Onion Bhaji and Hariyali Chicken Biryani

Onion Bhaji 

I prepare these kind of bhaji very few times as I always loved those Crab style bhajis more than these. But when I felt like eating these last weekend, I prepared them and turned out quite well.

Ingredients

2 Onions

1/2 Cup Bason

1/4 Cup Corriander Leaves

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder

1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Finely chop onions and add the salt to it. Keep aside for 5-10 minutes
• Add Bason, corriander leaves- finely chopped, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, corriander powder, jeera powder and mix to form the paste. Add water if needed.
• Heat the oil in a pan, and add a spoonful of it into the paste.
• Mix the paste well and fry the Bhaji's of small size to crispy brown colour.

Notes

I normally apply salt to onion and keep aside as that helps in seperating water and then the paste doesnt loosen after some time.

Since I add the heated oil I dont use eating soda, heated oil is good enough for giving crispiness

Hariyali Chicken Biryani

I wanted to eat something chatpata and hence had prepared Pani Puri. So i had plenty of pudina remaining. So was frozen chicken waiting for being cooked in freezer. Ajoy wanted to eat biryani and I wanted to get over the freeze items... Thats when this recipe was born :) and became super hit for its different taste and fragnance :)

Ingredients

6 Leg Pieces of Chicken

2 Cup Basamati Rice

1/2 Bunch of Pudina

1/2 Bunch of Corriander Leaves

2 Green Chillies

2 Cinnamon Sticks

1/4 Spoon Black Pepper

4 Cloves

4 Cardamoms

1/2 Cup Ghee

3 Onions

1 Tomato

1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste

4 Spoon Curd

1 Spoon Red chilli powder

A Pinch of Turmeric Powder

Salt to taste

Method

• Marinate chicken with red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garlic paste and curd and keep aside for couple of hours.
• Warm around 6 cups of water and soak the rice in it and keep aside for half an hour.
• In a mixie grind pudina leaves, corriander leaves, tomato and green chilli to fine paste.
• Keep aside 2 spoon of ghee and heat remaining ghee in a pan.
• Chop one of the onion into thin slices and fry it to light brown colour into the ghee. Keep aside.
• In remaining ghee from frying, add cinnamon, black pepper and remaining onions - grated and cook them till light brown in colour.
• Add this mixture to mixie along with green paste and grind again to smooth paste
• In same pan add this ground paste, 1.5 cup of water and marinated chicken and cook till completely dry with stirring in between. Add salt to taste and keep aside.
• While chicken is cooking, drain the water from the rice, cook it with another 2 cups of water and salt to taste till almost done. Drain the water and keep aside for cooling down.
• Heat 1/2 spoon of ghee and add cloves and cardamom to it. Fry them for a minute on low flame and then add this ghee to the rice and mix well.
• Grease a thick bottom pan or cooker and layer the rice and chicken mixture alternating. Also add fried onions in between while adding chicken.
• Cook on low flame for 15 minutes and serve hot

Notes

I had leg pieces of chicken so used them all but you can substitute it with equal grams plus little more of normal chicken pieces too.

Here the electric stove has variations of 8 degrees so I used 2 for cooking the layered biryani instead of my usual cooker on top of tawa and a layer of potato down the biryani. So if you are using regular stove you would need to follow same procedure so that biryani doesnt burn.

Chakali And Tandoori Chicken

Chakali

This time for Diwali I decided to prepare some faraal - snack items prepared especially for Diwali. So the preparation started with getting recipes from mom. When I looked at recipe for chakali, I just couldn't believe it is going to be so easy to make it and yet so quick. I had fun preparing this one and it tasted awesome. Item that is my and ajoy's favorite.

Ingredients

2 Cup Rice Powder

1 Spoon Maida

1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/4 Spoon Sesame Seeds

1/4 Spoon Carom Seeds

1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter

Oil

Salt to taste

Method

• Mix rice powder, maida, sesame seeds, carom seeds, red chilli powder, salt in a plate
• Add in the butter and mix well.
• Make a soft dough ball (not too tight, not too loose but soft consistency) by adding water to it and kneading it well
• Knead half portion of it and put it in chakali maker.
• Heat oil on high
• Turn the heat to medium, make chakalis from the maker on a plate and transfer them to the oil.
• Fry from both sides till light red in color
• Repeat for remaining ones, making sure oil is hot enough before adding chakalis to the oil.
• Let it drain the oil on the kitchen towel, cool it and store it in air tight container

Notes

If you are using homemade butter, then wash it with cold water before use.

