NAATUKOZHI CHAARU

This dish is part of the South Indian wedding feast. Though not served on the day of the wedding, this is specially served to the groom the day he returns back to the bride’s house for a feast.

          After having had a nice wash with gingelly oil, the groom is served this dish which also is prepared in gingelly oil.      

          Why gingelly oil? Most of us are not aware of many merits of gingelly oil. This has a unique way of reducing body heat, enhances digestion and also has right proportion of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and these make the oil one of the best to be taken in.

          Be careful not to use the so-called clear refined transparent oils because the more they are refined, the more harmful they are.

          Significance towards this curry is that the masalas are freshly pound/ground. And it is done using the traditional methods of stone grinding (Ammi).

Ingredients:

Country fowl (naatukozhi)- 1 full chicken

Shallots- 250g

Green chillies- 5

Ginger-garlic paste- 100g

Tomatoes- 2 big

Turmeric powder- 2tsp

Bay leaf- 1

Mace(Jaathipathri)- a small piece

Kapok(Maratimuggu)-1

Curry leaves- few

Salt- to taste

Gingelly oil- 4tbsp

For the powder:

Red chillies- 10

Dhania seeds- 2 tbsp

Pepper corns-  2 tsp

Dry ginger- ½” piece

Cinnamon- 2” stick

Cardamom- 5

Cloves-3

Star anise- 1

Cumin seeds- 2 tsp

Saunf – 1 tsp

For the paste:

Coconut (grated) – 1 cup

Shallots- 2

Cumin seeds- 1 tsp

Recipe:

          In a clay pot, roast all the ingredients listed under powder and pound them using a stone. This takes a significantly long time so make sure you do this first and keep the powder ready.

          Grind the paste ingredients into a fine smooth paste.

          In a clay pot, add gingelly oil and splutter curry leaves. Add bay leaves, mace and kapok and leave them for 30 seconds. Now add chopped shallots and fry them till golden. Add slit green chillies and sauté for a couple of minutes.

          Now add the ginger-garlic paste and fry until cooked. Now add the chicken and fry them for 20 minutes. Now add the chooped tomatoes and cook it for over 15 minutes.

          Now add the powder and mix well and cook it covered for 15 minutes.

Once the masalas have blended well into the chicken, add salt and the coconut paste and cook it covered for five minutes.  Add a dash of pepper powder to the curry and its all ready to be served.

          This curry tastes heavenly with the traditional uzhunthanchoru (rice cooked with black urad dhal, garlic and dry ginger ) and with other dishes like steamed rice, Malabar paratha, rotis and also serves as a good accompaniment for biryani.

PS:

·        When you roast the spices be careful to drop them in one by one so that you don’t burn any of the ingredients

·        If either of the ingredient is over roasted it tends to give a bitter taste to the gravy

·        Pounding them in a stone or grinding them on ammi isn’t a must. You can use your spice grinder/ mixer  grinder to do it as well

·        If you are using your spice grinder, make sure you crush the dry ginger with a pin roller as this tends to stay the same in the grinder and also damage the blades of the spice grinder/mixer grinder.