Chicken Hakka Noodles

 ( I had made this post on my instagram page around two months back but never got around to posting it here. The weather is not exactly as described , right now. ) 


After four days of gloriously bright sunshine , a clear blue sky and crisp, cold breeze, the day started dull and gloomy and foggy again.

Though it is difficult to call this city's weather gloomy. Even cloudy foggy days are beautiful. I woke up late as I slept very late last night ... was at the fag end of a book and just didn't want to keep it away ... and even though I woke at my regular 6 am, seeing the weather outside, promptly buried myself back into the covers.
Skipped breakfast and just sipped on the hot kadha that I make everyday.
While both of us agreed that such a weather calls for some spicy, deep fried food, we decided we won't indulge in any.
But we did not want the regular meals of rice or roti too.

I had ordered vegetables yesterday and since had almost everything I needed, we zeroed in on some quick stir fried Hakka noodles .
I sliced the vegetables and brought out some frozen pieces of chicken that I had saved from an earlier stew.
Made B's vegetarian version first and then made mine.

Stir fried the shredded chicken with chopped ginger and garlic, green chillies and threw in the vegetables.
After tossing them together, added boiled noodles , a little vinegar, sliced onions and spring onions greens.
Added some crushed black pepper and mixed everything well.
I did not add any sauce as I have given up eating packaged products.
Would have loved some soy and chilli sauce with it😊.

Turned out great.
The noodles were perfectly al dente, the vegetables held their crunch since I cooked them on high heat and just for a little while .... never cover and cook vegetables for Chinese food ... nothing is worse than soft, sagging vegetables in a stir fry.... and the green chillies had the right zing for balance.
.

 Vegetarians can add paneer , tofu or soya chunks for the protein content. 
Or else, just the vegetables work fine too. 

Enjoy!! 

Fried rice and Chilli chicken ... a Bengali's favourite classic combo meal

I cooked this for lunch last Sunday. 
And the way it turned out to be, immediately decided it should be on the blog. 

I have been missing eating out for a while now. Not that we used to eat out very frequently, before the pandemic shut the whole world up at home, but yes, once in a while we did.

Or at least  had the freedom and the option to go out and grab a bite when not feeling like cooking or stepping into the kitchen. 

Now, however, life has been revolving around the three meals and snacks the whole day.

Not to mention the boredom of the familiar tastes and masalas . 

And Chinese food being my favourite, it is there that I was hit the most.

I do cook chinese food at home ..... mostly for dinners. But that is limited to just stir fried vegetables, hakka noodles and my quick, cheat's  Chilli Chicken. 

This time, however, my intense craving for Chinese food made me decide to whip up a meal.

And in detail .... no short cuts. 

Easier said than done. 

Chinese food has one elaborate thing for sure .... and that is prepping. 

Cooking the actual dish does not take much time .... just throw in a little of this, a little of that, toss, toss, toss .... and done!
But the prepping .... boy! ..... takes up all the time you have and also exhausts you. 

I realised I had bitten off more than I can chew by the time I was halfway and neck deep into the prep work. And I thanked the good gods for providing me the sense to eat a heavy breakfast that morning. 
The greater part of my problem is cooking two kinds of food .... vegetarian and non vegetarian. 

And keeping everything apart so that nothing touches each other, planning to use the oil for deep frying for the vegetarian part first and then use it for non vegetarian ..... and so on.

These are the little things that require constant alertness and are really stressful and exhausting. 

I had leftover rice in the fridge. 

I had marinated chicken in the freezer. 

I had a block of paneer in the fridge.

B assured me he would chop the vegetables. 

And so I dived headlong into cooking lunch. 

For the Chilli Chicken : 

I make the Chilli chicken the way I have grown up eating .... with lots of green chillies nad no capsicums. You may add them if you like though. 

Need : 

Chicken pieces - 250 gms, marinated with ginger garlic paste, soy sauce and a little vinegar 

Cooking oil , enough for deep frying

Corn flour  - 1 tbsp

Maida / Apf - 3 tbsp

Rice flour - 1 tsp 

Diced onions 

Chopped green chillies 

Minced garlic

Minced ginger

Salt - to taste 

Sugar - to taste 

How to : 

Mix the flours with the marinated chicken. 

Heat oil and deep fry the pieces.  Keep aside. 

In a wok, heat a little oil. 

Add  garlic and ginger. Then add the green chillies and the diced onion. 

Stir fry on high heat and add the chicken pieces, soy sauce, vinegar and salt. 

Toss on high heat till everything comes together. 

