Steamed Chicken Momo

Me and my mom's favorite street food is Steamed Chicken Momo, oh we so love it !! It is healthy and yummy both. We love the steamed version more than the fried one. I made Chicken Momo once in my home, maa loved it. So I repeated and made it once again. 

Steamed Chicken Momo

Ingredients: Flour, boiled boneless chicken, spring onion, onion, 2 tsp fried garlic,  salt, black pepper, little amount of oil, chilli and yes, thats it :)

Step 1# Make a dough using flour, salt, warm water and refined oil. Made the dough very soft and form small balls from it. Cover the balls with a damp cloth for 20 minutes.

Step 2#  In a bowl take the boiled chicken and smash it using a spoon.  Add salt, black pepper, fried garlic, chopped chilli, chopped onion and chopped spring onion. Mix them well.

Step 3# Take the balls and make small rotis out of them. Fill them with the chicken mixture and give it a shape of momo.

Stem 4# Now comes the tipe of steaming those cute little momos. I used my rice cooker to steam it, previously I used to use Idli maker. I just brushed the rice cooker steaming surface with a little oil and placed those cute bombs on it. 

Raw Momos

After 10 minutes of steaming, it gets ready to be served hot with soup or sauce. I preferred sauce so I served with it.

Chicken Dum Pulao

Today I will share a very easy yet tasty meal recipe. That is Chicken Dum Pulao.

 The ingredients are always available in the kitchen and the cooking process is also very simple. I have tried to capture the image of every step so that you do not get confused with the recipe. Here I present the recipe in pictorial format :

Ingredients: 500 gm basmati rice, 12-15 medium peices of chicken, 3 big potatoes cut into 6 pieces, bay leaf, whole garam masala, big elaichi, whole coriander and cumin, saunf, dried red chilli, green chilli, refined oil, lemon, resins, onion, ginger garlic paste, salt, turmeric, curd.

Washed potatoes

Garlic Paste

Ginger paste

Whole cumin

Salt

Turmeric

Washed and soaked Basmati rice

The raw ingredients

The whole spices

 

Add caption

Step 1# Take a pan, heat oil and add the whole spices in it. Fry till they start cracking.

First add the cumin and saute for few minutes until it becomes brown. Then add the other whole spices excluding saunf and coriander. 

Step 2# Now add the chopped onions. Fry them till they become pink and tender. This is very important because this will effect the colour of the pulao. 

Step 3# Now as the onion has become pink to brownish and soft as well, add the ginger and garlic paste now. Keep on frying it in a high flame so that all the things mix up well together and the raw smell vanishes.

Step 4# After all the masala has been mixed well and the raw smell has vanished, add the whole coriander and saunf and mix well.

Step 5# Now when you have added all the spices and they all have turned into a nice brown colour, it is the time that you add the curd. Add the curd along with some salt and turmeric powder. Mix them well and add the washed potatoes and chicken pieces in it. Add the resins. Cook them in a high flame and keep on cooking until the oil starts oozing out. The chicken pieces and potatoes will get mixed with the spices and will absorb the aroma into it. All the ingredients will turn into a nice brown colour all over.

Step 6# Now that oil has started oozing out add the soaked rice carefully so that the grains won't break. Mix them slowly and carefully. Do not mix them a lot otherwise they will break. After cooking like this for 1 to 2 minutes, add water EXACTLY THE DOUBLE OF RICE QUANTITY, here 4 cups as I took 2 cups of rice. Add the lemon pieces too. 

Cook it in a medium flame for 5 minutes keeping the lid open. 

Step 7# Now when you see that the rice along with chicken and potatoes have absorbed the rice to a medium level, sprinkel a table spoon of ghee and cover the pan immediately. In the meanwhile, I had preheated my Iron tawa (you can use clay tawa too). Shift the whole pan on the tawa and cook for 5 to 10 minutes in a medium flame covering the lid.

Step 8# Open the lid and see if there is any remaining water in it, if yes cook it in a high flame opening the lid for few more minutes as per needed. Then turn the heat off and keep the whole thing open for few minutes so the moisture gets absorbed by the air.

Your Chicken Dum Pulao is ready to be served hot with anything of your choice such as Kadhai chicken, doi mutton etc.

Chicken Dum Pulao

Kadhai chicken

There is a story behind me making the Kadhai Chicken. Last month we went for office lunch and had kadhai paneer, everyone loved it as it was finger licking good. Then and there I made my mind of making Kadhai Chicken someday. So here it is, home made yet restaurant taste alike Kadhai Chicken.

