Chicken Kofta Curry

Chicken Meat Balls in an onion tomato gravy

Chicken Breast is not my favourite cut of the chicken and I avoid using it because of its fibrous texture. But often we end up having not so desired products in our kitchen which we have to make do with.

So to use up the portion of chicken breast, decided on making a not so complicated Chicket Kofta curry. 

Certain ideas about the masala have been taken from Chef Varun Inamdar's recipe but I avoided using besan, keora water, rose water etc.

Ingredients :

Kofta :

Chicken Breast 450 gm 

Rock Salt / Beet Noon - 1 tsp or as per taste

Pepper - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves

Green chillies 

Curd - 1/2 cup

Bread Crumb - 2 slices of bread, toasted till crisp and powdered into bread crumb

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp roasted & ground cinnamon+cardamom+cloves

Ginger Galic paste - 1 tsp

Egg -1 

Onions 1-finely chopped

Gravy :

Onion - 2 roughly diced

Tomato 1-chopped

Ghee - 1 tsp

Whole garam masala

Bay leaf - 1 large or 2 small

White Oil/Mustard Oil

Roasted Fennel - 1 tsp

Roasted coriander (dhaniya) - 1tsp

Roasted Cumin - 1tsp

Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp

Whole Garam Masala & Bay leaf for Tempering 

Red chili powder

Kashmiri Chili Powder

Whole green chilies

Salt to Taste

Sugar  a pinch

Chopped coriander

Procedure :

Kofta :

1) Though Boneless Chicken Thighs are my preferred raw meat portion, this time I had to make do with Chicken Breast. To be chopped into small pieces.

2. Into the mixie jar goes : Boneless Chicken pieces, Rock Salt, Pepper Powder, Green Chilies, Chopped Coriander 

3. Into the above meat paste, add ginger -garlic paste, 1 egg, finely chopped onion, bread crumb of 2 bread slices (toasted and powdered) , 1/2 bowl of curd, 1/2 tsp of homemade garam masala (toasted and ground cardamom+cinnamon+clove). Mix well.

4. After smearing yoour palm with oil, make chicken koftas or balls. I made small lemon sized balls.

Gravy :

1) In a kadhai, take 2 tbsp oil (mustard or any other oil. Today I used rice bran oil).

2) Temper with whole garam masala and bay leaf.

3) To this tempered oil, add roughly chopped onions (2 medium sized)  and tomato. Add ginger- garlic paste. Fry till the onions have slightly browned and raw smell of tomatoes gone. Add salt and a pinch of sugar. 

4) Take it aside and on cooling grind this fried onion-tomato-bayleaf-garam masala-ginger garlic into a smooth paste and transfer the paste back to the kadhai.

5) Prepare a masala paste with 1/2 bowl of beaten curd, a mix roasted cumin + roasted coriander seeds + roasted fennel seeds+ red chili powder + kashmiri mirch. Add this paste to the onion-tomato-bayleaf-garam masala paste in the kadhai. Add warm water . Check the salt .  Add a spoonful of ghee.

6) While the gravy starts simmering,  slide the koftas slowly into the kadhai and add two green chilis, slit at the top. Cover and cook on low to medium heat for 15-20 minutes. 

7) Once it comes to a boil, sprinkle 1/2 tsp of garam masala powder and garnish with chopped coriander.

Phish Phash / Pish Pash...what's in a name ;)?

A gentle nudge from friends reminded me that I have a Cooking Blog. It has been sitting idle, gathering (virtual) dust for the past 2 years or so. Not that I haven't cooked...I have. But blogging about food is a tad bit more cumbersome than cooking food.

A microorganism is holding up the whole world of the mot superior being at ransom...the whole human world is under forced hibernation. While the more fortunate ones are cooped up within the confines of their home, praying for safety and good health, the others are stranded far away from home, alone, scared and helpless. Among the millions of Covid related forwards doing their rounds in the virtual space, one which struck me somewhere said "A vaccine for the Human Virus has finally been found ...Corona....which will heal mother Earth"! What a sad state of affairs we have brought ourselves to...

Well in these troubled times, when supplies, though regular (till now) are limited and cooking simple yet finger licking food is a daily challenge, remembering Phish Phash was like a God Send.  

This is  comfort food I remember from my childhood, especially  from the after-fever-bitter-taste-zero appetite phase. I remember the soft aromatic rice with melt-in-the-mouth-mutton, carrot-peas-potato drizzled with dollops of butter....Aaahhhh bliss!

