Simple and quick Chicken curry

So you have little chicken left at home and really bored to make chapatis for dinner after work. All you want to is to relax and have a nice steamy dinner. But you are on your own to make one :). So I have an excellent recipe to just prepare a nice and quick chicken curry, tasty and spicy to pour over your steamy rice. While your rice is getting cooked, curry should  become ready, yeh I promise that. It won't take much of your time.
This recipe should be sufficient for 2 people.

We need a spice mix for this recipe and here is how to do it.

Ingredients for spice mix
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
2" cinnamon stick (just crack it with hands)
4 cloves

Method:
In a pan roast all above ingredients till they become fragrant and keep aside to cool down. Once at room temperature make a fine powder of them. Keep it aside.

Ingredients for curry:
200 gms of chicken (cut in bite size chunks)
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2 medium sized onion (Make a puree)
1 medium sized tomato (Make a puree)
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp red chilly powder
salt and pepper for taste.

Method:
In a thick bottom pan heat up oil and butter together. Now add-in giner-garlic paste, once fragrant add in fresh dry masala and saute for a while. Add in onion puree and saute till oil starts separating. Add in chicken pieces and saute them nicely. Make sure chicken pieces are well coated with masala and onion puree. Once chicken pieces are bit browned, add in tomato puree and saute for while. Add in red chilly powder, garam masala powder. Mix well, add about 1/2 cup of water. Bring to boil and then cover up with lid and simmer it on low flame for about 10-15 minutes or till chicken cooks through. You can add up more water if you thick gravy has gone thick. Add salt at end to make sure everything is balanced. Add some chopped coriander and pour it on your rice and have fun.

Paneer chilly / chicken chilly

Paneer chilly / Chicken chilly 

I just love garlic and ginger rich paneer chilly and chicken chilly. Especially in winter nights these 2 taste amazing. Here is how I prefer to make it. Recipe is almost same for both versions. I prefer not to fry paneer or chicken before preparation, as they soak less flavor after frying.

Ingredients:

200 gms panner (cubed) / 200 gms chikcen (boneless - stripes)

1 big capsicum ( green bell pepper) cut in thin stripes 

2-4 green chilies chopped in slit fashion. 

1 medium sized red onion (finely chopped)

4 bulbs of spring onions (halved)

1 tbsp soy sauve

1 tsp tomato sauce

1 tsp vinegar (white)

1 tsp chilly sauce

1/2 tsp white sugar

2 tsp ginger - garlic paste 

1 tsp all purpose flour / corn flour

salt and black pepper for taste

Prepare marinade:

This is pretty easy marinade to make. Mix together salt, pepper, paneer cubes/chicken stripes, 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp vinegar, 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste and little oil. Keep it aside for about hour or two.

Method:

Hit up oil in thick bottom pan, add in 1tsp ginger garlic paste and saute them till they become fragrant. On a high flame, add in capsicum stripes first , saute quickly and then add in chopped onion. Keep sauteing for a minute or two, be careful though as we are doing this on high flame, so things can get burnt very fast. Lower the flame and add in halved spring onion bulbs and green chillies saute them. Add in all sauces with sugar, mix well and then toss in paneer cubes/chicken stripes. Saute them make sure all paneer / chicken stripes are nicely coated. Saute for a minute or two. Add in small amount of water in pan and cook covered for a minute or 2. This will softens paneer a bit. If you are using chicken then make sure chicken is cooked through. Taste it and adjust parameters as per your wish. Play around to make this bit sweet, sour and hot. 

Paneer chilly dry

A imp note:

Please keep in mind that we have already added everything in marinade. Therefore while making gravy or preparing rest of the dish adjust ingredients accordingly. 

Few tips:

1. This version makes paneer/chicken chilly suitable as starter (known as paneer/chicken chilly dry)

2. You can prepare gravy by just adding more water and sauces. Use all purpose flour / corn flour to make gravy thick.

3. If you want even dryer version then get everything fried before preparation, then just mix all ingredients together on high flame. But this shall make recipe pretty much dry/less soft.

Lasagna

Lasagna 

I first came across lasagna from famous "Garfield" cartoon, "Garfield" loves lasagna and can eat 100's of them :). Well its nothing but layers of pasta and sauces stacked together. Here is how you can prepare your own lasagna. All the things you need for making your own 100% home made lasagna is available on my blog.

