Chicken Roll

My all time favourite chicken roll be as a snack or dinner or lunch ! I so clearly remember when we use to indulge into these street foods during our college days. Whenever we go to the market it has to be our evening snack. I liked it having from those street side stalls only and never ever tried to make it at home. After we shifted to Bombay from Kolkata I could not find the type of roll I use to have in Assam or in Delhi/Kolkata. Only thing I got to eat is Frankie everywhere with lots of masala inside and very oily & juicy, which was not my kind of a roll. Two and half years spent and I hardly had this Frankie for twice or thrice. This year's monsoon started and I craved for my yummy chicken roll. Did not think of going anywhere to search for it and decided to make it at home. And I nailed it at the first attempt..exactly the way I like it. Now my girl wants it in her tiffin once in a week at least. PB too loves it this way only ..lot of chicken & vegetables , less oil, minimum masala and not at all juicy.
Enjoy this hot crisp chicken roll with your evening hot cup of tea or coffee.

Ingredients:

Flour/Maida: 2 cups
Chicken  (boneless): 1 cup cooked (I pressure cooked with two whistles and sliced them)
Vegetables: 1/3 cup (I used capsicum, carrot, cabbage - julienned)
Onion: 1 large sized thinly sliced (divide the sliced onion into two portions)
Green chilli: add as per your taste - I didn't use
Coriander powder: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: a pinch or two
Tomato ketchup as much as you require to spread over the roti
Lime juice 1 tbsp
Oil "
Chat masala for garnishing
Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Luke warm water to make the dough


Method:

Make a soft dough with flour, salt, 1 tsp refined oil and required quantity of water. Keep it covered to rest for about 10 minutes or so.

In a pan heat 1 tbsp oil and stir fry one part of onion and vegetables. Add salt, coriander powder & chilli powder and cook in high flame for about a minute or so. Now add the chicken and mix everything well and fry till the chicken pieces gets a brownish colour. Remove from flame.


Make equal medium sized balls from the dough. Roll each ball to flat round (roti) with the rolling pin.

Heat a tawa/griddle, add little bit of oil and cook the roti. Once you are done with making the rotis, take one by one and spread tomato ketchup/chilli sauce or any green chutney of your choice on one side of the roti. Now place the veggie and chicken mix in one corner of the roti and sprinkle some chat masala, lime juice, coriander leaves & sliced onion (which we had kept aside in the beginning) and roll the roti. Take a sheet of aluminium foil to cover the roll from one end. You can use toothpick also and insert it through the roll for binding it. Repeat the same with all the rotis.

Now serve this yummy chicken roll hot and enjoy with your favourite hot cuppa.

 

Prawn Fried rice

It was weekend and had to make something nice for dinner. Weekend outing and lot of sea fish shopping :) ..Basa , surmai & prawn. I wanted to cook goan prawn curry but the ingredients seemed to be unavailable & hence dropped the idea. Also PB said not to make any dal or curry. Instant dish came to my mind - lets have prawn fried rice with surmai fry. It came out to be tasty juicy and full of flavour. Here is the recipe for you.. Sorry  I could not take the stepwise pictures this time as I was in a hurry preparing the same after getting home late. Shall update as and when I cook it again.


Ingredients:

Prawn: 250gms (cleaned, washed. Make sure you soak the water after washing them)
Basmati Rice: 1 cup (washed & cooked)
Spring onion: 2 (sliced)
Garlic: 5-6 cloves grated
Carrot: 1 cut into juliennes (you can use other vegetables as well e.g. beans/capsicum)
Green chilli: 1-2 (optional)
Soya sauce: 2 tsp
Vinegar: 1 tsp
Chilli sauce: 1-2 tsp
MSG (ajinomoto): a pinch (avoid if you don't want to use)
Salt to taste
Oil: 2 tbsp.



Method:

If you pressure cook the rice, take it out to a bowl or dish & spread with a spatula/spoon once the cooker releases the pressure on its own. This will prevent the rice from sticking to each other.


Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Fry the spring onions & garlic together till translucent. Add the prawns and fry till they turn into light brown colour. If the prawn releases water, fry them till it dries up. Now add the chilli and vegetable. Fry in high heat stirring continuously for a minute or 2. You don't need the veggies to get cooked completely. Time to add the ajinomoto, salt, cooked rice and then the sauces ,in no particular order. Mix everything well , again in high heat and stir continuously. This would take you about 2-3 minutes or so. Put the flame off and transfer it to a serving dish/bowl.

At this stage you can sprinkle some more chopped green part of the spring onion and also sprinkle some scrambled egg. This will give you a nice crunchiness in every bite of this yummy prawn fried rice.

 

Shahi chicken or shahi murg

Shahi chicken/murg a mildly spiced creamy gravy with the richness of cashew & almond. This particular chicken preparation is different from the regular chicken curry and taste a bit sweet and sour. If you want a variety in your chicken dishes from the regular spicy ones then this will a be wonderful choice for you. You will see a variety of recipes for shahi murg if you search for it. I often make shahi paneer/nawabi paneer at home which we all like very much but never thought of preparing chicken this way. As its weekend and we always like to have something special and this weekend I had less time as I am a bit busy with little girl's exams. So I  thought of not cooking the same chicken butter masala or regular chicken curry and decided to cook shahi chicken with some tawa roti & pulao. I quickly took out my shahi paneer recipe from my blog and started preparing for the same.

Once I tasted the chicken I was just wondering why I didn't think of doing this before. It looked superb, tasted very nice with the aroma of whole garam masala, the rich nutty flavour & the creaminess. Do try this dish in your kitchen and if you do , share your feedback.




Ingredients:

Chicken: 1 kg
Onion: 2medium sized
Ginger: 1 medium sized
Garlic: 5-6 pods
Green chilli: 1 or 2
Cardamom: 4-5
Cinnamon: 2 sticks
Cloves: 3-4
Bay leaves: 2-3
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Curd: 2-3 tbsp
Ghee: 2 tbsp.
Milk: 1 or 2  tbsp.
Fresh cream: 1-2 tbsp. (optional)


Dry Ingredients:
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Garam Masala powder: 1 tsp
Kasoori methi: 1 tsp (I didn't use it as was not available)
Salt to taste


To soak & grind: soak for about half an hour
Almonds: 12-14
Cashew: 12
Poppy seeds: 1 tbsp.
Melon seeds: 1 tbsp
Raisins: about a handful.


Water as required.

Method:

Clean and wash the chicken. Keep aside.

Cut the onions and make a paste with ginger, garlic and one green chilli .

Now make a smooth paste with the ingredients mentioned under to soak & grind with milk and some water. Do not forget to peel off the skin of almonds after soaking it for about half an hour.

Heat ghee in a kadhai/pan. Add cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves and allow to splutter. Add onion ginger garlic chilli paste and fry till it turns slightly brown. Add the masalas mentioned under "Dry ingredients" except garam masala. Fry them for a minute or two.

Now add the chicken and break the remaining chilli & throw into it. Mix everything well and cover with lid in low flame.

Slow Cook the chicken for about 10-15 minutes, checking and stirring in between. Now add the curd and pour in the almond-cashew paste, add the garam masala .

 

Give it a nice mix. Cover with lid keeping the flame low to medium. Keep checking in between and add half cup of water , stir and again cover and let it cook. After some time when you see the gravy thickening put the flame off. Add the cream and stir once.

Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with coriander leaves & some almond flakes (optional). Serve hot with rice /roti.

 

Eggless Mango Mousse

Mangoes are in season & in plenty . Could not stop myself from making mango mousse at home before they vanishes out of the market. A simple & easy to prepare dessert made of lovely ripe mangoes and fresh cream. This one is eggless but I have used gelatin in it. You can omit gelatin if you want. I had one packet at home so I thought of using it to set the mousse.  I often make mousse without gelatin as well and keep the mousse in refrigerator for some extra minutes to set, so you can avoid using it.

You can serve this no fuss dessert with minimum ingredients in parties at home with friends and family by preparing it a day before and serve chilled.


