from BEARDO's kitchen: Tumeric Chicken Curry on Cooked on Pud Pot

 

Lunch Today

 Lunch today was tumeric chicken curry cooked in mud pot, stir fried small spinach stem, beet root stir fried with mustard seed and pepper, Vallarai (daun pegaga/pennywort/gotu kola) in yogurt salad and thanks to chef Greeja, we have basmati rice with apricot oil, cumin and tumeric.

The highlight of today is the naatu kolzhi (free reign chicken or ayam kampung) cooked with tumeric on mudpot (claypot).

Cooking Ingredients

Looking at the above picture, 1 naatu kozhi a.k.a kampung chicken, cut into small bite sized pieces. On the silver plate we have chopped tomatoes, chopped small onions, cinnamon stick, dried chillies and in the centre we have garlic ginger paste. One thing about cinnamon stick, make sure you get the Sri Lankan variety which has a thinner and lighter texture versus the other harder one called Cassia which is often mistaken for the real stuff. 

Mud Pot or Claypot

As usual heat cocunut oil, but today we are heating the oil in a mud pot. It is difficult to get a flat bottomed mud pot. Thankfully we managed to get one in Kuala Selangor from a claypot maker some time ago.

Tempering

When oil is heated transfer dried chillies first, allow the chillies to turn a little brown, followed by cinnamon stick and chopped onions, and stir well.

Transferring garlic ginger paste

Then transfer the garlic ginger paste,  stir till it blends well. Make sure you can get the aroma of this concoction to rise before adding tomatoes.

Tomatoes

 

Potatoes

Poatatoes was an after thought. Greeja said it would give body to the curry. I was fine, as long Greeja was willing to peel it. As you can see potatoes went into the pot already. Make sure the tomatoes and potatoes blend well with the base item.

Transfer the chicken and stir well 

At this point transfer the chicken and stir it well for at least 3-5 minutes. It is important the tempered blend gets absorbed into the chicken.

Tumeric Powder

This will be the defining momement for the dish, because the main ingredient for this preparation is tumeric powder. Be generous when you put tumeric powder into the blend. Stir well, allowing tumeric to mix well with the chicken. If you like, you can add 1 - 2 spoons of chilly powder (optional). Actually if you like your dish spicy, add more dried chillies, that should do the trick.

Chilly Powder

Finally add hot water and salt. The amount of water would depend on the amount of gravy you want. By the way since this is kampung chicken, the meat is leaner hence it needs longer time to cook, unlike the common broiler chicken.

Claypot Naatu Kozhi Curry

Once its cooked add some ghee, which gives the "Uumpp" to the dish.  Voila, your Claypot Tumeric  Naatu Kozhi Curry is ready.

By the way do not fall for the so called claypot curries peddled everywhere nowadays. These fellows cook the curry the conventional way, and upon request they transfer it into a claypot, reheat it and then they serve you. In some cases they add rice into it and call it "chatti soru curry" a.k.a claypot curry and rice.  

Do try this recipe and let me know. It is a very simple recipe requiring very little ingredients, but with a unique taste.

ravivarmmankkanniappan@2030201120223.0567° N, 101.5851° E 

HIMACHAL AND LADAKH PART 9 LEH

After an interesting night at Sarchu, we began our journey heading to Leh. Leh will be our point of departure to the Nubra Valley moving up north of Ladakh.

The View Enroute

View of the mountain

The road most travelled in summer

The climb

It was a dry day, and the travel brought us to the most arid land. I was catching nap in between, as the night before, I did not have much of a sleep. But Baldev nudged me from time to time, whenever there are sights to behold appears.

Pitstop

This place seems to be a regular pitstop amongst travellers, so did we, to do some stretching. The over towering mountain was simply fantastic.

Truckers point

Chorten or Stupa

One of the uniquenss you see on these roads are Chorten or Stupa, which becomes a point of seeking blessings for travellers especially drivers who traverse in these difficult terrains. 

 

Bikers

The highlight of our trip today is to pass the highest point of the Tibetan plateau at 4200m leading to the Tanglang La Pass at 17582ft (5280m). But the road to the the second highest pass in Ladakh was not an easy one, with glacier walls and road just cleared from the glacial formation. 

