Chicken Lollipops with a Soy Chilli dipping sauce

Chicken Lollipops with a Soy Chilli dipping sauce

 

During my childhood years in Mumbai, it was a rare ritual at our household to dine out. But, whenever we did, one of my family’s favourite restaurant to dine at was called “Uncle’s Kitchen”, which specialized in ‘Indian – Chinese’ cuisine.

Whatever the occasion, this would always be our first restaurant of choice. We didn’t mind the long lines or wait time – the whole experience was something we did together as a family. And of course, we had our favourite dishes that we would order at the restaurant, without fail, with every visit or take away order.

At Uncle’s Kitchen with Mum, 2013

 

Our favourite entrée was called “Chicken Lollipops”, which is generally served with a Schezwan sauce (a spicy sauce, made with dried Kashmiri chillies, used quite liberally in Indian- Chinese cuisine). However, when I made this dish, I served it with a quick and simple Soy chilli dipping sauce as these Chicken lollipops are quite flavourful and spicy on their own.

Every now and then I tend to crave food that is not easily available to me here in Australia and what better way to indulge in a craving than to recreate it?

This recipe requires chicken wings to be ‘frenched’ (to look like a chicken lollipop). Each wing would give you 2 chicken lollipops when broken down at the movable joint and frenched; one very meaty piece, with a single bone and one not-so-much, with two parallel bones of which the smaller bone should be removed. This step can be a bit time consuming.

‘Frenching’ these wings involves cutting the ligaments near one end of the bone, carefully separating the flesh from the bone and rolling it over towards the other end to form a ‘Chicken Lollipop’.

My trial of this recipe was with 2 chicken wings, so I got 4 pieces of Chicken Lollipops. I would allow for a minimum of 2 chicken lollipops per person as these delicious little blobs of spicy heaven go down quite easy. Be sure to adjust the recipe quantities accordingly.

 

Chicken Lollipops

(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 Chicken wings – ‘frenched’ into 4 pieces
1 tsp Garlic paste
1/2 tsp Ginger paste
1/2 tsp Chilli powder
1 tsp Soy sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese Rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce OR Chilli paste
1/4 cup corn flour
1/8 cup plain flour
1 egg
Red food colouring
Salt to taste

2 Chicken Wings

4 Frenched Chicken lollipop pieces

Method:

Mix the frenched chicken, garlic paste, ginger paste, chilli powder, soy sauce, chinese rice wine vinegar, sriracha or chilli paste, egg and salt.

Mixing the ingredients in a bowl

 

Add in the corn flour followed by the plain flour, a little at a time, making sure to coat the chicken evenly while avoiding any lumps being formed by the flour. Lastly, add the red food colouring and mix well.

Batter prepped to be left to marinate for an hour or more

 

Leave the chicken to marinate in this batter for a minimum of an hour (which is what I did and the chicken was still quite well flavoured). Refrigeration overnight is preferred.

Deep fry the chicken lollipops (well covered in the batter) in medium heat until the chicken lollipops turn into their distinctive beautiful brown toned red colour, slightly crunchy on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside.

Deep frying the Chicken lollipops at medium heat

Chicken lollipops – about half cooked

Cooked Chicken lollipops

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serve hot with a Soy chilli dipping sauce (recipe below) or a Schezwan sauce (bottled Schezwan sauce is available at certain Indian stores).

*ahhhhhhhh*

 

Soy chilli sauce

(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese Rice Wine Vinegar
1 Green Chilli finely chopped OR 1 pickled green hot pepper finely chopped
1 Garlic clove, finely minced

Pickled green hot pepper

 

Method:

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a microwave safe bowl and heat  in the microwave on high for 30-40 seconds prior to serving.

 

And you’re all set to enjoy this delectable treat:

Plated

 

Delicious crunchy chicken lollipops with a Soy Chilli dipping sauce

 

Punjabi Samosa’s with Mint yoghurt dip and Tamarind sauce

Punjabi Samosa’s recipe

It’s really hard to decide on your first recipe for a food blog – so many choices so little time. After sifting away through several recipes, flavors and ideas – I found myself incredibly hungry. In recent times, my sister was visiting my Mum in Mumbai (India) and while she was there, our chats have included images and discussion about the various Indian ‘chaat’ and snack foods and the like that she was enjoying. The purpose of this anecdote is to explain how the humble Punjabi samosa became my first recipe choice – it was merely a result of a combination of absolute hunger from all that research and my recent craving for Indian snack-y food due to the recent delicious Indian chaat and snack food discussions with my sister.

