YFC: Home-made Fried Chicken

Be it in the form of KFC or a cloned recipe, Fried Chicken has literally taken this world by storm. What can we say? It is finger lickin’ good and we all love to indulge in some from time to time. For most of us though, we’d prefer making it at home.

I’m in love with the extra-crispy recipe that KFC has and have tried hunting for a good clone for ages. Unfortunately, all the recipes that I have tried so far don’t quite come up to par with the original. After all the experimentation with what works and what doesn’t (corn-flakes and a wet-batter are a definite No-No), I’ve come up with this one recipe, and even though it’s not as good as the original, it is pretty a decent version that is loved by kids and adults alike. I know it’s cliché but I decided to call this Yousuf’s Fried Chicken (abbr. YFC).

So without further ado, let’s get into the technicalities of what goes into making succulent YFC:

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts (with skin) cut into 3 pieces each OR 6 drumsticks [TIP: You can choose any 6 medium-sized pieces for this recipe and remove the skin if you wish; the skin just gives support for the breading and gives the fried chicken a crispier cover]
• 3 cups water with 1½ tsp salt (a.k.a. Brine)
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup cornstarch
• ½ tsp oregano
• ½ tsp MSG (a.k.a. Chinese Salt and Ajino Moto)
• ½ tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• ¼ tsp white pepper
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (I have used Laban to achieve similar results)
• Oil or Ghee for deep frying [TIP: Ghee works better]

Method

1. Soak the chicken for about 8-10 hours in brine (ideally) and put it in the refrigerator. I have made the chicken after soaking it in brine for just half-an-hour and it gets good results too.
   
2. In a bowl, add all-purpose flour, cornstarch, oregano, MSG, paprika, black and white pepper, and salt; mix in all the ingredients so that the ‘dry batter’ is nice and consistent.
3. Take out the chicken from the brine and dry each piece using a towel.
4. Dip a piece of chicken into the buttermilk (or Laban) ensuring all its sides are properly covered, take out the piece and let all the residue drip back into the bowl.
5. Dip this piece immediately into the dry batter, making sure to coat all sides evenly; give the chicken a slight shake to remove the excess batter before setting it aside on a platter.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 till all the pieces have been coated.
7. Let all the pieces air-dry for about 5-10 minutes so that the coating is hard and dry; this will ensure that the oil doesn’t splatter once you put the pieces in for frying.
8. In a deep pan, add oil or ghee and heat it; the oil has to be just the right temperature and to ensure that, add a piece of bread into the oil and it should be brown in about 50 seconds. If you have a candy thermometer, the temperature has to be around 180° to 190° centigrade.
9. Carefully start putting in the chicken pieces one at a time, skin side down (as it takes slightly longer to cook); make sure not to over-crowd the pan and leave some room for the pieces to breathe (or not – all pun intended).
10. Flip the pieces half-way through the cooking process so that the other side gets some cruch and color too.
11. Fry the chicken for about 7 to 10 minutes, till it has a crisp golden brown cover.
12. Take all the pieces out on a paper towel to drain the excess grease.
13. Serve immediately with a side of French fries, chili-garlic sauce and mayonnaise (that’s the way, ahan, ahan, I like it, ahan, ahan!!).

Please do try this recipe out and let me know how it was; I’d really appreciate your honest feedback. Also, I intend to keep trying to find ‘THE PERFECT FRIED CHICKEN RECIPE’ and once I do, I will definitely share it with you; till then, you’ll have to settle for this recipe.

Cheers!

 

A Stomach-Friendly Approach to Eid-al-Adha

Eid-al-Adha, one of the two festivals celebrated by all Muslims globally, marks the remembrance of Prophet Ibrahim’s (Abraham – peace be upon him) commitment to sacrifice his own son Ismaeel (peace be upon him) to please Allah. Allah, impressed by this gesture of utmost devotion and unwavering loyalty, made it immortal by incorporating it as part of Hajj, an annual pilgrimage that brings millions of Muslims to Makkah, Saudi Arabia. It gives me chills just to think what we would be sacrificing had Allah not replaced Ismaeel with a sheep/ram.

