Peanut butter and Soya sauce Flat Noodles

When you have freshly made peanut butter sitting cozily on your kitchen shelf, all you want to do is use it in everything you make! It's on my breakfast table every morning these days. Afterall, who can resist peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? and if you ask me, I could eat them even for dinner! But the family needs variation, so I took a vote and my 'peanut butter flat noodles' won! We had them delightfully and here is the recipe for you to try it too. Enjoy:)

Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Flat noodles (200 gms)

Peanut Butter (4 tbsp)

Roasted sesame seeds (2 tsp)

Salted Peanuts (1/4 cup for garnish)

Soya sauce (1 tbsp)

White Vinegar (1 tsp)

Green chilli sauce (2 tbsp)

Garlic cloves (6-7 cloves) (finely chopped) 

Tomato sauce (2 tbsp)

Honey (1 1/2 tsp)

Black pepper powder (1/4 tsp)

Spring Onion (2 tbsp) (finely chopped)

Boneless Chicken (1/2 inch pieces) (100 gm)

Mix Vegetables of your choice (1 medium sized bowl) (roughly chopped) (I used Carrots, Green and Red bell peppers, French Beans and cabbage) 

Oil (3 tbsp)

Salt to taste.

Method:

1. Boil the noodles as per the instruction on the packet and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok and add garlic to it. Sauté for a minute on high flame and add half of the spring onion to it. Mix well.
3. Add the chicken to this and mix well. Cook for a minute.
4. Add the vegetables and mix well. Cook for two minutes.
5. Add rest of the ingredients except for the peanuts and noodles.
6. Mix well and cook for two minutes or till the chicken is thoroughly cooked.
7. Add the noodles and mix well. Cook for two minutes and turn off the flame.

Tips: You should get a thick brown sauce before adding the noodles. The sauce will taste a little strong on flavours at this point, but don't worry the noodles will balance the flavours later. 

Check and adjust the seasoning before you add the noodles. 

Broccoli goes brilliantly with this recipe. If you want it veg, you can replace the chicken with Paneer, Paneer compliments the recipe brilliantly too!

Serving: Garnish with salted peanuts and serve hot! enjoy!

Paneer Tikka Masala

Paneer Tikka Masala is a North Indian dish, basically Punjabi cuisine. A fully masaledaar gravy with delicious paneer cubes marinated in a yogurt based spice mixture, grilled to perfection. This is the restaurant style Paneer Tikka Masala recipe, a tad bit of hard work is required but the end results are going to be worth it! The Tikka can be grilled in an oven or pan fried but I wanted that perfect charred flavour which would be hard to achieve when you pan fry or grill it in the oven, that smoky flavour that only a direct flame or tandoor can create. As I have no access to a tandoor, I used my gas stove, I placed a roti grill on the gas stove (to make sure nothing fell directly on the gas), and cooked my skewered paneer and vegetables directly on the flame. This way its easy and quick; and the end result is a smoky, delicious and perfectly cooked tikka. After this recipe you are never eating Paneer Tikka Masala from a restaurant again. Let's get cooking !

Preparation time: 1 hour 30 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes Serves: 4

Ingredients for marinade:

Paneer (Cottage cheese) (200 gms) (cut into 1 inch cubes)

Capsicum (1 medium sized) (diced)

Onion (1 big sized) (cut into four parts and layers removed)

Ginger garlic paste (1 tsp)

Hung curd or thick curd (100 gms)

Red chilli powder (1/2 tsp)

Coriander powder (1/2 tsp)

Turmeric powder (1/4 tsp)

Garam masala (1/4 tsp)

Kesar strands (6-7 strands)

Chicken masala (1/2 tsp) (You may also use tandoori masala instead)

Chaat masala (1/2 tsp)

Corn flour (1 tbsp)

Coriander (1/2 tsp ) (very finely chopped)

Salt to taste.

Ingredients for gravy:

Onion (2 medium sized) (puréed)

Tomato (1 big sized) (puréed)

Ginger garlic paste (1 tbsp

Red chilli powder (3/4 tsp)
Coriander powder (3/4 tsp)
Turmeric powder (1/4 tsp)
Cumin powder (1/4 tsp)
Garam masala (1/2 tsp)
Kasuri methi (Dried fenugreek leaves) (1 pinch) (crushed)
Chicken masala (1/2 tbsp)
Curd (1/4 cup) (beaten)
Fresh cream (1/4 cup)
Sugar (1/4 tsp)
Water (1/2 cup)
Oil (2 tbsp)
Salt to taste.

