Daily Archives: May 14, 2014

Lemon Honey glazed salad

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : nil

Serving : 4 to 6 members

Description

Lemon honey glazed salad. A very simple salad which is very healthy lightly flavored and very tasty. Salads are always a great healthy eating options but to make them tasty as well is a challenge . These sort of recipes everyone can make even beginners to children. This salad is sure a treat for health fanatics. I ,myself have started working on salads very recently . I have succeeded to a certain level that 30 percent of my experiments in salad end up tasting good. This salad is so colorful and appealing to the eyes. I was so very excited about the results when i tasted it finally.

Ingredients for Glazed Salad

Ingredients	Quantity
Onion	1 chopped
Tomato	1 chopped
Capsicum	1/2 chopped
Red pepper ( capsicum )	1/2 chopped
Yellow pepper ( capsicum )	1/2 chopped
Baby corn	2 sliced thinly
Pomegranate kernels	1/4 cup
Carrot	1 medium size cut into small bite size cubes
Coriander leaves	1 tablespoon chopped

Ingredients for dressing

Ingredients	Quantity
Olive oil	1 tablespoon
Honey	2 tablespoon
Lime juice	1 1/2 tablespoon
Salt	to taste
Pepper	to taste

Method

Mix the dressing ingredients together well . Mix all the salad ingredients together .
Mix the dressing into the salad ingredients . toss well , making sure the dressing has coated the salad ingredients all over .
Keep in the refrigerator and serve cold .

Chicken 65

Preparation Time : 30 minutes + 4 hours for marination

Cooking Time : 10 minutes for each batch deep fried

Serving : 4 to 6 members

Description

Chicken 65. A regular dish at home. Any special occasion or have guests coming home chicken 65 is a must in the table. chicken 65 is the best combination for Biriyani , ghee rice , plain rice with sambar , rasam , curd and even with parota , idiappam , appam .Actually it’s good with antyhing and every thing. Though have eaten chicken 65 from my childhood days never knew how to prepare this dish . When i was newly married was invited to my aunt shajithas (my mom’s 3rd sister)place in Salem for a grand feast . As we had 2 more newly married couples (my hubby’s cousin)along with us, was helping my aunt in the kitchen. Took note of her deep frying the chicken 65 and the chicken was raw marinated in masala. I told her the chicken is not cooked and how will it get cooked by just deep frying . She told me it will get cooked and this is the speciality of chicken 65 as it gets cooked in hot oil. I was really surprised to know this fact then.

Ingredients for Main dish

Ingredients	Quantity
Cleaned chicken	1/2 kg ( cut into bite size pieces )
Ginger garlic paste	1 teaspoon each
Chilli powder	1 tablespoon
Turmeric powder	1/4 teaspoon
Curd	1/4 cup
Cinnamon	1 inch piece
Cloves	2
Cardamom	1
Pepper powder	1/4 teaspoon
Cumin powder	1/4 teaspoon
Lime juice	1/2 lime
Vinegar	1 teaspoon
Salt	to taste
Orange Red food colour	a pinch
Cornflour	1 tablespoon
Maida	1 tablespoon
Egg	1
Oil	to deep fry

Ingredients to Garnish

Ingredients	Quantity
Capsicum	1 cubed
Onion	1 cubed
Curry leaves	few
Green chillies	2 cut into long stripes

Method

Grind all the ingredients together except for the chicken to a smooth paste . Marinate chicken in the masala paste for 3 or more hours .
Heat oil to deep fry in a heavy bottomed pan . Fry chicken pieces in batches 6 to 8 pieces at a time for 8 to 10 minutes .
First 2 minutes on high heat and then on medium heat for 5 minutes and another 2 minutes on high again . This way you get a crisp out side and a soft , moist cooked flesh inside .
Once all the chicken pieces are fried and drained . Deep fry the garnish items for 30 seconds in hot oil . Drain .
Garnish over the chicken 65 and serve hot with lemon wedges .

Spaghetti pricked sausages in Alfredo sauce

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

A genius idea to serve spaghetti that I got to see in a picture in the world wide net . Gave it a try but with my twist of serving it with Alfredo sauce . It taste Devine and now a staple at home. .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Spaghetti	1/2 packet
Sausages	6 cut into 2
Olive oil	2 tablespoons
Garlic	1 crushed
Onion	1 chopped
Flour	1 tablespoon
Milk	2 cups
Salt and pepper	to taste
Cheese slice	2
Dried basil , oregano , chilli flakes	to taste
Grated cheese	to garnish

Method

Prick spegati into sausage bits . Boil in salted water and drain and set aside .
Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil, add 1 crushed garlic and 1 chopped onion . Saute to golden brown , add 1 tablespoon maida fry for a minute with out burning .
Add 2 cups milk , season with salt and pepper . Keep stirring .add 2 cheese slices and melt them .
Garnish with dried basil , oregano and chilli flakes . Add the boiled spaghetti .
Serve hot with grated cheese.

