Sweet potatoes aid weight loss…

Sweet potatoes as the name suggests are sweeter than regular potatoes. Ironically, sweet potatoes don’t increase our blood sugar compared to regular potatoes which is low in fiber and increases our blood sugar. They have high content of antioxidants and fiber. If you are someone wanting to loose weight include sweet potatoes into your diet, carotenoids present in it helps to stabilize blood sugar level and to lower insulin resistance. Sweet potatoes come in different colors: white skin, purple skin, orange skin etc.

Sweet potatoes when cooked will become more sweet and will make a delicious dessert. Or include as a side dish with your meal, because of its high fiber it will fill your stomach fast, hence you can cut down on your food intake.

I often bake sweet potatoes, when baked it gets caramelized and tastes phenomenal. The other day, I made mashed sweet potatoes. Instead of making mashed regular potatoes, make mashed sweet potatoes. It’s healthy and tastes yummy.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients

• Sweet potatoes, large- 3
• Ground cinnamon- 1/4 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Skim milk- 1/3 cup

Preparation

1. Cook sweet potatoes in boiling water till it has cooked well.
2. Let cool down and remove the skin.
3. You could even peel off the skin before cooking it.
4. Mash the sweet potatoes taken in a large pan using a potato masher or wooden spoon without any lumps.
5. Place the pan over medium heat, add ground cinnamon, ground pepper and milk to it, combine well.
6. Heat for a couple of minutes and remove from the heat.
7. Serve as a side dish.

Tips:

• If you prefer you could add cream instead of milk.
• Also, you could add any of your favorite seasoning.

Puttu+Kadala Curry= Irresistible!

There are some foods in Kerala that has unbeatable taste. For instance: fish curries, spicy mutton chops, kadala curry or Chick Peas curry, Kappa…well, I do have a long list. For Keralites, puttu (steamed rice balls) tastes best when it’s served along with kadala curry and this has been one of the famous breakfast dishes. I’v never been a fan of puttu, but when it’s served with kadala curry I can hardly resist it.

In my attempt to cook variety food and to try different cuisines, I don’t often make the same kinds of Kerala food over and over. However, after a few days or weeks of trying different cuisines my tastebuds will get mad and I will be hit by the intense craving for those food that I had while growing up. Without a doubt, Kerala food is my comfort food and when I cook my mom’s or grandmom’s speciality dishes I feel an eternal joy. Lately, I had been getting constant cravings for having Puttu and Kadala curry. When I get the craving I have only one choice, succumb to it!

Last night, I made kadala curry or chick peas curry in a different way. Usually, I just cook the chick peas and onions combined with all the spice powders in a pressure cooker and would finish it off with coconut milk. But this time, I added roasted coconut paste to the chick peas and cooked it. The addition of roasted coconut paste made this chick peas curry very flavorful and aromatic. I highly prefer curries made with roasted coconut, especially fish curries. I also made puttu using red rice flour which I had bought from the Indian store.

The taste of this curry will linger on your tastebuds for very long, that I can guarantee…

Chick Peas Curry or Kadala Curry

Ingredients

For roasting coconut

• Oil- 2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
• Dry red chilly, whole- 3 no’s
• Coriander seeds- 1 tbsp
• Coconut, grated- 1 1/2 cups
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig (optional)
• Water- to add while grinding

For making curry

• Coconut oil- 1 tbsp
• Onion, chopped- 2
• Potatoes, diced- 3 medium
• Chick peas or Kadala, white or brown, cooked canned- 2 cups or 540 ml
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp, (I used Kashmiri red chilly powder)
• Salt- to taste
• Water- to thin down the gravy
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handfuls

Preparation

Roasting coconut:

1. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, add oil, let the oil turn hot.
2. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter.
3. Add red dry chilly and coriander seeds, saute for 2 seconds.
4. Add coconut, curry leaves if using and roast till the coconut turns golden brown in color.
5. Make sure you don’t burn the coconut, keep sautéing the coconut.
6. After the coconut has roasted, transfer it to a blender along with some water and grind it to a smooth constituency, keep aside.

