Saffron Chicken, Indian Style

I went into the kitchen today, ready to cook my favorite Simple Chicken Curry, but changed it around instead. We are spending the summer in Spain, and I paid homage to one of its much acclaimed ingredients— Saffron. Most importantly, the kids ate and enjoyed the Saffron chicken, served over rice. 

This dish would work great to serve to a large crowd (double or triple the recipe), or for a family meal too. 

If you want to add a vegetable to the meal, add some finely chopped spinach right at the end, into the curry. 

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon saffron

2 tablespoons hot water

1 onion, minced

2–3 cloves garlic, minced

1-inch piece ginger, minced

2 large green chilis, minced

5 organic chicken drumsticks, bone-in, skin-off

Salt, to taste

1 teaspoon cardamon powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 cup chicken stock
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Method

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add saffron threads and fry for a minute or two, remove with a slotted spoon and mix in a small bowl with the hot water.
2. Add the onions to the pot with the saffron-infused oil, ginger, garlic, and chilis and fry until very soft, about 8–10 minutes.
3. While the onions fry, wash and pat dry the chicken. Season the chicken with salt. Set aside.
4. Add the dry spices to the onion mixture and cook for another 2 minutes at least. 
5. Follow by adding the chicken and coat it well in the onion mixture. Let it cook for 5 minutes, keep mixing it. 
6. Add the saffron–water mixture along with the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover and let it simmer for at least half an hour. 
7. Using tongs, remove the chicken onto the serving plate. In a small bowl mix together the cornstarch and water. Add the cornstarch slurry to the gravy in the pot and let it come to a boil. Pour the gravy over the chicken in the serving dish and serve hot. 

Serve over rice or with warm naan. 

Brussels Sprouts and Dill Chicken Burgers

Lately, these chicken burgers are what I have been eating a LOT of. My husband and kids love it. I make a large batch, and then I'm set for a meal or two! Plus, it gets some green veggies in too.  Improvise this recipe to suit your pantry. 

Change the greens around, add herbs of your choice, use different spice mixtures, switch the chicken to turkey or beef. Enjoy and get creative, barbecue away this summer! 

Ingredients
1 tablespoon coconut oil 
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 cup minced red onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-inch ginger, minced
1 cup finely sliced brussel sprouts (or 1/2 bunch spinach, finely sliced, or 1 cup finely sliced Kale)
2 tablespoons fresh dill (optional)
1 teaspoon garam masala
Salt, to taste

1 lb ground chicken
1 teaspoon coriander powder
Red chili powder, to taste (optional)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Method

1. In a large skillet, heat the oil. Fry the cumin seeds for a minute, or until the color changes slightly, do not burn the seeds. Immediately add the onions and sauté until it turns pink. 
2. Once the onions turn pink, add the green vegetable (brussels sprouts or spinach or kale), dill, garam masala, and salt. Cook until the vegetable is cooked, remove from heat.
3. While the onion-vegetable mixture cools, in a large mixing bowl, mix together the ground chicken, coriander powder, red chili powder, and fresh cilantro.
4. Mix the cooled onion-vegetable mixture with the ground chicken and form burgers. Use an ice cream scoop to make it easier. 
5. Cook the burgers over medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side.

If you want to freeze the burgers, form them and lay the uncooked burgers out on a baking tray. Put it in the freezer for 15–20 minutes. Remove and put them in a resealable bag. 

Celery Soup

This last weekend we went for dinner at one of our favorite French restaurants— Deux Amis. Our sons standard order is the soup of the day, grilled calamari, and pink-fish, a.k.a salmon. So on a lovely spring evening, we sat there with our four year old son, and twin one year old girls, eating Celery Soup. Two evenings later, my son requested the same soup. I did my best to re-create it. 

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Ingredients

1 bunch celery hearts, chopped

1 small white onion, chopped

1 small waxy potato

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cups vegetable / chicken broth

1/4 cup fresh dill 

Salt, to taste

Method

1. In a 5qt pot, cook the first four ingredients for 8–10 minutes. Keep stirring.
2. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and it let it cook for another 10–15 minutes.
3. Puree to a smooth consistency. Garnish with celery leaves and sea salt.

Chicken Nuggets!

