Kuzhi Paniyaram

Kuzhi paniyaram is the most popular chettinad food served with hot and spicy chutneys.  I make this dish very rarely as it consumes more oil in the preparation.  Adding more vegetables, greens & lentils makes this dish little nutricious to the kids.  "Best dish for those who wants to gain weight" but it taste simply superb.

Ingredients :

1. Dosa / Idly batter -  2 cups
2. Finely chopped onion - 1 no
3. Green chillies -2 to 3 nos
4. Finely grated carrot - 1 small sized
5. Curry leaves - 1 tbsp
6. Coconut pieces - 1 tsp
7. Oil - 1 tsp and for greasing the paniyaram mould
8. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
9. Urad dal - 1 tsp
10. Corrainder leaves - 1tsp
11. Salt to taste

Direction to cook :

1.   Heat a tsp of oil in the pan, add mustard seeds, urad dal & curry leaves.  Add finely chopped onion & green chillies.  Saute till tender.

2.  To the dosa / idly batter, add the above seasonings.  And add the grated carrot, coconut pices, corriander leaves & salt to taste.

3.   Heat the paniyaram mould & grease it with oil.  Pour the batter in the each mould & cook on either side till golden brown in color.

Serve warm with spicy chutney.

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Potato Masala (poori masala)

Simple & spicy curry made with smashed potatoes often served with dosa, chapathi or poori.  Any leftovers can be used as a stuffing inside the samosa or as the breakfast sandwiches.  Potato masala occupies the most prominent role in the south indian breakfast menus at home, hotel & in celebrations.  Its been little long time wish for my DH to serve him complete breakfast like dosa, potato masala, chutneys, sambar & vada for any weekends.  Hope I bring his dreams true shortly :)  

Ingredients :

1. Potato - 2 large sized
2. Oil - 1 tbsp
3. Channa dal - 1 tsp
4. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
5. Finely chopped ginger - 1 tsp
6. Green chillies - 3 to 4 nos
7. Curry leaves - 1 tbsp
8. Onion - 2 nos
9. Tomato - 1/2 
10. Green peas (or) carrot - little less than 1/4 cup (optional)
11. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
12. Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
13. Cashewnuts (roasted) - 1 tbsp
14. Salt to taste
15. Corriander leaves for garnishing

Direction to cook :

1.   Boil, peel & smash the potatoes.  Add salt & chilly powder (optional) and keep aside.

2.   Heat oil in the pan, add channa dal, mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chillies, chopped ginger & onions.  Saute till tender.

3.   Add green peas (or) carrot & turmeric powder.  Cook till done.  

4.   Add tomato & smashed potatoes.  Adjust the salt.  Cook for 5 mins on low-medium flame.

5.   Garnish with corriander leaves & roasted cashewnuts.

Serve warm.

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Chicken cutlet

Chicken is our staple weekend menu.  I made plain semi-dry chicken masala (as mentioned under stuffing ingredients) on sunday but suddenly we planned to have our lunch outside.  Finally, we had the chicken masala with rotis for dinner.  And with the leftover I made this delicious chicken cutlet & enjoyed our tea time little spicy and yummy :)

Ingredients :

For stuffing :

1. Boneless chicken - 500 gms
2. Onion - 1 no
3. Cinnamon stick - 1 no
4. Cloves - 2 nos
5. Elachi - 1 no
6. Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
8. Chilly powder - 1 tsp
9. Corriander powder - 1 tsp
10. Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
11. Oil - 1 tsp
12. Salt to taste
13. Corriander leaves for garnishing

For covering :

1. Boiled potatoes - 4 nos
2. Salt to taste
3. Egg White
4. Bread crumps - 1 cup
5. Oil for shallow frying

Directions to cook :

#   Heat oil in the pan, add all the spices & onion.  Saute till golden brown in color.

#   Add ginger garlic paste, chilly powder, turmeric powder, corriander powder & cleaned chicken pieces.  Cover and cook till tender.

#   Finally add garam masala & corriander leaves.  Keep aside.

#   Mash the boiled potatoes with salt.  Keep aside.

#   Beat the egg with a pinch of salt.  Keep aside.

#   Spread the bread crumps in a wide plate.

#   Make a small ball from the mashed potatoes and stuff a spoon of chicken masala.  Seal the edges & make a flat disc shape patties. 

#   Dip the patties in the egg & immediately in the bread crumps.   Shallow fry them in the cooking oil & serve warm with tomato ketchup.

Enjoy :)

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Crispy rava dosa

Most of the time, the last few scoops of dosa batter will be leftover.  By adding few other ingredients to that makes the best & crispy rava dosa.  Taste yum with spicy chutneys and sambar.

Ingredients :

1. Dosa batter - 1/2 cup
2. Rava - 1/2 cup
3. All purpose flour - 1/4 cup
4. Onion - 1 no (finely chopped)
5. Green chillies - 4 to 5 nos (finely chopped)
6. Curry leaves - 1 tbsp
7. Cumin seeds -1 tsp
8. Black pepper - 1 tsp
9. 1 Grated carrot
10. Salt to taste
11. Water

Directions to cook :

Mix all the ingredients together.  The final batter should be little thin than normal dosa batter.  Heat the pan, pour 1 big scoop of batter & rotate it.  Pour some oil arround the edges.  Cook till either sides are brown and crispy.

Serve with chutney & sambar.

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Chicken curry & chicken kuruma with leftover mint chutney

It gives us a little happiness to see when there is no leftover. But the fact is, even the leftover can be turned to yet another delicious dishes. I made mint chutney morning & with the left over I made chicken curry for the afternoon & chicken kuruma for the night.

It was nice to see and taste different dishes from morning till night. Addition of mint will enhances the flavour & taste. It taste great :)

Chicken curry

Ingredients :

1. Chicken - 500 gms
2. Cinnamon - 1 stick
3. Cloves - 3 nos
4. Finely chopped onion - 2 nos
5. Riped Tomato - 1 large
6. Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
8. Chilly powder - 2 tsp (as per us spice level)
9. Mint chutney (leftover) - I used 3 to 4 tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Oil - 2 tsp

Directions to cook :

# Clean & cut the chicken into small pieces.

# Heat oil in the pan, add cinnamon stick & cloves.

# Add finely chopped onion & saute it for 3 min. Add ginger garlic paste.

# Add finely chopped tomatoe, turmeric powder & then chilly powder.

# Add the salt & mint chutney. Cover and cook till chicken becomes tender.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

Chicken kuruma

Ingredients :

1. Leftover chicken curry
2. Coconut paste (according to the qty of curry)
3. Salt to taste
4. Corriander leaves.

Directions to cook :

# Grind the coconut to a fine paste.

# Mix the chicken curry & coconut paste. Add some water for little thin consistency.

# Allow them to boil. Add salt & garnish with finely chopped corriander leaves.

Perfect for rotis.

Sending this to the event "The Potluck - Chicken" hosted by Viki.

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