Dahi Murgh (Chicken and Yoghurt Curry)

This is one chicken yoghurt dish that I'll be cooking again!  Hubby and the kids gave the thumbs up for this.  I was actually looking around for curry recipes using my homemade yoghurt.  There are many, many recipes, and looks like I found the right one.  It is extremely easy to cook, no elaborate preparation and the ingredients can be prepared in minutes.  Besides, I have two pots of coriander growing in my garden, and this would be perfect.  The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of yoghurt, try putting in 1/4 cup first and gradually add more, depends on the level of sourness from the yoghurt.  I use 1/2 cup as per the recipe.  The chicken is simmered over low heat, stirring frequently until it is cooked, there is no water added to this recipe.  After I have cooked and tasted this, I thought that my family will find it a little bit sour, but they loved it!   This is really great with rice.

I'm bringing this yummy dish to Mommy's Kitchen for Potluck Sunday.

Dahi Murgh (Chicken and Yoghurt Curry)
(source from : asianonlinerecipes.com)
Ingredients :
1 kg chicken
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1/2 cup fresh coriander
1-1/2 tbsp ghee or oil
1 tsp ground tumeric
1-1/2 tsp garam masala
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup yoghurt (you may not use all, adjust to your taste accordingly)
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
extra chopped mint or coriander leaves to garnish

Method :
Cut chicken into serving pieces.
Put onion, garlic, ginger, fresh coriander into the container of electric blender.
Blend to  a smooth puree.
Heat oil in a saucepan and fry the blended mixture, stirring for about 5 minutes.
Add tumeric, garam masala, salt and chili powder and fry for a further minute.
Stir in yoghurt and tomatoes, and fry until liquid dries up and the mixture is the consistency of thick puree.
Add chicken pieces, turning them in the spice mixture so they are coated on both sides, then turn heat low, cover tightly and cook until chicken is tender.

Crunchy Oat Flapjacks and Award

First of all, I'm very excited to have been given my very first award!  I'm gonna fill with the details right after this delicious flapjacks.  This flapjack is absolutely fabulous.  Crunchy Oat Flapjacks are crunchy right after baking but it gets chewier when it cools.  This is easily the best flapjacks I have eaten, not that I have eaten that many flapjacks, as I am not a big fan of flapjacks. Each time when I flip through my book, I would always go back to this page.  I am not particularly fond of flapjacks, but this recipe has really caught my attention.  So in order to sort of put an end to it, I decided to give it a try.  I was pleasantly surprised that after making and eating this, I have change my mind, flapjacks are indeed delicious, especially with a tall glass of very cold milk, yummy!   I went ahead with the variation by adding raisins,  make sure you soak them first so that they are juicy and plump.

I only made half the recipe but I add more sunflower seeds, I use  2 tablespoons.  If you do not have any particular favorite flapjack recipe, give this a try, this might just be the one!  It is a great snack.

Crunchy Oat Flapjacks
(adapted from "brownies and bars" by Liz Franklin)
Preparation time : 40  minutes
Makes 12
You will need a roasting tin or shallow tin measuring 20 x 25cm /8 x 10 inches

180 gm/6-1/2 oz butter
180gm /6-1/2 oz light brown sugar (for half a recipe, I use 60gm)
4 tablespoons golden syrup
375 gm/13 oz whole porridge oats ( I use jumbo rolled oats)
50 gm/1-3/4 oz cornflakes

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350F/gas mark 4.  Gently melt the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup together in a saucepan set over a low heat. (Alternatively, microwave on high for 1-2 minutes).
Gently stir in the whole porridge oats and cornflakes, taking care not to break them up too much.  Spoon the mixture into the baking tin.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until the flapjacks have turned golden and become firm.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so and then cut into bars.   Leave the flapjacks to cool completely before lifting them out of the tin.  Store in an airtight container.

Variation:
A handful of raisins (about 85 gm/3 oz) makes an excellent, juicy addition to these flapjacks.  A tablespoon of roasted sunflower seeds adds an extra crunchy dimension.

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Exciting news!  Good news!   I have been given the following "Versatile Blogger Award" by one of the fabulous site whom I really admire, "The Ardent Epicure".  As a new blogger with less than a year of blogging, it has been a wonderful adventure and fun way to meet other bloggers who have something very much in common, the love for food!  For me, besides sharing our love of food, it is also a way to enable me to connect with friends from all over.  It is a reward, when at the end of the day, or some stolen moments during my busy hour, when I sit down in front of  my computer, I found someone out there, a blogger friend from far away, took sometime to read my posts and left a comment, however short, really makes my day. Thank you, friends!

