Lemon pasta with chicken and mushrooms.

I love this pasta as it has the tangy, spicy flavour and it makes for a refreshing ,summery meal. Its a very comforting, wholesome dish and we usually have this with garlic bread on the side.

Chicken:

2 chicken breasts
4 tbsp lemon juice
salt to taste
pepper to taste

For the Pasta:

3 cups any pasta of your choice.
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tsp red chilli flakes
4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley or 2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp dried basil
2 lemons (zest and juice)
salt to taste
1 tsp pepper pdr
Olive oil
3 tbsp butter
shredded cheese – optional

Method:

Marinate chicken breasts with the ingredients listed under chicken and keep aside for 15 to 20 minutes.

Cook pasta in salted water with 1 tbsp oilve oil till done. Drain and keep aside.

Heat olive oil in a large enough pan to accomodate the pasta. Stir fry mushrooms with little salt and pepper powder. Remove from pan and keep aside.

Add a little more olive oil and pan-fry chicken breasts on both sides on medium flame till done. This takes approximately 7 to 8 minutes each side.

Remove the chicken from the pan and keep aside to rest. After about 10 minutes cut chicken into cubes.

IN the same pan add the olive oil and butter. Once hot add the chilli flakes,garlic, dried oregano,parsley and basil.

Add the lemon zest and juice and immediately add the mushrooms and chicken pieces. Stir it once and then add the drained pasta. Mix well so that everything gets coated with the sauce.

If using fresh parsley add it in the end and remove from flame.

Serve hot with shredded cheese as garnish.

 

Paneer stuffed aloo tikki/Paneer stuffed potato cutlets.

This is an easy appetizer to prepare as you usually have all the ingredients in hand. Just serve these hot with ketchup and you’ll be winning hostess of the year award

Ingredients:

4 large potatoes- boiled and mashed.
Paneer cut into small cubes or you could grate it.
1/2 cup green chutney
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 tbsp cornstarch
oil for frying.

Method:

Add salt, pepper and cornflour to the mashed potatoes and mix well.

Divide into 10 to 12 portions. Take each portion and flatten it in your palm.

Take a tsp of green chutney and spread it on the flattened potato.

Place a cube of paneer on the potato and using your hands close it to form a ball. Flatten it and place on a plate.

Repeat for the other potato portions.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add oil and shallow fry the cutlets on both sides using medium heat.

Serve hot with ketchup.

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On a different but important topic, Monika and Kiran have initiated a Child Sexual Abuse Awareness month in the blogosphere. Please go ahead and read the blog and contribute if you have any stories or tips on the subject. Anonymous entries are more than welcome.

 If not, please spread the word on your blog. Someone, somewhere might benefit from it.

If you would like to add to the discussion or know somebody else who would, please note that they welcome entries

a. mailed to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com OR
b. posted as FB notes and linked to the FB page OR
c. posted on your own blog with the badge and “CSAAM April 2011″ in the heading and linked to the main blog OR
d. linked or posted on Twitter tagged twitter.com/CSAAwareness OR
e. sent via some/all of the above methods

Some topics are suggested here. Anonymous contributions are accepted and requests for anonymity will of course be honoured. You can also host at least one guest post and encourage you to do the same for non-blogger friends.

Please remember to send in a mail with all necessary links (or just your input) to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com so that they can track your contribution and make sure that it is not inadvertently lost or something.

 

Paanpole/Neer Dosa video.

Hi All,

I know I had disappeared for long from the blogosphere. The thing is I went for a short holiday (but long according to my husband!) to India. Yup we agree on everything that way I was there for almost 2 months and what can I say…I hardly ever used the internet. But now that I am back,hopefully I will be more regular.

To make up for lost time,I have uploaded a video version for the paanpole/neer dosa video on youtube. Hopefully you all can view it and enjoy it. My  aunt was preparing them for breakfast and I just grabbed my camera and shot it. I think its a bit shaky, so please do forgive my amateur attempt I am so not a morning person !

 I wanted to show how thin the batter is and how you should spread the batter in the pan. Hopefully you all will get an idea through the video. Once its done you have to remove it on a plate like shown and after a few seconds,fold it into half and then to a triangle.

Here is my recipe . My aunt on the other hand adds a little coconut milk to the rice and blends it in a mixie. Its yummy either way!

 

 

Truffles (Tim tam truffles)

It was a busy year end for us and till the 23rd I had not made anything for Christmas. My Christmas tree wasnt even up and I thought I would take a break from decorating for the more obvious pleasure of shopping. But after a few persistent gentle proddings from a dear friend, I got  the push I needed and I managed to prepare a few things just in time for Christmas. I had brought the ingredients needed for these truffles but didnt get time to make them for Christmas,so I made them after New years. These are really delicious and I can cross out truffles from my list of to-make items

I had bookmarked this recipe quite some time back but couldn’t find the timtam cookies that were needed to make these. I finally found the cookies in my local store under the Pepperidge farm brand and bought 2 packets. One was polished off as soon as I came home and the other was kept just to make these truffles  

Here is the link for the original recipe. Do try it out. Its worth the trouble

 

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 36,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 14 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 102 posts. There were 26 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 3mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was January 6th with 375 views. The most popular post that day was My Christmas cake!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were foodworld.redchillies.us, rpc.blogrolling.com, themadmomma.wordpress.com, connect.sailusfood.com, and snippetsnscribbles.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for sandwich, capsicum curry, low fat lemon cake, masoor dal, and best nankhatai recipe.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

My Christmas cake! January 2010
25 comments

2

Capsicum Curry (Shimla Mirch ka Salan) January 2008
13 comments

3

Fish Sandwich. May 2008
23 comments

4

Low-fat Lemon cake. February 2008
18 comments

5

Nankhatai October 2009
32 comments

Nice! This is really good. Looks like the old recipes are the favourites. Hoping to post more along those lines. Thanks all of you for stopping by

 

Black eyed beans curry (Chowli curry)

This is one of the curries I make often when I remember to soak the beans that is! Its pretty simple as the ingredients are always available in my pantry. I’m sure its available in yours too. The recipe looks lengthy but once you have everything in hand it gets done in a jiffy. The beans need to be soaked for atleast 6 hours, but in a pinch you could pressure cook it too. It shouldnot be mushy, but cooked enough to have a bite to it. It goes well with rice or chapathi’s.