With chicken in the fridge, I proceeded with the chicken version of the above one pot comfort food!

Ingredients for 10 generous helpings and some more

Gobindobhog Rice - 750gm

Curry cut chicken with bones - 1.5kg 

Carrot : 2-3 chopped into chunks

Beans - a handful -roughly chopped

Potatoes- 2-3 cut into quarters if large

Green chilies - as per taste

Any other vegetables may be added: capsicum, raw papaya, cauliflower, cabbage..all chopped roughly in chunky pieces

Ginger paste - 2 tbsp - for marination of chicken
Garlic paste - 2 tbsp - for marination of chicken

Pepper powder
Whole garam masala - Cinnamon, Green Cardamom, Peppercorns (optional), Bay leaf

Finely chopped onion-1
Onion paste-1
Chopped tomato -1
Butter

Procedure :
1. Marinate the thawed and washed chicken with ginger-garlic paste, salt and pepper for about 1/2 hour.
2. In a pressure cooker, place the marinated chicken + onion paste + chopped onion+ chopped tomatoes +whole garam masala+Pepper powder+salt+green chilies+salt. Add adequate water. Cook for 2 whistles.

3. Separate the chicken stock and the boiled chicken pieces.4. In a rice cooker place the washed Gobindobhog rice with the chunky vegetables and add the chicken stock and a bit of butter/ghee and let it cook till almost done. Add the chicken pieces. Keep the cooker on for a couple of minutes more.

5. Serve the steaming hot Phish-Phash with dollops of butter.

I dont like the rice very mushy and overcooked. 
If you like it that way, after pressure cooking the chicken, add the rice and veggies into the chicken stock in the pressure cooker. If needed, add some more more water and pressure cook for 1 whistle (gobindobhog cooks very fast)...And the mushy risotto like  Phish Phash is ready to be served

Optional : A fistful of Masoor Dal (Red Lentils) may be added along with the rice to make it an even more wholesome meal. I didnt, though...

Quickfix medley-chicken (keema/mince), mushroom, boiled eggs

This is a non-recipe.
Weekend fridge leftovers...1/2 bowl of leftover cooked chicken mince, 3 day old button mushrooms. Semi soft Boiled eggs + mushrooms...both sauted in ghee (wanted to do it in butter but realised had run out of it) and spiced up with pepper & chili flakes quite liberally. ... And finally mixing it all up with the chicken keema (mince) which had been cooked in garlic butter with chopped onions, chopped ginger-garlic, salt, pepper and chili powder.

 Makes a good side dish this with bread, roti...but I had it with steaming hot rice.....

(Chicken) Meat Ball Soup

Damp, dull, wet rainy days and nights...sniffles and coughs, exam time...not exactly exciting times !! How to cheer us all up ?
Comfort food of steaming hot chicken meat balls in the lightest of soup  style with either soft steamed rice or noodles or just as it is was all it needed to lift the souls of us three women!!!

Ingredients :

For the meat balls :
Minced chicken - approx 500gm
Ginger-Garlic paste
Crushed Black Pepper
Salt to taste
Eggs - 2
Eating Soda - a pinch
Finely Chopped Onion- 2 tbsp
Chopped green chilies
Coriander leaves

For the soup :

Bay leaf
Chopped Onion
Garlic chopped
Green chilies
Mushroom
Carrots
Capsicum
or any other vegetable of choice
Crushed Pepper
Salt
Chili flakes
Green chilies
Coriander leaves
Butter



Procedure :
1. Marinate the minced chicken with all ingredients under Ingredients for Meat Balls except eggs, chopped onions & coriander leaves for an hour or so. Mine was in the fridge overnight
2. MIx 2 eggs to the marinate followed by chopped onions & finely chopped coriander leaves. Fresh leaves just before preparation gives a fresh aroma.
3. In a wok/kadhai, heat 2 tsp of butter. Add a bay leaf followed by freshly ground black pepper, chopped onions, chopped garlic and chopped green chilies. Add a pinch of sugar. Fry till onions are pinkish.
3. Add carrots, mushrooms, capsicum or the vegetable in order of their hardness. Sprinkle salt and pepper.
4. After sauteing the vegetables on medium to high flame, add 5-6 cups of water. Adjust the salt and pepper. Cover till the soup has almost come to a boil.
5. Now after lowering the flame to a minimum, make small balls (approx 1-1.5cm dia) of the minced chicken meat and add to the soup in the kadhai. Increase the flame to medium and add a dollop of butter. Cover for 5-7minutes. Check once in a while and remove the scum from the top and give the soup and the meat balls a gentle stir.
6. After the soup has boiled for 2-3 minutes, sim the flame and adjust salt, pepper, add chili flakes. Remove from flame and garnish with chopped coriander.

