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The Old fashioned English chicken stew is the easiest chicken stew recipe you can make. Chicken, potatoes, carrots slow cooked in a buttery milk broth infused with aromatic sage.

There are some days when I want to make simple yet delicious dishes. These old fashioned chicken stew recipes have their own charm – they are easy to cook, just one pot meals with few ingredients but are so yum. You put everything together and forget about it for time. I like making these one pot recipes quite a lot because they are so much less hassle and saves a lot of time later for washing up. Continue reading Old fashioned Chicken Stew

Crispy Baked Basa Fillet

Basa fillets with a crunchy breadcrumb topping gives the very healthy baked version of crispy fish fry.

Who said crunchy fish has to be deep fried? Who said only way who can enjoy crispy fish is by having fish and chips? What if I tell you we’ll add the much loved crunch in the fish without deep frying – or any frying at all! Does that sound nice? I bet it does. So here’s my take on the baked basa fillet in the crispy crunchy way.

A few weeks back some of our relatives were visiting us and I wanted to serve up a nice dinner with fish, meat, desserts and all. I got some really fresh basa fillets from the local super market and was thinking what do I make with it – crumb fried fish or baked fish? Then I thought why not combine both! Continue reading Crispy Baked Basa Fillet

LETTUCE, GRILLED TOMATO AND CHICKEN SALAD

lettuce-grilled-tomato-chicken-salad, salad,

Fresh salads are super good for your body and they look so appetizing. The Lettuce, Grilled Tomato and Chicken Salad is colorful, fresh and super yum. I made this for my breakfast today and made a healthy start to the day!

This #AtoZChallenge is making sure I am eating right this month.

Continue reading LETTUCE, GRILLED TOMATO AND CHICKEN SALAD

A to Z Challenge Day #17 – Q for Quiche

Hello people so we arrive on our Q day. Deciding an indulgent recipe with Q is a challenge in itself but here I am sharing a super easy recipe of one of my favourites – Quiche. Quiche (in case you don’t know) is a savoury pie sort of a thing with a meat or vegetable filling topped with a layer of custard. You can Google for more information.

It is essentially a French Cuisine special. I love it because of its no nonsense taste and the fact that I can put fillings according to my taste!

The classic combinations are bacon and spinach or vegetable quiche or a simple chicken quiche. The one that I am sharing today has all that I like – onions, bacons, pork and chicken sausage as the filling.

Interesting? Okay now let’s hop into the recipe.

All that you need

For the Pastry crust

All purpose Flour – 2^1/2cups

Unsalted butter – 1 cup (chilled and diced)

Salt – 1 teaspoon

Chilled Water – 7-8 teaspoon

For the filling

Onion – 1 chopped

Bacon – 4-5 strands

Pork sausage – 3

Chicken sausage – 2

Salt & pepper to taste

Smoked Paprika – 1 teaspoon

Shredded Parmesan Cheese – 3 tablespoons

For the Custard

Egg – 2 whole + 2 egg yolks only

Milk – 1 cup

Cream – ¼ cup

Salt & pepper – to taste

Let’s Get Started

Making the pastry crust [It is very similar to the pastry crust that I made for Apple Pie.]

Combine flour, salt and butter in a mixing bowl and make a coarse crumb with

your fingers

Add cold water and combine them together

You don’t need to knead

Take the dough wrap in a cling film and freeze for 15 -20 minutes

Take out from freezer and roll it into a round pastry crust.

Transfer in a pie/flan dish and blind bake.

Making the filling

In a pan fry bacon till brown

Take out some of the fat and in the same pan fry onion and the sausages till they are done. Add seasoning and smoked paprika.

Take out the sausages and chop them, chop the bacon.

Making the custard

In a mixing bowl mix milk, cream and the eggs. First the whole eggs and then the yolks.

Make sure the milk is in room temperature or else you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.

Add seasoning

Combining the Quiche

Spread the filling on the blind baked pastry crust

Pour in the custard mixture

Spread the shredded cheese on top

Now bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

And your yummy quiche is ready. Enjoy with your favourite wine.

And so let me know if you found it HOT or NOT?

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Linking this post to A to Z Challenge 2014 for Day #17 – post starting with Q.

Visit A to Z and read awesome posts by bloggers.
I am also participating in this challenge from my writing blog and I’m writing fiction this time. Visit The Sunny Side of Life and show some love.

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Leave a comment below if you have liked the recipe and you want me to share some more recipes.

