Chicken Pizza , Murgh Pizza

Sunday evenings are real tough time for me realizing that its ending and standing Next is the boring Monday morning . To overcome such heavy thoughts i usually rush to my kitchen to prepare an amazing dinner that would leave me with a good feeling until next day. What could be a better idea of ending your weekend eating finger licking and mouth watering Chicken pizza. Its extremely easy to prepare and tastes like heaven. Thanks to my hubby because without him saying" Nah!!! " for dinner at some utterly boring pizza restaurant that night i would have never discovered this Dish.

Here's sharing you the Recipe:

Serves- 3 Medium size Pizza

Preparation- 30 minutes

Cooking time- 3 to 5 minutes for each Pizza

Level of difficulty- Easy

Ingredients:

For the pizza base

• All purpose flour or pizza flour- 300gms. 
• Olive oil- 2 Tbsp
• Salt- 1 tsp
• sugar- 1 Tsp
• Fresh yeast or any yeast- 1 to 2 Tsp
• Luke warm water- 200 ml

For the pizza sauce

• Chicken minced- 300 gms
• Garlic cloves- 10 
• Onion- 1 large size, chopped
• Tomato puree- 100gms
• Tomato - 4 medium size , chopped
• Freshly crushed pepper and oregano
• Paprika powder- 1 Tsp
• Curry powder- 1Tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• Olive oil- 2Tbsp
• Mozerrela cheese

Preparation:

Pizza base preparation

1. Bring together flour, salt, sugar, oil and fresh yeast or(in case you are using granules yeast, place them in the luke warm water and let them dissolve, use the same water to knead the dough).
2. Now with the help of Luke warm water knead the dough.
3. cover the dough with a wet towel and let this dough rise for 15 minutes.

Pizza sauce preparation

1. Take 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a pan place the minced garlic. Now turn on the heat , once the garlic starts turning translucent add the onions and fry until translucent.
2. Now add the chicken and salt fry until chicken is cooked. Add the curry powder, tomato puree and tomatoes. Fry until tomatoes are cooked.
3. Once done adjust salt. Add the oregano and paprika give it a quick stir and turn off the heat.

Your Pizza sauce is ready now.

Pizza preparation

1. By this time your pizza dough would be ready. Knock the dough and then take handfull of it. Dust it with flour and roll it flat in round shape. Quickly run a fork through out,  making some marks here and there over the surface of the pizza base.
2. Heat a tawa or pan, Place the base and wait until just little brown spot hits one side, flip and just heat the other side for 10 seconds. Take out of the pan.
3. Preheat the oven at 220C and turn on the broilers or the grills.
4. Grease each pizza base with olive oil before applying the pizza sauce.
5. Place the mozerella cheese all over the sauce.
6. Grease the baking tray with some olive oil and place the pizza on them
7. Bake the pizza until the cheese are done. Take out and season with some pizza spices. 

Serve hot and enjoy finger licking Chicken Pizza. Yummy yum yum.

Happy cooking

By- Sushmita pandit

I have customized this Recipe. Original Recipe by Sanjeev Kapoor's cook book.

Spinach Mushroom Potato Cheese Sandwich

Health is wealth, so to preserve this wealth we should try to eat food as healthy as possible. I had to come up with a recipe that would be tasty, filling as well as nutritious. I brought together spinach, mushroom and boiled potatoes to prepare the filling for the sandwiches. I have always liked the Potato tikka sandwiches but this time i wished something more than Potato.

