Author Archives: Ayesha Haq

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About Ayesha Haq

A versatile chef ...

Smoked Salmon Rolls

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One of my favorite and healthy snacks….. Love the taste of smoked salmon with capers, red onion and cream cheese, its like party in a bite!

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Ingredients:

  • 200 gms Smoked salmon
  • 1 cup softened cream cheese
  • ½ cup capers
  • 1 red onion, sliced

Method:

  • Take a thin slice of smoked salmon, put some onion and capers on it and then a dollop of cream cheese and roll it. Do the same with the rest of the smoked salmon and enjoy!

Chicken Croquettes

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This is a very basic recipe of chicken croquettes, Soon I will be uploading the variations as well, stay tuned!

Something for your weekend tea party…..

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Ingredients:

  • 120 gms butter
  • 2 tbspns four
  • 1 cup milk
  • Salt and coarsely ground black pepper to season
  • ¼ tspn white pepper
  • ½ tspn chicken salt
  • ½ tspn onion powder
  • ½ tspn garlic powder
  • ½ tspn mustard powder
  • 1 chicken breast (boiled and shredded)
  • 1 shallot chopped
  • 1 green chilli, chopped (optional)
  • Oil for deep frying

FOR BREADING

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 egg + 4 tbspns milk
  • 1 cup bread crumbs

Method:

  • Chop the shallot and shred the chicken breast. Best is to use hands to shred the chicken as it will give it a strand texture.
  • Melt butter in a saucepan and saute’ chopped shallot for 2 minutes or until it becomes translucent. Add flour and cook for 45 secs. Gradually add milk and use whisk to avoid lumps. Add onion powder, garlic powder and mustard powder and mix well. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.
  • Mix in the shredded chicken and green chillies and put aside to cool for 10 minutes or until it is easy to handle. Please do not refrigerate or cool completely otherwise it won’t be easy to mold it into croquette like shape.
  • Put some oil on your hands and take a small ball of the mixture and shape it into an oval, like an egg. This mixture would make around 12 croquettes.
  • Now get your breading station ready, flour (season with some salt and pepper or some Italian herbs), egg and milk (egg wash) and then bread crumbs. Now take one croquette, roll it into flour, dip it in egg mixture ad bread it with bread crumbs. Do the same with the rest and arrange them on a tray.
  • Now if you are frying, refrigerate them for 15 minutes before deep frying like I did. And then deep fry until golden brown and crispy. Serve hot with ketchup.
  • Or if you are baking, arrange them onto a baking tray linked with baking paper and bake for 25 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Serve hot with ketchup.

Fried Batere (Fried Quails) (Desi Style)

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Bater is Urdu name for quails. These are small chicken like birds with very less quantity of meat but they are very famous in Pakistani (specially Gujranwala City) and Lebanese cuisine. In Pakistan, there are 3 methods of cooking Quails, in curry, fried or barbecued. This is my version of fried quails. I add spices and herbs and fry with a thin coating of gram flour to give it crunchy outside.

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Ingredients:

  • 24 batere (quails, skinless)
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 – 1 ½ tbspns Red chilli flakes
  • ½ tspn turmeric powder
  • 1 tbspn cracked dried coriander
  • 1 tspn cumin seeds
  • 1 tbspn minced garlic
  • 1 tspn fenugreek leaves
  • 1 tspn carom seeds
  • 1 tspn garam masala
  • 1 tspn chaat masala
  • 1 cup gram flour
  • 2 green chillies (chopped finely)
  • 1 bunch coriander, chopped
  • 2 tbspns mint, chopped
  • 4 lemons (small size) (squeezed, seedless)
  • 2 tbspns vinegar
  • Oil or deep frying

Method:

  • In a mixing bowl, mix all the spices, lemon and vinegar into a thick paste.
  • Take a big, not very deep platter and pat dry the quails. Apply this spice paste to the quails and keep aside for 1 hour in refrigerator. This will help in marination and maintaining the shape of the bird.
  •  After one hour of refrigeration, add gram flour and mix with the juices, lemon and vinegar without adding any additional liquid.
  • Heat oil in a deep pan, wok or kadai and fry in batches depending on the size of your wok. 5 – 8 mins per quail on medium heat.
  • Serve them on a platter with some lemon slices, green chillies and fresh coriander.