For the  Vegetable Fried Rice  : 

Need : 

Leftover rice 

Cooking oil

Chopped vegetables like carrots, green peas, french beans, cauliflower

Chopped onions
Chopped green chillies

Minced garlic

Minced ginger

Soy sauce

A little vinegar

Black pepper powder

Salt

Sugar

How to : 

Heat oil in a seasoned iron wok. 

Add chopped garlic and ginger. Toss.

Add chopped onion and green chillies. 

Add the vegetables and toss on high heat.

Add the rice and the rest of the ingredients and toss on high heat till everything comes together. 
Serve hot. 

 
And now .... as promised on my last post .... the winner of the giveaway of the beautiful book by Sandeepa Bongmom, Those Delicious Letters . 

I made chits and drew out the name of  ..... 
Julie of Savoury Delights !!!!! 

Congratulatoins Julie!!! 
Do drop me an email with your full address and phone number so that I can ship the book to you. 


My next post is going to be on another classic ..... so stay tuned folks! 

Stay safe. Stay at home. 💓


You can find my other recipes on Chinese food here. 

Chicken pepper fry

And just like that, the rains are gone. 
We did not get as much rainfall this year as we would have liked to. 
Especially when we are not going out. 
With the whole world and our lives coming to a a standstill, due to the pandemic raging all around us, all we had was the rains outside to look out at. 
Sitting by the window, or standing in the balcony or lounging in the sofa that I drag half way across the room just for the view ..... all we had was the gentle, quiet Pune rains and fog outside. 

The trees have grown a lot over the years and are now almost at our eye level at the seventh floor. 
Their leaves shiny, healthy, glistening in the rain. 
And swaying to the wind. 
The birds go on with their activities. 
And we go on with life. 
Daily, mundane chores. 
The only welcome break was the rains. 
And that too has gone now. Too soon. 

I don't mind  the sun though. 
The mornings are brighter and clearer now. 
And sunnier. 
There is a chill in the air and the feel of autumn is already in the air. 
Ganpati festival is on. 
Listening to the bhajans and aarti songs all around give an air of sanity. 
As if nothing has changed. 
And all is well with the world. 

I made this beautiful, spicy Chicken pepper fry a few days back for lunch. 
It was quick to make and was the perfect finger food for the dark, rainy days. 
The heat of the black pepper warmed the body as well as the cockles of the heart .... just like Ma  has cooked a warm meal and is feeding me  lovingly.

Need : 

Chicken pieces, on the bone (you may use boneless too ) 
Ginger garlic paste

Soy sauce

Vinegar / Lemon juice

Freshly crushed black pepper 
Chopped onions

Chopped garlic 

Chopped green chillies 

Curry leaves 

Salt - to taste

Sugar - to taste

Cooking oil 

How to : 

Marinate the chicken with vinegar, soy sauce, ginger garlic paste , a little oil and  salt. 
I marinated and froze it. You can keep it for 1 hour. 

Heat oil in a flat pan. 

Let in the chicken pieces one by one. 
Sear them on high heat till the sides turn crisp and brown. 

Lower heat and add the onions, garlic , green chillies and the curry leaves. 
Add salt and the crushed pepper, cover and cook till the chicken is done. 

If you want less spicy, then add the black pepper last, just before removing from heat. 

Serve hot . 

The chicken was crisp on the outside and juicy and soft inside. 
The meat  peeled away smoothly .... I guess the marination did the magic. 

I had made some crisp dosa and so paired with them. 
With some beautiful peanut chutney on the side, this was my lunch on a dark, cold rainy day. 
Will go great with laccha parathas too. 


Stay safe folks. Eat well. Eat healthy. 

Chilli chicken from my childhood ... with lots of chillies and no Capsicum

 

( If you are a vegetarian, you can make this recipe with paneer or cauliflower. )

I do not claim this recipe of the Chilli chicken as authentic or perfect or even the right way to make Chinese chilli chicken. When young, this is the way chilli chicken was made not only at our house but also the ones that we got from restaurants.
Having said that, I must say that eating out was not something that we did much. One of the reasons is me ... I was painfully shy and could not imagine sitting in a public place and eating ... no matter however good the ambience or the company.
It nearly killed me when people, who were mostly strangers to me,  would walk up to our table and talk to Bapi and Ma.
I would never accompany my parents or relatives to any wedding ceremony invitations just because of that terrifying thought of sitting among a huge number of people and eating. 
This continued till I left home for studies. At the hostel and the PG where I stayed, I slowly came to realise that if I did not loosen up, I would stay hungry. Which I did on most days.
Now, while I have changed a lot and do go out with groups to eat out, I still come back home with just a few nibbles and an empty stomach.

