Chicken Chaap

Chicken chaap is  a heavenly tasting dish and is very easily available in most of the fast food centers in Kolkata.  I always used to go gaga by the smell of the Chicken chaap prepared in the Mughlai fast food centre near my house in Kolkata .But poor me! I never used to have the chance of having it as in my parents house since childhood chicken,onion & garlic was not bought or used in any food . So I only had Chicken chaap maybe three or four times in childhood. Well who can stop me now :P. And since I have learned to cook it at home, it is available even in this far away land...

Sada Dosa (Plain Dosa)

 South Indian cuisine is an all-time favorite for me, from childhood I have been a fan of the taste and variety of classics that South Indian cuisine has to offer. The ubiquitous Dosa,Vada,Idli,Appam,Uthapam,Sambar, Rasam being the dishes that we can find all over the country and give us the refreshing flavor punch we crave from this cuisine. 
In Calcutta there are number of "South Indian" restaurants and I was always happy to visit those, but never tried my hands in preparing these dishes before. Being a Bong and preparing Dosa at home was an achievement for me :) 
Before you are tempted to prepare dosa at home  give yourself a prep break of a day. There are number of varieties of Dosa but to begin with I have tried the recipe for Sada (Plain) Dosa as mentioned below.

Simply Orange Cake

A big Hiiiiiiii to everyone... Resuming after a long refreshing India visit. I do have couple of recipes in store and will share soon :)
Today I prepared the delicious and juicy ORANGE CAKE. Sometime last year while having a Sunday Brunch at Theobroma in Mumbai, I had stumbled upon a mouth watering piece of orange cake, which I crave till date. So it inspired me to try and have a go at this recipe. The piece of cake should be super soft and melt in your mouth instantly "just Yuuumm", though the best feature, I feel, is the strong citric aroma, so one smell will drive you to have a bite instantly. It is not very difficult to prepare, just needs eye on details.

Malai kofta

Malai kofta is a very popular Indian dish made with cottage cheese(Paneer) stuffed with nuts and raisins in a rich creamy sauce,best served with steamed rice or flavored rice. Though I am a non-vegeterian still nine times out of ten I will prefer to have this dish over any non-veg dish. I have tasted many other versions of Malai Kofta earlier but most of the time they did not live up to expectation till the time I came across Chef Harpal Singh's recipe. The recipe I am sharing is inspired by Chef's recipe with few changes of mine.

Rasmalai (Rashomalai)

We just completed our second marriage anniversary in April ,on this occasion we invited few friends to our house last week for a small get together. Was a very enjoyable night and all of us had lots of fun. Since a Bengali feast is incomplete without the touch of a sweet dish in the end, I planned to prepare rasmalai for dessert.

Rasmalai is another Bengali dessert made with soft cottage cheese(paneer/chhena) balls immersed in creamy milk which is then served chilled. The beauty of the dish is that it just melts in your mouth and the sweetness of the cream complements the soft and spongy rasgullas extremely well.

Rasgulla - Rashogolla

Rasgulla or Roshogolla however you want to call it... Rasgullas are always a favorite dessert among Bengalis and is also very popular throughout India and other parts of South Asia. Since childhood I always brought rasgullas from my nearest sweet shop,never ever thought I would ever prepare it at home and it will turn out so good. It was only after moving out of India and non availability of good rasgullas in local Indian restaurants (or canned ones in some Indian grocery stores) made me take a shot at preparing them at home for the first time.To be precise Rasgullas are made from ball shaped cottage cheese dumplings cooked in light sugar syrup.Just follow the the below mentioned steps rasgullas will really come out well.Believe me preparing rasgullas are not at all difficult.

Fried String Beans - Sichuan Style

 

 I am sure most among us do enjoy having Chinese food especially while eating out.Chinese Food in India is ubiquitous, be it small road side stalls selling "chow mien" and "manchurian" or up market establishments serving variety of mouth watering prawn or  seafood dishes.It is only after coming to China and tasting the different varieties of Chinese food I understood  that Indianized version of Chinese food is completely different from the Authentic Chinese cuisine (probably because Chinese dishes in India is customized for the Indian palate).

