Khumb Masaledaar

A sleepy Sunday, with nothing much to do except cook some good food and look at yr sons create mayhem. The worst thing is to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, say 4 AM, to go for golf and suddenly check the messages that arrived post you hit the bed, to realize that none of your golfer buddies are going to be coming. With no sleep now, and a few hours to kill, kitchen happens to be the only retreat to hit. Precisely what I did this morning. Its a different story though that I slept for 5 hours post everyone getting up :)

Khumb Masaledaar

Ingredients:

Mushrooms - 250 gms
Green Bell Pepper (Capsicum), diced - 1 No.
Onions - 2, made into a paste with 2 green chillies
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 3 Tblsp
Tomatoes - 3 made into a paste
Garam Masala Powder - 2 Tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 2 Tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 Tsp
Cloves - 1/2 Tsp
Cinnamon - 1 stick ( 1')
Cumin Seeds - 2 Tsp
Corriander Seeds - 2 Tsp
Black Peppercorns - 2 Tblsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1 Tblsp
Yogurt - 3 Tblsp
Salt - To Taste
Oil - 3 Tblsp


Method: Pre-preparation:
1. Grind the whole spices. Keep aside.
Preparation:
1. Heat Oil in a pan.
2. Add in the onion, green chilli paste. Fry till the paste starts turning golden brown.
3. Add in the ginger garlic paste. cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add in all the masalas (spices). cook for 2-3 minutes or till masalas are done.
5. Add in the bell peppers.
6. Add in the tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes.
7. Add in the yogurt. Mix well.
8. Add in the mushrooms and the salt.
9. Add in a little water, if desired. Cook till mushrooms are done.
10. Serve hot.

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Going Bananas over Banana Bread

Last night in between breaks watching the Mumbai Indians post their third successive loss, I noticed a few bananas in the fruit basket, resting away peacefully, without a worry of being devoured. Infact they had been resting there for some time now…a few days only, but they were now very ripe and just the right to being mashed away into some banana bread.

Banana bread is a type of quick bread that uses baking powder as a leavening agent rather than yeast. Thus, it is also more of a cake. Also, unlike most breads where you end up making a dough and rest it, here you end up making a batter. All the more reason, of it being more of a cake.

The first banana bread was probably baked in America in early 1930’s and since then its popularity has only spread. It is now a staple of many breakfast cafes’ around the world and has so many variations right from Chocolate added to it, to nuts and other added fruits too.

I experimented with an easy recipe and wanted to have a banana bread which is less denser than what you find in the US or UK, and of a much softer, spongy cake like consistency (in other words, the kind my son loves).

Banana Bread

Ingredients

3 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cup sugar
1 ½ cups refined flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 Egg, beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tsp Cinnamon powder
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
20 gms, Raisins, soaked in 30 ml Rum

Method

1. Mash the bananas in a bowl.

2. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon.

3. Preheat oven to 250°F.

4. Bake in a buttered loaf pan for 25 to 30 minutes (or until a toothpick stuck into the bread comes out clean)

5. Slice and serve.

Note : Quick breads are breads that use chemicals leavening agents, rather than yeast. Yeast requires some time to rise, and also the correct temperature, time etc., whereas Baking powder don’t require all the time, hence, the name.

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Paneer Makai ( Cottage Cheese with Corn)

This weekend has been crazy ....with the IPL starting, my evenings are more or less booked, sitting infront of the TV and following up matches.
When you have so much packed up into your schedule and yet want to cook, it calls for dishes that are easy to make, do not require a lot of preparation and delicious to have.
With paneer and American corn kernels being regulars in the fridge, this one was an obvious choice. Yet, it was none other than my spouse who ended up making this one up. Wonder if a variation with tofu instead of paneer with some more things like mushrooms, spring onions and red chilli powder thrown in, make it more killer than it is. Anyone willing to try that version out, do keep me posted on how it turns out.

Ingredients:
Cottage Cheese(Paneer) or Ricotta - 200 gm, cut into 1/2" cubes
Corn kernels ( the sweet corn) - 1 Cup
Bell Peppers, Red, Yellow, Green - 1 each, cut into juliennes
Cumin - 1 Tsp
Asafoetida ( Hing) - A pinch
Green Chillies, finely chopped, or Slit into 2 - 2 No.
Ginger, grated - 2 tsp
Oil - 4 Tblsp
Salt To Taste

Method:
1. Heat 2 Tblsp Oil in a wok. Saute the Bell Peppers and Cottage cheese/ricotta cubes till they are lightly browned. Remove and keep aside.
2. Heat the remaining oil in the same wok. Add cumin seeds and asafoetida.
3. When the cumin seeds start to crackle, add in the grated ginger and green chillies. Saute for half a minute.
4. Add in the corn kernels. Add in a cup of water and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a creamy consistency.
5. Add the sauteed bell peppers and cottage cheese/ricotta cubes. Mix well.
6. Serve hot garnished with chopped cilantro.

