How to make Veg Schezwan Fried Rice at home - Schezwan Fried Rice Recipe

This is an easy dinner idea for the family. If you have schezwan fried rice masala available at home then within ten minutes you can prepare this tasty dish. If you are in a hurry don't try making schezwan sauce at home as it is bit time consuming.

To prepare schezwan fried rice you require the below ingredients.

Cooked Rice - For 2 people. (You can use basmati rice or white rice. I used white rice)
Chopped vegetables - 1 cup (I used beans, carrot, capsicum)
Onion - 1
Green chillies - 3
Ching's miracle schezwan fried rice masala - 1 n 1/2 tsp
oil - as required
salt - as required.

Cook the rice with little oil and salt in it. Don't over cook the rice else it will be sticky. Once the rice is cooked spread it in a wide plate and let it cool for sometime.

Chop the onion and green chillies and keep it aside.

Heat a kadai and pour oil into it. Add chopped onion and saute for a minute. Add green chilli followed by chopped vegetables. Let the vegetable get cooked for 2 minutes. The vegetable should be crunchy so don't cover it while cooking.

Add the Ching's schezwan masala into this vegetable mix and stir properly for another 1 minute. Add salt also. Add cooked rice to this and mix well.

Add 1/2 tsp Chilli vinegar and 1/2 tsp soy sauce to this mix. This step is optional as you are already using schezwan masala.

Switch of the flame and cover the kadai and let it rest for five minutes.

Now serve it hot with sauce or any manchurian of your choice.

Note:-
You can garnish it with green spring onions for better taste.

Tasty Palak paneer recipe - Cottage cheese in Spinach gravy

Palak paneer is one of the healthy food you can prepare at home. This is very easy and it will not take much time to prepare.

To prepare homemade fresh paneer refer the post "Home made fresh Paneer - Indian cottage cheese"

Ingredients :-

Palak - 1 bunch
Jeera - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
salt - as required
Green chilli - 2
Onion - 1
Tomato -1
ginger - 1 small piece


Preparation :-

Remove stems and clean the palak leaves with lots of water and keep it aside. The palak should be cleaned thoroughly as there are chances of dirt and mud get stuck on the leaves.

Heat a kadai with little ghee/oil in it. Add jeera and let it splutter for a minute. Add the cleaned palak leaves and cover the kadai. Stir it in between and after 3-4 minutes you can see all the palak turned to dark green color and the volume gets reduced. Switch off the flame.

Now let this cool for sometime then grind it with green chillies.

Now grind tomato, ginger, onion together and keep it aside. Heat oil in a kadai and add the onion-tomato paste and saute well for 5 minutes. Once the oil gets separated add the ground palak leaves to this and saute well till oil separates. Cook for 5 minutes and check that the raw smell/taste of the palak is not there.

Add some water and cover it and cook well. Add palak cubes to this mix and cook for some more time. Once done switch off the flame and serve hot with roti/chapathi.

Tips:-
To make this gravy rich just add some milk cream once cooked.
Palak can be fried before putting into gravy.

Home made fresh Paneer - Indian cottage cheese

I hope most of you buy paneer from shops for preparing various paneer dishes. Try making paneer at home which tastes good and fresh.

Things you require:-

Milk - 1 liter 

Lemon - 1/2 piece

Pour the milk in a vessel and squeeze the lemon into it. Stir it properly and keep it on the gas stove in low flame. Stir in between.

After sometime you can see the milk start curdling , if its not then add some more lemon juice and stir.

Once the milk curdles completely you can see small lumps of paneer forming and getting separated from the yellowish water. Switch of the flame and pour this mix into a thin cloth and let all the water get drained. Fold the paneer with the cloth and keep it on a plate. On top of that keep some weight and let it rest for 30 minutes. Follow the picture below.

After that remove the paneer from the cloth and cut in cubes or whatever shape as you wish. Now don't spend so much for buying paneer :) Just make it at home and prepare your tasty paneer dishes.

Tips:-

You can also use curd instead of lemon juice. But from my experience lemon works better.

 

Dhaba style Chicken curry

Chicken curry is the easiest gravy you can prepare when you have many guest at home. This is an easy chicken recipe which I learned from my mother-in-law. She is a great cook and whatever dish she prepares comes out very tasty. I hope you all will like this as well.

Ingredients Required:-

Dry red chilli -2
Bay leaves - 2
cloves -3
Cinnamon - 1 piece
Big Elaichi - 2
Pepper -3 (optional)
oil - As required


Onion - Paste of 2 big onions
Onion thinly sliced - 1 small
Tomato pureed - 3
Green chilli - 3
Ginger Garlic paste - 1tbsp

For Marinating the chicken:-

Chicken - 1/2 KG
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 n 1/2 tsp (If you need very spicy then add some more chilli powder)
Chicken Masala (I used eastern) - 1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
salt - as required
Curd - 1 small bowl


Preparation:-

Marinate chicken pieces with all the ingredients mentioned and keep it for at least 30 min.

