Pepper Chicken Fry – Simply Spicy

Do you love black pepper? I do. Black pepper is one such spice that virtually can be utilised in every cooking and culinary medium and preparation, often yielding mouth-watering results. Below is my black pepper chicken fry recipe, a painless easy to do dish. This Pepper chicken fry goes extremely well with any dish and it serves as a great appetizer too. If you have a sizzling hot plate like the ones at restaurant, serve it on the hot plate for extra sizzles!!

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole Chicken (about 1 kg)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 3 tbsp Oil
• 2 Onions, chopped
• 8-10 Curry Leaves
• 1/2 cup Coriander Leaves, chopped

Spice Paste:

• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Red Chilli powder
• 1 tsp coarsely ground Black Peppercorns
• 1 tsp Cumin powder
• 2 tbsp chopped ginger
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• Red Chilli flakes

Method:
1. Wash and clean the chicken and cut into 8 pieces.
2. Grind fine, all the ingredients for the spice paste.
3. Marinate the chicken with the paste for 1 hr and place chicken in a pan with 1 cup water, salt.
4. Cook over medium heat until chicken is tender. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions and curry leaves until the onions turns golden brown.
6. Add the cooked chicken and red chilli flakes and fry for 5 minutes or until quite dry.
7. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with roti or bread.

Rajma Curry

A curry prepared using Rajma (Kidney beans).  This is very popular in Punjab and is served with plain Rice/roti…. Packed with proteins, soluble fiber, carbohydrates, folate, iron, manganese, zinc and more, this recipe is ideal for people who want to control cholesterol. Even though, this dish is heavy, it tastes good and is nutritious as well. In addition, it is very easy to prepare, consumes less oil and can make a meal complete. You may substitute Rajma with white beans or green gram as well.

Ingredients

• Rajma 1 cup
• Medium size onions 4
• Medium size tomatoes 3
• Red chilly powder 1 teaspoon
• Garam masala powder 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoon
• Ginger garlic paste 1 teaspoon
• Green chilly paste 1 teaspoon
• Oil 2 tbsp
• Milk 1 1/2 cup
• Salt to taste
• Corriander leaves to garnish

Method:

1. Soak rajma in boiled water for about 45 minutes.
2. Pressure cook rajma with salt, red chilly powder, garam masala powder turmeric powder & salt till done.
3. In a karahi take oil fry onions till they turn into golden brown, add finely chopped tomatoes & let it cook. Keep aside.
4. When cool grind this onion & tomato mixture to smooth paste.
5. Add this paste to the cooked rajma with the green chilly paste, ginger garlic paste & milk.
6. Simmer it to about 15 minutes.
7. Garnish it with lots of corriander leaves. It tastes great with chappatis & pooris.

This is my entry for

Eggplant Burji (Brinjal masala)

For those eggplant lovers, this is an ideal side dish for Chapati/roti.

Ingredients:

• 2 big eggplant
• 1 red onion
• 1 tomato
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 4-5 curry leaves
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 green chillies
• 4 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 tbsp sour cream
• little amount of mustard,cumin seeds
• salt as per taste
• 1 1/2 cup of water
• Oil

Method:

• Finely chop brinjal add little amount of salt and tsp of ginger garlic paste n marinate for about 1/2 an hour,thn squeeze the water from brinjal and keep aside.
• Take a pan add tbsp of oil(i used olive oil) and shallow fry the eggplant till it gets crispy,u have to fry this for abt 15min in medium heat and keep aside.
• Add oil in frying pan when it is hot add mustard,cumin seeds,curry leaves,green chillies fry for a min,Add onion and fry it till it turns golden color now add tomatoes.
• (tomatoes have to be chopped finely)when it gets nicely mashed off add chili ,cumin,coriander powder add water cover it off.
• Now add the fried eggplant ,sour cream and coconut milk and little water,let it boil for 2min finally add salt to it.
• When it comes to semi gravy turn of the heat.
• Serve it hot with chapati, roti.

This is my entry for Jai Ho Brinjal event hosted by Jayz Kitchen.

Bread Pudding (from leftover bread sides)

Whenever I(we) make sandwiches, I(we) cut off every sides of the bread. I cannot stand sandwiches with the brown edges still intact. But at the same time, i don’t like the sides to be thrown into the dust bin…so what do you do with them?? Sometimes, I powder them to make bread crumbs and while thinking to do something different with them…. there came this dessert idea…So next time you make sandwiches, pls don’t throw away those sides…do save them in the refrigerator to come up with this tasty pudding!!

Ingredients:

• Leftover bread sides or 6 slices of bread teared into big pieces
• 1 tbsp Amul butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp chopped nuts (cashews/almonds)
• 3/4 lt milk
• 1 egg
• 5-6 tbsps sugar (adjust)
• 1/4 tsp grated lemon rind or cinnamon pwd
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• raisins and cashews for garnish

Method :

1. Add milk and chopped nuts to the bread pieces such that they are well soaked and keep aside for 5 mts.
2. Beat egg in a bowl, add sugar, vanilla essence and lemon rind and combine well.
3. Pour this mixture to the bread-milk mixture and combine.
4. Grease a pan, pour the bread mixture into it, top with raisins and cashew nuts. Seal with aluminium foil.
5. Place in a steamer or pressure cooker that is filled with 1 1/2″ of water. Steam on high flame for 15 mts.
6. Turn off flame and allow to rest for 5 mts. Remove foil and cool.  Cut into pieces and serve.

Kinnathappam – A pick from my mom’s best recipes

Being my first post after a break due to my dear Mom’s demise, i thought of publishing a dish that i learnt from my late mom.  Lot of memories about mom lingers on my mind while writing her recipe for “Kinnathappam“…….

Kinnathappam is our famous traditional sweet and it’s a must on Eid and all other occasions in our house. It’s again a tamil / mallu duo cuisine… Kinnathappam, which can be translated to english as ‘kinnam’ which means ‘plate’ and ‘appam’ means ‘cake’. This traditional dessert still exist even after the advent of other fancy desserts and this has to be made with utmost care and attention to achieve the perfect taste and look.

While making this, I felt my mom’s presence all the time and was missing her a lot.. Her tasty kinnathappam cannot beat anyone’s how much ever the effort is…and may her triumph as the queen of our house remain forever and may her soul rest in peace………

Ingredients:

• Raw Rice – 1cup, soaked in water for 3-4 hrs (You may also use a combination of Idli Rice and Raw Rice)
• Egg-1 or 2
• Sugar- 1/2cup – 1 cups( depends on your taste)
• Coconut milk, from fresh grated coconut -1 3/4 cups
• Cumins seeds – lil
• Cardamom whole – 2
• Ghee- 1-2 tbsp

Preparation:

• Soak 1 cup of rice in water overnight.
• Strain the soaked rice and grind it very smooth.
• Beat egg well and gradually mix in sugar and beat well.
• Add in the coconut milk and beat well.
• Finally add the grinded batter to the egg mixture and beat it.
• Strain this batter through a muslin cloth or a strainer with tiny holes. This would help to remove any coarse particles in the batter.
• Add Cardamom powder and cumin seeds to the batter.
• The batter constituency should not be too thick or too watery; it should have in between constituency.
• If you feel that the batter is thick, use more of the thin coconut milk or water to thin it down.
• Grease the stainless steel or cake pan with ghee.
• Pour the batter on to a stainless steel plate which usually comes with the steamer or a cake pan would work.
• Steam cook it for 15-20 minutes in medium heat, until a fork inserted into it comes out clean.

This can be served either cold or warm.

This is my entry for