Sesame-Orange Grilled Chicken

Helos everyone! Here I am, back in the kitchen, happy to be cooking again! Today I present a unique recipe – Crispy Orange Grilled Chicken. It essentially is nothing but grilled chicken breasts, but cooked with some crazy marination and sides. We had some chicken breasts in the fridge and I was not enthu enough to dice them and prepare Chinese Schezwan Stir-Fry, and hence looked up on the internet for something new. And this is what I came across!

You would need:

• ½ kg (boneless) chicken breasts (2 to 3, depending on their size)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons oil (I mixed groundnut oil and olive oil)
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup sesame seeds
• ½ cup toasted breadcrumbs OR rusk OR biscuits OR bread-sticks
• 1 full orange/mandarin
• ½ cup orange marmalade (yes, you’ve read it right!)

For the sides, you would need:

• 8-10 baby potatoes OR 2 regular sized potatoes
• 1 carrot
• 1 tomato
• Few drops of oil
• Dash of salt and black pepper

1. Defrost your chicken if you purchased frozen chicken, and wash it well with water. Pat dry with paper napkins.
2. If the breasts are thicker than 1cm each, cut each breast along the thickness into two thin breast slices. Make 3-4 cuts on each of the chicken breasts.
3. In a wide bowl, grate about 1 tablespoon zest from the orange and add the marmalade to it.
4. Add the soy sauce, oil, red chilly flakes, salt and black pepper to it and mix well.
5. Place the chicken breasts and turn a few times to coat them well. Let this sit for a while (30 minutes is enough, but at least 15 minutes if you can’t wait).
6. Saute the sesame till they become crisp and turn brown. Watch out while you roast them, they can get burnt very easily.
7. Crush the rusk/biscuits/breadsticks into fine powder and mix in the toasted sesame seeds.
8. Set your oven to pre heat to 200 C / 400 F. If you are using a microwave oven in the grill/convection mode, use the higher of the two racks.
9. In the meanwhile, set the potatoes and carrot in a pressure cooker, or boil them till soft. Peel the carrots before boiling and the potatoes after boiling!
10. Take out the marinated breast pieces one by one and dip them in the crushed rusk+sesame; turn to coat both sides. Place them on the rack and then into the oven.
11. Dipping the marinated chicken in rusk+sesame not only stops the marinade from dripping, but also makes a crispy grilled chicken.
12. Grill for 10 minutes, remove, flip the pieces and put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
13. While the chicken is getting grilled, cut the tomato into 4 pieces and stir fry a little bit on a pan in a few drops of oil.
14. Toss the boiled vegetables and the tomato slices in a pinch of salt and pepper.
15. Set the sides on your plate and add in some orange slices.
16. Serve the chicken straight out of the oven, along with the sides and enjoy with a tall glass of coke :)

Difficulty: Low
Inflation: Moderate
Calories: Low to moderate
Eat when: Dinner
Yumminess Factor: You may just love to dip that chicken in some mustard sauce and put between a sliced burger bun!

Buon Appetito!

I just love cooking fresh fruits and adding them in as main ingredients in regular food :) Actually, I just love fruits!

This part of my life, this little part…

Some days back, I briefly mentioned about my 4th attempt to lose weight.

The first one was way back after class 10th when I joined gym to get rid of the boredom of summer vacation. Obviously it was hopeless, as there was a wonderful bakery right in front of it. Every trip to the gym would add a vegetable puff and sometimes a muffin in my tanker. Did not work. The next attempt happened to be a compulsion to hit the gym and lift some weights. I had pissed off some hostel seniors in my second year at college, and they wanted me to suffer. Seeing my weight, they were confident that I could transform into Mr Muscles and lift weights in the inter-hall (inter-hostel) championships. So, off I was, made to run 2.2 km every morning at 6, and then lift some heavy weights in the gym. Lost 8kg over a period of 3 months. I had hit a local minima and weighed 72kg! Wonderful, I thought. Soon after, life moved on and I got a girl friend (who now happens to be my wife), and like every content man in the world, my happiness reflected best in my belly! At graduation, I was about 84-85kg. Okay, bearable.