Sacrifices aside, the thing we all look forward to most is the food and the endless BBQs that are sure to follow. However, after a few meat-eating days, one (or shall I say ‘the stomach’?) finally deserves a refreshing break from all the heaviness. Its often difficult to find the right balance between light and delicious; fortunately, there are a few middle-eastern staples that fit the bill. I decided to take an Arabian approach to this post as an homage to the roots of this festival.

As usual, I added a Pakistani twist to both recipes, so instead of a traditional Shawarma and Shish Tawook, I present to you the Roast Beef Shawarma with Hummus and Shish Malai Boti with Vegetables.

Roast Beef Shawarma with Hummus

Ingredients:

• For Roast Beef
  • 1/2 kg beef (single lean cut)
  • 3 tbsp ginger paste
  • 2 tbsp green chili paste
  • 1/2 cup vinegar
  • salt to taste
  • 2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp red chilies (ground)
  • 4-5 cups water
• For Hummus with Tahini
  • 1 cup garbanzo beans (canned works best but you can also boil at home)
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic
  • 3 tbsp yogurt
  • salt to taste
  • olives for garnish
  • paprika or cayenne pepper for garnish
• For Shawarma
  • 6-8 pita bread
  • 1 onion (thinly sliced)
  • 2 cups iceberg lettuce (thinly sliced)
  • 1 cup picked jalapenos, cucumbers, gherkins, beetroots and carrots (thinly sliced)
  • 1 cup tomatoes (cubed)
  • 1 cup cabbage (thinly sliced)

Method:

1. Take a pan and add all the ingredients for the roast beef into it; cook on low flame till all the meat is tender and all the water has dried out.
2. Wrap the meat in a foil and put it in the oven for 3-5 minutes on medium temperature. This step is optional.
3. Take it out of the oven and let it cool. Cut into thin slices and set aside.
4. Put garbanzo beans, sesame seeds, olive oil, garlic, yogurt and salt into a jug and blend till everything is a smooth paste; set it aside in a bowl.
5. Cut pita bread into half and spread a tablespoon of hummus on the inside.
6. Add two to three slices of roast beef to it.
7. Top it off with onions, iceberg lettuce, cabbage, pickled vegetables and tomatoes.
8. Serve with a side of hummus (garnish with paprika/cayenne and olives) and pickled vegetables.

Note: You can easily pickle vegetables at home. Just dice the veggies you wish to pickle and mix them in vinegar, some salt and sugar. Heat this mix in a pan for 5-7 minutes to get instant results.

Shish Malai Boti with Vegetables

Ingredients:

• For Malai Boti
  • 2 chicken breasts (cut into 1 inch cubes)
  • 2 tsp ginger & garlic paste
  • 1/2 tsp white cumin seeds (roasted and powdered)
  • 1/2 tsp coriander seeds (roasted and powdered)
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 3 tbsp cream (one that rises to the surface after boiling & cooling whole full-fat milk)
  • 3 tbsp fresh cream (a.k.a. heavy cream)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp green chili paste
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp red chili powder
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 3 tbsp yogurt
  • salt to taste
• For Shish
  • 15-20 bamboo skewers
  • 2 tomatoes (cut into eighths)
  • 2 onions (cut into eighths)
  • 2 capsicums (cut into eighths)
• Optional Ingredients
  • 1 small piece of hot coal
  • 1 tsp olive oil

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for malai boti and marinate the chicken for 1 hour.
2. Put the marinated chicken in a pan and cook on medium flame till it is tender.
3. If you like adding a smokey flavor to the chicken, (a) take a small steel bowl and put it in the center of the pan, (b) place the hot coal into it, (c) drizzle the olive oil on the coal, (d) cover the pan immediately, (e) let it stay for 2-3 minutes.
4. Once the chicken has cooled significantly, put the individual cubes onto bamboo skewers interleaved with pieces of tomato, onion and capsicum.
5. To give the skewers a slight char, place them directly over a flame; be careful not to set the bamboo skewers on fire.
6. Serve with a side of tamarind chutney or mint raita.

