Chicken 65

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken- 500gm (Cut into small pieces. use boneless chicken if needed)
Ginger - 2" piece (Cut into small pieces)
Green chilli- 3 to 4(slit)
Curry leaves - 1 handsfull( 3 or 4 sprigs)
Oil- enough to deep fry the chicken
Butter - 2 tbsp
Tomato ketchup - 3 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Initial marination:
Lime juice - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste

For marinating:
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Red food colour(optional)
Yoghurt - 1 tbsp
Tomato paste - 2 tsp ( If you do not have tomato paste, boil a tomato till its skin cracks. Cool it, peel off the skin and smash it. This becomes tomato paste)


DIRECTIONS:

1. First marinate the chicken with lime juice, turmeric and salt. Set aside for 10 mins.
2. Next, make a paste of the ingredients mentioned for marinating. Take half of this mix and marinate the chicken with it. Leave it for another 30 mins.
3. Deep fry the chicken. Make sure the chicken is cooked well.
4. In a pan, heat butter and 2 tbsp oil(oil used to deep fry the chicken).
5. Add the ginger, green chillies and curry leaves. Saute till the raw smell of the ginger goes off.
6. To it add the remaining half of the marinade. Cook for a minute.
7. Add the fried chicken pieces and cook for a 2 minutes.
8. Next, add the sugar and tomato ketchup. Mix well for another minute.
9. Adjust the salt and your chicken 65 is ready to be served!

Kerala style Baked chicken

INGREDIENTS:

Whole chicken - 1.2 lbs ( I used cornish chicken. It's a small chicken and sufficient for two people)
Lime juice - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp (reduce it according to your needs)
Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Pepper- 1/2 tsp
Yoghurt - 1 tbsp
Vegetable Oil - 4 tbsp
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:
1. Marinate the chicken with lime juice and salt.
2. In a bowl, mix the remaining ingredients and rub it on the chicken. You can leave the skin on or take it off. In the picture, the chicken is baked with the skin on.
3. If marinade is too dry, add 1 or 2 tbsp of water.
4. Marinate it for minimum 15 mins. the longer the better.
5. Preheat oven to 375 deg F.
6. Grease the baking pan and place the chicken with breast side on top. Thisis because, it takes longer for the breast meat to cook.
7. Bake this side for 45 mins, then turn over the chicken and bake for another 20 mins.
8. After that, bake again for 15 mins with breast side up. Baking time may vary depending on the weight, so make sure that the chicken is cooked properly before you pop it out.
9. Also during baking, try basting the chicken with a little butter or with the juices that run out of the chicken. This will keep the skin moist.
10. As an added attraction, you can try filling the cavity with boiled eggs or steamed veggies!

Easy Appam (Rice Pancake)

This recipe is very simple and very very unlikely to fail. I have tried a lot of appam recipies that failed one after the other. But this one is a hit. It can never go wrong and does not have any complicated procedure. So go ahead and try and enjoy your appam!

INGREDIENTS:

Basmati rice - 1 cup
Boiled rice - 1 cup
Coconut milk- 1 cup (If you are lazy to grate the coconut and then take the milk, try using the coconut milk powder. Dissolve 4 to 5 tbsp of coconut milk powder in 1 cup of warm water)
Yeast - 1 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp for grinding + some more before making it
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:
1. Soak basmati rice in water for 3 hours.
2. Drain off the water and grind the raw rice in a blender by pouring required amount of coconut milk. Be careful not to pour the whole coconut milk. Sometimes, 1 cup of coconut milk will not be needed.
3. This should be done properly. Try to avoid tiny bits of rice in the batter.
4. Once this is done, add the cooked rice and pulse it. Pour coconut milk if necessary as the batter will thicken after putting the boiled rice.
5. Now add the yeast and sugar and pulse again.
6. Check for the batter consistency. Adjust it with the coconut milk.
7. Place the batter in the oven and turn on the oven light. This way the oven will be slightly warm which will help the batter to rise quickly.
8. Usually, it takes less than 4 hours for the batter to rise.
9. Adjust the salt and sugar before making the appam.

This batter makes 10 appams.

Tips for making appam:

Once the appam chatti ( pan in which appam is made) is hot, pour about 4 to 5 tbsp of batter into the center of the chatti. Keep it on the stove for about 5 secs. Then take it and swirl it around to make the lace. Cover and cook till the sides leave the pan and the bottom of the appam have become light brown in colour.