Quinoa Patties

Quinoa has started getting very popular as high protein vegetarian grains.... I got a chance to try a recipe when my friend who moved gave me a box of these grains. As I have never eaten or even seen it before, I googled information about it and how to cook it..... Interesting trivia on quinoa can be found here.... Last week, I opened the box and finally decided to use.........so thought of making this recipe with some other vegetables in the fridge.

Ingredients:

• quinoa -- 1 cup
• bread -- 2 slices
• beetroot -- 1 small
  
• carrot -- 1 small
• broccoli -- 4/5 florets( half a head)
• garlic -- 4 cloves
• coriander leaves -- 1 small bunch
• onion -- about 1/2
• green peas -- about 1 cup
• lemon juice -- about 1 tbsp
• powdered spices -- coriander powder and tandoori masala powder (about 1/2 tsp each)
• salt and pepper -- about 1 tsp each
• butter or oil -- about 2-3 tsps
• water -- 2 cup

Recipe:

• Boil about 2 cups of water and add salt. Add quinoa and cover the pot and let it simmer on medium heat till the water is absorbed by the grains. About 15-20 minutes. The grains will fluff up. Add 1-3 tbsps of water if needed. Keep it aside to cool.

• Prep the vegetables and make bread crumbs in a food processor. Grate the broccoli, carrot and beetroot. (I boiled the beetroot prior to grating). Chop onions, peel and grate garlic. Defrost the peas and heat them in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes.

• Take all the prepared vegetables in a large bowl. Add the powdered spices and season well with salt and pepper. 

• Add quinoa and mix well.

• Add breadcrumbs, coriander leaves and lemon juice. Mix well with a spoon.

• Take about 2 tbsp mix in your hands and roll them in a ball and flatten to patties. Use up all the mix to make patties and keep them flat in a plate.

• Refrigerate the patties for an hour. I kept them in the freezer for 10/15 minutes.

• Heat a pan and brush the bottom with a tsp of oil or butter. Arrange the patties in a single layer and brown the bottom on medium heat. Flip the patties after 3-4 minutes and brown the other side.

• Serve hot with ketchup, mint chutney or tartare sauce. 

Quantity:

• Makes about 15 -20 patties 
• 2-3 patties are good for a serving size along with a salad or rice or pasta.

Notes:

• I found the binding part a bit difficult with breadcrumbs made with  just 2 slices of bread.... can increase the bread slices to about 4 or 5
• You can add potato, paneer or even egg instead of bread crumbs. 
• The refrigerating helps keeping the shape.
• Instead of using indian powdered spices you can use cheese and mixed italian herbs too.
• I preferred the ones, I sauteed with butter for obvious reasons...  :)

Chili Chicken

This is our favorite recipe, to be made anytime. If I ask my son, what shall I make for dinner or lunch, he would say "chili chicken" or "grilled salmon". I make this recipe, so many times.... usually, in a rush at last minute, so never had time to properly photograph it. I had photographed this, long time back and I did not like the pictures, so I want to do it again sometime, but as I said, I always make it in a hurry.... so if I make it in leisure, will try to take better photographs for this recipe. 

Ingredients:

• about 400 gms chicken fillets( or breasts)
  
• 1 red  and 1 green capsicum
• 1 red onion
• 7 garlic flakes
• 1 inch piece of ginger
• 3 green chilies
• 1 red chili
• 2 tbsps dark soy sauce
• 2 -3 tsp vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp of ajinomoto( msg-- optional)
• a bunch of spring onions chopped for garnish

Recipe:

• Wash and clean the chicken. Pat it dry with kitchen paper. Chop into 1/2 inch pieces.
• Grate 4 garlic cloves and ginger, chop 2 chilies and keep them in a bowl.

• Add 1 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tsp vinegar and mix well.

• Add chicken pieces to this marinade. Add about 1/2 a tsp of salt and 1 tsp of freshly pounded black pepper.
• Keep it aside covered with cling wrap in a refrigerator for about 1 hour ...to even 24 hours(1 day)

• Mince the remaining 3 pieces of garlic, 1 green and red chili, onions and capsicums.

• Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan. 

• Add garlic, chilies and stir-fry on high for 30 secs.

• Add onion, stir-fry again for a minute.

• Add the capsicum, stir-fry for 2 minutes.

• Add another tbsp of soy sauce and 1 to 2 tsp of vinegar.

• Add marinated chicken. Lower the heat to medium and stir-fry .....for 3-5 minutes till the chicken is cooked. 

• Serve hot, garnished with spring onions as an accompaniment with rice or just as is ....if it's a snack or an appetizer.

Quantity:

• 3-5 servings with rice/other curry or 2-3 servings as an appetizer

Notes:

• The chicken requires only 4-5 minutes to cook, if they are in small bite size pieces.
• If u get chicken shreds,(like I have got, in the picture) that means, it's slightly over cooked. You need to get a  nice even brownish coating. A tip, I recently learnt about cooking chicken from my friend Lakshmi. However, this chicken is delicious, even if it is slightly overcooked.
• You can make it a day ahead... or marinate longer to get maximum flavor.
• Msg can be added after sauteing the onions, before adding capsicum. It gives good flavor to the chicken. 
• You can also add a chicken stock cube in the end and some water and corn flour to make a gravy.
• The number of chilis and flavorings, I use..will make it a mildly spicy chicken. Do increase the number of chilies for a fiery taste..... :) Adjust the quantity of soy sauce, vinegar and salt and pepper accordingly.
• For vegetarian version of this recipe -- Try out the chili paneer recipe here....:)

•  You can make similar recipe with boiled eggs.

Samosa

Singapore has been covered with smoky haze due to forest fires in nearby Sumatra/Indonesia for past 6 days now, and I have been house bound with the kids for last 4 days. I haven't been to gym for over a week and have been making calorific goodies.....grrr.... :( My kids and their friends have been helping me polish those goodies, but today was the day nobody visited us, nor did we visit anybody.... so these deep-fried golden triangles were consumed, just by my family and we really enjoyed them.... :)  

Samosa was the first new thing, I tried after I got married....:) My hubby and our friends have been the tasters for all sorts of samosas that I used to make.... burnt, very spicy, not cooked well enough, soggy or greasy.... but I have been making them over 10 years now...and now can turn out good ones.... in a jiffy, if I have all the ingredients.

Mango Salsa/salad

I had read that a mango salsa tastes really good with grilled fish. However, whenever I make grilled fish...my kids eat it as it is ....or with some rice or furikake. So, usually I make it plain and at last minute. This time I made effort to plan and make this salad ahead...so that we could enjoy with our grilled salmon.

Salmon fish cakes

Salmon is an all time favorite in my house. My kids love it grilled, pan-fried, baked, with spicy thai sauce like this, or well...any form. Usually, I salt it and bake it in a foil and that is it......A meal with some rice /salad. I wanted to try a new recipe with salmon, so I tried something similar to this recipe with the ingredients, I had in my kitchen.

A very yummy recipe for an impressive appetizer/starter, again as my other recipes quite simple and quick to make. This is how I made it....:)

Green Mango Salad

Thai food is my most favorite next to Indian. However, I do not know how to cook it well.  Learning about it slowly. Singapore is a good place to learn how to make good thai food, as you get all the ingredients fresh and cheap. Green mango salad(or green papaya salad) is a very refreshing and unique flavored recipe. 

Grilled Tandoori Potatoes with Mint Chutney

Blogging is interesting. I planned to make mint chutney today. Due to this new blogging hobby, i thought, i will make a post about it... :)  Mint chutney goes well with so many things, especially Indian street food..."the chaats". However, chaats require a lot of ingredients which i din't have. I had baby potatoes and fresh mint and coriander. One of my friend's, Hemali had posted a super delicious picture of Alu Chaat, I wanted something like that.... !!

 Here is how i made it....!!