First job, and excitement :) Free food, tons of biscuits, juices, bachelor years, eating out everyday. But the biggest “blow” came when I was asked to go to the US and work there for 3-4 months. Jan 2009, I was back and with a very loud bang. 92kg. Unbelievable. Third attempt to lose some weight started with going to the society gym. There was only one treadmill, and a lady (I think she was my neighbour) would keep walking on it at 5kmph for an hour at exactly the same time that I wanted to. My reasons. Anyway.

Rewind many years back, to the late 90s and early 2000s. My dad was after my life to do something about my growing weight. Being a Yoga expert himself, he kept recommending me to do some aasanas, a few every day, to get fitter overall. I ignored, like any growing teenager would. I was happy to eat the sumptuous Gujarati meals in school everyday, and then hog on vadapavs and the like, during junior college years.

However, things changed at the end of last year. I work at a pharma company, and every year we celebrate a Being Healthy week, globally. I was least interested – the cafeteria served good food (better than that at my previous job), and the post-lunch cold coffee from the Georgia coffee machine was the perfect dessert! Then I met a colleague who was working hard to shed some kilos for her wedding. The loss, though small, was visible! I asked, and what happened next led to a much much fitter Aditto 11 months later!

I was recommended to visit a diet consultant, who had helped many in the office lose a lot of weight in a healthy sustainable manner. And I did. The last 11 months have been full of healthy eating, no crash dieting, lots of traveling, lots of walking and very little gymming. I changed what I ate, and how much. Added 30 minutes of walking 3-4 days a week, and that was it! Continued till I hit the plateau late in October, when my body refused to lose any more weight. Since then, it has only been the gym 3-4 days a week, specifically to tone the loosened muscles and burn some more belly fat. I came down from a gross weight of 92kg, to 75kg (and from a waist size of 39in to 34in), though I must add that our target was 67kg. Take a look at the chart below (sorry I cannot keep the nerd in me away from my blog for long) – The left end is Jan 1st, and the right end is Nov 10th. Those little local peaks that you seen on the way down, are my trips to the Nordics, Turkey and Western Europe, Mumbai, Kolkata and Pune… when I ate to my heart’s content :)  The plan was to wrap up in July, but it took much longer due to those breaks.

There is a lot more travel coming up. Heavy food consumption will happen, and the graph may not look good. Hence, today!

Do you remember this blog post I wrote last December ‘Circa 2011’? I had indicated that I would have a New Year Resolution for 2012. My resolution for 2012, was ‘to lose weight’, and weight I lost! It feels good to hear comments from people you do not meet everyday, people you do not talk to often, and people who have only seen you in photos! Okay I also heard comments from friends that they miss the chubby Aditto they knew last year! But trust me, not being chubby, is better than taking a 5/20mg-combination-pill of anti-hypertensives every evening!

All that awesome food you have seen over the last few months on my blog and Facebook timeline, has been consumed by myself! I swear! I haven’t given up on my love for ice creams, or chocolates. I have had the most chocolates ever in my life this year, but I have also had the most amount of chicken ever in my life this year! Oh, and the most number of eggs as well!

We (my diet consultant, and I) will re-start our journey to achieve that final goal of 67kg, but only in the new year! Now I get about one whole month of merry eating, cooling off and giving my body a very well deserved break!

The person who deserves the credit really, for helping me out in a well defined, and organized step-by-step manner, is of course Zohra, my consultant!

Thanks to all you awesome people on Twitter, for having those discussions on healthy lifestyle, better eating and staying fit! Without you guys, it would not have been motivating enough to continue for this long.

Thanks Roshnai, for supporting me and helping me stay focused. Thanks for letting go those twice-a-week restaurant dinners, fancy lunch buffets and yummy desserts. I tried my best to recreate the magic at home :) I know it was frustrating for you at times, but thanks for holding on! *Hugs*

All you awesome branded trousers purchased over the last few years that do not fit me anymore – Thanks for being with me through this journey. It was fun being with you for the last few years. You got to travel a lot with me, didn’t you? I know, even I wasn’t expecting to part with you all this soon, but then I guess, we need to! Alas, your companion shirts and t-shirts would stay back for some more days, while I lose that last bit of belly fat. I hope you find needy and worthy persons to take care of you next year. Au revior, or may be not!

While you guys must look forward to many more healthy and yummy recipes right here, and tips to stay healthy, on Twitter, I am sincerely hoping to stay at this for now, and get fitter next year!

This part of my life, this little part… is called “happiness”!

