Mutton Pepper Fry

It is one of the easiest recipe for me to make. Does not need of grinding or roasting. I love this with rasam rice or just to mix with rice and eat. Even Marination in not mandatory. Since I used to marinate and refrigerate, I used the marinated meat this time. If it is fresh, you can just mix with the spices and cook.

Ingredients:

Mutton / Lamb - 1 lb (Preferably boneless and chopped into small pieces)
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato - 1 medium
pepper powder - 2 -3 tsp (adjust according to your taste)
Oil - 2-3 table spoons
Mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Coriander leaves - a fistful
Garlic - 2 cloves (finely chopped) (optional)
salt - as per taste

Dry garam masala:
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Bay leaves - 1
cinnamon stick - 1 small piece
star anise - 1 flower
cloves - 2

To marinate:
Chili powder - 1 tsp
garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Curd - 1/4 cup (thick curd)
salt - a pinch

Preparation:

1. Wash meat with turmeric and salt, drain water well and keep aside.
2. In a vessel, mix the ingredients given under "To Marinate" and add the meat to it.
3. If time permits let the mix to marinate for an hour or two.Otherwise just skip to the next step.
4. Pressure cook the meat along with dry garam masala  for 5-6 whistles or until it cooks soft.

5. In a pan, Heat 2 tbsp of oil, then add mustard seeds and curry leaves.
6. Then add Finely chopped Onions and saute until they turn soft and transparent.
7. Then add Finely chopped Tomatoes and saute until they turn soft and merge with onions.
8. Now add the cooked meat along with the water in it.
9. Let it cook until all the water is absorbed.
10. when almost all the water is absorbed, add pepper powder and check for salt. Add salt if required.
11. add chopped coriander leaves, finely chopped garlic and switch off the flame.

Notes:
1. Be cautious while adding salt, add very minimal initially. check for it at later stage, when all the water is absorbed.
2. once the water is absorbed, do not fry it for longer time, as it will get too dry.
3. Adding garlic is optional, but it gives some extra flavor to the dish.

Fish Curry / மீன் குழம்பு

Fishes are rich in omega3 which is an essential nutrient for Children's brain development. Apart from the health constraint, Its taste is irresistible. It is one of the non-veg variety which makes us mouth watering while thinking about it itself. Fish curry tastes best in the next days. Always serve fish curry at least after 2 hours of preparation, it gives the better taste than serving it immediately. I really cannot wait after its preparation, So always I make this curry first, then prepare the steamed rice and fish fry or any other dish i prepare, so it gets its own resting time.

The best ever fish curry I have tasted is at my senior's home. When we visited her during our college days, her mom prepared such a wonderful meen kuzhambu. We tasted the fish in "Muthal Mariyathai" movie style at her house only for the first time.
In restaurant, I always like, (in chennai) Hotel Samco's fish curry with steamed rice. I have tasted it around five, six years back. Hope still they have the same quality and taste.

Ok, Lets see my version of fish curry now.

Ingredients:

Fish - 5-6 pieces (I used king fish)
Onion - 1/2 a medium sized
garlic 2-3 cloves
Tamarind - big gooseberry sized
salt- as per taste
Oil - as needed to saute onions

To marinate:
Chili powder - 1 tsp
turmeric - 1 tsp
salt - a pinch
lemon juice - 1 tsp (optional)

To Grind:
Small onions - 5-6
Big onion - 1/2 a medium sized
tomato - 1 big (cut it to cubes)
coconut - about 1/4 cup
chili powder - 1 tbsp
coriander powder - 1 tbsp
fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1.First Wash and marinate the fish pieces with turmeric , chili powder , salt and lemon juice for 1-2 hrs.
2.In a kadai, heat a tbsp of oil and saute  onions (small, big) and tomato.
3. In a blender/mixi, grind sauted  onions, tomato, and the items listed in "to grind".
4. In the same kadai, heat another tbsp of oil, and saute garlic, and finely chopped half an onion.
5. When the onions turn transparent, add the ground paste and saute until the raw smell leaves.
6. Then Add the extracted Tamarind water, if required add a cup of water
7. Let the mix boil well for 5-10 mins.
8. Once the raw smell leaves and the gravy is cooked add the fish pieces to the gravy and let it cook for another 6-8 mins.
9. Once the fish is cooked, add the chopped coriander leaves and switch off the flame.














Notes:
1. Depends on the fish steak size the cooking time differes.
2. I added  about 2 tbsp of "Fish fried oil" at the end, which gives extra flavor for the kuzhambu.

Pallipalayam Chicken / பள்ளிப்பாளையம் சிக்கன்

I have heard about this dish but never tasted before. As I heard it is a spicy chicken, I usually avoid ordering it in restaurants. Recently I have come across this recipe and the pics in G+, and thought of giving a try. And the things behind this dish which driven  me to try was the very limited ingredients and the mentioned  interesting history behind this dish.

