Chilli Chicken

CHILLI CHICKEN

One of my favourites considering I luuuuvvvvv Chinese cuisine as its easier on the palate and stomach. My mum used to make this quite often at home and I was longing for it again. Zeroing down to Valentine's Day (yipee, yeah Yesterday !!!) for this special treat, I hopped along to the market on Saturday and bought the ingredients for Chilli Chicken.

So let me share the ingredients and the recipe with you here. I couldn't upload any photos as they didn't turn out very well and did not look like the exotic Chinese Chilli Chicken which I had conjured up and my hubby loved.  A great Valentine's Day gift , right to the man's stomach :)

INGREDIENTS 

Boneless chicken /fresh chicken - 1 kg 500 gms (chopped into medium size)
Soya sauce -  3 (use the spoon you will use for cooking and stirring)
Red Chilli sauce  - 2 (use the spoon you will use for cooking and stirring)  Tip: If you are using green chilli sauce, add according to taste
Vinegar -  2 (the same spoon)
Tomato ketchup - 2 (the same spoon) or as per taste
Garlic flakes/pearls - 8 (chopped fine)
Ginger - 1/2 an inch (chopped fine)
Ginger - garlic paste - 2 tsp (for added flavour)
Capsicum - 1 large (cut in strips)
Onions -   2 medium (chopped fine)
Green chillies - 2 (slit)
Cooking oil - to fry the chicken
Salt - according to taste
Cornflour - 1 tsp    Tip: If you don't have cornflour, improvish by mixing 1 tablespoon of maida(all purpose flour) with 3 or 4 tbsps of milk into a thick pouring consistency .
Optional - 2 eggs (beaten well)

If you are adding a combination of  tomato - chilli sauce add according to taste

MARINATE 

Clean the chicken and marinate it with soya sauce, vinegar, chilli sauce, tomato sauce overnight in the fridge.

COOK

1) Pour enough cooking oil in a frying pan to shallow fry the chicken. Remove the chicken pieces and fry. Set the marinade sauces aside in a bowl. Once done, remove onto a plate or kichen towel. You can also coat the chicken pieces with beaten eggs and roll in cornflour and fry. Set aside.

2) Then in the same oil, fry the chopped garlic and ginger, capsicum, ginger-garlic paste, chopped onion and slit green chillies.

3) Then add the sauces from the marinated chicken. If it is not sufficient, then add some more sauce according to taste.

4) Boil well.

5) Add the cornflour slowly and thicken.

6) Add the fried chicken and mix well.

SERVE

Serve hot with Chinese Fried Rice.

Quick and Easy Breakfast (in Style)

Breakfast in Style

This is quick , tasty and wholesome. Makes a good wholesome breakfast, a light lunch or .. maybe a snack.

Ingredients -
Ham - 2 slices (just increase the quantities as required)
Salami - 2 slices (just increase the quantities as required)
Cocktail sausages - 3
Eggs - 1 (whipped)
Salt - a pinch to taste
Pepper - to taste
Onions - 1 large/2 medium (chopped)
Tomatoes - 2 medium (pureed)
Utensil used - frying pan
Cooking oil - 1 tbsp

Method -
1) Chop up the onions and fry well till brown.
2) Then add the tomatoes and fry well.
3) Fry the cold cuts as slices (its easier that way) separately and keep aside. Chop into tiny bits. You may chop the cocktail sausages into small rounds.
4) Add the whipped egg to the onion and tomato fried mixture.
5) Add salt and pepper and mixture well till the egg is fried and is broken into small bits.
6) Add the fried coldcuts and mix well.

Serve with warm toast or make a sandwitch. I had this with a hot plate of rice, a piping hot bowl of dal, and papad. Simple, tasty, wholesome.

Yellow Rice

YELLOW RICE

The perfect accompaniment to the Meat Curry I posted earlier under the category Meat dishes.

This is a typical Sunday Anglo-Indian meal. Yellow rice and chicken/meat curry.

Ingredients : -

Rice - 1 cup

Onion - 1 large (sliced lengthwise)

Cooking oil - 1 tbsp

Cloves, cardomoms, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns - 2 0r 3

Bay leaves - 2

Turmeric (haldi) - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Hard - boiled eggs - for garnishing

Process :-

Heat the oil. Add the sliced onion, fry till golden brown. Remove a little and set aside for garnishing.

Add raw rice to the fried onions in the pan.