Making the curry

1. I used cooked canned chick peas (rinse the chick peas before cooking), even though it’s cooked I cooked it for some time along with the coconut gravy.
2. If you are using uncooked chick peas, soak it in water overnight and cook it the next day till it has almost cooked. Don’t over cook it.
3. I used pressure cooker to cook the curry. If you don’t have one, use a large non-stick pan.
4. Place the pressure cooker over medium heat, add coconut oil.
5. Add chopped onions to it and salt, saute for a few minutes.
6. Add potatoes, chick peas and the ground coconut paste.
7. Add chilly powder and combine well. Kashmiri red chilly powder gives vibrant red color to the curry and is not very spicy.
8. Add enough water to thin down the gravy.
9. Add salt and close the pressure cooker.
10. Cook it for 10 to 15 minutes, remove the cooker from the stove just before it makes the first whistle.
11. After the pressure has subsided, open the cooker and add cilantro to it.
12. Taste and add more salt or chilly powder if needed.
13. Serve hot with puttu, chapati, appam etc
14. Here is the recipe for making puttu, you could use red rice flour or white rice flour.

Tips:

• You could skip the potatoes.
• Since I used cooked chick peas, I didn’t cook it in the cooker for too long, I just wanted the potatoes to turn tender.
• While cooking in a pan, after combining all the ingredients cover the pan with its lid and cook for some time.
• While roasting coconut, don’t just walk away as the coconut will brown very fast.

Adopted from Dr OZ’s show, so obviously it has to be healthy…

The other day I watched Dr OZ’s show, in that Dr OZ recommended a healthy braised chicken recipe especially for winter. The ingredients used in this recipe are not new to us, but the combination of the aromatic spices used helps to boost our immunity to fight against cold and flu. In the original recipe, they used chicken stock and whole chicken with skin-on. When I started making this dish, as usual I gave my healthy twist. I skipped the chicken stock and used water. I even removed the skin from the chicken, since the chicken was braised in the water for about 40 minutes the chicken flavors will get into the water and hence we can avoid adding store bought chicken stock. The recipe even called for Daikon, I didn’t have it so I skipped that too. If you have daikon which is a famous Japanese white radish, do add that along with the other veggies as it is good for our health.

This dish is absolutely perfect for winter and is a complete meal. You get to enjoy the chicken, veggies and the soup. The aromatic spices added into this dish imparted an unbelievable flavor to the chicken and the soup. Even without the addition of chicken stock, the soup tasted phenomenal. After a huge bowl of this dish, my senses opened up literally and I felt refreshed and amazing. A great dish to have while down with flu/cold, during cold winter or on any day, this dish is guaranteed to make you feel better.

Lemongrass-Aromatic Spices Braised Chicken

• Olive oil- 2 tbsp
• Carrot, diced- 3 large
• Celery, diced- 3 stalks
• Onion, diced- 2 large
• Lemon grass, stalks smashed- 3 stalks
• Ginger, chopped – 3 inch slice
• Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
• Whole black pepper corns- 1 tsp
• Star Anise- 2 no’s
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp or as required
• Thai red chilly, halved – 2 no’s
• Water- 3 cups
• Chicken leg and thigh piece-  4 no’s (or use any chicken pieces)
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• I used chicken leg and thigh pieces, I removed the skin and the fat on it. You could keep the skin if you prefer.
• Heat a large pan or soup pot, add olive oil.
• Add the veggies: carrots, celery and onions, saute for a minute.
• Dice the white part of the lemon grass at the bottom end.
• Using a rolling pin slightly smash the lemongrass to release the flavor in it.
• Add the lemon grass and ginger to the veggies, saute for a minute.
• Now, add turmeric powder, pepper corns, star anise, chillies and ground pepper, combine well.
• Add water and salt to taste.
• Let the water come to a boil.
• Gently drop the chicken into the water.
• Cover and cook on low heat for about 40  minutes till the chicken has cooked well.
• After 40 minutes, open the lid and check the chicken with a fork, if it’s fork tender it’s cooked well.
• Taste the soup and add salt or ground pepper if needed.
• While serving, ladle the soup along with the veggies into a large bowl plate and place the chicken in the soup.
• Enjoy while it’s warm and experience the magic!

Tips:

• If you have daikon (white radish) add that too.
• You could use chicken stock instead of water, use low sodium stock.
• Make sure to cook in a large pot.

I am at a loss of words to describe the taste of this dish, it’s yumtastdelicious!!!

Ginger chicken is yet another favorite of mine and my hubby’s, well not just us even my sister loves this. I had made this for my sister last year when I had visited her, she loved it so much that she makes this quite often. She had told me quite a few times to post this recipe and it just slipped out of my mind.

