The common thing you see in remaking a dish is to take a classic dish and add your own regional touch, so as to give it a new flavour. But here's a fun thought: what would happen if you took a traditional dish from one state and modified it based on the cooking from a different part of very same state?
Enter the chicken kuzhi appam. Or as I like to rechristen it - the Kerala style chicken meatballs!
Ask a Keralite what a kuzhi appam is and s/he will describe to you a soft, jaggery based circular snack (you can see them here in this blog post by Rani's Treat) that while available at all times is commonly seen during festivals like Onam. A tasty, spongy treat, it usually is prepared with a special pre-moulded pan that gives the kuzhi appams their famous UFO shape.
Of course, as we come towards the Malabar end of Kerala, that old habit of wanting to instill some non vegetarian element into the dish just cannot be weaned out of us. And so, we began stealthily modifying the dish, replacing ingredient after ingredient until in the end, the name of the new dish created was Chicken Kuzhiappam even though this new chimera had more in common with an Italian meatball than the original sweet dish!
INGREDIENTS:
Chicken 500 gm
Egg 8
Cinnamon (ground) 1
Cloves (ground) 5
Garam masala 1 tsp,
Turmeric powder 2 tsp,
Coriander powder 2 tbsp,
Chilly powder 1 tbsp,
Garlic 15 cloves,
Green chilly 8,
Onion 3,
Ginger 1 small,
A little coriander, mint & curry leaves.
Oil
Salt to taste.
Cook the chicken with garam masala, turmeric, chilly, coriander powder and garlic. Mince them nicely and keep aside.
Separately, mince green chilly, onion, ginger, coriander leaves, mint leaves and curry leaves. Saute this mixture in oil along with ground cinnamon and cloves.
Add the minced chicken mixture to this. Mix well and set aside.
Make into small balls and deep fry in oil till you get a nice deep shade of brown.
Remove and serve hot with sauce of your choice (my personal suggestion - something spicy!).
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| A part of me is still shaking my head in disbelief that this is called a kuzhi appam! Oh, Mallu Land! |
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| Click the image to convert it to its full size and download the recipe |
Expect to see the odd food recipe like this at Godyears too - all prepared by my mother - from recipes she has collected as far back as the 1980's - with some unique to Kerala cuisine and some variations of international dishes.
Since the goal is to share, I will be looking to make all the recipes into easy downloadable single images as well so that you can save them on to your mobile/device and use them offline. Of course, if you do try them out, it would be awesome if you gave me (and her) feedback here on what you thought of the dish.
For the list of all the recipes so far (including seafood, egg dishes, sweets, twists on traditional dishes et al), click here:
For more food posts, click here.
Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe. I think instead of meatballs , I will make kebabs with this :)
ReplyDeletehahaha... that would just as well. In fact yes, the final product does have that 'kebaby' feel to it. :) Share pics if it works out well... would love to show it to the original chef (my mom!) as well :)
ReplyDeleteI sure will. Thanks again. God bless .
ReplyDelete