Saturday, August 30, 2008

Chicken Pasta



Ingredients:
Pasta - 1 cup(uncooked)
Chicken - (either minced or small pieces) 1 cup
Mixed vegetables - 2 cups
Garlic Crushed - 6
Onion sliced- 1 big
Dry oregano - 1 tsp
Dry crushed red pepper - 1 to tsp
Onion Powder - 1 tsp
Aji-no-moto - just a pinch or two
soy sauce - 1tbsp
Method:
To cook the pasta :
Boil some water in a large pan.Add salt.When it bubbles and swirls, add Pasta .Reduce the flame to medium and close the pan with a lid.Cook for 4-5 minutes or until they are ‘just’ soft.Take care not to over cook. Drain the pasta. and rinse it under a running tap of cold water.Drain the cold water and add a tbsp of oil and mix it which will help pasta to be separate and glossy.
To cook the chicken:
Heat some oil in a pan, add the chicken either minced or small pieces , here ihave gotten minced.
add some salt ,pepper to it and saute it until the chicken is cooked. Set it aside.

Now, heat some oil in a pan, and throw in the onions , then add the garlic and then all the vegetables and saute them all under high flame, until the vegetables are crisp and just cook(not too soft/over cooked). Add oregano/dry crushed red pepper/onion powder/soy sauce/aji-no-moto and mix well together along with the vegetables. Add the pasta and cooked chicken to the pan and mix them all together. You may garnish this with some spring onions on the top.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Hong Kong style egg custard


Hong Kong style Egg Tart
Serve 3 – 4. Ingredients: 2/3 cup hot water 1/3 cup evaporated milk 4 Eggs ¼ cup sugar
Method: 1. Dissolve the sugar in the boiling hot water not for too long though. Set aside to cool. 2. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs lightly. 3. Pour the cool sugar syrup and evaporated milk. 4. Strain the egg mixture thru a fine sieve. 5. Pour the custard mixture carefully into the ready made pastry tart.
6. Bring mixture to steam for 15 – 20 minutes.
(or)
Bake at 130°C/260°F/Gas 1 for 45 minutes or until set.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Mint Pulav


Mint Pulav for 2 people:
Ingredients:
Mint - 1 bunch
Green Chillie -5(medium)
Ginger - abour half inch
Garlic - 6
Grind them all together and keep this paste aside.
Oil - 3 tbsp
Cinamon -1, clove -4, somph - 1 tsp, Curry leaves, salt (Accly), any vegetables that could best go along with this rice pulav like cauliflower/carrot/potato - about 1/2 cup, Rice -1 cup.
Preparation:
This is a very easy recipe which could be done within 10 mins (except the cooking time of the rice).
Take a pan , add the oil, add all the dry ingredients first saute it, and add the rest except paste, saute it. Finally add the paste and saute it until the raw smell is gone.
Keep the rice in the rice cooker seperately and add some salt. And now add the contents of the pan to the rice cooker. As simple as that. the process is over.
Mint pulav can be best served with vegetable(carrot/cucumber/onion/jeera) raita.

Chicken Soup


Chicken Soup for 7 to 8 people:
Ingredients :
Onion - 1 (big), Tomato -1(big), Ginger - about 2 inches(juliana), Garlic - about 7(juliana), Green Chillies - 3(slit). Mint/Corriander/CurryLeaves, Cinamon (1), Clove-6, Black Cardomom - 2, Somph - 2 tsp, Egg white - 1(if you like to have egg drop in it), oil - about 3 to4 tbsp
Salt, Turmeric, Chicken - about 4 to 5 pieces pre-cooked , Chicken stock - 20 ounce.
Preparation:
Take a heavy bottomed vessel or a pressure pan prefferably, and first add all the dry ingredients ( Cnamon, Clove, cardomom, Somph) as shown below;

And then, Add the rest of the ingredients like onions, ginger/garlic, tomato, curryleaves/corriander/mint .
Now saute it well untill the raw smell goes off.


