Here is the pepper chicken recipe, finally! I’ve been getting requests for this recipe for a long time. Though I came across many recipes, I didn’t find any of it interesting to give it a try. I’m glad to say, the search ends here! Last time when I went to Kerala for holidays, I happened to see a cooking show featuring this recipe. It was a sunday and I was just lazying around, lying down on the sofa, surfing the channels. The moment I heard the word ‘pepper chicken’ on TV, I just jumped out of the sofa, got hold of a piece of paper that I could find and started writing down.

Sometime ago, when I was planning to cook chicken, I thought of this one and started searching for the recipe, but couldnt find. To top it, I wrote it down on a tiny piece of paper. How I wish everything had some kind of button or code attached to it, so that we can give it a ring just like the mobile phone & find it instantly! Dont you think so? Anyways… a few days later, when I opened my recipe diary, some bits of paper fell down. Tada! It was the pepper chicken recipe…

Though I started with the recipe on paper, I ended up with something totally different. It wasn’t intentional, but it happened just like that. Anyways, I’m happy with the end result. I loved the colour, the flavour… Let me tell you, it  turned out quite spicy! You will get the sharp taste of pepper in the first mouthful itself. So please feel free to adjust the spice level to suit your requirements. Since this is a dry preparation, you can use this as a starter also. Btw, I somehow got the feel of a ‘thattukada’ (street food) food from this, may be because of the spiciness and colour of the dish.

Hope you’ll also enjoy this and wish you a spicy weekend ;)

Here goes the step by step pictures…

Marinate the cleaned chicken pieces with salt, pepper powder & lemon juice…

Crush the whole black pepper & keep it aside…

Heat oil in a pan & cook the onions, till it turns dark brown…

Add grated/crushed ginger & garlic, green chilli & curry leaves to the browned onions…

Add masala powders…

Add soya & tomato sauce…

Add 1/4 cup water to the masala…

Add marinated chicken pieces to the masala…

Add 1/2 cup water & let it boil…

Cover & cook till the chicken is done…

The chicken is cooked…

Add curry leaves & roast it a bit more…

 

Shall we start the new year with a spicy curry? I was actually confused whether to post something sweet or something spicy. Since the last two posts were in the sweets/dessert category I’m going with the spicy one. I hope you’ll also like it.

Wish you & your loved ones a wonderful & blessed 2012!

About the recipe… I got it from my aunt’s recipe book. Honestly, I dont know whether this is authentic/traditional Chicken Korma recipe. For all I know, it tasted yum! And that is my biggest criteria! In my perception Korma is something which has a thick gravy. In that way, this curry fitted the bill perfectly and the taste was great too. So here goes the recipe…

 

Its been more than two weeks that we’ve met, right? So how was Diwali? I do hope you had a fun filled festive celebration with loads of sweets & yummy food. Our diwali is usually very much limited to feasting on the yummy diwali sweets given by friends. This time though, I got a big box of sweets from India…. my brother was here :) Now you know the reason for the small break.

Btw, tell me… what do you google the most? I’m just curious. If you ask me, recipes top my search list. When I’m absolutely jobless, I check the stats page of this blog and sometimes I find interesting search words there. Well, most of the search key words are for recipes but sometimes there are exceptions! The other day I just happened to see this one… “how to confront Mallus (Malayalees/Keralites)”. If you are thinking how that search lead up to this space, here is the answer. Anyways, after seeing that the very first question popped up in my head was … are we that difficult a bunch that you need to do a google research on confronting us, what do you think?

I know I know..I’ve been blabbering so much and didnt tell you anything about the recipe. Well.. I happened to have some Bisquick (pancake mix) with me which was nearing its expiration date, so did a quick google search and I ended up with this. This is a very easy appetizer/snack recipe. It takes no time at all to put this together. I actually thought it tasted more like a savoury cookie with sausages in it! If you like sausages, its a good reason to try this, if you like cheese then its another plus and if you like baked snacks than fried ones, then what are you waiting for, start making this already. I should tell you something though… it looks a bit dry, but once you take a bite, you’ll know looks can deceive you ;)

 

Hellooo, how are you? Yep, its been almost a month since we met. First things first… we went to India for a small holiday. However this gap between us wasnt planned. I was hoping to catch up with you in between, but it didnt work out. Anyways, now I’m back in Bahrain & the first thing I wanted to do was to just pop in here & say a quick hi to you. I’m sure you are in a joyous mood with all the festive celebrations. We also had a gala time back home, though it was a very hectic trip. I wanted to collect some recipes for you as well, but all I did was eat, eat & eat more! Haa… how I like it when somebody else has to bother about all the cooking nuances & my role is to just relish those wonderful dishes. Just thinking about it now, makes me hungry & miss all those home cooked food :(

Ok, now let me ask you something…. Was chilli chicken the first thing that you used to order in a restaurant during your school/college days? During my school years, fried rice & chilli chicken was the most happening couple. So whenever we dined out, it used to be the standard menu. I remember my brother even getting angry at us, me & my cousin sisters, for ordering the same thing again & again, instead of trying out something new. Fast forward to present, my preferences have changed, but I still miss those deep dark red coloured chilli chicken that I used to have from Kerala hotels.

