Madurai kari dosa

Makes 6 to 7

Dosa batter- 1 to 1 1/2 cups (not too loose)

Ghee/ sesame oil- couple of teaspoons

Eggs- 2 small

Mutton kheema- around 3/4 cups

Salt- to taste

Pepper- to taste

Coriander leaves- 3 to 4 tbsp, finely chopped

Make the mutton kheema as per this recipe. Use mutton mince and omit the potatoes.

For the dosa, you wont need 500gms mince, so for me this is mostly a what-to-do-with-leftover-kheema kinda dish.

Beat the eggs till slightly frothy.

Place a dosa tawa on medium heat and pour in one ladle full of the batter. Dont spread it too much, it must be thick, like a kal/ thattu dosa.

Cover with a lid, and just when you start seeing the bubbles, drizzle some ghee/oil along the edges.

Reduce the heat a bit and add about 2 to 3 tsp of the beaten egg, spread it carefully.

Season with salt and pepper and top with 2 to 3 tsp of kheema followed by a sprinkling of coriander leaves.

Press the meat slightly using a spatula and cook for about a minute,

Carefully flip the dosa and cook for another minute or so.

Make sure you dont burn the kheema, it should be a fried consistency.

Serve hot with some empty gravy on the side.

Notes: When i had this at the legendary Konar Mess in Madurai as part of the food walk i did, they drizzle a bit of mutton curry as well on top of the egg and then top with the kheema.

Also, the dosa is really thick.

The kheema on the dosa must be slightly fried and not burnt. So when its flipped, make sure you dont keep it on for a long time.

Chettinad pepper chicken (dry)

Recipe adapted from Rick Stein's India

To lightly roast and grind
Fennel seeds- 1 1/2 tsp
Whole peppercorn- 1 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1 1/2 tsp
Coriander seeds- 1 1/2 tsp

Chicken with bone- 700gms, cut into small pieces
Oil- 2 tbsp
Fennel seeds- 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon stick- 1, 2 inch piece
Onion/shallots- 1 1/2 cups, roughly chopped
Curry leaves- 2 sprigs
Ginger garlic paste- 2 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Kashmiri chilli powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves- 1/4 cup, finely chopped
Salt- to taste

Lightly roast all the whole spices and once cool, grind to a powder. Keep aside.

In a large pan , heat the oil and throw in fennel seeds and cinnamon. 

Let it sizzle for a couple of seconds at which point throw in the onions and one sprig of curry leaves.

Cook till the onions turn a light brown. Make sure you take time and do this step or else your curry may end up being sweet.

Once the onions turn light brown, add the ginger garlic paste and cook till the raw smell disappears.

In goes the turmeric powder and chilli powder. and salt Saute for about 2 minutes.

Add the cleaned chicken pieces and mix well so its coated in the masala.

Stir in 1/4 cup water and cover and cook for about 20 minutes, or till the chicken is done.

Open lid and mix in the ground masala powder. Saute well to coat the chicken.

Cook till almost all the water has been evaporated, and you see oil along the sides.

Add the remaining sprig of curry leaves and coriander leaves and give one final mix.

Serve warm with rice.

Notes: The dish has a nice level of spice, but next time ill probably increase the peppercorns to about 2 tsp. The pepper didnt stand out enough i though.
Shallots definitely make a difference so try and use that if possible.
Rick Stein's India is one of my absolute favourite books. I can just sit and look at the pictures, if not anything else :)

Prawn thokku/ roast- A guest post for The Captain's Kitchenette; and the Andy Bates American Street Feasts Show

There are so many wonderful food blogs out there, that I find it difficult to browse through all the yummy recipes they post. I still manage to run through a few once in a while, and eventually end up with tonnes of recipes bookmarked. Serah's beautiful blog, The Captains Kitchenette, certainly falls into this category and its her simple, easy-to-follow recipes that makes me a fan. I landed up on her blog after her sister (we were hostel mates in Chennai) posted a link to a recipe on FB. I was immediately hooked. We then exchanged a couple of emails, became friends on FB and the rest is history. She's now more of a friend than a random food blogger and I hope some day I get to meet her and her lovely family she cooks for. I also have to appreciate her for taking time to cook, photograph and blog in spite of having a toddler to tend to. Like I was telling her the other day, I complain if I have to continuously cook for a week ;)

Since Serah was taking some time off to tend to other commitments, she asked me if I could do a guest post for her blog and I truly obliged. She gave me full leverage on what I could whip up and since she said she preferred sea food, I thought I'd make this prawn thokku for her. I came across the recipe on one of my recipe search sessions on the internet and immediately wrote it down (yes believe it or not, I actually wrote it down). Completely forgot to bookmark the page and so apologies to the person who originally posted it. I did try searching for it again, but since this was written down ages back, I really had no luck.

Thokku, loosely translated means paste, and I presume this is more a TN preparation as opposed to the mallu (Kerala) way of making prawn roast. The use of fennel seeds make this dish quite unique, and of course something with grated coconut can never go wrong. This is a favourite prawn recipe of ours and has made its appearance on quite a few occasions. Although it goes well with some warm rice, dal and pappad, my favourite way to have it is as a starter with some chilled beer. just thread it onto small skewers, sprinkle the masala on top, and serve. It's a crowd pleaser, trust me!

So without wasting more time, head on over to Serah's kitchenette for the recipe and while you are there dont forget to take a peek around and drool. I have bookmarked a whole lot of recipes from her blog and seriously, dont forget to check out the authentic Coorgi recipes she's put up. Absolutely droolworthy!

Thanks a bunch for having me over Serah :)

On another note, here's something street food lovers might be interested in. Food Network is hosting a brand new series documenting the vibrant street food scene in the US called American Street Feasts and is hosted by the charming Andy Bates (yes, the blue-eyed Pie-Man with a delicious Brit accent). I have caught bits and pieces of his show here and is quite an eye-opener, especially because street food is seriously catching on and we have just started exploring some of the places.

The show basically follows Andy on a street food odyssey across the US, visiting the most vibrant food destinations and discovering the stories behind the recipes. He uses them as inspiration to create his own recipes, some of them being the Braised pork belly and Waldorf salad in a pretzel wrap and the Crawfish ball and Jambalaya. The show is aired every weekday at 12.30pm and 6.30 pm on Food Network and if you haven't been able to catch the previous episodes, visit Andy's collection page and give it a go. You can also use the interactive 'Street Food Map' to find out where to get the best street food in UK and while you are at it, go on and submit your suggestions on what to feature and so on. For the fans out there, Andy Bates' new cookbook is out in the market, so go on and grab you copy from any of the leading book stores or Amazon.

With thanks to Food Network for a copy of the cookbook