Spring Onion Chicken

Well sorry guys for not being very attentive in blogging world..I started my new business venture which is making me really busy !! n m loving it...i was really sick of doing corporate jobs for long time now..finally i am on my own 

Spring onion (hari pyaaj) is all over the grocery stores right now.I brought one bunch yesterday...was thinking to make something where i can use plenty of it..So,came up with this idea of recipe.
Its really nice and got fresh flavors with kind of different tangy twist of lemon...My brother liked it very much.. 

INGREDIENTS

1 Kg Chicken
15 Spring Onions
1 White Onion
7-8 Green Chilies
1 Tomato
2 Lemons
1/2 Cup Green Coriander
1 tsp Ginger Garlic paste
1 tsp Garam Masala Powder
1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1.5 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1-2 Bay leaves
2 Green Cardamoms
5 Black peppers

DIRECTIONS

• Separate white part and green part of each spring onion.chop them separately.
• Marinade chicken with 1tsp ginger garlic paste,1 lemon juice,4 chopped green chilies,1tbsp green coriander and 3tbsp spring onion green parts.
• Heat oil in deep pan.crackle cumin and bay leaves in it.Add grated onion and remaining chopped green chilies.fry for 2 minutes.
• Low the heat and add all powdered spices with 3 tbsp of water.fry till oil separates.
• Add chicken in it.fry on high heat for 5 minutes.
• Add half of white part n green part of spring onions.add 1/2 cup water,close the lid and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
• Finally squeeze another lemon in it and mix in all left coriander n spring onions.remove from heat and let it rest with closed lid for another 7-8 minutes.
• Serve hot with bread of your choice.

# Add lemon as per your taste buds.
## It contains thick gravy..keep in mind while adding water not to add much.

Pantua

Its authentic Bengali Dessert which is basically another version of Gulab Jamun..Main difference between these two is that in Pantua Cottage cheese(Paneer) is main ingredient where in Gulab Jamun its Khoya..

Paneer gives it a grainy texture inside with firm outer layor..I made this first time..Also i was out of Khoya so tried it with milk powder....Which is suprisingly turned very nice !

INGREDIENTS

1 Cup Cottage cheese(Paneer)

1/2 Cup Milk powder

2tbsp All purpose flour

1/4tsp Baking powder

1Cup Sugar

1/4Cup Water

5 Cardamoms

1 Clove

Oil/Ghee for deep frying

DIRECTIONS

• Mash panner untill it like paste.Now mix in baking powder and milk powder.mash untill well incorporated and light.
• Mix in flour and make soft dough.(its ok if dough is bit sticky)
• Boil sugar and water to make thick sugar syrup.Add 2 Cardamom powder and 1 clove.Keep aside.
• break remaining cardamom seeds and keep ready.
• Take 1 tbsp of dough in your hand place 2-3 cardamom seed in center and cover.Make round or log shape and keep aside.Similarly make all balls.
• Heat oil/ghee and reduce the heat to low.Carefully slide 4-5 balls into oil.Fry for 5-6 minutes untill its golden brown.
• Remove from oil and directly immerse it in warm syrup.
• Leave all the balls in syrup for 4-5 hours.
• Take out at the time of serving.

# Prefer home made paneer and the liquid must be squeezed out thoroughly.

## You can skip filling the center with cardamom seeds.

Chocolate fudge Cake (Whole wheat)

Cracks on top are actually melted chocolate chunks  !!

This one is all time favorite among my friends ! good solution for sudden dessert carving after dinner or whatever ...Making it with whole wheat make an excuse to bake more often ..
Because of using whole wheat,you get a very fudge cake with slight geuy base...I already posted similar recipe some months back using all purpose flour (click here to check)

This post is actually going to be guest post for one of my blogger friend Priya in her Event "Friday Chat with blogger"..I personally like the idea of event as it nice way to know each other better....Till now she has chatted many bloggers and this time i got lucky to get chance !

For recipe of this irresistible dessert as well as our chatting session,just you need to CLICK here  ... hope you will like it ! 

Chicken Pasanda

Pasanda is not new to India..but not very popular like other dishes...Basically its complex combination of hot and mild taste comes from combination of spices with dry nuts...

