Ashwin is now 7.5 months old and he is growing fast. He has started crawling, standing up and squeals with delight when he sees us after his nap or when R comes home from work.  While everyone is happy for us, they are also concerned about our, “open adoption”. I decided to talk about it a little bit. A few questions we get asked

1.       Do you “have” to keep in touch with Ashwin’s birth family?

Yes, that is a choice we made. In our opinion, Ashwin needs to know where he came from. And it is only healthy that we talk about it openly.

2.       Are you not uncomfortable when they meet Ashwin?

Absolutely not.  We are happy that Ashwin gets to meet them, while he may not understand it now. He will cherish the pictures and memories we have for him. His birth parents have given us a blessing, why should we be uncomfortable?

3.       Is all this good for Ashwin?

We are doing what we think is best for him. Only time will tell, but from the research we have done, we think it is good for him.

4.       So who are his parents? Where are they from?

While we say open adoption, it means open among us – Ashwin, us and his birth parents. We want to respect their privacy.

This was the analogy I gave my friend when I was explaining about open adoption.  When we tell a child, don’t go into that room or don’t touch that- the child only wants to touch or go into that room more than he ever wanted. But if you let the child into the room or touch a particular object, his curiosity is satiated and he will not sneak behind your back to see what is in that room. That is exactly how adoption is. If you want to keep his birth parents info from him, he will wonder why and want to know more. It is his right to know about them, Period!

Every adoption situation is unique and we have been extremely lucky that we are able to have this open relationship.

Now what does all this have to do with Chicken Biriyani? This is what I cooked when Ashwin’s birth father came to visit. It was a success I think. It definitely was on the spicy side. If you are looking for a quick recipe, you should stop reading further on. This is time consuming, but well worth the effort. You know what, make an extra batch and freeze it.

Ingredients

Chicken  thighs – 1 lb ( can be boneless or with bone in) cut into 1-2 inch bite size pieces

To grind

Cilantro – ¼ cup, roughly chopped

Ginger – 1 T, minced

Garlic – 4-5 pods

Yogurt – 1/3 cup

Cloves – 1

Green Cardamom – 4

Green chillies – 4 (Serrano or thai)

Salt to taste

Rice

Basamati rice– 2 cups

Cardamom – 3

Star Anise – 1

Cinnamon – 1 inch stick

Cloves – 3

Saffron – 1 tsp

Milk – ¼ cup ( warm)

Masala

Oil – 3 T + 2 T

Red onions – 2, thinly sliced

Cashew nuts – 2 T

Bay Leaf – 1

Cilantro – 2 T, chopped

Mint – ½ cup

Fennel seeds  1 tsp

Garam Masala – 1 tsp

Tomato paste – 3 T

Salt – to taste

• Grind all the items marked, ‘to grind” to a smooth paste and add it to the chicken. Let it marinate for at least an hour to overnight in the refrigerator. Easy tip : add everything in a zip lock freezer bag, and it’s easy to mix without making a mess
• Heat oil in a sauté pan and cook until the onions are caramelized. Cook it on medium low.
• Add rest of the ingredients and sauté for a minute or two on medium low and set aside.
• While the onions are cooking, cook the rice
• Heat a large pot with water and when the water comes to a boil add whole spices and rice. Cook until the rice is done. ( cook rice like you cook pasta)
• Drain all water and set the rice aside with the whole spices.
• Heat 2 T of oil in a Dutch oven or a heavy bottomed pan with a lid
• Sauté the marinated chicken until it is almost done. Transfer the chicken to a plate, leaving a little bit on the bottom
• Add a layer of cooked rice and over it the onion mixture, repeat until all the chicken, onion and mixture and rice is over.
• Add saffron to the warm and slowly drizzle that over the rice
• Cover the pan with a moist towel and then cover with a lid and cook on very low heat for 20 minutes
• Serve warm with raitha

After the arrival of the little one, cooking has taken a back seat. I am sure I can make some time to cook, but I rather gaze at him and wait for him to chuckle in his sleep or just stare into my eyes.  I have probably cooked three to four times in the last one month. We had good friends give us some food to last for a week or two and prior to that my parents were hereJ

I kept going back to look at Manisha Kadipatta chicken. I love the flavor of curry leaves in chicken and her recipe was my inspiration, but wanted to make something quick and easy. If your chicken breasts are frozen, it actually helps to slice the chicken thinly. Or to make it easier, buy some shredded chicken. And note, this is a curry not with curry powder, but using curry leaves as the star of the dish.

