Agile Cooking Methodology

Two Step Chicken

Hi Culinary Enthusiasts,

A bowl of chicken curry brightens up the faces and makes the mouth, water, of those sitting at the dining table. An inseparable item for marriages and parties. A delicacy of all the countries and states alike some place spicy-hot and some place plain-bland.

For all those out there who are crazy for it and want to prepare it as regularly and frequently but don't because they think that it is a difficult and time taking event, I have brought a preparation method after applying agile culinary methodology on it and regularly pruning it of unnecessary and time taking steps. It is a proven and personally practised method.

Total preparation time: 40 minutes. (Right from the moment you twist the door knob of the kitchen till you come out with the dish bowl)

Items(in the order of usage in the preparation):

• Diced Chicken - 750 grams.
• Salt - To taste.
• Turmeric powder - 1 Teaspoon.
• Chicken Masala/Garam Masala - 2 Teaspoon.
• Fresh Yoghurt - 1 Tablespoon.
• Mustard Oil - 2 Tablespoon.
• Cumin Seeds (Jeera) - 1/2 teaspoon.
• Diced Onion - 5 Big One
• Chopped Ginger - 1 large piece
• Minced Garlic - One Bulb.
• Sliced Green Chillies - 6 in number.

Step 1: Marinate the cleaned chicken pieces with salt, turmeric, chicken/garam masala and yoghurt. Stow it away.
Tips and Tricks:

• The quantity of the yoghurt decides the final output. If one requires the curry to be dry add 1 tablespoon otherwise for a wet curry add more than one.

Step 2: Add OGG, Cumin seeds, chillies and the marinated chicken to mustard oil. Cook until the dish's colour changes to tea-brown and the oil is separated and accumulated at the sides of the pan.
Tips and Tricks:

• Use Non-stick pan. It makes the cooking experience pleasant as there will be less occurrences of burns. Maintenance is easy too.
• While one lets the chicken get marinated(step 1), one can dice the onions, chop the ginger, mince the garlic and slice open the green chillies. In this way we follow the agile cooking methodology and in several parallel iterations quicken the preparation.

Happy Cooking!

The Onion-Ginger-Garlic Trilogy

Hi Culinary-Enthusiasts!

I am amazed at the fact that how the ingredients in a recipe taste and smell so different than what when a dish is made out of them! It is a spectacular magic whose basis is just the basic chemistry at work in the kitchen. The fire being the catalyst, speeding the process, blending the juicy vegetables and beans together, binding them together with spices: salt, turmeric and pepper.

This magic keeps me visiting the kitchen, many times a day! I could not just resist the temptation to create something new, putting my creativity and innate skills to use. Satisfies me instantly! Fulfils me and my stomach.

One such magic ingredient is the Onion-Ginger-Garlic(OGG) combination. When these arrive on the kitchen platform under the knife, the show even gets bigger! Be it my favourite Soup preparation or the my 2-step Chicken preparation(patent) or any appropriate curry preparation, it just dominates the scene.

With these three weapons, any dish can be achieved, varying the proportion of usage. The Golden-Brown-Fried-Onion adds its taste, colour, flavour and adds to the gravy content. The Ginger adds the fragrance. The Garlic adds the Sulphur-pungency!


Some facts:

1. Many will not be surprised that both Onion and Garlic contains the element Sulphur in compound form.
2. India produces the highest amount of Ginger in the world, followed by China and Indonesia.
3. India produces the second highest amount of Garlic in the world, China being the first.
4. The English name ginger ultimately originates from Tamil: inji ver.
5. The tear-bringing effect when an Onion is sliced is caused by a chemical called "syn-propanethial-S-oxide", a volatile gas known as the onion lachrymatory factor or LF. The LF gas diffuses through the air and eventually reaches the eye. Chemicals that exhibit such an effect on the eyes are known as lachrymatory agents.

I hope the trinity of OGG brings life to your kitchen, as it has brought to mine!

Happy Cooking!

The Soup Is Out!

Hi Culinary-Enthusiasts!

I once quipped, "A Beggar and A Person with no kitchen in possession have one thing in common: They both don't know where their next meal is coming from!". It made me infamous among many but that is O.K. One had to say it anyway!!

My attitude towards cooking is inclined towards, efficiency, innovation, nutrition and adequacy! My motto is not to compromise nutrition just for the looks and maintain logic in all aspects of cooking.

As promised to myself, I let myself take a leap into the world of Soups! I painted it Red! With Tomatoes!

Here is how I did it! But first, let me tell you, if you want to enter the world of Soups and you are also entangled in the Office-Home Cycle, then planning is one of the key aspects of it! Without planning one may drop out of it with the same speed, one leaped into it!

Ingredients:

Red Ripe Tomatoes -- 1 kg.
Garlic -- 8 pieces.
Ginger -- 20 gm.
Onion -- 1 large sized.
Green Chillies -- 4 long and strong ones.
Bread Rusks -- 2 pieces.

