Chicken Mustagreek

Hi!! I hope that title has managed to get your attention...........hmmm Chicken Mustagreek is defintely not from Greece , but  I' ll tell you one thing its definitely a  Musta...Have.

okie every body Chicken Mustagreek is my entry to ""Recipes for the rest of us - Starters" being hosted this month by Harini of http://tumyumtreats.blogspot.com . This event was originally started by Ramki of One Page Cookbooks (http://ramkicooks.blogspot.com/) . Okie so they play something like passing the baton and the one with the baton now Harini is hosting the event.....If you want to participate as well theres enough time so go and check out Harinis blog........

Ive wanted to participate in a cookery event.........and this is my first time.........so bear with me.....LOL.....but why did I pick this up...............Id love to participate in FIC Pink but damn pink is just not my color.............but hey this event is totally my cup of tea...........it calls for my url no frills cooking..................

My kitchen is strictly vegetarian thanks to P who is a Jain..........but if someone asks me for a recipe the first thing on my mind would be fish, then chicken, then meat, and the last vegetables........ since fish requires a lot of cleaning and i was going to use a friends kitchen I decided it had to be chicken.............besides starters means chicken starters to me, period. So I called ahead and told my friend that I needed her kitchen for a day..............she was more than pleased................LOL.

chicken, chicken , chicken .........and yeah I just thought I have to use fenugreek leaves Ive only just discovered them and I love thier rather teeka ..........pungent ??? flavor........and whats my favorite with chicken ...........mustard..........yum yum.............so here it is peoples-----------

Mustard and Fenugreek coming together to create ...........................CHICKEN MUSTAGREEK.

Ingredients

1/2 kg boneless chicken breast.( If you are in India check out Godrej boneless chicken , its awesome and totally foolproof when it comes to texture and succulency........mmmmm)

11/2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste

1 over the top heaped tbspn of chilli powder ( Use Kashmiri chilli powder if possible it gives you this vibrant red color but is easy on the GI)

3tbspns of mustard paste ( the one you use in sandwiches is fine but really if you are a mustard person like i am be adventurous and use wholegrain mustard paste........besides giving the chicked a smarter grooming it also increases the texture..................)

Salt to taste 

1 tbspn honey

and a handful of dried fenugreek leaves  crushed between your palms.........( available at Indian stores under brand name Everest Kasoori Methi) 

a pinch of turmeric.

1tbsp oil.

Method:

Clean and wipe the chicken breast dry , Make cuts in to the meat along the grain of the muscle fibre. Smear with ginger garlic paste and rest for fifteen minutes.   Now in a bowl take all the ingredients except the fenugreek leaves and mix them with your fingers..............lol seriously spoons cant do what fingers can.........LOL no pun intended there...........this is a food blog.... lets keep it that way.........so well mix the mixture really well and then apply no !no! sorry the word is rub........yes rub this mixture in to the chicken........all over in the cuts and everywhere.........Now refrigerate this chicken for atleast two hours so that the chicken is well marinated..........You can keep it in the refrigerator for a couple of days without it spoiling................

OKie when its time for starters just remove, let them reach room temperature.........

Now take the fenugreek leaves and like i said take a nice palmful and rub them between your palms and just spread them over your chicken..........court all around  if you want you can add some more make sure the chiken is coated all over with the fenugreek leaves.............

then grill this like you would grill any chicken in the grill.........I like to use the George Foreman grill for chicken..........doesnt require any oil and the chicken gets cooked in its own juices and is soft and succulent the way i love it..............

But my friend didnt have a Griller so we just put some oil a tbspn in a nonstick pan and put the chicken in it and covered it with a lid to let it cook while it fried..........turn over and fry the other side as well and you are done...........CHICKEN MUSTAGREEK people is ready...........

you will like this if 

• you like chicken
• you like mustard
• even if you dont like mustard coz the honey masks that part of mustard that mustard haters detest................lol
• and if you like charred fenugreek leaves.............( part of the fenugreek marinade gets charred when you grill the chicken this is the part i simply love)

hey you dont need sauce with it , you dont need a dip and what do you  know you dont need a chutney  either.  Drinkers you can enjoy it with almost everything  except white wine, and non drinkers well just go ahead and feast...................Hey I think I pretty much stuck to all the rules.....Lets see what Harini has to say though.....

*** Harini just dropped by on my space to tell me she had forgotten to mention it was supposed to be a strictly vegetarian , no egg thingie.............BOOOOOOOOOoHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

so this means Chicken Mustagreek cant go to the event.........umm never mind ,thanks to Harini forgetting to mention that on her blog, my friend and I got treated to chicken starters..........