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Lachhedar Aloo - Tandoori Fare for the vegans

After my ode to butter chicken in my last post, I drift further up north and into the Pakistani territory to bring out some cuisine from there. My grandfather migrated to India after partition and left his house in Sialkot to establish himself in Delhi.

On my different visits to UK and US, one thing that came out very strongly was that a lot of Restaurants serving Indian Cuisine ( they stated so on their billboards and at the entrance - Finest Indian Cuisine) was run by either Bangladeshi's or Pakistani's. So you found eateries with names like 'Jewel of India', 'Taj Mahal', 'Delhi Durbar' owned and operated by people who had never been to the places their restaurants stated to be from.
Quite frankly, I have nothing against them. Overseas, we are all the same, and believe you me I found them extremely hospitable even at their homes, even though I was from another country.
The cuisine from Pakistan is rich in its own right. The different regions still preserve their culinary heritage. One such region in Balochistan.
Balochistan, is the rugged western frontier province in Pakistan. It happens to be the largest province in the country and is named after the Baloch which are Iranian people. Quetta is its capital. Quetta, a name in pashto language translated means 'Fort'. The region is known for its exotic fare of kebabs. Though most if its cuisine is mutton based, I managed to find a dish to excite the vegans.

Lachhedar Aloo

Ingredients:

5 Potato slices disjoined,
1 tsp Amchoor powder
1 Tsp Kasoori Methi
2 Tsp Garam Masala powder
2 Tsp Cumin Powder (Zeera)
3 Tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
1 tsp Oil
Salt
1 tsp Red chilli powder
2 tsp Cheese grated
1 tsp Hung curd
1 tsp Roasted chana powder

Method:

1. Clean and peel potatoes.Slice disjoined. ( Parboil if you are going to grill in Microwave. Takes a long time otherwise)
2. Prepare marination with grated cheese, hung curd, ginger-garlic paste, garam masala, kasoori methi powder, amchoor powder, jeera powder, roasted chana powder, red chilli powder, oil and salt.
3. Add the potatoes to the marinade. Keep chilled for an hour.
4. Take a skewer and skewer the marinated potato one by one and roast it in the tandoor till it turns golden brown.
5. Serve hot with mint chutney.

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Butter Chicken

Tomorrow is Baisakhi ...the Punjabi New Year, as is the new year of a lot of other regions. Sitting in Hyderabad, its nostalgia time. Not that, it would have been any different sitting in Delhi. Over the past few years, or say decades, such regional festivals have almost lost their fun, frolic and festivities associated with it. They remain...just a public holiday. A day to rest and make a visit to the mall.

The real charm of enjoying them lies still in the small towns and cities untouched by the westernization of the country, in the way that the metros and a few cities like Hyderabad have been.Ideally, a real great post on this occassion should have been a recipe for makki di roti and sarson da saag, or maybe a kheer or phirni recipe, but guess it'll have to wait.

Being a punju, and a real proud one at that, this blog of mine lacks some real great, eternal favorite punju dishes, even the crossover ones.
So, here let me start, with the one dish that comes to everyone's mind when they say Punju cuisine ...Butter Chicken!

Butter Chicken or Murg Makhani is a creamy, lip smacking dish made with grilled pieces of boneless chicken in a rich tomato gravy.

Now don't let the list of ingredients and various marinades get to you. It is really simple to cook and seriously takes me only a couple of hours to get this on the table. The trick is to plan and multi task. Start with getting your marinades ready and starting with marinating chicken first and getting the vegetables and pastes ready in the meanwhile. Now a lot of grocery stores have the butter chicken sauce already available so that you can make it even quicker, but I prefer doing it the hard way...the right way.

Butter Chicken (Murg Makhani)

2 Portions

Ingredients

Chicken Breasts, boneless, cleaned, washed & cut into 1 inch cubes - 3

For the Marinade:

First Marinade -

Lemon Juice - 45 ml

Garlic Paste - 15 gm ( 3 Tsp.)