Is winter here already?

Waking up early to remove the dough from the fridge on a cold morning, is a lot of fun. Trust me. I had prepared the dough the previous night and put it in the fridge for its first rise. Today, it is 15 C in Hyderabad and I am feeling quite cold. Happy about this, honestly :) Only thing I am worried about now is that the dough is taking more time than it should for its second rise.

Looks like this is my first ever post on a Diwali day~ So while the dough takes its sweet time to rise, I thought, I’d go online and give you a few updates.

Finally, November is here! I am not very sure why I was waiting for it so long, but I am surely not complaining. The weight-loss programme is finally, over! That means, I am also back to the normal diet I had wayyyy back in 2011. Yes, that is how long it took – could have been much faster had I not traveled so much. And no, I am not getting on the weighing scale till December 1st <rule #1>.

Now talking of traveling, this is the reason why I was waiting for November, may be! I am looking forward to traveling to Kerala and Gujarat this month. If you did not know, I am one who used to collect flight tickets, boarding passes, train and bus tickets etc. Now that I do not do that, I still keep a track of every time I’ve flown. So this month, I will be on my flight numbers 21, 22, 23 and 24, visiting destinations numbered 11 and 12, and 10th new destination (all numbers for 2012 only). Also, while we are at numbers – starting yesterday, each week at work this month will be just 2-3 days long :) Fantastic, isn’t it?

Talking of winter and travel, I am really waiting for our visit to Bandhavgarh and Kanha Tiger reserves in the last week of December. Those places are known to have the highest concentration of tigers in India and thankfully, the government has lifted the ban on tourism. I am sure tourism is doing more good than harm out there! The most exciting thing should however be – camp fires! Can’t remember when was the last time I enjoyed a camp fire. I think it was back in 2004 during the first year NCC camp at Kalaikonda Air Force Base.

Okay, confession of the day is that the bread just got done, and turned out to be a disaster. I should not have used the loaf tin for baking it and should have stuck to using the pan shaped tray instead. Not the best thing to do on a Diwali morning, I say!

Alright, so it is already post noon, and much after I started writing this post today. I will continue in this pseudo present tense, though. Twitter has taken away the joy of blogging about a lot of petit and unimportant-to-everyone-else things such as facts that I just played badminton for an hour and then cooled myself off with a glass of chilled pomegranate juice! Such updates are only for the micro-blogging platform these days. Wattodo?

Anyway, the point is, winter is here, and there is so much to look forward to before we wrap up this year! I had planned to do a Q3 review of 2012 since I had planned to change a few things that did not go so well last year, and wanted to check my progress, but I will just wait and let the year get over. Wait for the photos, and if you want to spend some more time on the question I asked at the end of the last para, you may, but trust me, the answer is still, very much, 42!

Wanna make some caffè latte at home?

I have waited long enough to put this recipe on my blog, and I guess this is the perfect time! Though I am extremely sensitive to any forms of caffeine, I know a lot of people who love to have coffee at night and then also have a wonderful sleep! But I really love coffee. In fact, I have a huge The Oatmeal poster at home that gives some cool coffee facts.

So we all love coffee, don’t we? And we Indians, like ours with milk – yeah a little extra won’t hurt! The recipe that I am sharing with you today, is one of the simplest recipes to make a frothy yet not so milky (for the calorie conscious) latte, that tastes yummy too!

There are a few recipes on the internet that need beating sugar with instant coffee granules and a spoon of warm water endlessly, and then add milk. Let me tell you honestly, that method is not foolproof and does not work in all circumstances. For example, it won’t work if you use an espresso made from filtered coffee instead of using instant coffee granules; it also won’t work if (like me) you use milk creamer and not fresh milk. On top of that, at the end of the whole process your hand would be paining quite a bit. Just in case you still prefer to use dairy powder, make milk with it first, and then follow the recipe.

