A deadly combo: Dosa and Chicken Curry

 

When the day ends with hot crispy Ghee Dosas (crispy rice crepes) and Srilankan Chicken curry, you know, you’ll sleep like a baby that night. Raj had a total of 15 Dosas or something…he loves them. And when coupled with chicken or prawn curry, he can have just about as many you can make. I made the Dosa batter, with the rice flour I bought from the Indian store the other day. Pretty good, I must say. I didn’t have to soak the rice, so it was easier grinding the urad dal. Here’s how you go about it.

For Dosa batter:

1 cup- Urad dal (Soaked in 1 teaspoon of fenugreek /methi seeds for about 6-7 hours or over night)

3 cups of rice flour

Grind the soaked dal and methi in a mixer to a paste. Mix well with hand. To that, add rice flour and 1 to 2 cups of water. Add salt and mix well. Don;t make the batter watery. be careful with the consistency. In in a dark place , keep the batter to ferment over night. It takes about 12-24 hours for the batter to rise.

Once its risen, mix with a ladel and pour on to a non stick tawa,  and make yummy crispy dosas. Here’s a Video for your convenience from Sanjay Thumma, of Vah Re Vah. He shows quite a few tricks. Check it out!

 

 

Chicken Srilankan :

You’ll need

whole spices- 2/3 of each - Cardamoms, cloves, pepper corns, 1 inch cinnamon

Onions chopped- 2 big

Tomatoes chopped- 2 big

Coconut milk – 1 cup

Milk – 3 table spoons

Chilly powder 1-2 teaspoons depending on your taste

Dhania Powder

Ginger-garlic paste- 1 1/2 teaspoon

Chicken – boneless – 500 gms

Salt to taste

Coriander for garnish

Oil- 3-4 tbsp

Method:

Add the whole spices to heated oil in a pan. Add onions and sauté till brown. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté some more. Add tomatoes, chilly powder, dhania powder and salt to this. Mix and cover with lid and let the tomatoes soften on medium flame. Once the tomatoes have softened, add the chicken. Mix well and cover with lid. On medium flame let it cook for about 8 minutes. After 8 minutes,  add the milk and coconut milk and mix well. Cover again with lid and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Add chopped coriander and serve hot with dosas!

Munni’s and my all time favourite, Ginger Chicken

  I have always been a great lover of Indo-Chinese food. The fusion of Chinese flavours with Indian masala, always gives an exotic result. When in Hyderabad, a friend (Munni) and I frequented Nanking, and always ordered Ginger chicken, with fried rice. And it was such a treat! We both love spicy food, the hotter the better! Ginger Chicken is a classic example of Indo-Chinese cuisine – it takes the best of both worlds, and the result is a spicy, aromatic dish, that will melt your heart. I always wondered how it is made, and found the best method on my favourite website- Vahrevah dot com. And below is the video of this really sweet chef, who has made my life so wonderful with his most soulful recipes. His South Indian dishes are especially awesome.

 

Watch the video and make Ginger chicken for a special dinner. I made it today, to make my day special :-). It looks good, no? And trust me, it tastes as good.

 

 

He is a trifle funny, but his recipes are top class and very doable.  Enjoy!

The Great Indian River Fish.

My husband, a fish fanatic, had been in mourning ever since he set foot in Sydney. Well, he does gorge on sea fish, but his bong heart lingers about the Indian river fish – ‘Rohu’. ‘Katla’ ,‘Ilish’, ‘Tilapia’. Thanks to Scribbler’s sister, Sanjukta, who told my depressed husband, that we do get frozen Rohu-Katla-Ilish-Tilapia, in Paraamatta. And  what’s better was her mother endorsing the fish saying- ei khaankaar rou-katla, India theke onek bhalo- export quality to, tai bhishon bhalo! (Since they are export quality fish, they are seldom bad fish- in fact they are tastier than the ones we have in India).

So off we went, despite our flu to Paramatta over the weekend, accompanied by another bong shell, Ananya. Needless to say, I wasn’t all that excited- to me it was – oh! more fish, more cooking. And what was worse was- picking bones for my little Meeshu, who so easily had Bhasa fillet curry with rice. But I had to give in, for his sake. I cannot describe in words his ecstasy on seeing the fish. He got into this mindless banter with the shopkeeper about asking if the fish was indeed as tasty as described by Sanjukta’s mother. All the shopkeeper said was – mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (a real long drawn one), and nothing more, much to my husband’s chagrin.

Anyway, to be on the safer side we got home a 2 kg fish, of which Ananya took back a few pieces for her dinner. Ananya left for the day after spending the weekend over a lot of adda and food, only to call back late in the evening saying- Maach ta durdanto khete – (the fish is exceptional) , Maakhon er moton (its like butter- it simply melts in your mouth).

So now a decision has been made- to buy 4 kgs of fish, just so we don’t run out of it, through the week.

Anyway, this was a post celebrating the great Indian River Fish- Rohu Or Rui Maach.