red chilli powder

Whole Sea Bass steamed with a Rainbow side salad

May 1, 2015 by manjirichitnis 16 Comments

A delicious and healthy steamed fish recipe perfect for stay in #FishFriday night dinner or a lovely brunch on a lazy afternoon. The accompanying salad is colourful and full of fresh veggies that’s why I choose to call it a Rainbow Salad.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1 large sea bass scaled and gutted
1 large lemon
2 sprigs of Rosemary
Thyme
Chives
Garlic sea salt
Red Chilli powder

For the steamed veggies on the side

2 small carrots per person
Handful of green peas person

For the Rainbow Side Salad

Ingredients:

1 fresh pepper (capsicum)
1 small red onion
1/2 a courgette
1 tomato
1 tbsp Red wine Vinegar
2 tbsp chopped parsley
Freshly cracked black pepper
Sea salt
Olive Oil

Method:

To steam the fish

Pre-heat the oven to 200 °C
Wash the fish and place on the foil.
Stuff the lemon wedges inside the fish along with the Chives, rosemary and thyme.
Sprinkle generously with sea salt, red chilli powder and a drizzle of olive oil
Wrap the fish in the foil parcel and cook in the oven until it has cooked through, should take about 20-25 minutes.
Steam the veggies in a steamer.

To make the Rainbow Salad:

Chop all the vegetables into tiny bite sized cubes.
Place chopped veggies in a large bowl and drizzle olive oil and add the red wine vinegar.
Season well with sea salt and add a generous sprinkle of freshly cracked black pepper.
Mix well

To Serve

Plate a portion of the fish and serve the steamed carrots and peas on the side.
Serve a generous helping of the crunchy veggies salad.

Here is another recipe to try if you are cooking sea bass:

Fennel and Pancetta Baked Sea Bass from Anne’s Kitchen

Indian Masala Egg Omelette

November 22, 2014 by manjirichitnis 18 Comments

Weekend mornings demand a good breakfast, especially if you have had a tad too much wine on Friday evening 😉

I love making a simple Indian omelette and my dinner guests who stayed with us for the night, last Friday, had to be fed a hearty breakfast before they set out to go home. Like my aai I am obsessed with feeding people and cannot imagine sending off guests on an empty stomach.

Luckily, now that I am part of the Happy Eggs Taste 100 Blogger network a #happyeggtastemakers, I had 2 boxes of these lovely Happy eggs at home, red onion or the Mumbai pink onion which I buy from my fav Indian-Pakistani grocery store and loads of frozen coriander.

This is a very basic recipe for the Indian masala omelette- with a bit of twist , added in my me . I also love adding in cheese and bulking it up with ham or sausages which I did for my guests, but hubster is a purist of sorts when it comes to the masala omelettes (read fussy hehehe) and so made 2 huge omelettes , one using the recipe that follows and another with the cheese, sausages and Parma Ham – so… so… so… good !!

Indian Masala Omelette

Serves:2

Ingredients:

1 medium sized red onion or pink Mumbai onion chopped fine
3 Happy eggs
1 green chillies chopped into fairly large chunky pieces- easy to pick out for the faint hearted!
a pinch of turmeric powder
1 /4th tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander
2 large tbsp butter
Salt to taste

Additional Ingredients to bulk up the omlette:

1 cheese single
2 sausages
2 thin slices of Parma Ham
1 /2 tsp red chilli powder
1.5 medium sized red onion.

Adding the garam masala is something I like to do as it gives the omelette a fabulous amped up flavour but feel free to leave that out if you aren’t a fan.

Method:

Finely chop the red onion.
Chop the green chilli into fairly big pieces so they can be picked out by those that don’t want to chew on them.
Crack the happy eggs into the bowl.
Add in the chopped onions, green chilli chopped, red chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Whisk with a fork till the mixture foams and is well aerated , this will give you a beautifully ‘fluffy’ omelette .
Then add the chopped coriander and mix again.

Masala Anda Omelette recipe by Travelsfortaste

I add in the turmeric as it has loads of health benefits – it has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is a very strong antioxidant, and our guest who do not consume turmeric on a regular basis loved the idea.
Now add in the cheese – torn roughly if it using a cheese single or crushed if using a soft cheese or crumbly cheese, sausages and Parma Ham.Lightly beat the egg mixture once more with a fork to mix well.
Place a big pan on medium heat and when it begins to heat up melt the butter.
See the photo below – when the butter begins to sizzle and pan resembles what you see in the image then it’s the right time to add the egg mixture.

