Garam Masala Tuesdays: Pepper Chicken Chettinad

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I generally cook north indian food (mainly with a Punjabi touch) at home but absolutely love south Indian food.

Northern cuisine has been greatly influenced by the Mughals with the rich butter laden curries, but it is in the cuisine of the south that you can see the use of the spices that India is famous for. Probably because it is in the south that these spices are actually grown.

South Indian cuisine is quite different from the cooking of Northern India. The cuisine of the Southern Indian states – Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh on the east coat, Karnataka and Kerala on the west coast – use such old cooking techniques that are still widely practiced, with contemporary refinements, today.

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July SRC: Soft Beer Pretzels!

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I checked my email with the SRC assignment while on my way back from Phoenix, on our four hour drive to our small mining town.

As soon as I clicked on the link Jane (our group’s hostess and such a dedicated member) sent me, I was literally bowled over by the ingenuity of the dishes Allesio’s blog had. Seriously it was like reading the menu of some Michelin starred restaurant. Case in point- Dark chocolate eggplant. Seriously, who thinks of that!!

There is no bound to the creativity on his site. But honestly, I was intimidated as hell. Having never worked with half of the ingredients on the site, I couldn’t help it. But at the same time, I was loving the challenge ahead.

Just check his top 24 of 2012 list. Seriously, if you are not intimidated its only because you are a professional chef and even then I won’t blame you if you are taking notes!

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Whole wheat herbed garlic pull-apart bread

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Pull apart breads. Don’t you just love them.

They could be sweet. Like Joy the baker’s cinnamon pull apart bread. Or, Kitchen Corner’s blueberry one. Or like the pumpkin one I made.

Or they could be savory.

And the flavor combinations for each are plenty.

Since I have already tried my hand at the sweet version, I thought of going the other way this time.

I tried making a whole wheat herbed garlic and sundried tomato pull-apart bread.

And well, it was AWE-SOME!

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