A taste of Chettinad with Uppu Kari
The young apprentice, as young people these days are wont to do, has become demanding! Apparently, he had had enough of testing vegetarian recipes and asked for a spicy non-vegetarian dish that Ayah was known for. So, here it is.
Ayah was a rather staunch vegetarian, even giving up egg in her later years. However, there was no better non-vegetarian cook than her. When she got married to Aiyah, the family, who were scandalized by a daughter-in-law who did not eat meat, tried to convert her – often slipping succulent pieces of meat onto her plate. Coy bride though she was, the rather stubborn Ayah would have none of it – the meat slipped back unnoticed to Aiyah’s plate. Her compromise was to learn how to cook the delicacies Aiyah liked and when the two darling daughters were born, they were raised non-vegetarian as well.
When I think of planning a menu featuring non-vegetarian Chettiar dishes, the first thing I think of is uppu kari. The dish is rather simple to make but somehow the combination of minimal spices and slow cooking bring out a unique taste. Over the years, the pressure cooker - that boon of every time-pressed Indian kitchen - has taken the slow out of cooking, but hopefully not the taste. Uppu kari, literally translated as salt curry, is a dish that is typical of the Chettiars, a mercantile community from the deep South of India, today well known for their food and hospitality. Contrary to popular belief perpetuated by the famous Chettinad chicken, which by the way has rather suspect origins, Chettiars were traditionally vegetarians. Aiyah, the chronicler, believed that it was only through influences of trade and travel, when they came into contact with other communities along the Malabar coast and over the seas, that they turned non-vegetarian - this would’ve been around the late 18th Century. If you’d like to know more about the community, click here, for Aiyah’s book on Chettiar Heritage.
Ayah’s uppu kari, usually made with mutton, was out of this world, a taste I still crave for. This recipe has been adapted to use chicken since it was the apprentice’s choice of meat. Turns out that it has become one of his favourite recipes and one, owing to its simplicity, that he has since made without the supervision of his beloved aunt demanding perfection over a video call!
Ayah did not believe in writing down recipes because, paradoxically, this rather modern woman was of the old school thought that writing down a recipe meant it would lose its flavour – go figure! However, this was the first recipe she ever dared to put to paper, one that was featured many moons ago in a Chettinad special issue of a well-known hospitality magazine. Trust me, her uppu kari didn’t suffer from it!
For the vegetarians out there, since half my week is made of vegetarian viradam (fasting) days, in the tradition of a true South Indian, I often make a vegetarian version, substituting the meat for mock meat.
Notes:
This recipe uses chicken as the main ingredient – if you’d prefer the original version, substitute it with mutton or lamb and follow the cooking modifications in the recipe below.
The recipe calls for the use of a pressure cooker, a standard utensil in every time-pressed Indian kitchen. However, if you don’t have one, don’t worry – our notes offer some cooking modifications. P.S: You could also use the new age pressure cooker, the Instapot, if you have one, but since I don’t own one, you’d have to experiment with the timings.
If you are vegetarian, you can substitute the meat for mock chicken / mutton, marinated in a bit of soy sauce and shallow fried - I know, not traditional at all.
The recipe can be halved if you would like to make a smaller quantity.
Ingredients:
½ kg skinless chicken, cut into curry pieces (1.5” pieces)
40 shallots (pearl onions) cut in half / 2 medium sized onions, diced (into 1/2” cubes)
2 medium sized tomatoes, diced (same quantity as onions)
20 pods garlic, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
1 tablespoon ginger paste
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
240 ml water (about 1 cup)
Salt to taste (about 1.5 teaspoons)
For tempering:
4 tablespoons cooking oil
1” cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons split urad dal (black gram dal / udaitha ulundam paruppu)
1 tsp fennel seeds (aniseed / sombu / saunf)
15 dried red chillis broken (if you want it less spicy, make this 10, and don’t break them)
8-10 curry leaves
Optional for garnishing:
10 cashewnuts, broken in halves and fried till golden brown
A handful of sliced onions, fried till golden brown
Method:
1. Wash and dry the chicken and cut. Add the turmeric powder to the chicken, mix and keep aside.
½ kg skinless chicken, cut into curry pieces (1.5” pieces)
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
2. Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and add the cinnamon stick. Next add the urad dal. When light brown, add the fennel seeds. Finally add the dried chillis and the curry leaves and saute for a minute.
4 tablespoons cooking oil
1” cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons split urad dal (black gram dal / udaitha ulundam paruppu)
1 tsp fennel seeds (aniseed / sombu / saunf)
15 dried red chillis broken (if you want less spicy, make this 10, and don’t break them)
8-10 curry leaves
3. Next add the ginger paste, fry for a few seconds. Once it starts to brown slightly, add the garlic and saute until light brown. Add the diced onions and fry until slightly brown. Add the tomatoes and saute until the skin starts to peel off.
40 shallots (pearl onions) cut in half / 2 medium sized onions, diced (1/2” cubes)
2 medium sized tomatoes, diced (same quantity as onions)
20 pods garlic, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
1 tablespoon ginger paste
4. Add the chicken pieces and saute for about 5 minutes on a low flame. Add 1 cup of water and close the pressure cooker. Put on the whistle and cook for 4 whistles. Turn off the cooker and wait 10 minutes until the pressure releases.
240 ml water (about 1 cup)
5. Open the cooker and transfer contents into a frying pan or kadai. Add the salt to the chicken now and cook till most of the moisture is absorbed (you will see the oil floating up) and you get the desired consistency. If serving with rice turn off when there is some gravy, if not, most of the gravy can be dried off in the pan.
Salt to taste (about 1.5 teaspoons)
6. Serve garnished with fried cashewnuts and curry leaves or deep-fried sliced onions.
Optional for garnishing:
10 cashewnuts, broken in halves and fried till golden brown
A handful of sliced onions, fried till golden brown
Serves: 4 people
Apprentice Rating: Easy-Medium
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