Mutton Chukka Varuval .

Mutton chukka varuval is a famous dry curry prepared in the restaurants of TamilNadu , India. Chukka means dry curry.
It gets its gorgeous brown or almost a blackish red color due to the stir fry procedure. This dish will not have any mint leaf or cilantro . But the main flavor comes from the loads of onion and curry leaf.
It is my dad's favorite and he never fails to buy us this incredible chukka along with parotta , whenever he goes to Tuticorin.

It is a famous dish in chettinad cuisine also. But I am narrating my native method here.



Goat dry curry / mutton stir fry / mutton sukka varuval:

Ingredients:
To pressure cook:
Goat meat (mutton) - 1 lb (1/2 kg)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Shallot onion - 5
Garlic - 5 pearls
water - to immerse the meat.

To grind:
Ginger - 3 inch
garlic - 6 pearls
fennel seed (sombu) - 1 tsp
Black pepper - 2 tbsp
cumin - 1 tsp

Others:
Red onion - 2 (big)
Tomato - 2
cinnamon - 2 inch,
clove - 5
bay leaf - 2
Salt - to taste
sesame Oil - 1/2 cup
curry leaf - 2 sprig
Red chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 3 tbsp
Shakthi curry masal powder - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp (to sprinkle at last)

Method:
1.Cut the meat into small pieces. Wash and clean the meat.
Add all the items given to pressure cook together and cook till we get a whistle. Then reduce flame and cook for 15 minutes.
After the pressure gets released , check if the mutton is cooked.

2. Heat oil in a wok. Add cinnamon, clove and bay leaf.
Then add the finely chopped onion and fry till it becomes red.
Now add the ginger garlic paste and saute for a while.
Then goes the tomato and fry till oil gets separated.

3.Now add all the powders , salt along with the water in the cooked meat , except the the mutton.Stir the mixture continuously till the masala becomes almost dry.

4.Then add the cooked mutton and stir fry until the fry becomes a dry curry.

Mutton chukka varuval is ready !

Serving suggestions:
Serve as side dish with chapathi, parotta chalna or rice.
Sprinkling some lime juice and garnishing with curry leaves makes the dish more flavorful.

Note:
Addition of 1/4 tsp meat tenderizer powder while pressure cooking , makes the meat very tender and juicy.


Event:


Mutton Chukka Varuval goes a 'Side dish for chapathi', an event hosted by me.
Rush your entries before September 15, 2009.

Kulambu milagai thool

The word kulambu milagai thool brings me the memories of the days when people rush towards the grinding mill with their big size vessels with handle (the vessel is called thookku pathiram in Tamil) filled with sundried spices at least once a month. Even though my mom had a different version of making the powder / mixture...I started using this powder recently. It is the basic powder for many delicious South Indian curries.

Kulambu milagai thool is an all purpose curry powder used in many Indian houses. It is similar to the sambar powder except for some ingredients and the large amount of dry red chilly.
This powder can be used in making puli kulambu,kara kulambu, vatha kulambu, meen (fish) kulambu or any non vegetarian curry.

Kuzhambu mil'agai thool / All purpose curry powder



Ingredients:
(Multiply the below ratio to get bulk quantity. If you are interested in grinding large quantities in a mill, then sun drying the below items is the best idea.)
Dry red chilly - 2 cup
coriander seed - 1 cup
cumin - 1/4 cup
Black pepper - 1/4 cup
Asafoetida - tiny piece (1/4 inch cube)
Channa dhal - 1/4 cup
fenugreek (venthayam) - 1 tsp
Curry leaf - 2 brigs

Method:
Dry roast all the items given above individually .
Roast the curry leaves till it looses all the moisture.
Let it cool completely.
Grind to a fine powder using a coffee grinder / Indian mixer.
Spread it to cool again.
Store in an airtight container for use.
No need to refrigerate it.

Ginger chicken (Indian version)

Ginger chicken is a chinese dish. Sometime before, I tasted this chicken dish in a restaurant in Tuticorin (TN, India) with more Indian touch. It was so tangy and spicy drenched with all that ginger .
Here I should mention, Tuticorin is famous for exotic non vegetarian food.
I tried many permutations and combination to arrive at a formula to make this.
So here is my version of ginger chicken.




Ingredients:
Chicken (boneless) - 1 lb (1/2 kg)
Ginger - 50 gm
clove - 5
cinnamon - 1 inch
black pepper - 1 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Red color - 3 drops
Salt - to taste
egg - 1
lemon - (1 juice)
plain Indian yogurt - 4 tbsp
AP flour / maida - 1 tbsp
oil - To deep fry

Method:
Cut the chicken into small cubes.
Grind the ginger to a fine paste along with cinnamon, cloves, salt and black pepper. Marinate the chicken with all items given above except the oil for 2 hrs or overnight in fridge.

Heat oil in a wok and deep fry the marinated chicken pieces till it is completely cooked. keep aside.

To Temper (finishing touch):
Onion - 1 (big)
oil - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste (3/4 tsp)
curry leaf - 1 sprig
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Lemon - 1
slivered ginger - a handful

Cut the onion into thin long pieces.
Heat a wok with a tbsp oil.
Add the onion and fry for a while till it gets half cooked.
Then put the curry leaf, salt, chilli powder, the fried chicken and mix well.

Put off stove.
Squeeze the lime juice and add the finely slivered ginger pieces. Check for salt.
Mix well and serve hot.

