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.

Mixed Vegetable Kootu

Ingredients

• Carrot - 1
• Eggplant - 1
• Cabbage -1 leaf
• Potato - 1
• Beans - 3nos
• Peas - 1/2 cup
• Moong dal - 2 tbspn
• Green chilli - 1
• Medium onion - 1
• Kootu Podi - 1 tspn
• Coconut - 2 tspn (optional)

health tip

Veggies are rich in Vitamins, Minerals & fiber. Dal (pulses) is rich in protein.

Mixed Vegetable Kootu

method

Kootu Podi goes very well with this mixed vegetable kootu. I added moong dal for this kottu recipe since channa dal was already added to the podi. I did not want to try red gram dal since it is normally added to all sambar recipes. We usually make sambar when making kootu. However, you may use any kind of dal you want with this recipe. This kootu is both delicious & nutritious. Any vegetable of your choice can be added as well to this recipe.

1. Wash, Peel & dice the veggies & onion.
2. Wash the moong dal & add the diced veggies & onion along with kootu podi. Add 1/2 cup of water & pressure cook the veggies for 2 whistles or till the dal is completely cooked.
3. When the pressure goes off, add ground coconut (optional) & salt to taste. Season it with cumin seeds, curry leaves, slit green chilli & urad dal in some oil or ghee.
4. This recipe serves two people.

Pizza - Indian Style

Ingredients

• For Pizza and Toppings
• Tava Naan - 3
• Mozzarella cheese - 1/2 cup
• Roasted eggplant - 1
• Soy chunks - 4-5 nos
• Other toppings of your choice (onions, olives, pineapple, green peppers...)
• For Pizza Sauce
• Tomato sauce - 5 tspn or pureed tomato - 2
• Chopped tomato - 1
• Finely chopped capsicum - 1/4 nos
• minced garlic - 3
• Olive oil - 3 tspn
• Sombu (fennel) powder, Chilli powder - 1/4 tspn each
• Chopped coriander leaves - 2 tspn
• Basil - 1/4 tspn
• Salt to taste

health tip

Pizza provides nutrients depending on the toppings you add. Diet conscious people may want to reduce the cheese added to the pizza. It is always better to get skim milk cheese which is not only low in fat but is also a good source of calcium like other cheese varieties. Home made Pizza sauce provided with this recipe is also rich in Vitamin C.

Pizza - Indian Style

method

This pizza recipe is in response to the global kadai event "Indian flavor pizza" hosted by homecook recipes which was originally started by Cilantro.

1. To make the pizza sauce, heat some olive oil in a pan & saute the minced garlic & chopped green pepper.
2. Add the tomato sauce(blanch 2 tomatoes & peel the skin, dice it & puree it) & chopped tomatoes & other seasonings. Let the sauce condense.
3. To make veggie meatballs, boil the soy chunks till tender. Drain the hot water, add cold water & squeeze out the excess water. Repeat the process 3 more times by adding cold water & squeezing the extra. Now, after the water is squeezed out, cut the soy chunks into pieces & saute it in a pan by adding some pizza sauce. This helps to infuse the flavor & taste from the sauce to the chunks.
4. Spread the sauce on the naan. Add the desired toppings on top of it & spread the cheese over it.
5. Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees & bake the pizza for 7-8 minutes or till the cheese melts.

Make the naan thicker if you desire a pizza with a thick crust.

Tava Naan

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour - 3 cups
• Active Dry Yeast - 1 tspn
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Warm water - 1/2 cup
• Yogurt - 2 tbspn
• Sugar - 1 tspn
• Salt - 3/4 tspn
• Oil - 1 tspn

Tava Naan

method

This was my third attempt at making Naan. Very first time, alarm went off because of the excessive heat(500 degrees) from my oven & I had to curtail my Naan making process midway. Then, I tried it on a tava, Naan came out perfect but did not taste good because of the excess baking soda & baking powder added to the recipe. Finally, I gave it a shot by using yeast & made the naan again on a tava & it came out just perfect. So, without further ado, I am presenting you my recipe from my third attempt here. Just so you know, my inspiration for this recipe is from chef Sanjay from VahreVah.com.

1. Dissolve the yeast & sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Leave it covered for 10 minutes or until frothy.
2. Mix in other ingredients & make a dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes to make the gluten form. Gluten is a protein which holds the air released by yeast while the yeast is working on the sugar in the dough. The dough may be little sticky, but that is ok. Cover the bowl & leave it in a warm place for about 3-4 hours or until the dough doubles.
3. Punch the dough with your knuckle to its original size. Punching the dough helps to distribute the air bubbles all through the dough. Knead the dough for 3 minutes & let it rest for 10 more minutes. Resting helps to relax the dough & will make it easier to handle. Otherwise, the dough will not hold the shape, it springs back to a ball.
4. Make the dough into equal sized balls (bigger than chapati dough). If the dough sticks, dip your finger into the dry flour to make the balls & roll it into a circle or tear drop shape. You can even pat the dough by your hand & flip them around using both hands. The weight of the dough will help stretch the dough.
5. Heat an Iron pan or a heavy bottomed pan (for even heat distribution) with lid on for five minutes or till it smokes a bit.
6. Sprinkle a teaspoon of water over the stretched naan (no need to drench the whole area of the naan) & put the sprinkled side of the naan to the heated tava so that the naan sticks to the tava at the sprinkled areas. Cover it with a lid. When the top side starts to bubble up, flip it & cover it with a lid. Cook the naan covered till both the sides form black spots.
7. Spread it with butter or ghee & serve it hot. This recipe makes 8-9 naans.

