Stuffed chicken paratha

This is an easy to make stuffed paratha and you don't need that extra spoon of ghee to make it lovely. It is appetizing in its way itself.

Ingredients

• Chicken - 1/2 kg
• Onion - 1
• Ginger - a small piece
• Garlic - 2 pods
• Green chilli - 2 
• Chilli powder - 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Lemon juice of half a lemon
• Oil - 1tsp
• Wheat flour - 3 cups
• Water as needed to knead the dough

Method

• In a pressure cooker mix together cleaned chicken pieces, chilli powder, turmeric powder, lemon juice and salt.
• Cook it until the first whistle and turn off the gas
• In the mean time chop the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli very finely. 
• Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped ingredients
• Fry until the onion gets the brown colour
• Open the cooker and de-bone the chicken pieces. Don't throw away the stock
• Pour this stock into the pan with onion-ginger-garlic and leave it on slow heat.
• In a grinder, grind the chicken and add it to the pan. Let all the stock dry up.
• Now you'll have a very smooth filling ready to go into your paratha.
• Make a dough with wheat flour as you make for chappathi.
• Roll out a chappathi and spread a lavish 1-2 tbsp filling on it.
• Make a slit from the center to one side of the roti, spread 1-2 tbsp of the chicken filling on the  roti and start rolling from the slit around to make it a cone. Press the ends. (Thanks to masala tv channel for the rolling technique ;) 
• Again roll out the stuffed cone. Put on a hot tawa and cook both sides. There is no need to add ghee as this paratha is tasty as such. 

Simple chocolate cake

This is a very basic chocolate cake and can be made in 30 minutes.

Ingredients

• All purpose flour - 2/3 cup 
• Cocoa powder - 1/3 cup
• Eggs- 2
• Oil - 3/4 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup (powdered)
• baking powder- 1 tsp
• Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Method

• Grease a cake pan with butter 
• Sift all purpose flour, cocoa and baking powder thrice.
• In a bowl break the eggs and beat, pour in oil and stir well
• Add powdered sugar and vanilla essence. Blend well
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold in with a wooden spoon.
• If the batter is thick you can add a little milk. 

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Adjust your oven accordingly.
For a change I baked this cake in a vessel made of aluminium foil (the ones you use for packing food) and so the shape. And also used the parchment paper so the cake won't stick to the bottom.

This chewy choco cake goes to the event hosted by anjali

Vegetable pulao

This is a very simple recipe and a never fail one if you are a little careful in cooking the rice.

Ingredients

• Basmati rice - 1 cup
• Carrot - 2 
• French beans - a handful
• Onion - thinly sliced - 2
• Pepper powder - 2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Ghee - 2 tbsp
• Cardamom - 3
• Cloves - 4
• Cinnamon - 2 small sticks
• Bay leaves - 1/2

Method

• Soak the basmati rice in water for an hr and then drain and keep aside
• Cube the vegetables.
• Put the chopped vegetables in a non stick vessel, add the salt, 2 tbsp water and pepper powder. Cover and cook for 7 minutes. The vegetables should be cooked and crunchy
• Heat a pan. Add 1 tbsp ghee. Add the boiled vegetables and pan fry for 5 minutes. 
• In a large non-stick vessel boil 2 cups of water. Add salt and 1/2 tbsp ghee and the soaked rice. Add cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf. Close the vessel and cook until all the water finishes off and the rice is cooked. Cool the rice quickly and keep aside
• To make the golden brown onions
• Thinly slice the onions
• Mix with a little salt and keep aside for 30 minutes.
• After this time, express all the water out of onion and deep fry in oil till golden brown.

To assemble

• Take a oven proof dish and line with a little ghee
• Put a layer of cooled rice over it. Add a layer of vegetables and 3-4 dashed on fried onion, cashew nut and raisins. Add a little ghee to the layers too as you make it. Continue the above layering until all layers are done and decorate the top with remaining onion, cashews and raisins.
• Bake in an oven for 10 minutes

You can serve with raita, chutney, pappad... and if you have, cutlets too

Simple cookie :) .. can't find another name

This is a very simple cookie. It doesn't need any eggs and doesn't have many ingredients. So it is an easy try for beginners too.

