Chicken Chettinad- North Indian Style

Good Friends and Good Food...

Sunshine and the smell of coconuts...

And Chicken drenched in curry leaves...

And a soft Appam to mop up the juicy gravy clinging to the spoon...

Chrysanthemums and my brass urli...

How much more south Indian can our repast have gotten??
We had vegetable (ish)stew,dosas,idiappams,idlis and vadas...along with a ginger and tomato based coconut chutney and sambhar and gun powder...
Just a tiny bite of cold in the air...
Last week of November...
Called for lunch...
Fixed by the friendly neighbourhood cook...Rao!
I learnt a few things and of course will share them with you...

Spicy...
South Indian...
Tamil Nadu- to be precise...
Chcken Chettinad...
A little north Indian..
My kitchen..
And totally Yum!
This was probably the last lunch we hosted for friends while packing up...so you see concentrated pics...Only concentrated on the food...no straying at all.
And service pics of a small amount of the curry...
But totally different in taste to what we generally eat...

The chicken was spicy and sweet and had a hint of spices we maybe never use together...But the combination was bang on!

for the

Chicken Chettinad- North Indian Style...

you need

2 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp aniseed/saunf
1 star anise
2 tsp peppercorns
2 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1 tsp cloves
8-16 dry red chillies
5-6 cardamom
1 inch piece cinnamon(I added powder while the mix was pureeing)
3 medium onions sliced
1 fresh coconut grated
1 large chicken-Dressed about 800-900 gms
salt, red chili powder to taste
1 tsp turmeric powder
5 tbsp refined vegetable oil/coconut oil
15-20 cloves garlic
curry leaves
2 inch piece ginger

Start with the whole spices.

Pretty on a plate no???
These are the wet stuff...I almost used so many curry leaves...
Counted maybe 30 leaves...

In a non stick pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and ad the curry leaves. Once they splutter ,pop in the whole spices and stir till they change colour.

Add in half the sliced onions and fry till the onions caramelise.

Now add all the grated coconut, keep stirring till you get that toasted coconut smell...

And a beautiful golden brown colour.Cool.
Pop the chopped ginger and garlic and the cooked spice mix into a wet grinder and add some water and make a paste.

To look like this.

Heat the rest of the oil in a heavy bottomed pan and fry the onions till they caramelise.You can add less or more...oil is your territory!

Add in the chicken and sear till the pieces are browned all over. At this stage, add 1-1 1/2 tsp of salt the turmeric and about a spoon full of the red chili powder.Stir to coat the pieces and cook the spices.

Now add the paste and keep stirring.After the paste comes to a boil , reduce the flame and cook, stirring occasionally till the paste dries out. Add a cup of water and cook till the oil separates and the chicken and its gravy have acquired a beautiful colour .

I added about 1 tsp salt more and 2-3 tsp chili powder more...tasted as I went along...
The chicken smelt heavenly...
Not like what we usually make..

The pepper and the star anise were a wonderful combination and the aniseed went so well with the chicken...same spices almost in a rogan josh...but they work so differently here...

The appams were sweet and contrasted well with the gravy.

If you don't want to go the appam way...simple steamed rice will work well enough.

The lunch and good company worked well...
its the goodbyes that are the most pain full...
I am still living in the past.
This is still stuff from Ranchi...
But Whatever...
As long as the chicken was great ...
There will always be good memories...

Coming up...
Something more to do with coconuts...

So what are you baking today???

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Eggless Tiramisu with real Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

The excitement was palpable and the wait agonizing. When we first set out to make this dessert. My partners in crime this time were friends Ritu and Kanchan...and their children.

This is one dessert I have lovely memories of…rarely managed to eat it, not only because of the calorie count, also because with just an allowance that one tiramisu was E for Expensive.

I won’t say that this was cheap, it also took a lot of time, but the sheer joy, of it was awesome. The next tiramisu will be the real deal, with the lady finger cookies. Only can’t promise the Tia Maria. We’ll use brandy.

Well, with the cheese made, all that was required was the eggless sponge and the whipped cream and the eggless custard…not to mention coffee. Espresso if you can…otherwise plain instant will do! I used south Indian filter Kapi!

Now straight on, with the tons of gossip and excitement…the tiramisu became tastier!

The kids got a taste of the mascarpone and cream filling and the reactions were so much fun to watch!

The boys were ok ,couldn’t get what the fuss was all about Saturday evening ,but after the 24 hour wait and the addition of brandy…it was Oliver Twist once more. Was that all there was?Can I have some more??

Try this…not prohibitive anymore!

For the

Eggless Tiramisu with Real Homemade Mascarpone Cheese...

You need

1 perfect eggless sponge

Mascarpone made with 600mils of cream (about 350 Gms) Get it here...http://baketitude.blogspot.com/2012/01/mascarpone-chesse-home-made.html

200 mils whipping cream

250 mils thick vanilla custard (made with 225 mils milk and 2 tbsp custard powder and 5-6 tbsp sugar)

100 mils brandy

100 mils strong coffee decoction

Chocolate to decorate 

Start with the sponge…

1 ¼ cup plain flour

¼ cup corn flour

1 cup sour curds/yogurt (leave the yogurt out for a few hours)

½ cup refined vegetable oil

¾ cup ground sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Grease and flour a cake tin and pre heat the oven to 180C/350F.

