Recipe: Vegetable and Chicken Stir Fry with Buna Shimeji Mushrooms

This post was sitting in my drafts since a long time, about time I published it. I made this stir fry last year when the awesome folks at Godrej Nature's Basket sent me some fresh produce - beautiful buna shimeji mushrooms, pak choy, lemons and rosemary. I used the first two in this recipe.

Isn't it facinating that there are so many varieties of mushrooms. So far I have tried the button mushrooms, cremini, shitake, portobello, oyster, morels, truffles, porcini, and buna shimeji. From reportedly 10,000 variety of mushrooms, this is not even scratching the surface. You can read more about different types of mushrooms here.

This was my first time trying the shimeji mushrooms - native to East Asia - so I tried a simple recipe. These mushrooms are slightly bitter when raw and develop a crunchy texture and nutty flavour after cooking. Add them to stir fries, soups and stews. You can cook them whole with the stem, just remove the extreme end of the bunch.

Ingredients:

200 gms boneless chicken (sliced)

200 gms buna shimeji mushrooms

1/2 yellow and red bell pepper (cubed)

100 gms bean sprout

1 head of pak choy

100 gms baby corn (sliced lengthwise)

2 stalks of shallot (chopped)

200 gms rice noodles

2 tsp sesame seeds (toasted)

4 cloves of garlic

2 tsp soy sauce

3 tsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and throw in chicken peices. Add 1 tsp soy suce and stir the chicken till cooked through. (you can also pre-cook chicken and keep it in the fridge a day before to speed the process)
2. Remove the chicken from pan and keep it aside.
3. Pour remaining oil in the pan and fry the garlic cloves on slow flame till they turn light brown, make sure you don't burn them.
4. Add bell peppers and cook. When the peppers are half cooked add shimeji mushrooms and cook for another five minutes. Add baby corn, pak choy and shallots and cook for another minute.
5. Mix in the sauces, chicken and bean sprouts and toss everything together. Taste it first and add salt if needed.
6. Place the noodles in a bowl, pour the stir fry over it, garnish with sesame seeds and serve.

Product Review - Snackosaur (healthy snacking)

For those who are trying to control what they eat but are forced to give in to that 4pm hunger, life is tough. Office canteens don't serve anything that doesn't have greasy and fried written all over it. Get out on the streets and you're tempted by masala dosa, sandwich and vada pav. In short, diet aur weight loss ki band baj jati hai. The alternative could be carrying your own homemade healthy snack but honestly, who goes through that much trouble unless pregnant or seriously unwell.

A few weeks ago I heard about this new website which makes healthy snacks and delivers it to you. Snackosaur is a Bangalore based startup and is currently delivering in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. A team of chefs makes the snacks with taste and health as priority. You can pick from two assorted boxes of sweet and savoury items: Regular Box and Trial Box. You can  also make your own box or order the snacks individually. The delivery is free for orders of Rs 299 and above.

I tried the Trial Box (Rs 299) which had small packets of five snacks. My favourite was the Strawberry Wasabi Peas (Rs 120 for 150 gms) with a nice hit which is followed by sweet flavour. The Dried-Fruit Mix (Rs 50 for 50 gms) – dried papaya, pineapple and mango – is ideal for sweet cravings. Use them as toppings and make your oats interesting. The Almond Prune Oat Granola Bar (Rs 90 for 70 gms) is ideal filling and loaded with oats, nuts, prunes and flax seeds and is rich in dietary fibre. The BBQ Roasted Edamame (Rs 160 for 150 gms) is one of the most interesting snacks - salted, crisp and full of flavour.

The products might come across as little expensive but if they save even 50 per cent of my medical bills, they are completely worth it.

Logon to www.snackosaur.com to place your order.

Recipe - Makhane Ki Sabzi

You guys know how much I am influenced by my mom’s cooking. Her ability to consistently churn out the same recipe with same precision year after year is what blows me over. One of such recipes is this Makhane ki Sabzi. Makhana or Lotus Nut is one of the most beautiful yet underused ingredients according to me. Usually it’s fried and eaten as an evening snack or added in panjiri and kheer. While there are various regional recipes, I have rarely seen restaurant menus using it creatively. Coming back to the recipe, this sabzi was a hit among my parents’ friends and we’d host special dinners and lunches where she made makhane ki sabzi and naan. Trust me, no one even cared for chicken and mutton. Yup, it’s that good.

You can also check out this recipe on Local Banya's blog and if you intend to cook it go buy the ingredients from their aisle right away.

Ingredients:
100 gms makhana (chopped)
25 raisins (chopped)
10 cashew nuts (chopped)
10 almonds (chopped)
4 chuhara (chopped)
50 gms green peas
2 dry red chillies
2 green cardamom
1 clove
1/2 inch piece of cinnamon
2 tbsp ghee
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp pepper powder
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan.
2. Throw in red chillies, clove, cinnamon and cardamom and fry for few seconds.
3. Add makhana, raisins, cashew nuts, almonds, chuhara and green peas. Fry them for two minutes.
4. Add milk and let it cook till the milk thickens.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Serve with roti, paratha or best, with naan.

You can make it richer by adding mawa or khoa instead of milk. Decorate it with dry fruits and cinnamon stick for better presentation. 

Holi Recipe - Nutella Stuffed Coconut Laddoo

I am back with another Holi recipe and this time it's in association with Local Banya. I am the #BloggerBanya of the month on their blog and will create two recipes for them with the ingredients bought from their aisles. You can read more about me as #BloggerBanya here and can also checkout the recipe here.