Amongst one of our face offs, this one was one of the scariest, with a narrow slippery road, with glacial formation on side and a deep ravine on the other. 

Melting glacier about 20 feet

FaceOff (Video 1)

FaceOff (Video 2)

FaceOff (Video 3)

One thing I admire these drivers, they were cool, calm and collected regardless of the circumstances. Nobody got angry nor showing off their fist as to who should have their right of way. As if these guys communicate telepathically, they know who should back up, which side to meneuver and who should give the right of way.  

 

Tanglang La Pass

I guess after that, nothing will scare me, but I spoke too soon, didn't realise more spookes to come later. Finally we arrived at Tanglang La Pass just about noon. This will be the second highest motorable pass in Ladakh. The wind was incredibly strong and extremely cold. The entire journey up to this pass and down to Leh covers about 21 hairpin loops called the Gala Loops, which in itself is an experience to behold.   

The Pass

The View

A Temple

Bikers taking break at the peak

The snowcapped mountains are simply breathtaking

After taking these breathtaking shots, and immersed in the beauty of nature, we slowly descended heading to Leh. As we were moving towards lower altitude heading to Leh, the landscape changed, we saw a little greenery and local cows were grazing. 

Grazing land

A Temple on the roadside

A Chorten

As we were nearing Leh, we saw the great Indus river, which was originally known as the Sindhu River. In actual fact it was Alexander of Macedon who renamed the river Indus, and people who lived beyond the Indus river were known as the Indus. Many Indus (aka Indians) were also recruited by Alexander when he waged a war against the Magadha Empire, after defeating Gandhara and later King Porus of Punjab. Well, lets keep that for another day. Anyway the Indus Valley civilization is the earliest known urban culture in the Indian subcontinent. Again that is for another day too.

Indus river 1

 

Indus river 2

Finally we reached Leh just about 5.00pm. Traffic into the city was rather heavy, and there were some roadworks along the way which delayed our arrival. Leh is the capital city of Ladakh a newly annointed Union Territory of India. By the way the city is at an altitude of 11562ft (3524m), so we are still very elevated if you know what I mean. Many tourist visiting Ladakh would arrive in Leh via Delhi, totally not prepared for the altitude and put themselves in difficult situation. However this city is fully equipped to deal with unprepared tourists. 

After checking in the hotel, Greeja and I had the much needed shower, and later all for us went out to explore Leh. The town square was filled with tourists, mostly Indians, and trade was brisk. Since we will be returning back to Leh after the Nubra Valley journey beginning the next day, we kept all purchases for then. We chanced upon a Buddhist Temple during our walk, went in, sat down for a short while. Spoke to one of the Monk, who speaks excellent English. He was from Delhi, and on a retreat in Ladakh. We spoke about spirituality and politics, and the Monk himself has an MA in Economics. Interesting person.  

Resting Monks

Had our dinner at 8.30pm in the hotel we stayed, and later had a night cap with my friend Jameson and we went to sleep, looking forward to whats in store for us tomorrow. As our actual Ladakh adventure starts tomorrow. 

Next stop Nubra Valley.

ravivarmmankkanniappan@1238071120223.0567° N, 101.5851° E

from the BEARDO's kitchen Lotus Root Fry

 

Ingredients 

Today we are going to look at how to make the Lotus Root fry. It is one of the simplest dish to prepare, no fuss at all. Very rarely you will get local lotus root at the Jaya Grocer. Most of the time they have the one from China. So when I saw it today, I grabbed all 5 roots that was left, after all the local one taste better, and am not so confident of the other one.

Lets dive into the ingredient, as shown above, we have the lotus root, chopped into small cubes, pounded black pepper, finely chopped ginger, chopped onions and some tamarind.

Marination

Marinate the chopped lotus root with tumeric, chilly powder and salt for about an hour or so. Then place your pan on fire, fill it with oil, and allow it to heat. 

Heating the oil

As usual I am using coconut oil to prepare this dish. Please do not mind the beer glass on the left and the crab curry cooking on the right. Both goes very well with the lotus root fry. Chef Greeja took the honour to prepare the spicy Sri Lankan crab curry, which is the main meal today. Recipe you may ask, all in good time. 

