Tangy and Spicy Chili

Sauteed  and salted chili are my all time favorite with samosa; I do have them as a side dish with rice, especially with curd rice. My grand mother used to have raw chili's with curd rice, I tried it too, but it didn't work that great because, I started to see tears in my eyes, you could imagine how spicy it would be. But do not worry, here is the simple recipe with less spice.

Ingredients:

Long Red chili (I used Finger chili)- 5

Lemon juice 1tbsp

salt to taste

oil 4tbsp

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Slit chili along length wise on one side, remove seed if you wish, add very little amount of salt in the slit. Add them to the hot oil and saute them till they turn medium brown. Remove them from the pan and sprinkle some lime juice on top of it. There you go, spicy and tangy chili are ready to serve. Hope you enjoy my recipe, please do not forget to comment on the post and keep visiting!!!! :)

Tandoori Chicken legs With Puff pastry

Tandoori chicken is always my hubby's favorite snack. I prepare this for every special event in my house. This time I want to try something different but I do not want to disappoint him, by not making tandoori chicken. So, I tried keeping the tandoori taste same but wrapped it in a puff pastry and he liked it very much. It not only tasted wonderful but also looked like something that a professional chef presents. He was so surprised to learn that I made it. My love and bond for cooking is very strong, and getting very intense that it is  making me very professional everyday. If I were allowed to do something other than studies, then I would  immediately take spoon in one hand to cook and camera in one hand to capture frame to frame of my recipes and share with you all. My passion for cooking and photography is that zealous.

Now coming to the recipe


Ingredients:
Chicken legs---7
Curd/Yoghurt---1cup
Tandoori barbecue/barbeque masala----4ts
salt to taste
chili powder---1ts
coriander powder--1ts
Lemon juice---4ts
paprika/red color--pinch (optional- i did not add)
onions, cilantro and lemon for garnishing
Ginger garlic paste-2ts
Zip lock bag
Puff pastry sheet-1

Method:

1. Remove skin and clean the chicken drumsticks.
2. Make 6-7 deep cuts on each drumstick and keep aside
3. Now prepare marination by adding all ingredients(Curd+BBQ masala+salt+chili powder+coriander powder+lemon juice+color) in a large bowl and beat them till it attains uniform color.(2-3min)
4. Now coat each drum stick with this masala.
5. Add remaining marination along with drum sticks in to zip-lock bag and close the bag.
6. Mix by turning bag upside down 2-3 times.
7. Keep this in the refrigerator and incubate overnight.(or minimum 2-6hrs)
8. Next day, take the drumsticks out of the bag and place it on the tray that is warped with aluminium foil and greased with oil.
9. Bake at 500F for 20-25min turning at regular intervals.
10. Now, when the Tandoori chicken is almost 90% done take it out and let it cool to room temperature.  
11. Take the puff pastry out, cut a 1/2 inch strip along length wise (The longest side of pastry).
12. Now take this strip and roll it around the pastry. 
13. Refrigerate for 10min and bake it for 20min at 450F (or follow the instructions on the pastry box). 
14. When done take them out and serve hot. 

I hope you like this recipe and please leave your comments as a token of appreciation. Thank you for visiting my blog, and keep visiting for more wonderful recipes.

Dry fruit & nuts semiya Payasam!!! yum yum

Semiya Payasam (Kheer), was all time favorite for me to cook, because it is simple and delicious. I prepare this yummy payasam for my hubby, he is not-so-sweet tooth but loves this payasam. Dry fruits are very healthy as they provide instant energy along with good fats and  proteins. So, I always try to combine dry fruits with almost all the sweet dishes I prepare. We all know that eating sweets is unhealthy, so I substitute 1/4th of the payasam with all the dry fruits that I have and make it little healthy.

I always keep dry fruits handy, you can find them in the candy section of every grocery store. This pack shown below was bought from Sam's club. It costs about $7.00, and it was enough for 6months at least for both of us. It got raisins, almonds, cashew nuts, dry mango, dry banana, dry coconut strips, dry pine apple (one of my favourite) and many more fruits. The only thing that biased me with this pack is that, each fruit is coated with sugar, next time I'll make sure that I'll buy non-sugar coated dry fruits.

Now, coming to the recipe

Ingredients:
Ghee/Butter- 1tbsp
Dry fruits & nuts-1cup (160ml cup)
Thin Semiya (Broken pasta, Italian style)- 1cup
Sugar-3/4 cup or to taste
Milk-3 cups
water-1/2cup
Cardamom powder-1/4tbsp (Freshly ground)

Method:

Heat  ghee in a thick bottom pan under medium flame. Add dry fruits and semiya and roast it till the semiya turns light brown. Add 1/2cup water and 3cups milk. Adding water first will protect the milk from sticking to the pan.  Now, cook this mixture till it comes to a boil and add sugar and mix well. when the sugar is completely dissolved add cardamom powder and turn off the stove. Let it remain for about 5min on the heat from the turn off stove. If you like your payasam thick then add leas milk or substitute 3 cups of milk with 1cup condensed milk + 2cups of regular milk.  Serve hot and enjoy with your family.

Party Potluck Recipes

Last week we had a small potluck party. I was very excited, like everyone does to impress the them. The time was short and I did a lot of browsing to search for any Indian potluck recipe. But, I could not find many and the one that I found were taking pretty long time to cook. So, I stopped browsing and looked around my kitchen to find what all I have. If you are preparing for a potluck you have to make in a large portions (of course, our potluck gathering was very small, but what if  it was bigger?) just look around your kitchen and find the one that is in larger quantity and you many not use it again (Such  as instant cake flour), and try to prepare from that. If you are a person like me who prefer to make desserts only on special occasions then I bet you should have lots and lots of instant mixes like gulab jamun and cake mix in your store room.  Just move their butts out and start making them.  I prepared chicken tikka masala, chicken 65 and paniyaram/ ponganalu for the party and they were pretty impressed.

Now here are the tips that you can make the simple food look delicious. Always, garnish food with colorful decorations. There decorations make food even more appitizing. If you are going to bake the food, always prepare them before the party day and refrigerate them and try to bake them before the party begins. If you were to take them to different place then, bake on the day before you leave.

Here are the recipes that you can prepare for the potluck or Big party.

Western Recipes:

Empanada

Burger Patti

Mushroom Cheese Pizza

Shell curry puffs

Vegetable Hakka Noodles in Indian style

Banana chocolate chip Rasin Muffins

Spinach Cheese Pin wheels

Chocolate chip Cup cakes

Phyllo sheet recipe

Indian/Desi Recipes for Potluck or Party:

Bakharwadi

Moong Dal Halwa

Spring rolls with semiya

Soya chunks Vegetable Biryani

Naan Pizza

Mushroom Samosa

Sweet potato Puffs

Masala Vada

Double ka meeta

Fruit salad

Non-Vegetarian Party or potluck Recipes

Chicken 65

Chili chicken

Chicken Biryani

Chicken Pakodi

Tandoori chicken

Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Apart from this you can arrange some fresh vegetables along with variety of dips available in the market.