Few days back i posted the recipe of Paneer pasanda...which was huge hit in the office ! i personally liked the rich gravy with very complex taste...So,came up with this recipe which is bit similar to that n bit different at same time..

Generally its semi dry dish but if you want gravy,just add some milk and water while cooking.

INGREDIENTS

1 Kg Chicken

2 Onions (thinly sliced)

2tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste

1 Tomato (paste)

3tbsp Curd

1 tsp Chili powder

1.5 tsp Garam Masala

1tsp Coriander Powder

2 Green Chilies

2 Whole Red Chilies

1/2Cup Milk

1tbsp Cream

5-6 Cashew

6-7 Almonds

3tbsp Oil

2tbsp Coriander leaves

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

• Marinade chicken with curd,1/2tsp chili powder,1tsp Salt,coriander powder for around 1/2 hour.
• Cut onions finely and fry them till golden brown.Drain and let it cool down.
• Soak nuts in warm milk for 10 minutes than make fine paste of it.
• Make spice paste by blending half of fried onion,green chilies,ginger garlic paste and powdered spices.
• Heat oil in heavy bottom pan.Fry spice paste on low heat till oil comes on top.
• Add marinated chicken and fry on high heat for 7-8 minutes.
• Add tomato paste and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
• Low the heat and mix in nut paste.Close the lid and let it cook till chicken is tender(around 20 minutes)
• Finally mix in cream and remove from heat.
• Garnish with green coriander leaves and remaining fried onion.Serve hot with bread of your choice.

# Some people use peanuts too,if you ae using it,keep in mind its going to give very prominent peanut taste.
## You can replace oil with ghee for richer version.

Vegetable Dum Biryani

Like every month,this month North Indian Team got Biryani as challenge from Swathi (i don't think there's any need to introduce SNC event anymore as by now i am preety sure all of us know about it very well  )

This dish is absolutely hit among my vegetarian friends and that make it must dish on table on our get together !

Actually i am reposting this post as its our challenge for this month.....I made it year back when i didn't even started my blog ....This is the reason i have only few photographs...

INGREDIENTS

For Rice Layor:

1.5 cup basmati rice

2 green cardamoms

1 black cardamoms

2 cloves

1' Cinnamon

1 Bay leaf

4 cups Water

1tsp Salt

The Vegetable Layor:

1/4 Cauliflower(florets removed)

1 Carrot (cubed)

1 Potato (cubed)

1 cup French beans(chopped)

1/2 cup Peas

1/2 Onion (finely sliced)

1 green chili, slit

2 tbsp Ginger (chopped)

1 tbsp Garlic (chopped)

2 green cardamom

2 black cardamoms

2 cloves

1 cinnamon of 1 inch

1 bay leaf

2 mace strands

1/2Cup Whisked curd

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp Red chili powder

2 tbsp Cashewnuts

2 tbsp almonds, blanched, peeled and sliced

3 tbsp ghee

Salt to taste

Herbs and Spices for the assembling:

1/2 cup chopped coriander/cilantro leaves

a few saffron strands

3tbsp Brown Onions

1/2 cup milk

1tsp ghee

DIRECTIONS

Cooking the Rice:

• Pick and clean the rice in running water. Soak the rice in water for 30 minutes.
• Now cook the rice with all the spices mentioned above, salt. till its 3/4th done. The rice should not be fully cooked but almost cooked.

Making the Vegetable Gravy:

• Heat ghee in the pan/handi. Add all whole spices : cardamoms, mace, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves. Fry them till they crackle.(5 seconds)
• Now add the onions. Fry the onions till golden brown.Add the green chilli, ginger and garlic. Fry for a minute.
• Add the turmeric and red chili powder.Give the mixture a stir.
• Now add the vegetables and stir for a minute.Add the curd.Stir and then add 1/4 cup water plus salt. Stir the mixture well.
• Bring the entire vegetable mixture to a boil. Then simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Remove from heat.
• Add the dry fruits – almonds, raisins and cashew nuts to the vegetable gravy.