Oops ..... the oil is already heated up, next transfer the marinated lotus root into the oil and allow it to cook.

Lotus root frying

Allow the lotus root to cook for a about 7-8minutes and then transfer the chopped ginger and stir. Allow the ginger to blend well with the lotus root. Wait till you get the aroma of ginger in the air.

 Ginger for the aroma

Then sprinkle chopped onions and stir well, make sure it blends evenly. Allow the onions to turn a little brown before you put some tamarind paste and mix it till till you get a nice golden brown colour. 

Chopped Onions 

Tamarind paste

Finally sprinkle some pounded pepper on the preparation. Pepper should be based on your preferred level of spiciness.

Pepper to go

Viola your lotus root fry is ready to eat, and as for me it is ready to go with the crab curry Chef Greeja made. By the way this dish would also be good with wraps, it will be a great filling. 

Lotus root fry

So folks, check it out and let me know, once you try it. As for me I just downed a pint, and anticipating the mouth watering crab curry with the crunchy lotus root fry.

ravivarmmankkanniappan@1838061120223.0567° N, 101.5851° E

A Deepavali Without Pappa

This was the first Deepavali, without my Pappa. In fact we are not celebrating Deepavali this year, since it has not been a year yet, since my Pappa's passing. Amma did not want to be at home during Deepavali, neither were we, it was indeed too soon, too much of a memory to bear.

So we decided to go to Melaka, not too far, just did not want to get caught in the long weekend traffic, which has become a norm in Malaysia.

This morning was like any other typical morning but woke up in Melaka. Got up, had bath, minus the oil bath ritual of Deepavali. We can't perform nor carry out any of the Deepavali tradition, including making murukku or any other sweet meats that requires frying during the bereavement period.

Sri Anggala Amman Temple 

Nevertheless, performing prayer at the temple was not a problem, hence Amma, Greeja, Dhivyaa and I prepared to go to an Amman Temple. I wanted to experience the traditions practised by the Melaka Chitti (Melaka Indian Pernakan) community. So we decided to head to the Melaka Chitti village where the Anggala Parameshwari Amman Temple was located. It has been a tradition back in Segamat, we visit the Amman temple to offer prayers and seek blessing from Mother Shakti, in the morning of Deepavali. So visiting the Anggala Parameshwari Amman Temple felt like continuing this tradition.

We had a warm welcome at the temple by the temple President and members of the Chitti community who were already congregated there. They instantly knew that we were not locals. They even offered Amma a chair to sit on during the Pooja, but Amma politely declined it. 

Temple Well

Greeja and I had this serene feeling as we entered this unconventional temple. Why unconventional because the temple architecture did not fit the traditional Indian Temple architecture. In fact the entire structure is like a 17th century Portuguese architecture, And yes, but why not? According to the Temple president,  it is estimated that the building was built in 1720, by the Melaka Chitti community. 

If you are wondering who are the Melaka Chitty's (not to be confused with the Chettiyaar community), they are also known as the Melaka Indian Peranakan. They are Indian's who have intermarried local Malays and arriving Chinese who had settled in Malaya during the early 15th century, when Melaka (Malacca) was under the reign of the Melaka Sultanate and later the arrival of the Portuguese, Dutch and the British. They are a unique community, in that they had assimilated Malay culture but are Hindus by religion.

Language , food and dressing are very much elements that have been synergized with the Malay value system, For example, the Chitty language also known as Chitty Creole is the culmination Malay, Tamil and Chinese. The community was at its peak during the Portuguese era, but during the British colonisation, many went into agriculture. The Chitty community mainly resided in the area between Gajah Berang and the Tranquerah locality in Melaka.

The Inner Sanctum of the Temple

The temple President gave us a short history of the temple and the community that has been the guardian of 5 other temples in Melaka together with 13 other shrines called Grama Kovil (Village shrines) in Melaka. 

A single temple priest rotates in performing pooja for the 3 temples within the Chitty Village, and we had to adjourn to the Kailasanathar Temple (Shiva Temple) to give our offering (Archanai). All 3 temples including the Muthu Mariamman Temple are located just about 50 meters of each other. 

Since it was Deepavali after our prayer offering, we were feted with Kesari (semolina sweet meat), idli with chutney & sambar, and coffee. 

