Honey Glazed Chicken

Honey Glazed Chicken

Serves 3 persons as a starter.

Ingredients:

• Chicken brest : 500gm (lean boneless cut)
• Honey (1/3 cup)
• Soya sauce (1/4 cup)
• Lemon (3 big ones) : crushed into juice
• Seasme seeds (til) : 3 spoonful
• Seasme oil (2 tsp)
• Red chili : 1 piece cut into stripes crushed
• black pepper : 4/5 seeds

Procedure:

• Mix the lemon juice, 1 tbsp of soya sauce and salt. Marinade the chicken well with this mixture for 4-5 hours (or better, overnight in the fridge).
• Defrost the marinaded chicken, bake in microwave at high temp for 5 minutes. Thus the chicken is half-cooked.
• Meanwhile make a mixture of the rest of soya sauce, honey, crushed pepper.
• Heat oil (seasme oil, but I couldn't managed it so used ghee or clarified butter). Roast the red chili stripes and seasme seeds until the seed start getting brown.
• Immediately pour the mixture into the pan and simmer for 2-3 minutes so that it starts thickening.
• Now add the baked chicken into the pan, and cook at low flame for few minutes. Keep checking and turn off the oven just when the gravy is thick enough. This will becom a sticky layer when cooled. Transfer into plate while hot.

Note : Do not cook the chicken for too long. This often renders it dry from inside. Better reduce the gravy by simmering, and after that add the chicken and quickly finish in 4-5 minutes.

Matar Paneer

Here goes one of my favorite vegetarian dishes. The quantity serves 4 persons.

Ingredients:

• Cottage cheese (Paneer) : 500 gm
• Green Peas : 250 gm
• Onion: 2 large ones
• Tomatoes: 2 large ones, or 1/2 cup puree
• Oil : Sunflower or other white oil for cooking
• Salt and sugar
• Cumin seeds : 2 spoonful
• Curd : 3 tbsp
• Green chili
• Ginger and garlic : as per taste, or ginger-garlic paste (2 tsp)
• Spice : turmeric, cumin powder, red-chili and coriander powder
• Bay leaves : 2 leaves
• Cardamon (2 pieces), Cloves (3) and Cinnamon stich (two 2" ones)
  

Method:

1. Cut the cottage cheese into 2-inches cubes, remove excess moisture using papers, and apply with a powder made of salt, turmeric powder and little red-chili powder. Keep for marinade.
2. Boil the peas with little salt and sugar added to the water until they become tender. Discard the water.
3. Heat 3-4 spoonful of oil in a non-stick pan. When it stars smoking add bay-leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves and cardamoms, then the cumin seeds. They will start sputtering. Soon after that add the coarsely chopped onions. Keep stirring until the onions get transparent ans golden brown at the edges. Take out the content (discard bay-leafs) and keep aside.
4. Now add heat more oil in the non-stick pan and fry the paneer cubes, until they get little crispy brown at the surfaces. Keep them aside.
5. Blend the fried onions (that also contains cardamom, cinnamon, cloves) with chopped green chilies and 2 scoops of curd, coriander and red-chili powder, little salt, half of the cilantro leaves. Make a fine paste out of these contents.
6. Heat little oil at high flame, add little more cumin seeds and ginger-garlic paste (or finely chopped ginger and garlic). Keep stirring continuously. Add the chopped tomatoes (or 4-5 spoonful of tomato puree) and stir the mixture for a minute. Then add the boiled peas and saute for few minutes.
7. Next add the onion paste paste made previously, and cook for 5 minutes. Finally add the paneer cubes and rest of cilantro leaves and mix well, cover with a lid and cook at low flame covered with a lid for 5-10 minutes.
8. Serve hot, garnished with fresh cilantro leaves.

Mango Halwaa

Mango Halwaa

(Sweet Mango Dessert)

Ingredients:

• Ripe mangoes : 2 big sized ones.
• Khoya (dried whole-milk) : 500gm - loosely crumbled.
• Dry fruits : Cashew, almonds and raisins.
• Aam papad (dried mango sheets/solid) - this is also known as 'aam-satva' in Bengal. Cut into small 1" cubes.

