Posts by OCS | Saute Fry N Bake

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.

Pita bread

Preparation time : 1 and 1/2 hours
Cooking time : 4-5 minutes
Serves : 3 members

Description

We are invited for lunch to a friend’s place on our holiday visit to Dubai. I make sure to be of some help to my friend in the kitchen. She asks me to open a packet and place the flat breads on a plate and serve it in the table. As opening the package, I get to see pita bread written over it. I was like, so this is the pita bread and made sure to try it out as well. After that it was a forgotten story. After years on my visit to Cochin at the lulu mall, I see them make fresh pita bread using a machine in their food court. My jaws dropped literally seeing how efficiently the machine made these breads. Back home, one day when I wanted to serve some thing out of the box than the regular. The pita bread popped up in my mind. I gave it a try with the results being not bad at all for my first try. Served it with three different Arabic dips. Dinner table was silent, with no complaints it vanished away with in a few minutes time. From getting to open a packet of pita breads in Dubai, to my jaw dropping in Cochin seeing how the pita bread is made, to making it at home in my home kitchen was a real worth memorable journey.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Warm water	1 cup
Dry yeast	2 teaspoons
Honey	1 teaspoon
Wheat flour	1 and 1/2 cups
Flour / maida	1 and 1/4 cups + 1 tablespoon
Olive oil	1 tablespoon
Salt	to taste

Method

Mix warm water, yeast and honey together. Keep aside for five minutes. Add wheat flour, flour 1 and 1/4 cups, olive oil and salt to the yeast mix.
Knead well for five minutes by dusting 1 tablespoon of flour to get a smooth dough. Roll the dough into a ball. Grease the dough with oil. Keep covered for one hour.
Punch down the doubled dough and knead again for two minutes. Roll the dough into equal nine lemon size balls. Roll each ball into 1/4 inch thickness round rotis.
Cover the rolled pita dough with a wet cloth for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius for ten minutes. Place two rolled pita breads in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 4-5 minutes.
Once the pita breads puff up, remove and continue to do the same with the rest as well. Cool completely.
Cut each pita bread into triangles and serve with hummus or baba ganoush.

Prawn pesto spaghetti

Preparation time : 20 minutes
Cooking time : 45 minutes
Serves : 4 members

Description

Saturday nights as a kid in boarding school was a movie night. The excitement that builds up for us to watch the movie one a week used to be so exciting. On one such Saturday night we watched the movie “A night at the opera “. Thinking about that movie now. Nothing is worse than the disappointing, nostalgic feeling you get when watching an old movie and you have to ask yourself, “Why can’t they make movies like this anymore?” At the center of this comedy masterpiece is a lively musical sequence that includes Allan Jones belting out a hearty vocal solo, Chico Marx performing his signature piano routine, and, of course, the ever poignant Harpo on the harp. And it all starts with a plate of Spaghetti.

As with similar comedy teams from the period (read: The Three Stooges), a running theme with the Marx brothers was that they were always trying to find something to eat. The context in this film is that they are illegal stowaways on a ship from Italy to New York, and they are starving, and when they finally do find food it’s a banquet of spaghetti, served out of a ridiculously large bowl, with meatballs and sauce, all liberally heaped onto their plates with no questions asked. There’s nothing they can do about it except stare with wide eyes at their newfound feasts, and smile. After all, what better way to launch into an epic song-and-dance number than on a full stomach? And with these amiable protagonists, it’s difficult for the audience not to feel stuffed right along with them. Yet, the spaghetti scene is only one of the many reasons A Night at the Opera frequently, and rightfully, earns a spot on shortlists for the highest-rated, most critically acclaimed films of all-time. Spaghetti always takes me back to this movie. As I was making this prawn pesto spaghetti, I had the entire spaghetti episode run in my mind. That was when I knew they ate spaghetti which an Italian dish and not noodles. Crazy breed me.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
spaghetti	250 grams boiled in a pinch of salt and some olive oil ( reserve the boiled water )
olive oil	1 tablespoon
mint leaves	few to garnish
cherry tomatoes	2
garlic	1 clove peeled
Prawn with tail	1/4 kg

Ingredients for the Pesto Sauce

Ingredients	Quantity
basil	2 cups ( at times I substitute with 1 cup mint + 1 cup coriander leaves or equal amounts of all the three )
Parmesan cheese	1/2 cup grated
toasted walnuts or pine nuts	1/2 cup ( I used pine nuts )
Salt	to taste
garlic	4 cloves
olive oil	3 tablespoons

Method For the Pesto Sauce

In a blender add all the ingredients and mix till a semi-fine paste is achieved.

