Lemon-Pepper Baby Potatoes

I am an out and out potato girl. I know it sounds boring and staid, but really, I can eat potatoes 3 times a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year! Give me potatoes in any form and I'll be happy and contented :)

So these baby potatoes here are my all-time favorite and typical comfort food for me. They can be cooked up in a jiffy and taste mind-blowingly hot and delicious. I made these in the microwave, but they are equally easy to make on a stove-top too.

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes - 250 gms
Garlic cloves - 4
Vegetable Oil - 2 tbsp
Lemon pepper - 1 tsp
Chilli flakes
Salt

Wash the potatoes well and place them in a microwave-safe bowl filled with water that's a couple of inches above the potatoes. Sprinkle some salt and add a little oil. If your microwave has the express cooking option of boiling potatoes, then set the weight and choose that option. If not, just cook them in the microwave on medium high (Power 2) for about 15-20min. Keep checking if done at regular intervals by piercing the potatoes with a fork, as the time may differ depending on the kind of microwave you have and the variety of the potatoes.

Once the potatoes are boiled, cool and peel them. In another micro safe bowl, pour in 2 tbsp of vegetable oil, add the chopped garlic cloves and heat it for 30sec. Once the garlic starts to brown, add the potatoes, toss well and nuke it again for 4min. Keep tossing at intervals and nuking it till the potatoes start turning a golden brown. Now add the lemon pepper and chilli flakes. Sprinkle some more salt if needed.

If you dont have lemon pepper, then sprinkle a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, grate the zest of half a lemon, and squeeze in about 1tsp of lemon juice.

Toss well, cook for another 2-3min till the potatoes look nicely fried. Garnish with some coriander leaves.
The way I like it:

Serve hot with rice or rotis. Or just transfer them into a bowl, put in some toothpicks or forks, and serve as a starter.

Am sending this off to Srivalli's 365 days of Microwave Cooking and her MEC event on "Favorites" being hosted by Seduce your taste buds.

French Apple Pie

Ok, first up, let me confess that I have no clue what this dessert is really called! I was watching Food Paradise on Travel & Living yesterday and tuned in to see the host taking a tour of Burgundy in France. And this was a quick local dish that she showed how to make. It seemed really easy and I had 2 apples sitting in my fridge for a few days and all the ingredients in my larder, so I thought I would give it a try...

But I don't have an oven yet (but have already bought a cool Glen cooking range complete with grill and oven for the new house which should be functional by end of this month. yaaay!) So I prepared this in the microwave and was expecting it to really turn out a disaster. But it was surprisingly delicious - soft and warm on the inside, crisp on the edges like an apple pie... ummm! I think I'm going to go get myself a slice right away!

Ingredients:

Apple (Red) - 1
Flour - 1 cup
Salted Butter - 75gms
Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp
Eggs - 2
Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cinnamon Powder - 1/2 tsp
Cream - 200ml (I use Amul Fresh Cream)

Add the baking soda to the flour. Now take the butter at room temperature and slowly start mixing it into the flour till all the butter is dissolved. Add a splash of water - just enough to turn it into an easy to roll dough. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a smooth circle or rectangle (depending on the shape of your dish) and transfer it into the baking dish. Pat in the corners and the edges.

Core and peel the apple and cut it into thin slices. Now spread these slices evenly all over the dough in a single layer.

In a mixing bowl, break the 2 eggs, add the sugar, powdered cinnamon and the cream. Whisk it until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and creamy. Pour it on top of the sliced apples covering every inch of the baking dish.

Thats it... pop it into the oven for 30min, or microwave it at 60% power for 30min. Let it cool a little and savour it while still warm.

Though this microwave version turned out absolutely fine, I'm sure if i had made this in the oven, my apples would have been crunchier on the top and the crust would have been nicer. Currently it's a little biscuit-y... But frankly, am not complaining. Coz this has to be the simplest form of scrumptious apple pie ever!

My first attempt at baking - Chocolate Sponge Cake

I made this cake almost 2 weeks ago and sent it to Sid in Chandigarh along with the Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, but I just did not have the time to post the recipe earlier. This was my very first attempt at baking anything and so I tried a fairly easy microwave recipe that I looked up in my Onida microwave cooking booklet. My micro is not even a convection one but this recipe proved to be really quick, easy and delicious.