Assembling the Biryani and slow cooking it on Dum:

• Warm the milk. Add saffron to it. Let this saffron-milk mixture cool. Add the ghee to this mixture and mix well.
• In the same handi with the cooked vegetables, spread half of the rice.sprinkle half of saffron-flavored milk and coriander leaves.Repeat same to make another layor.
• Sprinkle the remaining saffron-milk,1 tbsp fried onions and coriander leaves on top of rice.
• Then seal with wheat flour dough. I was too lazy to make the wheat dough, so I kept a heavy weight on the lid.
• Take a tava/griddle and heat it on medium flame. Now keep the sealed handi on the tava. Keep the flame to the lowest and cook for 20-25 minutes.
• Serve it with your choice of raita, onion-mint salad-kuchumber, mango pickle, roasted papad.

# If you like ,you can sprinkle rose water between layer.
## While serving you can top it with some fried dry fruits.

This recipe earned: 

Chana Dal Halwa/Barfi (SNC Challenge)

         

As our SNC Group is very well known among blogger's.Here we get a new Dish as challenge every starting of month from each team.Which makes me quite excited on every 1st day of each month ..Its the 6th consecutive month of challenges and awards ,This time ball dropped in my court,it mean i am gonna be the host on the behalf of North Team of March Challenge.. 
Just like me, Swathi is host from South Team for this month...She challenged us with her interesting Hydrabadi Dum Biryani !!
.

March is month of Holi..In UP people celebrate it for full week.Day one people play with colors in morning and from evening to next 5 days people visit each other place and make sure they visit every known person in city. Also,this makes our kitchens very busy There are so many tits-bits which are must on this festivals like Gujhiya,Dahi-bare,Chips,Papads,Khurma (shakkar-pare),Khaste etc etc....!!  Believe me,Our table use to get out of space during these days.

After thinking about many dishes i finally came up with Chana dal Halwa/Barfi.Its basically my Mom's recipe which she got from her birthplace (Lucknow).. means its from Mughal cuisine which makes it high on ghee and sinfully tasty  !!

Its really easy and need only few ingredients(easily available too)...You can make them in advance.If serving as Halwa,just warm them at the time of serving OR simply make Barfi out of it and store in fridge.It goes well for 3-4 days if stored air tight container in fridge.

Edit: as some of our friends are getting confused with the dal so here is the pic...hope this will help 

Chana Dal

INGREDIENTS

1 Cup Chana Dal(Chickpea/Bengal gram lentil )
3/4 Cup Ghee
1/2 Cup Sugar
2.5 Cup Whole Milk
2 Cardamom powder
6-7 Almonds (chopped)


DIRECTIONS

• Wash and Soak dal in 2 Cup water for 4 hours.
• Boil the soaked dal in 1 Cup of water until its just done(2 whistle on high heat than 5 minutes simmering on low heat)
• Remove extra water if any.let it cool down.
• Mash the boiled dal with back of spoon to make grainy paste.
• Heat ghee in heavy bottom pan.Add mashed dal and fry on medium heat 15 minutes.by this time raw smell will vanish and nutty aroma will spread around.Also you will able to see ghee at edges separating    with dal.
• Now add 1/2 Cup milk and fry on high heat till it get dry.Again add 1/2 cup milk and fry.
• Repeat this until all milk is used.
• Finally mix in cardamom powder,sugar with chopped almonds and fry on high heat for another 5 minutes.
• Serve hot or simply spread on plate and sprinkle some extra chopped nuts.Let it cool down  completely.Cut in desired shape,transfer in air-tight container and store in fridge.

#  You can use blender to mash boiled dal,but make sure you don't add any water. Also it must be grainy(not paste) after blending.(just blend for 2-3 seconds)
##  Don't leave pan unattended otherwise mixture will stick at bottom.
###   DON'T add all milk in one shot,it will make your halwa very soggy and will loose its nutty texture too.
####  You can replace ghee with half oil half ghee.
#####  If you want to add Mava(khoya).Fry it before adding.
###### DON'T use Besan instead of dal if you want to real taste.

Have doubts>Just drop a comment or mail me on myheaven30@gmail.com,i ll try to clarify ASAP