Chicken Rice

Ingredients :-
Chicken piece (without bones)
Rice
Vegetables ( Carrot , Spring onions, Capsicum, French beans )
one Chicken bouillon

Wash the rice well and then soak it in water for 30 minutes. Now in another big pan , heat enough water to make the rice. Boil water, add some salt and the chicken bouillon and then add Rice to this. Cook the rice properly and drain the excess water and keep the cooked rice aside.

Cut all the vegetables in small pieces and keep aside.

Now in another pan, heat 3 tbsp Oil. Add the cut chicken pieces. Let the chicken cook properly. Now add all the vegetables. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Now add the rice. Stir well. Add the salt and pepper as per your taste. Fry for 2-3 minutes more. And your Chicken rice is ready to be served.
Serve Hot. . .

Chicken Biryani - Kerala style

I love chicken with any thing and Biryani makes me too much happy. My mother-in-law makes the best biryani, with all the fried onions in it.
This time I tried making the same, using chicken biryani masala( which my MIL do not use, but she suggested it to me).
It was not even close to what I like, as I think its the magic of my MIL's hand. But the dish was good enough for the first time make. I think I will improve with time. . .

Hope you all like my make, and may your hands essence will make the dish perfect for you and your family...

here goes the recipe:
Ingredients:-
500 gms Chicken - small pieces
500 gms Basmati rice ( or you can use plain long grain rice, it will taste different though)
2 tbsp Chicken masala
2 small Onions - one for the paste and other chopped finely
2 Big onions - for making fried onions - Sliced finely
2 tbsp ginger - garlic paste
3-4 green chillies
1 big tomato
Coriander leaves, curry leaves, mint leaves - some of each
5 tbsp Ghee (Clarified butter)
Oil for frying onions
Cashew and kishmish - some
Salt as per taste

In a pan, Heat Oil. Then put all the sliced Onions in it for frying. Make sure the Oil should be enough to cover alteast 3/4 of the onions . Onions will shrink in size while frying. Fry the onions till golden brown, try not to burn( It happens though). Drain on to a kitchen paper so as to remove the excess oil. Keep aside. Fry some Cashew and kishmish also.

Wash the rice and soak it in cold water for about 15 mintues. Meanwhile you can keep the water to boil for making rice. When the water is boiled, add salt and the soaked rice and let it cook fully. Drain the water and keep it aside(better spread the drained rice in a big flat plate so that the grains of rice will seperate from each other and we can have a nice Biryani).
P.S. - I put some turmeric and some coriander powder in the boiling water to enhance the taste of the rice of Biryani. Try it if you feel so.

Make a paste of the one onion and green chillies and add ginger garlic paste to this. Now in another big pan(for cooking the chicken masala), add the Ghee(clarified butter) and let it heat up. Add the coriander leaves, mint leaves and curry leaves. Now add the chopped onion in it. When the onions are transparent add the above paste of onion, chillies, garlic and ginger to this. Let it cook well for 5 minutes. Then add the tomatoes and cook well till the masala loses oil. At this time add the chicken masala and some red chilly powder if you want ur biryani to be a bit hot. Red chilly powder is optional. Now add the chicken pieces and cook till chicken is done. Add some water if needed.

Now when the chicken is cooked, the rice is done and the fryed onions and nuts are ready, In a big vessel spread a layer of rice and then on top of it spread some chicken masala we prepared. Now add some fried onions on it and then again layer with Rice. Fill your vessel in similar way. Make sure you keep some fried onions for the top. When the layering is done, spread the kept Fried onions on the top and then spread the cashew and kishmish also.

Now put this vessel in microwave with a cover on it for 10-15 minutes. And your Biryani is ready to be served. . .
Serve the Biryani with dahi boondi raita( recipe in the blog) or plain veg raita. . .

Enjoy eating....

Ginger beer

3 big lemon
1 liter beer or soda(for kids)
200 gm Ginger
100 gm brown sugar
Ice
Mint leaves to garnish

Peel the ginger and grate it nicely.
Peel lemon and chop the zest nicely and finely.
Put both the ginger and lemon in a bowl and squeeze the lemon juice. Add the sugar and mix well.
Now add the beer or the soda. Taste well if u need more lemon juice or sugar.

Now In a big glass mug, put the ice and fresh mint leaves. Now add some of the peel lemon skin, if u have some. Now strain the already prepared punch in to this mug and serve it.

