Mashed Potato

Here is a very popular conti sides dish for the up-coming weekend – Cheesy Mashed Potato.

Ingredients required for mashed potato:

Potatoes – 5 Big

Milk – 1 Cup (Room temperature)

Butter – 1 Tbsp

Cream – ¼ cup

Cheddar Cheese – ¾ cup (Grated)

Processed Cheese – ¾ cup (Grated)

Dry Parsley – 2-3 Tsp

Salt & Pepper to taste

How to prepare mashed potato:

Boil the potatoes till they are extremely soft. Peel them and mash into a smooth paste and let it rest aside.

Take a sauce pan on medium heat and put butter. Once melted, pour in the milk and let it heat. Continuous stirring is required as there is a chance of milk getting burnt.

Once the milk will come to a boil, put in the 2 kinds of cheese& cream and stir till all melts into a thick cheesy paste. In case you get a burnt smell, take the pan off heat and continue stirring. The heat in the milk is enough to melt the grated cheese.

Add salt & crushed pepper to your taste. Garnish it with parsley.

Once everything is incorporated well, pour in the cheese mixture into the mashed potato bowl and give it a good mix. If still granulated, use a blender to smoothen it.

Keep on adding salt and pepper until it is in accordance to your palette.

Enjoy the cheesy mashed potato plain, or as an accompaniment with toasted bread/sautéed veggies/garlic bread/grilled chicken (my FavJ) and the list goes on… 

Chicken Manchow

A quick starter for the nearing weekend – Chicken Manchow

Ingredients to prepare chicken manchow:

Chicken – 500g

Noodles (regular) – 1 cube

Sugar – 1 Tsp

Cornflour – 1 Tbsp

All-purpose flour (Maida) – 1 Tbsp

Ginger – 2 Tbsp (Finely chopped)

Garlic - 2 Tbsp (Finely chopped)

Capsicum – ½ (Finely chopped)

Spring onion – 5-6 (Finely chopped)

Carrot – ½ (Finely chopped)

Cabbage – 5-6 leaves (Finely chopped)

Coriander – 2Ttbsp (Finely chopped)

Veg/Chic. Stock cube – ½ cube

Tomato ketchup – 2 Tbsp

Soya sauce – 3 Tbsp

Green chilly Sauce – 2 Tbsp

Ginger-garlic paste – 2 Tbsp

Salt, ajinomoto & black pepper to taste

Oil

Procedure of Chicken Manchow:

Chic Prep:

Clean chicken and dice it into 1 cm pieces. Marinate it with 1 Tbsp soya sauce, 2 Tbsp ginger-garlic paste, little ajinomoto & salt and leave it to rest for 15 minutes. In a flat bottomed pan, heat 1 Tbsp oil and sauté the chicken pieces until cooked well.

Noodles Prep:

Noodles that are used in the recipe are the regular plain ones and not maggi, top ramen etc. Take a deep bottomed pan with water enough to submerge the cube completely and bring it to a boil. Sprinkle little salt for the boiling process to quicken and a tbsp of oil. Now put in the noodles in the boiling water and let them cook to perfection. Strain the water and mix cornflour and maida in the noodles. Leave it to rest for 10 minutes. Now take a frying pan on medium heat and pour 2-3 Tbsp oil. Fry the noodles in small portions until they become crispy. Dab the excess oil on a kitchen towel and store in an air-tight container.

Chicken Manchow prep:

Take a frying pan on low heat and put 1-2 Tbsp oil. Put in sugar and let it caramelize. Now goes the ginger and garlic pieces. Once golden brown, put in capsicum, carrot and cabbage and let them cook for few seconds. Next goes spring onion & coriander. Give all of them a good stir and let them sauté for few seconds. Now crush in the stock cube and stir well (We get the maggi veg/chicken stock cube in any grocery store). Let not the veggies cook totally. Let the crunch retain.

Now it is time to pour in all the sauces. Get going with all the sauces in accordance to your own palette.

The last part – season the dish with the right amount of salt, pepper and ajinomoto. Turn off the heat.

And Just before serving, crush the noodles and stir them into the chicken.

