Mint Chicken

A few months back, my family and I went for shopping and stayed out all day, I mean it was almost 15 hours! We had left right after breakfast. 7 hours into shopping and we were starving. We started looking around the streets of Riyadh for an Indian restaurant.
You might be wondering why specifically Indian cuisine? I mean with all the multitudes of option obviously available why not try something new. Well because  my parents being desi and all think that there's no food better than desi food.
Anyhow, after almost an hour we finally ended up in front of a South Indian restaurant. Upon entering itself, the mouth-watering and delicious smell of fresh mint hit me, and just like that I was almost salivating! My very first concern was that delicious smell and on asking I  was told is Mint Chicken, a dish I was unfamiliar with but was highly popular with their regular customers. Being me, I ordered it without a second thought. 15 minutes after waiting patiently, it finally arrived and I finally got to feast my eyes on the beauty that was this dish. Brown, juicy & tender looking chicken in front of me, roasted to true perfection with mint and various other herbs. 'Twas beautiful, I tell you. It tasted like what Tandoori Chicken combined with Green Chutney tastes like. But this time the Green Chutney was in the chicken instead of being on the side as a dip.

Fast forward to last week when my brain finally got energized - after midnight that is - I decided to recreate my favorite roasted chicken. I roughly thought of what ingredients should be in it and luckily all of them were available at home. After mixing all the spices, I marinated the chicken for about 6 hours as sleep took over me at 3 a.m and I woke up around 9 am. The chicken was ready right in time for lunch, after being roasted for almost an hour. It wasn't exactly like the one I had at the restaurant but somewhat close.

Alhumdulillah this was another one of my food experiment that turned out great! 

Time for you to gather all your spices and learn how to make this Green Chicken I've been ranting about.

Ingredients:

• Chicken whole 900 grams
• Yogurt 1/2 cup
• Ginger paste 1 tsp
• Garlic paste 1 tsp 
• Coriander powder 1 tsp 
• Black pepper powder 2 tsp
• Whole black pepper 1 tsp
• Cloves 1/2 tsp
• Green chillis chopped 1/4 cup (depending on how spicy you want it)
• Coriander half bunch 
• Mint leaves 1/2 cup
• Bay leaves 
• Lemon juice 2 tbsp 
• Salt to taste

Directions:

• Rub chicken with salt. 
• Add yogurt, ginger & garlic paste, Coriander powder, green chillis, half bunch Coriander, 1/4 cup mint leaves, lemon juice and salt to a blender and make a paste.
• Now add the paste to the chicken. Make sure you get it under the skin and inside aswell.
• Marinate it for 3-4 hours or overnight.
• Remove the chicken from the fridge atleast 30 minutes before putting it in the oven. 
• Stuff it with the bay leaves, cloves, black pepper and the remaining mint leaves & Coriander, this will give your chicken a great aroma of fresh herbs and spices.
• Pre-heat the oven to 180°c. 
• Now put in the Chicken and roast it for 1 hour 15 minutes. The time might vary depending on your stove settings. 
• When the chicken is golden brown remove it and let it cool down for 10 mins before cutting. 
• Serve with your favorite chicken sauce and enjoy! 

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The Easiest Gulab Jamun Recipe

Gulab Jamun, weakness of almost all desis. No shadi/dawat is complete without it. A picture of golden brown juicy jamuns enough to make you start craving it.

This recipe of Gulab jamuns is made to satisfy your cravings and taste buds in every way. As it's easy, takes hardly an hour to make and  doesn't even need more than 6 ingredients! So make these Jamuns from scratch and brag about it to everyone. 

Ingredients:

For the Gulab Jamuns:

• Khoya 2 cups
• Flour 4 tbsp
• Cardamom powder 1 tsp 
• Baking powder 1 tsp
• Water as required
• Oil for frying

For the syrup:

• Sugar 1 cup
• Water 11/2 cup 

You can also make your own Khoya easily at home with just milk powder and cream.

Instructions:

• Combine sugar and water for the syrup. Heat the water until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and let it cool down.
• In a bowl add Khoya, Cardamom powder, baking powder and flour. Add water little by little until the mixture turns into a dough.
• Heat the oil on medium-low flame.
• While the oil is heating, divide the dough in 10-15 equal portions and roll it into smooth balls.
• Now fry the balls until they turn golden brown and then add them directly into the sugar syrup.

Enjoy and do share how your Gulab Jamuna turned out. 

