Andhra Chicken curry

Its weekend again ! Today lil A's nursery was closed for some reason and thus I got a relaxing day ,not worrying about lunch time,bath time etc etc .Past few days has been hectic for me,like I said before when sun is out getting home early with a boy who loves to play ouside is so difficult.The nursery finishes by 3.30 but all the kids will be in the playground opposite to his school till their tea time,so unless all of them leaves the park and park is almost empty my lil one wont bother to come home.I wonder how the kids here just listen and go home when the parents say its home time !

Todays recipe is from Anjum Anand's book "I love curry" I have tried so many recipe from the book and this chicken curry is one of the best among her chicken recipes.I have made this curry 3-4 times and we all loved it. I followed her recipe as such expect that I used more onions than she mentioned.

Ingredients

Chicken - 500 gm

Onion- 4

Tomato - 2

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbs

To grind

White poppy seeds - 1 1/2 tbs

Fennel - 2 tsp

Cinnamom stick - 1 small stick

Cloves - 6

Peppercorns - 1/2 tsp

Whole redchilly -3- 6 (seed shaken )

To marinate

Redchilly powder- 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder- 2 tbp

Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice- 2 tsp

Yogurt - 2 heaped tbs

Curry leaves

Salt

Method

1. Grind the ingredients under "to grind " to powder

2.Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients under " to marinate " along with half of the grinded spice powder and half of the ginger garlic paste.Leave it for 30 minutes or longer.Preferably overnight.

3.In a saucepan add oil and saute onions till brown in colour.

4.Boil Tomatoes and remove skin.Blend it to a puree.

5.Add remaining ginger- garlic paste to the onions and fry for 1- 2 minute.

6.Add the tomato puree,curry leaves and cook for 1-2 minutes.

7.Add chicken and stir for 1-2 minutes .

8.Add 1/2 cup of water and cook until the chicken is done.

This curry goes well with rice and roti/chapathy !

Cheera puttu/Spinach Puttu

My lil boy who is very fussy about eating fruits/veg and even drinking water had a severe constipation problem few months before and since then we have been very conscious about his diet making sure that he eats atleast one fruit a day and atleast some veggies and drinks atleast a minimum of 3 1/2 cup of fluids a day which is still very less :(

Spinach was a life saver for us when he had that problem, so even during our holidays we always used to go to a restaurant and order something with spinach ! Since then spinach has been a regular in our home,I make it almost everyday or alternate day,and always try to find new ways to include spinach in his diet,like spinach on toast, spinach roti ,spinach pasta,spinach dal,spinach dosa, spinach idly,spinach kozhukatta etc etc list goes on.Spinach puttu is one among the list.I think I havent posted any of the recipes I mentioned above before expect that easy toast !

so here goes the easy recipe of spinach puttu.

Ingredients

Puttu podi/Rice flour - 1 1/2 cup

Spinach - 1 bunch

Dessicated coconut/freshly grated coconut - 1/4 cup

Salt

water - if required

Method

1. In a pan wilt the spinach for 1 minute and blend it to a puree.

2.Measure the puttupodi in a bowl and add salt and spinach puree and mix.Break any lumps formed and make the flour moist ,so that it will hold the shape when it is steamed.

3.In a puttu maker add a little of grated coconut to form a thin layer and then add the moist flour till 1/4 th and add another thin layer of coconut and continue till you reach the top.

4.Steam it for 4-5 minutes.

Serve with Cherupayar or kadala curry !

Apple Pie

S who is not a dessert person has never asked me to bake or cook anything sweet expect payasam(Kheer) till one fine sunday morning a couple of weeks before.We were enjoying one of our favorite show in T.V ,if its both of our favourite show it means it has to be a cookery show ! It was an Apple pie, after the show finished he asked whether I can make that for him..and I wondered whether I heard it right ! I searched for recipes online and noted a few,but silly me never bothered to look in the dessert book I have ,all the pie crust recipes I saw online were so rich calling for loads of butter and I didnt want to eat 250 gm of butter in a pie ! So finally I decied to try the pie crust recipe from my book and the fillings adapted from here. I served it with some vanilla ice cream and we both totally loved it. Even my lil one who has seen from his cartoon characters " bananas in Pyjamas " making apple pie wanted to taste this,he couldnt wait for the pie to cool down and I had to cut a hot piece of pie for him and blow on it to feed my impatient son :)

Ingredients

For pastry

Flour/Maida - 350 gm(2 1/2 cup)
Butter - 85 gm cut in smal pieces
Lard/vegetable fat - 85 gm ( if you dont mind too much fat,you can replace it with butter too)
Ice cold water - 6 tbs ( put some ice cubes in water and use that water )
Granulated sugar - 2 tbs( optional) I didnt use it but will use it next time
Beaten egg or milk for final glazing

Filling
Cooking apple -750 gm - 1 kilo/ 8-9 apples ( I used granny smith apples)
Granulated sugar - 1/4 cup
Light brown sugar - 1/4 cup
Ground cinnamon - 1tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tbs
Salt - pinch
Corn flour - 1 1/2 tbs
Butter - 40 gms

Method

1. Sift flour and add butter,lard,salt and rub it with fingertips until it resembles brad crumbs.Add water little by little until it holds together like a dough.Wrap the dough in a cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2.Peel and core the apple and cut the apple into slices.Add cinnamon,sugar,lemon juice and a pinch of salt and leave the apple for 30 minutes to 3 hours .
3.Roll out 2/3 rd of dough by dusing flour and line a pie dish and refrigerate again for another 30 minutes.
4.Drain the juice and add butter to it and lightly caramalise the juice by cooking in microwave for 5 -7 minutes until juice thickens or alternatively do it on the gas stove.
5.Remove the pie dish lined with pastry from refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for 5- 10 mintes.
6. Meanwhile add the juice syrup and cornflour to drained apple slices and mix well.
7.Pour the apple slices to chilled pie crust.
8.Roll out the rest of the dough and cover the pie and trim of the excess.

