Spicy Country Chicken Kurma / Naatu kozhi Kurma

After reading a article about the broiler chicken effects from FB, now i try to use mostly country chicken only. Though they have less flesh, our family started liking its taste now a days. So here is the recipe, which I prepared yesterday.

Ingredients
To marinate

• Country Chicken - 1/2 kg
• Chilli powder - 3 to 4 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp

To grind

• Grated coconut - 4 tsp
• Poppy seeds - 2 tsp
• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

For gravy

• Oil - 3 tsp
• Cloves - few
• Cinnamon stick - 1 inch
• Fennel/Saunf - 1/2 tsp
• Star Anise - 1
• Ginger garlic paste
• Curry leaves - few
• Dry red cillies - 2 
• Onion - 1 big
• Tomato - 1 
• Salt - as needed
• Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method

• Wash the country chicken and mix with chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt and leave it aside for 1 hr.

• In a mixer grinder, add the grated coconut, poppy seeds and 1 tsp fennel seeds and little water.

• Grind to a smooth paste

• Set it aside

• In a pan, add oil and when hot, add fennel seeds, star anise, cinnamon stick, bay leaf and cloves

• Add onions and saute for a minute adding salt.

• Add dry red chillies, currry leaves and fry for a min and ginger garlic paste.

• Again saute the onions till it becomes soft.

• Add tomato and saute again.

• Add the marinated chicken pieces.

•  Country chicken, takes more time to cook and so, add more water and let it cook till the chicken becomes tender.

• Now addin the coconut paste and add some more water and allow to cook for another 5 min.

• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.

Note:

I have added more chilli powder while marinating the chicken itself. if want to reduce, you can reduce the chilli powder while marinating and add it later as per your taste.

Quinoa Payasam / Quinoa kheer / Payasam Recipes

I never heard about quinoa until I came into the blogging world. Hope many of you also like me. First time I saw this in Mustafa Centre, but did not buy as I have no idea what to do. After that I searched net and came across some great recipes. I saw many of our friends trying this payasam and I too thought of trying the sweet recipe first, which also suits for my event.

Ingredients

• Quinoa seeds - 1 cup
• Water - 2 cups
• Salt - a pinch (optional)
• Milk - 3/4 litre
• Sugar - 1.5 cups (adjust accordingly to the sweetness)
• Nuts - few cashews, almonds, pista
• Raisins - few
• Few strands of saffron
• Ghee for frying the nuts - 1 tsp

Method

• Wash and cook quinoa with 2 cups of water and salt in the pressure cooker for 3 whistles.

• In a small pan, add ghee and fry the nuts and raisins and keep aside.
• In a wide pan, add the milk and saffron and allow the milk to boil.

• Now add in the cooked quinoa and sugar and let it cook for 5 minutes.

• Add the fried nuts and raisins, give a stir.
• Healthy and delicious quinoa payasam is ready to be served. 

Note: 
Quinoa can be cooked without the pressure cooker also, but takes more than 10 min.
Salt is optional. We used to add a pinch of salt as we feel it enhances the taste.

This goes to my event Dish name starts with Q