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Sunday, June 3, 2012

Tortilla Wrap

Tortilla wrap with fresh tomato salsa and a mouth watering shredded chicken filling is to die for. My first attempt at making the whole recipe ground up was an absolute winner and my family loved it. I have made the tortilla myself cause I like to keep it very rustic and if you are adventurous too go ahead and give it a try. But if you are unsure you can always get the machine made tortilla (very monotonous) available in stores.
Ingredients:
Tortilla-
Corn (Maize) flour - 1 ½ cup
All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 ¼ cup
Oil - 4 tbsp
Warm water
Salt to taste

Salsa-
Cucumber - 1 small, peeled and diced
Tomato - 2, de-seeded and diced
Green Chilly - 1, de-seeded and finely chopped
Garlic - 2 cloves, finely chopped
Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped
Lemon juice - from ½ a lemon
Salt to taste

Filling-
Chicken breast - 300 gms, cut into strips of
Red bell pepper - 1, roughly cut into small pieces
Onion - 1 large, sliced
Garlic - 5 medium sized cloves, pounded
Black pepper powder - 1 ½ tsp
Balsamic vinegar - 1 tbsp
Sugar - a pinch
Oil - 4 tbsp (I used olive oil here)
Salt to taste

Garnish-
Cheese
Jalapenos - 4 to 5, chopped

Method:
Salsa-
Mix all the ingredients except salt. You can add the salt just before you assemble the wraps (Salt will make the veggies shed out its water content and will make your tortilla soggy).

Tortilla-
In a bowl, nicely mix corn and the all purpose flour. Add the oil and salt to taste. Add enough water to make a soft dough. Keep it aside for 5 minutes. Make balls out of the dough and then roll it into tortillas of around 9 inches dia. On a hot pan, cook for about a minute on each sides (one thing to take care of is to make sure the tortillas are not over cooked, they tend to become hard). This batch will fetch you 5-6 tortillas.

Filling-
Add salt and pepper powder to the chicken pieces and let it stay for about 5 minutes or so. Heat oil in a pan, put the chicken. Cook till the chicken is tender. Leave the oil in the pan, take out the chicken. With a knife and fork, roughly shred the chicken pieces. Meanwhile, in the same oil that we cooked the chicken, thrown in the onion. Saute till they turn translucent. Add garlic, cook till the garlic gives off its aroma. Add sugar and salt. Add the bell pepper and saute for about 2 minutes. Now add balsamic vinegar and the shredded chicken. Cook for another minute or so and switch off the heat.
Now to assemble, take the tortilla (re-heat the tortilla on a pan if you feel the tortillas are cold) and spoon in a bit of salsa and the shredded chicken filling as in the picture above. Garnish with some jalapenos and grated cheese on top. Wrap the tortilla and heat on a hot griddle on both sides for cheese to melt and create the fusion of flavours.

Do post your comments and requests.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Popcorn Prawns

Weekends are here, enjoy your movie with a bowl of popcorn prawns and ice tea. Thought of having a twist to the popcorn prawns by covering it with coconut instead of the usual bread crumbs. The result turned out to be too good to resist. The light sweetness and crunchiness of coconut is pure bliss and I would suggest everyone to try out this very simple recipe.

Ingredients:
For the marinade-
Prawns (Medium) - 500 gms, de-veined, cut to 2 cm chunks
Lemon juice - from 1 medium sized lemon
Coriander leaves - ¼ cup, finely chopped
Red chilly powder - ¾ tsp
Salt to taste

For frying-
Egg - 1, beaten, add ¼ tsp of salt to this
Dried coconut - ½ medium sized coconut, grated
Cornflour for patting the prawn chunks
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Mix in a bowl, lemon juice, coriander leaves, chilly powder, salt. To this add prawns, mix and leave it for 15-20 minutes.

Coat the prawn chunks in the corn flour, pat it to remove any extra corn flour. Dip into the egg and coat it with grated coconut. Deep fry on medium flame for around a minute till they are golden brown. Do not over cook the prawns else they become rubbery.

Enjoy popcorn prawns. Try out and let me know how it turned out for you.


