Indo Chinese Chili Chicken and Sambar Powder

Its been quite a while that I made chicken. And on top of it I have been only making Chicken with bones lately. So today was a day to make something with boneless skinless chicken breasts. I finally made the most yummiest wet chili chicken I had ever tasted. And here is the recipe
                  And I served it with plain white rice and sambar made with Butternut Squash. And this sambar is special because the sambar powder is home made and the recipe follows

Indo Chinese Chili Chicken (Boneless chicken in a hot and spicy gravy)

Wet chili chicken

Ingredients:

1. 3 chicken breasts (skinless, boneless) cut into 1 inch cubes
2. 1-11/2 cup cubed bell pepper of your favourite color
3. 1/2 cup chopped red onion
4. 1 tablespoon oil
5. 1 teaspoon each of finely chopped garlic, green chilly, red chilly paste, white vinegar
6. 1 tablespoon each of soy sauce, corn starch
7. 2 cups chicken broth
8. Oil for deep frying

Ingredients for marinade:

1. 2 tablespoons corn flour
2. 1 egg
3. 1 tablespoon each of soy sauce, white vinegar
4. 1/2 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
5. 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Mix all the ingredients in the marinade and stir the egg. Add it to the chicken pieces and marinade for 1-2 hours. Deep fry the chicken pieces until golden brown. Drain and set aside

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and fry the onions for a couple of minutes. Add the bell pepper and fry for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Add a little oil to the pan is there is no oil and add the garlic and chili to the pan and fry for a minute. Mix the soy sauce, chili sauce, vinegar, corn starch and chicken broth and add it to the pan and cook on a medium low heat for a few minutes. Add the chicken and the bell peppers and stir to combine. Simmer for 2-3 minutes. garnish with cilantro and/or green onions and serve hot with rice or fried rice

Homemade Sambar Powder 

Home made Sambar Powder

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup chana dal
2. 2 tablespoons coriander powder
3. 6-8 dried red chilli
4. 1 teaspoon cumin
5. 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

Dry roast the ingredients separately except for coriander powder. Cool to room temperature. Grind to powder. Store in an air tight container. Use 1-2 teaspoons in sambar

Ravva Dosa with Potato Carrot curry

Once upon a time when I was in India, we used to live in an apartment complex. Once a year, the apartment committee used to give breakfast to all the apartment holders and then meetings to decide important things like maintainance fee and all. On one of those occassions, I was introduced to "Ravva Dosa". I served this dosa with Potato and Carrot curry and Sambar
                     I never had ravva dosa before, but that day the chef making it right there and serving hot dosa was amazing. And also that day they served Grape juice...one of the most amazing grape juices' I ever had. I will enter the recipe some day

Ravva Dosa (Indian Semolina Crepe)

Ravva Dosa

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup Upma Ravva
2. 1 cup Maida (All purpose flour)
3. 1/2 cup Rice flour
4. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon each of salt, cooking soda, cumin
5. 1-11/2 tablespoon each of finely chopped onions, coriander
6. 1 teaspoon or less of finely chopped green chilly, ginger
7. Oil for frying

Sift together Upma Ravva, all-purpose flour and rice flour. Mix in salt and cooking soda and mix water to make a thin batter. Set aside overnight. Mix all the other ingredients and add some more water to make into a thin batter. Heat a griddle and laddle about 1/3 cup of batter in the middle and move the griddle in such a way that the batter spreads. Drizzle oil over the edges of the dosa and let fry for 3-4 minutes. Turn and fry for a couple of minutes. Serve hot with Sambar and Aalo carrot curry

Aalo Gaajar Sallan (Simple potato, carrot curry)

Aalo gaajar curry

Ingredients:

1. 2 medium large potatos peeled and cubed
2. 2 medium large carrots peeled and cubed
3. 1/2 cup red onions sliced
4. 2 tablespoons oil+ 1 tablespoon oil
5. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, urad dal, mustard seeds, turmeric
6. 2 red chillies broken
7. 1 green chilly chopped
8. few curry leaves

In a pressure cooker heat 2 tbsps oil and fry the onions till tender. Add carrot and potato cubes and add 1/2-3/4 cupwater and turmeric and pressure cook for 2 whistles. In a pan heat the remaining oil and fry the cumin, mustard seeds and urad dal for a couple of minutes. Add red and green chilly pieces and curry leaves and fry till they start to splutter. Add the potato and carrot to this and simmer for 5 minutes after adding salt. Garnish with cilantro and serve with Dosa or Roti

You may also want to check Simple potato curry,

poon sambar powder (made above) (or store bought)
In a pressure cooker cook the dal for 3-4 whistles with 11/2-2 cups of water and turmeric and chopped tomato. After the steam escapes open the cooker and mash the dalor better grind it to a paste. Add salt and all the vegetables and tamarind juice and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. In a pan heat the oil and fry the cumin, mustard seeds and dried red chilly, garlic if using and curry leaves till they start to splutter. Cut the heat and add the dal to the pan or the tempering to the dal. Add sambar powder. Bring to boil again and boil for further 10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and check if all the vegetables are cooked else simmer covered for a little bit more. Enjoy with Ravva Dosa, Plain dosa or Idli