Ginger Paste - 15 gm (3 Tsp.)

Second Marinade -

Yogurt - 1/4 Cup (55 gm)

Cream - 1 Tblsp

Garlic Paste - 15 gm ( 3 Tsp.)

Ginger Paste - 15 gm (3 Tsp.)

Cumin Powder (Jeera Powder) - 1/4 Tsp

Red Chili Powder - 1 Tsp
Black Cardamom Powder - 1/2 Tsp

Green Cardamom Powder - 1/2 Tsp

Cinnamon Powder - 1/4 Tsp

Salt

For the Gravy -

Butter - 50 gm

Ginger, chopped finely - 2 Tsp

Garlic, chopped finely - 2 Tsp.

Tomatoes, roughly chopped - 500 gm

Ginger, chopped finely - 1 Tblsp

Cashew paste - 3 Tsp

Red Chili Powder - 1/2 Tsp.

Cream - 50 ml.

Green Chillies, cleaned, slit and deseeded - 1

Garam Masala Powder - 1/2 Tsp

Kasoori Methi (Dried Fenugreek leaves) - 1 tsp.

Salt

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the 1st marinade and rub the chicken pieces with this. Keep aside

for 20 minutes.

2. Combine the ingredients for the 2nd marinade. Post 20 minutes add the chicken pieces to this 2nd marinade and mix well such that all pieces are covered with the marinade. Keep aside for a couple of hours in a refrigerator.

3. Melt half the butter in a large pan or handi. Add the finely chopped ginger and garlic. Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or till all mositure evaporates.

4. Add in the tomatoes and salt. Mix well. Cover and cook till the tomatoes are mashed.

5. Switch off the flame and allow this tomato mixture to cool. Post cooling, puree this mixture ina blender.

6. Skewer the chicken pieces and grill them at 180°C for 15-20 minutes or till 3/4th cooked. (Note: If grilling in an oven, then keep a tray underneath the skewers to collect the drippings.)

7. Take a handi/pan and put on flame. Melt the remaining butter. Add in ginger and the green chilly. Saute for a minute.

8. Remove the chicken pieces from the skewers and add them to the handi/pan. Combine well and cook for a minute.

9. Add the tomato puree and salt. Mix well and increase flame. Bring to a boil.

10. Reduce the flame to medium and add in the cashew paste. Stir and add in the red chili powder. Mix well.

11. Simmer and cook till the gravy attains a thick saucy consistency. Remove from flame and stir in the cream. Put back on flame.

12. Bring to a boil. Add in the kasoori methi and sprinkle the garam masala. Stir and adjust

seasoning.

13. Remove from the flame and serve hot.

Is ideal with some tandoori roti or pulao. Normal roti or steamed rice will also do.

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Stuffin myself with Muffin

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Enough has been said and written about it. It provides the body with the right fuel to keep us going through the day. And as said, “Well begun is half done”.

The weekend happened to be a long one, with the Ugadi festival (Telugu New Year ) on Monday and it was just the break I needed to get away from the maddening workplace. Since this was an unwinding and catching movies weekend, there was to be no golf and come Monday the skies opened up and rain gods again poured down.

The weather was perfect for some good food, and I had been contemplating making some muffins for a long time. Today was just the day to go ahead and have them ready for breakfast.

I had this good recipe from cooks.com which I had tried out in the past and felt the need to make some adjustments. Firstly, it was for strawberry muffins and I wanted to make some chocolate ones, secondly, the sugar quantity prescribed in the recipe was extremely low. The muffins per that came out, so to say, bland. So I made my own adjustments and made the chocolate muffins …it surely was a good breakfast :)

For the original recipe you can visit the cooks.com site and have a look at that one too. Just remember my words on the sugar part.

Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup sifted refined flour
2 cup powdered sugar
3 tsp. baking powder

5 tsp cocoa powder

½ tsp Eno (optional)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla essence

1 tsp chocolate syrup (Hershey’s)
1 chopped chocolate

Method:

1. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder, eno and salt.

2. Beat eggs. Blend in oil, vanilla essence, milk & chocolate syrup.

3. Add the liquid to dry ingredients. Stir quickly just until moistened.

4. Fold in the chocolate chips.

5. Spoon into well greased muffin tins.

6. Bake at 220 degrees for 25 minutes or until done.

7. Remove to wire rack. Serve.

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