Spicy Chicken Masala Curry

Ingredients

Marinate

1 lb chicken , washed and cut into medium sized pieces

3 tbsp curds

1 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to suit your spice level)

¼ tsp turmeric pwd

salt to taste

Make a paste:

6-7 cashewnuts

4-5 tbsps milk

Dry roast and make a fine powder:

1” cinnamon

10-12 curry leaves ( can use 1 tsp of curry leaves powder)

3 cloves

Other ingredients:

3-4 tbsps oil

2 big onions finely chopped

1 large tomato finely chopped

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

1 tsp coriander powder

3/4 tsp black pepper powder (adjust to suit your spice level)

¼ tsp cumin powder

coriander leaves for garnish

Procedure

1. Marinate chicken pieces in chilli powder, turmeric powder, curd and salt for 20 mts.
2. While the chicken pieces are marinating, make a paste of cashewnuts and milk. Keep aside.
3. Dry roast cinnamon, cloves and curry leaves for 1 mt and make a powder of them. Keep aside.
4. Heat 1 1/2 tbsps of oil in a cooking vessel. Add the onions and saute till pink. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute further for another 3-4 minutes on medium heat.
5. Add coriander pwd, cumin pwd, pepper pwd and combine well and fry for another minute.
6. Add the tomatoes and let it cook for 3-4 minutes. Combine well and cook till oil separates.Turn off heat. Cool and grind the cooked masala. Keep aside this masala paste.
7. Heat 1 1/2 tbsps oil in a cooking vessel and add the marinated chicken and cook on high flame for 4-5 minutes, reduce heat and cook covered for another 4-5 minutes.
8. Add the ground masala paste, cashewnut paste and ground powder of cinnamon, cloves and curry leaves and combine well. (Add a cup of water for more gravy consistency). Cook till chicken pieces are soft and you get the desired curry consistency. Adjust salt.
9. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Milk Peda

Ingredients

1 gallon of milk
1 1/2 cups of sugar

Procedure

1. In a big pan, bring the milk to a boil. Keep the heat on medium high and boil/simmer the milk for about 2 hours, stirring in between. By the end of two hours, the milk reduces in volume, becomes quite thick and turns from white to brownish color.
2. Add sugar to the thickened milk. Continuously stirring on medium heat, cook for about 30 to 45 minutes. By the end of this time, the milk-sugar paste further thickens and when you think, you can almost make a ball with it, then only switch off the heat.
3. Let it cool completely. Cut it into squares or shape into rounds.

Kalakand

Ingredients

• 8 cups of milk
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice (for making paneer)
• 1 tablespoon sliced almonds or pistachio for garnishing

Procedure

Making Paneer:

1. Mix lemon juice in ¼ cup of hot water and put aside.
2. Boil the 4 cups of milk in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, making sure not to burn milk.
3. As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. The curd will start separating from the whey, turn off the heat.
4. Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, drain the whey using a strainer line with muslin cloth.
5. Wrap the curds in a muslin cloth, rinse under cold water, and squeeze well.
   
6. To take out the excess water, squeeze the wrapped paneer. Do not knead the paneer.

Making Kalakand

1. Boil remaining 4 cup of the milk in a heavy bottom frying pan on medium high heat until the milk reduces to about two cups.
2. Add the paneer in the milk and keep stirring till the mixture thickness and form a soft dough consistency.
3. Add the sugar and continue to cook and stirring until the mixture become soft lump and start leaving the pan from sides.
4. Pour it over plate greased with ghee keeping about half inch thick.
5. Let it cool for about one hour. Cut the kalakand in squares.

Capsicum oats omlette

Ingredients

Capsicum - 1
Onion - 1
Egg - 3
Powdered oats - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Pepper as desired
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp

For Tempering:

mustard - 1 tsp
channa dhal - 1/2 tsp
urad dhal - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Procedure

1. Place a wide thick bottomed bowl on the flame with 2 teaspoons of cooking oil in it. On heating add mustard seeds. On sputtering add finely chopped onions,ginger garlic paste, cumin seeds, turmeric powder,green chillies, pepper & garam masala powder to it. Add finely chopped capsicum and after they are cooked , add required quantity of salt to it .
2. Now in a bowl, mix 3 eggs, powdered oats and the above cooked capsicum.
3. Take the Dosa Tawa , switch on medium heat and allow it to heat up well. Sprinkle a drop of water and when you hear the sizzle, you know for sure that the tava is heated enough.
4. Add a few drops of Oil and spread with a paper or tissue to make sure that the tawa is well greased.
5. Take a ladle full of the batter prepared on step 2 and spread it with a Dosa Ladle on the tava. Lace the ends of the dosa with a few drops of oil.
   
6. Then after some time, flip over to the other side.
7. After few min, the omlette can be taken to a plate and served hot.

