Amitabha's Kitchen Chronicles

Oindrilla (Jia) is a little fussy about taste and has indicated she does not like the mayonnaise in salads and neither does she like the cheesy versions. I presume that she is not very keen to eat veggies at all and that too raw as she needs to exercise her jaws and she is a little of a lazy bone when it comes to eating!! So tried this version of a salad (a little similar to aloo kabli - an extremely popular bengali road side snack). You will need: A large sized potato, boiled and beeled A medium / small onion chopped Beans - a small bunch, chopped Capsicum - a small one, chopped (small to medium pieces) Carrots - thin slivers Green Peas - a handful Corriander leaves - chopped Lemon juice - 1 tsp Salt Pepper Ketchup Chat Masala (if available) Making it: Take the carrots, beans, capsicum, onion in a small microwave proof bowl. Add a little salt and water. Cook it on high heat for about 2 mins. (In case you are averse to using a microwave, boil water in a pan, drop the v...

You will need: Slices of bread Cheese slice Ketchup Butter (in case you want to grill) Making the Sandwiches Take the bread slices and remove the edges (kids find it difficult to eat as it is hard. And if you are making a snack to be eaten later, more the reason to remove) Put ketchup on the both the slices and spread nicely Put a cheese slice and close the sandwich In case you want to provide grilled sandwich, apply butter on the external surface of both slices and grill it. (Note: Grilling renders the sandwiches a little hard and difficult to chew in case it is to be consumed later)

All parents of today are often at wits end to provide wholesome as well as "interesting" foods to their kids. This gets amplified as kids are smarter and brighter and aware of choices. Me & D, as parents, are no exceptions. And Jia is one hell of a gourmet as she has distinct taste preferences and that is topped with a rigid decisiveness!! So we often do lot of experimentations with regular food. This gave growth to an idea that lets put up the various trials (& tribulations??) on the recipe blog which can provide a good resource for parents all over. Bringing up Jia for the last 3 years has given us a huge repertoire of recipes and hence difficult to put it all together. So the easiest way to start would be cataloguing the recipes as per the snack menu that we follow for her school. And the recipes for each would be coming progressively! Monday: Sandwiches ( Cheese , Egg) Tuesday: Parathas (Aloo, Gobi, Onion, Aloo Gobi) Wednesday: Salad (Cheese, My Style, Pota...

Ingredients : Prawns - 500 gms, cleaned, deveined Onions - 3 medium sized, grated Tomatoes - 1 large, chopped Potatoes - 2 large, cubed Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp Green Chilli - 2 large Turmeric - 1 tsp Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp Salt - to taste Sugar - 1 tsp Garam Masala Whole - Bay Leaf (2), Cinnamon (1 inch stick), Cardamom (3), Clove (3), Pepper (3-4) - All pounded a little in pestle Garam Masala Powder Process : Rub the prawns with salt and turmeric. Heat oil in a pan and sautee it lightly. Keep aside. Take the potatoes in a microwave safe bowl and add water and salt. Run the micro under high power for 3 minutes. After about 2-3 minutes, drain the water and wash it with cold water (This is to drain the starch from the potatoes as well as ensure that it absorbes less oil while frying) Heat oil in the pan, add the whole spices and allow to fry for about 15 secs and add the onion paste. Fry the onion paste for about a minute and add the ginger garlic paste. After ab...

Ingredients: A bunch of spring onion - Cut in 1.5 inch long sizes 2 potatoes - Cut into medium thin slivers Turmeric - 1 tsp Salt - to taste Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Sugar - 1 tsp Making it: Take the potatoes in a microwave safe bowl and add water and salt. Run the micro under high power for 3 minutes. After about 2-3 minutes, drain the water and wash it with cold water (This is to drain the starch from the potatoes as well as ensure that it absorbes less oil while frying) Take the potatoes in a bowl and add turmeric and salt and mix Heat oil in a pan (preferable mustard oil) and once heated, add the potatoes. Reduce the flame to medium and allow the potatoes to cook Once the potatoes is done to about 90%, add the spring onions and mix well. Add the red chilli powder and sugar Allow it to cook till the spring onions are a little tender. Keep a close tab as spring onions gets done fast. Serve hot.

Ingredients 1.5 cups of long grain rice Capsicum – 1 medium sized; cut into thin slivers Beans – A bunch; cut into slant slivers Carrots – 1 medium sized; cut into thin slivers Green peas – a cup Ginger – a inch, cut into thin strips Mince meat – 250 gms Eggs – 2 Salt Pepper Vinegar Soya sauce Lemon – 1 large sized Process: Cook the rice till it is 70% done. Drain and keep it in a sieve to drain any water. Take the rice in a large bowl and add the lemon juice and pepper and mix it well with the rice. Keep it aside. Beat the eggs and fry it in a pan and toss it vigorously with the spatula while frying, to get small pieces. Keep them aside Take oil in your wok (large pan), heat it. Add the ginger strips and fry for 2 mins. Add the meat and let it fry for about 5 mins Add the carrots and beans and fry till about 80% done. Add salt to taste at this stage. Add 2 tbsp of soya sauce and 2 tbsp of vinegar and continue frying on a high flame for a minute. Add the capsicum s...

Ingredients for 1 medium sized fish 1 medium sized pomfret Lemon - 1/2 Ginger paste - 1.5 tsp Onion paste - 1 tbsp A pinch of turmeric Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder - 1/4 tsp Tandoori Masala (Optional) - 1/2 tsp Salt to taste Marination: Squeeze lemon generously on the fish and sprinkle salt and apply well Keep aside for about 10-15 min Take ginger paste, onion paste, turmeric powder, Red Chilli powder & Tandoori Masala in a bowl and mix it well. Apply the mix on to the fish coating it nicely Allow this to marinade for as long as possible (preferably about 6 hours) Grilling: Brush the grilling rack with little oil Place the fish on the rack and brush oil on the top Grill it on high power for about 10 mins (will depend on the power capacity of your oven; but the grilling is done till the top side is well done). Turn over the fish, brush with little oil and grill for about 8-9 minutes. Serve with onion rings and lemon