Indian Style Chicken Meat Loaf

Ingredients

Minced chicken-500gms

Onion medium minced-1

Green chili minced-2

Fried cashew nuts( broken to small pieces)-25

Red chili powder-1tsp(+/-)

Turmeric powder-1/4tsp

Salt to taste

Oil required

Egg beaten- 2( one for the minced chicken and other for egg wash)

Masala paste ingredients 

( grind below ingredients to fine paste adding couple of tbsp water)

Ginger minced-2"

Garlic clove minced-6

Shredded coconut-1/4cup

Cumin/ Jeera seeds-1tsp

Fennel seeds/ Sombu-2tsp

Cloves-4

Green cardamom-1

Cinnamon stick-1"

Method

1.In a large bowl combine minced chicken, minced onion, minced green chili, ground masala paste, red chili powder, turmeric powder, fried cashew nuts, 1 beaten egg and required salt. Mix all ingredients together well with the fingers.

2.Grease a meatloaf or cake pan with required butter or oil. Pr- heat oven at 400F, place the chicken mixture inside the meatloaf pan( make sure they are loosely packed, otherwise chicken may not cook perfect). Brush top of the chicken meatloaf with a beaten egg.

3.Place the meatloaf pan in the center rack of the oven. Bake chicken meatloaf for 20 to 30mins until the top turns to golden brown color. Once the chicken meatloaf is fully cooked, place meatloaf on a wire rack and allow to cool.

4.Cut meatloaf into thick slices, serve with rice, roti, bread or enjoy as it is.

Variation:

Indian Chicken Patties for sandwiches and burgers.

Use the above minced chicken mixture to make yummy chicken patties for sandwiches or burgers. Follow the above method till step one, shape the minced chicken mixture into equal sized balls. Flatten these balls in between palms to make patties, heat a griddle or a tawa, place the chicken patties on the hot griddle and smear with butter or oil. Cook these chicken patties on both sides until it turns golden brown and tender.

For Indian Chicken Sandwich-take 2 slices of toasted bread, place a chicken patty on one bread top with grated cheese and ketchup, place a lettuce leaf on chicken patty and cover with another slice of bread.

For Indian Chicken burger-Do the above sandwich method with burger buns.

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IDLI CHINESE STYLE

IDLI - CHINESE STYLE

 INGREDIENTS

• Idli - 10-12  (Click here for the recipe)
• Capsicum chopped - 2 medium sized
• Beans chopped - 1 cup (250 grams approx)
• Soya sauce - 2 tablespoons
• Tomato ketchup - 3-4 tablespoons
• Salt -1 teaspoon (adjust as per taste)
• Black pepper powder -1/2 teaspoon (adjust as per taste)
• Oil - 2 tablespoons

METHOD

• Cut each idli into 4 pieces.

• Heat oil in a pan.
• Add chopped capsicum to it & saute for 2 minutes.

• After 2 minutes, add chopped beans to it & fry them together for another 5 minutes till the vegetables become slightly soft.

• Now, add salt & black pepper powder & mix well.

• Add soya sauce & tomato ketchup to the mixture & mix well.
• Soya sauce without onion garlic is widely available in the market, like in India, it is made available by the company named FunFoods.
• Tomato ketchup without onion garlic is widely available by the companies named Kissan & Tops.
• Mix them well.

• Now add idli pieces to this mixture & mix them well.

• Idli - chinese style is ready to serve.

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Cuban Style Slow Roasted Mojo Pork

Besides the beautiful weather and great shopping, another wonderful aspect of south Florida is the enormous variety of ethnic cuisines available.  Influenced by the strong and growing Cuban population, it has become one of the most popular foods of the region, in part, because of the explosion of flavors from garlic, fresh citrus juices and oregano you get with each bite.  Some may be under the misconception that Cuban food is spicy, but it is not (though I find a little dash of hot sauce is an excellent condiment). It is somewhat surprisingly heavy on garlic but that flavor is somehow balanced by the acidity of the citrus juices and sweetened by the long slow cooking processes.  The version I created is inspired by some of my very favorite meals enjoyed at "Havana"  in West Palm Beach, FL. It is by no means authentic, but it is a pretty good mid western reproduction, if I do say so myself.  

