Orange Chicken

I can never get tired with chicken & there are so many ways to cook them. They are so versatile & tastes good even with just some salt & pepper. My freezer always has some chicken in stock. I probably cook chicken at least 3 to 4 times a week. Yes you heard me right... we are big time chicken eaters:) I cant think of a week without having them. The only time I hated it was when I was pregnant. I just couldn't stand the name, smell nor picture of a chicken dish. I don't know what that pregnancy harmone had done to me, that I hated to eat non veg & specially chicken. Well now coming back to today's post, this is a very simple chicken recipe which is very similar to many Indian Chinese chicken recipes. This is how I made it.

Serves: 4 people
Making time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients

• 300 gms Boneless Chicken (Thigh)
• 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp. Corn flour
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 1.5 Tsp. Chilli Powder
• 3 Tbsp. Light Soya Sauce
• 2 tbspn chili sauce
• 1 Tsp. black Pepper
• 2 Green Chili Chopped
• 2 Tbsp Garlic minced
• 1 Tbsp minced Ginger
• Juice of 1 orange (1/4 cup)
• zest of two orange (4 Tbspn)
• Salt as per taste
• Less than 1/4 cup water
• hand full of chopped spring onions to garnish
• Cooking Oil for Frying

Method:

1. Make a semi thick batter with all-purpose flour, corn flour, eggs, salt & water. 
2. Dip the boneless chicken in this batter & fry it in hot oil for 3-5 mins. Remove them when they are cooked & set aside.
3. In a wok/ Pan add 2 tbspn of oil, fry ginger, garlic, green chili for a 30 seconds
4. Now add in all the sauces, Chili powder, pepper powder & fry for 1/2 a minute. 
5. Add orange juice,  the chicken toss well & fry this till all the sauces are blended well to the chicken.
6. Finally add in the grated orange zest &  chopped spring onions give it a good mix.
7. Serve this hot as appetisers or along with Fried Rice, steamed rice or anything that you wish to have:)

Chicken 65

Hello people,

I am so excited to do my 1st blog post in this new country!. Most of you already know that I have relocated to Texas Austin. Its been close to 3 weeks in this new country & I have slowly started liking this place. Currently we are still staying in the hotel & fortunately we have a well equipped kitchen. The first 1 week we eat from outside almost everyday. I was so fed up with Pizzas, Tortillas that I decided to cook our normal Indian food. I definitely love the Mexican food here & I have been feasting on all the fatty food. Very soon I need to start hitting the gym:)

Along with us my hubby`s friend (colleague) also has moved to Austin. Since we are put up in the same hotel, I get to meet his wife everyday & its a great time pass. She was at my place last week & I had made chicken 65 for lunch. She loved it & was asking for the recipe, that`s when I realized that this recipe is still not up in my blog. Chicken 65 is one of India's famous appetizers. It is also a street food that is available all over India.  I make this dish quite often at home as its very easy to make. I mostly make it when I have guest at home & also when I have cravings to have fried chicken:). This dish tastes superb when its made fresh & had hot. This is a very good party appetizer & it definitely be a big hit.So finally here is my chicken 65 recipe. Well there might be many versions of this on Google, but this is one of the easiest & tastiest one that I make.

Serves: 5 people
Making time: 30 mins
Marination: (Optional)

Ingredients:

• 500 gms bones chicken cut into cubes
• 8 Tbsp plain flour
• 3 Tbsp corn flour
• 1 Tbsp chopped ginger
• 1 Tbsp chopped garlic
• 3 Tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 Tbsp kashmiri chili powder (Paprika)
• 1/2 Tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 Tsp Coriander powder
• 1/2 tspn Garam Masala powder
• 1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
• 1 Egg beaten
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 Tspn chili powder to garnish
• salt as per taste
• 1/4 Tsp Red food color optional (I dint add color)
• 2- 5 Tbsp water
• Cooking oil for deep frying (Sunflower, vegetable or Canola oil)
• 10- 15 curry leaves

Directions:

1. Make a semi thick batter with plain flour, corn flour & beaten egg.
2. Add in all the Masala powder (chili powder, coriander, cumin, garam masala, turmeric powder) salt. lemon juice& salt to the batter & mix well. Add water if required to get the right consistency.
3. Mix the chicken cubes in this batter & allow it to rest for about 1 hour in the refrigerator.
4. Heat the oil in the heavy bottom pan, deep fry the chicken until golden brown on medium heat. Remove chicken & place it on a paper towel for excess oil to drain.
5. Now in a Wok or a Pan add 2 tbson of oil, fry the ginger & garlic until light brown, Add the curry leaves, 1/4 tspn chili pwder, Soya Sauce, lemon juice & turn off the heat. Now mix in the hot fried chicken into this & give it a good toss. Serve it fresh & hot. 

