Vegetable Fried Rice and Chilly Chicken

                                                                     Eid Mubarak

We celebrated Eid at our Uncle’s place this time. So I didn’t prepare anything special.This time it was ghee rice, Mutton curry, raita and sevaiyaan, all made by aunt :-). The day went on very well with eid prayers, wishing everyone, having a wonderful lunch and so on.

Today’s post is about a vegetable fried rice and chilly chicken which I made a few days ago, and is a perfect combination which can be made on any occasion or even without one :-). This one I made during iftar time. The crispness of vegetables along with the juicy chicken makes this a perfect chinese dish which can be had along with fried rice.

We can also use leftover rice for making the fried rice. Veggies and the rice should not be overcooked, but just make sure that they are crisp.

.Ingredients for Fried Rice:

1. Basmati rice- 2 Cups
2. Water- 4 Cups
3. Carrots, Beans and Cauliflower- 1 Cup
4. Soya Sauce- 1 tbsp
5. Salt- as required
6. Pepper powder- 1 tsp

Method:

1. Wash and drain the rice.
2. Cook the rice with little amount of salt and water, till they turn fluffy and do not stick with each other. Keep this aside.
3. Chop the carrots, beans and cauliflower very finely so that it will cook quickly (I used my hand chopper).
4. Pour oil in a pan and when it is hot add the chopped vegetables and salt and stir for 2 minutes. Add the pepper powder, cooked rice and stir well. In this add the soya sauce and mix.
5. Serve along with your favorite chinese gravy.

Ingredients for Chilly Chicken:

1. Boneless Chicken Pieces- 250 gms
2. Soya Sauce- 1 tbsp
3. Salt- as required
4. Egg- 1 no
5. Corn Flour- 1 tbsp
6. Pepper powder- 1 tsp
7. Onions- 2nos
8. Capsicum- 1 no
9. Garlic ( chopped)- 2 tbsp
10. Tomato sauce- 2 tbsp
11. Corn Flour- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Mix the chicken pieces, ½ tbsp soya sauce, egg, pepper powder, corn flour and salt in a bowl. keep this aside for around ½ an hour.
2. Heat oil to deep fry and fry the marinated chicken pieces are cooked thorough.
3. Cut the onions and capsicum to big cubes.
4. In a pan heat little oil, add the cubed onions, capsicum and garlic and fry with little salt over high flame. The vegetables should retain its cripsness.
5. Add the lightly fried chicken, soya sauce and tomato sauce. Stir well.
6. Mix corn flour in little water and pour this in the above gravy. Mix well. Boil till it thickens and serve along with fried rice and enjoy.

Banana Bread

Everyone in my house are big fans of this banana cake. Whenever there are ripe bananas in my kitchen, I try to make these easy, yummy, fabulous and flavor-filled banana cakes. This is a no-fail recipe and you can play around with the ingredients without affecting the results.

Sweet, ripe bananas are the key to making great banana bread. In this recipe I have added a tsp of cinnamon powder i.e to enhance the taste and flavor of the bread.

The end result will be a soft, moist, melt-in-the-mouth banana bread within minutes. This can be served with some whipped cream or frost the bread with buttercream icing.

Ingredients:

1. Banana- 1 nos
2. Maida- 1 Cup
3. Baking Powder- 1 tsp
4. Eggs- 2 nos
5. Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp
6. Butter- ¼ Cup
7. Sugar- ¾ Cup
8. Cinnamon Powder- 1 tsp
9. Pistachios- ½ Cup

Method:

1. Mash the banana and keep this aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
3. Beat the eggs and vanilla essence till it becomes fluffy. Cream the butter and sugar till they turn light and creamy.
4. In this butter sugar mixture add the egg mixture and beat well.
5. Sieve the flour, cinnamon powder and baking powder thrice and fold this little by little in the above mixture. Fold gently till the flour gets over. At last add the mashed bananas and fold in to the batter.
6. Add the crushed pistachios, mix and pour this in a greased bread pan. Bake for about 20- 30 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Pathiri / Soft Rice Flat Bread

A perfect dish, which can be prepared during iftar time/dinner. The process of preparing these pathiris look tedious, but is worth every bit of it. The toughest part being that you need to knead the hot dough continuously, until it turns soft.

Pathiri is a traditional and authentic food of Kerala. This is also called as ari pathiri, pathil and so on.These are made on special occasions for parties/ marriage functions/ iftar etc.

Initially I thought the process of making these pathiris is time consuming, but as I started making these, it turned out to be easier than I thought. My husband is a big fan of Pathiri and so every year, once during ramzan fasting I try to make this myself for him. This can be soaked in coconut milk and eaten along with any gravy curry, but needless to mention, it tastes yummm along with chicken or mutton curry :-). I served this along with Ummachi’s chicken curry and coconut milk.By pouring coconut milk these pathiris will become soft. Just try this out and you too will love these soft and cute rice rotis.

