Showing posts with label Non veg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Non veg. Show all posts

Sunday, 24 June 2018

Chingri or prawn is always favorite sea food for us. In Bengali cousin we have lot of famous dishes with prawns like Lou chingri, Chingri malaicurry, Vapa chingri, Dab chingri etc. Actually prawn has an awesome taste which can turn any dish a delicious one from a very average. And cooking time is also very short. In my blog you will get lots of recipe with prawn. This time I am sharing steamed prawn recipe which is one of our favorite prawn recipe.
I learned this dish from my mom and she learned from her friend. In this recipe I added coconut but my mom and aunt never added it. One of friend said they generally add poppy seed paste. But we don’t. Some people obviously will say no need to use chopped onion but I  used. If you want to skip coconut, onion you can. Even you can add poppy seed paste. But don’t replace mustard paste. Without mustard paste this dish will be incomplete. In most of the steamed recipe in Bengali cousin you will get use of mustard paste because of its pungent taste, which makes the dish more sumptuous. For more steamed fish recipe you can check vapa Ilish recipe in my blog.
The quantity of ingredients is for 2 persons.

prawn steamed with mustard paste - Bengali recipe
Steamed Prawn or Vapa Chingri

Ingredients:

Prawns – 15/20 medium size
Mustard paste – 1tbsp
Coconut paste – 1tbsp
Chopped onion – 1small size
Salt
Turmaric powder – 1 tsp
Mustard oil – 1and1/2 tbsp
Green chilli – 5/6pcs

Recipe:

Clean the prawns, deveined and deshell it. If you want to keep head portion you can keep.
Take a mixing bowl and put all ingredients except green chilli and oil.
Mix it and add ½ tbsp oil in it.
Now take a steel tiffin box and put the mixed prawn with spices.
Drizzle remaining oil on it and put green chillies.
Cover the box.
Now you have to steam it.
Take a large vessel and put some water.
Then keep a small stand in the vessel and keep the box on the stand.
Cover the vassal and steam it for 10 - 12 minutes.
Prawn cooks very fast.
When the water comes to normal temperature, remove the box and your steamed prawn is ready.
Serve with hot steamed rice and enjoy your meal.


Sunday, 15 April 2018


poila boishakh, nabonorsho, cake art, fondant
Poila Boishakh theme cake

Subho nabobarsho 1425…..poila boisakh means Bengali new year started today. This day obviously very special to all Bengali. Actually Bengalis are very fond of food and festival and we wait throughout the year for our famous Durgapuja. But we have lots of occasions to celebrate with some sumptuous food and rituals. Poila boisakh is just one of them. In Bengali we have a famous proverb “bangalir baro mas e tero parbon”(in 12 months Bengalis have 13 festivals) and Poila Boisakh is the first festival of the year. How we celebrate this day…..generally in Bengal in this day maximum shops start their new account with some puja, which is called khata puja and that khata (book of account) is very special, that comes with red cover and knot with a thread, called ‘kheror khata’. Now a days so many people stay out of Bengal for their jobs. So they always try to make a gathering with their Bong friends with some cultural programmes.
Nabo Borsho theme cake toppings created with fondant

Crafting Nabo Borsho theme cake



Nabo borsho themed cake art with fondant
Poila Boishakh/ Nabo borsho theme cake art

For the last 10 years I am also out of Bengal, even out of India. So we also celebrate our Poila Boisakh with some bong friends with some mouthwatering dishes. And this time I made a cake on Poila Boisakh theme, where I tried to present few stuffs related to the occasion. As the gathering was arranged with the famous pot-luck concept, along with my cake, there were many mouthwatering traditional Bengali dishes brought by my friends. The menu includes dimer devil, Bengali pulao, chicken curry, mutton curry, bhapa ilish, amer chatni. The food was well accompanied by famous Bong adda with card games (taser adda). Overall, it was a fantastic day spent with some adorable friends. We enjoyed it thoroughly.
nabo borsho special menu
Poila Boishakh menu; PC: KInjal Mandal

One of the pic in this post is taken by my friend Kinjal.

Subho Naboborsho!!

Thursday, 22 March 2018


Orange chicken is a Chinese dish where the yummy sauce is made with ripe orange juice and zest. And guess what, honey is also added to make the sauce even yummier. My daughter is a hard core chicken fan. That too she likes different preparations of chicken. One day when I was searching for a new chicken recipe, I stumbled upon this one and all the ingredients were also present at my kitchen. It turned out to be quick recipe and goes very well with fried rice or noodles. Let me know how many of you tried this at home and how it turned out.

