Chicken 65

Ingredients

• Chicken - 1 pound or 1/2 kg
• Yogurt - 2 tbspn
• Soy Sauce - 1/2 tbspn
• Corn flour - 2 tbspn
• All purpose flour - 1 tbspn
• Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1 1/2 tspn
• Garam masal - 1/4 t.spn(optional)
• Lemon juice - 1 tspn
• Salt - 1/2 tspn
• Oil for frying

health tip

Chicken is a white meat low in fat & is a good source of protein.

Chicken 65

method

Chicken 65! How did they name it? Some say 65 ingredients were added to make this dish in the past, others say, it was the 65th item on the menu card of a hotel where they served it. There are lot of stories going around regarding the name for this dish. Anyways, Chicken 65 is such a tasty and popular dish back home in India and has a fiery red color to it. Ajinomoto(MSG) & red food color added to the recipe enhances the taste and color of this dish. My recipe above is devoid of the above two ingredients to be completely home style yet yummy.

1. Wash & cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl except oil & marinade the chicken for minimum 3 hours in the refrigerator.
2. Take it out after 3 hours & deep fry the pieces. It does stick to the frying pan because of the lemon juice but lemon juice enhances the taste. If you do not want it to stick, you may eliminate the lemon juice while marinading but instead sprinkle it while serving the dish.
3. That is it. Enjoy the dish as an appetizer or as a side.

Marinating the chicken overnight in the refrigerator will help permeate the flavr into the chicken nicely.

Falafal Sandwich

Ingredients

• Soaked chickpeas - 2 cups
• All purpose flour or maida - 2 tspn
• Small Onion - 1
• Garlic - 3
• Baking soda - 1/4 tspn
• Coriander powder - 1 tspn
• Cumin powder - 1 tspn
• Chilli flakes - 1/2 tspn
• Parsley - 2 tspn
• Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup

health tip

Chickpeas or channa is rich in Folate, dietary fiber( with skin on), Protein, B Vitamins & Iron. Beans & legumes are a good substitute for meat protein. High fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal making these beans especially a good choice for individuals with diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia.

Falafal

method

I was hooked to falafals after having falafal sandwiches at Maoz. Since then I wanted to make them at home. At first, I tried with instant falafal mixes but they did not taste like the ones I had at the restaurant. Therefore, I searched for falafal recipes in the net & experimented with few of them. After couple of trials & adjustments I am finally satisfied with this one. Please go ahead and try this recipe & let me know your comments. This recipe will produce 10 medium sized falafals.

1. Soak the beans overnight. It doesn't have to be cooked. Cooked beans make the Falafal soft & fall apart while frying. This is also the reason why we should not go for tinned beans.
2. Chop the garlic, onion, coriander & parsley leaves coarsely. Add it to a food processor along with other ingredients & soaked chickpeas. Grind them all coarsely with out adding water.
3. Add approximately 1/2 tspn or more of salt & mix well. Leave the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
4. Take the dough out after 20 minutes of refrigeration & make equal sized balls & flatten them to 1 inch vadai. Fry them in hot oil. This recipe yields 11 falafals.
   

   You may freeze falafal for future use. To freeze them, arrange the vadai 1 inch apart in a freezer safe container & place the container in the freezer. To thaw & fry the falafal later, place the frozen falafal in a microwave safe plate & microwave them for a minute or two. Fry them as usual.

   
   
5. You may serve fried falafals as part of a sandwich. You can make yummy sandwiches with pita bread, falafal and hummus. You will need to first spread the hummus on the pita and then add falafal patties to it along with lettuce, tomato, onion and olives.

Gobi (Cauliflower) Manchurian

Ingredients

• For Batter
• Cauliflower - 1/2 of one large flower or approximately 3 cups cut into florets
• All-purpose flour or Maida - 2 tbspn
• Corn starch or corn flour - 2 tbspn
• Rice flour - 1 tbspn
• Chilli powder-1/2 tspn
• Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tspn
• Salt to taste
• Water to make batter
• For Gravy
• Medium onion -1 finely chopped
• Green pepper - 1/4 finely chopped
• Green chilly - 1 small or 1/2 bigger
• Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tspn
• Chilli sauce - 1/2 tspn
• Soy sauce - 1/2 tspn to 1 tspn
• Tomato Ketchup - 1 1/2 tbspn
• Sesame oil - 1 1/2 tbspn
• Brown sugar - 1/4 tspn
• Lemon juice - 1 tspn
• Coriander & green onion for garnishing
• Salt to taste

health tip

Cauliflower and other vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and kale contain compounds that may help prevent cancer. Sulfur-Containing Phytonutrients in cauliflower promote liver detoxification. It is rich in Vitamin C, K and folate. Spicing cauliflower with turmeric help promote men's health. Green Pepper is rich in Vitamin C & Vitamin A.

