A Fruit A Month - Lychee Round up

Filed Under Blog Events, Lychee | 34 Comments

When I announced the Lychee theme for A Fruit A Month event, not everyone was happy! Some of you actually hate these fruits (SHOCK!!!) and some of you (spoiled lot ;)) only like the fresh Lychees! I had a choice - pick a more popular fruit and make it easy for everyone. But what’s the fun in that? I like a tough challenge, if at least one person decided to try Lychees because of this event, and if at least one person will get inspired by this round up, that is a big win, don’t you think? Look at these beauties, how can you not love them?

So, let’s see what the fellow foodies have cooked up. A beautiful array of dishes ranging from cocktails to chilly sauce, there sure is a lot of variety this month.

Cocktails, Coolers etc 

 
Litchy Lemon Cooler: Nags - For the Cook In Me

Lychee Shanty Cooler: Asha - Aroma!

Flaming Lychee Daiquiri: Sheela - Delectable Victuals

Lychee Grape Drink: Aarts - Aarti’s Corner

Lychee Tangita: Live To Eat

Lychee Martini: Mansi Desai - Fun and Food

Savoury Treats 

 
Thai Lychee Salad: Priyanka - Lajawaab  

 
Chicken with Lychees: Mona - Zaiqa..

Chicken Breast in Lychee Chilli Sauce: Sheela - Delectable Victuals

Creamy Desserts

 
Lychee Kakigori: SeaMaiden - Book of Yum

Litchi Sauce: Raaga - The Singing Chef

Lychee Panna cotta: Cinnamon - Cinnamon Trail

Lychee Tapioca Pudding: Chandrika - AkshayaPatra

Thai Lychee Banana Dessert: Aarts - Aarti’s Corner

 
Lychee I Scream: Rajitha - Hunger Pangs 

Lychee Strawberry Frozen Yogurt: Sheela - Delectable Victuals

Lycheey Heaven On Meringue Shells: Sukanya - HOT N’ SWEET BOWL

Lychee - Mango Two Layer Pudding: Live To Eat

Baked Goods

 
Lychee Coconut Lemon Cupcakes: Minko - Couture Cupcakes

Lychee Bread Pudding: Asha - Aroma!

Tropical Lychee Cupcake: Raaga - The Singing Chef

Taste of India

 
Lychee Payasam: Hima - SnackORama

Lychee Shrikhand: Arundati - Escapades

Whole Lychee Sweet Eats

 
Fragrant Lychees with Wild and Brown Sticky Rice: Archana - Archana’s Culinary Adventures

Cider Jelly with Lychees : LEMONPI

Caramelized Lychees: Live To Eat

Last, but not the least, here is the lychee pyramid that Sheela so painstakingly built. 
Just for you, Sheela..

That concludes the AFAM - Lychee round up. Aren’t these some inspiring entrees? Thanks to all who participated, and thanks to Maheswari of Beyond the Usual for this opportunity.

Check out September’s AFAM announcement at Swad! Enjoy the long weekend, see you all next week!

Purple Rice Payasam / Kheer

Filed Under Desserts, India - Kerala, Rice | 35 Comments

I had completely forgotten about my leftover stash of Forbidden Rice till I saw this beautiful creation by Sra. Well, timing was perfect: Onam was here, my mom wanted to make the full blown Onasadya (a grand feast), and the only dish she wanted me to cook was Payasam. So one shot, three birds - a way to use up my purple rice, a payasam for Onam and my entry for JFI. Well, it is not a traditional Onam Payasam, but all we needed was some sweet to wrap up the grand feast.  I know it is raining payasams in blogosphere today, but one can never have too much payasams I say.

Ingredients 

• Forbidden Rice (Purple Rice) - 1/2 cup
• Fat free milk - 5 cups
• Sugar - 1 cup (or to taste)
• Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
• Fried Pistachios - 2 tbsp
• Fried Almonds - 2 tbsp

Method

Wash and soak the rice for a few hours.  Cook the rice in about four cups of water till almost soft, and the water is mostly gone. This will take a while, purple rice takes a while to cook, and won’t get mushy that easily. (You can try using a pressure cooker, I didn’t have one free at the time).

