Mint Chicken Curry ( Pudina murgh )

Ingredients

Chicken - 1
Onions - 4 (sliced)
Curd - 1 cup

Black Pepper - 8
Green Cardamom - 7
Cloves - 5
Cumin Seed - 1 teaspoon
Cinnamom - 2 small stick
Red Chilli - 1 tea spoon (or to taste)
Salt (to taste)

Ginger Paste - 1 teaspoon 
Garlic Paste - 1 teaspoon 
Coriander Leaves - 2 table spoon (chopped)
Mint Leaves -  2 table spoon (chopped)

Recipe

1. Crush together 8 black peppers, 5 green cardamom, 5 cloves, 1 teaspoon cumin Seed and 1 small stick cinnamon.
2. Add salt, red chilli, ginger and garlic paste to the spice mix.
3. Take 2 big onions, slice and fry them, then make a paste of the fried onions and mix 1 cup curd to it. Add to spice mix.
4. Add fresh coriander leaves and mint leaves.
5. Take a baby chicken and marinate it in the above paste and leave for 2-3 hours in the fridge.
6. Again take 1-2 onions, slice and sauté till golden brown. Add 1 small stick cinnamon, 2 black cardamom to it. 
7. Add the marinated chicken mixture and bring to boil.
8. Then cover and cook on low heat till chicken is properly done and oil separates out.

Chard Ghosht

Recipe that I have tried, and can vouch for :)

This is a combined version of 2 different dishes, sakhpaita (spinach and lentils) and daal ghosht (lentils and meat)


Ingredients

Green lentils (Moong dal) - about 2 cups
Lamb (small pieces diced) - ½ kg
Swiss chard (finely sliced) - 1 bunch
Coriander (chopped) - 1 Bunch

Onion (chopped) - 2
Garlic (finely chopped) - 4 cloves

Ground cumin - ½ teaspoon
Black pepper  - 5
Salt to taste

Olive oil - ½ cup
Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon
Water - 6 cups


Recipe

1. Pressure cook the lentils with the water, then simmer until the lentils are nearly cooked.
2. In a separate pot, sauté the onion with half the olive oil for 5 minutes, then add the meat, cumin, salt and black pepper, cook until brown.
3. Add lentils with their cooking water and cook for about 15 minutes until the lentils and meat are almost cooked.
4. In a skillet, add remaining olive oil, sauté the garlic, add the coriander and cook for 1 minute. Stir in to the lentils.
5. Add Swiss chard and lemon juice and cook over low heat for 3 minutes, and then remove from the heat.

Tiramisu

This super-simple Italian dessert actually benefits from being made ahead, as this gives it time for all the lovely flavours to mingle.

Tiramisu

Ingredients

Espresso coffee (strong, cooled to room temperature) - 2-3 cups
Eggs (separated) - 2
Caster sugar - 1/4 cup
Mascarpone cheese - 250 gram
Cream (heavy whipping cream or any cream with more than 36% milkfat) - 1 cup
Sponge Fingers - 250 Gram
Cocoa powder (for dusting)
Hazelnut (roasted and chopped, for dusting)

Recipe

1. Put the egg YOLKS and sugar in a large bowl
2. Beat until mixture goes pale and thick
3. Add mascarpone and beat lightly to combine
4. It does not matter if it is marbled slightly
5. Whip the cream until stiff peaks hold, and fold gently into the egg mixture (use a spatula, or a metal spoon) - DO NOT BEAT
6. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks in a perfectly clam metal bowl (if there is any grease, they won't whip properly; make sure you rinse and dry your beaters well)

Egg White

7. Fold the whites into the cream  - DO NOT BEAT
8. It is important to retain as much air as possible

Mascarpone and Egg White mix

9. For serving you can use a big dish or individual glasses
10. Put coffee in a bowl
11. Dip sponge fingers in coffee one at a time (make sure to take the biscuit out quickly else it soaks a lot of coffee)
12. Drain well
13. Layer in your dish with sponge fingers, covering the whole bottom

Bottom Sponge Finger Layer

14. Place half of mascarpone mix on top and spread out
15. Repeat with remaining sponge fingers

Top Sponge Finger Layer

16. Smooth surface with mascarpone mix (finishing with creamy layer)

Topped with Mascarpone mix

17. Refrigerate overnight
18. Dust with cocoa and hazelnut (may use spoon to create layered effect)

PS: If using glasses for serving, break sponge fingers up into pieces that will fit in your glasses and do the same soaking and layering as above.
Do not oversoak the sponge fingers in coffee, take the sponge fingers out of coffee quickly.