I adopted this recipe from one of my favorite chefs: Vahchef. During my initial cooking stages, his cooking videos have helped me a lot in learning the basics of Indian cooking, I’ve tried many of his recipes and all of them have turned out to be delicious. I admire his simple and easy to follow videos.

In the original recipe, marinated chicken is fried in the oil. Well, I made a healthy twist to the recipe and baked the chicken instead. The baked chicken was then stir fried in little oil so that it would get a fried taste. Combined with the green sauce till the chicken turned browned and the sauce got stuck to the chicken. The browned chicken along with the sauce tastes remarkable that you will become a slave for this dish.

Baked Ginger Chicken

Ingredients

For marinating chicken:

• Chicken legs or any bone-in chicken pieces- 6 legs or 8 medium pieces
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 1 tbsp
• Soy Sauce, low sodium- 2 tbsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- very little

For making sauce:

• Onion, chopped- 1
• Green chillies- 3 no’s
• Curry leaves- 3 sprigs (must add)
• Cilantro, chopped- 1/2 cup (must add)

While cooking:

• Vegetable oil- 2 tbsp
• Ginger, chopped- 3 to 4 inch slice
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

1. You could use bone-in or boneless chicken, however this dish tastes fantastic when bone-in chicken is used.
2. Combine the chicken legs with the above mentioned ingredients “for marinating chicken”, keep aside for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375 F.
4. Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray non-stick cooking spray over it.
5. Place the marinated chicken legs over it.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and keep aside.
8. In a blender, puree the ingredients for making the sauce to a smooth paste, keep aside.
9. Place a wok over medium heat, add oil.
10. Add ginger to the oil and saute for a couple of minutes, let it turn light golden in color.
11. Add the baked chicken legs and gently stir fry for a few minutes.
12. Pour the pureed sauce over the chicken, rinse the blender with little water and pour over the chicken, combine well.
13. Turn the heat to medium high, let the sauce thicken and starts to stick to the chicken.
14. Gently combine the chicken legs.
15. Sprinkle ground pepper and salt over it.
16. Drizzle lemon juice and combine with the chicken.
17. Let the chicken and the sauce turn light brown.
18. Taste and add more salt/ ground pepper if needed.
19. Remove from the heat and serve hot with rice, roti or salad.

Tips:

• You could even fry the marinated chicken in oil till it turns golden in color, remove excess oil from the pan and follow the rest of the preparation steps.
• Adding curry leaves while making the sauce enhances the taste of this dish, so don’t skip it.
• The key for making delicious ginger chicken is to brown the chicken along with sauce.
• Adjust salt and ground pepper accordingly.

Fish in coconut milk, one of my favorite Kerala style fish dishes…

I had a great day yesterday, I gracefully entered into my 30′s. Honestly, I don’t feel depressed nor frustrated to hit the big 3-oh, instead I feel excited and blessed to have lived in this beautiful world surrounded by wonderful people and great experiences. I’ve enjoyed each and every phase of my life, however I truly adore this phase of my life where I feel confident and focused. Through my life’s journey, I’ve learned and experienced a lot of things which helped to strengthen my inner self and moulded me to the kind of person I am today. I’ve always believed in myself and have done the things that felt right to me.

My yesterday’s excitement doubled when I saw my interview article at Friends Eat. You can read it here.

Now, coming to this recipe. When we think about kerala fish dishes, usually spicy and tangy fish curries come to our mind. Well, this recipe is quite a different one, it’s rich, creamy and less spicy as coconut milk is added to make this. This is more of a fish moilee variation as the authentic fish moilee has yellow color and is more creamy.