What you need:
Lasagna sauce/Red sauce
Bechamel sauce / White sauce
Lasagna sheets/pasta sheets
Grated Parmesan cheese / mozzarella cheese / any other cheese of your choice
salt, pepper

Method:
I prefer cooking lasagna sheets before using them whether they are fresh or store bought. This makes sure that lasagna sheets don't soak too much sauce. Boil about 1-2 ltr of water and add some salt. Please note that you must be careful while adding sauce as main sauce also has salt in it. Once water starts boiling start putting lasagna sheets in boiling water (one at a time). They should be cooked within 2-3 minutes, discard water and let all water dripped away, you can sprinkle little oil on lasagna sheets to prevent sticking.

Grease up baking tin/glassware, put thick layer of red sauce at bottom and spread evenly. Then put layer of pasta sheets. Make sure you cover up entire tin. Now put layer of red sauce and white sauce. Sprinkle generous amount of cheese to for a cheesy layer. Then put layer of pasta sheet, then again red and white sauce and so on. Make sure that your last layer is of red sauce, sprinkle cheese on top and your lasagna is ready for baking.

Lasagna sheet layer covering bottom layer

Ready for baking

Cover tin with aluminium foil and bake for about 25 minutes in pre-heated oven on 180 degree Celsius. Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Covering prevents cheese from becoming brown. Take out lasagna and let it cool for about 15 minutes. Cut out square portion and serve while its warm.

Just out from oven

1 lasagna served

Pasta Sauce Or Red sauce

Pasta sauce or Red sauce

I love pasta, penne with red (tomato) sauce is my most favorite dish. Here is how I make my pasta sauce.

Ingredients (serves 3)
2 medium sized red onions, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste (mince garlic and ginger together)
8 medium ripe tomatoes
Spice mix (Oregano, basil, Italian seasoning)
Salt, black pepper
Red chilly powder (if you want to make sauce hotter)
Cream (optional)
cheese (optional)
meat (optional)
Other veggies (optional)

Method:
I like to blanch tomatoes before making puree, so that it becomes easy to take out their skin and preserve bright red color and tangy taste. Take a big pan for tomatoes and fill it with water, bring it to boil. Once tomato skin starts loosing up, turn off the heat. Throw away water and keep tomatoes aside to cool off uptil they become warm. Take out their skins, seeds, stems. Process tomatoes to make fine puree, and keep
aside.

Finished Sauce (camera flash messed with color of sauce :( )

I usually process onions and carrot in food processor for fine chopping. So sauce becomes more consistent.
Take a heavy bottom saucepan and saute ginger-garlic paste, add in chopped onions and carrot. Saute them nicely till they become transparent.  If you are using veggies/meat then saute them after onions and carrots.   Add in tomato puree, add about half cup of water and saute for a while. If you are using meat in sauce then add upto one cup of water. Add spice mix, salt and pepper, add red chilly powder if you wish to make hotter. Give mixture a nice stir and bring mixture to boil. After boil reduce heat and cook through on low flame for about 10-15 minutes with lid on. If you have added meat to sauce then you may need to cook for about half hour or till meat cooks through (depending upon meat used). Take out lid and reduce sauce further depending on consistency of your choice. I prefer to reduce added water and that defines consistency for sauce.

Few people prefer to add cream/cheese, but its optional. There is your sauce ready. Enjoy it over your pasta, can be used in lasagna as well.

Bechamel sauce (white sauce)

Bechamel Sauce

Also known as white sauce. This sauce can be used in various french, Italian recipes. This sauce also serves as base of cheese sauce. Its super smooth in texture and requires no special ingredients.

Ingredients (For about 200ml sauce)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
250 ml milk (any milk shall do)
pinch of salt


Method:
Melt butter in heavy bottom sauce pan. Once butter has melted take out pan and start incorporating flour slowly while stirring. Put pan back on medium heat and let mixture bubble a bit, make sure mixture does not become brownish. Start adding milk into slowly into mixture and keep stirring while doing so. This avoid lump formations so its essential step. Bring milk to boil and then lower the flame and cook for about 2-3 minutes more. This sauce thickens and reduces as it cooks so that's your sign to check for doneness. Add in pinch of salt and give it nice stir. Take out flame and cover sauce surface with wax paper or non-reactive film  to avoid skin formation on milk.

Bechamel/White sauce

That's it your bechamel sauce/white sauce is ready. Let it cool before using in any recipe.

Fresh pasta at home

How to make fresh pasta at home?

