Ingredients:

1. 3 chicken breasts.
2. 350g Egg noodles. I used thick ones.
3. Vegetables. (I used spring onions, red pepper, mushroom, chinese broccoli and bean sprouts)
4. 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:

1. 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).
2. 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.
3. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Mix the three together – Noodles, chicken and vegetables
5. 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.

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!

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.

Recipe ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. peanut oil
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. ginger, grated
• 1 1/2 cup Tofu, diced
• 3 Tbsp. Soya sauce
• Garnish of choice – Cilantro, Dill, Lime
• Salt and pepper to taste

Chop your ingredients

Firm Soy Tofu cut into 1 cm thick slices

Heat peanut oil and stir fry green onions, ginger and garlic.

Add Tofu and fry for few minutes. Then add Soya sauce and turn down the heat

Fry to desired level, flip, remove and soak excess oil with a tissue paper

Serve!

Sprinkle some salt and fresh ground pepper and squeeze some lemon. Add garnish (I used Coriander, Dill and Tomato.) I like my stuff deep fried (as you can see.) Since there was some extra oil in the pan, I friend some almonds and spinach in it. I love fried almonds. I also had some red kidney beans (rajmah from yesterday), Rye bread and lemon tea. That was my dinner for last night.

Give it a try, and let me know how it worked for you.