Make the dough in a glass or plastic bowl. Metal containers conduct heat resulting in uneven rising of the dough.

Coconut milk porridge (Thengai Paal Kanji)

Ingredients

• Raw rice  - 1/2 cup
• Moong dhal - 2 tbspn
• Fenugreek (methi) seeds - 1/4 tspn
• Coconut milk - 3/4 cup
• Garlic - 4 pod

health tip

Moong dhal is rich in protein. Fenugreek is a natural source of iron, silicon, sodium and thiamine and helps in soothing and relaxing inflamed tissues. Garlic has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiviral properties.

Coconut milk porridge (Thengai Paal Kanji)

method

I learned this recipe from my Mom. Back in India, my Mom used to make this porridge every other weekend because it is good for health & the fenugreek in the recipe cools down the body. Soon after I left India I rarely made this dish except during the summer times. I was about to post this recipe for the "cooking with seeds" event but I am past the event date. Please be aware the recipe uses coconut & if you are conscious about cholesterol you may want to tone its quantity down a bit.

1. Dry roast the rice, moong dal & fenugreek seeds till they all give out a nice aroma. Let them cool.
2. When cooled, wash them & pressure cook them with chopped garlic for 3 whistles or till the rice gets soft.
3. Grind the coconut & squeeze out the milk while the rice is cooking.
4. Mash the cooked ingredients & add coconut milk & salt. Turn on the stove & let it heat for 2 minutes. You don't want to over heat it. Serve it with garlic pickle .
   

   This Kanji can be made using mixed beans like Green gram, Red beans & other smaller beans you have along with Kambu, brown rice, red rice & black rice. Soak the beans overnight & cook it with other ingredients. Beans doesn't have to get mushy. Eliminate the garlic. Brown sugar or jaggery can be replaced for salt in both the methods.

   
   

Easy Tasty Sambar Rice

Ingredients

• Parboiled rice -1 cup
• Toor dal - 1/4 cup
• Onion - 1
• Tomato -1
• Chopped veggies - 1 1/2 cup ( Eggplant, Carrot, Potato, Drumstick, Beans)
• Sambar powder - 1 1/4 tspn
• Asafoteida(hing) - 1/4 tspn
• Fenugreek powder - a pinch
• Tamarind - a Goose berry size or 1/4 tspn
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn

health tip

Veggies are rich in vitamins, minerals & fiber. Dhal or pulses are rich in protein. Rice is high in carbohydrate.

Sambar Rice

method

1. Wash the rice & dal together. Cook it in a pressure cooker till the mixture gets soft & mushy.
2. Heat some oil & ghee in a pan. Add curry leaves, hing, methi powder and Cinnamon stick. Add the diced onion & tomato. Saute it till tomato gets mushy. Add the sambar powder& salt. Saute it till the oil separates. Add the chopped veggies & saute for some time.
3. When the pressure goes off, mash the rice dal mixture with the back of the ladle or using potato masher. Mix in the sauted veggies, Tamarind juice & little brown sugar or jaggery. Taste it for salt & spiciness. Add some hot water & cook it for one more whistle. Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves & green onions.
   

Homemade Paneer

Ingredients

• Milk - 1/2 gallon or 2 liters
• Vinegar or lemon juice - 3 tbspn

health tip

Milk is rich in Calcium, Protein, Vitamin B2, B12, A, D & K. It is better to consider buying organic milk because of the presence of hormones in regular milk & high Omega 3 content in organic milk.

Homemade Paneer

method

Paneer is a mild flavored Indian cheese. Excess milk which is about to expire can be made into paneer & stored in freezer for future use. Because of the added flexibility in choosing hormone free milk & the fat content in milk, I usually make paneer at home. Ricotta cheese can be substituted for paneer but it will tasted different from paneer. It is easy to make paneer at home. Paneer is made by curdling milk by making it acidic by adding vinegar, lemon juice or yogurt. Adding yogurt may yield more quantity of paneer than using lemon juice or vinegar. Use 1 cup of yogurt per 1/2 gallon of milk when using yogurt. Reminder of the recipe is the same irrespective of the method you use to curdle the milk.

1. Bring the milk to boil in a heavy bottomed pan.
2. When the milk begins to boil, add the desired acidic product & stir constantly. Milk solid will start to separate & curdle at the top leaving thin liquid called Whey at the bottom.
3. Line a colander or strainer with a cheese cloth or a white cotton towel & place it in another vessel to collect the whey water.
4. Turn of the heat & pour the contents into the lined strainer. Gather the ends of the towel together & squeeze the excess water out.
   
5. Flip the colander upside down & place the paneer wrapped in towel over the flipped colander.Press it down with a heavy weighing item to let the excess water drain & to make the paneer harder. Leave it in an undisturbed place for 3-4 hours with the weights on.
6. After 3 or 4 hours take the weight off & unwrap the towel. A block of homemade paneer is ready to use. Cut the block into cubes & use it fresh or store it in a freezer for later use.