In a large sauce pan, bring the milk to a boil stirring occasionally. Add the cooked rice, and bring to a boil again.

Reduce the heat to low, and cook stirring frequently till the rice is soft, and the milk is reduced to about half.

Add the soaked a sugar, cardamom powder and the nuts and stir well to combine. 

Serve warm, or if you are like me, refrigerate and have it cold.

The purple rice is very nutty and chewy in texture, it doesn’t get as soft as other types of rice. As soon as you add the cooked rice to the milk, the whole liquid turns into a purple color that deepens as the liquid gets thicker. If you haven’t tried purple rice yet, now’s the time. It is such a visual treat!

This is my entry for JFI - Rice hosted by dear Sharmi of Neivedyam. JFI (Jihva for Ingredients) is a very popular blog event started by Indira of Mahanandi.

Update:

I had more info about Forbidden rice in my previous Forbidden rice post. But here it is for those who missed it (or are too lazy to click the link ;)).

I picked this up from the Asian grocery store Uwajimaya. It is also available in amazon.com, click on the picture to follow the link.  That is the same brand of rice I used. The rice is black in color, but turns purple when cooked.

Legend tells us that Forbidden rice was once grown exclusively for the Emperors of China to enrich their health and ensure their longevity.

Forbidden Rice is rich in iron and considered a blood tonifier. Unlike other black rice from Asia, it is not glutinous or rough and cooks in only 30 minutes to produce a superior flavor, texture, and color.

Upcoming post: AFAM - Lychee round-up.

LycheeTangita - A Lychee Tangerine Cocktail

Filed Under Cocktails, Lychee | 31 Comments

Making up a cocktail recipe is easy; coming up with a name for it - not so! After a couple of these drinks, the best I could come up with was LycheeTangita, if you can think of a better name, let me know.

Ingredients

(Makes about 4 drinks)

• Canned Lychee drink - 1.5 cups
• Tangerine juice - 1/2 cup
• Lime juice - 2 tbsp
• Sliver Tequila - 3/4 cup
• Mint leaves - ~12
• Sugar  - 1 tbsp
• Crushed Ice

Method

Place the torn mint leaves and sugar in a cocktail shaker. Crush with a muddler, or the back of a wooden spoon to release the mint flavor.

Add the rest of the ingredients and shake well to combine. Strain into martini glasses.

Garnish with mint leaves or lychees.

An incredibly refreshing drink for a hot summer night.

This is my last Lychee entry for A Fruit A Month - Lychee event that I’m hosting this month.

Round up will be published by Thursday - August 30th. 

Today is the deadline, but in case you just got lazy, I will accept entries till Tuesday the 28th.

 

I’m also taking this to Meeta’s Monthly Mingle - Liquid Dreams, a theme close to my heart, how can I resist!

Mixed Greens Salad with Orange-Cumin Dressing

Filed Under Misc, Soups and Salads | 25 Comments

Think Spice…Think Cumin! That’s what Sunita told us to do this month. Yes, I’ve been thinking about cumin for the whole month, and finally the deadline was here, without any original ideas in my head! So, I took the easy route out, and modified my easy-breezy salad dressing recipe a little bit to incorporate cumin, and I’ve to say the result was pretty good! I was a little hesitant about using cumin in salads. As much as I love cumin, a little bit extra can ruin the whole dish! But somehow, with a bit of luck, I managed to get it right this time, the salad had the distinguishable cumin kick, without being too overpowering. 

Orange-Cumin Dressing

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup orange/tangerine juice
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp golden mint jelly (1 tbsp torn mint leaves)
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• fresh ground pepper and salt to taste

Method

Place orange juice, lime juice, vinegar, mint jelly, cumin and garlic and whisk well to combine. Stir in the olive oil and season with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Prepare all the ingredients for the salad and place in a salad bowl. Add dressing to taste and toss well to combine.