Doi Potol or Dahi Parwal

Doi potol is a hit vegetarian delicacy of every Bengali Kitchen. Pointed gourd or potol cooked in spices and yogurt. Learn how to make Bengali doi potol

As a kid I was a fussy eater and almost never liked any vegetables – green or otherwise. My mom used to have a tough time with me I am sure. Not that I really like vegetables now but still eat much more vegetables than as a kid.

There are these vegetables which are really popular among the Bengalis like ‘Begun’ (brinjal), ‘Bandhakopi’(cabbage), ‘Kochu’ – I have no idea what it’s called in English or Hindi or in any other language. And I hate almost all of these. But now since I have Mr. Husband who likes traditional Bengali food at times I have to venture into the kitchen to re-invent some of these.

This is potol/ pointed gourd. Image from Shutterstock

‘Potol ‘or ‘parwal’ as called in Hindi (its Pointed Gourd in English – that’s what Google told me) is also as popular in a Bengali household. You will definitely find a ‘potol-bhaja’ in the beginning of your menu if you are up for a hearty Bengali meal. Now that’s little main stream how much ‘potol–baja’ can one have? The next two famous things a Bong cooks up with this ‘potol’are ‘potoler dorma’ & ‘doi potol’.

This is Kundru. Image from Google

It’s difficult to get good fresh ‘Potol’ in this city. They also have this thing called ‘Kundru’ which almost looks like ‘potol’ but is much smaller in size and is hard when you are going to cut. So don’t get that ‘kundru’ if you want to make any Bengali ‘Potol’ preparation.

Over the weekend I had some time with me to cook up something little special and here I am with a traditional ‘doi-potol’recipe. Will do the ‘potoler dorma’ some other time.

So lets get to our ‘Doi Potol‘ recipe

All that you Need

Potol/pointed Gourd – 6-8 pieces
Fresh Yogurt – 1 cup
Paanch Foron – 1 tspn – If you don’t know what this is please refer to Tip #3 in Tiny Tips)
Mustard oil – 1 table spn
Turmeric powder – ¼ tspn + ¼ tspn
Red chili powder – ¼ tspn
Cumin powder – ¼ tspn
Coriander powder – ¼ tspn
Ginger paste – 1 tspn
Salt – to taste
Green Chili – 1

Let’s get Started

– Scrape the ‘potol’ lightly so that the skin comes out and clean them under water. Don’t peel but scrape it with the edge of a knife.

– Dust ¼ tspn of turmeric powder and salt over the ‘potol’/pointed gourd and keep aside

– Heat mustard oil in a frying pan

– Once oil is hot add the ‘potol’/pointed gourd and fry them lightly so that water (within the vegetable) dries up.

– Once the ‘potol’/pointed gourd is fried add the ‘paanch phoron’

– Add ginger paste and mix well with the fried the ‘potol’/pointed gourd

– Take yogurt in a separate bowl and mix all the dry spices – turmeric, red chili powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. Mix well to form a smooth paste.

– Add this spice and yogurt mixture to the ‘potol’/pointed gourd in the frying pan and mix them well

– Add salt to taste and add the green chili. I refer to break the chili in two halves so that you get the flavor in your food with less heat

– Cook in low flame for 10 mins or till you see oil on the sides of the pan.

– Add little water in your yogurt bowl and use up all the spice mix that might be left over in the bowl. Since this preparation is a semi dry one don’t add much of water. Cook for 5 mins.

And there you go your Bengali traditional Doi Potol is done.

It tastes best with hot rice.

Try and let me know how you liked it.

Product Review – Chingri Malai Curry with Hudson Canola Oil

Let me update on some more Bong food. ‘Chingri’, as we call the prawns, is very popular among Bengalis. We love batter fried prawns, prawn curries, prawn with vegetables and so many ways that we cook prawns. However, ‘Prawn Malai Curry’or ‘Chingri Macher Malai Curry’ takes the cake off when it comes to authentic Bengali Prawn preparation. Prawn is cooked in tomato & coconut milk without much of spices and has a very nice subtle earthy taste.

Sometime back I had got this Hudson Canola Oil for review. It came along with a quick recipe book which is quite handy. There must be lot of people who are unaware about this Canola oil. So I have some information about Canola oil. (This is from their website though).

What is Canola?

Hudson Canola Oil that I am reviewing here

Hudson Canola is a standard edible vegetable grade oil, a light oil with neutral taste and flavour. Hudson Canola can be used for all types, methods and varieties of Indian cooking: frying, roasting or grilling. Canola is neutral in flavour and aroma with no distinctive taste or smell.

Canola Oil is extruded from the seeds of the yellow Canola flower.

