Chicken Tikka – Barbeque Bliss
The Chicken Tikka Story
What makes a dish become so popular that it features in restaurant menus the world over, everybody who’s anybody stakes claim to a secret recipe which promises an unmatched taste and leaves your drooling for more? Such is the fame of the superstar of Indian cuisine, the Chicken Tikka that Britain unofficially recognizes it as its national dish, various companies have tried replicating its smokey, spicy flavors and packing it neatly in a box, but ask a true chicken tikka aficionado and you will know that it’s not chicken tikka unless its served piping hot straight out of a tandoor. So how did a bite sized piece of chicken manage to garner so much attention?
Let’s roll back to the time when battles were fought on horseback and with a sword in hand. The moghuls always fancied India as their last frontier, a place which had to be conquered. In the early 1500’s along came Babur on his horse and thus began the story of Chiken Tikka. There is no written record stating the origin of chicken tikka, but like many stories about its origin there is one which talks about hungry moghul soldiers skewering pieces of chicken on their swords and cooking them over an open flame, maybe that’s how the chicken tikka was born. The meat loving moghul kings always wanted something spicy and flavorful on their plates, so soon enough the royal chefs started experimenting with spices, marinating meat was a moghul technique of cooking lamb, this was put to use on chicken as well, the tandoor oven played its part and the succulent chicken tikka made regular appearances in royal banquets and dinners.
Soon the British laid their eyes on India; the moghuls were ousted but their food and especially chicken tikka was embraced by the Brits like a long lost son, maybe it had something to do with the bland English food that made Chicken tikka such a sensation in the west, having travelled across the seas to Europe, chicken tikka soon became the best way to use a chicken and people couldn’t have enough of this bite sized piece of spicy goodness. Nobody knows for sure what the early form of chicken tikka would have tasted like, but one thing is for certain the Moghuls would have surely loved the modern avatar of this king of tikkas, Chicken Tikka.
This is the big daddy of all the Kebabs in India. Chicken Tikka is undoubtedly the most famous Indian dish in the west and why not, the juicy and flavorful bite sized pieces of chicken if cooked right just melt away in the mouth and leave you wanting more and more of this truly amazing preparation. Traditionally chicken tikka is cooked in a tandoor, which gives it a heavenly smokey flavor, but it can be easily made at home in an oven. Enjoy it with loads of mint and coriander chutney and onion rings.
Chicken Tikka – Succulent and spicy chicken bits
Serving Size – Serves Four
Estimated Preparation Time – 10Minutes
Estimated Cooking Time – 20minutes
Piquant Potluck and PrintRunner GiveAway
Aromatic, assorted, authentic, baked, blazed, braised, burnt, buttered, candied, caramelized, cheesy, chunky, creamy, crunchy, decadent, delectable, drizzled, encrusted, ethnic, exquisite, exotic, festive, fizzy, flaky, fluffy, fried, frozen, gingery, glazed, gourmet, greasy, honeyed, hot, icy, indulgent, juicy, lavish, layered, luscious, mashed, minty, nutritious, organic, palatable, peppery, PIQUANT, plump, poached, pungent, ripe, roasted, sauteed, savory, scrumptious, smoked, steamed, stuffed, spongy, sweet, sour, tangy, tempting, toasted, velvety, warm, whipped, wonderful, yummy or zesty
No matter which adjectives apply to your recipe, Piquant Potluck is the place that will serve your recipe visually to hundreds of other Foodie Freaks out there. Every edition of Piquant Potluck will invite entries from food bloggers and food fanatics. 5 entries will be chosen and featured in the next edition of Piquant Potluck. One lucky foodie will also win a small gift.
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Piquant Potluck – Lucky You
In the first edition of Piquant Potluck, we promised to give away a $10 Walmart Gift Card. In this second edition, we will choose three winners. Yes you heard that right. 2 winners will get a set of 100 post cards worth $32 free from PrintRunner.com. One Winner will get a Promo Code worth $20 for the Mac App – iGreetingCard. What’s more, 2 winners will be chosen from the featured posts by one of you! One winner for PrintRunner will be chosen directly from the pool of viewers who subscribe to this blog. After the submissions close, we will contact one of you to help us pick the winner randomly from the five posts. When you pick the winner, you also get featured on our blog with the 5 featured posts.