Note:

1. This time when I made chicken 65, I dint have corn flour nor plain flour. I added Pan cake flour instead & the result was very good too. You may wish to use Pan cake four too:)
2. If you want it more spicy you can add more chili powder in the batter or also can add in chopped green chilies
3. Always serve this fresh to enjoy the crispiness.

Murgh Kaaju Ghee Roast

( Tender chicken cooked in Cashew paste & clarified butter)

My Mom & I mostly have our conversations around food. My mom is a great cook & the only difference between our style of cooking is, she loves to make rich & elaborate dishes. whereas I try to cut down on richness & make quick fix meals. Nevertheless my moms food is amazing, I am not saying because she is my Mom, but she definitely is a talented chef. She can cook in large scale & still make perfect dishes. Well I don't have so much courage to cook for more than 10 people. 

Earlier I have shared Chicken Ghee roast recipe, which is a true Mangalorean dish. While talking to Mummy, she told me that she experimented something & it was more delicious than the regular Ghee roast. Now that I have tried this recipe, I must admit that this is more tastier than the regular ghee roast. A big Thank you to Mummy for coming up with such a tasty recipe. The best part of the recipe is its simplicity. This recipe has very few ingredients & gets done under 20 mins. Here is the recipe & enjoy it! This is how I made it 

Making time: 20 - 30 mins

Serves: 5 people

Ingredients:

• 1 kg whole chicken cleaned & cut into medium size pieces
• 1 Tbsp Kashmiri Chili Powder
• 1/4 tspn Cumin Powder
• 1/4 tspn Turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp Black pepper powder
• 15 whole cashew nuts
• 1 Tbspn lemon juice
• 1 Tbspn minced ginger & garlic
• 1 Tbspn cooking oil
• 2 Tbspn Ghee (Clarified Butter)
• Salt as per taste
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Directions:

1. In a heavy bottom Kadai/ Pan add 1 tbspn of cooking oil, fry the ginger garlic for a minute.
2. Add the chicken pieces, salt, turmeric powder & saute well until well combined.
3. Now covered the lid & cook the chicken on low flame for about 8 to 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Saute in between to avoid chicken from sticking to the bottom. (Add 1/4 cup of water only if required)
4. Once the chicken is cooked the water in the chicken needs to drain off. Turn off the flame & set the chicken aside.
5. In a mixer/ blender, make a powder of Cashew, cumin powder & chili powder.
6. Now add in 1/4 cup of warm water to this cashew powder & set aside.
7. In a Pan add 2 tbspn of ghee & add the cashew paste in it. Cook this on low flame for about 2 minutes, until fat separate.
8. Now mix in the cooked chicken into this fried cashew paste & give it a good mix. 
9. Finally garnish the dish with some lemon juice & coriander leaves.

Note:

1. In Singapore we get tender chicken so cook time is lesser. Well back in India the chicken is very hard, so you may have to cook the chicken for longer.
2. Since chicken has a lot of water in it, no need to add extra water. Just in case you feel the chicken is drying out & not cooked yet, only then add water.
3. If you want you can marinate the chicken with salt & turmeric powder & keep. I dint as I am always in a hurry to cook:)

Tandoori Chicken

 

I cant tell you how busy I have been shopping this week. We are travelling to India for 4 weeks & I have been busy picking up gifts for my dear ones. The bad part in me is, when I go out to pick up something the window shopping worm in me drags me over to many other shops. Due to this, I will be stuck in the malls for more than 5 hours. Yes you heard me right! I go crazy when I go shopping. Along with shopping for others, I have picked up so many things for myself & Zion. I am sure most of you must be just like me, coz girls love shopping. Since I am outside most of the time I have been eating outside everyday. I cant tell you how many cheat days I have had. I am no more on a diet now & have been hogging like a pig:(. My only fear is I hope I don't continue doing this. Now back in India, we will be holidaying & again I will have so many cheat days. Well now once I come back I need to again get back into dieting along with exercise.

