Chicken Curry

"Chicken Curry" is a dish seen almost too often in Indian cuisine & everybody has their own style of making chicken curry. I have 2 styles that my family likes & I'm going to share both of these styles with you all :)

Both the styles use almost the same ingredients.

This is the Bengali-style chicken curry:

Procedure:-

I have coated 1 kg chicken (with bones) with salt, turmeric powder and chilly powder.
Then take a pressure cooker and heat around 3 tsp of refined oil.
Once the oil heats up add onions- pasted (around 3 big onions) and 2 Tbsp of ginger & garlic paste.

Fry until they are brown & then add 1 tsp of turmeric powder, 2 tsp of Kashmiri lal (red-chilly powder) & a fine paste of 4 tomatoes.

While frying these add the marinated chicken to the paste and fry for another 10 minutes.

Then add a tsp of sugar and a Tbsp of garam masala and 2 tsp of ghee (clarified butter) to the chicken.

Now add the salt according to your taste and add 2 cups of water and put on the lid and wait for 2 whistles. 

Give it a standing time of 15 minutes and serve hot with white rice.

This is Spicy Indian Chicken:

Procedure:-

This chicken dish has less curry. 

Coat the chicken pieces as above and then fry the chicken pieces and keep it aside. 
Here we do not make a paste from onions and tomatoes, The onions and tomatoes are chopped into small pieces.
Then take some oil in a a pan /wok then fry the chopped onions, garlic & ginger.
Next add the chopped tomatoes and other masalas (spices as used above). 
Here I have used 2 Tbsp of chicken ready-made masala instead of garam masala powder.
Then add the fried chicken to it and cook till all the water gets dried up. 
This is cooked in medium flame in an open wok/pan so that the  chicken gets cooked properly from inside. 
Before serving you can add a Tsp of ghee or butter for additional flavor. This chicken recipe is enjoyed with roti and paratha (flat bread)

PS:-
The "Ready Made Chicken Masala" I used is this. It is a good spice mix which adds to the taste. You can buy it in any grocery store and even online.

Butter Naan (flat bread)

Indian "Butter Naan", is a flat bread variety. It tastes great with tandoori chicken/ other chicken dishes But some people eat the bread just like that too. But Indians usually eat it accompanied with a side dish (vegetarian/ non vegetarian). I ate this along with Tandoori chicken. You can find that recipe in my blog as well.

Butter Naan recipe:-

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour(maida)-2 cups
• Baking powder-1 tsp
• Salt-1tsp
• Sugar-1 tsp
• Yogurt-1/4th cup
• Grated ginger-3 tbsp
• Coriander leaves-1/4th cup
• Black sesame seeds-1 tbsp
• Water for kneading
• Butter
• 0il-2tsp

Procedure:

1st: Take a bowl & add flour, baking soda, salt and sugar.

Then add curd, ginger paste and coriander leaves and water if required. Knead the flour by adding 2tsp of oil to make a soft and sticky dough . Cover it with a wet cloth, and keep it for 4-5hrs.

2nd: Take a handful of dough and apply dry flour on a wooden board and roll it into a ball. Flatten it out by applying pressure on the dough ball using your hands, then sprinkle some black sesame seeds on it. Roll it out into an approximately round shape using a Rolling pin.

3rd: Now heat a nonstick pan and put the round shaped flattened out dough on the heated pan. Cook it without any oil. After 1 side puffs up flip the naan over.

Once it get slightly golden spots remove it from the pan.

4th: Now place it on a wire rack and place it directly on the flame (like below). Keep the flame on medium to low heat (take care not to burn the naan) flip it over and cook on both sides.

5th: Once you see brown spots on the naan, remove it from the burner. Now apply butter on both sides & serve hot!

~ENJOY~

Boneless Tandoori chicken

I am sure you all will love this recipe.

I didn't use my microwave for this recipe as there was a power issue that day. I cooked it using the good old stove. So I thought, Why not make a boneless version of Tandoori chicken with some of my homemade delicious naan!! Tandoori chicken & Naan is a great combination. 

Thank God I tried this method. It was really delicious and tasted exactly like the juicy tandoori chicken from restaurants. My family loved it

Ingredients used:

• Boneless chicken cubes: 500 grams
• Ginger garlic paste:1Tbsp
• Coriander powder:1 tsp
• Cumin powder: 1 tsp
• Chili powder: 1 tsp
• Lemon juice: 2 tsp
• Curd/sour cream: 3 Tbsp
• Garam masala: :1 tsp
• Dried methi: 1 tsp
• Mustard oil:2 Tbsp
• Salt according to taste

Procedure :

Marinate chicken with all the above spices and keep it for 1 hour.

Then take a wok/ pan and put the marinated chicken in it and cook it on a low flame till it's done.