Here is the Recipe:
This will serve - 4
Preparation - 10 minutes
Cooking - 2 minutes
Level of difficulty- Easy

Ingredients:

• Potato- 2 large boiled
• Spinach- Bunch of fresh leaves, chopped
• Mushroom-5 large, chopped
• Onion- 1
• Salt
• Pepper powder- 1 Tsp
• Whole wheat Bread slices- 8
• Cheese slices- 4
• Butter
• Oil

Preparation:

• In a skillet heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil.
• Add in the mushroom and fry for two minutes.
• Add the spinach, sprinkle salt to taste, cover and let it cook for 2 mintes in medium heat.
• After 2 minutes, sprinkle pepper powder. Turn off the heat.
• Now add these vegetables to the boiled potatoes, mash and mix everything all together.
• Grease the bread slices with butter or margarine
• Sandwich the vegetable mix and a cheese slice between two slices of bread.
• Place in a sandwich maker for minute or 2.

Your Spinach mushroom potato sandwich is ready to be served, Serve it hot with Ketchup or Mayonnaise.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking.

By- Sushmita Pandit.

Dal and Vegetable Soup(Lentil and vegetable soup)

Dal and Vegetable Soup(Lentil and vegetable soup) Dal soup is an excellent appetizer. Dal or lentil are rich source of protein. These are said to be beneficial for women specially lactating mothers and young females.  There are variety of Lentils available in the market. For this soup i chose arhar dal(Tur dal)(split pigeon peas) and masoor Dal. They help in making thick soup. Apart from lentils i have added carrot and tomatoes. Carrot is another power source of carbohydrates and vitamin. So all together this is highly nutritious, tasty soup and easy in preparation.

Serves: 4 people
Preparation:5 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes
Level of difficulty- easy

Ingredients:

• Arhar dal- 100gms
• Masoor dal- 100gms
• Carrot- 2
• Tomato- 5 large size
• Onion- 1 small size
• Garlic cloves- 5 to 6 large cloves
• Green Chili- Depending on taste
• Salt as per taste
• Pepper powder or Freshly crushed pepper
•  Corn flour- 1 Tbsp
• Butter- 1 Tbsp
• Lemon juice- 1 Tbsp

Preparation:

• In a pressure cooker pan or in a boiling pot bring together everything except corn flour and butter.
• Add in 800ml of water and let it boil for 20 minutes in boiling pot and in pressure cooker wait for  4 whistle.
• After everything gets boiled let it cool for 5 minutes.
• Pour everything in a blender and blend into a fine paste.
• Heat 1tbsp of butter in a pan and fry the corn flour until its colour turns slight yellow.
• Add the pureed soup. Adjust the thickness of the soup by adding water.    

Your soup is absolutely ready to be served. Sprinkle lemon juice and serve it hot with Bread crumbs.

Enjoy and Happy cooking :-)

By Sushmita Pandit.

Vegetable Dalia Khichri (Vegetable Wheat Rice Khichri)

Dalia or Wheat rice are extremely light and highly nutritious . Addition of vegetable makes them super nutritious. Khichri means mixture of lentil , rice and vegetables. These are said to be easily digestable. My son , husband and Father-in-law love this dish. You can bring in any number of vegetable to this dish, no matter what it always taste great.

This Recipe will serve -4

Preparation- 10 minutes

Cooking- 5 minutes to 30 minutes.

Level of difficulty- easy

Ingredients:

• Dalia/ Wheat rice/ weizengrütze fein -200gms
• Lentil- 200gms
• Carrot- 1, chopped
• Zuchini- 1, chopped
• Cauliflower- 2 florets
• Potato- 2, chopped
• Salt
• Butter- 1 Tbsp
• Cumin seed- 1 Tsp
• Turmeric- 1 Tsp(optional)
• Tomato- 1 large, chopped
• Water- 600-800 ml of water

Preparation:

• In a pressure cooker pan, heat butter, add the cumin seed and let it crackle.
• Add in the wheat rice, fry until colour changes to little whitish.
• Now drop all the vegetables and washed lentil.
• Add water such that you cover 2/3rd of the vegetable layer.
• Season with salt and turmeric.
• Cover the pressure cooker and in low heat wait for three whistles.
• Turn off the heat and let the cooker cool up for 5 minutes.