Gobi Manchurian

method

1. Mix all the ingredients given for batter with half a cup of water.
2. Dip the cauliflower florets into the batter & deep fry them till crispy. Keep them aside.
3. Heat the sesame oil in a pan & add ginger garlic paste & green chillies. Saute them for few minutes.
4. Add the onions & saute it. After 2 minutes, add the green peppers & saute it for 2 more minutes. The veggies should retain their crunchiness. Add the other ingredients given for sauce with 2 1/2 tbspn water. Cook them for 2 more minutes. Turn off the heat.
5. Add the fried gobi to the sauce. Mix well & transfer to the serving dish & garnish it with chopped coriander leaves & green onions.
   

   Mix the cauliflower just before serving to retain the crispiness of the cauliflower. Onions can be substituted with 1/4 cup of green onions.

   
   

Beetroot Vadai

Ingredients

• Grated beetroot - 2-3 cups
• Channa dal & Toor dal -1 1/2cups combined
• Chopped Onion - 1 1/2 cup
• Chopped coriander & curry leaves - 1/4 cup
• Chilli powder - 3/4 tspn
• Sonuf(Sombu) - 1 tspn
• Hing - 1/4 tspn
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn
• Salt - 1 tspn

health tip

Beet greens are a very good source of calcium, iron, Vitamins A and C. Beetroots are an excellent source of folic acid. Betacyanin is the pigment that gives beetroot its color and has powerful antioxidant properties. Beet fiber has been shown to have cholesterol lowering capabilities. Beetroot contains the bio-active agent betaine which supports healthy liver function.

Beetroot Vadai

method

1. Wash & soak the dal for 2 hours.
2. Grate the beetroot & squeeze the juice out. You may also grind the beetroot coarsely instead of grating. Either way you will have to take out the juice completely. You can see the pictures below for both grinding & grating. Beetroot juice that is left out may be used to make healthy soup.
3. Chop the onion, curry leaves & coriander finely.
4. Grind the sombu(sanuf) coarsely. Drain the dal & grind it coarsely along with ground sanuf without adding water. The dal should not be ground finely. Grinding them for 2-3 seconds yields a good texture.
   

   If the ground mix is watery, you may reduce the water by adding a teaspoon or two of besan flour. If the mix is still too thin, you may make usili instead of vadai by sauteing the ground mix in a nonstick pan with some oil till the mix becomes dry and powdery.

   
   
5. Mix the ground mixture, chopped onion, curry leaves, coriander leaves & other powders together. Make equal sized balls & flatten them & fry the vadais in hot oil. This recipe yields 20 vadais.
   

   Vadai can be frozen for future use. Make the vadai as per the procedure & freeze them before frying them. Place the vadai 1/2 inch apart in a flat freezer safe box. Place a plastic wrap between each layer if two or more layers have to be added(see the picture below for reference). Freeze them flat. You may thaw the frozen vadai by placing them separately in a microwave safe plate & by microwaving them for 1-2 minutes followed by frying.

   
   

Kuzhi Paniyaram

 I am posting this recipe for APS Rice event hosted by Anitha. This is a Chettinad dish which is made in a special pan called Kuzhi paniyara chatti (pancake puff pan in U.S). It can either be made salt or sweet. It  goes through a process of fermentation, which gives the paniyaram it's spongy texture. This can be had as a breakfast or as a snack. The recipe I am going to post is salt paniyaram with a side dish of hot & tangy tomato chutney.

Ingredients for batter
Parboiled rice - 1 cup
Raw rice - 1 cup
Urad dhal - 1/4 cup
Aval(Poha) - 1 cup
Methi seeds - 1 tspn
Salt - 1 1/2- 2 tspn

Method
Soak the ingredients together for 3-4 hours. Grind them together into a fine batter by adding water from time to time. The consistency of the batter should not be too thick or too thin but should resemble that of pancake batter.Transfer the batter to a container & add salt. Mix them together with hand. Close the container with a lid and leave it in a warm place for fermentation. During cold weather its hard to ferment the batter. The batter needs 70-80 degrees to initiate the fermentation. Heat the oven to 100 degrees for 4 minutes & then turn it off. Wrap the container with a throw & keep the container in the oven. Leave it overnight.