Fish in Coconut Milk

Ingredients

For marinating fish:

• Fish, king fish or pomfret (pompano)- 2 no’s cut into round slices
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Ground Pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste

For frying:

• Oil- for frying fish

While cooking:

• Oil used for frying fish- 3 tbsp
• Red Onion, cut long and thin- 2 no’s
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/8 tsp
• Tomatoes, chopped- 2
• Coconut milk, thin- 1/2 cup (if using canned coconut milk, add water to the thick coconut milk to thin it down)
• Coconut milk, thick- 1/2 cup
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp

Preparation:

1. Cut the fish into round slices. I prefer King fish and pomfret for making this.
2. Marinate the fish with the above mentioned ingredients ‘for marinating the fish’, keep aside for 15 minutes.
3. Shallow fry the marinated fish in oil and transfer to a paper towel.
4. Place a large pan or claypot over medium heat.
5. Add 3 tbsp of oil used for frying fish.
6. Add onions and curry leaves along with little salt to the oil, saute till onions starts to turn translucent.
7. Add ginger garlic paste to it and saute for a minute.
8. Add coriander powder and ground pepper to it, combine well.
9. Add thin coconut milk and combine well, cook it for a minute.
10. Add the fried fish to the coconut milk and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes.
11. Add tomatoes, let it cook for a minute. Don’t over cook the tomatoes.
12. Now, pour the thick coconut milk, gently mix it without breaking the fish and let it simmer for a few minutes.
13. Don’t let the coconut milk come to a boil.
14. Taste and adjust salt accordingly.
15. Finally sprinkle garam masala over the fish curry and cook for a few seconds.
16. Remove from the heat, cover the pan with its lid and let stand for sometime so that the flavors will get into the fish.
17. Serve with rice, chapathi, idiyappam, orotti etc.

4 basic ingredients + 15 minutes=healthy and yummy tomato soup…

I repeat, you don’t have to have over the top ingredients or recipes to make something delicious. From my experience, it’s not hard at all to whip up a tasty dish using simple ingredients and in less time. During my last grocery shopping, I had bought a huge bag of tomatoes, I’ve no idea why. Every time I opened the refrigerator I stared at the tomatoes, and somehow got distracted by other veggies. It was last weekend, finally I got motivated in emptying those tomatoes. If I want to finish all the tomatoes, there was nothing better than making soup out of it.

As always my requirements were to spend less time in my kitchen and to make a flavorful soup. For making this soup, I used very basic and simple ingredients that are always found in our kitchen. While making this soup, I was little concerned whether this soup would turn out to be blant as I didn’t even add stock to it. Trust me, when I tasted this soup it was hard for me to believe that it only had a very few ingredients. After having a few sips of this soup, my hubby raised his thumps not down but upwards. He didn’t talk much as he was busy enjoying the soup. On a lazy winter day this soup would be perfect.

Easy Tomato Soup

• Makes: 2 large bowls
• Preparation: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• Olive oil- 1 tbsp
• Garlic, chopped- 3 cloves
• Green onions or scallions, chopped- 2 stalks
• Tomatoes, chopped- 5 no’s
• Ground Cumin- 3/4 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Water- 1 cup
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful

Preparation:

1. Place a large pan over medium heat, add oil to it.
2. Add chopped garlic, saute for a few seconds until aromatic.
3. Add chopped green onions, saute for a minute.
4. Add tomatoes, saute for a couple of minutes.
5. Add ground cumin, ground pepper and salt, combine well.
6. Let tomatoes get mashed up, add 1/2 cup water to it.
7. Cook for a minute.
8. Remove from heat and let cool down.
9. Puree the tomatoes in a blender till smooth.
10. Transfer the puree to the pan and turn on the heat to medium.
11. Add 1/2 cup more water to thin down the soup, let it come to a boil.
12. Garnish with chopped cilantro, remove from the heat.
13. Serve in soup bowls and enjoy with your favorite croutons or crackers.

Freezing cold weather=hot soup…

Last weekend, I had spend a few hours digging deep into my closet for sweaters and winter jackets which I had buried last year. As summer arrives I bury it deep and as winter comes I dig deep searching for it, sigh. Well, I am still a snow freak, so I love winter. However, it takes a few weeks to cope up with the summer to winter transition. I just adore the first snow showers of every winter, it’s just magical and enchanting. I am eagerly waiting for the first snow shower of this winter.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with family and friends. Yesterday was a very rewarding day for me, I successfully defended my research work that I had been working on for the past 1 year. Well, this doesn’t mean that I am going to have a relaxing time, more research work is awaiting me and tons of other course work.

Couple of days ago, it was freezing cold, after I reached home from work I was desperate to sip a bowl of hot soup to keep myself warm. I felt little sick too so made chicken soup in its healthiest way possible. I didn’t use chicken soup to make this soup, instead cooked the chicken in water. While cooking the chicken added herbs to it which made this soup aromatic and flavorful. It was aromatic, healthy and soothing.

