Onion, Chicken and Cheese Pizza

No special story for this one…just thought I’d try making Pizza at home…from scratch…as in preparing the dough and all. Frankly, it wasn’t that tough…pretty straight forward. The best pizza place in town is Pizza Express. Luckily for us, it’s just 5 min walk from home 😀 We absolutely love going there after a movie, after a walk or just like that…for no reason at all 😀

So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 Quantity Basic Pizza Dough*
• Plain Flour for dusting
• 1 Tbsp olive oil, for oiling

Topping:

• Olive Oil – 2 Tbsp
• Onions (sliced into rings) – 250 gm
• Garlic Cloves (crushed) – 2
• Red Pepper (deseeded and diced) – 1
• Chicken – 100 gm
• Mozzarella Cheese (sliced) – 100 gm
• Tomato Puree – 1/2 a tin or can be made at home by using 2 medium-sized tomatoes
• Jalapeno Peppers – 2 Tbsp
• Rosemary springs for garnishing

*To Make Pizza Dough:

(makes 1×25-cm/10-inch pizza)

Ingredients:

• Plain Flour, plus extra for dusting
• salt – 1 tsp
• easy-blend dried yeast – 1 tsp
• warm water – 6 tbsp
• olive oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

• Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and add the yeast. Pour in the water and mix the dough. Finish off with olive oil. Knead for about 5 minutes, then leave in the bowl until double in size. Covering the bowl loosely with cling film helps.
• Knock out the air from the dough after then knead lightly.
• Roll out on a floured work surface, ready to use

Toppings for Pizza:

• Using a rolling-pin, roll out the dough to form a square shape, then place it on an oiled baking tray, pushing out to the edges until even. The dough should be no more than 1/4 inch thick because it will rise during baking
• To make the topping, heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pan over a low heat. Add garlic, red pepper and chicken pieces and fry for a couple of minutes (chicken does not have be completely cooked as it will baked later)
• Spread the tomato purée over the pizza dough, then spread the chicken and pepper topping evenly over the pizza base. Finish off with onions, mozzarella and rosemary.
• Bake in a preheated oven, 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6, for 20-25 minutes. Serve the pizza hot!

Njoy!!

Recipe: Nasi Goreng

I get bored preparing the same old Indian recipes at home…so S and I have been experimenting with some other cuisines. I made Nasi Goreng, an Indonesian Rice dish couple of weeks ago. Absolutely loved it. I love anything with rice in it…except probably octopus and other similar creatures 😀

I moulded the recipe according to our taste…but not much…just a bit of chillies and bit of salt..

Here goes the recipe…

Ingredients:

• Rice – 250 (g) {I used Sona Masoori but Basmati is fine}
• Boiling water – 1 (lt)
• Turmeric Powder – 1 (tsp)
• Vegetable Oil – 3 (Tbsp)
• Spring Onions – 1 Bunch
• Fresh Root Ginger – 2 1/2 (cm) finely chopped
• Green/Red Chillies – 2/3
• Chicken Brest Fillet – 500 gm/thinly slice
• Garlic Cloves – 2/crushed
• Soy sauce – 4 Tbsps
• Prawns – 200 (g)/cooked, peeled, defrosted if frozen {If you want to get rid of the sea smell, cook prawns in some ginger+garlic paste, turmeric powder and salt}
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Coriander for garnish

Method:

• Cook the rice in boiling salter water, with turmeric added
• Leave it to dry completely (to avoid rice becoming mushy (mixing with a fork occasionally helps quicken the process)
• Heat 2 tbsps of oil in a wok or any heave based pan
• Add half the spring onions, ginger and chillies and stir fry over low heat for 2-3 mins until softened.
• Add remaining oil and increase the heat to high
• Add chicken and garlic and stir fry for 5-7 mins
• Now add rice in 3 batches, stirring after each addition to mix well with other ingredients
• Add soy sauce and prawns and stir fry for 2-3 mins until hot
• Transfer to a bowl and mix in lemon juice
• Sprinkle with remaining spring onions and garnish with coriander

Suggestions:

You can add green peas to and vegetables like boiled carrots and beans  to make it more nutritious.

Enjoy!!

Curry Puffs

Curry Puffs are my one of my favourite ‘anyday, anytime’ snacks. Relishing Curry Puffs on the roads of Hyderabad with Irani Chai was my favourite pass time…especially on a rainy day. Though curry puffs at home taste better, the atmosphere is just not there. I miss those days very much 😦

Anyways, here goes the recipe.

