Chocolate Coated Strawberries

Post by Swatti

Strawberries are the most beautiful fruit that I have known. They are so picture perfect that it’s hard to believe that they actually grow on plants. The luscious color and beautiful heart shape not only appeal to the eye but also to the lips too. Add chocolate to the pretty fruit and you can do wonders with both taste and looks of your preparation. Chocolate coated strawberries is one way of doing that without adding too many calories. It's quick, fresh, beautiful and delectable!

All you need is some white chocolate chips and some dark chocolate chips and of course a box of fresh strawberries. The only trick is in doing a neat job with the coating of the strawberries.

 

For the coating you will need a small Styrofoam board or a couple of foam paper plates, toothpicks and a piping bag or a plastic resealable bag.

First, pick out strawberries of a similar size, wash and dry them. While they dry, use two small glass bowls and melt some white and dark chocolate in each of them in a microwave. Add some shortening (Margarine, Butter or Oil) to make the chocolate smooth. Meanwhile, insert toothpicks on the leafy end of all the strawberries. Now you’re all set.

Dip each strawberry 3/4^th of the way into any one color of chocolate. Now use an alternate chocolate color and put it in a piping bag and pipe the chocolate across making horizontal lines.  Once done, use the back end of the toothpick and insert them on the Styrofoam board and let it dry. Place the board in the fridge and let the chocolate harden up. Once done, remove them from the toothpicks and decorate them in a serving plate. Voila! 
  

You can also serve these with lightly sweetened whipped cream or some  good vanilla ice cream on the side.

* While melting the chocolate, keep stirring the chocolate every minute or two. Do not keep the chocolate in the microwave for very long (more than 2 minutes) or else it might burn.  

Tandoori Chicken and Tandoori Chicken Biryani

Post by Sneha


July has been the busiest month for my husband, S. He’s been working round the clock and still has been a good hubby to a very bored wife, treating her to movies and restaurants. So I wanted to do something special for him at random and you must have heard the cliched saying: The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. This never fails. And what S likes best is chicken! He can eat it all day, everyday. So I decided to make Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Biryani. It’s really easy to make Tandoori recipes in USA due to the omnipresent ovens here. What we ate only in restaurants in India can be easily made at home in USA and it makes us look like Indian Martha Stewarts to those back home. :-D

So making Tandoori chicken is all about the marination and the cooking time in the oven. The biryani that I made also had the Tandoori Chicken. The biryani recipe is inspired from the YouTube channel madhurasrecipes. I just tweaked it a little bit to my liking.

Tandoori Chicken:

Ingredients-

• 10 chicken drumsticks, without skin
• ½ lemon/lime juice
• Spice rub:
• 1.5 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp salt
• Marinade
• 4 tbsp Greek style plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 2 heaped tbsp red chilli powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• ½ tbsp garam masala powder
• 1 tsp chat masala powder
• 1 tbsp kasoori methi (crushed)
• 2 tbsp tandoori barbeque masala (store bought)
• ½ tbsp coriander powder
• 1 tbsp ghee (oil can be used instead)
• salt to taste
• 5-6 drops of red food color (optional)

Steps:

First of all remove the skin of the chicken and wash it thoroughly. Drain out the water and pat it dry with a kitchen towel.

Make slits on the flesh side of the chicken as shown. The slits should not be deep down to the bone or the chicken will lose its moisture while cooking.

Now make the spice rub by mixing salt and red chili powder in the quantities as mentioned in the ingredients.

Rub it in the slits made and all over the chicken using your fingers. You won’t need the whole spice rub.

Now squeeze in the juice of half a lemon/lime.

Cover it and keep it refrigerated for half an hour.

Prepare the marinade by mixing all the ingredients. If you are using the regular yogurt instead of the Greek style yogurt, hang the regular yogurt in a muslin cloth for 20 min to drain out the water in it and then use. Also be careful with the amount of salt being used in the marinade because we already have rubbed some salt over the chicken. You may add in red food color as I have to give the chicken a nice color.

Take out the chicken from the refrigerator and marinate it. Use your hands to rub in the marinade over the chicken. Make sure the marinade is in the slits as well.

Cover it and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours.

Line the baking tray with aluminium foil. Grease the foil with Ghee. You may use oil but ghee gives the best results and it’s more authentic.

Place the chicken in the tray. Drizzle ghee over it.

Preheat oven to 450 degree F. Place the tray in the oven for 10 min.

After 10 min take it out and flip the chicken pieces over to the other side. Drizzle some ghee over it again. Place the tray in the oven for 10 more min.

Now take out the tray and remove as many chicken pieces as you want for the biryani. I used 4 in the biryani.

Now flip over the remaining chicken on the tray and again drizzle some ghee. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degree F. Place the tray in the oven for 10 min.

Take out, flip, drizzle ghee and place it again in the oven for 10 min.

Repeat the same step once again.

After 10 min take it out and let it rest. Meanwhile set the oven to broiler setting. Once the oven temp is set to broiler mode, place the chicken in it for 4 min on one side and 4 min on the other side after flipping over. This will give a charred effect to the chicken.

