Spicy Chicken Puffs - from Ashaji of Foddieshope

My son and I have been sick for the past 10 days, down with flu. In all these days I did not cook anything. Yesterday I was feeling better and wanted to cook something yummy and spicy, and my husband loves chicken, and so I made these puffs. I have seen many recipes for puffs, but yesterday I followed Ashaji's recipe. http://foodieshope.blogspot.com/2008/02/gujarati-cuisine.html
She had given this recipe for Nita, but I made full use of it. I was scared to try these bcos it was the first time I was using puff pastry, but it was one of the best dishes.

The result was a beautiful puff, which was crispy and flaky on the outside, and spicy and flavorful inside. Just be careful when you bite into a hot puff though, the spicy chicken just hits you.

 

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Chicken Puffs
Recipe for 4 puffs

1 sheet Pepperidge Farm Puff pastry – Thawed at room temperature for 40 mins
2 boneless skinless chicken thighs (or breasts)
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 small onion finely chopped
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
3 green chilies finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric
1-2 tsp red chili powder
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp tandoori masala
1-2 tsp amchoor powder
1 tblsp Green coriander
Salt to taste
1 tblsp oil

Chop the chicken into very small pieces. Heat oil. Then add cumin seeds. Then add the chopped onions and fry till golden brown.
Add ginger garlic and green chilies and fry for a minute.
Then add turmeric, red chili, coriander and tandoori masala powder and fry for 30 secs.
Add the chicken and salt and fry on medium heat till the chicken is cooked and is completely dry.
Add the amchoor powder and chopped coriander and mix well. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Take the thawed pastry sheet. Cut it into 4 parts. Put 1 tblsp or more filling in each pastry and then fold it over to make a V shape. Put water on all sides and press it nicely to that the pastry sheet sticks.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. You can brush the top of the puffs with a mixture of eggs and water to get a golden color. I did not do that.

Bake in the oven for about 15-17 mins till golden brown. Serve hot with sauce or ketchup.

Cooking from other blogs - Pineapple Pulissery (Pravs) and Mushroom Thoran (Sujo)

Blogging has opened up a whole new world for me. Cooking is my passion and I always loved trying out new recipes. Growing up in a punjabi family, I did not know much about the foods from the south. Growing up in Mumbai, the only foods available in resturants were idlis, dosas and uthapas. There were no ethinic or regional cuisine resturants where we could have tasted this wonderful cuisine. And all the cook books which i purchased also had only recipes for sambhar, rasams, avial, dosas etc. So we were very unaware of the satisfying and comforting food, kalaans, errisery, pulissery,thoran etc.

I am still confused about a lot of stuff, but slowly getting there. Infact i had named this recipe as pineapple errisery and then saw on Pravs blog that its Pulissery. These foods now form a part of our menu, even though I switch the names some times. Sorry for being an ignorant North Indian.

And I dedicate this post to Pravs, whose recipe i have followed for the errisery . We loved the sweet, tangy and spicy combination, and it tasted wonderful with rice.
Here is the link to her recipe http://simplyspicy.blogspot.com/2006/10/pineapple-pulissery.html

With the errisery, I made mushroom thoran. I got the recipe from Sujo's blog http://wwwkerala-india.blogspot.com/. My husband could not even guess what vegetable it was. It tasted so wonderful. Thank you Sujo.


Here is Sujo's recipe. I made some variations. Those are noted in brackets.

500 gms White button mushrooms finely chopped (i used baby bella)
3 shallots sliced
3 green chillies finely chopped
1/4 cup Grated fresh coconut (i used 1 tblsp)
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin powder (i used cumin seeds)
A few curry leaves (optional)
1 tblsp. oil for sauteing
1/2 tsp. mustard
Salt as per taste
Method:

Heat oil in a frying pan.
Splutter the mustard seeds in it.
Saute the onion until slightly brown.
Add curry leaves.
Add the chopped mushrooms, chillies and garlic and let it cook until all the water has evaporated.
Fresh grated coconut may be added after the water is evaporated along with the cumin and turmeric powders and mix. (i ground it with cumin seeds in the mixer).
Cover and cook on a low fire until done.

Why does my Rasam taste bland???

I always made rasam with ready made rasam masala. I first had rasma when my colleague from office (who was from Kerela) got it in office. She would get a variety of rasama and i fell in love with them. After marriage, i tried many time to make rasam at home, but they always tasted bland. I didn't know then that using ready made masala was the reason for this. I knew but was lazy I guess.

Recently I saw a recipe for mysore rasam on http://greenjackfruit.blogspot.com and thought i should make my own rasam powder at home. The difference in taste was unbelievable.