In accepting this award, there are a few rules which I am happy to adhere :

The rules for excepting this award are :

1) Thank the person who gave it to you

2) List 7 things about yourself, and team members if you have them

3) Pass on to 10 bloggers that are new to you and you admire

I am really honored to receive this Versatile Blogger Award. I am really excited to bits!  The Ardent Epicure is a fabulous site comprises of three very talented persons and they are "Truffle Shuffle - Adam, Sugar and Spice - Grely and Magic of Spice - Alisha". They have an outrageously fantastic site and fabulous, really fabulous recipes!  Those of you who are familiar with them will know what I mean, if you have not look into their site before, please do, and you will see how much they enjoy food and their creativity and passion for good food really flows in their wonderful site. 

7 things about myself :
1) I read cookbooks every night at bedtime.
2) Trying hard to resist buying more cookbooks!
3) Worked for 20 odd years, now SAHM and enjoying every moment of it.
4) Really love spicy food.
5) My favourite places to be : bookstore and the market.
6) I love gardening and dream of a big garden to grow my veggies, especially tomatoes!
7) Read Harry Porter twice!

I would like to pass on this award to 10 blogger friends whom I really admire.  Please do visit them as each one of them is fabulous and unique in their own way.  Here they are, in random order :

1.  Simply Healthy Family
2.  Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner
3.  My Kitchen in the Rockies
4.  Mommy's Kitchen
5.  scrambled hen fruit
6.  My Fabulous Recipes
7.  Sankeerthanam
8.  Angie's Recipes
9.  Super Yummy Recipes
10. At Home With Rebecka

Please take a moment to click on  all of the above and and make some new blogger friends.  Have fun getting to know one another!  Thank you to all my blogger friends out there for the support and making blogging such fun!

Carrot and Coriander Muffins/Strictly for Adults?

Carrot and coriander, it's really good and healthy for you!  Be sure to use very sweet fresh carrots and fresh coriander.  If you have them in your own garden, then all the better.  These are really healthy muffins, packed with vitamins and fibers.  This is a savoury muffin, so there is very little sugar (only 15gm!).  As with most muffins, these are good when eaten as soon as it is baked, while it is still warm.  The great taste depends mostly from  the sweetness of the carrots, so it is definitely a good choice to get very sweet carrots for this. This muffins goes great with cream cheese, but since I do not have any, I spread it with my homemade herb butter.  I think that this is overall, an adult muffin,  unless the  children like coriander, or simply substitute with other sweet veggie, like fresh sweet corn, which I'm sure, all kids' favourite!  (I have not tried with fresh sweet corn, but I think it will be great!)

    The smell of coriander when the muffins are being baked in the oven!

Full of vegetable goodness, packed with vitamins and fibers

Great when eaten warm with homemade herb butter

A friend of mine happens to be around when I made this.  Between the two of us and over a cup of tea, we finished about 5 muffins! I ate 2 and she ate 3 and took back home another 3.  She really like this!  (she took back some herb butter too!).  I think that an addition of bits and pieces of cooked ham or bacon would be great! Ignore this if you are really health-consious!

Carrot and Coriander Muffins
(adapted from "mad about muffins" by Diana Bonaparte)
Makes 11 muffins
For the batter :
300 gm/10-1/2 oz plain (all-purpose) flour
1 tbsp baking powder
15 gm/1/2 oz caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt (I add 1/8tsp more, I think round it up to 1/2 tsp would be OK)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
30 gm/1 oz chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
170 gm/6 oz grated carrot
2 eggs
185 gm/6-1/2 oz milk
100 gm/3-1/2 oz oil


Method :
Preheat the oven to 180 degree C/350 degree F/gas 4/fan oven 160 degree C.  Grease and flour 11 muffin tin sections or line with paper liners.
Into a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and black pepper.  Add to the bowl any black pepper that didn't go through the sieve (strainer).  Using a large metal spoon, stir in the chopped coriander, then add in the grated carrot and mix well.
In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the eggs, milk and oil with a fork.
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture.  Fold everything together with a large metal spoon until just combined.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin sections.
Bake for 23-25 minutes until well risen and the top springs back when gently pressed.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool a little before eating.