Bread Upma

Bread Upma

Ingredients needed:

Bread Slices:  4-6
Onion: 1 big, chopped
Tomato: 1 big, chopped
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Whole Jeera: 1 tsp
Urad Daal: 1 ½ tsp
Chana Daal: 1 ½ tsp
Green chillies: 1, chopped
Curry Leaves: Handful
Tomato ketchup: 1 tsp
Salt: to taste
Water: as par needed
Oil: 1 tbsp

Bread Upma

How to:

First take the bread slices and cut then into bite size pieces, you can cut off the rims if you wish. Now, sprinkle little water onto them; keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, jeera, urad daal, chana daal and curry leaves one by one. Let the tadka produce a nice aroma, add the chopped onion and fry for 3-4 minutes or till light golden colour.
Add the chopped green chillies and fry for another 1 minutes.
Put the chopped tomato and sauté until they becomes soft.
When the tomato turns softer add the tomato ketchup, stir for a while.
Add the bread pieces and mix well, let the masala coat the pieces nicely.
Season with salt, sprinkle a little water if needed; switch off the burner; give a standing time for about 2 minutes. Serve Hot!

Makai Murg Recipe

Makai Murg Recipe

Ingredients needed:

Chicken breasts: 2
Corn Carnels: 1 cup, blanched
Tomato: 2 medium, pureed
Capsicum: 1 big, cut into bite sized pieces
Ginger-garlic paste: 1 tbs
Curd: 1/2 cup
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Salt: to taste
Oil: 1 tbs

Whole spices to be grounded coarsely:

Coriander (1tsp), cumin (1tsp), black pepper (8-10), cloves (3-4), chana daal (1tsp) and dry red chilli (1-2).

Makai Murg

How to:

First, cut the chicken breasts into small bite sized pieces. Now marinade the pieces with curd, half of the ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt. Set aside in fridge for half an hour.
Meanwhile puree the tomatoes in blender.
Heat oil in a Kadhai, now add rest of the ginger-garlic paste and sauté for a minute. After the raw smell goes off add the tomato puree and sauté for about 2 minutes.
Now add the grounded masala powder and fry until the oil leaves the side of the kadhai. Sprinkle dash of water if the masala starts burning.
Add the corns in masala mix and cook for a while.
Now, add the chicken with the marinade into the masala and cook in high flame till the chicken becomes tender but well cooked. Keep stirring in between so that the masala does not stick to the kadhai.
Add the capsicum pieces this time and give a quick stir. Cook for another 2 minutes or so; check the salt; dry the gravy as per your wish.
Serve with paranthe, rice preparation or even with the plain chapati! 

Makhmali Murg Kebab & Green Chutney

Makhmali Murg Kebab

Makhmali Murg Kebab & Green Chutney

If cooking is my emotional investment now, one big reason for it two persons, one is my Mom and the other one is definitely Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor; yes I practically swear by Chef Kapoor’s culinary skill. The other day I tried a simply mouth-watering Kebab preparation of his iconic chicken recipes: makhmali kebab, and watsay, it came out superbly successful. Below is that inspired recipe for you all, a must try:

Ingredients needed:

Chicken pieces (preferably the breast parts): 2
Ginger-Garlic paste/finely chopped: 2 Tbsp
Green chillies (chopped): 2-3
Hung Curd/Yogurt: ½ cup
Cheese (grated): ½ cup
Fresh Cream: ¼ cup
Garam Masala Powder: 1 tsp
Nutmeg Powder: ¼  tsp
Lemon Juice: ½ Tbsp
Honey: 1 Tbsp
Butter: ¼ cup
Salt: To taste

How to:
Wash and cut each chicken piece into halves.
Make a smooth paste of ginger-garlic-green chillies.
Now polish this paste against the chicken pieces; cover and set them aside in the fridge for at least 15-20 minutes.
If you’re not using hung curd then you can tie the curd in a muslin cloth piece and set it aside for 20 minutes to let the excess water drain out.
Take a broad bowl and mix the hung curd, fresh cream, grated cheese, garam masala powder, nutmeg powder, lemon juice, honey and salt altogether to make a thick marinade. Marinate the chicken pieces in this mix and again cover and set aside in the fridge for 2-3 hours.
Take a wire rack/Grill rack and place each chicken piece on it maintaining some gaps.
Cook the pieces in grill mode (both Top and Bottom) for17-20 minutes; keep brushing the chicken with melted butter every five minutes.
Seve this hot, succulent Makhmali Murg Kebab with Green chutney.

Green Chutney Recipe:
Ingredients needed:
Curd: 1 cup,
Green chillies: 2-3
Coriander leaves: 1 bunch with washed stems
Salt: To taste
Sugar/Honey: 1 tsp o To taste

How to:
Make a smooth paste of all the above mentioned ingredients together in a blender using little or no water. 

