Chicken Meatloaf

I was armed with all the ingredients for making fried chicken balls and later putting them in gravy. I started out that way but when the time came for frying I just felt lazy. So I dumped the entire mixture into the oven and out came a baked chicken meatloaf!

Ingredients:
Ground chicken – 1 lb
Carrot -- 1
Bell pepper -- 1
Scallions – a bunch
Garlic – 2 cloves
Ginger – 2 inch
Egg -- 1
Soy sauce – 1 tbsp
Vinegar – 1tbsp
Tomato ketchup – 2 tbsp
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Bread crumbs – 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper – to taste

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking tray with foil and keep aside.

Finely chop the carrot, bell pepper and scallions, ginger and garlic. I use a food processor. (I add the carrots and bell pepper to make it a little healthy.)

In a large bowl put the ground chicken. Add all the chopped vegetables and the rest of the ingredients.

Season with salt and pepper.

Mix all the ingredients until all of them are incorporated into the meat. I use my hands, but you can use a fork.

Now arrange the mixture into any shape you please in the foil lined tray. Cover with aluminium foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Remove cover and bake for another 15 minutes.

Cut into bite size pieces and serve as an appetizer.

You can use any leftover as a sandwich filling. Tastes yummy.

Garlic Mushrooms

Ingredients:
Button mushrooms – 1 lb
Garlic cloves (finely chopped) – 2
Olive oil – 5 tbsp
Fresh parsley (chopped) – 3 tbsp
Lemon
Salt and Pepper -- to taste

Procedure:
Wipe the mushrooms clean and cut any large pieces into half or quarters.

Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan.

Add the garlic and cook for a minute, or until garlic is lightly browned.

Add the mushrooms and sauté over high heat until the mushrooms have absorbed all the oil.

Reduce heat to low.

When juices from the mushrooms have come out again, increase the heat to high and sauté for 5-6 minutes, until the juices have almost evaporated.

Add a squeeze of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Stir in the parsley and cook for a minute or so.

Serve immediately. You can accompany this dish with crusty bread for mopping up the juices.

Mughlai Paratha

This dish was the result of a few friends popping in at a short notice. I had these tortillas in the refrigerator and chicken meatballs in the freezer. With that I cooked up my version of a mughlai paratha. Turned out pretty well.

Ingredients:
Medium sized flour tortillas – 8
Chicken meatballs – 15-20
Egg – 8
Onion (sliced) – 1
Green chili (chopped) – 4-5
Salt – to taste
Cooking oil – for frying

Procedure:
Heat the chicken meatballs either in a microwave or oven and coarsely grind them in a food processor and keep aside.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Season with salt. Add sliced onions and chopped green chilies to the beaten mixture.

Heat a non stick pan or tawa and drizzle with oil.

Put a tortilla on the pan and a little of the egg mixture on the tortilla.

When the mixture starts to set, but is still wiggling, add spoonfuls of the ground meatball.

Now fold the edges of the tortilla in to a square.

Flip over and fry the other side till golden.

Serve hot with tomato sauce and cucumber-onion salad.

Oven Roasted Potatoes

After a few trials finally got this dish right. Initially tried doing this with russet brown potatoes but didn’t work out too well. After all the experiments finally decided that the Yukon golds are the best for the job.

Ingredients:
Yukon gold potatoes – 10-12
Olive oil – 2 tbsp
Garlic (chopped) – 2 cloves
Jalapeno (chopped) -- 2
Salt – to taste

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 425F. Make sure your oven is clean inside.

Cut the potatoes into quarters. Wash and pat dry.

In a large bowl mix oil, garlic, jalapeno, potatoes and salt until well coated.

Spread out the potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet or a roasting pan.

Put it in the oven and roast for 20-30 minutes, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.

You can also use Italian seasoning instead of garlic and jalapeno.

Bread Chop

Ingredients:
White bread – 8 slices
Boiled potatoes – 2
Onion (finely chopped) – 1
Green chilies – 2
Garlic (chopped) – 2 cloves
Cilantro (chopped) – 2 tbsp
Salt – according to taste
Sugar – according to taste
Oil -- for deep frying
Procedure:
Mash the boiled potatoes until smooth.

Add the chopped onion, green chilies, garlic and the cilantro. Season with salt and sugar and mix all the ingredients well.

Divide the mixture into 8 parts and keep aside.

In the mean time, soak the bread in water. Squeeze out the excess water.

Put each part of the mixture inside each bread slice and roll the bread tightly.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry each bread roll till red. Drain excess oil on paper towel.

Serve hot with tomato sauce and cucumber-onion salad.

Shorshe Ilish --Hilsa with mustard

Ingredients:
Ilish – 6-8 pieces
Mustard paste – 2 tbsp
Yogurt – 2 tbsp
Mustard oil – 5 tbsp
Green chilies (slit) – 8-10
Salt – according to taste
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 350F.

In a flat oven safe dish/ bowl arrange the hilsa pieces. Season with salt. Drizzle 3 tbsp mustard oil on the fish and coat them well.

