Honey lemon chicken

Honey Lemon Chicken
 - simple and easy.

Ingredients
1/2 kg skinless, boneless chicken
Oil for frying(I used sunflower oil - avoided mustard oil)

Make batter of:
2/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cornflour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Salt as per taste
Pepper as per taste
2 egg whites
1/4 cup milk
Pinch of cinnamon

For Sauce:
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup clear honey
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Cut chicken into small(bite-size) pieces
2. Marinate overnight with salt and lemon juice
   
3. Make batter - should be quite thick, because fluid from the chicken will thin it out.
   
4. Dip chicken into batter
5. Fry in a non-stick pan till golden brown
   
6. Remove and drain
7. Mix honey, butter and lemon juice, warm slightly
8. Serve hot, pour honey sauce over the fried chicken on the plate 

I wish I had pics, but no camera here :(.
I found that just the fried chicken dumplings tasted really nice - this could be a nice evening snack if you roll the dumplings in breadcrumbs before frying. Otherwise, tastes nice with rice noodles(stir-fried with bits of chopped boiled veggies added) or even just roti.
Another option which will completely change the taste around is to add soya sauce, basil and some herbs to the honey instead of lemon.

I'm longing to try this out again, and carry out the combinations and alterations in my head :)

Cheese Parantha

This parantha is a favourite with Anirudh. And I guess it would be for all the kids who like cheese.

Ingredients:

1. A ball of roti dough.
2. 2-3 tbsp of ghee/oil/butter (I prefer to use ghee with Anirudh)
3. Cheese (I used regular cheddar from Brittania)

Steps:

1. Roll out the dough into a shape of a roti.
2. Spread 1 tsp of ghee over it.
3. Grate the cheese over it.
4. Fold it up.
5. Roll it out again.
6. Put it on the tawa (girdle) and make it like just any other parantha.
7. Once done, take it off and give to your hungry kid who will definitely love it!

Variations:

1. I have once made it with Gouda cheese too and it turned out as delicious as it was with cheddar.
2. You can make aloo-cheese parantha too by using a boiled aloo, mashed and mixed with grated cheese.
   

Meethi Moong

Everyone in my family enjoys eating methi and though we make it in quite some ways... aalo methi, gajar methi, methi-palak toor dal, methi paneer... we had got kind of bored with all this and thus I put my thinking cap and tried to get something different... the result was very good and all at home loved it :) Its an simple and extremely healthy dish... do try it our

Ingredients


2 cups fresh chopped methi leaves
3/4 cup moong dal
2 medium onions chopped
1 large tomato chopped
3-4 dry red chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp dhaniya powder
1 tsp tava fry masala (u can make it at home also but easier way is to get MDH tava fry masala)
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
chilli powder if u want it spicy (i was like my food spicy)
2 tsp oil

Method
1. Wash and soak moong dal for about 15 mins and then keep it for boiling in a pan with abt 1 cup of water, boil for about 5 mins or till tender and drain the water... they should just be boiled and not sticking to each other


2. Heat oil in a kadai and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds to eat... after the cumin becomes brown add the dry chillies and fry for 1/2 minute

3. Add the onions and fry till they start becoming golden brown

4. Add the tomatoes and fry till it leaves oil

5. Add all dry masalas and fry for another 1/2 minute
6. Now add the methi leaves
7. Fry for about 4-5 minutes till they become tender and then add the boiled and drained moong dal

8. Fry for another 3-4 minutes and then bingo its ready...... enjoy.......

Dahi Walla Bread Upma

I got a mail on Aug 26th ..
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Hi,
Recpie to contribute to the blog... my first one... :) http://monikamanchanda15.blogspot.com/2008/07/dahi-walla-bread-upma.html also let me know how to contribute further
Regards
Monika
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monika , sorry for the late post. Sending you an invite to this blog so that you can write directly here , instead of depending on me :)

Guys , go read , cook and enjoy the upma :)

Wheat Flour Cheela

Kheer Cheela is one of the loved occasional weekend brunch at my in laws place. Occasional because its high in calories and loved because we all love sweets. Its nothing but rice kheer served with two kinds of cheelas.To all my south indian friends , cheela is nothing but small dosa.

Of the two kinds of cheela served , one is salty moong dal cheela. I did share the recipe here , the only difference is that instead of moong sprouts , moong dal is used.

