I always look for more ways to include both protein and vegetables into our meals. When I make chicken curry, I make a paste of cooked vegetables and add it to chapati dough or add vegetables to rice that is served with curry. But sometimes I make a curry with both chicken and vegetables. This vegetable-chicken curry is one such dish that my family really enjoyed.
The next day, I used the same curry to make puffs. My 7 year old loves puffs. This was a perfect way to get some interesting dish in his lunchbox. He even asked if there were leftovers after school.
Pictorial: Marinate chicken. F ry the spices. Fry tomatoes in spices and grind. Then fry onions. Add chicken and fry. Then add vegetables followed by spice paste. Cook till done.
Vegetable-Chicken Curry and Puffs
Ingredients
- 1 lb about 1/2 kg boneless chicken
- 1/2 cup each green peas carrot, corn
- 1/4 cup spinach
- 1/4 cup tightly packed along with thick stems coriander leaves
- 3 green chillies
- 1 tea spn fresh ginger-garlic paste
- 1 tbl spn lemon juice
- A pinch turmeric
- 1/2 cup tomatoes
- 1 tbl spn fresh/frozen or desiccated coconut
- 2 black cardamom moti elaichi
- 1/2 cup onion
- Oil
- Salt
- Spices for the paste:
- 3 cloves
- 2 " cinnamon
- 1 tea spn coriander seeds
- 1 tea spn cumin seeds
- 1 tea spn poppy seeds khas khas
- 1 tea spn ani seeds saunf/badishep
- For Puffs
- 2 puff pastry sheets
Instructions
- Make a paste of coriander leaves, green chillies, ginger-garlic and lemon juice.
- Marinate chicken in that paste with salt and turmeric.
- In a little oil, fry cloves, cinnamon, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, poppy seeds, aniseeds.
- Then fry tomatoes and coconut.
- Make a paste and keep aside.
- Heat oil and fry black cardamom, onions.
- Then add chicken, fry for few minutes.
- Add peas, carrot, corn, spinach.
- Then add the paste, salt, water and cook till done.
- For Puffs:
- Preheat oven at 400F for 10mins.
- Heat the curry till all the water is absorbed.
- Cut pastry sheets into required size pieces.
- Keep a small portion of the dry curry on it.
- Seal the edges with water and press them down.
- Bake for about 15mins (or according to packet instructions).
- Serve hot with ketchup.
Vegetable-Chicken Curry and Puffs
Ingredients
- 1 lb about 1/2 kg boneless chicken
- 1/2 cup each green peas carrot, corn
- 1/4 cup spinach
- 1/4 cup tightly packed along with thick stems coriander leaves
- 3 green chillies
- 1 tea spn fresh ginger-garlic paste
- 1 tbl spn lemon juice
- A pinch turmeric
- 1/2 cup tomatoes
- 1 tbl spn fresh/frozen or desiccated coconut
- 2 black cardamom moti elaichi
- 1/2 cup onion
- Oil
- Salt
- Spices for the paste:
- 3 cloves
- 2 " cinnamon
- 1 tea spn coriander seeds
- 1 tea spn cumin seeds
- 1 tea spn poppy seeds khas khas
- 1 tea spn ani seeds saunf/badishep
- For Puffs
- 2 puff pastry sheets
Instructions
- Make a paste of coriander leaves, green chillies, ginger-garlic and lemon juice.
- Marinate chicken in that paste with salt and turmeric.
- In a little oil, fry cloves, cinnamon, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, poppy seeds, aniseeds.
- Then fry tomatoes and coconut.
- Make a paste and keep aside.
- Heat oil and fry black cardamom, onions.
- Then add chicken, fry for few minutes.
- Add peas, carrot, corn, spinach.
- Then add the paste, salt, water and cook till done.
- For Puffs:
- Preheat oven at 400F for 10mins.
- Heat the curry till all the water is absorbed.
- Cut pastry sheets into required size pieces.
- Keep a small portion of the dry curry on it.
- Seal the edges with water and press them down.
- Bake for about 15mins (or according to packet instructions).
- Serve hot with ketchup.
My long time readers know that I usually post pictures of my kids birthday cakes around this time. This year I took up a lot and made a very ambitious plan for the party. We had the party at home, in our backyard with water balloons, huge bubbles, big balls, dart games, piñata and more. Ayaan has been a huge fan of the series Super Why for last one year. He watches the show whenever he gets screen time and he loves books because of that. So he decided that he wants a Super Why cake. Ishaan came home with a Pokémon card few months back and then had a craze for the cards as well as the show Pokémon – Indigo league on Netflix. So that was what he picked for the cake theme when I gave him few options.
I knew Ayaan would love chocolate cake. So I picked this moist chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for him. He loved it so much that he ate it for 4-5 days till he finished the last morsel of cake. It was loved by all the kids as I had guessed.
Ishaan asked for vanilla cake. I wanted to try out something different. I tried this Italian sponge cake . I have never tried a cake without baking soda or baking powder. So this was totally different. I was very skeptic but it turned out very soft and tasty. I added a layer of buttercream and a layer of mango jam in between two layers. All the grown ups absolutely loved this cake. It tasted a lot like the pastries we get in India. I did not have time to make the figures, so I used some from his collection.
I picked simple dishes for the dinner which did not take too long. Every one of them came out really good. In all it was a fun and successful party. Here was the menu.
Pineapple Salsa
Greek chickpeas salad
Paneer hara bhara kabab and mint chutney
Chicken hariyali kabab
Biryani and raita
Spicy vegetable noodles