Ingredients: (Yield: 3-4 servings)

Ripe Mangoes : 2 large sized chopped
Heavy cream: 1 packet (I used Amul whipping cream of 200 ml)
Powdered Sugar: 1/3 cup (you can increase or decrease quantity as per your taste)
Gelatin: 1 tsp

Method:

In a small bowl take warm water and dissolve the gelatin.

Make a nice puree of the chopped mangoes in a grinder.

In a clean chilled steel bowl take out the cream, add sugar and whisk until it becomes fluffy and reaches soft peaks. Keep aside.  I used the electric beater. You can do it with the balloon whisk also. Keep aside some amount of whipped cream for garnishing.

Now fold this cream into the mango puree, add the gelatin and combine all with the beater in low speed till everything is incorporated.

Now transfer the mousse to glasses/dessert bowls, cover with foil and keep in refrigerator to set for at least half an hour. Before serving , garnish the mousse with whipped cream that was kept aside in the beginning on it and optionally a few mint leaves. Enjoy this chilled dessert.

 

Rava Surmai Fry

One more surmai fry recipe that has become a favourite of us which I made last sunday. An easy peasy & wonderful dish to serve best as starter to your guests too. 


Ingredients:

Surmai Fish: 4pcs
Plain flour: 2 tbsp
Ginger Garlic paste: 1 tbsp.
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Freshly grounded cumin: 1 tsp
Garam Masala: 1 tsp
salt to taste
Black pepper powder: 1 tsp
lemon juice: 2-3 tsp

&
Oil for deep frying
Rava: as required to coat the fish
water as required to prepare the batter

Method:

Clean and wash the fish and keep aside.

Prepare a batter by mixing the flour and rest of the above mentioned ingredients except the oil & rava in a large mixing bowl with sufficient quantity of water. While preparing the batter keep it in mind that the batter should neither be too thick nor too runny. Should be thick enough to coat the fish properly. Marinate the fishes in this batter for about 10-15mins..

Heat enough oil in a heavy bottomed pan/kadhai.

Take the rava in a dish. Coat the marinated fishes with the rava properly.

Deep fry them one by one on both sides till they are golden brown in low to medium heat. Keep them on a tissue paper.

Enjoy this hot crisp fried surmai soft inside as a starter with your choice of sauce/dip or with your regular rice/dal meal.

.

Mutton in a tomato gravy

Mutton curry goes so well with Indian bread (roti/ naan ) or even with a hot bowl of steamed rice. Though eating mutton is not a regular affair at home keeping health concerns in mind and also because of the long preparation and cooking time I am reluctant to cook mutton very often. And whenever I do , I cook it in pressure cooker only to save my time. This sunday I cooked the mutton in tomato gravy with lot of garlic. It came out awesome with the perfect colour and taste. We had it with our garlic naan. Oh what a lip-smacking meal it was !! This is again a pressure cooker version only.

Do check this recipe and try in your kitchen.

Ingredients:

Mutton: 1/2 kg
Onion: 3 large sized
Garlic: 10-12 pods (keep aside few as whole)
Ginger: 1 medium sized
Green chillies: 1 -2 or more depending on your taste bud
Tomato: 2 nice red large sized
Bay leaves: 2
Cinnamon/cardamom/cloves : 3-4 of each
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Freshly grounded cumin : 1 &1/2 tsp
Meat Masala: 2 tsp
Garam Masala powder: 1tsp
Salt to taste
Mustard Oil: 3 tbsp.
Chopped coriander leaves for garnishing
Water as required

Procedure:

Clean & Wash the mutton . Heat one pan/kadhai and dry roast the mutton till all the water evaporates and the mutton becomes dry and take a brownish colour. Keep aside.

Make a paste of onions, garlic, ginger, green chillies in a mixer. Keep aside.
Cut tomatoes and make a puree out of it in a mixer.

Heat oil in a clean kadhai/pan. Add the Bay leaves, Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and allow to splutter.