Stir vigorously to prevent sticking. Add salt and whole spices, turmeric and bay leaves. Add water (enough to cook the rice, about 1 cup less than double the quantity of rice e.g. 2 cups rice, 3 cups water).

Cook covered on a low flame for about 10 mins after the water comes to a boil. The cooked rice must not be soft but firm.

Garnish on top with fried onions set aside and sliced hard-boiled eggs (typically arranged along the circumference)

Meat Curry

It' s Sunday and the day called for some wholesome Beef Curry for Sunday lunch. So I headed to the market, bought 500 grams of beef and sauntered home to cook it. The curry has a three fold purpose which I discovered when the day has ended with dinner, which I will elaborate a little later. So here goes for all beef lovers…

BEEF CURRY
(Multipurpose )

Cooking time - about 30 mins.

Ingredients : -

Beef - 500 grams (chopped into bite size pieces)
Cardamom (elaichi) – 3
Cinnamon (dalchini) – 1 inch piece ( broken into 2)
Big Cardamom (badi elaichi) – 1
Cloves (laung) – 5
Bay leaf (tej patta) – 1 (broken into 2)
Peppercorns – 3
Ginger – 1 inch (chopped into 3 pieces)
Salt to taste
Cooking oil – 1 cooking spoon
Turmeric (haldi) - ¼ teaspoon
Red chilli powder (Kashimiri chilli /partially spicy) – 2 teaspoon
Coriander powder (dhania) - 2 teaspoon
Cumin powder (jeera) - 2 ½ teaspoon
Garam masala powder – ¼ teaspoon

Pepper powder – ¼ teaspoon
Ginger – garlic paste – 2 teaspoon
Onions – 2 (large – chopped finely)
Tomatoes – 1 (large / 2 medium – chopped finely)
Potatoes – 2 small (chopped into half)

Preparation :-
1) Clean the meat, wash it thoroughly and drain out the water.
2) Parboil the meat with whole spices (garam masala), salt to taste and chopped ginger in a pressure cooker for 3 whistles on slow fire.
3) Heat oil in a cooking vessel. Add chopped onions and fry well till soft and brown.
4) Add chopped tomatoes and fry in the oil till soft, on slow fire. Add water a little at a time to form a thick paste.
5) Now mix in all the powdered spices along the garam masala powder, pepper powder, ginger – garlic paste and fry well in the oil. When the oil starts separating from the mixture, add a little water at a time and keep stirring and mixing.

NB: for White/steamed rice - liquid gravy – add sufficient water to the masalas and boil well, add parboiled meat and potatoes and cook completely. Check for salt.

For Yellow rice/peas pulao / chapattis / roti / paratha - thick gravy – add a lttle water, enough for the meat to completely cook. Check for salt. Lessen water for desired thickness.

Leftover meat –
1) Take out the meat pieces and fry as it is or along with fried sliced onions, whole red chillies and peppercorns. Wow!! a side dish to accompany a vegetable dish if you feel like non-veg with it.

2) If there is white rice - Take a frying pan, heat a little oil, fry sliced onions. Put in the white rice, fry a little in the oil, add meat pieces, mix well. Add the thick part of the gravy and mix well. Voila !! An impromptu meat pulao.

Last of all, you must tell me how this went at your home. I would love to hear.

Simple, Easy Chicken Curry

Chicken curry is a basic in every non-vegetarian home. But a thought struck me the other day that there may be some one who is just starting out and has no clue as to how to go about preparing a simple, everyday Chicken curry. The someone may be a newly married bride, a bachelor, a girl away from home and mom's cooking etc. etc. anyone..... So I decided to add this to my Non - Vegetarian menu.

Simple, Everyday Chicken Curry

Ingredients :

chicken - 1 kilogram
onions - 2 (big) finely chopped / pureed

tomatoes - 2 (medium)
haldi (turmeric) - half tsp
red chilli powder - 2 tsp
jeera (cumin) powder - 1 tsp
dhania (coriander) powder - 2 tsp
ginger - garlic paste - 2 tsp
cooking oil
salt - to taste

Process :

Heat oil. Fry onions till light brown.
Add ginger - garlic paste and chicken pieces and fry well till golden brown.
Add the spices and fry well.
Stir in the chopped/pureed tomatoes and mix well.
Cover with a lid and let it cook for 15 - 20 minutes till chicken is tender.
Garnish with coriander leaves.

Note: this will be a little dry and can be eaten along with chapati/rotis/parathas.
If gravy is required, you may add a little water and mix well. To be eaten with hot steamed rice.