If you are in Kolkata we’ll never be able to ignore the arrival of this festive season. With the start of September you can feel the Puja is nearing. All the markets and for now the shopping malls are flooded with people to buy new clothes, shoes, and house hold articles. As the big day nears, the foot paths are barricaded with bamboo pillars to control the heavy crowd. There are big hoardings of advertisements on every nook and corner of the city. With all these grandeur and pomp comes our idol. I miss those lazy afternoons sitting at my neighborhood Puja pandal chit chatting with my friends. All my relatives come to my place to worship the deity. O, I miss everything about Kolkata.

There is nothing more I can do but to think about the by gone days of living in Kolkata during the Durga Pujas. So, just to make myself a little happier than I am right now, I thought of adding some special recipes for this occassion.

Living in the Southern part of India, these days I come across a lot many South Indian cuisine. Every region in South India has got its own style of cooking. Malabar region is in the South-western part of India, facing the Arabian Sea. Lots of spices like cloves, coriander, cardamom, black pepper grow in the hilly terrain of the Malabar Coast. All their cuisine is done with these spices. The Malabar Chicken is just one such example of the rich cuisine of this coastal region.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Chicken (Murgi): 500gms

Onion paste (Peyaj bata): 2 tablespoons

Desiccated coconut (Narkel korano): ½ cup

Coriander leaves (Dhane pata): 1 tablespoon

Green chili paste (Kacha Lanka bata): 1 ½ tablespoon

Garlic-ginger paste (Ada-rasun bata): 1 tablespoon

Red chili powder (Sukhno Lanka guro): 1 teaspoon

Tamarind paste (Tetul bata): 1 tablespoon

Coriander powder (Dhane guro): 1 teaspoon

Clove (Labango): 5 to 6

Black pepper (Gol morich): 10 -12

Turmeric powder (Halud guro): 1 teaspoon

Sunflower oil (Sada tel): 1 tablespoon

Salt to taste

Preparation:

For preparing the tamarind paste:

• Take out the pulp of 5 or 6 tamarind pods and dip in water for ½ an hour.
• With a sieve separate the pulp from the tamarind water, and keep the tamarind water for later use.

For the curry:

• Heat oil in a wok. Throw in the ginger-garlic paste, onion paste, black pepper, green chili paste and tamarind water, sauté for 2 minutes.
• Add red chili, coriander and turmeric powder along with the desiccated coconut. Fry till the coconut turns brownish.
• Add water and cook for 5 -7 minutes.
• Add the chicken and add water till necessary.
• Cook till the chicken becomes tender, adding water if required.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Malabar Chicken Curry

Serve with just cooked rice and enjoy the taste of the Malabar chicken.

Sending this sensational side dish to Ruth’s Sensational Sides Event.

Also sending over to Aartee’s Sapadu Ready Event

Sending this recipe to Pallavi’s Yummy Festival Feast- Diwali.

Happy Cooking and Happy Eating.

Ingredients:

Chicken (murgi): 1kg

Red chilli powder (sukhno lankar guro): 3 teas-spoons full, mixed with water to make a paste

Garlic (rasun): 15 cloves , chopped well

Mustard oil (sarser tel): 2 table-spoons

Tomato: 3 small sized, 2 of them grinded to make a puree

Onions (peyaj): 1

Cornflour: 2 table-spoons

Vinegar: 1 table-spoons

Spring onions : 2 stalks, chopped

Eggs (dim): 2, beaten well

MSG (ajinamoto): 1/4 teaspoon (optional)

Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Take the chicken , one tomato, one peyaj (cut into half) and boil the whole in a deep pan with sufficient water such that the ingredients get covered with water.
• Take it out , when the chicken is half cooked. Keep the stock for later use.
• Heat oil in a wok and deep fry the half cooked chicken. Keep aside.
• Take some more oil and sauté the garlic for a minute. Add the tomato puree, chilli powder paste, and the stock and bring it to boil. When it starts boiling add salt.
• Take the cornflour in a boil and mix it with water. Add it to the boiling sauce, cook till it gets thickened.
• Now add the chicken along with vinegar , MSG and spring onions to the sauce and mix. Add the beaten egg in trickle and cook till the egg strands rise to top.

Your chicken in chilli garlic sauce is ready to serve , spicy and yummy. Serve hot. Enjoy cooking and happy eating.

Update:

This was the first post I wrote on Cook Like a Bong, the then Here I Cook. Due to the popularity of this post I thought of updating it for my own good, and also for those who come and visit this blog. I used to have an wordpress account at that time and started writing random recipes then. After this one there had been more than 120 posts till today and many more updates in this blog. After an year Kalyan joined and we shifted to our own hosting and domain name. The time when I started this blog I didn’t have a camera, rather a proper camera. So, the picture below was borrowed from Flickr. Days changed, and now I own a Nikon D60, you can have a look at the images in the Flickr account of BengaliCuisine.

Chicken kasha, is a very well known Bengali side-dish almost prepared at every Bengali households. Another one that I prepare quite often  is the chicken keema recipe.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• Chicken -1kg
• Curd(doi) – 150gm
• Onions(peyaj) – 4 big ones
• Garlic(rasun) – 5/6 peeled
• Ginger(aada) -10/20gm
• Turmeric powder(halud) – 2tsp
• Chilli powder(lankar guro) – 3 tsp
• Vegetable or mustard oil – 2 big tablespoons
• Salt to taste

Procedure

First of all clean the chicken very well, let it be under running tap water for at least 5mins. Take the chicken in bowl and then add the curd, 1 big tablespoon of ginger garlic paste, 2 tea spoons of chilli powder , 2 tablespoon of onion juice(chop one onion and grind it in a mixer) and salt . Keep it aside for 3mins.

Heat the oil in a kadai, sauté the chopped onions, and garlic till they become golden brown. Keep aside one-fourth of the onions for garnishing later. Put in the rest of garlic – ginger paste into the sautéed onion and ginger, and just fry for a minute or so. Add the marinated chicken to the kadai and pour 2 cups of water. Put a lid and cook for few minutes.

Check after 5/6mins whether the chicken has become got cooked. If it still seems to be stiff , add some more water and cook for sometime more.

A great smell will fill up your kitchen when it’s cooked. Turn off the stove. Put the cooked chicken in a bowl and garnish it with the fried onions.

Enjoy it with rice, chapatti or paratha.

An addendum

Those of you who are still in love with potatoes can add 2/3 big sized potatoes to it. Cut the potatoes into one-fourth size. Fry till it becomes golden (don’t over fry it) and keep it aside. After adding the chicken, wait for 5mins and then add the fried potatoes to it.

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