Kerala Style Curry Leaf Fried Chicken

Kerala style chicken fry is a perfect side dish along with rice or rotis. This is loved by all in my family and keeps asking for more.

When it is fried the house will be filled with the lovely aroma of the curryleaves.As a kid, when my mom used to fry this, with the smell itself I will be attracted to the kitchen and without my mom noticing I would eat a lot. Now my daughter does that… :)

This dish requires very little ingredients and is very easy to make and which is very tasty too, just try this out and you will make this often.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken Pieces- 250 gms
2. Curry Leaves- few
3. Red Chilli Powder- 2 tbsp
4. Turmeric Powder- 1 tsp
5. Crushed Ginger- 1 tbsp
6. Crushed Garlic- 1 tbsp
7. Salt- as required
8. Pepper Powder- 2 tsp

Method:

1. Grind the curry leaves, red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Mix this along with crushed garlic  and crushed ginger along with salt in a bowl.
2. Add the chicken pieces and smear this paste well and keep this aside for 30 min- 1 hour.
3. Heat oil and fry some curry leaves before frying the chicken pieces so that the oil will be infused with the aroma of the curry leaves. Now fry the pieces till it is done. Serve along with steam hot rice or chapati and enjoy.

Aval Vilayichathu- My Dad’s Favourite for his Birthday...

This is a simple and a easy tea time snack which can be mostly seen in every malayali household. A mix of beaten rice flakes, melted jaggery and coconut with a tinge of cardamom powder is a heavenly treat.

A good combination along with ripe plantains, but we can have it this way too. Kids will love this after school snack, not only kids but everyone in the family.This is special because today is my dad’s birthday and he loves this  type of Kerala snacks a lot. Even though he is diabetic, he loves to eat everything that is sweet. He will always ask my mom to make this. If not he will buy this from shop.

My dad is a good cook. Whatever he made was amazingly delicious. When we were kids, he used to prepare kheer using milkmaid, ice creams, different types of juices, omelet. Among these his omelet was famous, till now whenever we demand he makes it for us. This aval vilayichath is for you dad, just that we are enjoying it here…. :)

Ingredients:

1. Poha/ Aval- 2 Cups
2. Grated Jaggery- ¾ Cup
3. Water- ⅓ Cup
4. Grated Coconut- ½ Cup
5. Crushed Cardamom- 2 tsp
6. Sesame Seeds- 2 tbsp
7. Cashews- few

Method:

1. Roast the sesame seeds and cashews along with little ghee and keep this aside.
2. Melt the jaggery along with water in a pan on low flame. Strain it. In this add grated coconut and cook it on low flame.
3. Mix well till it becomes semi dry. In this add poha and stir well for about 4- 5 minutes.
4. Add roasted sesame seeds and cashews. Mix well. Remove from fire and stir the mixture for about 3- 4 minutes. At last add the cardamom powder and when it is cooled, store in an airtight container.

Chocolate Cake Pops for Valentine’s Day

The way of celebrating valentine's day has changed a lot in modern times. Gifting greeting cards, roses, chocolates, gift cards has become the recent trend of celebrating valentine's day.

Everyone has there own way of celebrating this day and so I have made chocolate pops which are dipped in pink candy melts and decorated with Nutella hearts.

I made this for the first time and fell in love with these cuties, that can be decorated however we want. These cute little cakes on a stick are really simple and easy to make.

Ingredients:

1. Chocolate Cake (crumbled)- 3 Cups
2. Butter (at room temperature)- ¾ Cup
3. Cocoa Powder- 4 tbsp
4. Coffee Powder- 1 tbsp
5. Granulated Sugar- ½ Cup
6. Candy Melts- ½ Cup

Method:

1. Cream the butter till it forms fluffy, light and cream in colour. In this add cocoa powder, coffee powder and sugar. Mix well.
2. Add this in the crumbled cake mixture and mix properly with hand and make round balls of desired size. Insert cake pop sticks in each of the cake balls.
3. Keep this refrigerated for about 1- 2 hours, so that it will be firm when dipped in the candy melts.
4. Take the candy melts in a microwave safe bowl and let it melt fully. In between stir well so that it won't get burnt.
5. When the melted candy melts are cooled, dip each of the cake pops and give it a round and take it and let it rest on a thermocol base, till it becomes hard. I have dipped only half as I want it that way.   
6. Decorate it with nutella hearts or with sprinkles or with drizzling melted chocolate or as desired.  

Homemade Chicken Sausage Pizza

Who doesn't love pizza and that too if it is homemade, then everybody in the house will have more slices without thinking about the calories. I never thought that I would be preparing pizza from scratch. But once I tried making at home, we will never have  one from outside.

Assembling the pizza

We can have our desired toppings. We can make the sauce before hand and refrigerate and we can use when making pizza or pasta.

Ready to get baked....

