Wedding Fervor

Wedding season is on and how... Ask parlor owners or farm-house p***s, florists or halwais, and they will each recount with delightful rapture just how happy this season is and how they are literally raking in the moolah...

And talking of weddings, I had the good fortune of attending the wedding of a dear old, AST (read Bhabha) who is now a certain Mrs. Goel with all beauty and grace *hoot hoot*. But weddings mean a lot of dressing up and strutting, even for the sahelis of the bride, with as little as 4 hours of sleep the previous night, and with all the backless blouses and endless dancing, one is bound to fall prey to the Great Indian Wedding Fever.

In this post I help you combat that fever with an energy pumped, delicious, yet simple dish: the Wedding Fervor. Recipe below:

Ingredients:

Moong dal (Green gram) or mixed sprout - 100 gms
Chicken (boneless) - 50 to 75 gms
Olive Oil - 1 tbsp (to rub onto the chicken)
Tomatoes - 1 medium sized, deseeded and diced
Onion - 1 medium sized, diced
Cucumber - 1/2, diced
Salt, Pepper and Red Chilli Powder - To taste
Lemon - 1

Method:

• Take the boneless chicken and make gashes on it with a sharp knife. Now rub olive oil, a little pepper, salt and juice of half a lemon on it and allow to marinate for a couple of hours before micro-grilling it for approximately ten minutes or till the chicken has turned opaque. 
• Cook the sprouts in a cup of water in a cooker, till you hear a single whistle. Take it off the gas and drain almost all of the liquid.
• Now mix the sprouts, shredded grilled chicken, diced tomatoes, onions and cucumber  in a bowl.
• Add the seasoning (as per taste) and the juice of half a lemon and toss.
• You could serve immediately if you like it warm or allow it to cool in the refrigerator for an hour before consuming it chilled, depending on the weather and your personal preference. I enjoy it either ways.

This simple dish is packed with protein and Vitamin C and is perfect to re-vitalize the exhausted you, allowing you to bounce back from wedding fever straight into wedding fervor. You can make variations of the same by looking up last month's Good Food magazine. 

Now for god's sake, don't flaff around, GO DIG IN....

With a Zing!

I woke up at 4:50 AM with the worst bout of sneezing I had had so far this year and then, just as I managed to doze off an hour later, the crazy pigeon family outside my window began driving me berserk with their maniacal wing flapping and extremely-loud-for-that-hour chirping. This was one bird family taking the "early bird" idiom quite seriously! As I finally dragged myself out of bed for work with an ache ripping my poor head apart, the day only got worse. My gadgets started to give me trouble. The Tata Photon wouldn't work and my phone kept experiencing network drop issues. The tea was bad and the day cold. In short, I wanted to shoot someone!

But then came the evening, and as I walked out of the office, there she stood demurely, waiting to get inside my bag -- a curvaceous bottle of Chilean Chardonnay (thanks a lot, Sir!) -- and BOOM! My energy levels sky rocketed and the evening was suddenly pleasant again. I called up a couple of friends in the neighborhood but none were free for the evening. Oh well, I wasn't going to let that dampen my mood or my Friday evening and so I was on a date with myself - wining, dining and basically making merry for absolutely no reason!

I got home in no time, via Star Bazaar of course, (yes, Star, yes, you're the SHIT!) and there I stood in the kitchen, blasting music and cooking, aaaalllllllll the way after November, however, it took me shorter than a split second to decide upon what I was cooking - two special somethings using seasonal Vitamin C ingredients, one of which inspires the very name of this blog. Recipes below:

#1 Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken breast - 1 (about 200 grams)

Ginger (grated) - 1/2 tbsp

Green chilli - A quarter, chopped

Lemon juice - Half a lemon 

Salt & Pepper - For seasoning

Peppercorns - 3 to 4

Coriander -  A few crushed leaves

Method:

• Take the chicken breast and wash it thoroughly with water. Pat dry
• Make deep gashes on both sides of the breast and season with salt and pepper, rubbing in and spreading evenly
• Next, rub the grated ginger all over the chicken along with the green chillies and the roughly crushed peppercorns
• Put the chicken into a pressure cooker and squeeze the juice of half a lemon on top and add a few crushed leaves of coriander
• Now allow the chicken to cook in the pressure cooker in the lemon juice as well as its own juices for about 10 minutes or till you hear at least 3 whistles
• Remove off the stove, open the cooker and enjoy as the zingy aroma wafts from the kitchen to every single corner of your house -- oh YUM YUM YUMMM!!! *delighted, dancing smiley*

Lemon Chicken

As easy as falling off a log, this simple to make chicken dish is packed with vitamins and proteins - go dig into some if nursing the common cold, go dig into some, even if you aren't... Point is just go DIG IN or, or wait! Cook chicken dish #2

#2 Chicken Breast with Spicy Honey-Orange Glaze

This is a recipe I had found on the internet nearly 6 years ago, but sadly I do not remember which website I found it on. It is a dish that tastes better than it reads and/ or even looks, so go ahead! Give this dish a try, of course with the usual Anka additions/ twists... 

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast - 1 (about 200 gms)

Honey - 1 tbsp

Orange Juice - Of half a kinnow

Orange Zest - 1 tsp, grated or in strips

Garlic - 1/2 tsp, minced

Chilli Flakes - 1/2 tsp, crushed [If you do not have chilli flakes, red chilli powder works just as well]

Salt - For Seasoning

Vegetable Oil - 1/2 tsp

Green Onion - For garnishing

Method:

• In a small bowl combine the honey with the freshly squeezed orange juice, the orange zest, garlic, salt and red chilli powder
• Rinse the chicken with cold water and pat dry
• Make brutal gashes on the breast and then season lightly with salt 
• In large non-stick skillet, heat the vegetable oil over a medium-high flame
• Add the chicken breast and cook for about 4 minutes, until seared. Turn chicken and cook for another 4 minutes or until just cooked through
• Pour the orange - honey mixture over the chicken and cook, turning chicken to coat as sauce begins to thicken in about 5 minutes 
• VOILA mes chers, miei cari, mis queridos --- the sumptuous dish is pronto! 

And so the date went fantastically by - Me, the dishes, the Chilean and SATC! Siiiigh! What I'd do to have each day just the same! While I wonder, go cook, dear readers, and DIG INNN... for this is what these easy-to-cook dishes are worth --- to be savored, all WITH A ZING! :)

Romantic Friday Night date with self <3