Your Vegetable Dalia Khichri is absolutely ready to be Serve.

Serve hot with Papad ,Chips ,curd or pickle.

To cook without pressure cooker, after step 5 , cover the pan with a heavy lid and cook for 20 to 30 minutes until lentils are done.

Enjoy.

By- Sushmita Pandit

Morning cake, The Tutti Fruitti Cake

At times am extremely lazy in the morning and often end up skipping my breakfast. Sometimes i even do not fill like boiling milk or egg , these are times when i just want to relax and would not leave my couch at any cost. For such occasion i crave for a slice of cake. Oh gosh! i love cake and nothing can give a better start to a lazy morning than a fruit cake. Further, this cake always has a better chance to switch your lazy overly relaxed morning into so called Yactive Day!!!.

In India i always used to have the Packed cake, like Britania Marie Cake which came into variety of flavors. Since the time i left India i have been missing my type of Cake :-( Until recently when i discovered that i can bake one myself. :-) Tidddinggg . 

I have baked a large cake to keep a check on my breakfast.I just do not want it to go void any more. Here's sharing you the recipe of the Tutty fruity cake.

Yield - Cake of 2 Pound or more
Preparation- 30 minutes
Cooking time- 20 to 25 minutes.
Level of difficulty- Medium

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour- 225 gms
• Sugar- 250 gms
• Butter- 250 gms
• Eggs- 5
• Vanilla essence- 2 Tsp
• Baking powder- 1 Tsp
• Baking soda- 1 Tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Tutty fruity- 1/2 cup

Preparation:

• Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda.
• In a mixing bowl, bring together butter and sugar, whip until a smooth paste appears.
• Add eggs one by one and whip the mixture with each addition.
• Add the vanilla essence and salt.
• Now incorporate the flour little by little in the batter and blend until a smooth dough is formed.
• If you find your dough to be too tight loosen it by adding 1 to 2 tablespoon of milk in it.
• Add half the amount of tuty fruity in the batter. Give it a fold once.

Preheat your oven  at 180 Degree

Line your baking tray with parchment paper or butter paper

Fill the baking tray only to 2/3rd of its height. You can transfer the rest of the batter into another baking tray. On the top of the Batter sprinkle the remaining tutty fruity.

Now bake your cake at 160 degree C for 20 to 25 minutes. After 20 minutes of Baking you can check your cake if it is done by inserting a tooth pick, if it comes out clean, your cake is ready. Take out and let it cool on the wire racks.

Slice and enjoy the tuty fruity Cake. :-)

Inspired from the Recipe of Sanjeev Kapoor khana khazana cook books.

By- Sushmita Pandit

Paneer matar Makhni, Paneer matar Butter Masala, Cottage cheese Butter curry

My mother is a great fan of Paneer dishes , reason being she is a complete vegetarian . By saying so, i mean she never use onion and garlic in her food. When she is bored of vegetables, lentils and chickpea's she loves to have Paneer. My mum prepare this one curry since my childhood "The paneer aalu masala"(Cottage cheese potato curry). I have always loved that dish, but could never cook it the way she did. So this paneer recipe is dedicated to my mother who is strong, lovely and extremely beautiful.

Paneer Matar Makhni/Paneer matar Butter Masala

This recipe will serve- 4 people
Preparation- 5 Minutes
Cooking- 15 to 20 Minutes
Level of difficulty- Easy

Ingredients:

• Paneer or Cottage cheese or Tofu- 200 gms
• Pea's -200gms
• Tomato- 4 medium size
• Ginger- 2 inch, sliced 
• chilli- 2 Optional
• Cumin seed- 1 Tsp
• Coriander Powder- 1.5 Tbsp
• Cinnamom powder or garam masala powder- 1 Tsp
• Cream- 200 ml
• All purpose flour- 1 Tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• Butter- 100gms
• Oil- 1 Tbsp

Preparation:

Paneer -

• Cut cubes out of the paneer, dust them with all purpose flour and salt.
• Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a kadai or skillet.
• Now carefully add these paneer cubes in the skillet. Flip once until each side of the paneer is light golden brown in color. Take them out in a plate.