The Humble Poha need not be humble after all........

Yes Humble Poha it is today and might I add that this is a staple at my home, it being one of husbands comfort foods........Hes among the few who eat to live and not the other way around........LOL.....so HUMBLE POHA it is today.........except ill show you how it need not be humble at all....................

Poha is beaten rice and looks like this..........

you get it in two varieties thick and thin. The thick one is used to make  a meal and the thin one is used to snack on......Now to why I call it humble......well by itself its rather ordinary its after all just beaten rice , right???? Also its easy to cook........it doesnt need any elaborate cooking methods or fancy utensils..........Its plain and simple - so humble.........okie okie its humble becoz I said so yeah thats my fav line when I cant think of a better reason..........

So here it is people Not so humble Poha..................

Ingredients..............

2 cups thick poha ( put it in a colander and run water throught it for one minute......that should get rid of the starch) Now squeeze a lime over it and leave it in the colandar.

4-5 curry leaves

1 tbsp mustard seeds.

3-4 green chillies slit through the centre ( I like to put them like that so i can remove them later so while they give the dish its spiciness noone actually accidentally bites into them)

1 /2 cup peas

1/2 cup groundnuts

1/2 cup chopped coriandar

1/2 chopped tomato (t his is imp dont chop the tomato too finely just cut it in 12 pcs roughly)

1 potato peeled and chopped into 12 pcs

2 tbsps sugar or to taste

and salt to taste

Method

Take eight tbspns oil .  when hot add the potatoes. Fry till they are done and then add the mustard seeds, when they crackle, add the curry leaves, and then add the green chillies fry for thirty seconds then add the peas and the ground nuts fry for two minutes till the ground nuts are done . then add the turmeric and fry for half a minute and then add the poha...........and tomatoes sugar and salt..................stir for three to five minutes and garnish with lots of coriander..........

Here are the pictures................

So there - is there anything humble about that poha????...........with potatoes that fulfill your pure carb desires and peas and groundnuts and tomatoes............this poha is a great way of having a light dinner...........Its easy to prepare and and light on the stomach too....................

A great accompaniment for this poha is green groundnut chutney......... but Ill leave the recipe for another day.........sooon .........I promise...............

Vegetable Biryani as colorful as holi..........

If its Holi today , its got to be colorful

Everybody Happy Holi!!!!!!!!!. Hope you guys are having a riot spraying each other with color and water.........As for me I'm allergic to powder of any kind especially if its thrown at me or even if my nose manages to sniff it...........so well no throwing of colors for me ........But heh its holi and I am going to play with colors today, only my colors are wee different..................you can eat themmmmmmmm ......I got up today and said to myself think holi Sanjana think color..........okie red, green, yellow, white..................Yep its got all these colors.............its Vegetable Biryani guys............

A quick call to my dear friend Sandhya who is my other instant salvation when Im in culinary distress...........and she says just put this and that and some more of this and that and then viola veg biryani and I am like Puhleasssssssse! How many times do I have to tell you to give me proportions , gee you cant trust me to do it by andaaaaaz..........for heavens sake that would be catastrophic. But nah she is the andaaz queen..........Ill tell you a thing about all these andaaz queens, by the way its their way of not telling you the right recipe.........stupid they dont want you to cook as well as they do...........so I tell her that for the umpteenth time........LOL yeah shes my friend right so I can tell her anything......anyways so she tries to remember the proportions and a couple of quick jottings and the recipe is written a few arrows going upward and a few downward...............

Time now for my second line of action google for it on one hot stove my second cooking SOS and ofcourse trust Nupur to have it listed  and that too so well chronicled i thought to myself why bother taking the pictures shes done such a good job of it herself. Check out Nupurs biryani at http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2007/02/vegetable-biryani-for-crowd.html. 

Okie you guys might think that everytime i take a recipe down I make it........well think again.........but just coz this blog is new Im going to do it alrite??????//

im going to quickly give you a recap......k

Basmati Rice ( kohinoor Rice its a tad expensive but believe me you wont regret it)= 200gms

Wash the basmati thrice to remove the starch. and then parboil it in salted water ......

For the masala layer= Grind together the following ingredients

3 onions sliced and fried in ghee till nicely pink

4 green chilles the spicier ones if you please

1/2 cup fresh coriander sprigs

1 elaichi seeds

6-7 flakes garlic

1" pc of ginger.

For the vegetables.

11/2 cup of cauliflower florets 

1 cup of peas

1/2 cup of french beans

1/2 cup of carrots

Method. Put all the veg in a bowl and add enough water to cover and cook . Boil enough to cook the vegetables while still maintaining theri crispness. remove from fire and strain. Please reserve the stock you going to use it later.