Ingredients:

2 cups black eyed bean – soaked.
1 big onion – chopped finely
3 large,ripe tomatoes
1 inch ginger grated
3 flakes garlic chopped
1 bay leaf
4 cloves
7 peppercorn
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 kashmiri chili
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp punjabi chole masala (optional)
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
3 tbsp oil.

Method:

Drain the soaked beans.Add fresh water and salt. Boil it till its just cooked and keep aside.

Puree the tomatoes in a mixie and keep aside.

Heat oil in a kadhai. Add the cloves,peppercorn, bay leaf and cinnamon stick.

Once they darken, about 5 seconds add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Add the kashimiri chilli.

The add the chopped onions and fry them till they are transluscent. Add the grated ginger and shopped garlic.

Stir for a few seconds and add coriander powder,turmeric powder and chilli powder.

Add the tomato puree and cook till it reduces a little. This takes about 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the cooked beans. Mix everything well. Add a cup of water.

Then add the punjabi chole masala and garam masala powder. Check for salt.

Cover and bring it to a boil. Then turn flame on low and simmer it for another 2 or 3 minutes.

Turn off gas and serve hot with rice or chapathis.

 

Ricotta cheese peda’s

Since the festive season is already here,I thought I would celebrate it by making some peda’s. Traditionally peda’s are distributed among family,friends and neighbours on joyous occasions such as a wedding,birth of a child or even when you get good grades in school/college. I remember neighbours hounding me after I got my 10th results to present them with peda’s. I made them wait till I got my admissions I’m sure some of them must have thought I had failed and didnt want to admit it :p So you get the drift as to how important peda’s are in an Indian household. I made these using ricotta cheese which is easily available here.

Ingredients:

15 oz ricotta cheese
3/4th cup milk powder
1/2 cup sugar(add more if needed)
a pinch of cardomam powder
2 tbsp ghee
Almond slices for garnishing.

Method:

Take a non-stick vessel. Turn heat on medium. Add ghee and allow it to melt.

Once melted, add the ricotta cheese and milk powder and stir well.

Keep stirring till all water is evaporated,about 35 to 40 minutes. Add the cardomum powder in the end and stir well. Remove from flame and keep aside.

When it cools down a bit add the sugar and stir well till its nicely incorporated.

When its warm enough to handle,make flat balls and place them on a greased dish. Press a few slices of almond and serve at room temperature or chilled. Enjoy!

 

Dal Makhani

I had only tried this dish in restaurants and wanted an amazing recipe to recreate it at home. I found it in my friends Tina’s blog. She was the 1st blogger I started reading and I should credit her for all the lovely bloggers I now have as friends I just casually sent her a msg once and she replied with such warmth that now we are good friends even though we have not met even once! I have tried many dishes from her blog but unfortunately have not taken any pics. That time I didnt have a blog and who wants to waste time when such tantalising aroma’s kept wafting in from the kitchen If you want really good Mangalorean recipes, her blog is it. I wish I was staying close to her just so that I could go to her place and hog all the yummy dishes she makes

One dish that I made recently was her Dal Makhani. It was spot on and delivered on all levels. If you are a fan of lentils like I am, you should try this recipe.  Do hop over to her blog to check the original. Thanks Tina

 

Plantain Fritters

This is one the most delicious and a quick snack. Its great to have this with your evening cup of tea.

Ingredients:

1 large unripe green plantain
1/2 cup yoghurt mixed with a cup of water to make a paste.
a pinch of salt added to the yoghurt mixture

For the batter:

1 cup besan/chickpea flour
1 heaped tbsp rice flour
1/2 tsp red chilli pdr
salt to taste
1/4 tsp turmeric pdr
1/4 tsp sugar
10 fresh curry leaves finely shredded (optional)
1 tsp oil plus additional oil for deep frying.

Method:

Slice the plantains and dunk them into the yoghurt-water mixture to prevent it from darkening.

Combine all the ingredients listed under the batter except the oil for deep-frying to make a pancake consistency smooth batter. Make sure there are no lumps.

In a kadhai, heat the oil for deep frying. Remove the plantain slices from the yoghurt mixture and pat dry them with paper towels.

Dip the slices in the batter till they are properly coated and slip them into the hot oil without crowding them in the kadhai. Fry on both sides.

Remove when done and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the other slices.

Serve hot.

 

Chocolate-chip almond cookies

These are one of my favourites. They have to be as they have loads of chocolate chips So incase you are a chocoholic like me these are just for you !

Ingredients:

1 cup softened butter
1 and half cup sugar
3/4th cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 and half cup flour
1 and half cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 and half cup slivered almonds
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the butter in the mixing bowl. Add the white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs, baking soda, salt and mix with the electrical mixer.

Then add half the flour, chocolate chips and almonds and mix thoroughly.

The add the rest of the flour and mix well.

Line baking tray with wax paper and slightly grease it.

Shape the dough into balls and place them on the tray apart from each other as these cookies do flatten out while baking.

If the dough is too sticky to handle,chill it for a few minutes and try again.

Bake at 350 degree F for 10 to 12 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

Serve at room temperature and store in an airtight container.