• Whole Cardamom - 5/6 pieces, crushed.
• Bay leaves - 1 or 2 pieces.
• Ghee or butter - 4tbsp.
• Sweetened Condensed Milk (Milkmaid) - 3-4 tbsp, mostly for garnishing (Optional)
  

Procedure:

• Peel off the mangoes, separate out half the quantity of mangoes, consisting of only solid pulp (which will be cut into small cubes), the rest half consisting the leftover pulp and the juice, is transferred into a mixer and blend with 3-4 cashew nuts and 2tbsp sugar into smooth paste. Now cut the separated pulps into small 1" cubes. Again from this, take out a handful of them for external garnishing at end.
• Cut or break the cashew nuts and almonds (take cashew nuts 3 parts and almond 1 part) into halves lengthwise. Heat butter/ghee in a pan. Saute them (I learned almonds shouldn't be roasted, so only cashews) and take out carefully before they start browning.
• In the same pan heat ghee/butter again to high flame. When it starts smoking, add the bay leaf and crushed cardamoms and keep stirring. Soon after that add the mango puree (bended paste), and simmer for few minutes in low flame.
• Them add the crumbled khoya gradually and keep stirring so to mix it into the hot mango mixture. Stir for few more minutes until the khoya mixes uniformly with mango paste.
• Spare some roasted cashew-nuts and raisins for final garnishing (we have already saved some mango cubes from the pulps). Now reduce the flame to minimum and add the mango pulp cubes, aam-papad cubes, almonds, raisins and roasted cashew-nuts. Keep stirring for another one or two minutes before turning off the oven.
• When it cools down, transfer to serving tray / plate, garnish with few cubes of mango, raisins and roasted cashew-nuts. Optionally you might also spread a spoonful of condensed milk to give it a nice look. Mango halwaa is ready !!
  

Pineapple Chicken

Pineapple Chicken

Ingredients :

• Chicken - 500gm - preferably breast pieces.
• Pineapple - 1 whole one, peeled off.
• Mustard - black mustard - 4 tbsp.
• Soy sauce (black) - 1tbsp.
• Ginger garlic paste - 1tbsp.
• Green chili - 2 finely chopped.
• Spices - cumin seeds (1tsp), turmeric (3tsp), red-chilli powder (1tsp).
• Butter / ghee / cooking oil - 2tbsp.
  

Procedure:

• Wash chicken pieces and brush with only salt and turmeric.
• Cut the pineapple into small cubes. Take out one or two this circular discs (along width of the pineapple) for garnishing. Cut the rest into small pieces. Again divide that into two halves.
• Make a paste for marinade as well as gravy. Take half the chopped pineapple pieces, mustard, soy sauce (1tbsp), salt and turmeric powder and 1 pinch of red-chili powder. Blend well in a mixer into a smooth paste. Mix the chicken into this and marinade for at least one hour.
• Heat oil/ghee in a pan. When about to smoke add two cinnamon sticks, cumin seeds, ginger-garlic paste, chopped green chilies. Stir few minutes. Add the chicken with the gravy/marinade onto the pan. Stir for few minutes. Add the rest of the chopped pineapples, cover the pan with a lid, and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes at low flame.
• Transfer into serving bowl, garnish with the pineapple slices. Serve with breads. The quantity serves for two.

Chicken Stew

Chicken Stew

Chicken Stew

This is probably the easiest and lightest chicken recipe I know of, which is healthy too as it contains lots of vegetables. Specially, if you are conscious about your health, this would be ideal. You might choose lean meat for this. The whole procedure is quite simple and takes very little effort to make it.

Ingredients :

Main:

• Chicken - 500gm - preferably breast pieces.
• Onion - 1 big piece or 2 medium sized - finely chopped.
• Carrot - 2/3 ones - chopped into around 1" cubes.
• Potatoes - 2 medium sized ones - cut into 8 pieces each.
• Beans - 10 sticks - cut into 1" wide pieces.
• Tomatoes - 2 pieces - cut into 4 pieces each.
  

For cooking :

• Butter / ghee / cooking oil - 2tbsp.
• Cornflour - 2tbsp - to thicken the gravy.
  

