From the land dominated by members of the Chettiar trading community comes a cuisine that is characterized by mouth-watering aromas and a lot of piquancy. By now, you must have guessed it that I am talking about the Chettinad cuisine from the arid Chettinad region in Tamil Nadu. Chettinad cuisine is not for those who cannot tolerate spicy food. The food preparations in this cuisine are hot enough to give your taste buds a burn.
The cuisine is renowned for its use of fresh ground masalas, sun dried meats and salted vegetables. The meats consumed are fish, prawn, lobster, crab, chicken and mutton. Beef and pork are not eaten. Famous recipes the cuisine has to offer are varuval, poriyal, kuzambu, idiyappam, paniyaram, vellai paniyaram, kozhakattai, adikoozh, kandharappam, masala seeyam and kavuni arisi among the many. These are eaten with rice preparations like idlis, dosais, adais, appams and iddiappams. However, the yummiest dish according to me from this cuisine is the chicken Chettinad curry.
The recipe for the mouth-watering chicken chettinad is given below. Follow it and give your loved ones a treat they will never forget.
Ingredients:
Chicken (chopped to pieces, cleaned and washed) – 500 gms
Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Onion (finely chopped) – 1 large-sized
Tomatoes (finely chopped) – 3 medium-sized
Fresh coconut (grated) – 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder – 2 tsp each
Poppy seeds – 1 tsp
Fennel (saunf), coriander and cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp each
Red chilies (whole) – 3-4 no.
Cinnamon (one inch stick) – 1 no.
Green cardamoms – 3 no.
Cloves – 2 no.
Star anise – 1 no.
Lemon – 1 tbsp
Curry leaves – 6-8 no.
Oil – 2 1/2 tbsp
Water – 1 cup
Salt To Taste
For garnishing fresh green coriander leaves (finely chopped) – 1 tbsp
Method:
1.) In a pan, heat about two teaspoon oil on low flame and roast together whole red chilies, grated coconut, poppy seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, fennel seeds in it.
2.) Transfer the contents of the pan to a mixer and grind to a paste.
3.) Heat a skillet on medium flame and add remaining oil to it. Stir in the onions and fry till they are golden. Now add in the curry leaves, ginger-garlic paste and the ground paste. Fry for 1-2 minutes.
4.) Stir in the tomatoes, red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt. Mix well.
5.) Add the chicken and fry for 5-7 minutes. Now add 2 cups of water and lemon juice.
6.) Cover with lid and cook until chicken is tender.
7.) Serve hot garnished with fresh green coriander leaves. Enjoy this with boiled rice.
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Source: Indianfoodforever, Wikipedia