I tasted pasta pretty late, since then I was always wondering how do they make all kinds of pasta. So I tried pasta recipes. After that I wanted to make pasta noodles/pasta types myself at home and thus I finally searched videos for making fresh pasta at home. Here is my version for the same. Its pretty easy, yeah it does take little time but trust me its really worth to make and eat fresh pasta at home.

Simple thumb rule for making fresh pasta is using 1 egg for 100gms of all purpose flour. Eggs must be at room temperature or else dough would turn into disaster :)

Ingredients:
1 Large egg (Room temperature is a must)
100 gms all purpose flour
pinch of salt

  Egg in small well

Method:
Make sure your work surface is dry and clean. Put flour on work surface and dug a little well in it.
Break egg into this well and start beating up egg in same well with help of work. We don't want to beat it very well just make sure yellow and white is properly mixed. Start incorporating little flour at a time, and keep mixing. Mixture shall start thickening up, once this happens start kneading with both hands. Form a nice ball of dough, knead for about 15 minutes. Wrap up ball in cling film and keep aside for about half hour.
You can refrigerate (not frozen) it as well, just make sure dough comes to room temperature before working on it.

Dough resting in cling film

Your fresh pasta dough is ready. Knead dough for a minute or so and roll it down either in pasta machine or on work surface with rolling pin. Use some flour if dough is sticking to work surface. Roll it until its about 2mm thick, then cut in your desire shape. Thin stripes, thick stripes, lasagna sheets etc.

Fresh pasta cut in Lasagna sheets

Semolina cake (rawa cake)

Rawa cake

I have many childhood memories associated with this cake. My mom and grandmother used to make this delicious cake. Reason I liked this cake is because it had all good and healthy ingredients. Rawa (Semolina), very less shuddha desi ghee (butter made from cow's milk), milk thats it, only these ingredients were used to produce this beautiful aromatic cake.

Ingredients:
1 cup rawa (semolina)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup milk (you may require less)
1/4 cup ghee (butter)
1 tsp baking powder or soda
Pinch of salt

How to do it:
Beat ghee ans sugar together and make a nice paste of it, start adding rawa (semolina) to mixture. Keep mixing till all rawa (semolina) is incorporated. Start adding milk little at a time and keep mixing. You can add any flavor if you wish, but trust me a natural flavor of ghee and rawa (semolina) are simply best. We are looking to make mixture more like a slurry so don't add too much milk. Now add a pinch of salt and baking powder/soda in mixture. Give it a nice stir, cover and keep aside for about 2 hours.

This is how mixture looks like

 After 2 hours check mixture, rawa (semolina) have socked in milk and may have absorbed it, if you see mixture has become little think then add some more milk to make it to pouring consistency. Your dough is ready. You can cook it under pressure cooker (make sure to remove whistle and rubber gasket) or over fry pan/tawa (skillet), just make sure cake tin should never come in direct contact with either pressure cooker, fry pan or tawa (skillet). You can use sand as a medium to heat transfer from fry pan/tawa (skillet). Bake cake in greased tin for about 20-30 minutes.

Look at gorgeous golden brown cake 

If you have oven then just pre-heat to 180 degree Celsius (360 Fahrenheit) and bake for about 20-30 minutes. Cake is considered ready once its top becomes golden brown. I prefer to use cake pin to make sure cake is baked evenly. This cake does not rise much so don't worry :)

This recipe belongs to my mother, many many thanks to her for everything :)

Its done, nice soft and aromatic

Stuffed chicken with mushroom sauce and saffron rice

I always use to wonder if we can make stuff chicken with veggies or any other stuff and eat it, and I did after watching few recipes on youtube and decided to make one for me :) I had some leftover mushrooms and cream. So I decided to make stuffed chicken with mushroom sauce and saffron rice. Why saffron rice? because I like its flavor :) Saffron rice looks amazing and its aroma takes you to another level.

This Preparation is enough for 1-2 people, Once you start eating it, its pretty hard to stop yourself :) so divide portion before you serve :D. We shall first prepare chicken breast and then start preparing sauce. We are going to sear of chicken breast from both side till its golden brown and then finish it in sauce to get mingled with flavor on mushroom and cream. You can choose any filling for stuffing, feel free to experiment, I used whatever was available in my kitchen as I hate to go out and get stuff :)

Ingredients for stuffing:
1 chicken breast
1 mid sized Tomato cut in thin stripes  (discard seeds and pulp)
1/2 cup grated cheese
small bunch of coriander leafs, just crumble them with hands no need to chop finely
1/2 tbsp red chilly powder
1/2 tbsp garam masala powder
salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for sauce
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
100 gms of chopped mushrooms (mushroom of your choice)
60 ml white wine
100 ml cream
small bunch of coriander leafs finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
oregano or other spices as per your taste.