Fried Paneer

Tomato ginger chilli paste-

• Bring together tomato , ginger and chilies in a food processor or Mixer grinder. Grind them to a fine paste.

Method of cooking:

• Use the same skillet in which we fried the paneer cubes.
• Add 50 gms of butter and let it melt.(To avoid browning of butter Add 1tsp of oil)
• Add the cumin seed and let them crackle.
• Once the cumin seed crackle add in the tomato paste and coriander powder, season with salt, cover and let it cook for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Once you see that the color of the tomato paste has browned a little add in the peas. season peas with salt cover and cook for 2 minutes. Stir Occasionally.
• After two minutes add the cream and let it come to boil
• Once it comes to boil add the fried paneer cubes. Sprinkle the garam masala and cook for 1/2 minute. Turn off the heat add the remaining butter.

Your Panner pea's butter masala is now ready to be served. Serve it hot with any bread or rice.

Enjoy and Happy cooking :-)

By- Sushmita Pandit.

Masala Nan, Nan stuffed bread, Tandoori Nan

I have always loved masala nan. I almost like all the dishes that are cooked in Tandoor. While mentioning tandoor i feel like little talking about it. Traditional Tandoor is a mud packed oven, which is quite economical and extremely environment friendly since it is made up of pure clay or mud without the addition of any minerals. It is also not put up into furnace before people start using it. It is simply sundried before it is brought in use. And with the help of tandoor some amazing dishes are prepared. To mention a few namely, tandoori roti, tandoori chicken, tandoori gosht and the list continues.
But here i have prepared Nan by using the science of Tandoor in gas stove  and oven. The results are no less brighter than the Tandoori Nan . I got excellent nan by this process and therefore i would love to share this recipe with you.

This recipe will serve- 4 people(12 medium size nan)
Preparation- 45 minutes to 3 hours
Cooking - 2 to 3 minutes for each nan
Level of difficulty- medium

Ingredients:

For Dough 

• All purpose flour- 500 Gms
• Olive oil- 2 Tbsp
• Salt -1 Tsp
• Sugar- 1 Tsp
• Yeast- 1/2 of fresh block or 1.5 Tsp of instant yeast powder or granules
• Yogurt- 2 Tbsp
• Luke warm water- 130 ml

For the filling

• Potato- 4 large size boiled
• Onion- 1, finely chopped
• Curry leaves- 4 to 5 (optional) or any herb of your choice.
• Mustard seed or cumin seed- 1 Tsp
• Butter- 1 Tbsp
• Chili optional
• Turmeric powder- 1/2 Tsp
• Salt as per taste
• Butter for greasing nan

Preparation:

Dough preparation

• Bring together all the ingredients except luke warm water and then by adding little luke warm water time to time prepare a soft dough. Cover this dough with wet cloth and leave it aside for minimum 45 minutes to 3 hours.

Nan dough after 1 hour of kneading.

Masala Preparation or Filling Preparation

• Heat 1 Tbsp of Ghee or Butter in a skillet, add the seeds and let them crackle. 
• Add the turmeric powder and fry a little .
• Now add the curry leaves and then the onion. 
• Season with salt and fry until onion is translucent. 
• Now pour this whole preparation over the boiled potatoes. Now mash the potato. Your filling is ready.

Masala or potato filling

Nan preparation and baking 

• Fold the dough after the given time. Take 2 inch size ball from the dough.

1 inch size ball

• Dust it with flour.

Ball pressed between palms and then dusted with flour

• Fill in with the masala.

• Roll it flat, prefarably in oblong shape
• Super heat Tawa or frying pan. 
• Grease the flattened nan with water on both side.
• Place this greased nan on the super hot tawa. watch it rise after 30 seconds, Flip it. wait for another 30 second.