Method for making the tikka:

1. In a large bowl mix all the ingredients of the marinade except for

   

   
   

   
   
   the paneer, onion and capsicum.
2. Add the paneer, onion and capsicum to this mixture and very gently mix well, make sure to coat every piece of paneer and the vegetables well with the marinade. 
3. Cover with a lid or a plastic wrap and set aside for an hour. You may marinate for 3-4 hours to enhance the flavour but when doing so cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate.
4. Put the marinated paneer and vegetables on skewers (I put the paneer on different skewers and vegetables on different ones, its easier to control the type of heat both these things need, but you may also alternate paneer and vegetables on the same skewer.)
5. Place a roti grill or roti jaali on your gas stove burner, and hold the skewers over the gas- flame. (you may also place the skewers on the grill; and please be careful while handling the skewers)
6. Cook while turning till the tikka and vegetables get a slightly charred look.
7. Remove in a plate and keep aside.

You may also cook the tikkas in a pre heated oven using the grill mode; till the edges of the tikkas start turning brown, or pan fry the tikkas in a non stick pan buy drizzling some oil on the pan and shallow frying the tikkas until all sides are cooked properly. (to get the charred flavour in both these cases you can do what I have done in point 5 and 6 above; but do it just for a minute.)

Method for making the gravy:

1. Heat oil in a kadai on medium flame and add the onion puree to it. Sauté till the onion starts to turn golden.
2. Add the ginger garlic paste and cook for another 2 mins while stirring in between occasionally.
3. Add the tomato puree and mix well, cook for 2-3 minutes while occasionally stirring. 
4. Add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, coriander powder, cumin powder and the chicken masala at this point.
5. Cook well while occasionally stirring till the oil starts to separate and the raw smell of the masala completely goes away. Add 1/2 cup of water and mix well.Cook for a minute on low flame.
6.  Turn of the flame at this point and add the curd and mix well.
7. Reheat the gravy once again and let it simmer for a minute on low flame.
8. Add the kasuri methi, cream, coriander and salt. Mix well.
9. Cook for 2 minutes and turn of the flame.
10. Add most of the paneer tikkas and vegetables to the gravy and mix well.

For serving: Place the remaining tikkas and vegetables on a skewer and serve alongside the gravy, so you have both a delicious starter and a delightful gravy. Serve with naan, roti or with steamed rice; it'scompletely upto you! Enjoy! and keep fooding!!

Looking for some paneer recipes??  you might also want to check Paneer in cheese and garlic sauce, Roasted vegetable salad with paneer tikka, Paneer makhmali kebab.

Pakora Curry

The craving for something chatpata is a never ending saga of my life, and my love for pakoda's is almost insatiable! And i think it wont be wrong of me to assume that many of you share this love interest of mine. So here is a chatpata pakoda curry recipe which is sure to satisfy your 'desi taste buds'.

Ingredients for pakoda:

Onion (1 small) (finely chopped)

Green chilli (2) (finely chopped)

Coriander (2 tbsp) (finely chopped)

Besan (gram flour) (1 cup)

Water (1/4 cup)

Salt

Ingredients for curry:

Onion (1 big)

Tomato (1 small)

Coriander (1 tbsp)

Red chilli powder (1 1/2 tsp)

Coriander powder (1 tsp)

Turmeric powder (1/4 tsp)

Garam masala (1/4 tsp)

Ginger Garlic paste (1 tsp)

Oil (2 tbsp)

Salt

Ingredients for tadka (tempering):
Curry leaves (5-6 leaves)
Zeera (cumin) (1/2 tsp)
Rai (black mustard seeds) (1/2 tsp)
Oil

Method for pakoda:

1. In a bowl mix all the ingredients well, you might need to adjust the water, the batter has to look like it looks in the picture.
2. Heat the oil in deep bottomed pan on medium heat for deep frying.Once oil is hot enough, add spoonful of pakoda mixture. Make sure that oil is hot enough. If it is not hot enough then the pakoda will absorb too much oil. (Tip : to test if the oil is hot enough put a little bit of batter in the oil and if the batter floats the oil is perfect for your pakoda.)
3. Fry it till the pakoda becomes golden brown on both sides. Turn it around while frying for even cooking.
4. Fry a few pakoda's at a time,but do not over crowd them.
5. Remove it on paper towel.

Method for curry:

1. In a mixture jar grind together onion, tomato and coriander.
2. In a saute pan add the onion tomato mixture and cook till the mixture starts turning golden.
3. Add the ginger-garlic paste, Red chilli powder, Coriander powder,Turmeric powder, Garam masala and salt.Mix well.
4. Cook well till the oil starts separating.
5. Add a cup of water and let it simmer for 2 mins.
6. Add the pakoda's just before serving the curry.

Method for tadka (tempering):

1. Heat oil in a small vessel, after the oil is hot enough add the curry leaves, cumin and mustard seeds to the oil.
2. Heat till the seeds start to crackle and pour it over the curry.

