I had stopped cooking or eating chicken for a while now, so there weren’t any non-vegetarian recipe posts for last 4-5months. But as they say – times change, so do I. I wanted to make this comeback to the non-veggie side of things a bit special, and I chose to try this recipe that my colleague Cyndy was asking about.
Tikka is traditionally made in a special kind of oven called Tandoor . Normally boneless pieces of chicken are marinated in spicy masalas for around 3-4 hrs and then grilled. In India, these are served in mostly all non vegetarian restaurants. The best tikka I tasted was from a small restaurant called ‘Curry House’ in BTM Layout, Bangalore. I used to specially go to this restaurant to eat tikka and/or hariyali kabab , chicken biryani and spicy buttermilk . Though all dishes they served are very tasty, I would always order these. After a few days of my frequent visits to this place, the waiters would pre-order this stuff because they knew what I would order :).
Since I don’t have a tandoor or grill with me, I fried them on a flat bottomed pan till they are almost done and then baked them in oven. They turned out to be perfect.
Ingredients: 10 pieces of boneless chicken 1/2 tea spn ginger paste 1/2 tea spn garlic paste 1/2 tea spn cumin powder 1/2 tea spn coriander powder 1/2 tea spn garam masala 1 tea spn chili powder (preferably Kashmiri chili powder or byadagi chili powder) 1 cup yogurt/curd Oil/butter 1 tbl spn lemon juice Chaat masala (optional) Salt
Increase or decrease the spices according to taste. Use fresh ginger and garlic for best results, the ready made ginger-garlic paste has a a very different taste and aroma.
Method: Take the yogurt in a thin cloth and squeeze out all water out of it. This is called hung yogurt. Add hung yogurt and all other ingredients(except oil/butter) to the chicken and mix well. There should be a nice coating of this mixture on all pieces. Do not add any water to it. Leave it in freezer for around 3-4hrs.
Heat a flat bottomed pan, apply oil/butter and keep the pieces on it.
Fry from all sides till it is almost cooked. Preheat the oven at 350F and bake the pieces for around 10-15mins till the pieces get a brownish color. Alternatively instead of frying and baking, thread the pieces onto the skewers and grill them till they are done. While serving, spread some chaat masala on top and serve with lemon pieces.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 40mins
Pineapple is called ananas in most of the Indian languages. Palya (Kannada) meaning side dish. Many people asked me for this recipe. I had seen this in one of the Kannada TV shows. From the day I saw it, I wanted to try it. Finally when I got many requests, I tried it.
I used to eat pineapple as it is or in ananas paank or in ananas sasam . First time I cooked them in a spicy sauce for pineapple stew . I realized cooked pineapple with jaggery and chilies taste heavenly. So when I saw this recipe, I knew it is going to be a super hit. Roasted urad daal gives a very nice flavor to this. I served it with Gujrathi daal and beans koddel , to make a perfect sweetish meal.
Please be careful not to taste this dish while cooking, otherwise you will eat it all and nothing will remain for others :).
Ingredients: 2 cups chopped fresh pineapple 1 tea spn urad daal 1 tbl spn dry coconut (or dessicated coconut) A pinch asafoetida 4-5 pepper 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 4-5 curry leaves 4-5 red chillies 1/2 tea spn jaggery Oil Salt
Method: Roast urad daal on a medium flame till they are fragrant, do not add oil. Roast coconut, asafoetida, red chillies, pepper. Grind them into a powder. Heat a little oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, curry leaves, fry for sometime. Now add pineapple, 1/2 cup water, close and cook. When they are almost done, add the powder, jaggery, salt and cook till jaggery is melted and well mixed.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 20mins
PS: Do not use canned pineapple for this. Fresh one tastes very good. Canned pineapple has some smell and taste which overcomes the aroma and taste of this dish.
