Madurai Style Chicken Salna Recipe | Chicken Salna for Parotta

Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 20-30 mins

Mutton Kuzhambu | Spicy Mutton Gravy

I rarely make mutton or lamb in my kitchen. Since it has too much of cholesterols and fat I prefer not to take it more. This gravy is one among the rare recipe I make with mutton. In Calif I can see variety of mutton and lamb cuts. This time I bought mutton with the bones on it. I love the bones of the mutton and the trick is to get the bones cooked really very soft.

You can call this as a kuzhambu or gravy which is delicious when served with dosa or idli. Even with idyappam and appam this is the best combo ever. I made this curry for our Sunday lunch and had with Black pepper lamb curry. It made our spiciest Sunday ever… try out the recipe and let me know the comments and reviews. Now to the recipe!!!

Preparation time: 15mins

Cooking time: 30-40 mins

Chicken Manchurian | Indo-Chinese Manchurian Recipe with Step-by-Step Pics

Here comes my next chicken recipe for the weekend special . Manchurian has been my very first dish which I tried at home on amma’s guidance. I got the recipe from one of my fren and tried at my home. Amma helped me in deep frying the chicken and all that. She never allowed me to play with hazardous in the kitchen… Soooo caring she seems to be … but now I don’t have any option. I need to take care of myself,  uhhhf!!!

My first dish was a great success and I passed some to my aunt’s place and she was amazed on seeing me doing all this ...I don’t know wat wonder!!! They loved the dish and my uncle cleaned and wiped off the box and returned back for some more …

You can use cauliflower or paneer to make a veggie version of Manchurian. I served it with Egg Fried Rice and Chicken 65 (recipe soon).

Preparation time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 20 mins

Chicken Tikka Masala

After a long gap, a post on non-veg recipe and that too with a chicken. It was almost a month I prepared non-veg at home. I got bored of making it and left a gap in between for the NVs. And now the time arrived to bug up with the recipes.  In this post am not gonna write more about chicken tikka since we had a blog post of it previously. Click here to check out. Here am gonna make a masala out with the tikka which we prepared already. If u have any left out tikka, you can use up in this way and make a awesome side-dish for rice and rotis.

Preparation time: 5 mins (excludes Chicken tikka preparation) 

Cooking time: 20 mins

Aatukaal Paya | Mutton Paya | South-Indian Style Paya

Are you a pure vegetarian? Then am sorry, this post is not for you. I must say this disclaimer for the vegetarian readers because some of the pics may look yuck. But for the non-veg eaters!!! Here I come… this must be a visual treat for you. 

  

Paya is something which is made with smoked lamb/goat leg. I got these lamb feet from a Mexican shop. They call the lamb feet as paya as like we call in India. The lamb feet have lots of hairs in it and it is very difficult to clean. Hence it is burnt out to get rid of it. In India, I used to get the smoked leg which the butcher used to make in the shop. He has a stove and he directly flames the hairy parts in the leg. Here in US, they give it as such and I need to do the smoking part. If u gets the smoked leg, wash directly and start cooking.

Traditionally the lamb feet are cooked very slowly using wood or charcoal. I still remember my neighbor doing this the day before till the whole night. It’s been cooked in slow flame till the morning. This gives a smoky flavor to the lamb feet and it tastes delicious when it is served with the curry.

Lamb feet are very nutritious and it can be given to the convalescents for recovering from illness. It has lots of protein and calcium value. Lamb feet has good source for Vitamin B12 also. I have heard that it is also served for people with fractures to recover from it.

Serve this delicious-spiced Aatukaal Paya with Idli, Idiyappam, Dosa, Parotta, aapam. 

Preparation time: 30 mins(for smoking it)

Cooking time: 1/2- 1 hour

Garlic Chicken Recipe | Indo-Chinese Recipe

Chicken and Fish comes to my mind whenever I think for the menu on every Sundays. And usually it will be Fish fry or gravy, chicken gravy or fry when comes to the recipe. These routine recipes got to a boredom stage and the idea  of making Garlic chicken struck me when we had an outing and the friend of us prepared this garlic chicken. He made the chicken to perfection and it was really sooper soft and awesome.  And yeah, I mentioned here “HE” isn’t it???… That’s not a typo. The rule for the outing is all the guys should prepare their favorite dish… and he was so kind enough to make two dishes for us… TH prepared Egg Fried Rice by himself and obviously I guided him for chopping the veggies and for the preparation things. Don’t ask the story about the mess up of kitchen after that … wofff!!! Egg fried rice along with the Garlic chicken was the highlight that day… Good old days!!! hmmmm

Here comes the recipe for the delicious Garlic Chicken…  Check out other Indo-Chinese recipes.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Chicken Curry Recipe - Side Dish for Idli, Dosai, Idiyappam

Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 15-20 mins

Black Pepper Lamb Curry | Gosht Kali Mirch Recipe

 Are u a pepper freaky? Then am sure you will definitely love the recipe. If u doesn’t get lamb in your place, try doing with mutton (see notes). It can either be served with plain steamed rice or with roti/chapathi. I love to have with idli and dosa too. 