Today's recipe that I am sharing is one of my fav & quickest to make. I must have baked this chicken more than 10 times while I was on my high protein diet. This is my version of Tandoori chicken & its truly amazing. The recipe is very simple & its a total hassle free dish. You can actually marinade the chicken & bake it any time you want. This is how I made it.

Ingredients:

• I whole chicken (900gm- 1.3 kg)
• 1 cup thick yogurt
• 1.5 Tbspn Kashmiri chili powder
• 1/4 Tspn turmeric powder
• 1 Tbspn fresh Ginger paste
• 1 Tbspn Fresh Garlic paste
• 1/2 Tbspn Cumin Powder
• 1/2 Tbspn Corinader powder
• 1/2 tbspn Garam Masala powder (Everest brand)
• 1 Tbspn Kasoori Methi
• 2 tbspn of Lemon juice
• Salt as per taste
• 3 Tbspn Oil

Directions:

1. Remove the skin of the chicken, wash it well & make cut marks with a knife around the chicken.
2. Now make a marinade with all the above ingredients in a bowl. Rub this Marinade on to the chicken really well. Make sure you coat the chicken well with this marinade.
3. Cover the chicken with a silver foil & rest it in the fridge for about minimum 1 hour in the fridge.
4. Line the silver foil on the baking tray & keep the chicken on top of it. Now sprinkle some oil of top of the chicken.
5. Pre heat the oven for 10 mins, bake the chicken for about 50 - 60 minutes. First 30 minutes at 220 degree & the rest at the highest temperature.

Note:

1. After 30 mins of baking you will notice a lot of fat separate on the silver foil, scoop off the oil with a spoon & pour it on top of the chicken & continue baking.
2. Baking on silver foil is essential or else you will end up washing a very greasy tray.
3. After 30 mins of baking you can also throw in some chopped onions & garlic.

 

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

 

I have always been a mushroom fan & back in coorg we used to get a lot of fresh mushrooms. These mushrooms were called “Sita Almi” in Konkani. Mushroom curry & coorg Akki rotti is a delicacy. I used to love eating them in that cold raining weather. When it comes to food, my Hubby has never been very experimental. After so much of pressure he started eating the white button mushroom dishes I make & he likes it. In Singapore we get different varieties of mushroom. I have mostly picked white button, shitake & Japanese mushrooms. The Japanese ones are very similar to taste that we get in coorg. Having seen Portobello in most TV shows, I decided to pick a pack of these. Since these are wide & big mushrooms, they are very good for stuffing. I love stuffed food & I make a lot of stuffed, tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, button mushroom dishes. I used chicken stuffing for this Mushroom & I must say that these mushrooms tasted better than any other mushrooms I have had in the past.

 

I mainly made this dish for myself & I was not sure if hubby would like it. I gave him one during dinner time & he loved it. He was big time eying on the other pieces on the plateJ. He said please make more when you make such dishes. I was also happy to see Zion have one of these. So all in all it was a win win day for me. For mothers its such  a joy to see their ids eat something new. This recipe is defenitely a shop stopper & a must have. This will defeniteky be a big crowd pleaser. If u are a vegetarian you can use Paneer or soya chunks as stuffing. This is how I made it.

 

This pic is from this site

 

Serves: 4

Making time: 30- 45 mins

Ingredients:

• 6 Large Portobello Mushrooms
• 1 medium onion chopped finely
• ¼ cup frozen or fresh green peas
• 2 Tbsp Tomato paste or 1 chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbspn minced ginger & garlic
• ¼ tspn turmeric powder
• 1 tspn coriander powder
• 1 tspn Kashmiri chili powder (Paprika)
• 2 Tbspn chopped spring onions
• 1 cup of finely chopped chicken breast
• 3 tbspn grated cheese (I used cheddar)
• 6 tbspn crushed digestive biscuits
• 4 tbspn oil
• Salt as per taste

 

