Smoked chicken and avocado open sandwich

This recipe is very simple and fresh!! Personally, I had lost my appetite for a few days because of a bad cough and cold, and I was surprised at myself for not thinking about food. Thankfully I am back and thinking about food again. What better way to start than a healthy and tasty salad sandwich to jump start my appetite?

Smoked chicken is according to me the best tasting form of chicken. It is easily available where I live and I use it in everything. If you can't find it, substitute with chicken breast but then again...all the hassle of trying to get the correct flavor balance into the breast meat can be tough as we all know how tasteless chicken breast can be if not done well!!

What you will require

• good fresh bread
• smoked chicken breast
• ripe avacado
• tomato
• dried berries

Prep

• Remove the chicken from the packet and place it in a pan with one cup of water and let it simmer on low heat with a lid on. Once the water dries up, repeat the process again. (If the breast meat is too thick you may have to repeat this 3 times ...no one likes raw chicken ) 

• Wash the tomatoes and slice them thin and let them blot on a paper towel to remove excess water.
• scoop out the flesh of the avocado and make a mash using a fork.
• Soak the dried berries in some luke warm water to help them plump up and become sweeter. I have used dried blackberries and strawberries. (available at INA)
• Toast your bread slightly with a small amount of butter or olive oil right before you serve!!

Assemble as shown in the picture :)

I will enjoy my sandwich with freshly made mango smoothie. Have a great day and remember to cook from your heart !!!

pesto chicken with caramelized brussel sprouts

As you can see, my plating skills are like abc, but nothing can stop me from cooking, not terrible plating skills and definitely not the horrible weather of Delhi!!
Fresh basil always inspires me to make pesto. Today I will make pesto chicken and caramelized brussel sprouts for dinner, you can replace the side with some other vegetables of your choice.

 Pesto chicken

what you will require

• chicken breast
• pesto
• toothpicks

 You can buy pesto in the store  but I have made my own pesto using

• Basil (half of what you see in the picture)
• Garlic (3-4 cloves)
• Olive oil (1 tbsp)
• walnuts and almonds (you may even use pine nuts or cashew), handful.

First I made my pesto using the ingredients above, it yields a cup but I need only one spoonful of it for my chicken breast. Put all ingredients together and add some sea salt/ regular salt and blend it to make a paste.

Now, using a sharp knife, gently slice your chicken breast 3/4th of the way to make a pocket to stuff the pesto as shown below.

Using some wooden toothpicks, seal the chicken. 

After this, you can grill it or pan sear it like me on low heat in some olive oil. Use a lid so that the chicken remains moist and juicy. It took me around 20 minutes to cook it and I kept sprinkling small amounts of water to the chicken to help it cook. (do not use large quantities of water at once...it just wont work)...see the amount of water i used each time below in the picture.

 Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes. Slice and serve !!





caramelised brussel sprouts 

What you will require.

• Brussel sprouts
• pancetta/bacon
• one small onion

Cut the pancetta/ bacon as shown. (you may use a scissor for bacon)

In a pan, fry the pancetta in 2 drops of olive oil (just to help in rendering the fat from the meat)

Remove the meat, get rid of excess oil and throw in the onion and let them brown for about a minute before adding in the brussel sprouts. Keep the heat on medium and put a lid on for about 2 minutes.

After that, mix in the meat you fried before and put a lid on till the sprouts cook (for a crunchy texture, I kept mine on medium heat with the lid only for about 4 - 5 minutes.

Serve!!

I really enjoyed this meal ...  I hope you have fun in the kitchen and enjoy an amazing dinner too.

Remember to cook from your heart !!

Air fried potato wedges and mini eggplant sausage cups

 

I am so happy to be blogging after a super long break. I just received my Philips Air Fryer by post today and what an amazing technology to work with. It was difficult to decide what to try and make first when there were a thousand ideas popping up in my grey matter. It was like having to choose a holiday destination from anywhere in the world map. 

Basics are very important, and this I have learnt the hard way from life's many mistakes. The Air Fryer came with a handy 25 recipe booklet (so cool that different countries have different recipe booklets).

The one I got has a lot of famous Indian recipes, so out of genuine interest I decided to download pdf copies of booklets from other countries. I wasn't surprised to see all of them start of with potatoes....variations of it.

Therefore it was only fair that I start with a potato snack and maybe a non vegetarian snack just so the meat lovers don't skip this page on the blog ;) 

You can read about the air fryer  here http://www.usa.philips.com/c-m-ho/cooking

Recommended if you love fried food just like the kids at home!!

I will enjoy the world cup kick off  with my air fried babies !!

Potato wedges 

what you will require:

•  potatoes
• salt 
• pepper
• chilli flakes
• one tbsp canola oil

Cut up the washed potatoes with their jacket on into wedges and drop them in boiling water for about 5 minutes.

Strain the potatoes and wipe with a paper towel. Leave them in the cool in the fridge for 30 minutes and after that  add the seasonings and oil and mix well.

Wedges are now ready for the air frying.(don't worry about how one tbsp of oil looks so oily ....the air fryer will remove excess oil from your food. Once the air fryer has been preheated pop them in. The manual says it  requires 20 minutes at 180 degrees for good results !!

 remember to give it a shake in 10 minutes. 

See how the excess oil is all below and not in your food !!

Serve

mini eggplant sausage cups 

what you will require

• mini eggplants
• some powder cheese
• breadcrumbs
• any sausage you love ( the sausage has oil and salt so no need to season)

Cut the eggplants and scoop out the center to make room for the sausage filling. (sausage filling : chopped sausage and cheese mixture). 

The sausage I used was very well seasoned Italian sausage but I still added some more dried oregano and gave it a shower of breadcrumbs for a golden finish. 

 Stuff your vegetable (you may use any vegetable to stuff the sausage instead of eggplants) and put it into the air fryer on 180 degrees for 8 minutes only.



Serve


I am going to enjoy these delights while you look up the air fryer and try  to decide if you should get it too !!

good night dear friends, hope the foodie in you is enjoying my blog posts  !!
 Remember to cook from your heart !!