Dedicating the recipe to the beginning of 65th year of Independence...

Cock a doodle doo... Cock a doodle doo... Cock a doodle doo... Don't you dare call me Chicken... :)

On the first day of my beloved Country's 65th Year of Independence, thought why don't I dedicate a dish to the year itself on my blog. So, here we go with my dedication to the 65th Year of Independence - Chicken 65.

Freedom gives you the right to express your life and live your life the way you want and the same way, even I took the freedom to change the actual recipe to modify and make it easier for everyone. There are 'n' number of stories behind the birth of "Chicken 65" but I guess the most common and sounding relevant to the name is the story of a military canteen some where in South India. "A cook who used to work in the armed forces had come out and started his restaurant. He was finding it very difficult to name all the dishes which he invented to present in his restaurant to increase his cliental. So he just started writing them on the menu in a different style, that is instead of starting with serial number and then followed by main ingredient in the dish, he wrote it the other way round that is main ingredient in dish followed by serial number. For e.g., instead of "65. Chicken", he wrote "Chicken. 65" That's how the great dish was born.

Now, enough of history lessons and gyaan from my end and let's jump right to learn how this awesome and yummy dish is created.

Chicken 65

Ingredients - (For two people)

For Marination -

Boneless Chicken - 450 gms

Salt - To Taste

Chilli Powder - 1 tablespoon

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Kabab Masala/Chicken Masala Powder - 1 tablespoon

For 65 Masala -

Garlic - 10 cloves

Ginger - 1 1/2 inch piece

Curry Leaves - 5-6 nos

Green Chillies - 4 nos

Dry Red Chillies - 4 nos

Cumin Seeds - 1 teaspoon

Mustard Seeds - 1 teaspoon

Curd/Yogurt - 100ml

Salt - To Taste

Chilli Powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Lemon - 1/2 no

Method to prepare -

Chicken 65 was born out of innovation or rather I could say disaster when a cook was trying to make chinese dish and didn't know head or tail about chinese cuisine. So as per the actual recipe of Chicken 65 the only chinese thing about it was the corn flour, egg and ajinomoto. Hence, I decided why even use those ingredients as its better to make it simple yet yummy enough to taste exactly like Authentic Chicken 65.

• First of all wash the chicken thoroughly in running cold water to make sure there is no dirt or any clotted blood or even excess fat or feathers
• Cut the chicken into small peices and make sure they aren't bigger than about 1/2 inch and now don't go searching for a scale to check if they are exact 1/2 inch or not... Don't worry just go ahead and cut it
• Now add salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder and kabab masala powder to the chicken before leaving it to marinate for about 15 minutes
• Heat a deep frying pan with oil enough to deep fry these marinated chicken pieces
• Add chicken slowly to the hot oil and deep fry till they are golden brown on the outer crust, be very careful while adding chicken to the oil as dropping off the chicken can result in splattering oil on your hands and upper body

• Once deep fried keep chicken aside in a kitchen paper towel to drain out the oil, okay don't worry if you don't have kitchen paper towel when will you use all those newspapers which you pile up... Pull out some and put chicken on that to drain out excess oil
• In the mean time fine chop the garlic and ginger, slit the green chillies along with that just break the dry red chillies into two halves
• Heat a shallow frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil and add cumin & mustard seeds to it
• Once the seeds start crackling add the curry leaves, red chillies & green chillies; fry for about a minute
• Now add the fine chopped garlic & ginger and fry till they are little golden in colour
• Add curd/yogurt to the mixture and then toss in the chicken along with salt to taste & red chilli powder
• Mix them well and fry for about 2 minutes before taking them off the stove and serve hot

Quite simple isn't it to make Chicken 65 and remember as always I say, "Cooking isn't rocket science... Recipe is an innovation done by a hunger man with very limited resources and time in hand." Enjoy your dish and let me know the feedback on my 65th year's gift to everyone.

- Thotaji Baawarchi :)

Freedom to cook.... Goan Prawn Curry

Independence Special - On the occasion of my beloved country's 64th Independence, I thought probably I should also give freedom to all my readers from my deadly recipes... LOL... :P Don't you guys dare think that way...

Independence mean Freedom to express and live the way you want to without any interventions from one another and I really enjoy that to the highest extent with my recipe blog. So, thought why not ask my best buddy to be a guest cook and share one of his best recipe to make your meal on Independence day even better. R. Venkatram aka Venky Baba has been my best buddy from college days and we both have done mischievous things which are greater than what probably all of you would feel, "so what even we did the same?!"... Sorry can't disclose those here because not only his wife but even my fiance would just take two brooms and clean us up big time... LOL... :)

Venky Baba is teaching all of us including me how to prepare Goan Prawn curry in the most easiest and the simplest method. And, by the way you guys must be thinking "Agreed if Venky is short for Venkatram but why 'BABA'?!" Long story but will shorten it for you guys and that is simple, he used to give unnecessary gyaan to all of us in college. From that day our entire batch started calling him "Venky Baba Ki Jai" the minute they see him. You don't believe me, go to FACEBOOK and check for Venky Baba you will find him, the one and only Baba on Facebook I guess.... LOL... :P

Goan Prawn Curry

Ingredients - (For four people)

Medium Sized Prawns - 500 gms

Salt - To taste

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Kokum - 4-5 nos

(Kokum or Garcinia Indica or even known as bhinda in Konkani or Murugala Hannu in Kannada is a western coastal fruit from a fruit tree and this is a very close substitute to tamarind or in plain and simple language a souring and tangy agent.)

