Paal Payasam

This is an all time favourite of my lil one. He sometimes ask me whether I will make some surprise for him when gets back from school. And then he asks would that be "White Payasam". That is the surprise he likes & wants me to make :-) So white payasam is something I make often at home. So when I decided to start blogging again (atleat try starting again), I thought I would start with a dessert.

You will need the below ingredients to make Paal Payasam:

Broken Rice        - 1/2 cup
Milk                    - 4 cup
Condensed Milk  - 200gm (around 1/2 a tin)
Sugar                  - 1/4 cup
Ghee                   - 1 tbsp
Cashew Nuts      - a handful
Raisins                - a handful

1. Pressure cook rice with 2 cup milk, Sugar and wait for one whistle. You could cook rice without the cooker as well.
2. Add the rest of the milk and Condensed milk and keep stiring. Bring it to a boil and turn off the stove.
3. In another pan, heat ghee and fry raisins and cashews in it.
4. Garnish the payasam with this fried nuts and raisins.

And here is the end result:

If the payasam becomes too thick once it cools, add little more milk. It could be eaten cold or hot. I like it cold and my opinion is it taste better that way.
I hope I could post more of my experiments here and that I do not get into a hibernation mode again.

Mixed Fruit Milk Shake

Always having milk is no fun... Kids (at least my son) gets bored of drinking milk every once in a while. That is when I started trying to flavor milk. While shopping at Costco, I happened to see this Frozen Mixed Fruits (from Spectrum Blend brand) that had Peach, Strawberry, White Peach, Pineapple, Honeydew Melon and Blueberries. I took it thinking about making a fruit salad, then thought why not blend it into a Milk Shake...

I took a handful of fruits from the frozen packet (tried to pick at least one piece of each fruit), a scoop of Vanilla Ice-cream, a cup of milk and a table spoon of sugar (add this depending on how sweet you want). Blended it all together in a blender and poured it into a wine glass.

My son enjoyed every bit of it. Infact, he loved the shake as well as drinking from a wine glass :-)

And this is my entry for the following (My first attempt at any food blog events):

Summer Splash! hosted by Aartee of From the kitchen

WYF - Juices and Ice cream event hosted by EC of Simple Indian food

Chicken Tikka Masala

I have been thinking of starting a food blog since long. As a teenager, I used to be an occasional visitor to the kitchen. Nothing changed much even after I got married, as I stayed with R's parents. And my work never gave me any spare time either. And of course, my MIL was as good a cook as my Mom.

But when we moved to the US of A we were on our own and had no option other than trying things out. There started my cooking experiments...

Pachakam.com was always a good reference for me. A few months back, one of my friends introduced me to the world of food blogs and I was (am) so fascinated. I have been trying out a lot of dishes from food blogs. Also was thinking about creating one to publish my experiments since then. Today I finally got out of all my laziness to create one - Thattukada

I hope I will have all the support from my fellow bloggers and non-bloggers which will make me go forward with this....

Here is my first Recipe - Chicken Tikka Masala... That is the one dish that we order whenever we go to an Indian Restaurant. It is so popular in Britain that CTM is claimed to be invented in UK. It is said to have a Punjabi origin. It is a popular dish throughout the world and my family's too...

Here goes the list of Ingredients & method of cooking for Chicken Sisha Masala (That is how my 2 year old son calls the curry):

For Chicken Tikka:

- Boneless, skinless Chicken Thighs – 1 lb (cut into small cubes)
- Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp
- Red Chili Powder - 1 tbsp
- Coriander Powder – 1 tsp
- Cumin Powder – 1 tsp Yogurt - 3/4 cup
- Tandoori Masala - 2 1/2 tsp (I used Shaan)
- Green Chilies (chopped) – 2 no:s (increase/decrease depending on spice levels)
- Ginger & Garlic Paste - 4 tsp
- Salt - to taste
- Oil - 1 tbsp

1. Make a paste of the all the above ingredients except Chicken.
2. Once the paste is well mixed, add Chicken cubes to it and marinate for a minimum of 2 hours in refrigerator. If you can keep it overnight, that would be great.
3. Preheat the Oven for 5 minutes in the Broil mode.
4. Arrange the marinated chicken in skewers and broil for 10 minutes.
5. Take the chicken out and spray some oil and turn it around.
6. Broil it for another 10 mnts.

Your tikkas are now ready for the masala! It is good without the masala also.

For Chicken Tikka Masala:

- Green chillies - 2-3 no:s (chopped)
- Ginger & Garlic Paste - 4 tsp
- Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp (use Kashmiri Chilli/Piriyan Chilli powder)
- Cloves - 5-7nos
- Cardamom - 4 nos
- Salt - to Taste
- Tomato puree - 12oz ( I got the canned ones from Wal-Mart - make cooking easier)
- Butter-3tbsp
- Cream - 3/4 cup
- Fenugreek leaves - to Garnish
- Ginger julian - 1 inch piece

1. In a sauté pan, add Butter and let it melt.
2. Add green chillies and ginger-garlic paste to the melted butter and sauté it until the raw smell goes.
3. Add Cloves and Cardamom and sauté for a minute.
4. To this add Red Chilli Powder and sauté for another minute.
5. Now add the Tomato puree to this and add enough water and let it boil.
6. Add cream to this and stir it in.
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Add Chicken Tikkas to this gravy.
9. Let it cook for 5-7 minutes.
10. Garnish with some crushed Fenugreek leaves and ginger julian.
11. Remove from stove.

Chicken Tikka Masala is now ready to eat. It goes well with Naan, Roti, Jeera Rice or Pulao.