For the Pasta

In a pan heat the olive oil, add the garlic clove. Add the cherry tomatoes and prawns.
Toss for a minute. Remove the whole garlic clove.
Add the pesto sauce. Cook for 1 minute.
Add the boiled spaghetti.Toss well, making sure the pesto sauce has coated the spaghetti all over.
Add about 4 tablespoons of spaghetti boiled water to get the right consistency and moister.
Garnish with a mint sprig and grated cheese over. serve hot.

Salli Boti

Preparation time : 20 minutes
Cooking time : 45 minutes
Serves : 6 members

Description

Getting to know the insights of a community, about their food and culture always excites me. I make sure to take note of any recipe that I feel can be tried at my home kitchen. Like wise this salli boti recipe of the Parsi community is one such that I took note of ages ago. Having my doubts about the salty and sweet combination in a dish as I am not a big fan of such a taste. But I loved the idea of adding crispy garnishing of deep fried potato sticks. Gosh, I have so much saliva in my mouth as I am typing this. I tried this recipe a few days back and as imagined it was way too good in taste that has converted me to my aversion of salt and sweet in one dish. The unique flavours of this dish did transport me to an era when food was not just a meal but recreating in exquisite detail. It’s not very often that I come across a dish that’s so superlative. This salli boti is the best dish to line the stomach’s of our loved ones which is an absolute winner.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Mutton with bones	1 kg
Dry red chillies	4
Cinnamon	1/2 inch piece one
Cumin seeds	2 and 1/2 teaspoons
Cardamom	6
Cloves	8
Ginger	1 inch piece grated
Garlic	4 flakes crushed
Dried Apricot's	12 , seeds removed and chopped
Water	500 milli litters
Oil	5 tablespoons + to deep fry
Onion	1 chopped
Tomato	2 chopped
Vinegar	2 tablespoons
Sugar	25 grams
Potatoes	3 peeled and cut to thin strips like match sticks and kept under a bowl of water
Salt	to taste

Method

Grind cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and dry red chillies together to a smooth paste adding very little water.
Marinate the mutton with the ground masala and half of the grated ginger and crushed garlic for one hour.
Boil 500 milli litters of water and soak the dried apricots for half an hour. Then remove the seeds and chop the flesh alone.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add chopped onion and sauté to golden brown in colour. Add remaining ginger and garlic paste, sauté for two minutes until crisp.
Top with the marinated meat, chopped tomatoes, salt, vinegar, and apricots. Sauté for five minutes until the colour of the meat changes. Add very little water and pressure cook to done.
Add sugar and mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove from heat.
Heat oil to deep fry the potato sticks. Strain the potato sticks from water. Remove all the moisture by placing them over a clean towel.
Drop the potato sticks in batches and deep fry in medium heat until crisp and golden. Strain and sprinkle salt . Toss well . Do the same to the remaining potato sticks.
Before serving, sprinkle the crisp potato sticks over the salli boti and serve hot as a side dish with any thing and every thing.

Notes

The same recipe can be done with chicken too.

Banana stem chutney

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 2 minutes to temper
Serves : 3 members

Description

Hubby dear is obsessed with coconut chutney proving to be a typical true blue South Indian. The myth of adding too much coconut into dishes is not healthy is so strong with in me, that I keep telling him to use less coconut chutney to eat. At times I make chutney’s with vegetables and serve but some how his love for the coconut chutney has never ever faded. For a change from the vegetable chutneys I make this time I tried it with a new unexpected healthy twist of adding banana stems in my chutney. The chutney was fibrous but very tasty. An ideal dish to be enjoyed with idli or dosa. I silently served it for breakfast with steaming hot idlis . With no complaints at all, I could see hubby dear gulping down his breakfast. As he was washing his hands, he goes on to say “the chutney was a bit fibrous but tasty”. Then I told him the chutney was made with banana stem. He had a surprised look and smiled. Well that’s his way of appreciation which means a lot to me. I was in cloud nine that I managed to make a welcome change from the usual coconut chutney. This banana stem chutney is healthy yet a comforting treat that needed no hard work to impress. What more do you want?

