp. pepper powder
• 1 tsp. chilli powder
• 3 tbsp. Kashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tsp. garam masala powder
• ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• 2 tbsp. rice flour
• 1 tbsp. corn flour
• 1 egg
• Salt to taste

Other ingredients

• 5-6 green chillies julienned
• 2 sprigs of curry leaves
• 1 tbsp. red chilli flakes
• Oil to deep fry

Marinate the chicken for 2 hours or more.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the chicken by batches until slightly deep brown in colour. I fried them in 4 batches. Do not overcrowd the pan otherwise you will bring down the temperature of the oil. 

Drain the fried chicken pieces on a paper towel. In a pan, add 1 tbsp. oil (you can use the oil which was used for frying). Add green chilles and sauté till they are done. Add curry leaves, red chilli flakes and sauté for a while. Add the fired chicken and mix well.

Juice some lime juice on top of the dish and serve hot. YYUUUUMMMYY!!!

Dum Aloo

This next dish came up in my list to try out after tasting it over at a friend’s place & loved the creamy texture of the curry. I have tweaked this dish & it has come a cross between the original dish & my mom’s vegetable korma curry. But I can assure you that the creamy texture has still been retained over here. Usually baby potatoes are used in cooking this dish, but you can try this with regular potatoes too. This curry is best tasted when served with plain rice/pulao/roti.

Ingredients

• 10-12 baby potatoes
• 2 large onion finely sliced & divided
• 1 tsp. ginger garlic paste
• 3-4 cardamom pods
• 1 tsp. fennel seeds
• 1 tsp. chilli powder
• 1/4  tsp. chilli powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tsp. garam masala powder
• 3-4 green chillies
• 1 veg stock cube/ salt to taste
• 1-2 small tomatoes chopped
• 2 tbsp. veg oil
• 1/2 cup yogurt beaten + 1 tbsp. cream
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Boil the potatoes and peel off the skin.  Heat 1 tbsp. oil and fry the potatoes till slightly browned on both sides. Set aside.

In to the same pan, add 1 tbsp. oil and add cardamom pods and fennel seeds, sauté for a second or two, add cashew nuts, sauté for a while. Add onions and sauté till transparent. Add ginger garlic paste sauté. Add green chillies. Add chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander and garam masala powder. Stir until the raw smell goes off. Add tomatoes and veg stock cube or salt. Cook until they are done. Remove from flame and set aside to cool. Grind them into a fine paste.

In to the same pan, add the paste and bring to boil. Add beaten curd mixed with cream little by little and mix well. Add the potatoes and add ¾ cup warm water. Cover and cook for about 5-8 minutes. Open the lid and stir and bring to a boil. Check for salt.

 Remove from flame and garnish with coriander leaves.

Cashewnut Chicken

This next curry is courtesy of a dear friend’s (Fazil) mom. Though no name was given for this dish I have christened it as Cashew Nut Chicken Curry. While I have stuck with the same ingredients that was provided to me, I have made my regular tweaks here & there (like originally the recipe doesn’t call for marinating the chicken while I have marinated in my version). This dish is a rich & creamy gravy dish & is tasted best when served with roti/ plain rice.

Ingredients :-

Marination

• 1 kg Chicken
• 1 tbsp. Ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tsp. chilli powder
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. lime juice
• 1 tbsp. yogurt
• Few curry leaves
• Salt

For the paste

• 1 tbsp. coconut oil/veg oil
• 1 onion large finely sliced
• 4-6 green chillies
• 1 tsp. ginger garlic paste
• 1 ½ tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tsp. garam masala powder
• 1 tomato large finely chopped

Other ingredients

• ¼ cup grated coconut
• 10-12 cashewnut
• Coriander leaves to garnish

For seasoning

• 2 green chillies cut into fine pieces
• Few curry leaves
• 5-6 cashew nuts
• 1 tsp. oil

Marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours.

Grind cashew and coconut with 4-5 tbsp. water to a fine paste.

In a pan, add oil and sauté the onions. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute or two. Add green chillies.  When they are cooked, add turmeric, coriander and garama masala powder. Saute for a minute or two. Add tomatoes along with salt. Cook till tomatoes are done. Remove from flame and set aside to cool. Grind to a fine paste.

In the same pan, add 1 tbsp. oil and add chicken and stir for a while. Add the grounded onion paste. Add ½ cup water cover and cook for about 20 minutes.

Add the cashew coconut paste and ½- ¾ cup of warm water. You can also add 1 tbsp. fresh cream at this stage. Cover and cook for about 8-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan; add green chillies and sauté for a while. Add cashew nuts and curry leaves. Pour this on top of the curry.

One yummy curry I must say!!!!

Hyderabadi dum Biriyani

All this while being in Hyderabad, it was kind of an eventuality that I would end up trying this next dish. Since Bakrid was also round the corner, I finally ended up making the Hyderabadi Dum Biriyani. Though the famous dum variant over here is the mutton version, I decided to go for the chicken. This is a relatively easy dish to prepare & the only major time consumption would be for the marinating time for the chicken (I kept it for about 4 hours, however if you are quite the impatient one then 90 minutes should also do). Best tasted when served with raita, pickle & papad.

Ingredients

For marination

•  1 kg chicken
• ¼ cup yogurt
• 4 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
• Chilli paste (5 green chillies)
• 2 tbsp. chilli powder
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 2 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• Salt to taste
• 1/3 cup coriander and mint leaves chopped
• Garam masala powder (8 clove,4 cardamom,1 cinnamon stick,1 tsp. fennel seeds,1 tsp. peppercorn)

For cooking basmati Rice:

• 4 cup basmati rice
• 4 cardamom pods
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. fennel seeds
• 1 tsp. peppercorns
• 6 clove
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp. oil
• Salt to taste

Other ingredients

• 2 onion large- julienned
• 1 tbsp. ghee + 1 tsp. oil
• 2 tbsp. Luke warm milk
• Few threads of saffron/kesar
• Few coriander leaves chopped

Marinate the chicken for 4 hours or 1 ½ hours.

Cook the rice with lots of water and all the ingredients until half cooked. Strain the water and set aside.

Fry the onions on the ghee and oil and set aside. Add saffron thread to the milk.

In a deep bottom wide pan, add the chicken and ¼ th of the fried onion and 1 tbsp. oil and bring to boil for about 5 minutes. Add a layer of rice and then 1 tbsp. warm milk. And few coriander leaves and then again a layer of rice and fried onions and the balance warm milk. Cover the pot/pan with a tight lid. You can seal the edges of the pot with wheat dough or you can place a silver foil and close the lid.

Place the pan on a heated tawa and cook for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from the tawa and let set for about 10 minutes.

I served it with some pappad, raita and dates pickle 

Date Pickle

This is another recipe that was provided to me from Deepa aunty. This is a typical no fuss, north Kerala pickle.  The sweet spicy taste of this pickle just makes it more mouth-watering. Not much time is needed to make this pickle & only a handful if ingredients are required. I had served this one as a side along with my Dum biriyani.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dates finely chopped
• ¼ cup sultanas
• 4 tbsp. gingelly oil
• 2-3 tbsp. chilli powder
• 1/3  – ¼ cup vinegar
• Salt to taste
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 10-15 garlic pods
• 2 tsp. split mustard seeds (kadukku parippu)

Grind vinegar, chilli powder & salt together. Transfer to a bowl.

In a pan, add oil and fry dates and sultanas for about 3-4 minutes on a medium high flame. Remove & add to the bowl; add split mustard seed and sugar. In the same oil fry garlic pods and transfer to the bowl along with the oil. Mix completely. (You can add more sugar or chilli powder as you desire).