For this recipe, you would need a simple device known as the French Press. This device is actually used to brew coffee with beans. However, we would use it to foam milk! So let us get into the recipe -

You would need:

• A French Press
• 1/3 cup fresh milk – skimmed milk works just fine (cup size = whatever cup you will eventually be drinking your coffee in)
• 1 teaspoon of sugar (use more if you want sweeter)
• 1 teaspoon hazelnut/vanilla syrup (not essence)
• 1/4 cup brewed coffee / espresso or 2 teaspoons instant coffee powder

1. So start off with heating the milk, in a microwave or over the gas, doesn’t matter really.
2. If you have warm espresso or brewed coffee, add the sugar and stir once.
   • If you using instant coffee granules, then stir them with the sugar in a few teaspoons of warm milk/water
3. If you want to add a flavoured syrup (I use Torani’s that I got from the US), add it now to your espresso. 1 teaspoon is enough. Stir and keep aside.
4. Now put the 1/3 cup milk in the French press, and this is the most important step – slowly pump the milk. This aerates the milk and makes it frothy! Exactly what you want for your latte.
5. Stop once you see that the milk is spilling over, and pour half of the frothy milk into the cup of espresso. Stir.
6. Continue pumping the remaining milk for a few times, and then add to the cup.
   • Remember – Frothy milk will rise to approximately 3 times of what you started off with :) and this is from experience, I make it every single day!
7. Stir one last time giving the pattern the shape you desire!
8. Now this whole process takes about 5 minutes, and the milk may cool off a little bit. So push the cup inside a microwave and beam it for about 15 seconds. The froth rises even further and quite rapidly! You must keep observing it and if your cup was already filled to the brim, you may have to stop the microwave in just 5-7 seconds.
9. Sprinkle cinnamon powder or chocolate powder if you wish.
10. That’s it! You are ready to enjoy or serve!

Difficulty: Very Low
Inflation: Light
Calories: Low (can be reduced considerably by replacing sugar with sugar-free, in fact you even get sugar-free flavoured syrups)
Drink when: Anytime
Yumminess Factor: Best enjoyed with scones or cookies!

Buon Appetito!

Let us bake some delicious scones!

So it has been a while since we baked something. This will be my third flour-based recipe to go on the blog after bagels and pancakes. Have you eaten scones before? Those of you who have traveled to Europe, would most probably have eaten it, or at least seen it in coffee shops and bakeries. Scones are basically slightly sweet quick breads, baked using baking powder as the leavening agent and not yeast. They taste closer to a cake than a bread.

You would need:

• 2 cup all purpose flour (or refined flour / maida)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter (unmelted, unsalted – if using salted butter, do not use salt)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks of chocolate
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• Fistful of crushed nuts (almonds, hazelnuts – preferably roasted)
• 2 teaspoon chocolate or cinnamon powder for taste

Baking scones is relatively easy. As warned while making bagels, it would be good to know how to knead dough, or have a person with you who can knead dough.

1. Mix all dry ingredients first into a bowl. That will mean mixing the flour with sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon / chocolate powder.
2. Cut the butter into small chunks and add it to the mixture. Blend the mixture into coarse crumbs.
3. Add in choco chips/nuts and mix.
4. Mix about 75% of the buttermilk with the vanilla essence and add to the mixture.
5. Stir until the dough comes together and make sure that you do not overmix. You may need to add more flour or buttermilk to have a proper dough that does not stick and that does not fall apart.
6. Move the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead a few times. Not too much, else it may melt the butter and make the dough loose.
7. Shape it in the form of a thick pizza (1.5 inch) and cut into 8 wedges. You may in fact break the dough into 8 pieces and give them whatever shapes you or your kids want – cat, mickey mouse, square, etc.
8. Pre-heat your oven to 200 C.
9. Place the scones on a greased baking sheet and brush the top with very little milk (for the glaze).
10. You may add a few nuts to the top of the scones and put the tray in the oven.
11. Bake for about 20 minutes.
12. Check the colour of the scones and also prick a toothpick inside to check the doneness – it should come out dry. When you open the oven, the kitchen and most probably your house will fill with the sweet aroma of the scones!
    In the picture below, you will see a slightly burnt part. Let me assure you that it isn’t burnt, it just happened that I tried some chocolate syrup over a couple of pieces before baking that gave the burnt look. Anyway, I would not recommend adding the chocolate syrup to the scones before baking.

Makes about 8 scones, that are good for about 3 people with tea/coffee.

Difficulty: Low
Inflation: Light
Calories: Moderate (can be reduced considerably by replacing sugar with sugar-free)
Eat when: Preferably teatime
Yumminess Factor: Best enjoyed with a cup of latte (I know Italians do not drink latte after meals!)

Bon Appetit!