Indian style Hot and Sour Chicken Soup

It has been a while since my last post. This blog is my me-me time, something I enjoy doing. Like always my me-me time is a last priority and sometimes it never features in that list. But today is a unique day, a combination of sick children, rain and a desire to cook something as cure to all - a comfort food basically, landing on Sig’s wonderful blog and her JFI Tamarind event. I decided to try something different with my comfort food – Chicken soup. When someone has a cold at home, my first recourse is to make crab curry and after that chicken soup. We had crab curry last Sunday, but the coughs and colds are still around. For the JFI-tamarind event, I decided to make a spicy hot and sour chicken soup and yes the sourness in the soup comes from tamarind.

Tamarind is one of the key ingredients in Tamil cuisine. Coming to think of it all vegetable gravies (kuzhambu) have tamarind as their main ingredient. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that tamarind has influenced the way the Tamil cuisine has evolved. The thought of experimenting with tamarind has not occurred to me before and thanks to the JFI event started by the amazing Indira of Mahanandi and hosted this time by the lovely Sig of Live to Eat for giving me a chance to try and share this. The results were very good and the soup was what I needed on a rainy summer’s day. Now many can dispute with me, if it really is summer in this part of the world. But that is a different story.

Chicken stock:

For making chicken soups, I believe in making my own stock. I save up all the bones in the freezer for making stock. When I don’t have enough bone, I use some chicken thighs or small whole chickens to make the stock. Place the chicken bones/thighs, 3 big onions quartered, a bulb of garlic, 2 carrots cut into chunks, a bay leaf, few pepper corn, a sprig of coriander leaves, some spring onions in a stock pot and cover it with water. Bring the stock to a boil and skim away the bits you get on the top. Then reduce the fire and let the stock simmer for a couple of hours. Drain the stock using a sieve. The stock lasts for 3 days in the fridge or you can freeze the stock for later use.

For the soup:

1. Onion chopped – 1
2. Tomatoes – 1.
3. Ginger – 1 inch
4. Garlic – 4 pods
5. Peppercorn – 1 Tbsp
6. Cumin – 1 Tbsp
7. Fennel – 1 Tbsp
8. Curry leaves – a sprig
9. Tamarind – size of a small lime.
10. Chicken – 100 gms.
11. Oil – 1 sp
12. salt

Soak the tamarind and extract the liquid. To speed up the process, microwave the tamarind on high with some water for a minute. Then mix some cold water to this and extract the liquid.

Grind the peppercorn, cumin and fennel in a blender. Chop the onions finely, and cut the tomatoes so that you get eight pieces out of it. Finely chop the ginger and garlic.

Heat oil in a pan and add the ginger garlic and sauté for a minute. To this add onions, curry leaves and tomatoes and sauté till the onions are soft. If you like your soup hot, increase the amount of peppercorns. Add the chicken and sauté until the chicken is sealed. Add some water to this mixture and then add the powdered spices. To this add the tamarind extract. Let it come to a bubble. To this add a liter of chicken stock and season with salt. Let it come to a boil and cook until the chicken is cooked. You can garnish with coriander leaves if desired.

Serve with some bread. It will warm your heart as one of my little solider says.

Stir Fried Chinese Noodles

Year of the Rat starts today. As a toast for the Chinese New Year I made this easy stir fry noodles. My older son was so excited with his present of a red envelope with a coin inside by one of his Chinese classmate. He was so excited that he showed the envelope to everybody and talked about it. The little thing also learnt to say thank you in Chinese.

A New year every month, how nice. There will be a break in March and then with April a New year starts in the Tamil and Telugu (?) Calendar. Some helpful soul has found out that the Cambodians also celebrate their New Year in April. If the wise chief minister of TamilNadu could move the Tamil New Year from April to March instead of January, we can have a hatrick of New Years. Now wouldn't that be nice? What would definitely be nice is this noodles and read on to find out how to make it.

Ingredients

Noodles - 250 gms (cooked according to the packet instructions)
Carrot - 1 cut into thin strips
Green chillies - 5 cut into thin slices
Mushroom - 100 gms (sliced thinly)
Onion - 1 sliced
Garlic - 1 (cut into thin strips)
Chicken - 100 gms (cut into bite strips)
Prawns - 6 big ones (cut into bite sized pieces) or 12 small ones

Soy Sauce - 7 Tbsp
Oyster Sauce - 2 Tbsp
Rice Vinegar - 2 Tbsp
Fish sauce - 2 Tbsp

Peanuts - 4 Tbsp (roasted and crushed)

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions. Drain the noodles and rinse under running water and dribble some oil(sesame oil gives it a special flavour) in the noodles and mix it. This prevents the noodle from sticking.

