Broccoli with Potato and Capsicum Fry: A Zesty Side dish

It is a long time i have posted a food recipe as i have been busy with work and family related stuffs. Last weekend, when i went for shopping, i saw this cute looking Broccoli, so i just bought it on a whim and i was planning on prepare a salad from it, but at the last moment changed my mind and got into preparing a tasty side dish. As usual, i used potato - my favorite which i put in most of my vegetable dishes, and added my own spices to the dish and created my own new dish, that also my first Broccoli dish. Luckily, the end result was so good, it was delicious (if i say so myself :) ) and here I'm posting it....

Ingredients Required:

1 small Broccoli (cooked)
2 medium-sized Potatoes(cooked and mashed)
1 medium-sized Capsicum (chopped)
1 small onion (chopped finely)
1 tspn garlic minced
1 tspn Chilly Powder
1 tspn Garam masala
1/2 tspn Turmeric Powder
1/2 tspn Mustard seeds
Curry Leaves
Salt as required
Oil as required

How to prepare:

1. Heat a wide pan with oil. Once the oil heats, pop the mustard seeds.
2. Add onion and minced garlic to the pan and stir-fry it for 5 minutes.
3. To the onion mix, throw in the cooked Broccoli, mashed potato and raw capsicum and saute  it with red chilly powder, garam masala, turmeric and salt till the vegetables are uniformly coated.
4. Fry the pan mixture for 5-10 minutes.
5. Decorate the Broccoli dish with curry leaves and serve hot with Rice/Bread/Rotis.

 

Dragon Chicken - An Easy Indo Chinese Recipe

I'm a great fan of Chinese food. Whenever we go to a restaurant, we have Dragon Chicken as the appetizer and both me and my husband love it. So i just had a sudden idea today to prepare it at home. It was an Indian-Chinese version as i have used some Indian spices also, but it was tasty....and delicious!! I got the basic recipe from one of the online site, but changed it to make a new recipe with my own requirements.  
As it is little bit sweet, it will be best as a starter before meal. It will be good when served with chapattis, fried rice or plain rice or you can simply munch it as snacks......

Here is my recipe for Dragon Chicken:

 

 

Ingredients Required:

450 gm Skinless Chicken cut into pieces (Boneless chicken will be better)
1 big Onion (chopped finely) 
2 tspn Garlic (minced)

2 tspn Red Chilly flakes

3 tbspn Tomato sauce

1 tbspn Soya sauce

Oil required

For Marination:

2 tspn Ginger-Garlic paste

1 tspn Pepper powder

1 tspn Red Chilly powder

1 tbspn Soya sauce

1 Egg

1.5 tbspn Cornflour

Salt required

Procedure:

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with the ingredients as mentioned in marination section   and refrigerate it for 15 minutes.
2. Cook the marinated chicken in low flame till it is half-cooked.
3. Pour oil in a pan and Fry the cooked chicken pieces till crisp and tender.
4. In the  remaining oil in the pan, add onion and garlic and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add red chilly flakes and mix it and stir for one minute.
5. Once onion mixture is done, add tomato sauce and soya Sauce and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
6. Now, finally add the fried crispy chicken pieces to the pan and saute it for 5 minutes until the chicken pieces are uniformly coated with the sauce mixture.
7. Dragon chicken is ready to serve. You can add cashews to the chicken if you want.

  

 

Chocolate Mania: Choco Butter Cream Cake

I just love chocolates, in any form, cookies, biscuits, cakes, ice creams, WOW....just can't describe the feeling!! Is there anyone who don't love chocolate, i don't think so?
When i came from office today, i was thinking of preparing a cake so that my mom-in-law can take it home as she was leaving to Kerala . As i had to prepare the cake really fast, i decided i will make my favorite chocolate cake which is awesome. Even though i use to make different types of cake, chocolate cakes always comes perfect, may be because i like it the most. The whole ingredients collecting and preparation will take only max 30 minutes,  as i use to make it in microwave. 
So, here is the recipe for Choco butter cream cake:

Ingredients needed:

2 cups Plain Flour
500 gms butter (melted)
1.5 cups Sugar (powdered)
.5 cup Cocoa Powder
2 tbsps Milk
1 Egg
1 tspn Vanilla essence


Preparation:

Sieve and mix Flour, sugar and cocoa powder together.
Add butter, milk, Egg and little water to a mixer jar and blend it smoothly.
To the flour mixture, add the butter -egg mixture slowly and blend it together in a bowl.
Now, the cake batter is ready for baking. 
Take a cake oven pan, grease and flour it and pour the cake batter into it.
Microwave the cake for 2 to 3 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 
Allow the chocolate cake to cool completely before decorating it with icing.

