Chettinad Kuzhambu Milagai Thool / Chettinad Curry Powder / Kuzhambu Powder

Kuzhambu thool / Curry Powder

This is a authentic masala powder recipe for making Kuzhambu / Curries / Gravies.

Ingredients

Chana dal / Kadalai Paruppu  - ¼ cup

Toordal / Thuvaram Paruppu – ¼ cup

Whole Dry red chilly / Kundu Milagai - 20 nos

Coriander seeds / Dhaniya - 1 cup

Cumin seeds / Seeragam - 5 tsp

Whole black pepper / Milagu - 5 tsp

Fenugreek seeds / Vendhiyam - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder  - 2 tbsp

Method

Dry roast each ingredient separately in a kadai ( or let it dry under sun for 2 days). Allow ingredients  to cool and grind in mixer to a fine powder. This Kuzhambu thool can be used to prepare Vathal kuzhambu, Puli kuzhambu or any Non-veg kuzhambu, you can also add this to gravy made with coconut, kormas etc.

Chefs Tip

Make this kuzhambu thool in big batch and store it for upto 6 months.

Traditionally the kuzhambu thool ingredients are sun dried in big batch and given to grind in machine / maavu mill. But since I don't have these facilities in Sydney, I used a blender to grind it so the texture is slightly grainy. 

Chettinad Prawn Vadai / Eral Vadai

Chettinad Prawn Vadai

This my grandmother’s special recipe, this was our holiday tea time snack and brings a lot of childhood memories when I make this these days.

It’s a light and crispy vadai with lots of tiny prawns in it. It’s very difficult to find these tiny prawns these days in the market, if you live nearby seashore you can get these from the fisherman or request your fish-monger for these tiny prawns.  And these tiny prawns are also difficult to clean, at least you need 2 persons to share the cleaning job, I bought 2 kg of these tiny prawns and spent 3 hours cleaning alone. But it was worth my labor.

Ingredients

Tiny prawns ( cleaned and washed) – 500 gms

Chana dal / Kadalai paruppu (soaked in water for 1 hour) – 1 and ½ cup

Rice flour – few tbsp

Onion medium sized ( sliced) – 2 nos

Curry leaves ( chopped) – few

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Cooking soda – generous pinch

Salt to taste

For Masala- coarsely grind below ingredients

Ginger – ¾ inch piece

Garlic – 5 cloves

Whole dried red chilli – 2 nos

Green chilli – 1 no

Fennel seeds / Sombu / Aniseed – 1 tsp

Prawn vadai

Method

1.      Coarsely grind the soaked chana dal. ( if few dals are whole and not ground, its well and good it will keep vadai crispy).

2.      Coarsely grind or pound the ingredients given under masala.

3.      In bowl add the thinly sliced onions, curry leaves, coarsely ground masala, turmeric powder and cooking soda. Mix well the onion and other ingredients with a spoon.

4.      Now add the coarsely ground chana dal to this onion mixture, add required salt( less salt is better)  and mix well again. If the vadai mixture is little loose, add few tbsp of rice flour and mix again.

5.      Finally add the tiny prawns to the chana dal mixture and mix very gently ( you can reserve few prawns to decorate on top of vadai).

6.      Heat oil in a pan to deep fry, when oil is smoking hot simmer the heat to medium.

7.      Shape the vadai mixture to small sized patties( like making vadai) and top each vadai with 2 or 3 reserved prawns and press gently so the prawns stick to vadai.

8.      Carefully drop the vadai to hot oil and cook until crispy and golden in colour.

9.      Drain the vadai on paper towel and serve hot.

This prawn vadai do not require any chutney

Serve as tea time snack

or with steamed rice and sambar.

Eral Vadai

Chef’s tip

1.      If you don’t have tiny prawns, you can substitute it with large prawns but chop the prawns finely.

2.      You can add handful of chopped pudina / mint leaves to vadai mixture for extra flavor.

3.      If you prefer vadai to be more meaty you can add more prawns, it’s absolutely your preference.

Chow Chow Sambar

Chow Chow Sambar

Ingredients

Chow Chow / Chayote / Bangalore Kathirikai ( chopped)– 1 no

Toordal ( cooked and mashed) – ¾ cup

Small onions / Shallots ( chopped)- 10 nos

Tomato ( chopped) – 1 no

Curry leaves ( chopped) – few

Coriander leaves - handful

Tamarind extract – ¼ cup

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Red chilly powder – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil – 2tsp

Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

Asafetida - pinch

Sambar masala ingredients

Coriander seeds – 1 and 1/4 tbsp

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds / Vendhayam – ¼ tsp

Chettinad Chow Chow Sambar

Method

1.      Dry roast and grind ingredients given under sambar masala to fine powder.

2.      Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, asafetida  and curry leaves and allow to splutter.

3.      Add onions and sauté until onions turn soft, now add the chopped chow chow and stir fry for a minute.

4.      Add the tomato to the pan and sauté until tomato is cooked and mushy, add red chili powder, turmeric powder, freshly ground sambar powder and give a stir.

5.      Add the tamarind extract, a cup of water and required salt to pan.

6.      Bring sambar to boil, cover pan with lid and simmer sambar on low heat for 5 mins until the raw taste of tamarind leaves and chow chow is cooked.

7.      Finally add the cooked toor dal and coriander leaves, stir well and turn of the heat.

8.      Serve hot chow chow sambar with

Steamed rice and Potato fry

Idly or Dosa.

Chefs tips

1.      Freshly ground sambar masalas gives fresh aroma to sambar or you can substitute it with 1 tbsp of store bought or home-made sambar powder.

Chettinad Chicken Fry - Restaurant Style

Chettinad Chicken Fry - Restaurant Style

This is a chicken leg roast recipe which you can find commonly in Chettinad hotels and restaurants. I have a added Ajinomoto to this recipe as they do in resturants to get nice taste and flavor, if you prefer to omit you can and it still tastes good.

Chicken thigh and drumstick attached – 2 nos ( or ½ kg pieces)

Ginger and Garlic paste – 2 tbsp

Red chilli powder – 1 and ¼ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Fennel powder – 1 tsp

Garam masala powder – 1 tsp

Ajinomoto – ¼ tsp

Tandoori food color - pinch

Lime juice – ½ tsp

Salt to taste

Oil required

Curry leaves - few

Chettinad Chicken Leg Roast

Method
1. Marinade chicken drumsticks with ginger and garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, fennel powder, ajinomoto, tandoori food color and lime juice for at least 10 mins.
2. Heat oil in a pan add chicken pieces and curry leaves, fry for 2 mins until chicken pieces turn brown.
3. Now add 1/2 cup water and required salt to the chicken in the pan, stir and mix well.
4. Cover the pan with tight lid, reduce pan heat and simmer chicken for 15 mins or until chicken is fully cooked and tender.
5. Once chicken is cooked, remove lid, increase pan heat and fry until chicken is dry and roasted.
Serve hot with
Steamed rice and
Sambar