The winners of this edition of Piquant Potluck will be announced after 25th of July.
iGreetingCard, Recipe Cards and GiveAway
Every month gives us an occasion to celebrate something special – from Father’s Day to Mother’s Day to Valentine’s Day or Christmas. We all love to express our feelings on such occasions and what could be better than Greeting Cards. While the internet is full of virtual greeting cards, it’s nice to personalize your cards and send them across on emails or even better – Print Them! iGreetingCard is a Mac App that allows you to create beautiful e-greetings in just a few minutes. You can choose from the 70 plus templates available and create an e-greeting card in no time. Use your images to personalize these greeting cards and in minutes you’ll get images in JPEG, TIFF and other formats that you can mail to your friends and family or print on post cards.
Recipe cards from PrintRunner.com
Recipe Cards Giveaway in Piquant Potluck
Recipe Cards are a great way to share your recipes with friends and family. Whether it’s a secret recipe passed down from your grandma’s kitchen or a special pasta treat; a recipe card is an excellent way to share it. Recipe cards can easily be printed on paper from a deskjet printer at home. However, getting the cards printed from a site like PrintRunner.com will give you a pack of beautiful, glossy or matte Recipe cards in just a few days. It’s worth waiting for 3-4 business days as the quality is unparalleled and a pack of 5″ x 7″ Post Cards will only cost you $0.32 per post card.
Piquant Potluck
Aromatic, assorted, authentic, baked, blazed, braised, burnt, buttered, candied, caramelized, cheesy, chunky, creamy, crunchy, decadent, delectable, drizzled, encrusted, ethnic, exquisite, exotic, festive, fizzy, flaky, fluffy, fried, frozen, gingery, glazed, gourmet, greasy, honeyed, hot, icy, indulgent, juicy, lavish, layered, luscious, mashed, minty, nutritious, organic, palatable, peppery, PIQUANT, plump, poached, pungent, ripe, roasted, sauteed, savory, scrumptious, smoked, steamed, stuffed, spongy, sweet, sour, tangy, tempting, toasted, velvety, warm, whipped, wonderful, yummy or zesty
No matter which adjectives apply to your recipe, Piquant Potluck is the place that will serve your recipe visually to hundreds of other Foodie Freaks out there. Every edition of Piquant Potluck will invite entries from food bloggers and food fanatics. 5 entries will be chosen and featured in the next edition of Piquant Potluck. One lucky foodie will also win a small gift.
Caramel Custard – Bite into Bliss
Also known as Flan, caramel custard is truly an amazing dessert. The light brown and smooth custard with the brown caramel glaze on top is a sight for the eyes to behold. Caramel custard is one of the simplest desserts to make and will add lots of oomph to your dinner experience.
Caramel Custard
Serving Size – Serves Four
Estimated Preparation Time – 10 Minutes
Estimated Cooking Time – 20 minutes
Eggs-3
Milk-1 cup
Sugar-4Tbsp Plus 3Tbsp for Caramel
Vanilla extract-1Tbsp
Peel of one lemon
For the Caramel
In a saucepan take 1/4 cup of water and mix 3 Tbsp of sugar into it. Boil the water till dark brown colored caramel is formed.
Pour the caramel into small baking dishes and let it set.
For the Custard
In the same saucepan in which you made caramel, heat milk and lemon peel together. When milk comes to a boil, lower the heat and add vanilla extract and sugar. Mix well so the sugar is dissolved properly. Take pan off the heat and let the milk cool down.
Meanwhile beat three eggs, and when the milk is cold enough (luke warm), add it slowly to the beaten eggs. Mix the custard nicely so that the eggs and milk are uniformly combined.
Pour the prepared custard over the caramel in the baking dishes.
Bake in a water bath at 160C or 320F for 30 minutes. Refrigerate the caramel custard after taking out from the oven.