Stuffed Okra ( Bharwa bhindi )

Stuffed Okra or 'bharwa bhindi' as it is more commonly known, recipe that I have tried, and can vouch for :)

Bharwa Bhindi (Stuffed Okra)

Serves 4

Ingredients

Okra (bhindi) - 1/2 kg
Mustard seeds - pinch
Oil - 3  table spoon

For the mixture
Gram flour (Besan) - 7 and ½ table spoon
Garlic (crushed) - 4 cloves
Chili powder - 2 teaspoon
Garam masala - 1 and ½ teaspoon
Cumin powder (Zeera) - ½ teaspoon
Coriander powder (Dhania) - 1 and ½ teaspoon
Turmeric powder (Haldi) - ½ teaspoon
Sesame seeds (til) - 2 teaspoon
Lemon juice - 6 table spoon
Salt (to taste)
Oil - 2  teaspoon

Recipe

1. Wash the okra- dry and slit them vertically.
2. Mix all the above mentioned ingredients to form a mixture and stuff it into the slit okra.Keep the remaining mixture aside.
3. Heat oil in a wide skillet. Add mustard seeds to it. When they pop, add the stuffed okra to it, cover and cook on a slow flame.
4. Keep turning them over every 5-10 minutes taking care not to char or over-burn them till they turn crispy. Add the remaining mixture, cook for another 10-15 minutes- covered on a slow flame.
   
                        
5. Serve with Roti.

Paneer Butter Masala

loved this Paneer recipe...

Paneer Butter Masala

Ingredients

Paneer - 1 block, approx. 2 cups of cubes
Tomato paste- 1 tbsp (or 1 tomato, puréed)
Tomato sauce/ketchup - almost 1 tbsp
Cream - 1 cup

Onion (chopped finely)- 1 medium-sized
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Coriander powder (Dhania powder) - 1 tbsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

Dried fenugreek leaves (Kasuri methi) - 1 generous pinch
Coriander leaves - 1 bunch

Milk - 1/2 cup
Oil - 3 tbsp


Recipe

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the paneer cubes until golden brown. Take Paneer out and set aside.
2. In the same pan, add 1 more tbsp oil and fry the onions until golden brown.
3. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute.
4. Next, add the Coriander powder, garam masala, chilli powder and some salt. Fry for 30 seconds.
5. To this, add the tomato paste/puree, tomato sauce and kasuri methi. Mix well and add the milk.
6. Lower fire and cook covered for 5 mins.
7. Open lid, add the fried paneer and the cream. Mix well and simmer for 3-4 mins.
8. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Rajasthani daal

This is courtesy our family friends from Rajasthan, as is, no modifications. A very different way of cooking daal than how we do it in North of India.

Ingredients

Split Green lentils (moong dal) - 3 fistful
Yellow dried split peas (chana daal) -  ½ fistful

Turmeric Powder (Haldi) -  ½ teaspoon
Chilli Powder -  ½ teaspoon
Coriander Powder (dhania) - ¼ teaspoon 
Green Chilly - 2 (chopped)
Cumin Seed (zeera) - ¼ teaspoon
Mustard Seed (rai) - ¼ teaspoon
Curry Leaves - 3
Asafoetida (Heeng) - 2 pinch
Garam Masala - ¼ teaspoon 
Cumin Podwer (zeera) -  ½ teaspoon
Coriander leaves (dhania) - 4 table spoons (fresh, chopped)
Salt - ½ teaspoon (according to taste)

Cooking Oil - 1 tablespoon
Water - 1 glass (approx.)

