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!!!

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

Mixed Fried Rice

A simple, easy to make, yet versatile fried rice...ideal for fussy kids on a weeknight or for their lunch box.
And yes, we adults also wouldnt mind having this 'fast to cook; great to eat' main course!!

Any vegetable, meat, sausages, eggs, prawns may be used...it's just a simple stir fry followed by mixing with rice. Here's what I used....

Ingredients:
1. Onion -1 finely chopped
2. 2-3 garlic pods sliced/chopped
3. Capsicum - 1
4. Button Mushrooms- 1 pkt containg 10-12, sliced
5. sweet corn kernels - a handful
6. peas - a handful
7. brocolli - small
8. I had some left over roast chicken - roughly sliced/shredded. Any kind of meat/sausage would be great.
9. Rice - 2 cups
10. Butter/Oil
12. Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom & Bayleaf
13. Salt & Sugar to taste
14. Pepper  corns & ground  pepper

Procedure:
1. Make steamed rice and spread it under the fan to dry. A better option would be to use rice cooked the previous night. (The latter is ideal for me when I make the fr. rice to pack for lunch)
2. Dry roast the sliced mushrooms in a wok to dry up the water.
3. In a wok, heat 2 tbsp butter.
4. Add bay leaf, crushed peppercorns, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom & Bayleaf and a pinch of sugar.
5. Add the chopped garlic & onions. Fry till golden  brown
6. Add the broccoli, followed by capsicum, dry roasted mushroom, boiled/thawed corn kernels & peas. Stir fry on high heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.
7. Add the shredded chicken followed by cooked rice. Sprinkle black pepper powder. Mix well.

The mixed fried rice is ready to eat......

Fried Jumbo Prawns in roasted tomato-cheese-garlic sauce, with Cinnamon Rice

My 'fishwallah' got me Jumbo Prawns (around 11 prawns weighing 2 kgs) one weekday morning. I was ecstatic but the joy and anticipation had to be shelved till weekend arrived.
Bored of the usual 'Malaikaris' (Prawns in Coconut milk) and 'Bhaape chingris' (Prawns steamed in mustard sauce), wanted to try out something new. And hence this experimentation.....

But a warning....it was a high on calories dish. Used Oodles of butter and also cream and cheese.

Ingredients : what I used ...

A.For the fried Prawns                                         1. Jumbo Prawns - 2 kgs (11-12 prawns)

2. Lemon juice of 2 small lemons
3. Salt
4. Pepper
5. Chilli flakes
6. Butter for frying

B. For the sauce
1. Tomatoes - 3 large sized
2. Onion -1 large
3. Grated Cheese - I used 2 cubes of processed cheddar
4.Garlic cloves - 5-6
5. Cream or full cream milk - 1 cup
6. Salt
7. Pepper
8. Basil leaves
9. Chilli flakes
10. Butter

C. For the cinnamon rice

1. Normal Sonamasuri rice we eat....basmati will add to the taste - 2 cups
2. Butter - 50 gms
3. Bay Leaf - 1 or 2
4. Cinnamon sticks - 5-6 long ones broken into smaller pieces
5. Nutmeg powder - a pinch
6. Sugar - a pinch
7. Salt to taste

Procedure : in the sequence i made.

Prawn Marination

1. The prawns were washed, cleaned and deveined the previous night
2. Marinate the prawns in lemon juice, salt, pepper and chilli flakes for 1/2 hour.

Making the Sauce :

3. I roasted the tomatoes over gas flame after slitting them at the top . Roasting/Grilling over charcoal will obviously add to the flavours.

4. In a wok, took a teaspoonful of butter, added chopped onions and the roasted tomatoes chopped and a pinch of sugar for caramelising. When the onion & tomatoes were nicely browned, took them off the wok, cooled and made a paste.
5. Then in a wok, again took a teaspoon of butter, added the onion-tomato paste, chopped garlic and mixed well

6. On low flame, added milk while stirring, followed by chopped basil leaves, followed by grated cheese.

7. To increase the tartness of the sauce, the lemon juice the prawns were marinated in , may also be added at this point

8. Finish off by adjusted the salt and sugar and a generous sprinkling of freshly crushed black pepper and chili flakes.
The sauce is ready.

Cinnamon Rice (I made it in Rice Cooker but can be made in the microwave too)
9. In a wok, take 2 tbsp of butter and when hot, add the bay leaf, broken cinnamon stick and a pinch of sugar

10. Add the previously washed and drained rice. Fry on high heat.

11. Add a pinch of nutmeg powder, followed by salt


12. Transfer to rice cooker. Add 4 cups of water (for 2 cups of rice). Add a tsp of lemon juice and set in on for cooking. For microwave, the ratio of rice:water should be slightly less than 1:2 i.e for 2 cups of water 3 1/2 cups of water.

The Star of the show : PRAWNS

13. Fry the lemon-salt-pepper-chilli flakes marinated prawns in butter.

Sit down for a divinely tasting, immensely high calories lunch!!