Bread and Butter Pudding

(Image from Google)

This one holds a very special place in my life. On this cold winter night in Delhi - 5th December, 2012 - a day before my planned C-section, I was still not able to believe that the day arrived and so soon the wait was gonna be over...and all the anxiety and planning of those 9 months would not be there ....I could not believe how soon would my life change..Reading "What to expect when expecting" could not prepare me mentally well enough....I was very used to the love and affection frens and family would shower on me for being pregnant...I was very used to the special attention my hubby would give and yes the endless list of Do's and Don'ts which I would receive from aunties, in-laws etc. etc.; just for being pregnant! And now here I was thinking of doing the last bit of what Trayee would love to do before she is no longer a daughter but a mother as well! And what else could it be but  food...good food that I would love to cook! Hence an easy simple recipe, inspired by my Domestic Goddess Nigella Lawson's Bread and Butter Pudding was my sole comfort!

Ingredients: 

(very easily available in every household)

Bread (I used whole wheat bread...a plain white bread would also do) Please do not cut the crust of the bread out.

2 Eggs

Milk (I used toned..a full cream is any day better)

Fresh Cream (optional)

Vanilla Essence

Butter (50 gms)

Plain Caster Sugar

Cinnamon powder (completely optional...but i loved this smell when I was expecting :))

Dried fruits (Raisins, prunes, cranberries) (A must - since they provided an interesting sour contrast to the sweet)

Cook It-

Butter the bread slice lightly. Simply tear 6-7 slices of bread in large pieces,you may systematically cut them into 2-inch or so squares or rectangles...but no...this kinda precision was the last thing I had in mind! Now, break two eggs, pour in almost a cup and a half of milk.(You may also use a cup of milk and half a cup of fresh cream instead) And add a few drops of good  vanilla essence. Now whisk the liquid ingredients together, add sugar and whisk again, till the mixture turns a li'l silky in texture. I whisked it manually, a hand blender is easier to use! Butter the baking dish, Just tip in the torn bread pieces, the dry fruits. Cut the butter into a few cubes and randomly place it in the debris of bread and dry fruits and pour the egg and milk mixture over it, make sure all the bread pieces are soaked in the liquid. Then dust a few pinches of cinnamon powder. Do not forget to sprinkle some sugar over, so that it gets a nice caramely crunchy top when it is baked. Let it stand for 8-10 mins. Now put this in a pre-heated oven for 20 mins at 180 degree celsius or 350 degree fahrenheit. 

Chicken Jalfrezi

This Friday like every other Friday was making my expectations very high.....How would I enjoy the weekend and how I was determined that this weekend will be different from other weeknds in the sense, that I will do something very constructive, enjoyable and will not just laze around......So for me its the Friday dinner which sets the note of the weekend.....But but but....a hard day at my school left me with no energy for preparing special dishes in the evening......Yet to satisfy my expectations I had to churn out something delightful for the Friday drinks and dinner....So here it was Chicken Jalfrezi....sounds good....hmmm...restaurant like ...right???

 Ingredients:

500 gms of chicken breast (skin removed), well washed and cut into bite sized pieces

2-3 medium sized onion, cut into long pieces, not very thin

1 medium sized tomato, finely chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/2 inch ginger, thinly sliced

Spices and other stuff :

Garam Masala (2 tsp)

Jeera (Cumin) powder (1 tsp)

Corriander powder (1.5 tsp)

Salt according to taste

Pinch of sugar

Red chilly powder according to taste

Turmeric (1/2 tsp)

Chicken stock powder (optional)

Cook It- 

Marination ...Now marinating is not very important for this dish, however since I find the chicken breast very fibrous, I marinate the chicken here with oil, 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste, chilly  powder and salt. Marinate it for about half an hour or so.