Canola Oil has the lowest saturated fat amongst all oils, very high monounsaturated fat, very high Omega-3 and rich Vitamin-E content.

Any ways, I have used it now and I am quite happy with the results. It’s light and doesn’t have any strong flavour. You can cook almost anything that you would otherwise do with vegetable oil or Sunflower oil. I have used it both for curries and frying and gives quite good result. It’s very popular in SE Asia. You can even bake with it. It’s a little costly than other ones but you can definitely give it a try.

Anyways let’s get started with our recipe

All that you need

Prawns – 1 Kg (you can use white prawns, tiger prawns or any prawn which you like. Don’t take lobsters though. I have used white prawn here for this recipe. De-vein and clean them)
Lemon – 1
Tomato – make a puree of 4 large tomato – you can use canned pure as well
Coconut milk – 1 cup
Oil – 2 table spoon (I have used Hudson Canola Oil here)
Salt – to taste
Sugar – 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds – ¼ tspn
Chili powder – ¼ tspn
Cumin Powder – ¼ tspn
Green cardamom – 1
Ginger Paste – ¼ tspn
Sugar – 1 tspn
Greem Chili – 1
Grated coconut – 2 table spoon
Soaked Raisins & Cashew nuts – ½ cup

Let’s Get Started

Place the de-veined prawns in a bowl and marinate the prawn with salt and juice of 1 lemon. Mix well and keep aside for 15 mins.

Heat a table spoon of oil in a wok and fry the marinated prawns lightly till they turn opaque & orange.

Take out in a bowl and keep aside. This will ideally take you about 2 mins. Don’t overcook the prawn at this stage else it will taste like rubber.

Add another table spoon of oil in the same wok and add the cumin seeds, green cardamom and a slit green chili.

Add ginger paste, cumin powder and red chili powder and fry for a minute.

Add the pureed tomato and cook till oil oozes out on the sides of the wok. Add little sugar and salt to taste.

Add the seared prawns and mix them well with the tomato gravy.

Add the coconut milk and cook it in low heat for few minutes.

Add the soaked dry fruits and grated coconut and cook in low heat for a minute.

And that’s it you are done. Isn’t it just simple?

An authentic Bengali Malai curry doesn’t have turmeric, onions or mustard oil (which are otherwise quite common).

It tastes best with rice.

So cook and enjoy and let me know how you liked it.

Pasta Alla Trapanese

Italian cuisine and pasta have become synonymous everywhere. But somehow I have seen people here (in India) obsessed with only two kinds of pasta – in red sauce or in white sauce. Well you can make pastas even without the same old sauce. How about pasta with pesto? A classic recipe from Trapani – it’s a small province of Sicily.

Italians love their pomodoro & basilico and so do I. [tomato & basil respectively]. This is a David Rocco inspired recipe btw.

All that you need:

Tomato – 3 chopped
Garlic – 4-6 cloves
Eggplant – 1 sliced thin
Potato – 1 sliced thin
Spaghetti – 250g (you can use a pasta of your choice)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 1 cup (for pesto as well as frying the potato & eggplant)
Salt – to taste
Oregano – 1 teaspoon
Thyme – 1 teaspoon
Basil – a hand full
Pecorino cheese – as much you like!

Let’s get started:

Making this Pesto alla Trapanese is very simple.

Put the tomatoes, garlic & basil leaves in a grinder and coarsely grind them. Add salt and half a cup of extra virgin olive oil to make a smooth pesto. [Traditionally these are supposed to be done in a large stone mortar & pestle – but I don’t have it so I am sticking to my blender]

In a frying pan heat some olive oil and pan fry the eggplant & potato slices. [Before frying I dust them with little salt usually, that helps is reducing the water and lessens the frying time]. Take out of flame and drain excess oil on a kitchen paper.

Cook the spaghetti in hot boiling salted water for 15 mins or till it’s just becoming soft. Don’t overcook it – it will just start falling apart.

Now here’s my twist – Put the tomato pesto in the frying pan, add the cooked spaghetti & fried potato & eggplant and toss them together. Add some thyme and 1 ladle of the pasta water. It really helps to get the pasta together.

Add a generous amount of grated pecorino cheese.

And you are done – add a sprinkling of oregano and enjoy!

Prawn in poppy seed sauce

Prawns can be cooked in almost every way that you might like – sauté, stir fry, deep fry, curry, baked – almost anything. Curry obviously is a major part of Indian Cuisine but wait a minute the onion tomato and spice curry is not the only curry that we do. There can hundreds of curry in made in numerous ways. So that’s what I tried here – bringing some distinct flavours from several parts of the country.

