Mexican Chicken - Indianized

Original recipe as cooked in homes in Mexico does not use the traditional Indian red chilli powder, green chilli, coriander or mint leaves but only relies on black pepper, salt and cooking oil. For those who prefer Indian style preparation, I have tried to add few more ingredients to make it more palatable to the Indian taste buds.

The Recipe

Take Chicken legs, wash them well and marinate them with red chilli powder or green chilli paste plus ginger-garlic paste and keep aside for 2 hours. Then take potato and cut them into small cubes. Take coriander and mint leaves and cut them into fine pieces.

Take pressure cooker and place one layer of potato cubes and then one layer of marinated chicken legs and then add the cut mixture of coriander and mint leaves. Also add one part of the total salt to be used plus green chilli pieces. Then add 8 table spoons of cooking oil. Keep repeating the procedure till you have exhausted the potato and chicken quantity.

After that close the pressure cooker and let it cook for 15 mins or till you hear 3 whistles. Open and check. If chicken is still hard then let it cook for one more whistle duration.

Serve hot with Indian bread. (In the original Mexican Chicken preparation, the dish is cooked with black pepper, salt and oil. It is served with bakery bread and boiled vegetables which include French Beans, Green Peas & Green Onions)

An Important Note:
The total salt you are going to use for the quantity of chicken and potato you have should be divided into the number of layers you are going to have of potato cubes and chicken legs.

Also no water should be added for cooking. The preparation should only be cooked in oil.

What is Required and How much

Chicken Legs - 1 kg
Potato - 1 kg

Rest as per taste and requirement.

Cauliflower Milano

The Recipe

Take fresh, clean, big cauliflower. Cut into medium size pieces,wash and keep them in water for 15 minutes in order for the insects, if any, to come out. Take mint, coriander leaves, green chilli and grind them into fine paste. Marinate the cauliflower pieces with this paste, red chilli powder and salt to taste plus one & half tea spoon ginger-garlic paste. And keep it aside for 15 minutes.

Take Green Bell Pepper (shimla mirch) and cut it into fine pieces. Take potato, peel and cut them into french fries shape.

Take oil in the frying pan, heat it well and deep fry the marinated cauliflower pieces. Drain the oil and keep the fried pieces in a separate container. Add salt and red chilli powder to the cut pieces of potato and green bell pepper. Then fry them too in a semi-crispy way.

Take a separate vessel. Place one layer of the potato and green bell pepper mixture at the bottom, then one layer of cauliflower pieces and then another layer of potato and green bell pepper mixture and like this till both the quantity are exhausted. Cover the container and heat the preparation at low heat for 7 minutes.

Serve hot. It tastes better if eaten with Indian bread (roti)

Main Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1 kg or 2 pieces
Potato - 500 gms
Green Bell Pepper - 500 gms

The paste, salt and chilli powder as per the taste.

Aubergine (Brinjal) Halwa

Everyone has eaten Carrot Halwa but hardly anyone knows that an equally tasty sweet dish can be prepared by using brinjal as the main ingredient. Yes, it is tasty and mouth watering. Very easy to make too.

The Recipe

Take big and round brinjals. Peel off the skin and grate it till you reach the point where the seeds starts getting visible.

After you have peeled of the whole quantity, first fry the same in pure ghee with cardamom and cloves. This helps in killing off the odour of brinjal which many people do not like. Add milk and sugar and let it cook. Once the milk has dried, keep frying till you see the ghee coming out and no milk is visible.

An Important Note
If you grind almond, pistachio and cashew nuts into fine powder and add the same to the preparation while cooking it enhances the taste considerably.

The Quantity

1kg brinjal
2ltr milk

300gms sugar (basically as per your taste)

300gms ghee

2-3 pieces of cardamom and cloves

Dry fruits for garnishing