Chicken Korma

Chicken Korma , said to be originated in Central Asia is consisting of meat or vegetables braised in a spiced sauce made with yogurt cream, nut or seed paste. I have had this dish many times in restaurants but never tried at home. Yesterday when I was chatting in a whatsapp group of my home town in Assam, one of our friend has posted a chicken korma recipe. It was so easy and simple when I went through it that I decided to make it for lunch today. Moreover PB is down with fever and as obvious wanted some spicy food which would suit his taste bud now. Very minimum ingredient , very simple steps to follow. And the taste is just so amazing. In this recipe there is no use of nuts or cream as the traditional way of making korma requires.

Ingredients:

Chicken: 500 gms
Curd: 4 tbsp
Milk: 1/2 cup
Onion: 1 medium size finely chopped
Garlic,ginger & onion paste: I used one small piece of ginger, 5-6 cloves of garlic & a small onion & made a paste altogether
Green chillies: 2, cut into halves
Bay leaf: 3
Cardamom: 4-5
Cinnamon : 4
Cloves: 3-4
Raisin: 1 tsp
Sugar: 1/2 tsp
Ghee: 4 tsp
Salt to taste
Garam Masala: 1 tsp
Coriander & cumin powder: 1 tsp each
Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp (Kashmiri mirch)
water if required
Fresh coriander to garnish

Method:

Clean & wash the chicken. Marinate with the curd and salt. Keep it for abut 15 minutes.

In a pan heat ghee, add the bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and allow them to crackle. Now add the chopped onion first & fry. Then add rest of the ingredients, fry them and add some portion of the milk and mix everything well. Cook till you get a creamy gravy like consistency. Add the marinated chicken now and mix well. Cook for about 5-10 minutes in low to medium heat with lid on. Finally add the remaining milk , stir and cover with the lid and let the chicken cook in low to medium heat.. Check & stir in between till the chicken gets  tender (approx. another 10-15 minutes) .In case you find the gravy becoming dry add some water. Check for seasoning.

Transfer the chicken korma to serving bowl and garnish with coriander. Serve  hot with rice or roti.

 

Easy peasy breakfast option Veg Sandwich

Days when I feel lazy to make an elaborate breakfast I opt for this easy simple sandwiches to go with our tea. Best part is you can add as many vegetables as you want. This time I just replaced mayonnaise with curd. Tasted just the same and less calorie intake too.


Ingredients:

Brown bread: 3 slices
Butter: 1 tsp
Curd: 2 tbsp.
Vegetables: half cup chopped (I used bell peppers of all three colours, purple cabbage, onion. You can add corn/spinach/carrot)
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Few drops of oil

Assembling:

Take the curd in a bowl, whisk it till you get a smooth creamy consistency. Add all the veggies and salt , pepper and mix.

Take the bread slices and apply butter on each.

Now spread the curd and veggie mixture on one slice , cover with another slice with the buttered side down. Now again spread some of the mixture on the top of that slice and cover with remaining slice with the buttered side down.

Heat the tawa and smear some oil. Now place the sandwich on tawa till you get the dark brown colour on both sides of the sandwich.

Put the flame off and transfer the sandwich to your chopping board and cut diagonally or in whichever shape you want to.

 

Creamy & fluffy instant coffee

Weather in Mumbai these days is just awesome. Though I don't like rain but I like to cook & eat spicy food in this beautiful weather. And a nice hot cup of tea or coffee. I am not a coffee person but as always the kitchen cabinet has coffee available most of the time. So I thought to make one for me this morning. See this coffee and decide yourself if you want to make this easy to make gorgeous looking coffee.

Ingredients:

This measurement is for one cup only

Instant coffee: 2 tsp (I used Nescafe)
Sugar: 1 tsp
Cream: 1 tsp
Milk: 1 cup

Directions:

In a big mug take the coffee and sugar. Mix them very well with a spoon.

You need very hot milk for this because this needs lot of whisking which would make your coffee cold by the time you finish making it.

In the same mug add the cream and mix with the spoon till everything combines and dissolves. Do it for few more seconds, be patient enough. Now add the milk in small small portions and with the help of a balloon whisk , whisk the coffee as much as you can till you see the froth forming. Keep adding the hot milk from height and whisk. Repeat the process until the foam looks nice and creamy.

Now pour the coffee into the coffee mug. Allow the foam to come out by shaking your wrist side to side while pouring it. Or you can use a spoon to take out the foam and place it on the top of the coffee. Dust some cocoa powder on it and enjoy your creamy fluffy hot coffee.

 

Home-made Mint chocolate chip ice-cream

 

Mint chocolate chip ice-cream is one of a kind. The mint flavour in every bite of it is something that will give such a freshness to your taste bud. This is my personal favourite flavour. And then the choco chips to it add the extra magic here.

I have made kulfi at home before but never tried ice-cream. My little girl has been insisting me for quite a long time. But to my fear of not having an ice-cream maker at home I had dropped the idea every time. Last time  when she asked me again I told her if she does well in her exam this time then this home-made ice-cream would be her treat from mamma. She agreed and she proudly kept her promise too. Now there was no escape for me. I had to try this. So here I am with the simple easy ice-cream recipe without  ice-cream maker. It does take time no doubt about it but the result would definitely make you feel on top of the world :).

I would recommend you to start preparing the ice-cream from the previous night to avoid that long waiting time for setting the ice-cream.

Ingredients:

Milk: 1 cup
Cream: 1 cup (I used amul fresh cream)
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Mint leaves: one handful - If you have mint extract/essence, you don't have to use fresh mint leaves
Egg yolk: 3
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Choco Chip: as much as you want actually. I added one handful

Procedure:

In a large saucepan add the milk and add the mint leaves, crushed with hands a bit. Bring it to boil once and keep in simmer , stir in between. You need to keep checking whether the mint is releasing its flavour and aroma to the milk. Once it is done , remove from flame. Let the milk cool down and strain it. Discard the leaves.


Take egg yolks in a large bowl, add the sugar and whisk it well to get the fluffy texture.

Once again put the milk on gas in the saucepan and now add the cream & vanilla essence as well. Keep it in simmer and once it reaches the boiling point, put the flame off. Add few spoons of this mixture into the egg sugar mixture and combine well (this step needs to be followed to avoid your egg yolks getting cooked while pouring directly into the hot milk & cream mix).

Add this egg mixture to the milk cream mixture in the saucepan, and cook for about 2-3 mins or till you get a thick consistency of the custard. Put the flame off. Strain once again to avoid any lumps.
Let it cool down.

Now in another large bowl or flat rectangular glass dish (glass/steel/plastic) pour the mixture and cover it with a cling sheet touching the mixture/custard. Keep it in refrigerator for 4-5 hours or overnight. I kept it overnight. Take the bowl out, whisk the mixture (I used my balloon whisk) and add the choco chips. Mix everything well again. Cover it with an aluminium sheet now and keep it in the freezer. Now onwards the most lengthy task begins. After every 15-20 minutes you need to take out the custard, whisk it , then cover it again and back in the freezer. This you have to do for couple of times say 4-5 times. I exactly did it for 6 times and then only I got that creamy texture of the ice-cream.

If you have ice-cream scooper its well and good.  I don't have , so I used a round big spoon to take  out my ice-cream and serve it to my girl and PB. Though he did not get what the flavour was (as expected). But the little girl just got it right with one bite of it. My foodie girl she is :-) . My next experiment would be a chocolate coffee ice-cream, again her suggestion !!

Enjoy !