Baked chicken

A couple of days back, we had a small get together at home. Umma asked me as to what I would be preparing, I began to rack my bains for something different. I settled for oven baked chicken as I felt it would be healthy. The chicken baked beautifully, not too hard and not too soft, with a perfect blend of spiciness and tanginess. I didn't even get a chance to click pictures, so if anyone of you tries it out, you are welcome to send me the photos and I will upload them.

Ingredients:

1/2 kg chicken, cut into small pieces

1 tsp coriander seeds

3/4 tsp cumin seeds

6 cloves garlic(you can reduce the amount of garlic if you are using the larger variety)

1 small piece ginger

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp vinegar

1/4 cup yoghurt

2 tsp chilli powder

salt

ghee

potato wedges, onion rings, quartered tomatoes(optional)

Method:

Marinate chicken with salt and juice of 1 lemon. Keep it aside. Grind ginger, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, cumin and corinader seeds to a smooth paste. Mix with curds, chilli powder and salt. Add the chicken and mix it well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Place the chicken pieces on a greased baking tray and bake for 10 minutes on moderate heat. Turn the chicken over and baste ghee over the chicken. If you wish, you can add veggies now. Bake on high heat until the chicken becomes charred brown(similar to tandoori chicken). Turn the chicken again and baste ghee. Bake until the chicken becomes brown and all the liquid evaporates. Serve hot.

Microwave chocolate cake

The first time I read about these cakes (about 1 year back) I was like "WOW! No more waiting for half an hour for your cake. Now I can have a hot steaming cake in 5 minutes, and that too all to myself." So I quickly went into the kitchen and whipped up all the ingredients in my mug and mirowaved it. You know what came out? A long cake with a texture close to rubber and taste- well the lesser said the better. What made me even more angry was Nada's *I told you not to try it. Now I will not eat it for you* look. About a week later, I saw another recipe of the cake. I felt it would come out good this time as it was from a blog I followed regularly and the people who had commented also said it was good. So I rushed to the kitchen and began preparing them. Alas! Yet again, I had to finish the whole cake myself. You would think that I had learnt my lesson by now. But no...when I recieved another recipe of a 5 minute cake in my inbox, I was just as much excited to try it out, as much I was the first time I had seen it. But I never got an opportunity to try it. I was always busy with one or the other work, until recently, when one evening, all the ladies had gone shopping, Noora and Naila were with the usthaad and I and Nada were babysitting Maahi. Nada, in her helpless tone, asked me to prepare something. When I announced that I would prepare these cakes, she was like "Please...no..anything but 5 minute cake". But I did not heed to her and prepared it anyway. And you know what, this time it was perfect. It was perfectly sweetened and the smell of uncooked flour was also not there. And I was glad the recipe yields 2 mugs of cake, as 1 wouldn't be enough.

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp all purpose flour
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp coffee powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1/4 tsp vamilla essence

Method:

• Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
• Add oil, milk, vanilla and egg. Mix well.
• Pour into 2 microowave safe mugs. It might cover only 1/3 of the mug, but don't worry, its going to rise.
• Microwave the mugs on medium for 1 minute. It will rise.
• Leave it for 10 seconds and then microwave for 30 secondson medium.
• Make sure not to overcook. The center mght look a little undercooked, but that's fine.
• Invert the mug onto a plate, or simply dig into your mug with a spoon.

Mango curry

When I was small, this was prepared annually. Every year, during the mango season, we'd get these small fibrous mangoes called "kaatu maanga" translated "wild mangoes" from India. This was one of my fav curries. Then after some time, we stopped bringing them from India, though I don't know why. Anyway, when Uppa came to Qatar last week, he brought these mangoes, and I was delighted. After so many years I got an oppurtnity to taste this again. Mmmmm...my mouth is watering.

Ingredients:
10 kaatu maanga/ wild mangoes
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 springs curry leaves
3-4 dried red chillies
2 green chillies, slit open
1/2 cube jaggery
1/2 cup coconut milk(optional)
salt
water

Method:
Peel the mangoes.

Soak the peel in 2 cups of water, changing the waer about 3-4 times, so that the peel becomes thin and you have about 6 cups of mango water. Keep the water aside and discard the peel.

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add curry leaves and both chillies. Fry for 1 minute.

Add the mango water, jaggery and salt. Add mangoes, one by one. If you wish to add coconut milk, add now. Heat the curry, till it boils vigorously. Switch off the flame and keep it covered for 2-3 minutes.

Pour the curry into individual bowls and add one mango into each of the bowls. You can serve it with rice, though I prefer to have it plain.

Nanankatayi

This is probably my last post from Qatar, so I wanted it to be really special. I had planned to write about something that I had prepared with my friends, but unfortunately, I haven't yet uploaded those pics on my PC and my USB Cable is already packed. Anyway, this recipe is also very special, since I prepared it with Soufanammai.

Once I was just going through Shilpa akka's blog when Soufanammai came and she noticed the word nanankatayi on the side bar. She asked me to open the page and we saw that it was extremely easy to prepare. So we prepared it that day itself :) It came out really good. I am still wondering how does nanankatayi always have this slightly salty taste even though no salt is added- neither directly, nor through the butter. 
I had a little difficulty in deciding as to when they were done. I almost burnt the first batch. I learnt that it is done when it is still soft, the top is slightly powder-ey and the bottom has slighly browned. Without further ado, I'd like to present you the super-easy nanankatayi recipe.

Ingredients:
Maida/all purpose flour 2 cups
Powdered sugar 1 cup
Vanaspati/ghee 1 cup
Baking soda 1 tsp
Cardamom powder(optional) 1/4 tsp

Method:
Heat vanaspati/ghee till it melts and add it to flour. Mix all other ingredients to form a soft dough. Leave the mixture for 4-5 hrs.

Make small rounds with the mixture. Keep the balls on a greased oven proof dish. Bake in preheated oven at 300F for around 30-40 mins (till the nankatayis get a few cracks on the top).