It was well past ten on a cold September night, i was all alone on the first floor of the three storied well compounded house of my in law down in suburbs I was not alone in the house though my sister was completing her last minute errands and the cleaning is pending.   we both finished our dinner a bit early that day and since I was on a holiday I normally rest most of the time there was only one television on the ground floor the house is the last in the deserted street opposite to that lane there was an almost empty ground a dilapidated stadium building which was half way constructed and left off some decade back because of some ligation on the property. The house we lived in was itself two decades old but only the ground floor was constructed the first and the second floors were raised later as we settled.


The house is big with two huge gates for the car to enter its an old Am
I usually occupy the room on the ground floor to sleep at night it had a single cot with hard mattress, an old cupboard white in color; since it was previously used as a store, the room is dull with old paint removed here and there; there were crow bars, some old portraits and few out of size kitchen utensils placed in the corner of the room. I heard my in laws' great grandfathers some decades back were hoteliers so most of the kitchen and store cupboards are huge. The kitchen



 I came to the guest room on the first floor as my sister is alone usually until she is sleepy she would come to the guest room we would chat for few hpure untill both of us are tired and cannot withstand sleep.

Badam Halwa

This is one of my favorite, hope you guys like it too J

Ingredients :

Almonds - 1/2 cup heaped
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 4 tbsp.
Condensed Milk - 1 tbsp. (optional)
Milk - 1/8 cup + 1/8 cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch(optional)
Saffron - a tiny pinch
Yellow food colour - a tiny pinch ( Optional – Only if you want Soly’s  Eye to pop out )

Increase the ingredients if you want make a big portion.

Method :

1.       Soak almonds for 2 hrs. Then peel off the skin and make it ready.

2.       Then grind the almonds along with 1/8 cup of milk to a fine/semi coarse paste.

3.       Take another 1/8 cup of warm milk crush saffron and add it. Add the yellow food colour and set aside.

4.       In a pan - add sugar with water and let it boil until sugar completely dissolves. Then add the badam paste and stir it continuously to avoid lumps. Once it’s completely blended with the sugar syrup add saffron milk and condensed milk and mix well. If you are adding cardamom powder add it now.

5.       Keep stirring in low flame for 5mins, it will splutter so be careful. Then add a tsp of ghee at regular intervals stirring continuously. At one stage spluttering will stop, ghee will be completely absorbed and the halwa will start leaving the sides of the pan and small white bubbles will start appearing. This is the right stage, to switch off.

6.       Cool down and let it be become a bit thicker.

Chettinad Chciken Curry: Ginger ½ inch piece Small onion-10 Garlic-10 pods Green chillies-2 Chilli powder-1 table spoons Coriander powder-2 table spoons

Chettinad Chicken Curry

Ingredients

Chicken – Off-course ( You can increase the quantity of ingredients according to size of the chicken)

Small onion 30 or big onion 2

Tomatoes-2

Garlic 20 pods and

Lots and lots of LOVE……..

To Grind No 1:

Ginger ½ inch piece

Small onion-10

Garlic-10 pods

Green chillies-2

Chilli powder-1 table spoons

Coriander powder-2 table spoons

To Grind No 2:

Coconut grated-5 table spoons

Cashew nut-5

Fennel seeds-1 teaspoon

To Season:

Cinnamon-2 pieces

Fennel seeds-1 teaspoon

Clove-2

Cardamom-2

Birinji leaf-little

Mint leaf-handful

Curry leaf little

To Marinate:

1 teaspoon Samabar podi

Salt-1 teaspoon

Curd little

Ginger garlic paste-1 teaspoon

Procedure :

1.    Marinate the chicken for an hour before cooking.

2.    Mince the onion, garlic and tomatoes.

3.    Keep the kadai in the stove. Season the curry with the items given in To Season in 2 tablespoons of oil.

4.    Add the onions and saute with a pinch of salt for 3 minutes.

5.    When the onions turn transparent add the garlic, saute for some time,Add the chopped tomatoes. Saute till the whole thing gets smashed.

6.    Add the grinded paste of items given in No 1. saute it for a while.

7.    Now add the chicken pieces and nicely mix all the masala over the chicken pieces.

8.    Chicken will lose some weight now by shedding some of her water. All you have to do now is reduce the flame and cook for 10 to 15 minutes.

9.    Once you find that the chicken pieces are almost cooked increase the flame so that the gravy becomes thick.

10.  Once the curry gets thick add the masala grinded with the items given in No 2 and mix nicely

11.  Cook for another 5 minutes.