CHICKEN 65

 

Lockdown conversations: I find myself laughing at the silliest of jokes (which under normal circumstances would have merely provoked a snicker from me) and giggling even while having the most sedate of conversation. It must be my way of coping with the current situation.

The other day I was speaking to Honeylaze (yup, you read the name right, this is her gamer name) and typically our conversation revolves around books, food, parenting and work but here we were, discussing online games. Honeylaze told me she beat her children’s score at bowling and also sent me screenshots to prove her gaming prowess. Much against my better judgment, I downloaded the App and you will find me sneaking in a game between cooking and washing vessels.

I called my Uncle and our conversation went on for half an hour during which time he told me the recipe for homemade bird feed made with cat food!

Sky and I had a 10-minute discussion on which gravy would go best with egg fried rice.

I was checking with my lawyer friend if he knew of anyone who handled FRRO related matters and he responded saying he could take up Ferrero Rocher matters. *more laughter*

I pity my housemates who have to put up with my howls of laughter because all these conversations have ended with me laughing out aloud. It may not seem funny to you as you read this, but do feel free to give me a call and let us infect each other with laughter because laughter is the kind of contagion I could do with right now.

Stay home, stay safe and follow me on Facebook and Instagram (Lucidlucent).

 

CHICKEN 65

 

Ingredients:

Boneless Chicken – 100 gms

Oil

For the marinade

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Curd – 1 ½ tbsp

Powdered pepper – ½ tsp

Corn flour – 2-3 tbsp

Turmeric – a pinch

Salt – to taste

Seasoning

Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Chopped garlic – 2 tbsp

Green chilly (sliced) – 1

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Sugar – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Vinegar – 1 tsp diluted in 3 tbsp water

Powdered pepper – ½ tsp

 

Method:

1.     In a bowl, add the marinade ingredients, mix it well. Add a few spoons of water if required.

2.     Add the cubes of chicken to the marinade, mix well and set aside for a few hours or overnight.

3.     Deep fry the marinated pieces of chicken and cook until they turn crisp and golden. Drain and set aside.

4.     Heat oil in a pan. Add chopped garlic, curry leaves and slit green chilly and fry until the leaves turn crisp. Add red chilli powder, salt and sugar. To this add the vinegar solution and stir it quick until the mixture thickens.

5.     Quickly add the fried chicken pieces to it and stir until the pieces are well coated and turn off the flame once done.

6.     Done.

 

 

 

 

SMASHED SWEET POTATOES (5 INGREDIENT)

R looked at the sweet potatoes and then back at me with raised eyebrows. I hadn’t ordered these in ages. I have a new recipe in mind I told her. I hadn’t.

The fancy recipes I came across on the internet had fat, succulent, orange sweet potatoes. What I had was scrawny, purple ones.

I came across a recipe for smashed baby potatoes and decided to make smashed Sweet Potatoes instead.

I haven’t mentioned the quantities. It’s all as per your taste preference.

I mentioned cheese only because I have added it to the batch of which I clicked pictures. I would recommend skipping cheese as I could hardly taste it or perhaps, I put too little of it. 

These are soooooooo good. The sweet potatoes are garlicky, sweet and spicy and crispy and baked! So much healthier than the packet of Lays Chips I’m eating as I type this post. You may add other herbs if you wish to but salt and red chilly powder go perfectly well with these sweet potatoes.

If you do not have an oven, fry them on a pan. You must try these, have I said it already? These are so good. So good.

You could use regular potatoes instead but I do insist that you try it with sweet potatoes too because they are so good ;P

For more such simple recipes, please do follow me on Facebook @Lucidlucent and Instagram @lucidlucent.

SMASHED SWEET POTATOES

Ingredients:

Sweet potatoes

Butter

Garlic

Salt

Red chilli powder

Cheese (optional)

Method:

1.     Boil the sweet potatoes until cooked. (let it not be too soft, I pressure cook it along with our rice and it’s perfectly done). Leave the peel on.

2.     Preheat oven at 180C.

3.     Slice the sweet potatoes into ½ inch rounds.

4.     Add crushed garlic to butter and heat it until the butter melts.

5.   Transfer the chopped sweet potatoes into a mixing bowl. Drizzle the garlic butter on it. Sprinkle salt and chilli powder. Give it a good toss until the sweet potatoes are well coated.