The chakalis should be taken out before they turn completely reddish as the color darkens after removing and cooling it down.

 Tandoori Chicken

One of the best starters we both love. In hyderabad I use to prepare this with Everest Chicken Tandoori Masala but this time I made it with my mix of masalas. It tasted awesome.

Ingredients

6 Chicken Leg Pieces

3/4 Cup Curd

2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1 Spoon Garam Masala

2 Spoon Ginger Paste

2 Spoon Garlic Paste

4 Spoon Lemon Juice

1/2 Spoon Chaat Masala

2 Spoon Oil

1/2 Cup Butter

Salt to taste

Method

• Make horizontal cuts on the chicken pieces
• Apply 2 spoon lemon juice and 1 spoon red chilli powder to it and keep aside for 30 minutes
• In a bowl mix curd, garlic paste, ginger paste, 1 spoon red chilli powder, 2 spoon lemon juice, garam masala, oil and salt
• Apply the above marination to chicken and store in fridge for 4-5 hours
• Preheat oven to 395F(200C)
• Melt the butter and sprinkle some on the chicken and bake it for 15 minutes
• Turn the chicken to face other side and sprinkle more butter on both sides. Bake for another 15 minutes
• Again turn the chicken and sprinkle remaining butter and bake for another 10 minutes
• Sprinkle chaat masala and serve with onions rings and lemon wedges

Notes

Instead of leg pieces you can use 700g mixed pieces as well.

In restaurants, they use color to make it look reddish but I didnt have it neither did I intended to use it.

I baked it over this bakeware set. It helps in dropping off extra marination, butter in the tray.

Veggie Pizza And Prawns Grilled Sandwitch

Veggie Pizza

I had been meaning to make this pizza for a while now. Veggie is something that I don't prefer outside in pizza hut or any other pizza place but I wanted to make this at home so that I can use Indian veggies and make it to my taste. I completely took liberty here with veggies that I used and the outcome was really interesting.

Ingredients

4 Cup Wheat Flour

2 Cup Maida

2 Cup Milk

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1/4 cup Butter

1/2 Spoon Sugar

2.25 Spoon Active Dry Yeast

3 Tomatoes

2 Spoon Garlic Paste

2 Spoon Basil Leaves

1/2 Spoon Black pepper powder

2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

3 Spoon Ketchup

1 Cup Parmesan Cheese

2 Cup Mozzarella Cheese

1 cup of Small Paneer Pieces

1.5 cup Eggplant Pieces

8 Ladiesfinger

1 Cup Sweet Corn

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Mix sugar and active yeast with a cup of luke warm water. Keep covered by clinging film for 10 minutes to bubble up the water which means yeast is activated
• In a plate, mix wheat flour, maida, salt, olive oil and melted butter.
• Add in activated yeast mixture and milk and knead a soft dough. Keep aside in a big bowl covered by the clinging film for around 2 hours to double it up.
• Heat oil and add garlic paste in it. Roast it till it spreads nice aroma
• Add in basil leaves, pepper powder, red chilli powder and salt. Cook for couple of minutes
• Puree tomatoes and add them along with the ketchup to the above mixture. Cook till the water that separates out is evaporated and mixture is in single consistency paste. Keep aside.
• In oil fry ladies finger(whole), paneer pieces, eggplant pieces each for a minute. Remove the head of the ladies finger and cut it into half. Sprinkle salt and keep aside
• When the dough doubles up, divide it into two portions and spread it on two Pizza Pans
• Spread in tomato gravy made above equally on each one of the pizza.
• Spread in Parmesan Cheese, fried veggies(paneer, ladies finger, eggplant) and sweet corn.
• Cover it up with the mozzarella cheese.
• Heat the oven to 400F/200C
• Cook the pizza in the oven at 400F/200C for 25 minutes

Notes

While frying ladies finger(bhendi) i fried it whole and then cut it into half instead of other way round so as to avoid its seeds being flowing out of it.

