Roasted Chicken with Rosemary

Usually on Sundays, we sometimes do chicken roast. This recipe is very simple to assemble. I have personally liked rosemary herb for its unique smell and its addition, brings a nice twist to our mundane Sunday roast. I have also roasted some asparagus, potatoes, an onion and garlic as sides with it.

Now to the recipe

Roasted Chicken with Rosemary

Recipe requirements

1 medium size whole chicken

For the marination

2 tsp of red pepper powder

2 tsp of coriander powder

1 tsp of garam masala powder

3-4 stems rosemary

2 tbs of cooking oil

Salt as per taste

Method

• Wash the chicken well in lukewarm water.
• Now make the marinating powder
• Mix in coriander+red pepper +garam masala powder +salt as per taste.
• Now generously rub it all over the chicken and also to inside of chicken.
• Keep refrigerated for about 1-2 hrs for marination. This way chicken absorbs the flavour most and turns out tenderer.
• Preheat oven at 180 deg Celsius.
• Line a roasting tray with foil (if available) and then place the chicken over it.Arrange rosemary herb twigs nicely over it and also inside the chicken.
• Place in the second shelf of the oven.
• Bake it for 1 hr without skin and if the chicken has skin, then add in 4-5 mints more.
• Check for your make of oven and check about proper temperature for roasting. Half way through, take out chicken and bast/brush it with some oil.
• Roast chicken for about 1hr or till chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

Happy Cooking Friends

Easy Vegetarian Fusilli Pasta with Spinach

Spring season brings new and fresh green leaves on trees and with that a new phase of life starts on mother earth. This also marks our Bengali new year in April. Although, bit late but anyways, it’s good to be late than never. Let me wish everyone a ‘Shobho Naba Borsho’. May you all have a great year ahead filled with delicious food, good health and happiness.

We are having school holidays over here with Good Friday and Easter approaching soon. Let me also wish everyone have a ‘Good Friday’ and a very ‘Happy Easter’ in advance also.

This fusilli pasta recipe with baby spinach is a quick way of fixing dinner, in case you are running out of time. I have liked fusilli pasta because of its shape, bit of twist to a normal pasta and the flavours are bursting and more prominent.

Now to the recipe

Easy Vegetarian Fusilli pasta with spinach 

Recipe requirements

• 400 Gms of fusilli pasta
• Baby spinach leaves
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tomato
•  2-3 tbs of pasta sauce
• ¼ cup of mascarpone cheese
• Salt as per taste
• Black pepper as per taste
• 3-4 tbs of cooking oil
• some paneer cubes

Method

• Take a large pot with ample water. Add in salt and 1tbs of cooking oil to it. Let it come to one boil. Add in dried fusilli and cook al dente (cooked but still firm).This may take about 7-10 mints of time depending on the cooking flame.
• In a separate fry pan, big enough to hold all the pasta and with vegetables. Add in rest of cooking oil and then add baby spinach, chopped onions and tomato. Add in pasta sauce.
• Stir/fry all for about 4-5 mints. Add in cooked fusilli with the cooking water. Add in mascarpone cheese .Mix all the ingredients very well and coat well with sauce. Adjust salt and seasonings- black pepper etc.
• Sprinkle some chilli flakes and enjoy. I have added some paneer cubes as well.

Happy Cooking Friends

Kiwi Salsa Recipe

I had a batch of kiwis lying in my fruit basket and I wanted to utilize in a different way. Some would suggest a kiwi smoothie, which I find somewhat mundane. I needed to pair things up with kiwi as their tangy and juicy taste goes well in an appetizer like a salsa. This Kiwi salsa is the outcome of that quest. I would say it is a keeper recipe. You can have it with loads of tortilla chips  if you are a fan of having less cheesy version of Mexican food or as side with main course meal. 

I had served it with grilled salmon and asparagus. The recipe was well received by my folks.

I have stopped using my DSLR camera and now rely only on mobile camera for blog pictures. The pictures I believe has come out nice as well, at least it serves the purpose.

Now to the tangy recipe of Kiwi salsa

Kiwi Salsa Recipe

Recipe requirements

• 4 kiwis
• 1 medium size white onion
• Half cucumber approx 1 cup 
• Half large red bell pepper approx 1/2 cup 
•  ½ cup of chopped coriander leaves

 Seasoning

• Salt as per taste
• ½ tsp of red chilli pepper powder
• 1 tsp of cumin powder
•  ½ tsp of freshly grounded black pepper powder
•  2-3 tsp of olive oil

Method

• Cut and chop all – Kiwi, onions, cucumber, coriander leaves and red bell pepper into small pieces.
• In a big salad bowl mix in all the chopped kiwi, onion, cucumber and red bell pepper with seasonings – cumin powder, red chilli powder and freshly grounded black pepper powder.
• Refrigerate for about 2-3 hrs before serving.
• Just when you are about to serve, add in salt as per taste and olive oil , toss well.. Enjoy tangy Kiwi salsa.

