I wanted to eat something chatpata and hence had prepared Pani Puri. So i had plenty of pudina remaining. So was frozen chicken waiting for being cooked in freezer. Ajoy wanted to eat biryani and I wanted to get over the freeze items... Thats when this recipe was born :) and became super hit for its different taste and fragnance :)


Ingredients
6 Leg Pieces of Chicken
2 Cup Basamati Rice
1/2 Bunch of Pudina
1/2 Bunch of Corriander Leaves
2 Green Chillies
2 Cinnamon Sticks
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
4 Cloves
4 Cardamoms
1/2 Cup Ghee
3 Onions
1 Tomato
1/2 Spoon Garlic Paste
4 Spoon Curd
1 Spoon Red chilli powder
A Pinch of Turmeric Powder
Salt to taste

Method

• Marinate chicken with red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garlic paste and curd and keep aside for couple of hours.
• Warm around 6 cups of water and soak the rice in it and keep aside for half an hour.
• In a mixie grind pudina leaves, corriander leaves, tomato and green chilli to fine paste.
• Keep aside 2 spoon of ghee and heat remaining ghee in a pan.
• Chop one of the onion into thin slices and fry it to light brown colour into the ghee. Keep aside.
• In remaining ghee from frying, add cinnamon, black pepper and remaining onions - grated and cook them till light brown in colour.
• Add this mixture to mixie along with green paste and grind again to smooth paste
• In same pan add this ground paste, 1.5 cup of water and marinated chicken and cook till completely dry with stirring in between. Add salt to taste and keep aside.
• While chicken is cooking, drain the water from the rice, cook it with another 2 cups of water and salt to taste till almost done. Drain the water and keep aside for cooling down.
• Heat 1/2 spoon of ghee and add cloves and cardamom to it. Fry them for a minute on low flame and then add this ghee to the rice and mix well.
• Grease a thick bottom pan or cooker and layer the rice and chicken mixture alternating. Also add fried onions in between while adding chicken.
• Cook on low flame for 15 minutes and serve hot

Notes
I had leg pieces of chicken so used them all but you can substitute it with equal grams plus little more of normal chicken pieces too.
Here the electric stove has variations of 8 degrees so I used 2 for cooking the layered biryani instead of my usual cooker on top of tawa and a layer of potato down the biryani. So if you are using regular stove you would need to follow same procedure so that biryani doesnt burn.

When we were about to leave from temporary housing, we had so many stuff remaining and we didnt want to carry too many items from there to permanant one. So thats what is the inspiration behind this experiment. Quite tasty and unique :)


Ingredients
450g Khima
4 Tomatoes
2 Onions
3 Eggs
1 Spoon Garam Masala
1.5 Spoon Red chilli Powder
1 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/4 Spoon Black Pepper
2-3 Cinnamon
1/4 Spoon Garlic Paste
1/4 Spoon Ginger Paste
1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder
A pinch of Jeera Powder
Corriander Leaves for Garnishing
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Hard boil eggs and keep them aside.
• In a pan heat oil and add washed and drained Khima to it.
• Cook till it turns brown in color and oil separates out. Keep aside.
• In same oil add black pepper, cinnamon and let it turn light brown in color.
• Add finely chopped onion, garlic paste, ginger paste to this
• When onion is completely cooked, add 1/2 spoon turmeric, 1 spoon red chilli powder, garam masala, corriander powder and jeera powder
• Mix well and cook for couple of minutes
• Let it cool down and grind the mixture in mixie.
• In same pan in a spoonful of oil add this grinded mixture and grated tomatoes and cook till tomato is half done.
• Mix 1/4 cup of water in it, Salt to taste and the fried keema to it. Cook till completely done and almost dry. Keep aside
• Grate the eggs, add turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt to taste to it and keep aside.
• While serving, add small portion of keema masala into the bowl, top it with grated egg mixture and garnish with corriander leaves.

Notes
One can actually add, cheese or paneer as well instead of egg but I thought egg would be the best one to go along this recipe flavour.

When I came to US there were so many new ingredients that were easily available that I decided to try something different than I have always tried :) So here was my experiment with the first salad. I would name it Green Salad for I used Green Leaf Lettuce :)


Ingredients
10 leaves of Green Leaf Lettuce
1/2 Cup Grape Tomatoes
1/2 Pineapple
1/4 Cup Corn
10 Cucumber Pickels
5 Jalapenos
1/2 Spoon Oregano
2.5 Spoon Ranch Dressing
Salt to taste

Method

• Cook the corn in boiling water or microwave in a cup of water for 5 min. Drain the water and keep aside.
• Cut the green leaf lettuce into medium sized pieces
• Halve the grape tomatoes and add them to leaf lettuce.
• Add Pineapple after chopping it to small pieces
• Halve cucumber pickle and add to it
• Add chooped jalapenos and corn that was set aside.
• Add Ranch Dressing, Oregano and Salt. Mix well and serve.

Notes
This was something quick, healthy and yet tasty. The ranch dressing and oregano went well together :) Need to try some other fruits, vegetables and dressings. :)