Eid is all about sharing with people less fortunate than us. So if you are sacrificing something, a goat, a cow or a camel, please ensure that those around you don’t go hungry on this auspicious occasion.

A very happy Eid Moo-Baa-Rak to everyone!

Cheers,
Yousuf

 

A Tale Of Two Pastas

With two kids constantly demanding your attention, it gets increasingly difficult to get into the kitchen to create something new. Yesterday was a rare occurrence and as soon as the opportunity presented itself (my one-month old son sleeping blissfully while my naughty 20-month old daughter busy playing with her grandmother), my wife and I ran straight to the kitchen. After a brief discussion, we decided to do something that would require very little time and effort, something like a simple Penne pasta, which we had NEVER attempted before. Since we had no recipe, we just wanted to go with our flavor profiles, i,e, our guts.

As with all couples, we had two different ideas; my wife wanted a red pasta with a basic tomato-oregano sauce while I craved for something (richer, creamier, cheesier) Fettuccine-Alfredo-esque. It all came down to the colors; white v/s red. I won her over by promising to increase the cheese content in the pasta so we started off with something that would, hopefully, taste like fettuccine. Half way through, my wife suggested we add the ingredients for the tomato-oregano sauce to the mix (win-win). What came out was surprisingly delicious, and mixing in some mushrooms and black olives just took the entire dish to a whole new level; to put it plainly, it was something worth sharing with the world. So without further ado, here’s a Penne for your thoughts:

Ingredients

• 2 cups penne pasta
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• ¼ cup mushrooms (sliced)
• ¼ cup black olives
• 2 to 3 tbsp grated cheddar cheese
• 2 to 3 tbsp grated mozzarella cheese
• 1 tsp cream cheese
• 5 tbsp pizza sauce [great substitute for ready-made tomato sauce]
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp oregano
• salt to taste [be careful as it is already a bit on the salty side]

Method

1. Boil pasta and set aside in a bowl.
2. Put a saucepan on medium heat and add the olive oil to it.
3. Once hot, add the flour to the saucepan and stir for 30 seconds.
4. Add 1 cup milk to the pan and keep stirring till there are no lumps and the sauce starts to thicken.
5. Add the mushrooms, the cheeses (mozzarella, cheddar, cream), the olives, garlic powder, oregano, pizza sauce and salt to the pan and cook for two minutes.
6. If the sauce feels too thick (thicker than condensed milk), add up to ½ cup milk and mix well.
7. Once the sauce is ready, add the boiled Penne pasta to the pan and fold it in carefully, so as not to break the pasta (something I forgot to take care of).
8. Cook for a couple of minutes, making sure that all the pasta is completely coated with the sauce.
9. Garnish with a pinch of oregano and some olives.

This unconventional pasta recipe serves THREE people, is ready in less than TEN minutes and needs to be served immediately as the sauce starts to coagulate due to the high cheese content. Try it out and do let me know how you liked it; tweaks and suggestions to make the recipe better are more than welcome.

Cheers,
Yousuf

p.s. This pasta is as Italian as I get.

p.p.s. Apologies for the bad photo quality; the battery on my camera ran out and I had to rely on the phone camera instead.

 

The Singaporean Rice Saga

Karachi wedding receptions are very different from those in any other region of Pakistan, as even though the bride and groom are (supposed to be) the main attraction, it’s the food that takes the limelight. A menu can either make or break a wedding, and you’d be darned if you selected something the guests end up hating; and don’t even get me started on the menu-bashing uncles and aunties who’ll torture you for weeks (and even months) to come!

Keeping in view the Karachiite’s mindsets, caterers try adding new and exciting dishes to their portfolios, giving the gossip-mongers something positive to talk about. ‘Fish with lemon sauce’ and ‘Chimichangas’ are two such recent inductions, but what really took the wedding world by storm a few years back was the in(ter)vention of Singaporean Rice (a.k.a. SR). Till today, seven out of ten weddings you go to will have this dish.

Since this dish is not available in mainstream restaurants, you either have to wait for the next SR wedding or make a batch at home; and then you turn to Google! Ever wondered why your Google search for a top-notch Singaporean Rice recipe always returns results from Pakistan? It’s because technically, there is not such thing as Singaporean Rice, at least not in Singapore! However during the course of my research, I did stumble upon a recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice, a popular Singaporean staple dish that is miles apart, in taste as well as in presentation, from what we are led to believe is ‘Singaporean’ Rice.

