Ammachi Veedu ( Mother’s home)& Durga Chicken
“Every Friday is when the crowds throng the temple with offerings and prayers seeking blessings. One of the main offerings (back in the days) was a live country chicken”.
Growing up in my hometown in Kollam, Kerala, many super moons ago, was like living in a large community where religions were respected in our intermingling at school, our neighborhoods and public spaces.
Ammachi Veedu or ( Mother’s Home) is a 600-year-old family trust-run temple in Kollam, Kerala, and is open for worship irrespective of caste, creed, or religion.
For us Kollam folks, Lord Ayyappan was never too far away from his abode at Sabarimala.
In Ammachi Veedu, there is no main diety in the temple and is dedicated to the ‘Dharmashasta’or ‘Ayyappa’ of the Shasthamkota temple about 35 kms away on the banks of the pristine freshwater lake which was the water source for the township.
Because the ‘deity’ of the temple has the status of a guru, members of the family of the trust are prohibited from entering the premises of both the Shasthamkotta temple and the hill shrine of the Dharmashastha at Sabarimala. And like Sabarimala, Ammachi Veedu is open for worship irrespective of caste, creed, or religion.
The classic Durga Chicken accompanied with Appams.
Every Friday is when the crowds throng the temple with offerings and prayers seeking blessings. One of the main offerings (back in the days) was a live country chicken.
Just in the neighbourhood of Ammachi Veedu, a couple of crossroads away was the Durga Hotel.The sell out item on Hotel Durga’s menu was the Chicken Chaps (Chops). You get the ‘whole leg’(Thigh attached) of the country chicken in a thick, dark, spicy gravy served with steaming hot parottas. It was not an uncommon sight to see town elders sharing bench space with school boys tucking into the delicious chicken, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or age!
Sadly, the iconic DURGA HOTEL has shut down forever and the Ammachi Veedu temple has banned the offerings of live country chickens.
Onions, garlic cloves, ginger, green chillies and curry leaves.
I have humbly tried to recreate the look, feel and the flavour of this iconic dish with a fresh-cut farm chicken in place of its free range country cousin. The trick is to slow roast the spices – cinnamon, cloves, pepper, coriander, chilli and bay leaves and grind to a fine paste.
Slow sautee the chopped garlic, ginger, curry leaves and split red chillies.
It went great with Appams too.
Kollam may be renowned for its Mutton eateries, but back then the chicken at the DURGA HOTEL has a spitfire fieryness to it.
Here’s looking forward to a free society with respect for all religions and faiths like any Mother’s Home.
– Monu Danesh Surendran. The Masked Chef.
