Kozhi Nirachathu / Stuffed Chicken with gravy

We first ordered Kozhi Nirachathu at a popular restaurant in the UAE. We ended up with a butterflied chicken in a spicy masala along with a side of egg roast which absolutely did not complement each other that too at an exorbitant price! After almost a year we got to taste this dish again at another restaurant. This time the egg roast stuffed inside the chicken and the chicken was deep fried - it tasted heavenly.  I was skeptical of getting a whole chicken deep fried until I read up a few recipes and saw a couple of videos. Yes, you can actually cook a whole chicken on stove top without deep frying it! It is not all that time consuming either.

Kozhi Nirachathu or stuffed chicken with gravy is a dish from Kerala that involves cooking a whole chicken with gravy and egg roast stuffed in the cavity.  Egg roast is made separately and stuffed into the marinated whole chicken before cooking the chicken in the gravy. When you want a whole chicken on table and you do not have an oven to rely on this could be your go to recipe! 

Ingredients

1. Whole chicken - 900 gm
2. Egg - 2 no.s
3. Onion  - 4 big ones finely chopped
4. Tomato - 2 finely chopped
5. Green Chilly - 2 finely chopped
6. Ginger garlic paste  - 2 tsp
7. Chilly powder - 1 tbsp + ½ tsp +¼ tsp
8. Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
9. Turmeric powder - ¼ tsp
10. Fennel powder - 1 tsp
11. Garam Masala - 1 tsp
12. Curry Leaves - 3 sprigs
13. Water - ¼ cup
14. Coconut Oil

To Marinate

1. Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
2. Turmeric powder - ¼ tsp
3. Lime juice - 2 tbsp
4. Salt

Method

• Hard boil the eggs, shell and keep aside. Create cuts on the egg and roll it in ¼ tsp of chilly powder until well coated. Fry this for 2 minutes in a teaspoon of oil rotating until done on all sides
• Remove the skin, clean and pat dry whole chicken. Create deep gashes on the chicken. Make a marinade by mixing together the chilly powder, turmeric powder, salt and lime juice.  Rub this well onto the chicken and the cavity too. Let it rest on counter top for about an hour.
• Heat oil in a deep pan ( use extra oil than you would use for normal chicken curry). Add onions into the pan and saute till transparent.
• Add ginger garlic paste, curry leaves and green chilly. Let it cook down.
• At this point,separate 4 tbsp masala into another pan. Add ½ tsp of chilly powder to this and cook well.  Add 2 tbsp of chopped tomato and let it melt.  Add the fried eggs and coat the masala. Let it cook for another minute. Turn off the flame and set aside.
• Meanwhile, add the remaining chilly powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, fennel powder and garam masala into the main pan. Let the masala cook before adding tomato. Mix well and keep it covered until the tomato melts.
• Add salt and water to this bring it to boil and turn off.
• Stuff the egg masala into the cavity and using a twine tie together the legs of the chicken to close the cavity so that the masala stuffed in does not seep out. Tie together the wings as well. 
• Place this in the deep bottomed pan. Spoon masala over the chicken and let it cook on high for 5 minutes. Reduce the flame and let the chicken cook. Flip over the chicken once a while ensuring that the chicken is always well coated in the masala. It takes about 30 minutes to an hour for the chicken to cook completely. Uncover and cook the chicken for the last ten minutes. The masala reduces and begins to change color to brownish red.
• Transfer to a serving dish and serve it with choice of bread or rice.

You may also note - 

• Turning over a whole chicken may be difficult, use two spatulas to support while turning it over.
• Keep pouring spoonful of the gravy onto the chicken top and let the flavor seep in.
• There are chances that the chicken may stick to the vessel and burn. So make sure to turn it over frequently!

Irachi Petti - Malabar Iftar recipe

I always knew of Ramadan but it is only after moving to UAE, I realised how religiously it is observed and what iftar and suhoor mean! The world of blogging introduced me to a lot of Malabar snacks mostly fried but really mouth watering. I tend to stay away from deep fried stuff, primarily because I have pimples popping on my face as soon as I relish on anything fried. Since it is shorter office timings during Ramadan, my husband one day happened to come home with some snacks that he picked up from the local Kerala cafeteria for our evening tea together (that is a rarity too - happens only during Ramadan). It was all deep fried stuff and I could not resist it - pakoda, samosa, irachi petti, chatti pathiri, mulagu bajji, ulli vada. It was all there. I waited for two days after we had this - Yay! No pimples and that made my resolution to prepare a fried malabar snack stronger.