Pineapple lemon Punch

3 cups pineapple juice
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup Ice
6 tbsp sugar
1/2 - 1 cup light rum
Orange slice and cherry to garnish

Mix all the above ingredients except the garnishing stuff. Put it in a cocktail glass and serve with orange slice and cherry....

Egyptian "Balah El Sham" dessert

For the dough:-
250 ml water
25 ml Oil
250 gm flour
3 eggs
2 ml vanilla essence

For Sugar syrup:-
150 ml water
650 gm sugar
175 gm glucose

Method for syrup:-
Dissolve sugar in water. Heat it in heavy base pan, until sugar melts. Add glucose to this syrup. Continue boiling syrup till thick. Remove from heat and cool off.

Method for dough:-
Boil water and Oil in heavy sauce pan.
Add the flour to this boiling solution and cook till it thickens and start to leave the sides of pan.
Cool mix and add eggs slowly, one at a time. Then add vanilla essence.
Mix the mixture till it forms tight thick dough.
Remove and put in piping bag.
Pipe the mix, one finger length into oil and deep fry. When it cooks, it will double in size. So drop enough mix in to the pan.
Once done remove from Oil and drop into room temp sugar syrup.
Let it stand for 2-3 minutes and remove onto wire mesh to drain off excess syrup.

Serve Balah El Sham . . .

Citrus Salmon

1 orange peeled and sliced
30 gms butter
splash of double cream
1/2 orange juice only
1 tbsp fresh chives chopped
1 tsp Olive oil
110 gm Salmon
pinch of sea salt


Preheat grill to high.
Heat oil in pan, add salmon and season with salt. Top with orange and cook for 5-6 minutes.
Remove from heat and place under grill for few minutes to finish off. 3-4 minutes will do the trick.
Meanwhile, gently melt the butter in pan and add cream and orange juice to make a sauce.

Place salmon and drizzle the sauce over and serve with fresh chives. . .

Drop pancakes with banana and butterscotch sauce

Pancakes , the perfect breakfast for so many families out there. Its is sometime for me also.
I make the banana-butterscotch sauce in advance and so its easy for me in the morning... I am a lazy morning bird.

My husband was bored of eating the honey or syrup for the pancakes, so I first tried just the double cream. Then in one TV show I learned about this sauce for a Ice-cream spread. I thought why not try it with our usual Pancakes, and guess what it worked. . .

Hope you all also enjoy this arrangement. Keep cooking :)

Ingredients:

For the pancakes:-
110 gm self rising flour
3 eggs
1/4 tsp baking powder
290 ml milk
30 gm caster sugar
2 tbsp veg oil for cooking

For the butterscotch sauce:-
55 gm butter
70 gm soft brown sugar
120 ml double cream
3 bananas peeled and cut into chunks

Whisk the flour, eggs, milk and baking powder and sugar in a bowl.
Heat pan and put oil and make the pancakes round in shape and thick enuff.
For the sauce, place butter in a pan and melt it , then put sugar and stir in the cream and remove from heat. Spoon in bananas.
Serve the pancakes with this sauce on the top and look at the faces of your family members. . . You will definitely feel worth doing this much work. . .

Mexican Rice salsa salad for Nacho's

Making salsa for the Nacho's is very common. So this time I twisted it with adding Rice. You can use your left over rice or cook some new one. :)

Try it and comment how you like rice in your salsa.
Here goes the recipe:-

Ingredients:
2 cups Rice - boiled
2 cups Corn - boiled
1/2 cup red and green pepper each
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
1/2 cup spring onions
1 tbsp salsa sauce
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp basil leaves - dry
some dry red chilly flakes
2 tbsp Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


Heat Oil , add onions and peanuts.
Sautè for a minute and add green & red pepper.
Stir fry for 2 minutes and add corn.
Mix well and add the sauce and ketchup and vinegar, lemon juice and basil leaves.
Stir and add boiled rice. Toss gently.
Transfer to a serving dish and serve with Nacho's.

Vegetable Noodles soup

20 gms Egg noodles - boiled and set aside
20 gms Chinese cabbage and carrot - chopped in thin strips
20 gms black mushrooms
5 ml Onion oil

Blanch the vegetables. Put vegetable water in wok. Add boiled noodles, vegetables and salt to taste. Then add onion oil. Soup is ready to be served.