 

 

This is the recipe i got from http://greenjackfruit.blogspot.com/2006/09/mysore-rasam.html I made some changes to it to suit our taste.

Mysore rasam

2 Tbsp toor/arhar dal, cooked
1 lemon-sized tamarind
1/2 tsp Turmeric
salt
1 tomato, finely chopped

For the tadka
Ghee or oil 2 tsp
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
curry leaves 8-10
dry red chilies 2-3
Hing a pinch


For powder:

1 tbsp tur dal
2 red chilies
5-6 peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chana dal
1 .5 tsp coriander seeds
a pinch of Hing
a few curry leaves.

Dry roast the spices for the powder on low heat till the seeds change color and emit a nice aroma. When cool, grind to a course powder. You can increase the quantities and make more powder to store for later.

Boil diluted tamarind water with tomatoes, turmeric and salt. Add the cooked and mashed dal to it, add 2 tsp of rasam powder and boil. Simmer on low heat for 15 mins.

Heat ghee or oil in a pan, then add mustard seeds. when they crackle add curry leaves dry red chilies and hing.

Add to rasam mix well and remove from heat. Garnish with green coriander.

Serve hot with rice and sabji.

Spicy pepper chicken - from Shilpa's blog aayi's recipes

Every friday night is celebration time and what is better than chicken??
I try to make either chinese, or mexican or some other snack type item on friday. It has to be very spicy and very hot. I saw this recipe on Shilpa's blog Aayisrecipes. She has a wonderful collection of non-veg recipes. This is very easy to make and yummy too. Thanks Shilpa.

 

This is Shilpa's recipe. I made some changes which are mentioned in brackets
Ingredients:
1/4 lb boneless chicken
A pinch turmeric
1 tbl spn thick yogurt (i used more yougurt about 2-3 tblsp)
1 tea spn ginger paste
1 tea spn garlic paste
1/2 tea spn chili powder (I used about 2 tsp kashmiri red chili powder)
1 tea spn pepper powder
Oil
15-20 curry leaves
Salt


Method:
Apply ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, 1/2 tea spn pepper powder, salt, yogurt to chicken and leave it aside for about 2-3hrs.
Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is steaming hot, add the marinated chicken (i added gried red chilies broken in 2 before adding the cjicken). Cook for 5-6mins from both sides (do not add any extra water). When the chicken is almost half done, add 1/2 tea spn pepper powder, curry leaves (cut into two), cover and cook till chicken is completely done. (Add coriander leaves and lemon juice)

chicken chettinad and karela curry- cooking from other blogs and websites

I love trying out new recipes from blogs and other websites. One such website is vahrevah.com. The chef, Sanjay Thumma demostrates excellent recipes. These can also be found on youtube, rediff and some other websites. I love this recipe for chicken chettinad, which is different bcos it does not use coconut and is therefore healthier.

The recipe for karela curry is from one of my fav blogspot, Shaheen's. The recipe can be found on Shaheen's blog. Thanks Shaheen.

http://malluspice.blogspot.com/2006/10/pavakka-curry-biitergourd-with-yogurt.html

 

Chettinad chicken

250 grams chicken cut into small pieces (boneless or boned)
2 piece cardamom
2 stick cinnamon
3 piece cloves
2 tsp coriander pdr
1 tsp red chilli pdr
2 tsp coarsely crushed pepper corns
1 tsp cumin
2 springs curry leaves
1 tblsp fresh chopped coriander
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
3 gr chillies
1 tsp mustard
2 tblsp oil
1 large onion
2 tomatoes
1 tsp lemon juice
Heat the oil in a large pan. add mustard and cumin Add finely chopped onions, and fry till the onions turn light golden brown. Add turmeric, ginger garlic paste, curry leaves, and green chilli and saute for a while.
Add chopped tomatoes . . Then, add the coriander powder and salt and mix well. Add the chicken to the frying pan and mix well, and cover and cook over a low-medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add a little water only if u need it. The chicken gives out some water. When the chicken is almost done, add the ground pepper into the mixture and mix well. Garnish with green dhania. sprinkle some lemon juice on top.

Re: recipes from other blogs mushroom chettinad and Pavakka curry and a big thanks to Indira and Mathy

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I made Mushroom Chettinad from Nupur's blog One Hot stove and Pavakka curry (karela in yogurt ) from Shaheen's blog malluspice and it turned out wonderful. The curry with rice tasted lip smacking good. I don't have my home computer installed till now, so could not take and post photos. But do try these.

And I would like to take this opportunity to thank Indira for her search engine and Indira and Mathy for Foodblogdesam. These have provided us with ready tools to search and blog recipes. You have made it really easy.

Thanks a ton.