So, the only solution was to bring home or call for a takeaway. Which Bapi sometimes did. Like most Bengalis, there would be the fried rice and chilli chicken combination. And a beautiful chicken bharta,  that I so miss these days.
The chilli chicken lived up to its name. It would have lots and lots of green chillies, fried along with the onions ... which were both crunchy as well as sweet.
The chicken pieces would be with bones ... which is why I loved it so much ... and have a thick coating that would have soaked up the sauce by the time we sat down to eat ... giving it a slightly soggy yet delightfully sweet and sour taste.
Sometimes the chicken chunks would be red in colour and Bapi would exclaim "Colour!Again!" and get up to drain the red oil into the kitchen sink.
I loved to soak a piece of tandoori naan, that came with the bharta, into that reddish, sweet and sour oily sauce and chew on it ( I told you I am a complete desi when it comes to food).

Later, after I landed in Pune, I came across the new version of the Chilli chicken .... boneless, small pieces, deep fried to a chewy chunk, not a trace of green chilli and horror of all horrors, loaded with big chunks of capsicum!
Why the dish has capsicum is a question that has stayed unanswered to me still. You will get a few, soggy and limp slices of onions too. But you will have to search for a decent piece of chicken from under those big chunks of capsicum.
After trying to search for a good chilli chicken in Pune, I finally gave up. Sadly, even today, there is not a single restaurant in Pune where I can ask for a good Chilli chicken.
So took it to making it myself.

I do not make it too often though, especially as it is only for myself at most times. But if I am making Chinese, I do make these. On the bone for family; boneless for guests.
This time I made it with chunky, chicken thigh pieces ... ideal pieces for a juicy yet dry dish. And shallow fried the chicken, instead of deep frying it.
Pretty quick to make.
You can fry the chickem pieces and store in the fridge, covered of course, and toss it with the rest of the things just before serving.
While they are the perfect accompaniment to a fried rice or a Hakka noodles dish, they make great starters or finger food too for snacks.
Pair them with some good wine or a cocktail for a light evening fare.

Need :

Chicken - 250 gms, chopped into small pieces
Corn flour - 3 tbsp
Maida / Apf - 1 tbsp
Baking soda - a small pinch
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Vinegar - 1 tbsp
Green chilli sauce - to taste
Crushed black pepper - 1 tsp
Onion - 1 big, cut into cubes
Green chillies - 6 to 8, chopped
Garlic - 6 to 8 cloves, chopped
Soy sauce - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Sugar - to taste
Cooking oil - 4 tbsp

How I make it :

Marinate the chicken pieces with vinegar + a little salt + soy sauce + ginger paste + garlic paste  for around half an hour.

Then add the corn flour + maida + baking soda + black pepper to it and mix well.

Heat 3 tbsp of oil in an open, flat pan.
Carefully let in the chicken pieces and shallow fry, a small batch at a time, and remove on a paper  napkin.

Add the rest of the oil ( if needed ) to the pan and add the garlic.

Fry a little and then add the green chillies + the onions + the chilli sauce.
Adjust salt + sugar.

Add the chicken pieces and toss well on high heat.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!!

Ps: I did not realise I had already ranted about the capsicum thing in one of my earlier posts ... i.e. the quick stir fried Chilli chicken. Try that too.

Mirchi ka Achar / Green chilli pickle - 2

In every moment, hour or day, in our life, there is a lesson hidden. Every person, every animal, every change in nature teaches you something. You are vigilant enough, quiet enough inside .... you get to learn.
Like I am doing these days.
I am learning what 'class' is ... all over again.

Life has doled out to me my share of bullies ... and more. And to tell the truth, I have never been one to handle them well. I'd rather stay back and let them do all they can to get attention. I had learnt early that bullies want attention. To feel important. To feel they are in control.
Starting in school, where I had to face this bully of a girl who had slid down two classes and landed with us and her little sister, who was my friend.
Her idea of superiority lay in scaring us, just before exams, with numerous ideas of what could go wrong and how we could either have to hand over a blank paper or write every answer wrong and end up with a zero.
Cruel.
My getting good marks was not enough to instill even a little courage, or wipe away the fear this caused, in me.
It has stayed on as a terrifying memory always.

Later in life, there have been other bullies too.
But what I had noticed most was their pattern and motive was always the same.
To create fear. To subdue. To feel superior. To grab attention.

Ma had always tried to drill it into me, "Never give in to insolent might" ... quoting a line from one of Rabindranath Tagore's poetries, that we often sang at our school assembly along with other hymns.
"And always remember your class. "

I often wondered how difficult it must have been for Ma, a spunky and educated lady, belonging to a prominent family, brought up in a city like Delhi and later married into an equally prominent but very traditional family, to bring up a quiet, shy, sensitive and introvert daughter like me.
She did make sure that I took part in everything ... and excelled too. School dramas, debates, singing competitions, good marks ... every possible thing.
And I loved them too.
However, while this made me every teacher's pet, it made matters worse when it came to the bullies.
Thankfully, my growing up in a joint family hugely helped in not turning me into an unsocial person.

