CURRY AND SPICE: ORIENTAL STYLE CHICKEN & SPICE COATED BATTER FRIED EGG

How self centric I am, I had to share something I enjoy on this day, not really thinking of vegetarians around, of my veg loving readers. I don't plan anything ahead, not an organised planner, husband can give you well described note in support of it. I had some boneless chicken in freezer. I went to Indian Super Store weeks back, got bottle of Ching's Oriental style sauce back home. There is an aberration of particular spelling, do not know clearly which one is corrupted form of other.

I don't enjoy chicken curry anymore, enjoy tender chicken fries, popcorn chicken, Oriental preparations, minced chicken kebabs, also like light soupy "robibarer murgir jhol"! The thick curries, kormas are not suiting me, I keep doing them for my men, skip my share of chicken, taste curry. Curries with almonds, milk, ghee together are getting difficult to digest, its an "ada-jirey bata diye patla jhol seasoned Bengali pet... that is stomach".. How I wish to survive on "choto rui, katla, tyangra, aar, kajoli, pabda, koi er patla jhol". That is the reason I am absolutely disliking eating at speciality restaurants while in Kolkata, there I wish to visit local market, buy my kind of fish, vegetables, cook, eat. On my last visit, I did not make any attempt to buy "hansher dim".. duck eggs, one reason is that it is summer... they rot faster in the heat, if your man is fond of eggs, specifically duck eggs, you feel awkward eating it alone. It is better I cook something which we would enjoy together when we are together, in fact our son gets overjoyed to see this kind of non-vegetarian platter ORIENTAL STYLE CHICKEN & SPICE COATED BATTERFRIED EGG. Both my men enjoy sleek platters of homemade bread with suitable vegetarian, non-vegetarian sides, a variety of fried rices. Their life is sorted out, I have a mental block here at this point, I told my loving readers several times that I experience severe amount of identity crisis if I do not cook authentic Bengali often. You can see I was cooking "kochur shak"that is taro leaves, this time with smaller prawns simultaneously on that day.

If you have a Cristine, you can prepare them often, my men do not fancy Bengal's signature, pride, history associated to food .... I do and I keep cooking them though in less frequency. I share them with few of my Bengali neighbours. They too send me good food when one of their mother is here for six months every year, I get to eat my preferences coming from her, "kathaler bichi + aloor dalna, potoler bharta, kathaler bichi diye niramish tarkari".... I immediately switch back to an "egaro-baro kathar opor birat bagan ghera bari, gorur goyal, dhan sheddo kora, jatitey chal guro kora, chirey-muri bhaja, pithey-puli banano, moya banano, chatey bori... achar.. sheyoi shukono, jhorey baganey aam porey thaka o ta kurono, kamini gachey shap joriye thaka, khater nichey jomano narkol, sheshob bosta bhorey bikri kora".... I did not want to shift to Kolkata from that home, how come I would get over that nostalgia? However, that doesn't stop me from baking often, I prepared a decent garlick bread yesterday evening, today I cannot associate Bengal, India or any other place other than this island and it's neighbours in particular with my share. I couldn't name egg dish "byashoner golai moshola makha dim bhaja". I must show allegiance to my second home today that has given us safety & security, feeds our stomach.

I need not mention either what occasion it is, if I have learnt any good lesson from blogger friends around, I wouldn't do that. Let me call this non-vegetarian delight with boneless chicken, egg ORIENTAL STYLE CHICKEN & SPICE COATED BATTER FRIED EGG an Asian Delight that the world would love to have. Here is my plate;

INGREDIENTS FOR ORIENTAL CHICKEN :

BONELESS CHICKEN : 500GM [PORTIONS FROM THE BREST PREFERABLY]
CUBED ONION : 1MEDIUM TEA CUP
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 3-4
SZECHUAN SAUCE : 100-150GM [I USED STORE BOUGHT]
SOYA SAUCE : 2TBSP + 1TBSP
CORN FLOUR : 2TBSP
WHITE SESAME SEED : 1/2TSP
BLACK PEPPER POWDER : 1/4TSP + 1/4TSP
VINEGAR : 2TBSP
SUGAR : 1/2TSP
GINGER MINCE : 1TSP
GARLIC MINCE : 1TBSP

EGG : 1
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP; THE EXTRA CAN BE RESERVED FOR A LATER USE

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SPICE COATED BATTER FRIED EGG :

BOILED & HALVED EGG : 4-5
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1TSP
CHAAT MASALA : 1/2TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2TSP
GRAMFLOUR : 4-5TBSP
RICE FLOUR : 2TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED [REMEMBER CHAAT MASALA HAS SALT]
SUGAR : 1/2TSP
OIL : 5-6TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Let us prepare Oriental Style Chicken at first.

I do not have patience of chef Sanjot Keer who the other day was minutely slicing each chicken strips into same sizes for stir fry. I watch few of them including that little boy of Cooking Shooking?even Sayan's Kitchen. Sayan knows well the art, don't know why his food pictures look overly dressed, like an excess of make up on face. Mr. K's casual cooking style rules over me though. I just chopped them into smaller cubes.

I washed chicken cubes, drained water, marinated in salt for half an hour. I washed chicken again, drained water! I marinated them with vinegar, little salt, 1/4tsp black pepper powder, 2 tbsp soya sauce. I kept bowl aside for an hour or may be two.

Meanwhile, I prepared a mixture with Szechuan sauce, 1tbsp soya sauce, 1/4tsp black pepper powder, sugar, salt.

After stipulated time of marination, I drained off marinade from chicken, added little salt, rice flour, corn flour, an egg to it.

I folded in well, kept aside for 5 minutes. I heated 50ml oil in wok. We are supposed to deep fry chicken pieces, was unwilling to reserve too much of excess oil.

Once hot, I fried coated chicken cubes until light brown.

Once frying was done, I took off excess oil leaving behind 2tbsp oil. I added, stirred ginger garlic mince in it for a minute.

I added cubed onions, slitted green chillies, stirred until onions turned translucent pink.

I added fried chicken pieces, stirred for a minute or two! Then I added prepared sauce, stir cooked for 2-3 minutes.We should be done. The best is to serve it immediately.

Now let us do South Asian style Spicy Egg.

We know how to boil egg, it is universal, you ain't Parvin Babi's screen avatar. There is a point here, if I cannot insert a figure to an excel sheet even in 2019, August, there might be people like on screen Parveen Babi.

Boil eggs for 7-8 minutes. Once cool, de shell, wash, half. Add salt, half of turmeric + cumin + coriander + chaat masala + half of red chilli powders, marinate well. Keep aside for few minutes.