Directions:

1. Remove the stem of the Mushroom, wash the mushrooms & keep it aside
2. In a Pan, add oil fry ginger garlic, onions until translucent
3. Add in the tomato paste, turmeric powder, chili, coriander, salt & saute for few minutes
4. Now add the green peas, ½ cup of water & cook this for about 3 to 5 mins.
5. Add the chicken pieces into this & saute for another 3 to 5 mins.
6. Finally garnish the dish with spring onions.
7. Line the silver foil on top of the baking tray, spray some cooking oil on theae & place all the mushrooms on top of the sheet.
8. Fill each mushroom with 2 to 3 tbspn of chicken stuffing.
9. Sprinkle some cheese on top of each mushroom & cover the top with crushed digestive biscuits. You need to be gentle while doing this.
10. Now spray some oil on top of each mushrooms & bake this in a pre-heated oven at 200 degree for 25- 30 mins.
11. You can garnish the mushroom with some more spring onions just before serving.

Note:

• Since I am on a diet I used very little cheese. If you want you can add some cheese in the base of the mushroom before adding the stuffing.
• I added digestive biscuits crumbs on top to give it a nice crunch & a little sweetness. This was a great success.
• My stuffing was not very spicy because I added kashmiri chili powder. If you want your stuffing spicy, ad din some chopped green chilis
•  If you don’t have tomato paste you can add in chopped tomatoes. Make sure your stuffing is not very dry nor too liquid.

 

Butter chicken Masala

 

Yesterday I was feeling so lazy that I dint feel like posting any recipes or being active on my blog. I was also feeling lazy to dress up & go out shopping. So I decided to watch some movie which is very unlikely of me. I love to watch horror movies but at the same time I am very scared to watch alone sometimes. I found this movie "Naina" on you tube so thought will watch it. The movie is very slow & a OK movie for time pass. Not a very scary movie but can watch once types.

coming back to today's post "Butter chicken" This is one preparation I make more often but always at night for dinner. Since i make it at night, I never was able to take a decent click of this dish. Although this one also was made for dinner but I prepared it in the evening so I got some evening light to click some ok ok shots. I somehow find it very difficult to take curry shots. I always try to give a very close up shot for my food coz I really want people to see the real texture & colour of food. I don't spend much time in plating it but concentrate more on getting the right texture of food. BTW food photography is not my cup of tea but since i love cooking, I am slowing learning to take better pictures. I feel very good when someone complements my food pictures & blush:) This is the best Butter chicken, very creamy tasty & yummy.

Cooking time: 30 minutes
servings: 4 people

Ingredients:

• 1 large onions chopped
• 2 large tomatoes chopped
• 1 Tbspn ginger garlic paste
• 500 gms boneless chicken cubes
• 1/4 cup cashew nuts
• 1/2 Tbspn coriander powder
• 1/2 tbspn cumin powder
• 1/2 tbspn chili powder
• 1/2 Tspn garam masala powder
• 1/2 Tbspn kasoori methi
• 1 Tspn cumin seeds
• 2 Tbspn thick curd
• 1/4 tspn chili powder
• 1 Tspn lemon juice
• 1 cup hot water or more if required
• salt as per taste
• 1 tspn sugar
• coriander leaves & green chili's to garnish
• 1/4 cup cream or milk
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1 Tbsp butter

Directions:

1. Marinate the chicken in curd. salt & 1/4 tspn of chili powder for at least 2 hours.
2. In a pan add a tbspn of oil & fry the chicken cubes until all water is drained off or 80 % cooked. Once cooked set the chicken aside.
3. Soak cashew nuts in hot water for at least 20 mins & then make a paste of it.
4. Boil chopped onions in 1 cup of water until they are translucent & make a paste of this.
5. Soak the tomatoes in the hot water, peel the skin & puree the tomatoes in the blender or mixer.
6. In a heavy bottom pan, add oil fry cumin seeds for few seconds. Now add in ginger garlic paste, onion paste & tomato puree.
7. Cover the lid of the pan & cook this on low flame for about 5 to 6 minutes. Add a little water if required.
8. Now add in all the masala's except kasoori methi & saute well. Throw in 1 tbspn of butter & sugar now in to the pan. Mix this well & keep sauteing for around 3 to 6 mins
9. When the raw smell goes off & when you see fat separation, you can add in cashew paste & 1/2 cup of hot water. Saute this for a minute until its well combined.
10. Finally add in the cream, chicken, Kasoori methi, lemon juice & mix well. Cook on low flame for about 5 mins.
11. Close lid & allow it to rest for at least 10 minutes before you dig in:) Add more water if you want.
12. Garnish the dish with coriander leaves, chopped green chili's & some fresh cream.

