Chicken Lo Mein

by Deerga // June 24, 2015 // No Comments

Chicken Lo Mein is a Chinese noodles dish made with wheat flour noodles and chicken. Lo Mein is the Cantonese name for stirred noodles. Traditionally Lo Mein is a variation of another dish called the Wonton noodle soup. Lo Mein is a popular take-out in American Chinese restaurants. It is also sometimes called as Chow Mein but the preparation of this dish very different from that of Lo Mein since with Chow Mein, the noodles are made crispy by frying.

I love Chinese food but normally prefer fried rice and what not. I got hooked to noodles variety only recently. Like said in my earlier posts, I am always on the lookout for dishes from different cuisines which I can try in my kitchen. And now I had the opportunity to cook an authentic dish from Chinese cuisine. The Chicken Low Mein recipe I had given below is a very easy to make and the end result is totally worth the effort.

Chicken Lo Mein has a slight sweetness to it because of the brown sugar but also has spiciness as well at the same time. It is an apt dish to be served for both lunch and dinner. Try this popular Chinese dish in your home and let me know your experience 🙂

Chicken Lo Mein

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Chinese

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

For the sauce:

Sesame oil – 1 tbsp
Sriracha hot sauce – 1 tbsp
Garlic cloves, minced – 3 nos
Soy sauce – ¼ cup
Water – 2 tbsp
Brown sugar – 1 ½ tbsp
Cornstarch – 2 tbsp

For Chicken:

Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Broccoli, small – 1 no ( or 2 cups of florets)
Chicken thighs, cut to bite size pieces – 500 grams
For the Lo-Mein:
Lo Mein noodles – 4 oz
Olive oil - 2 tbsp
Unsalted butter - 1 tbsp
Eggs, large, lightly beaten - 2 nos
Ginger, minced - 1 tsp
Red chilli flakes, crushed - ½ tsp
Carrots, shredded - ½ cup
Snow peas - ½ cup
Garlic, minced - 3 cloves
Green onions, sliced thinly – 2 nos
Salt to taste

Instructions

Step 1:
In a small bowl combine and whisk together sesame oil, hot sauce, garlic, soy sauce, water, sugar, and cornstarch; set the sauce aside.
In a large bowl, add many ice cubes and prepare ice bath for broccoli. So that the broccoli retain its color after blanching.
Step 2:
Bring water in a sauce pan along with little salt to boil. Add the broccoli and blanch them for 4 minutes. Immediately transfer them to the ice bath to stop the cooking process.
Heat a large skillet with olive oil in medium high heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook until changes to white/brown color. Add the blanched broccoli, reduce the flame to medium and add the sauce. Stir to coat ingredients and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Transfer it to a bowl.
Step 3:
Meanwhile bring water in the sauce pan along with little salt to boil. Add the noodles and boil for 10 minutes. Simmer it and cook for another 15 minutes or until the noodles are well cooked. Make sure the noodles don’t stick before adding to the water. Drain the noodles and set aside.
Step 4:
Heat the large skillet and add butter in medium low flame. Add the minced ginger and sauté for few seconds or until raw smell disappears. Add the crushed pepper and cook for couple of seconds. Add in the eggs, stir gently and cook for about 3 minutes or until well done.
Sauté carrot and snow peas with very little olive oil in a small flat skillet. And add it to the eggs.
Add the chicken and broccoli to the eggs as well.
Finally add the drained noodles to the skillet, stir until everything is coated well with the sauce. Sprinkle with green onions and serve hot.

Notes

Soy sauce has a lot of sodium, so taste before you add any to the finished product.

Dal makhani

by Deerga // May 5, 2015 // No Comments

Dal Makhani is a popular north Indian dish that has its origin in Punjab. It literally means ‘buttery lentils’. It is supposed that the original Dal makhani recipe has only black gram lentil (urad) in it. Makhani means buttery and so it is butter and cream along with urad dal. As per Wikipedia, Dal Makhani became popular after the partition, thanks to the Punjabi diaspora. It is a typical punjabi dish that can be found in almost all Dhabas (roadside eateries, very popular in North India) and in Indian restaurants here in the US.

There are so many varieties of sauces like cashew, tomato, white sauce, curry sauce, rogan josh, buna, madrasi etc and Makhani is one among them. Through out my experience with cooking different dishes, I have noticed that most often cooking a recipe can be broadly defined as first preparing a sauce/gravy and then adding the main ingredient, the one that defines the dish, to it. This method of preparation of dishes is particularly useful in restaurants where a variety of sauces are prepared first and then different recipes are cooked using those sauces. And Dal Makhani is prepared the same way as well; you first prepare the Makhani and then add lentil (urad dal here) to it.

