Asian Chicken Noodles

Chinese Chicken noodles are a delicious and a quick lunch/dinner that requires few ingredients that are easily available in your pantry. Also it gets from kitchen to dining table in a matter of few minutes. And its just a perfect meal for weekends. Egg noodles cooked with chicken and few veggies with a few sauces mixed in together with Garlic fried in a smokey flavor makes a perfect Asian style Noodles and they come out so amazingly delicious that you will never feel the need to order take out from a Chinese restaurant again. This dish is so mouthwatering that you will making it very often.

My kids can actually eat these Chicken noodles for every other meal. These Chicken noodles are pretty easy to make, I usually add Onions, scallions and green chilies. You can add broccoli and bell peppers as well if you feel like. Usually I also add in corn kernels at times and something that I feel adds a lot of flavor to this dish are Peanuts. The key to preparing perfect noodles is to cook everything separately and mix things together and then add in the mixed sauce. Also, one thing that I feel makes these noodles perfect are cooking them with tongs specially when you mix things together.

One of the reasons why Chinese food does not taste the same at home as in restaurants is that ingredients that are put in Chinese noodles, including the sauce, all are cooked on high heat. The food cooked on high heat and that kind of gives a smoke flavor to the ingredients and the smoked or charred flavor is absorbed pretty fast. A lot of people suggest using a Wok but honestly, I don’t use one and feel my Asian Takeaways tastes better than homemade ones is the smokey charred flavor in the dish. Ingredients are tossed on high heat, really quickly to give the flavor. It sometimes feels impossible to recreate the same flavor at home, of course without the flavor enhancers and God knows all what goes into your food to make it taste so good, but honestly, the food made at home tastes much more fresh and if made using the right recipe with all ingredients in proportion will make a mouthwatering dish.

Now its not possible for everyone to have a Chinese Wok at home. But its always better to cook in a pan that is shaped like a dome. It gives you more surface area to work. For making noodles stir fry or Rice stir fry, a large pan is always good. Tossing in high heat with sesame Oil adds the smokey flavor to the noodles. Enjoy!!!

Sambhar Masala

Sambhar Masala is generously used all around India to make Sambhar. We all know this and me trying to write this here just sounds very silly. But, the fact is that Sambhar Masala can be used for a lot of dishes besides Sambhar as well and the flavors that it produces in a dish are delicious beyond words.

I love experimenting with flavors and Sambhar Masala is one of the best “go to” masalas. Try adding it to your chicken, Idlis or Rajmas and you will be super amazed with the results.

There are loads of different companies selling Sambhar masala in the market. I still prefer making my own at home and you could try and see how simple it is. This masala can be stored in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Chicken Banjara Tikka

It’s just impossible to be Kebab fans and not try different recipes of kebab. It’s sad when I see people liking different kebabs at restaurants, but not being able to make the difference out in flavors. Flavor have so much to say, every spice blends in uniquely with another spice creating delicious stories. Every place has their own f

These kebabs have a very nutty flavor with low to moderate spice level. They are great as side dishes or for a coffee/tea party.  This dish is very different from the regular kebabs. The marination is very earthy, fresh and the taste of each spice can be distinguished.

I believe some of the best, healthiest and quick kebab or tikka recipes come from the Nomads and I have a valid reason for it. Nomads were travelers, never settled at one place for long. So, basically they always had fresh food, since they didn’t have ways to store their meat and they must be grinding their spices right before it needs to be used. A fact that most of run away from these days is that frozen food tastes as good as fresh, which isn’t true at all. But, what breaks my heart even more is when I see people knowing something deep down but still not agreeing to it.
You could be in the best shape of your life, but your internal organs might be reacting to all the junk you feed it, the preservatives, the chemicals are taking toll and ruining your internal mechanism and the only way for you to set it right is by eating good and clean food.

Well, now the story…So, generally when I try a dish for the first time, its always an experiment and since I hate wasting food, I make sure the quantity is little. I made these kebabs and my little one was barely 4 years old. But, unlike most 4 year old, he had very strong taste buds and was very vocal about his food choices. So, Banjara tikka was served and he loved them, but since I had not made much, they finished faster than I could blink. My little one started throwing a tantrum for more and started crying when told that we didn’t have any more. That’s when I realized that I had some left over kebabs from previous day, which looked similar in color. I put them on the skewer the same way and got them to the dining table. He stopped crying, picked up the skewer, smiled but didn’t look too sure, so, he smelt it, Yes! you read it right, he smelt it and put it back saying,”its not the same kebab” and started crying again. We couldn’t stop laughing and I promised him to make the same kebabs for dinner the next day, which I did.

This dish is simple, it contains peanuts so you will have check for a substitute if you are allergic to nuts.