For the garnish

1 onion sliced and fried in gheet till crispy brown

2 potatoes fingers deep fried till golden brown

1/2 cup cashewnuts fried till golden brown

1/2 cup raising fried till they puff ( remove immediately so they dont burn)

Lots of finely chopped fresh coriander

few circular slices of tomato and cucumber.

Method: Take ghee in a pan . when hot add 1/2 tsp turmeric  and 1 tbsp of red Kashmiri chilli powder stir it once and quickly add 2 tomatoes finely chopped . ( I like to use kashmiri chilli as it gives the dish color and its not so spicy) fry the tomatoes nicely now add 1 capsicum finely chopped ( mark I did not add capsicum to the other veg that were parboiled coz capsicums taste batter when they are crunchy.........and even parboiling them kills their flavor........ofcourse thats just my opinion and this is my blog............LOL.) awrite once this is done add the ground masala...........NOw fry this masals well until it starts leaving the sides then add the star ingredient of this dish " everest Shahi Biryani masala" rougly 11/2 tbsp  and salt and 1/2 cup of youghurt whipped well...........stir in the youghurt nicely so that it evenly spreads.........now add salt and 2 tbspn of sugar...................yes sugar.............it actually accentuates the flavors of the dish...........and gives it a subtle taste which is not sweet.  okie gravey is all ready add the stock to this mix and another 1/2 cup of water ( i always  put some water in the mixer after ive removed the ground masala - gee i don t know any Indian who doesnt - besides its better than adding plain water, no??) okie now bring the gravy to a nice boil simmer for few minutes but not for too long we dont want to kill those vegetables. okie switch off the gas, its time now to assemble the biryani

Take a thick bottomed vessel ( i use the bottom of my cooker -it works beautifully) apply ghee to the bottom. then sprinkle some browned onion on it then a layer of rice , then a layer of vegetable gravy, a layer of brown onions again, a layer of cashew and raisins, a layer of potato chips, a sprinkle of coriander leaves. now repeat all over again to finish the rice.........just divide it in a way that you end up with garnish on top and not rice........LOL that wouldnt look as pretty.........

Now add 1/2 cup saffron milk over the top.

okie another thing i like to do at this point is take a steel cup and put some whole spices in it and just place the cup over the rice.........my husband abhors whole spices so for those of you who do and dont like to bite in to whole pepper this is what you can do to get the flavor while omiting the spice....okie time to close the vessel with a lid . Make wheat dough and stick dough over the top of the vessel and lid so that steam doesnt leave..............now keep this thich bottomed vessel over an iron skillet so that its not in direct touch with the fire......keep the fire on sim or the slowest you can and cook for 1/2 an hour.............

I promise you when you open the vesselllllllllllllyou wont have to call out to the family for lunch......theyll make their way to the table on their own.............

alright to go along this biryani my family likes a raita .........

ingredients for the raita

2 onions choppped finely

2 tomatoes chopped finely

1/2 cup finely cut fresh coriander

salt to taste

and 1/2 tsp red chilli powder

just whisk the youghurt nicely and mix in all the ingredients...........theres not much fuss to this raita but it tastes simply great with a vegetable biryani.

okie for those of you who are like me lazy as hell and hate to go through all the works and still want to make this biryani...........what i like to do is make the veg gravy the previous day..........i generally do that in the evening when im free ...........so the next day when i have guests im only doing the assembly and the garnish.............It helps and you dont end up being tired and wanting to turn your guests away the moment they show up.........LOL. There have been times in my life when ive wanted to do just that.............hey i hope you give this recipe a shot.......yeah i did plan to follow Nupurs recipe first but im no good when it comes to sticking to the rules..........I must do my own thing..................lol..............so i tweaked her recipe a bit.........just so I could call it mine.............LOL...........no seriously i tweak with recipes mostly becoz i dont have an ingredient or if i want to adapt it to our palates...........

Green Goddess Rules.........

Green Goddess Rules.............

Who is the Green Goddess you might ask.............Spinach my friends.........Im Popeyes girl ........no doubt about that.. Never had trouble eating spinach but yeah have major problems cleaning it up...........My end of the world when you pay for a bundle of this green wonder you get along with it lot of the mud in which it was grown and some weeds too.........so spinach cleaning is best done when I am watching some idiotic soap where listening is enuf.............you dont really have to look at the idiot box. okie let me get along with what im cooking today. Most Indians are familiar with it. Its called Paalak Paneer . ( Paalak = Spinach and Paneer = fresh cottage cheese) please correct me if I'm wrong...........Paalak Paneer is probably one of the most ordered main course items in India..........Its origins lie in Punjab or maybe I just made that up........LOL........dont take my word for it......okie and the cottage cheese well atleast the one Im cooking today owes its existence to the fact that the milk curdled today...........LOL......so we had to make cottage cheese right???? so here goes the recipe......

