Ripe Mango Curry (Mambazha Koottan)

If you get to eat any fruit of your choice every single day for the rest of your life, which one would you choose? I'll choose Mango in the blink of an eye. I love mango in any form - as a whole, pickle, juice, milkshake, in curry or even just raw mango with a little bit of salt and chilly powder. 

Mangoes make me happy. And I am feeling happy right now. So today's recipe is going to be a Mango dish. Ripe Mango curry a.k.a. Mambazha Koottan. It's a very common summer dish at my home. We prepare it with peeled whole mangoes so that each one of us gets one whole mango to ourselves. No more cat fights on who got more mango pieces :). 

What you need:

• Whole Ripe Mango - 4 or 5 medium sized ones
• Grated coconut - 3/4 cup
• Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp
• Jeera/Cumin - 1 tsp
• Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
• Beaten Sour Curd - 1/2 cup
• Salt - As required
• A sprig of curry leaves
• For Tempering: Mustard, Dry Red chillies, Fenugreek seeds

How to make it:

1. Peel off the skin from the mangoes. You can then cut them into pieces if you don't like the idea of whole mangoes in curry.
2. Cook the mangoes in a deep bottomed pan with the chilly powder and turmeric. Once the water starts boiling, add salt to taste.
3. Grind the grated coconut with cumin, salt and a little water to a fine paste. Beat the curd for a minute in a mixer (or by hand).
4. Once the Mangoes are almost cooked (say 5-6 minutes for a medium sized mango), reduce the flame to sim. 
5. Add the beaten curd, mix well and cook for another 5 minutes. Make sure you keep a close eye on the curry, else the curd will split and our curry will be a lumpy mango curry.
6. Next, add the ground coconut paste, mix well. Cook for a minute and turn off the stove.
7. Mix the curry leaves in the curry. 
8. Temper the mustard, dry red chillies and fenugreek seeds in a little oil and add this as well to the curry. our Mambazha Koottan is ready.

Chilly Chicken - Amma's recipe

From ancient times, from the moment Eve bit the proverbial apple, many things have shook the world. Dinosaurs, World Wars, My husband (he added that) etc... None of those shakes have quite affected my laziness on starting off on my food blog. So you may wonder, why the social activism suddenly? Karma, ladies & gentlemen or in modern parley, also known as "Likes" on a Facebook food photo.

So starting with a motherly recipe. Fail-safe. My mom is an awesome cook. She used to cook chicken every Sunday when we were kids. Kerala Chicken Curry with ground spices as well as Chicken dry-fry were her specialties. But she had a special Kungfu-Panda type, secret Chilly Chicken recipe, and my brother and I absolutely loved it, and still love it. A few weeks ago, I had a sudden craving for this dish. Going to some "Planet of Chinese"-wala Chinese restaurant was pointless as I knew I will end up craving Mom's version more. So called her up, got the recipe and tried it out last weekend. It did come out well though not as tasty as the original version. She took one look at the pic I sent her and told me what I missed - Vinegar. Moms, phew...

Here goes the recipe: 

Chilly Chicken - Amma's recipe

What you need:

• Chicken             1/2 kg cut into small pieces
• Maida                2 table spoon, 
• Egg white          1 egg
• Onion                2 nos cut into squares
• Green chilly        3 or 4 sliced (Adjust the # based on taste)
• Garlic pods         3 or 4 pieces cut in round shape
• Capsicum           1 cut into square shape
• Soy sauce          1 tsp
• Chilly sauce       1 tsp
• Tomato sauce    1 tsp
• Vinegar             1 tsp
• Salt                   Very little as soy sauce has salt in it.

How to make it:

1. In a small bowl, mix the Maida, Egg whites and a bit of salt with a little water to make a paste.
2. Add the chicken pieces and mix ensuring that all pieces are coated well with the marinade  Keep aside for 30 minutes.
3. In another small bowl, make the sauce base by mixing Soy, Chilly, Tomato sauces and Vinegar.
4. In a tawa or frying pan, heat oil and half fry the maida smeared chicken pieces. Keep aside. The health conscious folks can keep the chicken on a few tissues to drain off some of the oil.
5. In another pan (or drain the oil and use the same one), fry the onions and green chillies till onion is translucent.
6. Add the fried chicken pieces, mix well and cook covered 5 minutes.
7. Add the sauce mix prepared in Step 3 and cook for another 6-7 minutes or till the chicken is almost done.
8. Add capsicum pieces and mix very well. Add salt if required.
9. Turn off the stove and serve it hot

Here's the final product:

P.s. You can add spring onions as well if you like, just add them along with the capsicum. Also I had to add a tad more sauce, so do adjust the quantity based on your taste.