Kozhi Nirachathu Malabar Style/Stuffed Chicken Roast in Spicy Gravy Malabar Style

I had been planning to post the recipe of this wonderful dish from not sure how long, every single time I make this delicious Kozhi Nirachathu/Stuffed Chicken, I take pictures and save them but then compiling and editing pictures and composing this post took me for ever. Better late than never right?? 

Kozhi Nirachathu is one of the most popular dishes of Malabar region of Kerala (Northern Kerala). The whole chicken is first marinated in spices and then either braised or broiled(even pressure cooking works). The broiled chicken is then stuffed with some boiled eggs well coated with sauteed onions, raisins and cashews. OK.. mouthwatering isn't it? The process is not done yet.. The whole chicken is then cooked in spicy onion tomato sauce to perfection. Now without delaying further let me go ahead a post this very delicious, Malabar Special Recipe - Kozhi Nirachathu - Akka Stuffed Chicken in Spicy gravy.

Ingredients Used : -

To Marinate:

1. One Whole Chicken ~ 2.2lbs/1 Kg (or use two small Cornish hens)
2. Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
3. Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
4. Black Pepper powder - 1 tsp
5. Salt - 1tsp
6. Lemon/Lime juice from 1 lemon/lime

For Filling:

1. Boiled Eggs - 2
2. Raisins few (optional)
3. Cashews few(optional)
4. Onion sliced fine - 2
5. Greens chilly chopped fine - 2
6. Freshly crushed Ginger-garlic - 1tsp
7. Raisins, cashews - 1 tbsp each (optional)
8. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
9. Black Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp(or red chili powder)
10. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
11. Garam Masala - 3/4 tsp
12. Curry leaves few
13. Coriander leaves chopped - 2 tbsp
14. Coconut Oil/Veg Oil - 2 tbsp

For Gravy: 

1. Red Onion Sliced fine – 3 (~3 Cups)
2. Tomato – 2(~2 Cups)
3. Ginger chopped fine - 1tbsp
4. Garlic chopped fine –1 tbsp
5. Green Chilly slit into halves – 3
6. Curry leaves – 3 to 4 sprigs
7. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
8. Chili powder – ¾ tsp (optional)
9. Crushed fennel seed – ½ tsp
10. Coriander powder - 1 tsp
11. Garam Masala – 1tsp
12. Coconut Oil/Veg Oil

 Preparation Method:-

1. First step is making the chicken ready for the preparation. Take out the chicken parts/giblets packet that comes with whole chicken from the cavity and set aside.
2. Peel off the skin and make incisions on the whole chicken especially on chicken breast and legs.
3. Squeeze a lemon/Lime, add a spoon off salt and apply all over the chicken. Wash the whole chicken one or two times and pat dry with paper towel.
4. Make a marinade of items listed under marinate list. Marinate the whole chicken by rubbing  all parts of the chicken and making sure the marinate get inside the incisions. Set aside for 1 or 2 hours.
5. Now you can either braise(fry or slow cook in reduced heat) the chicken or  pressure cook it according to the time availability. Pour coconut oil in a deep and wide pan big enough to hold the whole chicken. Add Curry leaves and saute. Now add the whole chicken
6. Reduce the heat to medium and Cover with a lid. Let it cook for seven-nine minutes. Open the lid and turn over the chicken slowly making sure the chicken don't stick onto the pan and start breaking.
7. Cover and cook again for another five-seven minutes or until chicken is well cooked inside. Take off the stove and set aside.

Egg Masala for Stuffing:-

1. Heat up another frying pan, add coconut oil to it, add raisins and saute till it pop up, strain and set aside. Add cashews saute till golden, strain and set aside.
2. Add curry leaves and saute for few secs, add onion, ginger, garlic and salt and saute till onion turns light brown.
3. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder and saute well to blend everything. Add the garam masala and saute well to combine.
4. Add the boiled egg, fried raisins, cashews and combine well to coat the boiled egg with masala. Set aside to cool completely
5. Stuff this egg masala into the braised chicken cavity.