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Pudina Paratha


Ingredients:Wheat flour - 2 cups
Chickpea flour (besan) - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - ¼ cup, chopped
Mint leaves - ½ cup, chopped
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Water
Ghee


Method:In a bowl, mix wheat and chickpea flour. Add oil, salt, mint and coriander leaves. Add enough water to form a soft dough. Make balls out of the dough and then roll it to form chapatis around 15 cm diameter. Cook on a hot tava, drizzle some ghee, and cook until both sides are well done.

Mutton Rogan Josh

Here's another mutton recipe inspired from the Kashmiri delicacy Mutton Rogan Josh. There are quite a lot of variations from the original recipe. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients:
Mutton - 500 gms
Oil - 4 tbsp
Onion - 400 gms, finely sliced
Ginger paste - 1 tbsp
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Black cardamon - 2
Bay leaf - 1
Kashmiri chilly powder - 2 tbsp
Fennel powder - ½ tbsp, lightly roast the fennel seeds before grinding
Dry ginger powder - ¾ tbsp
Curd - 250 ml, beaten
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Water
Salt to taste

Method:
Heat oil in a pan, add all the dry whole spices (cloves, cinnamon, cardamon, bay leaf). Add sliced onion. Saute till onions are browned (take care not to burn the onion). Now add ginger and garlic paste, saute for a minute or so. Add the mutton, saute for 2 minutes on high flame. Add water just enough to cover the mutton, add salt. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for about 30 to 40 minutes on medium flame or until the mutton is cooked. Top up with water if you feel water has evaporated during the cooking process. Now, in a small bowl, dissolve the chilly in some water and add to the mutton, mix thoroughly. Now add fennel and ginger powder, mix thoroughly. To this add curd, adjust the seasoning. Cook for another 5 minutes or till the sauce thickens. At this point, add the ghee and switch off the heat.

Enjoy mutton rogan josh with rice or naan.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Kulfi

Summer is around and catching up pretty strong here in Bangalore. What best way to beat the heat than with cold kulfi that is delicious and refreshing. Here I present to you my variation of the kulfi.

Ingredients:
Kulfi -
Milk - 4 cups
Badam - 2 for garnishing
Sugar - 3 tbsp
Instant coffee - ¾ tsp

Coffee-Toffee Sauce -
Butter - 2 tbsp
Sugar - ½ cup
Fresh cream - ¼ cup
Salt - ⅛ tsp
Instant coffee - ½ tsp
Water - 3 tbsp

Method:
Boil milk in a thick bottom pan. On a medium flame cook the milk until it thickens (should take around 45 to 50 minutes). Keep stirring during the process. Once the milk is reduced to roughly ½ the quantity, add coffee, sugar and mix well. Switch off and let it cool. Once cooled pour it into a 4 inch square kulfi mould and put it in the freezer for about 6 to 8 hours.

For the coffee-toffee sauce, heat a thick bottom pan, melt the butter. Add sugar and mix thoroughly. To this add water and let the sugar melt (remember to lower the heat and don't let the sugar caramelize). Once the sugar has melted, add salt and stir in the cream and mix nicely with a balloon whisk. Now add the coffee and let it boil for about a minute. Switch off and cool down the sauce.

Cut thick slices of the kulfi and arrange them on a serving place, pour generous amount of the sauce. Sprinkle some shavings of badam. Enjoy delicious coffee infused kulfi with coffee-toffee sauce (Had a tough time plating, with the kulfi melting pretty fast in the heat).

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Chicken Tikka


Ingredients:
Chicken breasts - 350 gms, cut into bite sized cubes
Lemon - 1
Hung curd - ¼ cup
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Grated ginger - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cardamon - 5
Shahi jeera - ½ tsp
Nutmeg - of whole nutmeg
Wooden skewers soaked in water
Melted butter

Method:
Prick the chicken pieces with a fork. Squeeze lemon over the chicken and mix thoroughly. Leave it for about 5 minutes. Dry roast and grind cinnamon, cardamon, shahi jeera and nutmeg. In a bowl, add curd, garlic, ginger, oil, red chilly powder, ground masala. To this, add chicken, cover the bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven @ 200º C. Arrange the marinated chicken cube on the skewers, brush some butter on top and pop it into the oven. Cook for 25 minutes @ 200º C. After every 10 minutes, flip the skewers so that the other side of the chicken is cooked as well, brush butter on top before putting it back into the oven.

