Crab or Njandu Varutharacha Curry

CRAB CURRY - KERALA STYLE OR CRAB VARUTHARACHA CURRY OR NAADAN NJANDU CURRY OR NJANDU VARUTHARACHA CURRY

Crab is my all time favorite seafood.  Though it is difficult to deshell it and eat, but for the taste of the flesh inside, you can never ought to miss it. I always make this kerala style curry- crab with coconut gravy - whenever I buy crab. This curry goes well with steamed rice, chappathi, puttu, paalappam, and anything of your choice. Speaking about the health benefits of Crab, it is a great source of protein. It is rich in omega-3 fatty acids required for a healthy heart. It is also rich in Vitamin B2 and minerals such as copper and phosphorous. It is also low on fat keeping your calorie intake low. So a lot of good reasons to eat crab right..... Lets see how to make this delicious crab curry.

Crab Curry

Ingredients :

1. Crab - 1/2 Kg
2. Onion - 1 Big
3. Tomato - 2 Medium sized
4. Ginger - 1'' piece
5. Green Chilly - 2 Big(as per your spice buds)
6. Curry Leaves - 1 Spring
7. Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
8. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
9. Salt - as reqd
10. Water - little

For Grinding :

1. Coconut Grated - 1/2 of one coconut
2. Coconut Oil - 1 Tbsp
3. Small onion - 6-8 Nos
4. Garlic - 5-6 Nos
5. Ginger - one small piece
6. Fennel seeds (Perinjeerakam) - 2 tsp
7. Curry Leaves - 1 Spring
8. Pepper - 2 Tbsp (as per your spice buds)
9. Chilly Powder - 1 Tbsp
10. Coriander Powder - 1 Tbsp

 For Seasoning :

1. Coconut Oil - 2 Tbsp
2. Small Onion - 10-12 Nos
3. Curry Leaves - 1 Spring

 

 Cooking Method :

• Wash and Clean the crab and cut the legs and body separately. Marinate this with salt and turmeric powder.

• Take this marinated crab in a kadai. We normally cook seafood in a manchatti. If it is not available you can very well use a kadai. Chop onions, tomatoes, ginger, green chilly lengthwise and add this to the crab. Add chilly powder and curry leaves and mix well with your hand. Add water just enough for the crab to get cooked. Keep this in the stove on medium flame and cover it with a lid.

• Let the crab get cooked. Meanwhile lets make the coconut paste for the curry. Heat a pan and add coconut oil into it. When the oil is hot, add grated coconut, small onion, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, perinjeerakam and pepper. Fry this on a medium flame till coconut becomes dark brown. It should not get burnt though. At this stage add chilly powder and coriander powder and heat it for about 30 secs and switch off the flame. If you do not have whole pepper you can add pepper powder along with chilly powder and coriander powder. 

• Let this coconut mix cool down. Meanwhile have a look at the crab on the stove. If the crab is cooked put off the flame and keep it aside.

• Now grind the coconut mix to a smooth paste using a mixer grinder. It should blend to a very fine paste.

• Add this coconut paste to the cooked crab. Mix everything well. Add water and dilute the curry little. Keep this curry on the stove on medium flame and boil it well. The raw smell of the coconut paste should go away. Boil it till then. Once it boils well and the curry starts to thicken, put off the flame.

• Next is the seasoning part. Heat a small kadai and pour coconut oil in it. Add the chopped small onion and fry till it becomes golden brown. Add curry leaves to it and season it over the crab curry. 

• Delicious crab curry is ready to be served. It tastes very well with steamed rice, chappathi, puttu, paalappam

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Chicken Chilly Roast

CHICKEN CHILLY ROAST

Today I am going to introduce to you a non-veg dish. It is a spicy dish made with chicken. It is an easy recipe with simple ingredients but the cooking time is little more. It is mainly because of the marination of the chicken. We marinate the chicken in a fine masala, then slightly fry the chicken and then roast it again with onion and ginger garlic paste. It is a crispy roasted dry chicken item which goes very well with chappathi, naan, roti etc. Lets see how to make this yummy chicken chilly roast.

