Chilly Chicken

I always assumed this particular dish to be a complicated dish and never tried till one of my classmates shared his recipe with me. Of course me being me could not follow the recipe and gave it my own changes. I hope all of you enjoy this recipe and find it easy as I have. Since my daughter doesn’t eat much spice I have sometimes avoided green chillies totally and gone with only chilly sauce too. I have tried without the capsicum too and the dish came out equally tasty without it too. So what I am saying here is you just need to follow your heart and taste bud with this recipe.

Chicken – 1 kg

Salt – as per taste

Green Chilly -  as per taste

Onion – 2 nos quartered and pulled apart

Capsicum – cubed

Ginger Garlic paste  - 1   table spoon

Light Soya sauce – 1 to 1 ½ table spoon

Green Chilly Sauce – as per taste

Tomato Sauce – 2 to 2 ½ table spoon

Corn flour – 1 table spoon

Water – depending on whether you prefer to make it with more gravy or drier version from half cup to more

Oil – 3 table spoon

Marinate the chicken in half of the salt you plan on using.

Heat about 2 table spoon oil in a non stick pan and place the salt marinated chicken and cook turning occasionally till all the sides are lightly browned and the chicken is a almost cooked.

Take the chicken out on to a dish and in the same pan add about one more table spoon oil and add ginger garlic paste and nicely sauté for 2-3 minutes or till the raw smell goes.  

After this add the quartered onions and sauté for couple of minutes or till they start to soften add green chillies and capsicum and the chicken back into the pan. 

Mix them well and start adding the sauces. After you have added all the three sauces add the water. Depending on whether you need more gravy or dry add water quantity and let the chicken cook in this mix for about five minutes without lid. I added about half a cup of water since I wanted dry.

Check for salt at this stage and season to taste.

Finally dilute the corn flour in 2 to 3 table spoons of water and add to the dish and mix well till the desired consistency of gravy is reached. Remember salt needs to be added before corn flour is added to the dish.

Enjoy 

Pork Curry

It has been a while since I have been meaning to add this recipe here but somehow looks like the time has only come now. This started as a pork vindaloo recipe but over a period of few years it has undergone changes according to my daughter's taste as this is her absolute favourite. This recipe can be made either with oil or without depending on the cut you buy.

Ingredients :

Pork : 1 kg

Onion : 3 - 4 big ones (Sliced)
Star anise : 1 flower
Cardamom : 3-4
Cinnamon : 1" piece
Cloves : 3-4

Ginger : 1" piece (Grated)

Garlic cloves : 15-20 (Crushed)

Turmeric Powder : 1 tsp

Coriander Powder : 1 tblsp

Kashmiri Red Chilly Powder : 2 tblsp (you could make it fiery by adding normal red chilly pwd)

Garam Masala : 1/2 tsp

Pepper Pwd : 1/2 to 1 tsp

White Vinegar : 2 Dessert spoon

Sugar : 1 tsp
Oil : Approximately 2-3 tbl spoon

Heat oil in a cooker add star anise, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves for a minute before adding sliced onions and sauteing till soft. Add ginger garlic and saute another 3-4 mins or till the raw smell goes. Now add all the dry masala powders and saute for couple of minutes. Then add the meat and mix well and let it saute in the masala for 3-4 minutes before adding the vinegar, sugar and 1/2 cup of water. Now if you are cooking in pressure cooker close and cook till done and cook or otherwise you can just put a lid and cook stirring one in a way till the meat is well cooked. If using the cooker then once the pressure drops open and you can cook it down or add more water and boil some more as per the gravy requirement.

Garlic Flavoured Clams

Seafood is something very close to my heart and I always look forward to eating it :) . And whenever I am in good mood I seem to think of ways to try them. So like that yesterday when I saw clams I wanted to try out a simple method. So here is the out come. Really happy to say this tasted as delicious as I envisioned it.

