Spinach and corn

My mom had made this side dish for chapati, when she visited me and I had liked it a lot. So, now I make it every now and then.... very fast to cook as most of my recipes on this blog. I like spinach with mustard oil, so I have used it, however, it can be made with any oil that you regularly use in your kitchen -- vegetable/corn/canola or even olive oil.

Ingredients:

• A large bunch of spinach
• 2/3 cloves garlic
• 1 chili
• 1 tsp each of coriander, cumin powder and cumin seeds 
• 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp mustard oil
• 1 small red onion (optional)
• 1 cup of fresh or frozen sweet corn
• Sliced ginger/dollop of butter or cream/lemon wedges to garnish

Recipe:

• Remove the thick stalks of the spinach. Wash the leaves and leave them in a colander to dry (Let most of the liquid be drained out)

• Microwave the clean spinach leaves in a glass or microwave safe bowl for 3-4 minutes till they are wilted. (Alternatively, you can boil a pot of water, blanch the leaves for 1-2 minutes and immediately put them in ice cold water for a minute and take them out)

• Grind the spinach to a puree in a blender or a food processor. Keep it aside.

• Heat mustard oil in a pan. 

• Add cumin seeds and turmeric. 
• Once the cumin crackles, add chopped onion, grated garlic and chopped chili.

• Saute till the onion is translucent for about a minute or two, then add the powdered spices.

• Add corn. Saute for another minute or two.

• Add spinach puree. Cook for another minute. 

• Add about 1/4 -1/3 cup of water to make the gravy thin, if needed.

• Serve hot with parathas or chapatis.
• Can garnish with matchstick ginger/butter/cream or just a lemon wedge (as I have done)

Quantity:

• 3-4 servings, as a side with chapati/salad/rice, etc

Notes:

• If you are boiling/blanching spinach, do it for a short time, 2 minutes or so, no more.
• Also, after adding spinach puree, cook on medium for 1-2 minutes no more. 

Grilled chicken patties with sauteed vegetables

Usually, I cook and eat vegetarian meals at home, but I have been working out a lot for the past 2-3 months, and I was advised to have protein rich and natural meals with lots of fruits and vegetables..... and this meal fits the bill. The recipe is quite simple.You can eat it, as an appetizer, with rice, with spaghetti or just with grilled vegetables... 

Ingredients:

• 600 gms chicken (I used breast pieces)
• 10/12 shallots (you can use regular onions - 2 nos)
• 7 garlic cloves
• 3 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 2 fresh chilies (I used the red ones)
• Juice of half a lemon
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 egg
• 1 large bunch of coriander leaves

For the sauteed vegetables:

• 2 carrots
• 1 head of broccoli (You can use any other vegetable like cauliflower, mushrooms, baby corn..... or any combination you like)
• 1 tsp of butter/olive oil
• more olive oil to grease the pan -- You can omit this, if you have a nice non-stick or cast iron pan

Recipe:

• Mince the shallots, chicken, chilies, coriander in a food processor.
• Grate the parmesan cheese and the garlic.

• Mix everything well together with a spoon.

• Add salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste.

• Add lemon juice and mix it well.

• Make small balls of the mixture and lay them in a platter.

• Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes or more.
• When ready to make the patties, grease a skillet with some oil.
• Flatten the balls and lay them on the skillet 1 inch apart. 

• Cook them on low to medium flame for about 3-4 minutes till the outside is browned.
• Flip them and brown the other side.

Sauteed Vegetables:

• Chop the vegetables in bite size pieces. 

• Heat a tsp of butter or olive oil in a pan.

• Add the vegetables. Stir fry them on high heat for a minute, then lower the heat and cover the pan. Let the vegetables cook for another 3-5 minutes.

• Take them out in a different pan and keep aside.

• Serve the chicken patties piping hot, with a side of vegetables garnished with more lemon juice and coriander leaves.

Quantity:

• Makes about 20-23 patties. 
• Serves 3-4 people.

Notes:

• You can grill the patties in the grill mode of the oven about 10-15 minutes.
• You can add grated vegetables, (like carrots and broccoli) to the patties.

my version of Sambal Chicken

On last weekend, we visited a restaurant on the beach, which served freshly caught prawns cooked in sambal sauce. They were really delicious. Sambal paste is a widely used paste in Asia,especially in Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean cuisine. Inspite of living here for more than an year, I haven't tried to learn much about cooking the popular food here...., so I thought this recipe was a good one to start. What I have made today,  may or may not be very authentic, I read about sambal paste recipes on the internet and found that there are 100s of recipes according to countries, regions and even cooks. These are the common ingredients-- spicy red hot chilies, shrimp paste, garlic and shallots, plus and minus some ingredients. Lot of information about Sambal paste here !! This is how, I made this recipe......

Ingredients:

• 5-6 cloves of garlic
  
• 5-6 red chilies(I have used bird's eye chilies, can use dried red ones too...soak them in water for about 10-15 minutes)
• 1 tbsp shrimp paste -about 15 gms (I used belacan , that is a malay variety of shrimp paste)
• 3 stalks of lemon grass
• 4-5 shallots
• 1 lemon (juiced)
• about 1 kg of chicken (I used about 850 gms of whole chicken with bones, without skin)
• salt to marinate the chicken -- about 1 tsp
• 2-3 tbsp oil
• coriander leaves and chili to garnish

Recipe:

• Wash and clean the chopped chicken. Drain out all the water. Rub a tsp of salt over the chicken and keep it aside.
• Keep one stalk of lemongrass aside, chop the remaining two, after removing outer layers. Remove skins of the garlic and shallots and tops of the chilies.
• Put it all in a blender or a food processor and pulse for 20 seconds, till it all comes together as a paste. You can do it by hand too, with the help of mortar and pestle. 

• Add the block of shrimp paste to the above paste and pulse again to get a fine puree. Add lemon juice to the paste. Sambal paste is ready.

• Heat about 2-3 tbsp oil in a pan. Add the sambal paste to it.

• Saute it, stirring well for 3-4 minutes.

• Add chicken and let the spices get coated onto the chicken.

• Stir well and let the chicken cook for 4-5 minutes till it becomes white.

• Add about 1- 1.5 cups of water(I added the water to the grinder in which I made the sambal paste and kinda cleaned out the sambal paste) to the chicken, and let it simmer on low flame for another 7-8 minutes.

• Garnish with chopped lemon grass, coriander and lime wedges.

• Serve hot with fragrant jasmine rice.

Quantity:

• 4-6 servings

Notes:

• I have used the least possible chilies to make the sambal paste. You can increase the chilies to 10 or even more for a really fiery hot sambal paste.
• If you are using dried red chilies, soak them in water for 10-15 minutes.
• To reduce the heat, remove the seeds. 
• My version was fairly okay in terms of spice level.... even my little one could have it(just the chicken without the gravy), so I did not feel the need to remove the seeds. 
• You can add a bit of sugar to the paste to balance the tartness of the limes, heat of the chilies and saltiness of the shrimp paste. I didn't add.. !!
• As with other chicken recipes, make it ahead and let it sit in sambal sauce for 6-12 hours. It tastes really good that way....!!
• You can use this paste to make prawns or grilled fish too...!!
• A special note to my Malaysian and Singaporean readers: Do let me know, how do you make your Sambal paste !!!