Mutton Fry with curry leaves

The mutton fry with curry leaves (mutton vepudu or mamsam (meat) vepudu) dish is so spicy, easy and wonderful - that you will just love it. Its my mom's recipe! The cold weather is out there - mutton fry with warm rice is totally a spicily comfort food.

I generally buy meat from whole foods. The meat is much tender, tasty and cooks easily. If you think the meat is tough and not tender, pressure cook the meat before using it for the fry(Save the broth obtained from pressure cooker for soups etc)

Ingredients for masala paste (for 2 pounds of mutton)
1/2 cup of curry leaves (karvepaku) - about 30 leaves
2 tbsp coriander seeds (dhaniya)
2 tbsp coriander powder
6-7 red chillies (Reduce the amount for a less spicy dish)
3 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp cumin (jeera)

In pan, dry roast the coridaner seeds, jeera, curry leaves and red chillies and grind into a paste with the other ingredients.

Wash meat appropriately and coat with 2 tbsp of salt and 1tsp of turmeric. Heat oil in a non stick pan and add the mutton pieces. You will notice the pink meat will slowly start turning to brown color. After 5 minutes, add 1/2 cup of water, cover the pan, lower the heat to "medium" and let the meat cook for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye that the water doesnt evaporate completely from the pan. At this point add the masala paste and mix with the mutton pieces. Saute the mixture for 5 more minutes and cover the pan for 10 minutes on low heat.The raw taste of the masala paste should be gone by now. If the meat is still undercooked, keep adding 1/2 cup of water and allow the meat to cook and then remove the lid and allow the water to evaporate to get "fry" texture. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with warm rice.

I love this dish. The mutton fry (vepudu) pieces with "toor dal and spinach" are totally delicious. Everyone who tasted this dish were all full of praises for me (my mom in turn). The same recipe can be followed with chicken pieces, but mutton fry with curry leaves masala rocks! Do leave me a comment after you tried this recipe

Chicken Fry - Kodi Vepudu

This is a really easy and tasty chicken fry/ kodi vepudu recipe from my mom in law- totally yummy and goes well with rasam, sambhar! Great comforting dish on rainy days - its spicy too.

Caution - the oil content in this recipe is high - so if you are on a low fat diet then this dish is not for you.

Ingredients needed
1. 2 pounds of chicken pieces
2. 3 tsp of salt
3. 2 tsp of turmeric
4. 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
5. 4 tbsp of coriander powder(dhaniya powder) and 4 tbsp of chilli powder. Combined these two powders with water until you get smooth paste as shown

You can adjust the chilli powder depending on your taste. But 4 tbsp will give just the right amount of heat - i would say 6.5/10 - 10 being fiery hot.

Wash and pat dry the chicken pieces and mix them with ingredients 2,3 and 4. In a non-stick pan heat 5-6 tbsp of oil and add chicken mixture. Fry the pieces for about 10-15 minutes (stir the pieces every 3 minutes) until you notice the browning on the chicken pieces. The pictures are shown below. At this point add the coriander and chilli powder paste and mix well. Fry the mixture for 5 more minutes. Cover the pan and allow the mixture to cook for 10 more minutes in medium-low heat. Adjust salt if necessary and garnish with coriander leaves.

Easy potato fry

I feel this easy recipe is a favorite for everyone pressed for time. This is a very common recipe amongst the south Indians. I learnt this recipe from my mother - this is her favourite one for sure because it doesn't take much time to make - especially when you have to manage a hospital(she is a physician) and then home. I recommend a non-stick pan with a lid for this recipe.

Use red Potatoes for this recipe as they dont get mushed up when cooked. For more information on what potatoes to use for baking, boiling etc look up at http://ochef.com/167.htm.

Peel the skin and cut the potatoes(2 medium sized) into evenly sized pieces. In a non-stick pan, add 2tbsp oil, allow few seconds for the oil to heat up. Add 1 tsp of mustard seeds(aavalu), 1 tsp of jeera, 10 curry leaves(karvepaku-you can reduce the amount if you dont like them), 3 dried red chillies, 1 tsp urud dal. Allow the mustard seeds to splutter and then add potatoes. mix well, add salt as per your taste and pinch of turmeric. Fry the mix for a minute and cover the pan. Lower the heat to Medium low.

[[[Additional water is not required for this dish.The water in the potatoes turns to steam and this steam condenses on the lid and inturn goes back to the pan to cook the potatoes. ]]]

Allow the potatoes to cook on medium low with lid on for about 5-10 minutes. The fry is done. Eat along with hot cooked rice and tomato rasam.