Tex Mex Rice Bowl

I know that I am good at procrastinating things and thats why I joined few cooking challenges. To make me committed, to try and keep up with the end date and to never say "lets do it another day". I failed, yet again and here I am posting the dish that I made for the challenge two months later. I am really sorry Priya and Kalpana, for such a late post. I will try my level best to keep up with the dates from here on. Coming to the challenge, Kalpana, being a health freak, chose brown rice (I saw that coming!!!) and peppers. I immediately knew that I would make a one pot meal and this Tex mex rice is what I came up with.

~*What U Need*~ Boneless & Skinless Chicken - 1 cup, chopped Taco seasoning - 1 tbsp Red & Yellow peppers - 1 cup, chopped Brown rice - 2 cups, cooked Yellow corn - 1 cup, thawed Black beans - 1 can, drained Lemon - 1 Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup Salt - to taste Oil - 1 tbsp sliced avocados and sour cream - to serve How I Made it: Heat oil in a pan, and when hot add the chicken. Sprinkle the taco seasoning and fry till the chicken is done. Add the peppers and fry for 2-3 mins. Remove from flame. Add the brown rice and gently mix. Add the corn and beans and mix well. Squeeze in lemon juice, add chopped coriander and toss well. Season with salt.

Serve warm topped with sliced avocados and sour cream!!!

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Chicken Kothu Parotta

One thing that I miss the most about Chennai is the food. Be it our simple bakery-style puffs or our newly evolved shawarmas or our authentic chettinadu cuisine everything about Chennai smells good when it comes to food. I am totally missing the hot food that we get in Namma chennai. The only option that we have here is making them at home. Be it parottas or biryanis or a simple comforting sambar saadam, all has to be done at home. Last week we had this sudden craving for kothu parottas, like the ones you get from the roadsides back in Chennai, filled with eggs and chicken. I tried replicating it at home and it was a big hit with the huss.

~*What U Need*~ Parottas - 5, shredded Onion - 1, large, chopped Tomato - 1 medium, chopped Eggs - 2 Cooked Chicken - 3/4 cup Fennel or saunf seeds - 1/2 tsp Curry leaves - 2 sprigs Green chilli - 2, chopped Chilli powder - 1 tsp Coriander powder - 2 tsp Garam masala - 1/2 tsp Chicken curry powder - 1 tsp Oil, salt How I Made it: Shred the parotta finely. Heat oil in a kadai, add the fennel seeds and allow to brown. Add onions and saute. Add the green chilli and curry leaves and fry till onions turn soft. Add the tomatoes and saute till oil separates. Move this to the side of the pan and scramble the eggs at high heat. Once scrambled, mix the egg with the onion mixture. Next add the shredded chilli chicken pieces and mix well. Add the spice powders and some water and mix till you get a masala. Set the flame to high, add the parotta pieces and keep folding till the parotta is coated with the masala and the mixture dries a bit. Remove from flame. Serve hot with onion raitha!!!

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Pulikachal | Puliyodarai /Puliyogare /Tamarind Rice Mix | How to make Tamarind Rice or Pulisaadham

Fond memories are associated with Puliyodarai for me. Picnics with cousins, school tour to amusement parks, ngo outings to tribal villages and so on... Whenever I tell amma that I will be going out for a day long outing, she generally makes me some puliyodarai or thayir saadam with a simple potato roast to take along. And after all that fun, laughter and some body pain, sitting together for a hearty lunch with your favorite food duo peeking out of your tiffin box ~ ah how I want to re-visit my childhood days.

I still remember the days when I traveled to my native village for our school holidays. My aunt makes puliyodarai, wrap it up in individual parcels in banana leaves {if not, its finally ends up in sibling war} and then uncle takes us with him to tend the goats in the greenlands. We play all day long while he takes care of the goats and when its time for lunch, we run to the good ol' neem tree's shade, sweating like anything and even that simple tamarind rice seemed like biryani for us...

Its been a long time since I made, rather say had tamarind rice and in fact I had no intention of making this. During my pregnancy I was advised to take as little amount of tamarind that I could and thats been continuing till date. This infact was made by my MIL for my sister-in-law. She's in her second trimster and still doesn't step into the kitchen and so MIL made some homemade thokkus for her. Again doctor's advise and so she left the pack of tamarind preserve and I grabbed it. It comes so much in handy on lazy days and am so asking her to make another batch.

~*What U Need*~ Tamarind/Puli - 1 lemon sized ball Turmeric - 1/4 tsp Hing or Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp Jaggery - 1 small marble sized piece Curry leaves - 1 sprig Peanuts - 1 handful To Temper: Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp Red chillies - 5-6 Urad dhal - 4 tbsp Channa Dhal - 3 tbsp Hing or Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp Curry leaves - 2 sprig Sesame oil - 5 tbsp To Roast and grind: Channa dhal - 2 tbsp Red chillies - 4 Fenugreek seeds/vendhayam - 3/4 tsp Urad dal - 1 tsp Peppercorns - 1 tsp

How I Made it:
Soak tamarind in half cup warm water for half an hour and extract juice. Set aside. Roast all ingredients give under 'to roast' to golden brown and powder it, set aside. In a kadai, heat oil and temper with the given ingredients. Then add tamarind extract, turmeric, salt, curry leaves and hing. Add enough water, the mixture be of rasam consistency. Boil for 15-20 mins, till it reduces to half. Add the jaggery and the ground masala powder. Boil till you get a thick paste and the oil separates. Roast the peanuts in more oil and add this to tamarind mixture. Remove from flame. Cool down and store in a clean container.

