Kerala Porotta

This is again from my mom’s kitchen. One of my ever time favourite – this is usually served with beef curry back at home. Usually I have shied away from trying this plain flour (maida) based Indian bread, thinking that it’s not an easy make (hence most of the time I have stuck with either the restaurant or frozen ones).  However after trying this out I figured out that it isn’t exactly that hard to make these Porottas. Other than the beef accompaniment, this dish goes well with any spicy gravy dish.

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour
• ¼ cup Whole Wheat Flour /Atta
• 1 Eggs
• ½ cup Milk
• A pinch of baking powder
• 1 tsp. Sugar
• Salt as required
• Oil/Dalda/ghee as required

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and knead the dough together. Set aside for an hour, covered with a wet muslin cloth.

Divide the dough into small balls. Take a portion and apply some oil on it. Oil the work area where you are going to roll the dough. Roll out completely as thin as possible and brush oil on the entire top.

Slowly lift one of the ends, stretch it a bit and fold it in a zigzag manner and create layers.

Stretch a little bit and slowly rotate to form a spiral shape with the ends tucked in the centre.

Repeat the above procedure for each portion and keep it aside.
Heat a pan until medium hot. Roll out each portion in to medium thickness. Do not add ant flour.

Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, turning frequently, until small brown patches are formed on both sides.

Once done, use both hands and pat on the sides of the porotta to get the layers.

Keep it in an air tight container. 

Easy Fried Rice

This is something that I make whenever I am short on both time & ingredients – easy to make and doesn’t even take that much time to cook. For vegetarians, you can add your choice of veggies like bell peppers, corn, asparagus, and zucchini. And yes for egg lovers, you can add scrambled eggs with a pinch of pepper and salt. I have used chicken stock cubes in this recipe. You can also substitute it with salt or veg stock cube. This dish can be savoured by the diet conscious folks as I haven’t used either oil or butter in this. I had few leftover chicken breasts and ended up making a real simple chicken fried rice.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of basmati rice (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
• 3 cloves, 2 cardamom pods, 1 small cinnamon bark
• 1 ½ chicken stock cube
• 1 cup beans chopped into small pieces or diagonally cut
• ½ cup carrots finely chopped
• ¼ cup frozen peas thawed
• 4 cups of water
• 2 scrambled eggs (Optional)
• 1 ½ chicken breast cut in to small pieces and cooked in 1 tbsp. of oil (optional)

In a non-stick deep bottom pan, add water and chicken stock cubes. Add rice, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and veggies. Cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes till the rice is perfectly cooked.

Remove from heat and add cooked chicken and scrambles eggs if using.

Ta- da… Now how easy was that.. Simple yet tasty!!!!!!!

Bhatura

I was introduced to the bhatura a long time ago & recently got a chance to get reacquainted with this thanks to Shwetha bhabhi. I have made some tweaks to this & to my luck the end product was sanctioned by the husband too. I had served this along with butter chicken & the combo was really mouth-watering. Otherwise this one can also go along with the traditional chole (chickpea curry) or any other gravy dish.  

Ingredients

• 1 cups of plain flour
• 3/4 cups whole wheat flour + extra for dusting
• salt (to taste)
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• Oil (for frying)
• Luke Warm water to knead the dough

In a bowl, mix flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Add yogurt and warm water and knead into soft dough. Cover and keep in a dark place for about 4 hours to rise.

Knead the dough again and divide into small balls. Roll out into a small disc.

In a pan, heat the oil. It should be HOT. Now drop the disc and fry till puffed up on both sides for about 4 seconds on each side. They cook pretty fast.

Drain on a paper towel and serve hot.

MY combo was bhatura and butter chicken …Yuummyyyy!!!!!!

Butter Chicken

This next dish is an all-time crowd pleaser. This one is quite identical to the Paneer Butter Masala that I have earlier posted. The only thing different here is that I have gone a little light on the butter content. As with the paneer variant, this butter chicken goes well with almost everything from rice to the regular Indian breads. This time I have gone with the bhatura (recipe soon to be posted) & the combo was every bit sumptuous!!!

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg chicken
• 2 tbsp. Kashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tbsp. garam masala powder
• 1 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
• 2 tbsp. veg oil
• 2 onions large finely chopped
• 3-4 tomatoes large finely chopped
• 1/3 cup cashew nuts
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 3 clove
• 3 cardamom
• 1 cinnamon bark
• 2 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
• 2 tbsp. chilli powder
• 2 tbsp. kashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tbsp. garam masala powder
• 3-5 tbsp. kasoori methi leaves
• 3-4 tbsp. honey
• Heavy cream and coriander leaves to garnish

Marinate the chicken with salt, garam masala powder, Kashmiri chilli powder and ginger garlic paste for at least ½ an hour.

In a deep bottom non- stick pan, add clove, cardamom and cinnamon sticks. Fry for a minute. Add chopped onions and sauté till translucent. Add cashew nuts and sauté. Add chopped tomatoes. Cover and cook till tomatoes are done. Cool the mixture and grind them to a fine paste by adding ½ cup of water.