Chicken Gravy:-

1. Heat up a kadai, preferably the same one used for braising so that the gravy gets all the chicken flavor. Add more oil if required, add curry leaves, onions, ginger-garlic, green chilies and saute well till onion turns golden color.
2. Add chopped tomatoes and saute till they are fully mashed up.
3. Add turmeric powder, crushed fennel, chili powder, coriander powder, garam masala and saute well till everything is combined.
4. If the masala is very dry add some water or coconut milk to add gravy and let it come to boil
5. Now add the braised whole chicken and spread the gravy  on the whole chicken. Cover and cook on medium heat for three-five minutes.
6. Open the lid and turn the whole chicken over. Stir the gravy making sure not to stick on the bottom of the pan. Cover and cook again for three-four minutes. Remove from the stove. Sprinkle some more curry leaves and keep it closed until ready to serve
7. Drizzle some lime/lemon juice just before serving.
8. Serve warm with Rice/Roti/Chappathi. Enjoy !!

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes ~ Soft and Fluffy

                     


So, which is your favorite kinda pancake? And how do you make soft and fluffy? My pancakes are mostly wheat ones as I try to make a better and healthy breakfast/meal. I do a lot of fruity ones and banana pancakes are default when I see the overripe bananas sitting on counter-top crying for my 
attention. 

                      

My friend Manju gets vegetables and fruits from a near by store. On a Saturday evening she brought me a lot of banana which was really overripe and asked me to make some something out of it. Next day I made banana pancakes for breakfast and baked some banana bread in the evening. I served the pancakes topped with butter and whipped cream. Kids loved them with whipped cream

                    

Ingredients: -

1.       Whole wheat flour – 2 Cups

2.       Eggs – 3

3.       Milk – ½ Cup

4.       Water ~ 2 ½ Cups

5.       Overripe/Ripe bananas – 4

6.       Salt a pinch

7.       Sugar – 2 tbsp.

8.       Baking  Powder – ½ tsp.(optional)

9.       Butter as needed(to spread  and top the pancakes

Preparation Method:

·         Add flour, salt, sugar and baking powder to a wide bowl and mix well using a wire whisk.

·         In another bowl, beat eggs very well.  Pour the beaten eggs to the flour mix and stir slowly with the whisk.

·         Add milk and gently mix. Make sure there are no lumps.

·         Grind the bananas in a mixer or Mash them very well using the whisk or fork.

·         Add the banana to the batter, combine well again. Add water if the batter is too thick, batter should be of pouring consistency. Set aside for 15-20 mins.

·         Wash a non-stick pan or griddle, wipe clean with a clean cloth/towel. Put on the stove to heat up the pan, make sure the stove is kept in medium heat. Butter the pan.

·         Mix the batter with a ladle/spoon. Pour a small ladle of batter, do not spread the batter. As the pancake gets cooked, you will see the bubbles forming on top of the pancake.

·         Turn the pancake upside down before the base gets darker. Let it cook for a minute or two. Take off the pan.

·         Wipe the pan with a damp cloth and repeat the process.

·         Serve the pan cakes topped with butter. Pair them with whip cream, strawberries and maple syrup. Enjoy!!!

Notes:-

1.       For the best tasting pancake, make sure the base of the pancake do not turn dark, it should be of golden brown color. For this maintain the stove temperature to medium or if it electric figure out the best temperature to make sure the pancakes are slow cooked.

Ambalapuzha Paal Payasam and Happy Vishu Wishes/അമ്പലപുഴ പാൽപായസവും വിഷു ആശംസയും

Wishing Everyone A Very Happy Vishu !!

എല്ലാവർക്കും വിഷു ആശംസകൾ 

I agree, I had always been on and off throughout. But this phase of my life seemed the busiest ever. Family, Work and more work had kept me away from blogging for few months. I go through my fellow bloggers blog posts randomly but never get more than five minutes to sit infront of my laptop. I always feel guilty seeing my blog hybernating but did not have the time, energy and mindset to do blog post which needs a bit of compiling on write up and picture edits. I didn't want to do a random post which will not do justice to the recipe and myself.

Starting this year I have been actively involved in a Malayalee Association here in Washigton DC and is the Entertainment chair for Year 2014. We have a lot of events lined for year 2014 of which Vishu celebrtion was one of the most important one. NSGW celebrated Vishu 2014 on Saturday, April 12th for which we had in store a list of cultural programs. I had been co-ordianting for all the programs, finalizing the program chart, co-ordinating with choreographers, staging the kids group, conference calls on delegating tasks etc etc whick took most of my evenings and weekends. And at the proffessional end it is crazy  busy with Release deadline coming up by end Of this month.

