Shrimp (prawn) fry

I love sea food, mainly shrimp (prawns / Royallu) and fish(with shrimp being my most favorite).  It is really hard to find fresh sea food here in US. For years I cooked using the frozen cooked shrimp but that did not satisfied me. After trying these “raw brown shell on shrimp” from sams, I never craved for home fresh sea food any more. It really satisfied my sea food cravings. Shrimps really cooks fast. Once they turn pinkish white, curls and turn opaque that means they are done. If your shrimps turn rubbery solid and hard to crack that means you have overcooked them! For all my Non veggie recipes, I use fresh ground garam masala powder that gives immense flavor for the whole dish. Even though shrimp is high in cholesterol, once a while pampering our self with the foods we love is ok

Ingredients:

• 25-30 shrimps, fresh or frozen
• 1 big onion diced
• 3 green chilies
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 inch cinnamon stick
• cloves
• tbsp red chili powder
• ¼ tsp turmeric/haldi
• 1 tbsp coriander (dhaniya) powder (optional)
• 1 tsp cumin (jeera) seeds
• Cilantro/kothambir,roughly chopped for garnishing
• 1tbsp garam masala powder (coriander seeds, cinnamon, cloves roasted slightly and grounded to powder)
• Salt as per taste
• 1 stalk of curry leaves
• 10 cashew nut halves (optional)

  Directions-

1. For this recipe, I used “Frozen raw brown shrimp on shell” I found in sams club. So, when using frozen shrimps thaw them at room temperature and de vein them and clean under running tap water. Add a tsp of salt, chili powder, 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste and let it sit while we start with the recipe.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add cinnamon stick, cloves. Let it sauté for a min, then add cashew nuts, let it sauté till they turn slight brown.
3. Add onions and green chilies, add a pinch of salt to sweat the onions and then add finely chopped curry leaves. This is the main ingredient that gives flavor to this dish.
4. Add turmeric/haldi, ginger- garlic paste and sauté till the raw smell is gone.
5. Add  shrimp, crainder powder, salt, chili powder and mix well so that all spices are blended together, cover and cook for 6-7 mins on medium flame.
6. When the shrimp is almost cooked, cook it further with out the lid, so that all the water evaporates and the curry becomes almost dry. Adjust the taste if needed.
7. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander and serve with steam rice or pulav.
   

   Prawns /Royyala Fry

Mutton Kheema Fry

Kheema fry is a sure favorite for every non-veg lover and my mom makes the best kheema fry with cashews coming into every bite and the fresh ground garam masala armoa invites us to dig in more.

Kheema is very healthy for kids, for adults watch out the quantity (I know it is hard with the irresistbale taste) as it is not figure friendly.

Kheema curry is a popular dish in restaurants menu, but I hardly find this kheema fry in restaurants.

Ingredients:

• 1lb of ground meat (kheema), washed and drained
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 11/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 5 green chilies slit length wise
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• Fresh ground garam masala powder (dry roast- 3 cloves, 1″ cinnamon stick, 1 tbsp coriander seeds, let them cool and make a fine powder)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
• salt to taste
• tbsps oil
• Few curry leaves
• 10 cashew nuts
• Coriander leaves for garnish

Directions-

1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker, Add kheema (ground meat), chili powder, turmeric powder, 1 tsp salt, ½ tbsp ginger garlic paste and let it cook with the lid closed for 3 min’s (to release water). Close the lid and let it whistle for 2 times.
2. Let all the pressure cool off by itself.
3. In a heavy bottom pan, add cumin, curry leaves, cashew nut pieces and sauté till cashew turns light brown. AddA green chilies, and chopped onions. Sauté until the onions turns slight brown.Add 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste and sauté for another 2 min’s. Add cooked kheema (ground meat), and cook it without lid for 3 min’s. Stirring in between.
4. Add salt, chili powder to taste and sauté it without lid till the curry leaves oil.
5. Add the fresh ground masala powder, combine well and Turn off heat.
6. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with steamed rice and rasam or roti.

Kheema (ground lamb) fry

Chicken puff

Today, I made another batch of chicken 65 and saved little to make chicken puff. An all time favorite for my DH and my elder son.

We are all very familiar with the street corner bakeries and the delicious aroma that will float around that area. One of my favorite items from such bakeries is the Puff. Flaky wrap and spicy filling, it’s a popular bakery food, loved by all ages. They are prepared with puff pastry like dough, and the filling varies- from vegetarian potato, to egg, chicken, kheema, mutton etc.

Thanks for the frozen puff pastry, We can make a great quick turn snack and a sure hit party appetizer.