Move the pan around so that the mixture spreads evenly and cook on a low flame for about 2 minutes .
When the omelette leaves the sides of the pan ,slightly lift it with a wooden spatula and check , if it has browned it’s time to FLIP , you can tell by the aroma wafting around too.
With a big wooden spatula gently flip over and cook on the other side, I place a lid over my pan at this stage to trap the steam and it also gives me a really fluffy omelette, of course it will fall flat if you don’t serve immediately.
Once done, turn off the heat and cut in half using a wooden spatula. Fold and place in between hot buttered toast for a fabulous breakfast.

An Indian masala omelette, served at breakfast with hot buttered toast and hot cups of masala chai, I think is a breakfast fit for a king – Made better with Happy Eggs I say!

I am so egg-cited to be part Happy Eggs Taste 100 Blogger network, they sent me this beautifully packaged cute box with a massive chocolate cookie made using Happy Eggs and a lovely picture of the latest campaign – Top of The Flocks – where Happy Eggs produced an original album of classical music following a study by the University of Bristol looking at the positive benefits of music on hens.The results showed that Happy Hens prefer Bach to Beyonce – they have refined taste these hens! Happy Hens produced 6% more eggs in nest boxes playing classical music compared to pop! Awesome or what?! – always good to know where your eggs are coming from isn’t it?!

Ahem… as you can that by the time I actually got around to taking a photo of the welcome kit , hubster and me had managed to devour most of the cookie …well , don’t blame us – it was soo yum!

Well a new year and a new beginning and with tomorrow being the first day for getting back to work, I will be making us egg omlettes and devouring them with freshly ground coffee and buttery toast – after all Monday mornings are never kind especially in the winter and more so after a long break!

Make Ahead – perfect for a make ahead style breakfast, this mixture can store in the fridge very easily.

Linking my savoury Indian Masala egg omelette recipe with the monthly link up at Belleau Kitchen for the Simply Eggcellent recipe link-up – love the name!

Also linking up with #BrilliantBreakfasts at Made with Pink blog by Andrea, for I think without a doubt a masala omelette makes a darned good breakfast!

*With thanks to Happy Eggs for taking me on as part of their Exclusive Blogger Network and for a complimentary voucher sent with their cute welcome pack . No monetary compensation was offered for a positive review. As always all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Tomato and Lentil Soup

March 8, 2014 by manjirichitnis 61 Comments

Sometimes the guilt of eating too many wrong things just gets to me and I need to balance the scales internally. This calls for a comforting and filling soupy treat with a pinch of something yum thrown in. Also, all those gorgeous cherry tomatoes and vine tomatoes sitting in my fridge were begging to used -asap or risk being dumped into my green food recycle bag. Thrifty that I am, I will not allow that to happen in my kitchen! And I always turn to my stored lentils for something comforting and homely.

This recipe is perfect for making ahead in a larger batch and freeze some for later.

Tomato and Lentil Soup

Manjiri Chitnis

Wholesome and delicious, this vegetarian and vegan friendly recipe is as easy on the tummy as it is on the pocket

5 from 7 votes

Print Recipe

Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Fusion Indian

Servings 2 people

Equipment

Pressure Cooker / Heavy-bottomed pan
Knife and chopping board
Kadhai or any pan
Potato masher or a large ladle
Blender / Mixer

Ingredients

3/4 cup Red Lentils/Masoor split without skin
1/4 cup Yellow Lentil/Moong – split without skin
4 – 5 medium-sized Tomatoes
1 pinch Asafoetida
2 Red Onions
5 – 6 Garlic cloves
2 tsp Coriander Powder
2 tsp Cumin Powder
½ Thum-sized Fresh Ginger – peeled
2-3 Cloves
1 tsp Pepper powder
Red chilli flakes – optional
3 large tbsp Oil for frying
1 tbsp oil for the tadka
Salt to taste

Instructions

Wash the lentil through a sieve and pressure cook – 3 whistles
Let the steam escape and then loosen cooker lid
Remove cooked lentils and allow to cool completely
If you are not a pressure cooker lover then cook the lentils in a big saucepan with exactly two times the water than the quantity of the lentils
Lentils cook quickly in a pan, cover and cook and keep an eye as water may boil over
Finely chop red onions chopped into long slivers
Chop the tomatoes into 4 pieces – just for ease of blending
In a kadhai or wok heat the 3 tbsp oil and deep fry the garlic chopped into fine strips
Add the red onions and sauté are absolutely crisp, the aroma is delicious
Puree the washed tomatoes with the deep-fried red onion and garlic (leave some for garnishing)
Use a potato masher ( or the back of a large ladle) and roughly squash the cooked and cooled lentils and mix them with the tomatoes puree
In the same kadhai/wok or pan used to fry the onions and garlic – heat about 1 to 1.5 tsp oil
Add asafoetida, whole cumin, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, cloves
Sauté the spices in the oil for under a minute
Add the cooked lentils and tomato puree
Add water if the mixture is too thick
Cover and cook on a low flame for 5 -8 minutes
Season with salt as per taste
Garnished with the remaining crispy fried onion and garlic bits
Sprinkle some freshly cracked pepper
Serve hot
Best accompanied by hot buttered toast

Keyword Lentil soup

Wholemeal bread, a crusty baguette, or a soft cheesy loaf – all make for great accompaniments with this soup. Indulge yourself by adding a blob of butter on top of the soup before serving.

