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.

Markets

The word market brings back some of my sweetest childhood memories. My dad was (and still is) the grocery shopper and sometimes he would insists that I tag along. I must admit that I didn't enjoy the trips to Coimbatore markets much. How can I, when I have been to much better markets in Madurai with my grandmother. We always looked forward for the trips to Madurai during our school holidays. If one were to put all my paternal cousins in a room, we could easily make 2 cricket teams including substitutes and umpires and still would have few left for audience. My grandmother took us all (well most of us younger ones, the older ones had far more important things to do) with her to the markets. I simply loved it. She would get us steamed or grilled corn on the cob and lots of raw mango seasoned with chilli powder and salt. My granny had a unique bargaining style, which always swinged her way. She could have taught Hillary a helpful trick or two, if she were alive now. And of course she knew all the vendors by name and found time for family/market gossip with them. I think my love for markets started there.

Then there were the trips to maternal grandmother's village. A small tiny village that wouldn't show up on any map, however much one zooms in. In contrast, I was the oldest grandchild to my maternal grandmother and enjoyed a special privilege (still do) in the family. There were no markets in the village, so the fruits and vegetables came from the fields, milk from the herd, the chicken from the pen and mutton only on very special occasions (like when the son-in-laws came for a visit). Back then there was a concept called santhai (sort of farmer's market), where one came to buy and sell their produce. It was generally held in the nearest town. The connection to the town was by a bus which made 3 trips daily. My granny took us to the town in the morning on the day of the santhai, the long narrow road winding its way through many more tiny villages. The bus was filled with people who somehow were related to one other and would in turn fill the bus with baskets and fellow passengers with happenings in their village.
The mornings were spent in the markets and my granny would treat us to lunch in one of the eateries and then there would be a movie in the afternoon. After which we went back home in the evening bus. What I loved about the trips were the santhai and seerani (a sweet that is very special to the town, I have never seen it anywhere else). The smell of the market and noise with all that battering was such a glorious experience. As a child I would stare wide eyed at the wares on display and enjoy the snacks that my granny brought me. She would meet a whole load of her relatives and friends (she was a teacher and it seemed to me that she knew everyone). One of those relative-meeting gave me a fascinating insight to my grandmother's life, the one I didn't know about. She is one of those million unsung feminist in the world, without whom the things we take for granted (like education for girls) wouldn't have happened. She was a truly remarkable person and I attribute my fiery feminism to her influence.
Last week my mother described about this new supermarket near our home in Madurai during our weekly telephonic conversations. My heart skipped a beat when she explained about the rows of vegetables and fruits and the cool air conditioned room they were stacked in. Wal mart I hear is steering to swipe the small markets off in the premise of 'more choice for customers'.
Luckily there are 4 farmer's markets around the area I live. I cannot visit the Solihull market as it is on a Friday. But the others which are on Saturdays, I make a point to visit with the troops on toe. Below is a picture of some produce from the Kings Norton Farmer's market.

No more corn on cob for the kiddes, it is hot dogs now. But at least I know the sausages are devoid of the dreaded 'Es' and the bread is whole meal, organic. Another picture of Moseley Farmer's market where one can buy Ostrich burgers.
I somehow think shopping in the farmer's markets would cultivate a sense of respect for the food we eat in the children and hopefully they will follow the tradition as adults.
I had a write up of markets lying in the Draft for quite some time. When Gay of Scientist in the Kitchen announced the 'To market, to market' event, the post has been dusted and is now ready to enter the event. I am looking forward for the round up and reading about markets all around the world.

Batata Nu Shaak (Pan fried potatoes)

RCI is a wonderful food event started by Lakshmi of Veggie cusine and the current month's event is hosted by Mythili of Vindu. Her choice is Gujarati cuisine. My exposure to authentic Guajarti food was pretty late in life. Better late than never yeah. I have two good friends who happen to be Guajarati and fantastic cooks. Through them I was introduced to goodies like Dhokla, pakoda kadi and Undhiyo, things I didn't know existed before. It will be a sin not to mention the soft rotlis they make. They turn out the same size everytime, soft and almost melting in the mouth. What I like best is that the rotlis stay soft even after hours. It is simply amazing the way Guajaratis create varieties of snacks with chick-pea flour (gram flour).
My entry for the RCI - Gujarat event is Batata Nu Shaak a simple potato fry, that can whipped up in less than 20 minutes. The recipe is from Madhu Jaffery's 'A Taste of India'. Here is how it can be made
Ingredients
Potato - 5 small potatoes (cleaned and diced)
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Asafetida - a pinch
Cumin powder -1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
turmeric powder - a pinch
salt to taste

Heat oil in a pan, when hot add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter add the asafetida, turmeric powder and then the potatoes. Stir the potatoes to ensure even cooking. When the potatoes are cooked add the cumin, corriander and chilli powder. Mix well with the potatoes and continue frying for 2 more minutes. Remove from fire and serve as a side dish. It went very well with parupu sadam (lentils and rice). Madhu suggests that the dish can also be served with roast and grilled meat.

Cookies for my lover...

and the children. Love is in the air and so are the hearts searching for that elusive perfect gift. I have never been a good gift giver. I spend ages thinking, planning, shopping and end up with something that is never appropriate. S is quite used to all this and it is our 8th Valentine Day's together. This year, I thought would be no exception until I chanced upon Zorra's event. What a wonderful idea, an edible heart. My first instincts were to make a lamb briyani and shape into hearts. Now that should give an insight into my gifting abilities. And then as luck would have it, I chanced upon Sunita's cookies. It had to be cookies then for the lover and the children (they are in the middle of a mid term holiday). I had never made cookies at home and so they are a real treat. Thanks Sunita for the recipe and thanks Zorra for hosting the event.
The recipe is essentially the same as Sunita's. The only change I made to the recipe is to substitute the porridge with powdered cashew nuts.
The batter was less watery and the cookies didn't spread that much. The cookies were well received even though S is on diet.