Now add the onion/garlic/ginger/green chilli paste, fry them till turn into golden brown. Add the tomato puree and mix everything well.
Add all the dry masala (except the garam masala) & salt as mentioned above and keep frying till the tomato is cooked.

Time to add the mutton. Mix everything well and stir for few seconds in medium to low flame. Add the whole garlic pods that was kept aside in the beginning.

Cover with a lid keeping the flame in low. Keep checking in between. After repeating this for few minutes say 4-5 minutes, add hot water , give it a nice stir and cover with lid in low-medium-low flame. Slow cook the mutton for about say 15-17 minutes or so. Keep in mind to stir in between.
Once the gravy starts thickening put the gas off.

Transfer the mutton with the gravy to the pressure cooker (add water if required) and put on gas stove and pressure cook upto 5-6 whistles. This will again depend on the mutton quality and softness you want of the meat. Mine one took 7 whistles to get the softness we like. Let the pressure releases on its own.

Now transfer the mutton gravy to the same kadhai/pan, add garam masala and bring it to boil. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves , transfer to a serving bowl. Serve with hot rice/naan/roti.

 

Garlic Naan

Making garlic naan at home was a long pending task. As on weekends we prefer to take lunch & dinner sitting together at home so the food has to be an elaborate affair. Rest of the days I always have to eat lunch all alone and most of the times its a one pot meal for me. This sunday morning we planned to have mutton and sea fish. Then I thought of naan which is a deadly combination with mutton curry. So there was no waiting , we got home the fish and mutton and I got into it asking PB to look after the girl's studies for a day. As they both sat and started the maths chapters I started my preparations for lunch. Though making naan is a time taking process but this hard work pays off well once you get a satisfying result. We three loved our sunday meal. My little girl was happy having naan at home.

You may have seen a lot of different processes on how to make naan at home. I choose this one and it worked for me.


Ingredients:

Flour/Maida: 2 & 1/2 cups , extra for dusting
Active yeast: 1/2 tbsp.
Sugar: 1/2 tbps
Salt: 1 tsp
Curd: 1 tbsp.
Milk: few tbsp. (4-5)
Warm water: 1/2 cup
Finely chopped garlic: 10 pods
Butter: as required to smear over the naans
some chopped fresh coriander leaves

Procedure:

In a small bowl take the warm water and add the yeast, sugar, salt and mix it well with a spoon till it dissolves. Keep aside for the first proofing.

Take a large bowl, add the flour, curd and the proofed yeast. Add spoon by spoon the milk and keep mixing. Check for the consistency of the dough because if you pour the milk altogether the dough might turn into a running consistency. After adding all the ingredients you will see a sticky dough which is what we require.

 Now dust some flour on your kitchen work space and knead the dough there till it becomes smooth by kneading it for about 5-7 minutes. In case you find the dough still sticky, you can always add flour.

Transfer the dough to a bowl and cover it with a wet kitchen towel and keep in a warm place for about an hour for the second proofing. I kept it near by gas stove only as I was cooking the mutton by that time. You can keep the dough inside your oven keeping the light on. After an hour you will see the dough doubles up.

Now take it out and give  two three punches on it and start kneading for another 5 minutes or so. Divide the dough into equal sized medium balls. Roll them with  the rolling pin to your desired shape. I have rolled it to oblong shapes.

 

 

Heat the tawa in medium flame.
As shown in the picture, sprinkle some of the chopped garlic on one side of the naan and press them with your fingers.

Turn over the naan on its back and smear few drop of water on that side.

Place the naan with the side with water on the tawa. It will get stick to the tawa because of the water.

Now flip the tawa and cook it in the flame as shown in the picture, keeping an eye on the naan not to get burnt by flipping and lifting the tawa. At this stage in case if your naan doesnt get stick to your tawa while flipping, do not panic. With the help of a tong/flat steel spatula , cook the naan directly on flame.

Once your naan is cooked and it gets the brown spots on it, transfer the naan to a dish and apply some butter on both sides and sprinkle some chopped fresh coriander leaves. Repeat the same process for the rest of the balls.

Serve hot with any veg/non-veg gravy and enjoy.