Chapali Kebab Recipe

March 3, 2014 by manjirichitnis 26 Comments

Succulent, melt in your mouth meat that is a rich mix of flavours and a popular starter – Kebabs – I love sheekh kebabs the most, and close on their heels are Chapali Kebabs. I decided to do a taste experiment and used 500gm of lamb mince or kheema to make Chapali Kebabs using a packet shop bought ready to cook masala mixture and used the remaining 500gm of lamb mince to make the very same kebabs using a mixture of my own spices and homemade garam masala – oh yes I finally got around to making my own Garam Masala (recipe coming up this week with a huge surprise!)

But before I let you in on my easy peasy recipe, let us familiarise ourselves with a slice of history behind the dish (oh yes – every great recipe has a story!)

The word Chapli derives from the Pashto word Chaprikh which means flat. It is prepared as a flat and round mini pancake but fried like a fritter and is served with Naan.

Kebab (also kebap or kabab) is a Middle Eastern dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted or grilled on a skewer or spit originating in the Eastern Mediterranean and later adopted in Central Asia and by the regions of the former Mongol Empire and later Ottoman Empire, before spreading worldwide. Indian cuisine is widely influenced by the various rulers and dynasties that ruled and colonised India at various periods including the British Raj. The Mughal Empire has left a heavy influence on the food, culture, and tradition and is deeply woven into the fabric of society to create a new, beautiful, and modern-day cuisine that has been adapted, modified to the local taste, and is now our own.

In American English, kebab refers to shish kebab (Turkish: kebap) cooked on a skewer, whereas in Europe it refers to doner kebab, sliced meat served in a slice of pita bread. In the Middle East, however, kebab refers to meat that is cooked over or next to flames; large or small cuts of meat, or even ground meat; it may be served on plates, in sandwiches, or in bowls. The traditional meat for kebab is lamb, but depending on local tastes and religious prohibitions, other meats may include beef, goat, chicken, pork, or fish. Like other ethnic foods brought by travellers, the kebab has remained a part of everyday cuisine in most of the Eastern Mediterranean and South Asia.

Though traditionally these are kebabs are large and very flat – almost as large as the palm of your hand, I wanted to make a smaller patty , easy to fry and serve as a starter and easy to pop in the mouth while wielding a chilled glass of wine don’t you think?

Ingredients:

500gm of lamb mince or kheema
1 tsp of dried pomegranate seeds
2 tsp freshly crushed ginger
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 heaped tsp red chilli powder
1 heaped tsp coriander powder
1 heaped tsp Cumin powder
a handfull of fresh coriander leaves finely chopped
1 small red onion finely chopped
1/2 a medium juicy red tomato finely chopped
2 small green chilli finely chopped
3 small eggs
Salt to taste
3 heaped tsps of rice flour or cornmeal

Method:

In a large mixing bowl, crack the eggs and beat lightly, add all the spices and mix with a fork.
Then work in the corn flour and then the meat.
Ensure any excess water is drained out and then add the finely chopped tomatoes and red onions.
Spread a large sheet of kitchen plastic foil on a flat table or kitchen platform and place the flatted patties on it,cover with another sheet and refrigerate.
If like me you like in a tiny but expensive urban flat with the an open plan kitchen – read tiny as a birds nest,then probably bets to leave the entire mixture in the bowl,cover and refrigerate for about half an hour.
In a kadhai or wok take enough oil for frying and fry them , serve hot with lots of chopped tomato and red onions.
Delicious with a fresh green coriander mint chutney or the life saving ketchup 🙂

References:Wikipedia

Am submitting this recipe to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior on his blog Cookinwluv

Tawa Chicken Frankie Roll

February 28, 2014 by manjirichitnis 20 Comments

Frankie – Popular Indian street food

Tawa Frankie Roll – How I decided to re-create this popular Indian street food at home. In 2014, global flavour leader McCormick, the parent company of leading herbs and spices brand Schwartz, is celebrating its 125th anniversary. The yearlong celebration kicks off with the launch of the 125th Anniversary Edition of the Flavour Forecast (a new, annual prediction of what ‘flavours’ will be most popular in the cooking world) and the Flavour of Together programme, with the goal of connecting people around the world as they share 1.25 million stories about the special role food and flavour plays in our lives through.