Into the same pan add butter and 1 tbsp. veg oil. Add chilli powder, Kashmiri chilli powder, garam masala and sauté for a minute on a low flame. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté. Add chicken and mix completely. Add the paste and mix nicely. Add a little salt and kasoori methi leaves. Add 1 cup of water; cover and cook for about 20-25 minutes. Check in between because the gravy might stick to the bottom.

Add honey and mix nicely. Cook for about 10 more minutes and add a little more kasoori methi leaves.(I like its taste).

Remove from heat and garnish with cream and coriander leaves.

No Bake Key Lime Pie

This pie was something I had during my US days and I instantly fell in love with this dessert. The topping in the actual version was meringue but I had opted to omit this. I have also ditched the baking procedure involved in actual pie. So instead of a baked crust, you will be having biscuit crumbs in my version – job made easy!!! The titular lime was not available so I have gone with lemon here. The tanginess of the lemon & the sweetness of the pie give this dessert the perfect blend. You can opt for either lemons or oranges just in case you are unable to get hold of lime. This is an easy pie to make & once you get hold of it, you will definitely get addicted in making more of them.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups of Arrowroot biscuits  Crumbs
• 1 Stick of Softened Unsalted Butter
• ¼ cup of Granulated Sugar
• 1 14oz Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
• ½ cup Fresh Lemon Juice
• Zest of 2 Lemon
• 1 cup whipped cream

In a large bowl mix together, crumbs, salt and sugar. The butter should be mixed throughout the crumbs. You can also melt the butter if you wish.

Press the mixture in a 9” tart pan with a removable bottom and set aside.

 In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the remaining ingredients accept the whipped cream. Pour into the prepared crust and set aside.

In the next step you can either spread the whipped cream on top or you can just make small blossoms using star tip and a pastry bags around the edges.

Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

Aloo Methi (Potato and Fenugreek leaves)

This next dish is a basic dry potato based dish infused with one of my favourite leafy green veggies – Methi/Fenugreek leaves!! This dish may have a subtle bitterness to begin with, however once infused with the accompanying spices it turns out to a real tasty & quite healthy dish!!!!!

Ingredients

• 3 Potatoes medium finely chopped or cubed
• 1 cup Fenugreek leaves/Methi chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. chilli powder
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 Veg stock cube/ salt
• 1 tbsp. Veg oil

Parboil the potatoes with a pinch of turmeric. Drain them and keep aside.

Heat a pan with 1 tbsp. of oil and add cumin seeds and let it splutter. Add chopped onions and sauté till translucent. Add chilli powder, turmeric powder and sauté for a while.

Add the boiled potatoes and fenugreek leaves/methi and mix completely.

Add ¼ cup water and mix. Cover and cook on low flame for 5 minutes.

(if u wish you can mash the potatoes with back of a spoon at this stage—optional)

Transfer to a bowl and serve it with Roti!!!!! 

Chicken Pot Pie

This next dish is a house favourite. Since this dish is quite rich in content I had decided to downsize the pie into small ramekins rather than the big dish in which the pie is usually baked (and my hubby wasn’t super thrilled with this). I have gone for butter to enrich the pastry part of this pie, but vegetable fat would also improve the texture. The proportion of the flour to butter/fat for the pastry portion should be 2:1. As for the crust portion, to ensure a soft and flaky crust go for the short crust pastry (I am posting the recipe for the same in this blog separately). When baked in a big dish, this will be quite the main course material for the whole family!!! 

Ingredients

• 1 ½ chicken breast finely cut into cubes
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 carrot chopped
• ¼ cup frozen peas thawed
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 3 tbsp. plain flour
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1 cup water
• Salt and pepper for seasoning
• Parsley chopped
• 1 egg beaten

Ina deep bottom non-stick pan, add 1 tbsp. olive oil. Add chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper; cook for about 5 minutes. Add onions and carrots. Cover and cook for about 2-4 minutes.  Add butter and flour and mix nicely until the raw taste of the flour goes. Add the chicken stock cube and parsley; mix nicely. Let it cook for a minute or two. Add 1 cup water and peas and simmer for 15 minutes.

Optional: Here at this point you can 1 tsp. thyme and add ¼ cup heavy cream. I dint use it.

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Pour the mixture into ramekins or any small pie pan. Let it cool.

 Roll out the puff pastry onto a lightly floured board and using the bowl as a stick to the guide, cut the dough into the same shape as the bowl making sure it’s about 1 inch bigger so it will sides.

 Evenly distribute the filling between the bowls and using a pastry brush, brush the sides of the bowls with the egg wash and cover them with the puff pastry making sure to seal the sides against the bowl.

Brush the tops with egg wash. Make a little incision with a knife. Place the filled bowls on a baking sheet and cook in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or until you get golden crust.