Recipe

1. Take 3 fistful of yellow moong daal and 1/2 fistful of chana daal
2. Soak them for 20 to 30 minutes
3. In a small bowl, add turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, green chilli and 3 table spoon water to make flowing spice paste
4. Put a cooker on high flame, add oil
5. When oil is hot, add cumin seed, mustard seed, curry leaves and asafoetida
6. Mustard and cumin seeds should not get black
7. Add spice paste
8. When spice paste starts to separate from oil, add soaked lentils and 1 glass of water
9. Add salt (according to taste)
10. Pressure cook on medium for 2-3 whistles
11. Leave cooker for some time so that the steam gets out by itself
12. Open the cooker and check consistency of lentils (add warm water if you want)
13. Put the cooker back on low flame, mash the lentils with spoon or masher
14. Add coriander leaves, garam masala and cumin powder
15. Let the lentils simmer for 5 minutes and cover it (turn off the flame)

Variations

• For Split Red Gram (Arhar daal), do not add Chana daal while soaking, you may also add tomato to spice paste, or may add tamarind paste when simmering.
  
• For Chana daal, add a clove, clack cardamom and a bay leaf to oil with brown mustard seed (rai zeera). Add tamarind or amchoor paste when simmering.
  
• For moong daal chilka, add garlic to spice paste, and when frying whole spices only use cumin seed (do not add mustard seed, curry leaves and asafoetida)

Sid's Chicken Curry

99% of what I see is forgotten. 99% of what I think remains locked inside me. 99% of my words are lost within a short while of them being spoken. "Silence is Golden" but there may be a few of those words that are worth sharing. Recipes jotted down but incomplete; they could just be useful to someone. A thought - a trigger - a reminder. So I'm going to post them here. Hey - I might look back and they might be useful to me at some time!

There is something very special about this dish, I ate it almost 4 days a week around 2007-2008. I was on a strict diet plan, one that I made for myself. And I made it a point that there was as less fat as possible, and I get enough proteins and vitamins. It was a plan to lose weight and still get a diet which I can burn during my morning run and evening gym session.

This was the time I did not know how to cook chicken and slowly started working out on the recipe, improving it and adding removing bits I did not like. It is like many other recipes but one which was my own innovation. I did things I liked and it was an absolute hit.

Ingredients

Chicken Breast - 1 kg (or a full chicken)
Onion - 1/2 kg
Garlic (grated) - 5 cloves
Ginger (grated) - about 2 tablespoons
Curd - 400 gram
Salt to taste
Olive Oil - 5 tablespoons (or sunflower / vegetable oil)

Whole Spices
Bay Leaf (tez patta) - 2
Cinnamon (dalchini) -1 stick
Green Cardamom (chotti elaychi) - 4
Black Cardmom (badi elaychi) - 3
Cloves (laung) -4
Black Peeper (kali mirch) - 6
Nutmeg (Jaiphal) - about 3 pinch
Mace (Javitri) - 2 strands

Ground Spices
Red Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 2 teaspoon
Garam Masala - 2/3 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Recipe

1. Heat olive oil in a non-stick pot (remember you cannot overheat olive oil)
2. Add whole spices
3. Add chicken, ginger and garlic, salt and fry it, keep turning till all sides get white
4. Remove chicken and keep in a bowl
5. Remove spices from oil and keep in a separate bowl
6. Add ground spices to chicken, add curd, leave it to marinate for about an hour or more
7. Heat oil and fry the onions add the whole spices (which we had removed before from oil), add oil if there is not enough oil in the pot.
8. Add marinated chicken to the pot
9. Cover the pot and cook it on medium heat until the chicken is done (usually 15-20 minutes)

PS: For variations, replace curd with tomato puree / sarso ka saag/spinach etc. 

Also, at times I had use Shana masala instead of ground spices. 

Add 2-3 green chilies if you like them (reduce the quantity of red chili and garam masala if doing so).

Garnish with green coriander.