Note:

• Make sure you keep the pan closed or else you will have a messy kitchen.
• You can add in some red colour if you want. This will make the chicken look like the restaurant style.
• Always cook the chicken seperately in a pan or you can even bake them at 250 degree for 20 mins

Lemon grass Roast Chicken

 
In chicken, thighs are my fav & I love to cook with this tender meat. Yesterday I was craving for something new in chicken. I had a picture in mind of the colour & texture I wanted. I had no clue what to make & what to add. I opened the fridge & I saw some lemon grass lying in there. So I instantly decided to make use of this for my new experiment. BTW not all my experiment turns out good & I don't upload all the recipes in my blog. Only the best goes in here.

Last evening I met my below house Indian Neighbour in the swimming pool & this is how our conversations went on:
N: What were you cooking today? My god! the smell was so good & I just couldn't resist. 
Me: Today I made some chicken cutlets.  (I dint mention about this chicken because it was not yet rated by my hubby.)
N: I think you were baking also?
Me: Yes, I made some chocolate chips cookies for my son. 
N: Even my house was smelling of good food. My son's friend is around & he came up to me & asked if I was baking cookies? HEHEHEHE....
Me: hahahaha.. why don't you come over to have some cookies?
N: I am on a diet now orelse I would have loved to....

My hubby loves my food & however late he is, he will come home & have dinner. Last night he came home at 1am & I was very excited to serve him this new dish. The moment he came home he said hmmmm.... what have you cooked? The house smells so good! When he had it he was all thumbs up & praises about this dish. He had many questions like what dish is this? where did u get the recipe? what flavour is this?  & so on.. I simple smiled & said this was an experiment & was waiting for your feedback. My hubby is a big food critic & only when he says ultimate is when I upload the recipe in my blog. This recipe is simple & I have used very minimal ingredients. The flavours were exotic & the taste was ultimate. This is going to be one of my signature recipes & I loved the outcome of this.

Cooking time: 30 - 45 mins
Serves: 4 chicken lovers

Ingredients:

• 8 piece Chicken thighs
• 5 shallots chopped (Sambar Onions)
• 5 red dried chilli's
• 1 Tbspn minced garlic
• 1 Tbspn minced ginger
• 2 Tbspn chopped lemon grass
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 Tbspn sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 Tspn honey
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tspn kashmiri red chili powder
• 1/4 Tspn black pepper powder
• 1 cup water or more if required.
• 3 Tbsp Oil
• salt as per taste
• coriander leaves to garnish

Directions:

1. wash the chicken thighs, drain water completely. Make some cut marks on the thighs & set aside.
2. Now combine shallots, lemon grass, red chili, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, sesame oil, soya sauce in a blender/ Mixer & make a course paste out of it.
3. Marinate the chicken well with this paste & set aside for at least 2 to 4 hours. I just set aside for 2 hours.
4. In a large flat pan, add 3 tbsp of oil & fry the chicken thighs on low flame, turning them over after every 2 minutes.
5. Once you see roast  marks on both sides of the chicken, add in a cup of water close lid & cook this on low flame for about 3 to 6 minutes. Keep sauteing in between.
6. The chicken also will start leaving some water & the sauce will get thicker as its cooking.
7. Now mix in lemon juice, salt, honey, pepper powder, chili powder to the chicken. Give it a good mix & keep frying in the sauce. Add extra water if required.
8. When you see fat separation & chicken is well cooked, turn off the flame & keep the pan covered.
9. After 10 minutes garnish the dish with fresh coriander leaves.

Note:

• I dint add coconut milk here but later added some coconut milk to half the portion of chicken, as my hubby likes some curry. The coconut milk gave a totally different taste to the dish.
• The dish tastes good as it is but if you like a little extra curry then only ad din the coconut milk.
• Slow cooking this is a key so make sure you cook this on low flame & keep the pan covered.

