Potato Assaadu & Chicken Puttu - Pondicherry Special

Pondicherry - this place is very special to me, yes its my hometown. Pondicherry is in Southern part of India, its one among the Union territory, we have our chief minister and a chief secretariat.Pondicherry, heavily influenced by French, we have the street names in French, yes The french way of life left a deep impact in our lifestyle and in our cuisine. Pondicherry cuisine, is a mixed cuisine of French, Tamilnadu, Andhra, Kerala and with some Bengali touch too.Pondicherry cuisine involves many spices,obviously gravies and side dishes are prepared basically with  mixed paste  of coconut,poppy seeds and cashewnuts or simply stir fries have grated coconut definitely in it thus this cuisine have very rich flavourful dishes.Pondicherry is one of the famous tourist place and now its one of the fetish place for movie shootings,you cant miss a movie shooting atleast once a week, because of this many 5 stars hotels are showing their head here and there in Pondicherry. Pondicherry is called French Riviera of the East.

Been born in Pondicherry, i have been pampered by many traditional dishes and when i was about to chose a traditional dish i picked Assaadu which means literally Kurma. Christian community in Pondicherry calls their kurma as assaadu and this dish is prominently prepared with meats or seafoods, but i prepared mine simply with potatoes. You might have heard the name kavappu which means bhajji, the gramflour coated fritters. Most important spices cooked in this cuisine is peppercorns,fennel seeds, cumin seeds,poppy seeds,coriander seeds. Since Pondicherry is situated near Bay of Bengal, we are seafood lovers and we get super fresh seafoods. My today's post from my place is Potato Assaadu and chicken puttu aka shredded chicken, actually we make puttu  with shark fish/Sura meen which is quite famous in my place, i simply replaced the shark fish with chicken.Both dishes served with rice makes a satisfying meal definitely.

Potato Assaadu/Urulai Kizhangu Assaadu/Potato Kurma:

2nos Large potatoes (cubed)
1no Onion (big & chopped)
2nos Tomatoes (chopped)
3nos Green chillies (slit opened)
1tbsp Ginger garlic paste
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1/2tsp Chilly powder
2nos Cloves
1no Cinnamon stick
1no Bayleaf
Oil
Salt
Few coriander leaves

To grind:
1tbsp Fennel seeds
1tsp Cumin seeds
1/2cup Grated coconut
1tbsp Poppyseeds
5nos Cashewnuts

Grind the fennel seeds and cumin seeds as fine powder, keep aside.

Grind the grated coconut,poppyseeds, cashewnuts together as fine paste.

Heat enough oil, fry the cloves,cinnamon stick, bayleaf until they turns brown.

Add the chopped onions, ginger garlic paste, cook for few minutes.

Add the tomatoes,slit opened green chillies, fennel-cumin seed powder, salt and cook until the veggies gets well cooked.

Add the cubed potatoes, cook for few minutes.

Finally add the grounded paste, add enough water and cook everything simmer until the veggies get well cooked.

Add the coriander leaves, put off the stove.

Chicken Puttu/Kozhi Puttu:

2cup Shredded chicken (chicken breast cooked in water & shredded)
20nos Shallots (chopped finely)
1inch Ginger (chopped finely)
5nos Garlic (chopped finely)
3nos Green chillies (chopped finely)
1/2tsp Pepper powder
1/2tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Fennel seed powder
1/2cup Coconut (grated)
Few curry leaves
1tsp Cumin seed powder
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1/2tsp Urad dal
2tbsp Coriander leaves (chopped)
Salt
Oil

Add the pepper powder, cumin seed powder, turmeric powder, fennel seed powder, salt to the shredded chicken and mix everything well.

Heat enough oil and let splutters the mustard seeds,curry leaves and urad dal, add the chopped ginger,chopped green chillies and chopped garlic pieces and fry until they turns slightly brown.

 Add immediately the chopped shallots and cook everything until the shallots turns transculent.

Now add the cooked and spiced chicken and toss everything gently, cook everything in simmer until they turns dry and get well fried..

Finally add the chopped coriander leaves and grated coconut to the puttu, cook for few minutes and put off the stove.

Serve as side dish with rice.

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