Chai Latte

I love chai and been trying to find many recipes for making the best Chai Latte!

This is my favourite one so far and thought i will share it with you guys.. :)

Ingredients

1.     2 1/2 cups water
2.     2 -3 black tea bags (depending on how strong you like your tea)
3.     3 whole cloves
4.     4 cardamom
5.     1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
6.     1" cinnamon
7.     1" ginger
8.     2 tablespoon honey

      For Latte (makes 2 cup)

1.     3/4 cup chai made above
2.     1 cup whole milk
3.     1 tablespoon honey
4.     pinch ground cinnamon

Instructions

In a saucepan, bring the water and spices to a boil. Once the water reaches a boil, turn off the heat and allow the spices to steep in the water for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn the heat back on and add the black tea bag and honey. Return to a slight boil and allow the tea bags to steep in the water and spices for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags and strain the tea through a fine mesh strainer.

In a saucepan, bring the milk, honey, and pinch of cinnamon to a boil, stirring often. Once the sides of the milk begin to bubble, remove the pan from heat. Using an blender, blend the milk until it's frothy. Even if you avoid this step (if you are in a hurry or can't be bothered with) it tastes awesome!

Pour 3/4 cup of chai / tea in a mug. Slowly add the warm, frothy milk to the tea. Sprinkle the top of the chai latte with an extra pinch of cinnamon, if desired.

Notes

You can store the unused tea for later in a refrigerator. 

You can adjust the amount of honey depending on your taste. The amount I have used in this recipe is not very sweet.

Chatti pathiri (Chicken filling)

Admit it. We've all hidden our favourite food from family at least once...  😛

Hey guys! This delicious, mouthwatering and oh-so-amazingly satisfying food was first introduced to me by the lady who came to look after me & Ehsaan after my second delivery. I had delivered a week or so before Ramadan. So I got to try out quite a lot of wonderful snacks prepared by her for breaking fast for my husband and my mom (who had come along from Saudi to help me). This is like a mix of chicken samoosa, chicken puffs and eggs without all the excess oil of puffs.
It's soooo good I've made it quite a lot of times after that...

I make the filling with chicken. I dont like biting into onions so i cut them as small as possible before using it in the making the filling. No curry leaves either (again I don't like biting into them)
If you have chicken, big onion, maida, at least 3-4 eggs you're good to go...

This is how I made it:

Ingredients:

• Chicken cleaned and cooked in pressure cooker with salt and pepper and then shredded once its cooled down.
• 2 to 3 big onions finely chopped
• Half an inch chopped, crushed ginger
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped and crushed
• Pepper powder to taste
• Turmeic powder 1/4 tsp
• Garam masala 1/4 tsp
• 1 cup Maida
• 4-5 eggs
• Water
• Oil
• Salt to taste

I make the chicken filling the same as I would make for samoosas.

• Heat 2-3 tbsp oil in a sauce pan, add the chopped onions, crushed ginger & garlic
• Let that cook for a minute or 2 until you see them going brown. Do be careful not to keep the flame too high which would burn them easily.
• Add pepper powder, salt, garam masala and turmeric powder. Mix well
• Now add the shredded chicken. Mix well. Check salt and spice. Add salt or pepper if needed
• Cook for some 2-3 minutes on low flame and then keep aside.

Now there are two ways you can make the pathiri's/appam's one is the dough method and the other the batter method. I have only ever tried the batter one and as its so easy and tastes great I'm sticking to it.

• Mix the maida, water, an egg and salt into a medium consistency batter... not too thick nor to runny.
• now use a medium sized pan to make 8-10 appams. Cook on both sides
• This is going to be thin and soft.
• Keep aside...

Note: One thing you must keep in mind is the pan u are finally going to put all this in should not be bigger or smaller than the size of the appam. 

Now what I did was I cooked this on my stove in my normal deep bottom sauce pan which I use to make curry. I first greased the pan with oil. Took my first appam and dipped it in a bowl with beaten egg+ salt. The appam should be fully coated with egg. This becomes the bottom-most layer. My appams were just the right size for the pan. On top of the appam I added the chicken mix. And then appam and so on till I used up all the appams. The left over chicken mix i stored in freezer to be used later. Whatever beaten egg was left over I poured over the top which seals up gaps between layers.
Then I covered it up with its lid and let it cook for 5 minutes on high flame and then 10 minutes on low flame. Turned it over and cooked the other side too. You have to take cake not to burn this and also while turning in over...

And there you have it, its done!! The above pics are of 2 different times I made them. In the last 2 pics I sprinkled some dried mint leaves powder on top...

Do try this! You'll love it I'm sure :)

Masala Puffed rice

This is one quick snack to make at tea time. If you are a lover of Indian street food then I'm sure you already know and love this!

According to wiki, "Puffed rice is formed by the reaction of both starch and moisture when heated within the shell of the grain. Unlike popcorn, rice kernels are naturally lacking in moisture and must first be conditioned with steam. Puffed rice can be created by heating the stem-conditioned kernels either with oil or in an oven"

I, ofcourse, did not try making it, but used a store bought one to make my masala puffed rice.

Roasted it in a pan with 1 tbsp oil, a little chilli powder, salt and chaat masala. (If you want the yellow colour to it, add turmeric. Also adding curry leaves while roasting gives it a good flavour).

Add some chopped onion, tomatoes and mint leaves powder before serving...

Annnnd its ready. Goes great with with some hot tea or coffee :)
Enjoy! :)

Hummus

Hello Everyone...

It has been quite some time since I last put up a post here. It wasn't lack of material nor was it lack of time I must say... it was mostly because when I did get time I wouldn't be in a good enough mood to type out a post. Lately I have been feeling a bit guilty about starting a blog and simply letting it stagnate.... so I forced myself to sit and post whatever is there in my drafts :)

Here is something which I had made long back... Hummus..
I adapted this particular recipe from dedemed.

Things you will need:

• 2 cups chick peas (soaked over night and cooked or u can use canned ones)
• 2 or 3 clove of garlic
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup thahini 
• salt to taste
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Blend all these together in a grinder. Add water to get a smooth paste. Add a little olive oil on top before serving

We had it with some crispy fried prawns that day :)

Drumstick flower Thoran

I have never been a big fan of drumstick. Everyone keeps telling me how good they are and that we must try to include it in our diet. I do try but I feel no matter how I cook it, it tastes raw. But its leaves. I love them! I love them in curries and also upperi's with coconut. It was a surprise when I first came to know its flowers could be consumed too. I have never had a flower before :)

Here are some health benefits of the drumstick plant...

I have only ever used the flower to make upperi...

What all you'll need:

• Drumstick flowers 2 and half cups
• Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
• 5-6 small onions
• 2 green chillys
• 3/4 cups grated coconut 
• Mustard seeds 1 tsp
• Curry leaves
• Salt to taste
• Oil (I used coconut)

How to make:

• Soak the flowers in salt water for some 10-15 minutes and then wash it clean.
• Grind the small onions, green chillies and coconut.
• Heat oil in a pan add the mustard seeds. when its done spluttering add in the curry leaves. Wait for a few seconds and then add the ground mix of coconut, green chilly and onion. 
• Let that cook for a minute or 2 and then add in the flowers, salt and turmeric. Cook until done. 

It tasted like mushroom and also a bit like cabbage to me. If you havent ever tried it then its worth a go with all its health benefits, it can only do your body good :)