Category Archives: Simple Cooking

Chicken with Coconut and Roasted Condiments

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This recipe is not mine but Shireen’s. The name of her blog is Ruchik Randhap which means delicious cooking in Konkani. Her recipes are awesome and the photos are wonderful. Check her blog out and I am sure you will agree with me.

I have tried this recipe several times already. It’s my favorite and so does my hubby. It’s simple and easy to prepare and most of all, it’s delicious!

Ingredients :

Chicken – 1 kg

Dried red chillies – 3

Peppercorns – 5

Coriander – 2 tsp

Cumin – 1 tsp

Tamarind – marble size

Coconut milk – 3 tsp or grated coconut – 4 tbsp

Onion – 1 slice for frying

Light butter or oil

Method:
1. Wash & cut the chicken to medium size pieces
2. Roast the condiments (red chillies, peppercorns, coriander, cumin) on slow fire one by one till you get a nice aroma. Keep aside for a few minutes so that it cools off & the chillies become crisp.
3. Grind the roasted condiments with tamarind & coconut powder and a little water. Make a fine paste.
4. Heat oil & lightly fry the roasted condiments (masala) & add the chicken to it. Add salt to taste & let the chicken cook for 15mins.
5. Add little amount of water and let it boil until chicken is cooked.
6. Season it with one sliced onion (fried in butter)
7. Serve hot with rice or chappathi.

To see the original recipe, please visit Ruchik Randhap

Thank you Shireen for all your magnificent recipes and for letting me share it here.

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Palak Chicken

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The other day I emailed the owner of an awesome food blog ‘Ruchik Randhap‘ to ask permission if I can share here her recipes that I had tried and she’s so nice to say ‘yes’. Thank you Shireen!

One of the reasons why I love cooking is because it gives me so much joy to watch my hubby eat heartily and happily. Likewise, he appreciates that I am cooking and is always grateful even if sometimes I screw up. He says “cooking is trial and error, you’ll get it next time”. Isn’t he sweet?

Anyway, the recipe that I am going to share with you today is Palak Chicken (Ruchik Randhap’s recipe). This is now one of our favorite dish .

Palak Chicken

Serves 2

You Need:

  • 500gm Chicken

For the purée

  • 1-1/2 packed cups of Palak (leaves and tender stalk)
  • 2 cloves garlic (without skin)
  • pinch soda-bi-carb (baking soda)
  • salt to taste
  • 1 tsp oil

For the masala

  • 1 small onion roughly chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 inch ginger
  • 1 green chilli (add one more chilli if you like it spicy)

For frying

  • 1 small onion sliced
  • 1 green chilli slit
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1/4 tsp garam masala powder
  • 1 small tomato chopped
  • 2 tsp olive oil (or 1 tsp ghee+2 tsp oil)
  • salt to taste
For garnishing (optional)
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter
Method:

1. Cut Chicken into medium size pieces, wash and allow to drain on a  colander. Wash the Palak well and allow to drain.
2. In a thick bottomed vessel place the Palak, garlic, soda-bi-carb and salt and about 1/4 cup water and cook on a slow fire. When the leaves turn deep green and completely limp, purée them in a blender. Keep this paste aside.
4. Grind all ingredients mentioned in ‘For the masala‘ to a fine paste. Keep aside
5. In a wok or pan heat some oil or ghee and fry the sliced onion well – until it turns golden in colour (but not too brown). Add the ground masala and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the Turmeric powder and salt to taste (go easy on the salt as the puréed palak also has some salt). Add the Chicken, mix well, cover and cook on a medium slow flame.
6. When the Chicken has cooked halfway, toss in the pepper powder, garam masala powder, chopped tomatoes and the green chilli. Mix well, add the masala water  & palak water (from the mixer grinder). Cover and cook until the Chicken is almost done.
7. Add the Palak puree and mix well. Cook for a further 2 minutes.
8. Turn off flame, garnish with fresh cream/butter and serve hot with chapathis or rice.

It seems very long and time-consuming but once you started preparing you won’t notice the time unless you have a baby like me then you have to find a way how to manage your every minute. What I usually do is grind the masala and prepare the palak puree while my baby is still sleeping (around 8am) then I keep it aside until I am ready to cook around 11:00 am which by that time my baby had been bathed, fed and is sleeping again.

Please visit Ruchik Randhap‘s blog to see more delicious and mouth-watering recipes and awesome photos.

Note : This photo belongs to Shireen @ ruchikrandhap.blogspot.com

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Dal Palak Recipe

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Being a wife and a mother, I have decided to love cooking 
and so far so good. I now enjoy cooking as much as I enjoy 
eating. Most of all, my hubby appreciates and is happy 
about it. 