Ingredients:

Chicken cubes – 300 gms
Corn flour – 2 tbsp
Flour – 1 tbsp
Egg – 1
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Orange zest – 1tsp
Orange juice – ¾th cup
Red chilli sauce – 1tbsp
Light soya sauce – 1 ½ tbsp.
Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp
Honey – 1 or 2 tsp (depends on sweetness of orange)
Chopped spring onion
Capsicum – square cut (optional)
Salt
Black pepper powder
Oil - 1 cup


chicken with orange and honey sauce
Orange Chicken


Recipe:

Marinate the chicken with ginger garlic paste, salt, ½ tbsp. soya sauce, pepper powder, flour, corn flour, egg and keep aside for 15- 20 minutes.
Heat oil in a wok and fry the chicken pieces till golden.
Keep them aside.
In a pan put orange juice, orange zest, and three types of sauces, honey, salt and 2 tbsp. oil from wok.
Switch on the gas and when it starts to bubble add chicken, capsicum (optional) and toss it.
All chicken should be coated with sauce.
Lastly add 1 tbsp corn flour with water (1tsp corn flour + 1tbsp water) and mix it.
Serve in a plate and sprinkle some chopped spring onion.
Serve hot with fried rice or noodles.

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

Chettinad chicken is the classic Indian chicken curry recipe originated from the Chettinad region of India. The specialty of Chettinad cuisine is the use of freshly ground masalas. 

Ingredients:

Chicken- 750gms
Chopped onion - 3 medium
Ginger-garlic paste - 1tsp
Tomato puree - 1tbsp
Curry leaves - 10/12 pcs
Salt
Turmeric powder- 1tsp
Red chilli powder- 1tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Garam masala powder - 1tsp
For masala:
Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
Clove - 4/5
Cinnamon - 2 inches
Cardamom - 4/5
Poppy seeds - 1tsp
Fennel seeds - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Coriander seeds - 1tsp
Dry red chilli - ¾
Ginger - ½ inch
Garlic - 2 cloves
south Indian chicken curry named chettinad chicken
Chettinad Chicken

Recipe:

Marinate the chicken with ginger-garlic paste, ½ tsp turmeric and 1tsp red chilli powder.
In the meantime take a pan and dry roast all spices.
Roast very carefully otherwise coconut will burn, roast till it turns golden.
Now put all the roasted spices in a blender and blend very well. You can add little water if needed. Keep aside when done.
Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion, fry it till golden.
Then add tomato puree and mix it. 
Add the roasted spice mix and remaining turmeric powder and stir it very well till oil comes out.
Now add marinated chicken and mix well with the spices.
Add salt and garam masala powder.
Add water and cover with a lid for 10-15 minutes till the chicken becomes tender.
Serve with rice, naan or anything that you like.



Monday, 15 January 2018

Chicken Biryani, the most famous dish of India. It is difficult to find an Indian who does not like Biryani, either veg or non veg. In India there are different gharanas (style) of this Mughlai dish - Hyderabadi Biryani, Lakhnowi Biryani, Kolkata Biryani, Konkani Biryani. Being  a Bengali, I love Kolkata Biryani the most. The aroma of Kewra water, mitha ator always make me hungry. And of course the use of potato J. But I stayed in Hyderabad for some years, so Hyderabadi Biryani is also very close to my heart. In Hyderabad also there are many styles of Biryani - spicy and non spicy like the famous Paradise.

Personally, me and my husband are so fond of Biryani that we can eat it any time. But as I am currently staying out of country, it is very difficult to get tasty yummy Biryani like Kolkata or Hyderabad. I tried making Biryani quite a lot of time with many recipes that I got from my mother, friends or from other numerous sources. But the current version of my recipe is so easy yet tasty that it has made it a instant hit at home and party that almost every friend who tasted this has asked for the recipe. This recipe is so easy and time saving that anyone can try this. I would call this a bachelors recipe.
Easy chicken biryani recipe
Chicken Biriyani

Ingredients:

