Bhuna Kaleji

Now this is a typical Punjabi dhaba food, which is very popular in the northern part of India. We both like this spicy chicken liver dish with hot parathe. Recipe is fairly simple:

1. Saute 2 chopped onions with ginger-garlic paste in oil.

2. Add spices like turmeric powder, salt, coriander and jeera powder, and garam masala. When the onion starts leaving oil, add chopped tomatoes and green chillies to the wok.

3. Saute till you get a nice dark coloured spicy masala. Add the wasked and diced liver pieces and toss in the masala. The liver gets done in 4-5 minutes. Serve while hot!

Crispy fried chicken

My hubby is a fan of the Kentucky fried chicken, or the Col Sander's chicken as he likes to correct me:)

Therfore as always, I one day decided to make these at home. Now - Col Sanders crispy fried chicken is one of the best kept secrets, but there are umpteen variations to it on the blogosphere. I read a few here and there, and depending on availability at home, I made my own version of the crispy chicken. It turned out very well...though I will admit not 'exactly' the same as Col Sanders, but then.......who is complaining!! Certainly not me, nor hubby - who has already placed a request for another test run:)

My version of the crispy fried chicken recipe:

1. Prepare a marinade of buttermilk, salt, and pepper, and dunk the chicken drumsticks/wings/breast pieces that you would like to fry. Marinate them for anything between 1 to 24 hours.

2. In a ziplock bag - prepare a good quantity of coating. I added flour/maida, cornmeal, salt, red chilli powder, and dried mixed herbs like rosemary

3. Beat a couple of eggs and keep aside

4. Now is the messy part of the recipe - make sure all the things needed are close to each other. Pick up the chicken piece and shake to remove the excess marinade, dunk it in the egg mixture, then inside the ziplock to coat evenly, then again into the egg mixture and again in the ziplock bag.

5. Take out the piece from the bag and place them on a dripping tray, so that the flour gets some time to settle down and become soggy. Do this precedure with all the marinated chicken pieces and give them some time to settle down.

6. After 5 minutes, deep fry them in a heated wok - place as many as you can at high flame till it gets a nice golden colour on the outsie, then turn down the flame to medium and cover to cook till it gets done, At then end - again turn up the flame to high and drain out the pieces from the oil. This will ensure that the chicken gets cooked, but also retains its crispness.

Do try out this recipe - but take care while deep frying:)

Chicken Lollipops

Sharing this indo-chinese recipe with you all. It is a very popular appetiser and take-away here in India, and you will find many a non-veg foodies sharing their 'best chk. loppipop' joints with each other:)

Yesterday for dinner, we decided to make a batch at home, especially since we found a nice fresh packet of prepared lollipops at the super market. Generally, one has to ask the local butcher to prepare the lollipops from the chicken wings, or else, do it yourself. The lollipops came out wonderful..soft, succulent inside, and nice and crispy outside! We will be surely making this more often from now on.

How to make: Marinate the lollipops in ginger-garlic paste, a little soy sauce,salt and ground pepper. Keep it marinated as long as you can - I could only manage half an hour. Prepare the batter, using 1/2 cup cornflour, 2 tbsp maida, salt, few drops of red food colour (optional - I did not use it), 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp red chilli sauce, 1 egg while, and water. Check the seasoning and add more of sauces and salt if required. We want the batter to be thick enough to coat the chicken evenly, and also it to be spicy:)

Now - it is advisable to pre-cook the lollipos a bit to ensure that the chicken is thoroughly cooked. But if are sure to cook them properly while frying, you are most welcome. I popped them in the microwave for 2 mins, then dunked them in the batter, and deep fried in hot oil. I am sure - the pictures speak for themselves:)

Scalloped Chicken in Mushroom & Mustard Sauce

It is soo much fun (and yes touching) when friends and family call up to say that they actually open and read my blog and are looking forward to reading more about our escapades in our tiny kitchen:) I am really touched when Ma and Papa from Udaipur tell me that they regularly read my blog to know whats going on in our life, and when my Mom (the last person I thought would ever become net-savvy and read my blog) from NYC emails to tell me that the blog pics look very nice and that this is a very cool way to not lose good recipes as well as be in touch!! :)

Also, I am soo surprised to learn that people I never knew existed, people outside my circle of friends and family - actually dropped in to read (and comment) about my recipes:) Folks!! this makes me feel soo happy and special:) A big thanks to all who are reading this:)

Yes - I simply cant stop myself from grinning now..but its ok! am sitting all by myself..so no pains:) Now lets get back to business..serious business. Scalloped Chicken Dish recipe. Like I had mentioned in my earlier Fruit Salad post, I had served this simple chicken dish with some Penne in Tomato Sauce for V-dinner.

(Ahh...I am re-writing the post from here on - somehow I was not connected to the internet when I completed and published the post...so I lost all that I'd written in one sitting session:( ..so here it goes..again).

The Chicken: I got these really fresh succulent boneless chicken breasts, which I then cut in thin slices (you can in turn, pound them under a layer of plastic foil with a mallet to get nicely scalloped pieces).These I marinated for a couple of hours in extra-virgin olive oil (EVO), minced garlic, salt, pepper and Worchestershire sauce.

The Sauce: I sauteed some finely diced onions and garlic (can be omitted as well) in some EVO and then a cup of diced fresh mushrooms. To this, I added 2 tbsp of cornflour, and salt, pepper, dry mustard powder and Worchestershire sauce - add water to this, stirring continously till I got a creamy sauce bubbling away in my saucepan:) Ideally, I should have added some chicken/vegetable stock..but then I was too lazy to make that also, so just adjusted the seasonings in the sauce:)

The Assembling: While the sauce is bubbling over the fire, I pan-fried the chicken scallops in EVO over a skillet - this does not take too long and the scallops turn crispy and golden in a few minutes:) I simply placed the scallops on the dinner plate and poured the sauce over them. You can garnish with some finely chopped parsley..we were to hungry to even bother by then:)