Palak Chicken|How to make Spinach Chicken Curry

Prep time 20 mins

Cook time 30 mins

Total time 50 mins

Recipe type: Main Course

Cuisine: Indian

Serves: 5

by Puja 

Palak or, Spinach is one of the many “Saags” as we call it in India. “Saags”, primarily refers to anything that is cooked out of leafy vegetables. What vegetable we use, entirely depends upon the one that is available in a specific season. Yes, you heard that right.. Since these are seasonal, the kind of Saag keeps changing in our menu. For instance, the winters are known for “Sarson ka Saag”, meaning the mustard leaves. This coupled with “Makke ki Roti” or, Corn Flour Rotis, is a delight in itself.

Fibers as we know has to be an essential part of your diet. It helps you in digestion, along with many other benefits. Spinach is rich in fibers and high on nutrition. It is rich in Iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Vitamin K and also has moderate amount of calcium, magnesium and manganese.

Palak Chicken Recipe

Palak Chicken is a healthy and Mouth-watering recipe famous in North India. Its a tasty chicken curry made with Spinach and chicken cooked in onion, tomatoes and other spices.

Chicken cooked in spinach gives it a nice flavor of spinach, which retaining the flavor of chicken. People who are particularly interested in very spicy chicken dishes might not find this to their taste, but others would love it because of the unique taste that the chicken picks up due to the spinach that it is cooked in.

So to all you Non-vegetarian lovers, here is the recipe for Palak Chicken.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Palak Chicken

Ingredients

• Chicken - 1 kg
• Onion - 3 (finely chopped)
• Ginger paste - 1 tsp
• Garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Green chillies - 4 (finely chopped)
• Tomato - 2 (finely chopped)
• Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
• Chilli powder - 1½ tbsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tbsp
• Dried methi leaves - ½ tsp
• Cuminpowder - ½ tsp
• Garam masala - tsp
• Cumin seeds - ½ tsp
• Bay leaf - 2
• Black cardamom - 1
• Cinnamon stick - ½ inch
• Palak - ½ kg
• Oil - 4 tbsp (or as per required)
• Salt - as per the taste

Instructions

1. Clean palak leaves without the stem and wash it properly.
2. In a pan cook palak uncovered for about 15 minutes and let it cool.
3. Once the palak gets cold drain the excess water if it is there in a bowl and set aside.
4. Grind palak into a fine paste.
5. Now heat oil in a kadai cumin seeds in it.
6. When the seeds starts spluttering add bay leaf, cardamom, cinnamon stick.
7. Now add chopped onion, green chillies and salt, saute.
8. Fry onion until soft, add ginger-garlic paste and fry for 2 minutes till the raw smell goes off.
9. Add chopped tomato and saute till the tomatoes gets a little mushy.
10. Now add turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder and cumin powder.
11. And fry for about 2 minutes and add chicken pieces.
12. Now add the drained water in which palak is cooked.
13. Add dried methi leaves.(you can add more water if you want to).
14. Cook till the chicken is done and the gravy reaches a thick consistency.
15. Add palak paste to the chicken curry and mix it well.
16. Keep it in a low flame for about 5 minutes and then remove from fire.
17. Serve hot with naan, roti/chapati, rice or paratha and salads.

Modakam|How to make Steamed Rice dumpling (Kozhukattai)

Prep time 1 hour

Cook time 2 hours

Total time 3 hours

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: Indian

Serves: 6-7 

by Puja 

I am a fan of sweets. Being born and brought up in Bhagalpur, which is a place known for a variety of sweets, I have always had a special love for sweets. Unlike me, my husband is very choosy when it comes to sweets. And it looks like my daughter is like her dad..
The sweets in Northern India is a lot different from Southern India and I realized this after we moved to Bangalore from Delhi. Initially it was difficult to get any north Indian sweets in Bangalore. But with the increasing north Indian population and a lot of North Indian vendors, it has changed.

Modakam Recipe

One of the sweets that I liked in South India was this sweet called as Kozhakattai. Modakam, also known as Kozhakattai (in South India) is a sweet breakfast recipe. While I am calling it a sweet recipe, it is also used as an evening snacks in a lot of places in South India.
In India, Modakam is associated with Lord Ganesha. In most of the pictures of Lord Ganesha, you will see him holding a bowl full of Modakams in one of his hand. It is said to be his favorite food. Though the name is pretty much the same in all parts of India, the recipe changes a little as you go from the extreme north to the extreme south. What I have shown here is the most authentic and original way of making Kozhukattai. Though  I have prepared a round shaped Modakams, but you can make shapes as per your own wish and comfortability. I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I did in putting it down here for you..
 