Nan on super hot pan, flipped once

• Now place a pizza pan inside the oven and turn on the broiler in the oven.
• Transfer the nan from pan to Pizza pan. Broil for 30 seconds, flip onto other side, broil for another 30 seconds. Take out and grease with butter.

Nan broiling in oven

Nan broiling in oven flipped onto other side.

or

After step 4

(if you have pizza stone heat it inside the oven and straight away place the nan on your pizza stone. Flip onto other side once you see the nan has risen up and allow it to brown on the other side too. Once it is brown grease it with Butter and enjoy)

Repeat the process until you get desired number of Nan's.

This is how we make nan by replicating the mechanism of Tandoor.

Enjoy your masala nan with Mutton Rogan gosht or any curry of your choice.

Ready to east nan, Greased with butter 

Happy cooking.

Don't forget to comment, because your words are inspiration to me and keeps me going. Thanks :-)

By- Sushmita Pandit

Mutton Rogan Josh Curry(Lamb Curry)

After tasting this dish several times i had to take up the challenge to cook it up all by myself. And to my surprise i did it. This Dish came out to be absolutely wonderful Lamb curry. I prepared it with Minimal use of spices thereby keeping intact Lamb's own flavour. One Challenge was to prepare it without the use of Pressure cooker, since i like meat on my plate to be buttery and not chewy. I cooked it slowly on the skillet and i reached to a point between chewy and buttery. Anyways i loved the gravy as well. I wish to prepare this dish Back home in India in my village and serve it to all my family members.

This recipe will serve- 4
Preparation- 5 to 10 minutes
Cooking time- 45 minutes.
Level of difficulty- Easy

Ingredients:

• Lamb or mutton- 500 gms
• Onion-400gms
• Ginger garlic paste- 1 Tbsp
• Salt as per taste
• Red chilli powder or Paprika- 1 Tbsp
• Green Chillies-2(optional)
• Curd- 1 Tbsp
• Coriander leaves for Garnishing
• Oil for cooking
• Salt as  per taste
• Water- 1 liter

Following Whole spices are required

• Cinnamon stick-1
• Pepper con- 4
• Cardamom brown or normal- 1 to 2
• Cloves- 3 to 4

Roasted masala and then powdered 1tsp (optional) This can be prepared in following manner-

• Coriander seeds- 1 Tbsp
• Cumin seeds- 1/2 Tbsp
• Pepper cons- 4
• Red dry chilli-1 to 2

Roast all the above and grind it into a powder.

Preparation:

• Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a Pan.
• Add the whole spices and wait until you can smell some aroma out of them.
• Add green chillies and onion. Season onion with salt.
• Saute until onion becomes golden brown.
• Add the ginger garlic paste saute for 1 minute.
• Now add the washed mutton or lamb. Carefully season mutton with salt.
• Give it a qick mix and add around 500 to 600 ml of water . Cover the pan and in medium heat let this simmer for 25 minutes.
• After 25 minutes add the Roasted masala powder, Yoghurt and paprika powder.
• Add 200 - 300 ml of water. Cover and let it simmer for another 20 minutes until your lamb is cooked as you desire chewy or buttery.

After this your mutton Rogan josh is absolutely ready to be served. Garnish it with coriander leaves and serve it hot with Nan , rice or Chapati.

Enjoy and happy Cooking ...

By- Sushmita pandit.

Mushroom and Pea's Curry(cooked with just two spices)

I have always been hunting for quick easy and delicious curry recipe. And my search ended with this curry which is so easy in preparation and tastes awesome.

