Mirchi ka Salan

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This recipe has an amazing taste to it and coupled with the tamarind and onions has a sweet and tangy taste to it. It goes beautifully with all kinds of biryani...right from chicken, mutton and even kofta pulao!

Ingredients:
5-6 Thai chillies
10 curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
4 tbs dessicated coconut
4 tbs til
1 handful peanuts
1 tsp khash khash
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbs oil
1 cup tamarind puree
1 1/2 large onion, finely sliced
Cilantro to garnish


Method:
Heat oil and fry the onion till crisp and golden brown. Using a slotted spoon remove and freeze for a while.

Dry roast, coconut, peanuts, khash khash and til and once they are cool enough, grind them seperately.

Boil the tamarind in water and let it soak completely, remove and strain the pulp in a bowl. Mix the ground mixture and make sure it has blended well in the puree.

Wash the thai chillies and trim the head a little and cut them in 3 pieces.

Heat oil in a big saucepan and fry mustard and cumin seeds, as they begin to splutter add the curry leaves. Slide a slit green chilli and stir for a while and add the chillies.

As the chillies start to glaze, pour the tamarind puree and ground mixture. Finally add the fried onions and cilantro, shut the lid and cook till oil seperates.


Note: If this recipe sounds similar to Bagare baingan...it is! The recipe is the same only the main ingredient changes, again care should be taken when adding red chilli powder, since these chillies are quite spicy themselves :)

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Cheesy Quesadilla

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Ingredients:
Mission brand Tortillas, burrito sized: approx 8
Sour Cream as needed
Mexican blend four cheese to garnish
Qeema as needed
Ranch dressing, again as needed

Method:

Slightly warm the tortilla on a semi-warm flat pan. Remove and apply sour cream all over.

Fold the tortilla in the middle and spread qeema evenly and top it with shredded cheese and Ranch dressing. Fold it in half and press lightly.

Microwave for a about 30-40 seconds. Run a pizza cutter and slice into three parts. Serve hot!

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Hyderabadi Biryani

Ingredients:

Meat - 1 KG Boneless

Basmati Rice - 1/2kg

Onion - 2 Big

Lime Juice - 1/4 Cup

Safron - 2 pinch of safron, immerse in waterSafron color - A pinch of color liquified with water

Ghee - 2 Tsp.

Oil - 2 Cup oil

Salt - To taste
Method:
Cut the meat into 4" square pieces and wash it
Add ginger garlic paste to the washed meat and Marinate it for 1 hour.
While marinating you cut the onions thinly lengthwise and Fry the onions in the oil on low flame till it becomes golden brown.
Now remove the golden brown onions from the oil and spread it on the plate, when it cool then crush it with your hand.
Now add the curd 3/4 part of crushed fried onion, Red chilli powder, Green chilli paste, Cinamon, Cardamon, Shazeera, Clove, Coriander leaves, Mint leaves and safron water, salt to taste and remaining part of the oil into this marinated meat and leave for one hour.
After one hour take basmati rice and washed and now pour water into the rice as you cook it and add salt one tea spoon, Cinamon, Cardamon, Shazeera, Clove, Coriander leave, mint leave, Green chilli 2 cut into lenght wise. Now put on flame but when rice start cooking when the rice becomes half cookded. Then remove it flame. Drain out the water completly. Now spread this half cooked rice on the marinated meat. Upon the rice layer you spread lime juice, saffron color and ghee and remaining part of the crushed onion.
Now cover the utensil with lid tightly. Keep it on a very low flame After 1/2 hour exactly take it out from the flame.
Now your delicious tasty Hyderabadi Biryani is ready to eat.
Serve hot with curd chutney or with Bagare Baigan Curry.

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Hyderabadi Biryani with Curry

Hyderabadi Biryani is a popular variety of Biryani.

There are 2 styles of preparing this variety. The Katchi Biryani is prepared with the Kacci Akhni method (with raw gravy). It is usually accompanied with Dahi ki Chutney Raita(a yogurt dish) or Mirch ka Salan.

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken / 2 lbs chicken,

1 kg Basmati rice / 2 lbs rice1 cup thinly sliced onions,

2 tsp ginger/garlic paste,

3 tsp chilli powder,

½ tsp turmeric,

100 g cashew nuts,

4 or 5 bay leaves,

4 or 5 cloves,

2 cm long cinnamon sticks,

3 or 4 cardamom pods,

1 or 2 tsp shah jeera,

2 cups mint leaves,

1 cup coriander leaves (cilantro),

½ tsp garam masala powder(shah jeera, elachi, dal chini, lavang),

1 lemon,

1 ½ tsp salt (according to taste),

1 cup ghee (clarified butter),

½ cup yogurt,

1 cup oil,

few strands of saffron,

2 cups finely sliced onions,

Preparation

1. Make deep incisions on the chicken flesh - deep enough for spices to get absorbed but making them too deep could render the pieces smaller. Mix turmeric, chilli powder, salt, garlic paste, yogurt, and half-lemon's juice. Thoroughly apply this paste onto the meat flesh and let marinate for an hour.

