CHILLI CHEESE NUGGETS        

                                                  

Ingredients:
Cheese                     - 200 gm
Cilantro leaves          - a spring
Green Cilli                - 1 large
Bread Slices             -  4 - 5
Egg                          -  2
(For a veg version substitute eggs with cornstarch slurry : Mix 3 tbs cornstarch in 1 cup water)
Oil                           - for deep frying



Method:

1. Any sort of cheese that melts will do: Slices, cubes, blocks.
I used a block of mozzarella  Pizza Cheese (Milky Mist)

Break the cheese to smaller pieces into a microwave safe bowl. Line the bowl with butter paper if required.

Finely Chop the Cilantro and green chilli.

Microwave the cheese till completely melted. Add the leaves and chilli to the bowl and fold it into the cheese.

2. Let the cheese set fully in the fridge or freezer if you are in a hurry. Once it is fully set, remove the cheese from the bowl and cut in into small bite sized pieces. (Run a knife along the edge to loosen the cheese.  If you  line the bowl with a butter paper removing the cheese would be a lot easier. )

3. Blitz the bread slices for 2-3 sec, to get bread crumbs. Collect the crumbs in a wide bowl or plate.

Beat the eggs in another bowl ( make the cornstarch slurry ready for the egg less version). Assemble everything.

4. Coat the cheese in egg, then transfer it into the bowl of breadcrumbs,

Coat it completely with breadcrumbs.

Put it back into the egg bowl and coat it with another layer of egg. After this, give it yet another coating of breadcrumbs. 

5. Coat all the cheese pieces in this way and keep aside. Heat oil for deep frying. Once the oil begins to smoke, reduce heat to low and drop the coated cheese and fry till brown on both sides. 

Drain excess oil on paper towels. Serve Hot with dip of your choice.

I served it on a bed of Fried spinach leaves (recipe from Gayathri's Kitchen Basics) For a colour boost!  (health boost is out of the question here :D) 

Pan Fried Baby-corn Chili:

Have you tasted the tangy and spicy and sweet and salty Indo-Chinese Manchurians and chillies like Chicken chilli, Mushroom Manchurian, honey chilli potatoes.. in any roadside food stalls?? They toss an array of things in a sizzling hot pan in front of  you and the dish is ready in a thrice, smoking hot & pricked with toothpicks! I cooked up my first Gobhi Manchurian at a Bul-Bul camp, when I was 12 years old. I had always wanted to recreate that taste. So i got to work. whenever I saw a cauliflower head or a bunch of baby corn I would chop them up, fry them & toss them around in all kinds of sauces I could get my hands on. The result was, initially inedible, but there was gradual improvement till I could finally start priding myself on a few good Indo-Chinese dishes. 

Recently I tried a non deep fried version of chilli and I was liked by everyone in my house. I shared the recipe with few of my friends and they were raving about it. It tastes just as good and crispy as if it were deep fried. This is the recipe I stick to now a days for a quick snack. 

Ingredients:

For the batter:

• Baby corn - 10 to 12 chopped into bite sized pieces.
• Flour - 1/2 cup
• Cornstarch - 1/2 cup
• salt - to taste
• vegetable oil - 2 to 3 tbs

For the sauce:

• Onion, roughly chopped - 1 small
• Green Chilies - 2-4 (or as per your spice preference)
• Ginger, finely chopped - 1 tbs
• Garlic, finely chopped - 1 - 1 1/2 tbs
• Spring onion, finely chopped (whites & greens separated) - 2 springs
• Soy sauce - 1 tsp 
• Red chilli sauce - 1 to 2 tbs 
• Tomato ketchup - 1/2 to 1 tbs
• Salt or Chinese salt (MSG) - to taste
• Sugar - a pinch or two
• vegetable oil - 1 to 2 tbs

Method:

1. Boil 2 - 3 cups of water in a vessel. Add 2 tsp salt and the baby corn pieces to this. Let it steam for 10 min. turn off heat and strain the baby corn pieces. Keep aside. Mix all the batter ingredients except for the baby corn pieces. Add water little by little and mix well to make a thick batter. Add the baby corn pieces to this batter and toss to coat well. 

                                          

2. Heat 1 - 2 tbs vegetable oil in a pan. Place the battered baby corn on the pan in a single layer without overlapping. . 

Save the rest of the batter!! we will use it later ;)

                                   

3. Shallow fry on medium heat till one side is browned. Flip to the other side and cook till both the sides are golden brown and crispy.

                                      

4. Drain off excess oil.
                                     
5. Keep everything chopped and ready.

6. Heat oil in a pan till it is smoking hot. Add the chopped ginger, garlic chillies onions and spring onions(only the white part). Saute on high heat for 1 minute.

 
                                   




       

7. Add the sauces. Taste it and adjust salt & sugar.

8. Add a few spoons of the batter and 1/2 cup water.

                                   

                                     

9. Mix it up rapidly ! If you don't, the added batter will harden to form lumps. 

10. Let the sauce come to boil and thicken.

                                      

11. Add the baby corn pieces to the sauce & toss to coat all the pieces in it.

12. garnish with spring onion green and serve immediately.

Cream of Chicken Soup

I first tried a creamy soup in Kerala. It was a Cream of Garlic. I came back home and set to work My cousin Appu was with me. "We need lots of garlic," I told her and we both peeled around two heads of garlic, ground them to a paste, mixed water, cornflour, salt and pepper and boiled the pungent thing into a "soup". As you can expect, it was too strong to drink... But I was determined to make a good and edible) creamy soup. 

Many trial and errors later I have succeeded in making Cream of Garlic Soup. Day before yesterday, I thought of adding some chicken, that was sitting in the fridge, and converted my Cream of Garlic to Cream of Chicken soup. I had a cup of frozen broth (It was a side product from a Stuffed Chicken I made three weeks ago) in my freezer which I had stored intending to add it to some undecided future soup. I went for it and the soup turned out to be excellent. My best Yet :)

Ingredients:

Chicken - 250 grams

Onion, chopped - 1- 2

Cloves of Garlic, Chopped - 10

Bread slices, torn to pieces - 6-7

Milk - 1/2 cup

Heavy Cream - 1/2 cup

Cornstarch - 1-3 tbsp(according to your desired consistency)
Water: for broth - 8 cups
           for cornstarch slurry - 1 cup

Onion pwdr - 1 tsp

Garlic pwdr - 1 tsp

Vegetable Oil or Butter - 3 tbs

Salt & Pepper - to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil or butter in a pot. Add the chopped onion and garlic and saute for around 7 minutes or till they begin to brown and caramelize.

They are beginning to caramelize

2. Meanwhile Bring 7-8 cups of water to a rolling boil. Add the chicken into it and reduce heat to medium. Let the chicken cook through. Remove the chicken from the broth and cut the into small pieces.

Making the chicken broth

Debone and shred chicken

3. Add the broth into the pot. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

The colour changed here because I added a cup of frozen broth which I got from another chicken dish. I'll share the recipe soon ;)

4. Turn off heat and add the bread pieces. Let them soak for 4-5 min.

5. Strain and separate the solid through a sieve/mesh
.

Strain 

6. Blend the solids to a fine paste and return it to the pot.

7. Add the strained broth as well. Keep the pot back on heat. Mix and add salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders. Add 1-2 tbs heavy cream (mine is homemade and not at room temp which is why it is solid like butter)

8. Make a slurry with cornstarch and water. Pour it in a thin stream into the soup while stirring. Let the soup simmer and thicken.







9. Add the chicken pieces and serve.