Dhania chicken

make a paste of coriander leaves, green chilli, ginger and garlic

mix it with curd and marinate the chicken with this for as long as you can

take oil, add cumin seeds, bay leaf and dry red chili

add julienned onion and fried till brown

add ginger garlic paste and fry

and cumin powder and red chilly powder and fry

add chicken and fry for a couple of minuted

add water and cook covered

once almost cooked, open the lid and let it dry up.

done!

Methi Chicken

One of our friends has a strange problem. His mother is a catholic Christian and dad a Telugu brahmin. And a strict vegetarian. Poor thing, he and his brother are staunchly non-vegetarian and are always on the lookout for meat since they don't get to eat it at home. Whenever one of them turn up, I always make it a point to cook some form of meat; or at least fish.
Yesterday he came over for dinner. And I made the customary non veg. This time it was methi chicken. I learnt about methi or fenugreek leaves from my mother. She is a staunch advocate of methi and uses the leaves- either fresh or dried. She makes this lovely fried fresh methi leaves, 'methi shaak bhaja' that is just beautiful. Methi chicken is one of her make do recipes that she usually makes for dinner when sudden unexpected guests turn up. It is super easy and requires only a few ingredients.

I improvised on my mother's recipe since my flatmate A will not touch it if it was made without the turmeric. I also added onions which my mother does not. The gravy is dry. Hence you might want to serve it with roti or pulao. Or else just make a simple daal and some plain rice like me.
Here's how to make this methi chicken.

Methi Chicken

Ingredients:
Chicken- 1 kg
Curd- 6 tablespoons
Onions- 2 medium, finely chopped
Tomato- 3 medium, chopped
Kasuri methi- 3 tablespoons
Turmeric- 1 teaspoon ( you can skip it if you want)
Garlic- 7/8 cloves, crushed
Green chilli- 4, slit into halves
Salt, freshly ground pepper, mustard oil

Method:
1. Wash the chicken. Marinate with the curd, crushed garlic, turmeric, and pepper. Let it rest for an hour.
2. Heat mustard oil in a pan. Fry onions in it till they are light brown in color.
3. Once the onions are fried, add the tomatoes and kasuri methi. Fry till the tomatoes are mushy.
4. Now carefully pick up the chicken pieces from the marinade, shake off the extra marinade and put them in the pan. Fry for 3 minutes.
5. Now add the marinade, the slit green chilies and half a cup of water.
6. Cover and cook till chicken is done.
7. You can add water, little by little, if it gets too dry. I am absolutely against adding a lot of water at one go.
8. Season well, and you are done!

First Post

Seven years back I willingly left my parent's home and came to Hyderabad. It was an almost overnight decision. For two years after that, I lived in my University hostel. Once my masters was completed, I decided to go back home, for eight months. And then, again back to Hyderabad.
Now, Hyderabad has become home. I live in a decent rented apartment in Hyderabad with two flatmates, S and A and our warrior cat, Xena. This place, we have been living here for the last one and a half years. This place, kind of feels more like home than a community living.
When I moved in on my own to the first house, all I had was a mattress, a pillow, a small plastic shelf, a rice cooker, books, clothes and some cooking things. Over the years, I have bought-recycled-painted stuff and now I do have a fully functional house. I love my house, especially when it is clean(which is most of the times given my terrible OCD). There is a certain comfort, which I think also comes from the people living around me, that I would like to come back to every single day. I have more stuff to buy for the house. An oven is on the top of my bucket list; and I think I will be able to manage one by the end of this year. I( and my flatmates) have built up our home, one thing at a time. I have improvised on things and made them useful. Even now, my major furniture are thermocol boxes covered in colored papers. I made book shelves and storage boxes out of them. You will see how to do that in following posts. I am generally in a perpetual state of being broke. I have worked for almost two years, on and off. But have zero savings; I am not a saving person as such. Right now, I am preparing for PhD entrance exams and NET.
I have two other blogs, both private. Those are my writings- poetry and short stories mainly. But I do not want anyone to read them. In case of this particular blog, I had a motive to not make it private. In this blog I am going to document my day to day living, as much as I can. Things I make or make-do, recycled art, recipes that are easy to make and some that are cheap too, living hacks etc. And by doing so, I hope to be of help to the many people out there, who are also living on their own.
Here's to a new blog and a new journey!
Xena says Hi!