Do not turn/stir the chicken. Let it get cooked in the water coming out from it.

When the chicken is tender and cooked, brush the other side with a little butter for giving it a glaze. 

Cook it for two minutes. Serve hot.

~ENJOY~

Gajar ka Halwa (Carrot Dessert-Halwa)

Sweets Week!! The holy festival of  "GANESH CHATURTHI"is going on, So I'm making sweet dishes to offer to the Elephant God. This "Gajar ka halwa" (or) "gajrela" is basically a sweet carrot dish originally from Pakistan and Punjab.
This Dessert is always seen in their marriages.
Today I will be sharing with you my recipe for this sweet carrot halwa, which is a little tedious and takes almost 2 hours to make. But sometimes if you really want to save time you can also boil these carrots in pressure cooker (or) instead of grating the carrots, put them in the mixer-grinder! But honestly the taste gets hampered a lot!!

Video Recipe: 

Ingredients:

• Carrots-1 kg
• 2 litres of  full cream.milk.
• 500gms of  sugar
• Cashewnuts and raisins (Handful ea
• Ghee 5 Tbsp (Clarified Butter)

Procedure:

-Firstly grate all the carrots nicely using a grater, Please do not use a mixer/grinder as the texture of halwa will get spoilt and it will become frothy. 

-In a big pan start boiling the full cream milk. It should become almost half its original quantity  by condensing with time (This will take time). 

-In a separate pan heat up the ghee and fry the dry fruits in it and keep it aside.  

-Then saute the grated carrots in that pan really well.

-When the amount of milk has reduced considerably add the shredded carrots and keep cooking on medium flame. 

-Never cook in high flame as there is a major possibility of it getting burnt towards the bottom and sticking to the vessel.

-Keep on stirring now and then. 

-It takes almost one and a half hours to cook it completely until the carrots are nice and soft and absorb all the milk.

-Now lastly add the sugar and mix it thoroughly with your ladle until it's completely melted into it.

But the question arises, how will you know its done?
-When you notice the halwa sticking to your ladle and there is not a single drop of water coming out from the carrots. It's DONE!!
-Lastly add the dry fruits & mix it well. Serve hot.

~ENJOY~

Malpua (sweet bengali pancakes)

Here comes another authentic traditional Bengali Sweet- "MALPUA". They are sweet Indian-style pancakes without eggs. I remember eating them as I grew up. It was very popular in the 80's. Now that I stay far away from my birthplace (Kolkata) I really miss the taste of those home-made pancakes. But a few weeks back, I came across the recipe for this dessert and it made me so nostalgic. It really inspired me and I decided to give it a try!

This post is for the future generation. So that they remember there were desserts like this. My daughter can open this post and see it anytime in the future, when she remembers her origins. Its a favorite of mine. Here is the recipe:-

Ingredients:

• 1/2cup -White flour (maida/all purpose flour)
• Rice dust -4tsp
• Semolina (suji) -1 cup
• Full cream milk -1 cup
• Sugar -2 cups
• Cardamom powder 1tsp
• Fennel seeds (saunf)1tsp
• Baking powder 1/4th tsp
• CAshew nuts -crushed
• Ghee (clarified butter)- 1tsp

Procedure:

First mix the semolina (suji), ricedust, white flour, ghee & sugar with the full cream milk and make the batter. 

The consistency of the batter should not be very thin.

Cover it and keep it aside for an hour. Then add the saunf (fennel seeds), cashew nuts, cardamom dust and , baking soda

Whip it really well and make sure that you mix everything properly.

Take a non-stick frying pan.

Heat little oil and pour 1 big spoonful of batter on the pan and spread it evenly like a pancake.

Fry it on both the sides. After frying them, plate them up and pour sugar syrup on them.

It's done!

~ENJOY~

You can also make a soggy version by soaking them in sugar syrup or dipping them in syrup and removing them after some time.

In my house we prefer without sugar syrup .

Enjoy Janmashtami with yummy Malpua. ,🙏

Paneer 65 (cottage cheese)-Indian Snack

Ingredients:-

• Paneer-500 gms-cut into pieces like in picture below
• Curry leaves- 2-3 twigs
• Ginger-2 inches
• Garlic-25-30 pods
• Green Chillies-10-12
• Kashmiri red chilli powder-1 tsp
• Black pepper powder-1 tsp
• Garam masala powder-1 tsp
• Lime Juice-1 Tbsp
• Hung curd-1 Tbsp
• Rice flour-2 tsp
• Corn Flour-2 tsp
• Salt according to taste

Procedure:-

Cut the paneer/cottage cheese like this.

Make a coarse paste from curry leaves, ginger, garlic and green chillies. Add red chilli powder, black pepper powder, garam masala powder, lime juice, hung curd, rice flour, corn flour, and salt to the curry leaves paste & make a thick batter, Add water if needed to make it thick.
Marinate the paneer pieces in this batter for 4-5hours.

