Honey Chicken

Sunday dinner tends to be Chicken, This weekend, it was a sweetish chicken, which I served with mashed sweet potatoes

For Dry Chicken
1 large curry cut chicken
4 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp paprika powder
Salt to taste
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp melon seeds
3 tbsp torn basil leaves

Method:
Wash the chicken and pat dry. Marinate for 30 minutes in a mixture of soya sauce, Worchestershire sauce, honey, lemon juice, paprika powder and salt.
Heat the oil, add the chicken pieces in batches and cook so all sides are evenly done (about 2-4 minutes per side). Return the chicken to the pot, add the remaining marinade, cover, and let it simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes.
Add sesame seeds, melon seeds and basil leaves, cook for an additional minute, and serve.


For Mashed Sweet Potatoes
2 large sweet potatoes
2 tsp chilli flakes
Salt to taste
1 tsp butter
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Method:
Boil the sweet potatoes till soft. Peel and mash.
Add chilli flakes, salt, butter and lemon juice, and mix well.

Chicken with citrus glaze

I was looking for recipes using chicken breasts when I came across this one. Though it was nothing like what I was looking for, the medley of flavours looked interesting, and I decided to try it out. I am glad I did, because it was lick smackingly good. Next time, I am making it with smaller slices of chicken, and serving it with fried rice.

500 gms chicken breasts
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp honey
Juice of 1 orange*
Juice of 1 lemon/ 1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and chilli flakes to taste
2 tsp canola oil

Method:
Combine orange juice, lemon juice, honey, galic cloves, salt and chilli flakes in a large shallow dish. Add chicken breasts, cover and place in the refrigerator for one hour.
After the chicken has marinated, remove from the fridge. Heat the oil, and once hot, add the chicken. Cook the chicken for about 10 minutes per side till cooked well.
Meanwhile, simmer the marinade in a pan till it reduces to a thick consistency. At this stage, I added some orange food colouring, but it is not necessary.
Arrage the cooked chicken breasts on a plate, pour the glaze over the chicken, and serve.

*- I used one tetrapack of orange juice

Fresh and Crunchy Salad

A couple of weeks back, a friend taught me to make mozzarella cheese. Though it sounded very similar to the process of making paneer, I decided to take it at face value and try it. The bad news is that the end product was no different from regular paneer. The good news is that the paneer went straight into a crunchy salad which was quickly consumed with the Sunday lunch!

For the paneer:
1 litre milk
1 tbsp lemon juice

For the salad:
2 large tomatoes
2 medium onions
1 large cucumber
12- 15 black olives

For the marinade
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
4- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp crushed dry mint
Salt to taste

Method:
Add the lemon juice to cold milk, and keep aside for 30 minutes
Bring to a boil, reduce the flame, and keep stirring till the whey separates.
Drain and keep aside.
Cut the cucumber, onions, tomatoes and paneer into 1/2 inch square pieces.
Mix the marinade, toss in the vegetables, cover with cling film and keep in the fridge for 2 hours.
Garnish with olives before serving

Cauliflower stir fry

I had a huge head of cauliflower in the fridge, but didn't want to make the same boring cauliflower subji. The hubby doesn't like cauliflower dalna, and since I didn't have the veggies to make fried rice, any Chinese dish was out. Time to innovate. Taking off from this recipe, I threw together a whole bunch of stuff, and was pretty surprised when everyone said it was awesome!

1 medium cauliflower (or equivalent)
6 pods garlic (the more the better)
2 tbsp cooking oil (I used olive oil)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp chilli sauce (or to taste)
2 tbsp honey
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

Method:
Remove the stem and leaves of the cauliflower and cut/ break into small pieces. Soak in salt water for about 10 minutes to remove any worms that might be there.
Heat the oil, throw in the garlic and cauliflowers, and stir fry on high heat till the cauliflower starts browning.*
Add the soy sauce, lemon juice and chilli sauce, lower the flame, and cook with stirring for another 2-3 minutes.
Add salt to taste, and the honey, mix well. Turn off the flame, cover, and let it cook in its own steam for about 10 minutes.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.


* I had some stir fried yellow bell pepper, so threw that in too, but it did nothing for the dish, so not adding it next time

Crispy Lemon Grass Tofu

A couple of weeks back, I bought a bunch of lemon-grass on an impulse. It was after I got home that I started looking for recipes where I could use them. Some went into a noodle soup, most of it went into my chai, and most of the rest languished in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, a whole bunch of recipes remained in the "to be tried someday" file.
Today, I tackled one of those recipes, and it was much better than I hoped it would be. Onward now- tofu (or 'shona' as the Younger One calls it) might just make an appearance at our dining table more frequently.