Now make a mixture of the mustard paste, yogurt, turmeric powder and remaining mustard oil.

Drizzle the mixture on the fish and coat the fish pieces well.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and put it in the oven.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until fish flakes when touched with a fork.

Garnish with green chilies and serve hot with steamed rice.

Shorshe Salmon -- Salmon with mustard

I had always heard about shorshe salmon. The first time I made it was when my parents were here. Before that we used to have a baked salmon dish which my husband makes (recipe courtesy, his friend). My parents tried the baked salmon but since they were not accustomed to the taste they were kind of ok with it, didn’t quite relish it. That’s when I decided to try this out and it became a hit.

Ingredients:
Salmon – 6-8 pieces
Mustard paste – 2tbspn
Yogurt – 2tbspn
Mustard oil – 5 tbspn
Green chilies (slit) – 8-10
Salt – according to taste
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 350F.

In a flat oven safe dish/ bowl arrange the salmon pieces. Season with salt. Drizzle 3 tbspn mustard oil on the fish and coat them well.

Now make a mixture of the mustard paste, yogurt, turmeric powder and remaining mustard oil.

Drizzle the mixture on the fish and coat the fish pieces well.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and put it in the oven.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until fish flakes when touched with a fork.

Garnish with green chilies and serve hot with steamed rice.

Shorshe Chicken -- Chicken with mustard

Ingredients:
Chicken (cut into bite size pieces) – 2 lb
Onion (finely sliced) – 1 cup
Ginger paste – 1 tbspn
Garlic paste –2 tbspn
Turmeric powder – 1 tbspn
Mustard paste – 3 tbspn
Yogurt – 3 tbspn
Mustard oil – 2 tbspn
Green chili (slit) – 8-10
Cooking oil – 2-3 tbspn
Procedure:
In a heavy bottomed pan put oil and heat it.

When oil is heated enough add a tbsp of sugar. Stir the sugar till it reaches a dark brown color.

Now add the garlic paste, ginger paste, sliced onions, turmeric powder and start frying the mixture until it takes up a brownish color, approximately 10-15 minutes.

When oil starts coming out from the fried mixture, add the chicken pieces and stir. Add water and let the chicken cook until tender.

Meanwhile mix the mustard paste and the yogurt together.

When chicken is fully cooked, add the yogurt mixture and mix well with the chicken. Do not let the pot sit on heat for long after you have added the mustard paste, as this will make it bitter.

Remove from heat and drizzle the mustard oil on top.

Garnish with the green chilies and serve hot with steamed rice.

Kosha Mangsho -- Slow cooked goat curry

I learnt to eat goat meat after my marriage. Before that I was more into chicken, and the few times I had goat I was kind of overpowered by the smell, just as I am overpowered by the smell of lamb now. The first time I cooked goat was at my in-laws’ with help from my mom-in-law. Since my husband is a red meat gorger (he doesn’t consider chicken to be in the non-veg category!) and my in-laws also prefer goat I learnt to cook goat. My aim was to get rid of the smell so that I could eat it too and I found that marinating the meat in all sorts of spices helped. I’ve seen my friends and relatives cook goat meat in either a pressure cooker or a slow cooker. Since I don’t have any (the pressure cooker which I have is too small for the amount of meat I cook) I use my stove top. Works just as well.
Ingredients:
Goat meat – 2 pounds
Ginger paste – 2 tbsp
Garlic paste – 1 1/2 tbsp
Onion sliced – 1 cup
Bay leaf – 2
Cinnamon – half a stick
Cardamom – 2 cloves
Whole black pepper – 1 tsp
Cooking oil – 3-4 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Sugar – 1 tbsp
For the marinade:
Yogurt – 3 tbsp
Cumin powder – 1 tbsp
Coriander powder – 1tbsp
Chili powder – 1/2 -1 tbsp
Turmeric – 1 tbsp
Mustard oil – 2 tbsp
Procedure:
Clean the meat and pat dry. Place meat in a large bowl.

To the meat add all the ingredients under marinade and mix well.

Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 2-3 hours. If you can keep it overnight, even better. The more you let it sit in the marinade the better but not more than 24 hours.

In a heavy bottomed pan put oil and heat it.

When oil is heated enough add the sugar and let it melt until it reaches a dark brown color.

Now throw in the bay leaf, whole black peppers, cinnamon and cardamom. Be careful, the whole peppers will sputter a bit. Stir for a minute or so.

Add garlic paste, ginger paste, and onion to the pan and fry until the mixture takes up a brownish color, approximately 15-20 minutes.

When oil starts coming out from the masala put in the meat and coat evenly with the masala.

Add salt (according to taste), and water so that the meat is just above the water surface.

Put on a lid tightly and let cook on low to medium low for two hours, by which time the meat will be fork tender. Just check once in a while so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom.
You can add a few drops of rose water if you like.

Garnish with sliced boiled eggs.

Serve hot with steamed rice/ polao/ luchi or paratha.