Pepper Chicken in Coconut gravy- Cooking, cooking & some more cooking

These days my food cravings seem to be getting the better of me. Given my new found inability to stomach non- home cooked food (thats just a term I invented), my experiments in the kitchen have only increased.

Hubby and I had been planning a visit to visit to Konkan Cafe at Taj President for the longest time ever and for some strange reason that visit never materialised. Not even thinking about eating out at the moment so it boiled down to recreating the magic of Konkan Cafe in my own kitchen.

Now I am no Masterchef so I am not sure if this even qualifies as Konkan food. I was only craving some chicken in a mildly spiced coconut gravy which lead me to this experiment :)

Now don't ask me where do I get these weird cravings from :p

I am just happy that it pushes me to cook food thats fresh, tasty and healthy (it’s chicken, so yes its full of proteins :))

A dear friend of mine had dished out some yummy pepper chicken for us when we had last visited their place for dinner. That was the starting point for my dish. however I didn't really remember the recipe she told me quite well so I turned to the web for insipiration. Here is the link i referred to

http://pachakam.com/Recipes/Pepper-Chicken-in-Coconut-Gravy-503

With a few of my own additions managed to pull off quite a meal. Hubby absolutely loved it. Yaaaaaaaaaay :)

So here goes my recipe for Pepper Chicken in Coconut Gravy

Ingredients

Skinless chicken (I used Zorabian chicken with bones)- 1/2 kg

Onions 3 (medium sized, chopped coarsely)

Tomatos 2 (medium sized, chopped coarsely)

Ginger & Garlic paste 1tbsp

Cloves 2-3

Cardomom 2-3

Red chilli Powder 1tbsp

Coriander powder 1tbsp

Cumin seed powder 1/2 tbsp

Turmeric powder 1/2 tbsp

Cinnamon stick (about1/2 inch)

Fresh grated coconut 1/2 cup

Coconut Milk 1/2 cup

pepper 3 tbsp

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

-Start by cleaning the chicken and make some incisions in the chicken for the marinade to penetrate.  Now marinate it in 2 tbsp of pepper and some salt. Set aside for 20-30 minutes.

- Heat 2tbsp of oil to the wok and fry the chicken in the oil. The idea is to only seal the spices and not cook the chicken completely. This should not take more than 2 to 3 minutes. Now set aside the    chicken.

- Heat a tbsp of oil in a separate wok & fry the onions. Add the ginger garlic paste and the whole spices  i.e. cloves, cinnamon & cardamom. Cook till the onions are nice and brown. I chose to discard the  whole spices once onions were cooked and the oil had taken in the flavour of whole spices since I  don't like any whole spices in my food. You may choose to keep them or discard them as per your  preference

- Now add the tomatoes and the grated coconut to the onion mixture and cook till tomatoes are cooked.   Don't add any water at this stage

- Add the spices i.e. red chilli powder, turmeric, cumin powder & coriander powder along with salt while the tomatoes are being cooked.

- Now add coconut milk and the semi cooked chicken and simmer for a minute

- Transfer the whole mixture to a pressure cooker and give it two quick whistles.

- Once the contents of the cooker cool down a bit, remove the chicken pieces from the gravy. Transfer  the Gravy to mixer and blitz it. The result is a smooth and creamy gravy.

- Transfer the Gravy to a wok and bring to a boil and add the chicken. 

- Garnish with a fresh sprig of coriander

I served this dish with some lovely crisp mini dosa. Stumbled upon the dosa recipe on another blog. The instant dosa recipe is a keeper, shall share it in another post.

Till then keep smiling & be positive :)