Fridays + Friends + Food + Fun

Last weekend I had friends over at home(quite a gang I should say). In such occasions(especially with a group of hungry boys) usually I like to experiment some new dishes because even if something goes wrong in the process, there are still no leftovers and I really can not see food go waste(which is why I am trying hard to finish the box of chocolate covered rice crispy treats at home despite the fact that I am trying hard to loose the last few pounds of my monthly goal). I made chicken 65 which was applauded by everybody that evening. It was definitely a HUGE hit.. I mean who doesn't like spicy fried chicken? ;). It was really easy to make and I wanted to share the recipe with you here. Next time you are looking to please a crowd, go ahead and make this. You'll be star of the evening :). This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Ingredients:

Boneless skinless chicken  - 1lb (Cut into 1" cubes. I used both the breast and thigh meat)

Corn Flour                       - 3tbspns

Egg                                - 1

Ginger Garlic paste           - 1 1/2 tspn

Salt                                - To taste

Pepper                            - 1 tspn

Red food color                  - 8 drops

For Gravy/Sauce:

Canola oil                - 3 tbspns

Ginger                     - 1 tbspn (finely chopped))

Garlic                      - 5 Cloves (finely chopped)

Green Chillies           - 5

Chilli Sauce              - 2 tbspns

Cumin seeds            - 1 tspn

Cumin powder          - 1 tspn

Ginger Garlic paste   - 1/2 tspn

Curry leaves             - 6-7 leaves torn in half

Chilli powder            - 1/2 tspn

Pepper powder          - 1/2 tspn

Red food color           - 10-12 drops

Salt                          - To taste

Water                       - 1/2 cup

Procedure:

• In a bowl, take the chicken and add the cornflour, ginger garlic paste, salt, pepper, egg, red food color and mix till the chicken is coated well. If you find the mixture too liquidy then add some more cornflour.
• Heat oil in a deep bottom pan and deep fry the chicken in the oil.
• After all the chicken is fried, heat a skillet on medium flame, add oil and let it heat up a little.
• Now add the cumin seeds. After they sputter a little, add the ginger and garlic and let it fry for a minute.
• Now add the green chillies and the curry leaves to pan and fry for another minute.
• Add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw flavor goes away.
• Add the chilli sauce, chilli powder, cumin powder, pepper powder, salt at this stage and fry for a minute.
• Add the red color, water and the fried chicken at this point. Mix well so the gravy coats the chicken and wait for the chicken to heat up in the sauce.
• Serve hot.

Sadly, I do not have a picture of this recipe :(

This recipe was inspired from my neighbor and adapted from wahreywah.com

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I had the pic I had posted on facebook! Though it is notthe perfect pic, you can see that 1/4th of the dish is already hogged.. :) I vouch the chicken was awesome!
-Div

The Devil takes over

When you come back home tired from the day's work and by merely thinking how at every step life can push you down and after sweating off all the irritation at the gym, the next thing in any sane person's mind I presume will be FOOD!

I was craving food today after the workout and although I was determined to make soup to contribute to the Soup Month that Divu enlightened me to, I decided to be lazy just for a day and make something that would have less of an aftermath effect (I mean the extensive clean up after cooking). So here comes an easy instant cooking recipe for times and days such as aforementioned!!

Mexican Chicken or whatever you want to call it

1. Chicken breasts - take as many as you want or enough to fill your baking tray
2. Hot/Medium Hot/ Mild Salsa of your choice
3. Mozarella cheese
4. Lime
5. Salt
6. Cloves of garlic

Procedure :

1. Wash the Breasts and place on the baking tray

2. Pour or apply the salsa on top of the chicken - put enough to cover it well

3. My tweaking : Squeeze a lemon on top of the chicken breasts, sprinkle a little salt, chop some garlic cloves (5-6) if you are a Garlic lover

4. Bake at 350F for 20mins

5. Pull it out and grate Mozarella cheese on top

6. Bake for another 15mins

7. Food ready to be served with Rice and Pita chips - If you want you can make the Rice-a-Roni rice that you get at the store since they are flavored.