Sift the dry ingredients.

In one bowl mix in the yogurt and the oil well.

Add to this the baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda. Let them bubble and add the sugar.

Then spoon by spoon add in the flour mix and then...

Pour into the baking dish and then into the oven 30 -35 minutes.

Test with a wooden pick. And wow! turned it out after 5 minutes. See how well done it is?

We didn’t wait too long…it was so well done…and so tempting…control karna करना

was so difficult.Still hot, cut out the size for the actual dish.And then slice into two halves.

This dessert is so deserving of this song…

First slice in...Pour over the brandy and the coffee (half of the amount available).

Ok the filling.   That's the thick custard.

The electric beater is only for the whipping cream- dairy or non dairy. Soft peaks only.

.

Nuke the mascarpone about a minute, not to cook it, only to make the whisk move through the mascarpone.

The mascarpone and the custard together, whisked-with a lot of love and care. Be extremely gentle. Mascarpone will split if you exert too much force.

Now combine it all together and taste for the amount of sugar.You can add some more brandy here too, if you believe in decadence!

On the plate that holds the second half, pour the remaining brandy and coffee over the slice of sponge. 

Slather some blended cream over the first layer.

Now turn the coffee and brandy layer on the layered cream. If you are in the middle of a heat wave, be sure to chill the dessert before you place the second layer.

Now the remaining cream, neaten the top and straight to the fridge.

First bowl we made,this was made with the scraps.

Same way…was over before we could realize it. The second was the piece de resistance!

The ganache I tattooed err piped on the next day, you can grate the chocolate or place curls of sift cocoa of pipe …whatever pleases you.
For the Ganache...check here.

It’s all about spreading the; love and happiness!

Get out all the stuff and start baking…come on, what are you waiting for?

Yum!

No more words…

So what are you baking today???

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Royal Icing...

Frosting....

hm mm, never thought so many traditional Indian skills would come to fore.
Something that the world is crazy for.
Something that we take for granted.
Henna Tattoos.
Simply put...Mehendi...more eloquently  Henna.
With which we adorn our hands and feet at every festive occasion.Or just Ainvi....for no reason.

Same technique,same principles...only this time we do it with sugar and EAT it!
Make pretty stuff like candy canes and stockings and snowflakes and whatever takes our fancy...or in my case wherever the squiggly frosting landed...it was yay!
My friend Ritu Sharma is really good at the frosting stuff,her cookies were neater,but then with three colours they ended up looking gorgeous.
For the
Royal Icing...

All you need is


3 egg whites at room temperature
4 cups plus a few tsp extra sifted icing sugar
few drops of lemon Juice
food colouring optional
And a  beater....if you don't have one ,become an angrier version of our very own Amit Ji(The quintessential angry young man Amitabh Bachchan)

Start with the egg whites in a bowl.Truth be told,I deleted the pictures of the frosting I made last week,so I made a tiny portion of the frosting today for this blog post .Such is my love.I ♥ my readers.

Basically beat the egg white and the sugar,the colour will be a dirty yellowish pale colour you may not want to use for frosting.

But then,there's some magic.A few drops of lemon juice....and yellow becomes white.Pearly white.That's why you always buy Surf Excel! Lalita ji!!
just a few drops,don't over do the lemon,or the frosting will be runny.

Beat it to incorporate enough air,the frosting will begin to thicken and look pipe-able. Test with a ribbon-as in just lift the beater blade and let it form a ribbon...if the ribbon stays about 5 seconds....you need to beat more.My Fabulous Cakes And Bakes said 8 seconds...since I tried this for the first time...I didn't want it to come back and bite my butt...or to have to eat humble pie...no, I was more interested to let the cookies get bitten.

So I beat the frosting till the ribbon stayed 8 seconds.As this was the batch for the blog...it was tiny and now it  rests frozen. Ready to use when the next moment arises.

OK,I used disposable frosting bags,If you don't have any ,make small cones with plastic sheets or with butter paper-just like the cones for mehendi or henna.
I divided the frosting into 3 parts...rather filled the first cone with white ,and the remaining I tinted -you guessed it PINK.
so the second cone was pink...and to the remaining we added blue to make purple..didn't want to add yellow to pink....
That was mission "pipe".

After you frost the cookies...let them be.And cover any royal Icing you don't use,as it hardens on exposure to air.
The frosted cookies need to be left to their own devices...alone -untouched...you can decorate them with tiny sprinkles or silver balls.We had 1 bottle of silver balls that I wanted to use on the cake and cupcakes...so this being Ranchi we Pearl-"ised" the frosting.White looks awesomely Pearly.

This was the lot of cookies after 3 days...the cookies were made by the local bakery ,I did ask for the recipe ,but you know that they will never give you the right one...so I did not even bother.

All I do know is that we had a great time doing up those cookies,You can try too..with almost minimum effort let out the creative genius...maybe pipe some paisleys,some mangoes ..whatever ,don't tint your frosting PINK.
Don't get me wrong ,I totally ♥ Pink...but I'm up to my gills with this colour.

Try it out and tell me about the fun you had when you realised you wanted to frost all in sight...
Soumya Shenoy and Jiya Gupta Sawhney.....while you are frosting the cookies...try some on the unsuspecting hubbies....
Have fun...

So What are you baking today???

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