Chicken Jeeremeere - Asha Pai
I was flabbergasted a few days ago when my elder born Karthik announced that he is going to cook chicken curry for the day. He had a newspaper cutout which had a tiny recipe with exactly 5 ingredients in miniscule quantities apart from the quintessential salt and the chicken. Curds, ginger garlic paste and lemon juice along with salt for marination and cumin with green chillies for the final cooking. As a matter of fact, he had been through a couple of short cookery courses from where he had got enough materials to fill his file of recipes, sadly none of those recipes got transferred to the dining table; the reason being those were meant for bulk cooking which did not interest him or motivate him to actually take up daily cooking. Hence a flabbergasted me, who had one look at his recipe and wondered what magic would turn the bland chicken to tasty morsel on my dining table with just cumin & green chilly for flavour. But I was in no mind to discourage a motivated to cook son, so I had to say a big yes to him with a bigger smile on my countenance. Well !! within no time the chicken was bought and was happily swimming in the marinade while we were happily lounging on the sofa in front of the TV. After the stipulated 2 hrs when it was time to get back to the recipe I could not help but suggest that he start with some browned onions. The suggestion was duly accepted by the son just because he thought that his Mom can never go wrong….. (hmmm, proud of him). Soon the onions were frying in the pan instead of the cumin which was supposed to splutter, but by then he had realized that the cumin will not splutter if added to the browned onions so he went ahead and pounded the cumin to a fine powder. As soon as he finished he had another doubt in his mind, would it taste good if he added a bit of pepper to it. He only waited long enough for a nod from me before going ahead with another go at the pound, this time, with a handful of black pepper. The chilly paste was added to the onions without its original mate the cumin and slightly fried before the marinated chicken found its way to the fiery concoction which was making him cough. But watery eyes & sniffling not withstanding the chicken was browned a little before the marinade was added to it and left to cook in its juices. Half of the freshly pounded cumin and pepper was added to the simmering chicken while rest was added when the chicken was almost cooked while the some green coriander and a pinch of garam masala added as an after thought and further cooked covered for a couple of minutes and voila ! a new dish was born. When the final dish was on the table, the aroma was so captivating that none waited for the rice which was still cooking in the pot. The speed at which it was devoured with left over bread from the fridge and left over chappatis was proof enough that the dish was oh so yummy. Well, there is more good news, it was christened too as CHICKEN JEEREMEERE…. Certainly, a refreshing change from my garam masala laden recipes. And it came out really tasty too. I am happy now that I would now get to eat some more yummy recipes from him, that is IF he gets motivated again…
I was flabbergasted a few days ago when my elder born Karthik announced that he is going to cook chicken curry for the day. He had a newspaper cutout which had a tiny recipe with exactly 5 ingredients in miniscule quantities apart from the quintessential salt and the chicken. Curds, ginger garlic paste and lemon juice along with salt for marination and cumin with green chillies for the final cooking. As a matter of fact, he had been through a couple of short cookery courses from where he had got enough materials to fill his file of recipes, sadly none of those recipes got transferred to the dining table; the reason being those were meant for bulk cooking which did not interest him or motivate him to actually take up daily cooking. Hence a flabbergasted me, who had one look at his recipe and wondered what magic would turn the bland chicken to tasty morsel on my dining table with just cumin & green chilly for flavour. But I was in no mind to discourage a motivated to cook son, so I had to say a big yes to him with a bigger smile on my countenance. Well !! within no time the chicken was bought and was happily swimming in the marinade while we were happily lounging on the sofa in front of the TV. After the stipulated 2 hrs when it was time to get back to the recipe I could not help but suggest that he start with some browned onions. The suggestion was duly accepted by the son just because he thought that his Mom can never go wrong….. (hmmm, proud of him). Soon the onions were frying in the pan instead of the cumin which was supposed to splutter, but by then he had realized that the cumin will not splutter if added to the browned onions so he went ahead and pounded the cumin to a fine powder. As soon as he finished he had another doubt in his mind, would it taste good if he added a bit of pepper to it. He only waited long enough for a nod from me before going ahead with another go at the pound, this time, with a handful of black pepper. The chilly paste was added to the onions without its original mate the cumin and slightly fried before the marinated chicken found its way to the fiery concoction which was making him cough. But watery eyes & sniffling not withstanding the chicken was browned a little before the marinade was added to it and left to cook in its juices. Half of the freshly pounded cumin and pepper was added to the simmering chicken while rest was added when the chicken was almost cooked while the some green coriander and a pinch of garam masala added as an after thought and further cooked covered for a couple of minutes and voila ! a new dish was born. When the final dish was on the table, the aroma was so captivating that none waited for the rice which was still cooking in the pot. The speed at which it was devoured with left over bread from the fridge and left over chappatis was proof enough that the dish was oh so yummy. Well, there is more good news, it was christened too as CHICKEN JEEREMEERE…. Certainly, a refreshing change from my garam masala laden recipes. And it came out really tasty too. I am happy now that I would now get to eat some more yummy recipes from him, that is IF he gets motivated again…
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