There’s so much fun in making colourful food especially during Holi. My mom used to make these saffron, white and green coconut laddoos every year and even though I don’t like coconut sweets much, I would eat the laddoos happily. I’ve added a little twist to that recipe with a surprise ingredient - yup, It's Nutella. Imagine what would life be if Michel Ferrero wouldn't have created this magic spread. Yeah, yeah! We would've still been thinner but also so-so unhappy. So this recipe is revisiting my childhood Holi and a little tribute to the chocolate genius.

Ingredients:

250 gms dry coconut powder 
200 gms Nestle Milkmaid100 gms Nutella (you won't use it all)1 tsp each of saffron and green food colours (use natural colours if you're allergic to synthetic stuff)50 gms dry coconut powder (to coat the laddoos)

Method:

1. Divide the coconut powder into three equal parts. 
2. Add saffron colour in one, green in another and leave the third one plane. 
3. Mix Milkmaid in each of them to make firm and skightly sticky dough. 
4. Take a tennis ball size portion of the dough, make a bowl of it, fill 1/2 tsp Nutella in it and pack it like a laddoo. You can take a little more dough to pack it properly. 
5. Coat these laddoos with dry coconut powder.

Store this laddoos in the refrigerator for up to a week. Bring them to room temperature before eating so that you get that gooey Nutella inside. Eat well, play safe and have a Happy Holi.

Holi Recipes - Kali Gajar Ki Kanji

Kanji is a famous drink made during Holi in north India. It comes close second to the bhang mixed thandai. The water mixed with mustard seeds, salt and asafoetida is fermented for a few days and then mixed with kali gajar or beet root. Deep fried moong dal and urad dal wadas are added to sometimes. A good kanji should have strong kick of mustard and a potential to give you a good high. 

Ingredients

2 ltrs water 

2 tsp mustard (the fine Benarsi variety)

1/4 tsp asafoetida 

Salt to taste 

200 gms kali gajar or beetroot

Method

1. Warm the water and keep it aside. 
2. Grind the mustard and mix it in the water along with asafoetida and salt. 
3. Store it in a glass jar and keep it in sun for two days. 
4. On the second day add sliced and lightly boiled kali gajar or beetroot and keep it for another day. 
5. Once it's nicely sour and fermented, open it and serve. 

Holi Recipes - Dahi ki Gujiya

Holi is almost here and the festival always reminds me of late night gujiya making sessions. We used to shift the gas stove in the living room where Mom would pack the gujiyas and Dad would fry them. I never cared for the sweet gujiyas much. My favourites were all the savoury things that Mom would make - mathri, papdi chaat, namakpare etc. Her speciality though was dahi ki gujiya also called dahi wade or dahi bhalle. Mom's version had a filling of green chillies, raisins and ginger in it which was like surprise packed inside the gujiya. Take a bite and you would suddenly get sweet and spicy taste. Today I am sharing the recipe of my mom's famous dahi ki gujiya. Try it and you'll forget the best of dahi wadas you'd have eaten.

Ingredients

For Gujiyas

500 gms white urad dal (soaked overnight)

1/4 cup chopped green chillies

1/4 cup chopped raisins

1/4 cup chopped ginger

1/4 tsp hing (asafoetida)

Oil for deep frying

For Chutney

1 cup jaggery

1/2 cup tamarind pulp

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

For Serving

500 gms thick curd
2 tsp sugar
Chopped green coriander
A mix of salt, red chilli powder and roasted cumin powder (1 tsp each)

Method

1. Drain the water from the soaked urad dal and grind it into thick paste.
2. Mix hing in this paste. We won't add salt so that you can store the gujiyas for longer.
3. Heat oil in a wok. Take some paste in your hand, keep some chopped chillies, raisins and ginger in the centre, close it to shape it like a gujiya and deep fry till it turns golden.
4. Remove the gujiyas from oil and instantly drop them in a bowl full of salted water which will discard excess oil and soften the gujiyas. But if you're planning to store them for later then don't do it right away. You can soak the gujiyas in salted warm water half an hour before serving.
5. Heat tamarind pulp in a pan, add jaggery and red chilli powder and heat it till it turns into a thick chutney. Let it cool down completely. Yu can store it in the fridge for later.
6. Add sugar to curd and whisk it.
7. Now squeeze out excess water from gujiyas and place them in a bowl. Tp them with whisked curd, chutney, season with spice mix, garnish with coriander and serve.

Recipe: Akuri or Egg Bhurji

Anda bhurji, ande ki bhujiya, akuri, khagina or masala scrambled eggs - there are so many different names and variations of this simple breakfast. The North Indians make it with onion-tomatoes and simply eat it with bread, it gets a delicate name Khagina in Lucknow and Hyderabad where it's made with added masala and eaten with crisp parathas. In Maharashtra it's bhurji and eaten with pav. I’ve eaten the bhurji in a South Indian colleague’s dabba and it was flavoured with curry leaves. Trust me, it was really good and I am not the person who loves curry leaves in everything. The egg loving Parsis have their own version called akuri. My recipe here is more on the lines of akuri. I’ve added a touch of spicyness with East Indian bottle masala - a mix of red chillies, kebabchini, cumin, coriander, cloves, cardamom and a number of other spices.

Ingredients:
4 Eggs
2 Medium sized onions
2 Tomatoes
3 Cloves Garlic
1/2 Inch piece of Ginger
1 Green Chilli
1/2 tsp East Indian bottle masala
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
1 tbsp Milk
1/2 Lime
Green Coriander for garnishing
Salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

Method:

1. Finely chop onions, tomatoes, chilli, ginger and garlic. 
2. Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add milk. 
3. Saute onions in a pan. 
4. Throw in tomatoes, chilli, ginger, garlic, cumin powder and East Indian bottle masala. 
5. Fry the masala for 5 mins.
6. Add eggs and salt and cook till the eggs are done but still a little moist. 
7. Spritz lime juice, garnish with coriander and eat with pav.