Kadhai Chicken

Ingredients: 1 kg medium to large size chicken breast pieces (with bone), 5 medium size onions cut into cube, 2 medium capsicum cut into cube, 2 tomatoes cut into cube, 2 tbsp garlic paste, 2 tsp butter, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp chilli paste, 4 tbsp curd, 5 tbsp refined oil, salt, turmeric powder, chopped coriander for garnishing.

Spices-  whole coriander 2 tbsp, whole black pepper 1 tsp , fennel seed 1 tsp, kasuri methi 1 tsp. Roast all these spices and then bled it all together.

Kadhai Chicken

Stage 1# Put a pan on the gas, add the oil and let it become hot. Add half of the onions and the whole amount of capsicum, fry till it in high flame so that the veggies remain crispy, later add half amount of the chopped tomatoes in it and fry for another few minutes and then keep them aside. 

Kadhai Chicken

Stage 2# Now add the remaining onions and saute until they become golden and tender, then add the tomatoes and fry for some more time. Add salt and turmeric powder. Now is the time to add garlic and chilli paste, and saute until the raw smell goes away, then add the curd and the half amount of the spices mixture that you made before hand. Saute it for few more minutes and then add the chicken pieces into it.

Kadhai Chicken

Stage 3# After adding the chicken pieces cook for few minutes in open lid and then add the remaining spices mixture. Close the lid and let it cook in a low flame for next 10 minutes. 

Kadhai Chicken

Stage 4# Open the lid and add water if required ( I did not add water as the curd and the chicken secreted enough water). Wait for few minutes until the water starts drying up. Then add some sugar and the fried onion, capsicum and tomatoes. Saute for few more minutes. and close the lid. After the chicken starts secreting oil add the butter and turn off the flame. Garnish it with some chopped fresh coriander and serve hot.  

Kadhai Chicken Garnished With Fresh Coriander Leaves

P.S#  you can add tomato puree in it to thicken the gravy. :)

Dahi Mutton/ Curd Mutton/ Doi Mangsho

In our Bengali culture 'kochi pathar jhol' is a famous mutton recipe, mutton kosha is also very famous. Just like these two recipes Dahi Mutton or Doi Mangsho is also a very popular and tasty item. 

Dahi Mutton

Dahi Mutton is usually made in various occasions such as marriage, birthday party etc. This preparation is very simple and produces a  thick and yummy dish which goes awesome with rumali roti, parantha, biriyani or any kind of rice. I tried my hands on making this, and succeeded. Here are the ingredients required for making Dahi Mutton/ Curd Mutton/ Doi Mangsho.

Kosha Doi Mangho

Ingredients: 1 kg mutton, 150 gm curd, 2 tbsp garlic paste, 1 tbsp chilli paste, 1 and a half tbsp ginger paste, 5 medium sized onion paste, salt, 1 tsp nutmeg and mace powder, 2 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tbsp poppy seed paste (posto bata), 1 tbsp cashew paste, 5 tbsp mustard oil, 2 tsp ghee, 10 gm whole garam masala, 1 bay leaf, 2 tbsp rose water, 2 tbsp kewra water.

Stage 1# Take the pieces of mutton one by one and press it with the front side of the fork. See the picture below for getting the clear idea.

Press the meat with a fork

Stage 2# Marinate the meat with curd, garlic paste, chilli paste, ginger paste, nutmeg and mace powder, onion paste, salt,  turmeric powder. Marinate it for at least for 4 hours.

Mutton marinated with the spices paste

Stage 3# Put a pan on the flame and add the ghee and mustard oil. After it turns hot add the garam masala and the bay leaf. After the garam masala starts cracking add the marinated meat and close the lid. Keep it on a low flame for 15 minutes. Then remove the lid and add the poppy and cashew paste. Mix it well together and close the lid, while keeping it on a low flame for 15 minutes more. 
 

Dahi Mutton

Remove the lid and see if it starts secreting oil, if it does then add the rose and kewra water in it and cook for 5 minutes more in a closed lid. Then turn off the heat.

Serve It Hot With Rumali Roti

Methi chicken

I love Indian food, its spices, its aroma and its tastes, so delicious, so aromatic that I can not resist myself from loving it. Just like eating Indian food I love to cook them also. The authentic Indian foods which are full of taste and flavors. I recently cooked methi chicken which was very yummy and the aroma was enough to blow anyone's tongue ;). 

It is not a tough recipe rather a very easy one. You need few very regular easily available ingredients to cook this dish. Some basic things which are needed are, 700 gm with bone medium size chicken pieces, 3 big onions finely sliced, 1 tbsp garlic paste, half tbsp chilli paste, 1 medium sizes tomato chopped, 100 gm curd, 1 tsp coriander and cumin powder, 1 tbsp kasuri/ kasoori methi, 1 tsp turmeric, 1/4 tsp food colour, salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp butter, 1 bay leaf, 4 tbsp refined oil (as per need).