Warning: Since it involves cheese it might be slightly tilted towards the high calorie side but then its definitely worthwhile when Time and the Lion growling in your tummy are a concern!!

(Chicken) Egg drop Soup

To commemorate the occasion of National Soup month and also being an ardent fan of soups(I even bought a soup recipe book long ago!), I decided to go on a soup dinner tonight despite of a not-so-interested-about-soups husband.. lucky for me, the weather is in my favor :D

While I was going through the recipe book to pick a soup, I was in a fix.. there were about 500 varieties! And the ingredients were from all over the world representing different climates and cultures.. I did not even hear about soups served cold till I came to the USofA. When I was really young and was introduced to the we-dine-out-of-home-for-special-occasions-only culture, the only two soups I used to see on the menu in the restaurants of Tirupati were the Tomato soup and the Veg/Chicken Egg drop soup aka Sweet corn soup. So I decided to make my favorite soup of childhood :)

Ingredients:

• Creamed style sweet corn can (you can find it in the canned food section)
• Chicken breast (cut into small pieces)- one
  
• Corn starch (not cornmeal)- 2tbspn
  
• Egg whites - 2
  
• Salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups water
  

Procedure:

• Boil the water in a pan.
• After the water boils, salt it and add the sweet corn from the tin.
• Let it boil again. Now add the chicken breast meat and let it boil till it cooks(for about 3 mins)
• Mix the cornstarch in a separate bowl with a tbspn of water and add this to the soup. You will notice that the soup thickens.. you can always add some more or less cornstarch depending on how you like the consistency of the soup but always remember to keep stirring the soup continuously while adding the thickening agent(cornstarch) so no lumps would form.
• Add the Egg white and whisk it in the bowl so there will be no big chunks of egg. Egg whites cook very quick so this step can also be done with the flame switched off.
• Finally add freshly ground black pepper and Enjoy!

Note:

• This soup should serve about four people as a meal.
  
• As this belongs to the family of Chinese soups, it can be served with soy sauce, chili vinegar and the likes as enjoyed by you.
• For a vegetarian version, cut carrots and green beans into very small cubes(chewable) and add it to the boiling water after step1 and boil it till they cook.. the rest would be the same in both cases except of-course you skip the chicken and egg in your soup.

Be it a homemade or canned or a takeout, lets keep the soups coming for the last week left in the month!

Till then enjoy your bowl of hearty soup!

Hyderabadi Dum biriyani!

Whenever we head to NJ, we have made it a point not to miss 'paradise biriyani'. It is by far the best dum biriyani I have had! Spicy and chatak! :)


Considering we Bostonions or should I say Tyngsborough-nions ( now thats a mouthful!) do not have the good luck of indian restaurants in the Mass area, I had taken on the project to bring good indian food home!
In one such mission, I had tried my friend Annie's dum biriyani recipe. Over the many times i made it, I have made addendums and improvised it... So here's the recipe, inspired by Ann's --

Ingredients

chicken - leg pieces - 5 or 6 OR 2 thighs cut in cubes


If its leg pieces, go for the smaller size of chicklets. otherwise chicken thighs should work fine(Sush had given a tip about thighs being better than breasts! ... I am sure that argument doesn't hold ground for anything other than chicken (it was a non-veg joke! sigh!)


Pudina/mint - 7 to 8 sprigs.
dhania/coriander - one handful bunch
Green chillies - around 8
thick curds - 2 cups
garlic pods - 5 to 6
egg - 1
ginger -3/4 inch cube
Garam masala
Chilly powder
Basmati rice - 3 cups
Onions - 2 big
coconut milk - 2 Tbsp

Procedure

( I )Preparing the marinade
1. Beat the curd smooth. Plop the egg into it and wisk it well. The egg makes the chicken softer.
2. Grind garlic, ginger, coriander, pudina, green chilles into a thick coarse chutney like consistency. Do not add water. 