Serve the steaming hot chicken meat ball soup and welcome to a world of deliciousness!!

The kids had it with 2-3 tbsps of steamed rice. And the next day had the remaining soup with some noodles.
I had it just as soup...Chicken Meat Ball Soup with mushrooms and vegetables

Chili Chicken & Vegetable Chowmein

Though I started off with plan to make Chicken chowmein with lots of vegetables, bowed to the family's demand of the Chili chicken and Chowmein.

Though normally I dont fry the chicken separately, today decided to go for the elaborate separate frying and subsequent adding to the sauce method. The simpler method for some other day....

Chili Chicken 

Ingredients :
Chicken = 1 kg (I used drumsticks, wings, and some boneless leg pieces)
Onions - 2 : diced into 4 quarters each
Green Capsicum - 1 large cut into thin strips
Garlic chopped - 2 tbsp
Ginger chopped - 2 tbsp
Soya Sauce
Green Chili Sauce
Sesame Oil (of toasted sesame seeds) - just a few drops as a final dressing (optional)
Tawa toasted white sesame seeds - a tsp (optional)
Spring Onions - the green part chopped finely
Green chilies - slit longitudinally
Eggs - 2
Cornflour - 1 -2 tspn
Oil

For the marination :
Cooking soda - 2 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tbsp
Soya Sauce - 2 tbs
Green Chili Sauce - 2-3 tbsp (depending on how spicy we want)
Black pepper powder - 2 tbsp
Salt - keep it less as the sauces are high on salt

Procedure :
1. Marinate the washed and dried chicken with the ingredients mentioned under Marination, for about an hour or two.
2. Crack open 2 eggs into the marinated chicken. Mix it well
3. Add 1 - 1&1/2  tbsp of cornflour. Mix well.
4. Fry the chicken pieces in batches without overcrowding to get nicely browned crispy 3/4th cooked chicken fries. Keep aside
5.In a wok/kadhai, heat 2 tbsp of oil. Add the chopped ginger & garlic followed by diced onions. Fry till onion is translucent.
6. Add the soya sauce & green chili sauce. Fry on high flame.
7. Add the julienned Capsicum . Fry on high flame.
8. Add the 3/4 cooked fried chicken pieces. Alternating between medium to high flame, coat the chicken in the sauce mix. Add some freshly crushed back pepper and salt to taste. If you want dry chili chicken , add the slit green chilies and chopped green onions and give a toss and take it off the flame now ...ready to serve.
9. But since I wanted a little gravy, added a cup of water mixed with a spoonful of cornflour. Covered the wok and let the chicken cook for 2-3 minutes.
10. Remove the cover, add the slit green chilies and chopped green onions and give a toss and take it off the flame now
11. Transfer to a serving bowl.
12. Drizzle some sesame oil from the top and sprinkle a tsp of dry roasted white sesame seeds....The chili chicken is ready to serve.

******

Vegetable Chowmein

Ingredients :

For the Sauce 
3 Tbs. Oyster sauce
1/2 cup Vegetable  or Chicken stock (did not have chicken /vegetable stock. used water instead)
Mix the above

For the Seasoning
3 Cloves garlic (approximately 1 Tbs.)
1 oz. Fresh ginger (approximately 1/2 Tbs.)
1 Red chili

For the Vegetables (Any vegetable of your choice may be used)
4 packets dry Chinese egg noodles (Blanched in hot boiling water, drained and rubbed with oil.)
2 oz. Shiitake or button mushrooms (I used about 6  small size button mushrooms)1/2 bunch spring onions- separately chopped the green and white parts

1 green capsicum finely sliced

1 medium sized carrot finely julienned.

Noodles  

4 packets dry Chinese egg noodles (Blanched in hot boiling water, drained and rubbed with oil.)

