Simple Cooking

Very simple and in minutes ready salad. Now dont go nuts about the poached chicken part. Poched chicken is basically boiled chicken but it is boiled in just enough water to submerge and for the flavour, you can either simply add stock cubes or herbs or just salt or if you like it basic, just keep it plain water. But having a flavour always helps. Once the water boils, reduce the heat and let it just heat without bubbling over for about 10 minutes. After that keep the chicken in the water for 10-15 minutes to cool down and soak in the water and its flavours. The rest is below.


This is what you need:

1/2 kilo poached chicken breast
1 celery stalk, chopped
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
roughly shredded lettuce leaves

This is how to make it:

Cut chicken into 1/2 cubes. Mix celery, lettuce, mayonnaise, mustard, and parsley in a bowl. Add chicken; toss to coat. Done!

Okie Doks.

This is an easy one and and you really need to get dirty with it. You have use your hands to mix the mince meat with all the other ingredients. I can tell you one thing for sure, if you want to cook, you need to use your bare hands. Dont go by the belief that you can cook without using your hands, there's no fun in that. Get your hands working and get the feel of the food that you are going to eat. Of course, wash your hands please and guys...please...wash your hands before you enter the kitchen after popping into the loo no matter what you were doing there!

Puuhhleeezze!


This is what you need:

1/2 kilo ground mutton ( you can use chicken or beef, if you like and these can be the round one or the more long type ones too)
1 green onion chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh spinach (frozen ones will save you the trouble)
1/4 cup chopped tomato
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill or 3/4 teaspoon dried ( go for the dried ones to save time)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

This is how it is cooked

Combine ground beef, green onion, spinach, tomato, feta, dill, salt and pepper. Form into 2 patties. Grill or pan-fry over medium-high heat for 6 minutes on each side for medium doneness.

Have it with the bun or even without it.

Ok now that you know where Burma is (yeah! yeah!), here's another recipe from Burma, I came across and cooked very recently. Came out well and unlike Indian food, its not too spicy. The hotness quotient is subjective.

This is a somewhat dry recipe unlike the full on curry like Kaukse.

Here's what you need

2 Onions, rough chopped
5 Cloves garlic, rough chopped
1/2 Inch piece fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
2 sticks of lemon grass, roughly chopped
2 Red chillis seeded and chopped (habaneros work well, you'll need rather more Thai chillis)
1tbsp Fish sauce (nam pla)
1 tsp Ground turmeric
4 tbsp Veg oil
1 kg Chicken cut into curry pieces
4 Green (or two black) cardamon pods
2 tbsp rough chopped coriander/cilantro leaf
Salt and fresh ground black pepper

Here's how to cook it:

Grind the first 7 ingredients (ie up to and including the turmeric) together into a smooth paste (food processor/pestle and mortar etc). Heat oil in wide frying pan or wok and add paste, stiry-fry until moisture has evaporated and paste has started to brown. Add chicken pieces and stir well, scrape bottom of pan to prevent sticking. THis wont be a problem if you are using a non stick. Cover tightly and simmer for 35-45 minutes - there should be enough liquid given off from the chicken during cooking but check now and then and stir. If chicken does get too dry and starts sticking/burning (and it's never happened to me) add a tablespoon or so of water and stir in, scraping residue off bottom of pan.
Shortly before chicken is ready slit open cardamom pods and extract seeds, crush seeds in pestle and mortar and add to chicken with coriander leaf, stir and simmer for a further minute or so, taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve with plain rice or coconut rice.

Goes great with Singha or Tiger Beer..hic!

Also called Safed Murgh in Hindi. The recipe has poppy seeds as a part of the ingredients in it but in moderation unlike the the sleep factor of Posto Chicken. Should ideally be accompanied with the traditional Indian bread - roti or naan but even French bread goes well with this.

This is what we need

1 kg chicken - cut into approx. 8 pieces
1/4 cup ghee (for the more calories conscious, use 1/8 cup oil and i/8 cup ghee, or you can go completely with oil)
1 tsp cumin seeds (zeera)
1/2 tsp whole peppercorns (sabut kali mirch)
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1/4 cup cashewnuts-soaked and ground to a paste
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp sugar
4 tbsp coriander leaves - finely chopped
2 tbsp cornflour dissolved in 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup milk

Here's how to cook it

Place the chicken in a saucepan with 2 cups water. Bring to a boil and then simmer till cooked through (about 20 minutes).

When cool, drain the chicken pieces and mix the milk and the stock together and make up to 2 cups adding more water if required.