Green Chillies - 2-4 nos

For paste -

Dry Red Chillies - 12 nos

Coconut Scraped - 1/2 no

Ginger - 30 gms

Garlic - 30 gms

Black Pepper Whole - 2 tablespoons

Coriander Seeds - 2 tablespoons

Cumin Seeds - 2 tablespoons

Turmeric - 1 tablespoon

Cooking Vinegar - 20ml

Method to prepare -

As I always aim at making the recipes as simple and easy as possible for you to try and I guess Venky Baba has also achieved my recipe blog aim in this recipe.

• Grind all the ingredients mentioned under the tab "For paste" into a very fine paste and please keep in mind it has to be a really smooth paste, as even a coarse texture will spoil the whole curry
• In the mean time, wash your prawns thoroughly and de-vein them, if you are wondering what is de-veining them, all you need to do is make a small slit on the back of the prawns and remove the black gastrointestinal tract
• If you are really lazy and think why should I do it, forget it won't make much of a difference then don't forget to keep a strip of "LOMOTIL" tablets next to you because if that black thing is consumed by humans then we tend to have a very very very loose tap with a tsunami swirling in our tummies
• Once the paste is ready along with prawns de-veined & washed, its time to prepare your dish
• Heat a pan with a little oil, add the paste to that oil along with kokum and slit green chillies
• Cook this mixture till it becomes thick and starts oozing out oil on the edges of the pan
• Add 1/2 litre of water to the mixture and then place the raw prawns inside the curry before leaving it to cook
• Cook this mixture to a boil and then simmer for about 5-7 minutes for the prawns to cook
• Be careful while cooking prawns, because if you end up over cooking them then all you can do is take the prawns out from the curry, wash them and use as eraser for your kids drawings.... LOL... :)
• There you go with your prawn curry and now all you need to do is enjoy it with pipping hot plain rice probably with a beetroot coconut fry and oil fried papad

Go ahead and try it out and let me know your feedback on this Independence Day Special Dish. Thank you Venky Baba for helping me out with Goan Prawn Curry and I did really feel that we both re-visited Goa with this curry and the few beers along with Goan Trance playing in the background the entire time.

- Thotaji Baawarchi :)

Fungi never tasted better.... Munchee Mushrooms

Fungi or quite commonly known as Fungus can be good, bad or deadly... Come on now, don't expect me to give you gyaan on Fungus because this isn't wikipedia nor am I a science guru... LOL... :)

Okay, coming to the point.. Today, we are going to learn how to prepare a dish which is probably the quickest way to prepare a snack for all you party lovers, just incase you are running short of your snacks and party hasn't even reached half time. And this dish is again an innovation or rather let's say shortage of time and limited ingredients left in the fridge...

Munchee Mushrooms

Ingredients - (For two people)

White Button Mushrooms - 1 packet or 200gms

Green Capsicum - 1 medium sized

Onion - 1 Medium Sized

Garlic - 8 cloves

Green Chillies - 5 nos

Salt - To taste

Dark Soy Sauce - 1 tablespoon

Chinese Chilli Sauce - 1/2 tablespoon

Oil - 2 teaspoons (Try Olive Oil or Chilli Oil)

Optional Ingredients -

Port/Cooking/Table Wine - 60ml

Method to prepare -

Even a kid would be able to make this dish, but don't get to carried away and keep the kids away from kitchen and its items.

• Wash mushrooms throughly in running water to clean off any dirt or mud stuck on it and keep aside
• Cut the long stalk away off the mushrooms and then drop them into a pot of boiling water before letting them to boil for about 15 minutes
• Once, you feel the mushrooms have reduced half by size remove them from boiling water and put them into ICE cold water to stop the cooking immediately as well as to retain texture
• In the mean time, cut the onion and capsicum into cube shaped pieces
• Take the garlic along with chillies and fine chop them, but be careful not to chop off your fingers....
• Now, cut the mushrooms into cubes; didn't understand!?! Okay, all you need to do is make sure cut the mushroom into four equal parts and keep aside
• Put a pan with oil and keep the heat on high flame itself
• Once you feel the oil is heated enough then add the fine chopped garlic & chillies and keep frying them till you start getting nice fried garlic smell
• Add Onions and garlic immediately to the pan while its on high flame itself and keep stirring to fry it
• Don't leave pan on stove to check your favorite serial but make sure you are standing there otherwise it would burn into nice black charcoal... LOL... :)
• Fry for about 1 minutes or so and then add mushrooms to the pan and stir fry them for another 2-3 minutes
• Add salt, chilli sauce and soy sauce to the mixture and fry for another 2 minutes on high flame itself
• Add that 60 ml of port wine when you feel the mushroom and onions are looking as if they are turning crisp and fry for another 1-2 minutes
• Take it off the stove and serve hot with your favorite drinks either alcoholic or non-alcoholic but please don't make a mistake of serving them with any milk based or cream based drinks as it would end up into a big tsunami in the stomach... I think you guys understood what I meant?!

Enjoy your munchee mushrooms and as always don't forget to comment, shout, scream or even abuse if you like or don't like the outcome because a hospital or a dustbin aren't far when you need one.... LOL... :)

- Thotaji Baawarchi :)