The total cooking time for the tandoori pieces on 450 degree F is 20 min, on 350 degree F it’s 30 min and on broiler 8 min. It may vary sometimes so you need to check it to see if it’s cooked as per your liking.

Biryani:

Ingredients-

• Sauce:
• Oil 1.5 tbsp
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• Whole garam masala - 6 cloves, 8 black peppercorns, 1 star anise, 1 black cardamom, 1 bayleaf, ½ inch cinnamon stick
• Finely sliced onion - 1
• Puree of 1 tomato and 1 onion (together)
• Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
• Red chili powder - 2 tbsp
• Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
• Garam masala powder - ½ tbsp
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Kasoori methi (crushed) - 1 tsp
• Leftover marinade used for tandoori chicken/ yogurt - 2 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Basmati rice - 3 cups
• Green cardamom- 3
• Ghee - 2 tspn
• Fried onions - 1 cup
• Tandoori Chicken pieces (set aside)
• Salt to taste

Wash and soak the basmati rice for half an hour. Basmati rice is an indispensable part of biryani. No other rice works as well.

Boil 6 cups water and add in the the soaked rice. Add in the green cardamoms, salt and ghee. When the rice is 80% cooked, drain out the excess water from it and set aside. Cooking rice to the exact texture is crucial aspect of making biryani. Overcooking rice spoils the dish completely. To check whether the rice is cooked to the right point notice that the grains of rice should be puffed up but shouldn’t break when tried to.

Make the sauce. In a thick bottomed pan, heat oil.

Add in the cumin seeds. Once they splutter, add in the whole garam masala as mentioned.

Then add in the onions and cook them till they are translucent. Then add in the garlic paste.

Stir it for 1 minute till the garlic is cooked. Add in the spice powders and kasoori methi as mentioned. Mix it for 30 seconds.

Then add in the onion and tomato puree.

Mix it well and let it cook till it oozes oil from the sides.

Add in the chicken pieces we had set aside while making tandoori.

Stir it in and add the leftover marinade used for tandoori chicken. If you don’t have any leftover marinade, you may add plain yogurt.

Mix it well and add some salt to taste. You may add 1 tbsp water at this point. Cover and cook for 5 min.

After 5 min, add in ½ cup of fried onions. If the consistency of the sauce is very thick add in some water. You may require about 1 to 2 tbsp water. The consistency must be as can be seen in the picture. Cover and cook for 5 more minutes.

After 5 minutes, add in the basmati rice we cooked earlier, on top of the gravy. Garnish it with remaining fried onions and finely chopped coriander leaves. You may add finely chopped mint leaves too if you like. I personally don’t so I never add them in any of my cooking.

Cover it. Place the pan on a skillet so that it is not on direct heat. Reduce the flame to a low medium. Cook for about 10 min or till the rice is cooked completely.

I must say that these dishes turned out perfect! We finished off the meal with some homemade brownies and store bought ice cream. I would like to take credit for the brownies and say that I made them from scratch. But I will be honest and tell you that I used the Ghirardelli mix for brownies in which I added chopped walnuts. Nevertheless, they were delicious!

DIY: PERSONAL COOLER

It's that time of the year again, when its too hot to be home or be outside. If you live in a large space, using your AC all day is not very economical nor is it practical to cool every room unless of course you are using those rooms. So to stay cool in these soaring temperatures and save on electrical bill, here is a quick and temporary solution. Surprisingly, it works better than I anticipated.

Materials:

• Large foam cooler 
• mini fan
• 1 or 2 pipes
• large empty bottles
• Pen Knife
• Pencil or marker

Cost: approximately $15

How to:

Take the cap of the foam cooler and draw an outline of the fan on one end and the 2 pipes on the other. Using the pen knife cut out the shapes.

Place the mini fan and the pipe vents into their designated space. In the cooler place 2 large water bottles that have been frozen. As the fan forces in hot air the frozen bottles will act as coolers. The air will then pass through the pipes cooling that area of the room.

This works really well, especially if you only want to cool down one room at a fraction the price. Stay cool efficiently, save money and enjoy your summer. 

HOW TO : MAKE GHEE (Clarified Butter)

Post by Sneha

I have been living in the USA for over a year now. This is a very versatile country which has embraced so many different cultures. It is a melange of so many cultures from all over the world and everyone has contributed something to the society. And quite obviously the best part of this for a foodie like myself is that I get to taste a variety of cuisines.

But no matter how much I love it here and no matter how much I get to explore, there are certain things from home which I always crave. Even though almost everything you want is available here, somehow it can never be like ‘mom’-made. One such thing which is a quintessential part of Indian cooking and which we all must have seen our moms make from scratch in India is ghee or clarified butter.

In India, milk is boiled before being used. Mostly it’s full fat milk. Oh yeah, we squirm at the thought of that. But having skimmed milk is almost like a crime for most Indians (at least for most Indians from my mom’s generation). They feel cheated if they are given milk with its fat removed. Plus, if they get fat free milk in India, how are they supposed to make ghee!

