There’s extra to the Easter feast than chocolate bunnies and painted eggs. In truth, the true hero of Easter — aside from the Risen Christ himself — is the meat!
As Easter is the end result of 40 days of fasting and penitence, it’s solely honest that the feast is one in every of grand indulgence. I bear in mind how, rising up within the 70s and 80s in Madras (now Chennai), the season of Lent was a time of full abstinence at house, when even eggs have been off the menu. Stretching into 46 days (to incorporate Holy Week).
It was a time to embrace quite a lot of vegetarian dishes, pachchadis, pickles and vadams, which blended fairly effectively with the onset of spring and summer season. Surprisingly, this transient dalliance with vegetarianism could be fairly spiritually uplifting, and I wouldn’t actually miss the meat — till Easter.
But the daybreak of Easter woke up the senses in additional methods than one, and the primary dish for breakfast on Easter morning was our cook dinner Shankar’s inexperienced rooster kurma with mushy, melt-in-the-mouth idlis.
Lunch was a special story. But that kurma, with its profusion of contemporary greens and succulent rooster items, brings again many fond reminiscences of festivals and the approaching collectively of household and buddies. Now, with each my mother and father gone and group gatherings changing into more and more uncommon, it’s reminiscences corresponding to these that I discover myself reliving typically.
Feast for the soul
Back within the 80s, my household used to man one of many breakfast stalls on the CSI St. Thomas English Church’s annual thanksgiving competition, for the only motive that our cook dinner used to make the most effective rooster kurma.
I nonetheless bear in mind how, on the carnival day, Shankar would arrive at 4 within the morning to start out his preparation, and shortly the home could be stuffed with the aroma of contemporary mint and coriander, until the rooster joined in and took it to a special degree.
My father was a stickler for punctuality and we might arrive on the church effectively forward of time, rooster kurma, fuel range, cylinder and Shankar in tow. The freshly-made idlis, dosas and kurma would fly off the plates in a jiffy. By standard demand, we’d repeat the ‘idli-kurma’ deal with for carol rounds and choir Sunday breakfasts. Every annual mission fundraiser sale would additionally characteristic this star dish.
Fresh as a reminiscence
Recently, I occurred to delve deeper into the origin of the kurma (or korma, as it’s known as within the north), which has its roots in Mughlai delicacies. I used to be shocked to search out that this specific inexperienced variant is kind of standard within the Nilgiris and the encircling hilly areas of Kongu Nadu.
A staple of the tribal Badaga kitchen, the recipe is exclusive as no powdered masalas are used — it’s solely entire spices and contemporary herbs. And the more energizing the coriander and mint, the greener the kurma. These little bits of data slot in so neatly, just like the lacking piece of a jigsaw puzzle, as our cook dinner too was from Coimbatore.
I nonetheless have Shankar’s recipe. I bear in mind writing it down as he narrated it the very yr I used to be married. Now my daughter thinks it’s the one worthwhile dish in my moderately restricted repertoire of culinary exploits. I make it just for Christmas and Easter.
Sunday recipe
Green rooster kurma
1/2 coconut, grated or lower into small items
5 sliced onions
7 inexperienced chillies
2 tbsp ginger & garlic paste (freshly floor)
1/2 a bunch contemporary mint leaves (pudhina)
1/2 a bunch contemporary coriander leaves
2 tomatoes
3 bay leaves
2 inches cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp fennel seeds
4 cloves
3 cardamoms
3 star anise
Curry leaves
1 kg rooster
Salt to style
Method
1. Add round two tablespoons of oil within the strain cooker pan and fry the grated/ lower coconut with a teaspoon of fennel seeds until the coconut turns barely brown and provides out a pleasant aroma. Transfer to a vessel and permit it to chill.
2. Pour some extra oil within the pan and fry the inexperienced chillies, together with half the amount of sliced onion. Fry until onion turns translucent and switch to a different vessel to chill.
3. Grind the above two fried gadgets individually in a mixie.
4. In the identical pan, add extra oil and when it heats up, add the remaining fennel seeds, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, clove, cardamom, star anise and curry leaves, together with the remaining onion, and fry effectively.
5. Cut the tomatoes into medium-sized items and add.
6. After the tomatoes are cooked, add the ginger-garlic paste, after which the inexperienced chilli and onion combination, and fry effectively.
7. Add the rooster items and salt and blend effectively. Add water and produce to a boil, permitting the rooster to cook dinner. If you might be pressure-cooking, shut the lid and cook dinner for one or two whistles.
8. Open the cooker, add the bottom coconut and permit it to cook dinner totally.
9. Grind contemporary coriander and mint leaves and add, bringing it to a boil. The kurma is completed when the oil separates and it nonetheless seems to be inexperienced. Bon appétit! Happy Easter!
The author is a freelancer primarily based in Chennai, who loves telling tales from the previous.