Cuban Style Slow Roasted Mojo Pork

Pork
1 pork shoulder roasted (boston butt or picnic shoulder)
2 tablespoons of chili powder (chipotle, ancho, pasilla)
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
2 tablespoons oregano
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Place pork roast in a heavy dutch oven.  Combine spices together in a small bowl and rub over all sides of the pork roast.  Spoon over 2 -3 tablespoons of mojo (recipe follows).  Cover with a tight fitting lid and roast in the oven for 3 hours or until pork is fork tender and falling apart.  Remove from dutch oven and let rest on a plate covered loosely with foil for about 20 minutes.  Slice and serve with black beans*, white rice and some extra mojo with sauteed onions. 

Mojo

zest of 1 orange

juice of 1 orange

zest of 1 lime

juice of 2 limes

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Combine ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.  After adding several tablespoons to the pork before cooking retain the remaining mojo.  After removing the pork from the oven, slice 1/2 of a red onion and place the slices in the mojo for 20 minutes.  Just before serving the pork, heat a skillet with a tablespoon of canola oil over medium heat.  When pan is hot, quickly pour the mojo and onions into the pan and saute for a minute or two until the onions are soft.  Serve as a condiment with the sliced pork. 

*P.S. - If you would like the recipe for the black beans you can find it right HERE.

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Low fat restaurant style Matar Paneer

Hello and glad to see you in the new year. Trying to stick to my resolutions (to blog more regularly) - I was ready with the draft 3 days ago, but thats when respiratory infection and bronchitis caught up with me and has kept me down for over 3 days. In Bombay, the temperature difference is well over 15 degrees between day and night, leading to an epidemic of sorts in respiratory infections. The only times in the last three days Ive managed to drag myself into the kitchen, is to make a huge pot of Molagu Rasam (Clear pepper soup), and keep warming it up in the microwave, sipping the spicy liquid through the day. Apart from that, my diet has generally been antibiotics, antihistaminics, expectorants and mucolytics. Sounds like quite a spread right??

Back to the topic of the post - this is one dish that is an extremely popular Indian curry - the origins as far as I know being Punjabi in nature, the land where paneer has been predominantly used since many years. If one has paneer and frozen peas, this can be made out of the stuff youd normally have in your pantry, bailing you out, if you got a day late in replenishing your stock of vegetables.

For a person who cooks almost 3 meals each day, its odd that I rarely make the typical restaurant style Punjabi dishes like Malai Kofta, Makhanwala and the likes, going mostly with the more earthy simple dishes, where veggies are not drowned in rich gravies and recipes which give veggies more respect than that! However on a whim I decided to try out this matar paneer curry, also since I had nothing else in my refrigerator that evening, except for the staple onions-tomatoes-ginger and garlic.

The recipe here is adapted from a food video prepared by Chef Sanjay Thumma. Youll find plenty of his videos on rediff iShare, youtube and his own site. Ofcourse, this is a much calorie cut version of the same. You could watch his video for a richer, creamier version of the same. But hey, does the title of the post - low fat restaurant style sound like an oxymoron? Well, if you ever try this recipe, youll know what I mean :)




Matar Paneer ( Indian curry with green peas and cheese )
Category - Vegetarian side to be eaten with rotis, parathas or rice
Time taken - Around 30 minutes
Serves - 3 to 4 people

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Ingredients

1 tsp oil
1 tbsp broken cashewnuts
2 medium onions, finely chopped
3 medium tomatoes finely chopped
1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp finely chopped garlic cloves
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1-2 tsp coriander-cumin powder or 1 tsp each
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup frozen or fresh boiled peas
200 g paneer cut into 12 cubes
1 tsp kasoori methi - dried fenugreek leaves, crumbled into a rough powder