All veggies I just browned them a bit so as to give it a richer taste. I didnt cook them completely by any means otherwise it might burn out or melt away while in the oven.

Prawns Grilled Sandwitch

Happy New Year to everyone :) Mine was quiet one as I was/am jetlaged a way lot to stay awake even till 9pm :) Guess this recipe would be special because I started working on this last year and the final dish was ready this year ;-) This was kind of impromptu one on demand of special breakfast by Ajoy

Ingredients

14-16 Bread Slices

400g Cleaned Prawns

1/2 Cup pickled cucumber

4 Spoon Curd

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1 Spoon Corriander Powder

1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powder

1/4 Spoon Chaat Masala

1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/4 Spoon Garam Masala

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 Cup Butter

Salt to taste

Method

• Mix curd, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, corriander powder, black pepper powder, jeera powder, garam masala, chaat masala and salt
• Slice the prawns into smaller pieces and add them into above curd mixure, mix well and store them in fridge for 4-6 hours.
• Heat a flat pan and add 1/4 cup butter and marinated prawns
• Cook on high flame with constant stirring till the masala turns dark brown in color and dry out. Keep aside.
• Make sandwitches by spreading pickled cucumber and prawns cooked earlier between two slices of breads
• Grill them with remaining butter and serve hot

Notes

Chopping prawns into smaller pieces would help in avoiding it being pulled in a single bite :)

Prawns in Garlic Butter Salad

I have started to enjoy salads so much that every week i almost crave for one if i dont eat one. So here is a simple butter garlic garden salad with prawns that i made that tasted awesome.

Ingredients

8 Large Prawns

2 Cup Broccoli

2 Cup Green Beans

1 Cup Sweet Corn

1 Avocado

3 Cup Iceburg Lettuce

1 Onion

1 Cup Sweet Bell Pepper Sliced

1/4 Cup Cherry Tomatoes

6 Garlic Cloves

1/4 Spoon Oregano

1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powdered

1 Lemon

Mozzarella Cheese for garnishing

Salt to taste

Butter

Method

• Heat pan and add in broccoli and green beans with some butter. Cook till they are smoky in color. Mix in salt to taste and keep aside.
• In same pan add in sweet bell pepper and some more butter and cook it for a while.
• When pepper seems almost done add in sliced onion, salt to taste and cook till onions turn light brown.
• Mix it with green beans and broccoli and keep aside.
• In same pan add in prawns and garlic diced coarsely and some butter and cook them turning often on low-medium heat till prawns are done. Mix in salt and keep aside
• Microwave sweet corn for two minutes and keep aside
• Divide the lettuce into two bowls.
• Add in half mixture of green beans, brocolli, pepper and onions in each bowl.
• Add in diced avocado half in each bowl.
• Add in prawns and garlic dividing half in each
• Add in cherry tomatoes and corn half in each bowl.
• Sprinkle lemon juice, black pepper powder and oregano half in quantity on each bowls contents evenly.
• Garnish it with shredded mozzarella cheese

Notes

I used Lemon as the dressing instead of ranch or anything else. If you like you can add ranch or other dressing that you like. But i thought the salad tasted awesome just with natural flavours from lemon.

Except prawns i cooked everything else on high flame giving it a crunchy texture. For prawns i added them on high heat and then reduced the heat so that i could give them smoky taste and color yet cook them nicely.

Crabs Pulav

Recently we started getting the crabs from Costco. The first thing I made was this Pulav, an impromptu attempt to make something quick yet tasty. It turned out such a hit that we craved for more for days.. So this dish these days makes appearances in our meal quite regularly.

