Daily Archives: August 12, 2014

Indo – Chinese batter fried chicken

Preparation Time :

Cooking Time : 30 minutes + 2 hours marination time

Serving: 4 members

Description

Indo – Chinese batter fried chicken . A fusion dish invented by my mom . Mom is a person who cooks food for moods and just throws in any ingredient that she feels like and comes up with fresh ideas and incredibly flexible dishes . Most of the time it works and some times it doesn’t and no one can name a dish ( or anything actually ) like she does . She comes up with such witty names . When my daughter was here on a holiday , she asked me to make this dish and I was like what ???? As I didn’t know about this fusion invention that mom had attempted . Called mom , took note of the recipe and played by substituting a few ingredients to my preference . The marriage of indian and Chinese cuisine resulted in a knock out dish with an explosion of different flavours . This dish works really well with kids . Called mom again to re- conform the ingredients . The first time she mentioned small onions and this time it was big onions . As I told , moms cooking depends on her mood . The next thing was I had to name this dish . Called my daughter and asked her . She suggested indo – Chinese bajji . I replaced the bajji with batter fried and named the dish indo – Chinese batter fried chicken . In total this dish is a collaboration of three generation ideas put together .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Boneless chicken cubes	1/2 kg
Egg	1
Ginger	1 inch piece
Green chillies	6 to 8
Small onions	1 hand full
Garlic	4 to 5 flakes
Vinegar	1/4 teaspoon
Chick pea flour	2 tablespoons
Rice flour	2 tablespoons
Corn flour	2 tablespoons
Salt	to taste
Lime juice	1 teaspoon
Ajinomoto	a pinch ( optional )
Oil	to deep fry

Method

Blitz small onion , green chillies , ginger and garlic to a coarse mixture . Make sure not to grind to a paste .
Mix along with all the other ingredients except for oil to deep fry to a thick consistency batter .taste and adjust .
Set aside and marinate for 2 hours or more . ( I marinated in the morning by 10 and deep fried in the evening for tea ) .
Heat oil in a deep vessel and drop the chicken pieces along with the batter coated all around .
Once the chicken pieces pop up to the surface . lower the flame to medium and Fry to a light golden colour and crisp .
Make sure not to burn the chicken pieces as we need a white coloured crisp batter fried chicken .
Drain and serve hot with tomato sauce and hot tea or as aside dish for lunch or dinner .
the same recipe can be followed and done by substituting prawns for chicken .
Vegetarians can use mixed grated veggies like potato , carrots , cabbage and cauliflower instead of chicken .

Prawn pirattal

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 – 20 minutes

Serving : 3 members

Description

Broke my head over about what to start with as suddenly my mind is blank and just can’t register or re – collect any thing about this dish or prawns . Asked my boy Afzar and he was like all smiles and told I don’t want my story to be out in your web site . With no one to help me out this time ( as usual ) I just have to go with my own gut I guess . Coming to the dish ( feel a bit geared up now ) , a deceptively simple dish that let’s the prawn speak for it self with out using much ingredients and done in a few minutes other than the marination time . Finally the bulb moment has come now as I have a story about prawns to tell all of you . I have been to Mumbai a couple of times but each time there’s a big gap until my next visit again . Once when on a shopping trip for my brothers wedding we were caught up in traffic in the evening as it was raining heavily and had a long tedious drive back to the hotel as the local rails were stopped and the roads were flooded with people . We were a mixed group of kids , teenagers and adults . The kids ( actually my boy Afzar alone, still remember the fuss he made :-)) ) were getting hungry and not knowing what to do caught up in traffic , my uncle spotted a small shop beside the road selling some thing . He ran out in the rain from the car and got many huge paper cones . It was boiling hot with an inviting aroma , opened and to my surprise it was tiny mildly spiced prawns fried to crisp that was a budget friendly way to feed our Crowd too .My boy Afzar was around 5 years then and he jumped with joy seeing the prawns . All of us being busy munching the hot prawns , I was feeding my boy as well in between and in a few minutes he dozed of to sleep after a tiering day of shopping . It was intriguing and gratifying how all genders ( young and older ) loved this prawn dish . Till date he keeps asking me to prepare a fried prawn like that and I have tried my best to get close to the dish but my boy is not satisfied as yet . I guess the hunger prank that day made the prawn taste even better . Think , I have to get him hungry to that extent again to get a yes from him . Happy me as my boy didn’t want his story written in my web site but all my culinary moments revolve around my kids as all mothers world wide .