Cooking Time: 45 Minutes

Serves: 3

Ingredients:

• Potato (Aalu, chopped into 1 inch pieces ) – 3 Large
• Green Peas (optional) – 1 cup (tea cup)
• Onions (finely chopped) – 2
• Tomatoes (finely chopped)- 2
• Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 Tsp
• Curry Powder – 1 Tsp
• Coriander Powder – 1 Tbsp
• Chat Masala – 1 Tsp
• Chilli Powder – 1-2 Tbsp
• Turmeric Powder – 1 Tsp
• Curry Leaves (torn) – 6
• Cumin Seeds – 1 Tsp
• Mustard Seeds – 1 Tsp
• Jus Rol Puff Pasty Roll – 1
• Oil – 5-7 Tbsp
• Water – According to Quantity
• A Pizza Cutter
• A Kadai

Method:

• Add oil to a kadai and let it heat. Then add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add cumin seeds and fry them a little…later add curry leaves and fry till they are crispy
• Now add onions and fry till they are golden brown. Then add turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste and mix.
• Leave for a couple of minutes and then add tomatoes and mix well
• One the mixture becomes soft, add curry powder, coriander powder, chat masala and chilli powder
• Mix well and let it simmer for a couple of minutes on a low flame
• Now add potatoes, green peas and mix well. Add water to the mixture if necessary….in order to cook the potatoes. I usually do not cook potatoes in a pressure cooker before hand since I absolutely hate washing up 😀 I try to keep utensils to a minimum
• Once the mixture is partially cooked, turn off the flame and let it cool (very very important)
• The mixture will be going into the owen, allowing it to cook completely

• Once the mixture is cool enough, add it to the cut puff rol pieces and tap the openings leaving some gaps in between to let the heat out whilst in the owen

• Pre-heat owen to 150° centigrade for 5-8 minutes and place the tray with the puffs  in the owen. Leave it for 15-20 minutes but keep checking in between since they cook very quickly.
• Once the puffs swell up and reach light brown is colour, remove from owen
• Serve with Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce. Totally Yummy!!!

Pic Courtesy:http://www.secretrecipe.com.pk/cakes.html

Njoy!!

Beetroot Fry

Pic Courtesy: http://www.simplyfreshfruit.com.au/store/images/beetroot.gif

Beetroot is not one of my favorite vegetables….well actually, I tend not to like vegetables that are healthy for the human body 😉 but I am conscientiously trying to prepare more dishes with nutritious veggies. More about beetroot here.

Ingredients:

(Recipe Serves 2)

• Beetroots – 2 (Diced into 1 inch pcs)
• Onion (medium sized) – 1 (finely chopped)
• Garlic Cloves – 2 (finely chopped)
• Red Chili Powder – 1 tsp
• Salt – According to Taste
• Turmeric Powder – A Pinch
• Oil – 2 Tbsp

For Tempering (Talimpu):

• Mustard Seeds – 1 Tsp
• Cumin Seeds – 1 Tsp
• Urid Dal – 1 Tsp
• Chana Dal – 1Tsp
• Curry Leaves – 5

Method:

• Add oil to a pan and let it heat. Then add mustard seeds and once they start spluttering add cumin seeds, urid dal & chana dal.
• Once they turn golden brown in colour and curry leaves and the finely chopped garlic cloves
• Fry them a little bit and then add finely chopped onion
• Fry them till they turn golden brown in colour and then add the beetroot pieces
• Fry the beetroot until the pieces are crispy
• Turn off the flame and serve with rice or chapthis

Pretty straight forward 🙂

Recipe for Curry Puffs coming up tomorrow.

Njoy!

How to Make Strawberry & Raspberry Jam

My very dear friend R made some Blackcurrant jam a while ago. We recently ran out so I decided to make some of my own. It is very easy and everyone can make some. I decided to make some Strawberry & Raspberry Jam. Strawberries were bought from a local super market and I had some frozen Raspberries.

Ingredients:

• Strawberries (coarsely chopped) – 1 Mug (A Coffee Mug)
• Raspberries (coarsely chopped) – 3/4 Mug
• Sugar – 1 Mug (add more if necessary)
• Lemon Juice – 2 Tbsps

Method:

• Add the finely chopped Strawberries and Raspberries to a non-stick pan and mix for few minutes.
• Now add the lemon juice and sugar and mix well.
• Keep mixing on medium flame until the berries become soft and bubbles start appearing.
• Now reduce the flame and keep mixing, making sure the mixture hasn’t hardened.
• Once the mixture reaches the consistency of Jam, turn off the flame and let it cool for a bit. Do not over cook the mixture. Try to keep it mildly liquidy as it will solidify when left out to cool.
• Transfer it to a clean air-tight bottle.

Tips:

• Do not let the berries boil until the mixture becomes hard. It has to be loose and you should be able to easily transfer it to a bottle. If it does turn out hard, just heat the jam a little bit before using.

(OK..before you think I took a picture of some ready-made jam…let me tell you that I did not have any fancy jam bottles so had to re-use with an old one 😦