Serve hot with garma garam chapati's or steamed rice:)

Orecchiette

Here’s a very interesting recipe, a home-made pasta recipe. When you hear home-made pasta I am sure u think there must be a lot of hard work involved but d rule I follow with my recipes is simple one: easy to make and yum to eat. So this one too follows trait I have named the recipe orecchiette after the ear shaped pasta that comes from south of Italy. The pasta gets it name from its shape ear shaped, although I dint keep the shape similar to the ear, it looks more like a flower to me but the recipe is similar so the name. Anyway ear or no ear this recipe is sure to keep you asking for more!!

Ingredients for the pasta:

Wheat flour (1 medium sized bowl)

Water (as per needed)

Salt (to taste)

Ingredients for the sauce:

Butter (3 tbspn)

Garlic (2-3 cloves)(thinly sliced)

Fresh Red or green chilli (2) (thinly sliced)

Carrot (1 medium sized)(shredded)

Coriander (finely chopped)

Lemon juice (2-3 drops)(optional)

Dry oregano (1tspn)

Carum seeds (ajwain seeds)(1/2 tspn)

Cheese (I used 2 types of cheeses, the white britania one and the yellow amul cheese slices.)(2 slices and 1 cube) (grated)

Salt (to taste)

Method:

1. Heat a litre of water in a deep bottom vessel, add 2 tbsp of salt to this water and bring to boil.
2. In the while that the water comes to boil make a firm dough with the wheat adding required amount of water and a pinch of salt.
3. Roll the dough into a long rope like shape, with a knife cut small portions of the dough and place in dry dough to save them from sticking to each other.
4. Apply a little oil to your hand and shape the pasta with your thumb into a small ear shaped.
5. Put all the freshly made pasta to the boiling water and cook till the pasta starts floating in the water. Cook for another 2 mins and turn the flame off.
6. In another non-stick pan heat the butter and add the garlic and sauté.
7. Add the chillies, carrots, thyme, oregano, salt and coriander to this and sauté for two minutes.
8. Add the pasta to this add toss well. Add the cheese to the pasta and mix well.
9. Add the lemon juice and serve hot!! 

Schezuan paneer and vegetables!!

Here's another Indo-Chinese recipe. It goes very well with fried rice, hakka noodles or garlic burnt rice!! Although I don’t mind hogging it up, by itself.you decide how you want to eat it!!:)

Ingredients:

Paneer (200gms) (cut in small cubes)

Capsicum(1 big) (cut in small cubes)

Cabbage (½ cup ) (grated)

Carrot (1 small) (thinly sliced)

French beans (5-6 beans) (roughly chopped)

Spring onion (5-7 along with the leaves ) (chopped)

Corn (boiled) (¼ cup)     

Corn flour (1tsp mixed with 2tbspn of water)                                                                

Ching’s schezuan sauce (2tbsp)

Ginger (3-4 cloves)(finely chopped)

Garlic paste (1tsp)

Soya sauce (1tbsp)

Vinegar (1tbsp)

Tomato ketchup (2 tbsp)

Black pepper powder (to taste)
Sugar (1tsp)

Salt (to taste)

Oil (for cooking)

Water (2 ½ cups)

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wok on high flame.  Add the garlic to the oil and cook till golden.
2.  Add the vegetables to the oil and cook for 5 mins.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients except for water, corn flour mixture and paneer.
4. Mix well and cook for 5 -7 minutes.
5.  Add the paneer and mix well.  Add the water and cook for another 5 minutes.
6. Add the corn flour mixture and cook for more 5-6 mins.
7. Serve hot!!!

Veg Tawa Masala

Ingredients:

Onion (2) (pureed)
Tomato (2 small) (pureed)
Paneer (1 small bowl)
Capsicum (1) (roughly chopped)
Potato (1) (roughly chopped)
Cabbage (1 small bowl) (roughly chopped)
Green Peas (1 small bowl) (roughly chopped)
Cauliflower (1 small bowl) (roughly chopped)
Ginger garlic paste (2tbsp)
Red chilli powder (2tbsp)
Turmeric powder (½tsp)
Coriander powder (1tbsp)
Garam masala (½tsp)
Coriander (for garnish)
Salt (for taste)
Oil (3 tbsp)

Method:

1. Steam all the vegetables for 10 mins before cooking.
2. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a wok.
3. Add the onion and tomato puree and turmeric powder sauté for 5 mins.
4. Add the Ginger garlic paste, Red chilli, Turmeric powder, Coriander powder, Garam masala, little Coriander and Salt. Cook well till the oil starts separating.
5. Add the vegetables and mix well.
6. Cover with a lid and cook for 5 mins, check the vegetables should be well cooked. Remove the lid and cook on high flame for 2 mins to get the crispiness. Don’t cook for long on high flame or you might get a charred flavour.
7. Garnish with some Coriander.
8. Serve hot with paratha or roti!!