Varutharacha Kozhi Curry - Chicken in Roasted Coconut Gravy

For a varutharacha kozhi curry, a naadan chicken meat will be the best tasting one than the broiler chicken. Naadan chicken needs more cooking time than broiler chicken. I was not aware of the different breeds /types of chicken, other than broiler and naadan /desi chicken. Now there is something called english chicken, where the meat is more like naadan chicken meat and need more cooking time and this meat is really good for making a curry like this.

Ingredients

1 kilo - Chicken, cut to small pieces

1 big - Potato, quartered

1 big - Tomato, quartered

2'' piece - Ginger

6 big - Garlic

1/2 cup - Shallots / Small red onion

2 - Green chili, slit in center

1/2 tsp -Pepper powder

2 to 3 stalks - Curry leaves

To roast & grind to smooth paste

1 to 1.5 cup - Freshly grated coconut

4 - Star anise

2 small stick - Cinnamon sticks

3 - Cloves

2 - Green cardamom seeds

3 tbsp - Coriander powder

1 tsp - Red chili powder

1 tsp - Turmeric powder

Garnishing

8 to 10 big - Shallots

3 stalks - Curry leaves

Coconut oil

Method

1 ) Wash chicken well and drain. Coarsely crush, ginger, then garlic, then shallots in a blender.

2 ) Heat coconut oil in a cooker, add curry leaves, then coarsely crushed, ginger-garlic- shallot and green chili. Fry in the oil till light brown in color. Add potato pieces, stir and fry for few minutes. Then add chicken pieces, pepper powder, tomato, salt to taste and stir and fry for a minute. Then add enough water to cook the chicken. Close the cooker with its lid and pressure cook for 15 minutes.

2 ) Meanwhile, heat a kadai /wok with little coconut oil, add grated coconut, star anise, cinnamon, clove, cardamom seed and fry/roast on low heat till the coconut turns deep brown in color. Now add coriander powder, red chili powder and turmeric powder. Stir and fry till the powders turn to a deep brown color on low heat. Cool and grind to a smooth paste with little water.

3 ) Open the cooker and check if the meat is well cooked. If not simmer and cook for little more time with lid open. Add the ground coconut masala to the the cooked chicken, add enough water for the gravy and bring to a boil. Add curry leaves and stir.

4 ) In the side, heat coconut oil in the kadai/ wok and fry the shallots to a deep brown color. Pour this browned shallots with oil on top of the chicken curry and garnish it.

Serve hot with rice, appam, pathiri or puttu.

Homemade Popcorn

I popped some pop corn and thought of sharing it here with all of you. Smeared with some utterly, butterly delicious butter and seasoned with salt, it's good to go. Now you can flavor the pop corn as to your taste. Add chili powder to make it spicy, sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese to make it cheesy. Whatever it is, there is one ingredient, that add a lot of flavor to the pop corn and that is the coconut oil. I remember watching food network channel, where they mentioned to use coconut oil to get the same taste to the pop corn that is made at the movies.

Ingredients

1/2 cup - Corn Kernels
3 to 4 tbsp - Coconut oil
2 to 3 tbsp - Butter
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Use a cooker or a heavy bottom utensil with tight lid to make the pop corn. Heat coconut oil in the cooker. Let the oil heat up on medium- high heat. To test if the oil is hot enough for the kernels to pop, add 2-3 kernels to the oil and once it pops, the oil is ready.

2 ) Add the kernels to the cooker and close with a tight lid. Once the kernels starts popping, shake the cooker back and forth to evenly pop the kernels. Once the popping slows down, turn off the stove. Transfer the pop corn to another big enough utensil. Melt butter and pour over the pop corn, toss, sprinkle salt to taste. Toss well to get the butter and salt evenly on all corns.

Now enjoy this home made pop corn.