That is how I ended up making irachi petti with the minced meat I had in the fridge. Irachi means meat and petti means box. So basically this dish has meat filling that is sealed in a box made of crepe!
So here is a recipe to try this Ramadan!

Ingredients

For the filling

1. Minced meat - 400 gms (beef, mutton or chicken)
2. Onion - 3 medium finely chopped
3. Ginger - 2 tbsp
4. Garlic - 2 tsp
5. Green Chilli - 3 finely chopped
6. Pepper powder - 1 tsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
8. Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
9. Garam masala - 1 tsp
10. Lime juice - 1 tbsp
11. Salt to taste
12. Oil

For the crepe

1. All purpose flour - 1 cup
2. Egg - 1 beaten
3. Salt to taste
4. Water as needed

For coating

1. Egg - 1 beaten
2. Bread crumbs
3. Oil

Method

• Heat oil in a pan. Fry the onions until it softens and add the ginger, garlic and green chilly. Saute till the raw smell disappears.
• Add the turmeric powder, corriander powder and pepper powder. Cook the masala and add the minced meat. Mix it well to coat.
• Add salt and keep it covered until it is cooked. Adjust salt if need be and add lime juice. Turn off the flame.
• Prepare the crepe batter by mixing together the flour, egg, water and salt in a bowl. Add water as needed to form a runny batter.
• Heat a tawa and pour a laddle full of batter onto the hot tawa. Ensure that the flame is on medium and prepare the round crepe by running the laddle in a circular pattern on the batter.
• Flip over once and cooked gently. Do not let it get crisp as it might break open while placing the filling.
• This batter makes around 8 crepes.

How to fill the crepe and fry

• Take one of the crepe and place two spoonful of filling on the center of the round crepe. Using the same spoon adjust the filling to form either a square shape or a rectangle shape. This is done just to make the irachi petti hold the shape.
• In order to cover the filling, first fold over one side towards the top of the filling, such that the bend in the fold is at the point where the filling ends.Repeat the same with the opposite side.
•  Now fold the other two ends one at a time thereby sealing the filling in ( may form a square or a rectangle shape). It is always better to have larger crepes made so that the folding is easy and it stays. Smaller folded flaps tend to open up while cooking.
• Place this on a plate with the folded flaps facing down. Repeat the same with other crepes.
• Heat oil in a pan,  Dip each of the petti in the beaten egg and coat it with bread crumbs. Then place the petti in the pan with the flap side facing down. Cook till it browns well on one side and then flip over.
• Serve hot !!

You may also note

• You may add corriander leaves to the meat filling.
• Once the crepe has been folded always place it with the flap facing downward so that the weight tends to hold the flap in place.
• I prefer shallow frying but you may also deep fry it.

Bread Kai Pola - Malabar Iftar recipe

It is simply amazing how simple ingredients come together to form a perfect cuisine. This Pola recipe combines egg with bread and plantain to form a delectable snack. It was only recently that I was introduced to Malabar cuisines and I am loving them. I definitely intend to try more of the Malabar flavors.

Quite co-incidentally, during my recent visit to India, my aunt, in order to save overripe plantains from rotting away introduced me to this recipe. I liked the combination and ventured to add bread also into the recipe to make it a wholesome dish.

Here is the recipe - a simple quick win snack.

Ingredients

1. Eggs - 5 no.s
2. Plantain - 4 medium size
3. Bread - 6 slices
4. Sugar - 2 tbsp
5. Milk - 1/4 cup
6. Salt - 1 pinch
7. Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
8. Ghee - 2 - 3 tbsp
9. Cashewnuts - 2 tbsp chopped
10. Raisins - 2 tbsp

Method

Cut the plantain into cubes and shallow fry them in ghee until the yellow color of the plantain begins to turn brown. Fry the cashew nuts and raisins in the same ghee and keep aside.

Chop the bread into small squares. I used brown bread as the healthier option, you could substitute with white bread as well.

Break open the eggs and beat it well along with the milk, salt, sugar and cinnamon powder.

Add the fried plantains and the bread squares into the beaten eggs.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet and grease it with ghee. Pour in the mixture to the pan, top it with raisins and cashew and heat on low flame covered for 5 minutes. 

Pre-heat the oven for ten minutes at 180 degree centigrade and transfer the skillet to the oven at the same temperature.

Bake it uncovered until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Remove it from the oven and keep it covered with a aluminium foil for ten minutes before slicing and serving it.

You may also note - 

1. The riper the plantains you use, the better the taste
2. You could try a combination of fried and fresh plantains for better flavors
3. Once you add the bread squares, transfer to skillet immediately in order to prevent the bread from absorbing the entire mixture.