Michelle's Punjabi Chole.

Hello to readers of my blog. Am sorry for the guest appearances I have been giving. Its just that managing two blogs seems quite hard and am giving more attention to the other fellow..Sorry to The Chef. Please do not get angry. I promise to give attention to you too.

  Well, over the New Years, we as a family decided to have more of vegetarian meals. Okay, I made the decision and husband and kids welcomed it with glee. You heard me right. With glee. What? Aren't we Mangy's who love dukra maas and sannas with toddy?? Oh yes we are, but somehow I have children who are more of the Bangy kind, mosaru ana(curd rice) lovers!! They absolutely love veggies. But being the mangy I am, I never mastered the art of cooking exotic vegetarian dishes.

  So when the kilos in me started piling up, thanks to expat life and non availability of a lot of Indian food, we resorted to eating meat everyday. Being the lazy woman I am who hates to exercise, I thought it is now or never. High time to make some changes in our food would be the first step. Which meant, I had to put in more effort to searching recipes and bring about a change in our cuisine. It has been a month, and am happy to report(that I have lost a kilo without exercising..:D) that the change has been good and the family has been relishing the meals. And we do have our share of non vegetarian meals, thrice a week.

 Michelle, a fellow Mangalorean with an awesome food blog, blogged this recipe last week. Chick peas is an all time favorite with the family. I generally prepare it with bafath powder, seasoned with oil, mustard, curry leaves, onions and coconut(this was my own recipe). Her recipe looked tempting enough to try, and here's how it goes...

• 500 gm chick peas, boiled
• 1 large onion, diced fine
• 250gm chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

For the masala powder:

• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 inch piece cinnamon
• 3 whole cloves
• 4 green cardamom
• 1 tsp whole black pepper
• 2 dried long red chillies
• 1 big dried bay leaf

Method:

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight. 
2. Boil them in a pressure cooker till soft and keep aside.
3. Put all the spices on a tawa and roast them well, stirring constantly.
4. Powder them fine in a mixer. 
5. In a kadhai, heat oil and cook the onion till color changes. Add the ginger garlic paste and continue to fry for another minute.
6. Add the tomatoes to the mixture and cook well till the onion and tomatoes become a thick paste.
7. Add the ground spice powder, bay leaf and salt to taste. Cook on a slow flame, stirring for about 10-15  minutes, until the masala is fairly dry.
8. Add the chickpeas along with the water and stir together gently. Simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish with spring onions and serve hot with roti or rice.

Michelle, looks like the bafath powder is going to have to take a backseat for a while. The Chole with the blend of spices was perfect to beat the winter blues. 

Garlic Bread.

Garlic Bread, the children's favorite. So also the place which serves it...PIZZA HUT!!!! This would always be on our menu whenever we visited Pizza Hut in India. The major cities in Germany do have these joints, but not our little villages. Whenever we have had the opportunity, we have visited Pizza Hut at Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Garmisch Partenkirchen. Last month I thought that maybe I should try making some myself since the kids are very fond of it. I found a very easy recipe and here it goes.

You need :

• 1 baguette (its a long thin loaf of French bread)
• 2 tbsp garlic paste
• 200 gms butter
• 4 tbsp parsley chopped finely
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celsius
• Mix in the butter, garlic paste, parsley, salt and pepper(I skipped it) in a bowl. Mix thoroughly.

•  Place the baguette on a chopping board and cut across diagonally, into 2-3 cm slices, without cutting completely through the bread.

• Create a gap between the slices, add a dollop of the garlic butter and smooth it down.

• Finally, spread any remaining butter over the baguette.

•  Wrap the baguette in an aluminium foil, making sure you seal the ends well.

• Place the baguette in the centre of the oven and cook it for 10 minutes. Turn it over, cook it for a further 10 minutes and then remove.
• Unwrap the baguette, cut through into slices and serve with minced meat or have it along with a hot soup!!

Note: This also works with slices of bread. I have applied the garlic butter onto slices of bread, toasted it in a toaster and served along with some scrambled eggs!! Tastes heavenly...:)

Stuffed Roast Chicken the Indian way.

Happy New Year everybody!!! I know this is late, but then NEVER TOO LATE!!! I hope everybody had a fantastic holiday, good time with loved ones and lots of good food, drink and cheer.
   Well, this side of the globe, our holidays have come to an end and the kids go back to school tomorrow. I am surely gonna miss them, but then I have a whole lot of back log of personal work, for instance updating this blog..:) So, it's gonna be a good break from them till the next vacation, which happens every other month or so!!!
My first post this year will be our "Weinachtsbraten" or Christmas lunch. I decided to prepare something totally different this year than our special mangalorean preparation.  I decided to roast a stuffed chicken the Indian way. Am glad i took that decision, cause not only did the family thoroughly enjoy this meal, it gave me plenty of time to chat with my loved ones on Christmas day, while the bird roasted gently in the oven...:)

Ingredients:
 1 whole chicken - 1.25 kilograms

For the marinade:

• 2 tbsps fresh yoghurt
• 2 tbsps lemon juice
• 2 tbsps ginger garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the filling:

• 3 tbsps cooking oil
• 2 medium onions chopped fine
• 2 medium sized tomatoes chopped fine.
• 300 gms minced meat, beef or lamb
• 3/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 tbsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tbsp garam masala powder
• 1 cup fresh/frozen peas
• 1 cup chopped potatoes
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves

For the base while roasting:

• 1 cup assorted veggies like potatoes, carrots or peas( I used only peas)
• oil for drizzling over the chicken.

Method:

1. Wash chicken, remove innards and pat dry.
2. Put all the ingredients for the marinade in a large deep bowl and mix well. Put the whole chicken into this marinade and coat well. Keep aside for 4 hours in the refrigerator.
3. An hour before roasting, prepare the filling. 
4. Heat oil in a wok or deep pan.
5. Add the cumin seeds. When they splutter, add onions and fry till golden brown.
6. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for a minute.
7. Add the minced meat, powdered spices, salt and fry well for 7-8 minutes.
8. Add the tomatoes, peas and potatoes. Cook till potatoes are soft.
9. Turn off the flame. Add lemon juice, coriander leaves and mix well.
10. Preheat oven to 175 degrees celsius.
11. Fill the stomach cavity of the chicken with the prepared filling. Try to fill in as much filling as possible.
12. Line the base of a glass or roasting pan with chopped veggies or peas.
13. Place the filled chicken and drizzle all over with oil.
14. Roast the chicken for 75 minutes, uncovered. It will turn to a golden brown.
15. Serve hot with a potato or a lettuce salad.