Chutney Chicken

I've started thinking more and more about how can one get more of their time and be more efficient during the day and if you are cooking everyday or even supervising the cooking everyday how you can be as quick as you possibly can to be able to spend least time sweating it out with maximum results

I also believe that you can totally do with less and less oil in your cooking and yet have delicious meals everyday. Ok there may be fat that comes from nuts and other things that you may put into the food to make the dish better tasting but I'd rather have those fats that make a wholesome meal rather than have oily food.

Sounds so simple right? well it's not always that easy. Everyday cooking is a task. Everyday you are bogged with the question - What should I make today? Shall I just stick to the same old recipes with the same old veggies and meat? Shall I make something new and different? How do I make every meal healthy and wholesome? How do I stick with a stipulated budget?

So many questions some to your mind especially if you have kids to have them grow up with a healthy and nutritious environment in our ever changing world of pizzas and processed foods.

This recipe is healthy, simple and can be one of your everyday meals. I've paired this with - instead of roti or rice, a nice salad. this refreshing combination is great for a lunch or a dinner when I want to have lots of green leafy vegetables (churned up in the chutney) and cut down on my carbs.

Chutney Chicken

Marinate chicken (300 - 400 gm) with Ginger garlic and chilli paste for around 15 minutes

Whizz up the following - 1 bunch coriander, 1/2 bunch mint, 1 tsp Jeera, 1 tbsp grated coconut, 1 tbsp chopped cashew nuts, 1 tbsp lemon juice and salt with some water to make a thick paste

take a tsp of oil, on high heat add 300 gm marinated chicken pieces, sear till the pieces become white, add the chutney and cook on low flame till done.

Another great addition to this is - bell peppers (red and yellow) and mushrooms. If you are making a vegetarian version - wash and cut the peppers and mushrooms, take oil in a pan, add ginger garlic and chilli paste and the veggies and saute together, add the chutney and cook for like 5 - 10 mins max

When serving garnish with chopped walnuts and serve with the salad

Turkish Delight Made easy

I've always loved Turkish delight sweets - so jelly like and flavourful. I wanted to try to make it at home and have found it surprisingly simple to do!

The results are pretty good and it's a great idea for if you want to gift someone something you can easily give these in a nice box as they are decorative and colourful

Ingredients

375g caster sugar

juice of 1 lemon

25g gelatine powder

75g cornflour

25g icing sugar

3 tsp rose water

2 - 3 drops food colour of any colour you wish (pink worked well for me but green, yellow and orange would also do)

50 g shelled unsalted pistachios - boiled, skinned and chopped

25 gms boiled, skinned and chopped almonds

Any vegetable oil, for brushing the tin

Method

To prepare for this dish, lightly oil a 20cm square baking tray and line it with cling film.

dust the bottom of the cling film with half the quantity of icing sugar and tip out the excess

So first you mix gelatin with 75 g cornflour and 200ml of water and keep aside

Then take a saucepan and put lemon juice, 300 ml of water and the sugar and bring it gently to a boil dissolving all the sugar

Once the above mixture starts boiling, add the cornflour mixture into it and keep stirring it together and keep on a medium flame for around 20 minutes till the mixture is reasonably thickened.

At this stage the mixture will look really awful - like some sick grey gloopy mixture but keep the faith and I promise you rewards will follow

Remove the pan from the heat, let it cool for a little bit, add the rose water, pistachios and almonds and food colour and mix all together.

Remove this mixture into the tin and allow it to cool completely at room temperature

Let it cool completely before you cut it into squares and dust it with the rest of the icing sugar