Btw, I’ve noticed something, most of the newly married girls, at least the ones I know, learn to cook fried rice & chilli chicken even before learning how to cook the basic everyday stuff. I was also included in that category ;) Were you also like that or are you planning to be like that? I’ve tried different versions of chilli chicken, but I wasn’t completely happy with any particular recipe. I always compared it to the taste of chilli chicken during my childhood days & I felt something was missing. Finally I got this recipe from one of Jose’s aunt. Its not exactly like what I used to have, but we both liked it very much.I think the ground green chilli gives a distinct flavour to this dish. So for the time being, I’m ending my search for chilli chicken recipe here.

Hope you too will like it, here is the recipe:

Above is the picture of Chilli Chicken made by Ramya, based on the above recipe. Thanks dear :)

 

Before giving you the recipe I gotta tell you… My Italian food experience is very much limited to Pizza Hut & pastas from some Italian restaurants here. I havent gone through any Italian cookbook yet. But I guess if reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Italian food experience in Eat, Pray, Love can be considered equivalent to tasting some authentic Italian dishes, then I fit the bill ;) I dont cook pasta much at home. We used to have it somewhat regularly from outside. Now that we are trying (I just said trying) to reduce eating out, I cook it once in a while.

So here’s my version of Chicken Pasta. You can use this recipe as a guideline and play with it to make as per your taste. I sometimes add Cajun seasoning or Sambal Oelek in the pasta, just to flavor it up. If you like your pasta to be flavorful and spicy, try it.

Here you go….

 

Let’s just pretend that there wasnt a small break in between the posts. After all, without the game of the pretending, its kinda impossible to deal with the stuff around you, right? While we are still on the game of pretending… for the past few days, I was pretending that I didnt have a food blog at all! There’s no MariasMenu, no dotcom, nothing…. I just wanted to cook, without worrying about teaspoons & tablespoons, without worrying about how to plate the dish, without worrying about whether I’ll get the right color in the photos, without worrying about what to write as intro etc etc..you get the picture, right? I guess, now that phase is over and I’m slowly switching back to the blogging mode. There is a reason why I did that, but I’ll tell you about it later ;)

About this recipe…somehow I’ve a soft corner towards recipes that have ‘roast’ as its surname. Yeah, I do love their family. They usually have a thick bonding between the ingredients (read thick gravy) & some how I like that strong bonding thing ;) I’m referring to the Kerala style roasts here. One of my fav recipes here is the prawns roast, I just love it. So when I saw this chicken tomato roast, I was sold instantly & it didnt disappoint me. I do hope you will also like this.

 

(Btw, we had some issues with our comments section lately. Though we fixed it, I might have missed a few comments in between. So if you havent got a reply yet, please do buzz me again, ok?)

Here goes the recipe:

 

Hows the Easter preps going on? Waiting to break your lent & gorge on all the meat you could lay your eyes on, eh ;) Here is an Easter special chicken recipe. Now if you ask me, why it’s called Easter chicken, I’m clueless. I got this recipe from my aunt, Tesschechy, during my last vacation. I was hunting for new recipes in her recipe diaries (btw, she has around 10-15 of such diaries) I caught sight of this one. At first glance, I thought it’s a bit complex & lengthy one, so decided not to cut & paste. But she convinced me that this is a must try recipe & she even made it for me to prove her point. She proved her point pretty well!

This recipe is something you wont cook on a daily basis. It’s a rich curry & the cooking time is a bit longer than the usual curries. So I guess it’s called Easter chicken, because it’s usually made on special occasions & whoever came up with the original recipe, made it on a Easter day :) Now, does that make any sense? People often say that my logical reasoning is weird, but I guess it works for me ;)

Btw, I’m not very happy with this picture. I think I wasnt able to capture it well. Hey, did I tell you? We moved to a new apartment & here I’m yet to find a perfect place for my photo shoot. Also “somebody” decided to play around with my camera, so I ended up with all different settings. Now, I just dont know how to go back to the original settings. Too many things to figure out, sigh! Somehow blaming others for all things gone wrong, gives you immense happiness & satisfaction, what say ;)?

On another note, I’m so happy to share with you that this little space crossed the mark of 10,000 + page views per day. It was a great feeling & it’s all because of YOU. Thank You very much for your support & encouragement.

Here’s wishing you & your loved ones a Happy & Blessed Easter! May the risen Christ bless you with peace, happiness & prosperity!

One more thing, just because its called Easter chicken doesnt mean, you can make this only on Easter day. You can make it for any special occasion or make it on an ordinary day & turn that into a special one :) Btw, you can also check out the party menu here, if in case you are still undecided about the Easter menu.

Now, shall we go to the recipe?