Presenting an array of scrumptious homemade recipes on your platter @gut_calling

By Nisha Krishnan Nair

Hey! This is Nisha Krishnan Nair, a zealous and passionate Child Psychologist by profession, bitten hard by curiosity for novelty and creativity which lands me to introspect every now and then with a question: “Am I doing enough with myself?” This wave of questioning self, hit me hard during this lockdown period. What does she do when she has too many hobbies and interests to pursue? What she found for an answer is take it one by one, as there are those corners of our brain which have been lying dormant for years together due to the “regularity” or “usualness” of our mundane lives. As a mental health practitioner I am all the more obligated to keep myself sane and occupy my mind with healthy thoughts and actions, and for this, any form of art comes to the rescue, not only it oxygenates those dying cells in the brain, but also gives expressions to many sublime thoughts; a face to many emotions which either were dumped to die or were procrastinated from being attended as it never qualified to be important enough. Thus, I allowed my being to unfold, spread around, think aloud and perform without barriers. I stitched, painted, danced, planted, and cleaned every nook and corner of my abode but then the lockdown further extended. And then I realized one day chilling at my newly designed tiny workstation about another chore which I had been doing for years with utmost enthusiasm and drive– ‘COOKING’. Oh, yes! The much underrated aspect of my schedule.

I learnt to flip, stir and whisk from the age of 8 or 9, out of sheer interest and love for food, also shouldering my working mom who was overloaded with caretaking, but it never accounted for any of my special talent.

Quarantine definitely dusted old records and led me to self appraisal. Like a little child who found a lost toy, I got my moment of enlightenment where contrary to my usual repertoire, I now observed my own search history, as the new age saying goes–“You are what you Google” and what I found, amazed me. It was all either behavior sciences related articles, posters, images or cooking, baking, plating videos and pictures. That very moment was too powerful, and what happened in next couple of hours was a fully-fledged recipe page on Instagram which I baptized as GutCalling. Definitely it was a gut calling I could attend to rightly! Then the journey of writing and posting recipes began in full swing. All my successful twists, turns and modifications inside the kitchen became a story to be told to the world. And believe me when I say, ‘it has been such a gratifying journey to see my creations have a mass reach and the acknowledgement and accolades have boosted my self-esteem like never before’. This whole process has added so much to my skill set, be it technicalities, food presentations, writing skills, even reading and understanding world cuisine, and I have developed a special interest in regional lost recipes which are hardly known to commoners especially people living in metro cities and may even get lost in the rat race of junk and comfort food.

My rendition of recipe mostly concentrates on the very regularly available ingredients in our homes, mixing and matching variety of spices, raw material is what I usually experiment with. Also, my kitchen is a no wastage space, as not all experiments turn out successful; sometimes cakes turn out to be flat bread, or gooey undercooked monsters. But no matter what, they never get to see garbage bin. There is a complete menu of reinventing the failures and leftovers to decent looking edible dishes. This is about me and my little endeavor. You can visit https://instagram.com/gut_calling?igshid=jrmpi9ex47ay to know more.

I am sharing with you one of my successful regional recipes with Chicken which is absolutely loved by my family.

Chicken Sukka/Kori Sukka is a popular Mangalorean dry Chicken preparation which has been twisted, reinvented and modified with some addition or subtraction in various parts of Southern India. It can be enjoyed as a standalone snack with mocktails/cocktails or as a side dish with steamed rice, also goes well with any bread.

Let’s get to know the ingredients which make up for this lip smacking delicacy.

• Chicken 500grams
• Onions 3 finely chopped and fried
• Red chilli powder 2 teaspoons
• Garam Masala (ground spice mix-clove, cinnamon,mace, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and cardamom pods – 2 teaspoons
• Pepper powder- 1 teaspoon
• Ginger garlic paste-2 teaspoons
• Salt to taste
• Curry leaves- a bowl full
• Coconut oil- 4 Table spoons
• Method

• Fry the onions in oil till they turn golden brown,
• Marinate the chicken using all the ingredients, put 3 TBSP oil in marination and keep it for at least 1 hour, it can be left in refrigerator overnight too.
• Place a pan and put the remaining oil, as it gets hot add in the marinated chicken and let it simmer for 8-10 minutes on low flame.
• Occasionally give a stir. Remember to not add any water in any of the process. If you see chicken sticking to the pan you may add little more oil though.
• Cover and cook for another 5-7 minutes till you see the chicken pieces well cooked.
• Put off the flame add in some more curry leaves and juicy, spicy Chicken Sukka is ready.
• Serve hot.

I hope you liked my lockdown journey of turning in to a quarantine chef with oodles of passions for cuisine, generous spread of enthusiasm, garnished with innovation. Whatever you cook add some love to it, vibes reach faster than aroma.

For more such scrumptious delight, follow me @gut_calling