Karivepaku Chicken(Curryleaf chicken)

This recipe is from my MIL and one of our family’s favorite chicken recipe.
I like the way it looks and the color – much different from most of the chicken recipes which are brownish red in color.
It has that authentic flavor and color. Tastes great with rice or roti.
The ingredients list might look pretty long, but if you have all the ingredients ready, the process is pretty simple. 

Karivepaku Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken	1.5 lbs
Onions(medium-sized)	1
Curry Leaves	25-30
Oil	2 tbsp
Ginger	2-3 inches piece
Garlic	6 pods
Cumin seeds/Jheera	1 tbsp
Coriander seeds/ Dhaniya	1 tbsp
Cloves/Laong	4
Green Chillies	4
Cinnamon	1/2 inch piece
Turmeric powder	1/2 tsp
Dry grated coconut	1 tbsp
Black Pepper corns	1 tbsp
Salt	as required
Cilantro(finely chopped)	2 tsp
Lemon juice	1 tbsp

Procedure: 

Finely chop the onions. 

Chop the ginger in to small pieces. 

Wash the chicken thoroughly with water and keep it aside to drain the water. 

In a pan, dry roast ginger, garlic, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cloves and cinnamon. Let them cool. In the same pan dry roast the curry leaves until they turn little dry and become dark in color. Now add dry coconut and fry for few seconds and let them cool. 

In a blender make a paste of all the roasted ingredients, pepper and green chillies. You can use a spice grinder to grind all the dry stuff and then add it to the ginger and garlic and blend in a blender. 

Now add oil to the pan and fry th onions with lil salt until they turn golden brown. 

Now add the chicken and cook until it is half done. 

Add the prepared masala to the chicken, adjust the salt and mix until all the chicken is coated with the spices mix. 

Cover the pan with a lid and let the chicken cook well with the spices. 

When the chicken is well-cooked, turnoff the stove and add lemon juice. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro.

Suggestions: Vegetarians can substitute chciken with tofu or paneer.

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Carrot Rasam/Carrot Soup

I am always looking for ways to add more veggies to my recipes.

This carrot rasam is a a delicious recipe and a secret way to add carrots to kids diet.

Carrots are cooked with lentils, puree’d and spiced up with pepper and green chillies.

Carrot Rasam

Ingredients:

Tomatoes(medium – sized)	1
Carrots(diced)	2
Garlic	1 pod
Ginger	small piece
Toor dal/split pigeon peas	1/2 cup
Green Chillies	2
Ground Black Pepper	1 tsp
Salt	as required
Cilantro(finely chopped)	2 tsp
Lemon juice	1 tbsp

Seasoning:

Oil/Ghee	2 tsp
Urad dal	1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds	1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds	1/2 tsp
Red Chillies(broken)	1
Curry leaves	5
Turmeric powder	1/4 tsp
Asoefetida	a pinch

Procedure:

Pressure cook toor dal with carrots, tomato and salt.

Puree the cooked dal, tamato and carrots in a blender.

Add the puree to a sauce pan and add water and dilute it to required consistency and bring to a boil.

Add green chillies, crushed garlic and ginger and let the rasam boil for 10-15 minutes on a low falme.

Heat oil/ghee in a small seasoning pan and add all the seasoning ingredients in the order mentioned.

When the seeds start spluttering, add the seasoning to the rasam/soup in the sauce pan.

Now addlemon juice,  black pepper and garnish with cilantro.

Suggestion: You can add fresh carrots cut in to very small pieces or thin strips to the cooked rasam.

Serve with hot steamed rice or just have like a soup.

Carrot Soup

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Home made salsa

We got take out from Chillies for yday’s dinner. For appetizer we got some chips and salsa. The quantity of salsa was too less for the huge bag of chips. And ofcourse, we loved the salsa so much that, we ate salsa with chips and not chips with salsa 🙂
Within few minutes we completed the salsa and the huge bag of chips was just lying on the dining table.

Seeing those chips I thought why not make some salsa at home and finish those chips. Looked for some salsa recipes online and most of them required grilling the tomatoes and peppers and puree’ing them.
I did not have so much time and decided to try something simple. Instead of grilling I just cooked the tomatoes and peppers in pan and puree’d them. Added some diced green peppers at the end to make the salsa crunchy.

Well….my version of the salsa did not match the chillies salsa, but it was not bad either.

Salsa

Ingredients:

Tomatoes(medium – sized)	3
Bell pepper(diced)	1/4 cup
Black Beans	3 tbsp
Green Chillies	2
Corn	2 tbsp
Salt	as required
Black pepper	1/2 tsp
Cilantro(finely chopped)	2 tsp
Lemon juice	1 tbsp
Olive oil	2 tsp

Procedure:

Add olive oil to a pan and when the oil is heated, add the finely chopped tomatoes and green chillies. Cover the pan with a lid and cook them until they turn soft. Add 1-2 tbsp water if requited.

The tomatoes turned soft enough that I did not have to puree them. But if they do not turn soft and puree then in a blender.

Now add the lemon juice, pepper and salt.

Mix the corn, black beans and the raw diced bell pepper. Garnish with cilantro. Refrigerate for 30 mins before serving.

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