6.     Place the sweet potatoes on a greased baking dish. Smash it slightly with a fork.

7.     Sprinkle cheese on it. (optional)

8.     Bake at 180C for about 15-20 mins until the edges have crisped and browned.

9.     Done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOX NUTS (MAKHANA) TRAIL MIX

30.08.2020: I had 50 gms of Makhana remaining after I had made Caramel Makahana. Though Skip insisted that I make the Caramel ones again, I wanted to try a different recipe. “I need content for the blog”.

I decided to make a savoury version this time.

I’ve had some moments in the kitchen where I’ve frozen in panic after tasting my dish. I tend to add too much salt at times. A trick to pull out excess salt from gravy-based dishes is to drop a few raw potato slices in it. Let it soak in the excess salt and fish the slices out just before serving. What do you do with excess salt in your trail mix?

Skip ate a mouthful and said this wouldn’t have happened if I had just listened to him and used sugar instead of salt.

Barring the slight overdose of salt, which gradually settled at the bottom, we did manage to finish these in good time. If you like "namkeen" of the sweet and savoury kind, you will definitely enjoy this too.

Do not season the fox nuts again, immediately after you take it off the flame. Give it a good mix, let it cool down and then taste and decide if you need to add more salt. 

I’ve used ingredients that were available at home, feel free to use whatever seeds, nuts, dried fruits you have at home and eyeball the quantities. Just don’t add too much salt.

FOX NUTS TRAIL MIX

Ingredients:

Fox nuts (Makhana) – 50 gms

Butter / Clarified butter (ghee) – 2 tbsp

Cashews /Peanuts (or both) – 3 tbsps

Almonds (whole) – 3 tbsps

Raisins – 1 tbsp

Sunflower seeds – 2 tbsps

Watermelon seeds – 2 tbsps

Powdered sugar- 1 tsp

Pepper – ½ tsp

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Chaat masala / Aamchur powder – ¼ tsp

Salt – to taste

Method:

1.     Add butter/ghee to a pan and roast the nuts and seeds separately. Set aside.   

2.     In the same pan, toast the fox nuts until they begin to brown (for about 10 minutes). Add the salt, sugar, chaat masala and turmeric and give it a good mix.

3.     Dump the roasted nuts, seeds and raisins into the pan and mix it well for about 2 minutes more. (Keep an eye on the fox nuts, you don’t want them to burn)

4.     Let it cool. Store in an airtight jar.

5.     Done.

CARAMEL FOX NUTS (MAKHANA)

12.08.2020: Do you know why these are called 'Fox' Nuts? These come from a plant called Euryale Ferox also commonly called the prickly waterlily. These are also called Phool Makhana (in India) and Lotus Seeds.

These are commonly consumed during periods of religious fasting. The makhana is a super snack- rich in nutrients and low in cholesterol, fat and sodium.

For the longest time, I have been having them with butter, salt and pepper. I first dry roast the seeds and then add a smidgen of butter and toss them in salt and pepper. I had a 100 gm packet lying around and decided to make it different this time.

That night was to be our movie night and I fondly remembered the tub of caramel and salted popcorn mix that gave me company during films, good and bad- the sole reason for agreeing to watch movies in Vega City Mall which is at the other end of town (they have the best caramel popcorn there).

When Skip and I went for movies together, we often fought over the choice of popcorn. He loves cheese and I, a mix of caramel and salt. Skip doesn’t like caramel and I don’t like cheese. The mixed flavours come only in large sized tubs which I cannot finish. So, it was only fair that we bought a tub of caramel and cheese mix. Skip would dip his sticky fingers ( he always has to lick his fingers to get the cheese powder off it!)  and go digging into the tub looking for cheese and would end up picking only the caramels and I would end up with soggy cheese ones, made wet with his little fingers.

I decided we would eat caramel makhana that night. Sky said he would prefer salt. So, I used only half of it to try caramelised makhana. I have decided to try the Dry Fruit Makhana with the remaining fox nuts. I will post that recipe soon!

These are sooooooo good. Skip loved them and so did Sky. Can you hear that crunch? As good as caramel popcorn with the wonderful makhana flavour. Use the exact quantities mentioned by me for an even and light coating of the caramel sauce.

