Guest Post for YUMMY FOOD: Lime Juice & Chilli marinated Chicken Fajitas

Today's is a guest post for a blogger friend Lubna Karim, who blogs at Yummy Food. Like every year, she is here with her wonderful Ramadan event 'Joy from Fasting to Feasting' . Through this event, she tries to collect and publish recipes from around the world . This time also there are so many wonderful recipes until now and hope to see more varieties coming ahead. Best wishes for the event Lubna.

Wraps are better and healthier option than traditional snacks since they are not deep-fried. Chicken fajita rolls give you the tanginess and spiciness you need  with your cup of tea. It could be served as a wholesome meal too. Make sure to use fresh and crispy salads in your wraps. The mayonnaise dip, spiced with paprika and cumin, is perfect for wraps,fries or as a spread for sandwiches. 

Let's head on to Lubna's page for the recipe

MUTTER PANEER CUTLETS

 Delicious and melt-in-mouth vegetarian cutlets, which could be served as evening snack or as a filling for sandwiches for your kids’ tiffin.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Onions, chopped

2 tsp Ginger-garlic paste

3 no.s Green chillies, finely chopped

1 tsp Red chilly powder

1/2 tsp Cumin powder

1 tsp Pepper, crushed

1 and half cups Paneer/Cottage Cheese, grated

1 and half cups Potatoes, boiled & grated

1 cup Green peas, boiled

1 tsp Garam masala

3 tbsp Coriander leaves, finely chopped

1/2 cup flour

Bread crumbs enough to coat

Oil for frying

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and sauté onions till they turn slightly brown in color.


Add ginger-garlic paste and green chilies and sauté till the raw smell disappears.

Throw in all the spices and sauté for a few seconds.

Mix well the paneer and vegetables.

Season with salt and garam masala.

Add coriander leaves to it and mix nicely. Masala is ready. Now, let it cool.

Make balls out of this stuffing and shape it into cutlets; round, oval or heart shape as you wish.

Mix flour in a cup (approximately) of water until no lumps formed.

Dip each cutlet into the flour mixture and then coat well with the breadcrumbs.

Fry these cutlets in oil until it turns dark brown and crisp outside.

Drain on tissue paper and serve hot with mint chutney or ketchup.

TIPS

The potatoes should be boiled perfectly; otherwise the cutlets may absorb too much oil.

You can add 2-3 tbsp of breadcrumbs to the mixture for binding incase if you feel the cutlets are not holding shapes.

Fried Chicken Puffs- Guest Post for "Yummy Food"

When I saw Lubna's invitation for a guest post, I didn't have to think twice to say yes. By now, her Ramadan event "Joy from fasting to feasting" has earned its own place in the bloggers world with fame and publicity. I remember this event was a 'link-in event' before and if I'm not wrong, she started inviting for guestposts since last year.  I love her space; her pictures and the way she presents her recipes. I had tried a few of her recipes like peanut chutney, kashmiri dum aloo and strawberry smoothie with muesli on top.. My family loved those dishes and these have been added to our menu since then. All thanks to you ,Lubna.

Home-made Chicken puffs is one such deep-fried snack prepared in our family, which is different from the baked ones you see in bakeries. It has flaky layers , but not as much as baked puffs. But it is still good in its own way and is easy too. The spicy chicken filling is my favourite ; but you can make it with filling of your  choice. Let's hop over to 'Yummy Food' for the recipe and step-by-step pictures..

  

Malaysian Sprial Puff

Malaysia is a beautiful country. I did get a chance to visit Malaysia some 8 years ago. We had gone to Malaysia through bus from Singapore and the greenery all the way was quite amazing. I still remember each day of our trip and their food. Various Kuihs (snacks) and their delicious fish head curry were fingerlicking good. I found them similar to many dishes seen at our place. I don't know whether they got inspired from our place or the vice versa. Spiral Curry Puff and Kuih Lapis are among those which I've tried in my kitchen. They came out really well.

