Chicken Tikka

I found this recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala in an in-flight magazine. As I browsed through it I was hooked. I felt it was a promising recipe and it turned out better than I expected. Though it is not as photogenic as I would have wished it to be, do not be deceived by the looks. This one was O so addictive and oozing with Umami. What appealed to me about the recipe is its versatility. The ingredients can be found in any part of the world, - no masalas or food colouring like in other Chicken Tikka Masala recipes I've seen.

Ingredients-
2 chicken breasts

1st marination
1tbs ginger-garlic paste
lemon juice
salt to taste

• Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and apply the ingredients for 1st marination and keep aside for an hour, preferably overnight.

2nd marination-
Ingredients A
100 ml Cream
1tbs ginger-garlic paste
25gms cheese
1 1/2tbs cashew nut powder
1 egg white
Ingredients B
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1/3 tbs black pepper crushed
oil
salt to taste

• Mix together Ingredients A until the cheese dissolves and becomes a fine paste.
• Whisk in Ingredients B except oil to the above and mix well.
• Remove the extra water from the chicken pieces.
• Mix the chicken pieces with the batter and rub well.
• Keep aside for 2 hours.

• Drizzle oil over the pieces and grill on micro+ grill combination for 10 minutes.
• Turn over and grill for 5 minutes or till done.

Sauce
Ingredients-
1/4tsp cumin seeds
1 onion minced
2 large ripe tomatoes minced
salt to taste

Preparation-

• Heat oil in a pan splutter cumin seeds.
• Saute onions and add the minced tomatoes.
• Cover and cook till tomatoes are mashed and cooked.
• Add salt to taste. Take off the fire.
• Add the chicken pieces and mix well.
• Serve hot with......... guess what? (coming in the next post)

Sending this for Side Dish Showdown

Gnocchi Chicken Tikka- Gnocchi Party

Talk about virtual interaction! Penny from Jeroxie anounced a virtual Gnocchi Party. I was eager to join in, the flavour was supposed to be Umami. I had no clue what I was in for! I had never made Gnocchi in my life nor heard of Umami flavour. Many times I wanted to chicken out (pun intended), but Divina and Penny were very encouraging and provided me links to make it easire for me. Having finally joined them I must say it was fun! A big thank you to both of you, else I dont know when I would have tried Gnocchi or explored Umami. I have stuck to the traditional Potato Gnocchi since it was my first time, will explore in future. I would also like to explore healthier versions of Gnocchi. But what am I doing here. I am off to the party.... Join me there when you finish... At the party you will find..

• Penny- Jeroxie
• Divina – Sense & Serendipity
• Christine – Christine’s Recipes
• Mardi – Eat, Live, Travel, Write
• Trix – Tasty Trix
• Mellie – Tummy Rumbles
• Conor – Hold the Beef
• Natasha – Five Star Foodie
• Agnes Hon- Off the Spork
• Ozoz- Kitchen Butterfly

Rouxbe Online Cooking School & Video Recipes

Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients 2 potatoes 1egg yolk white flour as required nutmeg pepper Preparation-

• Boil the potatoes and..
• I had no potato ricer as the recipe requires. I had this...

and heres what I got... Good enough?

• Areate the riced potatoes.

• Mix with flour, nutmeg and pepper powder.

• Break the yolk into it and mix.

• Knead the dough till it does not stick to your fingers adding flour all as required.

• Let it stand for 10 minutes
• Then cut into finger long strips and then finger sized squares.
• Roll it over a fork and mould them.

• Your gnocchi is done!
• To cook drop in boiling water till they float.

Now for the Umami flavour! Well I decided to go Indian. So we have Gnocchi Chicken Tikka! For the Chicken Tikka click here.

Giveaway

I am excited to anounce my first giveaway! What do you think it is?
Here's a lovely Yoghurt maker from CSN stores which operates many online stores that sell everything from mailboxes to cookware.
Here's how to win-

1. This giveaway will be mailed only to the US and Canada due to shipping restrictions. However all readers can participate to send a gift to a friend, or relative or a fellow food blogger who resides in the US or Canada.
2. You have to be a follower of Enriching Your Kid! either via a reader or mail or google or networked blogs. So if you havent signed up please do.
3. Post a comment below telling me how you like to have your yoghurt or how do you use it in your recipes.
4. This opportunity is open till the 19th of March. The winner will be chosen randomly and anounced on the 21st of March.

Sounds good?

