Suji Halwa for this Festive Season

When I think of festivals in India, sweets and sweets and more sweets.. thats what I visualize. Being a big foody its hard for me to resist sweets. Sometimes even a basic dish like 'Suji Halwa' which we normally prepare for our puja or offerings is so tempting to me that I can afford to run 5km just to afford eating that :)

Well the Navratri started and I got an excuse to eat it again. But till now I haven't  tried my hands on it, so this time I asked my wife to prepare it in front of me, so that I can add it to my cooking blog. So here it goes:

Ingredients :

1 Cup Suji
1/3 cup Besan (Gram flour)
3/4 cup Ghee (you can change as per your choice)
1 cup sugar
3 cup Milk
1/4  teaspoon cardamom powder
Chopped Almonds, and cashew nuts
1 spoon Raisins


Cooking Method:

Mix Suji and Besan evenly together. In a non-stick pan, pour ghee and heat it on a medium flame. Once ghee is hot enough, add the suji and besan mix and roast it on a low flame till it turns into golden brown color. Add milk to it and stir continuously to avoid the lump formation. Once the milk is absorbed, add chopped almonds, cashews, raisins and then add sugar to it. Keep on cooking on a low flame until the ghee is separated.

Try-it out and don't forget to leave your comments and suggestion.

Have a Happy festive time !!

Simply Pasta

Pasta is something which is really quick to prepare and healthy if you top up with loads of vegetables.
Sometimes when I am not in mood to cook anything time consuming, pasta is that something which I always love to experiment with. So here is the description of last pasta dish I try.

1. Pasta(mix of fussili and penne)
2. Cut vegetables ( 2 cup carrots cut in small cubes, 1/2 cup green peas, 1 cup mushrooms cut in medium pieces, 1 cup chopped tomato, 1 red onion sliced, 4 cloves of garlic minced, chopped salad leaves(Ruccola)
3. 1 cup spinach (frozen or fresh chopped)
4. 1/2 cup cream
5. 1/2 cup tomato sauce
6. 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 4-5 black pepper, 1 stick cinnamon
7. 3 spoon vinegar
8. chilly flakes, oregano, black pepper powder and salt as per taste
9. Olive oil for cooking and dressing


Boil the pasta in a pan adding 1 spoon oil and little salt and cook till its soft. Once done then drain the hot water and put the pasta in hot water. This will prevent pasta to become sticky.

In a pan put some olive oil and heat it. Add cinnamon stick, black pepper, and cumin seeds and let it clicker. Add sliced onions and minced garlic to it, add salt as per taste and cook untill the onions are golden brown. Adding salt will makes onions to cook faster.
Add cut vegetables except the tomatoes to the pan and add 3 spoon vinegar to it. vinegar helps in tenderizing the vegetables and add a distinct taste to it.

cook for 15 mins and then add chilly flakes, 1 spoon oregano and chopped salad leaves to it and cook for another 2 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes. Now add tomato sauce and mix well and finally add the cream to it(if dont want the fat from cream then add one cup milk). Now add the boil pasta to this and stir it properly so that the sauce get evenly mixed in the boiled pasta. cook it for 2 minutes and then dress it with olive oil and serve hot with Garlic bread.


Vegetables like Cauliflower, broccoli, red and green pepper will add more texture and color to it.

Note: You can prepare the pasta vegetable sauce and can refrigerate it. Then its simply adding it to boil pasta and prepare instant healthy pasta in minutes.

Home made KFC Style Chicken

I am a big fan of KFC chicken and whenever I travel abroad, thats is the first and safest choice for me to eat out. When I landed in Stockholm, I was searching for KFC outlet and un-fortunately I couldn't fine one.

So I thought to give a try at home just to satisfy my craving. To my luck, the experiment was succcess and that was approved by my wife who is also a big fan of KFC. Hence I thought to share it on my food blog. So the short and quick recipe goes like this.