Heat the ghee in a heavy based pan and add the zeera and peppercorns. When they splutter, add the ginger and garlic, and saute till a little darker in color. Add the salt and ground paste and stir well to mix.

Add to this the chicken, the stock and milk mixture and bring to a boil.

Add the cornflour mixture, bring to a boil again, then simmer for 2 minutes.

Add the vinegar, sugar and half the coriander leaves, mix and serve hot garnished with the rest of the coriander leaves.

Ok. This is an another Indian recipe and comes from the western region of the country, West Bengal, where I was born. Posto is basically poppy seeds. Poppy Seeds are banned in the Middle East and maybe in some other regions but in most places of the world, especially in India and Bangladesh, it is a very common food ingredient. Actually, eat Posto preparations with Rice, and an immediate afternoon nap will follow, guaranteed....quite blissful really!

So here's what you need:

500 gm chicken pieces
4 medium sized onions- chopped
4 green chillies
2 tbsp grated coconut (or prepackaged dry coconut powder)
2 tbsp poppy seeds (posto)
1/2 inch cinnamon stick
2 cardamoms
2 cloves
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 inch ginger
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
salt to taste
4 tbsp oil
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder

This is how to cook it

Make a fine paste of poppy seeds, green chillies, grated coconut, cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves, ginger and garlic. Ok, now in most traditional Indian houses, this is not really a problem, but for those outside of India, we need to do this differently. The paste cant be done in a mixer since its wet. So we need to do it dry. Grind only the dry ingredient, that is, dry coconut powder, poppy seeds, Heat kadai and put oil to heat. Now add onions, fry until they turned into golden brown.Add cleaned chicken, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and salt.Fry for 8 to 10 minutes on high flame or until the chicken pieces change its colour. Add the posto paste prepared in step 1 to this and fry for another 5 to 8 minutes.Add water depending on how much gravy is desired and wait until the chicken is soft and tender.Posto chicken is now ready to be served, add coriander leaves on top before serving.

This is a recipe I learnt from my wife who is vegetarian by the way! Well, she cooks it for me and does not even taste it but it always turns out the tops. It is a somewhat laborious recipe but is definitely worth the effort. Oh yes, its an Indian chicken recipe. Goes well with Naan or bread ideally but is fine with rice also.

So here's what you need

1 kg chicken
2/3 cup yoghurt
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp red chilli
1 tsp garlic paste
salt to taste
1 tsp lime juice
2 tsp oil
1 bay leaf
2 pieces cinnamon
6 pieces cloves
1/2 tsp crushed black pepper
2 medium onions
2 tsp grated coconut
1 large cut tomato
2 tsp oil
1 tsp coriander leaves

And this is how it is cooked

Mix turmeric powder, red chillies, garlic paste, salt, and lime juice with curd. The marinade is ready. Add the cut chicken pieces to the marinade and leave aside for half an hour.

Heat oil in pan.Add bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, crushed black pepper and chopped onions. Saute till onions turn translucent. Add grated coconut. Saut?ill coconut color changes. Add tomatoes. Cook for 10-15 minutes.

Cool and puree the mix in a blender. If the puree is too hot, you can damage the mixer, so let it cool to a little more than room temperature. The Kolhapur masala is ready.

Heat oil and add the marinated chicken to the pan. Cook for 20 minutes on low fire. Be careful to keep the gas low, otherwise you will end up making it too dry. Stir regularly. Add paste and simmer on low flame for 5 minutes. Kolhapur chicken is ready.

Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Dont forget to lick you fingers!

For those who dont know where Burma is, its capital Rangoon might ring some bells. If not, Burma is a small kingdom, very cut off from the rest of the world, to the west of India and south of China. Its not completely oriental and is close to the Indian sub-continent, thus getting influences from both these culture. The Burmese are mainly hill people. America seems to be slowly discovering Burmese cooking, thanks to new restaurants like the one mentioned in Washington Post suggests.

The Kaukse is a chicken recipe, I picked it up from the net and have since cooked it a number of times. It is coconut based has full taste but is not hot and spicy and is to be eaten with rice.

