Drumstick Sambar

[Perfection]

Drumstick Sambar


Ingredients:

Drumstick (pieces)- 10nos

Onion (small) - 20 nos

Tomato - 4 nos

Thoor Dhal - 200 g

Chilly powder - 2 tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Tamarind - a lemon sized ball soaked in water

Green chillies - 4 nos

Salt to taste

Oil 3 to 4 tsp

Curry leaves and coriander leaves

Method of cooking

Cook the dhal separately, mash it and keep it aside. Tamarind must be kept soaked in water for 10 min. Squeeze the juice out of it. Heat the oil in a pan and allow it to splutter. Add chopped onions green chillies, chopped tomato, turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and fry it for a few seconds. Add the chopped drumsticks & turmeric powder to the above and keep it covered till the drumsticks get cooked.Add the tamarind juice, the cooked dhal and add salt to taste. Allow the gravy to boil for 10 min. Remove from fire. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves. It is best eaten with hot rice and a spoon of ghee which is clarified butter.

[Perfection]

Fish Curry

Ingredients:

Oil - 200 gms

Fish - 1/2 kg

Chilly (Red) - 20

Fenugreek - one tsp

Garlic -10 pods

Sombu or fennel - 1 tsp

Tomato chopped - 2 - 3 nos.

Salt to taste

Tamarind - size of a lime

Method of cooking

Clean the fish with rock salt and wash in fresh water three to four times. Crush the onion and garlic. Pour a little oil in a wide bottomed vessel and temper the sombu, fenugreek, partly crushed onion and garlic and chopped tomatoes. Soak tamarind in a little water and squeeze out the juice and mix it with chilli powder, coriander powder and salt to form a paste. Once the onion, garlic and tomatoes are soft, add the curry paste mixture, add 2 cups of water and allow the gravy to boil well. Put the fish pieces in the boiling gravy and turn off the flame after a quarter of an hour. The fish curry is ready. Serve with hot rice.

[Perfection]

Tandoori Chicken

The Tandoor is clay oven and dished cooked in it are called tandoori dishes. It has fierce but an even distribution of heat that enables meat to cook quickly, forming a light crust on the outside, sealing the juices of the meat, leaving the inside moist and succulent after it is cooked. It is possible to achieve perfectly satisfactory results by using a conventional gas or electric oven setting it at the highest temperature, though the distinctive flavour of the clay-cooked chicken will not be achieved.

Ingredients:

1/2kg chicken joints, legs or breast or a combination of the two
1 tsp salt to taste
1/2 - inch cube of root ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
75g thick set natural yoghurt
1 tsp ground coriander
2-3 small cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped 1 fresh green chilli, coarsely chopped and seeded if a milder flavour is required
1/2 tsp Tandoori colour (available from the Indian grocers in powder form) or a few drops of red food colouring mixed with 1 tbsp tomato pure
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala

Method of cooking

Prepare the marinade with the yoghurt, salt, ground paste of spices, garam masala, pepper and the green chillies, chopped ginger and garlic. Coat the chicken with the paste and allow it to marinate for an hour at least.

Skewer the marinated chicken pieces, and arrange it a hot oven, and allow it cook for half an hour. Change the position of the skewer every ten minutes so that all the sides of the chicken are evenly browned and cooked.

When the meat is cooked it will be tender to touch, and will be ready to drop off the skewer. Remove the meat from the oven and gently push the meat off from the skewer on to a plate. Arrange on a plate with sliced onion and lime quartered. The juice of the lime may be squeezed on to the meat just as you are serving it. It is a dish that can eaten alone or be can eaten with rice, hot rotis, chappatis or naan.