For filling, I used chicken-65 recipe, you can use low fat chicken fry or any version of chicken fry.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of Puff Pastry sheet (I used the Pepperidge farm frozen puff pastry)

Making of Chicken Puff

Directions-

1. There are four sheets in one pack, and they were stuck to each other. So I cut them to three strips.
2. Roll each one to a thin rectangle. Divided each strip to 4 equal portions.
3. Place a tablespoon of chicken towards one of the corner of each portion, fold, and baked them at 350°F for about 15 minutes to golden-brown.

Chicken Puff

chicken-65

Chicken 65 is a spicy, deep-fried chicken dish popular in South India as an entree, or quick snack.

There are many stories for how the name came out, I heared that it is simply the 65^th item on the menu, not sure of how true it is though. If we keep the question of how the name came about , the taste is certainly delectable to all non-veg lovers.

I call this, the Indian version of chicken nuggets.

I don’t stock Azinomotto in my pantry because of its controversies. Instead, I use the regular salt.

Let’s whip up this ever popular comforting food.

Ingredients -

• Chicken – 1 lb( Boneless chicken cut in to small pieces, I always use thigh portion as it is juicy and soft, one can use the breast piece  )
• 2 tsp Corn Flour
• 1tbsp All purpose (maida) flour
• 1 Egg
• 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp Red Chili Powder
• 1/2 tsp Red Food Colour
• 2 tsp Vinegar
• Curd (Yogurt) – 1/2 to 3/4 cups
• Oil – For Deep Frying
• 5 Green Chilies slit length wise
• Curry Leaves – 20
• Lemon juice – 4 tbl spoon
• 2 dry red chilies
• 1 tbsp ginger finely chopped
• 1 tbsp Garlic chopped
• 1 stalk of green onions

Directions-

1. Wash and cut chicken into ½ inch pieces.
2. To the chicken add yogurt , salt, ginger garlic paste, black pepper, salt and mix well. Leave aside for 20 min.
3. Add corn flour and all purpose flour, mix well and leave aside for 10 minutes.
4. Break egg into the chicken and mix (Caution: Do not whip the egg, just mix it.)
5. Heat oil in a frying pan  and fry the chicken in batches (while frying do not over crowd). Immediately after adding chicken reduce heat and fry for 3-4 minutes. ( don’t over fry, 5 minutes is more than enough to cook the chicken).
6. Keep the fried chicken aside.
7. In a wide skillet, heat 1 tbsp oil, add Jeera (cumin) and one red chili, add ginger and stir fry in low heat for 15 seconds.Add chopped garlic and stir fry to light brown, add curry leaves stir and add chopped green  chili.
8. Add black pepper powder, cumin and chili powder stir (remove from heat time to time to prevent burn out)
   Add vinegar , keep stirring. Taste the sauce and add required salt to taste. ( The chicken already has some salt)
   add red color mixed in 1 tbsp water, stir and add 3 tbsp water or more to make a thick sauce. ( The sauce consistency should be such that after mixing the chicken, it should not be too dry or too sticky and fluid.)
9. Stir the sauce well and with heat, add the chicken and mix well under low heat so that the sauce is well coated. Remove from heat and keep mixing.
10. The water in sauce will percolate into the chicken to some extent. So wait for some time to assess if you need more heating to drive some extra moisture out.
11. Garnish with chopped green onions and lemon juice ( optional)
12. Eat as a starter, snack or with roti, rice.
13. NOTE: Dont over fry chicken. This size of the pieces should be tender within 3 minutes and one can eat straight after frying. Unnecessary frying will make the chicken hard and  dry.

You can fry excess amount of chicken and store in deep fridge for future use, not only for this also for all kinds of Indo-Chinese chicken dishes.
Add as much chili as you want. The red color is a traditional addition to dish and has nothing to do with the taste. But without the red color, no one will recognize it as chicken 65

chicken-65

Lowfat chicken fry / Baked chicken fry

I love to experiment different cuisines with a touch of Indian to it. This is a dish that always turns out great with no hassle, no mess yet healthy and tasty.

Cooking is fun for me and I love to do it, but cleaning the dishes latter on is no fun at all. Even though I have a  dish washer, we have to rinse them before loading and besides it is not recommended to clean my hard anodized cook ware in dish washer( it reduces the life), so I always end up cleaning them my selves which is not that fun.

Simply, my very own reason to adore these kinds of one dish recipes, where I can put the ingredients together and stick it in the oven, is to reduce the after cooking cleaning.