Oil – 1 T

Onion – 1, large, thinly sliced

Curry leaves – 1 cup, packed and chopped finely

Garlic – 8 pods, sliced thin

Cayenne – 1 tsp

Freshly crushed Pepper -1/2 tsp

Chicken – 1 lb, sliced thinly

Salt to taste

• Heat oil in a sauté pan and add the onions and curry leaves. Allow it cook nice and slow on medium low until the onions are caramelized
• Sprinkle a little bit of salt over the onions if you want to cook them fast.
• Stir in the garlic, cayenne and freshly crushed   pepper and cook for roughly 2-3 minutes.
• Add chicken and stir well, so that the spices get well incorporated with the chicken.
• Season with salt and cook until the chicken is done.
• Serve with roti.

On our way back from playing the role of Santa, the weather was cold,  did not really feel like driving 20 miles to our local fav wings place (wingstop) while still wanting some.

Feeling adventurous, stopped got some frozen wings  and headed straight home. Shankari had already googled some wings recipes as I was driving home and armed with the various instructions, I came up with my own set.

Ingredients

Chicken wings 1 doz

Cayenne – 2 T

Garam masala – 1 T

Oil -  -3 T

Tapatio hot sauce – optional

Onion – 1, thinly sliced- optional

Steps :

1. Boil the wings in an heavy pan which has a good lid ( I used Shankari’ s le Cruset pan the first time, and our good ole pressure cooker the second) Let it cook for 7 – 10 minutes. It should not over cook to the point where meat falls off.  I add a tsp of turmeric and salt to the water

2. Drain the water from the pan and let the floating fat wash off, I rinse the chicken as well to clean out any of the fat that might be sticking if needed. Put the wings on a paper towel and pat to remove as much water as easily possible.

3. Rinse off pan and put it back on the stove at medium heat. Add 2-3 TBSP oil, salt, chilli power, garam masala and turmeric power. Mix in the hot oil and add the wings and stir to coat the wings. Stir fry for 2 – 3 minutes. Add sliced onions and stir.

4. Set the oven to broil, and add the wings  and onions in a pan. Broil for 3 – 4 minutes and turn the pieces to brown the other side. I leave the onions in the oven a little longer than the wings, as I like the onions crispy.

5. Add tapito sauce in a small bowl and coat the wings evenly.  You can skip this step if you want the wings less spicy

While I did not use the onions in my final plating, I like the flavor the onion imparts to the wings, and also the crispy onion tastes awesome by itself.

The first time I had this kind of a salad was when my friend, Cyndi made this for July 4th block party. R & I both loved it and as always, I asked for her the recipe. She gave it to me, I made it a couple of times and then lost the recipe. This is what I came up with . And yes, I know this recipe calls for curry powder, but who claimed this recipe was Indian??:) wink wink

Curried Chicken Salad

Oil – 1 T

Onion – 1 cup, Sliced

1 rotisserie chicken, skin removed and meat chopped or shredded & chilled

Celery- 1 cup, chopped

Grapes – 1 cup (mix green and purple)

Mango- 1 cut in small cubes

Ginger- 1 tsp, grated

Dressing

1 1/2 cups plain Greek Yogurt

Mango Chutney- 1 tsp

Curry paste/powder- 2 tsp (add more or less per your taste)

Salt & pepper – to taste

Garnish

Slivered Almonds- ½ cup

Roasted Sunflower seeds- ¼ cup

• Heat a sauté pan with oil and cook the onions until they turn golden brown.
• Set it aside in a bowl and let it cool.
• In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the dressing and whisk well.
• Add the onions and the rest of the ingredients and stir gently.
• Garnish with almonds and sunflower seeds and serve chilled or at room temperature.