Even though the past 3 months had been hectic, the end result was really sweet and memorable one which I will cherish in my entire lifetime. The Whole Vishu celebration was purely Vishu theme based.  We didnt have any cinematic dance kind of programs, instead we had a pure cultural event where the kids and adults performed on Vishu related themes/skits and songs. At the end of cultural programs we had a proffessional Drama 'Viradam' based on M.T Vasudevan Nair's Novel 'Randamoozham' performed by a 'Akkarakazhchakal' serial fame Haridev and Sanjeev's proffessional drama team from NJ. We were all excited meeting the team and working with the group, I also participated in a folk dance as part of the drama and also our ladies dance team including me from Maryland, USA performed a semi-classical dance.

Okk, I think thats enough about the stories, now let me share with you the recipe of this Ambalapuzha paalpayasam which is very apt for making on Vishu day to be served to Lord Sree Krishna. Ambalapuzha Palpaayam is considered as the most favorite payasam of Sree Krishna in Ambalapuzha temple, Alapuzha. There is a very beautiful story tale behind the evolution of this very famous and delicious payasam. You can refer to this link to read more.

Ambalapuzha paal paayasam Recipe as follows

Ingredients:-

1. Unakkalari/Broken Matta Rice - ¼ Cup(If they are not available you can use Basmathi Rice)
2. Milk - 1 ½ Litre
3. Sugar - ½ Cup
4. Raisins few
5. Cashews few
6. Ghee - 1 tsp
7. Cardamom pods -6
8. Sugar - ½tsp

Preparation Method:-

• Pour milk into a pressure cooker, add sugar and stir well. Bring the milk to boiling point.
• Rinse the rice one or two times and add to the milk. Stir well again till the bottom making sure rice is not sticking to the bottom.
• Cover with the lid, put on the whistle. Reduce the heat to the lowest and let it cook for 20-25 minutes.
• Put off the flame. Let it cool down completely to open the lid.
• Heat up a small Wok/pan, add ghee, saute cashews and saute till golden brown. Remove and add to the payasam. Add raisins to the same ghee and saute till it pop. Add tot he payasam.
• Crush/grind the cardamom with ½ tsp of sugar and add to the payasam. Stir well and serve warm. Enjoy!!

Note: The smallest jar of the Indian Mixer is very handy to grind the cardamom pods and sugar to get the cardamom powdery, it smells awesome and blend well with the payasam without any tiny lumps.

                                    

Kerala Fish Molee / Kerala Meen Molee (Meen Moilee)

Ingredients Used:-

1. Fish - 1lbs(I used Tilapia Fillet)
2. Salt - 1 tsp + 1 tsp + more as required
3. Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp + 1/4 tsp
4. Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
5. Onion - 3 Med size very thinly sliced
6. Tomatoes - 3 thinly sliced in round shapes
7. Green Chilly - 8 to 10 count slit into halves
8. Finely chopped fresh Ginger - 2 tbsp
9. Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
10. Coconut Oil/Oil - 2 tbsp
11. Mustard Seeds - 1tsp
12. Thin Coconut milk - 2 Cup
13. Medium thick Coconut Milk - 1 Cup
14. Thick Coconut Milk - 1 Cup

Preparation Method:-

• Cut the fish into medium bite size pieces. Wash them clean and pat dry.
• Marinate the fish with salt, turmeric powder and chilly powder for at-least 30 minutes
• Heat up an earthen ware/Clay pot/Manchatti and add coconut oil. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter.
• Add few curry leaves, chopped ginger, onion and saute well till translucent.
• Add turmeric powder and a tsp of salt, stir well to mix. Add the thin coconut extract(moonnam paal) and let it boil.
• Add the marinated fish pieces and stir gently with a spatula. Keep in medium heat and bring to boiling point. 
• Add the Medium thick coconut milk and give a quick and gentle stir. Top the gravy with tomato rings and green chilies.

• Cover with a lid and let it cook. Let the gravy boil for three-five mins till the tomatoes become soft
• Now pour the thick milk and stir gently so that gravy mix up evenly. 
• When the curry starts to boil from the edges of the pan, put off the stove. Add more curry leaves and keep it covered until ready to Serve.
• Serve with boiled rice/Appam/Dosa/Fried Rice or anything of your choice

                    

Cooks Note:-

1. This Curry tastes better kept for couple of hours before serving.
2. You can shallow fry the fish pieces in coconut oil before adding to the curry which will not let the fish to break. This will add more taste as well.

Happy New Year 2014

Dear All,

Wishing my friends, family and all the wonderful blog readers A Very Happy New Year 2014 !!

May this Year bring peace and joy in your life and take you towards Excellence J

  

Kind Regards

Cook-Ezee Team