Mushroom Chicken with hot sauce

This simple recipe involves slow cooking of mushrooms along with onions & chicken. The ingredients are simple and make the taste authentic. Remember this a hot dish, so we are going to put loads of chillies, both dry red ones and green ones. So here is the recipe for your cooking.

For gravy

• Onions – 2 large
• Mushrooms – 150 gms
• Vinegar – 2 1/2 tbsp
• Chicken 300 gms
• Salt – to taste
• Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbsp
• Vegetable oil - 4/5 tbsp
• Coriander

For hot sauce

• Dry chillies – 20
• Green chillies - 6
• Tomato – half of a medium size tomato
• Garlic – 5 cloves
• Salt - 1/2 tsp

Preparation of hot sauce:

Okay, you may done this before. I am going to make the same sauce which we use along with momos. It is simple yet its ferocity can humble your palate. If you end making extra, well you can always use it as a dip for tortellas and chips

• Wash the dry chillies and tomatoes thoroughly and keep aside.
• Take whole dry red chillies and  half the tomato; add them to the water and let it boil, until the chillies and tomato are tender. 
• Drain the water; however keep it aside in a bowl.
• Put the boiled chillies, tomato, green chillies and garlic in a blender. Add salt along with 3 tablespoon of water. Use the water kept aside earlier.
• Let it run for a couple of minutes. Check for texture and taste. When you open the blender lid, be careful, don’t lean over. The chilly fumes can be "toxic"
• If required add a little more water and run the blender if it does not make a smooth paste.
• Once you have a smooth paste keep it aside in a bowl

Preparation of chicken:

• Slice the onion and mushrooms into thin slices. 
• Add oil to a kadai and let it warm up. Add onions & salt to it and saute. Once the onion starts to become tender, add the mushrooms
• Saute them so that they become tender. Turn down the oven to simmer. Add vinegar and ginger garlic paste, and allow them to fry. Also add 2/3 tablespoons of hot sauce into the mix, and allow it to slow fry.
• Once the mix has turned golden and has become dry, put it into a separate bowl
• Add 4/5 table spoon of oil to the kadai again and add a little bit of the onion-mushroom mix into the kadai, and add the chicken pieces to it. Add salt & 3/4 table spoon of hot sauce and let it fry. Cover the chicken and let it cook on simmer.
• Once the chicken has become tender, add the remaining onion-mushroom mix and mix them well.
• This is a dry recipe therefore, allow the water to dry off a little bit.
• Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot

Simple Chicken Rice Recipe

This simple chicken and rice recipe is in order to cook chicken and rice without any masala. This recipe is inspired from a Saudi chicken recipe called "Saleeg"

Ingredients:

1. Chicken - 750 gms
2. Onion - 2 large
3. Pepper corns - 10 - 12
4. Butter - 50 gms
5. Cardamoms - 4
6. Olive oil - 4 tbsp
7. Rice - 300 gms
8. Salt - to taste

Preparation:

Chicken:

• Wash the chicken clean. In a deep pan, add the chicken, 4 cups of water, 6 pepper corns, cardamoms and one whole peeled onion. Don't dice or cut the onion, just add it whole.
• Cover the pan and let the chicken boil. It will take approximately 20 - 25 minutes for the chicken to cook.
• Once done, you would see the meet coming off the bones. Gently take the chicken pieces off the pan and keep them in a separate plate.
• Keep the water, onion and spices, we will need them later.
• Coat the chicken with butter and salt, nicely. In a microwave set it to grill and grill it for 5 mins. Turn the pieces and grill them again, till they are all nicely cooked. Keep the chicken pieces aside.

Rice:

• Wash the rice with water.
• In a pressure cooker add, olive oil and let it warm up. Add the 6 pepper corns, 1 large diced onion, and salt. Saute them till onions are soft.
• Add the rice and saute it for 1 minute. If you see the ingredients burning, turn the heat to simmer.
• Now add the water and spices left over from cooking the chicken (don't add the boiled onion left over). If you feel the water is less for boiling the rice, add a little more and let it cook.
• Take the boiled onion left over from the boiling the chicken and press it gently, it will split into smaller petals.
• Serve the rice in a platter and add the chicken and boiled onion pieces on the top. Serve hot.

Potol Bata

Potol Bata, potol means Parwal or pointed goured in English, and bata means paste. This simple recipe is of a parwal paste. It is so simple to cook and yet tasty to eat. One can make this as a side dish to the main course.

I must give due credit to my Boudi (bhabhi) in Kanchrapara. She casually gave the recipe to my Ma and she in turn suggested it to me. The recipe is quite similar to Chingri bata. So what are we waiting for, lets start.

Ingredients:

1. Potol (parwal) - 250 gms
2. Onion - 1 (large)
3. Garlic - 5 cloves
4. Ginger - 1 inch
5. Salt to taste
6. Haldi - 1/2 tsp
7. Red chili powder - 1 tsp
8. Green chillies - 5
9. Vegitable Oil - 5 tbsp

Preparation:

• Peel the potol with the help of a peeler. Once all the potol is peeled off, dice them into tiny pieces. Smaller the pieces the easier it would be to cook.
• Dice the onion, garlic and ginger. Slit the green chillies in between
• In a kadai add oil and warm it up. When the oil is nicely warmed up, add the potol, onion, ginger, garlic and all the spices.
• Mix them well. Cover the kadai and let it cook in simmer. In between stir them occassionally.
• Once all the ingredients are well cooked, take the kadai off the head and let it cool.
• Take all the contents and grind them in a stone grinder or food processor. Remember you just want to grind them once.... dont make a paste out of it.
• Serve with the main course.