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed wok. Start by sauteeing the broken cashews till lightly golden.
2. Next, add the chopped ginger-garlic and onions and cook on a low flame with a pinch of salt till they soften and turn light brown.
3. At this stage, add the tomatoes with the turmeric powder. Stir well and cook for 5-7 minutes, till mushy.
4. Remove the contents of the wok and blend to a fine puree in a blender, once cooled throughly. You may use upto 1/2 cup water to aid the blending process.
5. In the same wok, transfer the fine puree. Season with spice powders (red chilli powder, cumin coriander powder, garam masala) and salt. Simmer for 3-4 minutes till the gravy is infused with the spices.
6. Add the frozen / boiled green peas to this gravy and simmer for 5 minutes, after which the paneer cubes go in. Simmer for another 2 minutes, check for salt, sprinkle crushed kasoori methi and give it a stir.
7. Matar paneer is ready to be removed in a serving bowl.

Notes
Serve hot with rotis, parathas, naan or plain steamed rice seasoned with cumin seeds.

I personally prefer to have this with a plain tandoori roti or a phulka as the dish is quite heavy, it is better balanced by a lighter bread. A raita on the side would be nice too, or a simple cucumber salad.

Health tips

Its perfectly okay to use store bought paneer.Using paneer made from skimmed milk at home will further reduce the calories from fat keeping the protein content intact. In restaurants, this dish is made with plenty of ghee /butter, a large chunk of nut paste (almond or cashew) plus a dollop of fresh cream added towards the end to make it even richer.

This version uses just one teaspoon of vegetable oil and the small quantity of cashewnuts are enough to provide the rich creamy restaurant taste without the added calories from fat. The key to a delicious gravy is to not skimp on the onion sauteeing and make a really fine puree using a good quality blender. The pinch of kasoori methi in the end makes all the difference in giving that restauranty flavour.

Vegans can substitute the paneer with tofu or boiled-drained soya chunks (sold in Indian stores under the brand Nutrela).

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Vegetarian Thai Style Fried Spring Rolls Po Pia Tod

Spring rolls are a favorite appetizer for many people. This is classic snack. In Thai language it’s called “poh pia tod”, originally its make with spring roll sheet, sprouts, noodles, cabbage and some non veg. I eat vegetarian version in many Thai Restaurant. Fresh colorful vegetable inside and thin crispy wrapper outside makes these rolls fun to eat. From 13th April songkran, traditional Thai New Year is started so I post this my second Thai songkran recipe.  Happy songkran!! J.   

Ingredients:

1.      Spring roll wrappers

2.      1 packet dried glass noodles

3.      1 cup carrot shredded or cut in small cube shape

4.      2 cups cabbage shredded

5.      1/2 cup mung bean sprouts (Optional)

6.      2 green chili chopped

7.      1 teaspoon white pepper powder

8.      1 tablespoon soy sauce

9.      1 tablespoon mushroom oyster sauce

10.  2 tablespoon oil

11.  Salt to taste

12.  Oil for deep frying

13.  1/2 cup water

14.  1 teaspoon corn starch

Method:

·        Mix corn flour with 1/2 cup water and keep aside.

·        Thawed spring roll wrappers and kept under a kitchen towel.

·        Soaked glass noodles 15 minutes or until pliable and cut into 5 – 6 inch pieces.

·        Put 2 tablespoon oil in large pan.

·        Add carrot, beans, soy sauce and oyster sauce mix well.

·        Add cabbage, chili, salt and pepper, stir fry until the bean sprouts start to soften up.

·        Add the noodles and stir just mix very well. Off the heat and allow the filling to cool completely.

·        Fill each roll wrappers with 2 tablespoon of filling.

·      Then fold the wrapper over the filling. Be sure to wrap up in the corner securely under the filling.

·        Roll tightly, brush the edge of wrapper with little corn flour mixture and sealed the roll (See Photograph).

·        Place each spring roll seam side down; press it lightly to secure the end tip.

·        Arrange them large baking sheet in single layer, make sure they don’t touch each other.

·         Than cover with kitchen towel.

·         Heat the oil and fry spring rolls until crispy and golden brown.

