Chicken Malai Dilkhush

This is yet another preparation of chicken which everyone in our family enjoys - this is one of my specialities :). This preparation has a very rich taste - and at the same time is not spicy/hot (the kid can enjoy too). 

Here is how Chicken Malai Dishkush looks like once cooked and ready to be served.

Step 1: Take approximately 1-1.25 kg (2-3 lb) of chicken. Add 1 egg and 1 teaspoon corn flour and mix everything. 

Step 2: After mixing, fry the chicken pieces in oil. (This fried chicken can also be eaten as is as snacks - just add some salt and pepper.)

Step 3: Take 2-3 medium sized onions and chop those. Fry these in oil which the following spices:

a) Bay leaves
b) Cinnamon sticks
c) "Jaipatri"
d) Black pepper
d) 4-5 Whole Cardamom
e) 4-5 Cloves

Fry the onions till they just start turning into a golden / light brown color.

Step 4: Now take out the following ingredients a shown on the plate below:

a) Coriander powder

b) Turmeric powder

c) Red chili powder

d) Salt

e) Ginger/Garlic paste

Step 5: Add above ingredients to the fried onions along with some water and cook them for 5 min. Keep this aside - this will be added in the last step.

Step 6: Chop 3-4 tomatos and fry them in a separate pan till the color becomes dark brown (you can see the color in the next picture).

Step 7: Add 1 glass of whole milk and add 1 cup of cashew paste (you can take crushed cashews, and grind them with a few teaspoons of water to make a paste). Cook this at low heat for 5-10 min.

Step 8: When done, the mix should look like this. Add this to the onions which you fried in Step 5. Cook it at medium heat for 5 min and add the fried chicken. Mix them and cook it low heat for 10-15 min. (Alternately, in the last step you can cook the entire mix with the chicken in a microwave oven)

Baingan Janeman

"प्यार की मंजिल दिल हैं, और दिल का रास्ता पेट से होकर जाता है  |"  

That's why in our family we all love to cook and eat. Not only that, we all identify each other with our favorite dishes and we show our love to each other by sharing the same.

Now, I'd like to write about a preparation of eggplant which my darling husband's likes a lot. Ankur and I named "Baingan Janeman" - to rhyme with Eggplant Parmesan :). I learnt this dish from my mother.

Step 1: Get the following ingredients - as shown in three separate plates:

Plate 1:
a) Chopped onions

Plate 2:

a) Eggplant cut into (roughly) 2"x1" cubes

Plate 3:

a) Haldi (Turmeric)

b) Dhania (Coriander powder)

c) Mirch (Red chilly powder)

d) Salt

e) Freshly ground mustard with water

Step 2: Fry the eggplant pieces in oil till light brown.

Step 3: Fry the onions in oil to light brown and then add the ingredients of Plate 3.

Step 4: Add a little water and cook in medium heat for 10 min to thick brown paste, as shown below.

Step 5: Add the fried eggplant pieces, mix gently and cook in sim for 5 min. Enjoy!

Green Chicken Chutney

It took me some time to find out, or rather I should say "figure out" the name for this preparation. The reason is simple - I created this recipe :).

The first part of the name, i.e., "Green" and "Chicken" were no-brainers. It's a chicken dish made from ingredients most of which are green in color, and the final dish also looks green. But it took me some time to convince the others to decide on "Chutney". The word "chutney" has originated from the word "chaat na" which literally means "licking" in English. So, while in the central part of India chutney is anything which is hot and spicy, in the eastern part of India people like to lick their fingers after eating something (extremely) sweet! And to add more to the confusion, I think in the southern part of India chutney is something extra-tangy!

Anyway, everyone in my family said that it turned out to be very tasty and begged me to put it in this blog. So, here goes the recipe!

Here's how the Green Chicken Chutney looks once it's done.

The steps are described below. I have taken pictures at various stages to present the recipe. This way, I can avoid the specifying the proportions of the ingredients in lbs, oz, kgs, grams, tablespoon, teaspoon, "as desired", etc. - which I think is a big source of confusion!

Step 1: Get the following ingredients:

a) Cilantro

b) Green Tomato (I used the ones from our backyard garden - feel free to use red ones instead)

c) Green Chillies

d) Garlic

e) Ginger

f) Coriander Powder

Grind these in a mixer to make a green paste. You can add a little water if it is too dry to grind.

Step 2: Get also the following ingredients:

a) Chopped Onion

b) "Jaipatri" (I will find out the English for this later)

c) Bay Leaves

Step 3: Get chicken - bone or boneless, either is fine. I am using thigh quarters cut into pieces.

Step 4: Fry the ingredients of Step 2 in oil (do not brown).

Step 5: Add the chicken when the onions look like this.

Step 6: Cook in medium heat for about 10 min. At this point the chicken should be almost done as shown below.

Step 7: Now add the green paste and start cooking in sim.

Step 8: You should be done in 15 min or so. Enjoy!

Our Backyard Garden

 

This posting is just a placeholder for now. Ankur is going to write something (probably a lot!) soon.