Creamy Chicken with Leeks

This is a really delicious creamy chicken recipe that I found in a cookbook called Food Lovers Chicken. It's simple yet seems fancy and will surely please if you are having company.

Ingredients:
1 onion
3 boneless chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
 salt and pepper
1 tbsp plain flour
1 and 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 can nestle' cream
1 tsp
mixed herbs

Method:

1. Chop the onion. Slice the leeks. Cut the chicken into 2 inch pieces.
2. Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion and leeks. Cook onion gently for 2 minutes and remove 1 tbsp of the lightly cooked onion/leeks and set aside to garnish.
3. Add the chicken to the pan, season generously with salt and pepper and cook until chicken is well browned.
4. Sprinkle over the flour and cook for 1 minute, then gradually stir in the stock. Cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Stir in the cream and herbs into the chicken and heat through for a few minutes. Serve the chicken over rice or pasta and garnish with the reserved leeks.

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Prawns

Ingredients:

1 Pack spaghetti
Water, for boiling
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 jumbo prawns
1/2 teaspoon coarse red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Method:

Bring a pot of water to boil.
Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions. Drain and set aside.
Heat a pot on medium heat and add olive oil. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds, add the prawns, chili flakes, and salt. Cook the prawns until both sides turn pink, and then add the spaghetti and combine well.

Serve hot!

Chicken and veggie bake

Simplest recipe ever. So don't forget to try it out.

Ingredients:

6 chicken drumsticks
3 large potatoes
1 bell pepper
1 carrot
1 cup peas
1 cup broccoli
1 medium onion
5 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Salt, pepper and chilli flakes
Dried parsley or any dried herbs

Method:

Season drumsticks with salt and pepper and keep aside
Slice onions into rings and halve each garlic clove
Chop potatoes, carrots and bell pepper french fries style.
In a bowl add abt 2-3 tbsp olive oil,  salt n pepper to taste, 1 tbsp  each of chilli flakes and herbs.
Add the veggies, onion, garlic n chicken into the oil.mix n combine well.
Transfer to a baking tray and bake in the oven @ 200 degrees until chicken is cooked thoroughly.

Enjoy!!!

Rainbow Cake and Custard Trifle

Simplest dessert ever!

Ingredients:
Box vanilla cake mix (plus eggs, oil and water as required by mix)
3 tablespoon custard powder
3 cups water
1 can condensed milk
Jelly mix packed (prepare as per instructions)


How to:
1. Prepare cake mix batter as on box. Divide into equal bowls (depending on number of colors u want to use). Mix preferred colors into each bowl.
2. Pour onto greased pan one by one batter mix and bake.
3. After cake is done cool it and break it up into pieces (big chunks) and keep aside.
4. Prepare custard by first mixing condensed milk, custard powder and water in a saucepan and start to cooking on low heat until it thickens ("pourable" consistensy).
5. Pour a custard layer and add a cake chunks layer and repeat.
6. Top with chopped jelly pieces or you can set jelly directly on trifle as well.
7. And its done! I didnt use jelly on the one I made the other Friday and it was still delicious!

My Biryani

Everyhouse has a special Friday biryani or a special similar rice dish usually prepared for Eid and such occasions. This is the recipe for my biryani. Its not so complicated but just has different components. Some people make biryani using rice and gravy in separate layers but I prefer to make it the mixed style.

For rice:
3 cups rice
salt

For gravy:
Biryani spice mix powder (4 table spoon-you can adjust for preferred spiciness)
One medium chicken chopped into medium size
1 yoghurt (small)
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup water
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp turmeric dissolved into one cup water
2 tablespoon ghee


For garnish:
3 medium size onions chopped and fried till golden and crispy
1/2 cup cashew nuts (fried till golden)
1/2 cup raisins (fried till golden)
Hard boiled eggs (chopped into quarters)
handful coriander leaves.

How to:

First mix chicken, yoghurt, spices, tomato paste and salt and pepper.
Heat 1 tbsp ghee in pot (a big pot) and add chicken mixture. When chicken fries nicely add the cup of water and simmer on low heat.

At the same time cook rice until almost one third done. Not hard but not too soft. (i check by squishing with finger and when the rice grain just loses its hardness). Add the rice on top of the simmering chicken mixture and pour the turmeric water mixture and rest of ghee on top of rice.

Add half of fried onions and mix the chicken and rice once. (Dont over mix -Just so that all the chicken is not at the bottom). Cover the lid with a small towel and place the lid on top. Put heat on very very low and let the steam cook the rice.

Place biryani into serving tray or bowl and  garnish with the onions, fruit and nuts. I place eggs on top and finally add coriander.

And heres how it looks like ;)

BIRYANI IS BEST SERVED WITH COLD RAITA (YOGHURT, CUCUMBER, TOMATO, ONIONS AND CORIANDER SALAD)

Hope you all will enjoy with your families, Eid Mubarik! :)

Easy Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I made this using a vanilla cake mix because there are days when you want to eat something fancy but do not feel like measuring and sifting, and it was exactly a day like that ;) . So I thought I'd share this with you guys.

Easy Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 vanilla cake mix (plus eggs and oil as per the box)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1 can pineapple slices drained (keep the syrup aside to use instead of water for the cake mix)

cherries (if you dont have thats fine coz it just gives a bit of color and a fancy touch)

How to:

Preheat oven and grease pan as per instructions on cake mix

Mix the cake better substituting water with the sugar syrup from the pineapple

Heat sugar and water in cake pan over the stove just like how you make the caramel for puddings.

When sugar syrup is a bit browned take off stove and arrange pineapple slices on it. If you have cherries insert them in the middle of the pinepple slices.

Bake as per cake mix and cool.

Flip the cake on the serving plate and voila! A fancy dessert for a lazy day.

Happy tea time guys :)

Nutella Brownies

I was browsing for some easy nutella brownies and a super easy recipe popped up which I just had to try. The only ingredients needed were eggs and nutella! How easy could this get.

It came out all chocolaty and delicious. If you have a jar of nutella and some eggs try this immediately :)

2 Ingredient Nutella Brownies Recipe

Ingredients

4 large eggs
1 cup nutella


How to:

Line a small cake tray (small because if you use a large tray the brownies will end up too thin) with baking paper and preheat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

Crack eggs into a bowl and mix with an electric mixer (easier but if you dont have you can always use hand power ;) ) until eggs become frothy and fluff upto almost double the size.

Warm nutella in microwave or double boil method (put the nutella in a small metal bowl and heat in a saucepan with hot water on the stove).

Pour warm nutella into the egg mixture and mix well until thoroughly combined.

Pour batter onto tray and bake for about 30 minutes or until when toothpick comes clean when inserted into brownies.

Take out from oven and let it cool. Cut into bars and start eating

You can eat it straightaway, sprinkle powdered sugar on top or top with icecream. The possibilities are endless :)