Vada snack

The word vada might seem confusing to some, but this is a simple snack that can be done in about 10 minutes once the urad dal or the white lentil is soaked for a minimum of 2 hours. Did i tell you this is a Indian dish, especially made in south India.

This dish can be served with a chutney which is made of coconut(the base), small onion, green chilli, ginger and saute of mustard seeds, curry leaves, dried red chilli (broken), urud dal.

The process of making this simple but tasty snack is by soaking the white lentil for about 2 hours.

Transfer the lentil to a blender with 3 small onions, 1/2 ea ginger, and blend it to a smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water.

Once the lentils have formed a fine paste, add in 2 green chilli finely chopped, and salt to taste, mix thoroughly.

Let rest for about 20 minutes.

In a cast iron pan heat about 2/3 oil or just enough to cover the mixture.

Shape vada with hand into rounds and leave a hole in the centre for even cooking.

When it turns golden brown remove from oil and pat dry of excess oil.

It is now ready to be served with the chutney(needs to prepared before making vada).

The process of making chutney is by grating fresh cocounut (can be done with dry coconut also by adding hot water), to this add onion, ginger and blend fine with minimal water.

In a saute pan add oil and once it is hot, add mustard seeds and let it crackle, add curry leaves, broken red chillis and urud dal let it cook for little while under low heat, (do not let the curry leaves to change colour). Add the blended coconut mixture to the pan and finish with salt to taste.

This would be a dish that you will always enjoy.

Murg Makhni

BUTTER CHICKEN

French cuisine has a large following that keeps it's secrets alive. Indian cuisine on the other hand is a combination of spices and essence of the ingredients that go into the preperation that makes it stand out among the rest of the gourmet experience.
I wanted to make a dish that i was so fascinated with it's taste that i had tried several times to get deep and understand the flavors that makes the difference. Finally yesterday my pallet could not resist the crave for this wonderful dish, and finally i decided to go ahead and do what my sensable pallet wanted.

• Cut the chicken into bite size pieces
• Apply ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, coriender powder and salt
• Heat a pan with 3 TB of oil and sear these chicken pieces
• Remove them set aside.
• In the same pan add cumin seeds, onions and ginger garlic paste and add little water just to release the fond.
• Put corriender powder, blanced almonds, red chilli powder, fenugreek powder.
• Once it is a little done, add diced tomatos.
• Cook until the tomatos are done.
• Puree this mixture to a fine paste.
• Now in the pan add butter with the juices from the chicken.
• Add the puree to the pan, then add the chicken to the sauce.
• Add salt and add little tomato ketchup to get the tangyness.
• Once it comes to a boil add cream.
• Finally add garam masala (Already posted)
• Let it simmer for another 5 minutes

This is surely going to be a great experience. Enjoy!