Recipe – Page 6 – 15 Marbles

“Chili Chicken and fried rice”-this phrase said quickly, reminds me of a Sunday lunch treat.Aadya turned 3 months old on June 30th and I decided to make our favorite meal to mark the occasion-“Chili Chicken and Fried rice”. This is the simplest,most delicious, home cooked party-food-kinda meal. Here’s my mom’s recipe for chili Chicken-
For this you need-
Ingredients-
1 lb boneless chicken breast
2 eggs
1 tsp corn flour
1+1 tbspn Soy sauce
1+1 tbspn tomato-chilli sauce( maggi)
1 tspn white vinegar
1 whole green pepper
1 medium sized onion
salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying.
Method-
Wash and cut chicken breasts into small bite-sized pieces.Keep aside.

Mix-Eggs,1 tsp corn flour,1tbsp soy sauce,1 tbsp tomato chili sauce,salt and pepper.Beat well.This makes the marinade. Marinate chicken in this for a minimum of 30 minutes.The longer the better.

In the meantime,chop green pepper & onion into big chunks.

Heat oil in a pan.when its steaming hot,slowly add chicken pieces and lower the heat.Fry the chicken pieces till golden brown on a medium heat.Keep aside.

Now in a pan, add just a tsp oil and toss in green pepper chunks and onion chunks and toss around,then add vinegar followed by soy sauce,tomato sauce aand lastly add the chicken.Sprinkle a little water and cover it.Turn off the heat.Let it sit for 5 mins.Serve hot. A little garnish of lightly toasted sesame seeds gives it a nice crunchy taste.

P.S. Use little oil at a time and add more to the pan as needed,because it turns black because of the egg marinade.

Fried rice-
Ingredients-
2 cups rice
3 cups chopped vegetables-Cabbage,carrots,green peppers,peas.(I used a bag of frozen mixed vegetables-for lack of time)
2 beaten eggs mixed with salt and pepper to taste.
1 tspn soy sauce
less than half a tspn of white vinegar.
salt to taste.
Oil.
Method-
Cook rice and keep aside. Spread the rice out on a plate to cool and also so that all the grains separate out.

Take oil in a pan and add the beaten eggs and make them into scrambled eggs.Keep aside.

Take a little more oil in the pan and add all the chopped vegetables. Season with salt and let it cook till almost done.

Add soy sauce and a dash of vinegar to the vegetables and mix well. Add the scrambled eggs and then the rice and mix thoroughly. Serve hot!

Hope you enjoy making and eating this as much as I do!

Ashtami always brings back fond memories to me.
My mom used to fast for 9 days during navratri and on the 8th day that is Ashtami, she would do the Kanya pooja or Kanjakein. She would invite 9 girls or more depending on the number of little girls, who were our friends or neighbours. Little boys were also invited so as to not make them feel left out. But the chief guests were the Little girls. These girls were invited home with love, their feet were washed and decorated with haldi-kumkum and aalta. The holy thread was tied to their tiny wrists and then they were all made to sit in a line and a group aarti was performed for all of them. And then came the best part. Then they were all served the traditional bhog of Halwa-Poori- Chane! And there were also gifts – money or bangles, toys or something appealing .
And this scene was repeated so many times that day and the next day because in our colony and also at most other places that we stayed at there were so many women fasting for navratri and performing this pooja on either Ashtami or Navmi( the 9th day). I remember feeling so important on those two days .Mom would wake us up early, give us a nice oil massage and bath, and then dress us up in new clothes.And then we would be ready to visit all the different aunties in the colony,armed with an empty lunch box!She always said -She was so lucky two have to Devis at home! And we would giggle at that.
Now that I am having a little girl,I know what she meant.My mom would do this ritual only during the Badi navratri- the one preceeding Dushera.But I know a lot of other women who did it even during the Choti navratri, the one preceeding Ram Navmi. And year I decided to start a new tradition and make halwa-poori-chole Prasad even for the choti Ashtami.

Here, I am sharing with you the recipe for Halwa –

Ingredients-

1 cup Semolina
1/4 cup ghee
1 cup sugar
2 cups water +1 cup milk- boiled
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
Raisins
almonds, soaked and slivered
Saffaron strands for Garnish.

Take 1/4 cup ghee in a pan and heat it to melt it.When it melts , reduce the heat and add semolina. Roast on a medium flame till it gets a nice brown color.Take care to keep stirring it,so that it doesnt stick to the pan and get burned. When the Semolina is done and starts giving the wonderful roasted aroma,add the raisins and roast for 1-2 mins.As the raisins swell up, add the boiling milk-water mixture, after turning the heat to low. Take care as the steam that arises will be very hot and some of the semolina- water mix might splatter.Keep stirring it,so as to avoid any lump formation. When this starts to thicken, add sugar and stir intermittently, again to avoid lump formation. Add cardamom powder. and let it thicken again, stirring constantly.When it becomes almost dry, turn off the stove and remove from heat.Let it stand for 2-3 minutes. Garnish with Saffaron strands and Slivered almonds.

Note: Traditional Halwa for Prasad requires equal quantities of semolina, ghee and sugar but this is a healthy version of the same.You can vary the amount of sugar as you like.

Tag: Recipe

Chili Chicken and Fried rice.

Ashtami