For Garnish 1 tsp. Toasted sesame oil

3 Tbs. Cooking oil

Procedure :

1. Heat 3 tbsp of oil to smoking hot in a wok/kadhai. The flame should always be on high heat

2. Add the chopped ginger, garlic and julienned red chili. Stir for 10-20 secs. Take care not to burn.

3. Add the chopped white part of spring onion followed by Carrots. Stir fry for a minute in high flame

4. Add the mushrooms, capsicum and other vegetables.

5. Now add the blanched noodles, stir it around. Add salt and crushed pepper

6. After mixing the noodles and vegetables, add the oyster sauce mixed with stock/water. Keeping the heat high, toss the noodles around the wok to allow it to soak in the sauce.

7. Transfer into a serving bowl nad garnish with toasted sesame oil.

Serve Vegetable Chowmein with Chili Chicken

Chicken Ghee Roast in Chettinad Masala

I like my cooking simple and low on spices. Because I am a reluctant cook but a food lover, I like making things which are easy and quick to make but good to taste.. 

Chettinad Chicken is something I have avoided making in the fear of the excessive spice usage and high heat content.

However, my browsing the net, I came across this video of Chicken Ghee Roast in Chettinad Masala and found it simple and easy and the video of the dry roasting of the masalas triggered my olfactory senses and I almost hallucinated the wafting aroma of roasted Indian spices..incidentally a full bird had been bought and was ready for marination. So without much ado, I followed the recipe to the T (except the chili quantity part) and ended up making delicious, flavourful Chicken Ghee Roast for Sunday lunch.

Ingredients: 
Step 1 - 1 kg chicken
- juice of 1 lemon
- half bowl of yogurt
- ½ tsp of turmeric powder

Step 2 - 10-15 dry red chillies (I used 8 dry red chilies and deseeded them to reduce/minimise the heat factor)
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 7-8 cloves of garlic
- tamarind water 

Step 3 - ¼th cup of Ghee (I used 2- 2 1/2 tbsp of Ghee)
-Salt
- 1 tsp jaggery
- Curry leaves
Procedure :

- Marinate chicken with lemon juice, yogurt mix it well then add turmeric powder and keep aside for an hour. (I kept overnight)
- In a thick bottom pan, roast the spices – dry red chillies, black pepper, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cloves,fenugreek seeds and mix it well and switch off the flame and let it cool down.
- Grind the roasted spices and while grinding also add cloves of garlic and tamarind water.
- In a pan add ghee and place the marinated chicken and let it cook up to 70%. Keep aside.
- Add the remaining yogurt mix in the pan and mix it well in the ghee on medium heat and keep it aside in a bowl.
- In the same pan add the ground masala and let it cook on low flame and add ghee 1/2 tsp of ghee to it 
-Add the ghee fried yogurt mix, salt, jaggery and add the cooked chicken. keep coating the chicken with masala on medium to high heat.
-Cover anf Keep on low flame for 5-10 minutes
- Add some curry leaves and the Chicken Ghee Roast is ready to be served!

  

Mouri Murgh with Peas Pulao

Chicken with Fennel ...served with Peas Pulao

A friend had pointed out that my blog hardly has any typically "Bangali Murgi'r Jhol"!! And upon going  through my posts, I realised how right she was!!

So today I was all set to make the typical "Bangali Murgi'r Jhol"...but the "Murgi" had other plans! 

And while making the chicken curry, my whims predominated and what resulted was a mild fennel flavoured chicken curry...an impromptu experiment with a happy ending!

And realising that there is barely any rice based item in this blog, I thought of jotting down the recipe of Peas Pulao...the lightest, easiest and quickest of all Pulaos.

Mouri Murgh

Ingredients :

Chicken - 1 kg

Finely chopped medium sized onions - 2

Finely chopped tomatoes - 2

Potatoes cubed - 4

Garlic paste - 2 tbsp 

Ginger paste - 2 tbsp

Tej Pata - 1

Whole garam masala - 2-3 nos. of 1"sticks of Cinnamon, 2-3 green elaichi, 2-3 black elaichi, 4-6 cloves

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

Turmeric / Haldi / Holud - 1 & 1/2 tsp

Dry roasted (on hot tawa) & ground Mouri / fennel seeds - 3-4 tbsp

Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp

Kashmiri Mirch - 1/2 - 1 tsp

Green chili - as many as you want 

Chopped Coriander leaves/Dhonepaata

Salt to taste

Oil

Procedure :

1. Marinate (at least for a few hours) the washed & cut chicken with 1 tbsp each of Ginger & Garlic paste, salt and 1/2 tsp of Turmeric/Haldi/Holud powder.

