Odisha Mo Odisha

 When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. You must have heard this saying many times during your life. Sometimes it would make sense too. To me, this mostly applies at work & in the kitchen. When we (I & my family) feel like having "something different" we depend on Mexican or Italian food. We are not huge fans of burger but Tacos & Enchiladas are favorite items.  This enchiladas recipe is easy in the sense of putting it all together. It does take a while to bake but not much. The trick is to make ahead the stuffing & buy store bought enchilada sauce. If these two things are available at hand, putting this dinner together is very very quick. These enchiladas have 3 main parts The stuffing The sauce The cheese mix What I used for Stuffing 3 cups of baby spinach 2 cups of peppers (I used sweet peppers) 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs Taco seasoning Salt + Pepper To make the stuffing just have to stir fry the chicken, spinach & peppers together ...

 Chicken & Veg puffs were the rich kids' samosas back in the day. Of course, now everyone can afford it. I remember when we settled for "singada" (samosas) & "bara" (Urad Wada) for our evening snacks, some of our (richer) friends would get puffs. These were buttery puffed pastry filled with spiced vegetables (mainly potatoes) and sometimes chicken. Of course, in Cuttack, chicken was not that popular with snacks. I am sure, later on everything became OK. So these puffs are actually a way to use up the left overs from a chicken keema biryani where as usual I made a lot of keema & did not soak as much enough rice. So I used up about 3/4th of the keema for the biryani & then the rest went into this buttery puffs.  These puffs are of course good for snacking but they are also a very good breakfast option. You can prep them ahead of time & then bake them while your guests have their drinks & they will serve as a very good appetizer for the dinn...

 While the holidays are really good time to make up for all the sugar & carbs that I lost over the last year, I was really craving for some simple flavorful chicken stir fry one day. But eating only chicken would mean that I missed out on my fibers for the day & that won't be good.. not good at all.  So thats why I decided to thrown in high fiber low carb Broccoli along with some chicken thighs (always thighs, never breast) and some sauces together to create this easy breezy stir fry that did not take much time but packed a punch. So much punch that even the kids ate it all up. Paired with just some white basmati rice this stir fry made for a really really good & easy lunch menu in our household.  What I used 1 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs - Cut into bite size pieces Marinated with Salt + Pepper + Ginger Powder + Garlic Powder + Onion Powder + Paprika + Soya sauce + Corn Starch (GF) (All eye-balled - Use 1 tsp first & add more if you think needed) 3...

 Chicken Keema in my mind is the most modest & down-to-earth ingredient in the Indian Non-Veg category. It is soft & has very less fat (super lean) and the best part is that it cooks so so quickly.  Making a chicken keema can just be a first step to multiple recipes but for this one I am going to stick to the basic Chicken Keema No-Gravy to go with Roti.  What I used 1 lb chicken Keema (Keema : Minced) - Get it from the butcher near you so that way they are fresh. I am not a huge fan of Minced Chicken from the frozen isle. 1/2 red onion - finely chopped (super fine) 2 tbsp Onion + Ginger + Garlic masala paste (The essential Odiya Masala Paste) 1 tomato finely chopped 1/2 cup mint leaves (Finely chopped) 1/4 cup coriander leaves (Finely chopped) Whole Garam Masala - 1 piece Cinnamon Stick + 2 Green Cardamoms Salt + Turmeric + Kashmiri Red Chili powder (All per taste) 2 tsp Chicken Masala (Any brand) 1 tsp Garam Masala Mustard Oil to cook the Keema A stainless steel...

 Recently I made Chicken Patra Poda , a traditional Odiya dish using "Besara" which is a special Odiya Masala paste made out of Mustard Seeds.  As usual, I had made extra. Here are the two special recipes that I made with the left over marinated chicken from Chicken Patra Poda recipe.  Approach was simple.  Look inside the Pantry/Refrigerator for available ingredients --> since chicken is the protein, search for a staple carb --> Pick rice, noodles, paste, vermicelli or veggies.  I picked boiled noodles (which were left over from some other noodles dinner) & then cooked rice (left over again).  For Chicken Besara Noodles... Heat a non-stick pan & add 1 tsp mustard oil. You do not need more because the marinated chicken has oil in it.  Once oil is hot, add the marinated chicken (Click here to see what the marinade contains) & cover & cook till the chicken is cooked through. This will take 12-15mins. Mix in between just to ensure t...

