Buttermilk Chicken With Spiced Onions >> Knockout Stuff!

This one comes from Ruma ma originally, via Moon. Both, established cooks, and in the family :-). I totally love this recipe, simply because of its sheer simplicity. What a modest recipe!! No really, it has a kickass and a totally knockout taste and yet sooo simple to make.

Don’t believe me? The see for yourself!

 

You’ll need:

500 gms chicken- with bones are better.

1 1/2 cups of buttermilk (I used the Dairy farmer’s one and it was fantastic)

1-11/2 onions- thinly sliced

Oil – 4-5 tbsps (yu’ll need a wee bit more for this recipe)

1 tsp- red chilly powder

For seasoning- 1/4 spoon methi/fenugreek seeds, 1/2 spoon mustard seeds, 2 –3 pinches of asafetida/hing, 4-5 cloves) – the seasoning is Very important. Do not miss out on any of these. (I also added whole pepper corns and saunf/Aniseed. You may or may not add)

Sugar- 1/2 teaspoon (must)

Salt to taste

Method

Fry the sliced onions in 2 tbsp oil until brown.  Add the red chilly powder to this. Drain on a tissue, keep aside.

Add the rest of the oil to the pan and once hot, add the seasoning. Add chicken to the seasoning and fry well, until semi cooked. This should take about 6 –7 minutes. Now pour the buttermilk over the chicken, cover with lid and simmer for 6 minutes. Take off lid and let the buttermilk evaporate completely on medium flame. Once the buttermilk evaporates, add the spiced onions set aside to the chicken and mix well. Add salt and sugar. Serve hot with steamed rice and Dal! Aweeeeesome. I swear!

A BIG hug to Moon for this one.

Veggie Starter > Raw Banana Patties!

 

Last Saturday when R told me our invited guests were vegetarians, I had a real challenge to encounter! I cook veg  food but I wasn’t sure how an all veg meal will turn out to be! At the end it turned out just right, despite all the nightmares!Will post all  the stuff I made in separate posts. For now, I wanted to share the entre which they totally loved! Tiny raw banana patties.

You’ll need :

2  big raw bananas

2-3 medium sized potatoes

2 onions chopped

Coriander leaves

1 spoon grated ginger/ginger paste

1 spoon red chilly powder

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon Garam Masala

Oil or ghee – 2 teaspoons

Salt to taste

Method: Boil the bananas and potatoes together (u can pressure cook – if you do pressure cook, then only wait for one whistle or a max of two).  The idea is not to make the mash too soggy- so they need to boil just right :). Peel them and mash it together.

In a pan add oil/ghee and sauté  chopped onions until translucent. Add ginger and sauté some more. Add turmeric and chilly powder and mix well. Now add the mashed banana and potatoes to this mixture and mix well until the masala blends with the mash. The mixture shouldn’t be watery/soggy as I mentioned earlier. The patties won’t be firm, then. If you feel it is, then add bread crumbs to this. It soaks up the excess moisture. Add garam masala and coriander powder and mix again and let it cool. Once cold, make tiny patties of them and pan roast them with little oil/ghee. Serve with tomato ketchup.

You can add boiled veggies like peas and carrot and also raisins/sultanas to make this more nutritious and tastier! Its a sure shot winner – its tasty, nutritious, and not deeeeep fried!  Try it :)

Ek Kali Do Pattiyaan

I am looking for inspiration. And I get oodles of it from my cuppa Darjeeling. A long while back, I wrote a post on Cha, on Butkintuparantu. Adding the link here. And if any Makaibari cha lovers are reading this post, make sure to watch this video, to see and know everything about Makaibari.

Wake up and smell the tea :-).

 

Have a lovely, inspiring weekend. Ciao.

Egg-xotic

 

Aziz Bi taught me to make this, and I make it very often. Especially when I am in a mood for something tangy and different. You can’ t go wrong with this- some people even mistake it for a bake! Simple yet exotic! Try it and lemme know :)

1. Chop one big onion and one big tomato.

2. In a pan pour 3 teaspoons of oil and sauté the onions until brown.

3. Add 1 teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste and sauté for 2 minutes.

4. Add tomatoes, mix. Add 1 teaspoon of red chilly powder, pinch of turmeric, salt, 2 teaspoons of tomato ketchup and 2 pinches of sugar . Mix well and wait for tomatoes to soften as shown in the picture.

 

 

5. break in 3 eggs

6. Break the yolks over the tomato paste

7. DO NOT MIX

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. 8.Cover with lid over very very low flame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Wait for 12 minutes, till the egg is cooked.

10. Serve with rotis or hot steamed rice as a side.

Roasted!

Are you one of those who can eat just about anything that is baked? I am, and love my oven. Here is a quick veggie roast, if u are in the mood for some diet meals that taste great. The simplest thing I have ever made, this is a must make if you like veggies.

All you need to do is put together your favorite veggies- cut into big chunks. In an oven proof dish, lined with aluminum foil, add the veggies, whole green chillies, whole garlic, sprinkle salt, sprinkle oregano, two teaspoons of tomato based pasta sauce (optional), and spray some olive oil. Bake at 180-200 degrees C for about 30 minutes or till the veggies turn brown.

