A Kolhapuri style chicken curry known as Kombdiche Lapchap which is super spicy and so delicious that you just can’t stop eating it!
A few weeks ago, Rushina posted on twitter about the #52CookBookPact. The idea was simple to cook with one cookbook every week and post your experience from the same. One could cook one dish, many dishes. There are no rules apart from the fact that one must try 52 cook books. Now I am known to jump into various pacts (yes yes laugh some of you) and challenges and did the same for this one. Specially this one, I should say, since I rediscovered my love of cookbooks sometime last year and have been collecting them religiously. This seems like just the pact that will make me cook(like this chicken curry Kolhapuri style) and use those books as well and write about them.
The pact, of course, doesn’t warrant a blog post but I have decided to chronicle all of my 52 books (or as many as I can manage in the year). I already have cooked from 3 though this is the first post.
So book 1/52 is “Rare Gems by Aditya Mehendale”.
I had been looking at this book from a long time and then got it as a gift in one of the many secret santas that I was a part of. There are so few books available which explore the non vegetarian cooking of Maharashtra and Gujarat regions and this book is one of them. Besides, it had rave reviews from all my Mumbai food friends.
The books is a delight to hold and look at, beautiful food pictures by Michael Swamy, every page you turn evokes your senses and makes you more hungry.
The book is divided into sections according to the sub-regions in the state, explaining the basics of that cuisine along with a base masala recipe and 5-6 main recipes in the region. It covers Kolhapur, Pathare Prabhu, Koli, Konkan, Malwan and Nagpur Saoji & Varhadi. For me it was a great introduction to these areas and the book has got me started on the deeper exploration of the cuisines from there, one region at a time.
The recipe I am sharing today from the book is from the Kolhapuri region and I almost followed the recipe of this Chicken Curry Kolhapuri style, as mentioned in the book apart from reducing the oil a bit. Funnily the recipe descriptions below the tittle Kombdiche Lapchap (Kombdiche means chicken but I couldn’t find what lapchap means) in the book says “Chicken in a thick coconut gravy” whereas there wasn’t any coconut in the ingredients. I don’t know whether there is an error the title or the recipe, irrespective of that the chicken turned out delicious and I recommended the book and this chicken curry Kolhapuri style, if Marathi cooking interests you.
Kombdiche Lapchap (Chicken Curry Kohlapuri Style) and #52CookBookPact
Ingredients
- 2 onions finely chopped
- 1 kg chicken curry cut (country preferred)
- 1/2 cup curd
- to taste salt
For the spice paste
- 10 chilies Dry kashmiri
- 1/2 tsp poppy seeds
- 1 tsp lichen biryani phool
- 1 tsp jeera
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp kala jeera (nigella seeds)
- 1/2 tbsp Sesame seeds
- 1/2 fennel seeds tsbp
- 5 cloves
- 4 cardamom Green
- 1 bay leaves
For garnish
- corainder Fresh leaves
Instructions
- Dry roast all the spice paste ingredients on a griddle till fragrant. Cool completely and grind using a little water if required to form a paste,
- Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan or kadhai, add the onions and saute till golden brown. Add the chicken and saute further for 2 minutes. Add the spice paste and cook till the oil separates. This will take around 7-8 minutes and I recommend you do this on low flame.
- Add the youghurt, salt and 1 cup of water and cook till the chicken is cooked and the gravy thickens.
- Serve hot with parantha or rice.
this is a royal dish…best part of the recipe no coconut 🙂
If you have any questions about the recipe(coconut or no coconut), you can direct them to Aditya. I have found him to be very affable and easily approachable. I have pinged him numerous times for so many times for so many queries and he never disappoints… I must say Madam, that book you got is really a gem 🙂
@Smita : Multiple people have tried to tag him multiple times in my various posts on FB and twitter and he has not responded even once. for me he is in those arrogant authors who don’t bother to reply. Pity because the book is good but I don’t feel like cooking from it anymore
Monika,
I had left a message to Aditya about the coconut quantity. He has replied back saying “for 1 Kg Chicken 1/2 coconut”..Must be used in Spice Paste.
Monika, that is very disheartening to know…I can tell you from my experiences and my interaction with him that “social networking” is not something he is comfortable with..I had advised him to get on twitter, but I doubt he has still paid any heed to that…Last I heard from him he was very busy with his latest venture of outdoor catering–he is about to start soon..Not at all trying to defend his unresponsiveness nor I intend to do so..So I hope you won’t find my rambling offensive..Just having a conversation with you…Did I tell you I am in love with your Blog 🙂
This looks good.. suggest me a same kind of book for veg food. Being gujarati.. i crave for proper maharashtrian food.
Amit Mehta, if you want Maharashtrian Veg recipes, you may want to check out “Ruchira”. There is another book by Mai Deshpande “Culinary treasures of Marathwada”.