I made a salad of mixed greens, sliced orange bell pepper, diced heirloom tomatoes, toasted almonds, bacon and eggs. This could’ve been a complete meal, but we had chicken 65 on the side with some fresh margaritas for the Friday night dinner.

Sending this over to Sunita for her new monthly spice event- Think Spice… This month’s spice of course is Cumin!

Reminder

Remember, the fruit of the month is Lychee!  The deadline is August 25th! You have one more day to come up with a Lychee recipe.
 Check out this post for some recipe ideas and details on how to participate! Come back by the end of this month to see all the delicious Lychee recipes.

Some Totally Random Musings

Filed Under Random Musings | 60 Comments

Sorry, I have to warn you before you get too far, this is not a food related post. Just wanted to let you all know that I didn’t fall off into the Niagara falls, thanks for the lovely comments and e-mails. After getting back home, things have been hectic at work, so didn’t get time to blog-hop, but I am slowly catching up.  Thanks for all the delicious AFAM entries, please send me an email or leave a comment on the announcement page with the link if you haven’t already done so.

We had a great time at the falls and Toronto, till the last day when we got stranded in Chicago for a whole day due to bad weather and missed connection. To top it all I lost my cell phone in Toronto, so I was completely offline for a day with no email or Internet access, it was almost like losing a part of my body. Anyway, guess now I have an excuse to buy that iPhone after all

Here are some Niagara Falls pictures from our trip.

Since I have to label this post as Random Musings anyway, thought I will share something totally random I’ve been musing over for a few days.

My friend M and I have been having a discussion about boundaries recently, this discussion was prompted by three random incidents that happened to us within the span of a week. To give you a little background, M and I have been best friends from college, and now we work together in the same team. There are very few Indian girls in our building, and some of us have become friends, getting together for coffee and lunch once in a while.

Scene 1:

M and I just got our morning coffees and were chit-chatting in front of the lobby at work. X who works in the same building walks towards us, says Hi and immediately pats my tummy.

 I was shocked for a second, but knew where this was going, and immediately said, “Don’t say it… whatever you are thinking don’t say it out loud!”

Guess I was a little too late, X immediately says, “Hehe, from over there you look like you were two months pregnant!”

Ok, first of all… unless someone looks nine and a half months pregnant and is ready to burst, you don’t ask a woman if she is pregnant.  Second of all, X knows for a fact that I am not pregnant.

So, my question is, what prompts someone to say this to a friend or for that matter to anybody?

Yes, I was wearing my knee-length empire waist top that I thought looked good, but can look like a maternity top for less fashion-forward beings

Scene 2

Just a day after scene 1, M and I are at the exact same spot having coffee, and another girl Y walks towards us.

She says, “Wow, one of you smell really nice!” . Then she goes on to lean closer and smell M, frowns her face and says, “No, it’s not you”.  

Well, we all know she didn’t mean it the way it came out, but let me just say that M’s morning was ruined!

Scene 3

This is two days after scene 2. I had an extremely stressful day at work, I was inside my room all day in front of my PC, trying to fix a bug which just didn’t want to get fixed. I even forgot to have lunch that day. I got out of my office and was walking to the kitchen to get some caffeine, and I run into a girl called Z.

She tells me, “You look so tired!”

I reply, “Yes, I was working non-stop for hours”.

She doesn’t let it go: “Wow, you look like sh!t, so sleepy, your eyes are all dark and red, you look really bad… “ 

She was still speaking when I just walked off in the middle of her sentence.

So, M and I were talking about these three incidents and wondering what prompts someone to blurt things out this way without any regards to other’s feelings. Are these people really crossing some line, or is it just that we got too sensitive after living here for a few years?

In India, things are a little different, there aren’t too many personal boundaries, people normally say what they feel. I am not judging whether that is good or bad, but I know I’ve changed. I try to think before I speak and make sure I don’t invade someone’s personal space by saying something that could potentially make someone uncomfortable.  M is the same way too, and we both felt exactly the same way on all the three situations. X, Y and Z are all in the same age group as M and I, and might have probably spend more or less the same number of years that we did in the US.