Ingredients for Marinade:

dried basil - 1 spoon
oregano - 1 spoon
salt - 1 spoon
chilli powder 2 spoon
turmeric powder - 1 spoon
vinegar - 4 spoon
lemon juice - 2 spoon
1 minced garlic clove
2 spoon olive oil
1 spoon blacck pepper

Mix all the above ingredients with a little water and prepare the marinade.wash the chicken pieces and dry them with paper towels. make small cuts in it so that marinade can be absorbed properly. Then put the chicken in a plastic bag along with the marinade and mix properly so that all the pieces are coated with the marinade evenly and then keep the bag in fridge for 4-5 hours.

Ingredients for coating:

3 Eggs
1 cup milk
salt 1/2 spoon
black pepper powder - 1 spoon

mix all the ingredients above and keep aside in a bowl.

3 cups all purpose flour (Maida)
1/2 spoon salt
1 packet tomato soup powder

mix this dry mixture and keep it in a bowl to coat the chicken pieces.


Take the chicken pieces and apply first coat of egg mixture on it and then put in the dry mixture to coat it evenly. Then again apply second coat of egg mixture and repeat the dry mixture coating on top of this.

Use the same process above with all the chicken pieces.

Now heat the oil in a pan and when its hot enough, fry the chicken pieces for 15-20 minutes and then keep aside on paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

When all chicken pieces are fried, heat the oven to 250 degrees and cook the fried chicken for 5-7 minutes at 250 degrees.

you can serve the chicken with chilli sauce and salad.

Laal Maas from Udaipur

                                                      The history of Udaipur Princely state
                                                                           Udaipur

Rajasthan is always famous for its color and when it comes to food then its the red chilies which plays an important role in the cuisine in this area.

As part of a full course meal, red meat is the most favored dish in the Royal houses in Rajasthan and different regions have their own way of cooking it. This dish is an important part of the wedding cuisine and its the responsibility of the Males in the family to prepare especially this dish for the special guests.

Today I am cooking the famous 'Laal Maas', the way it is cooked in regions near Udaipur ( The city of lakes).

Ingredients :

- 1 Kg red meat (Lamb/Goat), medium sized pieces from ribs and legs cuts.

- 4 big red onions cut into thin circular rings

- 20 to 25 cloves of Garlic

- Plain yogurt 1 cup

- Ghee/Musturd Oil 300 ml

- 1/4 cup poppy seeds soaked in water

Spices:

- Whole red chilies soaked in water (approx 30) for 2 hours and made into paste.

- Turmeric powder 4 spoons

- Coriander powder 5 spoons soaked in water

- Cumin seeds 1 spoon

- Shahi Jeera 1/2 spoon

- Black pepper 10

- Black Cardamom 3

- Cinnamon sticks 3 (4 inches)

- Bay leaf 4

- Cloves 5

Method:

Heat the Ghee/Mustard oil in an iron pan, and till the fumes starts to come. Add all the whole spices to it and cover it with a lid so that the aroma of the spices should not escapes out. Once the spices turns to black add the onions and garlic cloves to it and stir it occasionally until the onions turns golden brown. Its very important that onions should be cooked properly otherwise the texture and taste of the gravy will not be good. add salt as per the taste (it needs to be a bit more as it will help to tenderize the meat).

Add the meat pieces to the pan now and stir it nicely, preventing the meat to stick to the pan. It need to be roasted for another 15 mins. Then add the red chili paste, turmeric powder and stir it so that the chili and turmeric should not get burnt. This needs to be stirred and roasted for another 10 mins and then add enough water to it so that the meat pieces are soaked completely into water now. add half of the soaked coriander powder and cover the lid and let it boil and cook for another 30 minutes. The water level need to be checked in between just to ensure that it doesn't stick at the bottom else no need to add extra water. 

After 30 minutes once the water evaporates and it forms a thick gravy, add the soaked poppy seeds and cook and stir for 5 mins then add the yogurt, stir it. Cook and stir it occasionally adding little water as and when required in order to prevent it from sticking to the pan. The meat pieces needs to be checked if they are cooked. If meat is tender now and cooked then add remaining soaked coriander powder and water as per the gravy desired and let it cook for 15 minutes. Put off the fire now and add chopped green coriander and cover it with lid. 