2. In a kadai, heat oil and saute the cubed, washed and Haldi-Salt smeared potatoes till they turn golden. Keep aside.

3. In the same kadai, add another tablespoon of oil (I used mustard oil). Drop in the Tej Pata, whole garam masalas, fennel seeds 

4. Stirring the above for a few seconds, add garlic paste, chopped onions followed by a pinch of sugar for caramelising and adding colour. Fry on medium - high heat till the onions get a brownish colour.

5. Add the ginger paste followed by chopped tomatoes. Turn up the heat and fry till the colour turns brown and the tomato-onion turns into a well fried mush.

6. Mix  Turmeric-jeera powder-kashmiri mirch powder-2 tsp of roasted-ground mouri/fennel seeds-salt with a few drops of water...make a paste and add to the kadai. Cook the masala well.

7. Add the marinated chicken and stir around till all the pieces are well coated in masala. Do this on high heat. Once the chicken is well coated with the masala, keep turning around...koshano / bhunoing (frying on high heat). While at it, add the rest of the roasted-ground mouri/fennel seeds and continue frying (koshano / bhunoing).  Add the cubed and sauted potatoes

8. If time permits, continue cooking in the kadai till the chicken is tender. And you may need to sprinkle water now and then to prevent burning. But like me, if you are running short of time, transfer to a pressure cooker. Add a mug of water. 2 whistles are adequate. Once cooled, and the lid comes off, transfer to the serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves / dhonepata.

Serve with roti / rice / Pulao. 

Peas Pulao

Ingredients :

Basmati - 3 cups

Peas (preferably fresh ones) - 4-5 cups

Cashew / kaju - a handful, slit lengthwise 

Ginger paste - 1 tbsp

Tej Pata - 1
Whole Jeera - 1 tsp

Whole garam masala - 2-3 nos. of 1"sticks of Cinnamon, 2-3 green elaichi, 2-3 black elaichi, 4-6 cloves

Jaiphal / Javitri powdered - 1/2 tsp

Sugar 

salt

Ghee - 1 - 2 tbsp
1/2 slice lemon

Procedure :

1.Wash the rice, dry it if possible, on a newspaper in the sun.

2. Heat Ghee in a kadai. Add whole garam masala, tej pata, whole jeera, ginger paste. Fry for a few seconds.

3. Add the washed and (preferably dried) basmati rice followed by the sugar, salt, Jaiphal or Javitri powder. Mix well on medium flame.

4. Add the peas. Again give everything in the kadai a stir to mix. 

5. Transfer to a rice cooker. Add 5.5 cups (same cup as used to measure the rice) of water. Squeeze half a piece of lemon (learnt from some blog on the net sometime back and follow it religiously for all pulaos and as promised the result is amazing...the cooked rice DO NOT stick)

 The Peas Pulao is ready!!!

A bowl of Soup to calm a cold-cough-fever ridden cranky toddler

Chicken with Veggies & Egg Soup

A cranky toddler down with cold-cough-fever, holed up indoors for 4 long days....just needed to be perked up with something she loved....SOUP! So a bowlful of hearty wholesome soup it was.....

I did not have chicken stock...I more often than not, dont. But that hardly matters.....There's always an alternative and a pressure cooker....

So here it is...any vegetable can be used. I used the ones I had....

Ingredients
2 boneless chicken leg pieces or 1 large chicken breast - chopped into small pieces

1 Carrot cut into tiny cubes

3-4 french beans chopped into tiny pieces

A handful of corn kernels (I used frozen)

A handful of fresh peas 

1/2 Capiscum chopped 

Chopped onions - 1

5-6 cloves of garlic-sliced

fresh ginger - 1/2 inch - cut into thin strips

pepper corns-freshly crushed : 4-5
Black Pepper powder
Tej Pata - 1 or 2
Salt to taste
Butter - 1 tbsp
Sesame Oil - 1 tbsp
Eggs - 2

Got the idea to add the beaten eggs to the soup and to use sesame Oil , from Soma's Egg Drop Soup. 