SOYA PULAV RECIPE

SOYA PULAV RECIPE

Soya Pulav

Soya chunks are one of the most common and daily used vegetarian ingredients which is a famous underdog in our kitchen too. Yeah, soya chunks are wholesome in protein, essentially veg-protein and yet we hesitate to give it a royal makeover besides its hackneyed daily Aloo-Soya-chunks-curry-dose. So, why don’t we think of some out-of-the-track soya chunks recipes here? Let’s make a delicious pulav with this interesting ingredient!

Ingredients needed:
Rice- 1 ½ cups, soaked
Water-Plenty of, around 4 cups
Salt- to taste
Bay Leaves- 2-3
Green Cardamom- 2-3
Brown cardamom- 1
Cloves- 4-5
Whole Black Pepper- 6-8
Whole Cumin Seeds- 1 tsp
Whole red chilli- 2/3, broken in halves
Onion- 1 big, sliced lengthwise
Soya Chunks- 1 bowlful, boiled
Ginger-Garlic Paste- 1 tsp
Red chilli powder- 1 tsp
Garam masala powder- 1tsp
Curd- 1 cup
Ghee/Oil- 2 tbsp

How To:
Wash the rice at least for thrice or till the water comes out clear and then soak the rice for around 40 minutes.
Cook the rice in 4 cups of water until ¾ done, add salt to the water while boiling the rice. Sieve and keep aside.
Meanwhile boil the soya chunks till properly done, rinse and wring out the excess water.
Take a big bowl; put the curd, salt, red chilli powder and the ginger-garlic paste together, add the soya chunks and mix well. Keep this mixture inside fridge for 15 minutes.
Heat ghee or refined oil in a deep vessel, put all the whole spices and dry red chilies; fry until nice aroma come out.
Add sliced onion and fry till golden.
Now add the marinated soya chunks to the kadai and bhuno till the oil starts separating.
Add the rice and mix very delicately.

Serve hot!

Useful Tips:
to save time and to sustain on the traditional method, the rice could be done in the kadai itself, by adding exactly the double amount of water (means, for 1 ½ cups of rice, you need to add 3 cups of water) after sautéing the rice. 

METHI MALAI MATAR RECIPE

METHI MALAI MATAR RECIPE

Methi Matar Malai

Marriage is an essential ingredient in social life. For almost all, it’s a way to conjoin two separate families and their culture into an interesting concoction which to recreate the harmony.

My little sissy has been married for only 11 months now, but alike her, it’s also a beautiful voyage for me to explore some incredibly delicious north Indian cuisines…yes, she’s got married to a Delhite Punjabi munda, that too a typical one. And with such a great opportunity I took my cooking fetish to both learn and share some of the greatest Punjabi delicacies. Let’s start with the sumptuous Methi Malai Matar…

Methi /Fenugreek is one of my personal favourite leaves, especially in winter session it’s obvious in our household to store in large amount of methi saag for repetitive use in a week. And after trying this wonderful recipe I must admit my love for this leafy veggie has increased to another level.

Now let’s begin…

Ingredients needed:
Green methi leaves- 2 ½ cups, chopped
Green pees-  1 cup, parboiled
Malai/ Fresh cream- 1 cup
Oil/Clarified butter (ghee)- 2 tablespoon
Salt- To Taste
Water- ½ cup

for masala paste:
Onion- 1 big or 2 medium, chopped
Ginger- 1 inch piece
Garlic-3/4 cloves
Cumin seeds/Whole Jeera- 1 teaspoon
Cashew nuts- ½ cup
Green chillies- 2/3, broken in half

For garnishing:
Handful of chopped fresh green coriander leaves

How to:
Blend all the ingredients for making paste adding little water.

Wash the fenugreek leaves properly and then break them from the stems.

Heat up the oil/ghee in a kadai. Fry the masala paste for 5-6 minutes until the raw smell evaporates and the oil separates.
Now put the fenugreek leaves, mix well with the masala adding very little water to it. Fry till the leaves get soft.
Add the parboiled matar/pees to the kadai, combine properly.
Now add water to make gravy as per your desire. Cook on a low flame until the pees get cooked. Sprinkle salt to your taste.
Add the fresh cream and cook for another 2-3 minutes on low flame.
Finally garnish with chopped coriander and serve the dish with Nun, Paranthe or plain chapati.

Useful Tips:
You can add very small amount of sugar/brown sugar or gud/jaggery while making the gravy, it would give your gravy a nice colour and sweetness.
Never cook your dish for longer after adding fresh cream as it could get curdled.
I prefer parboiling the pees before adding them to the gravy as full boiling them may make the pees very delicate and mixed into the gravy.