Chicken Vindaloo

Four years ago my Father In Law gifted me a recipe book called 101 Parsi Recipes by Jeroo Mehta. Until then I had never heard of her. It is only then I realised that Jeroo Mehta is considered to be the doyenne of Parsi Cuisine. The book was first published in the year 1973 much before I was born! Since my experiments in the kitchen were growing, this was a very welcome addition in my kitchen.

To be honest I didn't make too many dishes from the book in all these years except for few egg recipes. This weekend I thought of celebrating the Nowruz / Navroze or the Parsi New Year by making Chicken Vindaloo from the book. I followed the recipe as much as I could; but had to make few "adjustments" here and there. Like the Assamese in me, prompted me to use Mustard oil. It's a belief that non vegetarian dishes taste better if cooked in Mustard oil. That's something I can't change though I have tasted many dishes cooked in various other oils and they taste super. All in the mind you see.

Here's the recipe as I followed - 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 kg Chicken ( I was only cooking for myself)

1 large onion, finely sliced

2 dried Red Kashmiri chilies.

1 tea spoon of Ginger Garlic Paste.

1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds.

One major change here that I did was that I used the ready made Ginger Garlic paste. Mehta's recipe suggested that one piece ginger, 4-5 garlic cloves,  1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds and the kashmiri red chilies were to grind to a paste with 2 tablespoon of vinegar. I just ground the red chillies with vinegar.

2 Table spoons of vinegar to cook.

1 Cinnamon stick

2 Green Chillies, slit and seeded ( optional) 

1/2 Teaspoon Sugar

1 Teaspoon salt or as per your taste.

2 Tablespoons oil to cook ( It was vegetable oil in the book, I used mustard oil )


METHOD

Heat oil and fry the sliced onion till they become pale golden.
Add the ginger garlic red chilies vinegar masala paste and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the chicken pieces, 2 tablespoons vinegar, cinnamon stick, green chilies and salt. I would like to mention here that the chicken that I had at home was boneless. Mix everything together well and let the chicken cook for 10 minutes. 
Add one cup of hot water, bring to boil then simmer, covered till the chicken is cooked. 

The recipe mentioned to add few small potatoes at this stage. I skipped that. 

When the chicken is cooked, add sugar as per your taste.

I must say, the result was something I myself relished so much. I had that with Masoor Pulav. 
But the chicken was definitely the highlight of the lunch. Hence, after a long time I decided to share this a recipe in my blog. 

Narasingha Diya Masor jool

Since last evening I was craving for a typical Assamese fish preparation called Narasigha Masor Jool / Fish curry with Curry leaves. We all know what health benefits curry leaves carry within them. Back home, this fish curry used to be a special one; not very regularly cooked like the other tangy preparation or Masor tenga. But atleast once in a month this was made specially if anyone was unwell and was suffering from loss of appetite. We in Assam eat river fish. So this is also made with river fishes.

Here it goes :

Ingredients 

A bunch of tender curry leaves / Narasingha paat ( in Assamese)
Few fish pieces ( I cooked Katla / 3 pieces)
One boiled Potato ( optional)
Turmeric ( To marinate and to put into the curry)
Salt ( To marinate and to put into the curry)
Half tea spoon of mustard seeds
One teaspoon of black pepper powder.
Mustard oil 

Method

Wash the fish pieces and add turmeric and salt and keep aside for 10 minutes. Wash the curry leaves and grind them. I remember while growing up there were a pair of mortar and pestle at home and curry leaves were ground using these. But now it's the job of a grinder. 

Half fry the fish pieces in mustard oil and keep aside. Add one table spoon of mustard oil into a kadahi / vessel. When the oil gets hot, splutter some mustard seeds. Add little turmeric and salt as per taste. Pour the ground curry leaves paste. Let it cook for 5 minutes. Coarsely mash the boiled potato and add into the curry leaves at this stage. As everything gets mixed well, add 2 cups of hot water. Bring this curry to boil. Add the fish pieces now and sprinkle a teaspoon of black pepper powder. Let the fish curry boil for 6-7 minutes. 



Serve hot with steamed rice.

While the curry was boiling, the aroma of the curry leaves filled the kitchen and transporting me back to my childhood. This was the aroma of afternoons at home on school holidays. Why did I grow up!