Carrot pudding

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 25 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

Carrot Pudding . I got this recipe from my aunt Thasneem (moms last sister) long back and tried it once immediately back then. But didn’t like it much as the baking part kept me uncomfortable with this dish. Now that i have come out of the fear of baking its ok. I felt the pudding alone to be served seemed bland so i have added a carrot custard sauce to be served along. Which really lifted the pudding to another level. Everyone at home liked the pudding a lot. Making desserts with vegetables is one great idea to get children and every one to eat vegetables.

Ingredients for carrot pudding

Ingredients	Quantity
Carrot	2 big grated
Butter	2 tablespoons + to grease
Bread slices	8
Milk	1 cup
Cinnamon	2.5 cm
Cardamom	2
Cloves	1
Eggs	2
Sugar powder	1/2 cup
Ginger	1/4 teaspoon grated
Vanilla essence	1/2 teaspoon
Salt	a pinch

Method for carrot pudding

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius . Cook butter and carrots together on high flame for a minute . ( I microwaved for a minute ) .
Trim the crusts of the bread slices . Soak the trimmed bread slices in milk . Powder the spices together . Beat eggs , sugar , vanilla essence , ginger , salt and spice powders together .
Stir in cooked carrots and soaked bread mixture and mix in altogether .
Pour into a greased baking dish and bake in a preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until cooked through , when inserted with a tooth pick in the Center comes out clean .
Serve hot or cold with carrot custard sauce .

Ingredients for Carrot custard sauce

Ingredients	Quantity
Carrot juice	2 cups
Sugar	to taste
Custard powder	3 tablespoons
Butter	1 teaspoon

Method for Carrot custard sauce

Mix all ingredients together and heat over a medium flame in a non stick pan .
Stirring continuously till you get a thick flowing consistency custard which is mild orange coloured .
Remove and serve poured over the carrot pudding hot or cold .

Mutter paneer

Preparation time : 15 minutes

Cooking time : 20 minutes

Serves : 6 members

Description

Mutter paneer . A pure vegetarian dish i have been waiting to post for a very long time , my cousin brother Shabu’s (Ahamed shah) wife Zarina (baby as well we call her) called me one day asking for a recipe with paneer.Mentioned this recipe and she made it with out the green peas. My cousin liked it so much that he had the left over in the morning along with dosa the next day . She did send me pictures as well. The original recipe demanded cashew nut paste but as she was out of stock of the ingredient. I asked her to substitute it with coconut paste.She asked another doubt about her paneer pieces being hard always. I asked her what she does to the paneer . Her reply was i soak it in water, cut into cubes and then fry it . I told her you have to first fry it and then soak it in salted water till required to use in the dish. This helps the paneer to stay moist and don’t waste the soaked water. Use it for the matter paneer dish which adds a lot more flavour than adding just water. These small things make a great difference to the dish.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Paneer	1 cup cut into cubes , fried in 1 teaspoon oil or ghee and soaked in salted water
Green peas	shelled and boiled 1 cup
Onions	2 sliced fried in 1 teaspoon oil to translucent and ground to a smooth paste
Tomato	3 big ground
Salt	to taste
Onion -	1 chopped
Cumin seeds	1 teaspoon
Chilli powder	1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder	1/4 teaspoon
Coriander powder	1 tablespoon
Cashew nuts	1 tablespoon
Poppy seeds	1 tablespoons ,( kasa kasa )
Fennel seeds	1/2 teaspoon
Sugar	1/4 teaspoon
Ginger garlic paste	1/2 teaspoon each
Garam masala powder	1/4 teaspoon
Fresh cream	1 tablespoon
Coriander leaves	few chopped
Oil	4 tablespoons

Method

Grind cashew nut , poppy seeds , fennel seeds together to a smooth paste . Heat a kadai with oil .
Add cumin seeds . Once they crackle top with chopped onions and fry to brown . Add ginger garlic paste and fry to crisp .
Pour the ground tomato purée . Saute till oil floats and raw smell has gone . Top with ground onion paste and fry for 3 to 4 minutes .
Top with chilli powder , turmeric powder , coriander powder , garam masala powder and salt to taste .
Fry for a minute and pour enough water to get a thick consistency gravy and boil till all the flavours infuse together and raw smell vanishes .
Add the boiled green peas and the cashew nut , poppy seed paste and mix well . Bring to boil . Add sugar , fried paneer and mix well . taste and adjust seasoning and add more water If Required .
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and fresh cream . Serve hot with chapatis , pulkas , paratha s , rotis etc.