Heat 3 Tbsp of oil in a very hot wok. Having a hot wok is important for any sir fry. When the oil is hot, put the onions, carrots, garlic and green chillies. Fry until the onions turn brown and then add the chicken. When the chicken is sealed, it is the turn of the mushrooms. The prawn goes in next. Fry for a minute and then add the soy, fish and oyster sauce. Since the ingredients are not seasoned, be liberal with the soy sauce. Lastly add the noodles and give ir a good stir. Garnish with coriander leaves and the peanuts. The peanuts add a lovely crunch to this yummy noodle. This noodle is the perfect dish to curl up on the sofa with and watch Master Chef.

Cooking from blogs - Aappam and Stew

Hooray !!! I found an aappam recipe that does not require coconut in any form.
If you are looking for a working combination of aappam and stew, then look no further, for you are in the right place. If you are looking for an authentic Keralan recipe, then this is not it. I’ve been looking around for a non-coconut recipe and finally spotted it here. It is a down to earth no-nonsense food blog and is to-the-point. There is an elaborate catalogue of South Indian veggie recipes. I am raring to try the snack recipes.
The stew is derived from 3 different recipes. The basic is from Mandhu Jaffery's Flavour's Of India. The second source of inspiration is from this lovely blog. Finally the idea to pressure cook the stew is from here.
Oh yes, the original recipe for aappam had coconut, but I cut it off and it still tasted great.

Aappam
Par boiled rice - 1.5 cups
Raw rice - 1.5 cups
Urad dal - 1/4th cup
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Cooking soda - 1tsp
salt as required.

Wash and soak the rice, lentils and fenugreek seeds for at least 8 hours. Grind them to smooth batter. It takes quite a while even in the grinder. Add salt to the batter and ferment it overnight. If living in cold countries shove the batter container in an oven and turn on the light. Or better still sit the container in the boiler room overnight (this never fails, if you have the boiler on for a reasonable period of time in the night). When it’s cooking time, add the cooking soda to the batter and thin it with water or coconut milk to a consistency that is between double and single cream. The batter should flow freely. Take a big ladle of the batter and pour it on the aappam chatti (wok) and rotate it to spread the batter in the wok. You will end up with thin batter on the sides and the rest settling in the middle. Cover it with a lid and cook until done. If you don't own an aappam chatti, you can use small size frying pan (which is what I did before I owned an aappam chatti).

The resultant aappam was light with the crispy sides and fluffy centre – in one word perfect.

Chicken Stew
For the chicken stew you will need

Cardamom -5
Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
Cloves - 6
Peppercorns - 1Tbsp

Onions - 2 medium size sliced thinly
Ginger - 2 inch sliced into strips thinly
Green chillies - 6 (4 whole and 2 slit)
Flour - 1 Tbsp

Potatoes - 2 medium sized (cut into chunks)
Chicken - 700gms (cut into medium size - for best flavour use thighs)

Coconut - 1/2 ground into a smooth paste
1Tbsps fennel seeds and 1 Tbsp poppy seeds (ground together into fine powder)

Small onions or shallots - 4 finely sliced.
Curry leaves - 1 twig
salt as required

Lemon juice - 1 Tbsp.

Heat oil in a pan and add in the whole spices. Saute for a few seconds and then add the onions, ginger and chillies and fry till the onions are transparent. Add the flour and saute for a minute. To this add the chicken and potatoes and give it a stir. Season with salt and then add the coconut paste, poppy-fennel powder and some water (if your stew is very thick). Close the cooker and pressure cook to 2 whistles. When the steam is settled, open the cooker and adjust the water level (if too thin boil off the excess liquid in a high flame, if too thick dilute it with some water). Heat a small pan and add some oil. When the oil is hot add the sliced shallots and fry it until golden. To this add the curry leaves. Pour the onion-curry leaves seasoning into the stew and remove from fire. Finally add the lemon juice and mix well.
The troops loved it. To be honest, I was surprised by the wonderful flavour of the stew. This is one lipsmaking recipe and will find a place of pride in my everyday menu.

