Monday 1 August 2011

Kombdiche Kaalvan..chicken curry for the ckp soul..low calorie version

This is कोंबडीचे कालवण with a difference: no frying onions! I hate to fry onions..actually I hate to fry anything and so I tried out baking the onions whole and it worked perfectly well! This recipe is for quite a spicy version, vary the spices as per taste.
Ingredients: Serves 4
1. 1/2 kg chicken, curry cut into small pieces. Country(free-range) chicken tastes best. Have all the fat/skin removed.
2. 2 medium sized onions whole
3. Peppercorns: 8
4. Cloves: 2
5. Cinnamon stick: 1 inch long
6. Shredded Dry coconut: 1 tbspn..optional
7. Ginger: half inch piece
8. Garlic: about 20 cloves or one whole garlic
9. 2 green chillies
10. Turmeric powder: 1 tspn
11. Red chilli powder: 2 tspn
12. Salt: 2 tspn
13. Lemon juice: 2 tspn
14. Filtered groundnut oil/ghee: 2 tspn
15. Asafoetida ( हिंग ) : pinch
16: Water: as required for the gravy, I use 2 cups for a thick gravy.
17. Coriander leaves: chopped, 2 tbspn

Procedure:
1. Prepare the marinade by making a paste out of the ginger, garlic and green chillies, lemon juice and salt. Keep aside.
2. Clean the chicken. Apply the marinade to the chicken pieces by hand until the chicken pieces are completely coated. Try and rub in the marinade.
3. Let the chicken marinate for at least an hour. You could even marinate the chicken and refrigerate it overnight and cook it the next day.
4. Preheat oven at 150 deg celsius. Place the cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns and the two whole onions(unpeeled) into the oven.
5. Take out the spices after you hear popping sounds from the cloves, this will take 3-4 minutes.
6. Continue to bake the whole onions for about 20 minutes.
7. While the onions are baking, do the following:
     a. Grind to a powder the roasted spices and shredded coconut. Let it remain in the mixie jar.
     b. Heat the oil/ghee in a wok ( कढई ). Add the asafoetida.
     c. Add the marinated chicken to the wok and cover. Let the chicken begin to cook.
8. Take out the onions from the oven. Peel them. The onions turn transparent inside when completely cooked. Cool them and grind them along with the powdered spices. 
Note: It's important to grind the spices and dried coconut separately before the onions as the spices are hard and need more grinding.
9. Add water, ground onions and spices to the wok and let the chicken come to a boil. Simmer covered for 10 minutes and switch off the heat. Garnish with coriander leaves.
11. Eat steaming hot with rice or chapati.

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