What do you all think? Is it just us, or is it them? Are we too sensitive to take these to heart? Is it okay for someone to walk up to you and touch your tummy or sniff you? What do you achieve by telling someone how bad they look? Is there anyone out there who wouldn’t feel bad in these situations?

Okay, just wanted to put this out there, since I wanted to know how everyone feels about these. Feel free to express your views, even if you don’t agree with me. I love a healthy debate.

Meen Peera (Fish with Grated Coconut)

Filed Under India - Kerala, Seafood, Side Dish - Dry | 30 Comments

Meen Peera is a traditional Kerala dish popular in central Kerala where I am from. The preparation is very similar to thoran, made with fish instead of vegetables, and fish tamarind (kudampuli) added for sourness. This dish is usually made with the small varieties of whole fresh water fish available in Kerala. Since cleaning small fish is such a pain, you could always use fish filets in this recipe, which is what I’ll be doing after my mom leaves. But this time we picked up some smelt from the Asian market, and the taste was very authentic!

Ingredients

• 1 lb smelt or some other small variety (or use filets cut into small pieces)
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp red chilli powder
• salt to taste
• 1.5 cups grated coconut
• 2 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 tbsp diced garlic
• 10-12 green chillies (or to taste)
• 2-3 pieces kudampuli (fish tamarind/cocum)
• a few curry leaves
• 1 cup thinly sliced shallots
• For Seasoning
  • 1.5 tbsp oil
  • 2 tbsp thinly sliced shallots
  • 2-3 dry red chillies
  • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
  • a few curry leaves

Method

• Soak the kudampuli in a cup of water for about 15 minutes.
• Place all the ingredients including the fish in a deep earthenware vessel or a heavy bottomed pan. Add the soaked kudampuli along with the water to the vessel and mix well.
• Bring the contents to a boil, and cook on medium heat with the lid on till the fish pieces are cooked through.
• Remove the lid and heat till most of the liquid is absorbed.
• In a separate pan, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the shallots, red chillies and curry leaves and saute till the onions start to brown.
• Add the fish mixture to the pan and saute till completely dry.
• Serve warm with rice.

Reminder

Remember, the fruit of the month is Lychee!  Have you figured out what to make with Lychees yet? Check out this post for some recipe ideas and details on how to participate!You have till the 25th to come up with a recipe!

 

That’s it folks. We are off to Niagara Falls and Toronto tomorrow. Well, it is an unwritten rule that all Indian parents visiting the US have to see the Niagara Falls. I am totally not into sightseeing trips, but we did this last year with the in-laws, and I have to say it was an impressive sight!  Anyway, I’ll see you all early next week!

Happy Independence Day!

An Express Tomato Roast

Filed Under India - Kerala, Side Dish - Gravy, Tomato | 37 Comments

A long time ago, I spent three miserable lonely months in Schaumburg, IL , friendless and car-less. The days were spent working, nights watching I love Lucy and Bewitched reruns on Nick@Night. Food was the last thing I wanted to think about those days. The only store at a walkable distance was a Foodmart at a gas station. So, my regular meal was ice cream and twinkies. But when the cravings for rice gets really bad, I’d put on my chef’s hat and make a big pan of the quickest dish I could whip up, a tomato roast!  I’d also make a large pot of rice, and then for about a week, come dinnertime, all I have to do was scramble an egg, and my superfast dinner was ready!  Believe it or not, I had the exact same dinner at least 50% of the days I was there! I was already thin when I got there, but I got reduced in half, in these three months!

You’d think that this would have turned me off this dish for ever. But no, surprisingly I get all nostalgic whenever I think of the tomato roast. The memories of the three horrible months in Chicago, where I was really alone for the first time in my life; the three months when I first realized that Siv is the guy for me, absence does make the heart grow fonder, but that is the story for another time! I went back to India, thinking I’d never go to US ever again, but then I got this amazing opportunity which was too great to pass up for my career, and I was back here in six months. But this time it was different, I was here in Seattle with a ton of friends, and it almost felt like I was in a different country, and this time I lived on junk food, and blotted up like crazy! Happy and fat go hand-in-had, I guess.  