9.Glaze the top of the pie with beaten egg and make 1-2 slits in the top for steam to escape.

10.Bake in a preheated oven at 220 degree centigrade for 2o minutes and then reduce the temperature to 180 degree and bake for another 30 minutes.

Serve with custard or some vanilla ice cream !

Aloo Paratha

Hope you all had a good weekend, here this weekend it was Summer fair in lil A's nursery for some fundraising. I really liked the whole idea of the fair,each class in the school has a stall and all the money raised goes towards the Schools fund. Nursery were asked to put a stall with kids toys/book and clothes which were donated by the parents and unlike back home, here buying used things is very common,so its a kind of recycling the toys,books and clothes ! The best part is I found one of his favourite toy from Disney cars movie in the stall and since I was volunteering in the stall before anyone could buy, I bought it for lil A and the smile on his face when he got it was priceless,it has been 3 days and till now he hasnt kept it anywhere...one pound well spent !!

Coming to todays recipe its Aloo paratha...I have been making this since ages,but never thought about blogging it till now..but since laziness has crawled on to me these days ,nothing much exciting is cooking in my kitchen,hopefully I will be back in action soon , till then please bare with for uploading simple recipes :)

Ingredients

Potatoes -2
Onion - 1/2
Ginger -garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Chaat masala - 2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 /2 tsp
Kashmiri redchilly powder - 1/4 tsp
Wheat flour - 1 1/2 - 2 cup
Coriander leaves
Boiling water -3/4 cup
salt
oil

Method

1. Boil poatoes ,peel the skin and grate.
2. In a saucepan add little oil and saute the finely chopped onions for 1 minute and add all the masalas ,cumin seeds and ginger garlic paste ,add a splash of water and cook for 1 minute till raw smell goes.
3.Make chapathy dough by taking 3/4 th cup of salted boiling water ,add little oil in it and add the wheat flour little by little and mix it with a wooden spoon ,when the dough cools down a bit use hands and knead it well to get a smooth dough.Cover the dough with a cloth or wrap in cling film and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
4.Mean while mix poatoes , cooked masala and coriander leaves and make balls and keep it aside.
5.Divide the dough into balls and roll it out a little bit and place the potato balls inside and seal it .
6.Roll it out with a rolling pin carefully .
7.In a nonstick pan add little oil and cook the paratha flipping the sides by spraying/rubbing oil on each side.

Victorain Sponge chocolate chip cupcakes and some Holiday Pics !

Hope you all are doing well, it has been a while isnt it ? Month of may flew away just like that ..We got lovely sunny days in May , so like most of the people In U.K was out enjoying the sun and by evening I didnt have any energy to cook or blog ! Then came our holidays.This time it was to Rome and Venice in Italy.We had a 4 day bank holiday in U.K to celebrate the Queens Diamond jubilee,while most of the people here enjoyed the celebetartions ,we flew away !

Rome is a city of history,beautiful churches and arts..Thoroughly enjoyed the churches and Michalangelos arts.Since History was a subject I used to hate didnt had any idea about the Ancient Rome,but still seeing ruins 2000 years old was some thing great.After spending 3 days in Rome we headed to Venice.Seeing whole venice immersed in grand canal was amazing. The taxi,bus,ambulance ,garbage ,post everything is by water. Wondered how the houses/buildings were built in water and did some research after coming back.Can u believe that all the buildings and houses in venice is build on piles of wood immersed in water which is still intact even after centuries. Cant think how much wood must have gone to built the entire city in water !
Before coming to todays post here are some holiday pics :)

Colloseum - Remains of Roman Amphitheatre in 72 AD( 2000 years ago) where the gladiators fought !

Inside the Colloseum

Garden in Roman Forum where there is remains of Ancient Rome !

The famous St .Peters Basilica !

Beautiful Dome inside St.peters basilica by Michalengalo !

Beautiful Dome

Beautiful interiors !

Vatican Museum - can u see huge pine corn,its a bronze pine corn which was a part of Roman fountain which once stood in the courtyard of St.peters.

Laocoon - the first century AD work depicts trojan priest Laocoon and his sons struggling with two serpants !

Vatican Museum's Dome !

Some houses by the grand canal,if they step out of their house its water ! Can you see the washing line with clothes hanging ??

Glass factory in island of Murano,famous for its glass.

Beautful galss works in Murano Island !

Now Coming to Todays recipe,its a victorian sponge - chocolate chip cupcakes.Victorain sponge always taste very good the same day.

Ingredients

Flour - 110 gm ( roughly 1 cup)

Sugar - 1 cup (roughly 3/4 cup)

Butter - 110 gm ( roughly 1/2 cup)

Eggs - 2 large

Baking powder - 1 tsp

vanilla extarct - 1/2 tsp

Choclate chips - 1/4 cup

Method

1. In a bowl beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

2.In a separate bowl beat the eggs together.

3.Add the beaten egg little by little by into the butter sugar mixture trying not to curdle.

4. Add vanilla extract .

5. Add the sifted flour+ baking powder into the mixture from a height and gently fold in.

6.If the mixture is too tight ,add little hot water and gently mix it.

7.Finally add choclate chips and mix.

8.Line a muffin tray and pour the batter until 3/4 th full.

9.Bake them in a preheated oven at 175 degree centigrade for 20 - 25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Recipe adapted from Delia