For Choco Butter Icing:

250 gms butter
.5 cup powdered Sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Heat butter in a pan until it melts . 
Add cocoa powder and sugar to the melted butter and stir the mixture for 2 minutes. 
Allow it to cool off.

Once both the cake and the choco butter icing is cooled off, decorate the choco butter icing on top of the cake as you like. Enjoy the yummy cake!
Note: Just be careful when you microwave the cake so that the baking will be perfect, not more, not less.

Hmmm...you know the best thing is.... you can prepare a wonderful chocolate cake in less than 5 minutes!!

 

South Indian Delicacy: Aappam and Coconut-Onion Chutney

Aappam/Appam as we call in Kerala, is one of my favorite breakfast dishes. Atleast once in a month, i prepare appam for breakfast. 

Appam and stew is a traditional breakfast of Kerala. In different regions of Kerala, it is prepared differently. Here is a recipe for Appam, my version, prepared from scratch. It may not be an authentic recipe but it will result in frilly, delicious appams. We can have appams with stew, either mixed vegetable or just potato stew or a simple side dish, coconut chutney. I will post the recipe for Potato stew which is my family's favorite in my next recipe blog. Now, here is my recipe for tasty appams and coconut-onion chutney (a different version of normal coconut chutney).

Ingredients for Appam:

4 cups Raw Rice
1 cup milk
1/2 cup coconut grated
1 cup Rava
1 cup coconut water
1 cup cooked rice
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp 
Sugar
Salt

Preparation of Appam batter:

Soak the raw rice for 3-4 hours in water.
Add cooked rice, coconut, coconut water and milk to the the rice and grind it to a smooth batter. 
Make a semi-solid batter with rava by cooking rava in water for 3 minutes. 

Add the Rava batter to the rice while grinding it with other ingredients.
The batter should be a pouring consistency and a little thinner than dosa batter.
Add baking soda, sugar and salt to the batter and mix well.

                                  

 Preparation of Appam:

Pour a ladle full of batter in a hot skillet or appam pan and swirl it immediately. A thin layer of the batter sticks to the sides of the pan and a small pool of batter in the middle.

                                 

Cover with a lid and cook on low flame till the center of the appam is cooked and the bottom side of appam turns to lightly brown in color. 
Once the border starts getting detached from the pan, your appam is ready to serve.

                                            

Now, as we have prepared the tasty, crisp appams, we need to have a side dish. The easiest side dish you can prepare for appams is chutney. So, here is a recipe for spicy coconut-onion chutney.

Ingredients for Coconut-Onion chutney:

1/2 cup Coconut grated
1 Onion
4 dry red chillies (big) 
1 tspn garlic chopped
1 tspn black gram/Urad dal

1 tbspn Tamarind
curry leaves
Salt

Preparation: 

Add oil in a pan and add garlic and black gram and fry it for 2 minutes.
Mix chopped onion to the pan and stir it for 5 more minutes.
Add coconut and mix it together and fry till it becomes light brown in color.
Now, add the red chillies, curry  leaves and let it fry for few more minutes. 
Keep aside the coconut mixture to cool off. Once cooled, blend it together with tamarind in
a mixer with a little water and required salt.
The chutney is ready to be served. Serve it with hot Appams.

Simply Awesome: Egg Recipes

Egg is my favorite. Is it yours also? I always use to experiment new, different recipes with eggs.
When i use to get up late in the morning, and i need to prepare something fast for breakfast, i rely on eggs.
Here are some simply delicious egg recipes that you can make easily when you don't have much time to spare.

Vegetable Omelette

You might be already knowing lot of recipes for Omelettes but here is my recipe for a tasty, spicy vegetable omelette.
I use to prepare this for lunch with rice when there is no side dish/subji to eat with rice. Easy to prepare in 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

2 Eggs
1 Onion
1/2 Tomato
3 small green chillies
2 tspn pepper powder
1 tbspn coconut grated
1 tbspn Milk
Curry leaves chopped
Salt to taste 

Preparation:

In a bowl, add all the ingredients and eggs.
Mix it nicely.
When the pan is hot, add oil and pour the egg mixture to it.
Fry the omelette till it turns brown on both sides.


Boiled Egg Sandwich

A breakfast egg recipe. Easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

Bread slices
2 hard-boiled Eggs
2 tsp mayonnaise/butter
1 tbspn pepper powder
Salt to taste 

Preparation:

Mix the eggs, pepper and mayonnaise/butter into a paste.
Take two bread slices and add the egg mixture into the first slice and cover it with one more slice.
Prepare the egg sandwich in a sandwich toaster.


Spicy Cabbage with Egg

This is an easy and tasty cabbage side dish with any meal.

