Baked Spicy Chicken Wings

A perfect party favorite appetizer baked to crunchy outside, moist and juicy inside. This is actually my husband's recipe. Well i wouldn't say a recipe exactly, because his spice mix was prepared by adding some of this and some of that from the pantry. And it worked. He is familiar with those spice powders during his bachelor cooking times. (Check my No Name Chicken recipe for more details) So he experimented out with the the same mix and later i started measuring out ingredients and came up with a share-able recipe. Even now, i like the way he cooks (ahem! which happens rarely) casually without measuring any of the ingredients. Anyways here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

12-14 Chicken party wings (drumettes and wingettes)

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tbsp Chicken curry powder

2 tsp Tandoori chicken powder

1/2 tsp Salt

2 tsp Oil

 How to:

• In a bowl, marinate the chicken wings by mixing in all the spice powders, salt and oil. 

• Massage the wings and let it marinate for at least 2 hrs or better overnight in the refrigerator.

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and arrange the marinated chicken wings.

• Bake for 20 mins, flip once and bake for another 20 mins.

•  Place the baking sheet on the counter for 5 mins before serving.

• Serve warm with ranch sauce.

Baked Spicy Sweet Potato Fries with Garlicky Lemon Yogurt Dip

Fries are one of the addictive finger foods, nobody can stop just eating one. These baked ones taste better than the fried ones with extra crispiness. You can taste the sweetness from the potato and little heat from the spicy seasonings at the same time. Also these sweet potato fries are a great healthy snack option, as they are rich in dietary fiber, vitamin A and C. The dip is made from Greek yogurt and other dried herbs and seasonings. The regular yogurt is strained to remove the whey, that results in thick and creamy textured Greek Yogurt. That is why it is higher in protein and low in carbohydrates and sugar.

These are super easy to prepare and makes a great pair. So dump the fast food restaurant's deep fried french fries and opt for endless baked fries at home. And here goes the recipe,

Baked Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:

1 Sweet Potato

1tbsp Garlic Olive Oil

1/4tsp Paprika

1/4tsp Cayenne Pepper

1/2tsp Cumin powder

Garlic Salt, to taste

Ground Black Pepper, to taste

 How to:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and keep it aside.
• Cut the sweet potato into strips with 1/2 inch thickness. (wash and dry completely before cutting'em, otherwise it might end up soggy.)

• In a bowl, to the sweet potato strips, add all the remaining ingredients and give it a good mix. (You can replace or leave out any of the seasonings, if you don't want to use the listed ingredients.)

• Now arrange the potato strips on the baking sheet without touching each other and bake'em for 15 mins, flip and bake for another 10 mins or until crispy.

• Serve hot with a dip as a snack or an appetizer.

Garlicky Lemon Yogurt Dip

Ingredients:

5.3oz Greek Yogurt

2 Garlic cloves (minced)

1tsp Lemon Juice

1/2tsp dried Parsley flakes

1/4tsp Season salt (it has salt, paprika, celery, turmeric and black pepper)

1/4tsp Cumin powder

Ground Black pepper, to taste

How to:

• Mix everything together and make it smooth. Check salt for taste and add fresh herbs if you have it handy.

•  Serve alongside fries or baby carrots.

Eggplant rolls

These rolls will make you drool, if you are a goat cheese lover like me. I first tasted goat cheese on my pizza as a topping, though i found'em mostly on salads (not a big salad fan), the salty bite of it is heavenly. When i found this recipe, goat cheese stuffed eggplant, it sounded so yummy that i can't wait to devour'em. I am telling you, you got to taste this. First couple of bites were clean and slow with a fork and knife, later we started gobbling and licking our fingers with goat cheese all over. Truly no exaggeration. And here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

1 large Eggplant

4oz Goat Cheese (crumbled)

1tbsp dried Onion flakes/1tsp Onion powder

1/2tsp dried thyme / 1/2tbsp fresh Thyme

1/2tsp dried Oregano / 1/2tbsp fresh Oregano

1tsp minced Garlic

1tsp Lemon juice

1tbsp Olive oil + more for drizzling

Salt

Pepper

Optional:

Tooth picks (to hold the rolls)

Orange Zest (to sprinkle on top)

How to:

• Cut the eggplant lengthwise into 1/4" pieces. Lay it over a rack, sprinkle salt all over the eggplant pieces and let it sit and sweat for 20 mins.

• Meanwhile, prepare the goat cheese mixture.
• In a bowl, add the crumbled goat cheese, dried herbs, onion flakes (you can crush the onion flakes to avoid big pieces in your bite), garlic, lemon juice, 1tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

• Combine everything well with a fork or back of a spoon. If the mixture is a bit dry, drizzle more olive oil to make it wet and keep it aside.