Over one year later, I can barely believe that the reason I am blogging again is chicken nuggets! One would expect that after this blogging-sabatical, I would come back with something more gourmet. But in this past year or so, most of our meals at home have been kid-friendly. Now that doesn't always mean pizza or chicken nuggets, but it's a meal that a kid would also eat, happily.

The reason— my three year old son.

There are some delicious nuggets out there in the market, all-natural, free range, organic. But nothing like anything that is homemade with ingredients that you can pronounce! So I set out to make a big batch and freeze them— easy and delicious and they look like but taste even better than the store-bought chicken nuggets. My son loves them and chows them down, and at least I know exactly what's going into his system.

This recipe is from Weelicious. Love her blog and book, a lot of her recipes are very good— healthy, simple, kid-friendly.

Ingredients
1 pound chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, cut into chunks
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup breadcrumbs (regular / Panko)
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
Cooking spray

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Place the chicken, mashed potato, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt in a food processor and pulse until smooth, and combined.
3. In a shallow bowl or plate, combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan.
4. With moistened hands, roll 1 tablespoon of the chicken mixture between your palms and flatten into "nuggets" shape.
5. Gently press the nugget into the bread crumb mixture to coat.
6. Transfer to a lightly sprayed ir greased cooling rack on a baking sheet lined with foil. 
7. Lightly spray the nuggets with cooking spray. 
8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crisp outside and cooked throughout. Place under the broiler for 2 minutes for it to be golden brown.

To Freeze:

After step 5, place the nuggets on a sheet tray and freeze for 30 minutes. Transfer to a ziplock bag, label, and freeze for up to 4 months. To bake, do not defrost, just add 3 to 5 minutes to the baking time.

Chicken and Snake Bean Stir-Fry

For several years, I have had an allergy to monosodium glutamate (MSG), which made eating out at Chinese restaurants difficult. Many restaurants today do not use MSG, many oblige and make you food without MSG, but I still found myself uncomfortable after a Chinese meal at any restaurant that obliged. Having grown up in India eating a lot of Chinese food (my mother grew up in Singapore and brought those flavors to our table), I didn't want to be deprived. Ching-He Huang's book, Ching's Chinese Food In Minutes, changed my (Asian) kitchen life! Incredible, easy, and quick recipes.

I had a few basic recipes down, such as Chicken and Broccoli, Simple Egg Fried Rice, Sweet Corn Chicken Soup. Her book helped me get more diverse with my Chinese cooking.

The other thing that I love about her recipes is that when she says a recipe will take 10 minutes to make, she means it! I managed to stir-fry this dish today while singing to keep my two-year-old son entertained. Served with brown rice, it is a healthy and balanced meal to have.

If you're buying chicken directly from your butcher you can ask him to cut in into thin strips to reduce your prep time even further. FreshDirect.com also sells chicken sliced into strips.

Ching says, "This is a stir-fry inspired by a lunch I had with 'Ah-e' (Aunty) in Beijing. She cooked a simple but delicious chicken and snake bean stir-fry, and this is my quick version."

Prep time: 5 minutes (plus 20 minutes soaking / marinating)
Cook time: 10 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
250 grams / 9 oz skinless chicken breast, cut into strips
1 teaspoon Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornflour (cornstarch)
2 tablespoons groundnut oil (peanut oil)
1 garlic clove, crushed and finely chopped
1 dried Chinese mushroom, pre-soaked in hot water for 20 minutes, then drained and sliced
100 grams snake beans (Snake beans can be found in the vegetable section of a good Chinese supermarket, or use some trimmed French beans as a substitute)
50 grams / 2 oz toasted cashew nuts (I used peanuts instead, as a personal preference)
25 ml / 1 fl oz hot chicken stock
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
a dash of toasted sesame oil
1 pinch of ground white pepper

Method

1. Marinate the chicken in the rice wine or sherry and the dark soy sauce for 10-15 minutes (while the mushroom soaks)
2. Just before cooking, dust the chicken lightly with cornflour. Heat a wok over a high heat and add the groundnut oil. When the oil starts to smoke, add the garlic and mushroom and stir-fry for a few seconds, then add the chicken and stir-fry for a few minutes until slightly browned.
3. Add the beans and stir-fry for 2 minutes until tender, then add the nuts.
4. Add the hot stock and season wtih the light soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper.
   Serve immediately.