Ingredients :

Clams with shell on : 1 kg
Garlic : 10 - 12 cloves crushed
Chives : 1 tsp
Oregano : 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter : One inch size

Take about 2 cups of water in a pot and bring to boil. Add cleaned clams into this and put a lid for for about 4-5 minutes. The clams should be open by then. Drain them out.

Melt butter in a pan and add crushed garlic and saute for a minute or two and then add chives and oregano and add the drained clams. Mix well and season it with salt. Make sure all the clams are well coated.

That's it simple and delicious clams ready :)

Delicious and Dense Chocolate Cake

Well after two years of being dormant I have now decided to get active once again and what better way to start than Chocolate cake :).....Now who doesn't really love to dig into an amazingly moist and yum chocolate cake (there might be people but I guess too bad for them :p). Well this one recipe is one of my favourites. It is really simple and comes out well all the time.

Ingredients you would need :

200gms or 2 cups of multigrain flour (you could use plain flour too)
225 soft unsalted butter
380 gms either demerara or soft brown sugar
4 eggs medium size beaten
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
250 ml boiling water
100 gms dark chocolate melted (75% cocoa preferred) 
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method :

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Sieve the flour and bicarbonate of soda together so that it is mixed nicely.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and allow to cool a bit. Put the water to boil.  In the meantime cream the butter and sugar with a electric beater and then add eggs, vanilla extract. Beat in well and then add the hot water and flour alternatively little at a time and blend well do not over mix. Here you can use a wooden spoon instead of hand mixer. Once all the flour and water are mixed you should have smooth and fairly liquid batter. 

Pour this into lined cake tin and bake for 30 mins at 190 degrees. After half an hour reduce the temperature to 170 degree and bake for another 15 mins. Depending on your tin size the cake can be squidgy inside so the tester might not come out clean. 

This cake always tastes much better a day later. 

Dahi Wale Aloo or Baby Potatoes in Curds

After a long gap felt like posting something.... This dish was in my mind for couple of days before it really took shape on the wok :) but must say it was finger licking in the final product. 



Ingredients :

400 gms Baby potatoes
4-5 tbls oil (any vegetable oil is fine) 
a pinch of hing (asafoetida)
3-4 petals of star anise
3 cardamons
1" ginger grated or paste as you prefer
1 large onion finely sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsps Kashmiri red chilly powder (or as per taste)
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp amchur powder
2 tbl sp jaggery powder
1 cup curds 
3/4th cup water ( or as per requirement)


Boil and peel the potatoes.  Heat a kadai and put oil in it. When it is hot add the sliced onion and fry till it is nicely caramelized and then take it out on to a paper towel.

In the same oil add the hing and add the baby potatoes whole and saute for about 2-3 minutes.  Add ginger and let it cook stirring regularly for about 2 minutes.  

Add all the powder masalas (turmeric, coriander, chilly, garam masala, amchur and jaggery) and give it a nice mix and add salt.  Now add the curds and let it coat the potatoes nicely.  Add the fried onions and mix and then add the water. Put a lid and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Finally add some chopped coriander leaves and mix well.  The gravy can be as thick or thin as you prefer.  You can further garnish with coriander leaves if you like.

Masala Mutton

I am really not sure what to call this dish, it is something that has been going on my mind since I started making mutton biriyani. I just wanted to try something easy and fast for mutton, so this is what I ended up with. Especially if you can get readymade fried onions this is a piece of cake. Thankfully it came out really well and my hubby was very happy with it so I have decided to include it here. Now however I find that the quality of mutton really matter when you make a dish whether this or biriyani... If you can suggest a good name I shall change it otherwise I will call it Masala Mutton only. Will try to put up pictures the next time I make it. Anyways for now Enjoy!!

Stuff required:

Mutton : 1/2 kg

Turmeric Powder : 3/4 tsp

Coriander Powder : 1 1/2

Cummin Powder : 1 tsp

Kashmiri Chilly pwd : as per taste

Fried Onions : Approximately 100 gms of fried onions

Curds : 2 Table spoons

Cinnamon : 1 1/2 inch

Black Cardamom : 1

Green Cardamom : 3-4

Star Annise : Couple of petals

Cloves : 3-4

Bay leaf : 1-2 depending on size

Shahi Jeera or Black Jeera : 1 tsp

Salt : to taste

Green Chilly : As per taste slit or chopped in rounds

Oil : 2-3 table spoon

Water : 1/2 cup or more if you want more gravy

Process:

Marinate the mutton with turmeric pwd, coriander pwd, cummin pwd, kashmiri chilly, salt, curds and fried onions for about half hour or more.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add the garam masalas like bay leaf, black and green cardamoms, cloves, star annise and finally add shahi jeera. Oil should be hot then only shahi jeera will crackle and the aroma will come properly. Once that happens add the green chilly and reduce the heat.

After a minute add the marinated meat. Add 1/2 cup of water to be on the safe side and mix everything well. Close the lid a put the whistle on. Wait till you get about 6-7 whistles - or here as I say depending on your pressure cooker till you think the meat is cooked. Then switch it off.

Once the pressure goes off, open and see how much water remains - and how much you want. You can reduce the water if you want by again putting it on fire and stirring once in a way. Also here you can add some chopped coriander leaves if you like it. :)....

P.s : By the way this tastes more decilious the next day!

Carrot & Pumpkin Soup

One day I was running out of my usual stuff for a meal and at the same time I hardly had anything at home to make a soup or meal of. But looking around I found about 200 gms of pumpkin and a few carrots and just one red bell pepper. Quite pathetic stuff on their own and not enuf as I said, so I thot why not a soup - that always is filling. I always love to have soups for dinner :)... as a meal so you will see the amount of water I am putting for the stock as one litre, that should feed about 3-4 people easily to their heart's content. Now coming back to my experiment, thankfully I had the bones of mutton to save the day. And best of all I had bought sweet basil plant just 2-3 days ago which promised to make my soup yummy. So off I went to my testing laboratory and I was so delighted with the outcome that I have decided to add it to my treasure chest. :) and for the first time I have decided to add the pictures too. Actually I have been meaning to do that for a while but never got around to it. Anyways they say better late than never so here we go..... Enjoy.

For the stock:

Mutton bones - about 200 gms

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon pwd - 1/2 tsp

Rock Salt or any other salt you prefer - to taste

Sweet Basil leaves - about 20 of them or more if you like

Dry Mint - 1/2 tsp

Water - 1 liter

For the main body :

Pumpkin - 250 gms ( it has to be ripe one- as ripe as you can find) cut as small and thin as you can

Carrot - 3 nos. - perferably sweet kind otherwise you could add a dash of sugar - cut in thin rounds (these carrots look pale and pathetic courtesy my nokia 71 but actually are a bright shade of orange. :)

Red Bell Pepper - 1 no. cut in lengths

Basil - 5-10 again depends on your taste

Dry mint - 1/2 tsp

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp

For the garnish:-

Crouton - you could cube 2-3 slices of bread and fry them or bake them as per your taste

Basil leaf

Process:-

If you are in a hurry as I was put all the ingredients for the stock into pressure cooker and give 6-7 whistles. After the first whistle though reduce the flame.

Once the pressure is gone drain the stock and you can keep aside the bone and the meat on them. And in this stock put all the ingredients for the main body and cook till the pumpkin is cooked well (the rest would be most definitely cooked since pumpkin takes the most time). Switch off the gas and let it cool a bit

Now put the whole thing in a blender if you have the big blender otherwise do two to three times and blend the whole thing into a smooth paste, like you can see in the picture. Pour it back to the soup pot and adjust the seasoning if the need be. You can add pepper to this at this time either crushed or pwd as you please.

Finally when you are ready to eat you can reheat and serve garnished with croutons and basil or without the choice is yours