Coorg Style Chicken curry with Homemade Spice Powder

Spring - a time of resurrection and renewal.- everything feels new, everything's up for a change and me too..the trees with new lea.....
Oh C'mon I have been trying to concentrate and write this post for the past 30 minutes,and all I am doing is typing and deleting ..

"Coffee hun"

"Oh Yes" .....hastily walking to the counter oblivious of the people around

"Thanks Kim" and the usual chit chat about weather, family, my new coral shoes, and the handsome guy -N who is yet to set foot here, after his new year oath to read more ! Yeah well, Tablets are a good excuse too.

I am in my regular near -by- home cafe / book shop, where people know my name, where I don't have to build a coffee ; its "the usual today hun"? - a grande white chocolate mocha for the last couple of years.

Slowly walking back to my corner spot, browsing through the beautiful display of coffee mugs,I suddenly felt a lot of eyes falling on my new coral colored shoes - so much for the loud laughter and friendly banter with Kim. That's when our eyes met . The beautiful skinny B@#$@# and the almost Ben Affleck look alike - the reason behind my poor concentration. "I wish I had never seen your face"- Its written all over my face!
Like N says I m so bad at "concealing" my "thoughts" on my" face "! If I dont like anything , you can see it right on my face . U know ur face is the mirror to your mind kind of thing.

I slide into my corner table, the screen staring at me with thoughts on Spring ..blah .blah ..blah..I have to make a spring-summer reading list, dozen books overcrowding my tiny table,waiting for their fate..and a big fat Federal Legislation book, which I have to read and learn within a couple of weeks.
...."I wish I had never seen your face"...thoughts thoughts go away and never ever come again..Why the hell did I eavesdrop ? 

I have met a lot of writers and writers-to-be in this cafe/bookshop. I am so comfortable here that I have shared my theoretical knowledge of writing a novel to total strangers and I listen to their experience of writing it ! This is where the golden advice from creative writing class was reinforced "scan your surroundings for your characters " I have tried to do that ever since by eavesdropping and eaves-reading, and sometimes simply by observing. Though I am not an aspiring writer like the lot I see here, I love scribbling my thoughts and memories and creating plots . But the people -no I should call them characters - I see around me ,are so diversified, funny and witty, rude and stubborn, calm and cool, and all the more complex than my pen could ever put into words. But those tiny strokes of characters are the building blocks to one's creation ! The whole experience is like reading some short stories with abrupt endings, where readers are left to guess the rest  , just like I am about to do ...nope.... doing here now !

The recipe today is something I adapted from sinfulcurry . I made this last year for the first time and fell in love . The original recipe calls for pork and a coorgi special  kanchampuli -the thin black extract of our won Kudampuli , which I was lucky enough to get hold of from a friend's friend. Though I ran out of the tamarind pretty soon, I substituted it with red wine vinegar and it almost tastes as good.
The preparation is same as our kerala style chicken curry and the spice blend with the addition of cumin and mustard seeds,and the puli is the only thing that makes it different. An easy-to-make mild tangy curry,which goes perfect with ghee rice pulao.

Recipe for Coorgi Style Simple Chicken curry +Homemade Meat masala powder, served with spiced yellow rice

Serves - 4

Total cooking time :-1- 2 hours for marination + 40 minutes cooking time

Recipe Adapted from Sinfulcurry 

Recipe for Homemade Spice Powder- Coorgi Meat masala powder

Coriander seeds - 3 tablespoons

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tea spoon

Black mustard seeds - 1/4 tea spoon

Black pepper - 1 tea spoon

Cloves -4

Cinnamon an inch piece

Green cardamom - 1 or 2

Heat these spices in a pan without oil until nice aroma comes and its brown, and let cool.Grind in a coffee/Spice grinder or in the small jar of your blender . I prefer a coarse powder rather than the super fine one. Keep in a small airtight jar.

Recipe for Coorgi Chicken curry

Ingredients:-

To marinate chicken:-

Chicken - 3/4 kg ( I prefer boneless skinless chicken thighs)

Homemade Spice powder - 1.5 tablespoon

Red chili powder - 1.5 tea spoon

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tea spoon

Red Wine Vinegar - 2 tablespoon( Use Kanchampuli - the thin black extract of kudampuli, if u can get hold of it ..see notes )

Salt to taste 

To saute

Coconut oil or any cooking oil - 2 tablespoon

Mustard seeds - 1/2 - 3/4 tea spoon

Curry leaves - a handful

Onion finely chopped - 1 big
Shallots - 5 sliced or use a small onion

Ginger-garlic paste - 1.5 to 2 tablespoon

Homemade spice powder - 1/2 tea spoon

Red chili powder - 1/2 tea spoon( add more if you want it to be more spicy)

Cilantro chopped - 2 tablespoons

Method :-
Cut the chicken into small cubes , clean well and pat dry.Marinate it with all the ingredients  under the to marinate section and keep aside for an hour or two in the refrigerator.
Cook this covered with 1/4 cup water for like 20 minutes.
Meanwhile heat 2 tablespoon of coconut oil or any other cooking oil in a wide mouthed non stick pan. When it is hot add mustard seeds . When they splutter add curry leaves and fry for 30 seconds. Slide in chopped shallots and onions and saute till brown.
Add ginger-garlic paste and fry till the raw smell is gone and the oil separates.
Add chili powder and homemade spice powder and fry for a minute or two.
Add the cooked chicken pieces and simmer until everything is mixed well and the gravy is thick. or you can let it fry like we make chicken olathiyathu.
Sprinkle chopped cilantro and switch off the heat. let stand covered for 15-20 minutes before serving...

Notes :-
The Kanchampuli I mentioned is the extract from our won kudampuli , but I feel the one I have from back home is a bit more tart than the one I got from my friends'. So I use red wine vinegar now :-)

Happy Cooking
Sarah