But coming back to the dish in question, over time I’ve modified the recipe a bit. But even now when Siv is out on a business trip and I don’t feel like going out with friends, this is my express meal - Rice, tomato roast and scrambled eggs! This tomato roast goes very well with chapattis as well. Oh, and I put ketchup in this dish too… shh…

Ingredients

• 2 cups bite sized tomato pieces
• 3-4 slit green chilies
• 1/2 cup sliced onions
• 1.5 tbsp diced garlic pieces
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• a few curry leaves
• 3/4 tsp red chili powder( cayenne pepper)
• 3/4 tsp coriander powder
• 1/8 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1-2 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1-2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

Method

In a deep pan, heat oil and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to splutter add the onions, garlic, ginger, green chilies and curry leaves and saute till the onions are translucent. (2-3 minutes)

Add the red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and garam masala and saute on medium-low heat till the spices start to brown. (3 minutes)

Add the tomato pieces, and mix well while slightly breaking the tomato pieces with the back of the spoon.  Cook for a while (4 minutes)

Add the ketchup and soy sauce and mix well, and let it heat through (1 minute)

If you add the 5 minutes to cut the vegetables, the hot and spicy tomato roast is ready in about 16 minutes.

Before you start with the preparations, start cooking the rice. After the tomato roast is ready, scramble an egg, that should take about 5 minutes.

This is my contribution to the Summer Express Cooking Event hosted by Mallugirl at Malabar Spices.

Lychee Mango Two Layer Pudding

Filed Under Desserts, Lychee, Misc | 40 Comments

 I’ve always wondered what two of my favorite fruits -Lychee and Mango- combined will taste like. I could just imagine the two flavors together, but never really got around to trying it. I finally got the perfect opportunity this month, when I picked Lychee as the Fruit of the Month, and to my utter shock realized that there are some Lychee haters in this world! How can anyone not love Lychees? So, in my attempt to popularize this amazing fruit, I will try to come up with a few recipes with Lychees this month.

Then, there are those who love Lychees, but just the fresh kind! Believe me, unless we are talking about just eating the fruits as such, the canned ones taste almost as good as fresh ones, especially in drinks and desserts. I never have the patience to skin and pit fresh lychees for a recipe. So unless I am sitting in front of TV with a big bowl of Lychees in my lap, I always prefer the canned ones. So give canned Lychees a try. It is available in Asian stores, and I even found some at Trader Joe’s marketed under their own brand!

Anyway, coming back to the subject of this post, when I finally combined these two wonderful tropical favorites together, it was all I was hoping for and more! The two flavors go so well together! If you have any doubts, start out with a simple fruit salad with the two, drizzle some honey on it, and you will know what I am talking about!

Here I have a two layer pudding with Mango Jelly as the top layer, and a Lychee Panna Cotta as the bottom layer. I drizzled some mango syrup around, and served with lychees, diced mangoes and pistachios.

The texture of the mango jelly layer was a little tough, guess I put too much gelatin. I would’ve liked that layer a little softer. Also, since the lychee flavor is more subtle compared to the mango flavor, it would’ve been better balanced with a thinner layer of mango jelly, here I made both layers in equal thickness. But none of my guinea pigs tasters complained.

Another point I want to note is that I started using Agave Nectar in place of sugar in desserts. My parents are controlling their sugar intake, and I’ve been trying to find a good natural sugar substitute, and Agave Nectar is all the rage these days. Agave Nectar has a lower glycemic index than a lot of natural sweeteners in the market. It has natural fructose, and does not contain processing chemicals.  My parents are not diabetic, they are just being on the safe side, trying to reduce the sugar intake. So I didn’t do very extensive research, but all-in-all it sounds like a safe natural alternative to sugar. Leave a comment if you know more about this.

By all means substitute sugar for agave nectar. Agave is sweeter than sugar, so you will have to increase the quantity of sugar.  

Mango Jelly

Ingredients

• 1 cup Mango Puree
• 1/2 a packet of powdered gelatin (1/2 tbsp)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp Agave Nectar

Method

Sprinkle gelatin over 3 tbsp cold water in a small cup and keep aside to soften the gelatin.

