Daily Archives: April 10, 2017

Oats vegetable uthappam

Preparation time : 40 minutes
Cooking time : 20 minutes
Serves : 3 members

Description

The universal problem of what to cook for the next meal stands first in all households. Like wise, I have my share of breaking my head over this issue too. It’s nerve racking to see long faces at the dining table when they get to see the regulars. At home, only authentic style of food is welcome. So if I try any high end experimental stuff, it ends with me having to eat the lot. I always prefer to play safe and make sure to come up with recipes that are a twist to our authentic recipes which can be healthy adding more brownie points to me. This oats uthappam also was one such that I did for breakfast. I was in a doubt about the semolina added as I though it might give a rubbery texture to the uthappam. The final result was above the mark perfect with crisp edges, soft uthappam, correct amount of sourness from the lime juice and crunch from the vegetable topping. An all in all one perfect breakfast dish that must be given a try soon.

Ingredients for the uthappam

Ingredients	Quantity
Oats	1 cup
Rice flour	1/2 cup
Semolina	1/2 cup
Sour Curd	4 tablespoons
Lemon juice	3 teaspoons
Soda bi carbonate	2 pinches
Salt	to taste
Water	for the batter

Ingredient for the vegetable topping

Ingredients	Quantity
Cabbage	1/4 cup chopped
Beans	6 chopped
Cauliflower	1/4 cup chopped
Onion	1 chopped
Oil	1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds	1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves	few
Coriander leaves	chopped few

Method for the uthappam

Powder oats, rice flour and semolina together with out adding water.
Mix all the ingredients together to get a semi thick dosa batter consistency batter. Keep aside covered for 1/2 an hour.

Method for vegetable topping

Heat oil , crackle the mustard seeds and curry leaves . Add the onions, chopped vegetables and salt to taste.
Sauté to 3/4 cooked by sprinkling water. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and remove from heat.

How to proceed

Heat a dosa tawa / griddle. Grease the base hot tawa with oil. Add more water if needed to the batter to get the right consistency as the semolina when soaked tends to make the batter thick.
Pour a ladle of batter over the hot tawa. Sprinkle the sautéed vegetable. Pour 1/4 teaspoon of oil around. Cover with a lid, lowering the heat.
Cook covered for 30 to 40 seconds. Check if the uthappam is cooked. If not cook further for another 10-15 seconds.
Do not flip over. Remove from heat and serve hot with sambar and chutney of choice.

Chicken Farsha

Preparation time : 20 minutes + 8 hours for marination
Cooking time : 5 minutes for each batch deep fried
Serves : 8 members

Description

Chicken deep fried in any form is always a hit at home. Especially with my carnivores boy. For the sake of him, I make sure to find and try out more such recipes. This recipe is an authentic Parsi one that had a surprise element of dipping the marinated chicken into beaten egg and deep dried. The chicken was soft and moist inside with a crispy exterior of egg out side. This chicken farsha made every one go ooh and aah over it with age no bar. I have added it to my regulars at home. I am sure it will soon be a regular at your homes too.

Ingredients to Marinate the chicken

Ingredients	Quantity
Chicken	1 kg
Ginger and garlic paste	each 1 tablespoon
Red chilli powder	1/2 tablespoon
Garamond masala powder	1 teaspoon
Pepper powder	1/2 teaspoon
Lemon juice	of one lemon
salt	to taste

Other ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Bread crumbs	2 cups
Oil	to deep fry

Ingredients for the cover

Ingredients	Quantity
Eggs	2
Pepper powder	1/2 teaspoon
Red chilly powder	a pinch
Salt	to taste

Method

Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients mentioned under the Marinate column together for eight hours in the refrigerator.
coat the chicken over bread crumbs.
Mix the cover ingredients together. Heat oil to deep fry.
Dip each bread crumb coated chicken piece into the egg mix and drop into medium hot oil. Deep fry to golden brown colour.
Drain and serve hot with salad and sautéed vegetables.

