Lion's Den Chicken

                               Lion’s Den Chicken

I still remember the day when my mom asked me to cook chicken. That was my first attempt at cooking and that too non-vegetarian. Since then I have tried several recipes. Some were good and some not. But, this recipe is different or I should better say this is my signature dish. I have got the maximum appreciation for this dish. Let’s not go into the story behind the peculiar name of the dish. The taste of lion’s den chicken is somewhat similar to the chicken kassa. So you can call it chicken kassa instead of the name which I or rather my friends in my under graduation college gave it.

Enough of the nostalgia stuff. Let’s move on to the ingredients.

Ingredients (For 1 Kg Chicken):

• 1 Kg Chicken (Medium sized Piece). Wash the chicken properly. Put in some turmeric powder while washing. It will help in cleaning the chicken properly.

• 500-600 grams of onions finely chopped.

• Green chilies (as much as you can resist).

• Ginger-Garlic paste (4 teaspoons).

• 3 medium sized tomatoes finely chopped.

• 3 sachets or 6 teaspoons of ready-made Meat masala powder from Everest, MDH, Catch or any other good brand. I usually prefer the meat masala from Everest as it tastes better than any other brand.

• Mustard oil (a bit on the higher side). Please don’t use refined oil or ghee because it will not taste the same.

• Salt to taste.

• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder.

• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds.

Note: Please use a pressure cooker for cooking this dish. You don’t have to pressure cook the chicken, but cooker gives concentrated heat while you saute the chicken.

Procedure:

• Heat a pressure cooker properly. It will take a bit more time to heat than the normal frying pan.

Make sure that the pressure cooker has a thick base

• Pour mustard oil in it. You have to add 2-3 spoons of oil more than what you generally use.

Little bit of extra oil will not hurt!!

• Add cumin seeds when oil gets heated properly.

• When cumin seeds start to pop, add chopped onions to it.

• Add salt to taste, since we will not be adding salt further so quantity should be for the whole dish.

Add little less salt ass you generally do.

• Saute the onions for some time. Soon the color of onion will change.

• Take green chilies as per your taste. Vertically cut green chilies into halves. And mix well with frying onions.

• When onions turn dark brown, add the ginger garlic paste to it.

Remember the color. "Dark Brown".

Add ginger garlic paste. Little bit on higher side!!

• Mix it well and saute for 5 to 10 minutes.

• Now add chopped tomatoes in it. Saute it until the tomatoes are fully cooked.

2-3 medium sized tomatoes will do.

• Soak meat masala powder in half cup of water. Add it to the cooker.

Remember the name. Everest Meat Masala!!

• Lower down the flame. Cover the cooker with a lid and let the mixture cook. Remember, we don’t have to pressure cook this.

• Check in interval of 5-10 minutes. Please note that the mixture should not stick to the base. Keep an eye on that.

• When the mixture changes its color to light brown then you will see oil getting separated.

• Add chicken into this. Add 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder.

Mix it well and cover with  a lid.

• Cover with the lid and let it cook on low flame.

• Keep mixing in the interval of 5-10 minutes.

• After 30-40 minutes you will find that oil is getting separated. Check the chicken now. It should be tender by now.

• You will see the chicken will have a very thick curry. If not, cook it on a higher flame to get rid of excess gravy.

Note: - Patience is the key to this dish. It has to be cooked in low flame otherwise it will not taste like it should be.

Well Well!! Lion'd den chicken for you people.

                                     

                          Enjoy this with Hot Tawa Roti. You will thank me laterJ

Credits:

Pic Courtesy:  Utkarsh aka CHAK

Editing: Sujit

Trip to Lansdowne

  

The feeling remains that god was on the journey, too!

                                                      Noida—Lansdowne—Noida

Ever since I heard the name of Lansdowne, it made me quite excited to explore this place. I googled almost each and everything about this place. Places to visit, hotels, how to get there etc. Finally one day Sujit and I planned to explore this place. We were no more novice about road trips now. So, we decided to hit the roads and see what Lansdowne has got.

I did the booking of a “deluxe hut” quickly in one of the government tourist rest house (managed by GMVN). I managed to somehow in cash my hard earned points on a credit card into petrol. My fuel meter was on all-time high. Every check box was checked now. We were ready to roll.

3rd June 2015 04:00 hours:

Our journey was not even started and the twist in the plot came straightaway. Rain god trolled us big time. We came back to our room. There was only one thing that was echoing in my mind at that time: “Why? Why today?”

Nevertheless, rain stopped at around 04:30 hours and we finally begun our journey at 04:44 hours (too precise, right?)