(careful not to add more than 1 or 2 pudina sprigs at this stage, else the biriyani will be very minty)

3. Add this green paste to the beaten curd-egg mixture.
4. Add 2 tsps of chilly powder and 2 tablespoons of garam masala powder and required salt to the mixture.
5. Now add the chicken to this marinade and let it sit for atleast 2 hours!


( II ) In the mean time -
1. Cut one and half onions finely criss cross. Cut the remaining half length-wise.
2. Cut a few strands of coriander and 3 to 4 sprigs of pudina.
3. Soak the 3 cups of Basmati rice.


(III) Once the marinade has sat for almost 2 hours -
1. Add little oil to a low bottom vessel.
2. Add jeera and sompf to the oil. Once they sizzle, add the finely cut onions.
3. Once the onions are fried to golden brown, add the chicken marinade.
4. Let it sit on the stove for atleast 15 to 20 minutes, while you intermittently mix it.


(IV) While the chicken marinade cooks -
1. In a heavy bottom vessel, add a little ghee.
2. Fry lightly--3 to 4 cardamom pods, black cardamom, half inch cinnamon stick, 1 or 2 cloves, star anise and 3 or 4 pudina leaves
3. To this add sufficient water, may be 2 to 3 cups, depending on the size of your vessel.
4. Add 2 Tbsps of coconut milk to this.
5. Add necessary salt. Don't forget the salt at this stage, otherwise, you can never mix the rice with salt later on.
5. Drain the soaked Basmati rice and reserve.
6. Once the water boils, add the basmati rice to it.
7. Keep checking to see how much the rice has cooked. Once it is half cooked, take it off the gas stove and drain immediately. Usually this takes 5 minutes from the time the water boils.
8. Fork the drained basmati with a dallop of ghee.
9. Preheat the oven to 350.


(V) Once the chicken marinade is 3/4th cooked and the curd gravy sufficiently reduced -
1. In a long flat baking dish, smear the bottom surface with a thin layer of ghee.
2. Pour the 3/4th cooked chicken marinade to the dish.
3. Spread the coriander and punida cut in step II on top of the marinade.
4. Evenly spread the drained and forked half cooked Basmati on top of this chicken gravy.
6. Now fry the onions cut length wise in step II, until they are deep brown and semi-crispy. Spread them on top of the spread basmati.
7. Dribble a little color powder on top of the rice (optional).
8. The oven should have attained the 350 mark by now. Cover the layered biriyani with aluminum foil and let it bake in the oven for 20 to 25 min.
9. Once you take it out of the oven, take a pic to post on facebook (optional) ;)
10. Mix the cooked rice and marinade layers nicely, but careful not to break the rice too much.


Serve hot with mirchi ka salan and raita :)


Other options --

1. Boil eggs and insert them into the biriyani layers before placing in the oven.
2. Add ghee fried cashews and curry leaves to top the biriyani, if you are cooking it for a guest! You don't want the empty calories :)
3. My MIL adds all the left over uncuttable whole chicken bits into the marinade. It simply adds to the flavor, but cannot be eaten. I for one, hate bones, so avoid it!


Though I agree, its a makeshift for dum..Since there is no dum except for a convention oven, the taste doesn't disappoint at all ! :)


For the vegetarian version -
1. No marination required.
2. Start at step II
3. Fry the onions, followed by 2 tomatoes finely cut. Add the garam masala and chilly powder and the green paste made in step I. Add the veggies. Add the curd. Let the gravy be only half or 1/4th cooked before pouring it into the baking dish!
4. Remaining steps are the same!


The recipe serves 4 ravenous adults or 6 adults mildly hungry! :)


This is one of the easiest recipes, if you haven't ventured into non-veg cooking, or you wish to cook it for your better half, like I did! Since, I am not a fan of the chicken in the biriyani, though I love the rest of the biryani, I get N to cut and marinate the chicken for me! The rest is easy work!!


Hope the recipe helps.! Let me know if you tried it!
And I definitely dare the vegetarians to resist the urge to try this awesome dish! :)


Happy eating! :)