Enjoy the crunchy and spicy chicken manchow dish on a cool evening.

Cheers!!!

Vegetable Pulao

Nothing like a spice filled aromatic vegetable shahi pulao!!!

Ingredients:

Basmati rice – ½ Kg

Carrot – 1 Big (diced)

Beans – 4-5 Nos (1 cm long pieces)

Potato – 1 Big (diced)

Onion – 1 big (sliced)

Cumin seeds – 1 Tsp

Shah Jeera – 1 Tsp

Curry leaf – 7-8 leaves

Mint leaf – 7-8 leaves

Cloves – 3-4 Nos

Cinnamon stick – 1 Big

Staranise - 1 Nos

Spices powder – 1-2 Tsp (Cloves+Cinnamon – grind it into a fine powder)

Turmeric powder – 1-2 Tsp

Ghee – 5-6 Tbsp

Oil

Salt to taste

Procedure:

Soak the rice in water for 15-30 min and set aside. Take a wide bottomed pan in which you prefer to prepare the pulao, on a low medium heat. Pour in 3 Tbsp oil and 2 Tbsp ghee and let it heat. Once hot, put in both the kinds of jeera. Let it sautee for a second and put in the onion slices. Once the onions are golden brown, throw in all the veggies and let them fry for a minute. Now you can increase the flame to medium high.

Put the curry leaf and the mint leaf and give it a good stir. Next goes all the whole spices (Cloves, Cinnamon stick, Staranise) along with the spices powder. By now you should already be getting the beautiful aroma of the veggies and the spices.

Strain the rice from the soaked water and layer the rice in the pan and stir it softly, preventing the breakage of the rice. Now pour in water and put turmeric powder, salt to taste. Add 1 Tbsp oil to the water.

Rice to water ratio is 1:2

Let the flame continue on high till the water gets to boil and reduces to the rice level. Once you can see the rice, put a lid and lower the flame to low. It is just 4-5 minutes away that a delicious tray of pulao is on your way.

Just remove the lid and check if all the water is absorbed. Do not stir. Turn off the heat and garnish with few fried onions and 2 Tbsp Ghee and close the lid.

Do not stir till it is cooled down for a while. This will prevent rice from breaking.

Toasted Chicken Sandwich

Here’s a quick bite recipe of Toasted Chicken Sandwich for the weekend.

Ingredients for the Toasted Chicken Sandwich:

Chicken – ½ Kg

Bread – 8-10 slices

Capsicum – 1 Big (Sliced into thin long strips)

Onions – 1 Big (fine Sliced)

Chilly Powder – 2 Tbsp

Garamasala Powder – 1 Tbsp

Jeera – 1 Tsp

Tomato Ketchup

Green Chilly sauce

Oil – 2-3 Tbsp

Salt to taste

How to prepare yummy toasted Chicken Sandwich:

Chicken Prep:

Clean chicken and keep it aside. Take a wide pan on medium heat. Next put in the jeera (cumin seeds) and onions. Once onions are golden brown, put the chicken, chilly powder & garamasala powder. Give it a good stir and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes. There should be no water remaining by the time the chicken gets cooked. It has to be dry & moist, and definitely not saucy. Take it off heat and let it cool.

Once cool, debone the chicken & shred it well.

Sandwich prep:

Take 2 slices and apply ketchup and chilly sauce on both. Place chicken on one slice. Top it up with capsicum pieces and some chilly flakes (optional). Place another slice on top and put it in the toaster. After 2-3 minutes, just brush the top of the sandwich with little butter and close the toaster again. Leave it for a minute and serve hot with any sauce of your own choice.