The recipe for the caramel sauce is inspired from the YouTube Channel- Gol Roti.

Yeh makhane ka rass zara chakhna, oi makhna oi makhna…..

Do you love salted caramel popcorn too or grooved to the Amitabh-Govinda-Madhuri starrer song? Then I must insist you follow me on Instagram and Facebook @lucidlucent. Thank you. 

CARAMEL FOX NUTS (MAKHANA)

Ingredients:

Fox nuts (Makhana) – 50 gms

Sugar – 4 tbsp

Water – 3 tbsp

Butter – 1 tbsp

Milk – 5 tbsp

Salt/sea salt – a pinch (optional) 

Method:

1. Grease a plate or line it with butter paper.  

2. Toast the fox nuts until they brown. I dry roasted them in a pan for about 10 minutes. Set aside.

3.To the same pan, add sugar and water and stir until the sugar melts. Keep stirring it continuously.

4.When the liquid reduces and thickens, add the butter and stir it until the butter melts.

5.To this add the milk and a pinch of salt and keep stirring until the sauce reduces further. It shall thicken and turn a lovely caramel colour.

6.Turn off the heat and immediately add the toasted fox nuts. Mix it well until the nuts are coated with the caramel sauce.

7.  (If you have sea salt, skip adding salt to the sauce and as soon as you have coated the nuts with the sauce, sprinkle a little sea salt on it). This step is optional. 

8.  Spread and separate the fox nuts on the greased plate/butter paper.

9. Let it cool and in about 10 minutes, the fox nuts would have turned crunchy.

10. Done.

GRANOLA BARS

05.08.2020: I love, absolutely love Granola Bars. I have been meaning to make granola bars at home for the longest time, but I always ended up buying them from the store. I do think some of the store-bought ones are overpriced and probably not as nutritious as they claim to be.

Pre-covid days, I would reserve weekends/holidays for cooking and when weekend arrived, I thought it wasn’t fair that I should be sweating it out in the kitchen when I could just relax with my feet propped up on the table and go through recipes online, bookmarking them  for eternity. 

Now that I am working from home,  I have the inclination to bake and cook all dishes that I have always wanted to. WFH cons: my break from office work involves doing household chores.

I am stuck with ironing a pile of Sky’s shirts! (How many shirts can a man have!!!) I wish I hadn’t banned our clothes from being sent out for ironing. I got it in my mind that our clothes mixed with strangers’ clothes would bring the virus back home. Skip and I are fine wearing crumpled clothes at home. I realised Sky had run out of ironed clothes for office when I saw the HUGE pile of washed clothes on his bed. I am currently ironing 5 shirts a day and yet the pile doesn’t reduce in size. I HATE ironing and the fact that Skip calls me Ironwoman doesn’t amuse me! Sky reminds me daily that I needn’t iron the shirts (I think he wants me to stop as I do such a bad job of it) but I strive on untiringly after having noticed some weight loss on my arms.

Jenga time with Granola Bars

I got a batch of dry fruits and seeds from my parents and decided to make granola bars since I finally had ALL the ingredients to make it. These make for great snack bars as they provide you with guilt-free snacking (not that I have ever felt guilty about snacking), are a good source of fiber, curb your hunger, boost your energy, is made up of healthy ingredients and most importantly is easy to make.

You can be flexible with the quantities of the ingredients.

The recipe is from the minimalistbaker's blog.  i have added  a few extra ingredients. 

GRANOLA BARS

Ingredients:

Dates – 200 gms ( about 2 cups)

Honey  - 80 gms (1/2 cup)

Peanut butter- 50 gms (1/2 cup)

Chopped Almonds – 100 gms (3/4 cup)

Pumpkin and sunflower seeds – 20 gms (¼ cup)

Rolled oats –120 gms ( 2 cups)

Method:

1.   De-seed the dates and grind it in a mixie until it attains a dough like texture. Place it in a mixing bowl.

2.    Toast the oats, almonds and seeds for about 10 minutes. Add these to the dates.

3.   Add the honey and peanut butter to another dish and lightly warm it and mix it well.

4.    Pour the honey-peanut butter mixture to the mixing bowl and mix all ingredients well.

5.  Transfer the contents to a greased dish. I used a 9 inch baking dish. Press the mixture down firmly. I used the back of a bowl.