The process of making pizza looks big and tiring, but once started it will be easy and simple. You can use your own assorted veggies. I made the pizza base using maida, we can also make this using wheat flour, but it will be little dense. We can also use dried or fresh herbs like thyme, dill or rosemary of choice for the sauce,whatever it is, this will taste amazing. Just try this out once and you will find it easy and will try to make often.

For veg pizza, add your favorite veggies. Instead of sausages you can also add fried chicken pieces. Pizza base and the sauce will remain the same for all the pizza, only the toppings differ.

As Valentine’s day is coming, give a surprise pizza lunch or dinner to your loved ones and see the magic….

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

1. Maida- 2 Cups
2. Active Yeast- 1 tbsp
3. Warm Water- ½- ¾ Cups
4. Sugar- 1 tbsp
5. Salt- as required
6. Olive Oil- 2 tbsps

For the tomato Sauce:

1. Tomatoes- 3 nos
2. Garlic ( chopped)- 8- 9 Cloves
3. Oregano- 1 tbsp
4. Basil- 1 tbsp
5. Salt- as required
6. Olive Oil- 2 tbsps

For the filling:

1. Chicken Sausages- 5 nos
2. Capsicum- 1no
3. Onions- 1 no
4. Tomato- 1 no
5. Mushrooms- 5- 6 nos
6. Mozzarella Cheese- to cover the pizza

Method:

Preparing the dough:

1. Mix warm water along with sugar, salt and yeast. Pour this yeast mixture on to maida which is taken in a big bowl. Mix well using hand or a wooden spoon.
2. Transfer this onto a floured surface and mix properly using both the hands. Add more flour if the dough is sticky. Take care that the dough shouldn’t be dry.
3. Rub olive oil on top of this dough and cover this using a cling film, keep this aside till the dough doubles, for about 1 hour. Meanwhile prepare the sauce (Method of preparing the sauce is below) and cut the vegetables.
4. After 1 hour, knead and punch the dough and keep this aside for 10 minutes.
5. Grease a pizza tray with oil and spread equally the dough with oiled hand into a round disc or desired shape. Keep this aside.

Preparing the sauce:

1. Blanch the tomatoes, by dropping the tomatoes in boiling water. after about a minute or 2, the skin of the tomatoes will peel off.
2. Remove the tomatoes and remove the skin and seeds. Cut it into small pieces.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add chopped garlic, tomatoes and stir well it forms mushy.
4. Add oregano and dried basil, stir and add little water. Simmer on low flame for about 5- 10 minutes.

For the topping:

1. Cut the sausage into round pieces and lightly fry in oil. Keep this aside.Cut all the vegetables into cubes.
2. On the round disc, Spread the prepared sauce equally by covering the surface.
3. Over this place the cubed vegetables and sausages as desired and sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top covering the pizza.
4. Preheat the oven for 400 degrees C.Bake this pizza in the preheated oven for about 20- 25 minutes or till it turns golden brown in colour. Enjoy this yummy pizza.

Kerala Egg Puffs with a dash of Schezwan Sauce

Egg puffs are my favorite tea time snacks. Not only mine but my family’s favorite snack too. These egg puffs are available in almost all the bakeries in India.

I love to prepare them at home, but as you all might know by now that I am a very lazy person and making puff pastry sheets at home was a dream for me and also the ready made pastry sheets were not easily available in the shops. But here in US almost all the shops have these sheets in there frozen section and so I grabbed one and tried these egg puffs, which came out perfectly baked.

Ready to go in the oven...

In these puffs I have added a spread of homemade schezwan sauce for a twist and it tasted amazing. You can also try it if you have schezwan sauce at home or omit that step. Any ways, this will taste yummy.

Ingredients:

1. Puff Pastry Sheets- 10 nos
2. Eggs- 5 nos
3. Onions( sliced)- 2 nos
4. Tomato (sliced)- 1 no
5. Kashmiri Chilli Powder- 1 tbsp
6. Turmeric Powder- 1 tsp
7. Pepper Powder- 1 tsp
8. Garam Masala Powder- 1 tsp
9. Salt- as required
10. Tomato Ketchup- 1 tbsp
11. Egg Wash- 1 egg
12. Schezwan Sauce- 3- 4 tbsp (optional)

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C and arrange a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Boil the eggs, when cooled, deshell and cut into half.
3. For the masala, heat oil in a pan, add the sliced onions. When they turn translucent, add tomatoes and mix well.
4. In this add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, pepper powder, garam masala powder and salt. Stir well till everything gets blended together. At this stage add tomato ketchup, mix and switch off the flame. Divide this into 10 equal parts.
5. Take a puff pastry square, spread the schezwan sauce, spoon the prepared masala in the center of the sheet. Over that place the halved egg and fold all the corners to the center and press with your finger to seal.
6. Brush with egg wash. Repeat the process for all the puff pastry squares. Place these puffs on the parchment paper and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until it turns golden in colour.
7. Serve and enjoy hot egg puffs along with tomato ketchup and hot tea.