 

Tomato Soup

Unfortunately yesterday there was some problem with Internet connection at home & I couldn't blog nor do any work on line. Now everything is back to normal & I am happy to be back in my small on line space. I cant tell you how many pending posts I have! There are more than 30 food pics for which I have to update the post in my blog. Frankly I love cooking more than writing:) or for that matter talking. You ask me for a recipe on call, I will go blablabla..... but if someone asks me to post a recipe online, I will be as slow as a snail:) I also have a friend who is here in Singapore for a week with us. Tuesday was a full shopping fun day. I took her to Bugis street, orchard & she shopped a lot. Along with her, even I was able to find some stuff for myself.

Now coming  back to today's post, This is a Tomato soup recipe & a old one. I think made this some 2 months ago. The color looks more yellowish because the tomatoes I had were not very red. In most resturants they also add in some red color to the soup to make it look red. I just went with the natural color. I am not a soup person & I make them very rarely. But now I am thinking that I need to make more of soup for dinner. That way I can keep my weight under control. This is how I made it.

Serves: 4 big bowl
Making time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

• 3 Tomatoes
• 1 Tbspn minced garlic
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 chicken cube
• 1/4cup hot water
• 3 cups water
• 1/4 tspn pepper powder
• 1 Tbsp corn flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tspn sugar
• 1 Tbsp oil
• salt as per taste

Direction:

1. Put the tomatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes, now remove tomatoes out. Gently peel off the skin of the tomatoes, chop them & set aside
2. In a Pan add oil, fry garlic, onion until translucent.
3. Combine the chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper powder & saute this for 2 to 3 minutes or until tomatoes are mashy
4. Add the chicken cube in 1/4 cup of hot water & make a think paste. Add this paste also to the tomatoes mixture.
5. Now allow the tomato mixture to cool for sometime & once cooled out in in a blender & make a smooth puree out of it.
6. Pour the puree back into the Pan & bring this to a boil along with 3 cups of water for about 2 minutes.
7. Now make a paste out of 1/4 cup of water & corn flour. Pour this mixture into the tomato puree mixture along with sugar & keep stirring. Turn off the flame after 1 boil.
8. Garnish the soup with coriander leaves & some extra pepper powder if required.

Note:

• If you are a vegetarian then skip adding chicken cube. Since I love the chicken flavour, I added this. You may also want to add vegetable stock instead

 

Pepper Chicken Masala

 

Tomorrow a friend of mine is visiting Singapore for a Dental Conference. Its gonna be fun because she is going to stay with us for a week. Now that she is around, I will also get introduced to a good Dental surgeon who can do my wisdom tooth surgery. Well Dental stuff is very very expensive here. I have enquired in couple of good places & they are charges are not less than $2000:(.  Hoping she will get me some discount too:) Well although our family is filled with Dentists, I never get the time back in India to get this done. Th last 2 visits Zion was little & I really dint have the time for this. Coz once the surgery is done I will be on bed for a week. So finally I am left with one option to do here in Singapore, as my Maid can take care of Zion while I rest.

So coming back to today's post, This is a Coorgi way of making Pepper chicken. This is my mother's recipe & I love this pepper fry. My mom would mostly pair this up with Akki Rotti & Kadambittu. I can still remember eating it almost every weekend while its raining outside. I made it Yesterday for dinner & my hubby couldn't stop eating:) Curry, spices, masala is all that he needs for food. He is game for any tasty Indian food. I kind of get bored with too much Indian. So, I am planning for Prawn Burgers for dinner tonight:) Well I have also taken a video recipe for this one. I will be publishing it as soon as I do the editing. This is how I made the Chicken Pepper Masala.