Ingredients to grind

Ingredients	Quantity
Banana stem	1/4 cup chopped
Grated coconut	1/4 cup
Green chillies	4
Garlic flake	1
Ginger	1/8 inch piece
Salt	to taste
Water	as needed

Ingredients to temper

Ingredients	Quantity
Mustard seeds	1/4 teaspoon
Urad dal	1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves	few
Gingely oil ( sesame seed oil )	1 teaspoon

Method

Grind all the ingredients together mentioned under the to grind column to a smooth paste. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Heat oil, crackle mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves. Pour over the ground chutney. Mix well and serve with idli or dosa.

Panner summer salad

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : nil
Serves : 4 members

Description

A family holiday to pondycherry for a weekend. All my crazy zing bang lot of NRI cousins along. We all being foodies, went crazy over each meal ordered. My last cousin brother’s wife always ordered salads for each meal that we happened to have the classy feta cheese water Melon salad twice. Back home running out of feta cheese in my pantry, I add panner instead. To play around, I just cut the panner and watermelons in to heart shape’s to pep up my regular table. Served it and it sure did bring in a surprise element to the table. The myth of having food hot is so strong at home that any savoury dish served chill is not welcome, so I end up eating the entire salad with the rest just having a taste. This salad is sure the apt dish to be had for a hot summer lunch to keep you cool.

Ingredients	Quantity
Panner / ricotta cheese	200 grams cut into heart shapes
Water melon	200 grams cut into heart shapes
Lettuce	6 leaves
Coriander leaves	few chopped
Olive oil	2 tablespoons
Salt + pepper corns ( crushed )	to taste
Balsamic vinegar	1 tablespoon

Method

Sprinkle salt over lettuce leaves and set aside.
Mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper together.
Spread the lettuce leaves over the salad plate.
Arrange the panner and watermelon hearts alternately over lapping one another in two rows.
Drizzle dressing over the hearts. Place in the refrigerator until needed to be served.
Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves over the salad and serve chilled.

Pomegranate mock tail

Preparation time : 5 minutes
Cooking time : 5 minutes
Serves : 2 members

Description

Getting to see all high end, classy looking mock tails at restaurant’s as a kid during my holidays to Bangalore, I used to wonder how they make these. Now, when I experiment with such mock tails, my mind travel’s back to those day’s of me awe struck seeing those long glass filled with chilled delicious drinks. I remember, at chola Sheraton hotel , chennai .. my cousin Aneez , my little brother and myself were having breakfast . We showed the waiter pointing our fingers to the next table mock tail drink and said ” we want that exact drink that they are having “. We were a crazy bunch I guess.
This mock tail was made to duplicate the mock tail I had at Bangalore in Nando’s restaurant. I just fell in love with how the pomegranate kernels were floating like jewels on top with the clear sparking water. I took my time to study what they must have done to get this effect. Then slowly drank it tasting it carefully registering the ingredients used. I tried my best to and came up with this mock tail drink that was yum. The sparking water sure does pep you up. Apt drink for the up coming summer for sure.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Pomegranate juice	300 ml
Sugar syrup	10 ml
Ice cubes	8
Sparkling water / soda water	180 ml
Strawberries	2 cut into heart shape
Pomegranate kernels	few

Method

Mix pomegranate juice and sugar syrup together. Pour into two tall glasses to hall full.
Top with 4 ice cubes. Pour the sparking water slowly into the glass with the help of an inverted spoon.
sprinkle pomegranate kernels over. Decorator with heart shaped strawberries on the side of each tall glass. Serve chilled.