Spiral puff is an oil fried snack but you can't find a single drop of oil in any bite. It has got an  amazing crust; flaky and crunchy. Jab was asking me whether it was baked  or not. The filling I used in here is Punjabi samosa filling as I didn't had Malaysian curry masala for trying the original recipe. So I thought of adding Indian tadka to it. Potato filling alone or accompanied with chicken is found in the original curry puff.




Ingredients: (16 pieces @ 9cm in diameter)
Courtesy:Do What I Like


Water Dough:
210g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
100ml warm water
25g lightly beaten egg
1 tbsp or 14g margarine

Oil Dough:
100g plain flour
60g - 70g margarine

Filling:


Potatoes 500g, boiled and mashed
Oil 3 tbsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Green peas 1 cup
Ginger-garlic paste 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder 1/2tsp
Pepper powder 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli powder 1-2 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tbsp
Cumin powder 1 tsp
Garam masala 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Tamarind pulp 2 tbsp
Lemon juice to taste

Method:

Filling:

1. Heat oil in a pan and splutter cumin seeds in it. Saute ginger-garlic paste and green chillies in it for a few seconds and add mashed potatoes to it. Add the spices , tamarind pulp and sprinkle coriander leaves to it. Check the taste and add lemon juice if needed to taste. Keep it aside.

Dough:

2. Mix all ingredients for the water dough in a mixing bowl and knead till you have a soft and pliable dough. Leave aside to rest for 30 minutes.
3. After the water dough is rested for 30 minutes, mix everything for the oil dough till you get a workable dough. You may add 1 or 2 tsp of water to it , if needed.
4. Divide water dough into 2 pieces about 175g each. Divide oil dough into 2 pieces about 78g each. Work on one piece of water dough and one piece of oil dough. Keep the other pieces in a bag to retain moisture.

5. Wrap oil dough in water dough.

6. With sealed edges facing upwards, roll this into a flat long sheet.

Fold from one side like this and....

fold the other side too to the middle.

7. Roll this again to flat long sheet .

8. Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a thin rectangular flat sheet. Roll it up tightly in swiss-roll style again. Trim away the left and right edges to tidy it up.

9. Divide into 8 pieces and you will get this.

10. Flatten each piece into a round disc and wrap in the filling.

11. Fry the puff in medium heat and when they are about to be cooked, turn up the heat to force the oil out of the puff. Drained well and serve.

The only thing I felt is I must add li'l bit more salt to the dough next time :)

Know your cooking oil event

What's with my cuppa? Event hosted by Avika originally hosted byUK Rasoi

Freeze your Kaayada/Unnakkaaya(Stuffed plaintain snack)

Some things in this world need no introduction at all... I think this is such a snack about which I'm sure many of you; infact almost each one of you might be knowing . Ripe plaintains are steamed and then blend to be stuffed in with sweet scrambled egg. This is then deep fried to nice golden color. This snack is usually served alongwith tea- an unavoidable snack in Malabar parties.

The plaintains should be ripen to perfect for this. Not too much and not that raw. If it is over ripened, then it'll end up in oily adas(snacks) and you may find difficuilt to shape them up too.. While picking up the plaintains choose the one whose skin started getting black spots-just few.

Ingredients:

Plaintains 2kg
Eggs 7
Sugar 7tbsp
Ghee 3 tbsp
Cashew nuts,chopped 3 tbsp
Raisins 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder 3/4 tsp

Method:

Egg stuffing:

1.Beat in the eggs and sugar untill the eggs get mixed up nicely. No need to mix it until the sugar dissolves.

2.Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashew nuts until brown and take these out. Pop in the raisin and fry until it puffs up . Take them out as well.