Ingredients:
Flour/Maida – 1 cup
Cocoa Powder – 2 tbsp
Powdered Sugar – 1 cup
Butter – 100gms
Eggs – 2
Baking Soda – 1 tsp
Vanilla essence
Milk – 1/3rd cup

My impromptu chocolate icing:
Cadbury’s Silk – 1 bar
Milk – 5 tbsp

Sieve the flour with the cocoa powder and baking powder and set aside in a large vessel/bowl. In a mixing bowl beat the eggs, sugar and butter till it reaches a smooth, thick, creamy consistency. Fold in this mixture into the flour and mix slowly. Add a drop of vanilla essence. Pour this cake mixture into a greased microwave safe bowl and Auto Cook on Sponge Cake setting. If you don’t have that option in your microwave, then just nuke it on high power for 5-6min. Put a knife in through the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean without any dough sticking to it, the cake is done. Once the cake has cooled down, slide a knife around the edges and overturn the bowl into a plate.

Once the cake was out on a plate, I realized it still had an eggy smell which Sid is so not fond of. So I rummaged around in the fridge, found a standard sized bar of Cadbury’s Silk Dairy Milk Chocolate, broke it into pieces, added a little milk and zapped the whole thing in the microwave for 1 min. I poured the ensuing chocolate syrup on top of the cake and spread it evenly. Refrigerate till the chocolate hardens and sets, and cut into slices.

Heat it before serving for that gooey chocolate covered sponge cake effect.

Sid, who is not really a cakes and pastries person, claims he really liked this! J And G swears she polished off more than half the cake by herself. So this has given me the confidence to bake more stuff. So even though I don’t have an oven, now with our new house under renovation, have decided to buy a cooking range complete with in-built grill and oven :) Hopefully this blog will see many more cakes and baked goodies in the future!

Thunder Thighs!

Tandoori Chicken - Microwave Recipe

Yesterday we went grocery shopping to stock up for the coming month. And I picked up a packet of 6 skinless chicken thigh pieces. Sid is very fussy about his meat. He does not eat red meat except for the occasional mutton curry or biryani (which has to be well cooked and home-made, by the way), hates sea food, and likes his chicken well-done. Oh, and did I mention that he is that rare species that hates chicken leg pieces? Yes, he is a breast man out-n-out!

So I bought the chicken thighs with some trepidation. But they were well-cut and looked fresh, so I decided chicken it would be for dinner! Once at home, Sid claimed he wasn’t hungry enough for a full fledged meal of chicken curry and rotis. So after much searching in many files, I finally found the user manual of my microwave and decided to attempt grilled/tandoori chicken. I must admit that I have had the microwave for more than a year now, but have never really used it for anything except re-heating food! Yes yes, I know… a real waste. But better late than never!

So Tandoori chicken it was, and for the masala, I just went with instinct and marinated the chicken pieces. 5min later I checked online just to be sure, and realized I hadn’t added yoghurt/curd! So in that went. It took about 1hour marination time and 40min cooking time in all, and the result was lip-smacking I must admit! Though I have a feeling I over-cooked the chicken a bit and it could have been more moist than it turned out to be.

For the Tandoori Masala:
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder – 1 heaped tbsp
Coriander Powder - 1 heaped tbsp
Cumin Powder - 1 heaped tbsp
Cinnamon Powder – 1 tsp
Powdered cloves – 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1 heaped tbsp
Salt – 1 tbsp
Lemon juice
Yoghurt – 2-3 tbsp
Red food colouring - 2 pinches

Chicken pieces – 3

Wash and clean the chicken pieces and make 3-4 diagonal slits in each piece with a sharp knife. Mix all the ingredients of the Tandoori masala into a thick paste and rub the pieces well with the masala, making sure it goes into the slits. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Transfer the marinated pieces of chicken into a microwave safe dish. If your microwave has “Grilled Chicken Pieces” in the Easy Cook or Express Cook options, then just set that option and punch in the weight of the chicken. In my case, 3 pieces of chicken came to approximately 400gms.

If you don’t have this option available, then set it on Grill or Power/Grill Combination 2 for around 20min. After 10min, turn the pieces over and resume the grilling.

After 20min, the chicken will be done. Now to give it the charred, tandoori effect, transfer the pieces onto the grill provided with your Microwave (Pic below), and grill for about 3-4min.

Sprinkle some Chaat Masala on top and serve hot with some raw onions and a wedge of lemon, or some mint chutney.