Spices :

• Bay leaf - 2 leaves.
• Cloves - 3/4 pieces.
• Black pepper - 6/7 whole peppers crushed.
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1tbsp.
  

Procedure :

Wash chicken pieces and brush with only salt.

Heat ghee/oil in a pan (kadaai), when about to smoke add the bay-leaf, and the rest one by one in same order. Then add the chopped onions and stir to transparent.

Add all the vegetables from the main ingredients section, and saute for few minutes. Add chicken too and mix well with the vegetables. Transfer the whole content into pressure-cooker, and necessary water with the cornflower powder dissolved in it, and cook up to 1-whistle.

Serve hot with roti's or bread.

Laau Chingri

Laau Chingri / Jhinga Lauki ki Saabji
(Shrimp Bottle-gourd Curry)

Ingredients :

• Bottle-gourd (Laau or Lauki) - Half of one big sized.
• Shrimp - 500 gram (washed and peeled).
• Bori - 5-6 pieces (can avoid this if you don't have stock)
• Tomato - 1 big and fresh.
• Green chili - 1 or 2 pieces.
• Garlic (or ginger-garlic) paste - 1/2 spoonful.
• Spices : 1 bay leaf, Cinnamon Stick (two 1" pieces), whole Cumin seeds (1-tsp).
• Dry Spice powders - Cumin and Turmewric powders. Red-chhili (optional, not recommended).
• Salt and Sugar - to taste.
• White cooking oil (sunflower or groundnut oil).

Pre-Process :

• Wash the shrimp, drain off dry, and marinade with salt and little turmeric powder for at least half an hour.
• Cut the bottle-gourd into small stripes.
• Cut the tomato vertically into 8 pieces, and the chili into 3-4 slits.

Method :

• Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Fry the bodi's and take out aside.
• Add the bay leaf, cinnamon sticks and cumin seeds. When it is about to sputter, add the tomatoes and green-chilies. Saute for 3-4 minutes.
• Add garlic (or ginger-garlic) paste, powdered spices. Then add the shrimps and keep stirring carefully. Add little salt. Cook for 4-5 minutes.
• Add the bottle-gourd and sprinkle some sugar (sugar also makes the bottle-gourd tender quickly), and mix well with the rest of the stuff. Stir for 1-2 minutes.
• Cover the lid well, and let it cook for 5-10 minutes. The bottle-gourd itself gives out a lot of water (if it is fresh), so no need to add water.
• Add little more salt if required. Adjust the quantity of gravy by allowing it to boil out after opening the lid.Just 1 or 2 minutes before finishing, crumble the fried boris and add mix them.
• Done !! Serve with white rice.
  

Note :

• Avoid turmeric powder for a nice light colour. Except only 1-tsp in marinading the shrimps, do not use turmeric in cooking.
• Do not add water if the bottle-gourd is fresh. It gives out a lot of water when cooked under lid.
  

Keema Matar Curry

Keema Matar Curry
(curry of minced-meat and green-peas)

Ingredients :

• Chicken Keema (Minced meat) - 250gm.
• Green Peas - 1/2 cup.
• Tomatoes - 2 red and fresh ones.
• Onions - 2 medium sized.
• Green chilies - 1 piece. Chopped into small pieces.
• Spices - Cinnamon (2 tiny 1" pieces), 1 bay leaf, Cardamom (2 pieces, torn into pieces), Cloves (optional, 2 pieces).
• Spice powder - Tumeric (2 tsp), Red-chilli (1/2 tsp), Coriander (1 tsp), Cumin (1 tsp).
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 spoonful.
• Oil or Ghee - 3 spoonful.
• Curd - 1 spoonful (optional)
• Lemon - 1 piece, 1 tsp need in cooking and rest can be used in garnishing.
• Salt - to taste

Pre-process :

• Cut the tomatoes into pieces and grind into a smooth paste. Cut out the half of one in form of flower for garnishing. Tomato-puree can also be used.
• Soak the green-peas in water, and boil in pressure-cooker or microwave (in max power) for few minutes so that they become tender.
• Cut the onion into small pieces. Leave one or two rings for garnishing.
• Mix salt, turmeric, 1-tsp lemon juice and curd (optional) into the minced meat. Microwave at high power for few minutes so that it becomes half-cooked. Take out once or twice in between and mix uniformly.