Serve this with wheat or maize chapatis/rice. 

Note: If whole red chilies not available then chili powder soaked in little water can be used.

         Iron pans gives a distinct flavor to the meat, which won't come with the non-stick pans.

         The garlic cloves should be dissolved completely in the process of stirring and cooking.

Hyderabadi Chicken Biriyani

When we talk about Biriyani in India, few renowned specialised Biriyani variations comes in mind. Biriyani from Lucknow, Hyderabad and Sindhi Biriyani. Among these Hyderabadi Biriyani has its own aroma and taste (what we call Zayka).

So I thought to attempt this one, incorporating the cooking methods employed in Kitchen's of Hyderabadi Nawabs.

Ingredients:
Chicken 750 grams cut into medium pieces (with bones)
Rice 200 Grams
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1 cup chopped Green Coriander
1 cup chopped mint leaves
2 big size Red Onions thinly chopped length wise
2 Tablespoon Ginger paste
3 Tablespoon Garlic paste ( use fresh Garlic)
2 cups Plain Yogurt
6 Green Chillies cut into half length wise
5 Spoon Ghee
Oil to fry the Onions
Wheat flour dough to seal the edges of pan

Spices:
4 Tablespoon red chilli powder
2 Tablespoon turmeric powder
2 Tablespoon Coriander powder
Salt to taste
1 Tablespoon Cumin Seeds
1 Tablespoon Shahi Jeera
6-7 Black pepper
4-5 Cloves
3 Black Cardamoms
4-5 Green Cardmoms
4 Cinnamon Sticks 3 inches
2 Pinch of Saffron diluted n half a cup of milk and 2 spoon rose water
3 Bay leafs

Preparation.

1. Wash the rice thoroughly with cold water untill the water stops being cloudy. Then soak it in water for 20    minutes prior to the cooking.
2. Mix Yogurt, Garlic and Ginger paste, Red chillies, Turmeric, Coriander powder, green chillies, lemon juice, and add Chicken pieces to it thoroughly. Marinate this for 1 hour so that the Chicken pieces soaks the juices of the spicy mixture and becomes tender.

3. Heat some Oil in a pan and when its hot, put the sliced onions and fry till it becomes golden brown as in picture below. Once done keep it on paper towel to soak the excess oil and keep it aside to be used later.

Method:
Boil the rice with plenty of water, Black Cardamoms, Green Cardamoms, Cloves, Cumin seed, Shahi Jeera, black pepper, Cinnamon, Bay leaf and cook it till they are half cooked.

Take a heavy base pan, of wrought Iron pan and put it on medium fire.Add the marinated mix to the pan.
Put a layer of fried onions on top of it. Now put half of the rice on top of Chicken mixture. Add rest of the fried Onions on top of this layer, add chopped coriander leaves, half of the mint leaves to it. Sprinkle the Saffron and rose water solution on this layer, and layer rest of the rice on top of this. Put remaining mint leaves   on top and little saffron and rose water solution. Add the melted Ghee along the edges and top of the mixture.

Cover the pan with a heavy lid and seal the edges with the flour dough, so that the aroma should not come out with the steam and the contents in the pan gets properly cooked. Cook it for 30-40 minutes on medium fire.

Once the steam starts to come out from the edges then its the indication that its cooked. Open the lid and with a flat spatula check if the chicken is cooked. Try not to break the rice grains in this process.
If its done, then cover the lid and let it stand for 5 to 10 mins.

So the Biriyani is ready and you can serve this hot, garnish with coriander leaves along with Raita of your choice.

Note: If you see that the chicken is little burnt then don't worry, it gives a distinct roasted taste.
Sometimes people don't like that the whole spices coming in mouth at the time of eating. So you can put all the whole spices in a muslin cloth and make a small bag. Put this bag in water at the time of boiling the rice. Once the rice are half cooked you can remove the muslin bag and you are left with aroma in the rice.

So Enjoy the Royal treat.