Chicken Stir Fry with Vegies

Its a happening week here in Toronto..With the G8/G20 just days away and all that tight security in action, earth quake was the least expected in GTA(Greater Toronto Area). We were taken by surprise when a rare earth quake hit this afternoon, as our building shook, so did we..By God's grace no damage and we survived....

Hopefully all the pomp of G-summit will also end safely this weekend.

Coming to the recipe...this is one simple quick chicken stir fry with a few vegies thrown in. I usually stock up on frozen chicken breasts, to add in chicken soup, chicken noodles, chicken fried rice or to make chicken pakora. This time wanted to try out a stir fry with some vegies.

Ingredients :
2 Skinless chicken breasts (fresh or frozen)-cut into 2 inch strips
2 cups chopped Choice of vegies(Broccoli, Cauliflower, Bell peppers, Carrot)
1 tsp sesame or olive oil
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
A few sprinkles of Soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Salt to taste(if necessary)

Procedure:
In a wok, add oil when hot and then add ginger garlic paste and fry a till raw smell is gone.
Add chicken strips and fry till chicken is half done.
Now add vegies and stir fry.
Sprinkle soy sauce and mix thoroughly.
Check for saltiness and adjust salt if necessary.
Add black pepper powder and fry till chicken is done and vegies are till crisp.
Remove from heat and serve with plain or fried rice.

Bitter Gourd Stir Fry-Vegetable of the Week, Series 1

This is another vegetable I really long to eat. The the beauty of this vegetable is that it is not only healthy but tasty too. Though it can be cooked in in many ways, even a simple stir fry would bring out the flavour and taste of this versatile veggie.

From my childhood I was always attracted to this veggie. The day my grandmothers or my mom had it in the menu it was a treat for me.

I will post another preparation of this Bitter gourd in my next post. And also plan to write more of my experience with this veggie in that post. For now here is a simple Stir fry Karela.. We can use the fresh one or the frozen package. Since fresh bitter gourd is readily available in all the Asian grocery stores I always use the fresh one.

Ingredients:
Tender Bitter Gourd - 1 Package or 1 lb (cut into cirlces)
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Chilly Powder : 1 tsp
Amchur Powder : 1/4 tsp (Optional)
Anardhana Powder : 1/4 tsp (Optional)
Chat Masala : 1/4 tsp (Optional)
Soya Sauce : 1 tbsp (Optional - if you want a Chinese version)
Procedure:
1. Heat up a non-stick pan, add oil .
2. Add the washed/cut circles of Bitter gourd after the oil is heated.
3. Add salt and give it a nice mix, to coat all the veggie pieces with Oil and salt.
4.Stir fry for 10-15 minutes.
5. Add the optional ingredients if desired and stir fry for a minute or two.
6. Remove from heat when golden brown and crispy.


This is one of my contributions to the event Vegetable of the Week - Bitter Gourd created and hosted by Creative Pooja.

Enjoy the Stir fry with hot rice and any gravy....

Watch for the next series - Karela Tamatar.

Vegetable Stir Fry

Continuing the vegan mood, here is a simple vegie stir fry. Accompanied by any meat or seafood, this is one fresh, healthy and handy vegie dish.

Coming from a Land of Spices, I have never come across people in our country who would make a simple vegie dish like this. Cause we always try to add, some spices or the other to give flavour to our vegie food.

So this can't be an Indian dish. Well though western and simple, it has all the benefits from the vegetables and ease to make.
I don't know how many of my Indian foodies like raw vegetables, but I'm not a fan of raw vegies. Back home the only raw vegetables, that we ate where Carrot, Cucumber & Tomatoe. ( I can't remember more at this time) and off course raw onion.

In this part of the world people are so used to eating any vegetable raw. And to help them eat we have these range of "dips" readily available in all the grocery stores. Well, thanks to these dips, I am able to include all kinds of peppers now, in my list because of them.

So to strike a balance bewteen the raw vegetables and the Indian fries (where we cook our vegies so much that I doubt the nutritional value of them after cooking) a simple and quick Stir Fry Vegies come into rescue. Here the vegies are not overcooked at the same time they don't carry the raw smell in them but still be crunchy to give us that full feeling. Yea, replacing the carbs from rice and bread with the healthy vegie is a good way for a balanced diet. All that you need is some good portion of protien to go with it. And the best thing is, since you've cut down on those carbs in your meal, you can treat yourself with a dessert. Sneaky Uhh!!!

Now lets make this dish.
Ingredients:
You can have the choice of your vegetables here. I used
Brocolli,
Peppers
Carrots
Beans can to included to

To Stir fry:
1 Tbsp of Butter.(No magarine please)
Salt to taste.
A good sprinke of Black pepper
A few drops of Soy Sauce( Optional)
You can add any vegetable seasonings like Mrs Dash, if you want to spice it up.(Optional)

Method:
Heat up a wok add the butter,
Add the vegies once the butter melts.
Add salt mix well. (If adding soy sauce add very little or no salt)
Saute for 5 - 7 minutes
Add Soy Sauce, Balck Pepper, any Seasoning.
Toss a little and remove from heat, ready to be serve hot with your fav seafood or meat.

Broccoli Stir Fry

This was one vegetable I never used to pick up in a grocery store. It looks like a small tree(as my son Josh describes it) and absolutely tasteless. But the nutritional value of high fibre and the Vitamin C it has would always made me feel guilty that I'm missing good health by giving importance to taste.
Finally one day I got to try this vegie, in a restaurant, just a stir fried. It did'nt taste bad at all. Rather it tasted good.
So the next time I did grocery shopping I added this in my list, and ever since this is a part of my list every time.

Broccoli falls into those cruciferous vegetables that have made news with reducing the incidence of breast cancer. As a high fibre diet also helps eliminate negative estrogen which leads to a proliferation of abnormal cell growth in the breast tissue.

Some other supplements popular for maintaining heatlhy breasts are indol-3 and carbinol (13C) and DIM. These products are made from an extract in broccoli. It aids the liver in detoxifying harmful chemicals and estrogen.

This stir fry is as simple as it can be and requires only 1-2-3 ingredients.

Ingredients :

Broccoli - 1
Butter/Magarine : - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Black Pepper : 1/4 tsp (Optional)
Soya Sauce : 1 tbsp (Optional)



Procedure:

1. Heat up a non-stick pan, add butter.
2. Add the cut/washed brocolli florets after the butter melts.
3. Add salt and give it a nice mix, to coat all the florets with butter and salt.
4.Stir fry for 4-5 minutes.
5. Add the optional ingredients if desired and stir fry for a minute or two.
6. Remove from heat when the florets are still crispy.

Vegetables Carrot, Beans Cabbage and this one taste best when the stir fry is crispy.



Goes well with any accompaning meat dish.