Pepper Tangdi

I buy half a dozen chicken drumsticks whenever we pass the fish and meat section during our grocery shopping. I would be making mental plans as to what was I gonna do with the leg pieces. But somehow I end up with something else. This time I bought with hopes of churning out tandoori chicken legs to send out for an event that is going on in the blogosphere. But due to lack of pre-planning and time, I ended up with Pree's recipe. I am glad I did. Abbas's comment after hogging on this dish was that "It's very yummy. There's only one thing missing." Guess what it could be? Of course it was Potatoes! My Bengali husband.... Phew!

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
Chicken drumsticks (skinless) - 6-7 (I used 4)

Onion - 1 large or 2 medium sized, finely sliced
Tomato - 1 large ripe, roughly sliced
Coriander leaves - 1 cup, finely chopped
Grated ginger - 1 tbsp (I used ginger paste)
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Freshly powdered garam masala - 1/2 tbsp (I used Tadka masala)
Freshly pounded black pepper - 2 tbsp
Green chillies - 3-4, slit (My addition)
Oil - 2 tbsp
Bay leaf - 1
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Marinate chicken drumsticks with ginger garlic paste, pepper powder, half of the coriander leaves and garam masala / tadka masala. Keep aside for 30 mins.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Add bay leaf and onion, saute till they turn pink.
3. Add chicken drumsticks and saute on high heat, till you get golden brownish colour on the meat.
4. Add coriander leaves and salt. Combine, cover and cook on medium flame for about 5 mins.
5. Now add the tomatoes, cover and let the chicken cook in the juices that the tomatoes release. Add a little water if you want semi gravy dish.
6. Once the dish attains your desired consistency, garnish with some more coriander leaves and serve with Indian bread or with flavoured rice.

 

Eggless Chocolate Cake

I have not been baking as rigorously as before. My oven is playing spoiled sport as in there were intermittent sparks seen from its rear end. But the baking itch is hard to let go. My kids too had not been taking baked goodies in their snack box to school for the past couple of weeks. I baked this Eggless version of Chocolate Cake which uses oil instead of butter. So, the cake was quite moist like Zebra Cake. Also, I did not have to wait for Eggs or Butter to come down to room temperature. Different toppings can be used but I stuck to the recipe which I adapated from coz I like the combo of walnut and chocolate.

Source: Easycooking

Ingredients:
Flour - 1 cup
Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup
Instant coffee powder - 1 tsp
Thick curd(homemade) - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/2 cup
Vanilla bean - 1/2 of 1 bean,scraped(or else use a tsp of Vanilla extract)
Chopped Walnuts - 1/2 cup
Vanilla bean sugar(or regular sugar) - 1 tbsp
Chocolate chips - 2 tbsp

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Grease an 8" round cake tin.
2. Sift together All Purpose Flour, cocoa powder and instant coffee powder.
3. In a separate bowl, beat sugar and curd till creamy. Mix in baking soda, baking powder and vanilla extract. Keep aside till bubbles form.
4. Pour oil and beat well. Add sifted flour mixture and combine till well incorporated.
5. Pour the batter into a prepared tin. Sprinkle walnuts, chochips and vanilla sugar on top uniformly.
6. Bake at 200C for 10 minutes and 170C for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake in the tin for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack for further cooling.