Chicken Stew

I made this chicken stew to eat with Italian Foccacia bread I have just learned to make- the recipe of which I will post later. This simple stew with vegetables and herbs tasted wonderful as I used home made stock made by my friend SS who shared some with me. It makes all the difference to add home made stock compared to soup cubes.
You can make this stew without the meat and only veggies as an alternative.
Serve with rice or bread ! I used my habanero chilli oil as a base, you could use any other oil of your choice


500 gms of chicken pieces
1 tablespoon habanero chilli oil
2 onions sliced
1 teaspoon freshly ground garlic
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup stock
2 potatoes cubed
4 carrots chopped into large chunks
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon oregano

Heat oil and brown the chicken pieces well on all sides in the hot oil on a high flame.
Lower heat, add onions to the browned chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes, add garlic paste, salt and pepper to taste, and stir. Cook for 10 minutes or so on a low heat, covered.
Add the potatoes and carrots and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the stock, simmer and cover and cook till vegetables and chicken are cooked.
Add the milk and keep stirring occasionally.
Add oregano and keep stirring till the gravy is of desired thickness. I didn't add any cornflour but you can if you like a thicker stew.

Olan- Black-eyed Beans and Ash Gourd. A recipe from Kerala

Many vegetarian dishes from Kerala combine lentils/legumes and vegetables in the same dish. I really like this as a concept and am also quite crazy about how these dishes taste as well! I used my black pottery kitchenware to make the olan, which is featured here.

Ingredients
1 cup black eyed beans. This is the small red coloured black-eyed bean as opposed to the white one
4 cups water
pinch of turmeric
3 cups chopped ash gourd
6 green chillies slit in half
1 cup thick coconut milk
a few curry leaves
1 tablespoon coconut oil

Method
1. Pressure cook the black eyed beans in water with a pinch of turmeric. Two whistles on a high flame and 12-15 minutes on a low flame should do the trick. Wait till the pressure goes down before opening the pressure cooker.
2. Meanwhile in another pot, cook the ash gourd green chillies salt in a cup of water.
3. Add the cooked beans to the ash gourd, and simmer together for 15 minutes. Keep stirring.
4. Add the coconut milk and curry leaves last when you're sure the beans are tender.
5. Lace with coconut oil.

Baingan and Kaddu Bhaja- Grilled Brinjal and Pumpkin Slices. A recipe from Bengal

Bengalis will often lightly grill slices of brinjal and red pumpkin as an accompanying dish. Just chop the vegetable into large rounds or squares, rub a mixture of turmeric, red chilli powder and salt and keep it aside for 15 minutes. Heat a little oil in a frying pan or griddle and fry on each side till it browns nicely. This is an easy way to make these veggies, and because they're so lightly spiced and lightly grilled its probably a very nutritious way to eat them too !

Spinach Thoran-A recipe from Kerala

I used 2 bunches of the red leafy spinach to make this thoran but you can use any. A mix of green leaf and red leaf spinach works well too and gives an interesting taste to the dish.

Grind coarsely - 4 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup grated fresh coconut, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder. Keep aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil, when hot splutter 1/2 a teaspoon of mustard seeds, a few curry leaves, add one dry red chilli, broken in half.

Add chopped spinach , and 2 green chillies chopped finely. Add salt, cover and cook for 5 minutes or till the steam rises.
Add the ground masala, stir, cover and cook again for 5-8 minutes on a low flame till spinach is cooked. Open pan and stir till the water dries.