Chili Prawn

When we talk about sea food Prawn is the first thing which comes to our mind...and when i talk about prawn/shrimp it always reminds me of the movie Forrest Gump and Bubba's obsession with shrimps. If you haven't watched the movie yet do watch it ;its never too late. 
I generally prepare Chili prawns on weekends as the pealing of prawns generally takes some time.My husband loves the prawn chili I prepare..He loves this dish not because I prepare it, but due to the fact that it is very tasty (I myself love to have multiple tastings while preparing the dish :) ).The dish best goes with noodles or mild spicy fried rice.

Tandoori chicken

Tandoori Chicken !!!!!!!! ...One of the most popular Indian subcontinent dish and is among my favorite.....Let me give a brief about this dish...Tandoori Chicken is originated from the Mughlai cuisine but with time it became popular throughout India.
It is traditionally cooked on high heat tandoor or a barbecue grill. The chicken is prepared by exposing the food to live- fire, this is how the dish is named Tandoori Chicken. A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven where the heat is generated by a charcoal or wood fire and smoking by the fat and food juices that drip on the charcoal...We always think of having tandoori chicken in a restaurant  but it is equally easy to prepare and enjoy at home with an added advantage of tweaking the flavors as per your palate.
Well at home you can prepare it in an oven in case you don't have a tandoor...the dish will come out equally good or even better...

Simply Bruschetta

Bruschetta is an antipasto from Italy,which means it is served as a first course or starter in a formal Italian meal.At the same time you can also serve them as a cool party snack.The best thing about bruschetta is the different variations that can be made according to available ingredients and your own choice of taste,additionally it is a very easy uncomplicated dish to prepare. 

Chicken Bharta

A very happy Holi to everyone...The festival of Holi always brings smile on my face...loads of childhood and teenage memories-at home with family, at hostel with friends and now in a far off land....Well today the recipe I am writing about is not related to Holi nevertheless this dish is a popular choice among Indians who love to eat non-vegeterian cuisine. Chicken Bharta always reminds me of my days in Kolkata, back in India... While I was working in a bank in Theatre Road we often use to place order from  Sharma's Dhaba in Ballyguange Circular Road and is my favourite for chicken bharta in the city... 

Chicken Curry (Bengali Style)

Chicken curry was the first dish I prepared when I was in hostel and it reminds me of my college days in Bangalore . Today's chicken curry recipe is bengali style,in bengali we call it "Murgir jhol". It is super easy to cook and equally yummy.Chicken curry can be prepared in different styles and  will come up with the other varieties of chicken curry in my upcoming recipes.

Bengali Garam Masala

Bengali homemade garam masala is different from the packed garam masala available in the stores. The packed masala contains a lot of different spices. Bengali garam masala is easy to prepare at home and consist of only three ingredients.

Ingredients Proportion:

1. 2 cinnamon stick( dar-chini )
2. 4 green cardamom (elaichi)
3. 6 cloves (labongo)

Method:

Grind all the above ingredients and store it in a air tight container.

Masala Pomfret Fry

Today I am going to write about Masala Pomfret fry . This dish is one of my favorites. It is a simple yet very tasty and tempting dish. You can eat this as a starter along with any drinks or as main coarse . I generally prepare a Shahi rice and a spicey veg curry to compliment the fish fry. Hope you all will enjoy this recipe. 

Tofu Malai Curry - Restaurant Style

To start with Tofu malai curry let me give you a quick brief about tofu. Tofu is a food made by coagulating soy juice and then pressing the resulting curds into a soft white block.It is a major component in East Asian and South East Asian cuisine . For the first time I tasted tofu in Shanghai and it taste really good….In Shanghai the availability of tofu is much easier then paneer. Tofu malai curry is a new version of paneer malai curry ….Tofu is containing less calorie intake then paneer. So these days to be more health conscious, people are substituting tofu at times.Try this recipe at home and I am sure you will love this. 

Calcutta Chicken Biriyani - Restaurant Style

BIRIYANI!!  The name of biriyani brings a smile on the face & pops out eyes of many among Indians. There are different styles of preparing biriyani…the one, which is very close to my heart, is Calcutta Chicken Biriyani… Today I am going to share this mouth watering recipe.… Prepare a restaurant style biriyani at home with this easy recipe. Hope you all will enjoy this recipe.