Heat some oil in a pan and deep fry few curry leaves and keep it aside. Now deep fry these cottage cheese pieces 1 by one.

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a separate pan Then add chopped green chillies and garlic to the oil. Add 1-tsp of chilli garlic sauce (or) chilli sauce. You can add any leftover batter into the oil.
Finally add the fried curry leaves and fried paneer pieces into the pan and mix well for 2 minutes.
Serve Hot!

~ENJOY~

Aloo Tamatar (Potato-Tomato Curry)

Hi friends Shravan mahina is about to end. Many of you must be fasting like me on Mondays. Eating one time and preferably dishes  made out of potatoes . 

So I'm going to tell you my easy and less time consuming potato curry dish which you can prepare in a jiffy and enjoy with paratha or puri.

 Following are the ingredients:-

Boiled potato cut into pieces

Frozen green peas

                                                 3 green chilies chopped

                                                 1 tsp of cumin seeds

                                                 2 pinches of asafoetida

                                                 1 tsp of turmeric powder

                                                 1 tsp of chilly powder 

                                                 2 tsp of garam masala powder

                                                 1 tsp of clarified butter ( ghee )

4-5 tomatoes cut into pieces

PROCEDURE:-

Heat 1 tsp of refined oil in a pan, then add the cumin seeds (jeera) and hing (asafoetida) ,when the spices start spluttering add turmeric (haldi) powder and mirchi (chilli/paprika) powder. Then cook it for 1 min. Now add the tomato pieces into it and cook it for another 10 mins & also add required amount of salt in it. Now at this point add the boiled potatoes and peas and cook further so that all the spices are uniformly mixed. Then add 1 cup of water. Let the whole thing come to a proper boiling point. Then simmer the flame and add the garam masala powder and ghee. Mix it well and cover the pan. Give a standing time of 10-15 mins. Before serving sprinkle some coriander  leaves from top.

It's Done~                              

                          

~Enjoy~

Rabri-Indian Condensed Milk Dessert

This photo is of "payesham" which can be called as "Rabri" also. 

Normally payesham is made of milk & rice which I have taught you before also. This is my recipe for Rabri:- 

Ingredients:- 

• Whole milk -1 packet
• Condensed milk -1/2 tin
• Amul milk powder-7 spoons (milk-powder)
• Sugar-5 spoons
• Gobindobhog chal/ white rice -just one handful (approx. 2 tablespoon)

Procedure:- 

First Boil the milk properly. When it comes up while boiling, simmer it and add the washed rice to it. Continue boiling in a low flame till the rice gets softer and milk gets thicker and then add the sugar .Keep stirring continuously, don't stop, Otherwise there is a possibility of it getting burnt. Now add the milk powder (mixed in 500 ml of water) & Keep on stirring. Lastly add the the condensed milk to it. The whole dish should have a thicker consistency now.

Garnish with, cashew nuts, pistachio and raisins. (You can add dry-fruits of your liking, Do not boil. Only garnish)

This auspicious dessert/sweet is made during sacred occasions and festivities and celebrations like on birthdays. My earlier post related to this is given in the link below.

>> http://aspectflife.blogspot.in/2014/05/akhshay-tritiya-special-payeshamin.html

  

Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji  is a very popular snack all across India. I personally found this to be an excellent way to feed children lots of vegetables, which they usually refuse to eat. It is a delicious snack with as many vegetables as you can imagine! & the amount of tomatoes used is quite a lot. It makes this dish rich in vitamins, & tomatoes are a rich source of vitamin C. It's very good for the skin.

In this dish you can put in any veggies you want but we have to mix and blend them together in such a way that your child doesn't understand he's eating vegetables! Kids and adults alike love this snack! Here's the recipe:-

Ingredients:-

-4-5 medium sized potatoes.

-1 small bowl of boiled green peas

-1 big capsicum cut into small pieces.

-7-8 big tomatoes, cut into small pieces

-Few big pods of garlic ( smashed) 

-1 big onion cut into small pieces

-1 Tbsp of ginger-garlic paste 

-3 tsp of pav bhaji masala

-1 tsp of chilly powder

-Salt and sugar according to your taste.

-2 tbsp butter (I used Amul butter)

-Small Pav Buns (pav bhaji-bread)

-Onion rings and lemon pieces

Procedure:-

Take a pan & pour 2 tbsp of oil. Shallow fry the diced onions and ginger garlic paste till soft. Then add the chopped tomatoes and cook it till it becomes soft and almost like a paste. 

Add  boiled green peas and capsicum pieces and cook until more softer.

Cook it for another 10 mins & then add 3 tbsp of Pav Bhaji Masala and chilli powder then add the boiled potatoes. Mash all the vegetables together and cook for another 10 mins. Add a blob of butter on the top at this juncture. 