Serving suggestion:
This is a dry curry.
Goes well with chapathi, roti and rice.
Serves 6 people.

Event:




Ginger chicken goes as the 'Side dish for chapathi', an event hosted by me.
Rush your entries before September 15, 2009.

Garlic milk

How about a drink that fights the bad cholesterol , provides immunity and puts you to a good night sleep? Here is it, prepared in viki's kitchen to make you all fall in love with milk.
This is a medicinal drink prepared with garlic and milk. Surprisingly the presence of garlic will not be felt in that milk and I am sure every one will like it.
Sending this recipe to Sanghi's FIL - Milk event. Grab it before it gets cold:)

Poondu paal / garlic milk:



Ingredients:
Milk - 2 cups
sugar / palm crystalline sugar (panai karkandu) - 3 tbsp
Garlic - 6 pearls

Method:
Boil the milk . Add finely sliced garlic along with sugar and cook till the garlic becomes soft.

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot as bed time milk. The left out garlic should be consumed.
Good for reducing the body fat and bad cholesterol.
Helps lactating mothers , improves immunity, cures allergies, cold and to control blood pressure .

Reposts

The following entries are for Sanghi's FIL - Milk event.

Milk Porridge:


Paal payasam:



The below entry is for EC's WYF: Breakfast event.

Venn Pongal:















This carrot cake goes to Raaji's Anniversary special cake event.

Carrot cake (Easter theme):


Sending the below dinner for the Cooking for guest event by Rak's Kitchen.

A Simple Pizza dinner:


I am reposting the following sweets for the Festive food event conducted by Purva and Priti.
Sesame ladoo and mothagam are prepared during the Vinayagar Chathurthi festival. Click the links below to read more.

Sesame Ladoo



Mothagam (kolukkattai):


Wishing you all a very happy Vinayagar Chathurthi!

Aval vellam

Aval vellam is a special offering prepared during Saraswathi pooja and Krishna Jeyanthi. Because of its simplicity , we can prepare this sweet in just 10 minutes.
I am sending this sweet dish to Shanthi's State special event on behalf of TamilNadu and Purva's Festive food event for krishna Jeyanthi.



Ingredients:
Poha / beaten rice / aval (thicker variety)- 1 1/4 cup
vellam / jaggery / brown sugar - 3/4 cup
shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
cashew - 10
cardamom - 3
Raisin - 10
almond slices - 10

Method:
Wash and clean the poha. Soak it for 3 minutes and drain the water completely.
Take 1/2 cup of water in a wok and heat it along with the jaggery.
As the jaggery dissolves, filter and remove the impurities.
Again heat it to achieve a thicker solution called one string consistency.
(One string consistency means, if you take the stirring spoon out of the jaggery solution and if you can get a thing string dripping as the last drop , it is called so).
Mix the poha, cashews, shredded coconut, powdered cardamom, raisin , almond and stir well.
Immediately switch off the flame.
Aval vellam is ready!

Note:
We can roast the nuts and raisins in ghee before adding. But I stick to the more simpler old version.

Serving suggestions:
In my home town, this sweet is served as a starter snack during festive occasions as soon as the guest arrives.
Serves 4 people.

Murungakkai masala poriyal

Drumstick is a very common vegetable in India. That too in the southern India, we cannot see a home garden without the drumstick tree. All the parts of the tree are of medicinal value. More over who can deny the taste of the sambar and curry made out of those freshly plucked drumsticks. So it is the favorite tree for many Indian housewives.Here I should mention, if we go on plucking the leaves of the tree it will not yield much drumsticks during the season. So it is a good idea to grow another tree also for our 'keerai' (greens) purpose.

Back home, my mom grew a big drumstick tree for our vegetable need and one small tree to reap the greens:) .
Even now the trees are serving the neighborhood along with some tales on mom's gardening and cooking skills.
Yeah, that is the gift we get by planting trees.....

During my 8 th standard summer vacation, Mom taught me to prepare this murungakkai masala koottu as my first dish....though I cannot tell u about my improper shaped hard dosas:) .Slowly I learned more dishes during that vacation .
I remember me announcing occasional kitchen holidays for mom from bed coffee to night dinner without allowing her to enter the kitchen, though everyone other than mom described those food as harassment:)

Shama's 'First cooked food' inspired me to cook this murungakkai masala and I am sending this to her event. Moreover this is my favorite side dish too.

Drumstick masala fry / murungakkai curry masala koottu



Ingredients:
Drumstick - 3 (choose green, flexible and succulent ones)
salt - to taste (1/4 tsp)
curry leaf - 1 sprig
fennel - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
coriander powder - 3 tsp
Red chilly powder - 3/4 tsp
oil - 1 tsp
To grind:
Onion - 1/2
shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
cumin - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Cut the drumstick into 3 inch long pieces and slightly slit in one end.
Grind the items given to a coarse paste.
Heat oil in a wok.
Add fennel seed and let it get red. Now put the curry leaf.
Then add the drumstick pieces along with all the powders and masala paste.
Add salt , 1 cup water and cook covered till it becomes tender .
The curry should be like a very thick / dry gravy.
Drumstick masala is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as side dish with sambar / rasam / curd rice .

How to eat drumstick ?
Gently scoop out the fleshy part with small spoon / fork and eat.
If in home feel free to scoop with hand and chew them gently without swallowing the outer skin. That is the real way to enjoy murungakkai:)
It is a very common dish in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin of TN , India.