Ingredients:

250 gms Cabbage chopped

1 medium Onion chopped

4 green chillies

1 tspn turmeric powder

1 tspn coriander powder

2 tspn garlic-ginger chopped

2 tspn coconut grinded

1 egg

1 tspn pepper powder

Curry leaves

Coriander leaves 

Preparation:

Heat oil in a pan and add Onion, green chillies, ginger-garlic mixture and curry leaves.

Cook it for 2 minutes until onion turns brown. 

Add turmeric and coriander powder to the onion mixture in the pan.

Add the chopped cabbage and salt.

Add required water and let the dish cook till the cabbage is cooked nicely.

Now, in a small bowl, add egg and pepper and mix it smoothly.

Once the cabbage is almost cooked, add the egg mixture, grinded coconut and cook the dish for few more minutes.
Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves when it is done.

Spicy cabbage with egg is ready. Serve it hot with rice.

Hope everyone enjoy the above dish. I use to prepare this dish mainly when there is leftover cabbage dish from lunch and i want to spice it up for dinner, i just add the egg mixture as mentioned above to the already prepared cabbage dish and make the new version- spicy cabbage with egg.

Deviled Eggs

This is one of my favorite egg recipe. This tasty dish can be made as a quick appetizer for lunch/dinner. These eggs are little bit tangy and spicy in taste. Actually not only for appetizers, they will be great as snacks also.

Here is the recipe for my version of deviled eggs:

Ingredients:

5 hard-boiled Eggs

2 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tspn pepper powder

1 tspn dry red chilly (grinded)

1 tspn Oregano (optional)

Salt to taste

Preparation:

Cut eggs in half.

Arrange egg whites cut side up on a serving plate and put the yolks in a small mixing bowl. Mash yolks with fork then add in mayonnaise. Mash and stir all other ingredients to the egg yolk mixture. Add salt as desired. 

Spoon a little bit of the mixture into each egg white half, dividing mixture as evenly as possible between the eggs. 

Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Spicy Fried Egg Gravy

This is a dish that will be awesome to have with chappathi/Aappam. I usually prepare this egg dish for dinner when i need a side dish with gravy for chappathi or aappam. Also, this is an easy one to prepare.

Ingredients:

2 hard-boiled Eggs
1 Onion
1 Tomato
1 tbspn Ginger-garlic paste
2 tspn red chilly powder
1 tspn black pepper powder
1 tspn garam masala
1 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn turmeric powder
2 tbspn Oil
Salt to taste

Preparation:

In a pan, add a small amount of oil and fry chopped onion and tomato in a low flame till it is soft and ready. Blend onion-tomato mixture and keep it aside.
In the remaining oil, add all the spice ingredients except eggs, little water and let it cook for 2 mins.
Now,  Add the boiled eggs to the spice mixture in the pan and fry the eggs till they are uniformly coated with the mixture.
Once the egg mixture is done, add the onion-tomato mixture to it and let it cook for 10 minutes. Add salt as required.
Spicy Fried Egg Gravy is ready. Serve hot.

Okay, so that was some awesome egg recipes that you can prepare easily at home. Please post your favorite egg recipes if you have any.
Enjoy the recipes and let me know comments/suggestions.

Cooking with relish: Channa Manchurian Recipe

I have always thought cooking comes naturally to people that you can develop and enhance in your own way. When i started cooking after my marriage, i never use to go into kitchen before marriage, my mom use to do all the cooking :) , i started with my mom's recipes making small changes to it and developing my own recipes. I love experimenting with recipes from recipe sites, recipe books and all by changing it in my own style.

I remember when i prepared Gobi Manchurian with the common known recipe, it was not as expected as i wanted something similar to we get in restaurants. Then i thought may be if i modify the recipe, i may get a new entirely different one. So, i created a new dish using the same ingredients and recipe but with Channa instead of Cauliflower. It was so good and tasty, i'm eager to share it with you.

My Recipe for Channa Manchurian 

Ingredients:  

250 gms Channa (Kabuli channa)
2 tbsp Corn Flour
1/4 cup Maida
1 tbsp Red Chilly Powder
1 tbsp Ginger - Garlic Paste
1 cup finely Chopped Onions
1 Chopped green chili
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp Soya Sauce
1 tbsp Chilly Sauce
2-3 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
Oil as per needed
Salt to taste
Finely Chopped Coriander Leaves

Preparation of Channa Manchurian :

   

Make a paste of Maida, corn flour and salt using water.

Take a tsp. of ginger and garlic paste, add it to the paste.

Once the channa is boiled, Mix it with the flour paste and deep fry the channa mix till  

golden brown. Keep aside to drain the oil.

Heat oil in another pan and add the left ginger & garlic paste, chopped onions, chopped 

garlic and green chilli to it. Now, mix soya sauce, chilly sauce and tomato sauce to it.

Add the fried Channa kept aside and mix well. Garnish it with coriander leaves.
 

Serve the Channa manchurian hot.

Enjoy!!