Pineapple-Barley Squash

Here's one way to keep cool and beat the heat. An adaptation of my Lemon-Barley Squash. My little girl is very fond of fruit juices and drinks, so I prepared this variation to keep her from boredom. Check out Mary Moh's post on How to Cut a Pineapple which will come handy when you have a fresh pineapple waiting to be cut.

Ingredients-

4tbs heaped pearl barley
6 cups of water
1cup pineapple pulp/juice
2tbs ginger juice
1/4 kg sugar
1/2tsp citric acid
2 cardamoms

Preparation-

• Soak pearl barley in hot water for an hour.
• Add water and pressure cook till soft.
• While the barley cooks, extract the juice from pineapple. Peel and crush the cardamom seeds in a pestle.
• Peel and wash the ginger, crush in mortar and sqeeze out the juice.
• Once the barley is cooked drain the water and reserve.
• When the barley is cool, pulp it in a blender.
• Add the reserve and mix well.
• Strain through a sieve.
• Add the pineapple pulp/juice, ginger juice, sugar, citric acid and cardamom powder to the barley.
• Bring this mixture to a boil. You will know its done when a residue begins to form on the sides. The mixture will have a syrup consistency.
• Cool and store in a sterilized bottle.
• To serve add chilled water and dilute according to taste. No sugar is required to be added.

 Enjoy and keep cool!

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Lemon-Barley Squash

Tomato Chutney

A friend  is expecting! And she says she craves for sour and spicy. I've been wanting to prepare tomato chutney since a while, so this was the best excuse. Though I am not very fond of spicy food, this one I have to admit is really addictive! The aroma, flavour and colour all hit you. I guess thats what is "umami". I've been trying to understand "umami" this month and I think I've got it.

This recipe is adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's 'Any Time Temptations'.

Panchporan is a five-spice mixture(panch meaning five) used for tempering.

Though I've added 2 kashmiri chillies its not too spicy, and can be easily used in a sandwhich for a kid. You can enjoy this with some hot parathas as well.

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients-
5 large ripe tomatoes
2 whole red Kashmiri chillies
1tbs oil
1sprig curry leaf
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1tbs grated jaggery
1tsp red chilli powder
salt to taste
For Panchphoran-
1/2tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
1/2 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)
1/2tsp mustard seeds
1/4tsp fenugreek seeds(methi)
1/2tsp cumin seeds(jeera)

Preparation-

• Wash and chop tomatoes
• Remove stems and break red chillies with hand.
• Heat oil in saucepan. Add panchphoran, when it crackles add the broken red chillies, curry leaves and asafoetida.
• Add chopped tomatoes and stir the mixture for 10 minutes. Add grated jaggery, red chilli powder, and salt.
• Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes or till the tomatoes are cooked and completely mashed.

Enjoy!
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Mint Chutney

Purple Amaranth Paratha

 

Summer is here and so are the power cuts. Makes it tough to update my blog and keep up with all of you. Hoping to catch up soon.

When I had posted Purple Amaranth Cutlets some of you asked me for more ways to use these leaves. These parathas are prepared just like 'theplas' except that the leaves are cooked a bit. Its perfect to prepare this and take if you are travelling and want to avoid eating out. You can also include them in a School Lunch.They remain soft and are very tasty.

 

 

Ingredients-

 

1 1/2 cups purple amaranth leaves chopped fine
2 cups wheat flour
1 1/2 cups yoghurt
2 tbs oil
1 chilli crushed fine
5 cloves of garlic crushed fine
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp tumeric powder
1/2 tsp asafoetida
salt to taste

  

Preparation-

• Wash the amaranth leaves and chop fine.
• Heat oil in pan and saute the leaves. Cover and cook a bit.
• Crush chilli and garlic in mortar into a fine paste.
• Mix all the ingredients together and knead into dough.

•  Keep aside for 1/2 an hour to ferment and the flavour of the spices to set in.

•  Roll into chappatis and fry both sides till crisp on the hot girdle. Drizzle ghee while frying.
• Serve hot with pickle or chutney powder or chilled yoghurt.

Enjoy!

 

You might also like-

Methi Theplas

Sweet Potato Parathas

Mooli Parathas

Bitter Gourd Parathas

Cheese Parathas

Beetroot Parathas

Corn Parathas

Valentine's Day-Burst of Cranberries

Today on the occassion of Valentine's Day when the world celebrates love, I have a very special guest- Kelly Parr from Fresh Encounter Body, Soul, Spirit. Kelly and her husband were missionaries in the South East Asia region for 15 years. They lived in Malaysia and travelled throughout teaching and now reside back in their home state of Missouri.