Flip over the baking dish onto a plate and enjoy caramel custard with whipped cream.
Nutritional Value – Calories- 545 Fat 20 g, Carbohydrates- 18 g, Protein-29 g
Tip: Replace Vanilla extract with orange blossom water of any other flavoring of your choice.
Dum Aloo – When Humble Potato Meets Royalty
The Potato Story
The humble Potato finds its roots in its Spanish equivalent – Patata. Consumed in kilos every year (statistics say that on an average a person consumes 103 kgs of Potatoes every year), this spud is one ingredient that forms a part of a poor man’s meal as well as a rich man’s menu. No wonder United Nations had named 2008 as theInternational Year of Potato. Here are a few more interesting facts about this gentle spud
- Pomme de terre is French for Potato. A pomme is an apple, a pomme de terre is an apple of the ground, and chips are pommes frites or fried apple
- Potato was the first food to be grown in space. It was taken on Columbia in 1995
- The world’s biggest potato weighed in at 3.2 kgs and it was grown in Germany in 1997. Now that’s the weight of a small dog
- The “French fry” was allegedly served in the U.S. for the first time by Thomas Jefferson at a presidential dinner
- In US, potato products are the second most consumed products of all, trailing only behind dairy products
Not just that, but potatoes also make people laugh and giggle. Wanna know how? Read on
- Why didn’t the mother potato want her daughter to marry the famous newscaster? Because he was a commen’tator’.
- Why wouldn’t the reporter leave the mashed potatoes alone? He desperately wanted a scoop.
Want more of these jokes, click here.
This versatile crop definitely is a huge hit amongst masses of all ages. French Fries, baked potatoes or potatoes in gravy, you name it and the potato can be cooked in every way possible. While we are at it, here’s a recipe from India that is high on calories but it’s worth all the calories for the excellent taste that it offers. A favorite across all Indian restaurants, this is one dish that you must save on your recipe list to impress your guests when you show off your knowledge of spices.
A dish originally from the beautiful land of Kashmir in Northern India, Dum Aloo is a classic vegetarian option. Small baby potoates cooked in a delicately spiced yoghurt based gravy gives this dish its unique taste and creamy texture. Enjoy it with Pulao or Naan.
Dum Aloo – When Humble Potato Meets Royalty
Serving Size – Serves Four
Estimated Preparation Time – 15 Minutes
Estimated Cooking Time – 15 minutes
New Look
My WordPress.org blog has a new look. Take a look at quickasianrecipes.com
I would love to hear your comments on the new look. Thanks!!!
Khichdi – Quick Indian Lentil Rice
In my previous post on Rice Pudding I highlighted a few facts from Asia about rice like an average Asian eats about 150 kilos of rice annually compared to an average European who consumes just 5 kilos. Check the post to read more such interesting facts. No matter what the facts say, it is true that Rice is a versatile ingredient. You will find it in every cuisine of the world and while the name changes from Pulao to Pilaaf to Fried Rice, everyone enjoys eating it.
More about Rice
A lot of people are very conscious when it comes to eating rice, may be due to its carbohydrate content. However, nothing is harmful when consumed in the right quantities. In fact, there are quite a few nutritional benefits of rice as well
- Rice is easy to digest. It is low in cholesterol, low in fat and high in starch.
- It is a rich source of energy, as it comprises of 77.5% of carbohydrate (33% of our daily food intake must be carbohydrates).
- Good energy source.
- A good source of vitamins and minerals such as thiamine, niacin, iron, riboflavin, vitamin D, calcium, potassium and fiber.
- Low sugar and no gluten.
- Contains resistant starch.
- Non-allergenic.
- Rice is a low-sodium food for those with hypertension.
- It is a fair source of protein containing all eight amino acids.
For the more calorie conscious, Basmati rice, brown rice and parboiled rice are a good substitute for the regular white rice. One should also wash thoroughly before cooking it. In fact, wash it 2-3 times. And hey wash the rice, don’t do what the blondie did on Wednesday
Blondie Diary – Entry on Wednesday
A great day for rice. The recipe said wash thoroughly before steaming the rice. It seemed sort of silly, but I took a shower. I can’t say it improved the rice any.
