Is it so that when you are stuck at home, having bouts of fever, your creativity is at its best ? That intermittent time when the fever comes in and one gets lost in sleep, slowly, is perhaps the best time when all craziest thoughts come in . I have been through this for the last couple of days . The first day Madhushree left for office and although I got ready, I thought I would give it a pass. Long lonely afternoon was horrible and neither could I read nor do any work for my blog .
On that afternoon while going off to sleep with fever, I remembered having a strange feeling like Gupi gayen in Goopi Gayen Bagha Bayen ( Cult childrens novel in Bengali by Upendra kishore Roy Chowdhury later turned into a cult successful film by Satyajit Ray) at the Shoondi Kings court where there is a blogging competition and the best blogger becomes resident blogger of the king. Well if this has already made you smile then I needn’t go any further ….
After I woke up, I asked my seniors whom I take the liberty of calling friends, how do they feel when they release a blogpost . The responses were as below –
Ishita B Saha of Ishita Unblogged says “I am very excited and happy to press publish button “
Kalyan Karmakar of Finelychopped says “usually I feel happy at the thought of posting”
and finally respected Kavi Sir of Infoolbloom says “am always happy that I have been able to write & publish! :) .”
Well, perhaps these are veterans speaking but I feel, every time I am placing a part of my life, a slice of me for evaluation in front of the world .
Nothing lifts up your mood better than good food. And this is what Madhushree offered me in the evening when she came back from office ..
15 days later –
It was a narrow save from Swine Flu . In the mean time, completed my Poila Boishakh assignments and posts , took Tugga to science city and have recovered safely .
Pin it for future preparation ?
Chicken Nuggets in Sweet and Sour Sauce
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20- 25 minutes
Yield: Makes about 15 -16 nuggets
Ingredients:
Chicken Mince | 500 gms | Corn flour | 4 heaped tsp |
Egg | 1 | Flour | 2 tsp |
Chopped garlic | 4 tsp | Red bell pepper | 1 |
Onion | 1 large | Coriander leaves | A small bunch |
Tomato Ketchup | 4 tbsp | Honey | 2 -3 tbsp |
Rice Wine Vinegar | 1 tsp | Lemon | 1 |
Maggi Chicken cube(or any other seasoning) | 1 | Salt | As required |
Oil (any white oil) | As required | Pepper | As required |
Method:
The Chicken Nuggets:
- In a bowl take the mince chicken, 2 tsp of chopped garlic, 2 ½ tsp of corn flour, chicken cube, salt and pepper, chopped coriander leaves and flour and mix it. Make a well and add little bit of the beaten egg. Depending on the consistency, you may require half or less than half the egg.
- Take a frying pan and heat some oil. With wet hands, make small nuggets with the mince mixture and shallow fry the nuggets. It takes 5- 7 minutes for the nuggets to cook golden brown. Make sure the heat is not too high or else, it will turn brown on the outside without cooking from the inside.
- Take the nuggets out on a paper towel and prepare the sauce.
The Sweet and Sour Sauce:
- Finely slice the bell pepper and the onion. Its better to use only the red bell pepper. However, I had some half a yellow bell pepper with me, which I have used.
- In the frying pan, heat some oil
- Add the rest of the chopped garlic, the bell pepper and the onion and sauté.
- When the onion has turned golden, add the vinegar, tomato ketchup and juice of half a lemon.
- Add some pepper and finally the honey.
- You don’t need to add salt since the ketchup has the necessary salt.
- The important part is constantly tasting and balancing the sauce. You may require adding more lemon or more honey or more ketchup as per your preferred sweet and sour taste.
- Then go on to add the chicken nuggets and coat them in the sauce.
- In a small bowl, take 4 tbsp of water and dissolve the balance corn flour.
- Add this to the sauce.
- If you want to have this as a starter, then do not add any further water. Just give it a good boil and turn off the heat.
- In case you want to have it as a main, then add a little bit more of water and bring it to a boil.
- Serve hot with steamed rice.