Ingredients

• All purpose flour - 1 cup
• Sugar (powdered well) - 1/2 cup
• Veg shortening - 5 tbsp
• Cardamom - 4
• Strawberry jam - 1 tbsp (optional)

Method

• Powder together sugar and cardamom
• Blend together sugar mix and vegetable shortening (I used crisco)
• Once this has blended together, fold in the flour and make a dough similar to a chappathi dough.
• Keep it in fridge for an hour to set 
• After resting time you can make small balls out of the dough and place on a baking dish lined with parchment paper. Place the balls one inch apart. I got 16 small balls out of this measure.
• You can bake as such or give a small thumb impression in the middle and add a little jam of your choice in it.
• Preheat the oven and bake at 175 degree C for 5-7 minutes. Adjust your oven accordingly. Cookies will be soft while they're hot. It will become rigid as it cools. 

Vegetable roll

This stir fry idea came up when I was too lazy to cook a masala spicy curry for dinner. Then I thought of making a stir fry with all the vegetables available and roll it in chapathi. Luckily I had much more veggies in my refrigerator than I thought.  I read a lot of food blogs these days, but can’t remember where I got this idea from. But it is worth the try.

Ingredients

• Carrot – 1
• Potato – 1
• Onion – 2
• Beans – 10
• Capsicum -1 (medium size)
• Cauliflower – 6 florets (big size)
• Garlic – 2
• Oil for sautéing
• Pepper powder – 1 tsp
• Soya sauce – 1tsp
• Tomato ketchup – 2 tbsp
• Corn flour – 1 tsp
• Cold water – 1tbsp

Method

• Cut all vegetables into long thin slices
• Heat oil in a pan
• Add garlic. Saute till the raw smell goes
• Add in all the vegetables together into the pan. Add salt (read notes) and cover with lid. Cook on slow flame for 7 minutes. The vegetables shouldn’t get overcooked. It should be cooked yet crunchy
• Open the lid. Increase the flame to medium and let the remaining water (if any)dry off.
• Add pepper powder. Sauté for 1 minute
• Add soya sauce and tomato ketchup. Stir well
• While the vegetables are frying, make a paste of corn flour in cold water and pour over the vegetables.
• Stir fry for 1 minute and remove from flame. The corn flour gives a shine and saucy appearance. 
• Place a chappathi on the plate and put the vegetable mix in the middle and roll, to get a delicious yummy veg roll.

Notes

• Adjust the salt accordingly as you use soya sauce also in this recipe
• You can use your choice of vegetables
• You can add sausages or cooked boneless chicken pieces along with the vegetables

Wheat appam

This is a recipe I got from a friend & cousin of mine swapnachechi. She is a talented cook and is always into something. So yesterday when we went visiting, she gave me this wonderful breakfast idea, which is very healthy too. It is the vella-appam made of wheat flour and raw rice powder mix

Ingredients

• Wheat flour - 2 cups
• Raw rice powder - 1 cup
• Yeast - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Milk + water (taken in equal proportions to get a thick batter)
• Salt
• Egg -1 (optional)

Method

• Mix yeast, sugar and a little lukewarm water. Keep aside.
• Add the milk & water combination to the dry ingredients and mix well until u get a thick smooth batter.
• There shouldn't be any lumps.
• Now add the foamed yeast to the batter and brisk well.
• Add salt and keep aside for a whole night/8-10 hrs
• In the morning add 1 tbsp sugar and a beaten egg. Keep aside for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, batter is ready to be poured on a medium heated tawa for getting round vella appams

Notes

• Egg is optional and can be avoided
• Make sure the yeast has foamed up before adding it to the batter.
• Add sugar and keep the fermented batter for 10 minutes before making appams. 
• This appam goes well with spicy kadala curry and masala chicken curries much more than the usual veg/non-veg stews. 

Tapioca cutlet

This is also a leftover surprise made of mashed tapioca. I had some cooked tapioca left after a meal and so planned to make some snack out of it.

Ingredients

• Tapioca - 6 small pieces 
• Ginger - 1 small piece
• Green chilli - 2
• Shallots- 6
• Oil for frying
• Salt
• Corn flour
• Bread crumbs

Method

• Mash the tapioca along with chopped ginger, green chilli and shallot.
• Add salt and mix well.
• Now shape the cutlets as your imagination.
• Make a corn flour paste in water and dip the cutlets in it.
• Roll the cutlets in bread crumbs and deep fry.
• Serve hot with tomato sauce or green chutney.