Ingredients:

1. Rice flour- 1 Cup
2. Oil- 1 tbsp
3. Water- 2 Cups
4. Salt- as required

Method:

1. Boil water along with required amount of salt and oil.
2. Add the rice flour to the boiled water and stir continuously or else it will get burnt and it will stick to the bottom.
3. Keep it on low flame for about 10- 15 minutes and close with a lid.
4. Switch off the flame and let the dough get cool. Knead the dough thoroughly with your hands when it is still hot.
5. Knead the dough until it becomes uniformly soft and less sticky. You can do this by diving the dough in 2 or 3 portions and knead.
6. When it becomes soft, make lime sized balls and flatten it little between your palms to give shape.
7. Using a chapathi press, roll these flattened balls into thin pathiris by dusting the chapathi press and rolling pin with rice flour, so that it won’t stick to the press. Cut these into perfect round shape using a round, sharp edge vessel.
8. Heat a non stick tawa and cook these prepared pathiris till both the sides are done. serve hot with chicken curry / mutton curry/ vegetable kurma.

Easy Vegetable Biryani within minutes

Once I had a different style of chicken biryani at my friend’s place when we went for lunch. This was made within minutes in pressure cooker. We loved this a lot that I noted down the recipe and after 2 - 3 days I tried making this chicken biryani with vegetables as I didn’t have chicken at the time.

This is a simple one pot meal. As Ramadan fasting is going on, nowadays I am looking out for  easy and less time consuming dishes, which can be prepared pretty quickly. This is a perfect lunch box item for kids too. You can add as many veggies as you like. This can be served along with raita / paneer dishes/ chicken dishes. I served this along with paneer butter masala.

For the coconut milk, I have used coconut milk powder instead of grinding and taking out the coconut milk.For the colour of the biryani, I added red chilli powder and turmeric powder. This is a basic biryani, but  just thought of sharing this recipe with all of you.

Ingredients:

1. Rice( Basmati)- 2 Cups
2. Vegetables (Carrots, Potatoes, Beans)- 2 Cups (cubed and diced)
3. Onions (sliced)- 2 nos
4. Tomatoes (chopped)- 1 no
5. Green Chillies (slited)- 2 nos
6. Ginger and Garlic Paste- 1 tbsp
7. Red Chilli Powder- 1 tsp
8. Turmeric Powder- ½ tsp
9. Garam Masala Powder- ½ tsp
10. Salt- as required
11. Coconut Milk (thick)- 2 Cups
12. Water- 2 Cups
13. Clarified Butter- 1 tbsp
14. Oil- 1 tbsp
15. Cloves- 4 nos
16. Cinnamon- a small stick
17. Cardamom- 3 nos
18. Bay Leaf- 1 no

Method:

1. Wash and drain the rice for about ½ an hour.
2. Heat ghee and oil in a pressure cooker, add the whole spices ( cloves, cardamom, bay leaf and cinnamon). In this add the sliced onions and fry till translucent.
3. Add the chopped tomato to the fried onions, stir well. Add the ginger and garlic paste and stir till the raw smell disappears.
4. Add the vegetables, give it a stir for about 2 min. Add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder and garam masala powder. Stir till fried.
5. Add the coconut milk and water and let it boil.In this add the washed and drained rice and salt. Mix well.
6. When it starts boiling close the cooker without putting the whistle and keep the flame in lowest flame possible and cook for about 15- 20 min.
7. Switch off the flame, let it cool. Open cooker and mix the biryani carefully. Serve this along with raita.

Paneer Butter Masala

This is a dish which I ordered a lot whenever I went out to eat. One of my all time favorite dishes. At last I tried this out for my little one's lunch box and it came out reasonably well.

So many different varieties of dishes can be made using paneer. This a lovely dish which is loved by many people. In this recipe, cream can be added to make the dish rich, but I omitted as without cream also this tasted heavenly and also that I didn’t want any extra calories to be added.. :-)

This is a perfect dish to be served along with pulav, naan, rotis or phulkas. I made this along with veg pulav. The fried paneer pieces are cooked in spicy tangy gravy. This is very easy and simple to make and can be prepared prepared quickly. Just try this out.

Ingredients:

1. Paneer- 1 Cup (cubed or diced)
2. Salt- as per taste
3. Oil- 2 tbsp
4. Butter- 1 tbsp
5. Ginger and Garlic Paste- 1 tbsp
6. Onions- 2 nos ( Ground)
7. Tomatoes- 2 nos(Pureed)
8. Red Chilli Powder- 1 tsp
9. Cashewnuts- 5-6 nos
10. Green Chillies- 2 nos
11. Garam Masala Powder- 1 tsp
12. Kasuri Methi- 1 tbsp
13. Coriander Leaves (chopped)- 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:

1. Fry the cubed paneer in 1 tbsp of oil and add little salt. Fry till they turn light golden brown colour on both the sides. Keep this aside on a paper towel.
2. Pour the remaining oil and butter in a pan, add the ground onions, fry till the raw smell disappears.
3. Add the ginger and garlic paste. Fry for a while. Add the pureed tomatoes and red chilli powder. Meanwhile soak the cashew nuts in little water and grind them to a fine paste.
4. Add the ground cashews in the above gravy, mix well till all the ingredients are well blended and till the oil begins to leave the sides of the pan.
5. In this add the julienned green chillies, mix. Add the fried paneer and required amount of salt. Stir till the paneer is soaked in the gravy.
6. Add the garam masala powder and crushed kasuri methi to the gravy. Mix well and atlast add coriander leaves.
7. Serve hot with rotis, phulkas or pulav.