The route that was in my mind:

                                            Noidaà Meerut à Bijnor à Kotdwar à Lansdowne

                                              
All thanks to the lovely weather and our precise timing we entered Meerut without any hiccups. The city was still sleeping. We asked few locals about which route to take for “Kotdwar”. People were quite helpful to guide us on the exact route. We crossed Meerut and took the road towards Bijnor.

I was awestruck by the quality of road and the scenic beauty around it. Lush green fields, trees shadowing the roads, canals, barrage and what not. The weather was also adding its quotient into it. You just cannot ask anything better than this for a road trip.

Nothing beats a road surrounded by lush green fields.

We crossed Bijnor with ease. Then we switched seats and Sujit was on the rider seat now. One thing we found out that our stamina has gone up exponentially. Till “Kotdwar” we didn’t take a single break. The stretch was around 200Kms.

We reached Kotdwar around 07:30 hours. We decided to have breakfast there. After having breakfast we were up for the mighty task: -“Hill driving”. Neither Sujit nor I had any experience of driving into the hills. Being little more experienced one, I took the riding seat and we were all set to drive into the hills.

I had mix feeling at that time, excited and scared both. I drove slowly and carefully around the sharp turns. The road was getting steeper and steeper. I was now slowly getting used to hill driving. Some small villages and tea shops were there in between.

Not to forget that girl in blue and her vivacious smile for Sujit at one village naming dhobighaat :P. The scenery was getting better and better. Pine tree was mesmerizing. We stopped by for some photographs. Lansdowne was only 10Kms from that point so we decided to move on.

Pine trees for you!!

Winner of that smile @ dhobighat

“Welcome to Lansdowne”. Yes!!! This is it. This is what we dreamt about. We were instantly in love with this place. What a serene environment!! No hustle bustle like other hill stations. This is what we were expecting from Lansdowne. I was driving with full excitement now, I was that much excited that I over ran our guest house. Never mind, we were guided by a local there.

The moment we were waiting for.

Driving through the roads of Lansdowne

                         
After few formalities we checked in the guest house. I was still not able to believe that we have made it. It was always my dream to drive into the hill and I just did it. Tired? Yes. So, we decided to freshen up and take a quick nap.

A couple of hours later, we went to the local market and had lunch. We were very much full and still a bit tired. We came back to our guest house and took a quick nap again. After an hour we began our expedition of exploring Lansdowne by foot. It turned out to be a bad idea. Roads were quite steep, and we were not able to recall the time when we last walked. We started panting in no time.

Selfie!!

Backside of St. Mary's Church (Only opens on Saturday and Sunday) 

After few short breaths and lots of blame game between Sujit and me, we were there at the famous “Tip n Top” point. WOW!!! You just cannot get any better view of the valley. We had some photograph session at that point. Few families were also there and the kids were way more excited after seeing the view. We spent almost 2-3 hours at that point.

Some pose @ Tip n Top Point

I have no idea what i was looking for!!

View of road connecting Lansdowne from Kotdwar.

To be very honest, there are very few tourist spot that you will find in Lansdowne. If you are expecting Lansdowne to be the typical hill station, then you are very much wrong. Go there to have a peaceful stay. The environment there is best suited for the people looking to relax and soothe themselves.

Deluxe Hut @ GMVN TRH

Backyard of TRH

While sitting on the bench at the tip n top point, two things were going in our mind: A) Should we stay here and relax ourselves, B) Should we leave for Noida. Then, suddenly I recalled one milestone which I saw in Kotdwar. That is “Haridwar- 66Kms”. Hell Yeah!!! We decided to leave next day for Haridwar.

       The quote “The Journey is more important than the Destination” rightly fits in for this trip.

Probably the best pic of the trip and credit of it is still due!!

P.S.:- Lansdowne to Haridwar trip was totally a different story. I will try to write about it and our journey in next blog.

Waah Taj!!

                        

          Love Wrought in Living Stones

                              Journey to the Taj

 

It all started way back in 2013. Sujit and I planned a road trip from Delhi to Panipat. As we both are bike lovers so it is needless to say that how much we enjoyed the trip. Since then, we were itching to drive through the famous Yamuna Expressway and visit the wonderful Taj Mahal. But, due to the overloaded office work and scorching July sun, our plan never got executed.

Come 2015, we decided that it is high time now. We were quite determined this time. Little bit servicing of my bike was required. I got it done and we were all set to go. Agra here we come!!

9^th May 2015 04:00 hours:

Exquisite Yamuna Expressway 

We left for Agra. We were not bothered about traffic, but we have to beat the mighty sun. I drove around 70-80kmph swiftly on Noida-Greater Noida Expressway. After 20 minutes I saw the sign board announcing “keep left for Yamuna Expressway”. Hell yeah!! This is what I was waiting for. I took the turn and we were on the mesmerizing Yamuna Expressway. If you are a fan of road trips then you have to visit Yamuna Expressway. 6 broad lanes and 1 lane left on either side for stop by. By seeing this pitch perfect road I was itching to speed it up to max but I held that thought and kept the speed around 80-85kmph. When I was around 5 years of age I saw one sign board on a valley nearby my hometown that “Speed Thrills but it kills”. I kept that in mind since then. So, no over speeding.