Herb Chicken Soup

Ingredients

• Chicken breasts, boneless cut small- 2 breasts
• Olive oil- 1 tbsp
• Onion, diced small-1
• Carrot, halved and diced-2
• Celery, diced small-2 stalks
• Lemon grass, cut small-1 stalk
• Rosemary, fresh or dried- 1 stalk
• Oregano, dried-1 tsp
• Ground Pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Basil, dried- 1 tsp
• Water- 3-  3 1/2 cups
• Salt- to taste
• Soy Sauce- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Scallions, chopped small- 2 stalks
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful
• Pasta or noodles- 1 cup

Preparation

1. Dice the chicken breasts into small size.
2. Place a large soup pot or pan over medium heat.
3. Add olive oil, add onion, carrot, celery to the oil, saute till veggies starts to turn tender.
4. Add lemon grass, rosemary, oregano, basil to it, combine well.
5. Add chicken and season with ground pepper, combine well.
6. Add water and cook covered till chicken has cooked well.
7. Add soy sauce to it, combine.
8. Now, add pasta or noodles to it, let it cook well.
9. If the constituency of the soup is too thick, add some water to it.
10. Taste and add more salt if needed.
11. Let the soup come to a boil, add scallions and cilantro to the soup.
12. Remove from the heat and let stand covered for 2 minutes.
13. Serve in a bowl.

Am I falling more for ground beef lately???

Well, my husband gets very happy when I make something out of ground beef. I think I’ve already mentioned that if he enters the kitchen then it’s guaranteed that he will come out with meat loaf or some ground beef dishes. A few days ago, I felt way too much love for him and so decided to make a ground beef dish. If I cook with ground beef, I put a few conditions. It should be extra lean ground beef and it should be baked.

I got the extra lean ground beef, and then I thought about the ways to bake it. No, I wasn’t thinking about meat loaf at all. How about patties? Sounded good to me. I had brown mushrooms and so added it to the ground beef. Seasoned it with some aromatic spices and made patties out of it. Also, I didn’t add any eggs to the ground beef mixture. Yes, I tried to make it as healthy as possible.

It was so flavorful and loved the bite of mushroom in it. Baking till it gets golden in color but still slightly moist made it even more tastier. Interesting thing is that you could make several dishes with these patties: burgers, top your favorite salad, wrap it in a pita bread or tortilla. If you are not interested in any of these these, then just have it like that it’s just yummy in all ways.

Baked Ground Beef Patties

Ingredients:

• Ground beef, extra lean- 1 lb
• Green onions, chopped small- 3 stalks
• Mushrooms, brown chopped small- 2 large
• Ground Cumin- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Soy sauce, low sodium- 1 tbsp
• Oregano leaves- 1 tsp
• Salt- little

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl combine all the above mentioned ingredients.
2. Make medium sized patties out of it, keep aside.
3. Pre heat oven to 400 F.
4. Spray the baking sheet lined with aluminum foil with non-stick cooking spray.
5. Place the patties on the baking sheet.
6. Bake for total 20-25 minutes.
7. After 10 minutes, flip the patties to the other side.
8. Bake till it has turned light golden in color.
9. Don’t bake for too long as it will turn hard and crispy.
10. Serve hot with salad, burger, wrap it in pita bread/tortilla or just have it like that.

One of my favorite, my most favorite cake or dessert without a doubt is Tiramisu…

I was determined enough to make the best cake for my husband’s birthday. Way too many cake ideas rushed through my mind and most of them hardly impressed me. I then thought about the cakes that my husband enjoyed with so much enthusiasm. One cake that topped his favorite list was Tiramisu cake. Not just for him, even it tops my favorite. We’ve always enjoyed tiramisu with utmost delight and if we see this on the dessert menu at any restaurant we wouldn’t leave without ordering it.

I’ve already posted the recipe for making an easy eggless tiramisu in which ladyfinger cookies were used as the base, but for making this cakes were used and I made a two layered tiramisu cake.

I was totally blown away by how delicious this cake tasted, it was absolutely yummy and the best surprise (in food category) I’ve ever given to my husband. He was so moved and touched and was seen busy finishing up the cake. I had to literally plead him to save a few slices so that I could share with my co-workers. I made this non-alcoholic, also I used instant coffee powder to make the syrup instead of espresso.