I’ve used a toaster. You can as well use a grill or a flat pan on stove with a lid. But please make sure you have an eye on the heat (as you do not wanna have a burnt sandwich!) J

Sweet Chilly Crispy Potato

A tasty and crispy veggie starter…

Ingredients for Sweet Chilly Crispy Potato:

Potatoes – 2 Big

Maida (All purpose flour) – 1 Cup

Corn flour – ½ Cup

Spring Onions – 4-5 (Finely chopped)

Capsicum – 1 (Diced)

Ginger – 1 Tbsp (Finely chopped)

Garlic - 1 Tbsp (Finely chopped)

Honey – 3 Tbsp

Chilly Sauce – 1 Tsp

Soya Sauce – 2 Tbsp

Ketchup - 1 Tsp

Pepper – ¼ Tsp (freshly ground)

Ajinomoto – 1 Tsp

Green chilly - 2 (Finely chopped)

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

How to make a Sweet Chilly Crispy Potato:

Firstly, peel and dice the potatoes (long, ½ an inch thickness) as if they look like French fries. Now we double fry these potatoes – 1^st, with dry batter and 2^nd, with wet batter. This is main reason the potatoes turn out to be extra crispy and do not get soggy at least till an hour and a half from preparation.

Dry batter:

Put oil in a deep bottomed pan on medium high heat. Meanwhile in a another bowl, put ½ cup Maida, ¼ cup corn flour, 1 tsp salt & 2 Tbsp oil and mix well. Now put all the diced potatoes and coat them well.

Dust the extra flour off the potatoes and deep fry them once the oil is hot. Once the potatoes are 60-70% cooked, take them off heat and place them on a kitchen towel/tissue to get rid of the extra oil.

Wet Batter:

You can use the same oil to fry the potatoes for the second time. Let the pan be on low flame till you prepare the wet batter. Ingredients that go in for the same – ½ cup Maida, ¼ Cup corn flour, 1 Tsp salt, 2 Tbsp oil & ½ cup water. Mix well into a lump-less batter and put in the fried potatoes into it. Make sure all the potatoes are coated well before you deep fry them once again. Also make sure you get the pan on medium-high to fry the potatoes or else they tend to soak up more oil.

When you fry for the second time, the potatoes tend to stick to each other.  You can separate them and coat them again in the remaining wet batter and fry them. This way, all the potatoes will be coated well and become equally crispy. 

Final Sauce & Dish Prep of Sweet Chilly Crispy Potato:

Take a wok on medium-low heat and put in 2 Tbsp oil. Add the ginger and garlic pieces followed by capsicum and let them sauté for few seconds.  Now add spring onion, green chilly, chilly sauce, soya sauce, ketchup and mix all of them well and leave it to cook for 30 seconds. Add freshly ground pepper and ajinomoto and give it a good stir. All the ingredients can be added in accordance to your taste. Finally add 3 Tbsp honey and mix well. This helps potatoes get a good glaze. Now the last step, add the fried potatoes and stir them well in the sauce. Once all of them are perfectly glazed, take them off heat, garnish with coriander or parsley (optional) and serve hot.

I am sure you would enjoy this delicious Sweet Chilly Crispy Potato as much as I did. Cheers!

Chilly Cheese Toast

When it is bread & cheese, it can never go wrong. Here’s a simple n quick toast for those lazy days.

Ingredients for Chilly Cheese Toast:

Bread – 5-6 slices

Cheddar Cheese – 100g

Mozzarella Cheese – 100g

Mayonnaise – 50g

Butter – 1 tbsp

Parsley – 2 Tbsp (Fresh or Dry, either)

Chilly flakes – 2 Tbsp

Onions – 1 Big (Finely chopped)

Capsicum – 1 Big (Finely chopped)

Green Chilli – 4-5 (Finely chopped)

Salt & pepper to taste

Chicken sausages – 5-6 (finely sliced & sauteed a bit – optional)

Procedure - Chilly Cheese Toast:

Mix all the ingredients into a cheesy paste. Leave out the sausage for the toppings. All the ingredients should be at room temperature to get a smooth paste.

Apply the paste to the bread slices and top it up with sausages.

Now take a flat pan on medium high heat and place a slice on it and cover it with a lid for a minute. Keep a check on the heat to avoid burning the slice. Once the slice gets crispy at the bottom, flip it just for few seconds and flip it back onto a serving plate. The flipping of the slice is to make the cheese melt and give the soft texture to the toast. Hence, few seconds are more than enough.

It’s as simple as that folks. Feel free to top it with some oregano seasoning or tobasco sauce on the side. Enjoy the tasty Chilly Cheese Toast with favorite drink of yours, Cheers!!