Other one is the sweet wheet flour cheela. This post concentrates on this cheela , because Aryan loved it and I now make it often just for him , without kheer , as evening snack.

Ingredients

Wheat Flour - 1 Cup

Sugar - 1/2 Cup

Cardomom powdered - 1 pinch

Water - 1 glass

Steps
1. Mix water in flour , to make a smooth paste.

2. Add sugar and cardomon powder and leave for 10 minutes for sugar to dissolve.

3. Mix well. The paste should be of dripping consistency.

4. Spread like a dosa on a non stick tava and roast using little ghee.

Bad Picture Quality ..Sorry!

Thats my plate ..SLURP !!

To add to variety , coriander chutney and Potato gravy is also served along , but I did not make potato gravy and rather served another gravy from previous night.

Cheese Toast

Ingredients:

1. Cheese - 250 gm
2. Milk - 1/2 cup (may need more while preparing paste)
3. Italian seasoning that you get with pizza
4. Black pepper powder
5. 1 -2 capsicum
6. 1-2 tomatoes
7. 1-2 onions
8. 1 cup of corn pearls
9. White/brown bread slices
10. Pizza sauce or simple tomato ketchup
    

Steps:

1. Put cheese, milk and Italian seasoning and make a smooth thick paste. If you make it too thin, it will pour out while baking fro the slices to the baking tray.
2. Dice all the vegetables finely.
   
3. Spread bread slices on the baking tray.
   
4. Put pasta sauce or tomato ketchup on the slices.
   
5. Put the diced vegetables.
6. Put the cheese-milk sauce.
7. Bake it for about 10-12 min in the oven at 200° C
8. Let it cool before digging your teeth into it as the cheese paste is VERY hot! :)

Variations:
1. You can make it with plain cheese-milk paste.
2. You can add mushrooms and olives as well.

Uttapam

Ingredients:

1. Dhuli Urad - 3/4 cup
2. Rice - 1/4 cup

Steps:
1. Wash and soak the rice and daal for 2-3 hours.


2. Grind them adding little water to make a thick batter, add salt and asafoetida (heeng) and let it to rise overnight (8-9 hours)


3. You might have to add little bit of water after the batter has risen as the batter should not be very thick.

4. Spread it over a tawa (girdle). I've never been fussy of perfect rounds which is obvious from the picture.

5. Sprinkle some chopped onions and put little droplets of oil on the open side and flip it when its done from the other side.


7. Serve it with coconut chutney or ketchup as you like it!

Variations:
1. Instead of onion, you can use finely chopped tomato as a topping.
2. You can make mixed veggie uttapam by finely dicing capsicum, diced tomato, chopped onion, coriander and grated carrot for topping.

P.S. I forgot to click the pic of the uttapam when fully done.

Healthy Bhel Puri

This is a healthy version of Bhel Puri - the eternal favorite of all things children and adult.

Ingredients:
1. Murmure - 2 cups
2. Onion - 1/2
3. Potato - 1 small
4. Cucumber - 1/4
5. Apple - 1 very small slice.
6. Sprouts - About 50 gms
7. Assorted vegetables that can be eaten raw - about 1/2 cup (incl carrots, matar et al)
8. Pudina Chutney - to taste
9. Gur-Imli Chutney - a little more than pudina chutney, as per your preferance.
10. Salt, Pepper, Green Chilli and Black Salt to taste. No red chilli. Add oregano if u or the children like it.
11. Grapes - one for each child.

Preparation:
1. Dice all the vegetables into really small pieces.
2. Mix Murmura, Vegetables, Salt, pepper, black salt, seasoning et al. in a bowl.
3. Now toss the vegetables and add again(apple is a vegetable in this recipe)
4. Add both the chutneys and mix like bhel is normally mixed.

Serving:
1. Place a single grape at the bottom of each serving bowl.
2. Top with Bhel puri.
3. Decorate with a wedge of Apple if you'd like. (not really recommended)
4. Challenge the children to find the hidden grape in their bowls while eating and to say "Bingo" each time they are able to identify a piece of sweet apple in their spoon.
5. Reward all children. :-)

Why this is healthy
You will notice that Bhel tastes nice even without the sev and the puri et al, if there are enough veggies to maintain variety in each bite. This one is totally fat free, and manages to push a little roughage down.