Dal Makhani is a very rich and flavorful dish. This is mainly because of the lentils which gives you a fullness when eaten due to the high protein content. Hence it is a healthy dish as well. Dal Makhani goes well with almost all entree items like rice, chappati, paratha, naan etc. Also, it is very easy to make. So without further delay, go prepare this easy and tasty punjabi dish in your kitchen and let me know your comments 🙂

Dal makhani

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Black gram dal – 1 cup
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 ¼ tbsp
Unsalted butter – 5 tbsp (120 gr)
Tomato, large, pureed – 2 ½ nos (pureed to 1 cup)
Fresh cream – 4 to 5 tbsp (250 gr)
Salt as required

Instructions

Soak dal in water for 8 hours or overnight.
Rub the dal using your two hands and filter the skins. Repeat this for 5 to 8 times until 70% of the skin is removed.
Add 3 cups of water and ½ tsp salt and pressure cook the dal for 5 whistles.
Transfer the dal into a thick bottomed non stick sauce pan and bring them to boil. Add ginger garlic paste, chilli powder and butter. Cook until the butter is melted, mixed and well blended.
Add in tomato puree and fresh cream. Mix well and add enough salt.
Bring the dal makhani to boil in a low to medium flame. Cook for around 20 to 25 minutes until a thin glaze is formed at the top.
Serve it hot with a dollop of butter on top. It goes excellent with naan, rotis and other Indian flat bread varieties.

To make tomato puree:

Heat a sauce pan with a tbsp of oil. Add in roughly chopped tomatoes and very little salt. Sauté until oil seperates.
Allow it to cool and make a thick puree adding very little water.

Notes

1.Amount of dal and tomato puree should be 1:1 ratio (equal).
2.Use non stick pan to make this dal makhani dish to avoid the dal sticking at the bottom.
3.could also add rajma and other kinds of dal to this dish. i have tried both and all tasted equally good.

Stuffed chicken breast with lemon butter sauce

by Deerga // February 21, 2015 // No Comments

Stuffed chicken breast is not my usual cup of milk (I hate tea :)). For a long time, I had wanted to cook something different than the run-of-mill cuisines like Indian or Chinese (they are the best though). After much deliberation I decided to make stuffed chicken breast with lemon butter sauce. I was hooked right away with this recipe as soon as I saw the lemon butter sauce.

Stuffed chicken breast is a healthy dish. You don’t use that much oil and the little that you use is olive oil. Also, you can customize this recipe with your own stuffing – can be an Indian stuffing made of potato and green peas, or stuffing made of nuts or your own stuffing recipe.

Stuffed chicken breast literally gets you stuffed 🙂 It is a rich and satisfying dish good for dinners. Try this wonderful, healthy dish in your home and let me know your thoughts.

Stuffed chicken breast with lemon butter sauce

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: American

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

To marinate:

Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Salt – a pinch
Chicken breast, - 2 pieces

For the stuffing:

Butter,unsalted – 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp (optional)
Onion, medium, finely chopped – 1 no
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Salt as required
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Biriyani masala powder – 1 tbsp (I used Sakthi brand)
Broccoli, blanched, finely chopped – ½ cup
Paneer, grated – 2 tbsp
Cashews, roughly chopped, roasted– 5 nos

To powder the chicken:

Cayenne pepper – 1 tbsp
Onion powder – 1 tbsp
Garlic powder – ½ tbsp
Black pepper powder – 1 tsp

Lemon butter sauce:

White cooking wine – ½ cup
Lemon juice – from 1 ½ lemon
Shallots, finely chopped – 1 tbsp
Garlic, finely chopped – 1 tbsp
Salt – ¼th tsp
Black pepper powder – 1 tsp
Worcestershire sauce – a dash
Hot pepper sauce – a dash
Fresh cream – ½ cup
Butter, unsalted – ½ stick
Parsley, finely chopped – 1 tbsp

For garnishing:

Parsley, finely chopped – ½ tbsp
Pistachio, finely chopped – 1 tbsp

Instructions

Step 1:

Start by slicing the chicken into two thinner slices each. Wrap the plastic wrap over the chicken breast, flatten the chicken using meat hammer, one at a time. Keep it to one side.

Step 2:

Marinate the chicken with the above given ingredients and refrigerate overnight.

Step 3:

Heat butter in a pan and add cumin seeds. When they start to splutter, add chopped onions and sauté until they turn brown. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté until the raw smell disappears. Add salt, coriander and biriyani masala powder. Give a quick stir. Add a tbsp of water at this stage to avoid the masalas from getting burnt. Add the blanched and finely chopped broccoli to the masalas and sauté well. Cook for a minute or two. Finally add grated paneer and fried cashews and mix well.

Step 4:

Repeat step 1 only if you want to flatten the chicken even more (completely optional).
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Dust the chicken with the above given seasonings on both sides.
Spoon some of the broccoli stuff in the corner.
Roll the chicken into a tight roll and secure it with some tooth picks or strings (To keep the chicken from unrolling).

Step 5:

Heat an iron skillet (Or any oven proof skillet) smearing some butter. Place the rolled chicken and cook for a minute until they change to white color, flipping in between. And then pop the pan in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes – Do not overcook the chicken breast as it tends to get harder when overcooked.

Step 6:

Heat a skillet until it gives smoke. Take out and add wine, lemon juice, garlic and shallots. Place it again on the burner and cook for a minute stirring or whisking continuously. Make sure to take the skillet away from the flame while adding wine since wine is combustible.
Add salt, pepper, and the sauces. Stir and cook for 3 minutes until the sauce comes to a syrupy consistency.
Finally add cream and butter. Stir well and cook for 2 minutes. Strain the sauce and garnish with parsley.
Drizzle the sauce on top of the sliced chicken breast and garnish with pistachios and parsley.

Notes

1.Make sure your lemon butter sauce is still warm while serving.
2.Do not overcook the chicken breast as it tends to get harder when overcooked.
3.Make sure to take the skillet away from the flame while adding wine for lemon butter sauce, because wine is combustible.