P.S.: For the vegetarians, Chicken Sausages can be replaced with Corn/grated Paneer.

Pasta in Arrabiata Sauce (Red sauce)

Here is some Italian cooking folks! This delicious tomato based sauce goes perfectly with Penne.

Ingredients for Pasta in Arrabiata Sauce:

Pasta – 250g (Penne Rigate`)

Chicken – 100g (Boneless, cleaned & cut into thin strips)

Onion – 1 big (Finely sliced)

Tomato – 5 big (3 - boil, peel & puree, 2 - Chopped)

Garlic - 4-5 cloves (Finely chopped)

Crushed Pepper – 1-2 Tbsp

Chilly Powder – 1-2 Tbsp

Thyme – 1 tbsp

Parsley – 1 Tbsp

Olive oil & Salt – As required

Cheese - Optional

Process to prepare Pasta in Arrabiata Sauce:

Boiling Pasta:

Take a deep dish and fill it with water. Add salt & 1 Tbsp olive oil and bring it to boil. Now, put in the pasta and stir so that they do not stick to the bottom of the pan. It should normally take 8-10 minutes for it to cook. Do not stir much, as it leads to breaking of pasta. Once cooked, drain the water. Drizzle the pasta with some olive oil. This would glaze the pasta and avoids getting stuck to each other. Set it aside.

Arrabiata Sauce: (Arrabiata means ‘Angry’ in Italian)

Take a wide wok on medium heat with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Put in the sliced onions. Let them turn to a slight golden brown and now drop in the garlic. Give it a good stir and put in the chopped tomatoes, sprinkle little salt & chilly powder, stir and cover with lid. This would take about 5-6 minutes before the tomatoes get properly cooked. Now put in the chicken & crushed pepper and cover it. Crushed pepper is a must and not the pepper powder for the right flavour and aroma of the dish. Chicken should be cooked in 8-10 minutes. Take out the lid and pour in the tomato puree. Give it a good stir and a taste as well. You can very well adjust the taste to your preference in terms of salt, chilly powder & pepper. Remember the name! Arrabiata Sauce (angry & spicy sauce).

Now before you take it off heat, sprinkle the herbs and stir it.

Pour in the sauce into the boiled pasta and mix well. You can as well grate little of your favourite cheese to make it even yummier just before serving.

Hope you’d enjoy the Pasta in Arrabiata Sauce as much as I did.

Vegetarians:

The best replacement for chicken would be mushrooms. But the cooking time is lesser when compared to chicken. So please have an eye on that. 

Hash Brown

A Simple & Easy Crispy Hash Brown with Mayo dip...

Ingredients for crispy Hash Brown:

Potatoes – 4 Big

Egg white – 1

All-purpose flour (Maida) – 1 Tbsp

Onion – 1 Small (shredded)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Olive oil – enough to cover the bottom of the pan

Procedure - Hash Brown:

Hash Brown Prep:

Peel the potatoes and shred them. Once done, put the entire shredded potatoes into a bowl of cold water. This will pull out the starch from the potatoes. Let it soak for 5-10 minutes. Drain the water and pour the second round of cold water. Soak for another 10 minutes. Now take a kitchen towel, place the shredded potato and squeeze out the entire starch and water from the potatoes. They should seem like dry shredded coconut after squeezing the water.

Meanwhile, put a flat bottomed non-stick pan on medium low heat. N take a bowl, put in the potatoes, egg white, maida, shredded onion, salt & pepper. Mix all of them well. Once the pan is hot, take a desirable quantity of the mixture and put it on the pan and flatten it into a thin patty. It will take approx 6-7 minutes on one side, before you flip the patty onto the other side. Let it cook for another 5-6 minutes and then take it off heat once you see the nice golden brown colour on both sides.

If you get a crispy layer on the outside and soft & smooth texture in the inside, you’ve got the perfect Hash Brown. The best pals to this would be some bacon, a bull’s eye & a yummy dip.

Mayo Dip Prep:

Mix Mayonnaise + Shredded garlic + lime juice + parsley + salt.

All the ingredients’ quantities could be used in accordance to your palette.