When I left home to come to this city for further studies, things started to change.
My friends here brought me out of my shell. Family instilled values and Ma's constant encouraging voice was already inside me. Coupled with my friends encouragement, I started to open up.
Learnt to express my thought and feelings ... to a certain extent albeit.
Bullies were around in college life too ... but they very few. And very subtle.
My achievements would draw a couple of cold shoulders ... that is all.
But with wonderful friends, they were happily ignored.

Ignore.
That is when I started to learn how to deal with the bullies.
Ignore them.
They wanted the attention they could not get by their usual activities ... which were hardly of any worth, not surprisingly. Hence the aggression.
Slowly, I learnt. Later in life, there have been different kinds of bullies in every turn.
Some love to hurt with words. Some love to show aggression.
But they were all the same. To me.

And I learnt to ignore. To keep my head high. To stay quiet and move to the back of the crowd.
To not stoop and retaliate.
To remember what 'class' is. 
And to do the best in whatever I am doing.
That, eventually, would shut them up.

It is difficult to develope a thick skin, but in the end you learn to dust the hurt off your shoulders with, if not a flick, a good two or three hard pats, and resume on with life.
There would be tears for a while, but as I grew older I realised not everyone had the patience to deal with them.
Life is a teacher. And a good teacher too.
And last night, something happened to remind me of bullies .... that eventually led to this writeup.

On the streets just outside our housing complex, roams an abandoned dog, since last monsoon, when he was still a growing puppy. He is healthy, his black coat has a shine and walks with a grace unseen in other strays.
Clearly, he belongs to a good breed.

Our watchmen and other people of the society adopted him when food was concerned. He sleeps under the watchmen's table. But he needs company.
Bouncing with energy, he approaches anyone nearby to play with him.
While the humans often respond with love and attention, the street mongrels are not so friendly.
In fact, they refuse to allow him to be anywhere near them.
We watch with hope that he would be able to mingle with them eventually and learn the ways of surviving on the streets.

Last night, I watched as he tried to approach and befriend a group of street dogs, who reside in this area, again. Futilely.
The dogs started to growl and bark at him. Some, who were on the opposite side of the road, rushed in too.
And jumped on him, all the while barking furiously.
But all he did was keep stepping back. Neither once did he growl back, bark or show any kind of aggression. Which is surprising for a fully grown dog.
But no. Not once did he retaliate.
I have seen this happening a lot of times, and as always, he quietly stepped back and slowly walked away. Head high, nary a sign of defeat in his stance.
The rest of the mongrels kept barking at him till he turned around the corner and disappeared.

And all that came to my mind was " That is 'class'."

A few days back I got these very fresh Kashmiri green chillies and wanted to make something new with them.  Did not feel like cooking them the usual way and see them wilt.
So chopped them up and made this quick Mirchi ka achar or pickle.
The fresh crunchiness stayed. And mixed with the pickle masala and vinegar, tasted beautiful.
I did not have hing/asafoetida at home ... so this is a no hing achar.

Need :

Fresh, green Kashmiri chillies - 6 pieces, chopped into big pieces
Paanch Phoron - 1 tsp ( Saunf+Sarson+Kalonji+Methi+Jeera)
White/Yellow mustard powder - 2 tbsp (I just gave a pulse in the grinder)
Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 2 tbsp (I had chilli vinegar)
Mustard oil - 6 tbsp

How to:

Heat the mustard oil in a kadahi, till it smokes.
Remove from heat and cool slightly ... so that the Paanch phoron does not burn.

Add the Paanch phoron and return to heat.
When it starts to splutter, add the chopped chillies and toss well.
Add salt + red chilli powder.
Fry well, till the chillies are a little cooked. Do not cover.

Add the mustard powder and the vinegar and toss well on high heat.

Lower heat and give a good stir and remove.

Cool before serving.

This stays well in the fridge,covered, for a week.
You can add half a teaspoon of sugar too ... if you want it slightly sweetish.

Goes great with a meal of hot rotis and sabzis.
 Or on the side of a rice meal too.
I often dunk in the masala and a little oil in a simple dal ... takes the dal to a different level.

Here is a snap of my lunch plate with his pickle ... Rice, Bhaja mooger dal, Aloo Borboti fry, Salad and Mirchi ka achar.

Enjoy folks !!

My other Mirchi ka Achar, made with small green chillies is here 
... with an equally long, but hilarious, write.
Coincidence!!