• Now, use a paper towel to gently blot the liquid on top of the eggplant. (This way of sweating and blotting reduces the bitterness of the eggplant)
• Then sprinkle pepper, drizzle olive oil and grill'em at medium heat for a min on each side or until you get nice grill marks. (If you don't have grill pan, you can broil'em at low until they brown on both sides.)

• Transfer the grilled eggplant to a paper towel.

• Start assembling the rolls by laying a grilled eggplant on a sheet pan or chopping board, place 1tbsp of goat cheese filling and spread it all over, just like you butter a toasted bread.

 

•   Then, gently roll the eggplant tight and secure it with tooth picks.

• Roll up the remaining eggplant in a similar manner and sprinkle the orange zest for a refreshing bite.

Serve it warm as an appetizer. 

Banana Flower Vada (Vazhaipoo Vadai) & an Award

Whenever we are in the veggies section at the Indian store, Senthil will whisper in my ears or speaks with his eyes to buy the banana flower and prepare vadas. My answer would be 'no' all the time. He was smiling the other day when he saw me picking up the banana flower. Broke my 'diet' spell and prepared vadais which are drowned and bathed in hot oil, totally blaming it on Diwali. After all, its festival season, missing my home and what could be more comforting than a fried snack that feels exactly like home? Its going to be a sinful week, i guess. Alright, here goes the recipe,

Ingredients:

1 medium Banana flower

1 cup Chana dal 

4 Green Chilli (finely chopped)

1tsp Ginger (chopped)

5-6 Curry leaves

1/2tsp Fennel seeds

1 Cardamom stick (1/2")

1tsp Turmeric powder

Salt

Oil for deep frying

How to:

• Soak the chana dal for 2 hours.
• Meanwhile start removing the outer purple layer and save the small bunch of white flowers. Continue until you find the last bunch. 
• In each small flower, remove and discard the stem with a black tip in the middle(my mom calls it a thief with a black head) and also a small transparent plastic like skin. (Takes a little more time than you think.)
• Then immerse all the flowers in a bowl of water with turmeric powder, to avoid browning.
• Drain the chana dal and coarse grind with ginger, cinnamon, fennel seeds and salt.

• Also drain the banana flowers and squeeze out the water completely.
• Roughly chop'em and add the chana dal mixture to it. Also add green chillies and curry leaves, and blend well. (If you don't want to bite into green chillies in your vada, you can add'em while grinding the chana dal.)

• Heat oil in a deep pan at medium-high heat.
• Make flat-round shaped balls and deep fry'em until golden brown. (Check salt for taste by frying a small ball at first.)

• Drain excess oil with a paper towel.

• Serve hot as an appetizer or snack.

Hi friends, very happy to receive an award from Jaisy James of Ente Pachakasala. She is a wonderful blogger with diverse collection of recipes. Do check her space, if you haven't.


And i would like to share this with a few of my blogger friends.

AnandaRajashekar
Satrupa
SangeethaSubhash
Akila
Sameena
Priya
Smitha
Satya
Pushpa
UmmMymoonah
Jay
Akheela
Aipi
Vineelasiva

Kindly collect your award, gals. Thank you.

Instant Bread-sticks

'Bread sticks at a blink of an eye', i would definitely say this because it was that easy and quick to prepare. My bad, i am out of yeast when i really wanted to have some bread, at the same time my good, i found this bread recipe from here with no-yeast. I was so much excited to try the recipe sometime soon. That evening only, i prepared some garlic hummus and refrigerated it to use it for my next day breakfast. Soon, i found a couple of our friends are visiting us that night and i thought, i would make these bread sticks as an appetizer which goes perfectly with the hummus. I served'em warm straight from the oven and am glad they liked it. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour (maida) + 1-2tbsp (for dusting)

1/2 cup + 1/2tbsp Milk

1 1/2tsp Baking powder

1 1/2tsp Sugar

1/2tsp Salt

1 1/2tbsp Olive oil

1/2tsp dried Oregano

1/2tsp dried Rosemary

How to:

• In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
• Then slowly pour the milk into the dry mixture and start kneading, resulting a slightly sticky dough.
• Transfer the dough on a flour-dusted surface and knead until you get a soft, non-sticky dough.

• Roll the dough into a flat, kind of a rectangular shape of equal thickness with a rolling pin.

• With a knife, cut into strips of equal widths.

• Pour the olive oil into a wide baking dish and arrange the dough strips by coating the oil on both the sides. 

• Now sprinkle the oregano and rosemary mixture on the top of the dough strips.

• Bake at 450 degree F for 18 mins.(Only the bottom side of the bread would be golden brown.)

Serve warm with garlic hummus or any dip.

Tips:

• If the dough is dry, feel free to add 1/2tbsp milk at a time. Also if the mixture is wet, sprinkle flour until you can handle the dough. 
• You can add garlic powder or any dried herb and mix it with the flour.
• Try to serve the bread warm or it gives a chewy texture when stored for later.