3.Add egg mixture to it.  Cook eggs while stirring continously. It should resemble Indian scrambled eggs; but little moist because of sugar. Add cardamamom powder and mix in the nuts and raisins. Switch off the flame.

my kids hate raisins, so i avoid it

Preparing the Ada:

1. Wash and steam the plaintains  until it turns soft. You can either cut them into pieces and steam if you have a small steamer. Steaming as a whole is good though.

Uncooked: as you can see two colors there.

Cooked: Single color there

 2. Now remove the skin and grind this in food processor, table top grinder, using egg beater etc. You can place this on a chopping board and mash this using a potato masher, rolling pin or a glass. Mash this with no lumps and should resemble a chappathi dough.

3. Make small balls. Then flatten these balls into a small circle just like puris (size depends) . Fill them with fillings and close it to form a semi-circle. (shall soon update with pictures). Stick the ends together and shape them like Ada or Ghujiiya.

4. Heat oil in a kadai or frying pan and deep fry these in oil until it turns golden brown. This is traditionally fried in ghee.

 How to freeze:

Freeze this the same way as I explained in my previous post Freezing cutlets. Layer kaayadas in an airtight box. Place clingfilm on top of that; then again kaayadas and so on until all those are placed neatly. Cover this with clingfilm on top and then close the lid tightly. Keep this in your freezer.

Note: While frying, the oil should be steaming hot as adding frozen adas might turn the temperature down instantly which may result in oily snack.

Linking this to Foodabulous Event hosted by Saju's Tastes

Freezing Meat Cutlets-Ramdan Preparations

Cutlets can also be freezed. Cling film is used to separate cutlets inorder to prevent sticking. If you freeze them correctly, you can use this as and when needed for 1-2 months.

Ingredients:
(makes 100 depending on the size)

Beef/Mutton 1kg
Poatato 1kg
Ghee 2 tbsp
Oil 4 tbsp
Onion 4 cups
Garlic 8 cloves
Ginger 2" piece
Green Chilli 10-13
Turmeric powder 1 tsp 
Pepper powder 2 tsp
Garam Masala 2 tsp
Curry leaves few
Coriander leaves 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Cut the onions lengthwise into 2 or 3 equal parts and then slice them.


2. Cook the meat till done in a pressure cooker alongwith salt,pepper and 1/2 a tsp of turmeric powder. Let it cool.

3. Shred the meat using a food processor or a grinder or even using hands.  Just pulse them if you are using a grinder. If you grind it more, the meat will return to kheema consistency or a meat paste which we do not want.


4. Now heat ghee and oil in a pan. Add the sliced onions to it and saute it for a while till it turns translucent. Add ginger-garlic & green chilli paste to it. It'll take about 10 mts or so in medium -high flame. Adjust the flame so that  there is no moisture left in the pan.

5. Now add salt and turmeric powder to it. Mix in the shredded meat to it.


6. Season with the remaining spices like pepper and garam masala. Pop in the Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves. Let it cool

7. Boil potatoes till tender and mash them nicely.

8. Mix poatoes into masala nicely to make a dough.

9. Make small balls out of it and flatten a bit to circle or oval shape. You can make heart or anyother shape if you are having moulds.

10. Beat eggwhites and a tbsp of milk until frothy using a fork.

11. Take some breadcrumbs in a plate. Now dip these patties into the eggwhites ,take it out and then coat with breadcrumbs nicely. Do this individually on all cutlets.

How to Freeze:

Take an airtight containter and layer cutlets on it. After doing a single layer, place a sheet of cling film on it and then layer cutlets again. Place clingfilm, then cutlets and so on till all the cutlets are placed in the box. place one more sheet of cling film on top and then close the lid tightly. Keep this in the freezer. This would stay fresh for about 2 months or so. 

How to Fry:

While frying, no need to defreeze. Heat oil in a pan to smoking hot and then pop in the cutlets and fry till it turns brown on both the sides. The oil should be extra hot as these cutlets are cold and may turn the oil to too low temperature which may cause these cutlets to break or  oily.

Linking this to Foodabulous Event hosted by Saju's Tastes