Pallipalayam is a small town in Namakkal District. Seems there were more people who were doing the carpenter jobs, and they had to travel to the neighbor places/towns for their job all the time. During those travels, they cannot carry more ingredients with them for cooking.As well as they cannot spend much time also for cooking. Hence they invented this interesting recipe with limited ingredients which stay good for long time in room temperature itself. Hence it has got the name as Pallipalayam Chicken.

Interested to know the ingredients?
Chicken - 1 lb cut it into small pieces(i used boneless)
Onion - 2 large sized (sliced)
Garlic - 1 bulb (peel the skin and chop into small pieces)
Red chilies- 2-3 (you can use according to your spice level, I have used the deseed red chilies 2 nos)
salt - as per taste
Oil - 2 table spoon
coconut pieces - one fist

Preparation:

1. Heat kadai/ pan with 2 table spoon of oil, and saute the sliced onions until they are golden brown.
2. Then add the chopped garlic, and the red chilies and saute until they are cooked and turns light brown.
3. Add the chicken and salt,then saute along with the onion mix.
4. Close with a lid and stir every 10 minutes to avoid burning.
5. Chicken itself leaves some water so no need to add water to cook.
6.Approximately in 30 minutes, all the water will be evaporated and the chicken would be cooked well.
7. Now add the small coconut pieces in it and stir for few mins and switch off the flame.

A tasty chicken dish is ready to enjoy. My daughter loved it with steamed rice.

Note:
1. Spice level can be increased as per your taste. In the original recipe, for 1kg of chicken 10nos of red chilies were used(with seeds).
2. The recipe and the history inspired from one of my G+ friend.

It was our sunday special lunch.. Dont miss to check the other sunday/week end special recipes below:

Veg Fried Rice
Egg Fried Rice
Egg curry

sending this recipe to Remya's Event

Mutton Chukka

From childhood, this word chukka attracts me so much. Mutton chukka and mutton chops were used to be my favoriteLamb /goat dishes.

Here I am posting a simple way to make the chukka and the taste is guaranteed :) I have used mild spices as my daughter doesn't like more spicy food. you can increase the chili and pepper quantity as per your taste buds.

Ingredients:
Goat / Lamb - 250 grams (approx) (wash with turmeric and salt and keep ready.)
Onion - 1 large
tomato -1 large
green chili - 1
ginger garlic paste - 1 tea spoon
Ginger - 1/2 tea spoon (grated or finely chopped)
Garlic - 1 tea spoon (finely chopped)
curry leaves - a few
coriander leaves - a few
salt- as per taste
Pepper powder - 1/2 a tea spoon
Oil- 3-4 tea spoon

Spice powders:
Chili powder - 1/2 tea spoon
coriander powder - 1/2 tea spoon

Dry garam masala:
fennel seeds - 1 tea spoon
cinnamon stick -1
anistar -1
bay leave -1

Preparation:

1.In a Pressure pan/cooker, preheat 2 tea spoons of oil and fry the items listed in dry garam masala
2. Add half of the large chopped onion and green chili and saute well until the onions turn transparent.
3. Add the ginger garlic paste to it and saute until the raw smell leaves.
4. Then add half of the chopped tomatoes and saute until they turn soft,
5. Add half a tea spoon of chili powder and one tea spoon of coriander to it and saute well.

6. When they all blend together, add the washed mutton pieces to it and saute for 7-10 minutes in medium flame.
7. Add 1 to 1 1/4 cups of water add half of the required salt and  close the lid, and cook for 6-7 whistles.Or until they cook softly.

8. In a frying pan, heat 2 tea spoons of oil and add the finely chopped ginger and garlic, curry leaves and fry for 30 seconds.
9. Then  add and saute the remaining half onions till they turn transparent.
10. Add the chopped tomatoes and saute until tit blends well with the onions.
11. now transfer the whole content from cooker to pan and let it cooked in the medium flame
12. When almost all the water is dried, check for salt and adjust accordingly.

13. Let it cook in open pan until you get the desired thickness.
14. Add half a tea spoon of pepper powder, mix well and switch off the flame.
15.Garnish with chopped coriander leaves

Serve with your favorite main dish. It suits well with briyani, steamed rice and idly dosa, idiyappam kind of dishes. When it is dried well good to eat as it is. I served it with Egg Dosai

Notes:
1. It is very important to cook the meat completely. Other wise kids will get indigestion. \
2. I used the boneless meat, you can use either with bones or boneless of your choice.
3. I have removed the visible Fat layer from the meat, if you are not removing, reduce the oil quantity.
4. Washing the meat with turmeric and salt will act as antiseptic to remove the germs if any.
5. Instead of using the ginger garlic paste, you can use the crushed ginger and garlic, it will enhance the taste more...

sending this recipe to,

South Indian cooking hosted by Nandoos Kitchen and organized by Anu