·         Cut and serve with  Thai table sauce or chili sauce.

Note:

To avoid deep-frying, arrange the spring rolls on a baking sheet and brush the outsides thoroughly with oil. Bake them in a 190°c oven until crispy. Baked spring rolls will not be golden brown like fried spring rolls and they lose their crispiness sooner than their fried counterparts. But when fresh out of the oven, theyre crispy and delicious.

For Store spring roll: Take a freezer container and sprinkle the corn starch in bottom, arrange the spring rolls single layer than cover with baking paper and repeat until all the spring rolls are in the container. Store in freezer.
              


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Spicy Thai style Steak and Rice Noodle Salad – Hot and Cold Sweet and Sour Soft and Crisp an adventure in culinary contrasts!

This is my favorite Asian-style noodle salad. There are so many different flavors, temperatures and textures mingling together. I love almost any pasta salad with meat, but what I really love about this one is the chewy rice noodles I use as the base. As you’ll see, they don’t really get “cooked,” but simply covered in very hot water for 8 minutes before being drained and rinsed in cold water. You should be able find the rice noodles (sometimes called Rice Sticks) in the Asian section of any large grocery store. They are a perfect contrast to the crisp cold vegetables mixed into them, which is a perfect contrast to the warm savory slices of the spicy steak, which is perfect with the sweet and tangy peanut dressing, and so on. This is just a fun dish to eat.

The beef we’re using for the salad is skirt steak. It’s very flavorful and easy to work with. You’ll find it next to the flank steak in the butcher case. While you’re in the Asian section at the store there’s couple of exotic ingredients we’ll need to pick-up. For both the dressing, and to marinate the steak, we need Shiracha, which is a hot Asian chili sauce. We’ll also use Asian Fish Sauce in the marinade. This is a very common addition to many Southeast-Asian dishes and is well worth finding at the market! By the way, you should still have some fish sauce leftover from the caramel chicken recipe.



Ingredients:
1 skirt steak (about a 1 1/4lb)
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp shiracha or other hot sauce
1 tsp red curry powder
2 tbl fish sauce
8 oz. rice noodles
1 bunch mint
2 cups shredded cabbage
3/4 cup grated carrot
peanut dressing to coat, about a cup
chopped peanuts to garnish
lime to garnish

The Peanut dressing I also demo in this post is a very basic version, and doesn’t have lots of additional ingredients since I usually use this as a base for other recipes, as I did here. As Chefs are always telling young cooks, you can always add ingredients, but you can’t take them out. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 limes, juiced
1 tsp Shiracha
12 drops sesame oil
1 clove garlic

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Oven Smoked Pulled Pork Shoulder Featuring SFQ – The Original San Francisco Style Barbecue Sauce

Pulled pork shoulder is such an easy recipe, and a great item to enjoy with your sample of SFQ, that I wanted to get this video up before I left for New York. As some of you know Im headed out to help my mom for a little while and wont have an opportunity to post much from there.

The conventional method for cooking pork shoulder is low and slow, but this recipe is really low and slow – like 210 degrees F. low and 12 hours slow. The result is an incredibly soft and succulent piece of pork, perfect for pulling.

Since I dont have a smoker (at the time of this posting), and most of you dont either, I thought I would show you a little trick I would have learned in the Army had I enlisted. As youll see, I cook the pork in a covered Dutch oven with a couple of ramekins of water into which Ive added a small amount of liquid smoke.

Ive never been a big liquid smoke guy, but this method seems to scent the meat with a nice subtle smokiness without getting in the way. The extra moisture also allows for a very humid cooking environment, always a good things when doing pork shoulder. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
3 1/2 lb pork shoulder roast
3-4 tbsp dry rub
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
barbecue sauce as needed

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Bake Potatoes crème in cheese Style

Bake Potatoes crème in cheese Style

Ingredients

• Potato (slices) 3
• Onion chopped 1
• Carrot chopped 1
• Capsicum 1
• Mozzarella cheese 1 packet
• Milk ½ liter
• Parsley ¼ bunch
• Oregano 1 tsp
• Black pepper powder ½ tsp
• Flour (roasted) 3 tbsp
• Salt to taste

