Lemongrass Pepper Chicken Masala

It's been a huge relief after settling down in my new place and having the freedom to cook whatever I want, whenever I want.
I do hope I could keep the posts coming ...

Here's a chicken dish I made yesterday. It's an Indian based dish with a hint of Asian flavour. I would say it turned out pretty good. Do give it a try and leave ur feedback here.

Now for the recipe..

You need :
1/2 kilo chicken, cleaned and cut to pieces
1 big tomato, sliced

Blend together:
1 1/2 tbsp cracked black pepper
2 lemongrass (white part cut into small pieces)
1 big onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic
3 cm ginger, sliced
1/4-1/3 cup water

Keep aside.

1 tsp black pepper ground
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
salt

2 cardamons
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 tsp aniseed, pounded
2 sprigs curry leaves

salt to taste
some dark soy sauce

Method :

Mix blended ingredients with turmeric, ground pepper, coriander powder, chilli powder and turmeric powder. Add this to the chicken pieces, rub all over and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or longer.

Heat oil in a pan and add cinnamon, cloves and aniseed. When fragrant, add onion slices and curry leaves. Once onion turns lightly brown, add in the chicken pieces and tomato slices and mix well to combine.

Add some water if too dry and cover to cook, stirring occasionally until chicken is cooked through. Add a few dashes of dark soy sauce. Mix well and turn off heat.
Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves.

Quick Sambar Rice

At last we have settled down in our new nest and the best part is the huge kitchen. My very own kitchen after 2 yrs of moving about. Yup it's big, more than 20 feet long and I just love it..haha...so you can see me doing more cooking n more yummy posts ;)

Now, to the dish of the day... a quick Sambar Rice cooked using the rice cooker. It tasted great and a great option for a quick dinner fix on weeknights. Since I've been doing more weeknight dinners lately, I thought of compiling it all in a category for easy referral in the future. So you can check out the tab 'Weeknight Dinners' for other yummy recipes.

 I used :

1 cup ponni rice
1/2 cup toor dhal (soaked)
1 large onion, sliced thinly
1 small carrot, sliced
a handful of french beans, sliced
2 tsp sambar powder
1/4 tsp asoefatida
2 stalks curry leaves
oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
some tamarind, dissolved in some water

Method :

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and add mustard seeds and cumin. Saute and add onion and curry leaves. Once onion is soft and fragrant, add beans, carrot and cook.
When vegetables are half cooked, add in sambar powder, asoefatida, and season with salt. Mix well and let it cook. You may add a little water here if needed. Once vege is 3/4 cooked, turn off heat.
In a rice cooker pot, add in washed rice with enough water according to the rice you choose.
Now add in the soaked dhall, cooked vegetable, tamarind extract and some salt.
Mix it and press or choose setting to cook. ( I used a digital rice cooker and chose White Rice setting).

Garnish cooked sambar rice with fresh coriander leaves and serve it with your favourite side dishes and raita.