Method:

1. While slicing the tomatoes into small pieces, stir-fry the chopped ginger, garlic, onions and green chillies in a non-stick pan until golden brown colour.
2. Add the sliced tomatoes into the pan and mix well and heat it for 5 minutes.
3. Transfer the contents into a bowl and pressure cook until 5 whistles.
4. Strain the cooked content with a cotton cloth and preserve the remnants to use it as an additive for future cooking.
5. Add Salt to the strained liquid and heat it to a boil.
6. Serve it to yourself with a bit of black-pepper power and pieces of broken rusks on the top! Store the rest in refrigeration for future use!

I enjoyed a lot while sipping the soup out of the Soup-spoon and inhaling the vapours through the nostrils. I felt a new vigour and heat in the body!! I am gonna love it in the coming days! Now every day would be a celebration!!

The Soup Coup!

Hi Cooks-out-there,

Usually I follow a 3-item cycle for the Breakfast(BF) comprising of French-toast coupled with Filter-coffee, Corn-flakes with Milk and then the swift and swirly Whole-Wheat-Noodles!! And what can I say I was happy in this cyclic affair, Until....

Whenever we used to go for a celebration in a fancy restaurant, everybody orders for some sort of Soup, for veggies it would be a tomato, spinach or a sweet corn soup and for the non-veggies it would be a kind of mutton or chicken soup. So Soups were a part of the celebrations, Until...

One fine day, while having my favourite and copyrighted Filter Coffee, one innovative idea electrified my mind! What about celebrating each day? What if Soups are created out of my crafty hands and in the pious platform of my Kitchen? I could not sleep that night!

I decided to do something about it! Did I do? Watch out for another blog article!!

Happy Cooking!! Today is Saturday!! A Holiday!! What are you cooking today?

Sunit's Super Filter Coffee

Hi Cooks, out there!!

As described, in the previous weblog about my introduction with Filter Coffee, there have been many a ups and downs in our relationship. But every morning we meet and have fun together, without fail!

Since I prepare this awesome beverage for solo time and for solo man i.e. obviously me, I had, as the time passed, made efficient and simplified the process of preparing it! Here is how!

The traditional filter Coffee is made by a simple machine described here. But the same takes a lot of time and cannot satisfy an immediate want! There is no argument on the point that the filter coffee takes about 10 times more time than the instant Coffee, which was invented to make it easy to prepare Coffee instantly. So to diminish the total time of the preparation to a maximum of 15 minutes I follow the steps below.

1. Take appropriate quantity of water in a boiling pot and heat to a boil.
2. Turn off the heat and add a teaspoon of Filter Coffee powder to the pot. Instantly some amount of froth is generated. Immediately cover the pot with a lid.
3. Pour sugar and milk according to your preference in a Coffee Mug.
4. Use a square thick cloth piece, wet it with water and squeeze out the extra water out of it and cover the top of the Coffee Mug with it.
5. After 10 minutes, pour the content of the pot into the Mug. The Coffee silt will be filtered out and the potable Coffee solution will drip into it.
6. Stir and reheat the Coffee to the desired temperature!

Some Don'ts:
1. Do not boil the mixture after adding the coffee powder in the pot. It makes it taste bitter.
2. After preparing, while reheating, do not let it boil. It again gives a bad taste to it.
3. Always cover the mixture, in the waiting period so as to retain the aroma and therefore the flavour.

Enjoy the Coffee with few pieces of Rusk!!

Enjoy!!

My Encounter With Filter Coffee, A Look back!!

Hi Cooks,

In the beginning I was very fond of Tea. The Milky and Sweet Indian Darjeeling Tea, with Biscuits - salty, creamy or plain Marie - , Rusks and various other snack items! At 1600 hours, of the day,  is also named after this beverage i.e Tea-time! At the same time I used to indulge in a few occasion of instant coffee or Nescafe/Bru, if we recall by Brands!!

But from the past 2 years, I have been captivated by the aroma and taste of the filter Coffee! And now it seems that I am already in love with it! It is now indispensable!

My introduction with it was by accident! Every Saturday, I shop for groceries at the nearest Super-Market. I used to pass by the Coffee section with little interest because I knew there was not much excitement in there, not much happening there too!

Once a green coloured packet grabbed my attention! I thought that what this colour, which is associated with Tea, is doing here in the Coffee section? I picked it up and after a few seconds of dilemma instead of keeping it back, tossed it in the basket!

After reaching home, added two spoons of the same in hot Milk and took a large amount in excitement and anticipation!! Aaaaawwwwww, thuuuuuuuu!!! I spilt it out and belched out the amount which passed the oesophagus! I was in bad condition! What was wrong with this Coffee? I took out the empty packet from the dustbin and read the instructions: "This is Filter Coffee. Please brew it and after filtering add the Coffee to Milk/Sugar". Oh Oh, so this is Filter Coffee which is just crushed Coffee Beans!! I never thought that one day I will encounter it in this manner!
After draining the content from the Coffee Mug, I followed the instructions and Waaaahhhh, it was the beginning of a long and happy relationship!! We are a couple now!!

Happy Drinking!!