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.

Caramel Nutty Cake

A warm, simple & tasty preparation to spread Christmas cheer...Caramel Nutty Cake

Ingredients for Caramel Nutty Cake:

All-purpose flour – 500g

Sugar – 600g

Butter – 500g (Unsalted/white butter)

Eggs – 500g (The number which equals to 500g)

Vanilla essence – 2 Tbsp

Almonds – 250g (Finely grated)

Cashew – 250g (Finely grated)

Salt – 1 Tsp

How to make Caramel Nutty Cake:

For best results, let all the ingredients be at room temperature before you start baking.

Caramel prep:

Take 100g sugar in a thick bottom sauce pan on low heat. Continuous stirring is a must. Once the sugar starts melting and frothing up, pour little water. As soon as you do it, it turns into a dark lump. But do not stop stirring! Give it few seconds and it will come down to liquid state again. Take it off heat.

Cake mix:

In a blender on medium high speed, put in the butter, eggs and sugar. Once the sugar is completely melted, pour in the vanilla & salt. Put in the flour in small batches and pour the caramel. Let all the ingredients get incorporate well before you turn off the blender.

Now take 3/4^th of the grated nuts and fold them into the batter. Avoid mixing the batter too much as it results in dense cakes and not light fluffy ones.

Pre-heat the oven for 10 minutes at 200°C.

I’ve used cup-cake baking material (Silicon moulds). You can go ahead and use any baking tray or a glass tray available.

Fill the batter to 3/4th of the tray height and sprinkle few nuts on top.

Now set the oven temperature at 180°C and put in the tray. Average baking time ranges between 30-40 minutes. However, it differs from oven to oven. I used an OTG. So, the best way to check if the cake is done is to use a toothpick/any sharp instrument and poke at the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean...Perfect!!! If not, let it stay in there for few minutes and check again.

Once the cake is out of oven, let it rest for 2-5 minutes before you take it off the tray/baking cups.

Hope you’ll enjoy the taste just the way you would enjoy preparing the Caramel Nutty Cake. I am sure U would J

Chilly Chicken

Yet another Chinese dish and an all time favourite – Chilly Chicken

Ingredients for Chilly Chicken:

Chicken – 1 Kg (Boneless)

Ginger-Garlic Paste – 2 Tbsp

Parsley – 4 Tbsp

Vinegar – 1 Tsp

Soya sauce – 2 Tbsp

Tomato Ketchup – 1 Tbsp

Red-Chilly Sweet Sauce – 2-3 Tbsp

Tabasco Sauce – 1 Tbsp

Capsicum – 1 Big (Medium sized cubes)

Onion – 1 Big (Medium sized cubes)

Green Chillies – 4-5 (slit along the length)

Spring onion – 4-5 (Jus the green part, finely chopped)

Ginger – 1-2 Tbsp (Finely chopped)

Garlic - 1-2 Tbsp (Finely chopped)

Salt and Ajinomoto to taste

Oil (olive oil preferably)

Procedure - Chilly Chicken:

Dice chicken into desirable chunks. Marinate it with ginger-garlic paste, 2 Tbsp parsley & vinegar and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Now shallow fry the chicken pieces. Do not over fry the pieces as they tend to get hard and chewy when cooled down. Take them off the oil, the moment you see the meat is cooked tender. Keep it aside.

Take a shallow pan on low heat, put 2 Tbsp oil. Now drop in the ginger and garlic pieces, and then the veggies including chillies & spring onion. Sauté them for a minute and drop the chicken pieces as well. Let the heat be on low and put in all the sauces. The measurements of the sauces are in accordance to my liking. Please do feel free to adjust them to yours. Sprinkle salt, ajinomoto and the remaining parsley and give it a good stir. Let all the sauces glaze the chicken and veggies well. Once you get the aroma of the same, it’s time to turn off the heat, serve and relish the pipping hot Chilly Chicken.

Chocolate Doughnut

Finger-licking chocolate doughnut, loved by all ages!

 

Ingredients for Chocolate Doughnut:
(1 Cup = 200g)

Cooking Chocolate – 500g (Dark)

All-purpose Flour (Maida) – 2 Cups

Wheat Flour (Atta) – 2 ½ Cups

Butter – 1 ¼ Cups (150g)

Sugar – 2/3 Cup

Eggs – 3 (room temperature)

Dry Yeast – 2 Tbsp

Vanilla Essence – 1 Tsp

Salt – 1 Tsp

Procedure - Chocolate Doughnut

Soak yeast in 1 cup warm water and 1 Tsp sugar and cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes. This is the most important ingredient of the entire dish. If the yeast is old/expired, it would not work out well and the doughnuts will be heavy & dense, instead of light & fluffy.

Blend sugar and butter in another bowl by adding eggs one at a time. Once the sugar is melted completely, add the atta, vanilla & salt to the egg mixture. It would be runny/sticky dough. Do not worry. We still have maida to add.

After 10 minutes of the yeast soaking, add maida to it and mix well. Now add this maida+yeast mixture to the atta dough and knead well into dough. If the dough still seems sticky, you can go ahead and add maida, little, not much. Now cover it tight with a clear wrap or a lid and place it in a warm place for the yeast to do its thing. The best place recommended – Microwave. Make sure you do not turn it on J You’ll have to give the dough atleast 2 hrs to rest before you start preparing the doughnuts.

After two hours, the dough would be double the size. Congrats, you’ve got good quality yeast. Now let your kitchen counter be spick & span as you got to knead the dough and start spreading the dough with a rolling pin. Let the thickness be quarter of an inch. Now take a cookie cutter/any tumbler with sharp edge to cut round pieces (doughnuts). Now with a smaller cookie cutter/bottle cap, cut another round piece in the middle of the doughnut.

Meanwhile, put oil in a pan for deep fry on low-medium heat. Once the oil is hot, gently immerse the doughnuts. If they rise to the surface immediately, bang on, the oil is at the right temperature. It would take 1-2 minutes each side to turn into golden brown. Take them out, place them on the kitchen napkin for the extra oil to drip out and then store them in an air-tight container. 

Chocolate Prep:

Take the chocolate in a glass bowl and melt it in microwave for about a minute on low heat. Take it out stir it and again put it back for a minute on low. Continue the process till the bar is melted completely. The stirring and melting process helps in proper tempering of the chocolate and hence good glaze & texture. Now dip each doughnut half way through the chocolate and serve as shown. I’ve used the sprinkles that I had handy at home. You can get going with whatever topping you prefer on your favourite and soft chocolate doughnut.

Topping recommendations – Powdered sugar, choco-rice, coloured rice, choco-chips, melted white chocolate, grated chocolate (milk/dark/white), crushed cookies, crushed wafers and the list goes on...