Our caterers know that associating the word ‘Singaporean’ with a dish gives it an exotic, oriental twist, no matter how mundane it really may be. But origins aside, this is one mean rice platter, with each aromatic and creamy spoonful resulting in a taste blast, a wave of pure unadulterated pleasure, leaving your heart wanting more even if your stomach’s had had enough. Being an SR connoisseur, you have to take my word for it; this recipe that I’m about to share with you is perhaps the best SR recipe around and I’m sure you’ll believe me once you give it a try.

Ingredients

• 1 kg rice
• 1 bowl macaroni
• 4-5 boneless chicken breasts (cut in ¾ inch cubes)
• 1 tbsp ginger/garlic paste
• 6 tomatoes (ripe and medium-sized)
• 3 carrots (medium-sized)
• 3 capsicums (large)
• ¹⁄₄ kg cabbage
• 7 stalks of spring onion
• 20 cloves of garlic (thinly sliced)
• 3 onions (medium-sized and chopped)
• 3-4 green chilies (thinly sliced vertically – remove seeds)
• 8 tbsp chili sauce
• 10 tbsp soy sauce
• 8 tbsp chili garlic sauce (only Knorr works best)
• 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 8 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp Chinese salt (msg/ajinomoto)
• 1 tbsp red chili powder
• 1 tbsp ground red chilies
• salt to taste
• cooking oil (for frying and cooking)

Method

• Fry thinly sliced garlic in oil on medium flame till golden; set aside on a plate with a tissue to absorb excess oil
• Fry sliced green chilies in oil till they have a nice and crispy coat; keep it with the fried garlic – let’s call this component A
• Put 4 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the chopped onions till it becomes translucent
• Add cubed tomatoes to the onions, along with the ginger/garlic paste
• Add in 3/4 of the soy sauce, the chili sauce, 2 tbsp chili garlic sauce, red chili powder, ground red chilies, Worcestershire sauce, Chinese salt, and some salt to the mixture
• Cook this mixture until oil surfaces
• Add all the chicken to this mix and cook till the chicken is tender
• Add in diced carrots, capsicum, cabbage, and spring onions and cook till the vegetables are slightly tender; this is now ready – this, we’ll call component B
• Boil the rice and strain it
• Put 3 tbsp oil in a utensil and add the boiled rice to it
• Add the black pepper and some salt, the remaining soy sauce and a dash of Chinese salt to the rice, and mix well; take it off the stove once ready – we’ll call this C
• Boil macaroni and set it aside in a bowl – let’s call this D
• In a separate bowl, add the remaining chili garlic sauce to the mayonnaise – we’ll call it E
• Once you have all the components from A to E ready, take a deep serving dish and add a layer of the rice (component C) at the base
• Cover this rice layer with the gravy (component B)
• Add a generous amount of macaroni on top of the gravy (component D)
• The mayo-sauce comes next (component E)
• To finally bring the dish together, sprinkle some crispy garlic flakes and some fried green chilies on top of the sauce (component A)

Your Singaporean rice is ready to serve! As always, I hope you try this dish at home and enjoy it thoroughly. Also, it does have a slightly high chili content so you may adjust the spices according to your taste.

Ciao!

 

Malted Chocolate Milk Shake

I’m a self-confessed Chocoholic and what better way to beat the heat than with a cold creamy glass of malted (dark) chocolate milk shake?

Here’s the recipe:

2 scoops chocolate ice cream
1/2 cup milk (chilled)
2-3 ice cubes
1 tbsp dark chocolate (finely chopped)
1 tsp Horlicks (milo, ovaltine or any other malt-based cocoa powder works too)
2 tbsp heavy cream
1 pinch salt
2-3 drops vanilla extract

METHOD: Just mix up all the ingredients and blend using a hand-blender (or a regular one). Garnish with chocolate shavings (I prefer using dark chocolate kit-kat). Serve immediately.