Chilli Chicken - Indo Chinese Style

Since the time I left India there is always a craving for good Indo Chinese food. Unfortunately there have not been many restaurants that fitted the bill. I ended up re-creating those dishes I was missing. Chilli chicken is definitely one of those. This can be made in a different ways - dry, semi-dry or with a bit of sauce. I like this as a starter and hence made the dry version. This is a great starter to go along with the drink of your choice or as a side dish for noodles or fried rice. So without further ado...

Ingredients

1. Boneless chicken - 500 gms
2. Eggs - 2
3. Corn flour - 1.5 cups (add more as needed to get the required batter consistency)
4. Maida / Plain Flour - 1/2 cup
5. Red chilli powder - 1 tea spoon
6. Onions - 1 - cut in cubes
7. Green chillies - about a dozen depending on your spice appetite
8. Vinegar - 2 table spoons
9. Garlic - minced - 2 table spoons
10. Ginger - grated - 1 tea spoon
11. Sugar - 1/2 tea spoon
12. Dark soy sauce - 1 table spoon
13. Capsicum - 2 diced in cubes
14. Vegetable oil
15. Salt - to taste

Method

1. Dice the chicken breast in small slices. It is important to cut / slice it thin and diagonally. DO NOT chop it in cubes. Idea is to make it cook fairly quickly or a flash fry.
2. In a large bowl mix 2 eggs, corn flour, plain flour, red chilli powder and some salt. 
3. Create a thick paste and add water slowly and create a smooth but thick batter. If too watery add little amounts of corn flour to make it thick.
4. Marinate the cut chicken in the batter until you get done with other chopping / preparation tasks.
5. Chop up the onions in small cubes.
6. Slit the green chillies.
7. Mince the garlic in small pieces.
8. Grate about 2 inches or so of ginger to get about 1 tea spoon of grated ginger.
9. Dice the capsicums.
10. In a large hot wok fill about 1 cup of oil and heat it up. Test the heat by dropping a small piece of batter and it should pop up immediately.
11. Fry the chicken pieces in batches and keep aside.
12. Once done transfer the oil into a separate bowl, wipe it with a towel and heat it again.
13. Pour a few table spoons of the oil.
14. Once hot add the garlic, chillies and onions and saute for about 2 minutes.
15. Add vinegar and sugar (to balance the pungentness of vinegar) and toss it up.
16. Add the deep fried chicken pieces with the soy sauce and toss it up.
17. Add salt to taste.
18. Add the capsicums and toss it well.
19. Make a corn flour slurry with a tea spoon of corn flour and few table spoons of water.
20. Add the slurry and toss well for about a minute.
21. If you want more sauce add about a cup of water and bit more of corn flour slurry and let it boil until a thick sauce is prepared.

Enjoy!!

C

Japanese Souffle Pancakes

Pancakes has been a weekend affair at home for a while. Every now and then the "Tasty" channels throws in a feed of these super fluffy souffle pancakes tempting me to try. Well it didn't take too long for me to fall for it. After a look up on a few YouTube videos finally landed on one which I though would work for me and of course customised it a bit for my needs. It only took 3 attempts for me to get here. So here's a "Chetty proof" version which I would love to get some feedback. As one of my friends suggested I tried to include more photos of the process as "behind the scenes". Hope they help.

Ingredients

(these measurements makes about 8 pancakes - good for a family of 4)

1. Plain flour - 1 cup
2. Baking soda - 1 tea spoon
3. Milk - 3-4 tablespoons
4. Vanilla extract - 1 tea spoon
5. Eggs - 6
6. Sugar - 1 teaspoon
7. Cream of Tartar - 1/2 teaspoon
8. Salt - 1/4 tea spoon

Method

1. Separate the egg whites and yolks in different large bowls.



Step 2

2. Add sugar and cream of tartar powder in the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks are formed.
3. Mix the egg yolks with flour, milk, salt and vanilla essence until all of them are mixed well into a smooth paste.
4. Fold in the egg white meringue into the batter slowly until a smooth foamy batter is formed.
5. Create a ring using baking paper. The ring should be 2 cms tall and about 8-9 cms in diameter. This dimension is very important folks. Any other size will mess things up.
6. Heat a non stick tawa on low heat.  The lowest possible on your stove. 
7. Sprinkle a few drops of water. The tawa is ready when the water sizzles.
8. Place the baking paper ring and pour about 3/4th of a cup of the batter into the ring. Remember this will raise up a bit so do not pour until the brim.



Step 3

9. Add a few table spoons of water around the side and steam it for 1 minute with a lid on. The timing is very important. This may slightly vary based on your setup.
10. Flip it around and steam it again with water on the side for another minute.
11. Remove the pancake into a plate and remove the paper ring.
12. Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

Enjoy!!

C

Some behind the scene images

Step 4

Step 10

Step 8

Step 9 

Fish Fry

Fish Fry - a dish I first tried during one of my stays in Yercaud. It was a river fish with so many bones and I had no clue how to eat it. Over the years got to know the difference between a river fish and a sea fish and began to start liking the sea fish - simply because it had less bones to take care of. :) Of course not every fish is suitable for a cutlet for a shallow fry.  Some that I liked are King fish, Cat fish, Barramundi and now Rainbow Trout. So here it comes - a shallow fried Fish Fry.

Ingredients

1. Fish cutlets (we used Rainbow Trout) - 1.5 kg
2. Ginger garlic paste - 1 table spoons
3. Kashmiri chilli powder - 1 tea spoon
4. Black pepper powder - 1/2 tea spoon
5. Curry leaves (finely chopped) - 1 table spoon
6. Corn flour - 2 tea spoons
7. Lemon juice -  2 table spoons
8. Salt - to taste
9. Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup

Method

1. Create a paste with all the ingredients with a little bit of water.
2. Marinade the fish in the paste for about 1 hour.
3. In a wide and deep grill / tava pour any vegetable oil for about enough to cover the entire base for up to 1/2 inch height.
4. After the oil is hot shallow fry the marinaded fish pieces in low flame.
5. Turn after 4 to 5 minutes and cook for another 5 minutes.
6. Rest it on a paper towel to remove excess oil.

Enjoy !!

C