Making the seasonings
Chopped small or medium onion - 1/4 cup
Finely chopped green chillies - 2
Mustard, urad dhal & curry leaves for seasoning.

Method

Heat some oil in a pan & season it with mustard, urad & curry leaves. Add the green chillies & onions along with little salt. Saute till the onions turns transluscent. Mix the sauteed things to the batter. Now the batter is all set to make paniyarams.

Making paniyaram 

Heat the pancake puff pan & add very little oil in each cups. When the oil in the cups get heated pour the seasoned batter into each cups.

Cover it with a lid. Check it from time to time to see if the top of the paniyaram is cooked. When the top is cooked, flip the paniyarms upside down to let it brown. Since its a non stick pan try to flip it using wooden skewer.

Serve this paniyaram with hot and tangy tomato chutney. This dish can be enjoyed as a finger food.

Ragi Rolls

This blog post is in response to Madhuram's JFI for Ragi event. This event was a big wake up call for me since I have not done anything new with ragi for a looooong time. The last dish that I tried with ragi if my memory serves right was ragi dosa. However, I did not want to repeat that same dish for this event. Therefore, as always, I consulted with my assistant (my husband ;-)) and came out with this idea of preparing Ragi Rolls more on the same lines of other veggie wraps. Sounds yummy, isn't it? This dish can be served as an appetizer or as a main course. Here goes the recipe...Enjoy!

Ingredients

For Wrap

• Wheat flour - 2 cups
• Ragi flour - 1 cup
• Garam masala - a pinch
• Chilli powder - 1/4 tspn
• Methi leaves - 1/4 tspn
• Salt - to taste

For filling

• Julienne cut carrot - 2
• Julienne cut cabbage - 2 leaves
• Julienne cut onion - 1
• Crushed black pepper - 1/4 tspn

For Sauce (Tomato Chutney)

• Diced medium Onion - 1
• Tomato - 1
• Red chillies - 2
• Tamarind paste - 1/4 tspn
• Jaggery - 1/4 tspn
• Sesame oil - 5 tspn
• Asafoetida (aka Hing, Perungayam), curry leaves, mustard and urad dal for seasoning
• Salt to taste

Method

Sauce - Tomato Chutney

1. Saute onion, tomato and red chillies with sesame oil until onions become soft. Let it cool for few minutes.
2. Grind the above mix to a fine paste.
3. Heat oil in a pan and add the seasoning mix & let it splutter.
4. Mix the ground paste along with tamarind, jaggery and salt & continue heating for few more minutes.

Filling

1. Heat some oil in a pan and add the veggies given for filling.
2. Saute them for 5 minutes with the pan open
3. Add salt and pepper to taste.Veggie should be crunchy & not over cooked.

Wrap

1. Mix all the ingredients given for wrap and make a dough with a consistency similar to Chapati dough.
2. Roll the dough into thin wraps using a rolling pin.
3. Place the rolled dough in a pan & heat them on either side for couple of minutes similar to chapatis.

Ragi Rolls

1. Spread the sauce (Tomato Chutney) on to the wrap.
2. Add a thin layer of the filling on top of the sauce.
3. Roll the wrap as tightly as possible.

You may serve the roll as is or you may cut them into smaller pieces (similar to sushi rolls) & insert a tooth pick for easy serving.

Pav Bhaji

Ingredients

• Potato - 1
• Carrot - 2
• Beans - 7 nos
• Green Peas - 1/2 cup
• Red onion - 1
• Tomato - 1
• Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tspn
• Pav Bhaji masala
• Lemon Juice
• Coriander Leaves

Method

Pressure cook all the veggies except peas with little water. Heat some oil or butter in a pan & saute ginger garlic paste, chopped onions & tomatoes until they become soft. Add the pav bhaji masala , salt & peas to the mix. Saute them all until the oil separates. Mash the cooked veggies & add it to the sauteed mix. Adjust salt & spices to your taste. Let it simmer for sometime. Garnish with chopped onion, coriander leaves, some butter & a piece of lemon. Serve it with Pav (bread) toasted with butter. You can make your own fresh homemade Pav(Bread) by following the recipe in this link.