Ingredients-

• 1 lb Chicken breast pieces
• 1 big ladle or 5 tbsp of Curd.
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 tbsp coriander powder
• ½ tbsp cumin powder
• 2 tbsp Chili powder.
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder.
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp Salt or to taste.
• 1 tbsp Oil.
• 1 bell pepper chopped into cubes
• 2 dry red chilies

Directions-

1. Preheat oven to 400 Degree F.
2. Clean and cut the chicken breast to 1 inch sizes.
   Add breast pieces into a baking tray. To this, add curd, ginger garlic paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, chili powder, turmeric powder and a juice of 1 lemon and a tbsp of oil. Mix all of them well so that the chicken is coated with the spices.
3. Cover this baking tray with an aluminum foil. Put this tray into the preheated oven and let it cook for 30 – 40 min.
4. When all the water is gone and the chicken is cooked all the way through, take it out of the oven. At this point we can eat it. but I jazzed it a little bit.
5. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a skillet, add dry red chilies, green bell pepper and sauté it for 2 min, ads ½ tsp salt and sauté it for a min.( you can add more veggies like red bell pepper, zuchinni, snap peas and more to add more crunch)
6. Add baked chicken breast pieces and sauté them for another min. Adjust the seasoning and add little more lemon for that fajitha taste.
7. Enjoy this as it is or goes well with rice or roti. The best way to enjoy it is to wrap it in a roti, tastes awesome.
8. The left over can be used to make chicken puff.( I will post this one day)

Baked chicken fry

Gongura Chicken

“Gongura Chicken” is a traditional  Andhra dish. The sour gongura leaves when cooked with spices and chicken gives a very unique and authentic taste. This is one favorite non-veg dish for Andhra people. I have Gongura in my back yard and I can’t wait to use it in my cooking. My son helped me in picking the leaves today.

Ingredients:

• 2 pound Chicken, cleaned and cut into pieces
• 1 big onion diced
• 2Tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 Tbsp coriander powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 large cinnamon stick (Dalchina chekka)
• 4 cloves
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 small bunch gongura leaves (discard the leaves from the steam and wash it) cut roughly
• Salt to taste
• 1 Tbsp Garam masala (Home made taste better)

Sorrel Chicken

Directions-

1. In a heavy bottom pan, put 1 tsp of oil and put the roughly cut gongura leaves into the pan and let them sauté for a min , cover the lid and saute them till all the leaves wrinkle and slightly cook. ( It doesn’t need to be cooked fully)
2. In a blender blend the sauteed gongura leaves to a coarse paste ( do not blend it too smooth, grinding it coarsely gives a good texture to the dish).
3. Heat a heavy bottom pan, add cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves and let it saute for a min.
4. Add onions, green chilies and let it saute for 2 mins until the onions are little brown. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté till the raw flavor is gone.
5. Add chicken and let it sit in the dish for 2 min’s. Add chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric, salt and mix chicken to combine with the spices.
6. Add yogurt, stir every thing together and close the lid. Let chicken cook in these spices with occasional stirring.
7. When the chicken is more than half cooked, put the gongura paste into it, stir the whole mixture and let it cook for 10 min or until chicken is fully cooked (if needed you can add little water)
8. Check the seasoning and add garam masala powder, let it cook for a min or 2.
9. Turn off the flame and sprinkle some finely chopped coriander leaves.
10. Serve hot with rice or roti.

Note-

If using pressure cooker, After step 6 cover the lid and let it whistle 2 times

When the pressure cools down, open the lid, add gongura paste and follow the steps from step7.

Gongura chicken with rice and rasam

Ragi Muddha with Mutton Gravy

This dish is contributed from my neighbor Swapna. She is a very good cook. I often hear from her about this ‘Ragi Muddha’  or ‘Ragi Sankati’, which I am not familiar with at all. She offered me to taste as it is very good for adults and kids. I gave it to my kids with ghee on top and they loved it. Latter i ate it with tomato Dal and it is really really excellent. Thanks swpana for this deliciously healthy recipe and for sure i am going to include this in my weekly menu.  This is a popular Rayalaseema dish.

So i started my research and found so many interesting things. Here are the highlights-

‘Finger Millet’ aka ‘Ragi’ is a very healthy dish both for the physically hard working as well as those with diabetes. It is indeed very healthy for children. It is high in protein and calcium, but very low in carbohydrates. Therefore, unlike rice or wheat, it is best for those with sugar complaints. It is almost synonymous with the best of traditional foods, simple, tasty, nutritious and wholesome.

This Ragi can be given to an infant as old as 5+ months since it is very easily digested and gives a whole lot nutrients.

Here is her recipe-

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Rice (sona masoori)
• 4 Tsp Ragi flour
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 3 Cups Water

Directions-

1. Take a wide bottomed vessel (I use the pressure cooker w/o lid).
   Wash the rice and add water and salt. Let the rice cook in the cooker without lid on medium heat.
   Allow it to fully cook (takes around 15-20mins).
   When there is only little water left (approx. 3-4 tbsp) in the vessel, add ragi flour.
2. Do not heap the flour on the rice, spread it over the surface.
3. Let it boil for 2mins and then take a wooden spoon and mix the rice and  flour (mix from bottom to top). While doing this keep the heat in low and mix as quickly as possible so that the rice and flour are well mixed.