Ah the joys of food blogging, a decent gift at last.

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.

Pancake

Two revelations on pancake day. One, I don't own a whisk. I really don't. Everytime my hand holds a fork, my brain makes a mental note to pick up a whisk the next time I go shopping (it has become an auto reflex of sorts) to be duly forgotten. Two, my photographic skills sucks, sucks big time. I belonged to the majority which did not know about PD until I read about it in the newspapers. The younger troops consider pancakes as special treats. The truth is I make pancakes when I run out of idli and dosai batter or to inject some fruit into the troop's systems. Today happened to be one such day and I can't let Pancake Day pass without savoring it. So here goes the recipe which is incredibly simple.

• Self raising flour - 5 Tbsp
• Egg - 1
• Milk - 1 cup
• butter/oil as required

Beat the egg in a bowl and add the milk to it and mix it. Sift the flour into the egg-milk mixture. Whisk it up with the butter or oil (I prefer olive oil to butter), till the flour is well combined and forms a batter of single cream consistency. Add more milk if necessary. I prefer to add flour to the liquid as the batter ends up smooth without lumps. Take one ladle of batter (apprx about 3 Tbsps) and pour on a greased pan. Rotate the pan in a circular fashion to spread the batter evenly. It takes about a minute to brown on one side. With a flat spoon flip the pancake over. If you want some fun try flipping it the Chefy way. I have never been one for any kind of physical action. I put it down to a lack of hand-eye coordination. S had tried to get me into badminton and table tennis and now knows better. I use a flat spoon to flip my pancakes. The other side requires less than a minute (apprx 40 secs) to cook. Stack the pancakes to keep warm. Serve it with syrup of your choice.
I prefer to serve it with jaggery syrup. It sounds weird, but it is my idea of a perfect match. Plus the iron in the jaggery would not hurt much.

Variations: To the pancake batter, add some mashed banana to make banana pancakes – camouflaging fruits for fussy eaters.

Not again

Oh Dear God, its started again. I mean the moral policing business in Chennai. What is happening to my dear state in recent years? First there was a huge uproar for a sensible talk from a pretty actress and then there was this new dress code for college students and now Shriya’s dress. A dress of all things on Earth!

I grew up in a Coimbatore and went to one of those super Godly catholic schools run by strict nuns. The uniform I wore was a white shirt and half skirt. I had worn that for 12 years and no one even winked. The same school has a salwar kameez as uniform now. All the government/municipal schools which had half saris as uniform have changed to Salwar kameez. Are we retreating into some kind of old Victorian world and the current 50 somethings are steering us towards that era? I really don’t get it. I am of the opinion that ancient Tamilians (those who wrote all the sangam poems) were very liberal when it came to clothes. In one of the old Puranannuru poems, there is a sentence describing the clothes the leading lady wears. It describes that the material the lady wore was so fine that one could see through her dress. Can’t imagine what the Moral Police would do if someone was to write a similar poem, let alone wear such a dress.

Is this Talibanization of TamilNadu? And oh, as if there is not enough on the platter, Tamilans can no longer celebrate New Year in April, instead it will be in January. Is there any sense amidst this madness or is it madness to search for sense?

Kozhuva Meen Tilappichathu (Kerala Anchovy Curry)

Of late I haven't kept myself updated with the events in the food blogosphere. It all boils down to laziness. When I read about the RCI Kerala event, my laziness had to take a holiday. The recipe I am blogging about hopefully is an authentic Kerala one. I got it from this site and made a few modifications - not to the ingredients, but to the way they were prepared. It is bit strange that I could not find any information or about how authentic this recipe is. If any of you out there know more about this recipe, please let me know. I would like to know about its origin and this is one of the reasons that I am posting this recipe as part of RCI Kerala. It is strange in another way - the ingredients are crushed (only very old recipes call for crushing instead of grinding) and the sour element is got by Vinegar (I would expect Vinegar to be associated with Goan cuisine). With the rattling done, the recipe procedure goes like this......


Kozhuva (Nethili) - 500 gms
To Grind (coarsely)
Small onions - 25 (or 2 big red onions)
Garlic - 2 pods
Ginger - 1 inch
Others
Green chillies - 3
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 Tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 twig
Lemon juice - Juice of half a lemon/lime
salt as required.

The original recipe calls for crushing the ingredients under grind. Although on holiday, my laziness would not let go of me completely and hence I got my good old blender and intended to ground them coarsely and ended up grinding them smoothly. Anyway after grinding them, heat oil and pour the ground ingredients and chillies. Adding ginger and garlic for a fish curry is a first for me. When the raw smell of the ginger-garlic is considerably less, add the turmeric and chilli powder along with some curry leaves and water. Let the gravy bubble for a few minutes. Add the fish to the gravy and wait until the fish is cooked. Take the fish off the stove and add the lemon juice. The original called for vinegar, but somehow I couldn't get myself to add vinegar to this curry. My apprehension of adding ginger and garlic for the curry was completely misplaced and the result was yummy. All I can say is, I am glad that I tried out this recipe and will definitely try it when I can get hold of some more anchovies.

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.