Alfredo sauce

Fettuccine pasta with alredo sauce is our favorite whenever we visit any restaurant. One day I wanted to make some pasta at home and bought a bottle of the alfredo sauce but it tasted different than what we tasted. Then I learned that the restaurants make it fresh always and it is very easy too. There are many ways to prepare this milky white satin like alfredo sauce. I wanted to try one with cream cheese, as I heard from many about that. Then I got the basic recipe from cooks.com and modified it according to need. This is the basic alfredo sauce without alcohol and broth. This sauce tastes similar to the restaurants and now I am confident that I can make a decent alfredo sauce whenever we need.

Any cream cheese can be used. I used a low fat version.

Fettuccine pasta in alfredo sauce.

Ingredients:

(for 2 people)
unsalted Butter - 2 tbsp
cream cheese - 4 tbsp
all purpose flour - 2 tbsp
salt - to taste
pepper - 1 tsp
garlic powder - 1/2 tsp
Italian seasoning - 1/4 tsp
mozzarella cheese - 3 tbsp
whole milk - 1/2 cup or more

Method:

Heat a wok and add butter. Keep the flame in low. Add the flour and cook for a minute without changing the color. Add milk and bring to a boil. Then put all other ingredients and mix well. Cook till cheese melts and sauce looks like smooth.

Serving suggestion:

Cook pasta according to directions in the package.
Add the alfredo sauce to the drained cooked pasta and mix well.
Top it with some more shredded cheese and serve.

Chicken biriyani in cooker

Briyani in cooker is not traditional, but surely a good method when we have to prepare in a small quantity or for a lunch box. My mom would prepare dum briyani only for festivals as it was a time taking process back then. As a 12 year old, I started involving in cooking with mom when I fell in love with the vast ingredients she would use for briyani:) She would like me to keep the kitchen and store room neat, stocked up and organized...may be that was the first lesson before chopping veggies:) After learning her vegetable briyani in cooker, I started preparing chicken briyani in pressure cooker cooker too, which was more easier (till I learned the wedding briyani). On seeing this she too started making cooker briyani quite often. Slowly it became a family favorite meal like a kichadi. My younger brother is a huge fan of my briyanis and would wake up on a Sunday earlier (by noon), only if I say I am making briyani or some non-veg dish:) Just like any sister, his smile makes me more enthusiastic and I tried to comfort him with his favorites always. So a few weekdays too, I would get up very early and prepare this for his lunch box to cheer him up. Recently he browsed through all my recipes and couldn't find his favorite cooker briyani recipe while suggesting his friends and asked for a recipe. Dedicating this simple, easy and quick briyani to venkatesh ,his colleagues and all:)

Chicken briyani with onion tomato pachadi (raita).

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1/2 kg

Other Ingredients:

Basmathi rice / Jeeraga samba raw rice - 1/2 kg (3 cup)
salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
chilly powder - 1 tsp
Red onion - 1 (big)
green chillis - 6 (slit).
Lemon - 1/4
water - (rice x 2) - 2 = (3x2) - 2 = 4
(this is for cooker. For dum process it is 'minus 1')
curd - 1/2 cup
garam masala / briyani masala powder - 2 tsp

To temper: (whole spices)

bay leaves - 2
cashew nuts -10
raisins- 10.
ghee -  5 tbsp

Masala 1:

Tomato - 2

Masala 2:
cilantro- 20 tender plants
mint leaf -1 cup leaves
green chilly - 10
cashew - 5

Masala 3:

Ginger - 2 inch
Garlic - 1 full

Preparation:

Buy chicken red meat(thighs, wings, drumsticks with skin and bone). Breast piece won't give the proper taste.
wash and clean the chicken and cut into big pieces.
Add curd, turmeric powder, salt, chilly powder and marinate for 1 - 3 hours.

Wash the rice and soak it for 1/2 an hour.

Grind all the pastes separately.

Chop onion, chilly into long thin slices and keep aside.

Method:

Heat ghee  in a broad vessel or cooker.
Add the bay leaves and items given under tempering.
Then goes the chopped onion .
Fry it till golden brown and add the ginger garlic paste and stir well till the raw smell goes.
Now add the tomato paste and cook till the oil oozes out of it.
Then add the cilantro , mint paste and cook till the oil start oozing out. Now put the marinated chicken and add salt, powdered garam masala. Cook covered in low heat till oil separates. Check the taste now. It should be little more salty.
Now add the soaked rice and uncut green chillies to the cooker vessel along with the prepared masala. Squeeze some lime juice over. Fry for a minute.
Before this start boiling the require water separately and pour water to rice, mix well. Let it come to a boil.(Boiling the water before adding helps in evenly cooking the rice , otherwise sometimes we get some uncooked rice while making briyani).
Close with the cooker lid and put a pressure valve.

(I use a cooker vessel inside the cooker and pour some water around the base cooker, just like idly cooking. Mine is a 10 liter cooker, but we can prepare it directly in cooker if we have a small pressure cooker).

Wait till a whistle comes. Reduce the flame to medium and cook for exactly 5 minutes. Switch off and open lid once the pressure is gone completely (5 minutes).
Add a little ghee over the biriyani and wait for 5 minutes. Don't stir for first 5 minutes (makes it mushy).

Chicken biriyani in cooker is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Take out the briyani carefully without mashing the whole rice and serve hot.
Serve hot chicken biryani with onion raitha and a gravy / fry.
Serves 4 people or more people.