‘Posto’ or poppy seeds are used extensively throughout Bengali & Oriya cuisine it gives a very nice texture and a certain poppy hit. I have also used ‘char magaz’ which is a mix of dried almond, watermelon, pumpkin & cantaloupe seeds for the curry. It is mostly used in Rajasthani cuisine as well as in Bengali cuisine. So now you know Bengali food is not only fish & sweets!!

It is served with yakhni rice, which is nothing but cooking rice in aromatic water than the regular water. Simple!

All that you need

For Prawn & Poppy seed sauce

1. Prawn – 250 g

2. Tomato pureed – 2 cups

3. Posto (poppy seeds) – 2 tbl spoon & Char Magaz – 1 tbl spoon (soacked in warm water for 20 mins & pureed)

4. Cumin seeds – ½ tea spoon

5. Cashew nut & raisins (soaked in water) – ½ cup

6. Coconut Milk – 1 cup

7. Red chilli powder – ¼ tea spoon

8. Cumin powder – ¼ tea spoon

9. Salt to taste

10. Oil/Clarified butter – 2 table spoons

11. Lime juice – 1 table spoon

For Yakhni Rice

1. Long Grain rice – 1 cup

2. Star Anise – 1

3. Bay Leaf – 1

4. Cloves – 5-6

5. Green Cardamom – 4

6. Black Cardamom – 1

7. Cinnamon – 2 small sticks

8. Cumin Seeds – 1 tea spoon

9. Coriander seeds – 1 tea spoon

10. Black peppercorn – 1 tea spoon

11. Water – 2.5 cups

12. Muslin Cloth – 8×8 inch

So Now let’s get Started

Poppy seeds & chaar magaz

For Prawn & poppy Sauce

De-vein and clean the prawn – and marinate them with the lime juice and salt for 10 mins

Sauté the prawns in a wok till it turns opaque and then take of the fire

In the same wok heat oil and add cumin seeds.

When it starts spluttering add the pureed mix of poppy seeds & char magaz and keep frying till oil separates.

Add pureed tomato, cumin powder, red chilli powder and keep stirring

Add salt to taste and cook in low flame for 5 mins

Add the coconut milk and simmer for another 5 mins.

Add the fried prawns, cashew & raisin to the curry and simmer for 2 mins.

And you are done with your prawn.

Whole spices for yakhni rice

For Yakhni Rice

Yakhni rice may sound complex but is very simple actually.

Take a muslin cloth, put all the dry whole spices and make a small parcel.

Boil that parcel in water for 20 mins.

Cook the rice in this water. (I added some cumin seeds for extra flavour)

Garnish & serve the prawn with this aromatic rice.

Butter Garlic Prawn Spaghetti

I am a self confessed fan of Italian cuisine. Pastas are so quick n easy to make and you can experiment with almost anything that you like. So this time I tried with prawns. This is a Donna Hay inspired recipe… so loads of credit to her.

All that you need

1. Butter – 1 tblspoon

2. Olive Oil – 1 tblspoon

3. Prawns – 250 g – de-veined and cut in halves lengthwise

4. Garlic crushed – 4-5 cloves

5. Lemon Juice – 2 tspn

6. Thyme – 1 tspn

7. Lemon grass – 1 tspn

8. Salt & pepper for seasoning

Lets get started

Marinate the prawns with lemon juice & salt

Melt butter in a wok and add olive oil

Add crushed garlic and fry for 2 mins.

Add the prawns and fry in medium heat

Boil the spaghetti with little salt.

Add thyme, lemon grass and seasoning to prawn. [I use dried herbs, if you get fresh herbs please use that, and let me know where you collected that in Bangalore]

Once the pasta is cooked properly drain the water and the spaghetti to prawn and mix well.

That’s it you are done… drizzle some olive oil before serving and enjoy

Little Suggestion

While cooking pasta you should always add it in hot boiling water. There’s no need of putting oil in the water it doesn’t help in anyway. After draining the pasta from hot water put some chilled water and drain. Your pasta will never stick with each other!

Enjoy & let me know how you liked it.

Bhetki Paturi

bhetki paturi, steamed fish in mustard sauce, bengali paturi recipe

Bengalis love their fish – river water or salt water, no Bengali meal is complete without at least one item of fish. baked, steamed, fried, poached, grilled – you name it and we have a recipe for it.

When I speak to my friends here in Bangalore about the everyday Bengali feast, they are quite taken aback how come we add so many varieties and so many courses every single, and not to mention the famous Sunday mutton feast! Yes, I think we Bongs love our food and enjoy feeding our guests.

Continue reading Bhetki Paturi