Pepper chicken

I had heard so much about my mother-in-law's pepper chicken, that I was petrified when she told me "Today, I will teach you to make pepper chicken", when we visited her the first time after our marriage. Me, who had never cooked non-veg food in my life. How was I worthy of possessing the Family Heirloom? What if I ended up poisoning the entire family? What if....
She brushed my fears aside, and told me that all pepper chicken required was five ingredients- vinegar, soya sauce, peppercorns, oil and salt. Though I don't think of either oil or salt as ingredients, I can "see" her counting the ingredients out everytime I get down to making pepper chicken.

1 kg chicken, cleaned
4 tbsps vinegar
2 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp peppercorns
cooking oil
salt to taste

Method
Coarsely grind the peppercorns, so some of them are ground well, some are merely broken and some remain intact.
Clean the chicken pieces, make a few slits in the flesh (if required) and keep aside
In a thick bottomed kadhai, mix all the ingredients together, and marinate the chicken for 30 minutes (you can skip this process if you don't have time, but it helps).
Turn on the fire, and when the mixture comes to a boil, turn the heat to the lowest, cover the vessel and let it cook in it's own steam. Turn the chicken pieces over every 15 minutes or so.
After 45 minutes, lift up the lid, let the gravy thicken (if required), and serve.

Panchamrutham

My grandfather was so fond of this, my grandmother actually kept bananas aside to get mushy, so she could make it for him. I am not as fussy as she was, and bananas often reach their "eat by" date- this is what I make if I manage to catch it a few hours before.

 
Overripe bananas
Jaggery
Cardamon powder
Dates/ raisins for ganishing
 
Peel and mash overripe bananas. 
Mix grated jaggery (depends on taste- 1 tbsp per banana works for me). 
Stir in a few pieces of dates and/ or raisins. 
Add powdered cardamon. 
Serve chilled.

Coconut chutney (the way my mother makes it)

There are many, many ways of making coconut chutney, but this is the way my mother (and her mother before her) made it, and I am sticking to it. Normally, I skip the tempering, but I did it this time because I wanted a more authentic picture.

You need
One medium coconut grated
3 green chillies (more or less, according to taste- I normally use 2, but you might be better off with 3)
one ball of tamarind (about the size of a marble- be careful, because if you put too much, the colour will be a muddy brown)
[there are variations with added ginger (no tamarind), and roasted chana dal, but I haven't made either]
salt to taste

For seasoning
1/4 tsp mustard seeds/ rai/ sarson/ kaduhu
1 red chilli (to add flavour and colour only)
4-6 curry leaves
1/2 tsp chana dal or urad dal

Grind together grated coconut, green chillies and tamarind, with a small quantity of water. My cue for knowing when to stop grinding is to check if the green chilles are well ground and mixed. Take out into a bowl, and add salt as per taste.
In one teaspoon of oil, make the tempering with the mustard seeds, curry leaves, red chilli and dal. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, pour it over the chutney and mix well.

Cheat sheet-
Since nobody in my family is particularly fond of the tempering, I normally skip that step completely.
Grating coconut is a pain (unless I can get my kids to do it), so I normally cut the coconut into inch long pieces, and wet grind them with water, tamarind and green chillies- it takes a bit longer to grind, and you might find a few slivers here and there, but it is much easier and faster that way.