Chicken Chettinad

Ingredients

Chicken - 750 gms (with bones, cut into medium pieces)

For Marination

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 1/2 tsp

Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder - 3 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 2 1/2 tsp

Lemon - 1 medium size

For Chettinad Masala

Corriander Seeds - 1 Tbsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 Tsp

Fennel Seeds - 1 Tbsp

Cinnamon - 1"

Green Cardamom - 2 nos

Black Peppercorns - 10-12 nos

Cloves - 5-6 nos

Red Chillies - 4 nos

Ginger - 1Tbsp (roughly chopped)

Garlic - 1 Tbsp (roughly chopped)

Poppy Seeds - 2 Tsp

Grated Coconut - 1 cup (freshly grated coconut)

For Curry

Onions - 3 medium (finely chopped)

Tomato - 4 medium (boiled and skin removed)

Oil - 5 Tbsp

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Instructions

1. Clean and wash chicken thoroughly. Place it in a bowl
2. Add juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder and salt.
3. Mix well and keep in refrigrator for 30 minutes
4. In a small pan and put it on medium heat. Take 1 tbsp of oil. Saute corriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon stick, black peppercorns for 5 minutes or until fragrant
5. Add chopped ginger and garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes
6. Add poppy seeds and grated coconut. Saute well for 4-5 minutes
7. Add 1/4 cup of water and continue to saute till water almost evaporated
8. Allow the masala to cool
9. Make light slits on the tomato lengthwise. Boil these for 10 minutes. Once cooled, remove skin and chop these roughly, keep it aside
10. Finely chop onion and keep aside
11. Grind cooled masala finely in the blender with little water. Adjust water so that masala is finely ground
12. In a pan, take 4 tbsp of oil
13. Once oil is heated, added finely chopped onion. Saute until onion turns brown. Add 10-12 curry leaves and saute for a minute
14. Add ground masala and fry it well unless it starts releasing oil. Add little water while frying so that masala does not turn dry
15. Add boiled and chopped tomato and saute well until tomato gets well blended with masala
16. Add chicken. Mix well and saute for 2-3 minutes
17. Add very little water, 1 1/2 tsp salt and cook covered for 5 minutes
18. Adjust water if the curry is too dry and cook for another 2-3 minutes
19. Add 1/2 lemon juice, mix well
20. Serve with curry leaves

 

White Chocolate & Nuts Blondies

Ingredients:

White chocolate - 175 gms (finely chopped)

Unsalted butter - 115 gms (softened)

Powdered sugar - 100 gms

Eggs - 2 (lightly beaten)

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Maida - 130 gms

Cashew Nuts - 50 gms (roughly chopped)

Almonds - 50 gms (roughly chopped)

Directions:

1. In a bowl, take chopped white chocolate. Temper the chocolate either using double boiler method or using microwave. For tempering using microwave, use microwave for 30 seconds and mix well using silicone spatula. Later, use microwave for 10 each and mix well until chocolates becomes runny and shiny
2. Add softened butter, mix well until butter melts
3. Add powdered sugar and mix well
4. Add lightly beaten eggs and blend it well using hand mixer
5. Add baking powder as well as maida. Fold it in the chocolate-butter-sugar mixture
6. Add chopped nuts and mix well
7. Pre-heat oven at 180 degrees centigrade
8. Grease 8" x 8 " tin and pour the mixture
9. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for around 30 minutes or until tootpick inserted at center comes out clean
10. Once baked, allow it to cool completely and cut into 1" x 1" squares
11. Serve it with vanilla cream or dust with icing sugar

Vegetable Makhanwala

Ingredients:

French Beans - 100 gms

Carrot - 100 Gms

Frozen Peas - 50 gms

Cauliflower florets - 50 gms

Green capsicum - 50 gms

Onion - 2 medium (cut lengthwise) + 1 medium (finely chopped)

Tomato - 4 medium

Ginger garlic paste - 1 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Kalaunji (Onion Seeds) - 1/2 tsp

Cashew Nuts - 10 nos

Bay leaves - 2 nos

Cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick

Black cardamom - 2 nos

Green cardamom - 1 no

Mace - 1 piece

Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Corriander - 1/4 cup (finely chopped)

Corriander powder - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Kitchen King Masala - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Butter - 1 1/2 tbsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Directions:

1. Roughly chop all the vegetables. Cook in pressure cooker with very little water and 1 tsp salt for two whistles
2. Slice 2 onions lengthwise and one finely chopped
3. In a pan take 1 tbsp oil, add lengthwise cut onion and cashew nuts. Fry it until onion turn brown. Allow it to cool. Once cooled, grind it fine with little water and keep aside
4. Make tomato puree and keep it aside
5. In a pan, take butter and remaining oil. Once it is hot, add cumin seeds and kalaunji till it splutters. Add bay leaves, black cardamom, mace, cinnamon and green cardamom. Fry until spices turn aromatic (2-3 minutes)
6. Add onion and fry until it turns translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and fry until raw smell goes away.
7. Add tomato puree and fry until tomato is well cooked.
8. Add corriander and cook for another minute
9. Add kashmiri red chilli powder, corriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala and kitchen king masala. Mix well and cook for 3-4 minutes. 
10. Add little water and add cooked vegetables. Add salt as per taste and cook covered for 5-7 minutes
11. Dry roast kasuri methi on a small pan. Once it becomes crispy, add it to the vegetable and mix well.
12. Serve delicious veg makhanwala with tandoori roti or naan 

Tip :

1. You can also use baby corn and paneer and add to the vegetables

Fresh Fruit Tart

December has already started and it is the season for fresh strawberries. This weekend, I decided to make Fresh Fruit Tart. I considered using fresh strawberries, mulberries, kiwi and dragon fruit for the topping.