Procedure :
1. In a large pressure cooker, heat butter. Add the Tej Pata, sliced ginger & garlic, crushed pepper corns and finally the chopped onions. Stir till the onions turns translucent.
2. Add the bit sized chicken pieces. Stir around on high heat till slightly browned. Add the fresh peas
3. Add 2 mugs full of water. And pressure cook till 2 whistles go off. If you have chicken stock, add only 1/2 mug of water and pressure cook the chicken and them add the chicken stock and again bring to a boil.
4. While the pressure cooking is on, heat a tawa without oil and dry roast the chopped capsicum. Dont overcook..just to remove the moistness/rawness of capsicum and to give it a smoky flavour.
5.After release of the pressure, take off the lid of the cooker, raise the heat and again bring to boil. When boiling, add all vegetables except capsicum/bell pepper and boil for a minute or less. The vegetables should retain their crunch and not turn soggy. Add the dry roasted capsicum.
6.Adjust the salt and pepper. Add a drizzle of sesame oil into the boiling soup.
7. Beat 2 eggs. Lower the heat and add the beaten eggs slowly in a thin stream while stirring (with a fork) the simmering soup in one direction as described in Soma's Egg Drop Soup. My egg ribbons/strands were not as fine and delicate as hers ..but tasted smooth and silky!

Serve Hot!!!
To see the kiddo's eyes light up with joy as she slurped the steaming bowl of soup was an immense relief after a long day of seeing her being ill and moody!

Chicken garnished with Sesame-seed-speckled Capsicum

Surprise in the fridge!
The weekend was near and the fridge almost empty. And I had resigned myself to a dinner of dal, cabbage and rice. Even the stock of eggs was dwindling to one....quite a sad affair indeed! (Yes! I am a shamelessly unrepentant carnivore!!)
Just as I was about to close the freezer door shut after having opened it out of sheer habit, saw a little flash of red lid peeping from behind the big packets of frozen peas and sweet kernels. The mood perked up and a quick shuffle and it was a red lidded box of marinated chicken breasts which I had completely forgotten about. I had marinated the meat in my perennial marination of lemon-salt-pepper-ginger-garlic and there it was sitting pretty in the freezer waiting to be discovered!

Ingredients

Chicken breasts - 500 gms
Lemon juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons
Ginger-garlic paste - 1tbsp
Bay leaf - 1
Sliced Garlic cloves - 4-5 cloves
salt
pepper
diced onions -1
diced capsicum
Worcestershire  sauce - 1.5-2 tbspn
White sesame seed (added as an afterthought!)
Potatoes diced - 1 large (optional...I'd added to add volume)
Olive Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure

1. Marinate the chicken breasts in lemon juice + salt + pepper + ginger-garlic paste for a couple of hours. Though I had marinated or rather marinated and forgotten about it for more than 3 days.;)
2. Heat  oil in a wok. Temper with the Bay leaf.
3. Add the potatoes.
4. Add the diced onions and sprinkle some sugar on it for colour. Fry on high heat and keep stirring
5. Throw in the chopped garlic.keep stirring
6. Add the marinated chicken after cutting them into small pieces. Cook on high heat.Since it was in the marination for so long, the meat is very tender and takes very less time to cook.
7. Add some pepper powder, followed by Worcestershire  sauce. Toss around and keep stir frying.

8. Just as I was about to add the diced capsicum, an idead struck and I took out my tawa, put it on flame, threw the capsicum and tossed them around to dry roast. As a final touch of brainwave, threw in a tablespoon or two of white sesame seeds into the tawa and roasted till they were crisp and pale golden.

9. Now garnish the chicken with the dry roasted capsicum and white sesame seeds.

10. Finally throw in some green chilies and garnish with coriander leaves.

Roast Chicken on a bed of vegetables.....served with butter rice

The success and satisfaction of a job well done, egged me onto to try out a simpler chicken roast unencumbered by a deluge of ingredients and sauces. While at it, habit led me to google and amongst the various Chicken roast recipes, it was this recipe  which appealed to me due to its simplicity and ready availability of all ingredients....of course slight changes, modifications were made here and there.

So here goes my version...

Ingredients :

Whole chicken with skin on - 1.4 kg

Rock Salt

Pepper

Chili flakes

Lemon juice - of 2 medium sized lemons

Dried oregano 

A mix of dried thyme-basil-rosemary-parsley 

Lemon - 1 whole 

Vegetables - lots of roughly diced vegetables. I used carrot beans, baby corns, potatoes

Mushrooms  - about 12 button mushrooms

Garlic cloves - 10-12

Coriander leaves - a handful of chopped coriander

Butter - about 40 gms.

