CHICKEN A LA MOI (best in world and easiest to cook)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

CHICKEN A LA MOI (best in world and easiest to cook)

Those chicken pieces that were marinated in masalas, curd etc? Defrost them. When it gets to room temperature, put a pan on the stove.

Once it gets hot, don't use any oil, just place the pieces of chicken in the hot pan.

Let them sizzle on a high flame for a minute.

Turn them over. Sizzle for a minute. Turn the flame down to 'Low', cover the pan with a cover or a plate and set your timer for 12-15 minutes.

After 12-15 minutes, turn the pieces over again, cover. Cook on the same low heat for 10 minutes this time.

Take the pieces out of the pan and place them in a dish.

QUICK GRAVY
Don't waste all that goodness of fat and spices and lovely, lovely gravy that is in the pan.

Add whatever is left in the packet that held the marinating chicken. Empty the remaining marinade into the pan with the fried marinade.

Add a little water,
a little tomato sauce,
a spritz of soya sauce,
add a pinch of cornflour powder dusted over the boiling liquid.

Stir gently as it thickens then pour it over the 'fried' chicken pieces in the dish. Stir them around so all the pieces are coated.

Chop fresh coriander(cotmir) sprinkle over.

You can slice some raw onion too and sprinkle salt pepper and a tsp of lemon juice, Mix it gently and spread over the chicken.

Eat. Enjoy. Best thing ever? No oil used for frying in this dish. Note: if the pieces stick to the pan sprinkle a little water (as much as you can hold in your hand), cover, then gently lift each piece with a spatula. Same, if the sauce sticks.

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Cooking's easy

Any fool can cook. All you need to know are a few basics. There’s this grand conspiracy to put the fear of God into those who are setting up a household for the first time. They are made to believe that they have to buy expensive ovens, hobs, freezers, grills, mixers, grinders, blenders and what not. It’s all nonsense. Cooking programmes on television and cookbooks make me laugh today. But I can tell you solemnly, I was not laughing when I started out. I sweated and slaved over a hot stove for three hours in the morning for lunch and three hours in the evening to fix dinner. Now? I cook once in three days and good stuff too.

Honestly just look at the cooking programmes. You have one guy who travels around the world cooking basic stuff, but putting such a spin on it, it makes you think cooking is impossible. You have chefs that arrange some lumps of stuff, top it with a sprig of some green herb, which you cannot eat anyways and the whole multicoloured mound sits in a puddle of vomit coloured liquid. And that’s supposed to be haute-cuisine. Pah, is what I say. Then there’s a woman who drives me round the bend, her job is to make food look and sound sexy, so she uses words like gleaming, glistening, plump, luscious and she gives the viewer this come-hither look that is really silly. Then she wears a tight dress with half her fat chest falling out, disregarding the fact that when you tadka anything the frying mustard can and will come flying on to you, cleavage or no cleavage. In a kitchen, it’s best to cover as much as possible. She cooks Indian food, because obviously it is the tastiest and also the easiest tasty food to cook. Notice I said tasty food, because English food is the easiest to cook, just sprinkle salt and pepper some vinegar and pop it in the oven or boil the stuff and voila, an English meal is ready. Pah, is what I say again. For our pampered Indian palates English food is something you would not feed to a stray dog.

So Lesson Number One put all those cook books away for now. Bring them out when you know your kitchen like the back of your hand. This is not a cook book. This is a beginner’s guide through the maze of your kitchen. It removes the mystery and fear and any feelings of inferiority those books give the beginner. You need to eat, so you cook. Nothing more. Nothing less.

For Kim n Danielle - Any Fool Can Cook

Tuesday, February 7, 2012