I made the cake with gluten free flour and it turned out great, you could use all purpose flour or cake flour instead.

Tiramisu Cake

Adopted from Baking: From home to yours by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:

For making 2 cakes:

• Cake flour or gluten free flour- 2 cups
• Baking powder- 2 tsp
• Baking soda- 1/8 tsp
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Unsalted butter, room temperature- 1 1/4 sticks (10 tbsp)
• Sugar- 1 cup
• Eggs, large- 3
• Egg yolk, large- 1
• Pure vanilla extract- 1 1/2 tsp
• Buttermilk- 3/4 cup

For making espresso or coffee extract:

• Instant espresso powder or coffee powder- 2 tbsp
• Boiling water- 2 tbsp

For making espresso syrup:

• Water- 1/2 cup
• Sugar- 1/3 cup

For making filling and frosting:

• Mascarpone cheese – 8 ounce
• Confectioners’ sugar, sifted- 1/2 cup
• Pure vanilla extract- 1 1/2 tsp
• Heavy cream, cold- 1 cup

Other ingredients:

• Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, grated
• Cocoa powder, for dusting

Hands down, the best birthday cake ever!

Yes I am bragging, this butter chicken tastes better than the restaurant ones…

Butter chicken is one such dish that needs no introduction as even the non Indians are familiar with this. One of my co-workers is a die hard fan of this and she brings this for lunch quite often. I don’t think there would be any Indian restaurants without butter chicken being served. Butter chicken is a North Indian dish and it originated from Punjab. So if you dine at an authentic South Indian restaurants the chances are they might not have this on their menu. While in India, I used to order this every time I dine out. But now I make this quite often in my kitchen. I’ve tried butter chicken at several Indian restaurants around the world. Last year on my way back from India, we had a transit at Frankfurt airport. I was literally starving and was extremely excited to see butter chicken on the menu at a restaurant in the airport. I didn’t think much and walked straight into the restaurant and enjoyed the lunch with butter chicken and basmati rice.

Lately, I had tried a few variations of butter chicken. Butter chicken pizza and butter chicken french fries. I absolutely loved the pizza, I’ll be soon trying that and will share the recipe.

I’ve to admit after trying this recipe, none of the restaurant style butter chicken could possibly impress my taste buds. In this, both the fried chicken and the sauce are flavorful, when they are combined the butter chicken got unbelievably scrumptious. And the good thing is you could adjust the amount of butter and cream accordingly. I’ve even tried this without adding the cream and it still tasted delicious. So even health watchers can try this without compromising on taste.

So get ready to butter up someone with this butter chicken!!!

Butter Chicken

Ingredients:

For marinating chicken:

• Chicken, boneless breast or thighs- 1 lb
• Ginger-garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste

For frying

• Oil- enough to shallow fry chicken

For making puree:

• Oil, used for frying chicken- 3 tbsp
• Onion, chopped- 2, large
• Tomatoes, chopped- 2, large
• Salt- little

For making sauce:

• Butter- 2 tbsp
• Green chilly, chopped- 1
• Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Tomato ketchup- 4 tbsp (must add)
• Half and half cream (optional)- 1/3 cup
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful

Preparation:

1. Marinate the chicken with the above mentioned ingredients ‘for marinating chicken’ for 15 minutes.
2. Shallow fry the chicken in oil till it turns golden in color, keep aside on a paper towel.
3. Place a large non-stick pan over medium heat, add 3 tbsp oil used for frying chicken.
4. Add onions, green chilly to the oil and salt, saute till onions turns tender.
5. Add tomatoes and cook till it gets mashed up.
6. Remove the pan from the heat, let cool down a bit.
7. Puree the onion-mixture in a blender to a smooth paste.
8. In the same pan, melt the butter.
9. Pour the onion-tomato puree to the butter, saute for a couple of minutes.
10. Be careful as the puree will splatter, keep the heat to low medium.
11. Add cumin powder, coriander powder and garam masala to it, cook for a minute.
12. Add water to thin down the sauce.
13. Add tomato ketchup and combine well.
14. Add the fried chicken to the sauce.
15. Now, add the cream and combine well, cook for 2 minutes.
16. This dish should have a thick constituency.
17. Have a taste and add salt if needed.
18. Garnish with cilantro and remove the pan from the heat.
19. Serve with basmati rice or naan.