Kara kozhi kari and the winner is...

My laptop had been troubling me for the last few days. That explains my absence in visiting and commenting your blogs and chatting with dear friends in facebook. I will back soon to visit your space and comment on those lovely recipes, photos and writeups. Thanks for being understanding. This no-lappy time makes me realize that there is so much time in hand. I have been reading a lot of novels, visiting library, cooking eloquent dinners and reading about food photography. My routine generally revolves around my son and I get to do "my" work when he naps and plays by himself. Now that both the Ss are taking their afternoon nap, I sneaked inside our bedroom to get S's laptop to announce the cookbook giveaway winners and to share the little changes I incorporated to the photo capturing techniques. So here I am using Mr.S's laptop. Even though he really wants to share the laptop with me, adamant-cheeky side of him screams back saying" That's my think pad. You cann't use it. Its new. its expensive. its blah blah...". With those words reverberating my ear and just to see smoke erupts through his ears, here I am typing my new post from his laptop.

Still the delicious aroma of my mother-in-law's dry chicken dry wafts through the kitchen air and my tummy rumbles out loud. Peppery rasam and steamy rice lay untouched over switched off burner. A few moments later, I treated myself with a plate of rice, chicken and rasam and little yogurt by the side to cool off my burning tongues and runny nose. Mixing the warm rice with rasam and biting to juicy chicken I began to eat.

Kara kozhi kari which translates to spicy chicken dry fry is my dish today. The chicken was marinated with the basic spice powders for 36 hours and cooked in hot oil tempered with usual South Indian spices. The spices are sure to release your sinuses. That's what we both need now being tired with cold and cough.

Ingredients

1 pound chicken, skinless with or without bones - cubed

2 tablespoon Kashmiri red chilli powder ( add as per your spice level)

2 tablespoon coriander powder

2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon salt (as per your taste)

1 tablespoon mustard seeds

1/2 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

10-12 curry leaves (more if you want)

5 dry red chilli

2 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoon water

Directions
Marinate the chicken with turmeric, chili and coriander powder. Mix and add salt to combine. Cover and refrigerate overnight or 12-36 hours.

Heat oil in a large sauce pan with a lid. Once they oil ripples and develops a blue hue, add  mustard seeds. Let it pop well. Then add the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and dry red chilli. Saute for 30 seconds. Then add the marinated chicken and add water. Cook covered for 30 minutes, until oil leaves along the sides. Stir well and serve hot with rasam/yogurt and rice.

 

The winner of the Sukham Ayu cookbook is Srilekha. Congrats to the winner and I am sure she is going to have a great time cooking with it. Please email me your address to receive your copy of the book.

Update: Since Srilekha has not reached out to me even after constant email, I am announcing the new winner today and it is Amanda. Thanks once again Prathibha Jain and Jigyasa Giri for generously sharing your book.