Chicken Minced Creamy Pasta

This sure is a crowd pleaser. The quantity mentioned here will be enough for 6 people.

Macaroni (dry): 400 grams

Cook it in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse under running water. keep it aside.

Minced Chicken: 400 grams

Onion: 2 medium diced

Garlic: 10 cloves minced

Tomato Puree: 6 tbsp

Chilli Flakes: 1 tbsp

Pepper Powder: 1 tbsp

Oregano or pizza seasoning: 4 tsp

Amul or any  Fresh Cream: 1 cup

Milk: 1 cup or more

Cheese: generous helping for garnish.

Heat oil in a pan and saute the onion and garlic till wilted.

Add the chicken, tomato puree, the chilli flakes and pepper powder, required salt and let it get cooked.

When it is done, lower the flame and add the oregano or pizza seasoning and give everything a toss.

Now add the cooked pasta, fresh cream, mix everything, then add the milk. Sometimes you might need more than a cup of milk.

 Make sure the dish isn't too dry. It should have a creamy wet texture. So add milk according to that.

Do a taste test, if needed add a little more of salt and the oregano or pizza seasoning.

Take off fire and garnish with a lot of grated cheese.

Enjoy!!!!

Chicken Pie (With leftover baked/Roasted Chicken)

Chicken baked/Roasted leftovers: 1/2 kg shredded
(If you dont have leftovers, just pressure cook chicken with pepper and salt or roast it in oven with pepper and salt)

For White Sauce:
Maida: 1 tbsp
Butter: 1 tbsp
Milk: 400 ml
Pepper and salt: as needed

Potato Layer
Potato: half kg
Butter: 2 tbsp
Milk: 1/4 cup tbsp
Salt and Pepper: as needed.

Cheese Grated: 1/4 to 1/2 cup

From my personal experience, do not use cheddar cheese, it browns very fast. You can use regular block cheese grated.

Chicken Layer:
Grease a baking dish and layer the chicken shredded at the bottom.

White Sauce Layer:
In a sauce pan, melt 2 tbsp butter, add the maida to it.
Mix it properly on low heat and when the raw smell is gone (pls do not brown it) add the  milk to it and whisk properly till you get a thick sauce. Add pepper and salt to this.
Pour this over the chicken layer.

Potato Layer:
 Pressure cook the potatoes and mash it properly and add butter and milk to it to make a smooth paste
Add salt and pepper to this mix.
Now add the potato mash on top of it and smooth it with a spatula.
Sprinkle grated cheese on top (generously!!!! for better taste)
Bake for half hour (more or less) depending on the oven, the potatoes have to brown a bit (that is the idea)
Slice and enjoy it warm with butter toasted garlic bread.

Apple Crumble Pie

This is one of the easiest desserts you can ever make. But make sure to have it warm...it makes such a world of difference.... again, Never eat it cold... :). And it is somewhat like the Apple Pie Ive posted earlier but definitely easier.......

For the base:
Apples: 400-500 gms
Sugar or Caramelized sugar that u get in supermarkets here in India: 50 gms
Flour: 1 tbsp
Cinnamon Powder: 1 tsp

Peel, core and slice the apples small. Mix in with all the other ingredients.
Slightly grease a baking tray and layer the apple mix at the bottom. Keep aside.

For the Crumble top:
All Purpose Flour: 200 gms
Butter: 125 gm
Sugar: 150 gm (totally upto u, make it less if u dont want it too sugary. I taste the mix as I go)

Rub all the ingredients till you get a mix that resembles bread crumbs.
Press it on top of the apple layer.
Preheat oven 180C.
Keep the prepared dish and bake for 50 minutes or till done. I promise u, ur kitchen will smell like heaven at this point.
Once out, just allow it to cool for sometime and then have it warm.

Fish Pie

King Fish/Seer Fish - 500 gms (I used 6 medium slices)
Green Chillies: 4 slit
Ginger: 1 tbsp Juliennes
Pepper Corns: 1 tbsp
Milk: 500 ml
Potatoes: 750 gm (I used 6 medium sized potatoes)
Salt: as needed
Water: to boil/steam
Butter: 3 tbsp (for mixing with mashed potato)
Green Peas frozen: a handful
Eggs; 3
Maida/All purpose flour: 2 tbsp
Butter: 2 tbsp (for the white sauce)
Pepper and Salt: as needed (for the white sauce)
Grated Cheese: as needed

First, take the 500 milk in a wide pan, add the green chillies, pepper corns and ginger to it.
Place the fish pieces and once the milk starts boiling, simmer it until the fish is just cooked through.
Remove the fish, strain the milk to remove the ginger, green chilly and pepper corn and keep aside the milk.
Now, remove the skin from the fish, flake the fish and keep aside.

Boil the 3 eggs.
Peel and quarter the potatoes and boil it in salt water.
I usually steam the potatoes, so that the eggs will get boiled in the water below while the potatoes, without losing its nutrients gets steamed in the steamer plate.
Once done, open the lid and keep, so that all the water from the potatoes are evaporated.

