Chicken tandoori with pickled onions.

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog, hope we all had a wonderful weekend. I am back with another yummy recipe, chicken tandoori with pickled onions! Now this recipe is not as authentic as the traditional one because I couldn't get all the spices and I don't have a tandoor :(. So I made use of what I had, used my oven as a tandoor  and added my own little twist :). If you are like me and just want a little bit of that Indian cuisine, definitely give this a try :).

So lets start with the ingredients needed:

• Three chicken leg quarters ( you can use other parts)
• One cup of plain yoghurt
• Half of a lemon
•  Fresh ginger ( enough for a tablespoon, blended or grounded into a paste)
• Two big cloves of garlic (blended or grounded into a paste)
• One chicken bouillon (optional)
• One teaspoon of salt
• One teaspoon of black pepper
• One tablespoon of dry paprika
• One teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• One teaspoon of turmeric
• One teaspoon of nutmeg powder
• One teaspoon cinnamon powder
• One teaspoon coriander powder
• Some cardamon seeds 
• A dash of dry thyme
• A dash of curry powder
• Mustard oil (mix a little mustard with vegetable oil if you can't find any)

STEPS

So we are going to make two marinades for this recipe. For the first marinade, wash your chicken and score them on both sides, put them in a bowl, squeeze in the half lemon, add in your chicken bouillon, a dash of salt, half of the one tablespoon of dry paprika, garlic and ginger. Mix everything together and let it sit for about 15 - 30 minutes.

For the second marinade, add in the one cup of plain yogurt in a bowl, add in your salt, the remaining dry spices and mustard oil. If you have garam masala spice available use it instead of the spices I listed above. Give everything a whisk and add it to your already marinating chicken and make sure the chicken is coated all round, like so

Some people like adding red food coloring to make the chicken appear red but I prefer the natural color.

Let this marinate for about one hour then preheat  your oven to about 180 degrees celsius for about 10 minutes. Add in your chicken and grill it till its dark brown and thoroughly cooked. It should take about 30 - 45 minutes. Don't forget to flip the chicken and dab oil on it from time to time. That's it for the chicken!

Now for the pickled onions, slice up half of an onion, add a dash of salt, 2 - 3 tablespoons of vinegar and a dash of black pepper(optional). Mix and let it sit for about 30 minutes and that's it! you can make a lot in a jar and just keep it in the fridge to use as a topping :) 

I hope you give this recipe a try and enjoy!!!

Minced beef kebabs with sour cream sauce.

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! I know it has been a while but I am back now ;). I hope we are all having a wonderful week. I am here to share another lovely recipe, minced beef kebabs with sour cream sauce!

So lets get into it and start with the ingredients for the kebabs, you will need the following :

• 300 - 400 g of minced beef ( enough for about 7-10 sticks)
• One green onions ( about a tablespoon finely chopped)
• Half of a small onion (finely chopped)
• One big clove of garlic or two small cloves (finely chopped)
• One beef bouillon 
• Half a teaspoon of salt
• Half a teaspoon of curry powder
• Half a teaspoon of dry thyme
• One teaspoon of dry pepper
• Half a teaspoon of black pepper
• Quarter teaspoon of dry ginger 
• Quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika
• Quarter teaspoon of dry coriander
• Skewers

STEPS

Put your minced beef in a bowl and add everything listed above to it. Use your hands and mix everything up, make sure all the spices and veggies have been absolutely incorporated! Notice I said finely chopped for all the veggies, that's because if they are not finely chopped, it will cause you meat to break off on the skewers. You will have something like this

You can leave the mixture to marinate in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour and then its ready to get on the skewers! If you have an ice cream scoop at home, you can use it to scoop up the meat or you can use your hand. Before you scoop up the meat, dab your hands in some vegetable oil or coat the ice cream scoop with some oil, scoop up the meat and make it into a ball. The scooped up meat should be the size of an ice cream scoop since we are using these skewers, but if you are using the long iron skewers you can put in a lot more. Gently but firmly press the ball of meat around the skewer and start pressing it down in a pulsating manner using your fingers, till the meat is spread along the skewer evenly. When you are done you will have something this

Heat up your grill pan or oven and simply grill them till they are golden brown and thoroughly cooked! That's it for the kebabs, now lets move on to the sauce, you will need the following ingredients:

• Two tablespoons of sour cream ( you can also use plain yogurt)
• One teaspoon of soy sauce
• One teaspoon of ketchup
• A dash of garlic powder
• A dash of dry red pepper
• Chopped dills and parsley (about a teaspoon)

Add up everything in a small bowl and whisk away! that's it for the sauce,simple and easy!

Garnish with some fresh parsley and dills. I do hope you give this recipe a try and enjoy!