Method

• Cut 3 potatoes into thin slices.In a pan put ½ liter milk and let it cook till it comes to a boil.Add 3 tbsp roasted flour and cook till mixture thickens.Also add ¼ bunch of chopped parsley and 1 tsp oregano. Then turn the flame.Add in 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped carrot and 1 chopped capsicum. Also add ½ tsp black pepper and salt to taste. Mix well.
• Spread half of the white sauce in a baking dish, arrange sliced potatoes on sauce.Top with the remaining white sauce.Cover with 1 packet of grated mozzarella cheese.Lastly bake in a preheated oven on 200 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes.Remove from oven and serve hot.

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Indian Style Empanadas

Indian Style Empanadas

I adapted the empanadas dough recipe from here laylita.com since dough making details are already given in the link I just go ahead with potato stuffing.

Potato and pea stuffing ingredients

Potato ( boiled, peeled and diced into cubes) – 2 nos

Dried green peas ( soaked overnight and cooked) – 1 cup

Red chilli powder – 1 and ¼ tsp

Garam masala powder – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Curry leaves ( chopped) – few

Oil – 1 tsp

Potato Empanadas

Method

1. Prepare the empanadas dough and set aside.

2. To make filling. Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, curry leaves and when they crackle add  boiled potatoes, peas, red chilli powder, garam masala powder and salt. Stir well until everything is mixed well and potatoes are slightly mashed. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. Roll out empanadas dough into small discs like making puris, spoon pea and potato filling onto each disc and seal the edges. Bake in pre-heated 200c oven for about 15 to 20 mins depending on your oven settings.

4. Serve hot.

Empanadas Recipe

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Vegetable Hakka Noodles Indian Style

Me and my brother used to have these noodles on a street side Chinese fast food center. Me and my brother are big noodle fans. I love Chinese because it is very much near to Indian food, and another thing is it can be modified to the taste you like. Most of the fast food sold in India is Indo-Chinese style compared to western food such as pizzas and burgers. There are two reasons for this, first is Chinese food is very cheep and is very much near to Indian food and the other is the availability of fast food centers. Today there are thousands of Chinese fast food centers available on streets. I am surprised to see it even in my grand mothers village too.
Hakka cuisine is the cooking style of the Hakka people, who are primarily found in southeastern China, but also may be found in many other parts of China, as well as in the Chinese diaspora. Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have numerous restaurants serving Hakka cuisine 
Coming to recipe

Ingredients:
Recipe serves 2
Hakka Noodles-250grams (You can use regular noodles too)  
Aginamoto(Mono sodium glutamate)-1/2tbsp
Oil-2tbsp
Pepper powder-1/2tbsp
Cabbage- Thinly sliced-1 cup
Carrot grated-1/2cup
Green peas-1/4cup
Onion-cut in to thin long slices-1 cup
Potato- grated-1/2cup
Capsicum-cut into thin large slices-1/4cup
Mint leaves-2 springs(optional)
Green chili-2
Tomato puree-1/4 cup
Soy sauce-2tbsp
Chili garlic sauce/tomato sauce-3 tbsp
Salt to taste
Ginger garlic paste(optional)-1tbsp

Method:
Boil noodles in a water by adding very little salt. When the noodles are done, strain them and keep them for few minutes under cool running water. This way the noodles remain non sticky. Now take a pan and heat oil add all vegetables and saute them under medium flame.       When the vegetables are done add Ginger garlic paste(Optional), mono-sodium glutamate, salt, pepper powder, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce/tomato sauce and mix well. Now add noodles and mix well. While mixing noodles use two forks and mix with two hands, in this way the noodles wont mash up. Finally squeeze some lemon juice if you wish and serve hot with tomato sauce.


Hope you like my recipe, please feel free to post your comments. They are very valuable for me, you can even subscribe by e-mail to my blog, the recipes will reach your inbox. ThanX for visiting my space. Please bookmark it to visit/ remember again.

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