In a non-reactive pan, combine the mango puree, milk and agave nectar and cook on medium heat stirring frequently till the liquid is heated through but not boiling.

Remove from the heat and keep a little away for serving over the dessert later.

To the rest of the liquid, add the softened gelatin and stir well till the gelatin is dissolved completely.

Pour this into six ramekins or pudding cups to form a layer of desired thickness.

Refrigerate for at least three hours till this layer is set.

Lychee Panna Cotta

• 1 cup lychee puree (1 can lychees in syrup)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1.5 cups low fat butter milk
• 4 tbsp agave nectar
• a few drops of vanilla essence
• 1 packet powdered gelatin (1 tbsp)

Method

Sprinkle gelatin over 3 tbsp cold water in a small cup and keep aside to soften the gelatin.

If using canned lychees, drain the lychees and process in a food processer or blender on high to form a smooth puree. Pass through a fine meshed sieve, while press with the back of a wooden spoon to remove the bits and pieces.

In a mixing bowl, add the butter milk and the lychee puree and whisk well to combine and keep aside.

Heat the cream, vanilla essence and agave nectar in a non-reactive pan on medium heat, till the cream starts to boil.

Remove from the heat and add the softened gelatin and stir well till the gelatin is dissolved completely.

Add the buttermilk-lychee mixture to the heated cream and whisk well.

Pour into the half-jelly filled cups from the above step, and refrigerate for another 3 more hours.

To serve, dip the cups in hot water, and separate the pudding from the edges with a sharp knife. Be careful, you can see the damage done to my panna layer in the above picture. I strongly advice making this in transparent glasses, and serving it as such and avoid the disaster.

Pour some mango syrup from the first step over the dessert, and serve with a side of diced mango pieces, lychees and some crushed pistachios.

You can even totally skip the Mango jelly layer, and just drizzle mango syrup on the Lychee Panna Cotta. The Panna was amazingly smooth in texture, and was wonderful on its own.

So, that is my entry for A Fruit A Month - Lychees.

Grilled Trout in Banana Leaf

Filed Under Mains, Misc, Seafood | 26 Comments

Cooking food wrapped in Banana leaves is an age old technique in Kerala. Our fish pollichathu is the most delicious form of fish that I’ve ever eaten! I wasn’t surprised to learn that the same technique is followed in other Asian countries too. Cooking this way keeps the food moist with all its natural juices collected inside the leaf packet. Also the banana leaf itself imparts its natural flavor and fragrance into the food.

Instead of a traditional fish Pollichathu recipe, I decided to make up my own marinade this time, and just made up stuff along the way.  This is a versatile recipe, substitute with your favorite marinade.

BTW, it is tricky to get the banana leaf wrap right. So we wrapped the banana leaf packets in a layer of aluminum foil, just to keep it safe.

Here is a pic of it fresh from the grill, inside the banana leaves:

We had it with a side salad, and some Sauvignon Blanc, a great combo.

Ingredients

• 4 medium sized whole Trout cleaned (keep the head and tail if you want to take a picture afterwards or if you are serving to guests)
• Butter /oil for brushing
• Banana leaves - make sure the pieces are big enough to wrap the fish in.
• For the marinade
  • 1 tbsp black peppercorns
  • 7-8 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tbsp rosemary
  • 6 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • Salt to taste
• For the stuffing
  • thin round Onion slices - 8 pieces
  • thin round lime slices - 8 pieces
  • a few Slit green chili peppers
  • thinly sliced ginger pieces - 8 pieces
  • a few curry leaves