Heat a Kadai/ pressure cooker and pour oil into it. Add Dry red chilli, Bay leaves, cloves, Cinnamon, Big Elaichi and Pepper and saute for sometime. Add thinly sliced onion and green chillies to this and saute again.

Once the onion turns to brown color add the ginger garlic paste followed by onion paste to this and saute till the onions are done, roughly about 5 min required.

Once the onions are done add the tomato puree and saute till the oil separates. (about 3 min.) The raw smell of the onion and tomato won't be there if it is cooked properly.

NOTE:-
Here I have added all the masala while marinating so I have not added any masala to the above onion-tomato mix. If you have not added enough masala at the time of marinating then please add all the masala after this step with very little water and cook for 3 more minutes till the oil separates.

Add the marinated chicken to this mix and cook till the chicken roast a bit.(about 7 min)

Now sprinkle little bit of water and cook again for a minute. Add some more water. Add water in such a way that the chicken should not sink completely. This is because the chicken will release some juices so the gravy will be enough once it gets cooked completely. Now cover the pressure cooker and wait for 1 whistle and then keep it in low flame for 2 min and switch off.

NOTE:
If you are preparing in a kadai then cover it and cook in low flame for about 10-15 minutes. 

Once the gravy is ready, garnish it with coriander leaves and serve hot with roti / rice.

Tips:-

If the onion and tomatoes are not cooked properly then the curry wont come out well. So take time and cook onion and tomatoes till the oil gets separate.

Kids Special - Nentrapazam Fry

This was one of my favorite snack when I was a kid. After a long time I have tried this yesterday and my kid also loved it. So if you are facing difficulty in making your kid eat banana then try this out.


You require:-

Nentrapazham / Nentrakaya - 1 big.
Ghee - 2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp

I tried a lot to find the English name of this banana but couldn't get in the google. If anyone knows please comment so that it will be easy for everyone to understand. Please refer the photo to get idea about Nentrapazham. This banana is very good for kids.

Peel and cut the banana as below.

Now heat a tava and pour ghee into it. Arrange all the banana pieces on the tava and fry it in low flame.

Turn all the banana pieces and fry again.

Once the banana's are done then remove it from tava and sprinkle some sugar on that. Serve it hot.

I am sure your kid will love this healthy snack.

Tips:-
You can cut the banana into thin slices as well.

Aaloo Pudina Rice - An easy rice recipe

This is an easy rice recipe which you can prepare if you want to cut short some time spent in the kitchen and relax. But before making this recipe you need to be careful about some points. Many people don't like the smell or taste of pudina. So if your family loves pudina then only attempt for this recipe.(Ha ha , this is a warning).

Ingredients:-

Rice (ponni / basmati)- 1 cup
Pudhina leaves - 1 bunch
Ginger - A Small piece
Green Chilli - 3
Lemon - 1
Potato cut into cubes - 1
Onion - 1
Oil - As required
Cinnamon - 1 small piece
Cardamom/Elaichi  - 2
Cloves - 3

Preparing Rice:-
Cook the rice as you normally do, but with salt.

Preparing Pudina and onion paste:-
Grind cleaned pudina leaves, half onion, green chiilli and ginger to a fine paste and keep it aside.
Cut the remaining half onion as thin as possible.

Preparing Pudina Mix:-
Heat oil in a kadai and add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and saute for a minute. Now add thinly sliced onion and saute till onion turns light brown color.

Now add the ground paste of pudina and onion to this and saute again for sometime.

Now add the potato cubes to this and cover the kadai with a lid.

Stir it in between and once the raw smell of pudina is gone then add the cooked rice to this and mix well. Squeeze one lemon to this rice mix (This is optional.)

Now you can serve the hot pudina rice with raita or achar.

Tips:-
You can add paneer or beans or peas instead of potato.
If you don't want to cook rice separately then add the washed rice to the pudina mix and pressure cook it.

Besan Ka Chilla (Cheela)- An easy breakfast

This easy breakfast is prepared with besan (gram flour). To prepare Chilla you need the below ingredients.

Gram flour - 2 cups
Onion chopped - 1
Tomato chopped - 1
Green Chilli Chopped - 2
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Crushed dried chilli - 1/2 tsp (Optional)
Grated carrot - 1 small (Optional)
oil - As required.
Water - 1 cup

Mix all the ingredients gram flour, onion, tomato, green chilli, turmeric powder, jeera, crushed dried chilli (optional), carrot (optional) and salt in a bowl with little water. Continue to add water till the batter becomes to a dosa batter consistency. Taste the batter to check the salt.

Now take a dosa tava, heat it and pour some oil into it. Now Pour a spoon full of mix on the tava(the same way as we make dosa) and spread it into circular motion. Cover it for a minute.

When one side is ready flip it over and cook the other side as well. When the chilla is ready remove it from tava and serve hot with sauce or chutney. Repeat the steps for the remaining batter.

Note:-
You can add grated vegetables like carrot, beans etc to make it colorful.
Add coriander leaves to the batter if required.