Oil for frying
1 block tofu, drained and cut into 1 inch cubes
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks fresh lemon grass, tender part only, minced
1 tablespoon chili paste
1 red onion, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon honey

Method
In a saucepan or fryer, heat 1 inch of canola oil to about 350 degrees. Drain the tofu cubes on paper towels. Place cornstarch in a plastic bag, drop in the tofu and shake to coat. Drop the tofu cubes in 1 layer in the hot oil (cook in two batches if necessary) and fry until golden and crispy. Drain on fresh paper towels.
In a wok, heat a small drizzle of canola oil. Add the garlic, lemon grass, chili paste, onion and bell pepper. Cook until onion just begins to turn translucent, then add the tofu, fish sauce and honey. Toss gently until a fine glaze appears on all sides of the tofu cubes.
Serve over rice.

Roast Cauliflower

Roast cauliflower/ gobi massallum is a dish my mother often made, and which I have made a few times too. The masala for that used to be the standard "North Indian masala", with the grated cheese adding the appropriate taste of the exotic.
Since my older one has developed a liking for Worcestershire sauce, however, I decided to experiment with a very different masala this time, and I really liked the results. Next time, I am buying a much bigger cauliflower, because this got polished off in no time at all.

1 medium cauliflower
2 medium onions chopped fine
3 medium tomatoes chopped fine
1 green chilli (deseeded, if you don't want it too hot)
2 tbsp kasoori methi
2 tbsp walnuts
1 tbsp melon seeds
1 tbsp flax seeds
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
cooking oil

salt to taste

Method
Remove the leaves of the cauliflower, soak it in salt water for about 15 minutes, steam for 10 minutes and keep aside
Heat the oil, and fry the onions till they turn transparent
Add tomatoes and green chilli and fry till it starts releasing oil
Add kasoori methi, and give it a quick stir.
In a blender, blend the cooked masala and the nuts to get a smooth paste
Stir in the sauce, honey and salt.
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees
Turn the steamed cauliflower over, and push the masala in through the florets (use up about a third of the masala this way.
Lightly grease a baking dish, spread a thin layer of the masala on it, place the cauliflower on top, and cover with the masala.
Place in the oven, and bake for 15 minutes at 220 degrees.
Serve hot. Tastes best with hot rotis.

Pull apart bread rolls

One of the things I have been wanting to make ever since my first successful attempt at baking bread has been the "ladi pav" for pav bhaji. I've had some truly disastrous attempts, with me attempting to salvage most of them by converting them into something else. This time too, I nearly ended up with a disaster, but at the last moment, I added an additional cup of flour and got something that looked and tasted the way I wanted it to. When it comes to bread, I now realise, you either stick to what you do best, or be prepared to innovate if you need to.

4 cups flour
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp honey
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped fine
4-5 pods garlic, chopped very fine
2 tbsp grated cheese

Method
Dissolve the honey in about 1/2 cup warm water, add the yeast and leave it for 10 minutes to froth (if it doesn't do so, leave it for another 10 minutes, and if it still doesn't, just throw it away and start with a fresh batch of yeast).
Sift the flour and salt together, add the olive oil and the yeast, and knead into a dough, adding excess water as required.
When it is nice and smooth, roll it into a ball, cover with cling film and leave it to rise for 20-30 minutes.
When the dough has risen to about double its size, punch it down, then add the chopped onions and garlic, and mix well.
Divide the dough into ping-pong ball sized balls, and place on a greased baking tray, leaving a 1 cm gap between them. Cover and leave it for about 20 minutes
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 degrees
Garnish the bread balls with cheese, and bake for about 20 minutes.
Tastes yummy with pav-bhaji subji.

Roast veggies

I had a whole bunch of vegetables in the fridge, and instead of making the usual curry with them, decided to attempt something new. The older one liked it, because it reminded him of roast chicken, but nobody else had anything to say, so this is the first and last time I make it. Pity, because it was nice, in a very different sort of way.

Mixed vegetables cut into equal sized pieces (I used beans, carrots, peas, and potatoes)

2 tbsps soya sauce
1 tbsps Worcesterchire sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
oil

Saute the vegetables on low heat for a few minutes.
Add the soya sauce, the Worcestershire sauce, chilli powder and salt, mix well, and keep cooking till the vegetables are well coked.
Add the honey, stir well.
Check for seasonings before searving.

Cucumber-Paneer Cups

A few months back, I tried to shift from "three big meals a day", a more healthy "small meals more often". For someone who doesn't particularly like spending time in the kitchen, the mid-morning and mid-afternoon meals were initially a bit of a challenge, but that was only till I discovered soups and salads! 
This particular dish is adapted from one I first saw in Runner Girl in the Kitchen. I had been intending to make Cucumber-Paneer Cups her way, but on that particular day, I craved something sweet, and this experiment was unexpectedly successful.

Crumble 100 gms paneer, sprinkle 1 tps ground cinnamon, add 2 tbsp honey, and mix well.
Wash 2 cucumbers, cut into two/ three/ four pieces each (depending on how big you want each cup to be), and remove the seeds using the back of a spoon.
Stuff the core with the paneer, and enjoy.

This is not exactly *sweet*, but the predominant taste is of honey and cinnamon, and you know you are eating a lot of goodness.