Livery Fry

The iron enabled chicken liver is finger licking tasty when combined with the right spices. This week has been all about Basil leaves. And I wanted to try basil on liver too.

Mix 2 tsps red chilli powder,1 tsp each of garam masala,coriander and pepper powder. Add salt,pinch of turmeric and chopped basil leaves. Mix it all well with a little water which makes a slight heavy paste. Marinate the liver in this and keep it so. Cook onion,and ginger garlic paste till it looks slightly brownish.
Keeping the liver pieces separate,add only the paste and chopped tomatoes to this and cook. Let cook till the water evaporates(in case you want it dry). Add the liver and mix slowly so as not to break them. Cover and keep mixing till the liver is semi fried.

Garnish with basil leaves. Told you...it's basil week!!! :-) Always serve and have it hot.

Check out prawns and spaghetti dish right here

Confused on weekends? Maybe you should read this !!

Playing hard to get Chickpea !

I swear Kabuli chana alias Chickpea is one tough nut to crack. Yes, pun intended, and to be more specific, it is one tough legume to cook! I  was all in the mood to cook a nice dish of chickpea and tomatoes and relax with some FRIENDS shows, but the whole evening went in checking and rechecking if the chana had cooked which meant opening ,closing and reopening the cooker lid some 25000 times! Yes exaggerating! duh!

So just for all those hardworking and also lazy guys who want to try cooking this filling and delicious dish, remember to keep aside time to just let it cook,which would be about 10 whistles in the cooker,covering it with water till 2 levels up.

Once this battle is won,it's relatively easy to make this. Mix onion,green chilli,turmeric with tomato puree and let cook for 10 minutes. The raw taste of the puree should go away. Then add the chana,red chilli powder,garam masala and let simmer for 15 minutes,depending on how cooked it is. The icing (actually ) is the nice smell of coriander leaves which garnishes it.

Quick Gun Capsicum

I woke up today morning and was in a hurry. As usual ,I was thinking what to pack for lunch and was clearly not interested in buying oily food from the office cafeteria. I remembered a lonely piece of capsicum in the veg tub in the fridge and thought will cook up something fast. That’s a pro on this nutritional vegetable, native to America. You can prepare it very quick and with the right spices it’s really tasty.

Since I had just 1 with me ,I added tomatoes too. In warm olive oil,put half an onion and small green chilli chopped. Add a pinch of turmeric and mix well. Put the capsicum first and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes,mix ,cover and cook for 5-6 minutes till Capsi is done. I experimented with basil leaves coz that’s my fascination for this week. The aroma just made me wanna buy this also beautiful looking leaves from Namdhari’s, known for it’s good collection of herbs.

Can’t believe I got it done in 20 minutes. Will not miss the bus today ! :-)

Since you saved up on time and can timepass check out what some pics can say in more than 1000 words.


I'm travelling...I mean right in my kitchen!! Taste popular dishes from around the globe 

Dill leaves and Potato -ballet style !

Dill leaves look beautiful . Tiny fern like plants. It’s nice to wash them in water than subject them to heat and gross red chillies. Anyways...people need to eat.

Cutting them is a little time consuming as you need to remove the semi hard stem separately. Chop a bunch of them and meanwhile pressure cook 2 large potatoes.

For seasoning you need urad dal,dry red chillies,mustard seeds,hing and cumin seeds. Put all of these in a warm non stick pan and add oil. Once urad dal is slightly brown and the mustard seeds splutter,add the potatoes,dill ,2 chopped green chillies,3 cloves of garlic mashed and turmeric.

Here’s where the ballet comes in picture. You need to be careful while mixing the stuff. Your hand goes ,literally in those graceful ballet moves and you need to move your torso also in the direction of your hand. Ok, that was exaggeration.

The semi cooked potato has a tendency of sticking to the pan like Yash Chopra had of sticking to SRK all the fore years!. So mix it,the stuff in the pan ,carefully,rounding off from the sides. Then for 5 minutes,cook covered. Open and mix. Ensure they don’t burn (needless to say) and cover again for 5 minutes.

Serve (if successful) with steamed rice or ofcourse,whatever you have.

Zimply chicken

Long weekend. Lazy Friday. NOTHING to do. chicken in freezer. Nobody at home.
Boneless chicken pieces. Chilli flakes. Dijon mustard paste. Curry powder . Garam masala. Ginger garlic paste.
Mix all with water and cook in cooker. 6 whistles. Layer with sour cream cheese.
Thats why long weekends are good...you can lick your fingers till Sunday night !! :)

Voila! I discovered the simplest chicken ever !!