Chicken - 4/5 big pieces
Basmati rice - 2 cups
Sliced onion - 1 big
Chopped onion - 1 medium
Ginger-garlic paste -1tbsp
Yogurt - 2tbsp
Garam masala powder - 1tsp
Chopped tomato - 1 small
Biriyani masala - 3 tbsp
Salt
Turmaric powder - 1tsp
Chilli powder - 2tsp
Chopped coriander leaves - 1cup
Yellow colour - 1 pinch
Cloves - 4/5
Cardamom - 4/5
Cinnamon - 4/5
Caraway seeds - 1tsp
Oil - 1 cup
Ghee - 1tsp
Rose water - 2 tsp
Kewra water - 2 tsp

Recipe:

Marinate the chicken with 1 tbsp Biriyani masala,1 tbsp yogurt, 2 tsp ginger garlic paste and 1tsp chilli powder, garam masala powder for 1 hour and keep aside.
Cook the rice with all whole spices and ghee and a pinch of salt in a handi, cook till 80% and drain out the water with a strainer.
Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the onion slices till golden brown and keep in the absorbent paper to soak out extra oil.
Now take a heavy bottom pot and put the oil in which you fried the onion.
Now put chopped onion and fry it till it becomes transparent. Then add  remaining ginger garlic paste and fry it for 1 minute.
Add marinated chicken and stir it.
Add remaining yogurt and chilli powder, chopped tomato, turmaric powder and salt. Add extra salt at this stage which will be adjusted with rice later. No need to add salt in the rice later.
Mix it very well and add remaining Biriyani masala and mix.
Add 1 tbsp coriander leaves and add little water to cook the chicken till soft.
In the mean time, sprinkle some yellow colour in the rice and shake the handi with lid on, as a result rice will be coloured little yellow and little white.
When the chicken is soft and gravy is thick and almost dry, switch off the gas.
Now divide the chicken in 2 portions and keep one portion in the same pot.
At the time of layering, add rice to cover the chicken and sprinkle some beresta or fried onion, chopped coriander leaves and both types of water 1tsp each.
Repeat the same layering method with chicken, rice, fried onion- coriander leaves-rose and kewra water.
Now take foil paper and cover the pot tightly and put a heavy lid.
Lastly, keep this pot again on gas in extremely low flame for 5 minutes.

Your Biriyani is now ready. Enjoy your meal with raita or salad.

Sunday, 10 December 2017

Bengalis are fond of different type of chops - aloor choop (potato fritters), onion fritters, vegetable chop, dimer chop or egg devil, fish chop or macher chop etc. Hot chops and tea with a group of friends and relatives is the ideal way of spending evenings after a hard working day or even after a lazy afternoon siesta on holidays. Fish has a special place in Bengali cuisine. So it is obvious there will be fish chops when we are discussing various types of chops from Bengali food habits. Fish fry can again be of many types and is made of different types of fish. Today I would like to share my recipe of fish chop that I made on a chilly winter when a couple of my friends came to visit our place. This is prepared with a normal fish.

To make it clear to all, fish chop is different from fish fry. See the different type of fish fry recipes from my blog.

Ingredients:

Ruhu or katla fish – 10 pcs
Chopped onion – 2 medium
Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tsp
Chopped green chilli – 1tsp
Chopped coriander leaves – ½ cup
Salt
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch
Bread crumbs – 200 gms
Egg – 1
Red chilli powder – 10 pcs
Cumin seeds – 2 tbsp
Cloves – 10 pcs
 Green cardamoms – 10 pcs
Cinnamon – 2 inches
Bread without side – 4-5 pcs
Regular flour – ¾ tbsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Oil for deep-frying

Recipe:

  1. Marinate the fish pieces and boil it till cook.
  2. In a pan dry roast the whole spices like cumin seeds, dry red chilli, green cardamoms, cloves and grind it. Grind it till it becomes like powder and keep aside with a lid for aroma.
  3. Now take the boiled fish and smash it. At this time remove the skin and bones.
  4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and put the chopped onion and sauté it.
  5. Remove from heat and add the fish. Then add ginger-garlic paste, chopped green chilli, coriander leaves and salt and mix it.
  6. Now add bread slices and mix it very gently. These bread slices help to bind the dough.
  7. Then add the powdered spices and mix very well to make a dough.
  8. Make some balls from this dough and give shape as per your choice, I made here oval shape.
  9. Take a bowl and beat an egg with a pinch of salt.
  10. Take some regular flour in a plate and roll each chop to coat with flour.
  11. Now dip the flour coated balls into beaten egg.
  12. Take bread crumbs in a flat plate and role all the balls nicely, make sure all balls coated nicely with crumbs.
  13. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying and fry them till golden brown.
  14. Serve hot with salad and tomato sauce or kasundi (Bengali mustard sauce). I always prefer kasundi.