Smokey Chicken Handi

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Chicken handi is one of the famous dishes of Pakistani desi restaurants. This is my version of boneless chicken handi and trust me this is the best one. Coal tempered boneless chicken cubes, cooking in light curry with basic and simple spices is a delight and a crowd pleaser on dinner table…. Try this recipe and let me know what you think by commenting below this post…..

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Ingredients:

  • 1.5 kg cubed boneless chicken (mix of thigh and breast pieces)
  • 3 medium – large size onions, sliced
  • 3 tomatoes, sliced
  • 1 cup yogurt
  • 2 tbspns ginger and garlic, freshly crushed
  • Green chillies (as you like)
  • Fresh coriander, chopped (1 cup)
  • 1 tbspn fenugreek leaves, fresh or dried
  • 1 cup oil + few drops for coal tempering

SPICES

  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tbspn red chilli flakes
  • 1 tspn carom seeds
  • 1 tbspn coriander powder
  • 1 tspn turmeric
  • 1 tspn garam masala
  • 1 tspn cracked black pepper
  • 1 piece of cinnamon
  • 2 cloves
  • 1 tspn cumin seeds

Method:

  • Heat oil in a deep pan and fry onion until they are translucent. Add ginger and garlic and fry until the mixture is golden brown. Add chicken and stir fry until it turns white. Add tomatoes and all the spices except black pepper and fenugreek leaves.
  • Cook on high flame until the tomatoes lose the stiffness. Add whipped yogurt and mix. Cover and cook on medium heat. Meanwhile put a piece of coal on flame so it is ready when needed.
  • After 15 minutes of cooking, check if the chicken is cooked and the oil has started to separate. If no, then cook for further 5 minutes. If yes, then turn off the flame, add cracked black pepper, green chillies, coriander and fenugreek leaves and temper it with coal.
  • Dish out and garnish with green chillies and coriander.

Chicken & Mushroom Swirls

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You can be really creative with puff pastry, it can have sweet fillings, savory fillings or anything you want. Chicken & muhroom swirls is my version of chicken puff pastry and every time I made it my guests loved them 🙂

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Ingredients:

  • 2 puff pastry sheets (thawed but chilled)
  • Some cream cheese spread (I use Philadelphia)
  • Some sesame and nigella seeds
  • 1 egg and 4 tbspns milk (egg wash)
  • Some parmesan or cheddar cheese

FOR CHICKEN FILLING

  • 1 chicken breast (boiled and shredded)
  • 1 cup chopped mushrooms
  • 2 green chillies chopped
  • 3 green onions chopped
  • 3 tbspns flour
  • 100 gms butter
  • 1 ½ cups milk
  • Salt
  • Cracked black pepper
  • ½ tspn white pepper
  • ½ tspn chicken salt

Procedure:

  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
  • Apply cream cheese on each puff pastry sheet and Cut each one of them into 6 long strips.
  • In a saucepan melt butter and add flour. Stir until the four is well combined with butter. Gradually whisk in milk and make a thick paste. Remove from flame.
  • Season with all the spices and add chicken and mushrooms to it. Mix and make a spread consistency mixture. Apply this mixture on each strip of the pastry sheet. Sprinkle some cheddar or parmesan and roll each strip into a swirl.
  • Place all 12 swirls onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Brush the egg wash on them, sprinkle some nigella seeds and some sesame seeds and bake for 30 – 35 minutes.
  • Take the tray out, let it cook for 5 minutes and the carefully transfer each swirl on the serving platter.
  • Serve hot.

Paneer Pakora

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Paneer Pakora is a famous vegetarian Punjabi street food in India. Cubes of Indian Cheese (Paneer) coated in crispy, spicy gram flour batter makes everyone drooling. Its yum!!!!

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Ingredients:

  • Paneer 1 kilo (cut into cubes)
  • Oil for deep frying

FOR BATTER

  • 2 cups besan/ gram flour
  • 3 tbspns chopped fresh mint
  • 2 large green chillies chopped
  • 3 tbspns green coriander chopped
  • 2 tbspns coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp zeera/ cumin seeds
  • Water to make medium consistency batter
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tbspn red chilli flakes
  • 1 tbspn anardana/ pomegranate seeds roughly ground

Procedure:

  • In a mixing bowl combine all the ingredients for batter and add water to make a medium consistency batter.
  • Add paneer cubes and coat each cube with the batter. Keep aside for 10 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oil in the fryer.
  • Now drop each battered cube separately in hot oil and fry until it is golden brown and crispy.
  • Take our the pakoras and serve hot with mint chutney or tamarind sauce or both.