Method :

• Heat ghee (or oil) in a non-stick pan. As it is about to smoke, add the first set of spices : the bay-leaf, then cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. As soon as these starts cracking (don't burn to black), add the onion pieces, ginger-garlic paste and salt. Stirr casually in medium heat of about 5-10 minutes until the onions become light brown.
• Add the green-chilies and tomato paste. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the oil separates from the mixture. Do this in low heat, stirring continuously.
• Add the second set of spices - turmeric, red-chili, coriander and cumin powder. Mix it into the mixture.
• Add the half-cooked meat and stir for another few minutes.

• Add the green-peas and little water. Add some more salt if needed (taste at this point to check). Cover with a lid and cook in low heat for about 10 minutes. Stop when the water is almost dried out.
• Garnish with cut tomato, lemon and onion rings. Serve with rotis or paranthaas.

About this Blog

When I saw the movie Ratatouille for the first time, it didn't strike to me any more than other Disney/Pixar's funny animation movies. After one year I happened to see the movie again, and this time I really loved it.


Chef Gusteau's motto, that "Anyone can cook", is the key theory of the story. Even more beautiful is the final realization of the critic Mr. Ego in the movie, about Gusteau's quote. "Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere". So much true ! Cooking is an art indeed. And not any randomly picked person can be made to cook, but if you want to get your hands in some of the most delicious dishes, you don't really need a background. All you need is a craze for food and a sense of taste. You just got to be a foodie !!

I have tried to present some simplified illustration of some grand dishes. These are mostly of traditional Indian genre, and some are authentic Bengali dishes. This blog also serves as my own documentation as and when I make them, for my own future reference. Try one of these and give your feedback.

aViK

Pineapple Chutney

Pineapple Chutney (Anaras 'er Chutney)

(sweet pineapple dessert)

Ingredients:

• Pineapple : one whole, sliced horizontally or vertically into thick pieces.
• Raisins - about half of one handful (preferably dark raisins).
• Spices : 1 bay leaf, cumin and black mustard seeds - 1tsp each.
• Turmeric powder and red-chili powder - one small pinch each.
• Sugar - 1 small cup.
• Cornflower powder - 2tsp.
• Salt to taste.

Method:

• Take each big slice of pineapple, remove any hard black parts from the outer surface by making V-cuts using a sharp knife. Then cut it into vary small pieces, almost like hand-grating. Try to preserve the juice with the pieces and don't wash them.
• Spare one piece, and cut out 2/3 thin circular flower-shaped discs (entire cross-section of the pineapple). Add these later for garnishing.
• Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the pineapple pieces.

• Heat oil in a pan. When it is about to make smoke, add the bay leaf. Then reduce the flame (else the seeds burst violently) and add the cumin and mustard seeds. Almost immediately add the pineapple pieces, except the pieces for garnishing. Add one pinch of turmeric powder and even less red-chili powder. Saute for few minutes.
• This will itself give out some water/juice gradually, if not add little water. Sprinkle the sugar and one more pinch of salt and keep stirring. It is always safe to add salt and sugar gradually in small quantities, and taste the stuff occasionally.
• Add the raisins
• Take one cup water, dissolve 2tsp (or less) of white cornflower powder. Add the mixture into the pan. This thickens the gravy. Adjust the quantities of water and the thickness of the gravy by adding more water or let it boil out.
• Cook for about 5 to 10 minutes. When the cooking is almost done, add the thin pineapple slices for garnishing, let those soak well in the gravy. Turn gently so that they are not torn.
• Transfer the whole into wide bowls or plates, take care to place the garnishing slices on the top.
  

Note:
[1] You might discard the hard central core of each pineapple slices, by making a whole with a sharp knife.
[2] Before cooking you might microwave the freshly-cut pineapple pieces at medium power for about 5 minutes. This makes the pieces tender and takes less time in cooking.