 

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking time: 10-20 minutes

Butter Chicken | Murgh Makhani

Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhani is made with the left over tandoori chicken in mild-spicy and silky tomato gravy. Because of the not-overpowering spiciness it is been loved by all, especially non-Indians. I can see lots of ready-to-serve packs of butter chicken in most of the stores here in US. They love to have the butter chicken with the plain tandoor naan which is also readily available. It can also be served with jeera rice and I served it with peas pulao.

You will be wondering, I haven’t tasted this butter chicken in any of the restaurants until I make it myself. After looking at the people here craving for butter chicken I thought of trying at home. The original recipe has cream and I replaced it with few cashew nuts which give a creamy texture to the gravy. Most of the restaurants uses tandoor chicken. Here am using the shallow frying method to cook the chicken. You can also deep fry the chicken. This is just a step to avoid the chicken oozing out excess water while cooking with the gravy.

Preparation time: 10-15 minutes

Cooking time: 20-30 minutes

Chettinad Chicken Recipe

Muttai Kuruma | Egg Kuruma Recipe

Muttai kuruma is one of my favorite side-dish for most of the South-Indian breakfast. TH loved it and I make it at least once in a month. Idlis are the best complimenting breakfast for this kuruma. I heard it goes well with idyappam but I haven’t tried it out.

Generally muttai kuruma is done by adding the boiled eggs to the gravy. But here I have done it by breaking the eggs directly to the boiling gravy. This allows the eggs to dunk into the gravy completely. I especially loved the dunked eggs. Here is the recipe…. 

Preparation and cooking time: 20-30 minutes

Chilli Chicken | Indo-Chinese Recipe

Ah… wat to say about this yummy-looking chicken. Nowadays am becoming crazy on chilli chicken. We mostly buy chilli chicken from the near-by Indian restaurant to accompany the plain brown rice and I came to know in most hotels they add MSG. This insisted me to try this at home on a Sunday, without adding MSG. Instead of deep frying I patiently shallow fried the chicken pieces. I served it with Jeera Rice.

Check out my Chilli Paneer Recipe for veggie-lovers

Preparation time: 1 hour 

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Chettinad Crab Masala - Nandu Chettinad Curry (step-wise pics updated)

Most of us will avoid cooking crab cos of the nature and look it has. Even I felt the same and I don’t want to try it. TH wants me to cook for him atleast once. So I tried it and trust me it came out really very well. It took me half an hour for making the dish and nearly an hour to eat it.  If you really have patience try it once and definitely it will make u to cook again. 

I looked at the internet for “how to clean crab” and asked recipe from amma. This is a perfect chettinad masala with all the spiciness.  We enjoyed with plain steamed rice and rasam. 

Vavval Meen Kuzhambu Recipe | Tamilnadu Style Fish Curry Recipe

I love Meen kuzhambhu the most. When it is served with hot steamed rice and with the side of Fish Fry, ah!!! I will be satisfied for the entire day. Amma used to make fish for almost all the Sunday, since I and appa are crazy fish lovers. Appa always need kuzhambu(gravy) and I prefer fried fish. So, not to disappoint both of us, amma makes both the method on the same day. She makes Kuzhambu in a clay pot (Manchatti) which gives an extra-ordinary flavor to the kuzhambhu. As everyone used to tell meen kuzhambu tastes better the next day. This is because of the flavor of the fish getting soaked in the tamarind gravy for the entire day. The same thing is applicable even for biryani. Amma always makes the kuzhambu using sesame oil ( nalla ennai) which is obviously good for health rather compared with other oil stuffs and it also enhances the flavor more. The main tactics to get the kuzhambu perfect is cooking the fish. Fish needs just 4-5 mins for cooking perfectly. So never ever cook it more than the time.

Buy fresh fish for making kuzhambu. When I was in Minnesota, there was no shop to provide good and fresh fish. But here in California I found a Chinese market to provide live, fresh and good fish. Am so lucky in that way!!! This time I bought Pomfret/pomapano, in tamil we call Vavval. Since TH loves fish with no bones, we bought this. As like amma’s method I made Meen kuzhambu with little of Fish and the rest I made Vavval Fish Fry. Check therecipe here.  

Preparation time: 20- 30 mins ( for cleaning the fish)

Cooking time: 20-30mins

Mutton chops | Lamb Chops

Mutton chops | Lamb Chops

After coming to US I have been searching for lamb in every other shop and finally got it yesterday.  Am not very much crazy about mutton but still I wanted to give it a try. Definitely the source for this recipe is from amma.  She used to make this with the bones but I made it boneless since I don’t find lamb with bones here.  Still the taste is equally good. 

We had it with sambhar as a side-dish but it can be mixed with rice. Gravy goes really very well with chapathis and dosas.

Chicken Kuzhambhu | South Indian Chicken Curry

Chicken has been TH’s favorite. If I make anything out of it he will have it for sure. I have tried many other recipes and thought of sharing this simple gravy as a basic.  

This goes as a great combination with idli, dosa, idyappam, chapathi as well as rice. 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

cooking time: 15-20 minutes