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!

Mini Aloo Bondas for the monsoon!

The rains have started pouring out here..June and July being the monsoon months in Munnar. I really hate goin out when there are showers in Munnar. Some hot chocolate for the kids and tea for us are the best opted drinks with snacks..
The recipe that I have shared here are the ones that comes out from my Mom's diary of recipes.This spicy  Potato snack is one of my Monsoon favs!

Mini Aloo Bondas 


For the filling
4-5 potatoes pressure cooked and mashed
5-6 green chillies finely chopped
a small piece of ginger finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
3 large onions chopped
cilantro chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
a pinch of asafoetida powder
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste

For the batter
1 1/2 cup of gram flour
2 tbsp of rice flour
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
Water
salt to taste

Oil for frying

Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan.Pop the mustard seeds and add the asafoetida powder and stir.Add in the chopped large onions,green chillies,ginger and garlic and saute till the onions turn translucent.Add in the turmeric powder,chilli powder and garam masala .Stir and add in the mashed potatoes.Mix well with the required amount of salt and chopped cilantro till well incorporated and keep it aside.Add in the lemon juice and mix.

While the filling cools, mix all the ingridients required for the batter in a bowl.Slowly pour in water to make a batter of thick consistency .Make lemon sized balls of the filling.Dip the balls in the batter and deep fry them in oil.
Your Potato balls are ready to be served with ketchup.! :-)

Suruttai Poli the "sweet rolls " for ICC!

It was after Srivalli's post that I was quite poppin out this wonderful snack.Thanks to Nithya for choosing such a wonderful recipe.This simple yet yummy snack has been a big hit with the kiddos..
Heres the recipe  for this wonder snack..

SURUTTAI POLI

For the filling:
1 cup Roasted gram
1 cup sugar
20cashew nuts cut into small pieces
1tbsp grated coconut
1tsp cardamom powder
1tsp Ghee

Powder the roasted gram and sugar together either coarsely or to a fine powder.Heat ghee in a pan and roast the cashew nuts till golden in colour and add in the coconut and turn off the heat.Mix it with the powdered gram-sugar mix in a bowl.

For making the poli/Appalam:
1 cup all purpose flour
a pinch of salt
oil for frying

In a bowl combine flour with salt and add in water to make a stiff  dough.Let it rest for 30 minutes.Pinch out small balls and roll them out into thin discs.Prick the rolled out discs with a fork so that they dont puff up while frying.Heat oil in a kadai and fry the discs before they turn colour.Be careful not to turn them crispy.On removing the poli from the oil spread the filling on to the poli and roll them tightly.These rolls are soft when they are hot ,but  they become crispy when they are allowed to cool.