Sevain ki Kheer

One of my favorite childhood sweetdishes "Sevain ki Kheer" (sweet vermicilli in milk) is what I made yesterday, which we all enjoyed as a hot dessert and I think it is quite healthy for a child too. Since I used whole wheat vermicilli and whole cane sugar (something like north Indian shakkar) that makes it all the more healthy. So, enjoy!

But there is another thing I would like to share regarding this dish. This dish also reminds me of "Java ki Kheer" which both my grand mothers made for us now and then. These are home made whole wheat (atta) noodles (I'm calling them so) and resemble vermicilli to a certain extent, except that they are very short (1 -2 cm), spindle shaped noodles, about 2 mm thick in the middle and thinner outside. And are prepared just like "Sevain ki Kheer".
Since this is another one my recipes I learnt through watching my mom prepare it, I cannot give you precise measures. But, then there isn't much that can go wrong, simple as it is. The only important thing is that shouldn't leave it for long in the pan over the stove, as the vermicilli swells up too much and gets too soft. It is best enjoyed when still hot. Store the left overs in the fridge and add hot milk to it for the next time.
The most important flavoring in this "kheer" comes from whole cane sugar. It gives a wonderful aroma to this simple but delicate dessert. Once you have eaten it like this, you would never want to make it with white sugar. I would also love to use palm sugar or jaggery for this, but then there is more work involved, and I don't get them here in any case.
So, here it goes, the easiest and yummiest recipe around!

Makes for 4-5 people.
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes


Ingredients:
(These are approximate measures)

2 cups (100 g) whole wheat vermicilli
750ml milk
100 g whole cane sugar (or use north Indian Shakkar)
1 tbsp almonds, chopped
Optionally:
1-2 tsp ghee or butter for roasting the vermicilli
2-3 tbsp rose water
2 tbsp raisins
1 cardamom , powdered (if using white sugar)

Method:

• Roast the whole wheat vermicilli for short on medium heat , with or without ghee
• Add milk and stir. Increase heat to full. Let cook while stirring in between, till it starts to boil. Reduce heat to low.
  
• Add whole cane sugar (if you use refined sugar, then you might require cardamom powder or rose water for the flavour)
  
• Keep stirring while coking the vermicilli till done. It should be al dente, just like spaghetti
• Serve garnished with raisins or almonds

My son wanted some raisins in his dessert which I added just to his hot vermicilli in his bowl.

Whole wheat Banana Pancake

Yes, again banana! But, wait, the recipe is really simple and finger-licking tasty! :)

The inspiration for making this recipe comes from A&N's Banana Muffins. On seeing A&N's lovely muffins, I knew I have to do something with my over-ripe bananas lying in my fruit basket too. So, here is my ultra-simplified version (Although, I plan to make the muffins one day too!).
Since I have a three year old son, I have become very conscious about what ingredients I use, how healthy it is, if I can reduce the amount of sugar in it or replace it with something healthy and so on. This time I served it with some stirred sourcream and blueberries as an evening snack which was enjoyed by us and my son thoroughly. He ate so much that I could forget about his dinner, but then I didn't worry! As this is a wholesome meal for children for now and then.

The picture is not showing the best pancake, but just didn't remember to click. Managed to take one picture later on. The pancake got a bit wrinkled while turning. :(

Preparation Time: 1 h 15 minutes
Baking time: 3 minutes for each pancake
Makes about 8-10 pancakes

Ingredients:

Pancake Batter:
2 ripe bananas (overripe is as good!)
150 g Wholewheat flour
2 tsp Baking powder
250 ml milk
1 tbsp Maple syrup
1 tsp fennel seeds (optional)
or
1 large pinch cardamom powder

Oil or butter for frying the pancakes

Method:

• Mash the bananas with a fork in a large bowl
  
• Mix the whole wheat flour with the baking powder and add to the crushed bananas
  
• add milk and maple syrup and mix everything with a whisk into a smooth batter
  
• Set aside for about an hour , if for longer, then put in the fridge, covered
• Use butter or oil for frying them in a fry pan or griddle
  
• For that, heat the pan on medium heat, spread a tbsp of butter and put one ladle of the batter on the pan and spread slowly with a base of a ladle into a round pancake.
  
• Cover the pan immidiately. Reduce heat slightly
• After about half a minute, when the upper part is no more fluid and shows bubbles, turn it upside down. Use some more butter, if required.
• Bake till the other side is done.
• Serve with maple syrup or honey or sweetened apple puree and chopped nuts or fruits!

Keeping the blog alive! ;)