Ahem! Jokes apart, most rice recipes can be made in a matter of a few minutes. Khichdi (rice with lentils) is one such dish that can be prepared in just about 15-20 minutes. It can be prepared with a variety of Lentils like Mung Dal(golden gram), Toor Dal (pigeon peas), Masoor Dal (Orange/Red Lentil), etc.
Khichdi – Quick Indian Rice with Lentils
Serving Size – Serves Two
Estimated Preparation Time – 5 minutes
Estimated Cooking Time – 15 minutes
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The Versatile Blogger Award
On May 21st 2012, that’s a good 26 days after I launched my blog on WordPress.com, I received a nomination from Victoria from Natural Femina. She actually nominated me for two awards 🙂 Wow, I am thrilled! I wanted to write a follow up post almost immediately, but the shifting to a self hosted blog took some time off my hands and it’s now that I can finally blog about it.
My heartfelt thanks to Victoria for nominating my blog. Natural Femina is a blog where one can find some really good tips on health, organic stuff and some lovely recipes or random pictures that’ll make you laugh. Do pay the blog a visit.
Here are the rules of these awards
- Share who gave you the award with a link back to their blog
- Write down seven random facts about yourself
- Give this award to fifteen other bloggers
- Let them know they’ve won
- Post the award on your blog
And here are seven completely random facts about me
- I Like playing squash
- I Love Guitar Hero
- Recently bought a skateboard( Loving It!)
- I’m super lazy (and that’s why this post comes after a good fortnight)
- Eaten a live bug(cricket)
- Love Mexican food
- and I have never climbed Mt. Everest (Yes I know 😀 )
Here are fifteen blogs that I follow almost regularly. Instead of linking to the homepages, I am linking to a post that I’ve liked from the blog
Maggie’s One Butt Kitchen If you are looking for a compilation of hundreds of recipes (literally) that span across all cuisines imaginable, then this is the place to be.
Pinch of Yum Lindsay and Bjork make a lovely couple who run this lovely blog. Not only do they have some mouth watering recipes up there, but this blog is the place for every food blogger to be as they have a really useful resources section.
Cook and Be Merry Run by Lynne, this blog has a fantastic blogroll of delicious recipes that are coupled with droolworthy pictures. Her article on Food Porn sites is also a great place for newbie food bloggers to visit.
The Ranting Chef Now here’s a chef whose rantings you’d definitely love to hear. Check his blog.
The Endless Meal This isn’t a blog about just recipes but also has some nice tips and tricks on monetizing your blogs and on food photography.
Stefan’s Gourmet Blog Another Gourmet Blog with lovely recipes and tips and tricks.
The Foodie Crush This online blog/magazine is a must visit for all foodie freaks. The online magazine is one thing that you just can’t give a miss. With myriad recipes and stories, the magazine will keep you engaged for days together.
Rice and Curry Ski’z blog is just as engaging as his profile. He runs his own label for music, has written for magazines like RollingStones, been to Sri Lanka for a documentary and finally he shares culinary secrets from Sri Lanka with all of us in this blog.
Sus’ Art And Food Blog Susie is an amazing woman, don’t believe me, just read the stories that accompany each recipe that she posts and you’ll know what I mean.
Texana’s Kitchen Recipes from a true blood fan. Her stories and her recipes will definitely make you want to visit her corner over and over again.
Mango Shenigans – Love the lovely pictures here.
Rem Cooks and I am glad that the recipes and pictures are shared with us to cook up a storm like Rem.
Fructose Free Me This blog is for all those who are conscious of what they eat and how they eat it. Enjoy the healthy recipes here.
Daniel’s Blog A lovely imagery is painted in this blog and you just can’t take enough of the beautiful clicks from Ireland and many other places
Robotic Rhetoric When I get bored and want to laugh my guts out, this is the place I go to. Rational thoughts on irrational things in life 😀
And that’s it for now, until I get another blogger’s award 😉
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