Stuffed Chicken / Kozhi Nirachathu

When I first saw this recipe in couple of blogs, thought its too complicated. It is but you won't regret for it. Now this is one of my favorite recipe.

Ingredients

• Whole Chicken around 2kg (you can use a small one)

For marinating

• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 Tbsp olive oil ( any cooking oil will do)
• salt to taste

For stuffing

• 1 or 2 eggs 
• 3 big onions
• 1/2 tsp garlic paste
• 1/4 tsp ginger paste
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• oil 
• salt to taste
• kitchen twine for tying the chicken's legs and wings

Veggies used (optional) I recommend 

• potato - 1 or 2 cut into big chunks
• carrot - 1 cut into big chunks
• sweet potato - 1 cut into chunks

For gravy

• 4 big onions
• 1/2 tsp ginger and garlic paste
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 1/2 tsp corainder powder
• 1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• curry leaves
• oil as needed
• salt to taste

Method

1. Marinating

Remove the skin of the chicken and clean it thoroughly with some lemon juice. Make small slits on the chicken. Prepare the marinade and apply it all over the chicken. Keep it aside for 2 hours or overnight in fridge.

  2. Prepare stuffing

Boil the eggs till it is cooked fully. Peel it and keep it aside. Heat oil in a  frying pan and saute onion, ginger garlic paste and curry leaves until the it is brown in color. Mix all the spices and saute for couple of minutes. Mix the eggs to this mixture and put some salt. Keep it aside.

  3. Stuff the egg mixture into the cavity of chicken. Don't over stuff it.Tie both its hands and legs together with kitchen twine.

  4. Preheat the oven to 150 degree.

  5. Heat a big pan and pour enough oil to fit the whole chicken. Once it oil is heated, carefully place the chicken into the oil and just fry for 5 to 10 minutes on each side depending upon the size of the chicken.

  6. Drain the chicken and arrange in an oven proof dish with veggies on all sides. Pour half of the oil used for frying on the chicken and veggies. Season with pepper and salt if you want.

  7. Bake for 40 minutes, 20 minutes on each side.

  8. Prepare the gravy

     Take the same pan with oil that we used to fry the chicken, saute onion, curry leaves, ginger and garlic paste till it turns brown. Mix all the spice powders and saute until its raw smell is gone.Add salt and taste it.

  9. After the initial baking, take out the chicken and pour the gravy over it. Mix all veggies well.

  10. Bake for 30 more minutes. Don't forget to pour the oil on chicken that is coming out of the chicken in between.

  11. Remove once the onion is caramelized in dark color. Remove the twine and carve!

Berry Birthday Cake

This was the cake I made for my husband's birthday. Thanks to JoyTheBaker for this wonderful recipe. I really wanted to use fresh berries, but as it is winter here, I couldn't get it , have to be satisfied with the thawed frozen berries.

Vanilla cake batter..

Batter is ready to go in the oven..

Think I put a little bit more batter, cake got burnt at the edges..

Frosting for cake, at this point I was over the moon as it tasted really yumm...

Forgot some shots of layering the cake...

This recipe makes a 2 layer ,8-inch cake and some cupcakes..

Ingredients

• 225gm unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Cream butter and sugar in a hand mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula in between.
2. Add eggs one by one, beating for one minute after each addition.
3. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl, combine milk with vanilla paste and vanilla extract.
4. Whisk in flour and milk mixture into the butter and sugar mixture in 3 batches.
5. Once it is combined ,stop mixing.
6. Pour into the greased cake tins about less than half of the pan.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cake is pale golden color or a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Let it cool down in the pan for 5-10 minutes and take it out.
9. Frost the cake only when it is cooled completely.

Vanilla Whipped Buttercream Frosting recipe..

Ingredients

• 225gm unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup All-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp vanilla bean paste

Method

1. Take 1/4 cup of the milk in a saucepan and combine flour and vanilla paste. Whisk until no lumps are there. Add the remaining milk and cook in medium heat, whisking in between.
2. Reduce the heat once it starts boiling. Keep whisking until it thickens.
3. Remove from heat but keep whisking for couple of minutes. Allow the mixture to cool down completely. You can pop it in the freezer for sometime.
4. Cream the butter with hand mixture for one minute. Then add sugar and beat for around 10 minutes until it turns light and fluffy and the sugar is dissolved. Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl in between.
5. Add the flour milk mixture into butter and sugar mixture. Increase the speed to medium until the frosting is light and fluffy.

This is a perfect cake for a special occasion. Though it is time consuming, the end result is as sweet as butter cream frosting.