So without further ado – the Punjabi Samosa!

This recipe allows for 2 Punjabi samosa’s per person.

Punjabi Samosa

(Serves 4)

Ingredients – Dough:

2 and 1/2 cups Refined flour (Maida)
1 tsp Carom (Ajwain) seeds OR Thyme
1 tsp Salt
4 Tbsps Clarified butter (Ghee)
Water

Butter – to be melted (Substitute for Clarified butter/ Ghee)

Dried Thyme

Method – Dough:

Knead all the ingredients together into a firm, yet bouncy dough. Cover the dough with a cloth to rest aside.

Dough mixture – to be mixed by hand or electric dough mixer in a bowl

Kneading

Required dough consistency

Note: Amount of clarified butter used is key to getting the right dough consistency. As a general rule, the ratio of ghee to flour is approximately 1 Kg Flour TO 200 gm of clarified butter.

Ingredients – Filling:

2 Tbsp Clarified butter (ghee)
1 tsp cumin seeds/ powder
1 tsp ginger paste OR 1 inch piece of fresh ginger finely chopped
1 Tbsp garlic paste OR 5 garlic cloves finely chopped
5 Medium potatoes (Boiled and Mashed)
1 and 1/2 tsp Dry Mango Powder (Amchur) OR 1 Lime (juice)
1 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Red chilli powder OR 1 red chilli chopped
1 tsp Garam Masala (preferably Punjabi)
Salt to Taste

Optional Ingredients – Filling:

The following ingredients can be added to your liking.

1 cup Green peas (boiled OR steamed OR canned – Optional, but traditionally added in)
1 tsp Whole coriander seeds (dry roasted in a pan and ground/ pounded to a powder – Optional)
1 tsp Dried Pomegranate seeds (dry roasted in a pan and ground/ pounded to a powder –Optional)

Method – Filling:

Sauté all the ingredients in a suitably sized saucepan and mix evenly.

Spiced potato filling

 

Method – Punjabi Samosa:

The covered dough should now be uncovered. Make a ball slightly bigger than a golf ball and roll well.

Small ball of dough to roll out

Roll out into an oblong shape, about 4mm thick, to about the length of your palm. Cut in half.

Rolling out the dough

Rolling out the dough to an even oblong shape

Rolled into oblong shape and cut in half

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fill a little water into a small bowl. Dip finger in water and apply around the cut edge of one half and seal to make a cone.

Seal cut edge to make a cone

Fill the cone with the potato filling mixture, while leaving about 1cm space all around. Make a back bone of samosa and seal using water as before.

Filled up samosa prior to sealing it

Filled up samosas ready to fry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deep fry samosas in low to medium heat until lightly golden brown and crisp. Samosa’s are ready to serve and enjoy!

Finished batch of samosas

Removing the cooked samosas

Deep drying in low to medium heat

Beautiful golden brown samosa’s

I generally serve these with either bottled sweet Tamarind sauce, which I got from an Indian shop and/ or a fresh Mint yoghurt dip (recipe to follow).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mint yoghurt dip

Ingredients:

6 Tbsps Greek Yoghurt
2 Tbsp Fresh Mint (finely chopped)
2 Tbsp Fresh Coriander (finely chopped)
1 tsp Chaat Masala
1 tsp Sugar
Seasoning (Salt and Pepper)

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and you’re all set!

Chopped coriander and mint with yoghurt and seasoning

Mint yoghurt dip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And tadaaaaaaaaaaa:

Plating

Punjabi samosas with a Mint yoghurt dip and tamarind sauce

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drink serving suggestions (from my personal experience):

The first time round I tried the Samosas as a snack with Rekorderlig Cider – Mango and Raspberry flavoured – and it was delicious.

Rekorderlig – Mango and raspberry

The second time round I had F over for dinner and she brought over a beautiful bottle of Ruffino Chianti (similar to another Italian wine that I quite enjoy) that also paired quite well with the Samosa’s as an entrée.

Ruffino – Chianti

Dinner with F

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alternatively – most Indian food pairs well with tangy drinks or soft drinks.

Do let me know how you go with this recipe or if you have any suggestions!