Once done, allow to cool and squeeze some lemon over top. Enjoy the succulent tikkas with onion rings.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Chicken Stuffed Bun


Ingredients:
Bun -
All purpose flour - 4 cups
Active dry yeast - 2 tsp
Water - ¾ cups, luke warm
Milk - 1 cup, luke warm
Sunflower oil  - ¼  cup
Sugar - 1 ½  tsp
Salt - 1 ½  tsp

Chicken stuffing -
Onion - 3 medium, sliced
Minced chicken - 250 gms
Curry leaves - 1 tbsp, roughly chopped
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - ¾ tsp
Ginger - 1 tbsp, chopped
Chicken masala - 1 tsp
Turmeric - ½  tsp
Red chilly powder - ½  tsp
Pepper powder - 2 ½  tsp, freshly ground
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt to  taste

Method:
In small bowl, add water, sugar milk and yeast. Whisk the mixture thoroughly. Let it stand for 10 minute. Add salt and oil to the mixture. Take flour in a large bowl, make a well in the middle and pour the yeast mixture. Sprinkle some flour on the counter top and knead the dough thoroughly to incorporate some air into it. Place it back into the bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Keep it aside in a warm place (around 30º C) for about an hour and half.

Meanwhile, lets get on to making the stuffing. Heat a pan, add oil. Once the oil is hot, add onion, ginger and curry leaves. Saute till onion turns translucent. To this, add all the dry masala (coriander powder, garam masala, chicken masala, turmeric, chilly powder) along with 1 ½ tsp of pepper powder. Saute for around a minute or two. Now add the minced chicken, blend all the onion masala into the chicken. Cover and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat or until the chicken is done. Add the remaining 1 tsp of pepper powder, mix thoroughly. Take it off the heat and let is cool down completely.

By now the dough would have doubled in size. Sprinkle some flour on the counter top, and knead the dough to push the air out (this process is called knocking back the dough). Now divide the dough into 9-10 balls of about 90 gms each. Flatten each ball to form a disc of about 3-4 inch. Place the chicken stuffing in the middle, fold the edges together to seal the stuffing. shape it back into a ball and place on a greased baking tray (Remember to leave some space between the buns, they would further rise while proofing). Once all the buns are stuffed, keep it aside in a warm place for around 30 to 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200º C. Bake the buns @ 200º C for 30 minutes. 10 minutes before the baking is finished, brush some butter over the buns. Place them back into the oven and continue the baking. Once done, allows the buns to cool.

You could replace the chicken with the stuffing of your choice. I suggest paneer would be a great choice for the vegetarians. Enjoy. Please don't forget to give me your feedback.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Vegetarian Pizza

I have always wanted to try making pizza ground up, never had the confidence to attempt the dough and the sauce. Also, I don't believe you can make good pizzas with the ready to bake pizza-base available in stores. But now, having tried couple of bread recipes and pasta sauces I was pretty confident on the outcome.

On a Saturday evening I set out to prepare a vegetarian version, began making the dough, got the desired consistency, and the sauce came out well. I had some regained confidence in me. Baked the pizza, and voilà what a wonderful recipe it turned out to be.

So easy to make, I have decided not to order restaurant pizzas any more. I am sure after you try out the recipe you would more than agree with me :).
Ingredients:
Pizza base-
All purpose flour (Maida) - 4 cups, plus extra for dusting
Water - 2 cups, Luke warm
Active dry yeast - 2 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp
Salt - 2 ¼ tsp
Butter - ½ cup, melted & cooled to room temperature

Tomato sauce-
Red ripe tomatoes - 700 gms
Onion - 1, small sized, finely chopped
Garlic - 3, large cloves
Chilly flakes - 1 tsp
Olive Oil - 2 tbsp
Dried oregano - 1 tsp
Dried basil - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Toppings [You can add your own toppings]-
Paneer/Goat cheese/Tofu - 200 gms, cut into small bite sized chunks
American corn - ½ cup
Green capsicum (bell pepper) - 2, medium sized
Onion - 1 large, thick sliced
Mozzarella cheese - 200 gms
Black pitted olives - 10 to 12, medium sliced
Green Chilly - 2, finely sliced

Method:
In small bowl, add water, oil, sugar, salt and yeast. Whisk the mixture thoroughly. Let it stand for 10 minutes. Take flour in a large bowl, make a well in the middle and pour the yeast mixture. If the dough gets too gooey, let it stand for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle some flour on the counter top and knead the dough thoroughly for about 5 minutes. This will help to incorporate some air into the dough and also activate the gluten.  Place it back into the bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Keep it aside in a warm place (around 30º C) for at least 2 hours.