While the water is getting evaporated, we will make the white sauce.
In a sauce pan, melt 2 tbsp butter, add the maida to it.
Mix it properly on low heat and when the raw smell is gone (pls do not brown it) add 3/4 th of the fishy milk (the one weve kept aside after cooking the fish) to it and whisk properly till you get a thick sauce. Add pepper and salt to this after you add the milk Keep this safe in the pan itself after taking off fire.

Now the water would have evaporated. Add the rest of the fish milk to the potatoes, add the 3 tbsp butter and mix it properly making it really creamy (add more milk if needed, but usually wouldnt have to) But use all your hand muscles and make the potatoes real creamy. (dont forget to do a taste test and add more salt if necessary.  Now add the green peas to it and properly mix everything.

Preheat your oven 170C
Grease your pie dish with butter/Olive Oil
Layer the flaked fish evenly.
Pour the white sauce over it , use a spatula to distribute it evenly
Slice each egg in to 4-5 (vertically) pieces and place it on the white sauce with yellow side up.
Now add the potato mash on top of it and smooth it with a spatula.
Sprinkle grated cheese on top (generously!!!! for better taste)
Bake for 1 hour (more or less) depending on the oven, the potatoes have to brown a bit (that is the idea)
Slice and enjoy it warm with Bread or dinner rolls.

Apple Pie

This is for my Hubby. This is his absolute favourite dessert.

For the Crust:

Maida/All Purpose Flour: 2 1/2 cups

Cooking Butter: 1 cup ( straight from the fridge)

Sugar: 2 tbsp

Salt: 1/2 tsp

Cold Water; 1/4 cup

For the Filling:

Apple: 6

Sugar: 1/2 cup

Cinnamon Powder: 1 tsp

Lime Juice: of 1 lime

Salt: 1/2 tsp

Cooking Butter: 2 tbsp

Corn Flour: 1 1/2 tbsp

 Step 1:
Get the Apples ready. (peel first, slice them like in the picture. Throw away the core)
Mix the apples with the sugar, cinnamon powder, salt and lime juice.
Keep it at room temperature for about an hour or more.
In a large bowl, place a strainer and dump the apples into the strainer and leave it like that for 25 minutes.
Mix the 2 tbsp butter with the juice you got and on medium heat let it boil and reduce to a thick consistency.

Step 2

Mix all the pie crust ingredients and make a dough.

Divide the dough into two, cover with a plastic cling wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.

Take one portion after an hour and roll it out like you do for chapatis. (but thicker ofcourse)

Keep dusting flour so that it doesnt stick.

Gently transfer it into a pie pan.

Cover with plastic wrap and it goes into the fridge again.

Take the 2nd portion of the dough and roll it out and place it on a parchment paper.

Cover it with plastic wrap and place this also in the fridge.

Step 3

Now transfer the drained apples into a large bowl and mix the corn flour into it.

Now pour the reduced syrup over it and mix everything properly.

Take the 2nd portion (the top part) of the dough and place it outside for 10 minutes.

After that take out the chilled pie crust that is already in the pie pan.

Pour the Apples and the syrup onto it like in the pic below

Carefully place the top crust on the apples and seal the edges with a fork like in the pic

Make a few slits from the centre of the pie out towards the edge for the steam to escape.

Cover with a plastic wrap and this goes to the fridge again.

or you can make long strips out of the second rolled out dough and weave a lattice top.

Step 4

Preheat your oven to 220C for about 10 minutes

Place the pie dish on the middle rack.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until the juice starts to bubble through the slits.

Remove from oven and let it cool for 3 hours before cutting them

Heat it up before you serve or you can serve it at room temperature. I love it warm. :)

Recipe Courtesy: Joy Of Baking

Shepherd's Pie/ Cottage Pie

Shepherd's pie is a casserole made with lamb, vegetables and potatoes. Americans make it with beef and the pie made with beef is usually called Cottage Pie. You can add your own ingredients to suit to your taste. (like carrot, celery, mutton, your choice of spices etc)

Here, Iam going to key in my mom-in law's way of making the classic Shepherd's Pie.

Beef: 1 kg

Onion: 2 medium diced

Ginger: 1 inch minced

Green Chillies: 6-7 chopped

Butter or Oil: 2 tbsp

Salt and Pepper: as needed

Grated Cheese: half to 1 cup

Tomatoes; 2 sliced round

Potato: 1 kg

Butter: 2 tbsp

Milk: 2 tbsp

Salt and Pepper: as needed.

 Pressure cook the potatoes and mash it properly and add butter and milk to it to make a smooth paste

Add salt and pepper to this mix and keep aside.

Heat Oil/butter in a pan and saute the onions, ginger and green chilies till they are wilted.

Add the cooked and minced beef to it, add required salt and pepper ( half tbsp each) and combine everything together.

Preheat oven 200 C

Grease an oven proof dish with butter and first layer the beef mix.

On top of it, layer the sliced tomatoes.

Top it with the mashed potato mix. You can again brush the top with butter.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

Bake for 30 minutes or till the potatoes turn golden brown.

Serve warm.