Vegetable Samosa

Ingredients

Quantity - 15-20

For the Filling:

Potato - 2
Carrot - 2
Green peas - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1
Garlic - 2 pods
Ginger - 1/4 inch
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric -pinch
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Chat masala - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp

For the dough:

All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Salt as desired
Oil - 3 tsp

Method

For the Filling:

1. Boil the vegetables until tender. Then mash them together.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion,garlic and ginger and saute until soft.
   
3. Now add the mashed vegetables,chilli powder,turmeric,salt,garam masala and the chat masala and stir the mixture under low flame for 3 min. Now the filling is ready.

For the Samosa dough:

1. Add water gradually (about 1/4 cups) until the dough holds together, and knead well. Roll into a ball and cover with a moist cloth. Let rest about 20 minutes.
2. To assemble the samosas, break off 1 1/2"-2" pieces of the dough, and roll out into 6"-8" diameter circles. Cut each circle in half. Fold each half-circle in thirds to make a pie-wedge shape. Seal the point by pressing or pinching. Pick up the dough, and seal the outside edge by pinching to form a cone. Fill the cone two-thirds with filling masala mixture. Moisten the lip of the cone with a little milk or water, and pinch to seal. Press the samosa between your palms to remove air pockets. Flute the top edge and cover with a moist cloth until ready to fry.
3. In the final step these samosas can either be baked or deep fried.

Baked Samosa

1. Preheat an oven to a temperature of 400 degree F. Place samosa in the oven and reduce the temperature to 300 degree F. In about 45 minutes crisp samosas would be ready (keep an eye on the samosa so that they are uniformly baked to a light brown colour).
   
   Serve samosa warm with tomato sauce or coriander chutney.

Fried Samosa

1. Heat oil in a deep skillet. Drop 2 or 3 samosas in it and fry at medium heat. With a spoon change the sides and fry until samosa turn light brown color (about 5-7 minutes)
2. Take out samosas on a kitchen towel so that excess oil gets absorbed.

Chinese fried rice

Ingredients

2 cups Rice
3 eggs
3 tbsp Oil
100 gms Beans Finely Chopped
2 Carrot Finely Chopped
1 Onion Sliced
100 gms peas
2 Spring Onions Finely Chopped (optional)
2 tbsp Soya Sauce
Salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. Pick, wash and soak the rice in enough water for 10-15 minutes and drain.
2. Boil water, add rice and little salt.
3. Cook uncovered on low heat till rice is tender.
4. Take care not to overcook the rice. Each grain of rice should be separate.
5. When rice is done, drain and add some cold water and drain again using a large seive and set aside.
   
6. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft and 2 tablespoons soy sauce and stir-fry for 5 to 6 minutes.
7. Stir in carrots, pea pods and beans and stir-fry another 5 minutes. Then add rice and stir thoroughly.
8. Finally, stir in scrambled eggs and one tsp soy sauce, heat through and serve hot.

Vegetable Cutlet

Ingredients

Quantity - 30 Cutlets

Potatoes-3
Chopped beans - 1 1/2 cups
Chopped carrot - 1 cup
Green peas -1/2 cup
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Onion - 1(big) chopped
Tomato - 1/2 chopped
garam masala - 1 tsp
green chillies -2
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
turmeric - 1/2 tsp
milk- 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1 tbsp
Breadcrumbs - 1-2 cups

Procedure (Deep Fry)

1. Boil the all the vegetables and mash them seperately and then mix and keep it aside.
2. Add milk to the All Purpose flour to make a batter and keep aside.
3. Place a wide thick bottomed bowl on the flame with 5 teaspoons of cooking oil in it. On heating add mustard seeds. On sputtering add finely chopped onions,ginger garlic paste, cumin seeds, turmeric powder,green chillies, chilli powder & garam masala powder to it. Add finely chopped onions and after they are translucent add the chopped tomato and required quantity of salt to it . Allow it to fry on a medium flame.Now the mixture is ready.
   
4. With oiled hands, divide the mixture into 30 equal parts.
5. Shape into flat round patties about 1/2 inch thick.
6. Dip each patty in the flour batter, and roll the patty in breadcrumbs and set aside.
7. Heat the oil on medium high heat in a frying pan.
8. Frying pan should have atleast 1 1/2 inch of oil.
9. Fry a few cutlets at a time until they are golden-brown on both sides.
10. Repeat this until all the cutlets are done. Serve hot.

Tips:

1. If the oil is not hot enough, the patties will break.
2. If the vegetable/potato mixture looks wet, you can add some breadcrumbs.

Baked Version

1. Repeat the steps 1 through 5.
   
2. Preheat the oven to 425F.
   
3. Spread an aluminum foil over a baking tray and spray the cooking oil afterwhich place 6-7 cutlets over it.
   
4. Bake them for 10 min and then flip over the cutlets.Leave them for 10 more min or until golden brown.
5. Serve hot with sauce or chutney.