Pan Fried Chicken

G'day buddies, hope u guys are well bright eyed bushy tailed :D, well this beautiful thing was my breakfast today, its perfect if u want to shed some weight as white meat is easily digestible and cooks quickly. so here we go..

500 gm boneless chicken (cut into strips or small pieces)
salt (to taste)
few crushed peppercorns
dash of olive oil (enough to coat the pieces, but not much)
dash of lime juice
pinch of turmeric


1. Marinate the chicken with salt, pepper, lime juice, turmeric and olive oil.
2. Heat a non stick frying pan and cook the pieces, keep turning them upside down every 2-3 minutes untill they are cooked.


Pan/Griddle should be enough hot while cooking the chicken, otherwise it will stick and wouldn't give very pleasant look.
To check if the pieces are well cooked, just check them with spoon or fork, if they are firm, means they are cook, raw meat at the core always feels soft.

Pasta with Red Sauce

Hi folks,, recently my taste-buds and smelling senses were craving something Italian and how could it not be our lovely Pasta!!! ofcourse with some Pomodoro (red sauce). Usually with red sauce, its the Rotini (spirals) or penne that go quite well but I cooked with Spaghetti instead which is equally yummy..

stuff required:

500 gm Spaghetti
couple of fresh basil leaves or 1 tsp dry basil
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
salt and black pepper (as needed)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp crushed garlic
300 ml tomato puree
1 tsp sugar
1 medium onion, fine chopped
200 gm crushed cottage cheese

Quick and easy pomodoro:
1. Heal oil in a pan and add garlic (usually Italians put just lil amount of garlic in any sauce but im a big badass when it comes to garlic, cant help it, i love garlic) . Add onions after some seconds and cook for few minutes.

2. Add tomato puree, followed by basil, salt, pepper and sugar.

3. Simmer for 25-30 minutes and bingo its ready!!



4. Now add cheese. Usually we put parmesan cheese on top of pasta but you must try cottage cheese as well, taste really nice.



5. Boil the pasta upto al dente (around 90% done) and mix with the sauce.



Tossing...tossing...tossing baby!!!

6. Sprinkle some mixed herbs on top and serve hot.

Italian chick peas

..And here is another beautiful thing for dinner tonight. Its the chickpeas cooked in Italian way. Basically you can do plenty of experiments with food, add Italian herbs, its Italian, put turmeric chillies and garam masala, its Indian, use coconut milk and some thai curry powder and bingo,, its oriental!!!

Stuff needed::
250 gm chickpeas (soaked overnight)
3-4 small onions
3-4 medium potatoes
250 ml milk
250 ml water
salt and ground black pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1-2 tsp mixed Italian herbs
1 tbsp crushed garlic or garlic paste

1. Peal the onions and potatoes, no need to cut them if they are small.
2. Heat oil in a deep vessel, add garlic paste and onions. saute for 2-3 minutes, add potatoes, salt and pepper.
3. Cook for few minutes and add chickpeas along with water.
4. Cover the vessel and cook on low flame until the chickpeas are tender.
5. Pour the milk in and Italian herbs and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.
6. Add some extra virgin olive oil on top and serve hot with rice or bread..

To make it more nutritious and colourful we can put some sauteed or boiled vegetables like beans, baby corn, broccoli or carrots in that.

Momos (are NOT Chinese)

Now many people call and identify Momos as something from Chinese cuisine but I believe that'd be injustice with Tibetan cuisine right?? Momos are NOT Chinese, they are Tibetan and if you want the authentic ones, go to McLeodganj (India) and there you will find vendors selling momos on busy market streets.

But I must warn, you gonna fall in love with that place like I did and miss it terribly all the time. The beautiful atmosphere, surroundings, monks, ppl, food and all.. Damn I miss all that. Beautiful memories hurt :(

Oh well now back to our Momos. They have yummy bready outer layer and very tasty filling. Herez the recipe..

1/2 kg white flour
1 tsp yeast (baking powder wont do that justice)
300ml lukewarm water

Mix the yeast in water and set aside for 10 mins and then knead the flour with it. Now some people are more comfortable with hard dough but i usually prefer soft.

Veg Filling:

1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 medium cabbage finely chopped
1 large carrot grated
2 medium onions finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp black pepper
dash of vinegar

Heat the oil in a wok and add garlic and onions. Add bell pepper, carrot and cabbage after few seconds, followed by salt and black pepper.

Ginger & potato:
3 med potatoes, peel, grate squeeze out water
1 tbsp grated ginger

1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp sping onion (green only)
1 tbsp garlic
1 tbsp coriander fresh
1 tsp salt

pinch of black pepper powder
4 tbsp oil

a dash of vinegar

1. blanch the potatoes in boiling water, strain and set aside to cool.

2. heat oil in a wok and add ginger, garlic and onions.

3. add salt, pepper. followed by other veggies and vinegar.

4. turn off the heat after couple of minutes. remember we shudnt completely cook the veggies as they gonna get steamed too.

Preparing momos:

1. Roll the dough thin as rolling flat bread, it should be 4-5 inch in diameter.

2. Place some filling (same or little lesser quantity as dough) in the center, bring the edges together and twist a lil to seal it (as shown in image)

3. Steam for 10-15 minutes and serve hot with momos sauce.

You can even make meat momos, just use minced lamb or goat meat. simply boil or saute and add instead of potatoes.

Grilled Chicken with Hollandaise Sauce

Bonsoir my dear foody buddies, one more day my veggie-wannabe mum was secretly mad at me coz i made grilled chicken for dinner. This time grilled chicken included little challenge as i also planned to cook Hollandaise Sauce. Hollandaise is butter and egg yolk based sauce and it's one of the 6 Mother Sauces. As Im a seafood-person so enjoy it more with grilled/fried fish but it tastes awesome with chicken as well..

Ingredients:

Sauce:
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter
pinch of salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

Chicken marinade (for 500 gm boneless chicken pieces)
dash of olive oil
1 tsp paprika
salt, to taste
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1/4 tsp crushed peppercorns

To do the sauce..
1. Whisk egg yolks and lemon juice in a steel bowl, whisk quickly until the mixture is thick.
2. in a separate bowl, melt/soften some butter. Here we can use double boiling method: keep the bowl on a saucepan of hot water for a second.
3. add butter to the egg mixture and whisk all quickly, again put the bowl on top of hot water pan for a second and whisk thoroughly. BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERHEAT IT COZ IT WILL COOK THE EGGYOLK AND WE DONT WANT THAT!!!!
4. Add pinch of salt and keep whisking for few minutes.

For the chicken
1. Mix all the marinade ingredients, rub it on chicken pieces and keep in fridge for an hour.
2. Cook them on grill on both sides for couple of minutes.

To check if the chicken is done while grilling: simply press it with spoon/tong and if its soft that means chicken is raw. It should be hard to touch.