Tart is a baked dish with a shortcrust pastry as the base with usually custard filling and topping.

Ingredients

For Pastry Crust

Maida (all purpose flour) - 200 gms

Unsalted Butter - 150 gms

White sugar - 50 gms

Salt - 1/8 tsp

Egg - 1

Cold water - 2 tbsp

For Pastry Cream

Milk - 300ml

Egg yolks - 3nos

Maida - 20gms

Corn flour - 20gms

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

For Topping

Strawberries - 15nos

Kiwi - 2 nos

Dragon Fruit - 1no

For Glaze

Corn flour - 1 tbsp

White sugar - 50gms

Water - 1 cup

Instructions:

For Pastry Crust

1. In the food processor bowl, take maida. Add sugar and salt
2. Cut cold butter in 1/2 inch cubes and add to maida
3. Lightly beat the egg and add to maida
4. Turn on the food processor and pulse it until all the ingredients just come together and forms the texture of small granules. If necessary, add 1 tbsp of cold water (if mixture is not coming together)
5. Take out the mixture and place on the clean working platform. Bring all the ingredients together to form a ball. Do not over work the batter otherwise pastry crust will not be light after baking.
6. Flatten the ball in the form of the thick disc, cover it with cling wrap and keep in the refrigerator for 30 minutes
7. Take 8-9 inch tart mould with loose bottom. Grease it with butter
8. Remove the pastry disc from the refrigerator and roll it on the clean working platform using rolling pin. The size of the rolled pastry should be at least 3-4 inches more that the diameter of the tart mould (Instead of flattening using rolling pin, I placed the pastry ball in the mould and flattened it evenly using fingers and palm while raising the pastry over the edges of the mould.)
9. Transfer the rolled pastry in the mould, press lightly with fingers along the inside edge of the mould and cut excess of pastry hanging over the mould top using knife.
10. Keep the pastry along with mould in the freezer for 15-20 minutes
11. Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees centigrade
12. Take out the pastry and mould from the freezer, prick the bottom of the pastry.
13. Bake the pastry in the oven for 5 minutes at 200 degrees centigrade
14. Reduce the temperature to 180 degrees and back until crust turns light brown (around 15-17 minutes)
15. Turn the oven off, take out the baked pastry and allow it to completely cool
16. While crust is warm, apply either apricot glaze or lightly beaten egg whites on the inside surface of the crust. This prevents the crust becoming soggy once pastry cream is poured inside the crust
17. Once cooled, remove the bottom of the mould 
18. While pastry crust is getting cooled, prepare pastry cream

For Pastry Cream

1. Separate egg whites and yolks
2. In a bowl, take 3 egg yolks and mix well with sugar
3. Sift maida and corn flour in the egg yolks and mix well until smooth paste is formed
4. In the sauce pan, bring the milk to just boil (until milk starts foaming up)
5. Remove the sauce pan from heat and pour small quantity in the egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly. This is called tempering of the egg yolk mixture
6. Slowly add the remaining milk in the egg yolk mixture while continuously whisking
7. Pour back the above mixture in the sauce pan and keep it on the gas stove on medium heat.
8. Whisk continuously (this will avoid curdling of the egg yolk mixture) until the mixture thickens with the custard like smooth consistency (around 1 minute or so). Whisking continuously will also help avoid any lumps being formed
9. Remove it from the heat and allow it cool completely. Cover the surface of the pastry cream with cling wrap to avoid formation of the skin
10. Once cooled, add vanilla extract and mix well.

For Glaze

1. In a small pan, take sugar, corn flour and water
2. Bring the mixture to boil 
3. Remove it from the heat and allow to cool completely. The mixture will be slightly thickened

Assembling the tart

1. In the cooled pastry crust, spread the pastry cream evenly
2. Slice the strawberries, kiwis and dragon fruits
3. Arrange the fruit slices on top of pastry cream in concentric circles or any other decorative form
4. Using pastry brush, apply cooled glaze on the surface of the fruits. This glaze bring shine to the surface of the fruits as well as prevents the fruits from turning stale
5. Store the tart in the refrigerator until served.
6. We can use any other fruits of your choice as well

Rolled crust inside the tart mould

Baked pastry crust

Pastry cream getting thickened

Ready and cooled pastry cream

Assembled Tart

Glaze applied on the tart