Ingredients:

• 1 kG Chicken cleaned & medium cut
• 2 Onions sliced thinly
• 2 Medium Tomatoes chopped small
• 1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
• 2 Tbsp Minced Ginger
• 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 Tspn Chili powder
• 1/4 Tspn Turmeric powder
• 1 Inch Cinnamon Stick
• 4 Cloves
• 4 Cardamom pods
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1/2 Tspn Grated Nutmeg
• Garam Masala (Recipe below)
• 2 Tbsp Oil
• Salt as per taste
• Coriander leaves to garnish
• 1/4 tspn Sugar

Garm Masala

• 2 Tbsp Black pepper corns
• 1 inch Cinnamon
• 4 Cloves
• 5 Cardamom pods
• 1 Petal Star Aniz
• 2 Tbsp Coriander seeds
• 1 Tbsp Poppy seeds

Direction:

1. Wash the chicken well, drain water & set aside
2. Dry roast all the ingredients mentioned in the Garam masala & make a fine powder by grinding it in mixer.
3. In a heavy bottom Pan add oil, tip in minced ginger, garlic, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, grated nutmeg, Fry this for a minute. Now add in the onions & let it fry until pink.
4. Combine the tomatoes, Garam masala, turmeric powder, Chili powder & give it a good mix. Add 4 Tbsp of water so that the spices gets well combined. Fry this for 2 minutes.
5. Add in the chicken to this & give it a good mix. Season it with salt & lemon juice. Close lid & cook this on low flame for 15 to 20 minutes. In between saute once or twice. You needn't add water as the chicken will leave a lot of water while cooking. In case you want more gravy then add 1/4 cup of hot water. We never add water as its tasty this way.
6. After 20 mins of cooking check if the chicken is done. If done garnish it with sugar, coriander leaves & its ready to serve.

I could some how manage to take some pics of the making of Chicken pepper.

 

Chicken Kosha

The Singapore Haze has become bad to worse now. Its been 4 days now & my poor little fella is in house arrest. My cutie pie is very understanding & is self entertaining himself with all the toys around. In spite of keeping all the doors & windows closed our home has a burnt smell. The air is totally contaminated & we just hope that it reduces soon. Our only worry is our child's health. Hubby says lets go back to India for a week & come. We are still deciding on that & hope things get better here soon.

Yesterday Hubby was working from home. Since he was home, I thought of making some curry as he LOVES curry. I have been thinking of making this famous Bengali Kosha from a long time. Finally that day was yesterday:) I made it & it was finger licking good. Kosha means slow cooked in Bengali. Traditional no liquid is added in this recipe & also no tomatoes. While doing some research on the net, I saw a lot of people have different version of Kosha. I finally went a ahead with making one that I liked on You tube by Kalyan in India food Network. His was made with Mutton & I altered my recipe according to chicken. I have not used any water other than some yogurt. The flavours in it was amazing & it definitely tasted yumm. This is a must try for all curry lovers. Since I have a very demanding taste bud, I try & venture out on making different curries. This is how I made it

Ingredients:

• 1 Kg Chicken cleanes & cut into medium pieces
• 3 Onions chopped & pureed (Paste)
• 3 Tbsp thick yogurt
• 1 Inch cinnamon stick
• 4 cardamoms
• 4 cloves
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1 Tbsp Minced Garlic paste
• 2 Tbsp Minced Ginger paste
• 1.5 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbspn coriander powder
• 1 Tbspn Cumin powder
• 1/4 Tspn turmeric powder
• Salt as per taste
• 3 Tbsp Oil
• 2 large Potatoes sliced &  Pan fried
• 1 tspn Sugar
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Directions:

1. Make a paste of yogurt, Chili powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder & marinate the chicken with this paste. Let it sit in the fridge for at least 2 to 4 hours. The longer the better.
2. In a Pan add 3 Tbsp of oil, 1 tspn sugar & keep sitting it until the sugar has browned (caramelised)
3. Add in the Cinnamon stick, bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, Onion paste to this & keep sauteing for about 3 to 5 mins.
4. When the Onions turns pink, add the marinated chicken, salt & give it a good mix.
5. Now cook this on low flame for about 20- 25 mins. Keep sauteing in between & do not add any water.
6. When the chicken is almost done, combine the Pan fried Potatoes & give it a good mix. Close lid & cook for another 2 mins. Turn off the flame & garnish the dish with coriander leaves. The dish is ready.

Note:

• The sugar is caramelised to give a nice golden colour to the curry.
• If you want more gravy then you can add tomatoes.
• Traditionally mustard oil is used. Since we don't consume Mustard oil, I used the regular sunflower oil.