6.   Cover it and place it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Remove from freezer and cut it into bars.

7.    Store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

8.     Done.

Recipe Notes:

•    You may add additional ingredients such as dried fruits (apricots, cranberries, sultanas), walnuts, candied peel, bits of chocolate or coat the bars in melted chocolate.

I'm also on Facebook and Instagram @lucidlucent. Follow me for more of such simple recipes ! 

SAMOSA

09.05.2020: About 100 metres away from our house is a bakery that sells Samosas. At times when I have too much work at office, I take a two minute break and think about these Samosas. Pre-Covid times had me eating these Samosas about once a month. During the lockdown, I was craving for Samosas and decided to make them at home. I’d never imagined I’d be making them at home! Lockdown had me trying out a lot of dishes I’d never have otherwise tried at home.

My friend S sent me a video of Ring Samosas that looked so pretty. So, first I made the regular looking Samosa and then on Skip’s birthday, I made the ring Samosas. I have used the same recipe for both. Also, I didn’t have most of the masalas (spices) required for the filling, but the Samosa still tasted good. I will list all the ingredients as shown in the original recipe but the filling tastes just as great even with minimal spices. I need to blow my own trumpet, I was mighty pleased with myself for having made Samosas at home. The conical ones are slightly browned, those are from my first attempt but they tasted great! The shell was crispy and the filling was spicy and tangy. I had some homemade date and tamarind chutney to go along with it.

The ring Samosas are perfect party snacks, they taste great, they look pretty and they are easy to make. Here are a few TIPS to get your Samosa right:

1.      Knead a tight dough, do not add too much water.

2.      The oil shouldn’t be too hot when you drop the dough in for frying and keep the flame on low.

3.      When you’re frying the second batch, if you find the oil too hot, turn off the flame and light it again after a few minutes once the oil has cooled down.

Here’s a video of me making the ring shaped Samosa:

SAMOSA

Ingredients:

For the shell:

Maida (All purpose flour) – 2 cups

Salt – 1 tsp

Ajwain (carom seeds) – 1 tsp

Ghee/oil – 4 tsp

Water

For the filling:

Oil –As required

Jeera (cumin seeds) – 1 tsp

Hing (Asafoetida) – 1 tsp

Saunf (Fennel) – 1 tsp

Ginger-Garlic paste – 1 tbsp

Boiled Potatoes – 4-5 medium sized

Red Chilli Powder – 1 tbsp

Coriander powder – 1 tbsp

Chopped Green Chilly – 1

Salt – to taste

Green peas – ½ cup

Cumin powder -1 tsp

Anardana powder (dried pomegranate seeds) – 1 tbsp

Aamchur powder (dried mango) – ½ tsp

Fresh coriander – 1 tbsp

Method:

1.    Shell: Add Ghee/oil to maida, salt and ajwain mixture and combine it well. Add water as required and knead it into semi-hard dough. Cover it with a moist cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes. You may make the filling during this period.

2.   Filling: Heat oil in a pan. Add jeera, hing and saunf to it. Add the ginger-garlic paste and sauté for a minute.

3.    Crumble the potatoes and add it to the pan (mash the potatoes a bit more for the ring Samosa). To this, add red chilli powder, coriander powder, green chilly and salt. Mix and sauté well.

4.     Add the green peas. Cook until the moisture in the potato evaporates.

5.  To this add the cumin powder, anardaana powder, aamchur powder and coriander. Cook for about 3 minutes more. Set aside and let the mixture cool.

6.      Divide the dough into roundels, flatten it and then shape it as desired.

7.      Once the Samosas are shaped, let it rest for 15 minutes.

8.      Deep – fry the dough on low flame for about 10 minutes or until it browns.

9.      Done.

Recipe Notes:

·        Refer to TIPS mentioned above.

When lockdown was declared in March, I got my drawing book out and decided to try something new and sketch a portrait. I scrolled through images and settled on the picture of my little pudding of a nephew. As I struggled on getting those jiggly cheeks and piercing eyes right, I realised portraits was not my cup of tea or I should probably chose a random image from the net that doesn’t bear resemblance to anyone I know. Typically, not one to leave any work incomplete, I couldn’t get myself to finish this project.

I made this Mandala instead and as I didn’t have a geometry box at home, this one was made using bowls and lids.