Maggie chicken curry

It was funny how today morning I decided to make a chicken curry with the less than half kilo of chicken available in my freezer.

Like always, I had a recipe in mind when I started cooking. Today, the plan was to make a tomato chicken curry and I started accordingly. La la la… :D :D it was until I got the masalas mixed up and ended up making what I decided to call the Maggie chicken curry :D :D. There is a reason why I chose this name.

So when the garam masala jar and the cinnamon jar got mixed, uff!!! It was a disaster, is what I thought. But… the resulting curry tasted as if it was a chicken curry made with Maggi noodles tastemaker, only that there was no tastemaker :D :D

Cinnamon powder was the key!

Now the excitement of having saved the curry clubbed with the discovery of a possible secret of the tastemaker, this was a winner for me :D :D

What I used

1. Coconut oil: ½ cup
2. Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
3. Curry leaves: as many as you want
4. Sliced onion: 1
5. Cardamom: 4 pods
6. Cloves: 4
7. Salt: as per need
8. Diced potatoes and carrots: 1 each - optional
9. 3 tomatoes pureed with ¼ teaspoon salt and garam masala
10. Cinnamon powder: 3 teaspoons
11. Garam masala: 2 teaspoons
12. Pepper powder: 1 teaspoon
13. Chillies (kaanthari): 5 depending on how spicy the curry should be
14. Chicken: 400 grams
15. Coconut milk: ½ cup-1 cup depending on how much gravy needed

How I made it:

I made this in a mud pot coz that was the only free pot that day

1. Heat the oil, splutter the mustard seeds with the curry leaves, cloves and cardamom and saute the onions till soft
2. Required salt goes in along with the carrots, potato and chillies
3. You can skip the carrots and potato. I added it coz there was so less chicken and 3 hungry tummies to feed. So volume was a necessity ;-) So it’s not necessary to add veggies
4. Once the veggies have mingled well, in goes the cinnamon powder, garam masala and pepper powder and cook for 3 minutes
   PS: There was a panic akin to the realization that I married a cinnamon instead of garam masala (UFFF!!!!) and the whole pot smelling like cinnamon buns instead of the tomatoey chicken curry that I had so envisioned – you can completely ignore the panic part coz you already know you are making Maggie chicken
5. Then add the tomato puree and mix everything well with half a cup of water
6. When the contents start to boil, add in the chicken pieces, coconut milk and cook with the pot covered for about 40 minutes till the chicken is well-cooked

This really tasted like Maggi and like Maggi noodles, the smells fades after a while. Then it becomes really spicy. It tasted very good with rice and am sure it would be wonderful with just about anything that any chicken curry is a combo with :D :D

Fried potato wedges

Ya, okay so health well-wishers advise that fried food is bad for health. 

So just take few big bites and be done with it quickly ;D

Win-win scenario ;D

What I used

1. Potato wedges: as much as you need. I used 2 medium-sized potatoes
2. Oil for deep frying
3. Salt and pepper: 1/4 teaspoon each (optional)

How I made it

1. Fry the potato wedges in hot oil for about 10 minutes till they are soft and spread it out on tissue or blotting paper to absorb excess oil
2. While the wedges are still hot, sprinkle salt and pepper

Since potato wedges are thick, they won't be very crunchy. Take note though that they are very filling.

Perfect as an evening snack! :D :D

Spinach fried rice

The story of this fried rice began on a sunny Sunday when my friend and I had decided to go for the afternoon matinee show. 

Like most lazy Sundays when we are so lazy we even skip church, we waited till we were really hungry to decide whether to light our stove or to luncheon in the finesse of a restaurant nearby. As we pondered over this in the backdrop of a humming TV playing a god-knows-which movie and enlightening overselves with the happening of our friends' and acquaintances and everyone else's worlds on Facebook, it suddenly dawned on us that our own world was turning dizzy. 

We would have had to rush right away if we had to have lunch from outside to make it to the movie on time. On the other hand, if we cooked, there would be ample time to take our own sweet time to unfoil our agenda. It didn't take long to decide on the next course of action. 

As my eyes fell on the plush wine color of the spinach leaves (which looked like they were putting out their head-like leaves to make eye contact with me) that I had bought just the day before, the freshness tickled my senses and it took only a few seconds to decide what would be a quick lunch ;D ;D

What I used

1. Fried and cooked basmati rice: 5 cups
2. Cooking oil: 1/2 cup
3. Diced onion, carrots, capsicum: 1 cup each
4. Salt: to taste
5. Chopped spinach: 2 cups
6. Green chillies: 2
7. Pepper powder: 2 teaspoons

How I made it 

1. In a pan, heat the oil and saute the vegetables and chopped chillies with some salt till they soften. This takes about 15-20 minutes.
   PS: to save time, pre-boiled vegetables can be used as well 
2. Add the pepper powder followed by the rice and mix well gently.

This was a no-big-deal, really quick fried rice that was mind blowing with tomato ketchup :D :D

On any regular day, this would be amazing with any curry :D :D

Corriander scrambled eggs

One day, it was too sunny to go out... and those days are common here no doubt... So it goes without saying that the lunch had to be made with what was available. I did have a bunch of corriander leaves. The question was what I could do with a bunch of corriander leaves. 

Ah! Corriander scrambled eggs of course! :D :D

What I used

1. Cooking oil: 1/4 cup
2. Shallots/diced onion: 1/2 cup
3. Salt: to taste
4. Chillies: 2
5. Garlic: 2 cloves
6. Chopped corriander leaves: 1 cup
7. Eggs: 2
8. Lemon juice: 1 tablespoon

How I made it

1. In a pan, saute the shallots, green chillies and garlic in hot oil till the shallots are soft
2. Add the required salt
3. Next goes in the corriander leaves. Cook till the leaves wilt and add the eggs and stirr well to ensure they are well scrambled to fine pieces. This doesn't take long
4. Serve with a drizzle of lime juice

A last-minute side dish or even as breakfast, this suffices :D :D

Boiled vegetable quick-toss salad

I read somewhere and believe that our cravings have a lot to do with what we need. 

Let's take the simple example of water. Sometimes, no matter how many varieties of drinks are on spread, water is what one needs. At other times, like on the tropical hot afternoons, it's a glass of sambharam or salted lime juice that does the quenching better. So it's no wonder when on some days, veggies steal the show. 

On such days, a bowl of salad is enough :D

What I used

1. Butter: 2 tablespoons
2. Garlic: 6-8 cloves
3. Boiled and diced carrots: 1/2 cup; broccoli: 2 cups; french beans: 2 cups
4. Salt: as per need
5. Pepper: as per need (optional)

How I made it

PS: Ensure the vegetables are boiled with enough salt 

1. In a pan, fry the garlic in melted butter and add all the boiled vegetable and toss well so as to butter coat every piece. Adust salt and pepper as needed and that's it!

Salads are refreshing isn't it?

After a routine of consuming starch and red meat, when one feels the need to detox, salads do wonders to make you feel refreshed with no added weight :D :D