40Kms later we arrived at the first toll booth “Jewar”. The toll booth attendant asked us “Kaha tak jana hai”, we replied “Agra” in unison. He asked for Rs 150, I was like “dude!! Are you serious?” 150 bucks for 2 wheelers? This is insane. But, never the less we paid him what he asked for. We kept going on the expressway.

After some time we saw few locals jogging around on the expressway. I was confused that can’t they find any other place. But, you can’t help it, this is Uttar Pradesh for you. You will find all sort of crazy stuff. Right from carrying motorbike on their shoulders and trying to jump it off the barricade, you name it.

Few locals were waving to us as if we were doing something phenomenal. To be very honest we loved thatJ. After sometime we stop by for a loo break. Sujit then decided that he will ride now. I was a bit unsure about his driving. But he looked confidant and the condition of the road gave me confidence too. Now, I was on the pillion seat. We drove swiftly for few kilometers then came another toll booth. As we had already bought the token till Agra so I just gave that token to the toll booth assistant and we were through. We saw a food joint after toll booth. We stop by there for snacks.

We had tea and sandwich there. Damn costly I must say. I was not able to figure it out that why everything is so costly in this expressway. Tool booth charge, food aah. This is a big disappointment.

We kept moving forward. We had a couple of loo breaks in between. After sometime we reached the third and the final toll booth. I performed the same drill. Showing token and all. After crossing it we stop by for the last time. We continued from there on.

“Welcome to Agra” that’s what the welcome board was saying. We were quite happy to see that. 07:03 hours and we have reached Agra. Not bad at all. Now, it was the time to switch the riding seat. I got the wheels back and we were headed towards the “Taj Mahal”.

After some confusion and couple of wrong turns, we were there at Taj Mahal. We parked the bike at the so called authorized parking. After a walk of around a kilometer we were there at the ticket counter. Security check done and we were at the front of the mesmerizing “Taj Mahal”.

A big WOW!! What a masterpiece. You will surely fall in love with it at first sight. People around there were taking the photographs. So why shall we stand back? We too started taking photographs. People were taking those “famous” click of holding the Taj. I haven’t seen foreigners so excited in my life.

The Signature Picture

We kept roaming around and taking pics and selfies. Then we decided to take some rest, we sat on the floor of the Taj. 11:00 hours and we were done with the Taj. We started discussing that what next?

The Entrance

Then, the golden moment came. We sat on a bench while discussing. We were discussing that we finally did it without any hiccup, then BAM!!! A honey bee came and gave me a love bite. The pain was excruciating. He then moved his target back to Sujit, but was not successful. All the stories and scenario of the guy who were bitten before by a bee was flashing in front of my eyes. The biggest problem that was going through my mind was how I am going to wear helmet with sore eyes. We were down to a single driver. But, thanks to all mighty nothing happened.

Me! just to scale the Grandness

Now we were not in the mood, especially me. We took few pics and left. After getting out of the campus, Sujit decided to buy some souvenir. Photo frame of marble, how cool is that?

Sun was at its peak best. Our past experience of brijghat gave us the confidence to hit the road even at a temperature of 40-45 degree. We were more than comfortable. 12:00 hours and we were back in route to Noida. We stop by for some parathas at one dhaba.

After driving for an hour we realized that it was a bad idea to move on in this heat. Adding to my misery the fuel meter was showing only 1 stick and there was no sign of any petrol pump. My mind was looking was every possible way to escape in case of empty tank. Suddenly I saw that the fuel meter is becoming blank. I was ready to get scolded by Sujit, then out of nowhere I saw a board indicating “petrol pump 5Kms”. I was thanking my bike for bearing with me till the last drop of fuel. We stopped by to take the petrol. The petrol pump resembles a lot like “the walking dead”. No sign of any living being. Perfect zombie land. The worst part was neither of us was having any weapon to fight in case of zombie attackJ. Thankfully we left that place without any trouble. The number of stops got increased and slowly but steadily we were at the “Jewar” toll booth which was the last toll booth (we paid Rs150 again at the first toll booth).

At 16:10 hours we were at my room in Noida. Exhausted? Yes. Sleepy? Yes. Disappointed? No. We had a drive of 419.6Km in 12 hours. Beat That!!!

                                                   The journey of a lifetime I must say.

Mighty Yamuna, little more mightier than him, he says  :P