Meanwhile, lets get on to making the sauce. Cut the tomatoes into half, remove most of the seeds using your fingers. Then cut them into quarters. Heat the oil in a pan, add onion, saute till translucent. Add garlic and the chilly flakes. Saute till the garlic gives off its aroma. Add tomatoes and cook on a high flame till the sauce thickens. With the help of a wooden spoon mash the tomato as much as possible. Add salt, basil and oregano. Cook for another 10 minutes. Switch off the heat, let it cool. Roughly blend the sauce in a blender/food processor. Keep it aside.
Preheat the oven @ 220º C. Keep the toppings within reach. By now the dough would have doubled in size. Sprinkle some flour on the counter top, and knead the dough to push the air out (this process is called knocking back the dough). Divide the dough into two equal portions. I like my pizza crust thick, but in case you like a thin crust, you can make three out of this batch. If you want do not want to utilize the entire dough now, you could wrap it up in a cling wrap and place it in the refrigerator for later.
Roll each portion of the dough into a 9 inch sized disc, place it on to a meshed pizza tray. If you don't have space int he oven to bake all the pizza at once, you may place the rest of the dough in a bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Spread the tomato sauce on the base, cover the base with mozzarella cheese and add the toppings. Pop it into the oven @ 220º C for 20 minutes or until done (preferably in the middle rack, that way it would cook from the bottom as well).
Enjoy delicious pizza straight out of the oven.

Walnut Brownie

A pack of walnut has been lying around for couple of weeks now. Well, what better way to make use of it than bake brownies. Years back I had prepared the egg less version which was too good, so wasn't sure how this would turn out. Well, it turned out quite well and dense in the middle just the way I wanted it to be. I am sure you'll like it as well.

Ingredients:
Walnut - 150 gms
Eggs - 3, at room temperature
Sugar - 200 gms, powdered
Salt - ½ tsp
Baking powder - ½ tsp
Dark chocolate bar - 200 gms
All purpose flour (Maida) - ½ cup
Sunflower oil - ½ cup
Vanilla essence - 1 ¼ tsp
Cocoa powder - ¼ cup
Butter for greasing baking tray

Method:
Preheat oven to 180º C. Grease and line a 9 inch square cake tin with butter paper. In a baking tray, spread the walnuts and roast it in the preheated over for around 5 minutes. Once done, cool it and chop it to small pieces.

Melt dark chocolate in a bowl using double boiler and keep it aside. In a bowl, start beating the eggs one by one. To this, add sugar, oil, vanilla essence, salt. Beat till pale and creamy. Now add this mixture slowly into the melted chocolate, keep beating on a medium speed until thoroughly mixed.

Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the chocolate and egg mixture, fold it nice and slowly until its blended completely. Now fold in the walnuts and pour the mixture into the baking tin. Tap the baking tin on the counter top to remove any bubbles trapped in the mixture. Put it in the oven @ 180º C and bake for 35 minutes or until done.

Hope you enjoy the brownies. Please don't forget to leave your valuable comments.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Chicken Lollipop


Ingredients:
For the marinade -
Chicken Lollipops - 15
Lemon Juice - 1 ½ tbsp
Black pepper powder - ½ tsp, freshly ground
Salt to taste

For frying -
Bread crumbs - ½ cup
Egg - 1 large sized, beaten
Corn flour - 1 tbsp plus extra for coating the lollipops
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Mix all the ingredients for marination and keep aside for an hour.

In a bowl, add cornflour, salt and egg, mix well. Coat the lollipops one by one in corn flour, pat it to remove any extra corn flour. Dip into the egg mixture and coat it with bread crumb. Deep fry on high flame for ½ a minute and then on a medium flame fry till golden brown and done.

Enjoy the lollipops with my oriental dipping sauce.