2. Heat about 100 ml of oil. Roast cumin, cloves, cinnamon, depoded cardamom, bay leaves, ½ spoon cumin, 1 spoon coriander powder, and finally add onions(2). Wait a couple of minutes to add mint leaves. When onions turn slight brown, add marinated chicken and cook for about 20-30 min. It should NOT be fully cooked at this stage; add garam masala and coconut powder and turn off flame when about ¾ cooked. Gravy should not be much, chicken pieces should look roasted.

3. Meanwhile, while the chicken is still cooking, prepare the biryani rice. Slightly rinse 3 cups of basmati, and add water little less than the volume of the rice itself so that its only half cooked preferably in an electric cooker. Amount of water actually depends on kind of rice at hand and your experience helps to judge it. Also add 1-2 teaspoons of salt to it. Take a few semi-cooked grains of rice and colour them with diluted saffron for garnishing.

4. You will need a utensil of about 12" (300 mm) base. Place about half of semi-cooked rice in it. Next, layer half of chicken on it again topped by a layer of rice (half of the remaining). One more layer of remaining chicken, finally with layer of rest of the rice on top ends the rice-chicken layering stage.

5. Heat oil and deep fry half the sliced onions to golden brown. Similarly fry cashew. Garnish the top layer with these two along with 100 ml ghee, coconut milk, saffron rice grains and coriander. Lid the vessel and try making it airtight (but no pressure should build up). Put on high flame for 5 min before reducing it to low flame. The flame should NOT be at the vessel's centre, but on one side of it. Wait for 2-3 min and turn the vessel to heat other next part on its circumference. This way, keep rotating the vessel every 2-3 min for about 20 min. Every time you turn it, carefully disturb the contents by a shake/jerk so as to avoid settling of ghee at the bottom.

6. Put off the flame and wait for about 10 min before opening. Before serving, mix the medley from the bottom. Serve with boiled egg halves. Enjoy. Rightly and carefully made, its an epicure's paradise.

Note: Got the recpie from wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Wikipedia:Copyrights

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Gorgeous Lemons!

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Here are some pictures of the lemon harvest from my backyard this season. The yield has been better from last year, as you can make out from the pictures the lemons are absolutely juicy and so very gorgeous to look at.

After distributing it among friends and family I'm still left with a lot of lemons. I wanted someone to please suggest what I can make with them....apart from lemon pickle, that is!

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Banana Nut Muffins

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This muffin recipe is adapted from SaffronHut's blog. The muffins are undoubtedly delicious. The combination of bananas and walnuts is very unique. For people looking for the recipe, here it is!

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Small handful of walnuts, chopped

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin pan with muffin paper cups.

Mash bananas well with a masher. Chop the walnuts and reserve 1 tbsp for sprinking on top.
Add sugar and melted butter and keep aside.

Mix the dry ingredients really well, add to banana mixture Add the chopped nuts. Mix just enough to bring everything together.

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 to the top. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

Bake for 20 minutes or till the muffins are golden brown.

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Chicken Stow

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My Mom used to make this amazing curry, right from a sick person to a healthy one....it fits right in. And I couldn't think of anything better to eat in my flu than this. Some comfort food people :) Alright now for the recipe...


Ingredients:
2 tbs oil
1 lb chicken, cut into cubes
1 1/2 cup yogurt
2 onions
1 tsp garam masala
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
5-6 green chillies
4-5 dried red chillies
1 cup water
Cilantro sprigs while cooking and some for garnishing

Method:
Heat oil in a heavy based pan. Add all the above ingredients and cook till oil seperates from the sides.

Keep a little cilantro aside for garnish, serve hot with either naan or plain basmati rice.

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Raisin Cake

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This cake recipe is perhaps the most quickest and argueably tastiest so far in my experience of baking (which is actually zilch to speak of). The ingredients are always in handy in the pantry. It was passed on to me from my aunt and she simply loves baking it every now and then. So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:
Pam's Non stick cooking spray
1 cup all purpose flour
4 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup raisins


Method:
Beat the eggs using a hand blender, as it turns fluffy add sugar. Slowly sift in the flour and add vanilla essence along with baking powder. Finally add the oil and blend further till smooth and lumps free. Throw in the raisins in the end and mix in well with the batter.

Preheat the oven at 300 F. Spray Pam cooking spray liberally on a 9" square pan and pour the mix and bake for 1 hour.

Insert a skewer or knife to make sure its cooked through. Cool on wire rack and serve with tea or coffee.

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