Marinate Ingredients

ingredients	Quantity
Prawns	1/2 kg cleaned
garlic paste	2 teaspoons
cumin powder	2 teaspoons
red chilli powder	2 teaspoons
green chillies	4 chopped
coriander leaves	3 tablespoons chopped
salt	to taste

Seasoning Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Coconut Oil	2 tablespoons
cumin seeds	1/4 teaspoons
curry leaves	few
Lime juice	1/2 lime

Method

Combine marinade ingredients and rub in to the prawn.
Leave to marinade for 2 hour in the refrigerator .
Heat oil in pan on moderate heat.
When hot, add cumin seeds and curry leaves . Once they crackle slide in prawns and marinate into oil.
Cook until well cooked and serve with a good squeeze of lime juice .

Tree of life

Preparation Time : 40 minutes

Cooking Time : 3 minutes

Serving: 4 members

Description

This is a recipe I learnt from my mother – in – law which is a regular in the lunch table every week once at least . Cauliflower being one of my favourite vegetables , I was head over heels when I first tasted this dish . Thinking it might be a pains taking job to execute this dish as a new bride , when asked what I wanted would never mention this dish ( nor any other as I was dead nervous as a new bride , guess all of us were the same ). As days passed by and I was getting more comfortable with the place , food , language and people around , I would take note of what ever was being cooked in the kitchen as I was just let to chop vegetables like a sue chef in a restaurant kitchen . I was awe struck with this simple sensational recipe bursting with mouth watering flavours . Then slowly as I got more confident in the kitchen , even before my mother – in – law would suggest what’s to be done for lunch , I would have chopped , cooked and placed it on the dining table . This was one among the very few dishes that I used to make very often as a new bride as I was ( and am ) a keen cook who can’t resist trying out a recipe I particularly love as soon I discover it . At home we usually make this dish with cauliflower flower lets but I have showcased the same in a modern feature . The idea of life of tree was adapted from chef vikkas Kanna . I was mad at myself as from eleven years my heart , soul , thought and every bit in me is all about food , food and food . Then how come my mind didn’t get the idea to cut a cauliflower in such a lovely pattern . Umm well that’s the difference between a chef and a home cook isn’t it :-)) .

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Cauliflower	1 medium sized whole or 2 cups flower lets
Chilli powder	1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder	1/4 teaspoon
Salt	to taste
Eggs	2
Pepper powder	to taste
Oil	to fry

Method

Boil water with little salt . Immerse a whole cauliflower into the boiling water for 5 minutes to get worms out . Remove and cool .
Cut the whole cauliflower from the middle to 1/4 inch thick slice to get a tree patterned slice . Keep doing the same to get more slices . ( be careful as the blanched whole cauliflower tends to break up in between )
Marinate the cauliflower tree slices with chilli powder , turmeric powder and salt to taste for 30 minutes .
Beat eggs with salt and pepper powder to taste . Place in a flat shallow plate so it’s easy to dip the cauliflower tree in it .
Beat oil to shallow fry . Dip the cauliflower tree in to the beaten egg mixture and gently drop into the medium hot oil . Fry to a golden brown color on both sides . Drain and serve hot as it is with out any dips or sauce .
Do the same with the other cauliflower trees .

Notes

I usually use cauliflower flower lets and do the same but deep fry instead of swallow frying .
Can do until the marination part ahead and fry in hot oil just before serving to avoid the eggy smell .
Beat more eggs in case you need more for dipping .
Best served as a starter .