To start with we add oil in the pan, as the oil heats, I throw in the onion and the garlic, a pinch of salt, to sweat the onions fast, after the onions become translucent add a pinch of sugar to caramelize the onions. Now we add in 3/4 th of the chopped ginger, and the bell peppers. We let the bell peppers ooze some of the water out. At this stage, we add the powdered spices except the Garam Masala. Mix it well. Once the oil starts oozing out of the onion and peppers, add the marinated chicken . Now since this chicken is boneless it is gonna get cooked fast. So we toss the chicken well with the spices. After this we add in the sliced tomato.(You may add tomato puree also, depending on your convenience. But tomato ketchup is something which you may avoid adding, given the smell of vinegar.) Now we let the tomatoes cook. The chicken becomes tender with the juices from the tomatoes .You may add half a cup of water for slight gravy. We may mix the chicken stock powder in warm water (optional) and then add it instead of plain water. Cover the pan with a lid, put the stove on medium flame.  Once we see the chicken oozing out the oil, we check with a fork whether the chicken is cooked. Lastly spread the garam masala. Cover the lid and let the chicken stand and the fragrance of garam masala should sink in the chicken. Turn off the stove. Garnish your chicken with corriander, the rest of the ginger and a wedge of lemon.

Serve your Chicken Jalfrezi with Chapattis or Naan. Also goes well with Fried Rice. 

A perfectly colourful Friday night fast dinner! Bon Appetit! 

Stir Fried Mushroom Fried Rice

My husband has been out of station for two weeks now and cooking for me has now become just a matter of survival! No ostentatious preparations, no grandiose about it.....And trust me the biggest challenge for me now a days is to keep recycling and reusing...huh....All dried wilted vegetables are a very tiresome sight! However, this Stir Fried Mushroom Fried Rice was a saviour of sorts in reviving my interest in cooking....and reviving the belief of ending up with something palatable with reused food :).....

Ingredients

The first and very readily available left over is cooked rice from the previous night...or may I say it may be a longer period :) About a cup and a half 

Frozen mutter....oh you can use these beautiful sweet  green pearls as much as you wish....but I believe in being moderately rich...so around half a cup

Mushrooms! How can they be forgotten...no the thing with these are....! they may be of any variety..but the most readily available and often looked down upon and neglected ones are the dear old Button Mushrooms, however any exotic variety is welcome, provided their stems and flesh are easy to cook. A cup of them sliced length wise, however randomly chopped is also OK. One thing to remember is to dip the mushrooms in water and clean them just a minute or two before you put them to cook. 

And now comes the turn of various options that you may or may not use  : Carrots / Beet root /French  Beans / Spring onions 

Now about the spices...hmm....now here believe me you can experiment with as many culinary fancies as you may have:

Salt according to taste...you cant actually play with it much

Oil / Butter / Ghee....amount may vary drastically as per your health concerns, but should be enough so that the rice does not stick to the pan, and the peas and mushrooms do not get charred....

1 to 2 cloves of Garlic ...I will rather put it as a must! However you may omit if you don't like garlic

Pepper powder according to taste / Mirchi powder

 1 tea spoon (tsp) each :Jeera Powder / Dhaniya Powder  (for an Indian Touch),

 1/2 tsp each Dried Thyme / Oragano (for an Italian touch), 

Just a few drops of Soya sauce and chilli sauce for Chinese touch :)

So here you can play with the options!

 Grated cheese...cheddar (Kind of inevitable for this recipe :)) Still omissible for health concerns

 Corriander / Parsley / Chives for Garnish

You can play around with the ideas...My version had the usual jeera / dhaniya powder, topped with a tsp of garam masala powder

Cook It

Heat oil in pan. Add the crushed / chopped garlic. Add the mushrooms.  Add a pinch of salt at this stage. If you are using other vegetables as mentioned above, they too have to be added along the mushrooms. As the mushrooms start oozing out water, and become slightly brown, add the rice. Nicely toss the rice. Add salt again. Now add the peas. If you add peas directly in the oil, they become dry, so for the peas not to loose colour, add them in the rice. Now one by one add in the spices. Whichever variety you want to make. However, make sure you toss the rice and vegetables well with the spices.So that the raw smell of spices do not stay. Toss properly at least for 5-6 mins.If rice is too dry, as well as to properly cook the vegetables just a splash of 2-3 table spoons (tbsp) of water will do the wonders. Toss till the water dries up. And now finish with drizzling the grated cheese . And garnish with corriander / parsley / chives.

Done! Enjoy it as such! Or with some accompaniment of a curry or something! You will surely feel good to see the inventory in the fridge moving :)!