Happy Cooking Friends

A simple Prawn Stir-fry recipe

We have been witnessing spring blossoms in every corner of our neighbourhood. The trees are now laden with new green leaves and colourful blossoms. Spring is a very jovial season where everything gets a new décor and a new life. We have been blessed with sunshine past couple of days as well and that makes outdoor activities even more interesting, unlike today which is very British weather, rainy and grey. I am now confined to home and thought let me utilize my time making a quick recipe post.

I have been wanting to make prawn for a long time and this simple yet such a flavourful recipe comes in handy. You have to be little patient with cleaning and de-vein prawns, but once you are done with it, you can make flavourful stir/fry recipe in jiffy.

Any way if you like bit of planning your meals for a week or are running out of time, you can pre clean and marinate the prawns and keep it in freezer in batches and use them as you have need for that.

Now to the recipe

Prawn stir/fry recipe

Recipe requirements

• 8-10 prawns
• 1 and ½ tsp of red pepper powder
• ½ tsp of turmeric powder
• ½ tsp of cumin powder
• 1 tsp of mustard seeds
•  1-2  dry red pepper
• 1 tsp of salt or as per taste
• 3-4 tbs of mustard oil/cooking oil
• Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method

• Clean, devein and deshell prawns.
• Marinate them in turmeric powder, cumin powder, salt and red pepper powder. Leave it aside for half an hour.
• Heat up a fry pan, add in mustard oil. Add in mustard seeds and dry red pepper. Let it splutter a bit.
• Add in marinated prawns and stir/fry them for about 7-8 mints at medium high flame.
• Take them out and serve with warm cooked rice. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Happy Cooking Friends

Sheermal Bread Recipe

I have made these sheermal bread long time back. I almost forgot that I also had taken pictures for blogging as well, until I started clearing my laptop clutter and discarding some old pictures, specifically food related pictures. These popped up in my gallery like hidden gems. I tried to recall when did I make them, but couldn’t recall much except it was on a cold afternoon day. I happened to check the dates and it was almost 2-3 years ago, when we were still in UK. That old, Duh!! I know.

I didn’t post the recipe at that time either. I had roughly written recipe notes somewhere in my word doc as well. Now after all these time, finally sheermal recipe is now being talked about here. I always liked the sweet version of naan more, I mean sheermal more, as being a Bengali, we like everything which is sweet.

This recipe is apt balanced, not way too much sweet and not bland as well for us. This satisfied our cravings for sheermal bread at that time. Although I made it for lunch, actually now I recall it was late breakfast for us, more of a brunch time when we had devoured these beauties. We had it with chicken keema. That was a really very satisfying meal on a cold afternoon day. When eating sheermal, please don’t count your calories, just enjoy the flavours.

Now to the recipe

Sheermal Bread Recipe

 For the Bread

• 3 heaped cups of flour/maida
• 2 tsp of active dry yeast
•  2-3 tbs of oil/desi ghee
• 3 tbs of caster sugar
• 1 egg
•  ½ cup of Milk to knead the dough

Saffron infused sugar syrup

•  2-3 generous pinch of Saffron strands
• 2-3 tbs of sugar
• ¼ cup of milk
•  3-4 tbs of desi ghee/butter for garnishing the bread

Method

• Heat up ½ cup of milk for kneading purpose into a lukewarm strength.
• Dissolve saffron in ¼ cup of lukewarm milk and add in caster sugar to the saffron milk. Let it dissolve properly.
• In a big mixing bowl, add in flour, active dry yeast, oil, caster sugar, egg and lukewarm milk. Knead well all till they start to collect well. The dough should be soft and can collect well.
• Leave it to rest for 3-4 hrs or the flour has risen well.
• Knead the dough again for about 5-8 mints and divide the dough into 8-10 small balls.
• Cover the divided dough and let it sit for about half an hour.
• Roll each small balls into rounds with a roller but with gentle hands. The edges ideally should be little thick.
• Brush some melted butter over it and make marks with a fork.
• Set the oven at 175 deg C.
• Line a baking tray with foil. Place 2-3 rounds neatly and bake it for about 8-10 mints each side or they turn out nice fluffy and brown. Half way through take out baking tray, flip the sides of the sheermal bread and again brush with melted butter and put it back into the oven.
• Take out after 8-10 mints and sprinkle saffron infused sugar syrup generously and serve with butter on top.
• You may add toasted sesame seeds and chopped pistachios and almonds as well. I have used some orange colour with saffron syrup to make it look more dramatic, but it’s not that much required, you can skip it altogether.

Delicious sheermal is ready.Happy Cooking Friends.