Eat it like an entree or main with bread.

Variations – use mustard sauce, or just red chilli powder, dhania (coriander powder) and salt.

I used egg plant, tomatoes, beans, onions, capsicum, carrot pumpkin, and potatoes for the roast. Whatever you use, do use pumpkin and tomatoes! You can add bits of chicken, if you can’t bear te thought of just vegetables! Just coat the chicken with pasta sauce and add.

It might not look the most appetizing, but take my word, it tastes out of the world. I should have spent some time in presenting the dish! Next time perhaps. :)

Till then, eat well and cook up some great meals.

Raw Banana Koftas/Kaanch Kolaar Kofta >> Via Amma

I am not going bananas- he he, not yet! I thought while, we are at bananas, why not add another banana post. Only, this one has to do with raw bananas. This post is for Amma, our cook in Hyderabad- at my In-law’s place. She has been with us for close to 13  years now, and continues to support the house hold. Kaanch Kolaar Kofta or Raw Banana Koftas , in Bengali style is one of my husband’s favourite. And Amma made it well, when she was in a good mood, of course. I make many versions of this. Here is Amma’s version.

Steps:

1. Pressure cook 2 raw bananas with 2 potatoes. 2-3 whistles are enough.
2. Once done, peel off the skin form the bananas and potatoes and mash it in a bowl.
3. Add to this mash one small chopped onion, green chillies, salt, Garam Masala powder, a handful of chopped coriander leaves an mix well.
4. Make round balls of this mash. If the mash is too soggy, then add a spoon of gram flour or besan to this.
5. Shallow fry this. Be careful with this, the kofta balls tend to break. Be gentle in turning them. Drain the fried Koftas.
6. In a non stick pan, pour 3 tablespoons oil.
7. Add whole spices- a few cardamom, a small stick of cinnamon, 2-3cloves, and 1 bay leaf.
8. Add 1 big chopped onion to this and sauté till it browns.
9. Add ginger and garlic paste and sauté some more.
10. Add tomato paste or puree, 11/2 spoons of Dhania/coriander powder, red chilly powder, 1/4 spoon sugar, 1/4 spoon turmeric powder. Mix well and wait till oil separates.
11. You can add green chillies if you want it spicier.
12. Once the oil separates pour one big cup of hot water and bring it to a boil. Don't be very conservative with water- you can add another half a cup.
13. The Koftas tend to sap all the gravy, so you need not worry about the gravy going too watery.
14. Once done the gravy boils well, sprinkle with Garam Masala, and add coriander leaves to it.
15. Transfer this to the serving dish and let it cool down a bit.
16. Once its warm, add the Koftas, else they will break. Do not add the Koftas to hot boiling gravy.
17. Enjoy with hot steamed rice or rotis!

 

Other versions:

1. If you are watching your diet, you can pan roast the banana koftas. Just make flat patties and roast them like we do with tawa cutlets.

2. Some add cream, to make the gravy richer

3. Dip the round kofta balls in a batter of gram flour/besan and deep fry them, for a totally different taste.

4. Instead of chopped onions, if you have the energy and inclination, add onion paste, that makes the gravy thicker.

So long, then!

Walnut Banana Bread >My Daughter’s Current Favourite

when my daughter says- ‘My favourite’ to something edible, it somehow becomes my moral responsibility to make it myself at home, instead of buying it readymade. I haven’t understood the nature of this mad streak in me, yet, but for now it seems to satisfy her immensely. So be it baby cupcakes or banana bread, I'd rather bake them at home, than pick it from the supermarket or the local baker.

There’s one more thing- each time I make a very complicated dish, like say Dum Biriyani, preparations for which, which span over 2 days, my husband only comments on the taste and never about the effort. But when I bake something like a banana bread or a cheese cake, he  looks at the piece of creation in mock disbelief. Its strange that he never thought baking banana bread at home was possible. That’s R for you.

The bread was awesome, you know. It was my first attempt and it came out just right- like the ones my daughter picks from those Boost Juice bars….so yaaay to my banana walnut bread. Here’s how you make it- its simpler than making a cuppa coffee.

 

Method:

Mash 3 ripe bananas in a wide mouthed bowl. Add 3/4 cup of brown castor sugar and 1/2 cup of softened butter. Mix well with a spatula. Add two beaten eggs to this and mix again. Add 2 spoons of sour cream (optional)to this mixture and beat more till the mixture is creamy.

In another bowl take 1 1/2 cups of self raising flour and sift it with 1 spoon of cinnamon powder. Add chopped walnuts (as much as you’d like- I added about half a cup of them), to this. Slowly add this mixture to the wet batter and mix well. Add 3/4 teaspoon of salt and 1 spoon of Vanilla extract. Fold with the spatula.

Grease a bread making dish and pour batter into this. preheat oven to 180 degree C and then bake the bread for 40 minutes or till its crisp golden brown.

Slice it and have it hot and fresh with a cuppa or leave it for the next day, when you toast it and spread butter over it to be instantly transported to bliss land.