A Birthday note Buttered with Badami Chicken and Puffy Baturas!

This year's birthday was a very very special one to me with my best buddies.Thank u guys for all your sweet wishes through FB.Luv u my TMS pals for giving me a special birthday wish and as part of the b'day I had no idea of making a cake and that too for my bday..the main thing was that  I was damn lazy.If it was not for my friend Dhans I wouldn't have ever made one:P

It was a total dillemma on who's going to cut the cake with the cake almost done.Both my kiddos were on to cutting the cake and at last the three muskeeters were cutting the cake singing in chorous "Happy Birthday to you  Amma!"....and I was clickin all this:D
What better way could I have my birthday celebrated!:D

Baturas the puffed yoghurt bread is one of my favs and when you have Badami chicken to accompany it the taste really gets richy rich.

Batura/Puffed Indian yoghurt bread

2 cups of all purpose flour
4 tbsp yoghurt
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
1tsp yeast
3tsp of ghee
1 egg whisked
Oil for frying

In a bowl measure in the flour and making a well in the center,add in all the ingridients and mix well to make a soft dough.You can add up to 1/4 cup of water if you feel the ingridients dont come together.Let the dough rest for about 2 hrs covered,so that it gets doubled.Punch and knead the dough into balls and roll them out in to discs of about 5inch with a rolling pin.Heat oil in a kadai and fry these flat breads till puffy and golden on both sides.

Badam Chicken/Almond Chicken
1/2 kg chicken pieces
1 cup large onion sliced
2 tsp of ginger garlic paste
1/2cup of yoghurt
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
3 tsp chilli powder
3 cloves
2 cardamom
1 piece of cinnamon
1tsp sugar
10-15 almonds soaked and  ground into fine paste
3/4 cup of tomato paste
2 tsps of chopped cilantro
salt to taste

Marinate the chicken pieces with yoghurt ,turmeric powder and salt keeping it for about an hour.Heat about 4tsps of oil in a kadai and add sugar and when it browns saute in the sliced onions till slightly brown.Transfer 1/4th of the sauted onion from the kadai and keep it aside.Add in the whole spices,ginger garlic paste,chilli powder and saute well on medium flame.Add in the tomato paste and mix well till the oil seperates.Add in the chicken pieces to the masala and stir well on high flame.Pour 2 cups of hot water and cook covered on medium flame.When the chicken is well cooked,stir in the badam paste and when the gravy thickens,garnish with chopped cilantro!

Chicken Donuts for snack time!

When the holidays wind up and kiddos are off to school the four 'O' clock menu gets up on the hit list.Feeding them with snacks at times really gets on my nerves...with a variety every day...:S
This recipe was one that I had written down sometime back..

Chicken Donuts

1/2 kg chicken minced
5-6 green chillies chopped
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 cup of all purpose flour
1tbsp pea flour
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/4 cup pudhina (mint leaves) chopped
1/8 cup curry leaves chopped
2 tsp white pepper powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 medium sized potatoes mashed
3 eggs(whisked)
salt to taste

Mix all the above ingredients with the minced chicken to make a dough.Flatten the dough on a cutting board with fingers and cut out shapes with a donut cutter.Deep fry these chicken donuts in oil till golden brown.
Serve them hot with tomato ketchup..

CHICKEN ULARTHU

I was looking forth to try out this recipe since the day I saw it on a television show.Although the recipe was a bit of time consuming Iwas quite happy with the results.I made this for dinner with Paalappams .Well it goes well with rice too.

1 1/2 kg chicken pieces

1 coconut scraped

1 tsp Black pepper

1 1/2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp garam masala powder

1/2 tsp yellow turmeric powder

1 tsp Fennel seeds

5 large onions sliced

2 pieces of ginger

10-15 cloves of garlic

Curry leaves

3 tbsp coconut oil

Salt to taste

For marinating

4 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp yellow turmeric powder

a pinch of fenugreek roasted and powdered

1 1/2 tsp Garam masala powder

2 tbsp vinegar

• Marinate the chicken pieces with chilli powder,turmeric powder,coriander powder,fenugreek powder,garam masala along with salt and vinegar.Keep it aside for 1/2 an hour.
• Coarsely grind the scraped coconut,large onions,ginger,garlic,black turmeric, fennel seeds , red chilli powder,turmeric powder, garam masala all together.
• After the time span mix the ground mixture well with the marinated chicken pieces.
• In a heavy bottomed wok on flame,pour 3 tbsp oil and add in the chicken mix.Stir and cover the vessel with a vessel keeping it on low flame.
• After 5 minutes you can see the water coming out from the chicken.Stir the chicken and close the lid again.Take care that the chicken doesnt stick to the wok.
• Repeat the procedure till the chicken is well cooked.If you feel that the chicken is sticking to your pan too much ..drizzle oil lightly on the sides of the wok  and stir well.
• Stir till the chicken mix becomes dark brown.It took me an hour and half.
• Add the curry leaves and 1 tbsp of coconut oil over the chicken ularthu.
• Mix well and remove from flame.