Cook's tip: This was delicious when served immediately. I tried the left overs at night, and it was a bit dry.
To revamp it, add a sauce to it.
In a medium mixing bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon chili sauce, 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1/2 cup water. Add 1/2 teaspoon cornflour, mix until smooth. In a hot wok bring the sauce to a boil, add left over chicken for a minute or two and remove.

Sesame Tuna Burgers with Zuccini Crisps and Cucumber Salad

 

After his first bite into the burger, my husband asked me to make this for him once a week. He also said that it was a great substitute for a meat burger! 
Hence, I figured this recipe was definitely worth the blog.


I read this recipe on Epicurious through the epi app on my iPhone and was curious to make it. And the tuna looked so fresh at the market that it was a must make.


The recipe has been tweaked to make it healthier, as we know, I am currently trying to shed all the pregnancy weight I put on and more, keeping in mind that I am still nursing my son, I need a balance of protein, vegetable and good carbohydrates. 


The recipe called for the zucchini to be grated and then deep-fried to create zucchini fries. To save on the deep-frying I opted to baking it, however, that didn't turn out too well. The next time around I would thinly slice the zucchini and pan fry it with salt and pepper to give it a semi-crisp texture and it would be easier too! 


Ingredients
Tuna Burger
1 lb or .5 kilo sushi-grade tuna steaks, cut into 3/4-inch pieces)
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp + 2 tbsp olive oil 
2 fresh green chilies, finely minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper 
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs


4 Hamburger breads


2 tsp Mustard
2 tsp Sriracha sauce
Fresh cilantro, to garnish


Zucchini Crisps
4 zucchinis, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
Salt, to taste


Method
1. Toast sesame seeds
Toast sesame seeds in the middle rack of a preheated oven at 350F for 12–15 minutes.
Stirring frequently.
Let it cool completely and transfer to a shallow plate. 
Mix in breadcrumbs.


2. Marinate tuna
In a large mixing bowl, mix together tuna pieces, soya sauce, oil, chili, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Let it sit for 15 minutes.


3. Prepare burgers
Divide the tuna mixture into four equal portions.
Invert onto seeds in the shallow plate.
Gently press to form a patty 3 1/2--inches in diameter, then coat completely with seeds and transfer to wax-paper lined plate.
Form, coat and transfer 3 more burgers in the same manner. 
Chill, cover with plastic wrap, until ready to cool. 
Discard any sesame seeds remaining in shallow bowl.


4. Zucchini
Thinly slice the zucchini and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Heat the oils in a large non stick skillet, fry zucchini on both sides in the hot oil. 
Drain on paper towels to soak the extra oil.


5. Cook burgers and assemble dish
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a 12-inch heayy skillet over moderately high heat until hot, but not smoking.
Cook burgers, turning over once, about 2 minutes total for medium-rare tuna.
Heat the burger buns on the same skillet and smear with mustard and Sriracha sauce
Top with burger and zucchini crisps, garnish with cilantro.


This was also served with a cooling cucumber salad that we had after the burger.



Cucumber Salad
1 large cucumber
6 cherry tomatoes
6–8 large sprigs of cilantro


Dressing
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp honey
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp Sriracha sauce (or any Asian chili sauce)
Salt, to taste


Garnish
1 tsp black sesame seeds
1/4 cup roasted peanuts


Wash and dry a whole cucumber.
Using a potato peeler, peel the cucumber lengthwise, leaving the core of the cucumber out which has the seeds.
Slice cherry tomatoes lengthwise.
Mix all the ingredients of the dressing together and toss with the cucumber, cilantro leaves and cherry tomatoes.
Garnish with sesame seeds and peanuts.


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The health benefits of sesame seeds are abundant! 
High in copper, which renders a reduction in swelling and pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis, it also supports blood vessels and bone health.
It is also high in madnesium which reduces migraines and lowers blood pressure.
Calcium is one of its main benefits, which is why I am trying to incorporate it into my diet more now, given that while feeding my baby, more calcium is required. 
They are also high in fiber and phytosterols which can lower blood cholestrol and can improve heart health.


Please note that the above benefits are found online and what I have heard from elders and friends.