Orange Strawberry Smoothie

What should one do when the fridge is overflowing with strawberries and oranges??? Simple, make a smoothie!



1 cup orange juice
1 ½ cups plain yoghurt
4 red strawberries
Sugar as per taste
½ cup milk
A drop of vanilla essence

Blend all the above ingredients and enjoy!

Lychee yoghurt

Just what you need to cool off! To make lychee yoghurt, take a handful of lychees, peeled and de-seeded, a cup of yoghurt, honey, sugar, a few ice cubes and blend together. Refreshingly delicious!!

Sindhi Kadhi

Having Sindhi neighbours resulted in my mother-in-law being an ace at making Sindhi curry. This wholesome and nutritious curry is made with easily available ingredients.
Served with rice, curds and pappad, this is a complete meal in itself as it consists of so many vegetables.

Ingredients:
Brinjal – 1
Carrot -1
Potato – 1
Doodhi/Bottlegourd – 1 piece
Yam/suran - a small piece
Okra/Bhindi – 2
Drumstick – 1
Cluster beans – 10-12
French beans – 5-6
Cauliflower – a small piece broken into florets
Fresh green peas with pods – 5-6
Capsicum – 1
Green chillies – 2
Tomato – ¼ kg
Asafoetida - a pinch
Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp
Besan/chickpea flour – 2-3 tsp
Curry leaves – 8-10
Turmeric powder, red chilly powder and salt as per taste

Wash, clean and chop all the vegetables. Puree the tomatoes, strain the puree to remove the skin and seeds and keep aside. Heat oil in a pan, add asafoetida, curry leaves, methi seeds, green chillies and besan. Fry till the besan is pink and aromatic. Add the tomato puree, salt, turmeric powder and red chilly powder and cook for a minute. Add a glass of water, potato, brinjal, doodhi, carrot, cluster beans, French beans, cauliflower, peas and the pods, yam and cook on medium flame for around 45 minutes. When these vegetables are ¾ th done, add okra, drumstick and capsicum and cook till done. Serve hot with rice, curds and pappad.

This is my entry to My Dhaba's VCC: VCC Q4-2006: FAHC: FAHC-campaign

Murukku/Chakli

I strolled down to the Indian grocery store near home to pick freshly ground wheat flour, some papadams, vadams etc. when I came across a packet of chakli bhajni. On inquiry of its contents, I was told it was a mix of rice flour and besan in the ratio 3:1. What's better to munch on with our evening tea than some spicy chakli. Thought I'd give it a try.

Ingredients:

A packet of chakli mix or rice flour and besan in the ratio 3:1
Butter – 3 tbsp
Red chilli powder as per taste
Salt as per taste
Sesame seeds – 3 stp
Water to knead
Oil for frying

Mix the flours and seasonings and knead with water to make a semi-soft dough. On the counter-top, place a thin cloth. Put small quantities of the dough into a murukku maker and pipe out coils of murukku onto the cloth. Heat oil in a frying pan. When hot, lift the murukkus off the cloth and slip into the hot oil. Fry to brown colour and remove. Drain off excess oil and store in an air tight container. Fry in batches till the entire dough is used up.

Areas of concern:
The murukkus turned brown instead of golden brown. No, they were not burnt or over-fried, but I suppose the readymade packet of chakli bhajni is to be blamed!
The first batch of murukkus (about 5 of them) turned out hard. I remedied this by kneading the remaining dough again with more butter.

Malabar Chicken Curry

The aroma of this chicken curry is still lingering in my nostrils! I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw my uncle make this absolutely delicious dish. Very simple to make and I add again – delicious!

For this you need:
1 whole chicken cut into small pieces
6 medium sized onions sliced
4 green chillies sliced
1 potato chopped
A handful of curry leaves
1tbsp ginger paste
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp chicken masala powder
Salt to taste
1 ½ cups coconut milk
Handful of coriander leaves for garnishing

For the marinade:
Juice of 1 lemon
1tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chicken masala powder
Salt to taste

Rub the marinade into the chicken and set aside for half an hour. Heat oil in a pan and sautee the onions, green chillies and ginger-garlic paste. Add potato, curry leaves, chilli powder, turmeric, chicken masala, coriander powder, salt and fry for a minute. Add the chicken and stir fry for a minute. Then add the coconut milk and cover and cook for 20 minutes till done. Add more coconut milk if you want more gravy. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis, appams, idiappam.

Chilli Chicken

Hubby and I love Chinese - let me correct, Indianised Chinese cuisine and visit our favourite restaurant Bamboo Chinese whenever we want to dig into some hot and spicy food. It was a rather dull and gloomy day and what was better to brighten our day than some hot and spicy chilli chicken! It was my first try at this, and it turned out to be really simple!

To make Chilli Chicken, you need:

Chicken breast - 200 gms
Green Chillies - 6
Garlic heaped – 1 tbsp
Onion – 1
Capsicum – 1
Chicken stock – ½ cup
Salt/Pepper to taste
Ajinomoto/MSG – ¼ tsp (optional)
Soya Sauce
Chilly Sauce
Cornflour
Egg white
Spring Onion greens – 2 tbsp

Chop the chicken into cubes and marinate with ½ tbsp each of soya sauce, chilly sauce and garlic paste; add egg white, salt, pepper and ajinomoto. Chop the onion into dices and capsicum into juliennes, marinate with ½ tbsp each of soya sauce, chilly sauce and garlic paste and keep aside for 20 minutes. Sprinkle cornflour on the chicken and deep fry. Heat oil in a pan and stir fry onion till brown. Add garlic, ginger, chillies, capsicum and stirfry for a minute. Add chicken, seasonings, stock and cornflour for thickening and cook till the chicken is dry. Garnish with spring onion greens and serve hot.

This version of chilli chicken makes an excellent starter. By adding more stock, you can make chilli chicken gravy and serve with steamed rice.