Chicken Chilly Roast

Ingredients :

1. Chicken - 1kg
2. Onion - 2 Big
3. Curry Leaves - Few leaves
4. Garlic - 10 Nos
5. Ginger - 2- 1" inch pieces
6. Green Chillies - 4
7. Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
8. Tomato Sauce - 2 Tbsp
9. Coriander Leaves - a small bunch
10. Oil - For frying and to saute
11. Salt - as reqd 

For Marination :

1. Chilly Powder - 2 Tbsp (As per your spice buds)
2. Coriander Powder - 1 Tbsp
3. Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
4. Chicken Masala - 1 Tbsp
5. Curd - 2 Tbsp
6. Salt - as reqd
7. Lemon Juice - juice of one lemon

Preparation :

• Wash and clean and cut the chicken into medium pieces and prick all the pieces with a fork lightly. This is to allow the marinade to penetrate inside the chicken pieces. 

• Take all the ingredients for marination in a bowl and mix well and make a smooth marinade.You can add little water if required, but be very sure you don't make it watery as there will be some amount of water coming out from chicken. If the marinade becomes too much watery it will not very well coated on the chicken and hence we loose the taste.Now add chicken pieces to this thick marinade and mix well so that the marinade evenly coats on the chicken pieces well. 

• Seal the marinated chicken in an air-tight container and keep it in the fridge overnight. If you are in a hurry at least make sure you refrigerate it for an hour. It is to get that perfect taste when the chicken blends well with the masala.

• Chop one onion lengthwise into thin strips. Heat oil in a pan and fry this chopped onion adding little salt until it turns dark golden brown. Keep this aside. We require this in the final stage of the recipe. 

• Make a fine paste of garlic, ginger and green chilly and keep it aside.

Cooking Method :

 

Lets see the step by step cooking instructions of the recipe.

• Take a frying pan and add some oil into it and keep it on medium flame. This is to shallow fry the marinated chicken.

• Now  add the marinated chicken pieces one by one into the hot oil and fry lightly turning each sides on medium flame.It need not become dark brown colored. It just needs to become mild golden brown but has to be 3/4th cooked. Fry all the chicken pieces in a similar way and keep it aside.

• In the same frying pan, remove the excess oil and keep little oil sufficient to saute and roast the fried chicken.

• Chop the remaining onion lengthwise into fine thin strips. Add this chopped onion into the oil and saute till golden brown.

• Now add the garlic-ginger-green chilly paste to this and mix well. Saute this till the whole mixture starts to leave a nice aroma and the raw smell of garlic is gone. 

• At this stage add a little chilly powder and mix well.

• Before it gets too dry and you start choking lets add the tomato sauce into the mixture and mix well so that it takes up a slightly gravy texture. You can add a little water if needed at this stage. This is if you want a semi-gravy dish. Otherwise you can skip adding water.

• Now add the fried Chicken pieces to this thick gravy and mix well. Since we have marinated the chicken with salt, check and add salt if required.

• Keep the flame low and roast the chicken keeping the lid of the pan open. Mix the dish occasionally so that it doesn't get burnt. This process would approximately take 10-15 minutes. The chicken should get cooked and roasted. The more the time we roast the tastier the recipe comes out.

• After 15 minutes, put off the flame and add fried onion which we had prepared earlier into the chicken and mix well. 

• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve it hot with roti, naan, chappathi, paalappam, karikkappam, Avil Appam  etc.

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Maladdu

MALADDU OR ROASTED GRAM LADDU

Its been a loooonggg time since I Blogged here. Took a long break for the most happiest thing in the world. Yes delivering my second bundle of joy.... It was a long sweet journey and now back at this page all refreshed and rejuvenated with more healthy kids recipies.

To share the happiness let me share with you all today a sweet recipe. This sweet is called Maladdu. Its my mom's special recipe which she prepares for all the functions at home. This sweet is made out of roasted gram flour, powdered sugar and ghee. It is very easy to make and stays good for about 1 - 2 weeks. It is healthy too!!!! Kids would love this sweet. We can always substitute bakery stuffs with these kind of home made sweets for kids. Lets see how to make this sweet - Maladdu

Ingredients :

1.  Roasted Gram    -      1 cup

2. Sugar                   -     1 cup             

3. Ghee                    -     as reqd.

Cooking Method :

• Powder the roasted gram into fine powder and keep it aside
• Powder the sugar into fine powder and keep it aside
• Mix these two powders well in a wide bowl.
• Add ghee little by little to this powder and mix from all sides evenely. Add ghee and mix until you get the texture of a laddu. i.e you should be able to shape it in the form of laddu with your hand.
• Take little of the mix and make laddus using your hand. 
• This maladdu stays  good for one week and two weeks if refrigerated.

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