Hi guys – I am blogging after
a while as ... well I have no excuse, I have just been lazy!
Yesterday I tried my hand at Chicken
stew with Appam (pancakes made with Rice
and Coconut). Now this is essentially a
South-Indian meal so I won’t say my recipe is perfect but it is safe to say
that it is delicious. And I also must admit that I
did browse through various recipes before trying this one out just to get an
idea of the ingredients involved.
The recipe below is good for
4 people. If you are cooking for more people, then you could just double the
quantity of the ingredients.
For the Chicken stew you will
need –
1.
one whole Chicken
quite obviously, or Chicken parts if you prefer
2.
4-5 tbsp of Oil
(any vegetable oil)
3.
1 tbsp of Coconut
Oil (I used Parachute which comes in a blue plastic bottle and is available in
most grocery stores eg Carrefour)
4.
a small stick of
Cinnamon
5.
2 dried Bay
leaves
6.
2 Cardamom pods
7.
5-6 black
Peppercorns
8.
1 large chopped red
Onion (if you don’t have red even white or yellow Onions will do)
9.
5-6 cloves of chopped
Garlic
10.
a little chopped Ginger
(about an inch long)
11.
1 tsp red Chilli
powder
12.
½ tsp Turmeric (Haldi) powder
13.
1 tsp Coriander (Dhaniya)
powder
14.
1 medium chopped Tomato
15.
1 medium sized tin
of Coconut Milk
16.
1 chopped Potato
17.
1 chopped Carrot
18.
1 cup of Water
For the garnishing you will need –
19.
a few curry
leaves (Karipatta)
20.
a pinch of dried
Fenugreek leaves (Kasuri Methi) (This
is optional)
21.
a few Coriander
leaves (Dhaniya)
22.
a squeeze of 1
small Lime
23.
Salt (as much or
as little as you like)
24.
a pinch of Pepper
Now to make the all important Appam you will need –
25.
1 cup raw rice soaked
in a cup of Water (I used Basmati rice but not the very expensive kind)
26.
1 tbsp cooked
rice
27.
about 3/4th
of a cup of fresh grated Coconut
28.
a pinch of Baking
Soda
29.
1 tsp of Salt
30.
2 tsp of Sugar
31.
1-2 cups of water
depending upon the consistency achieved
32.
Oil for frying
I know it looks like a tonne
of ingredients but trust me it is worth the little bit of effort.
To start with the stew, take
a deep dish vessel/pot. Add the vegetable and Coconut Oil. Now add the Cinnamon,
Bay Leaves, Cardamom and Peppercorns and fry. After about a minute add the
chopped Onion, Garlic and Ginger and stir. Now add the Chilli powder, Turmeric
powder and Coriander powder and continue frying for about another minute. Add
the chopped Tomato and stir. Let it fry for about another minute so that all
the spices are cooked well. Now add the
Chicken pieces and let it brown a bit. Then add the Coconut Milk, a cup of Water,
chopped Potato and Carrots and cook on a low flame for about an hour or so
until the Chicken is completely cooked.
To garnish add ingredients no.
19-24.
Now let’s move on to the Appam
The Appam batter needs to be mixed a day before so that it ferments a
bit.
So one day before soak a cup
of raw Rice for a few hours in a cup of Water. Blend the raw Rice with the
cooked Rice and Coconut in a Blender with half a cup of Water. Blend it well so
that there are no lumps. Now keep this mixture in a container, overnight, in a
cool room and let it ferment. Put it in the Refrigerator the next morning.
Take it out of the
Refrigerator just when you want to eat them. Add about a cup or two of Water, Salt,
Sugar and Baking Soda and give it a good stir. You should aim to achieve a
pancake batter like consistency (not too thick and not too thin).
Now to fry the Appam, take a tsp of oil in a non-stick
pan, pour a ladle of batter into the pan and fry until you see the edges
browning. It should take about 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, if you like you can
flip it and fry it for about half a minute on the reverse to ensure it is
cooked. Cover the pan to speed up the frying process. And voila you should get a
tasty Appam. Continue the process
until the batter is over. I didn’t count but I think I got around 9 or 10 Appams.
I didn’t click any photos so I don’t have
anything to show you what it looks like, but to give you a general idea they
look very similar to white thin pancakes.
Let me know if you try out
the Recipe. I would love to hear what you thought of it. All the ingredients listed above should be available in either Lulu or Carrefour supermarkets.
