Its merely a coincidence that I am blogging about food stories these days. But this one started as a conservative experiment with predictable stuff and it turned out very good so please try it. This recipe serves two persons.
Ingredients:
- 3 chicken breasts.
- 350g Egg noodles. I used thick ones.
- Vegetables. (I used spring onions, red pepper, mushroom, chinese broccoli and bean sprouts)
- Spices, seasoning and condiments. (Here’s the master list: Salt, pepper, lemon juice, turmeric, fennel seeds, chili flakes, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, coconut milk, coriander, basil leaves)
Preparation:
- Marinate Chicken breasts overnight in a mixture of: Lemon juice, salt, ginger (अालं), garlic (लसुण), turmeric (हळद), chili powder (तिखट), and fennel/anise seeds (बडीशोप).
- Boil 1 litre of salted water and add raw egg noodles to it. Cook for a couple of minutes until the noodles are firm but not hard. Drain and wash noodles with cold water.
- Chop vegetables of your choice. I have used spring onions, red peppers, white mushrooms, chinese broccoli, and whole bean sprouts since they were in the fridge today. But I am guessing that carrots, baby corn, bok choy, broccoli etc will also match nicely
Cooking:
- Heat oil in a pan and fry some red onions in it until transparent. Place chicken pieces (minus the marinating sauce) and cook completely until the pieces are tender but not hard.
- Heat oil in another pan and fry spring onions, ginger and garlic until you can smell the flavor. Throw in your vegetables and fry until they reach your desired texture. I prefer not to cook my vegetables to death.
- Add the marinating sauce that you saved from step 1 above. Add bean sprouts and spoonful of soy sauce for flavor. Add some coconut milk and stir the vegetables in the gravy for a couple of minutes.
- Mix the three together – Noodles, chicken and vegetables
- Add chili flakes, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Garnish with coriander and basil.
As you saw, there is no rocket science involved here. That’s how my food looked like finally. It was not only healthy but was also yummy. 
A simple recipe to recycle Coke that has lost its fizz. Just flavor some chicken with it!
Ingredients:
- 2 Chicken breasts (I use boneless, skinless)
- half can (175 ml) Coca Cola
- 2 tsp soy sauce
Coca Cola Chicken with some fried rice
Recipe:
1. Place chopped chicken breasts in a bowl and cover them with a mixture of coca cola and soy sauce. Leave the bowl in the fridge overnight (say 8 hours) for the chicken to thaw and marinate.
2. Heat a pan and simmer the chicken in coca cola until the food is cooked (about 20 minutes).
3. Season cooked chicken breasts with a seasoning of your choice. I simply used pepper and parsley.
The chicken has a mild cola flavor and goes well with potatoes or rice. I quickly made some ginger-mushroom fried rice from leftovers. It was delicious!
Finally, whats the point of making coca cola chicken if you don’t have a glass of coke to go with it!
Snack time!
Fried spicy moong daal (alternate spelling: mung dal, मुग डाळ) is one of the favorite snacks that Indians love to munch as a pastime while doing nothing. It is often used to accompany alcohol drinking sessions although I don’t prefer it that way. Moong Daal is grown in tropical Asian countries: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Southern China and Indochina. Germinated moong daal (bean sprouts) are used a lot in Asian cooking. But in this recipe, we will simply fry it the grain.
Fried Moong Daal – I love this snack
Ingredients:
Split (‘yellow’) Moong Daal, Cooking/Baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate), Oil, Water, Salt (black salt preferred), Lemon juice, Chaat Masala (optional).
Recipe:
First, soak the moong daal for 8 hours in water and add soda bicarb to it. I kept it overnight. Dry it when done. Next, heat oil in a frying pan until it is close to smoking. Deep fry dried moong daal until the color changes and the beans look crisp. Remove the fried mung dal and spread it over a napkin to soak excess oil. If you are paranoid about too much greasiness (like me), multiple oil soaking rounds will be required.
Mix the crispy daal with salt (to taste), lemon juice and chaat masala (चाट मसाला) – if you are a fan of spiciness. Note: My mom-made-spice-mix is the best in the world, but unfortunately you cannot have it! 
That’s it. Enjoy your snack – its great when you are hungry for ‘something’ but not ready for a meal yet.
Fried Moong beans – i am salivating already!
Further experimentation: Since I like roasted peanuts, I’m going to try roasting moong daal too (instead of frying it). You can try broiling it in the oven. If you do it, please let me know how it worked.
Photo by Gopal
Gopal is a photo-blogger friend from Bangalore, India and his blog Which Main? What Cross? showcases excellent street photography from Bangalore. The nice things about Gopal’s pictures is that they capture ubiquitous city elements in a very different and rather interesting way – such as the example above. He carries his camera, a modest Canon A530, with him all the time. I am a big fan of his pictures and it was kinda inspirational for my weekly Toronto Tuesday series.
So if you happen to be in Bangalore this month, do visit his photo exhibition, and maybe you’d like to have a photograph in your collection.
There are 30 selected pictures from Gopal’s blog.
Duration: Monday, May 4, 2009 to Sunday, May 31, 2009
Location: F & B Restaurant, Papanna Lane, St Marks Road, Bangalore, India
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