This is what you need

1 chicken-cooked, de-boned and cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups thick coconut milk
3 large onions-finely sliced
3 cloves garlic-crushed
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1 cup thin coconut milk
4 eggs hard boiled chopped
small coriander leaves-chopped
green chillies-chopped
chilli oil (1 tsp of chilli powder and 2 tbsp of olive oil cooked together for a minute)

This is how to cook it

Cook thick coconut milk in a saucepan, stirring constantly, until it is very oily.Add half the onions and all the garlic and fry, stirring, until they start to color.Add chicken and cook, stirring constantly for a few minutes. Set aside. Mix chickpea flour with cold water to form a thin cream. Add thin coconut milk to the pan and when it comes to a boil stir in the chickpea flour mixture. Cook and stir constantly until it thickens a little.Add the chicken and onion mixture, and simmer 3-5 minutes.Stir in chilli oil and remove from the heat. Garnish chopped hard boiled eggs, raw onions, coriander and green chillies.

Eat with rice.

A very standard Chinese Fare and delicious to say the least. Not very time consuming and has a fairly distint garlicy taste and flavour. Goes well with hot plain rice or fresh noodles.

The sauce is the soul of this recipe and adds the taste and the flavour while the chicken itself is coated with cornflour for the crunchiness.

Bring out the chop sticks!

Here's what you need:

Ingredients: 1 chicken (about a kg or less) cut into small pieces
2 tbsp corn flour
1/4 cup (60 g) oil
1 large onion-sliced finely
2 tbsp grated ginger
10 cloves garlic-finely chopped

Sauce ingredients to be mixed together
2 tsp soya sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup tomato puree
1 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp powdered black pepper
1 tsp corn flour

Here's how to cook it

Wash chicken pieces and wipe dry. Put these and corn flour into a paper or plastic bag and shake well to coat chicken well. Remove the coated pieces, dust off the excess flour and keep aside.Heat oil in a kadahi. Add chicken pieces first over high heat then lower the heat and fry till golden and cooked through. Drain well and keep aside. In the remainder oil, add sliced onion, ginger and garlic, and stir fry till onion is transparent. Add chicken, turn around a few times, and then add the mixed sauce ingredients. Stir-fry till the sauce thickens a bit. Transfer chicken to a serving dish, garnish with spring onions and serve.

This a somewhat oriental themed Chicken recipe that I concocted myself. Its not too complex and can be managed easily and has a light taste unlike the more full blooded Indian recipes. The aroma of Lemongrass is very refreshing and gives the recipe a very light summery taste and feel. Goes well with rice.

This is what you need:

4-5 chicken legs
juice of 1-2 lemons
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste (if using ginger garlic combined paste, just use 2tsp in total)
salt - to taste
pepper - to taste
2 tsp honey
oil - for shallow frying
4-5 tbsp water
a bunch of fresh lemon grass

This is how to cook it:

Marinate the chicken in lemon juice, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and pepper for 2 hours. After that, heat some oil (2tbsp) in a non stick pan, add the marinated chicken marinade stir for a few minutes.Drop in the lemon grass, mix and add the water. Cover and simmer for about 20 mins or till done. Now add the honey, mix well and cover again for a few minutes.

Serve with a lemon wedge.

This is an all out Indian recipe and is definitely not to be cooked in a hurry. It is time consuming in the sense that the process of two step marinating the chicken over a few hours is long but the cooking process in itself is not so laborious. Basically, if you have people coming over for dinner, you need to do the first marination, in the morning and the second at about noon and then cook it early evening. In between, there is hardly anything to be done. Just be patient.

As a matter of taste, it is a guaranteed absolute smash hit!

You need to eat this with the traditional Indian naan or roti or even rice. Is spicy by European standards but is not too hot.

I have cooked this about three times and everytime, its been a rage!

So here goes!


What you need:

Ingredients: oil
Chicken drumsticks 2 pcs (multiply all ingredients accordingly, if cooking for more)

For the 1st marination

1/2 tsp ginger-chopped
1/2 tsp garlic-chopped
a pinch of cardamom powder
1 tsp lemon juice
salt - according to taste

For the 2nd marination

3 tsp fresh cream
4 tbsp hung curd (basically yoghurt in cups is fine. The yoghurt should not be watery)
1/2 tsp garam masala

How to cook:

For the first marination; mix the chicken with the chopped ginger, chopped garlic, cardamom powder, lemon juice and salt and keep it for 3-4 hours.
For the second marination, now add cream, hung curd and garam masala to the marinated chicken and leave it aside for another 2-3 hours.
For the main preparation: heat oil in a non stick pan with a cover. Add the marinated chicken to it and cook for 15-20 minutes on a low flame, stirring it occasionally. Cook uncovered in the first 10-12 mins and then remove the cover for the rest. Do not add water, the sauce forms as you cook.

Garnish with chopped coriander for the finishing for the extra visual effect!

Serve hot with rice or rotis.