There are many thing that we inherit from our parents and grandparents. Dum biryani is one such…it runs in our family. Starting from my late grandfather who was a pro in making them. Usually at home mutton dum biryani is made. Be it family get together, wedding and or Diwali it has always been biryani, grandpa has led the kitchen during those times. Let me tell you, almost a decade before these biryani were always made in bronze cooking pot on wooden fire. The whole process of making this is no less than a festival at home, with whole big bunch of family around. Usually the briyani is accompanied with chicken masala, raita and double ka meeta (bread halwa) is must! We kids we were aw struck with the whole making process, all mom’s in the kitchen taking care of pre-preparation step, men at backyard cutting the woods, setting the fire and getting the heating right.By the time we get to eat biryani is late after noon, we end by eating a sweet pan made by grandma. But elders always looking forward to eat biryani the next day. I have admit, now I realise that biryani taste best after its one day old…..With time cooking of biryani move to gas top, the taste did diminish a bit but the essence still remains….so this Diwali I’m here to give you chicken biryani from our family recipe. Here’s wishing you a very happy Diwali, may this Diwali brighten all your lives, do have a safe one …also try to say NO to crackers!
Poultry
A guest post by Nisha Thomas from Look who is cooking too – Grilled chicken wings in a chilli garlic sauce
Since you already know the story of me running like a headless chicken, cooking only once or twice a week, spending time with my handsome 1.7 MV pelletron at work for 16-18 hrs and stay like a dead log next day, leaves me unable to generate anything decent to present here. On other hand leaving this virtual place unattended thro which, I got connected virtually with beautiful people around the world, left me pondering. There is no life when I live my days without human connections.
So what’s next? Why not start a guest post series (this was the surprise btw) and ask a helping hand from those beautiful people? Nisha Thomas of Look who is cooking too was first on the list. She kindly agreed. Her space is filled with delectable recipes and witty, transparent, lucid writings promising to leave with a smile and doping an urge to come back for any reason oh not forgetting her gorgeous picture! Honestly I keep Nisha’s blog post to read in the mornings, you know start the day with a light heart. I eye all her chicken/non-veg recipes and I adore these two; especially her mom’s chicken recipe ohhh LOVED it.
Ladies and gentlemen here is Nisha Thomas, tune in to her blog for more. And bundle of thanks to you Nisha for coming over with my fav chicken!
I stumbled upon Ananda’s blog ‘A pinch of Love’ quite by chance and if im not mistaken she had just started her food blog. The pictures made me go back again and again and soon we were exchanging comments on each others’ blogs. Then I guess it was the power of Facebook that eventually brought her into my friends circle and there was no looking back. I love the way she pens down her thoughts on her blog and the pics are to die for. If I let you in on a little secret- I sometimes head to her blog and take a peek at the gorgeous salmon soup pics taken in the beautiful snowy setting. There is something about that picture that screams out warmth and cosiness. I am so happy that Ananda asked me to do a guest post on her blog and I hope I have done justice to it with these spicy chicken wings in a chilli garlic sauce.
The recipe was the aftermath of a chicken wing obsession which I have been am still going through. Once I discovered skinless and cleaned chicken wings, there was no looking back. I love how easy it is to cook with them- marinate, grill and if I feel like it, make a sauce and serve. Since the supermarket stocks only a couple of these at a time, when I find them, I go ballistic and stock atleast 2 packs in my freezer, scared they would suddenly stop stocking them or something. Yeah totally weird behaviour if you ask me. I have become a lunatic when it comes to storing some stuff like this (I’ll leave the story of the frozen Swedish meatballs for a later time). Sadly my freezer has not much space (which Ro thinks is good, because one day he opened the middle rack to find about 10 to 15 packets of frozen chapatis and freaked out). I mean who does things like that? Well me for sure because, believe it or not, I dont know how to make chapathis. So in fear of them stopping the manufacture of these chapatis, whenever i find them i stock them to hearts content.
Anyways, we are not here to talk about my pitfalls are we?. I’m sure you’d like to know more, but let me not steal the limelight from the chicken wings. So these are so damn easy to make and taste amazing with some chilled beer or cider. The best part- you dont need to have a BBQ grill or any such fancy schmancy appliance. Just your oven grill would do. The marinade is a mixture of all sorts of sauces (from various countries that too) and like Ro says, is slightly confused as to which ethnicity it belongs to. But who cares when it tastes so darn yummilicious? So without further ado, here is the recipe for some finger licking food.
Chicken wings- 1 kg
To marinate:
Tomato ketchup- 1 tbsp
Worcestershire sauce- 1 tbsp
Soy sauce- 1 tbsp
Franks hot sauce- 1/2 tbsp (optional)
Garlic powder- 1 tbsp (or use 1/2 to 1 tbsp garlic paste)
Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
Dried oregano- 1.2 tsp (optional)
Salt and pepper- to taste
For the sauce
Onions- 1 large, or 2 small, finely chopped
Garlic- 10 cloves, peeled and finely chopped
Ginger- 2 inch piece, peeled and chopped
Tomato- 1 large, roughly chopped
Tomato ketchup- 1/2 tbsp
Soy sauce- 1/2 tbsp
Oyster sauce- 1 tsp
Oil- 1 tbsp
Salt- to taste
Water- 2 tbsp
Cut off the tips from the chicken wings, clean them under running water and pat dry as much as possible. Transfer to a large bowl.