Chettinad Kozhi varuval (Chettinad chicken fry)

I am a convert, ever since I watched Hugh’s chicken run on Channel 4. The program highlighted the pitiable conditions of the intensively reared chicken (popularly called broiler chicken in India) Vs the better conditions of free range chicken. You can find more about it here. The site has a facility where you can find free range chicken near the place you live in the UK. This program got me thinking hard and long. Now that is something that doesn’t happen often, I mean the thinking bit. If truffles are cultivated and available in plenty would they demand the respect they have now. As food becomes cheap we loose respect for it and abuse it. To turn this around, I have chosen to buy free range chicken and decrease the frequency of chicken consumption. What I do is buy one whole chicken and get the hubby to cut it (he can be a real sweetheart sometimes) and store it in different bags in the freezer by cuts – bony bits, fleshy bits and the thighs. The bony bits for kuzhambu, fleshy bits for varuval and the thighs go under the grill.

Let me give my brain its much needed rest and stop rambling about my new found enthusiasm for free range chicken and get to the recipe. This Chettinad chicken varuval is Mrs Mano’s recipe. She posts her recipes here. I have tried many of her recipes with stunning results and wouldn’t shy away from recommending them. Alright before you loose patience here goes the recipe.... (ah finally)

Ingredients

• Chicken – 750 gms

Grind

• Garlic – 4 pods
• Ginger – 1 inch
• Fennel – 1 Tbsp
• Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
• Coriander powder – 1tsp
• Chilli powder – 1 Tbsp
• Pepper – 1 Tbsp
• Lemon juice – 1 Tbsp
• Yogurt – 1 Tbsp
• Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
• Salt as required
  

Frying 1

• Onion - 1 chopped
• Tomato – 1 chopped
• Ginger-Garlic paste – 1½ Tbsp

Frying 2

• Onion – ½ sliced
• Curry leaves – 1 twig
• Red chillies – 3
• Pepper powder – 1 tsp

Method

Grind together all the ingredients under ‘Grind’ to a paste. Marinate the chicken with this paste for a couple of hours. Heat oil in a pan and fry the onions. When the onions are soft add the ginger-garlic paste and then the tomatoes. Fry until the tomatoes are soft and the oil comes out. To this add the chicken with very little water and cook until done and the water is evaporated. In another pan heat some oil and fry the red chillies, curry leaves and the sliced onions. When almost done add the pepper powder to the onion and mix it well. Add the fried onion to the cooked chicken and give it a stir. Vola there you have a lip smacking chicken dish. Although the list of ingredients looks exhausting, it does not take a lot of time to make this. So please don’t let the long list put you off from trying the recipe and of course you can adjust the spice level.

Chicken Biryani

Deepavali cannot be Deepavali without Biryani for me. My mother makes Biryani on that day. Many of friends think it is odd to cook non-veg on Deepavali. As with almost all recipes there are many different versions. I learnt to make mine from my cousin who is a fantastic cook. She was my savior when I first came to the big bad(or good) city of Chennai. She actually taught me the basics of many things apart from cooking like the art of buying make-up and draping a sari really-really fast. We don’t see each other or talk often now, living in different continents doesn’t help. Following in the family footsteps I made Chicken Biryani for Deepavali. Before I go in depth detailing my family history here is the recipe.

• Red Onions – ½ Kg
• Tomatoes – ½ Kg
• Ginger-garlic paste – 2 Tbsp
• Slit green chillies - 5
• Mint leaves – a big bunch
• Coriander leaves – a big bunch
• Cardamom – 2
• Bay leaf – 1
• Cinnamon – a long stick
• Cloves – 3
• Chicken – 1 Kg
• Oil – 6 Tbsp
• Basmati rice – 1 Kg ( 4 cups)
• Salt as required

Slice the onions thinly, and chop the tomatoes finely. Chop the coriander and the mint leaves finely. Wash and rinse the rice. The preparation and cooking takes time. Heat the oil in a hard bottom vessel and add in the spices. When they start to pop add the green chillies. And when the skin of the green chillies start to turn white add in the sliced onions and fry. This is the most important stage of cooking. The deep dark brown color comes from these well fried onions. The quantity of onions should reduce to at least one fourth the original volume. When the onions are a deep brown and reduce considerably in volume add the tomatoes and fry them till the oil floats on the top. After this add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell disappears. Then add in the chopped leaves and again fry till they are well combined and sweated down. Add the chicken into the masala and coat the chicken well with this. Add the washed rice and 6 ½ cup of water and mix well. Season with salt and leave the vessel open until bubbles start to appear. Close with a lid and get the stove flame to as low as possible. You could also finish the cooking in a mild oven. To maintain the flavours, you can seal the lid with dough made from wheat flour. It takes approximately 25 minutes to cook, you can check by opening the lid to see if all is well. You can serve the Biryani with onion raita. I always make more, so there will be plenty of left-overs for the next day. The re-heated Biryani, the day after tastes even better. Enjoy!!!