Method

• Make a few gashes on both sides of the fish.
• Blend all the ingredients for the marinade in a blender or spice grinder, to form a smooth paste.
• Apply the paste liberally to the fish inside and out, including the gashes.
• Marinate in the fridge for about 2 hours or more.
• Clean the banana leaves, and sprinkle a little water. Keep the leaves in the microwave and heat on high for a minute. This will make sure that the leaves won’t break while wrapping.
• Lay the banana leaf flat on a clean surface, shiny side down, and grease the other side with the butter/oil.
• Lay the marinated fish in the middle of the leaf.
• Stuff the fish with two each of onion , lime and ginger slices. Stuff the top gashes with slit chili peppers, also throw a few inside the fish. Put some curry leaves on top of the fish and wrap the banana leaves around the fish to enclose the fish completely. Use toothpicks to secure the packet.
• Wrap the entire package in a sheet of aluminum foil.
• Repeat the process to make four fish packets.
• Keep the fish packets on a pre-heated grill with the folded side down and cook for about 10 minutes. Turn and cook for another 10 minutes on the other side.
• Remove from the grill, and let it rest for couple of minutes. Open the packets carefully, there might be some steam accumulated inside.
• Serve hot garnished with some lime wedges.

Verdict

The banana leaves imparted such aroma and flavor, the smell was out of this world! The fish was so moist and juicy. I thought the marinade was a little too subtle. Since trout is such a tasty fish, it was enough, but next time I would make a stronger marinade, and a little thicker too. I might add some coarse ground coconut for better texture.

The technique is surely a keeper, apart from the taste and the smell, the cleaning up part was the best! If you have ever grilled whole marinated fish directly, you know how much skin and spices stick on the grill! But in this case, absolutely no clean up at all!

Chilli Chicken

Filed Under Appetizers and Snacks, Chicken, Good with Drinks, Indo Chinese | 24 Comments

This is the first critically acclaimed dish that I’ve ever cooked. Long time ago, when I was still an amateur cook (ahem… you start a food blog, and immediately you are known as an expert, in my circle at least ) I used to make this dish for all my parties, just because this was the only dish I knew how to cook in bulk!

The best compliment I got on this recipe was when someone asked me a long time ago…

        You’re kidding me right? You actually made this? I thought this was catered!

Restaurant food normally sucks, especially the Indian restaurants here, but ironically anytime someone compares your cooking to restaurant food, it is a good thing! Anyway, over time, I added more dishes to my repertoire, and slowly this one went out of circulation. You can’t call yourself a foodie, and serve a dish that uses ketchup as an ingredient, can you? At least, you can’t tell anyone that you use ketchup in your recipes. So shhhh… .

Anyway, I made this a few days ago, when my mom was not in a mood to cook.  Since it turned out really good, I am posting the recipe here, in case some youngster wants to impress strangers.

Ingredients

• 1.5 lb Boneless, skinless chicken thighs/breast pieces
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp red chili powder (cayenne pepper)
• vegetable oil for deep frying
• 2 cups thinly diced onions
• 2 tbsp minced ginger
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp minced green chilies (a spicy variety, Thai)
• 2 tbsp minced green onions
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder (cayenne pepper)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tsp chili sauce

Method

Cut chicken into small bite sized cubes.

In a mixing bowl, add flour, salt, chili powder and enough water to make a smooth paste.

Add the chicken pieces to the bowl, and mix well to coat the chicken with the flour mixture.

In a frying pan, add enough vegetable oil to deep fry the chicken pieces. When the oil is hot, add the chicken pieces, making sure the pieces don’t stick together, and fry in batches till the chicken pieces are cooked, but not too crispy.

Remove the chicken pieces from the pan, and drain on paper towels.

In a wok, add 2 tbsp of oil from the frying pan, and saute the onions, ginger, garlic and green chilies till the onion pieces are translucent.

Add the 1/2 tsp chilli powder, a little bit of salt and fry till brown.

Now add the fried chicken pieces and cut green onions and mix well to combine. When the chicken pieces are heated through, add soy sauce, ketchup, chili sauce and 1/4 cup hot water and mix well.

Heat on high, stirring occasionally till all the water is absorbed.

Serve hot as an appetizer.  

Note to my vegetarian friends, I’ve made the exact same recipe with cauliflower, and that was a great hit too!

Reminder

Remember, the fruit of the month is Lychee! Have you figured out what to make with Lychees yet? Check out this post for some recipe ideas and details on how to participate!