**If you want you can make the chops early and keep in refrigerator. Whenever you need just take it out of the refrigerator and fry them.
       **If you use regular flour, chops will consume less oil. Whenever you make any deep fried starter which will be coated with bread crumbs or anything else, try to coat them with flour first.

Thursday, 24 August 2017


Murg Banjara….I think this is one of my most tasty recipe from lazy Sunday kitchen. But why this dish is called Banjara! Actually Banjara is a community, usually they are referred as a people who move from one place to another, instead of living in one place. We can found this community the northwestern belt of the Indian subcontinent and now spread all over the India.

Banjara art is rich and includes lots of performance arts like dance, folk music, rangoli and painting. Their culture is full of vibrancies. And this is the similarity with my dish, Chicken Banjara which is rich with spices.
If you want you can give a name but I like to call it Chicken Banjara.
In my website you can get one more banjara named recipe that is Chicken Banjara Kebab. Both are completely different, this one is with gravy what we called side dish and obviously kebab is a starter.

Ingredients:

Chicken – 600 gms
Chopped onion – 2 medium
Cherry tomato – 8-10 pcs
Capsicum – 1 medium
Saffron – 1 pinch
Kasuri methi (Dry fenugreek leaves) – 1 tbsp
Curd – 3 tbsp
Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tsp
Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Mace powder – ¼ tsp
Salt
Sugar – 1 pinch
Ghee – 2 tsp
White oil – 2 tbsp
Butter – 1 tsp
Bay leaf
Murg Banjara
Murg Banjara

Preparation:

Marinade the chicken with curd, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, mace powder and keep aside for half an hour.

Heat ghee and oil in a pan with bay leaf and chopped onion. Fry till golden.

Now add marinated chicken and mix it gently. Add one pinch of sugar and salt as per taste and mix it. Add little water and cover it till the chicken is cooked.

Heat butter in another pan and put capsicum and tomato. Here I used cherry tomato. If cherry tomato is not available, you can you use normal tomato. Toss it gently for only 1-2 minutes. Put this tossed vegetables in the chicken. Add saffron and kasuri methi and mix. Switch off the oven and keep it covered for 10-15 minutes.


Serve with pulau or paratha as you like.

Thursday, 10 August 2017

Prawn is one of the most favourite non-veg item at our home. Though I do not normally cook with wine, this time I thought of trying out wine in prawn recipe. This turned out so yummy that I just can't wait to share with my friends. If any one one of you try, please do not forget to let me now how it turned out at your end.

Ingredients:

Medium size Prawn – 15 pcs
Chopped garlic – 1tbsp
Chopped onion – 1tbsp
Lemon zest – 1tsp
Chopped parsley – 2 tbsp
Red chilli flakes – 2tsp
Salt
Olive oil – 3tbsp
Cream – 2tbsp
White wine – ½ cup

yummy lemon garlic prawn easy recipe
Lemon Garlic Prawn

Recipe:

Clean the prawns very gently and devein it.
Now marinate the prawns with salt for 5 minutes.
Heat 2tbsp oil in a pan and fry the prawns.
When it starts to change the colour remove from the pan.
Add another 1tbsp oil in the pan and put garlics.
Just wait for getting aroma and add chopped onion and sauté it.
Add red chilli flakes.
Add white wine and keep it in high flame.
Add prawns and chopped parsley.
Add salt as per taste.
Add cream and keep it in medium flame.
Allow to boil and add lemon zest.
Now gently put the prawns and cook for two minutes. After 2 minutes take off the prawns from the pan otherwise they will be hard. Prawns need very less time to cook.
Allow the gravy to thicken like sauce.
Switch off the gas and pour gravy on the prawns. All the prawns should be covered with sauce.
Serve hot with rice, pasta whatever you like.

