SHAHI MURG (CHICKEN IN YOGURT)

Naan is a favorite of my son and he prefers to eat them with chicken dish. Since I had a bowl of yogurt, so this is an appropriate gravy to cook with.

Perfect blend of spices, makes this dish scrumptious and creamy.  Had used ready made korma powder if not you can use a mixture of ground coriander and ground cumin. We need more gravy to dip so added a little bit of water at the time of cooking but this is not necessary if you prefer thicker one.

This goes well with capathi, naan, paratha or even rice.

SHAHI MURG (CHICKEN IN YOGURT)
Servings     :     4-6
Adapted from Hjh Suraya Bee

1 whole chicken, deskinned and cut into 8-10 pieces
1 TB garlic paste
1 TB ginger paste
1 TB course ground black pepper
1/2 C warm fresh milk
1/2 tsp saffron
500 ml yogurt
1/2 C coriander leaves, chopped
4 cardamoms
4 cloves
5 cm cinnamon
3 large onion chopped
1 TB korma curry spice
1 TB chili powder
2 pieces bay leaves
2 red chili coarsely sliced
2 green chili coarsely sliced
2 tomato quartered
1/4 C silvered almond, toasted
1/4 C raisin
salt to taste
4 TB ghee/ vegetable oil

METHOD

Marinade chicken with ginger garlic paste and black pepper for 20 minutes.

Infuse saffron in warm milk, put aside. Beat yogurt till smooth then combine chopped coriander leaves in it.

Heat the oil, saute cloves, cinnamon and cardamom till fragrant. Add in chopped onion, saute until light brown.

Add in korma spice, chili powder and bay leaves, saute until oil seeps.

Now add the chicken, stir to coat with spices evenly.

Add in yogurt mix, saffron infused milk, red/green chili and salt to taste.

Reduce flame, cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes, stir every now and then.

When the chicken is tender, add the tomato, silvered almond and raisin, stir well.

Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves at the time of serving.

Best served hot with any type of rice or bread.

CHOCOLATE CEREAL BISCUIT

Cereals are a  great ingredient to add in cookies and dessert bars. They add an interesting taste and also a bit of fiber in your diet.

If you have a large box of uneaten cereal, I recommend you to bake a small batch of cookies to test whether this is acceptable to your kid. Later on you can double or triple the recipe if your kid favored them.

Here is my basic recipe of Chocolate Cereal Biscuit  using nestum (breakfast cereal) but you can fiddle around with it to fit your own
taste.

GOLDEN PULL APART BUTTER BUN

                                                                    Before baking

                                                                   
There is nothing more satisfying  for me  than making a successful batch of bread. Once you start to get the feel of making bread, you are addicted.

If you are new to bread-making, this is really good recipe to start with. It produces beautiful and fluffy bread though it takes more than 3 hours to bake them.

If you want to use active dry yeast increase the amount  to 1 1/4 teaspoon and mix the yeast with 1/3 cup of warm water. Let it proof for 5-10 minutes before you add it to the flour.

RENDANG PADANG

Rendang is a dish using  chicken, beef, mutton or even seafood slow cooked with dried/fresh  chili, onion, ginger, galangal, fragrant leaves in coconut milk until the the liquid is dried up and the meat is tender. It is part of  essential meal for festive occasions in South East Asian countries.

There are many variations to cook this dish.  For spicy food lovers, this Rendang Padang uses  bird's eye chili (chili padi)  which can be varied according to your taste.  The slow cook process allows the meat to absorb all the spices and becomes soft. This also requires  frequent stirring so it does not stick to the bottom of the pan..

CHECKERBOARD COOKIES

I have decided to spend my afternoon making this Checkerboard Cookies. At first glance, I thought it will be complicated to prepare, the more different recipes found on the net  driving me more confused especially all those measurements.

This requires a little bit of extra effort to make these fanciful cookies but it is worthwhile.  Really enjoyed and pretty simple to bake them. The rectangle dough of plain and chocolate is cut into 2 then stack on top of each so you have 4 layers.  Now slice each log about  1/2 in thick  then stack them  alternately to obtain checkerboard pattern.

Checkerboard Cookies  is mildly sweetened with half a cup sugar but you can add more if you want it sweeter. Another tip is to place the dough into clear storage bag, roll out into rectangle about 7 x 9.5 in  for both plain and chocolate dough. After chilling, using a scissor,  cut open from the center of the bag. This way we need not use any flour and avoid sticking to your board. Line your board with plastic when you did the stacking job.