My love for cooking and baking started at a very young age. The first time I ever entered the kitchen to prepare something was when I was in seventh standard. I wanted to make a chocolate cake and after making a mess in the kitchen, I achieved my goal.
I give my mother a little bit of the credit as she helped me get the right consistency with the butter, but most of the hard work was mine. That’s the moment I knew I had found my true love.
I try out new recipes and make the usual dishes more interesting, although the first time I made ‘Chicken curry’, it didn’t taste very different. I love spending time in the kitchen and innovating recipes by following popular cooks like Martha Stewart, Nigella Lawson, Jaime Oliver and more. It’s very hard to get the ingredients they use sometimes, so I run back to the internet to find alternatives.
Being a college student, I don’t get as much time as I’d want to cook and bake. But most of my weekends and semester holidays pass by with me trying out new recipes and inviting my friends and family over to enjoy them. I always plan in advance when and what I want to cook. I do intense research for the best recipes and I think I’m finally ready to take over the kitchen. If there’s a college fest or church bake sale going on, I’m always on the front list to bring something to the table. I get a lot of demands to bring something non-vegetarian for my bake sales. But the one baked goodie that literally sells like hot cakes are my ‘Red velvet cupcakes’. I’m not sure what I do differently that people like it so much, but I guess it’s probably because I follow the recipe step-by-step.
Unfortunately, there are times when I don’t succeed in my attempts. I’ve also had a few disasterous events while baking. But the one that stands out the most is my attempt to make macarons.
Since I don’t have an electrical blender, I couldn’t get the right consistency that the egg whites needed, so it turned out to be a complete mess. I want to learn how to make it but probably after I get my hands on better equipment.
When I think of baking or cooking, I instantly have a smile on my face. I’m always enthusiastic about wanting to learn something more and experimenting with new ingredients.
I would love to take a professional course to improve my skills so that I can start a cafe in the near future. The recipe I’m sharing today is for ‘Sticky chicken’. It’s a very simple dish that anyone can make at home. It’s similar to making a ‘Chicken manchurian’ but has an addition of sweet chilli sauce, with which the entire dish gets a whole new look.
Sticky Chicken
Ingredients
n Boneless chicken (cut) -
1/2 kg
n Oil
n Sweet chilli sauce
n Sesame seeds
For marination
n Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsps
n Curd - 1/2 cup
n Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
n Chilli powder - 1 tsp
n Garam masala - 4 tsps
n Coriander powder - 1 tsp
n Kabab masala - 1 tbsp
n Salt to taste
For coating
n Maida - 1/2 cup
n Corn flour - 3/4 tbsp
n Chilli flakes - 2 tsps
n Garam masala - 1 tsps
n Aamchur powder - 2 tsps
n Salt, if needed.
Method
n In a bowl, add ginger garlic paste, curd, tumeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala, coriander powder, kabab powder and salt. Mix these ingredients and then add the chicken pieces. Marinate this for at least four hours, preferably overnight.
n Once the chicken is marinated, prepare the coating mixture by adding the maida, corn flour and the spices into a clean plastic bag (this is to save yourself from cleaning up later).
n Heat some oil into a saucepan (shallow frying is preferred).
n Add pieces of chicken with the coating mixture and toss it in the mixture, shake off the excess flour and fry until tender and cooked. Fry everything and keep it aside.
n In another pan, add sweet chilli sauce (just enough to coat all the fried chicken pieces), heat it till it starts bubbling, add the chicken pieces and toss it around till the sauce gets nicely coated onto the pieces.
n You can also add some sesame seed while tossing the chicken.
n Sticky chicken is ready to be served.