PS:
If you want you can also add boiled cauliflower along with boiled peas... I am allergic to cauliflower so try to avoid it..You can also cook the whole thing in clarified butter..
"Pav" means Bread !
"Bhaji" means Fried mixture!

Serve the bhaji with buttered pav (bun) and raw onions

~ENJOY~

Aloo Potol / Aloo Parwal

There are many exotic vegetables across the world, And India has a really wide range of exotic and unique vegetables at that which many people are unaware of. Each province/State in our country has its own unique cuisine.

The veggie called “parval” or ‘potol’ scientifically known as Trichosanthes dioica, is a veggie used in many Northern and Eastern cuisines of Indian cooking. One of the most popularly cooked version of parval (potol) is with potatoes called “Aloo potol” / Aloo parwal !

Aloo parwal curry is easy to make and healthy too! 

Parwal/Potol Vegetable

Ingredients:

-Potol/Parwal (trichosanthes dioica) -cut into halves

-Potatoes: diced it into pieces

-Tomatoes chopped: 4-5

-Ginger paste: 2 tsp
-Hing(asafoetida): 1 pinch
-Dhania powder(coriander powder): 1 tsp
-Haldi powder (turmeric): 1 tsp
-Mirchi powder (red chilli powder): 1 tsp
-Garam masala powder : 1 tsp
-Ghee(Indian clarified butter): 1 tsp
-Fresh coriander leaves 

-5 spices(panch phoron): cumin seeds, nigella/black caraway seeds,  fennel seeds, radhuni/wild celery seeds, mustard seeds

Procedure:-

• First shallow fry the potatoes and diced parval (separately) and kept it aside.
• Take 1 tsp of oil in the kadai (wok) and add 'panch phoron' ie a mix of 5 indian spices: (jeera,kalonji,saunf,radhuni &sarso)
• When the spices start spluttering, add the ginger paste.
• Then add the diced tomatoes and cook till the oil separates in the pan.
• Now add the spices: turmeric, coriander and chilli powder & cook for 5-10 minutes.
• Once you smell the aroma coming from the spices, that time add the fried parval and potatoes and salt and sugar according to your taste. 
• Add a cup of water and let the curry boil.
• Lastly when oil starts appearing at the top, add little ghee and 1 tsp of garam masala to it and mix it nicely.
• Sprinkle coriander leaves as a garnish and serve hot with steaming rice.

~ENJOY~

What is the spice Panch Phoron?

Here: Bengali Spice Mix (Wiki) 

Can I buy it online (as a readymade mixed packet) ?

Yes, they are available as ready packets

Buy them online here at: 

• Amazon In
• Amazon US

Potato wedges

This is something loved by everyone!! Small kids, teenagers, even old grand fathers!! Everyone likes potato wedges !!

~It is a snack that is always welcome~

Ingredients:-
-5 big potatoes
-Olive oil for frying

-Spices used are: oregano, salt, chilly flakes, and 2 tsp of mixed herbs. 

Procedure:-
First cut the potatoes into wedge shaped pieces as shown above and parboil the pieces. Take them out ... Dry them with a kitchen towel and deep fry them in oil. Then spread them over tissues so that excess oil gets soaked. Before serving mix all the spices onto them...
This can be served with tea or as a nice starter (appetizer).

~ENJOY~

PS:

For diet watchers...Instead of deep frying  the potatoes. You can also do it in the microwave.

In this case you have to add all the spices along with 3 tsp of oil on those par boiled potatoes. Mix it nicely so that all wedges gets evenly coated with spices. Then you have to microwave it in high for about 8 to 10 mins. In some microwaves you might need more time.. So just check out your micro temperature & the potatoes!

I felt like eating some Fried Noodles

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Sometimes we need to indulge in what we really love to eat :-) & for me Fried noodles is one of them.

I have used:-

-2 packets of Hakka noodles

-1 big green capsicum...cut into thin slices

-2 medium sized carrot

-Handful of boiled sweet corn

-6-7 chopped garlic pods.

-2 eggs
Procedure:-
1)Boil the raw noodles and keep it aside. Mix 2 tsp of oil in it so that it does not sticky

2)Make a fluffy omelette out of 2 eggs cut it into small pieces and keep it aside.

3)Take 2 Tsp of butter in a pan. Then add the garlic pieces, after 1 Min sautey the thin stripped veggies. 4)When almost done add 1 tablespoon of black soya sauce...cook it for few seconds...then add the boiled noodles and the omelette pieces.
5)Toss it properly and add salt and pepper according to your taste. If required add another tsp of butter to add an extra flavour.

~Your stir fried noodles is ready~

~Enjoy it with sweet and sour tomato sauce~