Chicken Tangri Kabab

Don't these kababs look lovely... They taste as good as they look or even better.. :) The secret of making tasty kababs lies in the marination part. The more you marinate it the more tasty and soft your kabab is. So let me not waste too much time here and come directly to the recipe:

Ingredients:
- Chicken Leg pieces (4-5)
- Curd (1 cup)
- Ginger ( 1 tbsp)
- Garlic (1 tbsp)
- Tandoori Masala (2 tbsp)
- Lemon juice (2 tbsp)
- Salt (1 tbsp)

Preparation:
- Marinate the chicken with lemon and salt for about 30 mins.
- Drain out the excess lemon juice from the marination bowl.
- Now marinate the chicken with all the other ingredients.
- Keep it in the refrigerator and let it marinate for a day or you can even keep it for two days.
- Preheat oven at 200 degrees Celsius.
- Grill the chicken for 10 mins at 200 degrees in the oven.
- Grill the other side for another 10 mins.
- Try to insert a fork into one of the pieces to check if it is fully cooked.
- Serve with salad and sauce.


This is my entry for :

Bon Vivant Series: Apetizers/Starters

Divya's Culinary Journey: Showcase Fun in the Sun

Srav's Culinary Concepts: Splash into Summer

Tea Time Cake

I have lots of childhood memories attached with this cake. This is the cake my Ma always used to make. I used to take it to school for my tiffin break and all my friends would be so eager to have at least a bite of it. She also made this cake once on my birthday and she had decorated it with cream. That was the best cake I've tasted in life till now. Those days bakeries were not as many as there are today and since I have spent my childhood in a small town there were none. So on my birthdays most of the times this was the cake that I used to cut. When I asked Ma about the recipe she was also recollecting all the memories that she had of my childhood related to this cake. I had tried this cake for the first time when I was in college and I forgot to put baking powder. Then when I saw that the cake was not rising I increased the time and temperature. My brother still tells me about that disaster as you can see in the previous post. It looked as if there has been an earthquake on the cake. Thankfully I don't do all such kind of stuff now. I had made this cake last week. It was awesome. I called up Ma and told her that it was exactly like what she used to prepare. So now to the recipe:

Ingredients:
-All purpose Flour / Maida (1 cup)
- Sugar (1 cup)
- Eggs (2)
- Vanilla essence (1/2 tsp)
- Cashews (10-12)
- Raisins (a handful)
- White oil (1/2 cup)
- Butter (1 tsp for spreading on cake tin)
- Milk (1/2 cup)
- Baking Powder (1 tsp)


Preparation:
- Beat the eggs, vanilla essence, oil, milk and sugar well.I generally give it a quick whirl in the mixer. You can also use a hand mixer or do beat it well with a spatula.
- Sift the flour and baking powder together.
- Fold in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredientsa and beat well.
- The flour should be nicely folded into the wet mixture (You are looking into for a consistency which lets you form ribbons when you drop it from the spoon).
- On your cake tin apply butter so that the cake does not stick to the tin.
- Pour your batter into the cake tin.
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius and put the cake into oven in baking mode for 20-25 mins.
- To check if the cake is ready insert a toothpick into the cake and it should come out clean.


This is my entry to:
Lets Cook Kid's Special at Tickling Palattes and Favourite Cake Recipes at Zesty South Indian Kitchen

My First try at Baking

Baking is something that always fascinated me but I could not bake as I did not have an oven in my kitchen. Few days back on our marriage anniversary my husband gifted me an oven (he does good things some times). Frankly speaking it was really sweet of him. This is something that I had always wanted and since our new oven got a place in my kitchen I have been doing a hell lot of baking, grilling etc etc... These days most of our dinners are baked :). I have been making full use of my oven and I am really really happy about it.

Cooking is an art but baking is definitely a science. In baking you have to add exact amounts of ingredients and at the right temperature. That is when all the ingredients start the chemical reactions like in a chemistry lab (i know i exaggerated it!!!) and you get a perfectly baked dish. If anything goes wrong between your quantity of ingredients, temperature of the oven and the ingredients as well and the time for which you are baking it your dish is surely going to find its way to the dustbin.

This particular chocolate cake is the first thing that I tried in my oven. It was more for testing purpose. I wanted to check whether my oven is working fine and what are the features that it has. So I bought cake mix and baked one delicious cake. The cake was very soft and moist.

Ingredients:
- Cake Mix (1 packet - I used Pillsbury chocolate cake mix)
- Oil (1/2 cup)
- Eggs (2)
- Cashews (6-7)




Method:
- Mix oil and eggs together.
- Fold in the cake mix.
- Put batter in cake tin and add cashews on top.
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celcius for 10 mins.
- Bake the cake for 20 mins at 170 degrees celcius.

Your cake is ready.

This is my entry for :
Kid's Special at Tickling Palates and Zesty South Indian Kitchen's My favourite Cake recipe event

Chicken Cigar

It seems like it has been ages since I last wrote my blog. My parents had come over to my place so I was doing nothing but giving them time and eating lots and lots of Ma ke haath ka khana (mother's hand cooked food). So this time since I am writing after so many days I decided to write something very very special.

Chicken Cigar is a starter which is pretty easy to prepare and gets me appreciations whenever I prepare it. This is very tasty. The crunchy bread on the outside and juicy chicken stuffing inside add to the flavour of the dish.

Ingredients:
- Chicken Keema (200 gms)
- White Bread slices ( 7-8 )
- Salt (acc to taste)
- Coriander ( 1 bunch chopped finely)
- Onions ( 1 chopped finely and 1/2 julienned for serving)
- Coriander powder (3 tsp)
- Cumin powder ( 3 tsp)
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Tomato Sauce (for serving)
- Cucumber (for serving)
- Sunflower oil (2 tbsp for stuffing and 1 cup for deep frying)
- Green chillies (according to taste)
- Cumin seeds (1/2 tsp)
- Egg (1 beaten)
- Cornflour (1 tbsp)
- Water (1 cup)

How to prepare the stuffing?
- Wash the chicken keema properly.
- Marinate chicken keema with lemon juice and salt for 1 hour.
-  Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok.
- Add Cumin seeds, chopped onions and green chillies.
- When cumin seeds splutter add marinated keema into it.
- Fry for some time.
- Add coriander powder, cumin powder, salt, turmeric powder, chopped coriander and mix well.
- Let it cook fully and keep aside to cool.
- Once it has cooled down separate the stuffing as shown below:

How to prepare the Cigar?
- Cut the sides of the bread.
- Put the stuffing in the middle of the bread along the length.
- Fold the bread like a cigar.
- Add a little water to your hands before folding it. This will help it bind together.
- Make a batter of the egg and cornflour. Add a little salt to it.
- Heat oil for deep frying in a deep wok.
- Dip the bread cigars into the batter.
- Deep fry them until brown.
- Serve hot with sauce, kasundi, salads etc.

Note: Vegetarians can use paneer and boiled potatoes in place of chicken.
          The keema stuffing can be had along with roti as a side dish.