Grean Peas Kachori (Puree)

Green Peas Kachori / Peas Puree

For green peas stuffing :

Green peas - 1 bowl
1 or 2 green chilies (according to how spicy you want)
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds (Zeera) - 1tsp
A handful of coriander leaves
Salt to taste

For the puree / kachori :

Refined white flour (Maida) - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Cooking butter / cooking oil ghee - 3 tbsp
Black cumin seeds (Kalonji) - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Pre Process :

Soak the peas in water for few hours (preferably 2-3 hours). In my case I boiled them in a pressure-cooker for 2 minutes since I was using packaged freeze- peas and boiling helped to wash away the green color. No need to boil for fresh peas.

Method (peas stuffing) :

Take all ingredients except cumin seeds in a mixer. Blend to make a smooth paste. Make sure each pea is crushed otherwise they could cause the flattened dough to be torn at places at the time the dough is rolled flat.

Heat little oil in a non-stick wok/kadaai and when it is about to fume, add the cumin seeds. Minimize the flame, transfer the peas paste and cook for 5 minutes, with stirring continuously so that it does not stick to wok surface. It's better to use a non-stick wok since the paste gets very sticky. Take out the cooked stuff into a clean bowl. The peas stuffing is ready.



Method (stuffed dough balls) :

All the 5 ingredients are needed to make a soft dough. Add the salt, black-cumin and soda to dry flour powder and mix. The add the butter/oil and mix well with your bare hand. Make sure the oil is distributed uniformly. Add water, mix, and make a soft dough. You might need to sprinkle flour powder intermittently to keep the dough from getting sticky.

Tear out a small chunk of dough (depending on the size of kachori you want), roll between your palms to make a sphere first, then spread it with your finger to give it the shape of a bowl. Put a spoonful of peas-stuffing in the middle and close the dough ball with your fingers. The dough balls are ready.

Method (kachori / puree) :

Take a board (belaan). and spread a spoonful of cooking oil over it. Take one dough ball. Carefully roll it flat into circular shape, the flour layer should not tear to uncover the peas-stuffing. Fry deep in enough sunflower-oil. You may fry a bit deeper to golden if you like. Place in tissue paper to absorb extra oil.

Serve hot with any of the following :

[*] Dum Aloo
[*] Chholaar Daal
[*] Chutney / Pickle
[*] simply Tomato ketchup/sauce.


Note : You might want to make stock for a week, follow up to making the dough balls with peas inside, place loosely in a air-tight container, and keep in refrigerator. As the balls tend to get wet and sticky its safe to separate multiple layers (if any) by a piece of clean and wet cloth. I made 12-15 dough balls at a time and that sufficed for 3 days.

Chicken Tandoori Microwave / No-Oil version

For marination :
Onion - 1 (cut into medium sized pieces)
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Green chilies - 2 pieces
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves or powder - 1 tsp
Curd - 2 spoonful
Lemon juice - 1 whole lemon squeezed

Method :

• Breast pieces of chicken are preferable for making Tandoori. I made this (in illustration) with two big pieces.
  

• Wash the pieces, apply salt and turmeric all over the surface. Keep for few minutes.

• Meanwhile blend all ingredients for marination to make a smooth paste.

• Make several deep cuts on the chicken pieces with a sharp knife along the length. Take care not to cut off portion from the piece completely. This will helps to wash off any remaining blood from inside and cook the inside part well. Wash again if any blood comes out.

• Apply the marinade paste all over the pieces. Use the knife to help it reach deep through the cuts. Marinade for 2 - 3 hours.

• Transfer the chicken into a Borosil-glass (microwave friendly) container, along with the paste. Cook in microwave (in m/w + grill combination mode, placing on the high tripod) for 15 minutes, so that the chicken is cooked well.

• Take out the container, and transfer the chicken pieces onto the grill-stand or pierce them with the rotisserie (iron stick). Discard the extra marinade/curry at this stage. Sprinkle edible red color. Preheat the microwave at maximum temperature and grill in microwave (convection mode) for 10 minutes, until the pieces get brown from the surfaces.

• Transfer onto plate and garnish with lemon slices, onion rings, and fresh coriander leaves.