How to prepare chicken breasts for stuffing:
This is bit tricky part as you must be able to cut breast very cleanly in order to fill it up with stuffing.
Hold chicken breast with thick comes under your right hand's thumb, carefully insert sharp knife in thickest part, as mush deep as you can. Just make sure not to go much deep as it may cut through creating mess. Now run knife back and forth in chicken breast and side to side, this way a pocket will be created in chicken breast. Take out knife and make sure enough room is created by inserting 2 fingers in pocket. You are done with creating pocket, keep it aside till we prepare filling.

Prepare filling and chicken breast: 
Take a mixing bowl and mix together all ingredients, add little bit oil as well. this is our stuffing. Start stuffing chicken breast with this mixture, push in with fingers. Make sure mixture is packed and have reached till end of pocket. Seal of pocket by toothpicks so that mixture won't fall out. Get chicken breast seasoned with little oil, salt and pepper on both side.
Heat up frying pan over medium heat and sear off chicken breast for 4-5 minutes on each side till it becomes golden brown. Take breast out of pan and wrap it in aluminium foil, we are going to use same pan for making sauce so preserve all juices as is.

Golden browned chicken breast

Making mushroom sauce:
Use same pan and add little bit oil, saute ginger garlic paste till its becomes aromatic. Add in chopped onions and saute till they are translucent. Add chopped mushrooms and saute them along with onions. Now add chopped coriander leafs and saute a little, now add white wine to pan and saute together on low to medium heat. Saute till wine is reduced to half, now add cream and give a nice stir to all mixture, so that cream shall mix well with entire mixture. Add in spices, pepper and salt.

This is how stuffed chicken looks like

Putting all together:
Once sauce is prepared reduce heat to low and add in stuffed chicken breast to sauce. Keep lid on and cook till sauce is reduced to half or chicken is done. Make sure to turn chicken to side after 10 mins of so for even cooking. Some prefer to cook rest of the chicken directly in pre-heated oven as well, I prefer to cook in same pan with lid on. If sauce is not reduced and chicken is cooked, turn to high flame and take lid off so that sauce will get thicken faster. To avoid over cooking chicken, just take it out.

Finished dish

Plating:
Cut chicken breast (tilted cuts) carefully while its still hot, and arrange them on top of pile of rice. Pour in mushroom sauce a bit on chicken and pour rest in the plate. Enjoy :)

Rum balls

I really love liquor filled rum balls as they just melts in your mouth. Once you pop them in, they melt slowly while releasing beautiful liquor gently :) and that's the best part.

Enough said...I tried them a month back however posting recipe now. Recipe not belong to me, I must thank to Stephanie from joyofbaking dot com who shared this recipe over internet. She is my online teacher :)
I have modified some part of original recipe to suit my needs and ingredients


Ingredients:

150 gms mixed toasted nuts (almonds, cashews, unsalted pistachios, walnut etc, take whatever you wish)
4 cup cakes small or left over cake, or cookies (125 gms), I prefer cake as it melts in mouth easily
50 gms of powdered sugar
2 tbsp honey
60ml red rum (or liquor of your choice)

Finished Rum balls 

How to do it:

Chop toasted nuts very finely (you don't want to powder them, just chop as fine as possible).
In a mixing bowl add chopped nuts along with sugar and honey and give a nice mix.
Crumble in cup cakes (mini muffins) by hands, just make sure you make finer crumb.
Now add rum or any liquor in mixture and keep mixing until everything is mixed well and
mixtures starts to hold up. If mixture is not holding up then add more cake crumbs.
Chill mixture in refrigerator for couple of hours, then take it out and start rolling out small balls, once this done store them back in fridge.
Rum balls are ready now, you can make a chocolate coat or powdered sugar coating to these balls, as per your choice just dip these balls in melted chocolate, or roll in powdered sugar or roll them in chopped nuts etc. Its time to become more creative at this stage. Enjoy your melting rum balls after one day, so that liquor will get mingled well and produces excellent taste.