A Steamy Luscious Meal

I decided to cook a nice meal for the family yesterday (not that I don't everyday). I made Lentil Soup, Salad from Luscious Food and Noodles from Steamy Kitchen. Since our family consists of vegetarians, seafood dis-likers and Shrimp lovers, I made the dishes vegetarian and had sauted spicy shrimp on the side so the rest of us shrimp loving folks could eat it.


Recipe For the Salad

Recipe For noodles.

Chicken Meat Balls - Inspired by Top Chef

I became a fan of Top Chef after watching last season. Unfortunately only last season was good. This season sucked. I haven't seen any good Chefs so far. Oh Well. What does that have to do with this recipe? Actually nothing much. Every time I watch this show I feel like I should do something new and different. So as soon as the re-runs ended on tuesday evening, I went shopping for some meat and this is what I came up with. It's super easy and you can serve it as an appetizer, side dish or make some yummy tomato sauce and make chicken meat balls with spaghetti.

I used sun dried tomatoes in olive oil. You can substitute this with regular sun-dried tomato bits. You can make this dish without them too but just don't add regular tomatoes. No good.

Ingredients:

Ground Chicken - 1 lb
Onion - 1/4 cup finely chopped
Sun Dried Tomatoes - 1/4 cup finely chopped
Mint Leaves - 8 minced
Garam Masala - 1/2 Tsp.
Garlic Paste - 1/2 tsp.
Turmeric - pinch
Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp.
Lemon Juice - 1 Tbsp.
Salt - To taste
Oil - For deep frying

Procedure:
- Mix all the ingredients and store in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour covered.
- Form the mixture in mini-lime sized balls. This way the meat gets cooked inside well.
- Deep fry them few at a time.
- Remove from oil, pat them on a kitchen towel and serve on a bed of sauted onions and peppers .

Chicken Butter Roast

When I was in India last year, I had this Chicken Butter roast in Mangalore which was yummmm. I have been trying to re-create it since then and yesterday was my second attempt. Family loved it so much that there was nothing left over. They wouldn't even wait for me to take the picture. This is a first when I had no left-overs of a dish I made :).

I actually got Chicken Tenders pack and then cut each piece at the center(so you get thin pieces) and then cut them again into bite size pieces. This actually helped for the spices to get into the meat and also the outcome was soft and juicy.

The Kashmiri Chilli Powder can be bought in any Indian store. This is little less spicy and has a vibrant red color. You can substitute paprika but the taste might be a teeny bit different.

I usually use homemade curd. However, you can use any store bought yogurt. If you don't have any on hand, use tablespoon of lemon juice.

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1.5 lbs
Ginger and garlic Paste - 1 tsp.
Curd/Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Kashmiri Chilli Powder - 1.5 Tbsp.
Chili Powder - 1 tsp.
Garam Masala - 1.5 tsps.
Turmeric - Pinch
Salt - to taste
Oil - 5 Tbsp.
Butter - 2 Tbsp.

Procedure:

- Wash and pat dry the chicken.
- Mix all the ingredients except oil and butter.
- Cover and store the chicken in regular fridge for minimum of 2 hours. If you can let it marinate over night that would be awesome too :).
- Heat oil and butter in wide skillet.
- Add the chicken pieces. Cover and cook for 2 minute son medium flame.
- Increase the heat to high till it starts to brown. Flip the pieces and cook the other side.
- Do it in 2 batches if the skillet is small. Do not over crowd them.
- Remove the chicken from the skillet. make sure you scrape all the tiny bits stuck to the skillet. That's the best part.