 Growing up in Cuttack, we were more like "Fish" people than "Chicken" people. If given a choice between Fish & Chicken, I'd pick Fish in a heart beat.  I grew up eating a variety of fish recipes both Odiya & Mixed-Odiya like curries, pan-fry, chop etc. But after leaving Odisha for job, getting fresh water fish was a far fetched dream. Especially because I went to Mumbai & Mumbai is on the ocean hence no fresh water fish. All we had was salt water fish. They were adorably tasty.. there is no doubt about it but I was not a huge fan like I was of fish back home. Like every non-veg food lover, I started to incline towards the next best option which was chicken and BOY was I in for a surprise.  Back home in Odisha, we used to eat chicken too. Mother made the traditional Odiya style curry on Sundays sometimes & the whole house (including her Saree) will smell divine. She also made chili chicken (the Indo-Chinese style). But that's it. She did not ...

 Since the last few days, I have been binge watching YouTube videos of some Odiya Vloggers in the US. There are some really entertaining folks who sing & dance & go about their lives while sharing ups & downs with us (their subscribers). Sometimes they get too personal but it's the age of Social Media so I guess that is perfectly fine if the creator is OK with that. These folks that I watch are mostly girls ..Actually they are all girls.. hmm.. time for me to expand the scope a bit?? may be !!.  Anyways, one of the girls, lives in the eastern part of US & has a HUGE Odiya friends circle who meet almost every week for a party or picnic or potluck and she makes these yummy (almost) contemporary style Odiya food recipes that it makes me want to go back to the east coast & make her my sister. Yes, I used to live there & the first chance I got I left because of the harsh winters. I just could not bear the mere thought of getting up at 7am in the morning ...

There are days when I long to eat chicken and then there are days when I DIE to eat to chicken. Does this happen to you too? In a typical Odiya kitchen, chicken has its days of glory usually on Sundays. But here in the US, we get to eat chicken anytime we want. Well, that does good & bad for us. Good because, well.. it's chicken and we all LOVE it. Bad because, how many times can you really cook chicken curry in a week? Same masala, same spice powders, same everything. Well, no more !! I have decided to keep chicken curry on the back burner (Metaphorically, not literally) and try out different types of chicken kassa (Kassa - Roasted with spices but no curry). What I used Boneless skinless chicken thighs (Cut into medium bite size) (2 Lbs) Onion-Ginger-Garlic masala paste (2 big spoons full) Mustard oil (2 tbsp + 2 tbsp) Bay leaf - 1 Salt + Turmeric Chicken masala powder (4 tsps) Garam masala powder (2tsps) Process Marinate the chicken with  sal...

I have been blessed with two amazing kids... one is pretty recent (2 & half months to be exact)... and the older one is 3 and half now... Being an American, who was born to Indian parents.. my son is still not used to eating very spicy food like any other Indian kid (in India) of his age...But he doesn't mind a little black pepper powder in his food... So I came up with this chicken curry specially for him, so that he knows the Indian flavors but without the red chili or too much spiciness. PS : The adults in my family also loved this version. They thought it was a nice change from the monotonous Indian style spicy chicken curry. What I used... 1.5 Lbs of chicken thing fillets - I cut them into but size pieces About 10 garlic pods - peeled & chopped fine 1 small red onion - chopped fine 1 small red plum tomato - chopped fine Cumin + Coriander powder - As per taste (I think I used about 2 tsps) Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp Salt + Turmeric Mustar...

My family... we love chicken... especially if it is spicy.. well... we are Odiyas and we love spicy chicken.. whats new in that??? New is... I have found a hack for making chili chicken which my family LOVED and ADORED.... so much that I have already made it twice in a 6 days range... Regular chili chicken calls for marinating the chicken (with may ingredients including egg) & deep frying it & then tossing it with bell peppers & sauces etc...  Well... I skipped the deep frying... skimped on marinating ingredients... added tons of veggies.. and viola.... Our super easy stir fry chili chicken was ready... We had it once with Roti & another time with Rice & Dal... both the times... we finished the whole pan full... Well yes.. we are Odiyas.. and we love spicy chicken !!!! What to use Chicken thigh fillets - 1Lb - Cut into small bite size cubes Green, Yellow, Red bell peppers - Cut into small bite size square pieces Red onion - 1 small - Cut i...