Rainbow soup

20 gm capsicum - green preferably
10 gm beet root
10 gm cabbage
10 gm bean sprout
5 gm onion oil
pinch of Ajinomoto
20 gms corn flour
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the capsicum, beet root and cabbage. Blanch for 2 minutes. Put the water in a wok. Boil and put all the vegetables. Add salt to taste. Add ajinomoto, white pepper, onion oil and corn flour paste( mix the corn flour with cold water to make a paste). Corn flour paste will thicken the soup.
Serve hot with bread crumbs . . .

Crunchy stuffed paneer pakoras

250 gms Paneer
Oil
1 cup bundi ( see the recipe in "Dahi bundi raita")

For garlic chutney:-
8- 10 big cloves garlic
1 tsp Oil
1 tbsp red chilly powder
Salt to taste

For the batter:-
1 cup besan
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp red chilly powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Soda bicarbonate - pinch
Salt to taste


Cut the paneer cubes ad slit each paneer into half leaving one edge intact for filling.
Crush the bundi and set aside.
For garlic chutney, roast the garlic in 1 tsp oil. Mix with red chilly powder and salt and grind to a smooth paste.
To prepare batter, mix the besan(gram flour) with ginger, garlic paste, chilly powder, turmeric, soda and salt. Add sufficient water and wisk well to make a batter of a coating consistency. Rest the batter for 15 minutes.
Stuff garlic chutney into the slit of each paneer pieces.
Heat sufficient oil in pan, dip each piece of paneer in the batter and roll in the crushed bundi and deep fry on medium flame till crisp and golden brown.
Serve with chutney of your choice or tomato ketchup. . .

Paneer pakoras

50 gms paneer
50 gms carrot
250 gms boiled potatoes
1 cup spinach paste
4 tbsp besan
1 tbsp chilly paste
1 tbsp ginger paste
salt and pepper to taste and Oil for frying

Grate paneer and carrot. Mix them in a large bowl with salt and pepper, half the chilly and ginger pastes. Keep aside for 1/2 hour. Mash boiled potatoes in another bowl and add salt and pepper. Make small balls of this mix and pat them flat. Place a little paneer mix in the middle and wrap into a ball. In a third bowl, add spinach paste and besan and remaining chilly and ginger paste. Make a thick batter with all these using appropriate water, add salt and pepper accordingly.
Dip each potato balls in the spinach batter and deep fry in the oil.
Serve by slicing into halves with sweet chutney.

Rice pakoras

1 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup besan
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup onion - chopped
1 tbsp ajwain
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp jeera
6 green chillies
1/4 cup curry leaves
1/4 cup coriander leaves
salt and oil

Mix the cooked rice with besan and water. Add onions, ajwain, sesame seeds, jeera, green chillies, curry and coriander leaves. Mix well. Heat oil in pan, spoon in small amount of the mix and deep fry untill golden brown.
Serve hot with tomato achar or ketchup, with a cup of tea.

Sooji spread

100 gms sooji
1 cup milk or water
salt to taste
red chilly to taste
1 medium sized onion and tomato - chopped finely
3-4 green chilies - chopped finely
slices of brown bread

Add milk to sooji to make a thick paste. Add the rest of the ingredients except the bread slices to the paste.
Spread the paste on one side of the bread. Shallow fry the side without the paste till the paste thickens and holds, then flip over.
Serve piping hot with tomato ketchup or chutney.

Jhaal vada with tomato achar

Ingredients:-
1 cup rice flour
1 tbsp atta
1 tsp ginger paste
1 onion - chopped finely
1 tsp chilly paste
salt and oil

Make the dough from the above ingredients and water. Roll in to small balls and deep fry in oil to make vadas.

For the achar :-
1 kg ripe tomatoes
100 ml vinegar
250 ml mustard oil
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp jeera seeds
1 tsp methi seeds
1 tsp salt
50 gms green chillies - chopped finely
50 gms garlic
50 gms ginger
Curry leaves

Grind the mustard, jeera and methi seeds and half of ginger & garlic to a paste with half vinegar. Add turmeric and green chillies. Chop the rest of ginger and garlic.
Wash and dry tomatoes. Heat oil. Add a handful of curry leaves, when they start spluttering add chopped ginger and garlic.
When ingredients turn red, add tomatoes and grounded paste. Add salt.
Cook on slow fire and add the rest of vinegar. Keep cooking till oil seperates.
Your delicious achar is ready.

Serve the hot Vadas with tomato achar.