Below is one of my hubby's fave dish. He taught me the
recipe. It is a very simple dish and easy to prepare.
Toor Dal
Palak Leaves
Dal Palak Dish 
Ingredients :
Dal -         1 cup
Palak leaves- 1 bunch
Tomato -      1 small (sliced)
Onion -       1 medium (sliced)
Green Chili - 2 pcs
Turmeric    - 1/3 tsp
Salt to taste

Seasoning :
Mustard seeds - 1/3 tsp
Cumin         - a pinch
Garlic        - 10 cloves (crushed w/ skin)
Onion         - 1 small (sliced thinly)
Curry leaves  - 10 leaves 

Method :
1. Wash & boil the Dal together with tomato,onion,green
   chili,turmeric and salt. Cook until Dal is mushy.
2. Meanwhile, fry the seasoning ingredients then keep aside.
3. Wash the Palak leaves well then cut them around 1 inch
   including the soft stems.
4. If the Dal is mushy, add the palak leaves and fried
   seasoning then let it boil for few minutes. Taste and
   add more salt if needed.
5. Serve with plain rice and fried fish.

Happy eating!
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Beef Kofta Curry

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I cooked Beef Kofta Curry the other day. I took the picture in hurry because I heard Abby was crying. I thought of taking a better one later on but then my hubby came and we are done eating before remembering what I had planned.

Nonetheless, I am posting it to show that I am really trying to cook. So here it is…

Oh by the way, I didn’t prepare the meatballs. My good hubby brought them so all I had to sweat about was cooking the gravy.

I searched the net how to cook it and here’s what I found.

Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons ghee or oil
  • 2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon Garam Masala
  • 1 teaspoon chilli powder or to taste
  • 2 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons chopped coriander or mint
  • lemon juice to taste

Cooking Instructions:

Heat the ghee or oil in a large, heavy saucepan. Brown the meatballs, remove from the pan and set aside. In the same pan fry the onions, garlic and ginger until soft and golden. Add turmeric, garam masala and chilli powder. Fry for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, salt and meatballs, cover and simmer for 25 minutes or until the gravy is thick. Stir in the chopped herbs and lemon juice.

To see the whole recipe including the preparation/ingredients of meatballs. Please click here.

So there you go folks. Why don’t you try cooking it too? Oh about the taste? It may not look perfect in the picture but my hubby said “perfect” and I believed him.

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Bonding Moment

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There’s a saying that goes, “a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” and I think it’s true. My hubby is so happy when I cook something for him. I, on the other hand is so delighted when he eats whatever food I prepared and always say “perfect” whenever I asked him about the taste.

However, I am more delighted whenever we cook together just like yesterday. Whilst cooking, we had a good laugh and a good time despite all the rushing. (as you all know we have a  baby to take care of  but thankfully she was sleeping peacefully at that time)

Cooking together is one of our bonding moment as a couple. A moment that we both certainly enjoy. A moment we will treasure and remember in our golden days. Hopefully.

Anyway, I am supposed to blog here about the recipe of what we cooked but it will take time to type all the ingredients and steps of cooking it (unless someone will ask me to) so I will just show you the food that we cooked.

Guess what it is…

My favorite chicken biryani. (Sorry but the chicken is hiding beneath the rice)

I also prepared salad with yoghurt.

Eating together is also one of our bonding moment. Although nowadays, we can hardly finish our meal together because Abby usually seeks our attention when we are at the middle of our meal. That’s okay though because she will be joining us at the table very soon.

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Don’t Just Heat and Eat that….

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If you are pregnant like me, cooking complicated recipe will tire you easily and will make you catch your breath every now and then (or is it just me?). So I told my hubby if it’s okay with him that I will just cook something quick and easy until I give birth to Abby which of course he quickly answered “yes, cook anything and don’t tire yourself”. Thank God, I have a very understanding hubby.

So guess what I cook that is so easy and quick? Fried egg? No. Boiled egg? No!..I cooked…Pre-cooked Shawarma!Not simply defrosting or frying it but I added some spices to make it taste fresher.

Ingredients :

Pre-cooked shawarma

                                                Garlic, Onion, 1 Green chili & 1 Tomato

                                                         Coriander leaves (chopped)

* a pinch of ground pepper

* a pinch of salt

How to cook:

1.) Defrost the shawarma in a microwave oven or fry in a pan with little olive oil. Set aside.

2.) Fry the garlic until a bit brown then put the onion and fry until translucent then the   green chili and then the tomato.Cook for few minutes.

3.) Put a pinch of ground pepper and a little salt (keep in mind that shawarma is pre-cooked and therefore has salt and has other spices already)

4.) Put the coriander leaves, mix well. Cook for 1 minute.

5.) Serve with hot plain rice or kaboos (Arabic bread).

Note : Shawarma can either be chicken or beef

Simple, quick and easy…Happy eating!

Indian Spices

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I am not a good cook and usually I just cook whatever is available in our fridge. I am not very particular with the ingredients that are supposed to be in a dish as long as the main ingredient is available, I am okay with that and cook it in my style. When I was still working, I cook my own Filipino food and my hubby cooks his own Indian food. He doesn’t like my food (which I can understand) but I can eat his food as long as he cooks it with less spices. But lately since I quit my job, I decided to learn how to cook in his way and become interested in Indian spices.

The ff. are some of the spices available in our kitchen and for me to familiarized their names, I labeled them accordingly.

black peppercorn
cinnamon
cloves
coriander seeds
cumin seeds
dried chili
fennel seeds
green cardamom
ground pepper
mustard seeds
turmeric powder