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Cheezy Doritos Croquette

Doritos, Cheese and Fried food: three things I'm a sucker for. And what do you do when you're on Sem break and have nothing to do?  You find a way to pair these things up to create a masterpiece. Which is how I ended up with these Cheezy Doritos Croquettes. I don't think I need to tell you but they taste heavenly!
 Croquettes are very fun to work with. You can add anything inside, make it veg or non-veg, can have it for dessert, brunch or dinner, the possibilities are endless! These cheezy spicy goodness are perfect for anytime of the day. You can enjoy them as a snack or serve them with a side dish with another dish. They're gorgeous golden coloured, crunchy, kinda spicy and a fluffy treat. This is surely going to step-up your croquette game! ;)

Ingredients: 

• Chicken (Boiled & Shredded) 1 Cup
• Cheddar Cheese (Shredded) 1/2 Cup
• Flour 5 tbsp and etc for coating
• Milk 3/4 Cup
• Salt 
• Lemon Juice 1 Tbsp
• Paprika 1/2 tsp
• Black Pepper 1/2 tsp
• Garlic Powder 1/2 tsp
• Doritos (Cheese flavor crushed) for coating
• Butter 1 tbsp
• Egg 1 (beaten) for coating                                                          

Directions:

1. In a pan, heat the butter and add in the flour. Saute the flour until it changes colour to light yellow or golden.
2. Then add the milk, little by little and keep whisking to avoid any lumps. 
3. Turn off the heat and add in the seasoning, including lemon juice, cheese and chicken.
4.  Now shape the dough to your desire.
5. After you're done, roll the balls in the flour, then dip it in the egg and lastly coat it with doritos. 
6. When you're ready, deep fry it until it turns golden. 
7. Then remove and place it on a tissue and let it cool down for a few minutes.

And now you're all done! Place it on the plate and serve with a sauce or chutney of your choice. 

If you try these mouth watering croquettes, then share you picture with me on IG and let me know how it turned out. 

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Homemade Peach Syrup

So lately I have been obsessed with making syrups and sauces. From pizza sauce to mint syrups, I've left nothing behind. Although sometimes they don't turn out as good as expected, in which case I take it upon myself to make it all over again just to get that perfect taste.  My source of inspiration is generally from the food I've had at restaurants. I had this amazing drink at Nandos last week which had a fresh minty tang to it. I instantly felt the need to recreate it myself the moment I got home. It took me hours to try to figure out the mint syrup. Made it twice now, but I still feel like it isn't anything close to the original. I'll be sure to share the recipe as soon as I've amended that though. :D 

       I don't know if I've mentioned before but I'm a HUGE fan of flavored tea! Basically I will devour any sort of tea as long as it does not involve milk. During a midnight reading session of The Book Thief I felt a sudden inexplainable craving for Iced Peach Tea. At 2 in the morning. Yep. And obviously there was no possible way of buying any at such an odd hour however my cravings take a complete and crazy hold over me, which is how I ended up trying my hand at making it at home in the dead of the night like a perfectly normal person. Lucky for me I managed to unearth a peach from the depths of my fridge. Goodness knows how long it was in there but I'm not one to speculate. 
 Now creating the peach syrup was tricky, and like my many previous escapades did not come out that good on the first try. Craving satisfied though. (Almost). Anyways I continued to work on the recipe and managed to get it right the second time. Wild creative ideas at midnight do not always oblige the brain to function rationally. The mistake I had made the first time was adding the pulp with the water while straining, which as it turned out was a grave mistake causing the syrup to turn all white and bubbly. The outcome was fascinatingly weird to look at. Keeping this in mind the second time round I was extra careful to avoid letting any pulp get in the water. And voila! Here you have it, ladies and gentlemen (highly doubt that gentlemen bit), my final product. This peach syrup is perfect for Teas but that's not the limit to its uses. You can get creative with its usage, whether as a topper for cakes or to incorporate in puddings or desserts of any kind. Knock yourself out! :P

Ingredients:

Peach - 1

Sugar - twice the amount of the liquid

water - as needed

Directions:

1. Cut the peach into chunks. In a sauce pan, add the peach and fill it with water just to the level of the chunks. Make sure its not overfilled.

2. When the water is boiled and peach is super soft, remove the saucepan from heat and strain the liquid. Make sure you don't get any pulp in the strained water.

3. Measure the water and add it to a clean saucepan with twice the sugar. If the water is 1 cup then add 2 cups of sugar and so on.

4. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and leave it to simmer for 2-3 mins.

Remove from heat and let it cool. Pour into a container and enjoy your Peach syrup! 

Make sure you try it out and comment below if you have any problems or telling me how it turned out :D

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Double Chocolate Trifle

A recipe perfect for kids and adults both. It's a delightful dessert and snack, easy to make and loved by everyone who loves chocolate.  So without any more blabbering, lets get started! 

Ingredients: 

• Cake                                                 
• Vanilla Custard/Vanilla pudding
• Chocolate Sauce/syrup
• Whipped Cream
• Ingredients depend on the size of your dish and how thick you want to make the layers.

Directions: 

1. Crush the cake, put it in the dish and level it.

2. Add in the hot custard and let it cool down, then put it in the fridge for about 1 hour or until it sets.

3. Lastly add the chocolate syrup, but make sure the custard is all set before putting in the syrup. Let the syrup set.

4. Decorate it with whipped cream in the end and serve immediately. 

And that's it! You can also repeat the layers after putting the sauce, depending on the size of your dish. Do try it and tell me how it turns out. :D

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