Shells with Chicken and Tomato Sauce

While we went shopping last weekend for groceries, Joel said he wanted shell macaroni. He sits in the trolley while we shop and surveys all that goes in the trolley very keenly. He makes sure he makes a petition for all that he wants. One important lesson I'd like to learn from kids is their persistence. If I ignore him the first time, he will repeat himself till I've acknowledged it. Then repeat till I give him the verdict "he can have it or he can't". If he can he will remind me again (almost immediately) till it goes in the trolley. If he cant, he needs a reason; should be good enough to convince him. All this while I am trying to find what I need and not forget anything in the list and check for ingredients, brands, prices etc. Phew! Am I glad that most of the times he is not unreasonable in his demands.

I like the shell shaped macaroni because the sauce sits well inside each shell. What is your favourite pasta?

Ingredients-

1 1/2cups shell macaroni
Chicken-

1chicken breast

ginger-garlic paste

salt

lemon juice

Sauce-

1onion minced

1tsp ginger-garlic paste

1large tomatoes minced

1/2 tsp garam masala

salt to taste

Garnish-

grated cheese

oregano

Preparation-

• Cut the chicken breast and marinate with salt, ginger-garlic paste and lemon juice. Freeze overnight. Defreeze the next day and cook. When cool enough to handle shred and keep aside.
• Cook the shell macaroni in water al dente. Drain and keep aside.
• While the macaroni cooks, heat oil in a pan. Saute the minced onions.
• Add ginger-garlic paste and minced tomatoes. Cook till it aquires sauce consistency.
• Add salt and the shredded chicken. Mix well.
• Add the shell macaroni, stir in the sauce well and take off the heat.
• Garnish with oregano and grated cheese and serve.

Idiyappam

Idiyappam or string hoppers is a culinary speciality in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is also popular in certain areas of Sri Lanka.It is also called noolappam or noolputtu from the Tamil/Malayalam word for string, nool.It is generally served as the main course at breakfast together with a curry (potato, egg, fish or meat curry) and coconut chutney. I'll give you three versions of it,- sweet, savoury and healthy.

As you enjoy this traditional recipe from my mom's kitchen, do whisper a prayer for her. She has been ailing recently and is just back from the hospital yesterday.

Ingredients-

For the dough-

2cups fine rice flour

1/2 tsp salt

3-4cups of boiling water

Preparation-

• Pour boiling water into the rice flour and stir with the straight end of a spoon.
• Collect the dough together. It does not require much handling.

The dough

Traditional Idiyappam maker

• Grease the insides and place the dough inside.

• Turn the screw and the strings will come out.
• Steam the iddiyappam.
• You can also steam them in idli moulds for smaller servings.

For the sweet topping-

Grated coconut

Grated jaggery

Crushed cardamom

For the savoury topping-

peanuts
split gram
mustard seeds
green chillies
1red chilli
Seasoning-
Heat oil, split the mustard seeds add rest of the ingredients and roast.

For a healthy version

Add 2tbs of finger millet (ragi) powder in the dough. You can have it with a sweet or spicy topping.

Enjoy!

Purple Amaranth Cutlets

Amaranthus, a herb, is an ancient food of the Aztecs and Mayans of Central America and of India as well. It is collectively known as amaranth or pigweed. There are approximately 60 species.The seeds are eaten as a cereal grain. They are ground into flour, popped like popcorn, cooked into a porridge, and made into a confectionery called alegría. The seeds can be germinated into nutritious sprouts.

It is found useful in ailments such as:

• Diarrhea
• Heart disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Cancer

The nutrients found are-

• Iron
• Calcium
• Vitamin C
• Folate
• Potassium
• Phosphorus
• Manganese
• Vitamin B2
• Vitamin A (12)

Purple Amaranth Cutlets
Ingredients-

A bunch of amaranth(tender shoots)

3 potatoes
1large onion
5 flakes of garlic
1tsp ginger paste
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2cup chopped fresh mint
1/2tsp garam masala
1/2tsp chilli powder
freshly ground pepper
salt to taste

Preparation-

• Wash and chop the amaranth leaves fine.

• Mince the onion and garlic.
• Saute onion, ginger paste and garlic. Add the amaranth, cover and cook.
• Boil the potatoes, when cool enough to handle, peel and mash.
• Combine all the ingredients together.

• Shape into patties and roll into bread crumbs.
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the cutlets till crisp.

• Serve hot with ketchup.

Sending this for Side Dish Showdown.