Ingredients

2 bunches of spinach cleaned and washed really nice........

3 green chillies

1 onion sliced,8-10 cloves of garlic cut finely,

1 Bay leaf ( I didnt use it but feel free to , gives a nice aroma to the spinach),

1 stick cinnamon optional

2 tbspns of cream.

3 tbsps oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

200 gms paneer cubed

1 tbspn lime juice optional

1 tbspn sugar optional 

As you can see the ingredients are quite simple.............OKie quick lets go through the method . I have some pictures too for you to see......first take the spinach and wash it thoroughly.....drain and then blanch in boiling water for 2-3 minutes....

remove and then put it in a sieve and pass cold water through it... This makes sure that the spinach retains its dark green color. Believe me the appeal of this dish is in its color...

Now add three green chillies to the paalak and puree it. 

the spinach pureee, chopped garlic and the sliced onions and paneer thats all there is to it.

Heat the oil in a wok. Add cumin seeds, when they sputter add the garlic , fry until golden brown add the onions and fry till soft and pink........YOu can add the bay leaf at this stage if you like and and a stick of cinnamon you might like as well. then add the puree to it......and add a little water if its too thick.....the conistency needs to be thick if you planning to eat rotis with it.

Now when the palak mix comes to a boil add the cubed paneer.........( get the reallyf resh paneer , then you dont need to deep fry it) honest i think fryin kills the softness of paneer.........so just put it in boiling gravy and let it warm all the way throughl. now stir in the beaten cream and the lime juice add the salt to taste and you done.........

okei popeyes girl is now ready to serve popeyes comfort food..................

you can eat paalak panner with rice but i live mine with soft phulkas..........the best part if when your teeth sink in to the ever so succulent paneer douched in the green wonder.....

I say Green Goddess Rules and I am her slave...............

Hello..........

Well I know this is kind of wierd , as in I regiester this space write one blog  and then decide that I should introduce myself...................

Okie who am I ???

I am a 38 year old female with a larger than life appetite for food and an even larger than that appetite for recipes..........Now the reason I say that is because at any given time if the remote control of the idiot box is in my hand and while switching channels I see a cookery show you can bet ill get stuck there..........Im sure all foodies share this common situation........It doesnt matter which language the show is in Tamil, Urdu or Portuguese. I watch them all........Im actually addicted to these shows. And the addiction doesnt stop there........When im not cooking food or looking at food you can bet that Im definitely thinking about it.............In the great battle against the bulge where I assure you I am on the losing end, youll wonder why I even bother getting on the treadmill and subjecting myself to all those different poundages when all the while in my head Im wondering to myself, " what will I make for dinner" . so as you see the salivating never stops................its goes on when im online its virtual salivation yes im hungrily opening up blogs associated with food...............

Okie why did I choose to open this cookery blog......I mean its not like Im a great cook or anything. Actually my cooking talents are very ordinary........I dont make exotic preparations and seriously I like to keep it simple especially when Im in the kitchen . that doesnt mean that I dont like elaborately cooked food. Ofcourse I do !!!!!!I like it when someone else is doing the hard work which is why my space url reads nofrillscooking. I debated for sometime whether to call it no effort cooking......LOL I should have really, becoz thats the kind of cook I am...........

so really the objective of this blog is to share with you some of my everyday no nonsense cooking. Another reason for maintining this catalogue of how Ive cooked is so that I have easy access to how i cooked something earlier...........I have a knack for forgetting what I put and how much.........so hopefully this will help me make sure that everytime I make something its turns out like it was meant to be.........

How did I get hooked on to this cookery blog thingie..............well I owe it all to Aayis recipes and One hot stove cooking...............These two blogs are my instant access to authentic Indian home cooking..........I landed on these blog when I was looking for the recipes for batata vada and kothimbir wadi.............and these blogs actually opened up a whole new world for me.....Ive been blogging for three years now on windows spaces and i had not come across one cookery blog..............so this was a whole new experience. I got addicted. Both these blogs are so well chronicled they are actually pieces of art..............thats how i got hooked really and I had this overwhelming need to open my own little cookery blog...............

Every body you are welcome to come look around my blog and give me suggestions as well...........Id love that really!!!!!!!!!! Who knows at the end of this enterprise I might end a better cook perhaps????? or a better blog surfer????