5.0 from 1 reviews

Modakam|How to make Steamed Rice dumpling (Kozhukattai)

 

Ingredients

• Grated coconut - 1 and ¼ cup
• Jaggery - ¾ cup
• Cardamom powder - ½ tsp
• Ghee - 1 tbsp
• For the outer covering -
• Rice - 1 cup (Idli rice or you can use regular raw rice)
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Salt - ½ tsp

Instructions

1. How to make Stuffing for the Modakam :-
2. First of all melt the jaggery on low flame in half a cup of water and then filter to remove impurities.
3. Let the jaggery water boil.
4. Once it starts boiling, add grated coconut and mix well.
5. Now add ghee and cook till it starts to thicken.
6. Add cardamom powder and mix well.
7. It will thicken further once the stuffing get cools.
8. Check if you are able to make balls out of it.
9. If not then cook for a few more minutes and the stuffing for Modakam is ready.
10. When it cools a little, make tiny sized balls out of it and set aside.
11. How to make the outer covering :-
12. Soak idly rice for 4-5 hours.
13. Using wet grinder/mixer grinder grind the rice to a very fine consistency (just like dosa batter). While grinding add salt to it.
14. Heat a wide heavy bottom pan.
15. Keep in a medium heat always and add 2 tbsp of oil to it. Then add the rice flour and keep stirring.
16. Keep on stirring until you get thick ball.
17. Switch off the stove and keep it covered with a wet cloth for few minutes.
18. Once it cools down a bit use your hand and knead it to a smooth dough.
19. Keep your hands well oiled to avoid the batter sticking to your hands.
20. Keep the covering always covered with a wet kitchen cloth or a tight lid.
21. How to make Modakam/Sweet kozhukattai:-
22. Make small balls out of the covering.
23. These balls should be larger than the size of stuffing balls you have made.
24. Using the palm and your fingers press and spread the dough into a small round shaped puri and fill one ball or one portion of mixture and then close and seal it by
25. gently pressing the edges together.(Ensure that it doesn,t tear in between)
26. Make sure your palms are well oiled otherwise you will end up with a sticky mess.
27. Do the same with the rest of the flour and puranam/coconut balls.
28. Place the Modakams in the idli plate/idiyappam plates or any steamer for about 10 to 12 minutes and steam until cooked.
29. Let it cool down a bit and then transfer it to a container.
30. Store it in a spacious container.

Fried Cake Recipe|How to make Fried Cake

Prep time 30 mins

Cook time 30 mins

Total time 1 hour

 

Author: Puja

Recipe type: Cakes

Cuisine: Indian

Serves: 2 

by Puja

Cakes are everyone’s favorite. While most kids fall for chocolate cakes, people like me love plum cakes. I would wait for December to get those tasty and nice plum cakes from my Christian friends. I have tried my hands at making plum cakes, but for some reason I find that the taste of the cake that my friends get for me during Christmas is totally different from the ones I make. Maybe it is that love that they add that makes it different.

Fried Cake Recipe

When I was a kid, my definition of cakes were a little different. We were used to see muffins and fried cakes and that was what it was for us. And fried cakes were our favorite. Most bakeries in our small town would sell these fried cakes and even muffins were rare.
Since I had heard that it takes a lot of time to make these fried cakes, I never attempted it. And these days with the variety of cakes available at the local bakeries, I thought even the kids might not be too keen for fried cakes.
It is my mother-in-law who encouraged me to try it out and since she was good at making these, I dared to experiment. And to my surprise, all that we made was finished off much faster than we thought. Even my little daughter was found asking for it again and again.
If you are not too choosy about specific types of cakes, then I would say.. you should try this. I am sure you will love it.
So here it is.. my bold experiment.

5.0 from 3 reviews

Fried Cake Recipe

 

Ingredients

• Egg- 1 large
• Powdered sugar- ½ cup (75 gms)
• Baking soda- ¼ tsp
• All purpose flour- 1 cup
• Cardamom powder- ¼ tsp
• Ghee - 2 tbsp
• Oil- to deep frying

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix egg and powdered sugar together until combined and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl add all purpose flour, baking soda, ghee and cardamom powder.
3. Mix and rub the flour with your palm for about 30 seconds until you start seeing the flour binding together in your hand.
4. Now add the mixture of egg and sugar to it.
5. Add water and knead the mixture gently to form a smooth dough and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes. (Do not add all the water at once)
6. Divide the dough into two large round balls.
7. Roll out each ball into thick circle.
8. Now cut the circle in big-big diamond shapes.(shape should be ½ " thick)
9. Now make one deep cuts in each slice.
10. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry over medium heat, until it turns golden brown.
11. Drain on to a kitchen towel, allow it to cool completely.
12. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.