I still remember how my mom made ghee. Once milk was boiled, my mom would take out the layer of cream on top and collect many such layers of cream over a period of time. Then she would have the cream curdled and then churn the butter out of it. This butter is basically unsalted butter. That she would heat up to remove the milk solids. Ta-da! Ghee was ready! Well it’s not as simple as it sounds. Believe me!

Now when I make ghee at home, I skip many steps and do the smart thing - buy unsalted butter! So all that I have to do is boil it till the right time and strain it. The aroma from the ghee transports me right back to my childhood.

Let me tell you the exact process of making ghee at home.

• Firstly you need unsalted butter. Salted butter will not work. I buy mine from ‘Ralphs’ grocery store. Normally I buy two packets of butter. Each contains 4 sticks of 4 oz each. I use 7 sticks for the ghee and keep 1 for other use. This ghee lasts me almost two months.

• Take a thick bottomed pot to make the ghee. I use this kadhai or Indian wok. This makes sure that the butter doesn't burn. 

• Place the unsalted butter sticks in the pot. On a medium flame, let the butter melt completely. On the scale of 1-10 for the burner, 10 being the hottest, I keep my burner on 5 for this process. It takes about 15 min for the butter to melt completely on this heat.

• Once the butter is completely melted, reduce the flame slightly. Let the butter boil till it becomes a clear liquid as shown in the pictures. This takes around 20 min. As you can see from the pictures, the milk solids separate from the butter to give you clarified butter. Do not boil it beyond this point or you might end up getting burnt ghee which is brownish in color. 

• Turn off the flame and let the ghee cool completely. Cooling down of the ghee before straining is very important. If you strain it before it's cooled, the steam from the hot ghee gets collected over the lid of the container and that moist environment is favorable for fungal growth over the ghee. I speak from experience! The container that you use to store ghee must be completely dry too. 

• Now strain the ghee. For straining, I use a regular strainer over which I put a layer of muslin cloth. This method for straining has worked best for me of all the tried and tested methods. It is pretty easy and hassle-free too. It is a foolproof way of straining out the milk solids.

There is something so satisfying about making your own ghee at home. It is a great way to save a lot of money on store bought ghee. You also know that what you are eating is adulteration-free. Ghee when made right is the pale yellow color as shown below. The color of ghee also depends on the kind of milk that was used to make the butter. So it's either pale yellow or white. 

I enjoy my ghee the most over daal and rice with some 'mom'-made mango pickle. What do you love it with the most? 

SNACK: PUFFED RICE/MURMURA

Murmura namkeen is a light Indian snack that goes well with evening tea or even just by itself at anytime. I first came across this snack while living in Mumbai. From the very first time that I had it, I loved it. Since then it has been my “go to’” snack, when I come home tired from work. It’s that interim snack before dinner while I’m putting myself together for cooking a full fledged Indian meal.

The best part is that it is low on calories, low on sodium, low on oil and fats and with little or no sugars (except from the besan sev and puffed rice) and it doesn’t do too much damage to dieters who are looking for a little binge.

In Mumbai, I found Murmura Namkeen (that is what I call it, I’m not sure what the exact name is) conveniently at most grocery stores. But when I came to Los Angeles, the closest snack similar to this was the ‘Haldiram’s Diet Bhel’. Even though Haldiram’s Diet Bhel served as a good alternative, I noticed it came in much smaller packs than what I got in Mumbai. I also noticed that the Indian grocery stores in Los Angeles carried plain murmura or puffed rice in gigantic packs. After a lot of contemplation I gave in to my temptation of trying to make murmura namkeen at home one day. I bought the huge murmura pack and made an attempt at murmura namkeen. To my surprise it came out well!! Well enough to mimic the taste of what I had in Mumbai.

For those of you murmura fans still contemplating about buying that huge bag of murmura and making it at home, fear not and give it a try!

Ingredients:

Puffed Rice/Plain Murmura – 6 cups
Roasted Peanuts – 2 cups
Plain Besan sev (regular in thickness) - 3 cups
Roasted chana dal – 2 tbsp
Oil – 4 tbsp
Curry Leaves – 8-10
Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Salt as per your taste
Red chilli powder – 1 ¼ tsp
Turmeric Powder – 1 tsp

Method:

1. Work with a big wok for making the murmura namkeen
2. Add oil to the wok and heat it well
3. Add the mustard seeds and let them crackle a little
4. Add the curry leaves and fry them in the oil until they are crisp. This will take about a minute
5. Add turmeric powder, red chili powder and salt to the oil. Give it a quick stir
6. Reduce the heat to the lowest and then add the puffed rice followed by roasted peanuts, roasted chana dal and besan sev. Mix all the ingredients well
7. Keep mixing till all the puffed rice are coated with the oil seasoning and are crisp. Turn off the heat but keep stirring to ensure that the puffed rice at the bottom of the wok does not burn or over roast in the residue heat
8. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature and store in an airtight container

Serve as a snack anytime with tea or coffee.

You could also use this mixture to make bhel puri by adding a bit of chopped onions, tomatoes, coriander, green chilies and a finely cubed boiled potato.

Give this recipe a shot and let us know how it turns out! 

Any suggestions for variations and or improvements are most welcome.