Paneer Baby Corn Balchao

This dish pairs very well with chicken  fried rice... and more importantly is a low hassle dish.   What I found interesting  about this  recipe is it includes jeera and mustard  .. while I was initially  sceptical about them in a recipe which I initially thought was an Indian-chinese recipe, they did give a different flavour to the dish. Talk of fusion!!  The recipe is tweaked from a Sanjeev Kapoor book.

Ingredients
400 grams Paneer
8 Baby corns , cut into two or three pieces each
1 each of green and red capsicums (optional)
2 each of Onions and tomatoes
1 inch ginger and 10 cloves of garlic.
4 Red chillies ( recipe asks for 10-12 )
1 tspn each of Cumin seeds  and mustard seeds
8 Cloves
 1 " stick Cinnamon
1/2 cup Vinegar
2 tbspns Oil
3/4 cup Tomato puree ( I used home made puree. Store puree would give a lovely red colour to the dish).
1 tbspn Sugar.

1. Grind the whole red chillies, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, cloves, mustard seeds, cinammon and salt with part of the vinegar to a smooth paste.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and fry them till light brown. Add tomatoes and let it cook for five minutes till it softens.
3.Add baby corn, tomato puree and the ground masala. Cook for four minutes. Add sugar, salt to taste .
4. Add paneer pieces and remaining vinegar . Suggest adding vinegar to taste and not the entire lot in one go. The taste should be sweet and sour. Cook for five to seven minutes.  Switch off the gas and add the capsicums.
Serve hot with chicken fried rice.. Cheers!

Tandoori chicken

This is my first successful attempt  at cooking tandoori chicken through baking/grilling and so elated . I generally used to cook them in a kadahi  . My first attempt at baking was a failure as I had baked it in a baking tray and the outcome was a watery chicken. This recipe is basically for my friends in India , as abroad, grilling/ barbeque is a way of life....

Ingredients

One kilo chicken

1/2 cup thick curd, hung.

One packet tandoori chicken masala .The packet will state the weight of chicken for which the entire packet may be used. So please use the masala powder accordingly. 

A spoonful of mustard oil.

1.  Marinade the chicken overnight  in the marinade. Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

2. Line the tray with alumunium foil to collect drippings.  Oil the wire rack. 

3. Place the chicken on the wire rack. Brush oil on the chicken. Bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees C.  If your oven has a grill, u may grill the last five minutes after the baking is through. 

Cheers! 

Chicken Malai Tikka

Joy loved the Kabab platter at Mirchi (Esplanade) .. and so asked me to try making a kabab platter at home... hence the trial of chicken malai tikka and tandoori chicken in one go...  paired  very well with sweet Bengali pulao (my favourite) .. The recipe is from Neeta Mehta's book.... glad to say Joy enjoyed them.

500 gms boneless chicken breasts
1 each of red and green capsicums, tomato - cut into eight pieces
1 onion - cut into four pieces  and separate them.
Chat masala and lemon wedges.

First marinade :
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbspn ginger-garlic paste
Salt to taste

 Second Marinade
1/2 cup thick yoghurt - hung for 15 minutes
1/4 cup thick cream
30 gms  processed cheese, finely chopped
1 egg ; 1 tbspn cornflour
1 tbspn finely chopped green chillies, optional ( I skipped)
2 tbspn finely chopped coriander leaves  ( I skipped)

1. Wash and pat dry the chicken pieces. Marinate the chicken pieces with the first marinade for 30 mins.

2.Mix the ingredients of the second marinade in a bowl. Remove the chicken pieces from the first marinade and add them to the second marinade. Let it marinate for 2 to 3 hours (I  let in marinate for three hours).

3. Line the tray with  aluminium foil to collect the drippings. Oil the wire rack.
4. Oil the skewers. Since I used bamboo skewers, I soaked them in water for thirty minutes . Arrange the chicken pieces with the vegetables in between the chicken pieces.  Since I love mushroom, I skewered mushrooms in one too.

5. Grill for fifteen minutes ( I  grilled for twenty minutes), turning once in between.
6. Serve hot sprinkled with some lemon juice  or chat masala.

I had avoided trying this recipe since long  due to the use of cream.  But once I tried it, found it a very doable and tasty recipe... cheers!