The basic ingredients

In a bowl take garlic paste, chilli paste, curd, coriander and cumin powder, turmeric salt and mix. Add this paste to the chicken pieces and keep aside.
Put a pan on the gas oven, add some refined oil in it. Let it become hot, then add the bay leaf and the onions and keep frying until it becomes soft and golden. Then add the marinated chicken pieces in it with all the masala paste. Cook for 2 minutes in an open flame and then cover the lid and let it cook for 10 minutes in a low flame. After 10 minutes of cooking like this open the lid and check if it has enough water in it, if not then add some water along with the food colour and the kasoori methi, then close the lid.

Methi chicken being cooked

Open the lid and add some sugar and some butter and cook in a open flame for few minutes unless it forms a thick gravy. Once it is cooked it will start secreting oils and the aroma of kasoori methi will be there. 

Methi Chicken

Turn off the flame and add the remaining butter on top of it and serve hot with plain roti, parantha, naan, rice, polao etc.

Methi Chicken served hot

Chicken Rezala

Summer is here and this fixes the mood for eating things made using lots of curd, so I made chicken rezala last week. It was yummy and full of flavors. I made rezala in a more healthy way than it is usually made, I used home made curd, that is fat free and tried my best to use less ghee in it, but believe me, that taste was exactly the same as we eat at the restaurants.

Chicken Rezala

Ingredients: 700 gm medium chicken pieces with bone, 150 gm homemade curd, 3 big size onion in paste form, 1 tbsp garlic paste, 2 tsp chilli paste, 2 tbsp poppy seed (posto) paste, 2 tbsp sesame seed paste, salt as per need, 10 gm whole garam masala, 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp mace and nutmeg powder, 1 tsp cumin powder, 3 dried red chilies soaked in water, 1 tbsp pure ghee, 3 tbsp refined oil, half tsp sugar, 1 tsp kewra water, 2 drops of meetha attar.

chicken rezala served hot

Stage 1# In a bowl take garlic paste, chilli past, coriander powder, cumin powder, curd and salt, mix together and add the washed chicken pieces in it and marinate for preferably 1 hour but I marinated for 30 minutes only.

Chicken Rezala

Stage 2# Take a non stick pan, add the ghee and refined oil, wait till it becomes hot and then add the whole garam masala and bay leaf in it. After the garam masala starts cracking add the onion paste and cook until it becomes pink, then add the marinated chicken pieces. Cook for 2 minutes then cover with lid and let it cook on a low flame for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes open the lid and stir the chicken and add the  poppy seed and sesame seed paste and mix well otherwise it may start burning at the bottom. Cook in a open lid for 5 minutes and then add the mace and nutmeg powder and close the lid. After 5 more minutes open the lid and add some sugar, it enhances the colour. Cook it for another few minutes until it starts secreting oil, once it does add the dried chilies, kewra water and meetha attar and mix well. Close the lid and keep it on a low heat for 2 more minutes then turn off the heat.

Hasher Dim Kosha (Duck Egg Curry)

As a cook what makes you happy? in my case I become very happy when the people whom I serve the food, love it so much that they keep asking for more :). This is exactly what happened when I made this awesomely delicious Hasher Dim Kosha aka Duck Egg Curry. In this recipe I used some out of the box spices and believe me, the outcome was very good, everyone loved it. Here I am penning down the recipe so that you can make your family happy too :)

Ingredients: 6 boiled and later fried eggs, 2 big onions chopped, 1 small tomato chopped, 2 tbsp garlic and chili paste, 50 gm curd, 1 tsp - aamchur powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp - kasuri meethi, black pepper powder, turmeric, ajwain, 1 bay leaf. For garnishing - chopped coriander and chilli.

Process: at first take a mixture blend, put garlic and chili paste, curd, aamchur powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder,  kasuri meethi, black pepper powder, turmeric, ajwain, bled it and make a thick yet liquid type paste.

Put a pan/ kadhai on the flame, add some mustard oil (you can go for any other oil), add the bay leaf and onion, wait till the colour turns into golden. Then add the paste that you made and add some salt in it. Cook it for 2 to 3 minutes and then add the already fried eggs into it. Cook the whole thing for another 5 minutes until it starts secreting oil, once it does, add some water and bring it to boil while covering the lid. 

After 5 more minutes open the lid and cook it on open flame for a little more time so that the extra water gets soaked and the curry gets a rich colour. Turn off the flame and garnish it with some chopped coriander and chilli. Serve it hot with chapathi, parantha, rice etc.