Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Easy Chicken Curry/Fry

This is a very easy chicken curry/Fry. You can decide the amount of gravy you like or whether you want it fried. I usually end up making this when i've  very little time to cook the chicken as this dish rarely needs anything more than the occasional stirring. By very little time, what i mean is that you dont have to stand next to the dish stirring all the time and checking whether onions and tomatos are cooked  or whether the spices are burning... Just mix it all together and add to the pan..

 

                                                collage1

 

Here's how..
(*Note: Adjust spice levels according to your taste...We like it very hot !)

Ingredients:

1 big onion thinly sliced
1 tomato sliced
*2 cloves of chopped garlic
*a small piece of ginger - cut into thin long strips
(*You can substitute this with store bought ginger/garlic paste to save you some more time - 2 tsp)
2 green chillies - slit
2 tbsp thick yoghurt
2 tbsp veg oil
1 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3 sprigs of curry leaves
salt to taste
1 kg chicken - skinned and cut into medium sized pieces (on the bone preferably)

Method:
Marinate the chicken with all the above mentioned ingredients and rub the marinade into the pieces. You could also make some incisions on the pieces to ensure that the marinade penetrates. Set aside for 15 minutes or as long as you have time.. Now pour some oil into a pan and once its hot, add the chicken along with all the marinade to it. Stir on high heat for 5-7 minutes or till the juices start flowing from the chicken. Now lower the heat to medium and cover and cook for another 10 minutes. Take the lid off and let the chicken cook uncovered. At this stage you can decide how much gravy you prefer. I usually let it cook till there's very little gravy in the chicken. Serve hot garnished with some lime wedges.

This is best served with naan or tandoori roti.


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Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Tandoori Roti

What to cook on a weeknight is usually a big dilemma for me.. I dont knowI would normally consider cooking 10 different things and waste over an hour wondering which one to cook. Then usually end up asking hubby dear to make that decision(Wish i would just do that in the first place !!)..One such night was last night.. He took out one of my many cook books and flipped through them, found something he liked and insisted that i cook it. Now that i had asked him to do so, i had to cook whatever he asked for . "Vadi koduthu adi vangikya..." (loosely translates to - Give the stick and get the beatings) Rolling Eyes. Anyways he had chosen "Tandoori Roti" for dinner. Now i cannot for the life of me, cook decent chappati's so Tandoori Roti was an even scary option. But i had some leftover rice in the fridge as a fall back plan if everything else failed...so thought of giving it a try. But they turned out really good...and it was so easy to make, infact i prefer making them to chappati's... I made a spicy chicken curry to go with it and the combination was real good...

Tandoori Roti

The recipe for Tandoori Roti was taken from "Mridula Baljekar's book - Great Indian Feasts". Here's my version of the original recipe.

Ingredients :
2 cups self-raising flour(Maida) plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsps plain yoghurt
1 tbsp baking soda mixed with water.

Method:
Put the flour, sugar, salt and yeast into a large mixing bowl and mix well. Beat the oil & yoghurt together and add it to the flour. Gradually add the soda water and mix until a sticky dough is formed. .Transfer the dough to your work surface and knead it till its soft and springy and does not stick to the worksurface  any more. Place the dough in a bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Leave the dough to rise for 1 - 1/2 hrs.

Preheat the oven to 220 C. Line a baking sheet with greased baking paper.

Divide the dough into 8 equal sized portions. Make small balls from each of them then flatten it to form a round cake. Dust each cake in a little flour and then roll it out to a 10cm/4 in circle. Place on the prepared baking sheet and bake on the top shelf of the oven for 5-17 minutes or until puffed and browned in patches.

Serve with some fried chicken or spicy chicken curry