Indian / Chinese

[prasad2]

I love Indian/Chinese food how it is made in India and I believe some restaurants are cooking up a storm on this kind of food in most major comopolitan cities.

I make a decent Manchurian. For instance tomorrow I have to serve a party Gobi (Cauliflower) Manchurian... crisp cauliflower balls in soy, coriander and hot garlic sauce and they also requested a Chinese/Indian style Chilly Chicken.

Any suggestions, comments and recepes for ....

Chilly Chicken

Chicken 65

Ginger Chicken

Any Manchrian

Other recipes of Indian/Chinese origin.

P2

[tryska]

wow - yeah this has become a recent (in the last year or so) trend her ein Atlanta - it started with one restaurant down the street from me, and now it seems like most of the major neighborhood indian places offer chinese as well.

actually here's a writeup on the place down the street form me:

http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/d...2/18daabha.html

i haven't tried any of the chinese offerings yet as they are all unfamiliar to me, but i have tired their chicken makhni.

[Episure]

Chicken 65 is from Hyderabad( Andhra Pradesh) and makes a good starter to accompany drinks.

This is the original version and does not use batter to increase bulk.

500 gms boneless chicken cut into thick shreds(Approx 1 cm by 2 cm)

Marinate for 1 hour in 1 cup hung yoghurt(dahi), 2 tbsps sambar powder, 2 tbsps red chilli powder, 2 tbsps ginger garlic paste and salt to taste.

Drain and stir fry in 1/2 cup oil till just cooked, serve with a tadka( freshly sauted garnish) of curry leaves, mustard seeds and slit green chillies.

Adjust the chilli powder as per your level of tolerance.

[prasad2]

wow - yeah this has become a recent (in the last year or so) trend her ein Atlanta - it started with one restaurant down the street from me, and now it seems like most of the major neighborhood indian places offer chinese as well.

actually here's a writeup on the place down the street form me:

http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/d...2/18daabha.html

i haven't tried any of the chinese offerings yet as they are all unfamiliar to me, but i have tired their chicken makhni. 

Certainly Daabha sounds good and very casual. Thanks for the link.

[prasad2]

Chicken 65 is from Hyderabad( Andhra Pradesh) and makes a good starter to accompany drinks.

Episure ! Thanks for the Chick 65 recipe. I remember eating it a while back, Where does the red color come from? Anyway this Chicken 65 is going to go on my Sunday brunch this week.

Any recipe for Chilly chicken? I have couple of hours left to prepare it.

Thanks!

[BBhasin]

Chicken 65 is from Hyderabad( Andhra Pradesh) and makes a good starter to accompany drinks.

This is the original version and does not use batter to increase bulk.

500 gms boneless chicken cut into thick shreds(Approx 1 cm by 2 cm) 

Marinate for 1 hour in 1 cup hung yoghurt(dahi), 2 tbsps sambar powder, 2 tbsps red chilli powder, 2 tbsps ginger garlic paste and salt to taste.

Drain and stir fry in 1/2 cup oil till just cooked, serve with a tadka( freshly  sauted garnish) of curry leaves, mustard seeds and slit green chillies.

Adjust the chilli powder as per your level of tolerance.

I want to try your reciepe Episure

a couple of questions

One Cup yogurt - is it one cup before or after draining?

When you say drain do you discard the marinade?

1/2 cup oil to stir-fry and perhaps another 1/4 for the tarka. Just want to make sure as it sound a bit excessive.

Thanks

Bhasin

Prasad did you get your chlli chicken reciepe? which version did you try? dry or with sauce? can you share the reciepe, if you think its good, I havent had decent chilli chicken for ages and this thread has got me craving big time

Thanks

Edited August 16, 2003 by BBhasin (log)

[Episure]

Prasad

I am sorry but our time zone differences prevents me from giving you the Chicken chilli recipe in time for your Sunday Brunch. This is probably late but here goes anyway:

I will skip the measurements as I am sure you will be able to figure it out.

Marinate Chicken chunks in Soya sauce and ginger-garlic paste for an hour.

In 2 tbsp oil, saute onions chopped into 2 cm square pieces and the drained Chicken chunks till done. Add chopped( about 1 cm) green chillies and a dash of white pepper powder. Add the drained marinade with cornflour and some chicken stock as per your requirement of gravy. Cook till done, taste and add salt if necessary. This depends on your soya sauce.

I would also add 1 star anise and a dash of Black bean sauce to make it exotic and different from the restaurants. That way no one can compare it to a standard.

The red colour in Chicken 65 comes from the sambar powder and red chilli powder. It is difficult to come across this version even in Hyderabad where this dish originated in a restaurant as item no. 65 on the menu. It would be expensive for a restaurant to sell this version and hence they stretch the meat by batter frying it.

Bhasin

It's 1 cup drained yoghurt and after marination you just lightly drain the chicken, letting some marinade remain. You could use less than 1/2 cup oil to stir fry and the tadka requires only 2 tbsp. It's 16 tbsps. to a cup. Make sure the green chillies are slit the long side, so they can be dodged easily. Once the tadka is mixed, it must be served immediately.

Szimply!

Edited August 17, 2003 by Episure (log)

[Vikram]

Chicken 65 is supposed to be not from Hyderabad, but Madras. And from one place in particualr - Buhari's Hotel on Mount Road (Anna Salai) where this sort of spicy dry fried chicken is number 65 on the menu. It was apparently spread from there to a large extent by truck drivers who found it the ideal sort of spicy finger food to eat while drinking. When I was growing up it wasn't much known outside Madras, but these days I find it really has spread so perhaps the Buhari's-truck driver story isn't entirely an urban legend.

