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…

 

I’m very excited to post this recipe! This is the first recipe with a full set of step by step pictures – a recipe picture tutorial :). You remember the survey we took some time ago? Step by step pictures topped the list of features desired on this blog. This was something I never thought of doing. So thanks for your suggestion! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a person who is passionate about taking photos. I like it, but don’t love it. But since you asked for it, I decided to give it a try. Though I’m not promising this for all the recipes. Sometimes I completely forget about it and at times I remember it only half way through the cooking. Anyways, I’ll try my best to keep it going. I’ve kept the size of the pictures small, because already there are some complaints that this site takes time loading. I dont want to test your patience any further ;)

I’ve posted fish cutlet recipe before, but this recipe is somewhat different from that. Canned tuna is something I stock up in my kitchen cupboards. I mainly stock it for two reasons… there is no hazzle of cleaning the fish and it gets cooked in a jiffy. I think there is a mixed reaction for the canned tuna. Some people like it, while others just dont. But let me tell you something, if you make this cutlets, its hard to tell whether its tuna. With all the spices and masala it almost, well I said almost.. tastes like chicken. Btw, if you cant stand the taste of tuna, you can try this recipe with chicken also. I’ve given the details in notes section of the recipe.

Other thing about the recipe is that, this is more like bakery style cutlet recipe. If you check out my previous cutlet recipes, you can see that there are no masala powders other than garam masala. But if you’ve tried the bakery cutlets, you can see that the filling is a bit yellowish in colour and you get more masala taste. Though I’m a big fan of homemade cutlets, I like bakery cutlets too, just for the different taste. After all, you know my love for bakery food ;)

This is the first time I’ve tried adding veggies to tuna cutlets. I got this idea from my aunt, Tesschechy. I happened to take some tuna cans for her. She wanted to make tuna cutlets for a family get together. But since she had to feed an army, she added some veggies and oppikalfied (adjusted) the qty for the whole bunch. I liked it very much and wanted to try it since then. Also this is one of those snacks/appetizers which you can make ahead. It sure comes handy when you are lazy to cook ;)

Here is the step by step pictures:

Canned tuna

Boiling the potatoes..

Cooking chopped onions, ginger & garlic, green chilli & curry leaves…

Adding grated carrots & chopped beans..

Adding masala powders..

Adding tuna pieces..

Mixing tuna mixture & boiled potatoes..

Cutlet mix is ready..

Shaping the cutlets..

 Egg white batter & bread crumbs for dipping & rolling the shaped cutlets..

Ready to fry/freeze…

Patties in between layers of parchment paper..

Here is the recipe:

 

I went a bit overboard with this cake… Chocolate cake with butter cream & ganache! There’s a reason… it’s our wedding anniversary :) Baking a cake is not part of our anniversary tradition. It very much depends on my mood. Anyways, this year I thought I’ll be a bit extravagant with the cake ;) After the cake was done, I was impatiently waiting for Jose to come home from office, so that we could cut it. Got the cake from the fridge, got the knife and was waiting to hear the wonderful things about the cake. Here it comes… “is this cake tilted?” Ohh yes… that’s what he notices first, not the roses, not the hearts but the ’tilting’ of the cake. But then… I was expecting this, after all some things never change ;)

People say marriage is one adventurous journey with both smooth drives and bumpy roads. We’ve also had our share of dramas and ups and downs. At times we drive each other crazy, at times we make each other laugh our hearts out and most importantly we make each other happy! That matters the most to me.

Now about the cake, it tasted great (if I should say so myself). I should say the chance of a moist chocolate cake slathered with butter cream & ganache going wrong, is almost next to impossible. It all tastes good, on their own, so you can imagine how it tastes when it’s put together :) I got the cake recipe from my dearest friend & neighbor Sonia. This cake is super moist, I think my ultra moist chocolate cake has a strong competition now. Thanks a lot Sonia for sharing this wonderful recipe with me. The butter cream recipe is adapted from here. Dont get scared by the length of the recipe, its pretty simple to put together, trust me.

Btw, here is a step by step pictures of making the cake:

     

 

 

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…

 

Have you finalised your Christmas Menu yet? Is there a vacant spot for a dessert? If so, here’s a quick and simple dessert. No baking, no cooking (almost), just assemble the layers and a yummy dessert is ready! I got this recipe from my friend, Anila. She got it from one of her friends… A big thank you to whoever discovered this recipe :) Since you’re busy with holiday preps, I’m not taking much of your time.

But before you go…

 Jose & myself wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas! May this festive season bring you joy, happiness & peace!

Shall we go to the recipe?

 

Do you believe in impression management? Hhhmm I’m not quite sure whether I’m for or against it. I mean, I’m against faking & portraying myself as something which I’m not but at the same time I dont want total strangers to see the meaner side of me ;) So, that puts me somewhere in the middle. As per Jose, that’s a no man’s land, because you can’t be lukewarm. You should be either hot or cold.

Anyways, what I was trying to say is that, if you want to impress somebody with your cooking skills, this recipe is a sure bet. I’ve posted quite a few prawns recipes, but prawns roast was the one which did the impression management trick for me with the guests. I was slowly getting bored with it. That’s when this video appeared on my FB page. This is my friend Ligy’s mother-in-law’s recipe. The original recipe uses crab, but I wanted to try with prawns. I checked with Ligy & she gave me a green flag for the prawns & you see the end result here.

I dont know whether I’ve told you this before… when I try certain recipes, I’m kinda restless till I post it here. Of course, I like all the recipes that I post here & I just dont post recipes for the sake of it. But with some recipes, I’m so excited with the outcome that I just wanna share it with you at the earliest. So go ahead and try this!

I’ve got  requests for Crab recipes & I guess this recipe should solve that. A big thank you to Ligy & her MIL for sharing this wonderful recipe. Btw, this post is named as crab roast (though I’ve used prawns) to avoid confusing it with the prawns roast recipe posted earlier. Hope I didn’t confuse you more ;)

Please visit epathram to see Malayalam version of this recipe.

Here you go…

After seeing the picture of the Mocha Chocolate Chips Cupcake in FB, one of my friends, asked whether I have cupcakes n stuff on a daily basis. Its one of those questions that I get asked very often. Because of this blog, most people assume that I cook extravagantly on a daily basis. Let me set the record straight. I like cooking but I dont like slogging in kitchen day in & day out. Given the option (which is once in a while), I prefer to eat out! If by chance you come unannounced to our place, I’ll end up serving you a pile of “Takeaway”-Menus to choose from ;)

Though I like to cook more variety, I or rather we prefer the usual Kerala fare on a daily basis. Mostly when we go for trips, I’ll be all excited to try the different food varieties & eat all exotic dishes. But after two days of the trip, I’ll start craving for some choru (rice) n kachimoru (buttermilk curry) – plain and simple.

Here is the recipe: