Tangy Chicken

An interesting chicken recipe came to my mind while surfing through the savouries and desserts section back to back. Here it is for you to try:

Ingredients for Chicken:

Chicken breast -2
Ginger garlic paste
Chilli powder
Cumin powder
Corriander powder
Garam masala
Salt to taste
Oil
Preparation: Mix all the ingredients except chicken breasts. Coat the chicken breasts with the mixture and let it marinate for an hour. In a pan heat some oil and then put the chicken breast. Turn as and when required until the chicken becomes nice cripsy and brown. Keep aside in a serving dish when cooked properly.

Ingredients for Sauce:

Tamarind pulp - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 2 teaspoonful
Ginger garlic paste
1 Onion paste
Curry leaves
Black grapes pulp (1/3rd ofa cup)
Black grapes (cup into half- 8to 10 nos.)
Green chillies
Salt
Pepper

Preparation: The pan where chicken was cooked will have the juices of chicken along with its flavours. Heat some oil in that pan and put green chillies, onion paste, ginger garlic paste, curry leaves, jaggery salt and pepper. Pour in the tamarind pulp. Add 1 cup of water followed by black grape pulp and half cut grapes. Let it cook till you get the consistency of the sauce . Serve hot on top of the Chicken. Some salad will be a good combination along with the Chicken n' Tamarind sauce.
Give it a try! Its very simple and delicious!

Masala Bhaat/Spicy Rice Maharashtrian style

Ingredients:
Basmati rice 2 cups
Ginger - 2 inch piece
Garlic -5-6 cloves
Green chillies - 3
Shredded Coconut -1/2 cup
Cinnomom sticks- 2 no.
Black Cardamom - 2 no.
Cloves - 3 no.
Green Cardamom- 2 no.
Black pepper seeds - 5-6 no.
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoonful
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoonful
Bay leaves -2 no.
Oil
Salt
Turmeric - 1 teaspoonful
Diced selected vegetables(potatoes, cauliflower, green peas etc)
Cashew nuts and peanuts
Corriander

Preparation:
Wash and drain the basmati rice. Add 3-4 cups of water and soak for 1/2 an hour.
Roast the Cinnamon, black and green cardamom and cloves. Grind it in mixer to make a fine powder.
Make a fine paste of ginger, garlic, coconut and green chillies.
Heat 2 tablespoon of oil or ghee in a vessel/cooker. Fry the peanuts and cashews. Keep aside.
Add Bay leaves, mustard and cumin seeds and pepper corns. Add the coconut paste and mix well. Add the dry powder and mix well. Add the peanuts and vegetables and cook for a min. Season with Salt and turmeric. Now Add the soaked and drained rice. Add three cups of water. When water comes to boil and rice absorbs the water, put on the lid and cook on low heat for another 15 min.

Garnish with fried cashews and corriander. Masala bhaat is ready to serve.

Peanut-Jaggery Chikki/ Peanut Brittle

The peanut chikki was a favourite sweet of the kids even before chocolates became so popular!
Its full of iron and gives warmth to the body. So its good to have peanut chikki during winters. And its super simple to make!

Ingredients:
Peanuts 1 cup
Jaggery 1 cup
Ghee 1 teaspoon



Preparation:
Mix Jaggery with 1/2 water in a pan and keep on medium heat. The Jaggery will mix thoroughly with water.

Meanwhile roast the Peanuts, Remove the skin and keep aside.

Keep stirring the jaggery mixture. When the jaggery starts boiling and thickening, add 1 teaspoon of ghee. Adding ghee will lighten the brown color of the jaggery mix. It will ensure that the chikki becomes brittle/crispy and non-sticky when cooled. Now add the roasted peanuts and mix well.

Oil a flat dish and spread some flour on it. Pour the Jaggery-peanut mixture on the oiled and floured dish . Spread it evenly to form a layer of 1/2 inch and let it cool.

When cooled down completely, invert the dish and the chikki will come out.

The delicious chikki is ready to eat. Break it and serve it. (It can also be cut on the dish before cooling).

Note: Instead of peanuts, Kaju or Seasame seeds can be used to make Kaju chikki or Til Chikki.

Puran Poli/Festive Sweet(Stuffed flat bread)

Make me think of the sweets I like the most .....and the first dish that comes to my mind is the Puran Poli. When I was a kid, I often wondered how can someone not like puran poli ???
We used to wait for most of the festivals to munch on our favourite sweet .......and Aaji and Aaai's touch to it used to make it a heavenly experience for the tastebuds.

Here is the recipe of delicious puran poli!

Ingredients:
Chana Daal(Split Chickpeas) 2 cups
Sugar or Jaggery 1 cup
Salt
Cardamom powder
Nutmeg powder
Ghee(Clarified Butter)
Wheat flour/All purpose flour

Preparation:
Cook the chana daal in water with pinch of salt. Once half cooked and water is reduced add sugar/jaggery. Let it cook in the water formed due to addition of sugar/jaggery. Add water as required making sure that the daal does not stick to the bottom. Keep stirring at regular intervals. When the daal starts breaking and thick sauce like consistency will be formed. Add cardamom powder and nutmeg powder. Mix well and cook for another 5min. Remove from heat.

When the mixture cools down, grind it finely and puran is ready. Make sure balls can be made from the puran. If the balls are not staying firm then refrigerate for an hour or heat in a pan to dry the extra moisture.

Knead a soft dough by adding pinch of salt and little ghee to the wheat flour. Make a small ball and roll a small chapati. Keep the puran ball (bigger than the wheat ball) on top of the small chapati.

Cover the puran ball and remove the extra ends of the chapati. Now the puran stuffed wheat ball is ready.

Pat with hands or use a rolling pin to form a chapati. Liberally add ghee on a heated pan and fry on both sides for 4-5 min each

Serve hot with extra ghee on top! Enjoy!

Preparation time is about 1 1/2 hour. But its worth it!

Kothimbir vadi/ Cilantro stuffed Spring Rolls

Writing a recipe blog was on my mind from a long time. Finally I am here writng one. All the credit goes to my temporary break from the work and I want to make the most of it.

Being a foodie I love to eat and to feed! And I would like to give the honour of being the first recipe on my blog to our regional favourite "Kothimbir vadi". Here is the recipe for all food lovers.

Ingredients:

For the Stuffing:
Corriander(cilantro) 1/2 kg
Onions 1
Garlic 2-3 cloves
Ginger small piece
Besan(Chickpea flour)
Salt
Chili powder
Turmeric powder
Oil to cook
Cumin and mustard seeds
Kasuri methi (Dried fenugreek leaves)

For the Rolls:
Wheat flour/All purpose flour
Oil
Salt
Ajwain(Carom seeds)
Cumin powder


Preparation:

For preparing the stuffing heat enough oil in the pan. Season with cumin and mustard seeds.
Put finely chopped ginger and garlic . Saute well and next to go are the chopped onions. Add salt, turmeric , chilli powder. Add the washed, drained and finely chopped corriander (cilantro) leaves. Saute till its half cooked. Add dry besan to it and mix well . Sprinkle little bit of water and keep stirring. After its cooked properly(15-20 min) you should get a coarse crumble of about the size of the peas. Put the Kasuri methi and heat till its flavour is incorporated well . The stuffing is ready.

For the crust of the "Kothimbir vadi", add little oil, salt, cumin powder and ajwain to the flour and knead a tight dough.

Roll circular chapatis from the dough. Put the stuffing on it at the center and make rectangular rolls like the spring rolls.

Heat oil in a deep vessel . Deep fry the rolls till golden brown.

Serve hot with Tamarind chutney or Kadhi.

Its a refreshingly different snack from the popular lots. Try it ........you are going to love it!