Procedure

1. Mix lemon juice + rock salt +pepper+chili flakes + dried oregano+herb mix and rub the it all into every possible surface of the chicken and also inside the cavity.

2. An hour's marination is adequate but the longer the marination the better. I marinated it for 24 hours, unplanned and unintentionally.

3. While dicing the vegetables and mushrooms, switch on the oven (I used OTG) for preheating, at 250 deg C.

4.Spray/smear the baking tray with butter/olive oil

5. Arrange the diced vegetables on the tray. Sprinkle salt and pepper and drizzle/brush on some butter/olive oil on the vegetables.

6. Smear semi melted butter all over the chicken and also inside its cavity.

7. Take a lemon, prick it all over. Microwave it for 15-20 seconds and then push it into the chicken cavity along with some chopped coriander and garlic cloves.

8. Place the chicken on the vegetable bed. 

9. I used 'BAKE MODE' of the OTG for 50 minutes first.

10. Place the chicken on vegetables into the oven. After 10-15 minutes (till the chicken has a crispy golden coating), reduce the temperature to 200 deg C.

11. After lapse of 45-50 minutes, turn the chicken around. Baste the chicken and toss the vegetables around. Sprinkle some water if they are darkening/burning

12. After turning the chicken around, cook at 200 deg C for another 40-50 minutes....making it a total of 90-100 minutes cooking time..

13. Take it out of the kitchen. Keep it completely covered for about 10 minutes (I covered with my large wok upside down)

While the chicken was cooking and the aroma of melted butter wafted from the kitchen, my olfactories started working overtime, and suddenly I felt  a craving for rice.....took out some cooked rice leftover from the lunch and in a wok, melted a tbsp of butter, threw in a bay leaf, peppercorns, pinch of sugar & salt. Added the plain white rice, tossed it around to coat the butter-salt-sugar-pepper mix uniformly and hey presto! a heavenly butter rice to go with the chicken and vegetables, was ready!

This post is off to Sudeshna's Blog (COOK LIKE A BONG) ' s CHRISTMAS EVENT

Pan(fried) Pseudo Pizza!!

It looks like a small sized pan pizza. Tastes quite like one....well, almost! But the difference doesnt make it any less tasty! Inspired by Indira Mukherjee, I have adapted to make it simpler and faster. This recipe suits me fine on the "Onno kichhu khaabo" (Something different from regular stuff!!) days.

Here goes the recipe :


Ingredients : yielded 4 nos. 1/2" thick 6" dia pseudo pizzas
All purpose Flour (Maida) & Milk in 1:1 ratio
Egg - 1 for 1 cup Maida:1cup milk (200ml cup)
Any Grated / finely chopped vegetables like carrot, bean, cabbage, capsicum, cauliflower/broccoli florets, babycorn etc
Garlic - 3-4 cloves - chopped
Salt
pepper
Chili flakes
Oregano & dried herbs-I used FabIndia's Chili-Oregano & Italian seasoning
Grated Mozzarella cheese - 1 bowl (200ml)
For topping -Boiled corn kernel /Chicken sausages/nuggets/mushroom/paneer cubes/soya chunks etc etc
Diced Onions - 1 medium

Procedure :

1. Mix Milk and Maida and add the egg, Salt & pepper Mix well with a hand blender. The batter is thick but of pouring consistency.

2. Add the chopped garlic and all the grated/chopped vegetables.

3. Keep the topping ready (the choice is yours...I used paneer cubes+diced onions on one occasion and chicken sausages+corn kernels+diced onions on another) stir fried or sauted.

4. A small pancake frying pan makes the base preparation a cake walk. Pour a ladle full of veggie mixed batter and spread it to cover the whole pan. Pour some more to increase the thickness of the base. Cook on minimum heat. While frying the base on gas stove top, keep the oven ready for next step by preheating oven (I used my OTG) at around 225-250 deg C.

5. Flip the pancake pizza or pseudo pizza base and let the other side cook.

6. Now on a flat ovenproof plate, place the (Pseudo) pizza base, arrange the toppings and sprinkle desired quantity of grated mozzarella. Sprinkle the italian seasoning and dried oregano and other herbs of choice.

 7.Place it in the preheated oven on Grill mode at 225-250 deg C for around 5-7 minutes or till the cheese melts and gets a golden colour!

Ready to serve!!