Meanwhile, add all the ingredients under the ‘to marinate’ section in a bowl. Mix well and add salt and pepper accordingly.
Pour this marinade over the dried chicken wings and mix well, coating them as much as possible.
Keep aside for at least 30 minutes, or cover with a cling film and marinate in the refrigerator overnight
Preheat the oven on grill mode and line a baking tray with aluminium foil. I’d advice you to double the layer in order to be prevent the juices from spoiling the tray.
Using tongs place the chicken wings in rows. If your tray is small then you can do this in two batches as well.
Place it on the top most shelf, just under the flaming grill and cook for about 7 to 8 minutes on one side.
Once the time is up, take them out, turn them over and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes. My wings (that sounds so corny!!) are done in exactly 17 minutes. If i want a more charred look i keep it a little longer but be careful, you dont want to burn it (been there done that, plenty of times..ha)
While that’s being taken care of, make the sauce.
Place a large chefs pan on medium high heat and add the oil.
Once its hot throw in the garlic, onions and ginger and stir fry for a couple of minutes till the onions have wilted and the nice smell of ginger and garlic is obvious.
Add the chopped tomato and continue cooking till it is nice and mushy. Oil doesn’t really have to leave the sides, but make sure the tomato is cooked thoroughly.
In goes the sauces- tomato, soy and oyster. Mix well, add salt and pepper as required after doing a taste test and then the water.
Bring to a light boil and turn off the flame. Keep aside.
Once the chicken wings are grilled to perfection, transfer them to the chefs pan with the sauce.
Place it back on low- medium heat and mix well to coat the wings and lightly heat up the sauce.
Serve hot with a salad or even rice.
Notes: This is not really a spicy dish even after adding Franks hot sauce. Add chilli powder to the marinade (as per taste), if you prefer a more spicier version
If you dont prefer the sauce, the wings are good as it is, especially if its a bbq party or so where you dont want to waste time mixing the two together.
Do the mixing bit just before you serve, as it also heats up the chicken wings in the process.
Thanks to Ananda once again for giving me this fabulous opportunity.
Mom ka Khana – Chicken Briyani & chilli Chicken
I know I know my blog baby has been sleeping unattended for a while now, I’m left occupied through out with all good warm food right from kitchen, sometime I enjoy warm puries sitting on the kitchen table, can you believe that? Right now I’m like little over grown hamster 😀 Doesn’t actually matter since I will be deaerated as soon mum goes back to India.We invited Somjai Tero and her mum for Indian lunch, Somjai came with her little princess Aida. Oh my my she is such a darling, very obviously everyone’s attention was only towards her. While we were busy eating, everyone had their turns to play and keep her occupied. Baby darling kept us on toe with smile, cry, potty, snuggle and much more. What can I say? Just for couple of hours the whole house was vibrant.
Mum made our typical Sunday special lunch as we do at home, chicken briyani (with coconut milk), chilly chicken, dum aloo, raita and suji ka halwa. This Briyani is very unconvetional type very simple and easy too cook. The whole lot is mum’s recipe, hope you guys will enjoy as much as we did….Wish you all a happy weekend 
February is heart month, so folks eat healthy, exercise some, no to smoking and have a perfect healthy heart!
Patent Recipe :) – Basil Chicken
You got it right, this is my first recipe that originated from my brain, rare it is!! My all time fav, as according to me, its a prefect blend of Italian flavour and with tad bit if Indian spiciness. Recipe hardly takes any efforts to make but very comforting with glass of wine, toasted bread or simply with dhal. It’s hard for me to say with which it is best. Since the spark of chillies, zing of tanginess and subtle honey is perfectly indulging no matter what is on the side and most of the time especially with this chicken I will be totally engrossed in watching some good movie. Would strongly recommend chicken wings for this recipe, since meat is very tender and flavours get infused very well in short cooking time, have tried with boneless breast chicken, it was just ok. Do try it whenever you wish to, since all it need is garlic, basil, chilly, lemon and honey, not to forget a pinch of love that brings all the difference
Heaven on earth! Finnish summer cottage Part1 – Mint garlic chicken for BBQ
These days am dealing with mixed feeling – happiness and sadness, for the reason that I will be winding up my thesis early next year (fingers crossed) and equally sad that I will moving out of Finland after 5 years. Finland is my 2nd home now and I have been so much into. God know where my next destination will be? So I will miss Finland, as its the best place on earth, when it comes to nature and there are few location in this beautiful country, the moment I land in those locality I forget myself and the rest of the world. One those types are Summer cottage. For two years I have stayed in summer cottages. Last year it was more fun as many of my friends were there, and it was very primitive cottage without electricity, felt like living in middle of forest. We just had cottage to sleep and little kitchen. So it was something like going to stone age staying with nature beside lake side, men did fairly good fishing and we BBQ food and lived like prince and princess of forest. Not forget to mention about almost 24 hrs day light and wonderful smoke sauna.
This year it was few of us, just myself Somjai her husband Tero and Somjai’s Russian friend. So it was more or less a peaceful time, everyone had there own time, basically being yourself. Again our cottage was on lake side but…..Sorry guy am flying to Vienna tonight so will write more in detail in my next post till then enjoy the preview and the BBQ chicken I made for the trip
The sauna house