Tandoori Chicken

I love all things food. I remember cherishing a copy of Folio – food edition that came long ago with ‘The Hindu’. The food of a region reflects the culture to some extent and one of favorite day dreams while traveling is – discovering an ancient recipe book while digging (I am always a foodie anthropologists in my day dreams) in the Indus valley (thinking big). I love to know what the ancients ate, no matter the geography and wouldn’t mind trying out recipes. Anyway back to reality and the best I could do is watch cookery programs on TV. As a native I am interested in how the British perceive Indian food, so of particular interest are the food programs that are actually shot in India. All famous TV cooks have done it. From Keith Floyd to the latest Gary Rhodes many have made the trip. Of them all, Madhu Jaffery’s series scores the highest and Gary Rhodes the lowest. He did not find a pudding in India worth cooking and that I guess sums it all about his understanding of Indian food. I chanced upon the Tandoori chicken recipe on the Indian series that Madhu did. This chicken was made by a street vendor in Amritsar. I can’t kick myself enough for not committing the recipe to paper. But I made an attempt with the aid of my brain calls and the results were certainly worth a try. Especially if you have parties, this recipe can come in handy as you can marinate the chicken the day before and cook it in an oven on that day.

You will need

• Chicken thighs (with legs) - 4
• Single cream – 50 ml
• Ginger-garlic paste – 2 Tbsp
• Coriander powder – 2 Tbsp
• Chilli powder – 1 Tbsp
• Cumin powder – 1 Tbsp
• Garam masala – 1 Tbsp
• Red food color – ¼ tsp (optional)
• Lemon juice – 2 Tbsp
• Chat masala – 2 Tbsp
• Salt as required

Make the marinade by mixing all the powder except the chat masala with the cream, lemon juice, ginger-garlic paste and salt. Remove the skin from the chicken and clean and dry them. Make deep slits on the thighs. Rub the marinade on the chicken and well into the slits. If you want to reduce or increase the heat, adjust the chilli powder accordingly. Cover with a Clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, the more the better. When the chicken is ready to cook, preheat the oven to as high as possible. Bring the chicken to room temperature and rub it with some oil. When the oven is really hot, keep the chicken into the oven on a baking tray. After 10 minutes turn the chicken over and baste it with the juices in the tray or with some oil. When both the sides are cooked (you can check by piercing the chicken and if the juices run clear then it is cooked) remove from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes. Then cut the thighs into 2 (you will get a drumstick and the actual thigh part). Toss the chicken or rub it gently with chat masala powder (this does make a difference) and the chicken is ready to serve. Every time I make it, the chickens are well received.

Kozhi Kuzhambu (Chicken Curry - South Indian style)

Kozhi Kuzhambu

This is my mother-in-laws recipe, who is a fantastic cook. It is a bit different from other kuzhambu recipes as the chicken is first sautéed in oil to seal its flavour.

Chicken – 1 Kg

Sambhar powder – 4 Tbsp (if not using sambhar powder substitute with equal parts of coriander and chilli powder)

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Tempering

1. Mustard seeds – 1 tspn
2. Fennel seeds – 1 tspn
3. Urad dal – 1 tspn
4. Cumin seeds – 1 tspn
5. Curry leaves – 2 twigs

Masala

1. Red onion – 2 large (or 10 small onions)
2. Coconut – ¾ of one half of a medium size coconut
3. Garlic – 10 cloves
4. Ginger – 1 inch
5. Curry leaves – 2 twig

The iron wok in the picture has a special place in my kitchen. I brought it in the Meenakshi Amman temple markets in Madurai. I use it for frying and tempering.

Clean the chicken and rub it with turmeric powder and salt. Fry the ingredients under masala in a little oil and grind it into a paste.

Heat 2 Tbsps oil in a pan and add the chicken and fry it till the chicken is sealed. Then add the sambhar powder and mix it well with the chicken. Add the ground masala and adjust the water level as required. Close with lid and cook until chicken is cooked.

Heat another pan and 1 tbsp oil and add the tempering ingredients. Once the mustard seeds pop and the urad dal is brown add it to the kuzhambu and cover it with a lid. It tastes very good and will go well with chappati, rice and parotta. S likes to have this kuzhambu the next day with parotta.