Home made pizza

Preparation Time : 50 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

Pizza . One among the international dishes i got to know as a kid . During our holidays my brother and myself were given pocket money of 15 rupees each every day . Which was used for 2 movie video tapes and a pizza or a burger from J.M English bakery in Coimbatore. So most of pizza eating was done with J.M Bakery’s pizza’s.The word pizza brings another hilarious thing that happened when i had an outing with my childhood friend alamu and her sisters. We went out to an eat out place to have a brunch.All were busy ordering whatever wanted. One of us ordered a pizza.While we were waiting for our order to come, we just went through once again as what each of us had ordered. Some one told pizza’s as 2 of us ordered pizza. My friend alamus little sister meena started crying out loud. We not knowing why she is crying started consoling her.Then meena told i am scared of pisasu (meaning ghost in tamil)she thought pizza’s were pisasu.We all burst out laughing and till date we call Meena pisasu. While in roam on a holiday my first thing to do in my list was to eat a pizza.Went to a small place where they had huge trays on one side of the store filled with trays of different flavoured pizza’s. Being on the safer side asked for a vegetarian pizza.The lady asked me how many centimetres ? I was like centimetres ?????? sounded wired but that’s how pizza’s are sold in italy as they bake huge trays of pizza and each person gets their share in centimetres.

Ingredients for Pizza

Ingredients	Quantity
Yeast	1 tablespoon ( good quality must for good results )
Oil	1/4 cup
Maida	1 1/2 cup
Warm water	1 tablespoon
Salt	1/2 teaspoon
Egg	1
Sugar	30 grams
Milk	1/4 cup

Method for Pizza

Dissolve yeast in warm water with 1/4 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon maida .
Keep covered with a wet cloth for 10 minutes to ferment . Beat egg , oil , sugar and salt together in a bowl .
Pour milk at boiling point to the bowl (of egg , oil , sugar and salt ) and mix well with a wooden spoon till sugar dissolves .Seive maida .
Add maida in small quantities to the milk egg mixture along with fermented yeast mix and knead to a smooth dough .
Don’t have to add all the maida , when the dough is soft , stop adding maida . Knead well . Place the dough in an oiled bowl .
Cover with a wet cloth and set aside for proving for 30 -40 minutes . Roll out into big circles on a greased tray .
Keep aside for another 5 minutes and then bake till light brown at 200 degree Celsius . Take out . Cool to room temperature .
Spread the filling and put bake for baking for another 5 – 10 minutes till cheese melts .

Ingredients for Filling

Ingredients	Quantity
Tomato	1/2 kg ( blanched , peeled and blended )
Capsicum	2 chopped , ( green 1 , red 1 )
Onion	2 chopped
Egg	1
Celery	2 stalks chopped
Spring onion	2 chopped
Baby corn	1/4 cup cut into thin circles
Olives	1 tablespoon sliced
Garlic	8 flakes ground
Ginger	1 inch piece ground
Chilli powder	1 teaspoon
Sugar	1 teaspoon
Oregano	2 teaspoons
Cheese grated	100 grams
Butter	1 teaspoon
Tomato sauce	1 tablespoon
Sausage , chicken , mutton or paneer	1 cup shredded ( optional )
Tomato puree	1/4 cup
Chilli flakes	to taste
Egg white	1 seasoned with salt and pepper to taste and beaten ,
Olive oil	2 tablespoon

Method for Filling

Heat olive oil add onion and fry for a minute , top with ginger and garlic paste .
Once crisp add capsicum , celery , spring onion , salt , oregano and baby corn and sauté for a minute . Remove from flame and set aside .
Heat the blended tomato , chilli powder , sugar ,salt and tomato purée together to get a thick sauce . Add tomato sauce and cool down completely to to room temperature .
Add a beaten egg and mix well . Taste and adjust . Spread this sauce over the pizza base .
Sprinkle with 3/4 of the cheese , spread the onion , capsicum mixture over . Top with sliced olives and sausages , mutton , chicken or paneer of your choice .
Sprinkle remaining cheese over . Dot with butter and brush with egg white and bake in a preheated oven for 5 – 6 minutes .
When cheese melts , remove , cut into wedges and serve hot garnished with oregano and chilli flakes .