Authentic Malvani Chicken & Vade

Directions

• Preparation for Malvani Chicken:
• Grate the coconut finely.
• Dice chicken in medium size (~1 inch) pieces, wash thoroughly and drain water completely.
• Grind half teaspoon salt, turmeric, chopped ginger and about 2-3 tablespoon of freshly grated coconut to make fine mixture. Don’t add too much water. Marinate chicken pieces with this mixture.
• Finely chop 3 onions vertically (for gravy) and remaining 3 onions in small cubicle pieces (for frying).
• Steps for Malvani Chicken:
• Shallow fry desiccated coconut along with all the whole spicy ingredients (not the powdered once) in 2-3 tablespoon of oil.
• In another pan shallow fry vertically diced onion along with freshly grated coconut using 2-3 tablespoons of oil. Make sure fried onion is reddish brown.
• In a big saucepan, add remaining oil and deep fry cubically cut onion.
• Uniformly coat chicken pieces using malavani garam masala and half of the mixture of desiccate coconut and spices.
• Stir this chicken in fried onions in the saucepan. Fry it thoroughly.
• Add 5-6 bowls (500 ml) of hot water and cover the pan with firm lid.
• Let this mixture cook for 15-20 minutes, with occasional stir.
• Once chicken is cooked add ground mixture of fresh coconut and remaining desiccated coconut-spice mix. Add salt and let it all cook for another 5-10 minutes.
• If you like thinner gravy, add hot water accordingly. You can also add coconut milk instead of water.
• Add salt as per taste.
• Garnish with finely chopped coriander before you serve.
• Instructions (for Vade)
• Thoroughly wash urad daal and soak it in water overnight.
• Strain out excess of water and coarsely grind soaked daal in a mixer.
• Grind coriander and fenugreek seeds to make fine powder
• Take a broad tray for mixing. Add rice flour, turmeric, coriander and fenugreek powder.
• Add salt, cumin powder. Mix the ingredients. Then add 3 tablespoon of hot oil.
• Once the oil is cooled, mix all the ingredients properly. Add ground urad daal and make dough. You can add some water to role it in a ball, but it should be firm (like chapatti dough) and not flowy. Keep it for 15-20 mins.
• Make small lime size balls from the dough.
• Apply some oil on your palms. Then flatten each ball by pressing it on a banana leaf or thick polythene bag (like a milk pouch). Give it a shape of a ‘puri’, and thickness of about 3-4mm.
• Heat oil in a deep frying pan for frying. Deep fry vadas until they get almond colour on one side and bulge out. Cool them on a tissue paper to remove excess of oil from Vade.