Now shred the already cooked chicken into small pieces and add it to the pressure pan. Saute it again for a while. Now add , Salt, turmeric, crushed pepper, and about 20 ounce of chicken stock. And close the lid of the pan and let it pressure cook until a whistle.

Serve the soup real hot.












Thursday, August 21, 2008

Sare Beingan ka salan (Whole Eggplant Curry)

Eggplant Curry Recipe for 4 to 6 people:
Ingredients:
Brinjal - 6 , Onions - 2 medium, garlic -5, Tomato - 1, salt, turmeric, redchillie powder - 1/2 tsp, mustard seeds- 1 tsp, curry leaves, tamarind water - about 4 cups.
peanut -2 tsp, sesame seeds - 2 tsp, coconut powder-2 tsp, Jeera - 1/2 tsp --> Roast them all seperately one by one and grind it into a powder.
Now, saute 1/2 the onion, garlic and add it to the above grounded powder and make it a paste and keep it aside.
Preparation:
Take a pan and add some oil(about -4 tbsp), add mustard seeds , curry leaves and then add onions, garlic, tomato, saute it until the raw smell goes. Now add the paste and saute it for a while. Now add the tamarind water and stir it well, add salt/turmeric and chillie powder to it. Let it boil.
On the otherhand, slit the egg plant from the bottom into 4 pieces without taking off the stalk. Now deep fry the eggplant and keep it ready simultaneaously.
Add the fried egg plant to the curry boiling on the other side. Keep it in sim for about 10 mins.
Egg plant curry is a good combination for Biryani/Rotis/Parathas/Plain white rice.


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Hyderabadi Dum Chicken Biryani

Hyderabad chicken biryani for 4 people :


Take a thick bottomed vessel and fill it with chicken (big pieces prefferably).

Now take 2 big onions and cut them longitudinally and then fry them with 3/4 bowl (about 10 ounce) of oil or ghee. Fry till dark brown. And set aside , sprinkle about 2 pinches of salt to avoid sogging.
Now comes the Marination of chicken. Basically the chicken is marinated with the following things:-
1. Common Masala :
Salt - 3 tsps
RedChillie - 1/2 tsp
GingerGarlic Paste - 2 handfull
Turnmeric - 1/4 tsp

2. Hara Masala :
GreenChillie - 2 Big Ones
Mint Leaves - 1/2 bunch
Corriander leaves - 3/4 bunch
3. Gharam Masala :
Patta - 1 big
Lavang - 4 or 5
Elaichi - 1/2 handfull
Whole PepperCorns - 1/2 tsps
Shazeera - 1/2 Handfull
4. Other Etc Ingredients:
Curd - about 6 tbsp
Lemon - 1/2 of big sized one
Fried onion - (1) big
Little bit of raw Onion (About 5 or 6 longitudinal leaves of the cut ones).
Oil - 1/2 bowl about4 to 5 ounce.

Mix all the above four Masalas and that will look like :

Now, boil the rice seperately. Take a big bowl of water and add the following :
Shazeera - 1/4 tsp
Lavang - 4
Elaichi -7/8
Corriander - 1/2 hand full
Mint - about 10 leaves.
Add 3 cups of rice to the boiling water , and wait till half way cooked about 10 to15 mins barely. Then drain the rice and add it with the marinated chicken in the heavy bottomed vessel.
And then add :
corriander
mint
saffron + milk (or use orange food color)
ELaichi powdered from fresh ones
Rest of the oil
Lemon juice(1/2)
Fried Onions (1)



Then you will have an almost finished product like the below :



Now cover the heavy bottomed vessel with foil and close the lid and pt it in the oven , which has already been preheated at 350 or 400 degree for abt 5 mins. Let it be cooked inside the oven for about 50 to 60 mins. After which take it out and using a spatula see to the bottom of the biryani , if theres any water left more. If so keep the vessel again , but at 200 degree now , for about 10 mins. And then take the biryani out and check for water at the bottom again. There might be a little bit of watery gravy still , but thats fine. Keep it on stove top at high flame for 10 mins.

Biryani process is over. Serve the biryani with brinjal curry or raita which is the most popular combination .




Courtesy: My Friend Aliya.