I don't think it falls into the distinguished canon of Chinese-Indian food though,

Vikram

[prasad2]

Episure

Thanks for all your recipes. I did try your 65 recipes and have not quite followed your quantities and I sunstituted chicken with white mushrooms and I thought they came out quite good. While cooking I must have eaten 10 to 12 mushrooms for quality check.

The yogurt marination gave out quite a bit of liquid but I was able to thicken it out by some watered down corn starch. Again I am not a big fan of mushrooms, I kind of liked it, hence I am replacing a Dingri Kulcha I was doing as a special with this DINGRI 65.

Bhasin, yes my chilly chicken came out pretty good and it was semi dry with lots of chilies. Agian my recipe is very similar to Episure's recipe, except in my chicken marination I powered it with more chilies and chopped cilantro and pepper powder and the rest remained same. Had quite a few good compliments, rest assured try it on your weekend brunch, specially for our Indian folks.. they szimply love it.

Vikram:

Thanks for your info on the 65 story, there is a pretty similar story on 86 in this part of the world. I am from Hyderabad and I always thought it was from Hyderabad tooo... kind of Chinese may be because it is deep fried first or a quick stir fry????

P2

[mongo_jones]

i have to take issue with vikram's post moving the provenance of chicken 65 from hyderabad to madras. don't say this within earshot of any proud hyderabadi. the story, as told to me in my years in hyderabad, is not that this dish was number 65 on a menu but that it was served at a truckers' dhaba near the 65th milestone outside hyderabad--spicy both in keeping with hyderabadi origins and to go with booze and diesel fumes. there's a restaurant i've been to in new jersey that makes a mean version.

[BBhasin]

i have to take issue with vikram's post moving the provenance of chicken 65 from hyderabad to madras. don't say this within earshot of any proud hyderabadi. the story, as told to me in my years in hyderabad, is not that this dish was number 65 on a  menu but that it was served at a truckers' dhaba near the 65th milestone outside hyderabad--spicy both in keeping with hyderabadi origins and to go with booze and diesel fumes. there's a restaurant i've been to in new jersey that makes a mean version.

When did all this happen? when I was visiting delhi a few years ago no one mentioned it but this morning I quizzed my niece in Delhi and she talked about Chicken 65 with great familiarity and it almost seemed to be a staple in most restaurants.

Do you know when it evolved ?

[prasad2]

i have to take issue with vikram's post moving the provenance of chicken 65 from hyderabad to madras. don't say this within earshot of any proud hyderabadi.

Me too just like you thought Chicken 65 is from Hyderabad. Could some body authenticate this issue?

Bhasin, Chicken 65 existed as far as I can remember, it is still one of the top cocktail snacks served in every Bar.

[Episure]

As we delve into the apocryphal origins of Chicken 65, let me clarify that my friend( A very large distributor of spirits) used to get it down to Bombay by air from Hyderabad about 15 years ago. I just called him up and he says he used to get it from his friend's restaurant -Raj Bar, who in turn had copied it from Buharis in Madras, so I guess Vikram is right.

I recently went to Hyderabad for a day and a half and all I could get as Chicken 65 was the batter version which I would describe as spicy minced Chicken meat balls in a dry gravy. This was more Manchurian or Manjoori as some restaurants call it. I guess the original 65 got 86ed.

No offense meant to mongo_jones but maybe the Hyderabadis adopted and adapted it. Any more guntur chilli powder and it would classify as a WMD!

A search on Google turns up even more stories about origin of the name:

65 day old chicken

65 spices

Highway no. 65

It's elusiveness inspired me to make a concerted effort and recreate the original and the version posted earlier more or less succeeds.

Mayfair Rooms and Banquets in Bombay turns out the real Mc coy if ordered as part of the menu for private parties. Come to think of it Chicken 65 would go well as a wrap or enchilada. Enchilada sounds South Indian too.

My Souffle fell! The horror, the horror!

[Vikram]

I just called him up and he says he used to get it from his friend's restaurant -Raj Bar, who in turn had copied it from Buharis in Madras, so I guess Vikram is right.

Yessssss!!!!! Madras rules.... on 65 at least. And don't take it badly, everyone from Hyderabad. I said, on a post some weeks back, that Hyderabad decisively trumps Madras when it comes to food, so don't deny the city its few specialities.

Anyway, I think the basic style of cooking it is fairly common with South Indian meat dishes, so it could have evolved independently with minor differences - as Episure notes, the Andhra version would be significantly spicier.

Also, just as a side check, I'm asking a friend from Hyderabad, who's also lived in Madras for ages, to make an investigation and a verdict. And next month I'm going to Madras, so this time I'll definitely do a trip to Buhari's to see what the 'original' is like,

Vikram

[mongo_jones]

no offense taken--i'm not a hyderabadi myself, just lived there for 3 years. hyderabadi friends may not be as tolerant of this revisionist history though. if i had to guess i'd say that each city probably has a number of stories that "definitively" have it originating there or near-by. i'm not convinced by the story posted: it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for something that originated near hyderabad to come back to it via madras. what is probably more likely is that similar dishes originated in different places and it is the name that has migrated and over time caused some standardization of preparation.