Kabsa

Preparation time : 1 hour
Cooking time : 1 hour
Serves : 5 members

Description

I come across a new recipe in a foodie group named kabsa. I go through the recipe and find out about all new ingredients used in it. I did store the name of the dish in my mind but after that it was totally a forgotten story. On my pilgrimage trip to macca for Hajj, on the holy day of Arafat that falls on the 9th day of Dhul hajj of the lunar Islamic calendar we were all served a packet each of hot food from the Saudi Arabian king. Eager me wanting to see what it is, found a big piece of meat with rice in it . Some one near me told its camel kabsa that’s similar to our biriyani that the arabs have . We had to have that as our lunch . Me with no hesitation had my share making sure to know how they must have made it. The Kabsa was mildly flavoured and aromatic. The next kabsa was had at Dubai in a restaurant where we were served in a big plate with mutton, chicken, fish and egg all in one kabsa. Five members had to share one plate of kabsa. My nephew Anik who was around seven then took his share on one side and told the rest of us that ” This is my territory and on one can have this ” we all burst out laughing. Back home, I did try to replicate the same but with chicken and egg alone. “The kabsa taste’s exactly like what i had in the Middle East minus the camel meat and the big plate ” was what hubby dear had to say on my Kabsa try. I was all smiles for sure.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Chicken	1/2 kg with skin cut into big pieces
Basmathi rice	4 cups
Coriander powder	1 tablespoon
Red chilli powder	1 teaspoon
Pepper powder	1 teaspoon
Onion	3 chopped
Garlic	1/2 cup
Ginger	1 inch piece grated
Tomato	2 cups chopped
Tomato	2 ground
Cinnamon powder	1/4 teaspoon
Cardamom powder	1/2 teaspoon
Red chilli flakes	1/2 teaspoon
Ginger and garlic paste	2 teaspoons
Cloves powder	1/4 teaspoon
Red chilly powder	1 teaspoon
Cumin	a pinch
Whole pepper corns	5
Salted dried lemon	1 ( I used salted preserved lemon instead )
Water	6 and 1/4 cups
Almonds + pistachio + pine nuts	1/4 teaspoon each
Boiled eggs	2 sliced into rounds
Coriander leaves	chopped few
Raisins fried in ghee	1 teaspoon
Lemon	1 Cut into circles to Garnish
Butter	1/4 cup
Salt	to taste

Method

Wash and soak the basmati rice for one hour in water.
Marinade the chicken pieces with coriander powder, red chilli powder, pepper powder, salt to taste and ginger + garlic paste for 30 minutes.
Heat a heavy bottomed vessel with butter. Fry the chicken pieces to golden. Remove and keep aside. Divide the chicken fried butter equally into two portions in two separate bowls.
Heat one portion of the chicken fried butter in a vessel. Add garlic and onions. Sauté to pink and translucent. Top with grated ginger and salt. Sauté for a minute.
Add chopped tomatoes and ground tomatoes. Sauté until butter floats on top. Top with cinnamon powder, cardamom powder, chilli flakes, red chilli powder, cloves powder, cumin, preserved salted lemon and whole pepper corns. Mix well.
Add the fried chicken pieces, salt and water. Cook for twenty minutes. Remove the chicken pieces. Place them over an oven prof greased tray. Pour two ladles of chicken cooked gravy on top of chicken pieces.
Place small cubes of butter on top of the chicken. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for ten minutes. Remove and squeeze lemon juice over the chicken pieces.
Drain the soaked rice. Heat the renaming other half of the chicken fried butter. Add the strained rice and fry gently making sure the rice does not break.
Add the chicken cooked water, salt and more water if needed and cook the rice to done. Once cooked add small cubes of butter and fluff up the rice with the help of a fork.
Spread the cooked rice over a tray. Place the chicken pieces over. Arrange the sliced boiled eggs around. Garnish with fried raisins, almonds, pistachios, pine nuts, coriander leaves and lemon rounds. Serve hot with dacos sauce.

Dacos sauce

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Onions	1 chopped
Garlic	3 flakes chopped
Vinegar	1 tablespoon
Tomato	1/2 kg ground
Lemon juice	1 tablespoon
Oil	1/4 cup
Salt	to taste

Method

Heat oil, add onion and garlic. Fry to golden brown in colour.
Add all the other ingredients mentioned and sauté for 12 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool and serve.

Sulaimaani tea

Preparation time : 2 minutes
Cooking time : 2 minutes
Serves : 2 members

Description

After a heavy meal of biriyani or anything like such at home the sulaimaani tea is a must drink to make you feel light to awaken you from the drowsiness. This tea is flavoured with spices and garnished with saffron which works perfect to alert you. This sulaimaani tea is actually the Indian version of the Arabic ghava tea where we changed it a bit to our standards. The arabs drink their ghawa tea with dates beside so they add no sugar but here we add sugar as we drink it as it is with out any accomplishment’s.
Me having a weakness towards hot and light beverages, I am totally in love with the sulaimaani tea. I can have it any time of the day. The first time made sulaimaani tea as a new bride, it was a total flop show as the honey coloured sulaimaani tea looked black instead. I didn’t know what went wrong. Later my mother – in – law let me know that the secret to make a good sulaimaani tea is the lesser the tea dust the better the flavour. There after, I always make sure to use 1/8 teaspoon of tea dust for one cup of water which works perfectly well. Now that I have shared our family secret of making a good sulaimaani tea with no more further delay, gear up give a try.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Water	3 cups
Tea dust	1/4 teaspoon
Cinnamon	1 inch piece crushed
Cardamom	2 crushed
Saffron	a pinch
Lemon juice	a teaspoon
Sugar	3 teaspoons ( I add 5 teaspoons )

Method

Boil water with cinnamon + cardamom crushed. Add tea dust and boil. Remove from heat and keep covered for five minutes.
Strain the tea. Add lemon juice, sugar and saffron. Mix well and serve hot.