Burmese Khow Suey

Burmese Khow Suey, a beautiful creamy and tasty soup which I had in a fine dining restaurant at Pune.
I became crazy with its creamy delicious taste and beautiful aroma, I couldn't stopped myself for having more than 1 servings and neglecting chicken and fish fingers altogether. Its served with variety of toppings and that's makes it more delicious, just add a dash of fresh lemon juice and that taste gets you. So I decided to replicate this at home. After referring 1-2 recipes from Internet here is my version for the same.

Ingredients:
2 cups of thick coconut milk
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric
4-5 curry leafs
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin seed powder
2 tsp oil
1 tsp Indian yellow lentil (chana daal) powder
1 root of lemon grass finely chopped


Method:
Add 1 tsp oil in woke and saute onion first till they become pink in color
Add in ginger and garlic pastes and saute a while.
Add in turmeric powder, curry leafs, coriander powder, cumin seed powder, chopped lemon grass and saute for while.
Let this mixture cool down, then add in yellow lentil powder and blend to make a fine paste, you can add little water just to make sure no lumps are left in paste.
Add in 1 tsp oil and saute this paste for a while, season with salt and red chilly powder (if you wish to make it bit hot)
Stir in coconut milk and now you should start getting aromas of all the spices, simmer for while.
You can add little water if mixture become too thick, just simmer for a while if water is added.
Thats it "Khow Suey" is ready.

This is how it should look

How to serve it:
Serving this soup is an art altogether which determines final taste of your soup.
Generally these toppings are used:
- roasted unsalted peanust
- red chilies cut in thin strips (de-seeded)
- finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
- fried noodles
- finely chopped fried garlic cloves
- lime wedges
- boiled rice noodles
- sprouts

All toppings added

 I served by adding little fried noodles, roasted peanuts, red chilly stripes, coriander leaves, garlic and dash of fresh lime juice, and topped with soup. Trust me it looks and taste delicious.

Final product 

Orange butter cookies

I do not own this recipe, This recipe belongs to Stephanie from joyofbaking.com, I have modified original recipe to use oranges instead of lemon. This recipe does not use any sort of flavoring agent and completely organic substances. Thanks Stephanie for this lovely buttery treat.

All credit goes to Stephanie for this wonderful buttery cookies.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup (135 grams) granulated white sugar

1 tablespoon (6 grams) freshly grated Orange zest (outer orange skin of Orange) (about 2 Oranges)

14 tablespoons (200 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature (used Low fat butter)

2 large egg yolks (35 grams), at room temperature

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

Orange Glaze:

1/2 cup (55 grams) confectioners sugar (powdered or icing sugar), sifted

1-2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice.

How to do it:

In a small bowl mix the sugar with the orange zest.

In the a separate bowl beat the butter and sugar until creamy smooth (1 - 2 minutes).  

Beat in the egg yolks. Scrape down the sides of your bowl as needed.

Add the flour mixture to the batter and beat just until the mixture starts to form large clumps. 

Make nice smooth round of dough, divide the batter in half and shape each half into a log that is about 6 inches (15 cm) long and 2 inches (5 cm) wide. 

Wrap each log in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until firm (at least four hours or up to three days). (Can freeze the unbaked logs for up to two months.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Once the logs have become firm, with a sharp knife, slice each log into 1/4 inch (.5 mm) thick cookies. 

Place the cookies on your baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Bake for about 15 - 18 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. 

Remove from oven and let them cool

Orange Glaze (Optional)

Place the confectioners sugar in a small bowl. 

Add enough Orange juice to make a mixture that flows slowly from your spoon. Drizzle the tops of the cookies with the glaze. Let dry for about 1-2 hours before placing in an airtight container.

Variations from my side:

1. I used Nutrilite/Amul lite butter (low fat contents)

2. Since butter already has some salt I didn't used any salt with flour.

3. Cookie dough became little bit soggy, so I added 2 Tbsp flour and 1 Tbsp powdered sugar 

to make sure dough does not become sticky and holds its shape.

4. you can cut them in any size/shape. I used rectangular shape, since my daughter loved rectangular cookies more :)

Hainanese chicken rice

Hainanese chicken rice or simply chicken rice as called in Singapore. One of the easiest and yet super awesome food I ever tried in Singapore. Here is my try to replicate same. Thanks to many blogs and videos on youtube for this recipe.

Its a very simple dish, they serve boiled chicken at room temperature along with dipping sauce and hot steamed rice cooked in chicken broth. Simple isn't it. Actual or I may say authentic recipe demands full chicken with skin, however I had some leftover un-skinned chicken breasts to go with. So I used them instead.



What we need:
2 chicken breast pieces (Or any chicken part with bone ideally)
2-3 small slices of ginger
1-2 strands of spring onion (preferably one with small onion bulbs)
Salt
sliced medium red onion (optional)
1 tsp Minced ginger-garlic paste (homemade-optional)
Raw Rice of your choice

Well this is 2 step process. In first step we will boil chicken and then in second step cook rice in chicken broth.

Cooking chicken

Prepare chicken:
First of all air dry your chicken or make it dry by using paper towels. Rub salt all over chicken from inside and outside, this will get rid of dead skin or any other gucks etc from chicken.
Rinse out chicken thoroughly and then again let it become dry in open air or use paper towels.
Now again use salt and rub all over chicken for seasoning.
Stuff chicken with slices of ginger and chopped spring onion strands.
Take a heavy bottom pan and put chicken in it. Pour in room temperature water till chicken is completely submerged in water.
Bring water to boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low flame and cook chicken covered for about 20-30 minutes (depending upon size of chicken) on low flame. Here you can remove some leftover impurities from water.
If you are using chicken pieces, just put slices of ginger and spring onion into water and it should work too.
Turn off the heat take chicken out and put chicken in ice water. This shall stop cooking immediately and tightens the skin (most important).
Take it out from ICE water and let it air dry. Our chicken is ready now, keep it aside. Don't throw away that broth as we want it to cook rice in it.
Authentic recipe needs to brush chicken with sesame oil before serving.

Prepare dipping sauce:
Dipping sauce is pretty much simple. I mixed 1 tsp red chilly paste in 2 tbsp chicken broth, along with 1/2 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp lime juice. You can be creative here to make dipping sauce as per your taste.

Sieved broth 

Prepare rice:
We need to use leftover chicken broth from boiling for cooking rice, so get broth sieved to different pan and let it come to room temperature.
This is optional step but you can have saute onions with minced ginger-garlic paste until they are browned. We shall add this just before rice is almost cooked. This is a real flavor enhancer by the way :)  
Measure desired rice and add appropriate amount of broth. If broth is less then add water, in this case you may also want to drop in 1-2 slice of ginger and stand of spring onion (make sure to remove them at end of cooking procedure).
Our rice is ready to serve, plate it along with chicken and dipping sauce, you may serve salad vegetable along with it as per your choice.

Enjoy your rice.

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.