To make puliyodarai, cook desired amount of rice. In a kadai, add 2 tsps of sesame oil. Add the desired amount of pulikachal and fry for few seconds. Add the cooked rice and mix gently till the rice grains are evenly coated. Add salt if only needed.

** My Notes:
** The pulikaichal can be stored for 20-30 days in the fridge. But always use a clean dry spoon.
** Sesame oil is the best to use when making tamarind rice but if you want u can use vegetable oil too.
** If you are carrying the rice for a train journey or a long day trip, then cool the rice completely before mixing.

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Kothu Parotta | Chicken or veg ~ its ur choice | Leftover Recipes

Its party time everywhere. Its snowing everywhere. Not here though but we are experiencing a very bad chillness this time. Nothing like last year. Me and the kid are under the covers till 8a.m in the morning. And that is when you can feel the sun. Till then its this weird chillness. Lately, we have been having lots of friends over. At times, I make them dinner but there are days when I just donot budge to make dinner for a big crowd. Those days, 'A' "happily" orders from the restaurants. Yes, happily, not that he doesn't enjoy my food but he needs a change too. I hear that... thats what I tell to myself. Now back to the menu, its usually chicken biryani, parottas and lots of non-veg sides.

As it goes, we end up with loads of leftovers which is usually dumped into the fridge and the biryani visits the bins. The parottas, however I freeze them and also the sides. This time when we had friends over, we ordered lots of parottas and chilli chicken and tandoori chicken to go with them. When the party was over, as usual there were leftovers. In they went into the fridge, and the next day I shredded them, fried them together and made these masala-y Kothu paratha for our dinner. It was so yummy and its a great way to use left-overs. I am sharing this for this Christmas as you will have leftovers after all that partying is over and if parotta and chicken sides are part of them, then give this recipe a shot.

Pointers:
** Egg-etarians can skip the chicken and use only egg. Subsitute veg or mutta curry for the salna part.
** On the other hand, vegetarians can skip the egg and use a cup of assorted julienne-d veggies of choice and substitute veg kurma for chicken curry.

Serves - 1 ~*What U Need*~ Parottas - 2, shredded Onion - 1, large Tomato - 1 medium Eggs - 1 Shredded Chilli Chicken - 1/2 cup Kada Salna / Leftover chicken curry - 3/4 cup Fennel or saunf seeds - 1/2 tsp Curry leaves - 2 sprigs Green chilli - 1, chopped Oil, salt

How I Made it:
Shred the parotta finely. Heat oil in a kadai, add the fennel seeds and allow to brown. Add onions and saute. Add the green chilli and curry leaves and fry till onions turn soft. Add the tomatoes and saute till oil comes out.

Move this to the side of the pan and scramble the eggs at high heat. Once scrambled, mix the egg with the onion mixture. Next add the shredded chilli chicken pieces and mix well. Again set this to the side of the pan, add the chicken curry and allow it to reduce.

Once reduced, mix this with the onion-egg-chicken mixture. Set the flame to high, add the parotta pieces and keep folding till the parotta is coated with the masala and the mixture dries a bit. Remove from flame.

Serve hot with chicken curry and onion raitha!!!

** My Notes:
** Once you add the parotta pieces, the process should be done in high heat.
** If you do not have chilli chicken, then add shredded fried chicken with spices (chilli, coriander, turmeric and garam masala).
** Adding chicken curry or veg kurma gives more masala flavor and the needed moisture to bind the dish together but you can skip this too.

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One pot Vegetable Biryani ~ Pressure Cooker version

One pot vegetable biryani is an easy-to-make rice dish and one which I turn over to whenever I am out of time and energy. It is easy to put up ~ throw in basmati rice, some chopped veggies, a few masalas and viola you have a lip-smacking one pot meal which is masala-y and delicious on its own. Serve it with some onion raitha and you will have a fuss-free lunch/dinner. I served it with some brinjal thokku (recipe coming soon), that is usually served in hotels alongside chicken biryanis.

Taste-wise this biryani is nowhere near the traditional and world-famous Dum biryani but whenever you have a craving to have biryanis and if you are lazy like me then this is your our recipe. You just need half an hour to dish this out and it tastes good... Not good but too good for the too-little effort that has been put in.

Long back, and that would be before pregnancy, this was a staple Saturday lunch for us ~ reason a) I oversleep after watching the late night Friday flick & reason b) thinking of what to be put up on our lunch plate would drive me nuts and the huss would finally ask me to settle for vegetable biryani. I used to shuffle the sides. Baby corn or cauliflower manchurian goes very well with this.

~*What U Need*~ Serves - 2 Cinnamon - 1" Cloves - 2 Cardamom - 2 Basmati Rice - 1 1/4 cup Water - 1 3/4 cups Onions - 2, chopped Tomato - 1, chopped Green chilli - 1 Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp Chopped vegetables - 1 1/2 cup, ur choice Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 1 tsp Garam masala - 1/2 tsp Biryani masala - 1 tsp, optional Curd - 1/4 cup Coriander leaves - a handful, chopped Mint leaves - a handful, chopped Salt, oil

How I Made it:
Clean and soak the rice. Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add cinnamon, cloves and cardamom and fry. Throw in the onions and when brown add the slit green chilli, ginger garlic paste and saute till raw smell leaves.

Add the tomatoes and fry well. Add the spice powders and when oil starts to separate, add the curd and mix well.

Add the chopped veggies and saute for 2 mins. Add chopped coriander and mint leaves and then water and rice. Stir well without breaking the rice. Cover and cook for 2 whistles. After the pressure has completely released, uncover and fluff with fork.

Serve hot with raitha of choice or kathirikka thokku/gotsu...

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