This recipe serves- 4
Preparation time- 5 minutes
Cooking time - 15 minutes
Level of difficulty- low, Easy

Ingredients:
For making mushroom pea curry we need

• Mushroom- 250 gms washed, dried and then quartered
• Peas- 1 Cup
• Whipping cream - 200ml
• Cinnamon powder- 1 tsp or garam masala- 1 tsp
• Curry powder-1 tsp ,it is optional
• Salt as per taste and oil for cooking.
• Turmeric powder- 1 Tsp
• Coriander Powder- 1 Tbsp
• Cumin seed- 1 Tsp
• Kasoori methi leaves
• Tomato and ginger paste. For preparing this paste: take three to four  small size tomatoes and chop them. Take 1 inch of ginger chop it well too. Adding green chilies is optional. Now make a paste out of these using a blender , mixer or a food processor.

Mushroom Peas curry

Method of Preparation

Step 1
Heat two table spoon of oil in a pan.
Once the oil is hot add cumin seed, once it starts crackling add the turmeric powder,
fry for 10 seconds and then add the tomato paste.

Step 2
To this tomato paste add the coriander powder, garam masala powder and the curry powder.
Fry these spices until the all the moisture from tomato is absorbed and the colour of the masala turns little brown.You will also find that the oil has got separated from the masala or spices which indicates masala is ready.

step 3
To this masala add the green peas, season the peas with salt. Give it a stir and then cover and cook for two minutes. keep stirring in between to avoid burning of peas and masala.

step 4
After two minutes add the whipping cream and let it come to boil, once it comes to boil add the mushroom.
Season mushroom with salt. be careful while adding salt because foe peas we have already added the salt.
Sprinkle little obit of garam masala powder.
Add some crushed Kasuri methi to this.

Step 5
Cover the pan, lower the heat and let the curry simmer for 2 minutes.
Your mushroom pea's curry is absoluetly ready for taste after two minutes.

Serve it hot with nan, chapati or rice.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking

By- Sushmita Pandit

Macaroni Cheese Au-Gratin

Macaroni Cheese Au Gratin

Am fond of macaroni. The first time i tasted the spicy macaroni prepared by my friend. It was awesome  What i liked about it ,is its simplicity, the ease with which it easily gets blended with anything.
I had been preparing the masala macaroni for long, but it was only this year i learnt how to do it "Au-Gratin".  I loved the cheese and the bechamel sauce combination. These casserole recipe is quite filling.

This recipe will serve- 4
Preparation time- 10 minutes
Cooking time- 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• Macaroni- 250 gms(Boil until al-dante )
• Oil
• Salt

Bechamal sauce

• Cheese- 100 gms(combination of whatever variety you like)
• All purpose flour- 1 Tbsp
• Butter- 1 Tbsp
• Salt- as per taste
• Paprika powder- 1 Tsp
• Pepper- Freshly crushed- 1 Tsp
• Milk- 300 ml

For Au-Gratin

• Cheese- 100gms
• Herbs of your choice
• Cherry Tomato-4 (optional)

Method of Preaparation

• Boil 1 ltr of water in a pan and place Macaroni with little salt and oil. Boil until al dante.
• For preparing Bechamal Sauce Heat butter in a pan, Add the flour and fry until slight brown in colour. To this add salt , Paprika and Pepper. Now add the milk and let it come to boil. Once it comes to boil add 100gms of cheese. Stir until cheese melts and gets blended well in the milk. Turn off the heat. Your Bechamal sauce is ready.
• Preheat the oven at 220F for 5 minutes.
• Quickly Layer the baking  tray with a layer of macaroni, Pour in half of the Bechamal sauce. Layer out rest of the macaroni and again pour the rest of the bechamal sauce. Now at the top, layer it with rest of the cheese and tomato. Sprinkle herbs of your choice.
• Now at the bottom most area of your oven place the tray and bake it at 220F for 10 minutes. After that for 5 minutes grill it until you see a golden crust at the top of your baking tray.
• Take out of oven and serve it hot.  

Your Mac cheese is absoultely ready to be served. Enjoy :-) Happy Cooking.

By -Sushmita Pandit.

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