Easy Lazy Chicken

This is one of my favorite chicken recipes and it requires neither time nor culinary skills, but tastes delightful. In fact, we did not take a single picture when we last made this preparation, which proves how lazy Sid and I were at the time.

1. Marinate about 500gm chicken (preferably with bones) in 2 Tbsp vinegar, salt, and 2 tsp crushed pepper. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge.

2. Melt 1-2 Tbsp butter in a pan and sauté the chicken (without marinade) till it turns golden brown.

3. Add the marinade, some more freshly ground pepper (yup, I'm a sucker for fresh pepper!) and salt, if required. Cover and cook for 10min or till the chicken is tender and smells heavenly.

4. Garnish with chopped coriander or basil leaves and devour with bread or butter rice.

Chicken Dimsum

Here's what I made a few days back: Chicken Dimsums. It is one of my all time favourites, and now it is Sid's too. We frequently have meals consisting entirely of dozens of dimsums, and sometimes even the restaurant staff serving us has expressed amazement!

Dimsums are fairly simple to make. That is, *IF* you have the wonton wrappers ready. Making wrappers and rolling them out is quite painful, but I did that the first time I made dimsums at home. But a few weeks back, I came across frozen spring roll wrappers -- the bulb in my head switched on and shone brightly, and later that day we had dimsums made with spring roll wrappers.

Without any doubt, the original (but painful) recipe tasted better, but readymade wrappers saved us a lot of time and effort. If anyone knows anywhere in Bombay to get readymade wonton wrappers, please do let us know.

Another essential ingredient in the 'dimsum experience is tangy lemon sauce. Without this, dimsums are only half as much fun. For now, just slurp on the picture alongside.

PS: We have conducted a delicious survey of Chinese restaurants serving dimsums (ask for chicken 'sui-mai') in Bombay. And the winner -- head and shoulders above anyone else -- is Ling's Pavilion in Colaba. Remind them to serve their lemon sauce alongside, or they'll forget and you'll wonder what we raved about. Honorable mention: Royal China, near VT -- excellent dimsums, but horribly overpriced. Avoid: street vendor at Phoenix Mills -- trust us on this.