The second level before the inner sanctum

Though we did not celebrate Deepavali this year but, the very fact we went to this temple somehow made us feel complete. The serenity of the temple, the warmth of the people made me feel a sense of belonging, and somehow eased the pain of missing my Pappa.

Greeja and I would definitely make the trip to Melaka on April, 30th next year to particapate in the Sri Muthu Mariamman Temple annual festival, which would see the procession of their 300 year old wooden chariot. 

As much as this year's Deepavali was not celebrated  by our family but the spirit of Deepavail prevailed in our psyche.

Whether it was celebrated because of the victory of Rama over Raavana, Krishna & Satyabhama over Narakasura or even the triumph of Vamana over Mahabali, the message is the same, Deepavali is a festival to reflect on one's own ego and arrogance, transforming the mind and body to be righteous.          

Pappa had left us with profound wisdom, and great memories, I fervently believe the next generation in the family whose lives Pappa had impacted would continue the legacy he left behind.         

ravivarmmankkanniappan@1738241020222.1896° N, 102.2501° E

from BEARDO's kitchen Plantain Kootu

Today we are going to look at how to prepare Plantain Kootu (dry fry) or Tamizh, வாழைக்காய் கூட்டு. Thank you to Bavani for bringing the plantain all the way from Kuantan, and also thank you to Nesa for sharing it with us. If you are wondering what is the difference between plantain and banana, well plantain has thicker skin, less sweet and much more starchy. Plantains are good to make savoury dishes. The most common dishes out plantain will be fried plantain chips or Plantain bajji (battered & deep fried)

But today we are not going to do any of them, instead I am going to share with you Plantain Kootu (dry

fry). As usual lets follow the picture trail for the recipe.

From the the top, plantain, asafoetida, moong dhall, dried chilly, tamarind paste, mustard seed, chopped plantain and coriander seeds. You can also use chana dhall (கடலை பருப்பு) instead of moong dhall (பாசிப் பருப்பு). By the way, I forgot to display a very important garnish ..... curry leaves, so you will need them too.

For garnishing and taste you will need jaggery and desiccated coconut. It will be good if you use fresh coconut lightly dry roasted. Otherwise you can also use the commercially packed desiccated coconut, like the above.

Lightly shave the skin of the plantain and chop them into cubes. As you chop soak in water misxed with salt and tumeric, like below. This is to make sure the plantain do not oxidize and turn dark, plus tumeric and salt will be a good source for marination.

Leave the above soaking for about 20 - 30 minutes, then strain the water out and transfer it into another pot. Add water, 2 to 3 table spoon of moong dhall, tamarind paste and 2 teaspoon of asafoetida, and boil the concotion till the plantain and moong dhall becomes tender. The reason I added asafoetida is to reduce the "angin (gas) effect that can cause flatulence to some. Water should be just as much to tenderise the plantain, otherwise too much water will make the plantain soggy. You can also use pressure cooker to do this job, it would be done in a jiffy. Once done it should look like below.

Meanwhile dry roast the dried chilles, coriander seeds, 2 - 3 tablespoon of moong dhall, a pinch of cumin and fennel seeds. Transfer it to a blender, add desiccated coconut and dry blend the entire ingredients. 

Don't blend it fine, leave it a little coarse. 

Ok we are raedy to cook. For this preparation, I am using gingerly oil. Not only it gives a rich taste but the aroma is fantastic too. Once the oil is heated, add mustard seed and allow it to crackle.

Then add the blended ingredients and stir well

Then transfer the tendered plantain and stir will. Make sure the tempered ingredient blends well with the plantain. You can add jaggery at this point, and also add salt to taste. Jaggery, salt and tamarind will give a tangy taste to our prep.

Sprinkle curry leaves and stir well so that the aroma seeps well into the plantain.

Almost done, take a table spoon full of ghee place it in the centre and allow it to simmer gradually into the plantain dish. By the time you serve it the plantain would have absorbed the ghee. 

Viola ....... your plantain kootu is ready to be served. It will go best with rice and chapati too. 

So everyone, do try it out and let me know. It is one of the simplest dish to prepare but has great taste. 

ravivarmmankkanniappan@2231191020223.0567° N, 101.5851° E