You can see my other prawn recipes also. Happy cooking J

Wednesday, 28 June 2017

Me and my family is in love with anything grilled - be it chicken, fish, broccoli or pineapple. Today I made grilled chicken in pan and prepared white sauce to spread over it. Along with this I made vegetables tossed in high flame to accompany with chicken. I also cooked spaghetti to make it a complete meal. Let me know if you like the recipe. Happy cooking J

Ingredients:

 Chicken breast – 250 gms
Spaghetti – 100 gms
Yogurt – ¾th cup
Chopped garlic – 1 ½ tbsp
Chilli flakes – 1 tsp
Herbs – as per your choice
Ginger- garlic paste
Flour – 1 tbsp
Milk – ½ cup
Black pepper (crushed)
Lemon juice – 1tsp
Salt
Carrot
Red and yellow bell pepper
Broccoli
Green beans
Zucchini
Black olives
Olive oil
grilled chicken made in pan with vegetables and spaghetti
Pan Grilled Chicken With Vegetables And Spaghetti

Recipe:

Marinate the chicken breast piece with salt, crushed black pepper, ginger garlic paste, lemon juice and keep aside for 30 minutes.
Boil the spaghetti as per packet instruction and reserve the boiled water what you will get from spaghetti.
****Always reserve the water after boiling pasta. It enhances the taste if used in cooking.
Grease a nonstick pan and heat very well.
Cook one side of the chicken in high flame for 4 minutes, then flip off and cook the other side for same time.
Place your grilled chicken in a serving plate.

Now it’s time to make the sauce.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and put chopped garlic.
When you get the nice aroma from garlic switch off the gas and add herb (here I added fresh parsley), chilli flakes, salt, crushed black pepper and mix.
Then add yogurt and mix it well.
Your sauce is ready.
Just pour it in the grilled chicken.

In the grill pan, put the vegetables and toss it in high flame with herbs, salt and pepper.
After 2 minutes place it in serving plate.

Now make the spaghetti.
Heat oil in a pan and put chopped garlic and stir it.
Add 1tbsp flour and stir it occasionally.
Add the water that you reserved from spaghetti and continuously stir it, don’t allow to form lump.
Add spaghetti, salt, pepper and mix it very well.
Add cream and mix well in low flame.

Add chopped black olives and serve with grilled chicken.

Sunday, 11 June 2017

This wrap or roll whatever you can say, me and my husband is ready to eat any time. This is a Mediterranean food and is like one pot meal. One roll is normally enough for a meal.
Shawarma, doner kebab, durum, gyro are all same thing with very minor differences in how they are served. This is believed to be a Turkish way of making kebab which spread around different countries in Europe and Middle East and got different names. It is very interesting to know the history of this food and how it got different names in different countries based on their style of pronunciation and way of serving this. I found an interesting article in the following link:
https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-gyros-shawarma-d%C3%B6ner-kebab

Doner is derived from the Turkish word “dön-mek” which means ‘spins’. That is why traditionally it is cooked in a rotisserie either vertically or horizontally.
At home, it is quite difficult to follow the original style of stacking up meat slices one above the other and then shred them as they are cooked in vertical cooking element. This is primarily served in pita bread, but I used wrap. So I followed a simple recipe as follows:
Chicken Shawarma -durum-doner kebab-chicken roll home recipe
Chicken Shawarma Wrap

For Doner Kebab

Ingredients:
Chicken minced – 200 gms
Garlic minced – 1 tsp
Ginger paste – ½ tsp
Red chilli powder – ½ tsp
Garam masala powder – ½ tsp
Cumin powder – 1tsp
Salt
Milk – 3 tbsp
Black pepper crushed
Chopped coriander leaves
Corn flour – 1 tbsp
Egg – 1 (optional)
Oil – 2 tbsp
Recipe:
Take a mixing bowl and mix all the ingredients except milk, corn flour and oil.
Mix very well and now add milk and mix it.
Then add 1 tbsp oil and mix.
Now add corn flour as per your necessary to bind the dough.
For 1 hr keep aside this dough.
From this dough divide two portion and make 2 kebab because this proportion is for two wraps.
Grease the grill pan or whatever you have with remaining oil and grill the kebabs.
You can do in microwave.

 Garlic Sauce:

Ingredients:
Yogurt – 150 gms
Crushed garlic – 1 ½ tsp
Salt
Lemon juice – 1tsp
Water – 1 tbsp
Sugar – 1 pinch
Crushed black pepper
Recipe:
Take all the ingredients in a bowl and mix very well.

 Salad:

 Here I have used tomato, cucumber, sliced onion, carrots and lots of lettuce.

For Roll

Ingredients:
Wrap
French fries
Recipe:
Take a wrap and sprinkle some sauce with spoon.
Cut the kebab into bite size and keep on the sauce,
Put some French fries and salad.
Again sprinkle some sauce and wrap it.


Your Shawarma Wrap or Durum is ready to eat.