Ingredients

1.5 Cup Rice

300g Crabs Meat

1 Cup Curd

1/2 Spoon Red Chili Powder

1/2 Cup Black Pepper Powder

1/4 Spoon Coriander Powder

1/4 Spoon Jeera Powder

A pinch of Cinnamon Powder

A pinch of Cloves Powder

Salt to taste

Ghee

Method

• Mix in curd with red chilli powder, black pepper powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, Cinnamon powder, cloves powder and salt to taste.
• Add in the crab meat to the mixture and keep aside for hour or two.
• Soak rice for half an hour.
• Boil water and add in rice. Cook till rice is almost done. Keep aside.
• Heat ghee and add the crabs-curd-spices mixture and on medium heat cook till the crabs are done and the mixture separates from the ghee.
• Add in the cooked rice and mix lightly. Sprinkle salt to taste.
• Cook for a minute or two. Serve with raita.

Notes

Here we get big crabs, we got around 1.5lb = 0.7Kg and then after washing removed the meat from the shell and used the meat. If the shell is too hard or crabs or small try with shell.

To get the crab meat out from shell, we cut the shell with sharp knife and take the meat carefully out.

Chicken Rolls

Its been a while since I made any chicken dish.. It was always Ajoy who ended up cooking chicken or mutton which obviously is exactly of one type. Gravy remains same and chicken or mutton changes :) So today I thought probably i can make some chicken dish to surprise him. What would have been better than his favorite roll.

Ingredients

500g Boneless Chicken

2 Cup Maida

1/2 Cup Wheat Flour

1 Big Onion

1 Cup Broccoli

1 Cup finely diced Tomato

1/2 Cup Tomato Ketchup

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 Spoon Black Pepper Powder

1/2 Spoon Garam Masala

1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/4 Spoon Corriander Powder

1 Spoon Grated Ginger

8 Garlic Cloves

Salt

Oil

Method

• Mix in maida, wheat flour, salt and couple of spoon of oil and add in water and knead the dough well. Keep aside.
• Dice the chicken into small cubes.
• Heat oil in a pan and add in the chicken cubes. Cook stirring it occasionally
• When chicken turns white in color, add in grated ginger, turmeric powder, red chili powder, jeera powder, coriander powder, garam masala and pepper powder and cook till masalas start to leave aroma
• Add in tomato ketch up and cook further for 5 more minutes.
• Add in diced tomatoes and salt and cook till chicken is done completely stirring occasionally. Keep aside
• Heat a shallow pan with a spoonfull of oil and add in sliced onions, diced garlic and brocoli and cook till they are completely done. Add in salt and a pinch of pepper powder and stir well. Keep aside
• Beat the egg and put it in wide pan.
• Make a small lemon sized balls of the dough and roll thin roti
• Dunk the roti into the egg only on one side and then put it on the hot tawa with the non egg washed side down
• Sprinkle few drops of oil on to top of the roti and flip it and cook till both the sides are done. Put it on a plate
• Spread couple spoon of chicken we made earlier in the middle as one line. Add in half spoon of onion-brocolli mixture on it.
• Fold the roti from the bottom and then folding the left side on top of the mixture and roll tightly to cover the mixture completely. Serve hot with ketchup or just like that.

Notes

I wanted to keep the rotis light so instead of putting a complete egg on top of each roti i chose to egg wash one side and that worked well. rotis were light and the taste of chicken came out really well.

Tandoori Prawns

Its been a while since Seattle saw sun barring couple of days last week so having barbeques in patio is long gone time. But this is my effort to feel like those beautiful sunny evenings.. I came up with recipe on my own as I started adding spices but the taste was so good that i cant wait to fry remaining prawns tomorrow night.

Ingredients

3/4 Kg Prawns

1 Spoon Tandoori Masala

1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder

1 Spoon Corriander Powder

1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/4 Spoon Garam Masala

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 Spoon Ginger Paste

1/2 Cup Thick Curd

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Clean the prawns shells and marinate it with salt.
• Add in ginger paste, chilli powder, corriander powder, jeera powder, garam masala, turmeric powder and mix well. Keep aside for atleast half an hour.
• Add oil to a pan and heat it really well.
• In the earlier marinated prawns, add in tandoori masala and curd. Mix well. Add this mixture onto the heated pan.
• Let the prawns cook on medium heat without flipping or stirring them till the side is completely done. Then flip them and cook the otherside too. Take of the heat and serve.

Notes

Cooking on medium heat and not flipping the prawns serves as great trick to get that tandoori-charred-smoky flavour that any authentic tandoori dishes have.