Ragi Muddha tastes good with any pullakoora (pulusu) or Non Vegetarian Gravy curry or tomato Dal.

Ragi Muddha with Tomato Pappu

Here is her Mutton Pulusu  recipe–

• 1 pound of Mutton (mix of bones and meat)
• 2 tbsp  Oil
• 1 small Onion small chopped
• 1 medium Tomato chopped
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric
• 4 cups Water

For masala –
Grind the below items:

• 1 1/2 big Onion big
• 1 Small Tomato
• 1 Cup Shredded Coconut (fresh/frozen)
• 5 Green chilies
• 1 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste (try using fresh)
• 1 tbsp Coriander leaves chopped
• Salt to taste

Directions-

1. Wash Mutton pcs with salt, turmeric and water.
2. Grind the above listed masala items to paste using little water.
3. Heat oil in a pressure cooker.  Add chopped onion and let it fry for until it is transparent.
4. Add chopped tomato and fry until tomato becomes soft and mushy.
5. Add  mutton pieces,turmeric and fry for a min.  Add the above grinded masala paste and mix well for 3mins.
6. Add water and pressure cook upto 7whistles. After the pressure cools, take off the lid and adjust the taste if needed.
7. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Goes well with tiffins like dosa, idli, Roti or Biriyani or ragi muddha.

Ragi Muddha with Mutton Pulusu

Here is the famous spicy Andhra Chicken Curry. There are certain recipes which make you feel home and you wouldn’t be tired of doing it over and over again. This is one of such recipes which is a staple in any Andhra kitchen.

This dish has very basic ingredients that came from generations and we can alter this basic recipe by adding few more ingredients (Cashew nuts, tomatoes etc) to enhance its flavor.

When cooking any such non vegetarian dishes, try to make home made garam masala and it will taste even better.

Tip-

Add curd and poppy seed paste to get nice and thick gravy (Curd acts as a meat tenderizer too).

Ingredients

Ingredients-

• 2 pounds of skinless chicken cut into 1inch pieces (You can use With bone or bone less. I used thigh pieces)
• 2 small Cinnamon sticks (Dalchina Cheeka)
• 4 Cloves (Lavangam)
• 1 tsp Shahjeera (Optional)
• 1tsp Cumin (Jeelakarra)
• 1 tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste
• 4 Green Chilies slit length wise
• 1 big Onion diced
• 1 cup yogurt / curd
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds (grind to fine powder)
• 1 tbsp chili powder or adjust to taste
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp coriander powder ( Dhania Powder)
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp Garam masala
• 4 tbsp oil

Directions

1. Heat 4 tbsp’s of oil in a heavy bottom wide skillet. Add Cinnamon, cloves, shahjeera and cumin. Let them saute for a min till you get nice aroma.
2. Add onions, Green chilies and saute them for 2 min. Add salt to cook the onions fast. Saute onions till you get nice pink color.
3. Add ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw flavor is gone.
4. Add Chicken pieces and let them saute for 2 min. ( Do not try to move chicken pieces as soon as you add to the pan, they will stick to the pan. W ait a min or 2 till they get cooked and they’ll be easy to move)
5. Now mix chicken pieces so that they will be cooked on all the sides.
6. Add chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric and half the salt.
7. Stir it and let it sauté for 3 more min. Chicken will ooze some water.
8. Add poppy seed powder and sauté for a min.
9. Add curd and stir it for a min continuously to stop curdling.
10. Cover the lid and let it cook for 5min. (After 5 min, you should see more water from chicken, if not add ½ cup water)
11. Check the taste and adjust it accordingly.
12. Let the curry cook for 10 min stirring occasionally to prevent the sauce burning at the bottom.
13. Check the chicken piece to see if it is cooked.  If the chicken pieces are not cooked Let it cook more until the pieces are tender ( Add little water if needed)
14. Add Garam masala powder and let it cook for 2 more minutes.
15. Top it off with finely cut coriander or cilantro leaves.

Pressure Cooker Instructions-

1. Start with a  pressure cooker and follow the above steps.  At step 10 cover the pressure cooker and let it whistle 2 times.
2. Let all the pressure is gone. Open the lid.
3. Add Garam masala powder and let it cook for 2 more minutes or to desired consistency.
4. Top it off with finely cut coriander or cilantro leaves.

Serve it with Biryani or Pulav or steamed rice or chapathi or pulka with a lemon widge and onion on side.

This curry tastes excellent with dosa, idlli, or garellu.