One of the main pleasures of eating in India is the amazing range of street food available; from a simple samosa to a delicious biryani, from a kebab to a kotthu, there is a wide choice of spicy treats on every corner. In South India one of the most popular is Chicken or Gobi (cauliflower) ’65’, where the food is marinated in a highly-spiced mixture and then coated in flour before deep frying – yes, we’re basically talking Indian dirty chicken! The name ’65’ is rumoured to come from the fact that the dish was the 65th item on the menu of a certain hotel in Madras, but whatever its provenance, this is one of our favourite snacks – it is perfect as a starter, part of a buffet, or just as finger food for an evening’s drinks.
01.
Ingredients
500g chicken (breast or thigh fillets) or 1 medium sized cauliflower
5tsp ginger/garlic paste (it is easy to make your own in a blender, or buy ready made)
half a dozen or so Indian green chillis, finely chopped
2tsp cumin
3tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
2tsp Spice Mountain tomato powder
2tsp salt
a spoonful of coconut oil
a good squeeze of lime juice
4tbs plain flour
1tbs cornflour
3tsp garam masala
02.
Method
- Chicken – chop the chicken into bite-sized chunks
- Gobi – break the cauliflower into florets, then cover with boiling water and leave to one side for 20mins. This will blanch the cauliflower
- Combine everything else except the flour and the garam masala, and add the chicken/cauli to this paste and let marinate for a couple of hours. When you are ready to cook the 65, add the chicken/cauli to the flour mixture and toss, coating it well.
- Heat oil in a deep frying pan – coconut oil works best for flavour, but vegetable or similar is fine. When the oil is hot, carefully fry until crispy then drain on kitchen paper.
- To garnish your 65, take a spoonful of the oil you have used into a shallow pan. In this quickly fry a handful of shredded curry leaves, some more chopped green chilli and a couple of teaspoons of fennel seeds, and mix with the chicken/cauli to serve.