To inspire people to share their flavour stories and tell the blogger community about Flavour Forecast, McCormick challenged me and a few other bloggers to come up with a new recipe that is based on the Flavour Forecast trends :

1. Chillies Obsession: Food lovers everywhere are seeking out their next big chilli thrill.

2. Modern Masala: Indian food is finally having its moment, breaking free of its traditional confines with modern interpretations.

3. Clever Compact Cooking: Proving that big flavours can come from small spaces, cooks in urban kitchens are making the most of what’s available.

4. Mexican World Tour: Mexican flavours are making their way around the globe, with people everywhere discovering new aspects of this bright, casual cuisine.

5. Charmed by Brazil: The world’s attraction to Brazilian cuisine is heating up, thanks to its seductive mix of global and native influences.

I decide to take up Modern Masala as a flavour trend. Coming from India, using a complex mix of spices as part of our daily diet has always been a part of my life. The beautiful large open fruit n vegetable markets even in major cities are a visual treat and there is a lot of passion involved in say getting the right type of chilli powder. So I think my recipe is an amalgamation of these two big flavour trends together – Chillies Obsession and Modern Masala and of course because I manage all my culinary experiments in my tiny urban kitchen which is the size of a postage stamp I am sure my recipe also covers the theme Clever Compact Cooking!

My most vivid memory of spices being sold loose is of this huge wholesale and retail market in an area called Parel, Mumbai in India. There are many tiny shops and vendors which hand carts with huge piles of spices, bright red chillies in jute sacks, and mini yellow mountains of turmeric and ever imaginable spice being sold in the open. Of course, with our modern industries being so well developed we always used masalas out of a packet but the sheer variety available locally in any small town in India is mind-boggling.

Pune, India – spice market

In London, whenever I trudge to my local Indian shop and purchase Indian spices, I secretly wish that I could get an unlimited supply of aai’s homemade masalas. Her garam masala and red chilli powder where she carefully selects 2 types of chillies with varying degrees of heat and roasts them in a kadhai after they have been dried in the blistering hot afternoon sun! Then she takes it to a local mill where it is ground and packed into a large ceramic jar and then stored at home.

I have made a simplified version of Tibbs Frankie using boneless mutton and a variety of Schwartz spices which were sent to me. You could safely say that this fella ”Frankie” is a distant cousin of the Fajita and the Kathi Roll.

How this Frankie came into being is also a very interesting story which I shall share in a few lines here. These lines are from the Tibbs Frankie website

”The year 1967 Mr. Amarjit Tibb on returning back from England had a stopover in Beirut. During his brief stop there he stumbled upon a very ingenious Lebanese preparation, which was a pita bread wrap, with a variety of stuffing’s, this fascinated him. Upon his return the idea still lingered on and he kept innovating it to suit the Indian palate, after a year of research along with his wife they hit upon the perfect concoction. This Indianised wrap was soon tried among friends and family and after testing brilliantly it hit the markets. That was a new era to the term fast food in Mumbai, it caught on like fire in the Jungle, people accepted it and kept asking for more.Now came the problem of naming the product, again a number of brainstorming became the order of the day till a unanimous decision on the name was taken i.e. Frankie”

This explosion of flavours in a handy easy to eat roll which was given a modern food truck makeover is a gastronomic delight and is available in a large variety of stuffings both veg and non-veg.I have rather fond memories of my college days and spending my pocket money which was always in short supply on these spicy, tasty rolls with a bunch of friends giggling away and then gathering any loose change we had left amongst us to buy a bottle or two of some fizzy cola to quench our thirst. Alert : have been suddenly been hit by a huge wave of nostalgia 🙂

I have created what is my version of a tawa chicken roll (tawa meaning pan in Hindi), the original Tibbs frankie filling is a tangy spicy taste which they attribute to a secret ”Frankie Masala” – humm , well I think I got pretty close 😉 – evil laugh follows 🙂 You can go crazy and creative with the fillings and use this recipe idea to use up meat from your sunday roast, try various different veg and non veg patties with meat and masalas rolled into boiled potato casing and shallow fried. Great way to use a lot of colorful veggies and create a stir fry filling too – the possibilities are endless.

Tawa Chicken Frankie Roll

Tawa Frankie Roll

Manjiri Chitnis

Popular Indian street food, this was created in Mumbai and is a deliciously paratha stuffed with a variety of fillings and green chutney

5 from 7 votes

Print Recipe

Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Fusion Indian

Servings 2 People